Thankfully an adult Elyan was three-fourths of the size of a human adult, which made moving the unconscious and skinny creature a lot easier.
After escaping to a partially collapsed house near the slums, I put him down and used the Talisman of True Faith to heal his injuries.
Although it brought me great pain to use my precious artifact for someone else, his survivability was directly associated with the success of the mission.
-The treasures inside the vault better be worth it.
White light shined from the talisman and entered the body of the rat-folk.
His scars immediately vanished and the pale complexion on his face disappeared.
'What happened?'
The Elyan's voice was heavy as if he had woken from a deep sleep.
"You passed out after agreeing to provide me information in regards to the vault"
'No, please let me personally accompany you inside the vault!'
'You can keep every treasure we find there, I only need a medicinal herb'
-Hm that's not good
Allowing him to participate in the heist would be similar to blindly trusting a stranger with my life, while rejecting him may hinder the mission since he might turn against me later on, or give me false information.
"And how much value does this herb has that you want to re-enter the palace when you barely manage to get out of there?"
'I need the medicine to save my sister, p-please help me'
-He doesn't seem to be lying, this may be simpler than I thought
At least there would be no conflict of interest between us.
{Speech}"Of course I will"
-But not without getting something in return
"For now we need to head towards the nearest gates, my teammate is waiting for me"
'My name is Sven'
"Oh, mine is Jay"
…
Patiently waiting for the night to arrive, I collected as much information as possible about this world from Sven.
Primarily, he didn't know anything about the existence of rifts but he had recently witnessed numerous groups of unfamiliar species seemingly appearing out of nowhere and attacking the kingdom's walls, only to be slaughtered by the military superiority of the Elyan kingdom.
Therefore, one could conclude that apart from humans, other races were also entering the rifts to obtain the artifacts.
As for Sven, I convinced him to reveal some of his skills in order to gain my trust.
Although it was more like a security measure in case he betrayed me.
Notably, his [Ghostly Figure (Rank D)] could turn part of his body into a spectral form, allowing him to phase through objects and walls.
An ability truly fitting for a thief, which in combination with his [Reconnaissance (Rank F)] that created a real-time 3D hologram of a designated area, made him worthy of such a pompous title.
"You mentioned that you were tortured for a week in the tower of Madness, but couldn't you have easily phased through the walls?"
'There lives a wizard in the second tower, the Tower of Wisdom, who trapped me inside a looped instance with spatial magic, rendering my skills useless'
"Magic? Was it not a skill?"
'No, they say he is in contract with a powerful spirit and is able to borrow its strength in order to cast magic'
'If not for a malfunction caused by some disturbance in the world's spiritual power, I wouldn't have been able to escape'
-Could it be that the rift caused the disturbance?
"Anyway, the guards are about to take a break, are you certain you properly drugged their food?"
'Oh please, what do you take me for'
'Being able to create fast-acting sleeping potions used to be one of the requirements one should meet if he wanted to be considered an expert thief', he proudly boasted about his stellar techniques in infiltration.
True to his words half of the guards fell asleep, and so, we proceeded with our plan.
As Sven had previously informed me, there existed a mechanism that functioned like a flare to alert the Royal Guard when danger appeared.
Therefore we needed to move quickly.
Although I was certainly not fond of killing others, I couldn't risk everything in order to subjugate them and instead went for the kill.
Approaching the guard closest to the alarm, I thrust my sword in his back and activated the ability of the Drake Sword.
Volatile flames emerged from the sword and set the poor guard's internal organs on fire.
I then swung the flaming weapon onto the guard closest to him, who despite successfully blocking the attack with his shield, was engulfed by the surrounding flames.
His mouth was wide open but no screams were heard as the fire had entered through his airways and had set ablaze his lungs.
To my surprise, the heat excluded from the raging fire was enough to cause my skin to gradually peel off.
I then realized how powerless one would feel if he were to fight against a drake, a species considered "weak" when compared to dragons.
-Dragons... they probably exist, don't they?
Turning my sight to Sven, the lifeless body of a guard was already on the ground while he thrust his incorporeal hand inside the chest of the remaining guard, who immediately died without any external injuries.
-What?
With all enemies eliminated I couldn't help but want to ask Sven about what I had just witnessed.
'Oh you must be quite surprised, I had the same reaction when I discovered this application of the skill'
'Essentially, I phase my arm through their chest and materialize my hand to burst open their heart'
'Quite cool right?'
"Yeah cool... isn't there any limitation?"
'Well it's a lot more difficult to phase through an organic object due to the high concentration of magi'
-Better not get on his bad side.
At that moment, a wild Julius appeared from the woods.
"Hey Jay, took you long enough. By the way, nice artifacts you got there", he seemed restless from trying to control his fighting spirit and not attacking the guards himself.
"Well I picked up an accomplice, his name is Sven, they call him the Ghost Thief"
"Oho, that's a cool nickname. Ahem, my name is JULIUS ARMSTRONG, the STRONGEST MAN IN EARTH!!!"
In the mention of titles, Julius boastful personality appeared as he proudly yelled his self proclaimed title.
-Does he not know how to keep a low-profile?
'Haha you certainly fit the title, a pleasure to meet you'
Surprisingly Sven's speech was not what one would expect from a thief.
His dignified posture and depth of vocabulary seemed to belong to someone of high status.
