“So, you wanted to speak with me?”

The man in front of Liliei and Nalaine had a somewhat haughty air about him and in his voice she could hear a faint tinge of disdain. He was a Human around 12 turns old and was maybe a bit smaller than average but still a head taller than the girls. He had a rather angular face that, with his cold blue eyes, went well with his haughtiness. This was completed with neatly arranged brown hair and a very serious outfit.

Liliei hesitated a bit and Nalaine immediately took over.

“Yes, we would like to ask for your assistance on a long term project. we’ve heard that you were a very good planner and we’ll need the best for what we want.”

Liliei had asked the Receptionist the day before and she had immediately arranged the meeting. When she had then talked to Nalaine, the Demon had agreed that it was a good idea and Liliei had seen that she was embarrassed not to have thought about it. Then they had come here today and the Receptionist had introduced the man as Lenc.

He looked thoughtful for a second before responding.

“I may be interested. What is this about?”

Nalaine took an apologetic air as she looked at him.

“I’m sorry but before I tell you of our objective I would like you to take an oath not to reveal it.”

A frown appeared on the man’s face and he stayed silent a few seconds before talking again.

“I must say that I’m a little intrigued as to what some young girls could want to do that need an oath so,” then, turning to Reig “I swear that I will not talk of their project to anyone, and ask to be punished in consequence if I were to break my promise.”

The Receptionist’s eyes shined brighter for a second before she nodded and he turned to Nalaine with a questioning air. There was still a bit of haughtiness in his posture, but that was quickly lost when Nalaine explained.

“We need to steal an artifact from the Elerilen Family.”

The man’s face turned blank for an instant before he realized what she had said.

“You what! You’re completely insane! Do you have any idea how much protection there is around them? This simple idea is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard!” He then took a large breath that could barely conceal his predatory smile. “Count me in!”

This time it was the girls who were dumbfounded. They weren’t prepared for this reaction.

“What? But didn’t you just say...”

“It’ll just make it more impressive when we do it, right? It’s not often there are people foolish enough to try something like that so I can’t let such an occasion just pass by, it would be even dumber. And no need to pay, if I get into something like this it’s not for the money.”

All trace of haughtiness had disappeared and he was now speaking in a less formal way, excitement leaking in his voice. When he saw that the two were looking strangely at him, he laughed for a second.

“Oh yes sorry for the stiff way of talking before, but I’ve found I can cash in more from the people if they have the impression I look down on them. But it would be quite awkward if we’re to really work together ain’t it?”

It was quite strange how his face had seemingly transformed with just minute changes and his previously haughty face now seemed quite sympathetic and friendly.

“So who else is involved? You must be quite a large group with such an objective.”

The two girls exchanged a glance, each mentally nudging the other to tell, before Liliei sighed slightly and started talking uncomfortably, fidgeting a little.

“Umm… that’s… you see…”

She was spared the need to go further when Lenc’s began laughing uncontrollably. They could hear him saying something about them, but it was unintelligible due to his laughter.

Finally after a few minutes he calmed enough to talk properly even if the corner of his mouth was still twitching a little.

“If not for the Receptionist, I would dismiss everything as a joke, but you’re seriously going to try it right?” The girls’ expression was enough answer and he continued “Then, we should let the Receptionist go back to her work and go somewhere else before we look at what we’ll have to do.”

Lenc wasn’t surprised to learn that Liliei and Nalaine were living on the lowest floor, and they decided to go to Liliei’s house before to plan everything. The man found pretty fun the complicated way of getting in inside the house, even if it took him twice the time Nalaine had needed to climb. Once they had all sat down and Nalaine created some water to drink – Liliei had some cups that were in pretty good shape – they started talking what they would need for the theft. The first thing was to know exactly what they could all do. Lenc demonstrated how to do by taking out his Guild Card and making his status appear on it before showing them.

[Lenc Rewklan

Race: Human

Level: 23

Abilities:

-Main Ability:

1) Increase thinking speed. Ability to keep multiple thoughts at the same time.

2) Reduce strain to keep multiple thoughts. Ability to use mana to increase thinking speed further.

3) Reduce chance of overlooking things. Ability to use mana to allow a short increase in processing ability.

-Secondary Ability:

1) Increase memory.

2) Increase propensity to notice details.

3) Increase mental processing capacity.

