Zaria led Ace's group towards the upper floor of the shop. Ace was quite familiar with it, for he had been living there for weeks.
However, Ace was surprised when he noticed Zaria was moving towards her room, a forbidden zone in the shop.
But then, unexpectedly, Zaria suddenly stopped in front of the door, took out a formation plate, and activated it. The next moment, a runic circle appeared on the door, and the door slid upward, opening a staircase going downward. It was a hidden chamber!
No one was surprised much since it was normal for a building to have hidden spaces. Zaria didn't say anything either, and she entered and took the staircase while the others followed her silently.
When they reached the end of the staircase, a runic door made of powerful spirit metal was pushed open, revealing a spacious room.
However, Ace was surprised to see that this spacious room was actually an alchemy workshop. There was even a small herb guardian covering half of it.
It was Ace's first time seeing Zaria's workshop because he had never seen Zaria doing alchemy or selling alchemy products in the shop. He even suspected Zaria was an alchemist.
But Ace's eyes widened with shock when he saw something in the center of the workshop. There was an active runic circle, and on top of this circle were two figures, seemingly unconscious. They were trapped in the formation!
"You!" Ace looked at Zaria in disbelief because he knew one of the unconscious figures within the runic circle.
Alina and Eva were also a little surprised, but when Ace reacted so abruptly, they became even more curious and looked at Zaria and Ace for an explanation.
Zaria grinned as she looked at Ace's dumbfounded expression, and seemed very pleased with herself.
With an 'innocent' expression, she said, "Why are you so surprised, Leader~? You don't approve of these Acolytes?"
Ace almost laughed out loud as he finally understood what Zaria meant by 'candidates introduced by him'. He didn't expect her to be this daring, and he even succeeded in capturing them. Since he already knew one of them, he didn't need to guess who the second one was.
"Who are they, exactly?" Eva couldn't help but raise this question, and Alina also wanted an answer.
Ace forced a smile and replied, "They were my next target. They belonged to another famous band of thieves known as the Nightfall Ravenhood. That human woman is Eleanor. She was the one who took me to this city…" He started to explain from the beginning, and Zaria didn't speak.
One of the figures captured by Zaria was indeed Eleanor, while the other should be another member of the Nightfall Ravenhood, which Ace hadn't seen before.
Eva and Alina were astounded before they glared at Eleanor when they heard this woman had 'enslaved' Ace with a Law Contract. Then, the Nightfall Ravenhood gave Ace a deadly test.
After revealing the truth, Ace looked at Zaria and asked curiously, "How did you capture her, and who is the other one? Ravencrown?"
Ace had given Zaria the task of monitoring the Nightfall Ravenhood members. Eleanor led Zaria to Ravencrown, and she even discovered Raveneye.
Furthermore, Eleanor gave Ace the task of discovering the whereabouts of Count Anvil's son on behalf of Ravencrown within a month. He planned on using this chance to infiltrate the Nightfall Ravenhood's ranks and discover their goal in the Runic King Crown Palace.
But because of the sudden emergence of the Abyss Mission Series, he had already given up on it. However, he wasn't expecting Zaria to abruptly capture two of the Nightfall Ravenhood's members so she could make them her Thief Acolytes.
Zaria replied, "Actually, I wasn't planning to capture them. But when I returned to the shop, I found someone was trying to tamper with the Shop's formation. They probably hadn't expected me to appear directly inside the shop and only had done it after confirming no one was inside.
"I was already furious about them monitoring my shop and endangering Leah's safety. If we aren't going to the Abyss, I might've played along, but since I knew this mission was as good as over, I decided to take these capable talents under my wings.
"That's how I found Eleanor and this Ravencrown. I didn't give them a chance to react before I activated the shop's formation and trapped them before using my full force to 'subdue' them both.
"I had to admit, this Ravencrown almost managed to escape if not for this Ascension Grade-8 Joss Formation. So, what do you think? Isn't this a pretty good idea to integrate them into the Thief House as my Thief Acolytes? I quite 'like' these two!
"Furthermore, as long as we can show them our strength and turn them into our side, we can easily gain all the Nightfall Ravenhood secrets and even cripple their gang!" Zaria's smile was cold and filled with malice when she glared at Eleanor and Ravencrown.
Ace's eyes shimmered as this was indeed a good idea, and he looked at Eleanor and Ravencrown.
His eyes suddenly narrowed when he looked at Ravencrown more closely, especially her veiled face and flowing pale gray hair.
'I think I've seen her somewhere before,' He thought.
Suddenly, a scene flashed past his mind, and Ace's eyes widened as he quickly opened the live fate map. He almost cries in alarm when he sees the Glittering Amber Fate Point!
Ravencrown was the same woman, Leia, he saw with Jake's group in the Ancient Remnant!
'It's fate again!' Ace's heart raced as he almost couldn't believe that the Amber Fate Point would appear right in front of him and so quickly at that. Moreover, this woman was also Ravencrown of the Nightfall Ravenhood.
"Alright, we can take them." Ace decisively replied, "But they'll only be prisoners unless you can figure out a way to reset their law foundation first because Thief Acolytes needed to be in an elemental state."
Zaria frowned. This was her first time hearing about this, and she knew it was almost impossible to reset a law state cultivator foundation.
Eva suddenly chimed in at this moment, "There's no problem. There is a way to recast the law foundation in the Abyss!"