Chapter 168 - Vol. 3 - Chapter 33

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Meanwhile, in the sewers of Moroiz City, Malakai was rushing with his entire energy to get distanced, not trusting that breaking the opening mechanism for the hidden door could keep the syndicate thugs away from him, such that in 20 minutes he was already in the center parts of the sewer system, where the tunnels looked to be similar to a crossroads.

'Seems like there's no activity in the sewer. Have those syndics failed to open the wall?'

'Let's continue to the Underworld Meeting Stage.'

Malakai continued on taking the North-West direction from the crossroads, and after another 20 minutes he reached another part of the sewage system that discharged the manure into something like a hole.

Jumping in that large hole, he plunged into the liquids and resurfaced after some seconds to see something akin to a Cave Entrance.

Swimming toward that Cave Entrance, and touching the soil rather than dirty manure he directed himself to an underground water source pouring into the "lake" which mixed with the sewage system discharge.

Walking there, he saw some other guys, all of the NPC's with levels ranging from 120 to 165 cleaning their bodies and clothes of the sewage manure.

Wrapped into his [Shadow Veil] technique, Malakai didn't allow any of those guys to take a look at his face, acting smart in those moments, and quickly washing his face, he later took out a black masquerade mask that Mathias sent him from Titan using the Guild Storage.

The way those people conducted was also similar, not talking around, and just focusing on cleaning their bodies, and taking off toward the Cave Entrance, something that Malakai also did after finishing cleaning his body and items.

"Identification."

The guards of this place were NPC's with levels of 185-190 which when he first arrived here with the Count was shocked seeing such high-leveled NPCs act as guards for such a place. Taking out a silver card from his inventory, he handed it to one of the guards who checked the information written on it.

"Pass." said the guard in a cold, indifferent tone, passing the identification card back to Malakai who entered the cave.

Walking forward, the walls of the cavern had lit torches, and what made Malakai wonder with regard to this cavern as if it was man-made or done by some dangerous creature since the dimensions of this entrance was rather big, enough to allow a giant monster inside to slumber.

Then after passing past the cavern tunnel which took him deeper underground, he finally reached an open space that would make him impressed by the gigantic size as if he was at Turda Salt Mine.

Buildings made from stone left and right, all the eye could see as if this was an underground city, and what made it more sinister was the dark atmosphere and silence this place was carrying.

All the people he could see had black clothes, with coats or masks hiding their faces, just like how he was doing, not wishing to create any enemies since he was all "business".

After a couple of minutes, he appeared before one of the largest buildings of this underground city, and the vibe it gave was similar to the Adventurer Guild, only that this was the opposite to the surface world.

"I have completed the task given by Sir Irenaeus." reported Malakai to an old woman, giving the appearance of an evil witch, who took a look at his identification card.

"Currently Irenaeus is busy with a meeting. You can wait at his temporary office, and report directly to him."

"Understood."

Short and simple, he walked from the reception room, and moved toward the second floor of the building, where various rooms existed. Settling down on a luxurious chair close to the room he was supposed to report to, in the free time he was waiting, he started cleaning around his inventory bag, and also checking the new items he gained.

'Not much, except for the things I've gained from that Felic guy.'

After about one hour that he spent waiting, looking around various streams that he accessed while in the game, he found an interesting stream made by the people belonging to Ice Flower Guild, led by Bodre, a blue-haired guy that reminded him of the person he just killed recently.

This guild was conducting a raid on some Goblin settlement, and from what he could pick from the fast-paced chat, it was a rather difficult dungeon, being in the range of level 70-95, while the Ice Flower Guild's party was formed by members with levels ranging from 69 to 75, with Bodre, the guild leader being the highest.

It was a moist and dark cave the Goblins settled on, in the outskirts of Rotemon Kingdom, as the kingdom was located behind the boundary of Galena Mountain, who found this mountain their biggest ally against the Empire, who had an expansionist policy.

