Merchant Of Yliaster

There had been some distractions, and a day lost to sleep, but Maxwell decided that it was finally time to go to the mercenary guild.

While he didn't have the same urgency to level as before, he was still quite curious about the guild. After a brief search, he couldn't find many places he could visit in the city, so he was bored anyway.

Medieval cities didn't really have much to visit once you got used to the atmosphere. Also, the crisis atmosphere around the city didn't help. He could always go to the inner city, but he was more interested in what kind of jobs mercenaries had.

He dropped Felix in The Nest, Nesha not minding the dog's presence a bit. If anything, she was happy about having him.

Maxwell, now alone, stood in a side alley once more. He hoped this time, things wouldn't go astray as before. He willed his clothes to transform and watched them morph into the robes he visualized before. Now, only one thing was left.

He stared at the mask in his hand, being a bit reluctant to put it on. The mask was still pure black, and it was still laughing like there was something hilarious about life. It was not something anyone would gladly place over their face.

He took a deep breath before putting it on in one quick motion. He could immediately feel that mask sticking to his face before it started to release darkness over his body.

The darkness flowed, and Maxwell was surprised to feel that it was a pretty comfortable experience overall. Soon, his skin was completely covered with darkness, and he could feel that he could hide anything he didn't want others to see.

He simply hid everything, not seeing any reason to expose anything. He also could feel that there was a presence at the periphery of his mind, not exactly having a consciousness but still being there.

Is this the remaining part of the vestige? It was a bit creepy to have someone inside your mask, but he had an undefined number of people in his mind as it was. One more would hardly make a difference.

As he put the mask on, he felt the darkness mana around him get more distinct in his senses. He felt that he could easily manipulate the mana in the traditional way as opposed to his guiding.

He also felt that he could control the darkness energy better, meaning that he could shape the shadows around him. Shadow was a type of darkness after all.

To top his disguise, he used infusion empowerment with darkness mana, feeling the mana changing his body. He felt lighter, and his body gained a silent, hard-to-discern quality. If he had any darkness ability, this would probably boost the effectiveness of that ability too.

He started to walk, feeling that he couldn't do much else to better the disguise. He was not sure what he would use if there was a fight, but he supposed he could always fling darkness mana at people. The devouring nature of the mana would be enough for now, as his level was way too high for any problem he might face in the city.

His steps were oddly silent, and despite not having any training for sneaking, it took some time for people to realize that he was passing by. It was a great testament to the ability of the mask, as wearing full black in an open area hardly concealed you.

Maxwell could see that his looks drew some terrified looks from the people around him, making the crowd open the way for him. Every now and then, he felt an observation coming from the guards around the city, but they seemed to be sticking to watching him for now.

It made sense, as blindly attacking someone you couldn't identify was just stupid.

With the way crowds made way, it didn't take long for Maxwell to reach the Mercenary guild. Finding the building hadn't been hard, as he could now read the signs around the city.

The guild was located close to the inner wall, having a location accessible to everyone but still maintaining some prestige with its proximity to the inner city. All around the building, shops selling supplies for mercenaries could be seen. Mercenaries bought their own gear, so it made sense that these people would choose to open their shops here.

With a simple glance, Maxwell could see blacksmiths, supply shops, and even an alchemist. He was a bit curious about that last one, but he would check it out after he was done with the guild.

The building itself was pretty big, roughly equaling the size of The Nest. It had a much rougher look, though. It was entirely made of stone, and surprisingly, Maxwell could see with his senses that the stone was strengthened with metal rods, as if it were a modern building.

It was apparent that the building was the product of a skill, as the stone around the rod was not cemented, but natural rock.

Maxwell could see a guard next to the door, but the man chose to ignore him after sending him a brief glance. He could see a drop of sweat trickle down from the man's forehead. He pushed the door open, moving completely silently.

Being a simple clerk before the initiation, Ren was proud of the fact that he didn't lose his relatively peaceful life after the initiation. He was a coward, as people liked to say, but he was a smart coward.

Immediately after the initiation, he could see that people would choose to have classes that would make them strong, enabling them to leave their boring jobs behind.

Ren detested that idea greatly, so he threw himself even harder at his job, choosing Clerk as his class immediately after the initiation.

With people losing their minds over the initiation, the shop where he worked was ruined, but he was the best clerk in the city when that happened due to his determination.

He was hastily absorbed into the then newly forming mercenary guild, as its leader was anxious about forming the guild fast. Since then, his life has become even better, and even his tier advancement had a much better result than most of the mercenaries in the guild.

Now, though he was questioning his decisions, as a man looking like he jumped out of the bad tales his grandmother would tell him when he had been a bad boy, he entered the Mercenary guild.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

At this point, even a coward like Ren was quite used to handling brutes, but this man didn't look like a mercenary at all.

His clothes were pure black, and he wore a hood. On the man's face, a mask could be seen, and it was the worst thing Ren had ever seen. He could swear that the mask was smiling at him, even though the man was examining the room, not looking in his direction at all.

Throughout the body of the man, not a single shade except dark black could be seen. Ren, being the person who cataloged and evaluated new members, hoped that he was just having a bout of amnesia, as he couldn't remember this member. This meant that he would come to see him to become a member.

Maybe becoming an archer or something would have been a better career? He thought.

Maxwell, who was completely unaware of the effect he was having on the highest-ranking official of the guild in the main room, was checking the room curiously.

He expected a more official look to the building, seeing the outside, but the inside looked like a glorified tavern. He supposed that, considering the personality and background of an average mercenary, this environment made sense.

