Chapter 3

'Ringgg...' J woke up in real life with a startle on his bed, he reluctantly got off headed to the shower, letting the water run through his hair and onto his body. Immediately after getting the notification of the class, he logged out to check on the internet for information on assassins. There were not much he could find, only that Nemesis favoured assassins. He went to bed straight after exhausted. Now he had to head to lectures, luckily he only had a few today.

The lectures ended without a hitch, he excitedly headed back towards his dorm. He was interrupted when someone grabbed his shoulders, he was met with a pair of blue eyes, long blond hair and a cute face. He knew immediately who she was, Sarah.

"Hey" he said.

"Hey yourself, where have you been lately? Rarely see you around lectures now."

"More like where have YOU been? I went to every lecture last week, didn't see you once." Sarah proceeded to stick her tongue out in a playful way.

"Well... I've been caught up with something lately..." She then scanned her surroundings, after making sure no one was around, she continued. "Can you keep a secret?" He nodded in reply. "Well... the thing is... you know about the Atlantis thing? I got one last week" A wide grin appeared on her face immediately after she diverged the information. J's eyes widened 'So she also got one huh...'

"Thats...thats amazing. How is it?"

"Its amazing. Its so real that I forget I'm even in a game. I've been playing it non stop. I really wish you could see it for yourself." Before J could even reply she added, "Well I'm going to go play some more. hehe... I'll let you see some footage next time!." She kissed him on the cheek and left J and his tomato face behind.

Not that J wasn't used to being kissed on the cheek by her, she was a foreigner after all. But every time, it made J blush. He couldn't help it. 'wish you could see it for yourself huh' it wasn't like he was hiding that he could play it too, but he just never got the chance to tell her. 'I'll tell her some other time I suppose' and with that, he headed back into the game.

He found himself lying on a bed in a medium sized room, the room was dark, the only light leaked in from what he assumed was the door. He sat upright on the edge of the bed, observing his surroundings. A table, a chair then the next second, a man bursted open the door giving J a jump.

"Get up, get dressed. The Head wants to see you." He threw some items at J and left. J obediently did as he was told, he picked up the items on the floor. He placed the weapons into his inventory and picked up the remaining cloth on the floor. They were separated into several pieces, they looked like huge black bandages, but J could tell, they were clothes. But they were made in such a weird way that he had no clue how to put them on.

Luckily, he put the items into his inventory, since this was a game, it made it useful as he just equipped the clothes. The clothes magically surrounded his body and he looked at himself. His entire body was covered in a tightly wrapped black cloth with the end of the bandages loosely on his back. His head was hooded, he arms covered up to his hands with some sort of glove attached, and additional black shoes. His waist was also wrapped up in what seemed like a sash. The assassin's outfit obviously. 'It would take an idiot not to figure that out' he thought to himself. He then preceded to identify the weapons he had picked up.

A novice Assassin's dagger

A weapon forged by assassin's with the intention to kill any living being.

Damage: 2

There were two daggers, he equipped them both and daggers in sheaths appeared both at his side covered by the loose bandages surrounding him. He then identified the rest of the items

Shurikens

A deadly hidden weapon that Assassins incorporate into their hunts

(Can only be thrown)

Damage 1

He also equipped the weapons but could not notice where they were. After looking around his body for a while and moving about, he noticed a weird bulge on his waist and tucked at the clothing on his waist, the shurikens were inside. J let out a chuckle 'this is pretty cool'

"Hurry up already!" He was interrupted by the loud voice of the man who burst through his door. He made his way towards the origin of the voice and followed as the man kept walking. After a few twists and turns through tunnels, J ascertained that they were underground. The walls around them were of a kind of marble like substance, dark grey and the occasional candle light flickered in the hallways. Even though there were so few candles, J surprisingly didn't have a hard time following the figure of the man in front of him seemingly blending in with the darkness. At last they had stopped and arrived at their destination, the large hall where J was first dragged to. In front of him stood the Head of the Assassin's Guild.

"Hello my cute little disciple." With a huge grin on her face she said in an enchanting voice. J did not know how to reply. Sensing this, she continued.

"You may call be Leader or Head. That's what everyone here calls me. But since you are my first direct disciple, I would rather you call me Master. Or Sakiko. Or Saki for short."

"Leader! You must not allow people to call you with such familiarity!" the man inbetween J and his master interrupted. Now that he was closer, he had a better look at the man. He was rather old in J's opinion. Short white hair, wrinkles on his face, by estimation he should be nearing his late fifties J thought.

Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.

