Eternal Thief

“My name?” Ace was astonished since the Tower Spirit had never asked him about his name before and only called him by his contender number.

“After a Seed Contender steps into the ranks of the top 50,000, they will have the privilege to call by their names!” The Tower Spirit impassively stated.

Ace thought for a moment before he said, “The name is Black Ghost!”

Ace suddenly thought about the very first name people ever called him after his first thievery in the river flower city. So, he decided to use it with a hint of melancholia.

Of late, Ace had been thinking about his starting point. It somehow let him remain calm and gave him a reminder of who he was, and he should never forget that no matter what he became in the future.

“Black Ghost, you can now earn Scared Site Time by killing the demonic beast on the fifth floor. For every five demonic beasts you slay, you will earn 1 Minute of Scared Site.

“You can also earn more Scared Site Time by killing contenders of higher rank than you. The higher the rank of a contender you slay, the more sacred site time you’ll get!

“The Scared Site is specially made for cultivation faster and to hone your skills. So, I suggest you use it and become stronger.

“You may now proceed to the next floor!”

‘You wish…’ Ace merely sneered inwardly.

He ‘thanked’ the Tower Spirit and walked into the light door with only one purpose; to find the next entrance!

However, the moment Ace left the fighting hall and the gate vanished, a projection suddenly appeared showing a city built within a forest, and many elves wearing armor could be seen on the screen.

At this moment, the Tower Spirit’s cold voice rang,

“Attention, Seed Contenders of Fifth Floor!”

All those elves in the projection were startled as Tower Spirit’s voice rang within their heads, even those elves hunting in the wildness heard the tower spirit’s voice, and they stopped doing whatever they were doing. Some of them even kneed with reverence and mirth.

Tower Spirit’s cold voice rang again within every elf’s mind, “This is a Special Event Announcement for all Fifth Floor Seed Contenders, which will start in an hour!

“A Unique life form will be released on the fifth floor, and its purpose is to enter the sixth-floor entrance. Your task is to stop or hunt it down before it succeeds!

“The winner will get 100 Hours in Sacred Site and a free lifeline.

“A Free Lifeline can be used to escape death once in the Floor Entrance Trial and retake the entrance test again.

“The Unique life form’s position will be exposed every 1 hour for 1 minute with a Holy Indicator.

“Furthermore, the realm gate will be opened only for those contenders who have left the realm from the fifth floor!

“The event will last until the life form is either dead or managed to pass the fifth floor. All the best, Seed Contenders!”

—

After the surprise announcement, the elves remained silent for a while before mirth flashed past their eyes.

Because it was the first time such an ‘event’ happened from the moment the tower had appeared. Just the reward of Free Lifeline was enough to make these elves go crazy.

They were already on the fifth floor and quite strong, but they were also timed because of it and seldom took the sixth-floor trial. But if they acquired this lifeline, they would have an extra chance even if they failed.

Furthermore, some shrewd elves noticed another thing, the Tower Spirit didn’t say the lifeline was only limited to the sixth-floor trial, which meant they could even use it on the higher floor!

Just this reason was enough to make them risk everything to hunt this ‘life form’ at all costs.

The elves here were mostly from first-rate families, and even royal family members were present here. The fifth floor was a huge milestone for them, and it had even denser Qi than their central region.

So, these elves would stay here and cultivate while killing beasts or each other to earn sacred site time, and the hunting alliances here were on the whole another level than the fourth floor.

Lastly, some powerful contenders could no longer benefit from the fifth floor and were about to complete their 100 years limit. They were outside because they either didn’t want to die or they were preparing.

However, since the tower spirit had opened the ‘realm gate’ for those contenders, they will definitely not miss this opportunity to earn this lifeline and fight tooth and nail for it.

Many elves instantly started to exit the fifth floor to report this huge event to their families and call the backup. The hunting alliances also started to call their members back as they prepared for the event about to begin in an hour.

The entire city was bustling with a killing aura!

—

A light gate appeared in the middle of a swamp, and Ace walked out in stealth without knowing about this ‘special event.’

Ace observed the surrounding with thief sense and found some beasts lurking in a 3-mile radius, and they were all at least platinum river core realm!

Ace didn’t pay much attention to them since they were not in his way. He coolly opened the fate map, found the entrance’s direction, and headed there without any intention of stopping.

However, over half an hour passed when Ace abruptly stopped as a small panel popped up in the corner of his eyes, and a hint of ecstasy flashed on his cold face.

=====

[Incoming House Call!]

-Caller: Winter Fox (Faceless Thief)

-Accept/Ignore/Reject

=====

‘Could it be she had found out about Alina?’ Ace accepted the call without hesitation with a hopeful expression.

It had already been months since he had issued Winter the mission to investigate Alina’s situation. But he never expected it to be done so quickly since only 4 or 5 months had passed since he had appeared in this realm.

Winter’s cold yet melodious voice sounded no longer childish, “You owe me 10 House Points for this call!”

Ace’s face fell as he coldly said, “Do you think I’m in the mood for shenanigans?”

“Oh, here I thought you never get angry. I guess you’re only human, after all. Hehe.” Winter giggled with a hint of happiness as if she had got one over Ace.

“Will you believe it if I say I can cancel the mission right now and give you a new one with a punishment like you can’t earn house points for ten years?” Ace regained his calm as he coolly stated with a devious smile.

He knew Winter and Freya wouldn’t speak straight until he showed them their place. He even felt they both were some kind of masochists who enjoyed this type of feeling and resent peaceful language.

Freya seemed to have come to terms with it after discovering the terrifying difference between her and Ace since she went completely dormant after that day.

On the other hand, Winter had no idea about it, so she was as ambitious as ever. However, now that Ace brought up his trump card, she had no choice but to obey!

“Hmph! How petty, you can do anything, but I can’t!” Her voice was filled with umbrage, but she didn’t dare to test Ace’s bottom line anymore.

She knew Ace was always happy-go-lucky, but he had become quite serene and stern after Alina got involved.

So, she jumped back to the main topic, “I have found information on the girl name Alina. I have to say, she was quite something even before she became more famous because of you.”

Ace’s heart churned when he heard this and sternly questioned, “What did you find?”

“First, Alina Silver is not some random member of the Silver Ice Clan of Ancient Hunters, but she is the Silver Ice Clan’s only successor and princess.

“She is also known among the other races with her title as the sword genius Ice Sword Fairy who had comprehended Ice Element Sword Intent when she was only in the Qi River Realm!” Winter revealed with a hint of awe in her tone.

Even she had never expected this family of Ace she had been tasked to look into would be so talented, but she knew since that girl was a pure-blooded hunter, she wasn’t really Ace’s family since he was human.

Still, she never expected Ace to have a connection with such a peerless genius. If she hadn’t known about the ‘goddess’ behind Ace, she would’ve even felt that Ace didn’t have even right to speak her name, much less have any connection.

But she knew that even she could surpass such geniuses with the ‘goddess’ help, not to mention Ace, who was even more monstrous than anyone out there.

Ace was astonished when he heard about Alina’s true background and how talented she was. A gentle smile surfaced on his stony face…