He could see a long counter on the back side of the room, and some people were going up the stairs to the right after showing a card to the person beside it.

Why is this culture so obsessed with exclusive floors? Maxwell questioned. Making a completely different building for the high rankers would work much better, in his opinion.

He walked towards the counter. There was probably a registration process here, after all.

He was a bit puzzled by the expression of the man behind the counter, as he looked like he was in the presence of his worst nightmare, but he quickly remembered how he looked.

He would be lying if this weren't amusing, but he knew that it could also cause problems in the future. He would need to find a way to tone down the creepiness his mask exuded.

"I'm here to register," Maxwell said, and even he was startled when his voice sounded like a hiss through the room, piercing through it like the room was absolutely silent. I should have tried to speak before coming here… Unfortunately, it was too late now. At least no one knew who he was.

"Ehem, the man said, fidgeting for a second before reaching something behind the counter. Maxwell observed the scared guy.

Clerk - Level-24

The guy's level was very high. He was a bit curious about the skills of classes such as these. He was interrupted by the familiar feeling of observation coming from the clerk.

The man fidgeted with a renewed vigor as he looked at someone behind him, his eyes pleading for help.

"Ehem, I can't seem to observe you.. sir?" The man said. He seemed like he had a very serious case of constipation.

"What do you need to know?" He asked, not helping the man's situation. The man, though, seemed to relax as their interaction took a familiar turn for the first time.

"There are three levels of mercenary guild membership: regular, outstanding, and veteran. To get the veteran membership, you need a veteran to back your skills, but for the outstanding one, you just need to prove that you are capable." The man said, obviously from memory.

"How do I prove that?" Maxwell asked, making the man shiver.

"Usually, the class and level are enough, but I can't see any for you, sir, so you can only be tested by a veteran member." The man said, and Maxwell got the feeling that the man was just throwing a hot potato away.

"Where is this veteran?" He asked. Trying to make his voice more bearable. He found only limited success.

"Here," a bored voice sounded from behind him, as a man stood up from a nearby table. The man was relatively well-built, and considering that he was not scared of him as the others were, he was probably strong.

He immediately felt an observation coming from the man, but it was bound to fail as long as he was wearing the mask. He just answered in kind.

Hunter - Level-27

The man's level was truly respectable, and even after seeing that he couldn't observe him, he seemed unperturbed by this.

"I assume you have something blocking observations?" The man asked. Maxwell was not sure if the man could observe him even if he took the mask off, as his soul space would probably still block the skill, but he nodded.

"I respect the honesty. If it's fine for you, we can get this over with outside." The man said, glancing at the furniture around him. It was apparent that he didn't want to ruin them.

Soon, they were outside, standing facing each other. The man was probably quite famous, as there was a small crowd forming around them.

"Block or attack?" The man asked, sounding bored. It was not hard to understand what the man was trying to ask. After a moment, he figured blocking would be safer. He didn't know how much damage darkness would cause.

"Block," he said, and the man made a surprised expression. "Are you new around here?"

"You can say that," Maxwell replied. It was apparent that the man was quite famous with his attack power, as people around started to look at him as if he were doomed.

To his surprise, the man took out a bow out of nowhere. It seemed he would need to look up storage items, as it was a pretty spontaneous appearance, hinting at a much better storage device than he had.

Maxwell turned his senses to full, as the man slowly nocked an arrow, not really in a hurry. "Be careful, I will make it a bit slow, so that you can react and dodge if it's too much to block. The man slowly drew the bow back, and Maxwell could see lightning mana flow from the man into the bow. He could also see something more unknown to him happening. An energy was flowing into the bow, giving it more power.

Maxwell decided to try something different using this opportunity. Back then, Drakhabgar almost killed him using darkness energy; he found himself fascinated by the concept. He was not sure how he could create the energy out of nowhere, but he didn't need to. In this world, everywhere was dark to a degree, and some places were a lot darker. He willed the darkness energy in his soul space to gather between them before slowly tinting it with his mental energy.

Immediately, he could feel that darkness tried to consume his mental energy, but his mental energy, too, seemed to have the same quality as etherium after the advancement of Soul's Voice. He willed them to coexist, and they did. At this point, though, the hunter was done preparing his attack.

With a small grunt, the man unleashed the arrow, unleashing a streak of lightning at Maxwell. Maxwell acted fast. The arrow was inside his soul space, so he could use telekinesis on it. He added a twist to it and used it with the new energy he created on the arrow. As his world slowed down, his mind once again working in full capacity.

Dark mental energy embraced the arrow, and immediately, the lightning dimmed around the projectile. Darkness energy pulled darkness mana to it as a natural phenomenon, making Maxwell's plan work even better. He could see that in the arrow, an energy similar to darkness energy resided, probably being a skill given by the system.

The arrow travelled through the air, but the lightning around it couldn't even last until the halfway point. To man's credit, the foreign energy lasted a bit longer, but it was snuffed out not much later, and all was consumed by the darkness energy.

Under the shocked glances of the people around them, the arrow slowly came to a halt just before Maxwell, as its energy was completely gone. The only reason it still hovered was Maxwell's telekinesis. With a mental flick, Maxwell flipped the arrow, aiming at the hunter.

The man was gazing at him like he was seeing him for the first time. One should understand that for others with no developed mana and energy detection skills, what Maxwell did looked like a miracle.

"I suppose I don't need to attack?" Maxwell said. He was pretty satisfied with his experiment. What he did now was partly due to his higher level compared to the man, but it was still useful in concept. Even against higher-level foes, Maxwell could use this and many of his other abilities at the same time to cause a greater effect.

"No.. You don't," the man answered.