---------------
Chapter 07: Becoming a Student Again
---------------
When they reached a downtrodden house that the old man, One, was living in, the old man invited Neraz to enter. He did so reluctantly and was watching the old man’s every movement. The old man, seemingly without any worries, entered the house in measured strides.
The interior of the house was no different than outside. The walls were filled with holes and the floor was in a worse state. There weren’t many furniture but the ones there were clearly unusable in anyone’s eyes. Neraz sat on a decaying wooden opposite of the old man. The old man, smiling, started talking.
“Neraz, is it? I saw what happened earlier. Your reaction to Twenty’s attack was truly astounding. I hadn’t seen that kind of reflex for a long time now. That’s why; I’m asking you to join us.”
“Join you?” asked Neraz.
“Yes. We, the Midnight Cat, are a gang that controls the slums in this city. At least, that’s what we want people to think,” the old man said.
“What you want people to think? What do you mean by that?” asked Neraz.
The old man made a smile and said, “If you want to know more about it, you’ll have to join us. I guarantee that you will not regret it.”
Neraz was still hesitating as he doesn’t really know what the old man was thinking. He speculated many things but he wouldn’t know the answer unless he answered the old man’s question. He was worried that he had been involved with something troublesome and he had no way to get away from it.
“Question. What’s in it for me?” Neraz looked inside the old man’s eyes and asked.
“Hahaha. If it’s benefits you’re asking for, what do you think about having information that had even been restricted to most people?”
To Neraz, the offer was like an oasis in the middle of a desert. Being in a different world, he clearly lacked information. If he were able to gain the vital information of the world, he’s confident that he could get by without much problem in the world. He remembered that because he doesn’t know the affiliation of the adventurers who caught him, he wasn’t able to do anything to them since they might bring future troubles for him.
“Well, you said information. What kind of information is there?” Neraz asked to delay answering the old man’s proposal.
“Well, like I said earlier, you’ll have to join it first if you want to know it,” the old man said.
Without much choice in the matter, Neraz decided to join the Midnight Cat. He could reject the offer but the chance to obtain information was too valuable for him to reject. Besides, the old man might seem like a harmless person but from his intimidating aura that Neraz felt earlier, he knew that the guy could kill him without batting an eyelid.
“Then, I will accept your offer to join the Midnight Cat.” Neraz said with a determined face.
The old man’s smile widen when he heard Neraz’s words. He was really interested in Neraz and his abilities. He saw that Neraz had a lot of potential and if trained properly, Neraz could even surpass himself. Throughout his life, he had never seen someone with potential as huge as Neraz. He was going to do anything to get Neraz to join him. If he can’t, eliminating a potential enemy would be easy for him.
Neraz was still doubtful whether he did the right thing or not, but since the words had already been spoken, there was no going back for him. He waited for the old man to say anything but the old man just smiled at him. Only after he stood up that he said something.
“You did the right choice. For now, you’ll have to follow me. I’ll send you to a place that you’ll be spending for quite some time there,” said One.
One brought Neraz out from the back door and chanted a magic spell that was in a language that Neraz couldn’t understand. Then, a metallic door appeared out of nowhere. One knocked the door at different places and a clicking sound was made. He pushed the door open and entered it. He beckoned me over so I followed behind him.
Neraz was greatly shocked when the door appeared. He knew that magic existed in this world but compared to the ones that he had seen, making something appear out of nowhere was on another level in his opinion. Though he doesn’t know the standards of this world, he could at least guess that doing something like that was no simple feat.
After passing through the door, the only thing that he could see was One’s vague outline. He could see nothing around him as there was no source of light in the place. He instantly shivered seeing the darkness. His fear of darkness made him unable to move.
One noticed that Neraz was acting weird. He had the ability to see in the dark so he could clearly see Neraz shaking when he turned his head.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“N-no. It’s just that… I’m kind of s-scared of the dark,” answered Neraz truthfully.
One became silent when he heard that. He pondered something before saying “Then, from now on, you’ll have to conquer your fear. If not…,” he left his sentence hanging. He then started walking, leaving Neraz behind.
Neraz wanted to turn back but when he saw that the door was gone, he knew that he had no way to get out of this dark place. He mustered his courage and chased after One. Having someone with him was better than being alone in the darkness. He caught up with One and followed him with a distance of less than one meter.
