Stygian Mage

Soren reached the mansion and walked through the gate at a normal pace. He ignored the guards who were looking at him while whispering amongst them and went to the Administration Building directly.

The people walking on the path all looked at him and started gossiping. They all had recognized this young man. The news about the incident at the gate that day had already spread around and now everyone knew about a young Initiator who was ‘bullied’ by the ‘Young miss’ and her friends.

Some looked at him with pitiful eyes, some with disdain; some took pleasure in his misfortune, while some created distance from him—afraid to piss off those little devils by getting too close to him.

Soren ignored everything and went on his way.

“Hehe….I heard you took quite a beating a few days ago.” The old man said in a playful voice as he saw Soren entering the building.

The playful voice of the old man slightly irritated Soren but he still didn’t lash out.

“Just confirm my missions.” He took out his communicator and gave the old man the proof of his killings.

The old man laughed a little as he saw Soren ignoring the matter. He took the communicator from Soren’s hands and checked the proof.

He saw the picture and confirmed the kill for him; finishing the whole process. He gave the communicator back to Soren and took out a money bag with the reward for the mission.

“Eh! What are you doing?”

Soren asked the old man as he looked at the old man taking out the money bag.

The old man clearly didn’t understand Soren’s question as he looked at Soren with a confused expression. Soren shook his head and slid the communicator on the desk back towards the old man. He opened it again and showed him all the pictures of his kills.

There were 8 pictures in total; 1 for each dead body.

The old man was shocked as his eyes almost came out of his sockets. He had heard that Soren was injured that day outside the gate and had to recuperate for a few days. Even if he healed quickly it would still take him at least 4 days to recover enough for completing the missions.

But the proofs in front of him meant that Soren had finished all these missions in 3 days. The old man couldn’t speak for a while and only kept staring at those pictures. He kept counting the pictures, again and again, to make sure he was not miscalculating.

Finally, the old man controlled his emotions and let out a light sigh. He then calculated and took out the rewards for all the missions, passing it to Soren.

Soren took the bags, counted the crystals and then kept it in his pocket after confirming the numbers.

“I told you before, didn’t I; you should not overdo the assassin mission. The City-Guard Captain would get involved for sure if these many bodies are discovered one by one. You’re lucky that our cleaning team is quite good. Without the Vultures, you would be running for your life right now.” The old man stated in a condescending manner. He seemed like he wanted to get some pride back as he was knocked down quite a bit today.

The old man didn’t stop and wanted to continue his ‘lectures’ but...

Soren ignored him and opened the glass panel. He ignored other missions for now and went for the one that paid the most, again; assassination missions.

The old man was quite incensed upon seeing Soren’s actions. He was just reprimanding him about not overdoing it and here he was again, looking to accept more.

The assassination missions were mainly issued by the Family or from someone outside that wanted someone dead. Families and Organizations regularly accepted missions from other people outside their group for a high fee.

As he checked out the list, he could see that there were not many missions left at this point. He had accepted about 15 missions before and had already completed 8 of them.

The old man slowly calmed down and then sneered as he looked at Soren who was looking through the assassination missions again. He was about to mock Soren for digging his own grave as according to him—these many bodies would soon gain the Captain’s attention and then all hell would break loose on Soren.

“Did you hear? The Vultures are all pissed off about something.” A young man sitting on the couch in the corner said to the person sitting beside him.

“You don’t know the full story; I have a friend in that team and he already told me everything. It seems that they had to work the whole night without stopping last night to clean up after someone. He told me that they were cleaning after someone who had accepted a bunch of assassination missions at once and had killed 8 people in one night.”

“Holy Shit! 8 people in one night!” The other guy stated in a shocked voice.

“Shocking, isn’t it? But there was one more shocking thing; the Vultures were unable to keep up with his killing speed and had missed a few of them, but the weird thing is that even though they were delayed by a lot in cleaning up, there was no news about it.” He continued while taking a lofty pose; showing off his connections with the Vultures.

“According to my friend, the news about the killings was getting suppressed by someone. He also told me that it was not easy to do so and the one suppressing the news must be in a powerful position.”

The other guy was surprised to hear all that and looked at his companion with sparkling eyes full of respect.

They kept talking about the topic which would shock anyone but too bad…..

They were sitting too far from where Soren and the old man were, so none of their voice carried over. In the end; the old man ended up mocking Soren for accepting more missions while Soren ended up accepting more of them anyway, doing his best to ignore the old man.

Soren went out of the building after accepting the missions as he tried to forget about the ranting old man. There was even a high priority job in the ones he accepted which made him a little excited as he thought of its rewards.

He opened his money bag and checked the Middle-Grade Mana Crystals. There were 38 crystals in total. By now, he had accumulated a total of about 51 Middle-Grade Mana Crystals.

He walked away while keeping the crystals as he had no other job here.

………

Soren came out of the mansion and made his way towards the restaurant to have some food; he was feeling hungry by now.

When the Initiators reached a certain level they could live even without eating for months and years but Soren was nowhere close to it, so he had to fill his stomach to live.

He told the waiter to find him a silent room with a good view as he entered the restaurant. The waiter acknowledged respectfully and brought Soren to a room on the second floor. It was cut off from the noise outside and had a good view out from the window; of course, the good view being the view of the city. The city was quite developed but had not let go of the greenery yet. Trees and plants could be seen in the city almost everywhere which gave the city a serene and peaceful look.

