Shin, Fuyumi, and Nightingale crouched in a small circle around Cheng.

“Whoa, whoa, whoa! What the hell did you do to Cheng?!”

Diane speed walked toward them with conviction.

“Did you guys kill my dealer?!”

She pointed at them with a look of scorn.

“Tehehe…” Nightingale laughed nervously as he pointed at Fuyumi who stared blankly back at Diane.

“I might’ve just put him out for a little while.”

Diane rubbed her eyes in frustration.

“Look, I was just about to sell your junk. Now I have to explain this to the higher-ups.”

“The higher-ups?” Shin asked curiously.

Diane looked outside at the bustling crowd of people.

“Mhm, they’re not gonna take to kindly when they figured out some armed intruders broke into the market. It’s this heavily guarded for a reason. You guys sure like bringing trouble everywhere you go.”

Shin scratched the back of his head as he responded.

“It’s… not like we’re doing this for fun or anything. We had a reque-”

“Are we not going to talk about how she’s doing business in this shady place in the first place?! I knew there was something off about her.” Fuyumi blurted out, interrupting Shin.

“Jewels don’t sell themselves.”

“Hey, how about we all get along here, huh?” Nightingale said in an attempt to calm them down.

Diane crossed her arms.

“If you’re not willing to keep up our business relationship, I have no issue with making this our last transaction.”

Fuyumi unsheathed her dagger and pointed it up at Diane who raised her arms out in surrender.

“Deal, just make sure no one hears of this.”

Shin got up and lowered Fuyumi’s blade.

“Don’t go off making decisions on your own, we might still need her later.”

“Hmmph.”

Fuuyumi turned away and sheathed her dagger.

“Diane, sorry about all this, we’ll try to finish our investigation quietly. We’ll meet up at your place later for the jewels.”

“You three better not waste my time again.”

She turned to face the door and took a step before stopping in place.

“Ah, before I forget. Here’s a proper jewel case. This one holds two.”

She held out three metal boxes each about the size of a small pencil case. The front had two spherical slots, shielded by a panel of glass.

“Just flip the panel open and put in the jewels you want to use. Otherwise, you can only use the one you can equip without the slot. Later.”

Diane left, leaving the party of three alone in the dark storage room.

“I guess we can keep looking now.” Shin said, breaking the silence.

Nightingale grabbed the lock securing the trapdoor shut by the handle and burned it off with magic. The molten metal rolled off as he shielded his hand in a thin layer of dense wind magic

“Open sesame.” He said, flipping the trapdoor open.

“Oh?”

On the back side of the door was the Drakos guild seal: a dragon that coiled around a spiked bell-like shape. Right under the door was a collapsable ladder that descended into pitch darkness.

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Fuyumi sighed.

“I guess we shouldn’t be surprised with a city called Dragonfall. These guys are dorks.”

A horrible stench of what smelled like rusted metal began to fill the air.

Shin recoiled and pinched his nose.

“Ugh, what are they keeping down there?”

Nightingale followed suit while Fuyumi took a few steps back.

“Could be worse... Anyway, let’s see what’s down there.”

Nightingale lit a flame on his hand and lowered it into the darkness. He put his head down, curiously peering into the room.

“What the fu-!?”

His body suddenly jerked backward as he lost his balance. Shin and Fuyumi grabbed the back of his robe and pulled him back. Nightingale quickly clenched his fist and put out the fire in his hand before grabbing his chest.

“What was in there?!” Shin asked.

“Uhm….”

Nightingale was panting heavily.

“Bodies.”

“You’re not just messing with us, are you?! Were they dead players?!”

“I wouldn’t joke about that right now! I-I don’t know… I mean if they were dead players they should’ve disappeared like, like in a flash of light right!?”

Shin covered his mouth.

“They c-could be NPCs.” Fuyumi said nervously, failing to sound calm.

“The fuck is going on in here!?”

They turned to face the voice. A bald man with a spear to his side and a long-haired man with a scimitar stood in the doorway, blocking the exit.

Fuyumi sighed and rolled her eyes.

“Ah, this isn’t what it seems like!” Shin said with his hands out.

Nightingale smushed his face together with both of his hands to pull himself together.

“Mr. Cheng!” One of the guards yelled and pointed.

“You bastards won’t get away with this!”

He lifted his spear and pulled his arm back, hurling it forward like a javelin at Fuyumi who disappeared into a cloud of smoke. The bald guard took out a shortsword hanging from his belt and rushed forward with his partner.

Shin drew them close, smiling and casually putting his hands out like he was surrendering. Shin ducked under the swing of the bald man’s sword while Fuyumi reappeared from the shadows to deliver a roundhouse kick to the guard’s side. He stumbled forward, catching his footing against the wall. At the same time, the scimitar-wielding guard made an upward swinging slash at Fuyumi who blocked it with her dagger before backing off. Meanwhile, the guard used the momentum from the swing to flip backward in one smooth motion.

Shin took out his short bow and fired off two arrows that pierced the bald man’s hands, impaling him in the wall.

“Aaa! You bastard!” He cried out in agony.

“[Current]!”

Nightingale created a gust of wind behind the long-haired guard, who could barely keep himself upright as he was propelled forward. Shin swung his bow arm forward and clotheslined the guard, causing his body to flip mid-air before crashing on the hard floor. He groaned with a dazed look on his face. Shin stepped on his chest, nocked another arrow back, and pulled the bowstring back.

“You’re not gonna rat us out are you?” Shin said with lethal intent.

Shin’s sharp eyes stared into the guard who hesitated for a moment in an attempt to collect himself before furrowing his brows in anger.

“Fuck you! This business is worth more than anything you co-”

Before he could finish, Shin’s arrow pierced his skull, splattering blood all over the floor and Shin’s boots.

Nightingale had a look of disgust on his face.

“How nostalgic.” he said sarcastically as he approached Shin.

“I’d much rather be doing this to monsters than people. Fuyumi you good over there?”

The guard struggled and groaned as he tried to push himself off of the wall. His hands were bleeding profusely from the arrows that held him in place.

“Yup, just finishing up.”

“You mother f-”

Fuyumi slammed the back of the guard’s bald head into the wall with the hilt of her dagger and covered his head in a thick layer of ice. After a few seconds, the bodies disappeared in twinkles of light that they’d become familiar with.

“You guys can be quite ruthless at times. I’m gonna be sick.”

Shin and Fuyumi responded simultaneously.

“Sometimes.”

“It depends.”

Nightingale let out a deep breath and put his palm to his face.

“We should get out of here quickly before anyone notices.”

“They’re gonna find out anyway once they come back from the church.” Shin retorted.

Shin opened his mouth to speak again but he paused when they heard a knock on the wall behind them. It wasn’t a normal knock since it followed some kind of rhythmic pattern.

The three of them looked at each other in panic.

The rhythmic knocking grew louder for a few more phrases before abruptly stopping.

Suddenly the wall behind them burst open. Shards of clay and debris from the adobe walls erupted outward, barely missing the party of three. Shin, Fuyumi, and Nightingale drew their weapons as they waited for the dust to settle.

“My, my, it seems like you’ve got some visitors haven’t you Mr. Cheng?”

A shadowy individual stood tall on the other side of the ruined wall. They drew a figure eight with a cane, clearing away the smoke from the room before stepping on a large chunk of rock that lay atop of Mr. Cheng.

“Excuse me.”

They stood still in the middle of the room, staring at the three adventurers in front of them.

“I don’t suppose you all have a good explanation for this, do you, darlin’?”

“Ghast…”