I was born and raised in the streets. Eating once every other day is a blessing, and waking up to a ceiling above my head is a luxury that I don't even dare to dream of.
My body is the only thing I possess. And it is the only thing that keeping me alive.
I stole, rummaged the trash, and begged to eat. Am I happy? Hell no! Who would be? Do I want to change? Of course! But how? Who wants to give a dirty kid in the slum a chance in life? I approached people only to be kicked out, mocked and chased away like stray dogs. Those damned dogs even sometimes get a bone but I only got spat on.
I started to think what is the point of living if this is the life I'm going to live for the rest of my time in this world.
Every day went by just like that until one day.
When I got caught stealing an apple after not eating for 3 days straight, I closed my eyes and readied myself to get beaten up. For a second I thought that maybe dying is easier than living this cursed life.
But I did not feel the beating of the stall owner. When I opened my eyes, the stall owner's hand was cut off, blood gushing from the wrist where his hand and fingers had been before.
A hooded man with a machete in his hand was standing strong in front of the collapsed stall owner.
"Kid do you want to have a better life?"
I stared at the hooded man blankly, the event that just happened are still not registered in my head.
"Kid do you want to eat three meals every day? Wore proper clothes and waking up to a ceiling above your head?"
When he asked the next question then it came to me that this hooded man just gave me, a kid from the slums, a chance in this unfair world?
"Answer me kid, aren't you tired from all the bullshit life throws at you? Don't you want to change?"
"Yes! Please! Sir! I want to change! I will do anything if it meant having a better life than this miserable and cursed one!"
"Great, follow me and I will show you, how to survive in this unfair and cruel world."
And that was how I met and joined The Hyenas. The infamous robber group that goes around from town to town. I used to only help keep watch of the base of operation and did the initial preparation before a mission, but after trained by Husk, the group leader for the last 6 months, I finally get my first chance to participate in the next mission.
Our team consists of 6 people. The leader Husk, who's in charge of the whole operation, scouting, and intelligence gathering, but mostly he's the person who planned the whole thing. Zayn and Mark are the main scouts whose job is to do the hard labor of scouting and breaking into houses, they both have their first job as a thief which enhanced their lockpicking and stealth skills.
Edgar is the mage of the group whose main job was to put a soundproof barrier on the premise of the robbed house to keep anyone from noticing our operation, but he's also the solve-all problem guy when something unexpected happened using his magic.
Next is Ben. His role is simply the muscle-head of the group, fighting and head-on confrontation are his primary role as someone who chose barbarian for his first job.
And the last one is me, Husk trained me to lock pick and sneaking. After the training for the last 6 months, I got the necessary experience to take the thief as my first job from hunting beast and learning the skillset from Husk.
The next mission is in a town before the border village. Our team planned to move outside the kingdom of Brandia after that. Our names are already famous around here and people would be more aware and cautious of our actions.
As per usual, we arrived at the targetted town a week before the operation, then let Zayn and Mark do their specialty which is reconnaissance, and reported the most suitable places to rob back to Husk for him to plan out all the robberies in one night and leaving the next day with all the traces gone the next day.
"Take it easy little one, this is your first job. Just do it like how I taught you and everything will be fine." (Husk)
"Don't worry, I won't disappoint you, leader!"
"Don't get ahead of yourself kid, just do the job properly and we don't have to deal with unnecessary problems" (Edgar)
"Give him some slack Edgar, he's been such a nice helper all this time. And I believe he will make his debut successfully" (Zayn)
"Just do it kid and if anything goes wrong we can just kill all of them!"(Ben)
"We're robbers, not killers Ben! Remember that." (Mark)
"All right everybody let's rest up and prepare for tonight's raid. And yes Ben remember that we shouldn't do any unnecessary killing."(Husk)
"Alright leader, whatever you want~" (Ben)
After the nights come, we wait until sometime past midnight, a few hours before dawn because that is when the night is at its darkest.
We went to our first target house, it is a medium-sized house based on the other houses in the vicinity, this house should have something valuable in them.
"Alright team, let's do this neat and tidy, get in, get out and go after the next target." (Husk)
"Yes leader!" (Everbody)
The raid started with Edgar making a wind dome surrounding the entire house. The wind dome makes no air can get in or out of the dome. Making the night keeps its silence and the whole operation unnoticeable.
For the sake of my training, they let me lockpick the front door. The door was mostly made out of wood, with a steel part for the lock. The lock is the usual door lock that can be opened with a single key.
Just like Husk taught me, I first use water magic to fill the entire keyhole. After the water spread throughout the keyhole, I memorized how the water is shaped when inside the keyhole. After remembering every key element and how the keys are supposed to look like, I make a duplicate key made out of earth magic.
And with that, the front door was successfully opened. To minimize the probability of getting caught, Zayn and Mark will be the one who comes in to grab any valuable stuff. Their stealth skill and thief job are perfect to do this task without making any or as little sound as possible.
When we're doing the job, Edgar stayed inside the wind dome just in case any emergencies happened. While Husk and Ben are keeping watch outside and patrolling the vicinity of the house to warn us if any people or guards come in near the house.
After a while, Zayn and Mark came out of the house bringing a sack of valuables back with them. And with that, the first target is successful and we should bring back the valuables to the basecamp before moving on to the next target.
"Great job little one! You've done well for your first job." (Husk)
"Yes good job kid, maybe one day you can help us get in so we can bring back more stuff." (Zayn)
Getting complimented sure is an amazing feeling. I am happy to know that now I'm useful and I can do something for myself and also others. With this motivation, I will give my best in doing other tasks and focus on improving myself. 'I will be The Greatest Thief in this world!' I proclaimed to myself.
After the first house, we went to the other 4 houses and everything also went smoothly which is a good sign for me.
And finally, we arrived at the largest house in this town. The house was almost like a small mansion, with a garden in the back and a gate at the front.
"Do you want me to do this one kid?" (Zayn)
"No! I can do it myself."
"Alright, just be careful, bigger houses usually have some type of defense and guards. We will take on the guards first then you should do the lockpicking after." (Zayn)
I nodded and readied myself for the mission to start.
Edgar put out the wind dome making the soundproof barrier. While Zayn and Mark stealthily incapacitate the 2 guards patrolling the back area. When the other 2 guards at the front door notice that the other 2 guards are not reporting back in 15 minutes, they came to the back area to check on their friend but only to find nothing. When they wanted to report this to the butler of the house, suddenly they felt something hit the back of their heads and the world turned black.
"Now kid!" (Zayn)
I jumped through the front gate easily with the help of Edgar's magic making me lighter. I went to the front door and started the process of making the duplicate key.
The process went smoothly as usual and when I turned the duplicate key to open the door, suddenly an ear-piercing sound sounded throughout the house.
"RUN AWAY THAT DOOR HAS MAGIC ALARM DEVICE!" (Edgar)
I panicked and didn't know what to do and only stood in front of the door motionless.
"Kid let's get out of here before reinforcement come!" (Zayn)
Zayn's voice got me out of my trance and I followed him to get outside of the gate. But when we're 10 steps away from the gate, the house door opened and a man with a burly build and a large sword came out of it and flew past us.
"Where do you think you're going you dirty thieves?"