[Omen of the Witchblade] Chapter 131 - A Little Light Larceny

Before Wrug left, he showed them where the alley entrance to their shop was. As much as Mel wanted to go inside and see everything for herself, she couldn’t sit idly by while Teddy profited from the suffering of the mondoceroses.

They even thought he was a good person for helping them! He was creating the very problems they were praising him for solving.

Dude could’ve been a very successful politician.

It was just dumb luck that he happened to cross Mel’s path.

It really was too bad he wasn’t a competitor. He wouldn’t have any protection from the guards then. As much as Mel loved to buck authority, picking a fight with a bunch of higher ranked guards wasn’t going to go Mel’s way.

She wasn’t dumb, even though she sometimes acted like it. Bravery and stupidity were often two sides of the same coin.

Each rank was exceptionally stronger than the last. Mel had learned that firsthand going from Mundane to Copper, then to High Copper.

From everything she could piece together, the difference between High Copper and Iron was startlingly large.

Probably a bigger leap than Mundane to Copper rank, Mel guessed.

On Mel’s advice, Charlie had kept one of the skeletons wrapped up in a heavy cloak with the hood up so it looked like a beggar squatting on the Rook’s stoop.

They didn’t have to wait long for Teddy to close up shop and hurry away, glancing over his shoulder every 10 feet as if he was being followed.

Once Charlie gave Mel the all clear, she took out her trusty [Simple Knife] courtesy of the first Bloodtide Covenant member she killed. She had a fondness for knives that bordered on the obsessive. They were useful tools, as Mel showcased by jimmying the window open to Pete’s Potions on the second floor.

Getting there was as simple as using [Condensate] to stick a Mist nail in the cobbles and then push against it until she found an equilibrium.

[Condensate]

(Mist Aspect)

(Copper, Violet/Ability)

(Grade 5 [54%])

Cost: Modest Mana

Cooldown: Long

Condense hardened nails of mana within your environment, using their intrinsic connection to pull or push yourself toward or away from any single nail.

Imprint(Copper Rank): Conjure up to three nails embedded in a surface you can perceive up to 50 feet away. Using your mana, you can pull or push yourself from any nail(s) you choose. The surface each nail is adhered to must be strong enough to support your added inertial weight.

Much to Mel’s consistent disappointment, it was nothing like flying. She had to exert a constant force of mana to balance her weight against the pull of gravity.

Once she did, she had to be careful not to push too hard or else she’d rise. Constantly oscillating her mana was a workout unto itself. Bouncing up and down like an idiot would make her job even harder, but it was easier to do than force her mana into some freakish cousin of alternating current.

Charlie eyed the Mist nail in the cobbles, then bit her lip. “Oh no, that’s too tempting by far.”

Once the window sprang open, Mel used [Hidden Mist].

[Hidden Mist]

(Mist Aspect)

(Copper, Green/Spell)

(Grade 11 [79%])

Cost: Modest Mana

Cooldown: Moderate

Blanket an area in mist, obscuring the vision of your enemies and making them easy prey.

Imprint(Copper Rank): Create a layer of obfuscating fog that you and any allies you designate can see through. Area affected by fog is considered difficult terrain. Mana cost increases as the area of fog increases. Additional mana may be expended to illuminate the fog from within.

Instead of spreading it from herself, Mel forced the mist into the darkened room beyond. As soon as the mist rolled half an inch across the windowsill, several panes of blue light flashed.

A warding? What’re you hiding, Teddy? This is too advanced for you.

Mel lowered herself and turned to Charlie, explaining the issue.

Being a Necromancer, Charlie possessed more advanced ritual spell knowledge than Mel. Since her class started as Acolyte, she possessed a similar proficiency as Thomas, who started as a Mage.

Charlie, carried in Mel’s arms, reached out a hand to the opened window. Deep blue panes shimmered into view, interconnected by lines like stained glass. The barrier coated the open window like a second skin.

It disappeared, then reappeared once more as she dragged the back of her curled fingers across the barrier.

The pieces fizzled away into nothingness.

Ritual Spell: [Unravel]

“I can’t sense anything else keeping us out,” Charlie whispered.

“In you go then,” Mel said, tossing her inside like a sack of flour.

It was a good thing nobody was home because Charlie hit the floorboards cursing up a storm. She rolled to her feet and threw a glare at Mel.

Mel wasn’t watching. She was busy ferrying skeletons up to the second floor window one by one.

Once they were inside, Mel wasted no time looking around the room. It was a dusty old storage room with nothing of use that Mel could see. A bunch of old glass bottles, some faded coupons and fliers. Stuff that nobody had any use for anymore, including Teddy.

However, Mel was petty. Teddy might not have a use for it, but he was holding onto that junk for some reason. Even if it was just laziness.

So Mel tossed everything out the window. It shattered into a pile in the alley.

Growing up in NYC, Mel knew the golden rule. If you heard some strange noise from the alley: no you didn’t. Nobody bothered or cared to peek out of their window.

If they did, Mel wouldn’t have been surprised if the only comment was to curse at her about the noise.

Man, I love cities.

Back in the now empty room, weapon after weapon disappeared in swirls of obsidian ash from the skeletal hands of Charlie’s bony boys.

Interesting. She can use ashen armament apparition on summons too.

A Brawler skeleton slipped through the door into the hallway, its boney feet padding across the floorboards quietly. Unarmed and unarmored, it didn’t make much noise at all. Though, it did have to move slowly.

