Black Lotus Guild hall; Training room 1

Master Lotus had decided to allow Seshwan to plan a heist, this would require a team of thieves to pull off. Seshwan had to recruit his team, pick a target treasure, and then steal it. Not an easy task for recruit thieves. This ambitious undertaking would mean Seshwan’s would be group would not have to compete with veteran thieves for the treasure, depending on the scale and complexity of the heist. Too easy and someone will swipe the loot before them, too difficult and they will never pull it off. All things had been considered by Seshwan before he asked for master Lotus' blessing.

The next day, in Walters guild hall study, a private room within the guild hall that acted as Walter's office. The room was large and made of old alabaster sandstones, the layout was mostly scattered around the room old desks and bookcases covered with writings and books. All of which were notes on the city and the nobles within the city. Seshwan was busy at work pouring over old maps of the city, making notes as he went. Xerxes had been assigned to Walter for training so he sat quietly in the corner reading a scroll he had been given by master Crest. The masters had passed him a lot of homework to help him strengthen his lightning essence, allowing him to not just depend on his demonic essence. The scroll in his hand was a technique that the guild couldn’t pass to anyone without a lightning essence, the [flash] technique.

The technique [Flash] was a beginner level lightning technique that allowed the user to teleport short distances, of no more than two to three meters without a blocked path. the users couldn't use it to gain height or pass over or through walls. Mostly it was an escape ability in combat unless you were creative, it wouldn’t offer much assistance other than to close in on an opponent. Xerxes would also learn [Shadow step transition] so he would need to find his own uses for [Flash]. Other than these two techniques he had also begun to cultivate his lightning essence. The lightning real guards that first form for an apprentice was in the shape of a signet ring. This ring allows the user to transmit his voice to others within fifty meters at low levels. A very useful ability when the user must be silent or relay a message quickly.

Xerxes looked down to the ring on his right hand with a scowl, 'why do I have to use this piece of shit essence?' he thought. It didn’t have any good combat abilities in its early stages. Xerxes looked up from his training materials and over to Seshwan who was studying without rest. All the while small stones floated around Seshwan's free hand, he was circulating essence through himself while he studied. 'Wow, this Seshwan kid is really focused on his plan and still taking the time to train his essence. I wonder, he is supposed to possess some mystic essence of legend, is it that strong?' Xerxes couldn’t help being suspicious he had never encountered a human who could surpass him or his demonic bloodline.

"Hey, Xerxes!" Seshwan spun around as his small stones tumbled to the ground, he had broken concentration with some revelation.

Xerxes put down his reading material, he was getting bored of reading anyway. “Kind of busy learning these techniques, what do you want?"

Seshwan had a grin on his face, as he grabbed a map from the desk behind him. "I know what I want to steal and I need your help!"

Xerxes frowned. "I don’t want to help you, I’ll just take my assignment and hope for the best. I know you were hoping to plan some crazy heist but count me out! I don't need to do some ridiculous stunt to get into the guild."

Seshwan moved closer with a stack of notes and the map dropping them in front of Xerxes. "Take a look before you say no."

"seriously kid you don't listen do you?" Xerxes said rubbing his eyes, "Fine, lets see his plan of yours

Xerxes scanned across the notes skeptically till he read the highlighted notes, "location of Scarlet Cove crafting distract material vault." cold shivers ran down Xerxes' spin. The vault of the crafting district was rumored to hold hundreds of thousands of high-grade materials, not just for armor and weapons, they also housed scores of blessed artifacts and cursed totems.

Xerxes looked up at Seshwan his mouth curled at the corner into an evil smile. "Seshwan this is insane, that vault is impregnable unless you’re an extremely wealthy merchant and even then you cannot just take things out without permission! you require a sealed, signed scroll from a merchant guild master! Just how will you get that?"

A flash of clever scheming flashed across Seshwan's face. "You are aware I'm a noble in this city? I'm not just interested in one particular material in this vault. Sure we will steal materials, weapons, and armor but more importantly in two days, a shipment of Imperial military essence refinement pills will come into port. These pills are extremely effective when training essence at a low level and roughly twenty thousand pills will be in that vault in forty-eight hours. there they will stay till they are sent to Blackridge fortress to resupply the Praetorian garrison currently stationed there. no one will think twice about checking the supplies after they are secured in the vault. if we steal them out of the vault it'll be weeks before they realize the pills are missing."

Xerxes' face turned ashen gray. "Seshwan if you're caught they will kill you no matter who you are! Not to mention your team! Which you're asking me to join!"

