16 The Heist (2)

The next day.

The gang could be seen climbing up a building in Northern Piltover where the rich and posh were living. Besides Art and Vi, the rest struggled as they climbed, especially Claggor, who had the biggest physique out of all them.

"We're almost there, guys," Violet exclaimed.

"Aw, man," Mylo complained.

The gang soon reach the top of the building, with Violet and Art being the first one to get up. It was only natural as these two were the most athletic out of the gang and worked out almost every single day.

"Hey, Powder," Violet called out. "Come take a look."

Powder did not respond. She was struggling a little to pull herself up, and upon seeing this, Art decided to give her a hand despite knowing this would cause more misunderstanding between them. He was trying to be friendly. "Grab my hand," he said, extending his right arm.

"Thanks," Powder said shyly before grabbing his hand and being pulled up.

"Can I get some help too?" Mylo asked.

"Seriously, dude, get yourself up," Art rolled his eyes and walked with Powder to Violet's side. He could not be bothered helping Mylo who was almost a fully grown adult.

"Why does Powder get the special treatment?" Mylo complained under his breath.

Art did not hear Mylo, he was enjoying the scenery before him with Violet and Powder. They marvelled at the bright beautiful blue skies with flying blimp ships over the high-rise gold-trimmed buildings and the beautiful vibrant city. Compared to the undercity, the topside truly had it all.

"Whoa," Powder gasped in astonishment.

"It's nice getting above it all, huh?" said Violet.

At that moment, the air shook as a flying blimp passed over their heads.

"One day, I will ride one of those things." Powder said with conviction.

"And one day, I'm going to shoot down one of em' down," Mylo added, closing one of his eyes as he pointed at the flying blimp with a finger gun.

One day, oh wait, I've already ridden one, Art thought before turning to Violet who had pushed Mylo's arm down and started walking to the heist target, which was the dorms where the students of Piltover university resided and a few blocks away from their current location. "Hey, Vi, are you sure about this?" he asked.

"Yeah, what if we got caught," Claggor added. "We're..."

"We're not gonna get caught," Violet reassured, jumping over a little edge and landing on the next connected building. "We'll be in and out before anyone notices."

She looked down, planning a course to the next building. "Alright, everybody, follow me. Just don't look down," she continued on to say before sliding against the roof and taking a foothold on the gutter. She jumped, and landed on the balcony of the building before making her way to the balcony rails and leaping to the next building's rooftop.

Mylo and Claggor followed while Art stayed behind for a moment seeing the frightened expression on Powder's face. "You alright?"

"I'm scared," Powder replied, her voice shaking a little.

"It's okay you got this," Art comforted, patting her head like a big brother.

"Well, that's comforting you're expecting me to fall, hehe," Powder giggled.

"You know that's not what I meant," Art ruffled her hair before being interrupted.

"Are you two lovebirds going to jump or what?!" Mylo shouted.

This asshole, are you trying to get me arrested? I'm not interested in kids, Art's eyebrows twitch in annoyance before trying his attention back to Powder. "I'll be going first."

"Okay," Powder nodded.

With that said, Art made his way to others. He back up a little, took a running stance and dashed forward as fast as he could before jumping at the last moment, clearing 4 metres of distance.

This was only possible as the other building was shorter compared to the one he had jumped out of. Moreover, he was already used to this as he would come up to the rooftops with Ezreal for fun and sometimes play tag. Without the internet, which meant no YouTube or games besides training, this was one of the few things that he could waste his time on.

"Show off," Violet rolled his eyes.

Art ignored her and shouted to Powder. "See, easy as that!"

"..." Powder was left speechless, but seeing the others on the other side, she did want them to wait any longer. She inhaled and exhaled before following Vi's exact movements, though compared to her big sister, she was a little bit more clumsy.

There were even some moments Art thought she was going to fall, but in the end, she was able to make it to the last step.

Powder jumped and although she was successful in making it to the next building, she had lost balance due to the position she landed and was about to fall off.

Thankfully, Violet was nearby and grabbed hold of her hand before she could so.

"Thanks," Powder said as she was pulled into Violet's chest.

"That was a good try," Art said as the others stayed silent while Mylo rolled his eyes and scoffed, already used to her clumsy nature.

The gang continued to make their way towards the heist location as Claggor was still sceptical about all of this as they were getting closer, pestering Violet about whether or not they should do this job. "What if Vander finds out we're up here?" he asked.

However, Violet remained firm on this job no matter what he said. "Look around you. Do you think anyone topside's going hungry?" she paused to look where she was going. "Besides, this is exactly the sort of job Vander would've pulled when he was our age."

Violet stopped moving and looked down as the target was just below them. "I'm going. Are you with me or not?"

Claggor looked at the others behind him, and seeing none of them had any complaints, he gave up on convincing Violet. "Vander is going to kill us," he sighed.

"Only if we screw up," said Violet. "So, don't screw up."

Violet jumped down, grabbed on the narrow ledge of the roof and swung herself to the balcony of the apartment they were robbing. She scoped out the place, seeing if there were people inside and once she felt it was safe, she called out to the others. "All clear."

The others came down one by one, with Mylo being the first as he was the only one in the gang who knew how to pick locks. He tried to open the door, but it was locked. "Ugh, who locks their balconies? He groaned before taking out his tools, kneeling down on the ground and starting to pick the lock.

