Students at Phoenix academy had a single day off throughout the week: Sunday. Unfortunately, even this day could be taken away by a certain archery teacher on a whim.

As he swung his knife early in the morning inside the gymnasium with his friends, Finn fantasized about his newfound dream: a full night’s rest.

“Your mana’s all over the place. Focus,” said Annie.

Finn took a deep breath and resumed his shadow fighting. A fist-sized orange crystal was glued to his right shoulder, which Annie used as a link to observe his energy.

“Your mana’s going wild; you need to tone it down.”

“If I go any slower, I won’t even be able to cut paper.”

“Emotions make your energy flare up, you need to stay calm. You must carefully move your mana throughout your body, all the way to your skin, so it empowers you evenly. If you do that, you should become about as strong as with the breathing thingy.”

“... I can’t do that.” Finn dropped on his bum, covered in sweat. “Can all mages shroud themselves in mana?”

“Pff, of course not. Only I can do that.”

Annie smirked and puffed up her chest, while Finn’s jaw almost dropped to the floor.

“Then why are you teaching me this!? Teach me the basics, woman! I’m a total noob.”

“What’s a noob?”

The two bickered back and forth for a bit before resuming their practice. Unfortunately, the next few hours passed without any results, and at noon, they had to split ways.

Tommy and Natalie continued training inside the gymnasium, while Annie went to visit Reina in the library. The last two, Michael and Finn, had a hearty lunch, packed up their weapons, and went as planned on a casual stroll through Vistacia district.

Upon reaching a dilapidated building hidden behind a myriad of alleys, Finn tapped on the door and they were immediately let in. A different group of thugs were guarding the entrance this time around, but unlike the last couple of times, they were quite welcoming.

They smiled from ear to ear and bowed politely at the two, tried to serve them suspicious looking fruit, and opened the hatch to the basement as soon as they refused.

Finn and Michael traveled through the underground tunnels, changing directions countless times until they finally reached the boss’ new headquarters, in an undisclosed basement.

“Are you guys affiliated with the district lord?” said Finn.

“No… Why would you ask that?” Their guide started sweating profusely.

“Nevermind.”

The teens entered the basement, and in typical fashion, they hoisted a couple of gangsters off their seats and took their places without a care in the world.

The table was square this time around, although slightly larger as was the basement itself. There were countless wine barrels placed near the walls, although none of the gangsters were drinking. As usual, the boss was sitting at the other end of the table, dressed in the same purple suit and smoking a cigar.

“Who’s your friend?”

“None of your business. What have you found out about the adventurer’s guild?”

The boss puffed a smoke while looking Michael up and down. By normal standards, he was just a rather tall, muscular teen, wearing metal gauntlets for some unknown reason.

However, the boss knew not to trust appearances when it came to these kinds of guests. While almost thirty of his men were glaring at the boys, Michael was staring at the wine barrels while holding in his drool.

“Ahem, the barrels are off limits,” the boss said just in case. “As for the adventurer’s guild, they haven’t done anything out of the ordinary.”

“Define ordinary.”

“They put up quests and give out rewards. Since their office in Phoenix is still new, they’ve gathered adventurers from other regions to deal with the demand. Their business is booming, unfortunately.”

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“How many quests?”

“Between 20 and 40 are solved each week.”

“How many adventures?”

“Around 50, and their number is growing. They’re recruiting from the academy's ranks, as you may know.”

"There has to be something going on behind the scenes. Is there anything else worth reporting?”

“No. If there was something, we would’ve exploited it already. No matter how I look at it, they’re obeying the law.”

“How strong are these new adventurers?” asked Michael. “Does a duel count as a quest?”

“Err, is that information really necessary?”

Finn paused for a second then nodded. “Check that out too (the first part). Also, I want to know the situation in Phoenix since the Adventurer’s Guild moved in. Are there any rumors flying around? Has the crime rate gone down or up? Did anything unusual happen since they moved in? What kind of quests do they mostly solve and which quests do they tend to ignore?”

“Hmm, we can answer the last question I think.” The boss signaled to a skinny thug to his right, who stood up and explained.

“They complete manual labor quests 5%, bodyguard duty 33%, escort missions 45%, and other types 17%.”

