<h4>Chapter 344: Best And Brightest</h4>


    Once he was back outside he quickly left the location of the Thieves guild heading back towards the fighters guild. He knew they wouldn''t be able to help him get the gold he had made with them previously because they had never seen him before but this couldn''t stop him from getting a new badge and taking new jobs if they had any lucrative jobs.


    Then in the future he could go back to the guild that he had worked for in the past and ask them to help him im the gold he had there with them and add it to his new ount. He was sure they would remember him because he had finished a lot of jobs in around two days. Something like that left a big impression and the clerk he had worked with should remember him even though it had been a couple of weeks.


    As he walked into the Fighters guild he noticed there were a lot less people inside and when he took a look at the jobs listed he realized this city didn''t seem to have much of a problem with bandits. Seeing this he couldn''t help but think of the thieves who just tried to rob him and wonder if there was some reason they didn''t have jobs dealing with the Thieves in town.


    If the Guilds had a treaty or something he guessed trying to make money here by working for the Fighters Guild was a real waste of time. Walking back outside he looked over at the Adventurers Guild and wondered if it was worth bing a member there if they had better paying jobs.


    Deciding it was worth going in to at least look since there wasn''t a line he entered inside and moved towards the job wall. He didn''t have to get close to see the wall was almostpletely empty of jobs. He wanted to see what the few there were paid before he left though so he got close enough to read the small writing.


    Seeing all the missions were long term jobs that didn''t really pay all that much, Lake decided that the Earth Domain seemed too peaceful to make any money in legit ways and decided to go out to see if he could steal more stuff. He had a reason to go back since he had finally been able to remember some of the other items he had touched inside the castle and not selling them would be wasteful.


    ...


    "Sir mayor it seems the only things they weren''t able to get to were the ones inside your office vault and the things that had been hidden by Hampton in hisb." After hearing the guards report the mayor asked a question that had been bothering him since he saw things around the castle were missing. "Was anywhere else in town robbed?"


    He really didn''t care but he figured it was their only option left to find evidence if Hampton was unable to find anything that could point them to whoever did this. "Yes sir, I brought the report that was filed yesterday by one of the other guards." Receiving the report the mayor quickly read through it and said. "It says nothing was taken but the thief escaped before they were brought to the dungeon."


    "That is correct sir but some of our guards are at the shop now because half a day ago items from their shop suddenly vanished." Hearing this the mayor finally realized why the guard had brought him the report at all. "Are you the one who wrote this up?"


    "No sir. I can bring them to you if you would like to ask them more directly." After thinking about this suggestion the mayor nodded and said. "Please do." Watching the man leave the room he was about to get to work again because it was starting to pile up when the door opened again and Hampton came shuffling in. "I haven''t found anything that will lead us to them but you shoulde with me to see this."


    Getting to his feet he slowly followed Hampton to the tea room. When they finally arrived and he entered the room he saw they had put up a barrier around an area behind the couch and asked. "What is it that you have blocked off?" It was still on the other side of the couch but if it was evidence but as he walked around he still couldn''t see anything so his question still stood.


    Hampton didn''t answer though and instead took a stick that had been propped up on a wall close by before putting it through the floor. "A guard fell through shortly after being told to look around the room for clues."


    "Is this some type of magic?" Hampton was a mage and an old one at that so he felt there was a good chance he could identify this effect if it was the result of a type of magic. "No, no. It''s much more likely to be a criminal skill. Though I''ve never seen this exact one before. This also isn''t the only ce in the keep that''s lost all substance like this."


    After hearing that this wasn''t a one time use kind of skill he put an inconsistency together in his head and shared it with Hampton. "If they were able to do this why didn''t they get into the vault?"


    "That''s a good question, let''s return and inspect the vault more closely. It''s possible something about it stopped the skill from working." After a short walk back to his office they both crochet down next to the vault and started to stare at it. After a short time of silence he suggested. "Maybe they missed it. I wouldn''t call it well hidden but if they were in a hurry maybe they didn''t bother to look here."


    "I don''t think that''s it but I don''t have a better suggestion." After Hampton said this he stood and walked back towards the door to leave. "You should stay. I have a guard bringing us someone who wrote the report on the robbery at Jillings."


    "Jillings was robbed! I had my amulet being repaired there." Hearing Hampton might have lost his favorite amulet he felt sorry but he wasn''t done sharing information yet so he continued like the outburst hadn''t happened. "Yes and it was like the one here with items just disappearing all of a sudden. I have the report here if you would like to read it."


    Passing the report over to Hampton he waited until it was returned to add the things that weren''t in the report. "The things disappeared hours after this failed robbery."


    "In that case this was probably a test for a new member of an elite thief gang." He felt like Hampton was jumping to conclusions here but the old man had proven himself to be very intelligent over the years so he wanted to hear him out. "What do you mean?"


    "Like in every profession the day you get your first Legendary skill is a life changing event for thieves and older thieves know this and keep their eyes out for inexperienced younger thieves they can use. My guess is they sent the young one into Jillings to show them that even with a Legendary skill they''re still vulnerable if they are alone and if they''re arrested this new skill will just be wasted."


    "But they saved them before they actually went into the dungeon so it was just showing them what could happen before they took them on a team job which was robbing the keep to show them how much safer it was to work as a group."


    "Correct. Now they''ll train the new guy on how to use their skill and give them a small portion of the money they make while doing this." He was about to ask Hampton if he thought it was even worth trying to find what had been taken when the guard finally reentered the room. They were alone though so it was obvious they had been unable to find the one who had written the report.


    "What is the problem? Where is he?"


    "Sorry sir but he didn''te to work today. I had someone sent to see if he is at home or if he''s actually missing. If he''s gone I''ll make sure we find him and charge him for the theft, don''t worry sir. I''ll get everything back."


    He could tell the guard was worried they would all lose their jobs if it turned out to be one of their own who had done this but he didn''t think that was the case so he said. "Don''t worry about any of that and just bring me his file so I can see how he did on the job."


    "Right away sir." As soon as the man left he looked at Hampton who had stayed quiet during that and asked. "Do you think it was the guard?" Getting a quick response when Hampton shook his head no he said. "I don''t either. What do you think we should do? Should we just go on like it never happened or send someone after them?"


    "I don''t think we should try to recover anything that was taken. They left us the gold we need to continue our task and that''s all that matters. We should go after them though."


    "Why would we go after them if we don''t want the things they took?" After asking this he was able to find the answer himself as soon as he finally started to think about what this town had been suffering from for a long time. "Are you saying we should try to hire them?"


    "Yes it''s been three years with no progress and we know for a fact whatever is causing the growth is inside the door. With their skills we''ll be able to get through even without the key and finally end this curse."


    He could tell there was no reason to disagree with Hampton on this because they had long run out of ideas on how to get inside the underground door. "I''ll leave this up to you then. Take whatever gold you need to find and hire them to get us inside." Right after he said this the guard returned again with the file on the missing guard. "Thank you, you can go now."


    After the guard left he read the file and was relieved that the guard that was missing wasn''t one of their best and brightest because it meant not only had they not lost anything if they were dead because the man was on the verge of being fired anyway they were probably not the type that could pull something like this off.