Chương 42: Chapter 40. The Bust

Oscar couldn't believe it. Either Ariesa was secretly the best [Thief] in the world, or she was just the luckiest [Princess] ever. Either way, she'd managed to locate Janine's security box on the third floor. The fourth floor had slightly larger security boxes, so she had chosen to work her way down before tackling the hundreds of smaller boxes on the lower levels. Oscar and Gita crowded around as she picked the lock.

This room seemed to have drastically weaker security because after a moment of fiddling around with the lock, the box door swung open. Inside was nothing but a plain key. Ariesa grabbed the key and let out a sigh of relief.

"You know, I was worried that this would take too long and something really bad would happen. Let's regroup with our two senior citizens and get out." The three of them took the shoddy lift down to the base level and found Plank and Bruno setting up one of the breaching charges on one of the vault doors. Before Oscar could say anything, the device detonated, making his ears ring. For such a small explosive, it sure did have some power behind it.

"Fuck, Plank!" Bruno shouted.

"I thought you said this thing was discrete!"

"I said no such thing, you moron!" Plank shouted back. Oscar swatted away a thin layer of smoke as he got closer.

"We found Janine's key. What's in this vault?"

"You actually found it in there? Goddamn, that's lucky," Bruno said.

"This vault here belongs to none other than Arturo Reissi himself. The fact that a piece of shit such as himself was able to afford a vault this nice… I just can't believe it. Someone like him should never have become this successful."

"Can you all shut up and help me rob this bastard?" Plank asked impatiently.

"The door needs a strong nudge, something's jammed it or… I don't fucking know!" Gita stepped forwards and cracked her knuckles.

"Leave it to me," she said and pulled her arm back.

"[Oaken Fists]!" she said. As her punch connected with the already weakened door, the sound of a loud thud echoed around them as the door gave way and was pushed inwards. Inside the vault was a comical amount of gold strewn about on the floors. It was almost as if he were in one of those old-school fantasy games where one of the big bads had a treasure room with seas of gold that someone could literally swim in. The sound of Bruno clicking his tongue in disappointment snapped Oscar out of his thoughts.

"Just gold… really? Surely this bastard collects artifacts as well."

"Someone who was as pathetic as him isn't going to be someone that wants more than basic money and power," Plank said.

"Even though we can't take all of it, everyone should be able to steal more than enough to purchase a gold-rank artifact or two."

"If only one of us had a dimensional storage skill…" Gita said as her greedy eyes overdosed on the sight of all the gold.

"Wait! Gita and I found an adventurer groups vault in the other hallway!" Oscar said.

"Adventures surely have artifacts stored in a vault, right?"

"Which group? Plenty of adventurers use this bank for storage, but not all are successful. It's not uncommon for a group to use their first big score from a dungeon to buy a decent vault, plus insurance to setup their future. It'll wipe them out, but it cannot be understated how invaluable it is to have somewhere safe to store all of their treasures lest a lesser group get greedy and kill them for it." Plank asked.

"Uh… do you know a group named the Craven Ravens?" Oscar replied.

"Oh, wow…" Bruno said dramatically before bursting out into a fit of laughter.

"Yeah, those fuckers will have some good loot in there, for sure. But is it worth it? That's the question."

"I know of them," Ariesa said.

"Before my father withdrew his support for the adventurers' guild in the city, we hosted a banquet to honor their victory over neutralizing a large brood of osciliopods that were just outside the city."

"Despite their name… that group is anything but craven," Plank added.

"Steal from them and you risk them finding out and hunting you down. What's their leader's name again?"

"Melissa Zarthorn," Bruno said.

"The only [Falconer] you'll ever see that uses a damned raven instead of a falcon. I'm surprised they have a vault of that tier. A group like them has to be on the verge of Diamond rank; they can easily afford one of these nicer vaults. Bhenna, I'd reckon even the upper city would allow them access to their bank."

"So… we're robbing them, right?" Gita asked, which caused Bruno to smile wide.

"Oh, Gita, darling… you're goddamn right we are."

"Here, you and Oscar rob that vault while the rest of us steal as much gold as we can," Plank said and handed Bruno a magiheat breaching charge. When Gita asked what they were going to put all of the gold in, Plank touched everyones hands before he activated one of his skills, [Pockets Deeper Than Greed].

"It's no dimensional storage skill, but it'll let us carry out a ridiculous amount of gold in our pockets. I hope you girls don't mind spending what will feel like an eternity fishing gold out of your pockets when we get back."

