Chapter 22: a thief slayer in the night (1)

Markus's POV:

Making a quick run by the guard station at the walls, Markus secretly left some money for the guards so that he won't be called out for evading travel fees.

The forest truly was the best place for Markus's skillset, as he can move faster when no one is around to observe thanks to his particular skillset.

Truthfully speaking Markus didn't came here just to kill time (and some bandits), he also came here to test out his new classes.

After leveling up alot, Markus gained 2 new classes: [null mage] and [trapper assassin] while his already existing classes got their own respective upgrades, strengthening his already large plethora of weapons.

"Fires of Valentia" has a very uncommon class system where instead of allocating points to different stats like str, crit, agi and such, the increase in stats is completely dependent on character archetypes, the actions of the player while playing the game and the classes that already exists within the player controlled characters.

In exchange the player is rewarded with "class points" that can be allocated to the different classes in the character's arsenal strengthening it, or it can be used to unlock new classes for the characters, provided that the player has done the required actions to unlock that said class.

((Other than [null mage] I have a few more classes in mind that I want to obtain...))

[Null mage], a class that's both the best for magic combat and the best for anti-magic combat. Basically this class's main function is to study the structure of all magic whether casted by friend or foe giving it the ability to not only cast and understand any magic in existence it will also give you the ability to nullify any of those magic that you have analysed when it's used on you.

The requirements for obtaining this class is very simple yet very hard to fulfil in the game, you need either have to have a high level of understanding of magic, both theoretical and practical or have your character be born with a wide null magic zone in your core (it's the area of your core responsible for managing mana).

((In the game, this was one of the hardest to obtain class as well as one of the most broken but thanks to to another little trick I've discovered, I got it earlier than expected...))

Markus obtained this class through the former option and through that he found out another cheat he could use to his advantage.

Since he was a fusion of two souls, the experience, knowledge and everything else the Kazuki side of him possessed also played a part in shaping his stats, for example if an average battle with Syph gave him enough exp to ascend 1 level then thanks to the other part of his soul he'll instead receive double that amount of exp to ascend that level 2 times, this explained why he has been gaining levels so fast.

((Well it's not as impressive as Reinhart's exp gain though...thanks to his unique one of a kind [hero] class he gets 4 times the exp of a normal person when getting an achievement, what a fvcking cheat that guy is...))

Markus had an internal wry smile as he traversed through the trees of the forest, thinking about how much he'll have to work if he ever was forced to fight Reinhart in a 1 on 1.

The reason Markus wanted the [null mage] class was because of the lack of progress he was making with magic lately, he had already read every single book in the Silver's library and it only offered him less than 1/10 of the knowledge about how the spells he knew from his memories worked so there was nothing more he could do.

Even though he knew about all of 6000+ spells present in the game, that didn't necessarily meant that he could cast all of them due to multiple other requirement factors playing into the process of casting those spells.

But with this class (which is based on the blue mage class in common RPG games) he would be able to learn any spells if he got hit with them or have observed them multiple times.

The other class [trapper assassin] was just there so Markus could be one step closer to obtaining the complete [assassin] class, it's function is as the name suggests, to set lethal traps for your enemies.

""There it is...""

Pushing all his trivial thoughts aside like what he usually did while operating as an agent for Executor, Markus focused on the sight set out before him as he jumped out from within the woods.

Two large Cliffs surrounded with lush green forest surrounding them and a different auburn colored forest that covered them entirely that has a large valley crammed in the middle.

The valley gave off a completely dead feeling, contradicting the scenery that was filled with life surrounding it, the insides of the valley was completely hidden by thick fog, befitting it's name:"mist valley".

""...""

Momentarily basking in the new and exciting sight that's he has just been presented with, Markus was quiet for a few seconds.

""It is beautiful""

Markus said as he couldn't hold back his honest thoughts any longer.

""But I'm not here for sightseeing, now let's see here...""

Markus began to search for the bandit hideout that he was told about.

((If what that guy said was right, I'm looking for "a hut on top of a cliff overlooking the valley surrounded by salt rocks and a thick auburn forest"))

With his information sorted out, Markus began searching.

It was quite a while until he found it.

???'s POV:

"And that's today's cut boys!"

The bandit leader said throwing the gold his gang made today through a little bit of highway robbery.

""""""""Yeah!!""""""""

Multiple of his man cheered on and touched their mug of beer together in celebration.

"Business sure is booming right boss?"

A henchman asked, drunk giggling.

"Do you even have to ask? Don't forget! This is just the tip of the iceberg! The real's catch in there!"

Gorza heartily laughed, pointing at a door behind him.

Knowing what Gorza is implying, the henchman smirked.

"Haha! We're real lucky today, I can't believe we manage to nab a girl of high society! What we gonna do boss? Sell her stuff to the highest bidder?"

