The Eternal Assassin

"So, find everything you were looking for?" Rosh asked, blowing on his stew before popping a spoonful of it into his mouth, all but moaning at the rich flavors. The man acted like he hadn't had a home cooked meal in weeks, and based on the situation Asher had found him in, that very well might have been the case.

"I think so… That and more if I'm being honest," Asher admitted, helping himself to his own dinner. To his surprise, the near scalding heat of the stew didn't actually bother him.

Wow, no more burning the roof of my mouth from my own bad decisions? Complete Resilience is the best!

"No surprise there, the Whikoga Library is pretty massive," Rosh said, pointing at him with his spoon. "Are you planning to go back? Not that I don't trust you to stay true to our arrangement or anything, but don't forget I can feel how low you're getting on shards. If you have to keep paying the librarians…"

"Don't worry, I'm planning to get more," Asher said, rolling his eyes as he reached across the table and dropped a hundred shards into the former instructor's hand. He'd offered to pay Rosh a hundred shards a day if the man would help him while he was in the city, and the man had jumped at the opportunity. Apparently, that was considered a fairly respectable daily wage for most people, if slightly on the lower side.

After his recent expenditures, Asher had just under a thousand shards left on him. As much as he wanted to do a little more research, it was probably smarter for him to earn a bit more capital before he found himself needing to pay for something he couldn't afford. Especially after the mission he'd sent Rosh on. Speaking of…

"So, any update on that enchanted item I sent you after?" he asked, noticing the way Rosh stiffened slightly at the question. The former instructor slowly brought another spoonful of stew to his mouth, savoring the bite as if he was terrified Asher would flip the entire bowl when he heard the news.

"I have an idea of where to start looking… But it's going to take some time. The person who I suspect might be able to get you what you need is a bit of a big shot in the criminal underworld of Whikoga, and I can't just approach them out of the blue. I need to work my way up the chain of command. Grease some palms, if you understand my meaning. And to do that…"

"You need shards?" Asher guessed, earning a hesitant nod from his partner. Sighing, Asher leaned back in his chair and scratched his head. "I figured as much. Well then, I don't suppose you'd know of any nearby monster dens outside the city walls, would you?"

Rosh looked at him in surprise, clearly having expected him to explode and lash out after hearing his news. Realizing Asher wasn't going to punish him, he quickly nodded, leaning forward across the table.

"No monster dens outside the walls, but if you want to earn shards fast and don't care about danger, the dungeon would be your best bet. It costs five hundred shards just to enter, but you can earn that back a hundred times over if you're confident in your skills."

"Well that certainly sounds convenient," Asher mused, wondering what exactly the dungeon looked like. "How far from the city is it?"

"You misunderstand," Rosh chuckled. "The city is built on the dungeon. Just about every city in the Noala Kingdom is. Dungeons output fantastic resources to many of the crafters residing within the city, and it makes besieging the city next to impossible."

"Seriously? Sounds a bit dangerous…" Asher imagined a small army of heavy boars rampaging through the city streets, and he shuddered at the thought of their tusks tearing through innocent people unable to defend themselves. "What's stopping monsters from escaping the dungeon and attacking civilians?"

"Dungeon monsters are different from the other two types of monsters," Rosh explained, subconsciously slipping into instructor mode as he held up three fingers. "Dungeon monsters, as the name suggests, are those that spawn within a dungeon. While you could forcibly take one outside of the dungeon, they won't willingly leave the dungeon of their own volition. The deeper into the dungeon you head, the stronger the monsters will become, but the greater the rewards.

"Zone monsters are the second type. These are the ones most often encountered in the wild. For reasons we don't fully understand, certain areas will begin naturally spawning monsters over time. Thankfully, these zone monsters tend to stay in their respective zones, hence the name. Because of that, they are seen as a boon, as their zones are used for farming materials and shards.

"And lastly, we have wild monsters. These are monsters that don't seem to have a set habitat and choose to wander about the world, attacking towns and villages or caravans on the road and the like. The vast majority of monster-related deaths are from wild monsters, seeing as dungeon monsters and zone monsters are generally only attacked by heavily armed, prepared warriors."

"Makes sense," Asher said, thinking back to the heavy boars. I guess they were zone monsters then, seeing as they stuck to their meadow and didn't make trouble for the village. "So if I'm looking for shards, I should just head deep into Whikoga's dungeon?"

"Yes… But you should be careful," Rosh added after a moment's hesitation. "Not that I doubt your ability after watching you take down Latch and Wes… but you did take quite a nasty wound in the process."

"Yeah, that was some fight…" Asher paused, twirling his spoon around his fingers as he replayed the fight in his head, briefly losing himself in the exhilaration he'd felt during combat with an intelligent opponent. Fighting monsters was fine for practicing skills and earning shards, but it couldn't hold a candle to fighting people or awakened beasts.

A sudden thought struck Asher, and he grinned.

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"Hey Rosh… The reason you need shards in the first place is to grab the attention of this supposedly powerful person, right? It doesn't necessarily have to be good attention, does it?"

"I suppose not…" Rosh said, looking hesitantly at Asher's expression. "It depends on what kind of deal you're planning to offer. Knowing her, you'll probably have to tear the artifact from her fingers no matter how we approach her. Why, what are you thinking?"