The way it prowled around, looking for any traps, reminded Mel of Gwen searching relentlessly for threats. The loping cadence was almost uncanny, like Charlie had spent time observing the large werewolf.

Mel felt a stab of unfamiliar envy.

If the skeleton set any traps off, it was unlikely either of them would be caught. The trap might destroy the skeleton, but Charlie could just resummon whatever remained.

There were no traps.

Only one layer of defense? Okay, maybe he did set up the warding.

It was more advanced than Mel would have given the twerp credit for, but maybe he paid somebody to do the work. It was evident that he thought it was sufficient.

There wasn’t much upstairs. A few old bedrooms covered in old sheets. A small coffer under an obvious loose board containing 12 [Iron Rune Coins] that Mel split between them was the only valuable thing she saw.

Everything else went, you guessed it, out the window.

It was a regular defenestration special, except with items instead of people.

“Okay,” Mel announced to the room. “I’m bored. Tossing stuff into the alley is fun and all, but it’s lost its luster.”

It wasn’t until they went up to Teddy’s personal rooms on the third floor that they found anything worthwhile.

Charlie held one of the faded potion bottles in her hand. Thinning her eyes, a dangerous frown formed on her lips. “Let’s ruin the entire shop. Leave it a hollow, yet standing, wreckage.”

Most of the “potions” didn’t have Shardscript. Those that did obfuscated their effects or blatantly stated greatly diminished effects.

He did have an [Alchemy Table] that Mel handed off to a skeleton to carry out into the alley. It was one of the few items Mel didn’t want to smash. She had no idea how expensive it was, but she wasn’t about to bootstrap her own alchemy career when Teddy was kind enough to offer his own equipment.

She didn’t even have to ask. It took the item without question, like Mel had a personal servant.

There were a few more alchemical items that Mel stuffed into her inventory. Small bowls carved with runes. They had all been badly mistreated, but they were free, so Mel wasn’t going to complain too much.

They would serve her, and that’s all that mattered. Maybe she could get the skeletons to clean them up too.

Kinda like having slaves without the moral dilemma.

Crates of potions were ferried via skeleton courier downstairs. They were poor quality, even Mel could tell that much, but they weren’t diluted yet.

She could at least use them to deepen her understanding of alchemy. Of course, the biggest haul came from the ingredients and items haphazardly strewn about the workshop that took up much of the third floor.

After stuffing her pockets and inventory full, only then did Mel agree it was time to visit the shop.

Unsurprisingly, the shop held few items worth their time. Not to mention that most everything was locked in tiny bottle-sized cages. Each cage was attached to a chain that connected to the wall.

“Did he have these custom made or something? What is wrong with this guy?”

Charlie groaned. “I’ll never be able to comprehend the shallow depths of stupidity.”

Mel shrugged. Like any modern thief, she understood that you didn’t need to crack the safe if you could just take the damn thing with you.

Summoning her twinblade, she broke the chains rather easily with a heavy-handed chop of the blue blade. Caged potion after caged potion went into her inventory or was carted out by a skeleton.

When the shop was fully cleaned out of anything useful, Mel and Charlie began breaking the rest. Furniture and displays were destroyed with glee.

It was easy, even without aspect skills.

With Teddy being gone for the next few days, there was no rush. She might even come back tomorrow if she could find some wild foxes. Fox urine was impossible to get out of wood or leather. It would reek in here worse than it already did until Teddy moved.

If the smell got too bad for Mel, she could just move the Rook. It wasn’t exactly hard.

“You know,” Mel said, looking around the ruined shop. “If the potions weren’t watered down, they might have combined into something dangerous.”

There wasn’t a single unbroken thing there. She even ripped up his romance novels. It was a real crowning achievement for pettiness.

“Good thing you’re with a healer.” Charlie glanced toward some ruined bottles. “This reminds me of good times at–”

That was when they heard the unmistakable creak of a door. Mel and Charlie looked at each other, then glanced around the room.

With everything broken, it was easy to see where the noise had come from. Somewhere behind the counter, they had missed a trap door.

Fortunately, that door was piled high with trash. Whatever poor soul was locked in the basement, probably forced to craft subpar potions for Teddy, would take some time to extricate themselves.

Mel was all for trashing the shop, but she was glad Charlie had talked her out of her first plan. A plan which involved much less manual labor, and a lot more cleansing fire.

Killing an innocent basement dweller wasn’t something that would have sat well with her.

Mel gestured toward the door. They had time to beat a hasty retreat and let the poor worker decide that he wasn’t there and that he didn’t see anything.

If he was dumb enough to stay and take the blame, that was on him.

A skeleton began walking over to the trapdoor, as if to help the poor soul out. Then it abruptly froze in place.

Charlie noticed the rolling waves of overpowering pressure before Mel. Unfortunately, she wasn’t fast enough to do anything about it.

By the time Charlie reached out to grab Mel’s coat, Mel felt the power of an Iron rank as well. Though her sense wasn’t as high as Charlie’s, her agility was far superior.

Mel twisted, grabbed Charlie’s arm, and pulled them both to the ground as the shop exploded. The air above them churned with shards of glass, bone, and wood shrapnel.

“Oh-ho-ho, you’re in for it now!” a gruff voice boomed. “Where have you gotten to, you filthy thieves?!”