Stats:

-Mental Processing: 46

-Memory: 31

-Mental Fatigue Recovery Speed: 19

-Inference: 14

-Mana Reinforcement Precision: 7

-Complete Perception: 4

Skills: None]

Liliei understood why the Receptionist had recommended him, not only was he enough of a fool to accept their objective just for the sake of it, he was also good at thinking and probably making plans, which was exactly what the girls had needed.

“So you’re the thinking type. I had already seen a few that had Abilities to improve their thinking speed, but not to this extent.”

Nalaine had a satisfied air as she spoke, and she soon took out her Guild Card, before displaying her status in the same way as Lenc.

[Nalaine Vleisst

Race: Demon

Level: 15

Abilities:

-Main Ability:

1)Increase ability at elemental spells. Allow the use of multiple elemental spells at the same time.

2)Increase elemental magic speed. Allow mental deconstruction of spells cast.

3)Increase precision of elemental magic. Allow the use of multiple elements in one spell.

-Secondary Ability:

1)Increase efficiency at mana conversion.

2)Increase understanding speed.

3)Increase Intent infusion speed.

Stats:

-Mana Elemental Conversion: 30

-Mental processing: 20

-Mana Pool: 13

-Mana Purity:10

-Intent Infusion Speed: 5

-Elemental Attunement: 3

Skills: None]

It wasn’t the first time Liliei had heard what Nalaine’s Abilities were, but she hadn’t shown them this way before. Her status was that of a purely offensive mage and as Liliei had seen it was scarily effective when she started slinging magic around in the Dungeon. Lenc seemingly wasn’t too surprised at her status.

“How many elements can you fuse into one spell as of now?”

“Two if they don’t conflict, I’ve still not been able to increase it at all.”

“Too bad, I would love to see what happens when you fuse everything together. But we’ve got time.”

Lenc was clearly sad not to be able to see a large elemental fusion, but he turned to Liliei, silently urging her to show her status to him.

She willed her Card to appear and it was there in her hand, a small blue card. Only her name and the fact she was in a Party with Nalaine were written on it, so she guessed that displaying something on it went the same way as making it appear and she willed her status to be visible on the Card. Immediately the thing changed and the same information she could get from the World appeared on it.

This time when he looked at the Card, Lenc was clearly surprised. He read it a few times before turning to her.

“What the hell is this status. I mean, I can guess at what a Mana Spirit is but how come I’ve never heard of it if it’s a Race recognized by the World. And how did you get that second Ability while not even at the third Ability Level?”

Liliei only hesitated for an instant before starting to explain what had happened. He seemed quite interested in the ring and its effects until Liliei told him what Reig had told her the first time: it had been pure luck she had survived and would have been quite disastrous if she hadn’t had her talent for mana manipulation.

“I wonder what’s gonna happens when you grow older.” At the questioning look Liliei sent him, he continued. “I mean, your body is made of mana, isn’t it? Then there’s no reason it would age. So you’re possibly going to live forever.”

Liliei wasn’t sure how to react to that declaration. It was too sudden for her, she hadn’t thought about it at all even if what he said made sense, it was strange to get told you wouldn’t ever die of old age. But then she still had a limit time in ten turns, so it wasn’t applicable for now, right? She would think about the implications then.

“For that we’ll first have to succeed before ten turns, so the point is moot for now anyway.”, declared Nalaine who had probably guessed what Liliei had been thinking.

“Right, so on that point,” Lenc started seriously, “if you’re going to be the one to do the theft, Liliei, you’ll need to improve quite a lot. Your Abilities are pretty good for the task, but you’ll need to get them higher than this, and same for your Level, so we’ll have to go in the Dungeon. We’ll probably also need more people, but it’s not a priority for now. I’ll need to see your Abilities in action before I can really plan with them, so we should make a Party tomorrow and go on the first or second floor to test them.”

“Fine for me. Let’s meet at the Guild tomorrow at nine, OK?”

It was fine for everyone and Lenc left – he had a few things to prepare and people to contact – A few minutes later Liliei started talking.

“So your opinion?”

“He seems genuine, if a little foolish. And if he’s good at using his Abilities, he’s going to be one hell of a planner.”

They stayed silent for a few more minutes before the Demon got up.

“So what are you going to do until tomorrow?”

“Probably try to make my construct better, but I’ve still got no idea how.”

“You should ask him, he may have some good ideas, with his Abilities. In fact it would be more surprising if he didn’t have any idea.”

“You’re right, I’ll ask him tomorrow. Until then, I’m just going to try by myself.”

“Then good luck.”

Nalaine left the house, leaving Liliei alone and after a few second the thief sighed. She would try but didn't have much hopes.