Seshwan looked over his shoulder to make sure they were still alone, "Xerxes I have planned this out over the last twenty-four hours, trust me. Now get up we need to gather the other two."

Xerxes looked up at seshwan puzzled, before he stood. "Wait a moment, you are only bringing two other people?! Just four of us are going to steal so many treasures? You're insane! truly i think the sewer air has fried your brain."

Seshwan had already begun to walk toward the door both hands spread out as he shrugged. "meh, let’s see how insane I am when we discuss the plan with the others. Now let’s go"

Xerxes ran after Seshwan who had already put some distance between them, "God damn it, wait for me you crazy bastard”

Black Lotus guild hall; main hall

Seshwan and Xerxes moved their plans forward gathering the other two candidates; Colm Li and Elise though they both had separate masters they could not leave the guild hall till the master has assigned them their targets. Each had nothing better to do than train. When Seshwan approached asking them to join him in master Walters private section they gave little resistance, even the cold hearted Elise now only a day later showed both Xerxes and Seshwan far more respect. Seshwan expected that she would once she found out he was royalty. For Xerxes, she had no choice but to be nice though she probably loathed him for his heritage.

All four gathered in the booth, Seshwan produces a small loot chest from a burlap sack, within the box was maps and notes, a copy for each person present, he had been busy for the past day planning each member's roles and tasks they would need to complete in preparation.

Colm took one look and his eyes widened with disbelief. "You plan to break into the merchant’s treasure vault? Are you seeking death!?"

Xerxes smiled across the table at Colm, "No if he was seeking death I'd provide that without a second thought. he just wants us to follow him into what will surely be a hellstorm of trouble."

Xerxes comment forced all eyes on him. This youth seemed to have missed the intention of Colm's verbal expression. Seshwan shook his head at the sight of the others disbelief but was concerned now about if Colm and Xerxes would cause more conflict than they were worth. If a squabble were to begin this plan of his would be ruined.

Seshwan was beginning to become anxious. "Please, hear me out! Everyone, as you may know, i am Seshwan of the Praetorian hall a member of a noble family in the city. I have had extensive military training though because my essence couldn’t be trained at a young age I spent my days reading and studying tactics and strategy. I know we're all around apprentice rank 2 or 3 so this plan will not be easy but we can definitely pull it off if we work together."

Xerxes shook his head, "Your heritage is what worries me most, i'm not interested if your gonna betray us."

"if he was gonna betray us wouldn't he have already done it? i mean he's been in the sewers for four full days i wouldn't be worried about that, i think the plans worth at least hearing out." Colm interjected.

Elise who had been sitting apart from the three boys cleared her throat, "What is this plan of yours from what is in your notes here, you want me to seduce a high-ranking merchant?"

The two other boys being only about sixteen both smiled toward the beauty. They both secretly wished they were high ranked Merchants.

"On second thought i do want to hear your plan!" Xerxes said with a smirk.

"Perverted demon, your disgusting" Elise snapped back at Xerxes

Seshwan rose his palm toward her. "Now now, let's all get along children. Now Elise it's not just any merchant, we need you to seduce a guild master! Your roles are each written in those notes, clearly outlined is your exact jobs you three can manage those i'll do mine and we will have at least two of us in the vault by the end of the operation, we won't actually be taking anything though, rather we will have the attendants take them out for us."

What Seshwan had left out is that his part in this was the most difficult which would fall onto colm. the plan hinged on whether he could learn water techniques in time for the operation. Everyone possessed a skill, Elise would use her beauty to get a sealed order to open the vault, Seshwan as a noble would use his standing in the city to gain access to the vault. Colm being a water type essence user would use his first stage real guard, the mistform cloak, which possess the strongest scouting and recon abilities, a cloak of mist surrounds the body and camouflages the user. Using this once the vaults open Colm will sneak in behind Seshwan. From there they'd have twenty minutes to steal whatever they find of value. The essence pills are the main target.

Colm raised his hand, "So once I'm inside you want me to go straight for the pills and then get out?"

"Exactly, we have about twenty minutes to grab them all. I will take the escort they send in with me to the far side of the vault and pick up a few items I like as my uncle’s birthday present to me." Seshwan smirk at the thought of his uncle receiving a bill for priceless artifacts.

Xerxes looked confused as he looked over his notes. "So what in voids name is this? I'm to just stand on a rooftop the whole time and tell you if anyone's coming? This is the lamest job in the world!"

