Merchant Of Yliaster

A figure cloaked in black clothes walked through the back alleys of the city, his footsteps oddly silent. There was a fluidity to the man's movements that betrayed his training. The man stopped before a building and glanced at it, planning his next course of action.

After a moment of consideration, the man jumped, grabbing onto the ledge of one of the windows before launching himself up with a simple movement. Soon, he was crouching on the roof of the building, not to be seen by anyone who might look in his way.

He moved with purpose as he quickly got to the other side of the room before jumping to another building close by. After repeating this a couple of times, he was eventually on a tall building, and was staring at an even taller one. Why do they give me the most inconvenient tasks? He thought as he tried to find a way to climb the incredibly tall building.

He decided soon and leaped off the building he was on in the direction of the tall building. The tall building had 10 floors, and he was pretty sure he could reach the roof without problem normally, but this building was weirdly far from all the other buildings nearby.

He concentrated as he reached the highest point of his leap and jumped once more as if he had solid ground beneath him. This made him reach the wall around the 8th floor of the building. He stepped onto a ridge on the wall, reaching the roof.

According to his intel, he needed to enter the tenth floor, but they helpfully didn't provide him with the layout of the place, so he would need to find a way himself. The roof had a door, though, so that seemed like it wouldn't be a problem. As fucked as the cameras and all optic tech was after the initiation, their job became a lot easier as far as nobles were concerned.

He took out his toolkit and started picking the lock. The lock wasn't even that complex, as the owners probably never thought that thieves and such would be able to get on the roof unseen, but that was hardly the case after the initiation. Soon, the door unlocked with a click, and the man entered the building through a stairway leading to the floor he needed to go to.

He moved with purpose, as he knew where he needed to go. His customer was apparently a frequent customer here, so they provided the information he needed to find his target. The target didn't sleep much, but from time to time took midday naps. This was one of those very rare moments.

He really hated kidnapping missions. When you killed someone, it was very simple; sometimes it became a chore to remove evidence from the scene, but kidnapping was a whole different affair. Finding and knocking out the person was pretty easy; the hard part was bringing said person out of a highly secured building, and managing to drop them on an inconveniently arranged spot. Customers rarely considered this process when they sent their requests.

He quickly got to the door of the room his target was in, the place looking deserted for the most part. He could hear some people in the distance, but whatever guards this place had were used to guarding only the front door. The place wasn't used to facing anyone with bad intentions, and even he was a bit curious what his customer was on about. They would probably tighten the security after this day, though, so he needed to succeed now when the security was still lousy.

His presence started to dwindle as he activated a couple of sneaking skills at the same time. His body blurred and unnaturally blended into the background like he was a painting done by a messy artist. He crouched below the door, and this lock was even more disappointing than the previous one. He could detect that the lock had some digital components, but they hardly slowed him down. With a click, the door was opened in seconds.

He got inside and quickly scanned the place. There was a simple queen-sized bed in the room, and a makeup table could be seen beside it. Other than a wardrobe, there was nothing much in the room except a few paintings.

His target was sleeping on the bed. The man didn't observe the woman, as he doubted a noble would have a low level, especially considering that this woman had a more mundane class. Mundane classes being easier to level was common knowledge at this point. He was not sure how he would bring the woman out without being seen, but he would think about that when the time came.

There was something unexpected, though. On the bed beside the woman, something no one told him before lay too. A golden colored puppy was curled beside the woman. It was really cute, but he didn't really like surprises in missions like this. If the dog made any sound, he would be detected immediately, and he didn't look forward to the company he would have if that happened.

He really didn't want to fight the young master of the Rodrick family in a cramped place like this. He moved slowly and took out a dagger from his belt. He was not a very ruthless guy considering the associated personality with his profession, but he would need to do this if he wanted to succeed in completing this task. He observed the puppy first to avoid any further surprises.

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Puppy - Level-15

How did they make it reach level 15? Nobles were truly extravagant if even their pets had these types of levels. He prepared himself, getting ready to immediately knock the woman out if she woke up from what he was about to do. He slowly lifted the knife above his head before bringing it down on the puppy, trying to give it a swift death.

With a wet sound, the dagger found its mark, but the assassin immediately felt that something was wrong. Parting flesh had a certain quality that you couldn't mistake for anything else, and this felt more like stabbing goo. His eyes turned to the puppy, previously not even keeping his eyes on it to see if the woman would wake up, and what he saw confused him.

