Three key cards. He had three. And I was standing here with two, one of them still so new it hadn't finished bonding with my skin.

  "You don't look surprised," the male Ace said. He moved like a predator - slow, deliberate, enjoying every step. His scarred face twisted into something like a smile. "Did you think you were the only one hunting keys, Seventh Child?"

  I felt Vera shift beside me. Her breathing was steady, but I caught the edge of her blade trembling.

  "Move," she said. Just one word.

  The Ace laughed. "Vera Rene. The family's little traitor. Three years in our house, eating our food, and you turn out to be a snake." He clicked his tongue. "Father should have killed you when he had the chance."

  My hand tightened on my sword. The tomb air was cold and stale, thick with centuries of dust. Behind the Ace, I could see the entrance corridor - stone walls slick with moisture, the faint glow of his key card casting long shadows.

  "You've got two keys," he continued, tilting his head. "And I've got three. So let me make this simple. Give me yours and I'll let your sister walk out. You, I'll take back to Father. He's... anxious to meet you properly."

  "And if I refuse?"

  He smiled wider. "Then I take them from your corpses."

  I didn't wait for him to finish. I moved.

  [SYSTEM]

  Void Slice Lv.3, ACTIVATED

  FIT scaling: 52 × 3.2 = 166 damage modifier

  Shadow Lunge Lv.2, ACTIVATED

  My body became a blur of motion. Three months of running, fighting, dying and coming back had carved new reflexes into my muscles. The distance between us collapsed in half a second.

  The Ace's eyes widened - just a fraction, but I saw it.

  My blade met his.

  The impact shuddered through my arm like I'd struck a granite pillar. His sword was black steel, clearly beyond anything you'd find in Grimvale, and the force of his parry nearly sent me stumbling.

  But I didn't stumble.

  I flowed with it, rotating my wrist, letting Void Slice slide along his blade in a crescent arc toward his throat.

  He leaped back. Not gracefully - desperately. A thin line of red appeared across his neck, welling up slowly.

  I tasted copper. My own blood, from the strain.

  "Not bad," he hissed, touching the cut. His fingers came away crimson. "But that's the best you've got?"

  I didn't answer. I was already calculating.

  His stats were higher than mine. That much was obvious from the raw power in his guard. Professional-tier, maybe higher. He had training I didn't, years of combat experience.

  But I had something else.

  I had nothing left to lose.

  "Stay behind me," I muttered to Vera.

  "Like hell,"

  "Now."

  I activated Recall All.

  [SYSTEM]

  Recall All, ACTIVATED

  Cooldown: 6 turns

  Veil Assassin's Card temporarily accessible

  Shadow Dominion Lv.1, ACTIVATED

  The world shifted. I felt the assassin's card flood into my awareness - three years of hidden knowledge, decades of Veil kill techniques compressed into instant muscle memory. My posture changed. My breathing found a new rhythm.

  The Ace saw it. His eyes narrowed.

  "Interesting," he said. "You've been holding back."

  I smiled. It felt wrong on my face - too sharp, too hungry.

  "You haven't seen holding back."

  I drew from the assassin's memory and found Shadow Dominion's core technique: the Shadow Web. My blade erupted with darkness, not light - pure shadow given edge, spreading outward like a spider's web made of knives.

  The Ace raised his sword.

  The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.

  The Shadow Web shattered against his guard.

  But I wasn't aiming for him. I was aiming for the walls.

  Stone crumbled. The ancient tomb groaned. Chunks of rock fell from the ceiling, and the Ace was forced to dive sideways to avoid being crushed.

  Dust filled the air. I grabbed Vera's wrist and ran.

  "THAT WON'T SAVE YOU!" his voice echoed through the collapsing tunnel. "I'VE HUNTED,"

  I didn't listen. I pulled Vera forward, navigating by memory, by the faint glow of my key card reacting to the ruins. The tomb was old. It had entrances besides the main one.

  It had to.

  I found it - a crack in the wall, barely wide enough to squeeze through. I shoved Vera toward it.

  "Go!"

  "What about you?"

  "I'll be right behind you."

  She hesitated. For a second, I thought she'd argue.

  Then she went.

  I turned back toward the sound of crashing stone. The Ace was coming. I could feel him - that Professional-tier presence crushing through the debris, getting closer.

  I raised my blade and waited.

  The tomb entrance exploded outward in a shower of rock and dust.

  The Ace stepped through, covered in grime but unharmed. His key card blazed in his hand, that colorless light now blazing with unmistakable fury.

  "That was a cheap trick," he said.

  "That was survival."

  He studied me. Really studied me, like I was something he'd miscalculated.

  "Two keys. Recall All. Shadow Dominion. Void Slice." He listed them like he was reading a inventory. "You're more dangerous than the reports suggested. Father was right to want you dead."

  "Your father wants a lot of things."

  "He gets them."

  I felt the Wild Card stir in my chest. One reroll left today. I could use it - escape again, like I had in the forest.

  But I was tired of running.

  "What do you actually want?" I asked. "The keys? Or me?"

  He considered this.

