Dante decided to have breakfast before heading to the Assassin's Guild.

At Commander level, one could use spiritual energy to replace food, but many still ate because they found pleasure in doing it.

When he arrived at the canteen he found Basil feasting on a cake.

Basil sensed Dante's arrival, so he tried talking to him with his mouth filled with food.

"Dante, you have to try this! It's called 'pastiera', the taste is simply heavenly!"

Seeing Basil's current state, Dante decided to take a seat a bit farther from him.

After looking at the menù he ordered the same cake Basil was eating.

"It shouldn't taste too bad." 

After a few minutes, a maid arrived with a plate in hand.

Dante felt hungry just by looking at the cake, the moment the maid left he dug in.

"How is the taste?"

Taking his eyes off the cake, Dante saw the manager.

She was looking at him with pride in her eyes, in her hands, there was a newspaper.

"Really good cake, my friend is also loving it!"

The prideful look in the manager's eyes grew even more, but Dante didn't notice it. He was looking at the newspaper in her hands.

With his acute eyesight he could see the headline of the newspaper, Dante whispered to himself.

"King levels of the Dungeon on the move in the Lank Kingdom"

Was it related to those shady Warmages?

The manager noticed that Dante was looking at the newspaper and said.

"Have you heard about it? A dozen or so King levels were sent by the Second tier Dungeons managing our sector... The last time there was such a mobilization it was because of that evil cult which planned to sacrifice millions of people for some sort of ritual... I hope it isn't as bad as I think or even Winterlake city will face a calamity."

The manager was right. Winterlake city shared borders with the Lank Kingdom, it was easy for the city to get involved.

Dante lost his appetite, he got up leaving the cake half-finished.

He nodded towards the manager before saying to Basil.

"Basil I'm going if you want you can eat this cake."

Basil stopped eating, he felt that Dante was a bit gloomy just now. He hurriedly sent him a mental message.

"Has something happened?"

Dante looked at him for a moment before sending back a mental message.

"A storm is coming, we better prepare ourselves as much as we can. Forget about cautiousness, we have to get ourselves ready before it arrives."

A savage smile appeared on Basil's face, he sent a mental message before hurrying to the exit.

"Now we are talking!"

Dante smiled. If it wasn't because time was tight he would have preferred a less aggressive approach, but that was impossible now.

"Maybe it's even worse than I think..." 

Dante left the inn with a heavy heart, that feeling of urgency was even stronger now.

...

...

"It should be nearby."

Dante looked at the towering statue in the main square of Winterlake city.

It was the statue of an average looking man wearing a Dungeon soldier's uniform, but his aura gave everyone a sense of familiarity regardless of race. It was a statue crafted by a great sculptor.

His identity wasn't clear, but statues like this were positioned in every important city of the Five Continents.

The map Dante got from his friend in the Dungeon used this statue as a landmark.

"Could it be underground? Well, it would be strange if such a shady organization were to operate in plain sight."

No matter where he looked Dante couldn't find the building described on the map.

Where the Assassin's Guild should be, there was an old shop.

People would pass by it without even noticing it.

After looking at it for a long time, Dante saw that there was something strange around that shop.

He asked a few passersby if they could see that old shop, but what they told him that all they could see was a construction site. After thinking for a moment he understood

"It's a cover... There should be some sort of formation which keeps those under the Commander level from seeing it. Thanks to my Eye bloodline I could sense that something was off even if I have never studied formations."

After making sure that he didn't forget anything, Dante entered the shop.

"Hello."

The moment Dante entered the shop a bolt darted off towards his forehead.

However, Dante was already prepared.

"I didn't die 30 times for nothing..."

Even if the bolt was fast its speed paled when compared to the ray of sword-light which had killed Dante so many times.

Dante caught the bolt with his hand before throwing it at half of his force in a certain direction.

The bolt whistled at high speed towards its target

The sound of clapping resounded through the old shop but only for a moment before an exclamation of surprise replaced it.

"Impressive!"

The man who threw the bolt had expected Dante to do that, it was obvious that it wasn't the first time this happened.

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It was all a test.

The man was about to catch the bolt when suddenly his expression distorted due to fear, he quickly pulled back his hand.

The bolt suddenly increased in speed, if the man hadn't reacted in time the bolt would have blown out his hand. The deadly bolt embedded itself in a dark wall behind the man before it exploded into countless pieces.

