Basil and Dante were making the last preparations for their plan.

"Take this pouch, there are 1000 gold coins in it. Don't waste them, it will be your budget for the next months.

I want to see at least a hundred members in our gang when I visit it, try to maintain conflicts with other gangs at a bare minimum without giving the impression of being a pushover.

In the end, we will still have to battle our way into the Underworld.

With this card, you should be able to buy information at a cheap price, don't offend any major powers."

Basil nodded as he took the card, he already had some experience with these matters.

What he found unexpected was that Dante also seemed to know some tricks, Basil decided to ask him about it.

"Dante from what I understand you should be a Dungeon soldier, how do you know about these things?"

Dante laughed darkly before saying.

"Before entering the Dungeon I had been part of a gang...

The aunt who had adopted me after my parents' death left this world a few years later, leaving me alone at the age of thirteen.

I had to fend for myself until I became fifteen, only at that age could I enter the Dungeon.

A good brother of mine took me in his gang and we lived pretty well for a year before he died in a war between gangs.

We didn't want to join that battle, it was under the pressure of some powerful organizations that little gangs like ours had to take part in it."

Sorrow could be seen on Dante's face as he remembered those years, but it was replaced by resolution shortly after.

"If there is something I understood from this experience is that we can't take part in the drug trade, it's too big for us.

If you find any of the members dealing drugs, stop them immediately if they do it again kill them.

If those powerful gangs were to discover that we are dealing drugs they would destroy us immediately and set us as an example."

Basil's face drained of all colour as he asked Dante.

"How do you know that? We are just a little gang, they won't bother with us, right?"

Dante's face became stern as he said.

"You know why my gang was forced to take part in that war?

I didn't know at first, years later I found out that some of those little gangs like ours had tried to deal drugs...

When that organization found out they sent emissaries to everyone and had them take part in a bloody war, to thin our numbers.

When we got to the battlefield we were welcomed by the severed heads of the gangsters who didn't know their place.

It was a clear warning to the leaders... Do not deal with drugs.

Now go and have a good rest, your room is the one next to mine.

I'll probably return at the end of the week as it seems like the Assassin's Guild has some sort of training period."

Basil shuddered when he heard this, he etched these words in his memory.

"I'm going to sleep, tomorrow I will go see the situation of my small gang and see if there is anyone of use to us."

Closing the door behind him, Basil went to his room while saying those words.

...

After a quick shower, Dante dressed and looked in the mirror.

"Could this be one of the fabled Eye bloodlines?"

Dante felt like his eyes were the ones who had changed the most after his bloodline manifestation.

After a long while, he said.

"Two bloodline abilities...

Could it be related to that strange substance?"

Dante remembered what Roxelane told him and found it plausible.

It was the only thing he had that she couldn't see through.

"Is it a blessing for me?

Before it had been a disaster which had sealed my fate, now it has given me tremendous abilities..."

Dante still remembered what happened when he tested his strength.

"This body should be able to resist mortal grade blades..."

Dante took out his Frost Dagger and began pressing it on his arm's skin, he gradually raised his strength to his peak.

"Incredible it only left a shallow wound, my muscles have become incredibly sturdy!"

The Frost Dagger was a peak Mortal grade weapon, the fact that it could only leave shallow wounds meant that Dante's body had become impervious to Mortal grade weapons!

"What?!"

Dante looked at his blood, it wasn't red anymore but had turned purple and was as dense as mercury.

He focused his eyes on a drop of blood, suddenly that blood drop was magnified by a few times while his eyes drained his spiritual power.

Dante's mental energy was being focused on the blood drop.

"Is this my Eye ability? Incredible, this blood drop is filled with extremely dense life force!"

As the blood drop kept being magnified by Dante's eyes, he suddenly heard a roaring sound in his head as he coughed out a mouthful of blood.

"What happened!?"

At that moment he felt a powerful force repel his mental energy away, forbidding him from seeing more.

He tried again a few times but he heard that enraged roar again and again.

In the end, he could only stop as his spiritual power had already been halved by his eyes draining.

"It wasn't something physical, it was a roar directed to my mental energy dimension...

Is there something dwelling in my blood?"

Dante had too many doubts and questions without answers, as he kept thinking about them he remembered the words of the Purple-Eyed Demon.

"The day you feel that you're ready, come and find me in the Central Continent. I will be on the lowest floor of the Hell Dungeon.

That day I will clear all your doubts."

He thought about those words again and again, but they didn't solve anything.

They only added more confusion to the mess.

"When I feel that I'm ready...

Am I ready now?

Obviously not."

Dante asked himself what 'ready' meant.

"Was he talking about my cultivation?"

He didn't know, he couldn't know, he was too weak.

"Why was I spared when they came to kill my parents?

They said that they had to kill anyone with their blood, am I not their son?

What is that strange substance in my body?

Who are those two I saw in that white space?

Why?

Why me?"

Dante felt that only when he was powerful enough would he be able to know the answers to those questions.

His clouded eyes cleared away as understanding downed on him.

"It's power, it's always a question of power.

How can I become powerful?

With the Death Mark, I have some guarantee that I will eventually attain that power..."

He would always remember the words that his predecessor wrote in the diary of truth.

"Since the first owner of the Death Mark, the meaning behind the mark's name has always been a difficult question.

All owners have found their own answer at the end of their journey, but after reading their diaries I noticed that many have come to the same answers regardless of era, race or world.

The Death Mark tempers its owners by making them grow on their dead predecessors.

The strong isn't the talented nor those extremely powerful cultivators, the true strong is the one who is capable enough to survive when others can't.

What are destiny, luck and power in the face of Death?

With your current status, you still can't see this clearly, but as your status rises it will become more evident."

"With their help... Maybe one day I'll be able to hear those answers."

At that moment Dante felt the purple skull on his body burn as an eerie laughter rang in his head.

"It seems like I can count on you."

Dante didn't know if the Death Mark had a consciousness, but at that time he felt like he could rely on it.

With determination burning in his eyes he said.

"Let's begin."