“No monster subjugations or dungeons? Then, they must not be very strong…”

A distant scream interrupted Finn’s thoughts. Soon, more wails followed, getting closer and closer. Everyone at the table turned towards the tunnel as shouting, clashes of weapons, and blunt thuds were heard in repeat fashion.

“Guards!” the boss grabbed his longsword.

“They’re already dead.” Michael leaned his back on the table. “I can smell their blood. Their killer is… quiet.”

An eerie silence filled the room as everyone else leaned forward, waiting for another sound. After a bit, Finn squinted his eyes as if trying to see something. Out of nowhere, he made a grabbing motion through the air in front of him. Surprisingly, his palm found resistance, and he immediately slammed a knife into whatever it was he had grabbed.

Someone cried in pain, and blood started dripping out of thin air. While Michael stood up from his chair, the assailant pulled his hand away and his body became visible to all.

He was dressed in tight fitting clothing, with a black, cloth mask which covered all but his eyes and with numerous knives strapped to his belt. There was an orange crystal on the buckle of his belt which soon stopped glowing and eventually broke apart.

“Finn, how did you do that?” asked Michael as he stood up and walked towards the enemy.

“Do what?”

“You saw through an invisibility spell. Miss Bella said it literally covers your body in mana to distort perception, so no human, warrior or otherwise can see through it.”

“Oh, I remember. I just felt him, I... Holy crap.”

A huge smile formed on Finn’s lips while the assassin jumped on top of the wine barrels to the left in order to avoid Michael. He then ran on the walls for a bit, circled the basement and tried to kill off the boss.

The boss barely managed to repel him with his longsword, and the killer immediately changed targets to his henchmen. He murdered several of them before pausing on the right side of the room in an unusual defensive stance.

As the killer thought of who to take out next, Finn clapped slowly. “So this is what counts for an assassin, huh? Tell me, did you come alone or should I expect a knife to the back right about now?”

Suddenly, Finn felt the urge to strike towards the tunnel, but the feeling disappeared immediately after.

“Finn, guard the tunnel,” said Michael. “I’ll deal with him.”

“Just a moment.” Although his tone was casual, Finn took a knife in both hands and turned towards the basement’s underground entrance. “Boss, you’re gonna have to pay up.”

“What do you want?”

“A teacher for my friend here, maybe a brawler from the second or third year who owes you a favor.”

“So, this is why you brought me here.”

“Are you displeased?” Finn threw a knife into the tunnel but no sound was heard. ‘Damnit.’

“I’ll try to arrange something,” said the boss. “However, the price…”

“Your life’s priceless and I’m beyond broke.”

The assassin took advantage of their conversation to dispatch a couple more thugs. Afterwards, he jumped on the table and ran across to kill those on the other side.

“How many more subordinates can you afford to lose?” asked Finn. “Counting the screams which came from the tunnels, I bet you’re down a dozen at least.”

The assassin killed any thug who was too slow to run as the boss watched in horror. Eventually, there were no more breathing humans to the left side of the table, so the assassin rushed towards the back. It was clear he was trying to leave the teens for last.

“Fine, I’ll find you a teacher.” The boss raised his sword and prepared to defend himself. However, in mere moments, the killer’s blows chipped away at his longsword until it broke apart as if it were glass.

“Help!” The boss tripped and fell. “Don’t just stand there!”

The killer kicked the handle out of his hands. With one palm he shut the boss’ mouth up while he lifted the other to deliver the finishing blow. The knife fell down with murderous intent, but an inch from boss’ eyelid, it stopped.

In a split second, Michael had run across the room and grabbed the killer’s hand. The assassin tried to back off, but he couldn’t break from Michael’s grip. He tried to stab the boy, but Michael pulled his arm and flung him across the room into one of the wine barrels.

As wine spilled on the floor and the killer reached for another knife, Michael asked “Who are you? If you talk while I’m still sober, it will hurt less.”

The assassin attempted to get up, but halfway there, he suddenly stopped. He looked at Michael, then at Finn, and he let himself fall back into the puddle of wine. A chuckle escaped his mask before the killer bit on something hard and swallowed.

“Do you want to know who I am? Hmm, I used to be the coverup, but congratulations. You've reduced me to a mere distraction.”