"Oh, nothing much," Asher grinned, putting his spoon down and standing up, checking to make sure his bandolier of daggers was tight across his chest.

"I just came up with a way to kill two birds with one stone is all."

Brandon stumbled out of the Devil's Stiletto, blowing a kiss to his favorite whore as he began making his way back to his gang's hideout. Despite it being the dead of night, this section of Whikoga's second ring was busier than ever, and there were plenty of enchanted gemstones lighting the path for him to follow. Those lucky bastards that managed to find a Light element probably never had to do a hard day's work in their entire lives.

As he walked, Brandon grinned at the panicked looks on people's faces when they spotted him and hurried to get out of his way. One of the unofficial perks of being one of Loratta's elites was that few people dared to cross his path. They knew all it would take was a single word from him, and Loratta would destroy whatever meager lives they had managed to make for themselves.

Yawning, he scratched his backside as he turned down one of the many alleyways crisscrossing Whikoga's red-light district. He passed an unconscious drunk, and he was careful not to step in the pool of vomit as he made his way deeper into the dark alleyway.

While he enjoyed the looks of fear he got these days, he honestly sort of missed the old days where rival gang members would attempt to mug him or jump him when they thought he wasn't looking. There was no better feeling in the world than taking down some punk that thought you were their ticket for making a name for themselves.

Grinning at the memory of the last idiot he'd roasted, some upstart that had been lucky enough to get their hands on a Strength element and thought they would rule the city, he almost didn't notice the person blocking his path until he'd walked directly into them.

Realizing his obstacle wasn't hurrying to get out of his way like everyone else, Brandon finally stopped a few feet away, squinting at the strange man before him. His clothes were bland and simple, more like something a farmer would wear than anyone located within the city, and he wasn't all that large or really very intimidating at all. The only thing that stood out about the man was the bandolier of daggers stretching across his chest and the piercing gaze in his bright blue eyes.

"What'dya want?" Brandon slurred, trying to focus on the frowning man looking at him like he was some sort of disappointment.

"Are you Brandon? Also known as Inferno, perhaps?"

"Yeah, that's me," Brandon said, a grin slowly forming on his face as he realized he might be getting that fight he wanted after all. "Who's asking?"

"Call me a concerned citizen," the stranger said, looking him up and down. "You're actually Inferno? The man responsible for burning down the houses of those who refuse to pay Loratta's absurd protection fees? Oftentimes with the people still inside?"

"Oh yeah, that's me alright," Brandon confirmed, laughing as he realized this stranger wasn't a rival gang member but some hero wannabe who'd decided he'd start cleaning up the city after realizing the guards were never going to actually do anything. It had been awhile, but these types always popped up every now and again. "You wanna know the best part of burning people alive? It's listening to their screams as their insides cook."

"Jesus, you're just a straight up sociopath, aren't you?" the stranger asked, his eyes widening slightly at the revelation. "Not some poor orphan who was forced into this life despite wanting something better for themselves or some other equally tragic tale. Not that it really matters to me after hearing everything you've done, I guess I'm just surprised that you don't appear to have any redeeming qualities."

Brandon frowned at all the big words the stranger was throwing around, wishing he hadn't had quite as much to drink that night as he had. But even if he didn't catch everything that was said, he got the distinct impression that he was being insulted.

God my head hurts… Let's just make this quick.

Sighing, Brandon activated one of his favorite skills, grinning at the sphere of fire that exploded outwards from him in all directions. Fire Nova certainly wasn't a subtle skill to use, but he wasn't exactly worried about any guards coming this deep into the red light district. Especially not so late at night.

Blinking the bright lights from his eyes, he looked for the stranger's smoking corpse, only to realize the man was still standing directly in front of him with an even greater look of disappointment on his face, not having moved a muscle. It was as if the flames had somehow missed him entirely.

"Seriously? That's your opener?" The stranger sighed, pinching the bridge of his nose. "Maybe I should have just gone and fought monsters in the dungeon after all…"

Brandon quickly grew sober as he realized he might actually be in trouble. It had been years since anyone had survived his surprise Fire Nova. Taking a cautious step back, he activated Body of Fire, welcoming the warmth of his protective flame as it spread across his entire body, causing the temperature within the alleyway to skyrocket as heat radiated off of him.

"Ah, I guess that's where the name Inferno came from," the stranger said, finally grinning as their face turned pink from the intense heat. "What else you got?"

"This!" Brandon cried, dipping into his second element as he activated Vacuum. He was famous for the destruction he caused with his Fire element, but very few people were aware of the fact that he had an Air element as well. It was those two used together that made him such a dangerous opponent, and he made sure anyone who discovered his second element didn't live to talk about it.

Using his skill, he yanked away the air from the area surrounding the stranger, taking away their ability to breathe while simultaneously stoking the flames dancing across his own body and raising the temperature even higher. He laughed as he became the center of a raging bonfire, his flames so powerful that even some of the nearby stone was beginning to smoke and sizzle. When his flames grew this strong, nobody could even come close to him without suffering horrific burns. It was the perfect combination of offense and defense, the origin of his name, and his ultimate-

The flicker of firelight on steel was the last thing he saw before a dagger was driven up to the hilt into his eye, snuffing out his flames and taking his life all in the same instant.