Rotemon along with the other 12 kingdoms sheltered by the Galena Mountain and Rauvin Mountain who stopped the Empire from its plans of conquering. Still, this didn't mean they were safe, no, the leaders of the Saharan Empire not wishing to bleed their pockets, devised a plan to settle down the smaller kingdoms, into a Tributary System.

Those were some information that Malakai knew from Mathias, who was already initiated in the politics of the Empire before he actually become a noble or a figure of power, but it come in handy for the Shadow Master (A/N: He's Stage 1) who watched the live stream with keen eyes on how the Frost Mage Bondre was dispatching the ugly-green skinned goblins.

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"Tanks, keep those ugly rats separated! Healers don't take your eyes off the health gauges. DPS, follow my attacking sequence."

Bondre started giving orders left and right, while he was casting some swift spells to apply an "Freezing" debuff on each goblin, in doing so making his guild members' life easier while they were kitting more of the goblins.

Seeing that there were plenty of goblins gathered by his 3 Tanks, numbering 25 of them, he turned his attention on the tunnel, releasing a spell which sealed the entire room, making Malakai who watched the stream give off a cold smile, remarking to himself.

'I guess he did that to not allow the goblins to get reinforcements. This guy is not bad at all for a caster.'

Then, it got to the actual fight, where Bondre started casting his spell called [Ice Lance] piercing the fragile bodies of the goblins like it was butter, along with enhancing the 'Freezing' debuff which later turned into 'Frostbite' debuff.

"Start the attack guys. This instance is quite big and we are only at the beginning." shouted Bondre who casted another spell under his arsenal of spells, from [Ice Edge], [Ice Rain], [Aetherfrost Claws] to [Glacier Chain] which he started recasting once the cooldown was over, but his main spell the [Frost Bolt] was constantly spanned.

In about 5 minutes the onslaught on the goblins ended, with the Ice Flower Guild victory, and after recovering their spent resources on this fight, they continued clearing the dungeon.

By the time one hour passed, the Ice Flower Guild reached deeper inside the cave, where the goblin's levels started reaching level 90 which combined with their numbers and attack power it turned the instance rather challenging for the guild.

"Orel, let's combine our skills. We'll trigger the Frostbite faster that way." mentioned Bondre to a guy with silver-white dyed hair, who was holding a longsword giving off a chilling temperature.

"I was about to suggest the same thing, Bondre." mentioned the guy, who had a tall build, standing at 2,04 meters high, which made Malakai who watched the stream, question his nationality.

'Probably from the Nordic Countries? Norwegian or Swedish? Who knows? It might be a Dane … a Viking.'

'Hehe, now I get why Red is so excited to fight those guys. They are really strong. That combo between the Frost Mage and the Warrior is smooth. I wonder how they will deal with the Hobgoblin or whatever awaits them at the end of the cave.'

While he was expecting a good show ahead of him, his hearing started picking up footsteps going in his direction, and turning his head away from the streaming screen he was watching, he saw a man with black shoulder-length hair, a cold expression, and a scar on his eye running to his cheek.

Behind him were 3 guys called Medrod, Doruk, and Aubert, all of them having a high level of 265, while the man in question, Irenaeus was a silver-named NPC with golden flashes around his name.

[Irenaeus - Lv. 295] (??? HP)

"I wasn't expecting any quests today. Doruk, did I place any meeting for today beside the one we took with Lord Tallos?" asked Irenaeus who placed his brown eyes on the masked Malakai, looking at him in an arrogant way.

"Boss, I remember this person. It's one of those small mice who took one of your assassination contracts." replied Medrod, who still remembered Malakai when he went to sign the contract with Irenaeus, but instead he did it with him.

"The one you mentioned to me? Okay, I understand. Let's enter my office, and we'll talk from there."

Malakai got up from his seat, and without bowing his head to the 4 Syndicate leading figures, he got inside the small office room where the 3 henchmen went toward their chairs, while Syndicate Head, got to the big seat.

