Even hearing the sound of the thump. Jessica didn’t have time to pay attention to the disturbing sight of the white bone sticking out of the black spring, green skin, and red inner. While it had the strength to devour the skin. The spine was not something it had the ability to cut through. Even more so, when her fight was not over.
With the lack of mana and blood. Her endeavors to finish this room continued. Having accomplished two-thirds of her goal. However, there was still one remaining end to take care of. Moments away from the goal, Jessica was left with a bitter taste in her mouth. Feeling the strength quickly fading, all she could do was hope that her remaining strength was enough. Blood continued to spill from her wrist as the mana she had used to engage in this struggle was starting to dwindle. Applying more was not an option.
Currently, she only had emergency mana remaining. At most, it was maybe around ten percent. Five was needed for basic function, it was a line every single graded being would have to find. Constantly evaluating. Being contributed to a number of different factors if they dropped below, a headache and weakness were the least of your worries, as mana depravity had a long list of symptoms. As for the remaining that had already been promised to something else.
Because of her work, she always kept a minimal amount of mana to leave. This could count for anywhere from half to very little, reaching around five percent of her total mana. Since she was only in a dungeon, she didn’t have very far to run to escape. Once she reached the doors, the dungeon would instantly revoke her qualifications. While being discarded by the dungeon, she would at the same time be given amnesty. If the situation required more than half her mana to escape, that was a situation that required alternative means, by that point the situation would only escalate by running away.
Rapidly, she could feel herself being overcome with those negative feelings. Struggling with all its might, the goblin by this point was starting to come to terms with the reality. The metal wire by this point had dug into its skin and lacerated so much of its skin that the amount of black blood leaking from its insides was enough that there would be no escape. By this point it was not struggling nearly as hard, instead there was a large amount of different things running through its mind, many of which could be seen from its eyes.
From fear, panic, to the onset of despair. The very reason she deplored coming to dungeons started to show its face. If not looked carefully, it was hard to see. Generally, she fought with people. Occasionally coming across a beast that attacked her. Even than the end result was the meat and fur, if a magic beast, the prospect of a mana crystal. Remains of such creatures would be left and scavenged, and what remained would be swallowed by the plant life. It was hard to say there was anything remaining in the end.
For people, the result was even easier to imagine. Those with intelligence even when dying without knowing the cause, often times by their own stupidity, didn’t stoke her difficultly. Having been taught cause and effect, it was a principle too hard to comprehend in most situations. Still in the back of her head it stayed, and she could understand and come to terms with the things she did with these thoughts. All actions had consequences, even her own. Often finding herself in these difficult situations she didn’t feel anguish because of anyone else, but herself, similarly to why she couldn’t bring herself to hate John.
In a dungeon, she could feel it. Jessica could even see it in the goblins eyes, maybe with her often brushing past death. Questioning, something similar in nature to it. Would it not be a common feeling for any living creature with any semblance of intelligence or self awareness to question why they were dying. From the act of itself to the question of why the act of dying was happening.
In an empty space that didn’t exist. To describe it would be impossible, only those that have experienced it can understand. Peering out, he could see the situation at hand. He had been watching the entire time. He didn’t wish to disturb her, so he kept quiet, even while watching her in the first room as she seemingly effortlessly dispatched the two goblins. This room had a number of difficulties to deal with. Without the experience, it was hard to understand Jessica’s actions or way of thinking. There was nothing he could do but watch silently.
Near the end, he was astonished at her ability to use the wire and dagger. It wasn’t clean or process but, it was effective. And very difficult to defend against, at least from his perspective. Outside a bit of languish for his departed humanity and well-being, he watched on with interest. Even watching the head drop, he was more astonished than feeling disgusted or off put by the display. It was only when he felt a huge emotional upheaval did he pay more attention to what was going on.
Watching Jessica look into the eyes of the slowly departing goblin, he couldn’t help but sigh. What was just a small bit of languish started to feel a bit heavy as he could also see the unwillingness. Like a core categorical synonym to life, nearly no life was willing to just give up. Even without real intelligence, it appeared the dungeon creature wasn’t without any intelligence at all. Watching the two fell to the ground, he just watched silently.
Jessica could do nothing as the little strength she had remaining was gone as she could only weep into the ground. She could kill a person without any care. In fact, she did it a lot. Her work, that she was neither proud nor disturbed by, was in fact killing people. She worked as an assassin, while not a contract killer she preferred to call herself a death professional.
There was an endless amount of ways to justify her actions. An endless amount of research and scouting was done to ensure that the story she was given was correct. In the beginning, it was often from outside sources she learned of these situations. As imagined, one could easily see how that turned out, eight out of ten was someone looking for a contract killer to kill someone outside of her finding any or enough justifications.
The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.
Of course, it was the act of taking another life. There was no actual justifying it. Jessica had two simple rules. First, a reason. There needed to be a reason to take the life. Time and time again, she had to change or bend this to ultimately return to only taking life for someone else. Never would she take life for personal reasons. Self-defense had nothing to do with her work, therefore she didn’t conclude the lives she took from others trying to do her harm.
