9 November Year 2367

"Oi, wake up. It's about time we got started."

Someone grumpily said.

*Splash*

Fuck, I'm DROWNING!

Telfer woke up with a start.

I'm tied to a chair? 

"There, waterboarding always works."

The towel was pulled off Telfer's face and Telfer was met with a disfigured face. Bloodshot eyes. Long deep scratches oozing fresh blood that stretched from the temple down to the chin. A smile clearly filled with malicious glee. Telfer scrambled to his feet but the ropes pulled him back down into the chair.

"WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU WANT?" Telfer screamed at the other party but nothing came out. He wanted nothing to do with the other party.

Why do I run into lunatics at every fucking turn in this life? What wrong did I do?

Telfer continued screaming but the face kept staring at him.

Wait...what the fuck? Why isn't anything coming out?

"Son of a bitch, what did you do to me?" Telfer hissed at the face but nothing came out.

"Ah, so you figured it out. I just put a control glyph inside your body. It's basically a master-slave bond." The face smirked at him before continuing to say, "Right, you must be thinking how to get it removed. You can't, because the moment you tamper with it, it will explode along with the rest of your body. Even your ghoul body wouldn't be able to sustain this kind of damage. Telfer Berkley huh? Too bad no one cares about you, except for me of course. I mean you are going to carry out a very important task for me. Don't worry, once you do so, I will let you go."

Let me go? This fucker already waterboarded me, who knows what else he will do? 

Telfer stared at his captor in fury and glanced around. The only furniture that was in this room was the chair he was sitting on and a table. 

"Woah, don't look at me like this. You gotta trust me. Right, I haven't introduced myself yet. Nice to meet you, my name is Bryan. And from now on, you will be assassin 150, not Telfer Berkley. Why 150? Because, the past 149 assassins have failed in this task. Most of them ended up dead. You should also stop looking around. You will be shifted to a different location soon enough."  Bryan smirked at him.

"Now time to get down to the important stuff. What I want you to do is infiltrate Vestak Magic School. After that, you will somehow steal the school's most treasured item, the Eternal Harmony. How you want to do it is up to you to decide. We got your application to the school and the logistics sorted out. The only part you have to deal with is stealing the item." Bryan held up a picture of a sword as he spoke. 

"As to why I need it? Maybe I was kicked out of the school THATS WHY! I WAS A GENIUS, WHY DID THAT WRETCH FUCKING EXPEL ME? I'M COMING FOR YOU, YOU STUPID BITCH!" Bryan snarled with a face full of anger while facing the sky. 

"By the way, you have 2 weeks to get the Eternal Harmony. If you don't bring it back by then, I will detonate that glyph. Oh right, you are to look for futher instructions on the smartwatch that you will be given. If there are no further questions, I will send you off now." Bryan smiled at him. There was no sign of his anger a few seconds ago. 

Telfer widened his eyes in fear as he saw a fist coming his way. 

10 November Year 2367

 Telfer opened his eyes and yawned. 

Where am I? Why is it so dark? Shit, where is that crazy motherfucker?

Telfer jumped up and looked around. There was no one around. He had been placed at a bench on some random street. Telfer sat back down as he recalled the past 12 hours. 

I'm gonna kill that psychopath. Infiltrate Vestak Mage School and SOMEHOW steal a treasure sword to avoid being exploded? Maybe that fucker won't even remove the glyph. What the fuck did I do to deserve this? Whatever time to check my stats. 

"System, display my stats."

Status Window Titles: None Name: Telfer Berkley Age: 12 Race: Ghoul Gender: Male Alignment: ??? Stats Health: 50/100 Heath regen.: 5/min Energy: 20/50 Energy Regen.: 1/min Strength: 5 Agility: 5 Dexterity: 6 Stamina: 4 Intelligence: 4 Wisdom: 3

 Shit 2 punches dropped me to 50? And I lost 10 energy as well. At least my health regen got quantified. 30 minutes to heal up completely. My intelligence and wisdom seem below average to even be able to use magic, how will I be able to blend into the school? 

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Telfer grumbled internally before switching on the smartwatch. It looked really expensive. It seemed like Bryan did not skimp on the logistics. The smartwatch displayed that it was 4.30am followed by a set of instructions.

