2 Black Serpent Siblings

[Black Serpent Siblings Headquarters], [Black Bear City]

The Black Serpent Siblings, who had conquered the whole Western District of Black Bear City, did not live in luxury, to say the least. Because they had a lot of enemies, they could not be in a vulnerable spot, where they would be raided by the city guards.

Furthermore, since they were only three, they could not afford to do like other gangs which assigned some of their members to guarding duties. Whenever they moved, the three black serpent siblings would move.

Hence, Arthur had found the sewers to be the best hiding place. As it stunk, no one ever visited the sewers. After digging a small tunnel and creating their headquarters, they rescued three dogs which acted as guardians and alarms. Even if there was an unwelcome guest, the dogs were trained to bite and bark. When they went out, the dogs would be sealed in the room and it would be near impossible to discover their headquarters.

"Today was a nice harvest, don't you think?", John said aloud as soon as they returned home.

As one of the three major gangs in Black Bear City, the [Black Serpent Siblings] were very infamous. With John's strength, Emma's agility and Arthur's mastery of knives, even the city guards did not dare to chase them unless they were more than five men strong. After all, not even a month passed since Arthur had murdered a city guard who was trying to imprison one of the [rats] in their territory.

Emma nodded: "Sixteen hundred copper coins...The rats are growing more proficient, huh..."

[Rats]

This was the term that the gangs used to talk about orphans and beggars on the street, living under the protection of a gang. They would spend their days begging travellers and inhabitants, or even resort to stealing when they could not met the quota imposed by Arthur. For the three [Black Serpent Siblings], it was a steady source of income.

"Three rats were cut today...I hope it will send a message to the other rats", Arthur spoke, "Ever since I started to cut rats' fingers, they surprisingly started to fill their quotas. I guess I should consider murdering one or two, just to see their reaction"

John had a pale face hearing about it. After all, it would have been his fate, had he not been chosen by Arthur six years ago.

Seeing the fear on Emma's face, Arthur sighed: "Do not worry, I won't resort to killing our tools. They are still our main source of income in those dire times. Emma, please feed the dogs and cook us a nice meal with the eggs we purchased"

Just as he said that, Arthur uncovered his bandaged face and hood. Although everyone knew of Emma's face and recognized John by his towering 2-meters-tall build, nobody knew the face of Arthur besides his 'siblings'.

Emma blushed at the sight. She was evidently in love, although she never dared to express her feelings.

John saw the scene with a mixture of helplessness and admiration. Arthur was not the same as them. They knew that their leader came from a different place than them. He was not born on the streets, or abandonned by his parents. He used to be a nobleman, which explained how he was so smart and ruthless. However, Arthur's household was invaded and conquered in the last war opposing the Greenhill Kingdom and the Darlian Kingdom.

Nearly escaping death by impersonating an orphan on the streets, Arthur travelled a hundred miles before arriving at Black Bear City, which he had chosen. Both John and Emma knew that Arthur would never feel satisfied as a commoner. The reason why he had chosen Black Bear City was evident once he explained his thoughts. He was eyeing the Old Baron Yale's castle.

Short blond hair, blue eyes filled, a strong masculine build and facial features defying the ordinary ugliness found in Black Bear City. It was no wonder that Emma fell in love.

"I will train in the third level", Arthur said, "Do not distrub me. Meanwhile, John, you have to continue to train your body with the weights I built"

The unnaturally strong build of John was not completely natural. John had become the giant he is today thanks to Arthur, who had imposed an incredibly hard training to him.

Arthur was a mystery, not just because he had survived the fall of his noble household, but because he was a reincarnated soul reborn in a medieval era.

The Headquarters were linked to the sewers by a small tunnel, and there was an emergency exit to the surface, in case the sewers were to be flooded. Besides a room where they slept together, there was a living room where they could cook and eat as well as a training room. There, Arthur stored the gang's wealth and weapons. There were also some installations like a pull up bar and weights to lift and increase his physical strength.

'Body Scan', he muttered aloud in English, rather than Common Greenhill Language. Sometimes, his 'siblings' would question him about his tic, but eventually accepted this weirdness of his.

[Name - Arthur Thorn | Age - 14 Years Old

Attributes:

Strength - 1.6 | Agility - 2.1 | Vitality - 1.8

Perks: Ambidextry

Skills: Thorn Swordsmanship [118], Hiding [89], Throwing Dagger Mastery [46], Stealing [32]

Status: Healthy]

Next to his numbers, there were proficiency points. The higher it was, the stronger his skills became. This was the tool that had allowed him to survive the fall of the Thorn Household, and grow stronger. Not to mention storing data, which allowed him to perfectly memorize the now-destroyed and forgotten Thorn Swordsmanship, the biochip allowed him to scan his opponents' attributes. Thanks to this functionality, he could tell what strategy to adopt.

Strength represented the power that can be exerted by muscles.

Agility represented speed and explosivity of movement.

Vitality represented stamina and ability to receive hits.

Against someone with low strength, he would be able to supress his enemies with wide slashes and cuts. Unless his opponent dodged, he would fail to parry his strikes and lose the duel.

Against someone with low agility, he would just dodge and create oppenings to stab and deal a critical blow to his enemy.

Against someone with low vitality, he would just make it into a war of attrition, slowly but surely tiring his opponent unless he is out of breath and deal the critical blow.

Against someone with balanced stats or superior stats, he would just try to make use of his abnormal swordsmanship advantage. Although it was called a swordsmanship, Arthur found daggers to suit him more, and he could apply the Thorn Swordsmanship to it since it was founded on powerful thrusts and bleeding slashes.

Back in the training room, Arthur sat and started to breath in and out in a rythmic manner.

[Thorn Breathing Technique]

Like all noble households, the Thorn Household used to possess a breathing technique that could increase one's physique using the mana in the environment. It was not something that could be easily created. The slightest mistake in the rythm could result in crippling injuries.

Without a breathing technique, there was no denying that becoming a knight would be very difficult, if not impossible.