Along the way, the only thing that could be heard was the sound of footsteps that echoed throughout the area. The lack of light could make one insane if left alone for a long time. The area was filled with dust, making it hard to breathe properly.
Neraz and One walked for what seemed hours. When One stopped walking, Neraz looked at what was in front of them and saw a door that was the same as the one earlier. He was relieved that he would be able to get out of the dark place. His heart never stops beating fast because he feared that something would happen inside. It was fortunate that nothing did.
When they went through the door, the first thing that was visible was an open space. There stood a large building surrounded by smaller buildings around it. Looking at his surroundings, Neraz could see a lot of human-shaped dolls with markings on them. There were also quite a few obstacle courses with one of them being larger than others. When he looked up, surprisingly, there was no sky but a ceiling of rocks could be seen. The place was illuminated by oil lamps around it.
“A-are we, perhaps, underground?” asked Neraz.
“Oh? You catch on quickly don’t you?” One smiled and walked towards the largest building.
Neraz was still in amazement while he followed One. He glanced at the buildings but saw no one inside. He wondered whether the buildings were abandoned, but looking at them being well-maintained, he figured that they were just out. Or perhaps they’re just obscured by the walls.
While walking, Neraz could hear nothing but footsteps hitting the hard ground. For a big place, it was eerily quiet. Sensing that something was wrong, Neraz put his guard up. Still, nothing seemed to happen even when he reached the building.
“Do you remember the person that attacked you earlier?” suddenly asked One which shocked Neraz since he was too alert.
“Eh? Ah… the guy who attacked me? Well… I didn’t see his face but if I’m not mistaken, you called him Twenty, right?” answered Neraz.
“Yes. When you go in, find that person. You’ll be given details on what to do from then. I’ll be going somewhere else for now,” simply said One.
“Are you sure? That guy tried to kill me, you know? How do I know that he won’t attack me at sight?” Neraz expressed his worry.
“What? You’re worried about that? This is Midnight Cat’s area. Everyone here is part of the gang. If there’s enemy, they’d be killed even before they’re even able to set foot on this ground,” with a sharp glint in his eyes when saying that, One left.
A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Neraz looked at his leaving figure and then turned to look at the building was larger than the Adventurer’s Guild. The interior was dark, making him confused whether there was really anyone inside. Shaking his doubts away, he opened the door and entered.
Upon entering the building, Neraz inspected around and saw that the place was looked like a lounge. There were furniture arranged neatly close to each other and a few more a bit further from another. Though they don’t look fancy, considering the place that he’s in, that kind of thing doesn’t exactly matter.
During his inspection, he wanted to light one of the lamps inside when his HP bar suddenly dropped in a miniscule amount. He didn’t feel any pain but he felt that there was something stuck at his waist. He didn’t even see where the attack came from so he immediately became alert. He carefully looked around him to spot even the tiniest of movement.
He took out his dagger from the inventory and held it up to protect his head. With his high INT, he saw that the ceiling looked a bit different at a certain spot. He went closer to get a look at it and when he does, a person clad in black charged at him.
To stop the attacker, Neraz simply struck his free hand out and grab the person’s neck and then slamming him on the floor. While he’s in a sort of crouching position, his health dropped again and he felt his back being stabbed a few times. He wanted to use a skill to fight but in a cramped place, he might as well just demolish the building.
Neraz turned around with the black-clad person in his hand and used him as a shield. The three attackers behind him stopped their attack so as to avoid injuring their comrade. Seeing this chance, he pitched the person he was holding towards the two people before activating the [Fade] skill.
He did anticipate that One wouldn’t simply allow him to join Midnight Cat without some sort of test, but he didn’t know that it would be a surprise attack like this. If not for him thinking that it’s a test, he would’ve simply killed these people without thinking much.
‘Damn it old man, at least notify me first about this thing!’ he complained in his mind.
When the three people realized that Neraz suddenly disappeared, they became shocked. Perhaps it was because of their upbringing as a ninja or something, they immediately became vigilant. Two people were holding kunai while another one wielded a katana.
Neraz wanted to quickly find Twenty so he asked the people, “Where’s Twenty?”