Soren sat on the comfortable chair while silently gazing at the view outside the window. He had killed 8 people continuously last night which made him quite tired; physically and mentally. He didn’t care much about his hands getting red from blood at this point but he still had to take some time off like this and relax; otherwise, he wouldn’t be able to hold on.

From time to time, cool breezes of wind flew in from the window, caressing Soren’s face and making his hair slowly dance with them. His mind drifted off with the wind as he forgot everything in the world and let everything go.

He felt his mind getting comfortable and relaxed. His body went slightly limp as he leaned back on the comfortable chair. The soft fur of the chair gently touched his skin which gave him a gentle pleasure.

He became completely relaxed and forgot about everything while leaning back in the chair. He forgot about the killings, the assassinations, the missions, the Liston family, and slowly he even forgot himself.

Time slowly passed…..

Knock! Knock!

The serene atmosphere was suddenly broken by the knock on the door. Soren jerked a little but then sighed and opened his eyes.

The waiter came in with the food and drinks as he served them on the table. The waiter seemed quite observant as he could see that he had disturbed this customer, so he apologized before going out.

Soren acknowledged his apology and nodded.

It was not the waiter’s fault anyway as Soren himself had ordered the food before and the waiter had actually delivered everything without delay.

Soren then started eating his food while taking his time. He was in no hurry right now anyway. He continued to eat and drink while enjoying the view outside the window.

He also started thinking about the recent missions. He was a little concerned about the people he had assassinated so far for the missions.

For most of them, he didn’t care about their background, but a few of his targets were from other Families and Organizations. The Liston Family needed them gone so those missions were from the Family itself.

Right now, he was worried about their retaliation. Of course, he didn’t care if they retaliated against the Liston Family but if they targeted him personally that would become a headache for him.

Although he had made a deal with the Captain and the Vultures cleaned up after him properly, there was still a possibility that they would find out about this.

But thinking it through once more; this gave him one more reason to continue with the missions. He needed the Mana Crystals right now and this was the only way to get it quickly. He couldn’t miss the auction and without sufficient amount of Crystals, he was better off not attending.

Soren finished his food and took a sip from his drink as he sat there quietly and thought about his actions.

……….

Soren went back to his hotel room after finishing his lunch. He was not going to continue the missions tonight so he decided to cultivate and start working on his new idea.

He had gotten this idea from his first fight with the Kleboon. He had gotten really close to death that day and that battle left a deep impression on him. He still had the deep scars from that battle on his body which constantly reminded him of it.

He had casted <Ice Arrow> multiple times that day but hadn’t released them. He released them all at once which became a kind of simultaneous release, but what he wanted to do was something above that.

He wanted to be able to do ‘Simultaneous Casting’. He knew it would be hard but wanted to try it.

And so, he started his routine again.

……….

Soren opened his eyes and looked out through the balcony. It was evening right now and only half of the sun was visible above the horizon. He had continued to cultivate and practice for 2 days and now was the time to move out again. He changed his clothes and wore the dark ones; he equipped his gun and knife and moved out. This night was also going to be a busy night, not only for Soren but for the Vultures and the Captain too.

He went out of his hotel after again chatting with Leah for a while; he was getting along well with that girl these days and always talked to her when he had time, it made him relax.

He wore his disguise after getting out and started moving in the darkness. Times like these really made him wish for a concealment spell or a skill. He opened his communicator, checked his first target’s details, and then went to the most possible destination where he could find him. He had chosen this first as this was the high priority target.

Soon, he reached the place which was a restaurant; the same which Soren had come to before. He didn’t go in this time but waited outside, hidden in the shadows. It was already night time but the restaurant was still busy and lit up.

Soren didn’t have to wait for long as his target came out soon. The man was acting a little fidgety as he walked; he also kept looking around to check for any followers.

This made Soren’s job much harder but he didn’t want to give up because of this. He kept his distance with the man but still followed him, without losing his trail. Although the man kept a vigilant attitude, he was clearly not good at it as even Soren could follow him pretty easily.

The man walked on the busy night street while keeping his guard up as Soren followed him. Soren’s clothes might have stood out in any other place but the people there were quite used to seeing someone hiding their faces and identity.

The man didn’t notice anyone following him but still walked in circles for quite a while to make sure of it. And when he was sure that he shook off anyone that might have been following him, he started moving towards his real destination.

Even with all his antics, Soren could still follow him; half of its credit going to Ellie. He had learned these tricks from her in the jungle which came very handy right now.

Soren made sure to stay in shadows while tailing the man but very soon, they reached a deserted area which was completely dark. Soren had a very obvious advantage when it came to dark; he had his ‘Powered Vision’ which allowed him to see in the dark and as such he had it quite easy as he moved in that area and followed the man.

The man took a turn into a dark alley and finally came to a stop. The alley looked totally deserted; a cold wind blew from time to time, throwing the trash in the air. It was so silent there that one could even hear the cries of the wind.

Soren saw the man stopping so, he too stood where he was. He didn’t want to spook the man right now and was also a little bit curious about the man’s reason for coming here. This curiosity was the reason he had not killed the man till now. He had gotten many opportunities during this time but held himself back because of his curiosity.

“Do you have it? Do you have the crystals?” The man asked someone standing in front of him.

Soren furrowed his brows as he focused on the figure in front of the man. Soon, he could see a human figure standing there with a black mask covering the face. The figure was also wearing a hat which covered the other features.

“I have it, but the deal was to come alone. Then why is it that there is a person following you? Do you have a death wish?”