Eternal Thief

The moment Ace crossed the final corridor, the sight of a grade hall greeted him and three masked demons sitting around an array mirror.

They were currently looking at him with their impassive eyes, especially the demon with pitch-black eyeballs in the center, who gave off the feeling of invisibility between the other two.

Not only that but their auras were completely hidden, and not even Ace's soul sense could pick up their traces as if they didn't exist in this space.

Suddenly, powerful pressure, many times stronger than the Piercing Maze, descended above him.

Ace pretended to be exhausted, fell on his knees, and looked like he was struggling to just breathe.

"He's indeed exhausted his soul strength because if he doesn't, I don't know how would I react." The pressure vanished with this jolly voice.

"Here, eat this, and you'll be fine." Clouse suddenly spoke, and a crystal green pill suddenly come hovering toward Archie.

Ace could feel the medicinal potency of this pill when it reached him, 'A Low-Grade-6 Soul Pill!'

Even Archie's family didn't have many of these pills in their treasury, which could only mean this person was either extremely wasteful or didn't care about a grade-6 soul pill at all.

Nevertheless, he still ate it for the sake of it and gain 50,000 SP as well as his depleted heavenly soul Qi also recovered. His SP cap still wasn't full, and he left it like that deliberately as well.

He was saving all those system's EXP and SP for when he breaks into a new realm because the extra EXP or SP is no longer saved by the system after he created the heavenly Qi sea and they will be wasted if he tries to add them.

So, he keeps them safe for the future.

Unless he wanted just heavenly Qi out of desperation, he won't use them.

Archie finally stood up and bowed toward the three. "Thank you, instructors, for your guidance."

"You're not half bad yourself." The demon on the left answered with a chuckle. He was quite satisfied with Archie, and if not for Clouse, he might try to poach him, even from his third sister on the right.

"As I announced before if you could reach here, I'll guide you. As you have already guessed, my name is Clause Nightmare. This is my second brother, Olaf Poison Wood, and third sister, Londyn Nightmare.

"They both will be teaching you with me in five-day intervals each while I'll be last and teach you until you leave for the gathering. As for how much you could learn and be able to grasp, it depends on your own.

"If you didn't want to die in the upcoming gathering, then I would suggest you use your true potential, or this might be the last time we all ever met." Clouse didn't waste any time on idle chit-chat and directly stated the purpose of Archie's summon.

Ace was astonished when he heard this. He was only under the impression that he was called here to accept as a personal student, but not to train by these three instead.

Furthermore, he still had the meeting with that Jefferson in a week, and if they kept him here for an entire month, he'll miss that meeting, and all his plans would go down the drain.

But he couldn't reject them, or they might take it the wrong way.

Clouse did not know what Archie was thinking, and neither did he care, so he said, "Your first lesson will be with my third sister, and after five days, you'll be given a day off for rest. Now let's start."

He then looked at Londyn and nodded. "He's all yours."

Ace didn't even give the chance to breathe or comprehend what just happened, and the next thing he remembered was Londyn appearing in front of him and putting her hand on his shoulder.

The next moment, everything turned into a blur, and when he regained his vision, he was standing in a huge empty white space.

Back in the main hall, Olaf was speechless as he commented in a wry tone, "Um, I think you're a little too hasty, First Brother. You should've given him a chance at least to catch his breath."

"Time is short. I need to teach him the essentials of Dark Dagger Secret Art. Without your two skills, it's impossible to learn. So, I gave you both five days with him…" Before Clouse could end his explanation, Olaf cut him short.

"Wait, wait?! Dark Dagger Secret Art? Did Master agree to it?" He quickly asked in disbelief.

"Yes." Clouse merely nodded as if it was a trifling matter.

"Then this means he's a core student of master?" Olaf questioned again.

Because he knew only Bodach's personal students could learn the Dark Dagger Secret Art and they were all forbidden to teach anyone else without his confirmation.

Every Royal House of the Royal Demon Institute had a secret art only unique to their respective houses, and it was depending on the Housemaster to who they taught these secret arts.

This Dark Dagger Secret Art was unique to the Soul Assassin House.

That was why Olaf was shocked when he heard Clouse was going to teach Archie this art, and even more absurd, he was planning to teach him the essence of it in less than a month.

Which was akin to mastering it at the initial level, which was almost impossible unless Archie was a monster.

He even wondered if Clouse had gone insane by gaining a student because he sure sounded insane to Olaf.

"Not a core student, but as my student, it'll be fine. Just teach him Darkles Stealth well. The third sister also agreed." Clouse stated before vanishing from his place.

"And when did that happen? Weren't I here all the time?" Olaf was standing alone, dumbfoundedly. He even felt like he was the only sane person between those two.

---

Ace looked at the masked demoness with a hint of confusion, as he still didn't understand why they were teaching him and wasting their time. But one thing was clear now that Archie had drawn some unexpected attention.

He mused that it had to be something to do with that Piercing Maze, but it was too late to regret now.

Furthermore, since he would be given a day off on the exact day he was going to join the secret alliance, he was finally at ease. He even thought it was done purposely, but he had no proof to make sense of it.

Londyn finally spoke at this moment, "I know you might be confused since it is too sudden, but this is for your own good and also proof that First Brother treated you like his own people. So, you better not disappoint him and learn properly, or I'll never forgive you."

Ace suddenly felt a cold killing intent for a moment, making his heart palpitate because this demoness was a manifestation realm expert. He finally sensed her aura for a moment!

But it all vanished the next moment as if it was an illusion.

However, Ace knew better than to think of it as a mere illusion and was fully on guard to not mess up.

'So, this is a special grade instructor, huh?' Ace thought.

"I understand." Archie timidly replied.

"Good then. On to the main business, then." Londyn revealed, "I'm going to teach you an Upper Sky Grade skill called the Shadow Walk. A simple name for an upper sky grade skill, right?"

Ace didn't comment, but thought little about the name.

Londyn continues, "If you have gone to the central library, you'll only access and learn this skill if you're a core student, so you should cherish this opportunity well. If even in five days you don't grasp the basics, then I'm afraid you'll never be able to learn from First Brother."

Ace didn't know what these three were planning, but he could guess that it wasn't simple at all.

"Shadow Walk follows the basic principle of any agility type skill, but what makes it unique and an upper sky-grade skill is its growth potential. There are three levels, and only soul geniuses could learn the first level at the river core realm.

"Or not even the soul realm could gasp it without entering the advance stage. As for its prowess, I just used it to take you to this training hall. Let me tell you we just covered10 miles in less than a second, and it was me using it to only 1st level, or we could've covered 100 miles with one step with my level-2 mastery!"

Ace was shocked when he heard this because it was simply too exaggerated since it was akin to teleportation, but he just experienced it, and she didn't have any need to lie which could only mean that it was true.

Even though it was the case, the problem was how he was going to learn it. Because this wasn't a heavenly skill so he could only do nothing but to prepared for the worse.

Nevertheless, he was still going to learn the essentials of it and try to break into the next level of his own movement art or create a new skill!