His dagger was stabbed alright, but instead of blood, a green, slimy goo oozed out of the wound. To his dismay, the puppy's eyes were open, and it was looking at him with an expression that could almost be called interested.

The next few things happened really fast. He had a small moment in which his intuition screamed at him to run away, but he knew it was already too late. He watched as the puppy slowly lost its golden color, its shape, and turned into a green mass of filaments shaped roughly like a dog. Only the eyes remained, still looking at him curiously.

He couldn't even understand what was happening, and fortunately for him, he didn't need to. In the next moment, mass suddenly expanded towards him, widening in all directions with a speed he couldn't even react to before it closed down on him from all sides. There was a brief feeling of burning, and darkness, and he knew no more.

The whole process was completely silent, and the man did not even manage to make a noise as everything happened in less than a second. The green mass flowed eerily back on the bed, and after convulsing for a second as if it was trying to digest its food, it started shrinking, green filaments flowing inward like a collapsing star.

It turned back into a puppy, now considerably bigger than before. It yawned lazily before curling beside the woman once more, snuggling against her. The woman chose this moment to wake up, blinking lazily. She glanced at the puppy with a smile, before her smile immediately gained a puzzled quality.

"Felix? Did you get bigger?" Nesha asked, completely puzzled. She already saw the dog grow a couple of centimeters after eating good food today, but this was a bit excessive. Felix couldn't even be called a puppy anymore, as his body was starting to show some signs of maturing. He was around forty centimeters long, compared to the thirty he was just an hour ago. From the looks of it, he would be around seventy when he matured completely.

The dog opened his eyes and glanced at her with a lazy look, still looking as innocent as always. Nesha truly didn't know how that guy found this dog, but he was honestly cuter than anything she had ever seen. She petted the dog absentmindedly, glancing around the room before getting up from the bed. Soon, there was a knock on the door.

"Mistress! Mr. Devon felt an intrusion into the building; he is checking the roof now. Is everything fine?" the old organizer's voice could be heard through the door, as the man shouted, sounding quite anxious.

An intruder? They didn't get intruders for years. No one wanted to land on their bad side, as angering the owner of one of the most prestigious high society restaurants hardly gave you a good reputation in these circles. She was also a bit surprised that they risked fighting with Devon, as the man was infamous among the nobles due to his ruthless fighting style.

"I'm fine, Kal, go check the other rooms." She said before trying to unlock the locked door to go outside. To her surprise, though, she found the lock already unlocked. These doors automatically locked themselves when the door was closed, so this immediately alarmed her. She opened the door and glanced at the old organizer who was just knocking on the door beside hers.

"Kal, you didn't unlock my door's lock right?" she asked, nervousness creeping into her voice. Was the intruder inside the room before she woke up? The old man's eyes widened before he spoke with a voice tinted with disappointment.

"Of course not, Mistress," he said. And approached the door, closing and opening it a few times. His features became more and more concerned as he crouched and started to check the lock on the door. He sighed before getting up.

"This lock was forced open, and I don't think it's been that long. The circuit inside is damaged, but still warm. You truly didn't see or hear anything, Mistress?" the man said, his previous disappointment completely turning into concern.

"No, everything seemed nor-" she abruptly stopped, before glancing at Felix, who was standing beside her, watching them while excitedly wagging his tail. Was everything really normal? The dog was definitely not. Nesha observed the dog.

Felix - Puppy - Level-20

"Huh?" Nesha almost shouted out loud, seeing the dog's level. She was sure that the dog was just level 15 before she slept, and even that level was completely unnatural for a puppy. Now, though, the dog's level was higher than almost everyone working on The Nest.

"Did you guys manage to find anyone who shouldn't be here in the building?" she asked, her voice quivering a bit as he kept staring at the dog. The innocent look in his eyes was starting to look eerie as understanding slowly dawned on her.

"No, mistress. It's as if the intruder suddenly vanished into thin air," the man said, looking both troubled and guilty. Maybe not into thin air, but into a do-.. creature? She thought. She supposed it was a mistake to think that such a man would have a normal puppy with him, but still, this was so beyond her understanding that she still couldn't understand what happened.

"Keep searching. I will continue as always," she said, and she started walking towards her usual spot. She really needed to feel some normalcy at the moment. Despite knowing a part of the truth now, she still couldn't stop herself from petting the dog as he walked beside her.

Maybe you are a monster, but at least you are a cute one.