  "Both," he said finally. "But if I have to choose... the keys can wait. You can't."

  He charged.

  [SYSTEM]

  Absolute Null (Incomplete), ACTIVATED

  Damage nullification: INCOMPLETE (11% absorption)

  Counter-measure ready: single strike redirect

  The first blow nearly took my arm off.

  I felt the impact - not as pain, but as pressure, as my body registering that something was very, very wrong. Absolute Null flickered to life automatically, absorbing a fraction of the force.

  It wasn't enough.

  I flew backward, slamming into the tomb wall hard enough to crack the stone. Something in my ribs shifted - not broken, but not right either.

  The Ace walked toward me slowly.

  "You're fast," he said. "You're clever. You've got more tricks than most Professionals I've faced." He raised his sword. "But you're still just a kid from a backwater city who got lucky with some cards."

  I coughed. Tasted blood.

  "You're right," I said.

  He paused. That surprised him - the agreement.

  "I'm just a kid from Grimvale. No family. No training. No future." I pushed myself up, leaning against the wall. "Everything I have, I took. Every skill, every card, every win."

  I looked at him.

  "I'm very good at taking things."

  I activated Multiskill.

  [SYSTEM]

  WARNING: Multiskill Lv.Max Tier 0 Learning Mode, ACTIVATED

  Duration: 24 hours

  Cooldown: 7 days

  Restriction bypassed: ALL Tier 0 cards now learnable

  I felt the Wild Card unlock.

  For twenty-four hours, I could learn any Tier 0 card. Any of the seven that existed.

  And there was one I'd never been able to touch.

  The KEY CARD had two keys embedded in it - the Black Card from the safehouse, the tomb key from this very room. It had been calling to me since it formed, whispering about the other five.

  But there was something else. A shape inside it, waiting.

  The Seventh Child Resonance - what Father had left me, what had awakened when the keys merged.

  I reached for it.

  The Ace saw my expression change. His confidence faltered.

  "What are you,"

  I pulled.

  The tomb filled with light. Not colorless - white, brilliant, blinding. The KEY CARD on my chest burned like a sun, and I felt the first of the five remaining keys: the Royal Vault in Veil capital.

  The Ace stumbled back, raising his arm to shield his eyes.

  "What did you DO?!"

  I smiled.

  I was still just a kid from Grimvale.

  But now I knew where the next key was.

  And the Ace - with all his training, all his power, all his three keys - looked at me with something I'd never seen on his face before.

  Fear.

  [SYSTEM]

  Tier 0 Skill Acquired: Seventh Child's Sight (Incomplete)

  Current Keys: 2/7 (next location: Veil Capital Royal Vault)

  Status: Multiskill Tier 0 Learning Window ACTIVE

  Remaining uses: 23h 41m

  I stood up. My ribs still ached. My blood still stained the stone.

  But I was smiling.

  "Three keys," I said. "And you're still blocking my exit."

  I raised my blade.

  "Try again."

  The Ace's face twisted with rage. He had advantage. He had experience. He had numbers - somewhere behind him, I could hear more footsteps, more Veil soldiers approaching.

  But I had something he didn't.

  I had a reason to win.

  The KEY CARD pulsed, and for just a moment, I saw through his guard - saw every opening, every gap, every place where his defense would fail.

  The Seventh Child's Sight. Incomplete, but enough.

  "Last chance," I said. "Move aside."

  "Or what? You'll kill me? You're not a murderer, Classless. I've read your file. You don't,"

  I was already moving.

  My blade found the gap.

  The tomb filled with the sound of steel on steel, then something else - a horrible, wet noise.

  The Ace looked down at the blade protruding from his shoulder.

  I had missed his heart. Intentionally.

  "I could have killed you," I whispered. "Remember that."

  I twisted and pulled, and he screamed.

  Then I ran.

  Vera was waiting outside, on a ridge overlooking the forest. Six red-spade riders flanked her, weapons drawn.

  "Took you long enough," she said.

  "Told you I'd be right behind you."

  "You almost weren't."

  "I know."

  I looked back at the tomb. The Ace was still screaming, his soldiers rushing to help him. But he wouldn't follow - not immediately. Not with a wound like that.

  We had time.

  "How bad?" Vera asked, nodding toward my ribs.

  "I'll live."

  "And him?"

  I thought about the look on his face when I'd pulled that strike. The fear.

  "He'll remember."

  She studied me for a moment. Then she nodded.

  "Qora's three days north. My riders have horses. We leave in ten minutes."

  I nodded.

  Behind us, the tomb collapsed - the ancient structure finally giving way, burying the entrance and whatever secrets remained inside.

  I touched the KEY CARD on my chest. Two of seven. The next one was in Veil capital, in the Royal Vault, where my mother was dying in a prison cell.

  Three days to Qora.

  Three days to find Uncle Kael.

  Three days to figure out how to break into the most secure vault in the kingdom.

  Easy.

  I mounted the horse they gave me and kicked it into motion.

  The forest opened before us.

  Behind me, somewhere in the distance, I heard the King shouting orders.

  They were coming.

  But so was I.