"Hello there assassin 150, you will be infiltrating Vestak Magic School to steal the Eternal Harmony under the name of a first year student, Kevin Firman at 0730 hours. All we know is that the Eternal Harmony is kept underground somewhere within the school compound. Firstly, please use the time given to learn how to use the smartwatch. Secondly, to help you infiltrate the school, please use the school uniform and memory scrolls stored within the smartwatch. Thirdly, your living quarters and lessons will be settled by the school for the 2 weeks you will be there. Finally, our associate, Bryan left you a gift in this smartwatch to help you along the way. We highly suggest that you stay low to not draw any attention. We wish you the best of luck in your task and look forward to future collaboration. Regards, The People's Blade."

Telfer's heart sank as he read the instructions aloud. How were these instructions? It was clearly saying how to send himself to Death's door. Telfer sighed and read the smartwatch manual before scrolling to the storage function.There were 2 items, the first one was "school uniform" and the other "A gift from Bryan" .

Let's see what that psycopath sent me...

 Telfer creased his eyebrows as he clicked on the second item. A finger slowly came out  followed by a hand and then the rest of a whole arm. The arm was dripping with fresh blood with bits of flesh still clinging onto it. Telfer fell back onto the ground. Shivers ran down his spine. A letter came out as well. Telfer took the letter with shaking hands and read it.

"Dear Telfer, in light of your circumstances, I have truly invested a lot this time. That morsel was donated by Yours Truly. I hope that with this your instincts will not interfere with the task at hand. I wish you the best of luck in completing your task."

What the fuck? That psychopath actually hacked off his own arm for me. He is truly a lost cause... Whatever, I will take this free gift gladly. Don't worry, I will have you donate the rest of your body as well. 

Telfer thought as he stared at the arm hatefully. At least with this, his one week insanity deadline would be met right? Telfer picked up the arm and slowly sank his teeth in. 

Whatever it takes to live...

His instincts soon took over and he soon ate the entire arm.

"Due to Host consuming human flesh successfully within one week, Host will not turn insane this week." 

The system notification brought Telfer much joy. Telfer opened his status window and found that he had completely recovered from eating that one arm.

What to do for the next 2 hours that I have left? Guess I will just get ready for school then. 

Telfer switched out into his school uniform and took out the memory scrolls.  In Telfer's eyes, the scrolls looked rather out of place in a world that was supposed to be filled with magic and technology. However, when Telfer rolled opened the scrolls, a wave of information entered his brain, along with the all too familiar head splitting pain.

Why does it hurt so fucking much? What's this... Cloak? Makes user invisible? Wait, it couldn't be a one time use right?

Telfer looked at the empty scroll on the ground and started panicking. 

"Host has learnt a new skill: Cloak. Mana bar now added to status window."

Eh? So it's not one time use. Phew. But what is this mana bar? Let's try using Cloak.

Telfer whispered, "Cloak." There was no way of knowing whether the spell had gone through but Telfer felt tired after using the spell. He opened up his status window.

Status Window Titles: None Name: Telfer Berkley Age: 12 Race: Ghoul Gender: Male Alignment: ??? Stats Health: 100/100 Heath regen.: 5/min Energy: 50/50 Energy Regen.: 1/min Mana: 5/10 Mana Regen.:   0.1/min Strength: 5 Agility: 5 Dexterity: 6 Stamina: 4 Intelligence: 4 Wisdom: 3

Using Cloak had depleted half of his mana already. 

Shit. Am I that trash at using magic? That pathetic Mana Regen. is probably because of my lack of talent as well. 

Telfer grumbled as he packed away the now empty memory scroll.

Telfer then repeated the entire process with the second memory scroll. The spell that came out was called "Poison Hand". Telfer noted the similarity between the spell and his transformation. But he had lost 2 mana instead of 5. 

"System, why is less mana used for Poison Hand compared to Cloak?"

"Replying to Host's question, due to Host's affinity to poisons, Host spends less mana on poison related spells."

This is actually a pretty nice find. Finally, something good happened to me. Onto the last scroll then...

The last memory scroll did not contain any spells but enlightened Telfer on the world of magic. Magic users or mages were divided into 9 ranks as well as the different types of magic they used. In this case, Telfer could be classified as a poison mage as he could use Poison Hand. The weakest belonged to 1st circle, having learnt only one spell. The strongest belonged to the 9th circle. Mages could advance levels by cultivating their mana. Since mages learnt one skill on every level, 9th circle mages naturally had 9 spells at their disposal. However, the number of mages on each level decreased as the number of circles increased. Although Telfer had learnt 2 spells, his paltry amount of mana would make him as weak as a 1st circle. 

Damn its going to take awhile to enter 9th circle. But first I need to sleep. 

The smartwatch currently displayed a time of 6.12. Telfer set the alarm to 7.00 and went to sleep on the bench. 

End of Chapter