Kylia the Thief
Adventurers were people who stepped outside the safety zone, braving peril in pursuit of wealth and renown.
The truly accomplished among them amassed fortune and glory, becoming objects of envy and adoration throughout the world. Yet, that did not mean every adventurer enjoyed society's unreserved respect. After all, the profession had virtually no barrier to entry. Social standing, pedigree, and even a criminal record were completely disregarded when someone registered for the trade.
Consequently, the lower ranks with rock-bottom credibility were riddled with former convicts. Far too many of these rogues stirred up trouble, relentlessly dragging down the public reputation of adventurers as a whole. They brawled with their companions, stabbed allies in the back, or embezzled treasures unearthed in dungeons to line their own pockets.
Naturally, those whose misdeeds crossed the line found themselves locked away in prison. Kylia was precisely one such adventurer—a criminal who had been locked behind bars until her release earlier that very day.
"Kylia, your discharge is processed."
"My, oh my~ Out at last! The sunlight is positively sweet after so long in the dark~"
Escorted out by the prison guard, Kylia stepped through the facility's gates. She arched her back into an exaggerated stretch, humming with sheer delight. Not a trace of remorse or guilt could be found in her cheerful demeanor. And why would there be? Compared to the scope of her actual crimes, the time she had served was an absolute joke—scarcely even a slap on the wrist.
"You should consider yourself lucky your sentence was so brief," the guard muttered sourly. "If the value of those embezzled goods had been even slightly higher, it would've been deemed grand larceny, and you'd be rotting in a cell for years."
"Goodness me~ Anyone listening would think I committed some heinous atrocity! All I did was pocket a teensy-weensy bit of extra compensation for how hard I worked. Why is everyone so desperate to tear me to shreds, hmm~?"
"...I pray I never see your face again."
"Yes, yes, of course~ Well then, off I go to live a brand-new, virtuous life~"
Bidding the warden a breezy farewell, Kylia strolled away without a care in the world. Returning to her rented room, she retrieved a rucksack hidden beneath the floorboards and made her way down the city's quiet back alleys. When she emerged back into the sunlight, she had a hefty coin pouch clutched tightly in her palm.
The sum she had fetched on the black market for her stolen loot was dozens of times greater than the paltry amount named in her court sentencing. A smug grin tugged naturally at her lips as she weighed the gold in her hand.
"A two-week vacation with some boring lectures, and I walk away with this much profit? Pfft, ahahaha! This is why I can never quit the racket~"
It was a mild shame she had let her guard down and tainted her record with a prior conviction, but at the end of the day, she had walked away with a mountain of coin. Why should she ever stop?
Having long discarded any lingering shreds of conscience, Kylia hummed a cheery tune and set off toward the Adventurer Guild.
Naturally! Living honestly just means breaking your back so someone else can reap the rewards. The world revolves around looking out for number one anyway, so as long as my belly's full, what does anything else matter?
Besides, who was the one breaking a sweat in the party, avoiding traps and sniffing out treasure chests in the first place? She was the backbone of every expedition. Demanding a lion's share of the payout as a finder's fee wasn't unreasonable in the slightest.
Justifying her greed with practiced ease, Kylia pushed open the doors of the Adventurer Guild and strutted inside, casually interjecting herself among the adventurers seeking party members.
"Hello, everyone~ Anyone in the market for an expert trap-removal specialist? It just so happens you have a brilliantly talented rogue standing right before your eyes~"
Before her brief stint in jail, she had built quite a reputation for her thieving skills. Surely anyone with an eye for talent would trip over themselves to recruit her.
Yet, contrary to her soaring expectations, the gazes directed at her were biting and cold.
"That's her, isn't it? Kylia."
"Great skills, rotten character. Didn't she just get dragged to court the other week for pocketing party loot?"
"I figured she'd be rotting away for years... She's out already? The justice system's a joke. Letting trash like that walk free just because they couldn't turn up physical proof."
"She only got caught once, but who knows how much else she stole behind her parties' backs? What kind of nerve does it take to show her face in here?"
"Don't even look at her. Even if you clear a dungeon, every scrap of treasure will just end up in her pockets."
Her embezzlement had only been proven once, but that single slip had been more than enough to shatter years of hard-won credibility. Kylia registered the frosty reception, yet she felt neither panic nor dread.
Oho, so that's how we're playing it?
Throwing away a master rogue over one tiny infraction was sheer foolishness. In the adventurer trade, the only things that truly mattered were wealth and prestige. To reach those heights, every single member had to pull their weight. That meant, at its core, party recruitment was a ruthless meritocracy.
They're only whispering because my release is still fresh news. Once some time passes and I prove my worth again, they'll come crawling back on their knees, begging me to join them~
Such was the unshakeable confidence born of absolute faith in her own thieving craft. Shrugging off the cold shoulders, Kylia abandoned the idea of party hunting for the day and leisurely drifted over to the guild's quest board.
If all she needed was results, she simply had to tackle a quest that proved her worth beyond shadow of a doubt. Something like scouting an uncleared labyrinth, mapping out its unseen layout, and plundering its hidden riches to flaunt before their faces.
"Oho... A newly discovered dungeon, is it...?"
Her narrow eyes sparkled as she spotted a notice for an uncharted dungeon situated comfortably close to town. Though she was no frontline brawler, dungeon raiding was far more about perception, reconnaissance, and trap disarming than brute force. Even without slaying the final boss, thoroughly charting the layout to produce a master map would bring in both an astronomical sum and instant prestige. It was practically tailored for her.