The man looked angrily at Dante but seeing that he couldn't fathom the depth of this newcomer that anger quickly changed into respect. After bowing to Dante, he said respectfully.

"Welcome to the Assassin's Guild guest, my name is Luke and I'm the shopkeeper. Are you here to make a request or to join our Guild?"

Dante was impressed by the Guild's power, for the shopkeeper to be a middle stage Commander level...

After a moment of silence, Dante said.

"I'm here to become an Assassin... I heard of your Guild's fame and decided to join it."

Luke had been the shopkeeper for a few years and had already seen many kinds of people trying to become Assassins, but not everyone could become one.

"I hope that you won't be disappointed by our Guild then."

After saying that, Luke patted three times a brick on the dark wall. A passage leading downwards appeared.

Dante seemed unconcerned as he walked into it, but the truth is that he was on high alert.

Luke's actions didn't escape his eye, there could be other tests waiting for him.

However, as he went down the passage nothing happened.

After a few minutes, he finally arrived at the end of the passage. Just as he was about to enter he froze in his spot. Ten daggers came flying at him at a high speed.

Dante's blue eyes flashed with a freezing light as his Purple Gold Core began revolving at a mad speed.

The ten daggers stopped in mid-air as spiritual energy enveloped them. 

"Vicious... They were even coated in poison. It's obvious that I would have died if my qualifications were lacking..."

Dante remembered the three pats Luke gave to the brick, after a moment of consideration he understood.

"It should be some sort of signal... I should be more careful from now on."

After taking a deep breath, Dante entered a vast space. Dante was now in a hall lit with torches. In front of Dante, there was a curvaceous woman wearing a hood. Dante didn't walk towards her but decided to wait.

The woman pulled off her hood as she approached him.

She had a beautiful face, but it couldn't be compared to Roxelane's royal beauty.

Dante wasn't fazed by her looks as he still maintained his cool.

"She is too close!"

The woman was less than ten meters from Dante now, it was a distance that Commander levels could cross in the blink of an eye.

Just when Dante was about to take out his Frost Dagger, the woman suddenly spoke.

"Welcome fellow cultivator to the Assassin's Guild, my name is Alice. The two simple tests you have just gone through proved your qualifications as a rookie Assassin, during your first mission your partner will assess your performance.

If successful you will become a mercenary Assassin and you will be able to choose your own missions."

Dante nodded. He didn't ask her about the requirement for success nor what would happen if he failed.

If he did that it would show that he didn't trust his own abilities.

Seeing that Dante didn't have any doubts, Alice smiled before snapping her fingers.

The moment she did that a middle-aged man suddenly appeared beside her.

"Hong you will be the one responsible for his assessment. I heard that we received a request to kill that vicious merchant in the north district...

It will be a good mission for him, now you can both go."

The middle-aged man gave a simple nod to Alice before heading towards the passage. He didn't even look at Dante for a single time.

Dante was about to follow behind him when the man suddenly turned around and glanced at him briefly.

In that moment Dante felt himself being crushed by a powerful force as his bones began cracking, luckily his body was far more resilient than the average Commander level.

"General level..."

This was a display of power, Dante grinned as he also released his power.

In less than a second Dante revealed his cultivation of middle stage Commander level dissipating the suppressing force of the General level.

Hong smiled briefly, he acknowledged Dante's power.

"It was just a third of my power but he dealt with it so easily... This demon isn't simple, he should be the type who has great mental energy."

Dante's high mental energy gave him great control on his spiritual power but that wasn't the end of it.

The Purple-Gold Core in his dantian was slowly changing his spiritual power's properties, its density made it comparable to the spiritual power of peak Commander levels.

Dante and Hong left the old shop, they were going to Winterlake city's north district.

They walked leisurely, their calmness would never suggest that they were about to kill someone.

It was only when they arrived in front of a certain mansion that killing intent briefly appeared in their eyes.

Knowing that this was their target, Dante was about to enter the mansion alone. However, he was stopped by Hong who said in a cold voice.

"Calm down boy, why don't we have breakfast in a bar and talk about our plan a bit? I hope you weren't thinking about barging in without knowing anything..."

Dante almost lost his poker face in that moment, when he thought about Hong's words he found that it would have been indeed stupid if he were to go in like that.

He tried his best to not sound embarrassed when he said.

"I already had breakfast, but I won't mind having a tea."

Hong grinned before heading to a nearby bar.