Eternal Thief

After scrutinizing the entire vault, Ace finally had some insight into how he could empty this place while also completing the side mission.

'I only have two of these formations, but the rewards of this mission are worth using them.'

Two green color formation plates appeared in his hand, filled with yellow runes.

Carefully, he activated one of the formations, and an invincible wave suddenly brushed past the entire vault.

Everything was the same, but the formation in Ace's hand turned into a bright ball of light as it slowly suspended in the air, and the strange thing was no alarm was triggered.

At this time, Ace used the second formation, and another invisible wave bushed past the entire vault, and the formation plate was also suspended in the air and hovered beside the first one.

A dark current flashed past Ace's eyes before those two bright formations disappeared, one after another as if they were absorbed in the surroundings.

However, he knew that wasn't the actual because these formations were called Optical Mirage Formations. A Low-Grade-5 formation he got from the treasure pagoda's top floor.

This Optical Mirage Formation can create a mirror mirage of anything they scan and maintain it as long as the Qi stones last or a grade higher formation breaks the mirage. Or only the owner can see through the mirage.

Ace controlled the first formation to create the mirage of the treasury vault to fool the monitoring arrays planted on the walls. While he used the second one to put another layer to make it even more convincing for the second part of his plan.

Now that he was done dealing with the monitoring arrays, he moved toward the items. They were also protected by a grade-five formation and locked in with another formation in their places.

It was extremely difficult to pull these items from their positions because the moment he touched or removed an item, the alarm and other traps would be active.

So, he has to remove and place another item in their place at the same time.

Leona had acquired the complete structure of this place and every trap's function and given them to Paul just to switch the grimoire.

But now all this information was helping Ace with this theft, and that's why he was so confident in completing this mission.

This time, a palm size white triangle appeared in his hand. This triangle was the very thing that was going to make this theft even easier, and it was also the same tool Leona had lent Paul for this exact mission, and it was extremely precious.

'Space Distortion Triangle, a high-grade-6 space runic treasure. Just this tool is worth far more than this entire treasury vault. Imperial Princess is indeed kind to deliver it to me.' Ace grinned thievishly as he activated the Space Distortion Triangle right about the small doomed made with formation.

The white Space Distortion Triangle suddenly released a dark sheen before the surrounding space trembled slightly, but the most affected by it was the defensive doom above the item.

Ace's eyes glow in ecstasy when he sees a small crack appear above the doom without triggering anything. Although he can make this crack wider as long as he released more power, he wasn't Paul, just this crack was enough to make his soul threads completely secure.

The moment Ace saw the chance, 'Thief's Charity (Inverse and Reverse)!'

The pill bottle instantly vanished before a pentagon coin took its place at the same moment!

When Ace felt nothing happened, the item had appeared in his thief's space. He was relieved and ecstatic.

Now that he knew his plan worked, he quickly did the same on the other dooms.

Item after item, Ace used the Space Distortion Triangle and took the treasures while leaving behind his 'Identity Coins' in their place.

After ten minutes, if anyone saw the vault right now, it looked exactly the same. But the movement, Optical Mirage Formation lost its effect, there would be rows of shining pentagon coins with the thief symbol lying instead of treasures.

'The last ten items which were supposed to be auctioned at the finale of the last day.'

With anticipation, Ace moved to the end of the vault, where ten items were placed on ten white pillars.

The first item was a four-inch cylindrical shape white jade. There were small words were carved on it in ancient demon language.

'Sky Sword Manual?' Ace read the letters and was astounded when he remembered a certain item inside a history book in blade demon castle's royal library. 'This is a Jade Scroll!'

He was thrilled because he read these Jade Scrolls were extremely rare, and only a few of them existed in this world.

'Just which idiot put this on the auction?' Ace couldn't help but wonder before his lips curled up, 'Since you didn't want it, I'll gladly accept it. I really struck it rich this time.'

In a great mood, he quickly used the Space Distortion Triangle, stole the Sky Sword Manual, and switched it with his identity coin.

Grinning widely, he moved to the next item. This time it was a manual called, 'Spiritual Fortress', and it was an upper-earth-grade soul skill. Ace quickly swept it.

The next item was a glass vial filled with sparkling blue liquid. Although he didn't know what it was, he still swept it away and decided to examine it after leaving.

The fourth item was a crimson chest armor, and Ace took it without caring about its grade.

The fifth item was a formation plate which was high-grade-4 rank, this interest him even less.

The fifth item was a crystal blue pill, the sixth was a talisman, and the seventh was a formation manual.

The eighth item was something unique. It was a black cloak with a white tiger imprint on the back.

The ninth item was a violet color egg with black markings.

The final and tenth item was what Ace was looking for and also his primary goal.

It was a dark gray book with a sinister cover that looked like a demonic face. For some reason, Ace suddenly felt an extremely sinister aura from this book.

He decided to study it first before returning it to Freya.

Ace quickly switch the grimoire as well and released a massive sigh of relief.

'Finally done with the stealing. At least now I won't lose a hundred million TP even if the mission failed!'

Without wasting any time, he approached the center platform that directly leads to the main stage.

With a devious grin, he sent his consciousness into the thief's space and used the soul-piercing bullet on defenseless Paul, who was still waiting for someone to rescue him and know him unconscious!

The next moment, Paul appeared on the platform, and Ace used the Optical Mirage Formation to disappear Paul, and now no one could tell Paul was lying unconscious on this platform.

He also placed something as a final touch and also the key to his success, and then left the vault after making sure everything was working fine and in 'order'.

The moment Ace left, his Thief Symbol also surfaced on the vault's wall!

Lilly was still waiting outside with a somewhat anxious look on her charming face.

Although she didn't know why it was taking 'Ville' so long to switch an item, she didn't dare to approach the vault, afraid she might trigger the alarm herself.

But she had already decided that the moment the time ran out, she would temporarily lock the door and only open it when the auction was about to start.

Although this space was only monitored by the president, they had fiddled with it and only buy themselves 30 minutes until it returned to normal. That's why they only give Ville a thirty minutes deadline, or things would go south.

However, Ville suddenly emerged at this moment, making Lilly feel massive relief.

"You did well today. I'll signify this achievement to the Imperial Princess. Now, I don't have much time. Farewell." Ville coolly stated before he vanished again without waiting for Lilly's reply.

Lilly was somewhat baffled by this abrupt departure, but when she thought about how the time was running out, she quickly felt closed the door and returned to her room. Her expression was filled with ecstasy and exhilaration at this moment.

'I'm going to leave everyone in the dust!' Her eyes turn dreamy.

The Life Demon Guards stayed still without any expression on their faces, but their eyes were filled with euphoria.

When Ace finally left the exit, he appeared in front of the gate guard and nodded. "Close it."

The guard didn't delay and closed the door with an expression of relief, and when he turned around, Ace had already vanished. He only smiled wryly and returned to his post as if nothing happened.

However, Ace didn't leave and stopped just a hundred meters away from the secret passage. He stopped because the moment he crossed a 2-mile radius from those active Optical Mirage Formations, they would stop functioning!