by Pegaz
The leader smiled.
"Yes, it does. In fact, you've shown far more strength than most adventurers in C class. I almost wish I could just promote you all the way to A class right here and now."
John held his breath, but the leader continued speaking.
"Sadly, I can't. You need to complete at least 10 E Class, then 20 D class, and 30 C Class quests before then. The requirement goes up by ten all the way up until A class. To get to S Class you need to kill 10 S Class monsters, or if you are in a party, 10 S Class monsters for each person. I digress. Give us your ID card, and after 10 minutes you can collect it with your new rank. You can wait downstairs."
John nodded. "Thanks for the info, though I most likely won't be staying in town much longer. Sounds like I’ve got a ton of quests on my to-do list, now."
The leader laughed. "Please don't do what you did in Newbie town. They had to spend quite a bit of money for repairs, I heard. Anyway, welcome to Rocky Town. Our namesake is from the rocky mountains that surround us. There’s only one way in or out.”
After an all-knowing pause brimming with satisfaction and pride, the leader added with a sincere smile, “I'm the current Guild Master of this town."
Chapter 26
I Need a Bag
Smiling at that statement, John was made to promise that he would tone it down a little. He asked how many people had passed their test on this quest. As it turned out, John was the only one. The others hadn’t figured out that it was a test; they couldn't even kill an F Rank monster on their own. To be honest, it was not surprising.
John thanked the people again and left the room, returning downstairs.
At the notice board, he was searching through the E Rank quests now. He had to do 10 of them. The only reason he wanted a higher rank was for the access to certain information. He knew the importance of knowledge. Even though he was dense and an idiot sometimes, for the most part, he could unravel any amount of mysteries as long as he had enough information.
John decided to do a Rank E hunting quest. It was an area not far from here, and if he travelled at full speed, he could reach it within an hour. The quest in question was to kill Blood Wolves. These creatures were very quick and agile, but low in defence and attack power. They hunted in packs and were roughly three feet tall and seven feet long, including the length of the tail.
John needed to kill thirty of them and bring the heads back as proof. All other parts of the wolves’ bodies were useless. Blood red colour wasn’t right for fashion.
John reached the area quickly, and he had the system scan it as per his usual routine every time he visited a new and potentially dangerous area.
Scanning Complete:
Blood Wolves: 1,423,479
Neutral Targets: 96,358,517
Buried Treasure: 53
???: 7
Ruins: 1
Now, that’s surprising. Ruins? Like the kind from an ancient civilisation? Maybe no one’s discovered it yet—I've got to check that out! Let's see... System, remove all icons beside Buried Treasure, the three question marks, and the ruins please. He then turned Life vision on, just in case.
On the World Map, he saw where the ruins were. The icon sat in the middle of where the red icons were most concentrated before he asked the system to remove them. He didn't know how many wolves there were, but he knew the area would be fraught with them.
Well, time to practice my assassination skills and stealth attacks.
John took his boots off and put them in his storage. Because of John’s skin defence, rocks and your run-in-the-mill objects on the floor typically were crushed beneath his footsteps. Now, he was trying to touch the ground as quietly as he could, practicing for his approach on his prey. Eventually, he got used to it and decided to begin his hunt.
With his big toe, John could lift himself up and hold the position. He only had to touch the floor with his toe, and he would begin to rise into the air. Typically, John only used his fingers and toes to stab small holes into trees to climb.
The hunt lasted for about eighteen hours. Whenever John found a wolf on its own, he made it his tactic to silently creep up on it and snap his neck. The wolf would die before it even realised he was there. With enough effort, all wolves in the pack were rendered dead. John had killed a total of 1,386 wolves, including the pups which wouldn't have survived without their parents anyway. Such was life.
The entrance to the ruins was where the pack leader and its mate lived, deep inside a cave. There was a hidden trap door, but when John opened it, his Night Vision skill automatically turned on and caught sight of a trap being sprung. All around him he could see the walls going down. The stairs collapsed. John had no idea how deep it went. If he jumped down, would the fall injure him? Powered up as he was, if the fall was more than 100 feet, then he could be seriously injured if not killed.
BANG!
John punched the wall out of anger, then the Emotional Resistance skill kicked in and he was calm again.
He'd done all that he could and now he had to go back to get a rope or something else to climb down safely. Even though he could kick the walls for holes and descend, he didn't want to risk a cave in. Who knows how old this place is.
John returned to town a little depressed. This time it was real, no acting. Going to the Guild Hall to hand in the quest, he first made sure to take out the wolf heads from the Storage Space and tie them together with their own tendons, hanging out of their necks. He really had to get a bag.
Walking through town with over a thousand wolf head's tied together, he caused a considerable stir in the city. John kept apologising, especially when kids started crying.
Arriving at the Guild Hall, he couldn’t help but notice that when people saw the heads, they instinctively moved aside to let John through.