"Now now, hes my cute little disciple. He may called me that if he wish. I don't mind. Actually I'd rather he called me that." She said the final sentence with a childish grin on her face. Very unexpected of the Head of the guild. Seeing as the old man was about to interrupt, she said in addition "I have decided, stop bothering yourself over it Gus." Gus reluctantly bowed his head and complied. She returned her gaze towards J.

"Gus here is one of 4 grandmaster assassins in our headquarters. I have already ordered him to look out for you, so whatever you need you may ask him." Gus then bowed slightly with his head towards J.

"Now then, leave us Gus." Gus with his head still slightly bowed, shimmered and vanished. J could not suppress his surprise and made a noise.

"No need to be surprised, you'll be able to do that one day. Follow me." She walked briskly through passages that looked identical to the passages J walked, all a while J thought to himself 'someday I'll be able to do that huh...' it excited him so much it made his blood boil. J through his silent adventure in his head bumped into his master who had stopped in front him. She turned her head around and stared at J. He froze on the spot.

"Sor...sorry Master." She grinned upon hearing J apologize.

"How about trying Sakiko?"

"...Sa...Saki..." J couldn't manage to muster Sakiko towards the Head of the Guild. It just seemed so inappropriate. She sighed at her disciples shyness.

"Master Saki. Call me that."

"Ma...Master Saki." he muttered. It was a good compromise he thought.

"Good" she replied. J smiled knowing that his master finally showed acceptance. He then looked around him to find he was in some sort of cave, and in front of them was a cave entrance with a huge boulder on the side of it. He followed as his master entered the cave. No light shone through in the cave, it was in complete darkness apart from small flicks of candle lights shining into the cave from the entrance. Still, J could see as well the inside as if it had been lit. He tilted his head in wonder.

"As an assassin, your eyes should be accustomed to the darkness. It is where we live afterall." She then pointed at the ceiling, J followed her fingers and looked up. There were stalactites all over the ceiling, he returned his gaze towards the master to see an expression of 'Keep looking' It took another few minutes until he noticed pairs of red dots and realization took him. There were bats on the ceiling staring at the two who entered the cave. As soon as J realized it, his master also knew that he noticed them.

"Being able to see well in the darkness is good and all. But you must also be prepared to see whats underneath the darkness, for that is where we truly dwell." She then stood in silence and stared at J, somehow, J got the message and started looking at the bats. He counted them... 1...2...5...9...10...

"There's 10?" She raised her eyebrow at him, for some reason, J found this expression to be completely unfitting of the Head assassin. He wanted to laugh but he deemed that to not be a wise decision. But he understood what she meant.

"There is 10."

"Correct. Now watch closely. I'm going to do this slowly so that you can see. I'll only do this once." She then took out a shuriken from her waist, and held it up to J. A few seconds later she stomped the ground and the cave shook. Stalactites fell from the ceiling as the bats targeted the one who caused the commotion. J quickly hid underneath a small crevice fearing the possibility of death and focused on his master. At a speed which J's eyes could barely follow, she shimmered in and out of existence, dancing beautifully in the darkness and dodging the stalactites that were falling. As J was watching, he jumped as a bat dropped right in front of him. It was dead, with a shuriken in between its body. 'No way...' J quickly focused more intently as she flashed around, his unwavering sight allowed him to see what he wanted to see. Shurikens were flying out of her hands as she moved around the cave, each with deadly precision and accuracy. One by one the bats fell, until the cave no longer shook and only she was left standing. J was in awe.

"The cave was magically enchanted so that when the activation is used, the stalactites would fall until you kill all the bats. If not, it'll stop in 5 minutes. Your first training, kill all the bats within the limited amount of time." After explaining, she walked in the direction of the entrance, or now, the exit. She turned as if forgetting something.

"Ah, and every day you fail to kill all the bats, 10 more will be added." She was standing outside of the cave, her hand reached out. "What's your name kid?"

"...J"

*hmmm* "You are not allowed to leave this room until you finish this task." J puzzled at the statement. "Good luck my lovely disciple J." She winked and her hand reached out to the side wall. The cave shook again and J immediately retreated back into his little crevice. But nothing was falling, he looked in his master's direction and his eyes nearly burst out of their sockets. The rock outside the cave was moving and covering the entrance. His reaction was quick, he ran straight for the entrance but was stopped as a rock flew and smacked him on his forehead. He grumbled on the ground holding his forehead, the last thing he saw was the wink of his master before he was surrounded by pure darkness. He looked around, he could see just fine, perhaps because of his class, he moved his gaze upwards and saw the same red dots staring at him. 'No way...' And thus his first training began.