Unlike the other houses where the vault was easily found and accessible, the Hartmore's had their vault in the basement of the mansion. Bones and Hem descended the stairs to the ground floor and then split up from the others. The two proceeded toward the basement while the others would go from room to room, picking valuables.

The stairs to the basement were behind thick and secure doors that looked hard to break into.

"Mr. Boney, if ye please!" Hem asked, politely.

"Mm? Why, it would be my pleasure Mr. Hemdus!" Bones replied, playing along and approached the door with an Incomplete Skeleton Key in his hand. Bones worked his magic and unlocked the doors without difficulties.

"Yer gettin a hang o' it!" Hemdus complimented but Bones waved him off saying that the key to a lock was much easier to shape than that of a vault. Hemdus, however, still complimented Bones and assured him he would have no problems opening the vault! . If it was only that easy! Bones thought to himself but appreciated the gesture.

Behind the doors there were stone stairs with a red carpet in the middle leading down to the basement. The two slowly descended the steps and when they reached the base of the stairs, Bones looked on in surprise at the decorated hall with a carpet, sofa, lounge chairs and two crafting stations. One was an alchemy station and the other looked to be an enchanting station.

"Wipe ye drool! *chuckle* "Surprised? Ye expectes cobwebs, dust and wooden boxes?" Hem teased. Bones honestly replied that that was exactly what he expected to see in the basement.

"Me and them, we have a very different definition of a basement." Bones commented.

"Come." Hem chuckled and motioned for Bones to follow him through the door to the side. Bones reluctantly looked away from the two stations and followed after Hem. Behind the door there was a corridor and a couple of rooms decorated much like the first room. At the end of the corridor was a wrought iron fence and big iron gates through which Bones could see the massive steel doors to the vault.

"This is my stop Hem. You have fun exploring and I'll call out to you when I'm done."

"Arright. Gud luck and hav fun!"

Bones nodded, walked down the corridor and stopped in front of the iron gates. He was about to use the Skeleton Key on the iron doors when he noticed the width of the bars. He straightened up his body, turned sideways and stepped between the bars. It was a tight pass but he managed to pull it off. He snorted and focused on the vault's door and the runes surrounding the circular doors.

"Well shit…" Bones said, almost sounding amused. As if runes weren't enough, the vault doors had three key locks. Seeing as this would take a while, Bones wasted no time and immediately got to work.

On the ground floor and upper floor of the mansion, the dwarves picked and stored the items of value that could be used or easily sold. Items like precious stones, mana stones and gold. As for everything else; paintings, pieces of clothing and jewelry, it was up to each dwarf to decide if and what to take.

Mirami ran around giggling and raiding every closet she could find. She was a bit disappointed she didn't find any gadgets, devices or any other form of technology. All nobles liked their interior design ornate and highly decorative and every room had the same design.

After thirty minutes, Hemdus joined the others on the ground floor and they headed upstairs to meet with Darsumi. When they met, Hem reported the situation at the vault and explained why it was taking so long.

"Three locks? Bloody hell…" Darsumi cussed, clearly displeased and added, "that wasn't in the intel."

"Ye, I kno' but we knew not everythin will go as plan'ed! Besides, Boney unlocked da first two locks 'nd is workin on a third one!"

"Shall we head downstairs then?" Thaddeus asked and everyone exchanged looks before agreeing and headed down to the basement.

Bones was concentrating on shaping so hard that he didn't notice the others approaching. Darsumi called out to him but Bones didn't respond. Hem explained, shaking his head, that Bones has been like that for the past fifteen minutes. Dar nodded and quietly waited with everyone else for Bones to finish. And Bones? He gained a level in shaping and meanwhile gained a better understanding how he should go about shaping the key.

I was right! This IS the easier way! Bones thought right before completely inserting the key and opening the third lock. The lock clicked and the doors to the vault unlocked.

Instead of modifying the key bit by bit each time he inserted the key, through great effort Bones made the bones the key was made of, pliant and easily shapeable.

The sound of clapping jolted Bones' senses back to his surroundings. He turned around and saw everyone watching and waiting for him.

"How long did it take me? Have you been waiting for a long time?" Bones asked, completely losing sense of time.

"Took ye around forty 'nd we just got 'ere five minutes ago!"

Bones remembered he cheated his way through the iron bars and prepared to start unlocking iron doors but Hem interrupted him.

"Forget 'bout em 'nd take a step back!"

Bones nodded and backed off seeing Hem taking out his hammer. Hem tightened the grip and swung his hammer against the iron gates. The gates bent but didn't open. Hem grumbled and assured everyone the next hit would break open the gates. He took a few steps back, gathered momentum and once again smashed the hammer against the gates.

The gates broke off its hinges and fell crashing down, making a thunderous sound that shook the mansion's foundation. Hem stayed still with his hand extended and face frozen in surprise.

"I uh…I dun 'no mah own strength!" Hem muttered.

"That wasn't you, Hem! It came from the outside!" Dar stated, turned and started running out of the basement. The others looked at each other for a moment before following Darsumi out. Bones and Hem shared a look of confusion, then shrugged and they too picked up the pace and followed after the others.

When Bones reached the ground floor, he saw everyone intently looking through the large window on the upper floor. He made his way up the stairs, step by step and watched as everyone faces lit by the outside source. Curiosity piqued, Bones approached from behind and saw a fiery cloud in the distance, engulfing and painting the sky red.

