Chapter 6.14 - A Stolen Surprise

Summer was finally nearing its end, and as expected the team that took the Haven deathmatch championship was "Guidepost", which was an impromptu team consisting of the dungeon guides. Although they never needed the tickets, they sure as hell did not want to be at the beckoned call of some young team.

But the true excitement was not the preparations for the harvest festival, which this year would have additional events happening in The Kingdom of Thul, as well as the Haven Consulate in Ston. The excitement at that very moment was far away, In the governing metropolis of The GWA, known as 'The Enclave', representatives from each of the remaining factions stood around the 3rd best thief in the Alliance.

The reason it was the third best thief, is because Remus (The best thief), flat refused the job. He knew how intricate the locks were, and did not want to be embroiled in the conflict should the case magically mark him as the one who opened it.

The Second best thief had already failed on two boxes. The first causing a bit of a shock and burning up melting the locks, the second taking his life as well as latching permanently closed.

Now it was the task of the 3rd best thief, and he had figured out where the other two had failed. He had figured it out. The case was designed to be forgiving, and the other case was too careful and exact in their maneuvers. If the pins were set and the dials too perfect, the case registered as a false positive success and a failsafe activated. The only reason why he, the third best thief, had caught it was because he had once attended a class on the very same design theory, however his teacher had long ago been sold into slavery. Failed breeders did not last long as free women.

That was why, in this grand city, he alone knew he could crack the box. And if the rest of the lockboxes were designed the same, he could crack them all. The other boxes were originally stored far away but when they realized the failsafe was localized to the box, they stored the other lockboxes in the same room.

"I will have this open in about 6 minutes." The thief smiled. He just did not know how much of a mistake that correct statement would be.

Tumblers moved and clicked. The first of three locks clicked open. This is when the entire GWA intelligence committee shuffled in. They wanted to know what secrets were held in these mystical boxes from a far away land. The second lock clicked open. The room quickly filled with staff. Military leaders, The Economic Advisory panel, even the Department of Foreign Affairs was present. Everyone wanted to know what was in this box.

Everyone felt assured in their safety, because no one would have thought a bomb was packed in a lockbox behind 3 of the most nefarious locks that had already claimed the life of one thief and the pride of another.

As the third lock clicked open, the case seemed to depressurize. The thief began to open the case, assured in his victory. He has already unlocked what had claimed his rival and superior in level.

The case opened up and inside was the strangest thing. The thief heard a mechanical click, followed by a tone broadcast by a resonating crystal. A similar tone was heard in the other cases nearby. The thief saw as two things were happening simultaneously. A small vial of brown liquid was entering a larger cylinder of clear liquid. Then there was a disc with six inlays of a round shape. Small levers were falling into place on those inlays one at a time.

Specifically, the extracted volatile venom from the giant scorpion found on levels 37-40 of the desert biome of the capital region dungeon, when injected into a solution of Frost giant blood from the Frozen Waste Biome level 45, it created a rather reactive explosive material, that when containerized in adamantine created quite the destructive device. So powerful that the six position trigger detonator required almost 4k of stored mana in crystalline lattice to detonate the mixture. This primary to secondary explosion's effects were enough to level most buildings built in the world, or a single mountaintop. It was also enough to crack the casing on the aesolized toxin that was stored within. A product of the elves and lancers, so powerful it had to be stored in either double insulated mithril and adamantine, or preferably in its dormant state as a powerful sedative that formed on the leaves of the gallyback plant. Activated, it was strong enough to stop the heart, and when the casing cracked, it would spread like a fog, a single breath of which would cause the heart to cease beating.

The thief couldn't understand what he was looking at, but then he heard a strange noise come from a spinning metal disc. The sound was mimicked by the other cases, albeit muffled. When heard, the thief realized he made a critical error.