"By the way, I am starving, what're the local delicacies of this place?", Julius' stomach was evidently complaining and so was mine.
'Follow me, I know a good place we can go as soon as the sun rises'
"Aren't you a wanted criminal? They have probably hanged posters with your face everywhere by now"
'The tavern is run by a friend of mine, you don't need to worry, he would never betray me'
...
Entering the run-down tavern, a gruesome smell entered my nose.
A mixture of sweet-sour-sulfurous scents was coming from the rotten meat that was no doubt bound to be served to us.
Numerous thoughts filled my mind, mainly of regret and disgust.
Thankfully, no matter how repulsive the taste would be, I was at the very least not going to experience it.
Inside the building were three customers, one staff member, and the chef, who came and greeted Sven.
'H-hey my brother Sven, how have you been?'
'Good, how is the business going?'
'W-well... it's going good so far'
-Tell that to the zombie chicken you are about to serve us.
'S-stay right here, I will go and prepare you the full meal course'
For some reason, his voice sounded very anxious and his facial expression was inconsistent, with a smile that showed nor happiness nor sadness but a mix of the two.
My instincts were warning me that something was off.
Some minutes later, the tavern had emptied, with no sight of the other customers or the waiter.
The tavern-owner arrived carrying a plate full of fresh beef with a delicate sauce on top of it.
Julius immediately grabbed it and tried to take a large bite of the fragrant meat.
At that moment the tavern-owner accidentally revealed a sinister smile, which was enough for me to confirm my suspicions.
{Speech}"Stop!", I yelled at Julius.
-I should have seen it coming, people like him exist in all dimensions.
I pulled out the Drake Sword that was tied to my waist and decapitated the rat-like bastard.
{Speech}"Sven use your [Reconnaissance]!!"
Sven, although very confused at the sudden death of his friend, quickly understood my actions and activated his skill.
'This...'
Numerous guards had surrounded the building and judging from their armor they no doubt belonged to the Royal Guard.
'H-he b-betrayed me... the only person I could call my friend betrayed me...'
{Speech}"HEY snap out of it, is there a back door?"
'N-no but there is an old sealed hatch that leads straight to the sewers'
"Quickly go and open it, Julius and I will buy you some time"
~Crash
The wooden door at the tavern's entrance was destroyed by two royal guards.
One of the two had a small but trained physique and carried a long spear made from steel, while the other one had an extremely bulky physique and was equipped with a towering rectangle shield and a spiked mace.
'He was supposed to poison them, that bastard couldn't even do that right', the one with spear swore at the dead tavern owner.
'Even better for us, we can claim the bounty on the thief's head ourselves and no one will object'
'Soldiers, at ease, the prey is ours', the one carrying the shield ordered the other soldiers, signifying that he was someone of high rank.
'CHARGE!!!', a war cry came out of the Elyan who rushed along with his comrade to eliminate us.
The duo's coordinated attack was aimed at Julius, who in return took an in-fighter battle stance.
Julius took the barrage of attacks head-on, making sure to avoid any hit aimed at his vitals.
After a second long into their exchange, an attack aimed with deadly accuracy at Julius' heart was intercepted by his large palm.
The spear's tip had penetrated his hand and was only an inch away from reaching his chest.
At that moment Julius smiled and grabbed the spear's shaft immobilizing it temporarily.
The Elyan soldier flinched and tried to pull the spear but with no use, as Julius had already positioned himself to throw a powerful straight punch, rotating his right shoulder and putting all his weight behind it.
The shield warrior tried to protect his comrade by blocking it but I briefly stopped his movements with the Chains of Binding.
When the deadly punch successfully landed on the warrior's chest, his body was sent flying to the wall, and several of his bones, including a part of his spine, shattered.
-He has improved it seems
He seemed to have grown accustomed to the magi in his body and was now able to reinforce his fist with an ample amount of magi before striking the opponent.
But despite taking the full force of Julius' punch, the spear warrior was still alive, although unconscious.
The remaining Elyan was startled at Julius' monstrous display of physical strength and after a brief moment, managed to break free from the chains by using up his magi.
'Soldiers, engage in combat!!', he yelled at the squadron outside, which marched inside the building and pointed their swords at us.
Upon closer observation, apart from the mountain-like warrior with the shield and his agile teammate with the spear, the remaining soldiers didn't exclude any significant amount of fighting aura.
But despite that, they were still heavily armed and greatly outnumbered us.
'It's open!', Sven's signaled us to retreat.
{Speech}"Julius go first!"
Being used to my sudden instructions he quickly followed my order and entered the long and narrow hallway leading to the underground hatch.
Following him, I ignited my Drake Sword and slashed the pillars behind me.
Although cutting them was not an option with my current strength, the blazing fire that came in contact with the wooden material proved to be a very effective method of destruction.
The hallway collapsed with me barely managing to enter and close the hatch.
"Huf made it"
"Holy shit what is that awful smell?"
Making the stench of the decayed meat seem like a sweet aroma, the reek coming from the sewers made me wish I had also sacrificed my sense of smell.
~Cough cough
Even Julius was trying to hold back from puking.
'What's with delay? Hurry, it won't take them long before they clear the debris'
"Yeah yeah I know..."
-How is he not bothered by the smell?
It appears Julius also had the same question in mind as he was covering his nose with the black coat and staring at Sven with a very curious expression.
....