Shadow and Ace were standing in a seclusion alley, right in front of a black five-meter-tall status with a large pair of addax-horns and face of a goat and torso of a human while two legs of horse and wings like an eagle.
Ace naturally never seen this kind of creature before, but these statues were all over the ocean demon city, and every demon bowed toward it whenever they saw it.
"What is this creature?" Ace couldn't help but ask Shadow, who was also bending toward the statue.
Shadow berated Ace with disdain, "Blasphemy! Who are you calling a creature? This is the Deity of our demon race, Baphomet! If anyone heard you called the 'Great One' a creature, you'll be instantaneously killed!"
Ace smiled wryly as he nodded in understanding. Even though the concept of religions existed in the mortal world, he was never a heartfelt believer and after becoming a cultivator; he stopped believing that there was a God altogether.
But he never thought the demon race would worship a deity to such an extent, and they seemed quite devoted as well.
'But this is just a humanoid goat, while demons look more like humans? And we even eat goats.' Ace was perplexed, but he didn't dare to say it out loud in front of Shadow, or she will probably beat him silly.
"Let's hurry. This is the only spot where no one would look."
Shadow coldly said as she pressed her hand on the side of the status platform and the very next moment thereafter, a small crevice appeared on the wall right behind the status.
Ace was astonished at seeing the crevice and looked at Shadow with ambiguity and thought, 'It seemed she was planning the betrayal from the start and I just give her the motivation.'
He followed Shadow into the crevice and the moment they enter the pathway; the crevice closed just like it opened.
Ace looked around curiously; the pathway looked quite an old one, and they were going downward. He couldn't help but comment, "You're quite lucky to find this place."
Shadow only rebuke mildly, "This was built for my ancestors when this city was established." However, her eyes narrowed the next moment as she thought, 'Why the hell I'm even replying to him?!'
"Why did they build it, though?" Ace was intrigued, hearing this secret. If her ancestors held this much importance, then her status was quite high in this city.
"None of your business and shut your mouth, or I'll rip it apart!" Shadow coldly berated as she hurried her pace.
Ace only shrug his shoulder and quietly followed. He was just curious since he was new here and wanted to learn as much about demons as he could.
At the end of this passage was a blue steel door with a strange pattern engraved on it.
Ace expected Shadow to open the door but to this astonishment, she quietly sat beside the door and… that's it!
Shadow coldly stare dagger at Ace, who was strangely looking at her, and reprimanded with a hint of embarrassment in her voice, "Do you believe I'll gouge your eyes out if you keep looking at me?!
"So, what if I don't have the key we can easily hide here for days and since I keep my promise to buy you one day, you'll have to keep your words to take us outside this city, or I'll take your eyes!"
'What an unreasonable woman. It's not my fault if you don't have the key.' Ace thought resentfully, but he only nodded with an apologetic smile outside and said, "Thank you, I won't disappoint you."
Ace wanted to use his soul-shattering eyes on that door and see if he could open it, but he didn't want to worsen his condition unless it was a last resort. He'll not use his soul skills.
Besides, just as Shadow said, she had bought him one day what he needed desperately, and now it's his turn. But he wasn't too sure about it either, since his actions depend on after the system's upgrade.
Ace sat down cross-legged and start circulating the soul Qi. After a long time, he was cultivating normally like other cultivators and only because this was the only way he could heal his soul right now.
But it was just too slow, and the time left behind by the system wasn't enough to heal it completely, but it was still better than nothing.
Shadow coldly looked at Ace, who was silently meditating, and couldn't help but wonder,
'How did he appear here from the human continent? I heard it was too far and humans don't even dare to approach those sneaky hunters' continent, much less send a spy here.
'He even took that name board that even a demon duke can't touch and even dare to say he can help us escape this city array. If he does this, then this means he can help me with the refinement technique, and I'll enslave him. But if he doesn't, I'll just discard this deadweight!'
Ace doesn't know Shadow has already decided how to deal with him if he didn't deliver what he promised because he was solely focused on soul cultivation, and he could feel the almost shattered half-soul-core was mending slowly, but it was still too slow, though.
Just like that, hour after hour passed, Shadow was also meditating now, but her focus was still on Ace because she didn't trust him and monitored him, so he could not pull something or escape.
But Ace didn't move nor did he do anything, he just sat there like a statue.
Finally, the wait come to an end, as Ace was now eagerly looking at the timer on the panel in his mind.
====
[System Upgrade is underway, please wait plenty!]
[Time: 00:00:08…07… 08… 07… 06… 05… 04… 03… 02… 01]
---
[System Upgrade has been complete!]
[The Eternal Thief System has been completely online!]
---
[System Upgrade Reward: Authority Level-1]
{Authority Level-1 Benefits}
Information Level: 1
Living Thief's Space, New Upgrade Scheme: Unlocked
(New) System Function: 'Thief House' has been unlocked
(New) Host Status
====
Ace's eyes instantly glow like the sun. He quickly asked, "System, what is level-1 information?" He was eager to find out.
"[Level-1 information represents the information that the system can disclose to the host. Before host has level-0 Information Discloser Authority. But with host authority level increased, the information level also followed suit.]"
Ace suddenly felt the system voice contain emotions. Now it was not as emotionless as before, but it was still icy as ever.
"So, let me guess. Even with this information, level you still can't tell me what you are and where you come from and why you chose me, right?" Ace coolly stated.
"[Yes.]"
System answer with no pause.
"Heh, figures." Ace didn't have high hopes from the beginning and quickly move to the next thing. "Show me thief's space new upgrade scheme. I'm running quite low on this one, for sure."
Ace thief's space was now more than half full, and he needed this upgrade. But more than that, he wanted to unlock more of its function than once the system disclosed to him when he sealed Eva.
=====
[Living Thief's Space Update Scheme]
1. {300 Cubic-Meter Space + 1 Humanoid Storage Capacity: A Hundred Grade-3 Storage Space treasures + 10 Million Thief Points}
2. {500 Cubic-Meter Space + 2 Humanoid Storage Capacity: A Hundred Grade-5 Storage Space treasures + 20 Million Thief Points}
3. {1,000 Cubic-Meter Space + 5 Humanoid Storage Capacity: A Hundred Grade-8 Storage Space treasures + 50 Million Thief Points}
4. {3X-Time Acceleration Function: One Grade-9 Storage Space Treasure + One Time Grade-9 Time Treasure + 100 Million Thief Points}
---
[Note: Host currently has insufficient resources for any available upgrade scheme!]
=====
Ace was staring at the prices and materials he required for the thief's space upgrades with incredulity.
Let's not talk about the millions of thief points, just those top grades storage space treasures required with thief points were enough to give Ace a massive dilemma.
'I can still gather the material from first to the third upgrade, but the fourth seemed like an impossible dream since I never heard of any time treasure nor seen any records. Well, I'm no longer in the lower lands anymore, though.' Ace smiled bitterly and close the upgrade panel.
Time was too mysterious of a topic for him right now, much less thinking about a supreme grade-9 time treasure!
He had a feeling before, that the system would raise the bars after the upgrade, but the reality was even more brutal.
Ace looked at the main interface, where all the pentagon icons were shimmering in gold. Nothing was changed much, just a new pentagon icon right next to the heavenly rune crafter panel icon has been appeared!
This new symbol was like a pagoda with nine floors. Ace instantly knew this was a new function that was unlocked after the system was upgraded, the Thief House!
But before he opened the Thief House, his eyes landed on the very first pentagon icon with a hood-like symbol. He wanted to see his new status promptly!
"Status!"
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