Broken Tower Saga: The First Swordsman

          "Byul, why are you here?" Wrik asked, and a troubled expression appeared on his face.

        The girl inside the barrier gave a helpless laugh with a flustered face. She could not deliver anything out of the barrier as long as the creator of it does not agree. Balat looked at her and then at the two of them. Cleary, he learned the girl he caught peeking was someone their new members knew. He gave them a look to ask if it's right to break the barrier imprisoning her or not.

        Wrik nodded, and the barrier collapsed. Byul finally sighed in relief. She had no idea how she had been caught. All she did was peek here and there for a while and search her way towards where Wrik had been staying. Who knew she would be caught so easily, but what's important now was that she had found whom she was looking for.

        "So why are you here?" Wrik asked again. "More importantly, how did you find us?"

        Byul thought, as if trying to come out with a believable excuse. "I followed your track," she said.

        "You?" Wrik surely did not believe that.

        "Me, what?" Byul snorted. "You don't believe I can do that?"

        Wrik did not answer her and looked towards Anton, who shrugged first then said, "It might be possible if I was sleeping and carried by you here."

        "If that is the case, you two might not even be at this place," Byul said again. "Considering how good our leader is with directions."

        Wrik glared at her and thought. Surely, this girl had learned to talk in a few days, or perhaps she decided to open her heart to the group. That was a good thing as he had seen her, only having an actual conversation with Tanya and Michelle so far.

        "Don't change the topic, tell me first how you find your way here."

        The short girl bit her lips and stared at the three of the people before her. Nobody had the face that appeared to leave her if she did not answer. Especially the middle-aged man who had caught her out of nowhere.

        "I did not lie," she said. "I really track you here though the way of it was not the usual one.. .. "

        Wrik raised his eyebrow and listened to her explanation. It turned out Byul could feel the person with whom she had bonded, though she had problems before. Now she could faintly feel what direction he was—even though they were not linked through the golden string. After learning, Wrik was not present in the resort, she went on the search for him, and then she got carried away by her curiosity, finding the direction her sense of pointing was the opposite direction of the slum where mostly the mining industries were allocated. 'This is a useful ability,' he thought. 'And quite problematic as well.'

        "For how long could you do this?" he asked. "And why can't I feel your presence, then?"

        "I have some faint recollection before, but I could not get a clear vibe of it, but a few days ago, I seemed to get better at it." She said, "Perhaps, because it reached the next level a few days before that."

        Wrik could only agree with that, though he still had no idea why he could not feel her presence. Was it because it was her ability to begin with and she could do far more than a bonded person with her? But as far as he remembered, the bond worked both ways, though there were many secrets still shrouded in it.

        Byul once told him, she once had eyes like him when she was in danger, and it help her escape safely from it, but after that event, she had never been able to gain the eye from him.

        "Everything is alright, but what do we do with her?" Balat asked. He had already taken his seat as the keeper, though they're not much of a chance to see the face of a customer. "Go call Ryat and see what he says."

       . . . 

        The night fell, and it was the time for a more elaborate discussion about the plan. Now the people were inside a more secure place of the building. The room was well kept from the sense of others. Even the newcomers had not noticed it yet after staying here a couple of nights.

        To describe the room, bland was the correct and only word. Other than the round table and a few seats, there was nothing. At least, it appeared there was nothing apart from the few people there who were now sitting in their seats. Seven people in total, including Byul.

        "So when you guys introduce me to this little girl?" Rosie said. In her arm was a jug of alcohol, which she had constipated from Nirab, and now was in the muse to savour it all. on her side was Nirab whose entire attention was on the jug with a hateful expression on.

        "This a new addition to our team," Ryat said, showing the new girl. "Don't even dare to turn her into like you."

        To his right were Wrik and Anton, and beside Anton was the short girl who was getting most of the attention, being the newest member.

        "We almost doubled our number in a short span of a few days," Nirab added. It was his way of showing worry as most of them were not familiar with her, but because Ryat had picked her, they were silent about it.

"This is Byul," Ryat said again. "Her ability will be a nice addition to our numbers."

        With Ryat's concise explanation, everyone could only nod and transfer their focus to the main topic.

        Ryat brought his omega cube and exchanged a glance with the middle-aged keeper. Balat nodded and a transparent barrier appeared, surrounding them. Soundproof and sight or other senses proof from outside. And it appeared, Ryat believed in Ryat far more than the barrier that could be pulled through the device.

"It took me a couple of months to get all the information and turn it into a full proof plan," Ryat started and a somewhat original blueprint appeared above the table. It was the place they will be robbing. "But it did not take much for a full proof plan to go to waste. So to avoid that, we rehearse twice and another time just before the day of the operation."

Many sights and areas of the blueprint were marked with different colours. Blue was for the passage they will walk in, green was the passage that was safe to enter, yellow was not so sure and red was the destination where the gold was hidden. There were other colours about the traps or where the omega formation was placed.

Ryat then added where the guards and other wardens would be allocated and how they could avoid it.

"That seemed awfully easy, right?" Ryat asked.

Wrik was not sure as he never had done this kind of stuff and so was Anton. Byul was too overwhelmed by the situation and turned all silent about everything. But then the other three of the group nodded one by one.

"So, what's the catch?" Balat asked.

"Whoever went through this blue path will be discovered." Ryat said.

"By who?" Wrik asked. Surely, if the plan succeed in the way Ryat had showed there was no chance of being discovered by the guards. It was only true if the actual place was just the same as the blueprint.

Ryat did not answer, but pointed upwards with his index finger. The three of the old members sucked in a cold breath, and it took a couple of seconds for Wrik to understand what that meant.

"Discover by god? Maha?" But it appeared Anton had gone further than that.

"Not that much above." Ryat could not help but smile. "It is a little below that."

"You mean, the omega council?"

"Yes," Ryat continued. "To be precise, it is the OMEGANET. Even though the system is broken, it still worked here, and more importantly, a place in the regime of the council and House Rudyard only has the permit to use it for their benefit. Anyone with a high enough rank would get the answer if they spent some time looking through the system."

Wrik arched his eyebrow instantly and looked at Ryat. A dangerous thought entered his mind, and if he was right, then he knew exactly why Ryat recruited them. Well, him exactly.

"So we all are here," Rosie said in her half-drunk state. "You surely had a way, isn't that right, my good old baldy."

"Of course, I have it," Ryat said, ignoring the unimportant part. "Actually, you all were introduced to the solution."

"Really?" Sofie said, feigning her intoxication. "I might be too drunk to notice it. Care to introduce another time?"

"The key was actually a person," Ryat said and looked towards Wrik at the very moment. And everyone else joined in, staring at him. Even his good brother Anton.

His hypothesis turned out to be true, and he could not help but sigh. He was not sure how the bald guy found it, but there was no chance of hiding it—after all, he had already taken some portion of the payment.

"Guess, I have to play the final part in the robbery," he said, agreeing to Ryat that he was the key.

"What? Is there something we don't know?" Sofie asked. "I'm sure little brother has a lot of potential, but isn't he still a newbie?"

"He may be a newbie, but could be the only one here who could do this." 

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