Nadran stopped in front of a large, multi-story manor. Kalio Evegart may just be an arrogant bully, but that was in part due to his background. His strength was nothing special in this world, and he likely wouldn't have any lackeys at all if he wasn't the child of the influential Evegart family of merchants. Nadran honestly wouldn't be concerned with Kalio's strength at all if it wasn't for the fact that Nadran himself was an exception – his strength was way weaker than the average sigil user. This fact was incredibly frustrating to him, since he put so much effort into learning sigils, and yet was still inferior to good-for-nothing nobles who couldn't be bothered to put any real effort in.

[Well, it's not like I'm planning to fight him anyways,] Nadran thought. He just wanted to get in and out without anyone noticing, if at all possible. [If I do end up getting discovered, I'll just run. Kalio shouldn't be able to keep up with me, but his brother.. whatever, I need to do this for dad, I'll need to take a bit of a risk.]

With that, Nadran checked to make sure there was nobody watching, then quickly moved toward the fence. He jumped up, grabbing the steel bars of the fence, and flipped over the top, landing in the yard. Nadran looked around, noticing a couple of small sigils engraved on the wall of the manor. [They have security sigils, but either they don't know how to space them properly, or these are more for peace of mind than anything else.]

Overall, Nadran was quite knowledgeable about sigils, and, as long as he had seen the sigil before, identifying a sigil was easier than making one. Since he only needed to be able to remember part of the sigil in order to identify it, he was able to easily determine which security sigil it was. [Actually, didn't I take longer than this to identify sigils in the past?] Nadran thought, but quickly pushed the question out of his mind to focus on the task at hand.

[These sigils have a detection radius of 20 feet, but they are spaced about 45 feet apart. That gives me a 5-foot gap. Whoever they hired for security should be fired,] Nadran thought as he ran up to the building, taking care to place himself directly between the sigils so as not to trigger them. He quickly reached the wall of the manor, which was made of large, rough stone bricks, and jumped up, slipping his fingertips into the seams between the bricks. For Nadran, who had been climbing vertical cliff faces for over 10 years, climbing the side of the building was not a challenge at all.

Nadran quickly reached a window and peered in, taking note of what he could see. He then climbed to another window and repeated the process. 5 windows later, he found the room he was looking for. It was clearly a bedroom, with a large bed sitting at one end, big enough that it rivalled all of the beds of Nadran's family combined. In fact, the room itself was almost the size of Nadran's entire house. Other than that, there were a number of books, a dresser, and other things, but what attracted Nadran's attention was the small, round table at the end of the bed. There was a crystal vase sitting in the center, and inside was a flower Nadran was able to instantly recognize.

[So, Kalio places the things he steals from others in the middle of his room like that? What, so he can gloat or something? Is this a trophy to him? Does he value things he steals from others more than things he gets with money or from his parents?]

Shaking his head in disgust, Nadran moved over to a window one floor down. It was open, so Nadran was able to slip in without any trouble. He found himself in what he assumed was a kitchen. It was huge, and it looked like it was big enough for a dozen cooks to work simultaneously without bumping into each other at all. [I guess when your family has huge amounts of money, you can afford ridiculous things like this,] Nadran thought dryly.

Since it was night, the kitchen was empty, and Nadran quickly slipped out of the room, wincing at the squeaking of the door, and found himself in a long hallway with a ceiling almost 15 feet above him. At one end, Nadran saw a red-carpeted spiral staircase, and his eyes lit up. He quietly dashed over to the staircase, then suddenly stopped as he heard the sound of soft footsteps coming down the staircase.

Knowing he only had a few seconds at most, Nadran looked around quickly. All of the nearby doors were closed, and he knew from the previous door he had passed through that these large, heavy doors could easily make loud sounds as they opened unless he was careful. While he could probably open them quietly, he was unable to open them quietly AND quickly, so that wasn't an option. Besides, if they were locked, he would be out of luck. Nadran's eyes looked up at the walls, and he saw light fixtures spaced periodically across the wall, but they didn't look strong enough to support his full weight. Nadran's eyes then naturally gravitated to a decorative design near the top of the wall that protruded outward, displaying the shapes of different fierce animals in combat.

Nadran leaped up an incredible distance, grabbing the head of a dragon with his fingertips. It protruded from the wall by less than an inch and was somewhat rounded. It was nearly impossible to hold, and Nadran's fingers instantly began slipping. Gritting his teeth, Nadran pressed his body against the wall, his fingernails digging into the wood as he managed to swing his legs up and hook his ankle around one of the light fixtures that lined the hall. While the light was unable to support his full body weight, Nadran was only using it to hold up his legs, with his fingers supporting the rest of his weight. Nadran was now parallel to the floor and about 12-13 feet up in the air. Nadran's fingers had long since dug grooves into the wall design, and he was using those grooves to keep himself from falling back and away from the wall. Despite the fact that his internal energy was passively amplifying his physical abilities, holding this awkward position was incredibly difficult, and sweat began beading down his forehead as he waited, hoping that whoever was coming down the stairs would pass quickly.

Within a couple seconds, he saw the figure of a servant walking down the stairs. They were walking with purpose and did not look around at all as they moved quickly down the hallway and turned a corner. Nadran involuntarily let out a sigh of relief as they left without noticing him.

Nadran quickly jumped down from the uncomfortable position he had been in, stretching his fingers. [Maybe I should have just tried to knock them out before they could sound the alarm,] Nadran thought. [No, if it had been Kalio or Tyval, that would have been a disaster. Besides, I'm not that confident in my ability to knock someone out instantly. Whatever, I need to get moving before someone else comes.] Nadran had a very methodical personality, always trying to assess all of his options before he did anything, but he needed to reign that in here, where time was of the essence. [It would be pretty sad if I got caught because I was too busy overanalyzing the merits of a course of action I already took and someone happened to walk by and notice me,] Nadran admonished himself and walked quickly up the staircase.

By remembering the location of Kalio's window relative to where he entered, Nadran was able to find the right room without much trouble. He silently eased the door open and looked in. The flower was still sitting in the middle of the room, and Nadran didn't see Kalio inside. He slipped into the room and moved toward the flower when a surprised, but condescending voice emerged from behind him, causing him to freeze in his tracks.

"You know, I didn't believe Tyval when he said you might be able to successfully infiltrate our manor, but I guess he was right. You've got guts, I'll give you that."

Nadran turned around to see Kalio standing next to the door and pulling it closed. [It's a trap!] Nadran thought in dismay. He quickly dashed over to the vase, pulling out the Lesser Blood Lily, then ran for the window, attempting to escape the room. When he was only about a foot away from the window, he ran into an invisible barrier and stumbled backwards, nearly falling over. Ripples spread out from where he collided with it, traveling across the ceiling, floor, and walls, revealing that the barrier encompassed the entire room.

[This.. is not good,] Nadran thought as he tried to figure out how to disarm the barrier.

"It's useless to try escaping," Kalio laughed condescendingly. "My brother made this barrier so that I could have my revenge. Not even I can break through it."

Nadran cocked his head to the side in confusion. "So.. you're stuck in here too until your brother comes to let you out?"

Kalio paused to consider the question, then laughed. "As long as I can get my revenge for the humiliation you gave me, that doesn't matter. Now prepare to die!"

Nadran gritted his teeth as Kalio began casting a sigil. It looked like he had no choice but to fight.