"What the hell! That's awesome!" Gita said excitedly. Plank snickered at her.

"Don't get too excited. The skill has a timer of around an hour and a half. Fail to remove everything you pilfered by then and it poofs away forever. Gone to the damned Abyss, I bet. There's some other strange quirks about the skill, but that's the important one." Bruno jogged over to the Craven Raven's vault and placed the charge over the locking mechanism. Oscar tried to remind him that he could just use [Erasure], but he was ignored. As soon as it was placed, he primed it and stepped back.

A few seconds later an explosion followed. This time the door was completely blasted open, allowing them access inside. The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation. Inside the vault were four chests. A weapon rack was in the middle of the chests with a large warhammer on the bottom rack and two identical one-handed silver axes above it. The top rack was empty.

"Less weapons than I thought, but that's fine. It'd only be Gita that we need physical weapons for," Bruno remarked as he opened one of the chests.

"Jewelry artifacts is mainly what I'm after anyway. Unfortunately, I'm no [Appraiser] and transporting a massive heap of artifacts all mixed together is highly dangerous. It seems that the Craven Ravens instead opted to rent magara infused chests to neutralize all of their artifacts."

"So do we just reach into the chest and take a handful of jewelry each?"

"It is with much sadness for me to admit this, but… even I wouldn't gamble my life like that. Artifacts vary in quality and depending on how they were made, it's possible that one ring may not play well when paired with a certain necklace, resulting in the two artifacts magic detonating. However, swap the necklace for another one and it might be completely fine. The reason why good [Appraisers] are so expensive is because of how difficult it is to properly identify an artifacts compatibility with others."

"Alright, that was a lot of yapping to just say no."

"Shut it, that's important to know," Bruno said.

"Dimensional storage skills also neutralize their potency, so we're going to try Plank's skill. I don't know if his skill will offer the same effects as a dimensional storage skill, so don't overload your pockets too much."

"That's not deeply concerning at all," Oscar remarked sarcastically.

"My theory is that his skill is sort of like distant cousins to dimensional storage skills. So… maybe it'll be fine?" Regardless of the potential dangers, he began to pilfer through one of the chests. Rings, amulets, earrings, and even a few watches, were found inside the chest. He went perhaps more modest than Bruno, taking in total around maybe seven items in total. Oscar closed his chest and checked the last remaining one.

It contained the same as the others, but just as he was about to close the chest and be done looting, he saw something that caught his eye. All of the other jewelry pieces were the standard sapphire, ruby, emerald, and the occasional diamond. Sticking his hand back inside the chest, Oscar pulled out a ring. There was no gemstone in the center, but rather the whole band was the gemstone aside from the silver frame.

This gemstone was a charred-like purple that'd almost look like some type of amethyst were it not for the crimson that could be seen in the center that swirled around with the purple.

"That's Dragonash," Bruno said.

"Stupidly rare and expensive. I wonder what it's doing locked away down here."

"Well, it's mine now," Oscar said, and instead of placing into his skill-enhanced pockets, he slipped it onto his index finger on his left hand. There was something about the ring that lured him into doing so. Perhaps it was the threat of it potentially being erased into the ether should Plank's skill end and the ring still being in his pockets, or maybe it was just the greed within him that saw luxury and wanted it on display. Whatever the reason, the ring was now secured onto his finger.

"Be careful, Oscar, we don't know what that ring does yet." Oscar gave him an apathetic shrug. If a ring was what managed to kill him after all he'd been through, then so be it. And aside from a slight tingling after first contact, the ring felt completely mundane.

"Alright, that's enough looting. Let's get out of here," Bruno said and nudged Oscar out of the room. The moment Oscar was out, someone slammed him against the wall. A fist connected to his side. Without thinking he jammed his elbow at the attacker, finding purchase and evoking a grunt. As he recovered, he turn his head to look at the attacker, he saw Bruno grip the man's head and snapped it with a sickening crunch. Instantly, Bruno dodged backwards as a sword cut the spot he had just been in.

Oscar's shadow pooled up his arm and flew out of his hand in the form of a crude dagger. The shadow dagger landed directly in the attacker's forehead, killing him instantly. Bruno hadn't seen it as he'd immediately been forced to deal with another assailant. Now that there was a moment to breathe, he noticed the pin identifying that these were more Depths men; a faint trace of corruption was coming off of them.

"Bruno, be careful! These people work in the Depths!"

"I can… see that!" he grunted back.

"Wait, how do you know about them?"