Seshwan shrugged, "Don’t blame me for your lot in life, you have the realguard best suited for overwatch, were counting on you to watch our backs, if a merchant group shows up or even worse the city guard we will have a hard time getting out, Colm cannot sneak past guys who are trained to sense water essence. the last thing we need is to get cornered in the vault."

Seshwan thought to himself, 'The hardest part is getting out! they need to stop worrying about their roles and look toward the end.'

Colm raised his hand again. Seshwan quickly snapped his fingers, "Stop that Colm this isn't school!"

"Thanks, tips! Of course, I know I just didn’t want to interrupt you when you looked like you were thinking so hard. Could have sworn I saw smoke!" Colm was from a higher tier family from another region outside the city and was trying to be nice but he couldn’t take being snapped at, his strongest skill in life was sarcasm and he would use it rather than wit to deal with an overbearing nobles son like Seshwan. "Anyway my concern is once I have the pills I'm to hide them in the vault? Then just leave?"

Seshwan knew these questions were coming. "Yes, as i said before, they will take them out of the vault for us. There are treasure boxes in the vault that’s been there for years from what i've found in old guild records. It's larger than personal treasure boxes nobles carry for storage but holds the same properties. Drop them all in there, along with whatever looks of value around you. I’ll buy the chest and have it shipped to my residence."

Xerxes smiled, "That’s when Elise and I jump the laborers moving the chest and we make it look like it was stolen by bandits."

Seshwan nodded. "Tf this all goes to my plan they will carry our loot out for us, we will make it look like it was stolen, then I blame the merchant’s guild and get a full refund on my items. That’s if this all goes over well." Seshwan knocked on the table as he said those words. "Once Colm is clear, Xerxes tells me. Then I will move to the chest buy it and leave."

Elise was beginning to get bored of the boys leaving her out so she sat with her head down in her arms, till a thought crossed her mind. "Hey guys, why not just steal the items and carry them out then we don’t need to over-complicate things."

Elise thought she had made a great point and was almost proud of her idea enough to smile openly before anyone reacted.

Seshwan shook his head, "Did you read the notes to the end? Don’t be an idiot, the vault has an inscription seal at the door that will not allow marked items to pass through, the mark will trigger the door and seal the vault, as well as notify the guard garrison. We will be trapped nothing extra leaves the vault! got it!."

Seshwan had quickly shot down Elise's pride. She had one job. Be good looking and don’t talk too much.

"I will split the treasures with all of you equally after the jobs done. And we give the guild the cut they require. So Colm do not just grab items for you, cause I'm still splitting them up." Seshwan said jokingly toward his new teammate, the would-be thieves.

Seshwan had thought it all out and had a few plans to escape. He believed he was ready. Now he must bring the plan to the masters, negotiate a fair tax on the loot he hoped to get and make his personal preparations.

"Guys I don’t want to do this!" Elise chose to protest to the plan now.

Seshwan turned toward her flustered by her sudden protest. "You don’t have to even touch the guy, just get him drunk and steal his seal, I can get the document we need. Your job will take an hour tops then you get to beat laborers up in an alley. do you know how much I want to do that part of the plan? do you? no i will be playing my part well you beat up laborers."

Elise knew Seshwan was just trying to patronize her but she still didn’t like merchants and the target was a merchant that was well known for getting physical with the women he kept in his company.

Seshwan could see she was worried about it. "How about we come to the lounge and stay out of sight if he does anything we will step in. Will that make you more comfortable?"

"Yes I would be more comfortable knowing I'm not alone." Elise could now focus on her task.

Outside the booth, across the lounge, Walter sat with Hilliard, Crest and Master Lotus.

"I knew they would make a group. Looks like they are really working hard on their plan. Takes me back." Walter had his chin in one hand pipe in the other as he reminisced.

"What do you mean when we joined the guild all we did was kill a lot of people?" Crest laughed toward Walter. "Well except for Hilliard he just conned a lot of people out of their money!"

Master lotus smiled as he recalled the three younger masters when they joined the guild 80 years ago Walter and Crest were both bloodthirsty assassins, and Hilliard was a street performer who conned hundreds of merchants. The younger generation looked promising and he couldn’t wait to see what plan they would come up with.

"Remember that one time in Karthus!? Oh man, that black widow assassin almost got you, I can’t believe you made it out with manhood intact!' Walter laughed out loud as Crest held himself and shivered.

"Oh god, please don’t remind me!" Crest protested