The person with the katana immediately jumped at the direction where Neraz was standing at when his voice resounded so he did a back handspring just like in a video he saw a few times. The person attacking seemed to be agitated as the attack missed but he took a defensive stance with the katana.
Neraz wanted to quickly finish this fight so he used [Cloning] and knocked these guys unconscious. His clones took on the kunai users while he handled the katana user. He swiftly knocked the katana out of the person’s hands and hit him hard enough to make him faint.
When the last one lay unconscious, the lamps suddenly lighted simultaneously and mysteriously appearing from a wall was another person clad in black. Neraz somehow got a familiar feeling from this person.
“So earlier wasn’t just a fluke after all,” said the person.
Neraz felt like he had heard the androgynous voice and when he thought it over, he remembered that it was the voice of the person that attacked him in the slum. The voice of the person he’s looking for. The voice of Twenty. He was glad that he doesn’t have to search the whole place for this person.
“Ah, so you’re Twenty right? One told me to fin-“
*Swoosh*
A knife almost stabbed him in the face but he sidestepped to avoid it. Half of the knife’s blade pierced through the wall behind him. It showed the strength of the person in front of him. Although it’s not much trouble for him to receive the attack, he’d rather not receive it in the first place.
“How dare you to simply say master’s name like that! Remember, he’s the most important person in his place and no one is allowed to disrespect him,” the person harshly rebuked me.
Neraz wanted to say that One himself was the one who told him to call him that, but knowing that the conversation wouldn’t end if he does, he just nodded at Twenty’s words. Seeing him nod, Twenty made a nod of satisfaction and proceeded to guide Neraz. Neraz took the chance to dislodge the things stuck to his body.
“Follow me, I’ll explain to you how things work here,” Twenty said and started walking, followed by Neraz.
Twenty started the explanation with, “This place is the main headquarters for the Midnight Cat. People think of us as a simple gang dealing with the underworld and stuff but in actuality, the main business of Midnight Cat is assassination.”
“Assassination? Assassin? Like, hired killer?” asked Neraz.
“It’s obvious what the word assassination means right? *Sigh* this is why I hate mingling with idiots. Why did master tell me to do this?”
Twenty’s complain was subtle but Neraz could clearly hear each words because of the silence. He really wanted to say something but kept his mouth shut. The two kept walking as Twenty continued with the explanation.
“This building here is specially made to train assassins.”
“Training assassins huh?” Neraz said as he looked around.
“Yeah. The thing is, usually, we would train an assassin from he’s still a child so that when he grows up, he’d be able to receive jobs already. I don’t know why master suddenly took in a new guy at your age. It’s the first time that this had ever happened.”
Neraz wondered why he didn’t think that training children to become assassins was a bad thing. He guessed that it was probably because of the influence of TV shows and anime that he watched. It made him think that it was perfectly normal to do so.
Then went through a few hallways and passed lots of doors. Neraz could hear people talking behind the doors and sometimes, there were the sound of metal clashing against each other. There was also the sound of somebody screaming hysterically once which made him shiver as to how could someone make a voice like that.
“This place here would be where most people that are not considered as full-fledged assassins live in. Your place would also be here. To be exact, it’s right……….here.”
They reached a dead end and there was a door there. Twenty gave Neraz a key and immediately left after saying, “Classes starts at 5 every morning. The classrooms are upstairs. Choose whichever ones that you want to join. They’re mostly about weapons and techniques. I don’t think you’ll need a class on improving physical abilities anymore. Well then, since master is the one that recruited you, I hope you don’t disappoint him.”
Neraz had a lot of questions to be answered but he wasn’t given the chance to even ask them. Dejected, he entered the room given to him. The room was small but it was enough for a person to live in. There was a bed and a small drawer inside.
Sitting at the bed, Neraz felt that he was actually sitting on a pile of rock.
“Ouch! What the? How could a bed become hard like this!?” he howled.
Not having any choice, he forced himself to accept what was given to him and he lay on the hard bed. He didn’t do much today but for some reason, he was really tired. Thinking about what to do next, he fell asleep. While he slept, his reduced HP slowly recovered.
---------------
Yo! Well, sorry for the long wait. I just wasn't in the mood to write. I don't think the next one will some anytime soon though, but I'll still do it. Slowly.
Anyway, hope you enjoyed reading it.