He smiled and thanked them. John handed the proof over to the Guild and asked if they sold storage bags here that could fit things like a thousand heads inside. He did not want to have to drag them behind him. The woman behind the counter was still shocked, so all she would do was nod and point upstairs.
John went to the second floor and bought a bag that didn't expand; it could store a colossal amount of objects inside. Even the Guild Hall had never hit the max amount.
The bag cost him £200,000. It was an Epic bag with three runes' in: Durability, Weight Removal, and Stretch. Two of the runes were self-explanatory, but Stretch was to stretch the opening of the bag to fit bigger things inside. When the said object went into the bag, it would then shrink with the bag's opening. He tied it on his right side trousers next to the other bag that had his compass and money in it. When placed alongside each other, they looked like almost the same bag.
John completed the ten quests without a hitch, climbing from Rank E to Rank D. However, he couldn't find any rank D quests in the same area as the ruins, so he decided to skip them for now.
Instead he bought a rope, shovel, pickaxe and a few other survival gears in preparation. While these typically weren’t useful to him most of the time, he could use them when he needs to be more “delicate", such as when exploring ruins that could break apart with the wrong move.
As he was leaving, someone came up and handed him a note. He didn't say a word, nor did he even look at John or make any noise when moving. This mysterious messenger had a black hood on so John couldn't see his face. As the messenger walked away, John used Life Aura and followed him with his eyesight to see what he was up to. To his dismay, the man simply walked further and further away, not doing anything interesting. John stopped looking at him and opened the note to read it.
We invite you into the underworld for jobs, information, and more. If you want it and have the money, we will be able to get it.
There was an address and a password that was good only for an hour. John decided to go. If he didn't like the jobs they had to offer, then he didn't have to do them. It was the information part that convinced him go.
He went to the address and used Life vis
ion, seeing two people at the door. Their hands looked like they were gripping onto something, more than likely weapons. Is this a trap or a test?
John knocked on the door and watched the two peoples’ reaction. The guy on John's left opened a slot in the door and asked for the password, John gave it to him. As soon as he said the password, the guy on the right opened the door. This could still be a trap, but at least he hadn’t been outright attacked.
John entered. One of the doormen approached a table and placed a leather parchment down. He gestured to the chair opposite him. John saw nothing wrong with the chair and sat down, carefully opening the parchment.
"You're cautious, this is good. You'll be less likely to get killed on a mission because of carelessness."
The man opposite him was a redhead in his thirties. He had an eye patch on his right eye and a big scar across his face that stretched from his right temple to his left cheek. He had thick black eyebrows, clean-shaven and quite a round neck.
John redirected his attention to the parchment before him.
Jobs - Spy, Assassin, Thief, Agent or Informant.
Contract - Separate Per Job.
Payment - The highest on the left to the lowest on the right in jobs, depends on the task.
"So, you're offering me these jobs? How does it work?"
"While you're in this town, I'll be your agent. I used to be a spy but got ousted after three years of work. These days, I have to hide my face wherever I go. This scar was a parting gift from the noble I had the pleasure of spying on.
"When you want to do a job from this town's job list, you'll go through me. Of course, I plan to make you happy because 10% of each job's pay is added as a bonus to the agent that matched the worker. There's no reason I would want you dead or out of work." The man stared straight into John's eyes to show he was upfront with him.
I need to find out if I get any bonuses in the system for killing humans. At least this way, I can make sure my test subject deserves death. I’ve never directly killed a human before, though… If I get nothing from killing them then I'll just quit. But if it works out... I think I can get used to killing people. At the very least, I need the information that this shady business has to offer.
John made his mind up and said, "Fine. Spy is too long-term, while theft isn't my speciality. Agent or informant don't suit me, either. I'll be an assassin, but under one rule: my targets must deserve it."
"That's an easy request. Almost all of them deserve it in some way or another. Okay then, all we need now is a code name for when you're on the job."
John smiled a little evilly, code name in mind.
"Death's Hands."
Chapter 27
The Most Expensive Gloves Ever Made
"Death's Hands. Pretty good to be honest, let me check if it's in use. If it is, then you've got to think up another."
The man walked into the back room, a few minutes later he came back.
"It's free. Most people use swords, knives and other weapons, so hands are free. You're quite lucky."
John smiled and nodded. "What's my first job? As long as you can prove he or she deserves the death sentence, then I'm game."
The man picked up five rolled up parchments that were made of some kind of leather and handed them to John. He looked over each parchment. They were a collection of sketches and a few details about each target. John read through all five then pointed to the fourth one. "Tell me more about this one."
The man passed John a scroll of information, who then unrolled the leather parchments and started reading.