"Later!" Oscar replied as he created a sword. There was about four men on their side, while about six were on Gita's side. While Gita was stronger, he had doubts she'd be able to handle them should they take those infernal pills again. And he doubted these men were rookies like the others. Bruno still hadn't activated [Armory Roulette] and was currently dodging all four men. He needed Oscar's help in order to get any hits in.

"[Black Out]," he said and instead tried something different and targeted both legs on the man closest to Bruno. [Black Out] was a sensory deprivation skill, which meant there was a lot to work with aside from sight. It was easy to confirm the skill had hit as the man stumbled and fell towards Bruno, who delivered a powerful kick right into his face.

"[Armory Roulette]," Bruno said, and after a moment… he pulled out a sword that was 90% hilt and 10% blade.

"Oh… that's the bad roll. Been awhile, eh, Jeremy?" he said to the comically disproportionate weapon.

"Fuckin' change it with something else! Get Bethany again, or whatever you called that rapier!" Despite how awful the weapon seemed, Bruno swept it in front of him, forcing the remaining Depths [Agents] to back off momentarily.

"Her name's Belle! And no, I'm not going to use one of my [Rerolls] on these lowlifes! If there were ever a time for Jeremy to step up and make me proud… this would be the time." Ignoring Bruno, Oscar slashed his sword against one of the [Agent's] swords. They clashed twice more before he got frustrated and tried to use [Black Out] again on the same man that had now recovered. While the skill worked, he could tell it was less effective than last time.

This world had all sorts of balancing mechanics at play, so he figured spamming that skill would lead to reduced potency. Still, the skill did enough to deaden the [Agent's] arm enough so that the next time he tried to block Oscar's swing, he was just a bit too slow. Perhaps a bit too slow? It was impossible to be sure in the heat of the moment, but it almost looked like he wanted Oscar to hit him.

Oscar killed the man and dodged back as he saw Bruno jab his ridiculous weapon at the one of the last two remaining men on their side. Gita, Plank, and Ariesa looked to be managing so far. Two men laid slumped against the wall, blood pouring down their faces. Despite Jeremy being such a shit weapon, Bruno managed to stab one of the [Agents]. Unfortunately for Bruno, Jeremy just didn't possess enough length to pierce deep enough to cause fatal damage.

Fortunately for Bruno, however, was that Jeremy was still a weapon with a sharp blade. Through what Oscar could only see as sheer luck, Bruno managed to slit a throat with the measly weapon. With one [Agent] left, his panic became apparent. So far they'd not used a single skill, which Oscar found peculiar. Had the [Agents] in the gambling den used any either? He couldn't remember but felt like they hadn't. Which didn't really make sense considering how scary the Depths had been portrayed as.

"Bruno, I thought the Depths was supposed to have some freakishly strong fighters?"

"Yeah, they are. This seems wrong, doesn't it? It's almost as if they're holding back for some reason," Bruno observed.

"After that initial surprise wore off and I got into the rhythm of fighting… it felt like I was just fighting some disgruntled man, not a professional [Agent]." The last remaining [Agent] let out a laugh.

"Holding back? I can assure you that this was us giving it our best! I can promise you that none of us want to die or even be here! Bhenna, we're not even—" The [Agent] ceased to speak on account of his tongue exploding. Bits of meat splashed the walls, mixing in with the blood. Oscar slowly wiped away blood off his face as his brain shook off the shock. Across the hall it seemed that the same fate had reached the other [Agents] as well.

"A hex was placed on them, it seems," Bruno remarked.

"Whoever did it clearly didn't want them to speak much."

"Can the next city we visit be somewhere normal? Maybe go to a nice beach or something? Just no corruption, please." Oscar pleaded.

"You think corruption is at play here?" Bruno asked in a joking tone. Oscar groaned dramatically.

"Bruno… it's always corruption."

"At least we have Jeremy. Did you see him kill that guy? Pretty weak batch of Depths [Agents] to die to him that easily." Oscar groaned extra dramatically this time and left Bruno to go check on the others. On his hand, the ring hummed faintly. Due to his mind being on what was awaiting him up above, he quickly forgot about the sensation. After a very quick regroup, Oscar and everyone else made their way towards the lift. Ariesa, Gita, and Plank had come out of their fight unscathed.

It seemed that their opponents were also immensely weak. Which led him to think that whatever was awaiting them above was likely going to be an actual threat. Oscar was about to initiate the lift to take them back up when Plank stopped him. All eyes watched the elder as he awkwardly and loudly cleared his throat.

"Gita, take off your pants," the old man croaked, causing everyone to choke on their own saliva.