Eternal Thief

Ace quickly snapped out his thoughts about Royal Zone, since it was too far from him right now. He can't even tread in Ocean Demon Dukedom without getting into danger, much less the most powerful place of Mighty Demon Continent. 

"Don't worry about the Spirit Fire. For now, we'll leave tomorrow's problem to tomorrow." Ace told sulking Noa, "What about the levels that don't need the Spirit Fire?" 

Noa's eyes brighten a bit. Hearing Ace's conciliate words, she looked at Ace's silver eyes deeply, which shone brightly with confidence, with no hint of worry. 

'I almost neglected the source of his confidant is a God, and I should also remember this as well.' Noa's listless eyes suddenly brighten, and all her vexation turned into smoke.

"I understand. Thank you for advising me, leader!" Noa nodded toward Ace with grateful eyes. 

'What did she understand?' Ace was slightly bewildered, hearing this, but he still stiffly nodded. 'Well, as long as she doesn't lose her confidence.' 

"Before legendary grade, there are nine-star levels of Night Demon Body Transformation Technique just like weapons and I required to be a 'Nine-Star' alchemist to start the process of concoction from 1-star to 9-star." Noa softly told Ace about the levels before Legendary Grade.

Ace, on the other hand, wasn't too shocked hearing 'Nine-start Alchemist' because after assimilating Pablo's memories. He knows in Golden Sky World there were different ranks of alchemy, crafters, and runes crafters, completely different from lower lands. 

Here there weren't any color ranks for alchemy or mortal grade for rune crafters, there were star ranks, and he was astonished to find out that the entire world used these ranks not just demons which mean the knowledge of lower lands were inadequate or someone kept it that way! 

Alchemist or Rune Crafters had Nine-Star Ranks from one-star being the lowest while nine-star being the highest just like crafters and here crafters identified as 'Crafter-Smiths' not 'Qi Crafters'. 

If a Crafter-Smith also knows how to create runes symbols, then those Crafter Smiths were known as 'Runic Crafter Smiths'!

After the nine-star ranks come the 'Legendary Grade', which had '8-Grades', and each grade was further divided into three small stages, 'Low, Intermediate, and High'. 

As for rune crafters, they were also divided into three types: 'Talisman Rune Crafters, Array Rune Craters, and  'Formation Rune Crafters'. 

The reason for separating rune crafting into these three types was because each type had a very broad and profound discipline and one could spend their entire life, but still don't reach the end of the road in either of these three disciplines.

Now Ace knew all those rune crafters in lower lands were just jokes here, and he finally understood all this time he was living in a barren village. 

He also got to know that whether it was Alchemist, Crafter Smith, or Rune Crafter, they all were respected and prominent figures, and no one dared to offend them! 

Even though Ace didn't know why there was no ninth grade, since the system had clearly told him there were Nine-Grades in mortal sky heavens. But he didn't have prior knowledge about it, and he was just too insignificant to even bother himself with this topic. 

"So, that's how it is," Ace mumbled, deep in thought. 

"Yes, but the key ingredients needed for these star levels were also quite rare, and I don't think anyone with a sane mind would sell them. There are even grade-1 ingredients required to concoct the nine-star level refinement potion.

"Although I had never learned alchemy before, I learn about 'poison alchemy' in my tribe, since it helped a lot in the art of assassination. That's why I know a lot about these herbs since Warden Cane knew about the Poison Alchemy of our tribe, and he helped me a lot to hone my skill in it, for his own selfish motives." 

Noa's eyes turned cold as she remembered how Warden Cane encouraged her to learn poison alchemy back then. Before, she thought little about how did he provide her books on poison alchemy since it was quite a rare branch of alchemy and few practiced it since it's very dangerous and deadly to play with poison. 

But after she found the truth about her tribe's massacre, she finally understood where all that knowledge came from. It was her own heritage, plunder from her tribe after they exterminate them! 

Noa knew better than anyone that Night Demons had a strong resilience to poison, and that's why they can easily practice this dangerous art of poison alchemy. Warden Cane also knew it, and that's why he made her learn, so she could be the perfect weapon!

Noa also didn't disappoint Cane because her talent was astonished, and for revenge, she learned everything about the poison alchemy of her tribe! 

"Poison Alchemy?" Ace clearly never heard of it before. 

"Yes, you can say this is the dark side of alchemy, and no one dared to practice it if they don't have confidence in handling poison. But each 'Poison Alchemist' was a dreaded existence!…" Noa sternly told Ace about Poison Alchemists. 

Ace suddenly felt a chill run down his spine when he heard a powerful Poison Alchemist can poison some to death without even being found out. 

'It seemed I was living in a flower house all this time,' Ace reflected gravely. 

But when he remembered his strong immunity to poison, he felt more assured and confident in dealing with these poison mongrels if he ever encountered them in the future. 

Furthermore, he even wanted to learn this poison alchemy since there were many practical uses in theft and make a mental note to ask Noa to teach him in the future, since he had other things to focus on right now. 

"I don't think it would be difficult for you to learn alchemy since you had experience in poison alchemy, right?" asked Ace. 

Ace would be lying if he said; he didn't have ulterior motives after he learned Noa had to learn alchemy because he could easily have made her create pills for him in the future, which also means a steady supply of EXP! 

This wasn't the biggest advantage, but the real advantage was Noa had to walk the soul path according to her thief assassin shop, which meant she will become a 'Soul Alchemist' who can make soul-type pills!

Soul Alchemists were far too rare since everyone talented in soul preferred to walk on the path of a rune crafter because many people consider soul alchemy a waste of soul-type talent! 

That's why soul-type pills were so rare and precious, and Ace never encounter any soul heard except for Blood Rose, much less a soul-type pill. 

Now that he had a house member who can become a soul alchemist, this will completely solve his problem of soul points in the future. That's why he was even more eager than Noa to let her start practice in alchemy!   

"Yes, I can easily reach six-star alchemist rank. But after that, it was the question of wealth, since alchemy is all about resources." Noa said with uncertainty.

It was common knowledge that alchemy was a huge money-burning discipline, and the rate of failure was much higher than the success rate. 

That's why only rich ones dare to study alchemy!

Ace naturally understood what Noa meant and suddenly remembered all those things he recycled a few days ago and felt his heartache. 'I should've never used that recycle shop, damn it!'

Ace cursed himself for his own stupidity when he thought of all those materials could've used by Noa. But quickly calm himself since the milk was already split there was no need to cry over it now, he reassured himself, 'Well, those materials were all low-level one and only enough to make white, green or 1-star pills or two-star pills. The real precious materials are in the rings filled with treasure mountain!' 

When he thought about the huge treasure mountain, he felt a lot better and quickly said with confidence, "You don't need to worry about expense, I can support you for a while. Even if we run out of material, I can always 'get' more than enough!" 

Noa was naturally dumbfounded by Ace's arrogant words. 

"Hehe, remembered I'm a thief? I'll take whatever I want, and now you're too!" Ace said with a thievish smile. 

"I understand!" Noa quickly nodded in understanding.

"Now that this is out of the way, I had a mission for you!" Ace's silver eyes shimmer mysteriously as he looked at Noa. 

"What mission?" Noa's heart suddenly race after hearing about the mission because a mission meant more house points and rewards for her, which she desperately needed right now! 

Ace only smile mysteriously and transmitted in his mind, "System open the mission making interface of thief house!" 

Ace always had a weakness, and he was nearly killed because of it last time, but this time he won't be going to make the same mistake since he had a helper, and he was quite confident of achieving it, after seeing Pablo's memories!