Demon Chapter

Chapter 14: Thief Trainer

Chapter 14: Thief Trainer

A few minutes later, Gavin Lin found the person he was looking for on the second floor: a guild thief trainer.

Finding such a trainer and becoming a thief was Gavin Lin’s main reason for coming to Golden Spark Town.

As long as he could become a thief—even if he failed to complete the ghost investigation quest—it would still be worth it.

The thief trainer was a man with a slight bald spot. He looked Gavin Lin up and down, then waved his hand and said, “You’re not a thief at all. Sorry, I can’t train you. Maybe try Martha next door—she’s an arcane trainer. She deals with ghosts all day; she might be able to help!”

Gavin Lin shook his head. Since he’d decided to become a thief, he wouldn’t back down.

“You want to become a thief? Fine. I’ll give you a task. If you complete it, I’ll teach you the basic skills of a thief. Otherwise, you should drop the idea.”

As soon as the thief trainer finished speaking, Gavin Lin received a system prompt:

Thief Trainer Morry has issued a quest. Do you accept?

Gavin Lin accepted without hesitation. The next second, he saw the quest details—and immediately frowned. The task given by Thief Trainer Morry was also “The Haunting Incident in Shangjin Town.”

Was this a coincidence?

Because Gavin Lin had accepted the quest, Morry continued: “A few days ago, I got drunk and somehow ended up in a small house north of the Lion King’s Pride Inn. There, I saw several terrifying ghosts—and then I passed out. When I woke up, I left that room. But no one believed me. They said ghosts can’t exist in Shangjin Town, and those bastards mocked me. Ugh! I went back several times afterward but found nothing. Still, I’m sure I didn’t dream it that night. Young man, if you can find something and bring me proof, I’ll let you become a thief!”

Gavin Lin walked out of the inn, planning his next move. Originally, he hadn’t intended to investigate any supernatural incidents—but if this was a requirement to become a thief, the situation changed.

Gavin Lin had heard of “The Haunting Incident in Shangjin Town.” It was said that a player had stumbled upon it by accident in-game, later posting about it online.

Recalling the details from that post—and using the clues from Morry’s quest—Gavin Lin headed north of the inn. Sure enough, he soon found a two-story cottage.

This was the haunted house described by Thief Trainer Morry. In the game, it also served as the residence of Adler Feodor, Shangjin Town’s leatherworking instructor. Maintaining a calm and respectful demeanor, Gavin Lin approached the door and knocked gently.

Soon, a sound came from inside, and a beautiful young woman opened the wooden door, glancing at him.

“Are you Adler Feodor?” Gavin Lin bowed slightly. “I’ve just arrived in Shangjin Town from Northshire Monastery. I heard you’re the local leatherworking instructor, so I’ve come to learn from you.”

In the game, Adler Feodor was a junior leatherworker. According to Alliance regulations, she was required to assist Alliance adventurers stationed in Shangjin Town—for a fee, of course.

“Come in,” she said. Perhaps accustomed to visits from new recruits, Adler Feodor stepped aside and let him enter.

Another woman sat inside, diligently working on animal hides with practiced skill. She didn’t even look up at Gavin Lin’s arrival.

“I can teach you how to skin beasts and process their hides into leather,” Adler Feodor began, perhaps out of professional pride. “You can use it to craft simple armor—leatherworking is a very promising profession!” Noticing Gavin Lin’s gaze shift toward the other woman, she added with a hint of defensiveness, “That’s Heleni. Ever since my husband went to the front lines, she’s been protecting me. She has a kind heart and a sharp sword—she’s helped me through countless hard years. Without her, I don’t know what I’d have done.”

Gavin Lin gave an apologetic look. Clearly, her words implied her husband had likely died in battle.

He noticed a wooden staircase leading to the second floor. To buy time, he casually asked a few questions about leatherworking. Just then, another recruit entered, apparently also seeking instruction. Adler Feodor asked Gavin Lin to wait and stepped out to greet the newcomer.

