A good thief

Sej returned to his room while thinking about his conversation with Emily. It was turning dark outside and the rest of the group would return soon. 'That Jeremy is hateful, I definitely need to teach him a lesson in the future but not know. He is much more powerful than me and is my protector'

His thoughts then wandered to his gains from the trip to the hunting trip. As of now, Sej had a total of 90 sect points and 30 essence crystals. He also has an additional 25 essence crystals but they were the team resources and he could not use them. His gains from the hunting trip were large but they could not even begin to cover the resources that he needed for his growth.

Sej quickly moved on though as the resources were not of much use right now. He already had a lot of pills and elixirs from the Apail family and decided to save these gains from the hunting trip. Taking a look at the pills and elixirs available, Sej decided that he would try to use them to break through to the next realm. After all the fighting in the forest, his current muscle refining realm was stable.

Taking out the body refining pills, Sej took one and began cultivating. Apail family had given him 5 100% pure body refining pills. This meant that he could take 2 pills every day for cultivating if he rushed and the effects would be much higher than the previously used 70% purity pills.

After taking the pill and starting his cultivation, similar to the last time, Sej felt his stomach burning and then his pores opened and spiritual energy gushed to himself. The speed of gathering of the spiritual energy was over twice as fast as the last time he took a body refining pill. The effects of a thirty percent difference in a pill were multiple times more than he initially thought.

This caused a great strain on his body and it was absorbing the spiritual energy too quickly and a large amount of pressure was applied to him. Soon though the effect faded as he cultivated. One pill even if it was better could no longer satisfy the energy needed to breakthrough.

After, sej began to practice his sword skill to improve his understanding of his technique. Time went by with no major events taking place. On the fourth day of cultivating, sej managed to break through to the tendon refining realm, greatly increasing his strength and agility.

The rest of the group was also cultivating and had the occasional spars to hone their combat ability. After breaking through Sej, he had to stop cultivating to wait until he had control over his new power. He practised with Cara and the group in sparring sessions. Soon another week went by.

One night, in his room, Sej noticed that the light was dimmer than usual. He turned to find that Jeremy was sitting on his bed while he practised his swordsmanship. Looking at Jeremy smiling back at him he could not help but think to himself that Jeremy was being smug. As Jeremy did not take the chance to speak, Sej had to ask.

"What are you doing here?"

"Oh, nothing." A short reply came as his smile grew wider. " If you are not doing anything, can you leave," Sej spoke with an annoyed voice.

"Hohoho, looks likes someone is cranky," Jeremy spoke

Happily. "Get to the point, why are you here?"

"Fine, fine, Emily found your team a mission. You should thank her as finding a mission for a bunch on stage one cultivators is very hard. You lot are just too weak right now. Listen up. Currently, you are in the capital city of the planet Castian. The city is called 'Sinder' around 300 miles west of here lies a town called 'Fiere' it is known for having a metal mine for a fire attributed metal called scotch metal. It is a basic grade one material. This material is common on planets owned by the Ashfall sect but not so much for our Apail family. Your job is to raid the small town and steal the metal. Try not to be detected."

At the description of the mission, Sej was shocked. He thought that he would be given hunting missions or maybe had to escort some merchant caravans but instead, he was immediately told to become a thief. He had no idea as to how to react and was just stumped.

Seeing him in such a state, Jeremy's smile grew wider and he appeared happy. "Haha, just to let you know, you can not be detected. It would be bad if you were caught so make sure to eliminate any witnesses" Jeremy continued with a slightly mocking voice.

"WHAT....." now Sej was shocked. He was asked to not only steal but kill as well if necessary. But before he could complain or say no Jeremy continued. "This is what you wanted right. To earn money quickly to get what you need to train. Well, the people I gain money the fastest are thieves. Remember, we are Apail family member and the ashfall sect is just an enemy. In this world those who are not a part of your family or sect are just enemies." finishing his speech in a series matter, Jeremy disappeared while leaving a sheet of parchment on Sej's bed.

Sej who still could not comprehend what just happened to him stood dazed looking at where Jeremy disappeared from. He thought about the situation in detail and came to the conclusion that theft was, in fact, one of the fastest ways to make money but was also extremely dangerous. It would also make him a criminal and maybe even a killer.

Someone who came from the earth and lived in a society full of rules and restrictions, he could not at this time accept the change to his world. 'Are all cultivators like this' he thought to himself. 'How much of this world have I seen. I am new to this world of cultivation, but is it perhaps a dark world.'

To kill a monster beast is one thing. They are not intelligent and a

Attack anything. But to kill people, townspeople even, who may just be trying to live their peaceful lives. How could he kill them? 'I won't kill them. I will ensure that no one will detect us. We will be like ghosts.'

Sej may not have had the heart to kill. However, he would steal. He knew that to become strong, one must take risks and take what they need to grow stronger. He had to become stronger in this world. He did not want to be weak. Though he did not yet face any adversity, he had lost his parents. He did not want to die due to an accident or killed randomly one day like what oils happen to the townspeople.

He wanted a long and happy life, and to get that he needed strength. After resolving himself, Sej walked to his bed and picked up the parchment. The parchment had a title at the top which was, 'How to be a good thief'.

The passage began as followed:

'What makes a good thief. A good thief must know what his objective to steal is. They must live in darkness and disappear in the light. To be found is to be a failure. Only when you can shake the hand with smiles on your faces with the person you stole from recently, can you be said to be a good thief. However. that only makes a good thief. The goal of every thief should be to be an immortal thief. A thief who can steal everything, money, resources, emotions, love, understanding, Dao, law, eternity and even heaven and earth itself.'

After the passage was a list of instructions for how to be a good thief. It went into detail about how to plan a robbery and what steps should be followed. Sej decided to go through this with his team so he skipped it for now. Instead, he looked at what was below the parchment which he saw after picking it up to read. It appears to be a list of some sort. It contained lots of information about pills, weapons, skills, and even about teaching occupations. Taking a quick look at the top a Sej knew what the list was. It was a choice of reward for completing the mission. When the mission is complete, each person on the team could choose one reward to accept.

The question now was if the rest of the group would be willing to take part in a mission that could be very dangerous or if they would choose to cultivate more peacefully. Henry might be a problem because of his slighter cowardly nature. Sej decided to just bring the conversation up over breakfast the next morning.