"His name is Count Erin, he has a mansion in this town—well-guarded and a bit far from the main streets and general public. We don't know the exact amount of patrol guards he’s got, but we've counted more than one hundred and forty. One of his bodyguards is a Rank B Adventurer who is just as guilty. They have four towers surrounding the mansion with archers and warning bells.”
"Is it possible to get information on all the guards, too? I'll kill everyone involved, but the innocents who just work for him for the money, I'll let go. Even if they hunt me down, I know it’s just their way of making ends meet." John was determined to get rid of everyone involved in this.
The man was slightly stunned at his question and resolve. A few moments later, he nodded his head.
"We can, but it will take a while. Maybe a few weeks. We can ask the client if they want to include all of suggested targets for a little more money. We'll call it the ‘root removal’ option."
John smiled at his agent’s money-motivated tactics. "Okay, contact me when it's done, then. Also, can you find equipment that will help do the job?"
"Yeah, that's no problem. What type of equipment do you want?"
"Gloves that will survive my punching power, Durability, Colour Change, Self-Clean, Self-Mend and Self-Size runes, needs to be Mythical grade." John wanted matching gloves to his clothes, this way if there is a fingerprint recognising technology in this world, he would be safe and look good too.
"That will take a bit of time and will cost you. How much punching power do you have if you have to specify that condition?" Now the man was curious about his strength.
John smiled, crouched down and punched the floor casually and lightly. It was made of concrete and had some carpet laid down, but a hole one foot wide and six inches deep appeared. The man went pale. If things had gone badly, they could have been dead in a split-second. Of course, they’d assumed he was unarmed for a reason, but only now did he realise John didn't even need to rely on any weapons.
Quivering with fear and maybe a little excitement, the man continued to speak.
“All things considered, you’re looking at £500 million for the gloves. Because you're working for us now, we'll cut the cost where we can, but you're still going to be paying at least £475 million."
"I can't afford it at the moment, but give me a few months. It just depends on how many rank D, C and B monsters there are around here. In the meantime, you can start collecting information about the guards." John couldn't believe the cost of this pair of gloves.
The man agreed with John and gave him some more information. "No one has ever made gloves for attacking purposes before. It’s a completely different style, with its own set of unique materials needed. We will even have to call specialists in blacksmith, tailors, and a few other job classes to sort out the design. This is a first, and if I'm not wrong... these gloves might be the most expensive that have ever been made."
"Doesn't matter, these gloves will be useful to me for a very long time. My fighting style is hand-to-hand combat, so they will be put to good use.” And with that, John decided he’d wrung out all the information he could from this place. “I'm going to go to the inn, have a good night sleep, and start earning money as quickly as possible for those gloves."
As he got up to leave, he turned around to make eye contact with his agent. "Oh yeah… I haven't got your name yet, nor the name of your organisation."
The man started laughing. "Only now after accepting an assassin's job, picking a target, and ordering the most expensive gloves ever made do you want to know our name?" He stopped laughing after a few more seconds.
"My name isn't important, call me Agent for now. The name of our organisation is… Nothing."
"I get hiding your name, but.... Nothing as an organisation's name? You're kidding, right?"
"Nope, the name is really Nothing. Don't know who founded it. it was much too long ago, but the man came up with it had quite the sense of humour. If ever the royalty or officials found out and reported their organisation, he figured he could get a good laugh out of ‘Nothing is an assassin's guild!’ or ‘Nothing killed Sam!’ kind of thing."
John smiled. He did see the funny side of it. In the grand scheme, the name of an underworld organisation didn't matter anyway.
He said bye to Agent and to the guy hiding behind the fake wall. That part made Agent shocked too. He didn’t think John had noticed the other guy.
Sadly, there weren’t any, so he picked the highest paying quest in the area. The quest was to kill a monster called a Yellow Striped Lion.
Aren't tigers the ones that are striped, and lions the ones that are yellow? Guess this world’s common sense was a lot different from what he was used to.
Quest: Kill 10 Yellow Striped Lions and bring back the Hides and Heads.
Rank: D Location: Area 1334. Pay: £25,000 for the Hide and Head.
Rank D creatures did bring in a lot more money than what he was used to. Curious, John checked over the other ranked quests.
Average rank D creatures’ hide, and the head is £20,000.
Average rank C creatures’ hide, and the head is £75,000.
Average rank B creatures’ hide, and the head is £180,000.
Average rank A creatures’ hide and the head is £1 million.
That was as far as the rank board went. With this in mind, John figured he might as well just kill the two hundred tigers and rank up to C. Then, he could complete all the quests needed up to B rank.
John couldn't kill an A Rank creature just yet. The only difference between D Rank and B Rank monsters was the creatures speed. He'd still die in one hit, regardless, so he might as well risk his life for more money.
He really needed his defence points up.
Chapter 28
Reward
John checked the skill details on the last defence list.
Elbow Joint - Idlers 0/99, Friction - 0/100, Toughness - 0/100