Eternal Thief

Days after days passed as Ace was completely engrossed in training with no hint of time whatsoever. Except time to time rest, he ignored and forget everything.

This was a rare chance for him to completely focus on his skills and techniques without being worried about anything.

On this day, Ace was immersed in Heaven's Stealer Dismantler Manual's Runic Dismantler Principals, which were the most profound and difficult principles of this manual but also the most useful to Ace.

At this moment, an already finished formation plate was hovering between his hands and a set of fifteen rune symbols were slowly breaking loose from the formation plate, like they want to slip away from the formation plate.

"[A new notification is available!]"

However, the system's impassive voice rang in Ace's mind at this important juncture, and he lost his focus for an instant and the formation plate and symbols turned into dark dust!

"Fuck you!" Ace cursed in vexation. He was very close to disassembling the five-star formation plate, but the system's voice has distracted him for a moment, and now the entire formation plate was destroyed!

This was probably the biggest disadvantage of Heaven's Stealer Dismantler Manual because if he failed to dismantle and recover the materials, the compressed Dismantle Qi will instantly turn the object into dust or sometimes blasted it!

This part set aside, Ace just recently found out he was very good in Heaven's Stealer Dismantler's Principals for some reason and his progress was monstrous!

With a vexed expression, he opened the notification panel to see just why the system ruined his parade,

[Notification Panel]

[Thief House]

-The system had deemed the house leader's second chain mission failed!

-Reason: Time Limit End

-Punishment: None

"Hmm?!" Ace's eyebrows knit together when he saw the failure report, which was out of his expectation.

Because in Ace's point of view, capturing the All-Knowing Parrot should be easy for Noa since she had the help from Buck, but it seemed he either overestimated Noa or underestimated this All-Knowing Parrot!

With an ambivalent expression, Ace commanded with a sigh, "Made new mission!"

Deep inside the Iron Forest,

Noa wore a frosty yet ashamed look in her eyes as she looked in front.

[Chain-Mission: 2/3]

- Mission: Use the Bandit Leader!

- Status: Fail

- Punishment: None

[Note: Third Chain Mission was erased because of the second mission failure!]

_______

Buck was kneeling beside Noa with an exhausted and listless look in his eyes. He knew he was dead because it's been over a hundred days since they were searching for All-Knowing Parrot or any clue about him.

After no one come in the first week when they left the letter in the tree compartment, Buck knew something was amiss.

However, Noa didn't kill him and spare him because she didn't think it was worth it to kill him just yet because Buck was quite useful, since he was the son of the city lord.

Noa wasn't some mindless killer, and she was extremely intelligent. She just wanted to intimidate Buck before, so he would split out everything if he was hiding.

However, things didn't go as she planned because even after waiting for thirty days no one come to this place, and she almost clobbered Buck to death. But she controlled herself and start searching for any other clues with Buck's help since he knew the forest in the back of his hands.

But as time passed, they found nothing at all and soon her time limit reached an end and resulted in mission failure.

Right now, Noa's killing intent skyrocketed because she was ashamed of herself for failing this mission and facing Ace after she told him she'll not disappoint him.

Buck naturally became the target of her killing intent, since it was all happening because Buck can't contact the All-Knowing Parrot and didn't even know anything about him.

Buck just kneels there with a deadpan expression, even with this intense killing intent. He had long accepted his death from the moment the middleman didn't show up.

Noa was just about to chop Buck's head off to vent some of her frustration, but the system's voice rang again in her mind, telling her there was a new mission, and she quickly open the panel with uncertainty while ignoring Buck for now.

[Thief House Leader (Ace White) has issued a Mission]

[Thief House Leader Mission]

-Mission: Come Back!

-Description: Bring the bandit leader, Golden Wolf King, back to House Leader!

-Reward: 10 House Points

-Time: 10 Days

-Punishment: -500 House Points

'He's angry!' Noa mused, seeing the mission and punishment, and she felt her heartache for some reason when she thought Ace was angry with her.

However, she quickly ignored that feeling and looked at listless Buck and felt a relief that she didn't kill him too soon, or she would've lost five hundred house points!

"Get up, we're going back!" Noa coldly stated.

"Hmm? You're not killing me?" Buck was naturally confused since in his eyes Noa was a terrifying existence who'll kill without batting an eye!

His survival for all these days was already like a dream to him and every day he thought it was his last day, and now, she again didn't kill him.

"Just get up if you don't want to lose your tongue!" Noa said with a hint of vexation.

"Where are we going now, I don't know any other place anymore we search the entire forest, just kill me and be done with it!" Buck said bitterly with no hint of resistance anymore, he had accepted the fact he was a dead man no matter what.

"We're going back to the iron demon city!" Noa told the truth to motivate Buck again.

She could've used the slave contract to force Buck to move, but she knew once a demon accepted its death, it would not move by anything, even if you torture them to no end.

This was the inherited trait of demons!

Even the most cowardly ones can become extremely fearless once they accept death, and that's why it was almost impossible for other races to enslave demons because they'll submit to no other race!