Riven was waiting for Leah at the place they agreed upon.
Not in the open lanes where conversations were loud and riff-raff were plenty, but along the edge where movement thinned and exchanges carried weight. She didn't call out to him this time as she appeared in his sight. She simply fell into step beside him as if they had already agreed and started walking.
"You are moving much sooner than you made it out to be the other day," she said.
"New information came to light, couldn't just sit back anymore," Riven replied.
He didn't need to explain any further. If she had been watching the same shifts in the market, she would already understand what that meant.
Leah studied him briefly before speaking again, her tone quieter now. "Then I'll skip the foreplay. Three groups are pressing the same supply lines. They're not fighting in the open, but they're cutting into each other wherever they can. Sellers are getting intercepted, deliveries are going missing, and no one's taking credit for it. The whole black market district is in turmoil"
"And that's the new information I was speaking of," Riven said.
Her eyes narrowed slightly. "So you've already stepped into it? Kinda beats the purpose of hiring me"
"I can't entrust everything to a single person. That's not how organizations should operate." He smiled lightly.
"So we're calling this an organization now? Pretty cocky for a newbie." She smirked. Riven ignored her comment as they kept walking at a constant pace.
She didn't ask where or how he got the information. That wasn't how she worked. Instead, she reached into her pocket and pulled out a folded sheet, passing it to him without slowing her pace.
"This is one of the routes that's been slipping," she said. "Mid-level transfers. It isn't so important that their top executives should handle it, but they're not minor transactions either. Getting hit here hurts a lot in the long term"
Riven unfolded it as they walked. The markings were a bit messy but very detail oriented---timings, intersections and a short stretch circled with a note beside it.
"Tonight?" he asked raising his eyebrow.
Leah nodded. "These kinds of deals happen in an instant. You blink once and it's already finished. As far as i investigated, there should be no muscle backing this deal, but we can never really say when a brute could be sent as back-up "
"You can trust me to not make rookie mistakes like those," Riven said.
She glanced at him again. "If you're thinking of getting involved, don't overreach. This isn't the kind of place where you can "learn from your mistakes". The moment you slip, it's over."
Riven folded the paper and slipped it into his coat. "I'm not trying to take over anything yet. I just want to see how deep the cracks go."
Leah let out a quiet breath, something between approval and resignation. "Then take a small piece and disappear. Don't go biting off more than you can chew, and don't try to sell whatever you get right away. The moment something goes missing, they'll start watching everything," she warned. "And make no mistake, they will find you."
"I'll keep that in mind." He nodded.
She slowed to a stop as they reached a branching path. "Then we're done for now," she said. "If this works, you can come back to me and we might have something worth building, and if it doesn't, don't contact me again. I don't do charity cases."
Riven didn't respond to that. He simply adjusted his direction and left her behind, already getting away from her sight and mixing into the crowd.
The route she marked wasn't hidden. That was the first thing he noticed when he reached the area. It sat between two busier corridors, just far enough removed to avoid attention but more like hiding in plain sight. Anyone watching casually would see nothing unusual about it. That was exactly why it worked.
Riven didn't take position immediately. He pulled a mask on and moved through the surrounding paths first, letting his awareness settle across the space. Entry points, obstructions, elevation shifts, lines of sight. He was trying to get the lay of the land. So that when the moment came, he could move without hesitation.
By the time he circled back, the time of the deal had drawn closer.
The carriers arrived without announcement. Two men, nothing screaming illegal at a glance. Their pace matched the pattern he had seen before—steady, controlled, unconcerned. Each carried a compact case, held tight in one hand as if afraid someone would snatch it at any moment. The recent hard times hadn't left them unaffected.
That being said, there were no visible guards or enforcers overseeing. 'They probably don't have many to spare.' Riven thought. But he didn't mistake that for vulnerability.
The carriers crossed the midpoint of the route without changing pace, their steps falling into a rhythm that matched the flow of the crowd. Riven moved the moment they entered the blind stretch between two intersecting streets. He dropped from the ledge behind them and merged into the surroundings, Shadow Veil tightening around him as he closed the distance with controlled strides.
He didn't rush. The timing mattered more than speed. Each step brought him closer until he was within reach, his position aligned just off-center between them. The case on the left was slightly more exposed. That was enough.
Prism Shift activated.
The transition pulled him forward in a sharp displacement, but the landing wasn't as clean as he intended. The left carrier had already reacted. His body turned just enough, a dagger rising into the space Riven was about to occupy from inside his sleeve. The edge skimmed past Riven's side as he twisted through the shift, close enough to feel the wind created by the dagger. His hand still found the case, fingers locking around the handle as momentum carried both of them into a brief collision.
The carrier held on for a fraction of a second, trying to stabilize and pull it back. Riven didn't contest the strength directly. He hunched a little and stepped into the space between them, driving forward with his shoulder to break the man's footing. The grip loosened. And Riven didn't het him recover.
But right that moment the second carrier moved immediately, cutting across the street to intercept him from fleeing. He understood the play and adjusted for it, angling his body to intercept rather than pursue. The space narrowed.
Riven shifted his weight with the case in his hand now. He created distance from the staggering man as he tried to slash him again with his dagger. Riven missed it by a couple of inches, then started mapping his escape.
They didn't panic. They weren't like the low-level carrier Riven had seen the other day. The organization behind them clearly gave the contents in those cases some level of importance. One of them turned to follow Riven while the other stopped where he was, choosing position over pursuit, he had to cover his base. That decision traveled through the corridor as clearly as any shout would have.
Riven used it to his advantage.
He took the first turn without hesitation using Prism shift, then another, letting the structure of the alleys break line of sight in his favor. By the time he reached a lower lane, the rythm of the district had already swallowed him. The pursuer was fast, but not fast enough to literally beat a teleportation skill.
Riven stepped into a recessed corner and brought the case into view, running his fingers along the edges until he found the lock points. It gave under controlled pressure, for a body adapted to c-rank skill, this was a trivial task. It opened just enough to reveal what lay inside.
Three stones rested within, each carrying a faint, steady glow.
Skill stones.
C-rank. Clean and unmodified. The kind of quality that can only be found in dungeons- untainted.
Riven closed the case immediately and secured it beneath his coat. He had taken only one. The others remained exactly where they had been. That choice mattered more than the value.
A full loss would have forced a different response. That would draw too much attention to what was still a one-man operation. But by doing this they would check their routes more, shift the timings and come up with a different playbook. And as everyone knows, breaking a routine always exposed the flaws underneath whether they wanted it or not.
Riven stepped back into the moving crowd after removing the mask he had been wearing, his pace settling into the same rhythm as everyone around him.
He had proven his theory right. The quid pro quo of the underworld can be broken, the proof of that statement was now in the briefcase he was holding.