Secondly, to be better. It was vague and hard to understand, so she would never tell another person this rule. Without delusions, she didn’t think she was a good person. She killed many people in service to another. One such example was Fort George. As she grew a bit famous, she would get bits and pieces from people that tried to make use of her, or those that truly agreed with her way of life. Once it became clear she didn’t just take someone’s word for something, it soon dwindled the amount of information she received for free.
A funny rumor was spreading through the lower class. Even funnier was the fact that this spread because the woman was a beauty. Not because she was being abused, nor because someone wanted to help. Simply, it was worth talking about because she was simply beautiful. Sure. Some wanted to help, but it involved a noble with considerable standing. This cut off many attempts to help. This noble was enthralled with the woman from the first time he had seen her. As the saying goes, with power comes, an insane amount of ways to abuse it.
Using a roundabout method, he had the father fired. Slowly, he entrapped the husband in alcohol. He stopped the father from getting work and because of their young daughter someone had to stay at home. Pride was nothing new to a noble. Unwilling to give up, he stopped his wife from finding a job in his place. As he started to drink his problems away, the issue just became larger. Making contact, he paid for the alcohol to exacerbate the problem. Once the pot was ripe, he whispered like a devil into the man’s ears.
With him being the patron of his new addiction, he was less disgusted. In the end, he broke down and took the man up on his offer. What neither of the two knew was that the wife also had her own pride. With some understanding, the husband didn’t try to force the issue. Only the nobleman wouldn’t let things go that easily. When everything came to an end, the husband started to beat his wife for not caring about her child and husband. With one night she could support the two, he saw her as completely heartless.
As things escalated, she arrived too late. She heard a scream and burst through the door. What she found was outside of her ability to comprehend. With a moment turning to seconds forming into nearly a minute, she finally pieced the scream she heard. It wasn’t that the scream was strange because of the seriousness of the issue, but that the issue had already reached the point that this scream occurred. In front of her was a child no older than ten.
She stood somewhere around four to five foot. She had white hair and auburn colored eyes. There was shock in her eyes, not from what she had just done. Instead, what surprised her was the sudden burst of someone coming through the door. Fast was the only way to describe the change in her eyes as she went from shock to determination in a matter of a time before a few seconds had passed. She groped the knife in her hands in a clumsy manner. Without looking down, she kept eye contact as she moved slowly before getting within striking distance before she burst forward and stabbed at her with all her might.
Having not expected such an outcome, she could only knock the knife away rather harshly. There was a painful grunt, however, the girl didn’t panic or turn away when she lost the knife. Taking in the entire room, it didn’t take a genius to understand the mother with a completely shocked appearance, as there was somehow more blood on her than the child that had stabbed her father over a dozen times.
“Pick up your knife, we need to leave immediately.” Taking out the lowest grade potion. The child was covered in blood and barely had time to put on a cloak over it with her mother’s help. The wounds on the mother were superficial, so the lowest grade potion was able to heal them. With the wounds closed, it was very easy to see her beauty, even before she grabbed a shirt to wipe the visible blood as best she could. Promptly, they departed from the house into the back alley as fast as they could.
Picking herself up, Jessica felt empty, not from just the mana and energy aspect. After she finished crying at killing a creature that was simply born to be cruelly killed. She had more black blood than red on her. This was the reason she hated going into a dungeon. If pushed into a desperate situation, she often found herself watching the light unwillingly escaping from the eyes. As someone that clarified every action she took when taking a life. It was a senseless and painful thing to witness.
Jessica knew she wasn’t a good person, still she had no issues taking out people she deemed as trash, only what wrong did the goblins commit? As someone that had experienced it herself, was existing a sin worth death?
Leaving the dungeon, there was a bit of a quiet bubble. It didn’t last long before it was popped, but very quickly people noticed an oddity. A woman that seemed to have been heavily injured arm was walking out with a still expression. It wasn’t like anybody didn’t want to go up and ask if she needed help. However, any novice that tried to step up were held back. She wasn’t hiding the sharpness in her steps.
A novice might only see an injured woman that was covered in black and red blood. She looked lifeless as she was about to take her last breath. For those that had come and gone from dungeons, it was clear to them, she was not an injured woman but a hurt magic beast. Lifeless and in her own world only made her far more dangerous, as she had not once removed her grip on her daggers. Even the limp hanging arm, there was a considerable amount of strength in her fingers holding the dagger. It was clear she was tired, and so she was more dangerous, with only a few moments a few noticed she had entered alone and finally turned around.
“You sure she entered alone?” A small voice in a corner had spoken out to the tall man with armor on.
Looking at the robed man, he tried to sound as gentle and friendly as he possibly could, “Yeah. I live in town, so when I see unfamiliar faces like yours, I tend to pay more attention. Only seen her once, and it was earlier in the day when she entered. Does she interest you?”
With a goofy smile, he turned to the man that was trying to win his favor before giving him some friendly advice, “A little. But I advise you not to approach her. She smells dangerous. But strangely enough, she doesn’t smell alone.”
The tall man could only look at the young man with a strange expression, but he didn’t push his luck. The man was a mage, a talented one at that. With him in the party, he could earn far more money than he had been before. Turning away from the woman’s back, he turned to his party members before they started to discuss their plans.