"If you've returned back to me, it means you've completed your task, and you've done it in record time since the task was given only 3 days ago."

Keeping his quiet while looking at the syndicate head with his black eyes, he took out from his inventory bag the head of the Magician Apprentice Felic that was enveloped into a cloth bag.

Irenaues turned his eyes at Malakai and hummed, interested in this young silent assassin, who conducted himself with actions instead of words, and with a casual approach he picked the bag from the table, uncovering the bag, revealing the shocked face of Felic who was staring with big eyes.

"Look at this, guys. Not bad. Not bad. How do you like the expression of this peasant?" asked Irenaeus while showing the head of the dead Felic to his henchmen.

"Is this that important guy from the Daggerford idiot who declined to conduct business with us, Black Spades?" asked Doruk, the one who suffered a lot in the past, by facing Mathias in the 'Alley of Desolation' Instance.

"It's exactly the drug cooker who had a small secret on him. Otherwise, why would I want to ally myself with some peasant from the countryside? Hah, I wanted to give him a chance, but he spit on my kindness."

"Ahem, boss, is it fine to talk about this while this guy is inside?"

"Don't worry, I like this guy. He doesn't speak much, and he has guts in his conduct."

"Fine, but it will be troublesome to get rid of him, he is an outlander." mentioned Medrod, in a calm way, as if he didn't view Malakai as a threat to him, and the same could be said for the rest of the syndicate guys, who took out something similar to cigarettes, which made Malakai surprised, staring at them.

"Want one?" asked Aubert who was first to take out a cigarette.

"..."

Malakai only nodded his head, and with a laugh the syndicate guy took out a bag filled with rolled cigarettes, throwing one to the young man who got interested in the idea of smoking in Satisfy.

Glancing at the cigarette, he removed the lower part of his mask, and placed the cigarette on his mouth, without a light he took out from his bag his daggers and with using them like a flint, Malakai took the first breath of smoke, blowing it using his nose.

"This kid can do the Dragon Breath trick!" mentioned Doruk who watched Malakai with impressed eyes.

'What Dragon breath? I just Retrohale. Whatever, let them be impressed.'

Ignoring the syndicate guys, it made Irenaeus to glance at Malakai with interest, before placing the dead head of Felic, and in a casual tone, telling the young man.

"You've finished the task you got contracted, and that in a swift way, while I was still inside Moroiz. Medrod what was the contract signed for? How much do we have to give this fresh blood?"

[Ding!] [You have cleared the quest, gaining the following rewards: +2 levels & Activation of the event ]

[You have leveled up!]

[You have leveled up!]

All sorts of notifications run before his eyes, ringing in his eardrums, and he couldn't show any emotions in his eyes as a new event was opened to him, which was sometimes fully random to Malakai's expectations.

Then from the corner of his eyes, all sorts of messages started rolling in from people he never encountered, and closing the general whisper feature, only leaving the guild chat open, he noticed Red's comments.

@Red: Dude, what are you doing?? Since you've got fired, you are on a roll with the levels. Besides, you've leveled up three times today! This is unfair!

@Orpheus: Malakai, are you once again killing high-level NPCs that boost your level so fast? It doesn't make sense how you guys manage to pull it off.

@Malakai: Doesn't matter, just don't make it too much out of it.

@Orpheus: Nah, we can't do that. Red, this is how it's like playing an assassination class, those guys don't have to be concerned with killing monsters like us, instead, they can find some beggar on a dark alley and stab them to death, and boom, they leveled up 4 times.

@Evan: Burnnnn! Orphy, you better don't mock Malakai, or you'll never know when you become his target. Also, he has extra privileges with the Boss.

@Maple Mist: Can you guys stop making fun of brother Malakai? Do you all really forget all the struggle he endured a whole month in an attempt to get the class he had in the Beta Phase?

