Eternal Thief

It was already dark when Ace came back to his room with a satisfied smirk on his face.

After he left the life demon treasure pagoda, he led the group by the nose that was following him and when the time come to pick up his things from the lionheart shop, he easily got rid of them.

When he appeared to get his goods, Aliya didn't show up this time and someone else delivered him the storage ring. But Ace could 'see' in the live mapping that All-Knowing Parrot was still there, and Aliya was probably beside him as well.

As for why it took him this much time to get back; it was because he stopped by the royal demon council in the inner blade domain to subsume their library. Although he didn't get the chance to enter the restricted library, he still got interesting knowledge.

Ace also remained vigilant because in live mapping he saw a black fate point in the royal demon council area, and the black color indicated someone or something that was absolutely deadly for him.

Although the elders there treat him warmly, he dared not to try anything and quickly left after scanning through the books in the non-restricted library.

Furthermore, that library also had mortal and some lower earth level skills and techniques, which were a boon for him. He naturally didn't let those free skills and techniques go.

After spending six hours there, he left and came back, but when he was heading back, he again felt being followed. This time, he did nothing and let them follow him.

Flora and Dolly were naturally waiting for him when he got back.

One of the reasons for Ace going into the royal demon council library was also these two sisters. He wanted to break the oaths they took, and he knew they can't just override an oath since it won't work like slave contracts and oaths can be taken multiple times while slave marks were not.

Ace looked at them and coolly said, "If you two aren't bound by your oaths, I would've already sent you out secretly already, and you don't have to suffer any attacks or schemes because of me. Well, whatever, I already found the way to free you two. All I have to do is to find an Oath Breaker Talisman."

Flora and Dolly looked down with wistful expressions on their faces. Although they wanted to follow Ace, they knew after the previous incident that they will only drag him down or even harm him if they stayed by him. He had already saved them two times.

So, they already accepted the fact that they have to part ways eventually and their time was limited with him. They could only hate themselves for being too weak and impuissant.

Dolly said while she clinched the hem of her blue dress, "S-sorry to trouble you."

Ace could feel their emotions, but he couldn't do anything, nor he was willing to accept them into the Thief House because of the limited spots, and he had already other plans for those reaming spots.

He didn't know when he'll get more spots in the Thief House after it was filled, but he can't take risks just because he pitied them. All he can do was to give them his blessing and let them live a safe and happy life.

Ace sighed and said, "I'm going to cultivate." And he left those two sullen sisters.

Flora couldn't help but mumble, "Is there really no other way?!"

Dolly sighed helplessly as she hugged her sister. "We're just born ignoble, and all we can do is accept our fates. At least, he didn't want to get rid of us by killing us…"

Streams of tears flow from their eyes as they remain standing there, hugging each other for a long time.

Ace sighed again when he entered the cultivation chamber. He heard their sobbing sounds and couldn't help but mutter, "If I had more spots, maybe…"

He asked with no high hope, "Hey system, if the thief house gets full, when did I get more open spots?"

Surprisingly, the system answered this time.

"[After a Houseful, the host can upgrade it when all the existing members reached 'Veteran Member Rank' and complete the Thief House Upgrade Mission.]"

Ace frowned, 'Even Noa is only an old member right now and to upgrade their house ranks she needed to theft, which will only spell trouble right now. Even if I give Dolly and Flora the last two positions, and somehow they all reached the veteran member ranks, the mission will not be simple…'

In the end, Ace shook his head bitterly and gave up, since he can't decide recklessly and destroy his entire scheme based on Thief House.

'Don't blame me, I just don't have any other choice…' Ace quickly kept his calm.

Ace suddenly commanded, "System, open the thief's space upgrade scheme."

The system instantly obliged,

======

[Living Thief's Space Update Scheme]

1. 300 Cubic-Meter Space + 1 Humanoid Storage Capacity

Condition(s): 100 Grade-3 Storage Space treasures + 10 Million Thief Points

2. 500 Cubic-Meter Space + 2 Humanoid Storage Capacity

Condition(s): 100 Grade-5 Storage Space treasures + 20 Million Thief Points

3. 1,000 Cubic-Meter Space + 5 Humanoid Storage Capacity

Condition(s): 100 Grade-8 Storage Space treasures + 50 Million Thief Points

4. 3X-Time Acceleration Function

Condition(s): 1 Grade-9 Storage Space Treasure + 1 Grade-9 Time Treasure + 100 Million Thief Points

[The conditions for the 300 Cubic-Meter Space + 1 Humanoid Storage Capacity update scheme have been met!]

[Do you want to update the Living Thief's Space?]

[Proceed/Not Now]

=====

Ace's lips cured upward. He was collecting the grade-3 storage rings for this exact reason. Although he didn't need to upgrade this storage space since he had millions of storage rings to go around, he wanted the extra humanoid space that will unlock with it.

This will give him a huge advantage to carry a person around with him like Noa won't have to hide far away from him next time, and his living thief space was also advantageous for the creature of darkness, so Noa might also get some unexpected advantage while staying there. But it remained to be seen since she wasn't here.

Another main purpose he wanted to upgrade the living thief's space was the black cocoon with red runic lines in the center of his thief's space.

The space had already been cramped and Eva was now surrounded by all kinds of treasures, so he just wanted to increase the space before she was buried under treasures.

"Proceed!" Ace commanded without hesitation, with a gentle smile on his face when he looked at the cocoon with blinking, red, runic lines as if they were breathing.

The hundred storage rings from his space vanished, and ten million thief points from his status bar.

Suddenly the living thief space trembled slightly before the entire space started to expand at a fast rate.

Furthermore, Ace noticed the ceiling of the thief's space started to fill with a dark mist like inky clouds, but nothing happened afterward, and that dark mist remain static there without moving or fading away.

System's voice rang at this moment.

======

[Living Thief's Space has been updated!]

[Thief Point(s): 3,685,400]

[Living Thief's Space States]

-Storage Space Capacity: 300 Cubic-Meter Living Space

-Living Space Capacity:

1. 2 Humanoids (Humans, Demons, Hunters, etc.)

2. 20,000 None-Humanoid (Beasts, Herbs, Plants, Natural Treasures, etc.)

======

Besides that mysterious dark mist on the ceiling and an extra two hundred cubic meters of space, nothing changed and Ace quickly moved all the treasures to the edges, clearing the area around Eva.

However, he suddenly noticed something strange, he had some beast eggs in his thief's space for some time, and he never tried to hatch them since they were the eggs of low-level beasts anyway, nor he was interested in hatching them after coming to this continent.

Nonetheless, he noticed even after moving those eggs to the space edges they would mysteriously appear in the center where Eva's cocoon was and the mysterious page 09 was also the same.

"System, could it be all the living things will remain in the center?" Ace questioned.

"[Yes, anything with life Qi will appear around the center from now on, and they keep stacking up from the center to outward, while the host can put none living things anywhere.]"

"If that's the case, then move everything into storage rings and then separate those storage rings according to the ranks of things. Move storage rings with pills and herbs to the east edge. Weapons and runic weapons to the south edge. Runic treasures to the west and Qi Stones to the north corner. As for the empty storage rings, pile them up around Eva's cocoon like a wall. I want nothing near her…"

Ace quickly cleaned up the storage space with the system's help and rearranged all the thief's space.

After he was done, almost all the space looked empty, and only neatly arranged storage rings could be seen on four corners.

In the center, Eva's cocoon was also separated from the other living things with a thick empty storage rings wall!