"Can't you just kick it open?" Art asked from behind him.

"Art, tsk, tsk, you got it all wrong." Mylo clicked his tongue. "You see, things like these need finesse. You have to--"

"Good idea," Violet patted Art's shoulder before violently kicking the door with a front kick, shocking the living shit out of Mylo.

"Animals," Mylo said while the gang walked past him, disbelief evident in his voice.

However, Mylo was ignored as the gang was too much in awe of what they saw inside. There were many items in the room. Although the gang were unfamiliar with what they were used for, they could guess the items were expensive simply from the material used and the level of craftsmanship.

And so, the gang went about their own ways and started filling the bag Violet had been carrying with whatever valuable items they could find.

On the other hand, Art was in awe because the moment he entered the room, he felt the magic in this room was thicker compared to what it was outside.

He looked towards the corner of the room where a table stood filled with piles of books and unknown devices. Faintly, he could hear a low humming sound while the paper scattered on top of the table was moving, although the air in the room was stagnant.

Now that's suspicious, Art thought. Even without looking or using his senses, he knew there was nothing more valuable in this room than whatever was hidden beneath all of the paper on the table. It emitted so much magic that it was able to cause phenomena and make the paper covering it vibrate.

He hurriedly walked towards the messy table and moved the paper filled writing that would only make his brain hurt if he tried to read it to the side. He was caught by surprise upon seeing the object in front of him... Holy shit! I've struck gold!

It was a Brackern crystal, also known as hex crystals.

These crystals in the lore were from species of sapient, crystalline scorpions with great magical power that lives peacefully in Shurima. They contained magic within them and the souls, memories, and the heritage of the Brackern race.

None of the people of Piltover knew this fact in the lore, well, besides one person. And even if people knew, the crystals would still be used as a battery to power their exquisite artifacts and tools.

Art had always wanted to get his hands on these crystals ever since his reincarnation for various reasons, but lately, his desire to acquire them grew by the day.

Ever since the ambient magic in Piltover was getting easier to control and his progress with magic wasn't as fast as it used to be, Art had been racking his brain to solve this problem. He thought about it, and besides having no teacher or theoretical knowledge about magic, he concluded that his progress had slowed down with magic because Piltover was not abundant with magic, unlike Ionia or Targon.

He needed more magic to push himself as the ambient magic in Piltover was far too little. It was like how a person would train with the same weight week to week, over time, their body would adapt to the resistance and no longer have any improvement.

Still, Art was hesitant to use the hex crystals as thousands, maybe even more Brackern souls would be killed in the process if were to deplete a hex crystal... Would I be able to recharge the crystal with my own magic like a battery? He shook his head and sighed at this thought. Whatever, I'll think about it later.

He reached for the hex crystal connected to the strange triangular device on the table but stopped himself at the last moment... I feel bad for taking this. It must've cost whoever bought this a fortune, he thought about it for a while before finally coming to a decision. Mhh, guess I'll be the nice guy and leave this crystal here for the person to continue his research.

Of course, Art was not selfless enough to leave this place empty-handed. "Hehe, I'll just take those crystals I sense in the other room," he muttered to himself.

Besides the hex crystal in this room, Art had sense more crystals in the other room. From what he could tell there were at least five more hex crystals, and although they emitted less magic than the crystal in front of him, he was not worried. He guessed the reason the crystals emitted less magic was because of the triangular device the crystal in front of him was connected to.

Art was intrigued but only for a moment as his thoughts were interrupted.

"Uhh… what is this?" Mylo asked, drawing the attention of the other as well. He then poked the hex crystal connected to the triangular device with his finger in curiosity and was shocked as a result.

Seeing this, Claggor could not help but ask worriedly. "Wait, Vi, how the hell did we find this place?"

"It was a tip from Little Man," Violet answered as she was a little bit concerned. Her instincts were telling her that the device before her was bad news, and she did not want to do anything with it.

"Little Man?" Mylo repeated, a little surprised.

"Just leave it and keep looking for anything that looks valuable," said Violet before turning to the others and then glaring at Mylo. "I don't want any of yous filling the bag with junk. I'm looking at you, Mylo."

"Yeah, yeah," Mylo rolled his eyes before walking away.

"Got it," Art replied before heading towards the other room where he could feel the presence of other crystals. He passed by the empty hallway and found the door to the other room already open.

He caught Powder examining one of the crystals with one eye closed. He was about to call out to her, but before he could do so, he heard footsteps approaching from outside and the sound of the door handle clicking.

Turning his attention to the door, he saw Mylo rushing to lock the door by wedging the top of the back of a chair underneath the doorknob.

Violet came running in soon after, a distressed expression on her face. "Powder, Art, we gotta go," she shouted in a whisper.

"Hello?" a man's voice called out from outside. "Is someone in there?

The house owner was right outside the door, Art wanted to go and secure the hex crystals, but Powder was one step ahead. She had already stuffed the hex crystals into her back pouch and started running to the balcony... I guess I'll have to ask her if I can have those crystals later.

"Art, let's go," Powder called out quietly.

Art nodded and hurriedly followed Powder to the balcony, passing by Violet, who was packing up the loot for this heist. The gang waited for Violet, but it was at that moment he felt a sudden influx of magic and the next second... Boom!