Chapter 111: Breaking in.

Chapter 111: Breaking in.Lee’s manner of walking might have looked relaxed from the side, but his steps were long and quick. He entered the office with his head low, and confidently proceeded to the stairs leading to the underground tunnels.

The only thing that distinguished him from the real caretakers was the adapted waterskin bag that held the fake seal and a few other items, including a small sack of fungal spores.

The caretaker at the vault who currently was on the watch, happily switched with the newcomer, and Lee immediately got to work the moment he was alone.

First he carefully inspected the oval door, but couldn’t find any peculiarities. If he didn’t get it open on the first try, it was possible he’ll have to experiment.

Lee strapped on an awkward looking gadget, resembling a small stack of folded clothes, on his right knee, but didn’t do anything with it yet. Then he closed his eyes and concentrated. This was the most tricky part – he had to pull elemental energy in the form of water and earth particles to each of his palms at the same time.

He had been successful doing that during a proper meditation, but technically this had to work. It took slightly longer than anticipated, but he managed to replicate the process. Before the strange sensation subsided, he quickly lit up the thing he put on his right knee earlier, and pressed his both palms in two of the depressions and lifted his burning knee to touch the last one.

He tried to switch the positions the power of the elements was delivered to, but nothing changed.

’Damn it!’ Lee cursed to himself, and put out the fire.

Theoretically the problem might’ve lied in the seal, but Lee’s guess was that he had missed the obvious. The fire had to be on the top with the two heavier elements at the bottom. It was the common sense.



But the upper depression was even slightly higher than his face and there was no way he could lift his knee so high, or even the foot if it was on fire, while at the same time pressing the two palms in the lower depressions. He was flexible, but not at the circus acrobat’s level.

’How I’m going to regret this!’ Lee laughed at himself, and took the adapted torch off his knee.

Then he lit it up, bit with his teeth and pressed in the upper depression, while guiding water and earth particles to his palms.

The cloth’s taste was revolting, but the bigger problem were the burns that he got on his face. His eyes were safe since he closed them, but the eyebrows burning off in an instant was an unwelcomed extra. Lee was surprised, though, that he didn’t find the pain from getting burned that agonizing.

Fortunately he didn’t have to stay in this position for too long. With the small stack of cloth burning in his teeth, right hand slightly wet from the dew that suddenly appeared on it, and the left becoming strangely hard, Lee pressed at the three depressions, while at the same time bumping into the seal with his chest.

A heartbeat later hearing the clicking sounds of a mechanism inside the wall, Lee immediately spew out the cloth and stepped on it, extinguishing the fire. But when he looked up, he noticed that the door had sunk in at one side, maybe half an inch at most.

It turned out to be really heavy, and the scraping noise it made when Lee pushed it was unsettling. He wasn’t clear whether someone had noticed his actions, but he was sure he didn’t have much time.

What Lee didn’t know was that there was one person whose expression turned ugly the moment the vault door opened. Lunax was currently keeping the rift open, and a third of his vanguard forces had passed through it. The elemental lord was caught off guard and almost lost concentration, killing a bunch of his people, but fortunately managed to instantly recover.

He was pissed, though.

"Coulax!" The God hissed at his right hand man below, "The vault!"

Coulax nodded, and rushed away, at the speed of wind, literally. If Lee saw him, he would’ve been shocked to realize that the guy was even faster than Potato.

Meanwhile the culprit glanced around the wide room with the low ceiling. The luminous stones embedded in walls provided enough light to illuminate everything in the three-hundred-square-foot space.

’What a hoarder!’ Lee said to himself in surprise.

Apparently Lunax was a collector of garbage.

There were fancy items like shining swords and pieces of armor, but most of the things stacked on the shelves around the walls were odd trashy items – old jewelry, neatly folded, but worn clothing, and even things that resembled kitchen utensils. There was strange artwork in the form of small statues, and even flags.

In the middle of the room, there was a pile of used armaments, and from the looks of it, someone was in the process of organizing it. A few of the items were set aside, while the obviously broken ones were in a smaller pile.

’Ok! Now, where’s the good stuff?’ Lee thought, but was already taking steps towards the furthest part of the vault.

There, on a separate shelf, he saw stacked boxes made of dark wood. Despite their large size, it was easy to guess there were sparks inside, and while he was surprised by the strange runes drawn on them, he was shocked to see that every singe one was marked by the familiar yin-yang symbol.

’So Arax didn’t lie, huh?’ Lee said to himself, and tried to open one of the boxes, but it appeared to be sealed.

And somehow it felt heavier than it should as well.



Without a second thought, Lee smashed it on the ground with all the strength he could muster. The box turned out to be sturdier than expected and only cracked, but it was enough to open it.

There was a pristine wind spark inside, clearly of much higher quality compared to the ones Lee stole from the tomb in Haonia.

Involuntarily Lee’s eyes turned to the largest box on the top. It was twice the size of the previous one and the spark inside surely had to be amazing, not that he needed another one. But the place was full of trash he couldn’t use anyway, thus the idea of satisfying his curiosity seemed reasonable.

’This is why people normally don’t steal things they can’t sell.’ Lee sighed to himself. Taking anything from here could only cause him trouble.

’Right! Trouble!’ Lee remembered the other reason he broke into the vault, and went over to the side where the clothing was.

There, he picked up a bag that resembled his waterskin and threw in random items, including a pair of gloves. However, he intended to keep those for himself, while the other items were meant as gifts. Then he rushed back to the boxes with sparks, grabbed the biggest one, and left the vault after somehow stuffing it inside the bag.

Thieves had the golden rule – they never ran, except if they were already caught and someone was directly after them. With confident steps, Lee walked into the closest tunnel, once again hiding behind the dark-purple hood. He didn’t use the stairs to leave the place – the office was a no-go zone for the upcoming months, but so was pretending to be a caretaker.

After passing through few more tunnels, he found a remote corner, took off the cloak and threw it in the new bag. Now he was all set and there was no way for Lunax or his goons to find him.

There was one problem, though. In the opposite side of the dimly lit cave hall he was currently in, there was a couple of yards deep pocket. From there stared two the most stupefied expressions Lee had ever seen. Apparently it was the spot they slept or napped, and Lee’s arrival woke them up. It all would’ve been fine if he hadn’t taken off the cloak, but it was already too late.

’Fuck!’ Lee cursed, and darted away. It was time for the plan b.