"No you dumbass! We'll earn a lot more money if we demand a ransom from her parents instead of doing that small fry stuff!"

Gorza reprimanded his short sighted subordinate in a high and mighty manner.

"Oh yeah, or maybe we can sell her to some traffickers...you sure are smart boss!"

The bandit scratched his head and smiled.

"Of course!"

Gorza arrogantly chuckled.

"You sure are having fun when we still haven't found out anything about John's killer yet"

Suddenly a man walked into the room, he was a scrawny seemingly malnourished man wearing a stained, ragged brown cloak.

"Oh Ethan, you're still going on about that?"

Amused Gorza turned around to face his long time friend.

"Of course, a squad of our men was slaughtered with no survivors in the course of one night and we know nothing about the culprit behind the attack"

Folding his arms Ethan stated.

"Don't be such a worrywart! John was never one of our best when it came to combat, he probably just got unlucky with some adventurers"

Gorza reassured Ethan in a half drunken state.

"Not one of the men we dispatched that night came back! This is clearly not the work of simple travelling adventurers..."

Ethan rebuked his leader in a most respectful tone that he can use.

"What are you so worried about? We have both you and me here after all...with the two of us, no one can stand in our way"

Gorza, he used to be a student of the Lordbell swordsmanship academy in the capital and his best and long time friend Ethan was a graduate mage from the Roa magic academy, so Gorza had full confidence in their abilities together.

"I suppose...but still..."

Ethan still had some worries about the repercussions of that incident.

"Oh come on! We're celebrating a successful job...you should just unwind and relax for tonight"

Gorza insisted that Ethan relaxed, little did he know this would be a grave mistake.

"Hmm...I guess you're right"

Finally Ethan relaxed his muscles and released all of his pent up tension.

"I know what'll take your mind off that stress! How about some juicy gossips on something interesting that's been happening in the capital?"

Gorza said.

"Oh and what'll that be?"

Ethan was interested.

"Although this is unconfirmed, recently there's been a string of attacks and murders by an individual called "the black demon" happening around the commoner district and slums. According to rumours, he or she have been responsible for roughly 68 confirmed deaths, currently they have been declared as an official wanted criminal with a bounty of 200000 gold Cicols for anyone that successfully apprehends them..."

Gorza put one finger on his lips, as if telling his men a secret.

"Oh really?"

"Scary..."

"How did that came to be?..."

Various reactions came from his gang.

"Personally I would love to meet that "black demon" crossing blades with a monster like that is going to give me a considerable amount of excitement"

Gorza licked his lips in excitement.

At that moment a sound came in from the next room, it sounded like a muffled girl struggling.

"Oh it looks like our little guess is awake..."

A henchman said walking towards the door where the sound came from.

"Sorry about that, just keep quiet a little bi..."

Before the bandit can finish his statement-

All the lights in the room died out.

All of them had a collective "what" at this unusual turn of events.

But their confusion didn't last long as the answer literally fell on them.

"What the!..."

One bandit shouted at this sight.

The roof above them broke apart as a shrouded, black cloaked figure fell on the table where all of their wine and gold were placed, stabbing it.

""Good evening gentlemen, I'm the black demon and I have come here on this fine night to drag you all to h*ll""

A polite yet unimaginably cold voice came from the hooded figure wearing a gargoyle mask, signifying the bandit's demise.

Markus's POV:

Blood drips from the blade of Markus's katana as he just did an omnidirectional slash decapitating nearly all of the people in the room except for Gorza who defended with his sword and Ethan, who erected a blue grid like magical barrier around himself in the shape of a dome.

((I guess the first attack worked, I managed to take out all the small fries, leaving behind only the big shots...))

Markus was pleased with this turnout, the moonlight shone in from the hole in the roof, reflecting off the part of his pure white hair that wasn't covered by the hood of his black cloak.

""Huh...it seems you two are different from the rest""

Markus said, referring to Ethan and Gorza.

"Bastard! How did you get in here? What happened to all the men I had on lookout!?"

Gorza angrily demanded an explanation.

""Oh those guys...yeah let's just say that they weren't very diligent with their jobs...""

Markus gave a vague explanation about his act of mass murder outside, dodging Gorza's glare and scratching his head in a bid to at least act remorseful about what he did.

"You little runt! You'll pay for what you did to my men!"

Gorza screamed as he charged in to attack, holding his sword overhead intending to cleave Markus in two with a single decisive swing.

"Gors! Wait a minute"

Ethan tried to warn his friends but it was too late.

Gorza swung down his sword only to find that his sword was nowhere to be found.

Actually his two hands wasn't there either.

"Ahhhhhhhhh!!!!"

Gorza screams out in pain as blood begins to spill out of the stubs where his hands used to be and stumbled back.

""for someone who just boasted about how high his combat power is, you're surprisingly fragile""

((He's only LV 3 at best, and his stats are abysmally low...))

Markus commented.