They pulled it off…so this is what Silva had planned? How primitive…

*BOOM* Another explosion went off and everyone watched in dread as the sky lit on fire. Darsumi turned and shouted for everyone to get down. A second later, a shockwave from the explosion shattered the window and Dar sustained minor injuries from glass shrapnel while shielding everyone with his back. Mirami cried out in surprise and called out Dar's name in a worry but he waved her off, saying he was fine. He turned and looked down. He saw the guards outside arguing, then leaving the post. Only two guards at the gates stayed behind, watching the chaos ensue.

Darsumi turned his head to the side window and approached. Far in the distance where the Covingster mansion was, he saw the majority of guards also leaving the post in haste. It was an opportunity he wouldn't let pass!

"We're rushing the House of Covingster!" Darsumi yelled and urged everyone to quickly go back to the vault, take as much as they could and return to him within a minute.

Being a head of security at gold rank was a dull work but that was precisely what Erhan needed right now. In his last dungeon run with a guild three months ago, he was heavily injured. A healer in the party took care of the grave injuries and all he needed was time to heal the rest of the wounds. That's the reason he took on this dull, lackluster job. So he could peacefully and without disturbance, recover from his injuries.

No one would be dumb enough to take risk and attack the only House in the vicinity guarded by a gold ranker, right? Or so he thought…

A sound of the explosion in the distance startled him and he jumped to his feet. With a step he crossed the distance to a window and watched as the fire rose high above the rooftops of buildings. A thought that the mansion might be under attack crossed his mind but he quickly dismissed it. He looked carefully and saw that the fire was concentrated in the direction of a festival.

An accident? Another thought, quickly dismissed after another explosion occurred. The doors to his room slammed open and one of the guards rushed in.

"SIR?!" The man yelled. His face, an open book full of dread and horrors. Erhan told the guard to follow him and rushed out of his room. The sound of his voice boomed throughout the mansion for all to hear. He directed one portion of the guards to escort the house staff to safety via an escape route and the other portion to leave the estate and join the guards protecting the city. He turned to the last guard behind him and asked him to stay with him in the mansion.

Erhan looked composed and in control, but he was troubled. He wanted to go, see what the situation was and help but he had his duties. If anyone needed to stay, it was him. He watched the guards leave their post and locked the door of the mansion. It was just the two of them now. He watched through the window as the fire spread to surrounding buildings while climbing the stairs to his room and listened to the screams in the distance. He entered his room, closed the doors and leaned on them. He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth as the screams continued for minutes until he couldn't bear to listen anymore.

I can't do this anymore. I can't just stay here and protect…who? An empty house? To hell with this!

Erhan resolved to abandon his duty as head of security and go help those that needed help the most right now. He opened the doors and saw Darsumi's brown eyes looking at him through a clown's mask. He opened his mouth to speak but the clown in front of him ducked and another popped up, jumping above the first one with a hammer ready in hands and over the head.

"'ello mate!" Hem cheerfully yelled out a greeting while his hammer was already in a motion of dropping down on Erhan's head. Even taken by surprise, Erhan managed to react in time and block the Crushing Blow with a cross-arm guard. The bones in his hands cracked with a sickening crunch and he was pushed back from the impact.

He was experienced though and retaliated with a front kick to Darsumi's clown mask at the same time he blocked. Darsumi swept Hem and both were sent flying. Dar immediately jumped back to his feet upon landing. His mask was crumbling and droplets of blood dripped down his mouth. Gold ranker packed quite a kick!

Erhan walked out of his room, pissed off. Of course something would happen at the worst possible time! "A dwarf? Is this a joke?" He spat out in a derisive tone.

"If you're surprised by him, I'll probably give you a heart attack!" Bones said approaching from the side and drawing attention. He took his clown mask off and pulled down his hood. If anything, he thought he could make the man unnerved and he was partially right. Erhan wasn't easily swayed but seeing an undead he couldn't Identify in front of him made him falter.

In that brief moment, Darsumi threw a bomb that exploded in the gold rankers face and Bones used the chance to attack with empowered Bone Lance. Erhan reacted instantly to the thrown bomb and jerked his head to side, hoping to avoid vital damage to his face and catching Bones' lance without even looking.

What he failed to see was that Bones cunningly threw the golem core over his head while doing a throwing motion when casting Bone Lance. Before the core hit the floor, Skully appeared with a spear in his hands and sneak attacked from behind.

Erhan sensed the incoming thrust of a spear at the last moment but couldn't fully avoid the tip of the spear. It lodged itself between his ribs. He grabbed the shaft of the spear and forcefully pulled the spear out while turning and in the process pulled Skully along who still had a hold on his spear. Both Skully and now the broken-in-half spear were hurled over the rail to the ground floor.

*slash x2*

Two very quick slashes later and Erhan suddenly dropped to his knees. Darsumi used Dual Slash skill and slit his tendons behind a knee.

"Don't look at me like that. You'll live and your injuries will heal over time." Darsumi said in response to Erhan giving him quite a nasty look. "Bones, the vault is yours." Bones nodded and walked away.

"Vault is what you're after? *scoff* What about Bern… -the other guard that was with me?"

"He is fine. Unconscious but not injured and it will stay that way as long as you remain compliant and let us do our thing!"

Erham didn't reply, just turned his head away in defeat. He felt humiliated but most of all, he felt hopeless. Darsumi and Hemdus stayed with the gold ranker and watched through the nearest window as the blazing sky subdued and the frigid night arrived. And then a thin layer of frost blurred the window glass.