Warhammer: Black Emperor

Chapter 140 "Thief"

Tierney scaled the Nest Tower, climbing upwards using the curved structure of the Gothic flying buttresses.

Even if an ordinary person has enough courage, he cannot maintain his balance in the sky amidst the howling wind and the cold rain carrying ashes.

But Tierney is close to completing the road to heaven, far beyond that of ordinary people.

Gray rain is an excellent cover for "thieves".

The toxic clouds of Terra felt familiar to him, like his home world of Vostronia.

However, with the arrival of the King, the establishment of the Model City, the imitation and changes of other hive cities, and a series of other events, his homeland became increasingly unfamiliar.

Tierney even heard from the new recruits of the Legion's auxiliary army, those from the northernmost hive city of Nariyanmar, that they had seen the sun in the upper hive, which was unimaginable for the hive people of his time.

While he was thinking, the positioning runes on the visor of his helmet flashed.

Tierney stopped and in an instant drew his dagger from his waist with his right hand.

After becoming a "thief", he experimented with various weapons in the training cage of the Void Hunter, and finally found that the short sword and dagger were the most handy.

Of course, for him who had undergone transformation surgery, the length of the short sword was close to that of an ordinary person's long sword, and the dagger was close to that of a short sword.

The "thief" twisted his wrist, and the dagger was inserted into the nest tower of the Reina family like a part of his body.

Relying on his superhuman arm strength, he stuck firmly to the outer wall of the nest tower and used "Extraordinary Observation" to observe the patrol patterns of the guards and the location of the cameras inside the nest tower.

After circling the nest tower, the "thief" conceived a route of action.

He counted the time silently in his mind, and after the patrol passed by again, he climbed onto the windowsill.

The "thief"'s big hand inserted the tip of the dagger into the gap of the balcony door, and with a slight flick of his wrist, he opened the latch.

Open the window, turn over, and close the window at the same time.

The "thief" moved smoothly and his huge body made no sound.

After landing, the "thief" immediately crouched down, avoided the camera, and quickly came to the mark of the rune on the helmet eyepiece, the library of the Reina family.

This was not the first time that the "thief" had sneaked into the Reina family's nest tower. He had previously successfully "stole" the design drawings of the nest tower and locked the location of the library.

The book he was looking for was most likely in the family library.

Considering that it was written during the Long Old Night, Terra's environment is no longer what it used to be. It has little value to the current Reina family and is unlikely to be placed in Carles' study.

The "thief" stretched his left arm behind his back, and his "agile hand" opened the gray zipper of the black backpack with an awkward posture of an ordinary person, and took out the key of the Reina family.

He inserted the key into the meditation machine, and after a series of green runes lit up, the golden door slowly opened.

Tierney pulled out the key and slipped into the library.

As soon as he entered the library, his spirituality was immediately touched.

Observing the environment is only a smaller and less important aspect of "excellent observation". For "thieves", the greater role is that when they are faced with many items, they can immediately perceive the most valuable ones.

As the golden door slowly closed, the "thief" had already passed the first row of bookshelves. He quickly came to the A-3 bookshelf, put the dagger back into the tactical bag on his waist, and then pulled out a thread-bound book from hundreds of books.

After quickly flipping through a dozen pages, he found that it was a geography book.

Although it was not the goal of this trip, he still put it in his backpack.

As soon as he put the books into his backpack, he felt as if something in his body melted, and his steps became lighter.

The "thief" did not stop and went straight to the next target.

After reading nine books in a row, Tierney still couldn't find the book.

[Isn’t that book considered to be of high “value”?

If that were the case, it would be troublesome. The Reina family's paper collection numbered over 100,000 volumes, and flipping through them one by one would take a considerable amount of time.]
The "thief" followed the "Excellent Observation" and found the eleventh book. After he opened the book, he saw that the title was "Monster Manual" and continued to read it.

When he turned to page thirty-three, his fingers stopped.

Unlike every monster before it, this page has no graphics.

【Eight-legged Black Wolf】

He is a living shadow born from the abyss of eternal night. He is the darkness of nothingness that devours all existence.

Only the most foolish people would look directly at its form. Those foolish people would have black blood seeping from their eyeballs, and die with mutterings echoing in their ears.

【…】

Tierney's eyes lit up. The monster recorded on this page was most consistent with the characteristics of the mythological creatures he had investigated that were most closely related to darkness.

[The information was correct. Compared to those half-imaginary and half-created illustrated books, the one collected by the Reina family indeed contained useful information.

The name of the monster, detailed information...

Legend has it that the author of this book, Concepción Perea, once saw a creature shrouded in darkness, and it turns out to be true.]
Tierney immediately put the Monster Manual into his backpack, then quickly moved between the other bookshelves, putting the most valuable books into his backpack one by one.

Suddenly, his black eyes moved, and the spirit of the "thief" was touched.

The "thief" immediately came to the bookshelf and pulled out the parchment book, "The Dust-Forgotten Prosperity", a book that contains twenty-three shocking ancient tombs on the five continents of Terra.

Tierney put "The Forgotten Prosperity" into his backpack and placed it together with the "Monster Manual".

With his backpack full, the "thief" came to the golden gate and listened attentively.

Clairvoyance can penetrate non-spiritual barriers and see the color of the aura, but this is closely related to one's own level.

The "Thief" cannot see the color of the aura through obstacles and can only listen using the Ear of Leman.

Tierney heard footsteps, then heard them leave, then used the key to open the door and returned the same way.

In the early morning of the next day, Ningluo got the "Monster Manual" before going out, and he turned to the page about the eight-legged magic wolf.

[Eight-legged Black Wolf. It is no coincidence that the mythical creature form of the "Dark" path is the eight-legged demon wolf.

This eight-legged black wolf should be the mythical creature of the "dark" path.

However, finding him is far from easy. The authority of the "Dark" Path is secretive, and mythical creatures already possess some of these characteristics. One can only hope that the eight-legged black wolf isn't a Sequence 2 creature.]
Nimrod stared at the pages, carefully studying the information about the eight-legged black wolf.

[Where the eight-legged black wolf appears, people always fall into a deep sleep.

But there is no record of fear, and its form is clear.

It should be a Sequence 4 level mythical creature!]
Nimrod came to this conclusion and continued looking at the record of its appearance and disappearance.

[The eight-legged black wolf came walking on the moon.]

It flies towards the bright moon. 】

[Does this simply refer to its appearance at night, or is it related to the moon?]

A Sequence 4 mythical creature, it should not be able to travel back and forth between Terra and the Moon, but Malcador said it has followers.]
Nimrod found it difficult to come to a conclusion. After thinking for a moment, he gave orders to Tilney.

"Send some people to the moon. Besides the eight-legged black wolf, pay attention to the others."

He is determined to obtain the original mother copy, but the current treasure hunting team is not able to complete this task.

If you act rashly, unpredictable changes may occur.

"Those dilapidated domes are also glorious relics, and valuable items can be found within them."

"While you're at it, you also need to record detailed maps of the topography and landforms."

"Not just on the moon, but everywhere else as well."

Nimrod added that these were just for convenience, but they might be useful at some point in the future.

Afterwards, he took over "The Forgotten Prosperity" and found that this was the main material for the subsequent sequence 8 "Archaeologist" of "Generalist".

In addition to this one, he had previously found sixteen other similar books in various libraries, which were also the main materials for "Archaeologists".

On the twenty-eighth day after the Primarch arrived on Terra, he received news from Mars that all items on the Glorious Queen-class battleship built for him had passed inspection.

He waited for another two days, and after finishing all matters on Terra, he boarded the Void Hunter and headed for Mars.

(End of this chapter)