@Lane: Little Maple, you are doing exactly the same thing we are doing. Hahaha, apart from being a masochist, he also downgraded his class.

Seeing all those comments from his guild members, who were happy for his success in their own way, he returned his attention to the syndicate guys, especially at Modred.

Medrod got on his feet, walking to Irenaeus' office, beginning to look for something, and it looked as if he struggled to find that paper. Malakai didn't waste his time in this environment and took out his own contract that he passed to Irenaeus, which had the syndicate head, skimp the contents of the contract which made him laugh, finding it funny.

"Such shitty contract. Is clearly that you've done it, Medrod. About 1.500 gold for the head of someone worth hundreds of thousands? Malakai was your name, right? It says so in the contract."

*Inhale* *Exhale*

"That is correct, sir." replied Malakai after taking a breath of the tobacco smoke.

"Good, do you want more money for the contract after hearing the value of this Felic guy?"

"No."

*Laugh* "Are you aligned with some Syndicate so far? Are you working for someone?"

"Right now? Just a worker of Count Ravesi." mentioned Malakai who put his cigarette aside, sensing that the conversation started turning serious.

"That cheap guy who can't afford money for his own expenses? Forget about him. What about working for me?"

"Work for you, sir? What type of job? What's in for me working under you?"

"Of course, what you are excelling in, killing. I always heard stories about you outlanders, and I experienced firsthand how crazy your people can be, as my endeavors have been slowed down because of relentless attacks coming from your side.

And since then, in the Syndicate Circles, we leaders don't want to give you outlanders any chance of reaching our platform. For example Clark, he fully opposes the idea of giving jobs to outlanders.

However, you are proving me wrong. You outlanders can be professional, and keep to the word given. So, would you work for my Black Spade Syndicate?"

"..."

"Before you give me a response, I can also tell you this, that sum of money Modred gave you is spare change for what you can make by working for me. Also, I can give you the best methods of training yourself and proving your skills by taking out strong enemies."

"Question for you, sir Irenaeus." remarked Malakai after contemplating for some minutes, being watched by the syndicate guys.

"Go ahead."

"How strong is your Syndicate?"

"This brat has the guts to ask us how strong our Cartel is." added Doruk, watching Malakai with a smile.

"My Black Spades currently is ranked 3rd in revenues for the whole Saharan Empire. Where only Crow's Throne and Clark's Cartel can run for my money. However, if we go by influence I, Irenaeus, am unmatched."

"Mhm, indeed, I've noticed how the Count bowed his head to you when he took me to this place first, just like a dog greeting its master." remarked Malakai choosing his words carefully, and he did great since Irenaeus started giving off a small smile.

"Hahaha, true. Good words, young man. So, what's your answer?"

[Ding!]

[Black Spades Syndicate Leader, Irenaeus, has extended an invitation to his organization.]

"Why not? I got nothing to lose."

"I accept."

"Great. Then starting today, you'll become a member of the Black Spades Syndicate. Be proud, young man, because you are the first outlander to do it."

.

[Congratulations. You have become a member of Black Spades Syndicate. You are the first player to open the Syndicate Interface. As a reward for your accomplishment you will gain the title: Underworld Pawn]

[Underworld Pawn]

You stepped at the doorstep of the Human Underworld. You are still inexperienced and uninitiated but with time, your reputation will grow or not.

The Underworld is cruel, a place infested with the worst traits of the humans, and you as a Pawn are no different. However, you can promote, and an ambitious Pawn will always find methods to reach the promotion.

「THE PATH OF A PAWN WILL LEAD TO KING」

All stats + 5, 5% bonus damage in dark places, 2% Crit Chance for Backstab attacks

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'Hah, you've turned me into a Pawn? We'll see how long that will be for. Knowing Mathias's plans, he will for sure want me to tell him information with regard to the Syndicates, especially when he becomes a Red Knight.'

'Still, buddy, I've beat you on that. I am the first guy to get into the big leagues.'

***

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