"Womp Womp"

***

A few kids were playing on a hill outside the city of Enclave. The area was relatively free of monsters, and today was extra special. The kids watched as there was some kind of celebration. They had seen fireworks before, but these were bigger than ever right in the center of the Enclave, in the biggest grandest marble building in the city, a large explosion took off. The children marveled as this one looked like long green grasses that spread in pretty clouds of purple and blue throughout the entire center of Enclave. They couldn't see the building, or rather, the crater that once housed the seat of power for the GWA. They were unaware that the entire Government district was either turned to rubble, filled with poison, or both. They were unaware that the calm they experienced was temporary, and when the vacuum of the loss of the main form of governance hit, it would be very hard times ahead.

They could only marvel at the beautiful fireworks brought to them by an unnamed thief, formerly 3rd best, but held the title of best thief for at least a few moments.

***

Serin heard a knock on his door. He was having dinner with his parents Sara and Ben, as well as Adi, their construct, Olma, and Avea. The knock interrupted a rather heated discussion between Olma and Sara over the unilateral decision to take a last name, something that was formally only done with nobility and royalty in the Northern Kingdoms.

Family dinner, and arguments, were normal for them, and Serin took the time to talk to his parents and reassure them. Sara and Ben were happy that their children were getting excellent education, but they were missing having family nearby, so Serin made sure to have dinner with them as often as his schedule would allow.

Serin answered the door and he opened it to a less than formally dressed Jasmine, Jericho, Dana, and Dana's flavor of the week. Serin did not recognize the boy, but realized he was skygge. They had a few bottles. Serin looked at them and felt awkward. "Are you hungry, we have prepared enough food for everyone." Dana smiled and handed Serin a bottle, Serin declined, "It's not that kind of party, just a normal dinner party with my parents."

Jasmine smiled and blurted out, "But we have to celebrate! Those fools fell for it!"

Serin looked confused, then realized that he left the two most conniving women in his entire nation in charge of his diplomatic and internal affairs.

"Report." Serin stirred the sobriety back into them. Dana straightened her tunic. " All six lockboxes, even those that had failsafes fired, have detonated. Due to the close proximities of all the boxes and timing of detonation, the entire government annex was destroyed, casualties in the hundreds. Most of the lower and middle leadership of the GWA was destroyed."

Serin smirked, "Alright. So that acknowledges them as thieves. I will do my part. Enjoy your drinks, I would rather not rope my family into the geopolitics. There is enough fighting at the dinner table." Serin then sent his letter to the leader of the Grand Woods Alliance.

[Formal Letter of Cease and Desist

It has come to my attention that you not only had stolen technology of Haven in your possession, but also attempt to pry its secrets. Although I have suspicions of your theft of these goods I will not accuse you. I will however rightfully accuse you of attempting to divine our secrets from inside the lockboxes.

Therefore, we are formally requesting reparations for the stolen technology, which is valued at a total of 25,000 credits. Please have this amount sent, and we will consider the matter settled.

Lord Serin Aegis - Sovereign of Haven]

Serin reviewed the letter.

"What's to just keep them from ignoring you?" Ben who had been listening in and shoulder reading the text asked.

Serin smirked, "Nothing. But if they do respond, they have two options. They can respond saying they have no idea what we are talking about, making us blameless for the massive amount of damage done to their land, or they can blame us and admit to the attempted theft of secrets."

"What do either accomplish? Why bother?"

Serin laughed, "Oh we just want to upset and weaken our enemies at the same time. This was the easiest way."

Serin then noticed something in his Alliances tab he had previously overlooked. Underneath the Kingdom of Thul, there was an option [Send request for Vassalage]. Serin focused on it and checked the system for information. As he read it, his eyes lit up as a plan formed in his head.

Serin sent out a message to Dana.

[Did we recover the Merchant Pass from the Spies in Ston?]

Dana, who was drunk even over a mental message replied,

[Affirmative.]

[Are there any competent teams that have someone classed Merchant among them? I have an idea]

[We have one. They placed fourth during the deathmatch.]

Serin smiled. He couldn't destabilize just one of his enemies as it would cause the hostilities to become one sided. So he would destabilize all 3.

***