Eternal Thief

On the outskirts of Flame Place, a lavish carriage stopped just outside the palace's main gates. 

Two masked personages disembark the carriage. One was a skinny boy wearing a black mask with a red gem engrave on it glabella while the other was an armor-clad flame guard wearing a crimson mask. 

These two were naturally Ace and Grey who just reached their destination. 

Ace saw the majestic and elegant Flame Palace surrounding between other five imposing structures. He was still amazed by the view even if he has seen it before. 

Grey leads the way, and they crossed the gate instantly when those guards saw Grey's armor and mask. Everyone knows there were only two high-ranking women flame guards appointed in the flame palace and both of them have captain rank. 

That's why he instantly recognizes Grey by her mask and more importantly, there were four crimson flame stars engraved on her golden chest armor which show her rank as a captain. 

These Crimson Flame Stars helped represent the exact rank of a flame guard. One flame start was lowest which indicates the rank of a soldier, while the Nine Flame Stars was the highest, and it indicates the rank of a General.

Ace notice the respectful and adoring gazes of those other flame guards toward Grey and thought, 'She's drawing too much attention.' 

Those guards naturally evaluate him as well, since a flame captain led him.

Ace wasn't used to this many prying eyes on him, but he could do nothing about it since he can't make Grey abandon her armor and mask. 

Moreover, he was wearing a slave mask that would draw attention even without Grey's presence. 

Grey, on the other hand, seemed to use to this kind of attention and with no hint of discomfort, she was leading the way. 

Ace saw those other four large pavilions on the right four pathways and was tempted to have a look, but he remembered his primary aim that was the flame library and the insight he received while reading that Fist-skill. 

He looked around after taking care of his main business. 

Ace walk on the other four left pathways leading toward the thirty-story white pagoda or the Flame Library! 

It would be a lie to say, Ace wasn't exhilarated to see the biggest Library of Flame Pill Organization in the middle-level lands. 

Ace didn't see many people since it was still early in the morning, but there was still an excessive amount of people here and almost all of them were alchemists since they were wearing different color alchemist robes. 

Their prime focus was the pavilions on the right side though and there weren't many going toward the flame library. 

Grey notice Finn's looking toward the other side and guess what he was thinking. She said, "The Flame Library is the most expensive and most important place after the flame palace in the entire Flame City, and only after accommodating many contribution points can one learn the skills or techniques there." 

"How much a master-grade skill or a cultivation art cost?" asked Ace curiously. 

"Master Grade?" Grey stared at Finn as if she was looking at an ignorant idiot.

But it was her duty to answer his question, "Master Grade skills are very precious, and I heard there are few low-grade master skills stores above the 25th floor. As for middle-grade master skills, I only heard rumors that there is only a single one here, and it is on the top floor of the library.

"As for warrior grade skills they're price depend on levels, like a low-grade warrior skill or technique price is between 1000CP1 to 5000CP, while an Absolute-grade warrior skill or technique cost between 50,000CP and 100,000. 

"Or it can go even higher if it's a soul skill. But soul skills and technique are only available for Rune Crafters since they're also soul cultivators.

"As for cultivation arts, they're even rare and expensive. According to my seniors, there isn't master-grade cultivation art in the flame library, or maybe in entire middle-level lands! Only middle-grade worrier arts exists above 25th floor." 

Grey vaguely elaborates the use of contribution points and the structure of the library. There was clear longing in her gentle voice for those cultivation arts. But it seemed she can't get her hand on them. 

Ace calmly listen and had a strange expression on his face when he heard about the structure of the flame library and the rarity of skills, techniques, and cultivation arts.

He didn't know master grade skills were this rare and finally understood just how generous Alvin was being when he gave him that master grade fist-skill as a gift so casually.

After all, master-grade skills were all based on elements and only Qi river cultivators can learn them!

All this time he was under the wrong impression that these skills were like cabbages, and he could get more here, but now he finally understood this wasn't the case at all. 

Even the richest city of middle-level lands only had a single middle-grade mysterious skill. The middle-grade techniques and the cultivation arts were even rarer.

He abruptly thought about this self-created sword art. 

He didn't know where 'Dual Swords Mirage'ranked among these grades, but he was sure it wasn't above middle-grade worrier art or even higher since he could use it with heavenly Qi. 

'I should not use dual-swords mirage carelessly.' Ace took a mental note. He already has many people eyeing his secrets, and he doesn't want to give them even more motivation. 

As for his unusual ability to create these skills so easily, he finally took notice and considered something is strange about this. But he had little to go with, so he just stopped bothering about it for the time being. 

It's not like it was a bad thing, to begin with.   

Between Grey's elaboration, they finally reached the golden gates of Flame Library. 

Now that Ace was seeing this pagoda up close, it looked quite imposing and giving off a peculiar pressure. It was clear that the material used to make this pagoda was very special and the dangerous aura surrounding the structure was making Ace's soul sense tingled in alarm. 

'This formation is evenly matched with the palace formation.' Assumed Ace. 

"Hold the VIP token or sir, Black Fox will be dead if you enter with no identification provided by the organization," Grey advised as she also took out her silver identity token. 

Ace was astonished and do the same. This also explained why there wasn't any flame guard standing outside. 

Grey took the lead and enter the building while Ace followed her footsteps. 

Just as he crossed the door, he felt a powerful aura locked on him, and it only disappeared when it verified the VIP token in his hand.

'She wasn't lying about instant death without this identity token.' Ace's face sank. He just witnessed something that could easily kill him, even if he used every trump card he had. He can only survive this if he used the invisible bead! 

A fragrant scent finally drew Ace's focus, the inside was very peaceful and there wasn't any sound like Ace imagine. The first floor was quite spacious and just looked like any traditional library. There were chairs and tables between large bookshelves. 

Ace felt satisfied since this environment was very much to his liking. His eyes landed on an old man who was lazily sitting behind a counter while reading something.

This old man seemed to be in his late fifties by his lightly wrinkled face, but his hair was still black, and he had thick eyebrows and with a slight tone chubby appearance and round eyes he looked quite… friendly.

At this moment, the old man had an excited expression on his chubby face, one could guess he was reading something very interesting. 

"That Librarian Aaden and he's a…" Grey was stopped between the sentence when she realized she's talking too much. 

Ace notice Grey stop before completing the sentence and find it strange, 'He's a what?' But since she didn't tell him then this mean it wasn't important and didn't inquiry. 

Aaden finally noticed the new arrivals and suddenly his eyes lit up when he saw Grey and quickly wave at her with a wide smile almost covering his entire face. 

As for Finn, Aaden slightly glance at his chest and after seeing it was as flat as the book in his hand, he completely ignored him. 

Ace noticed this and thought this old man has some kind of relation with Grey that's why he was ignoring him. 

For some reason, Grey took a deep breath before walking toward Aaden as if she was going to face some enemy. 

Ace merely followed. 

Aaden straighten his back and do his best to look dignified and greeted Grey, "So, if it isn't our one and only captain Magdalena, long time no see." 

Ace nearly choked on his breath after discovering this old man didn't even get Grey's name right!