However...
"Hey, you're not seriously thinking of going there, are you?"
"I'd drop it if I were you. If you set foot in that place, you're in for a nightmare you'll never forget."
Noticing her interest in the new dungeon, nearby adventurers chimed in to warn her off. When Kylia raised a curious brow, they quickly unloaded the harrowing rumors surrounding the place.
"Word from the survivors is that the place operates on entirely different rules from any dungeon found before."
"There are trap vents spitting toxic pink mist that laugh in the face of normal antivenoms. The moment you breathe it in, your body burns up, your head goes completely blank, and you can't even lift your weapon to fight."
"Every single trap is pure sadism. None of them take your life, but they strip your armor to shreds, bind your limbs, seal your mana circulation, and subject you to relentless torment..."
"Hell, recently the golems have started doing something unthinkable to defeated adventurers from behind. The guys who caught the brunt of it can't even take a shit properly right now."
"Some of them looked so broken they acted like their lovers had been stolen right before their eyes... Miraculously, no one has died yet, but every single survivor returns with severe mental scars. In terms of sheer malice, folks are already rating it on par with high-tier death labyrinths."
"Sure, the odd artifacts recovered from inside fetch crazy prices, so a few greedy fools still wander in, but unless you want to be utterly humiliated, stay far away until a top-ranked party actually clears it."
It was a thorough summary, more than enough to paint a vivid picture of the dungeon's horrors. Yet hearing it did not fill Kylia with dread or disgust. Instead, it ignited a wild, competitive spark in her chest.
An uncharted goldmine that everyone's terrified to touch, ripe for a fortune if someone actually maps it out...? Heheh, isn't that practically made for me?
Besides, zero fatalities meant that even if the worst happened, she wouldn't lose her life. That meant she could take all the risks she wanted without a shred of genuine danger. Having realized there was no real downside, Kylia hastily gathered her thieving gear and set off for the labyrinth without looking back.
I've raided dozens of lethal dungeons. What's so scary about a place where nobody even dies? Just you wait. I'll scour every nook and cranny, sketch a flawless map, and sell it to the highest bidder for a fortune!
Several days later.
Having traversed the wilderness entirely on her own, Kylia stood before the yawning entrance of the cavernous dungeon. Right beside the threshold, a cheerfully painted wooden sign welcomed prospective intruders.
Welcome to the Ero Trap Dungeon!
I sincerely hope you have a wonderful and delightful time in the dungeon I created!
"Ero Trap...? No idea what that's supposed to mean, but I guess it means it's packed with traps."
Most dungeons greeted challengers with blood-curdling warnings or ominous prophecies, so whoever managed this place clearly possessed a rather playful sense of humor. It was a fitting start that lent credence to the rumor of zero casualties. Feeling her lingering hesitation evaporate, Kylia casually took her first step past the threshold—only for her senses to instantly flare as she detected a mechanism hidden beneath the floor.
"Well, well. Look at this. Rigging a trap right at the front door, are we?"
It was remarkably well-hidden. An amateur would have triggered it immediately, marching into the depths already crippled by its effects.
"Pretty simple layout, though. Step on this hidden pressure plate, and gas vents through this concealed nozzle... Ah, this must be that notorious gas antivenoms can't cure."
Triggering it would spell disaster for a solo explorer. But by definition, a trap posed no threat whatsoever if it never went off. And Kylia possessed supreme confidence that she would never fall for such tricks.
"Let's see here. The mechanism over here is painfully obvious, and this one over here is... Pfft, seriously? These are all cookie-cutter, mass-produced designs!"
Indeed, the traps layered across the entrance were standard blueprints favored across the Demon King's Army. Dungeon architects considered them the pinnacle of cost-effective reliability, but ironically, an experienced rogue like Kylia had disassembled such textbook contraptions hundreds of times before.
"The traps are easy to spot and even easier to disarm~ The golems have predictable patrol loops, so dodging them is a breeze~ Ahaha, this place is practically begging to be robbed blind!"
"Whoever the dungeon master here is, it's just your bad luck. Your opponent happens to be me~♬"
It was a golden honeypot, ripe for plundering without breaking a sweat. As she advanced through the corridors, disarming mechanism after mechanism with effortless grace, an unstoppable smirk bloomed across Kylia's face.
Meanwhile, inside the monitoring room, a low whistle slipped past my lips as I watched the scrying crystals.
"Whew~ Well, look at that. That little rogue girl is a lot sharper than she looks, isn't she?"
Even if the entry traps were textbook designs, ordinary adventurers almost always blundered into at least one of them right off the bat. Watching her glide past my defenses as if taking a leisurely stroll through her own living room brought an amused chuckle to my throat.
Admittedly, a large portion of the entrance traps had been built strictly according to Master Isabella's standard curriculum. Because her designs were so widely utilized across the Demon King's territories, seasoned rogues naturally found them easy to counter. But looked at from another angle, an intruder like her offered the ideal opportunity to test how far I had stepped out of Master's shadow.
"Yuria, reposition the patrol golems according to my commands."
"Understood. I shall execute the orders immediately, it is so."
Issuing directions to Yuria, I felt a surge of professional pride flare within me as I watched the woman methodically dismantle my mechanisms on screen.
Alright then. Let's see how this plays out.
A Trap Architect versus a Trap Disarmer.
Time to find out whose craft truly reigns supreme.