Perfect opportunity.

Gavin Lin took two leisurely steps, then crouched and leapt straight up to the second floor.

The moment his foot touched the wooden floor above, a chill ran down his spine. The creak of the floorboards under his weight made his nerves taut. Something was definitely wrong here.

Gavin Lin already knew something about the “supernatural events in Shangjin Town.” Back in the game, players had discovered this room during casual exploration. Strangely, every time a player entered, the background music would abruptly shift to something eerie and unsettling.

Of course, Gavin Lin couldn’t hear any music now—but his instincts told him something terrifying was hidden in this room.

He stepped inside and began searching carefully.

Suddenly, his eyes fell on a wooden barrel in the corner. For a split second, he thought he saw a distorted human face on its surface.

It startled him. The face was blurry, but the basic features were unmistakable. Yet when he moved closer to inspect it, there was nothing—just the rough grain of the wood.

He lifted the lid. The barrel was empty.

“Phew… that was close,” Gavin Lin muttered, relaxing slightly. He turned around—and froze.

For no apparent reason, six children now stood in the room.

Gavin Lin was certain the room had been empty before he came upstairs. Yet now, six strange children had appeared as if out of thin air.

They stood perfectly still, faces grim, all facing the same direction—an unnerving sight.

Gavin Lin swallowed hard. He recognized them. They matched the description from the forum post about the “supernatural incident in Golden Town.” The original poster claimed that whenever players entered this second-floor room, six children would occasionally appear, arranging themselves in a specific pattern to form a pentagram.

But that was in the game. Now, he was seeing it in reality. And indeed, their positions clearly formed a pentagram.

As for the “pentagram,” Gavin Lin only knew it as a magical seal in Western fantasy—used to bind demons and evil spirits. Ancient traditions held it as a protective symbol, often combined with a circular array and incantations. A reversed pentagram, however, was rumored to signify demonic rituals—but all of this was just hearsay.

What truly caught his attention was that he’d seen the “reversed pentagram” symbol before—in Tristram. It had been painted beneath bodies nailed to wooden racks, a detail he remembered vividly. He’d also spotted the same symbol in Kane’s Notes. That convinced him: after this mission, he needed to read Kane’s Notes thoroughly.

If the pentagram represented some form of “evil,” and in the world of Diablo, evil was embodied by Diablo and his demons—then in the World of Warcraft universe, what did “evil” represent?

Gavin Lin, familiar with World of Warcraft, immediately thought of the Scourge.

Yes—the Scourge Legion was the common enemy of both the Horde and the Alliance.

Lost in thought, he barely noticed the six children still standing motionless around him. He couldn’t stay much longer; Adler Feodor downstairs would eventually notice his absence. Steeling himself, he tiptoed forward and squeezed through the circle of children.

Midway through, an impulse struck him—he reached out and touched one of the children.

His hand passed through the figure without resistance, as if grasping nothing but air.

The moment he realized what had happened, the children vanished. The room was empty again.

Gavin Lin stood there, wide-eyed and speechless, for a long moment before silently descending the stairs.

In the end, he didn’t pay to learn “Basic Leatherworking.” After leaving the second floor, he walked straight out of the eerie little house.

What he’d witnessed upstairs was undeniably terrifying—those six children were likely not human. But since Thief Trainer Morry had already claimed to have seen ghosts, there was no point telling him about this new encounter. Besides, Gavin Lin suspected Morry hadn’t told him everything—like why he’d been drunk or how he’d gotten upstairs in the first place.

An absurd possibility suddenly occurred to him: drunk men often act recklessly, and two beautiful women lived here. Could Morry have come here with improper intentions?

Maybe he’d used his thief skills to pick the lock and sneak in—only to stumble upon something horrifying on the second floor and faint from shock. If that were true, everything would make sense.

One thing was certain: something sinister lurked in this house.

Determined to investigate further, Gavin Lin circled the building—and to his surprise, found several child-sized skulls hidden in the grass behind it.