34 The elder

Mike and Julie were being led along by the quartermaster, but not further into the underground complex like Mike expected but towards the noble district, mansions were lining the streets each with their big gardens with servants were busy taking care off, meanwhile Serina, and Molly were told to wait at the slaughterhouse and Elina was already taking her first tests as an assassin, Mike walked along while secretly raising his alertness

'This doesn't feel good…'

Julie that walked next to him could feel his unease but Mike had gestured to her not to show how intimate they were so she could only look at him with slight concern, soon the three of them arrived at an opulent mansion where the guards gave a salute to the quartermaster before they looked at Mike and Julie for a moment before they made way for them to go inside

'Looks like they aren't going to take our weapons… Well, that makes sense in a rather frightening way…'

Mike figured that the only reason they didn't search them or take they weapons was because they would not be a threat to the people inside anyway

'So they are at least level 4… or god forbid level 5…'

Mike was seriously considering fleeing at this point, he knew that whatever waited for him was not going to be to his benefit, they might even kill him for reporting late, he however still wore a calm expression on his face as his mind raced, only Julie that was familiar and always watching him knew he was not as calm as he seemed, after they stepped into the mansion Mike's instincts began screaming at him, he had honed them over his 4 months of as working as an assassin and always trusted in them which had saved him more than once and right now they were screaming at him to run away before the owner of this mansion discovered him, that is until he felt a presence lock onto the three of them, Julie and Mike both trembled slightly while the quartermaster suddenly looked pale and turned to them as he pointed to a door

"The elder is in there, go report to her"

Mike gave a nod and walked in along with Julie, the inside of the room smelled of smoke and in a leaning chair made of some unknown leather sat a woman in her thirties, she had long brown hair and brown eyes that seemed to illuminate the room, she wore a red dress that exposed her shoulders and legs, she was smoking from a long pipe.

Mike froze when she looked at him, he felt like he was being stared down by some prehistoric monster, Julie that was next to him kneeled down at once, Mike however didn't and thus the woman looked at him for a moment before she took a deep breath from her pipe and breathed out, the smoke formed a vaguely humanoid shape that moved with lightning speed and arrived in front of Mike before it punched him in the gut, Mike was not sent flying however as all the force was equaled out by another force that appeared behind him, he only felt his insides scream as kneeled over, he was unable to breathe and felt like puking blood but swallowed it back down when he saw how expensive the carpet looked, it's not that he didn't want soil the carpet it's just that he felt that his life would be forfeit if he did

"..."

The woman took another deep breath from her pipe before she looked at Julie then at Mike before she gave a nod and spoke

"You sure are an excellent seedling… Now report"

Her voice was not raspy as Mike would expect from a smoker but instead, it sounded smooth like silk, he was however not distracted and began his report

"I assassinated the merchant Alex in Greenvale, but when I visited the local temple I was cornered by bounty hunters… Lucky I hit level 3 and was able to fight them off, from there I was invited as a guest by the local lord of the city, then I dealt with some personal stuff before I returned to the fold today"

The woman narrowed her eyes slightly before she glanced at Julie and asked

"What about her?"

"She's the personal business I mentioned"

The woman gave a nod then she waved her hand and a piece of paper flew up from the table next to her chair and landed in front of Mike, on it was a person that Julie recognized but Mike didn't, then she spoke again

"This is your next target, he is called Casper and is lord of Goulcrest, he's a mage and is your next target… Be glad I personally picked one you had a history with"

Mike lowered his head, he remembered the name Casper or was it lord Casper they called him?

'Whatever it was he was the one that chased me out of Morklove…'

Mike showed a smile and picked up the paper and rolled it up before he put it in his pocket before he spoke

"He'll be dead within a week"

"Very good… You may leave"

Mike got up and turned around to leave as did Julie, when they left the room Mike took a deep breath but didn't do anything else before he walked out along with Julie, it was only after they left the mansion district and Mike felt the presence leave him that he crouched down and spat out a bit of blood, Julie stroked his back with a slightly concerned look on her face and asked

"Mike are you okay?"

Mike spat once more, his spit was still red, then he gave a sigh before he spoke

"...I'll be fine once I get some blood"

"Okay, then let's leave the city at once"

"Yeah… That bitch, can't wait to drink her blood"

Mike fumed meanwhile Julie looked at him with a sweet smile on her face and spoke

"Mike, that was a [Grand smoke mage] she is able to use magic without chanting"

"I see… then a normal [Mage] needs to chant?"

"Yeah"

"Okay… Well whatever, let's leave the city"

Mike made a mental note about this information as he climbed up on Serina, meanwhile Julie and Molly set off and flew through the air, Mike felt the wind as Serina sprinted down the street, narrowly avoiding the pedestrians and the horse carriages on the street, when they neared the walls Mike directed Serina towards a low overhang which she jumped up on before she jumped further up on the roof of the building, sprinting and jumping from rooftop to rooftop the walls eventually was within jumping range and Serina jumped onto the walls surprising the guards that patrolled on them for a short moment before they yelled at Mike and Serina and aimed their crossbows at them, Mike narrowed his eyes and threw some throwing knives that hit the guards in their necks making all four of them die as they choked on their own blood, Mike directed Serina to grab one of the corpses which she did before she jumped down from the walls with the corpse in her maw…

Later Mike drained the corpse from blood and felt a lot better (after the pain of healing his internal bleeding of course), Julie circled overhead on Molly until he was ready and then the two of them headed north towards Goulcrest where lord Casper ruled...

"Wake up!"

Allen opened his eyes and raised his upper body from the mattress on reflex then he quickly got out of bed on autopilot and put on his uniform, it was only when his partner Keren greeted him he awoke for real

"Good evening Allen"

Allen looked over and a natural smile formed on his face as he greeted his work partner back

"Good evening Keren"

Karen gave a smile and grabbed her spear before she put on her helmet, Allen hurried and also put on his helmet and grabbed his spear before the two of them walked out of the barracks, they were now ready for the nightshirt at the lord's mansion and so they began their patrol while chatting like they usually did until about halfway when Allen found something

"Hey, what's that?"

Keren looked over where he was pointing on the walls they were patrolling

"Looks like a burnt out touch…"

Both of them walked over, as they did something eerie entered their eyes, one of their fellow guards seemed to have died next to the burnt out touch

"Shit that's Markus!"

Allen recognized the uniform and ran over while Keren covered her mouth, Allen kneeled down and touched the corpse, it was strange despite being warm still it was completely drained of blood, Allen called out to Keren

"Keren go report this!"

Allen didn't hear any hurried footsteps like he expected so he turned around and saw something horrifying, a giant blood red wolf stood there and looked at him, in its maw was his partner's head that had been silently twisted off the body a horrified look was on Keren's detached head, Allen wanted very much to scream but he couldn't, his entire body was frozen with fear as the slightly green tinted eyes stared at him, suddenly he felt something cold pass over his throat along with slight pain before someone right behind him muttered

"[Drink]"