The door opened in front of LeeLee, revealing an enormous room with people wearing similar clothing walking around, the clothes were all just tightly fitting black armor with an insignia of a single dagger located on the shoulder. LeeLee suddenly drew the attention of everyone in the room when they noticed she wasn’t wearing the clothes most of them were wearing. LeeLee walked forward and entered into the room, as soon as she entered two NPCs had appeared behind her, blocking her escape.
“We aren’t sure how you got in here, just stay put until we get our instructor to figure out how to deal with this.”
LeeLee had to stand awkwardly in the middle of the room, drawing the eyes of everyone around. She didn’t like the feeling but there wasn’t much she could do in this situation, she waited patiently until a tall man wearing slightly different clothing came out. His face was covered with a mask so LeeLee couldn’t make out any features. His mask was made to look like a wolf, making him look like a floating wolf head before he exits the shadows. The man came up to LeeLee, examined her for a little bit, and then whispered something to a woman who seemed to hold a certain amount of authority. At first the man was nodding his head while listening to the woman, but eventually the man stayed silent and seemed to be thinking hard about something. LeeLee could barely make out some of the words the woman was saying.
“...Zero...reports show...completed...unnoticed…”
After the woman finished talking she backed away from the man and made a small salute of some sort, it was like a bow but she kept her hand in a specific position while she was bowing. The man walked towards LeeLee and stopped in front of her.
“You were taking the trial to become an assassin?”
“Y-yes.”
“Reports say that you were undetected throughout the entire tower… all of our traps are still intact and the creatures we set up for practice are all still patrolling like normal.”
“...”
The room suddenly got noisy as the NPCs talked amongst themselves. Some of them were praising LeeLee, others were saying she must have gotten lucky, some were even lamenting on the fact that they wouldn’t be able to get through the entire tower without being noticed after months of practice yet this new girl was able to on her first try. The man with the wolf mask simply raised his hand and the chatter stopped.
“Well, since you’ve come this far I suppose it’s fair to give you some information and a reward. This is the headquarters of a special ops unit that does various things for the kingdom. Sometimes we assassinate high priority targets, sometimes we send spies to other kingdoms, and sometimes we are even sent into large battles to sabotage the enemies and kill off soldiers of higher ranks. We are the Phantom Corps. As for your reward, I would like to offer a spot as a new recruit into the Phantom Corps. Our training and rewards are much higher than what you would get if you were to become a normal assassin. If you need time to think about it please feel free to explore the area, I will be waiting within the combat training room.”
After the brief introduction and recruitment attempt the wolf masked man walked towards one of the far rooms and entered. LeeLee was already planning on accepting the invitation but decided to look around for a bit anyways. At one side of the room there was a stall with many weapons, armors, and tools laid out, LeeLee approached and started to look through the wares. There were many more options of daggers than what the blacksmith in the city offered. One dagger had a purple miasma twirling around the blade, at some points the miasma would leap around, seeming like it was alive. Another dagger had a jewel within the hilt of the blade, it was a dark red and seemed to have some sort of liquid flowing within it, churning violently. LeeLee took a look at all of the rooms around the headquarters. One room had machines that would shoot projectiles, many recruits could be seen dodging the projectiles for practice. Another room had many poles stuck into the ground, one recruit was jumping from pole to pole without losing his balance or momentum. There were also many rooms where LeeLee wasn’t quite sure what the purpose was, especially a room which had many scrolls and a large cauldron within the middle. LeeLee decided that she had seen enough and went towards the combat room.
As she walked in she was greeted with viewing room that had many NPCs watching the man with the wolf mask on the other side of a large window. The NPCs were basically worshipping the man's movements as he danced around what looked like a human, except the human had the lower half of a snake. LeeLee watched in awe as the man would move from one side of the creature to the other side within the blink of an eye. At one point the man threw one of his daggers into the air, in the next moment the man vanished, confusing the creature. The wolf masked man suddenly appeared above the creature holding both his daggers as he plunged back down. The daggers glowed purple as he used the momentum from falling to plunge the daggers into either side of the creature's neck.
The man came into the viewing room and many NPCs greeted him and fawned over his precise movements and decisive finish. The man saw LeeLee standing alone in one of the corners of the room.
“So, have you made up your mind?”
“Y-yes, p-please accept me into the Phantom Corps.”
“Haha, excellent. It’s always good to have a talented recruit. By the way, everyone just calls me Wolf here, so please do the same. Please put your hand out, palms facing up.”
LeeLee put her hands forward as Wolf pulled out a small token, it was a deep crimson red and had the design of two daggers crossed in front of a normal mask that had no facial features. Wolf put the token within LeeLee’s palm, then pulled a small vial with a black colored liquid. He carefully let one drop of the black liquid drop onto the token, the token seemed to have absorbed the liquid as the entire token started to turn black. After a few seconds the token melded into LeeLee’s palm, creating what seemed to be a black colored tattoo of daggers crossed in front of a mask.
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[Hidden Weapons Skill obtained]
“This will show that you are a part of the Phantom Corps. It also has an effect of storing your daggers and mask. Give it a try, just take out your daggers then think hard about the daggers disappearing.”
LeeLee pulled out two normal looking daggers before using [Hidden Weapons]. Both daggers disappeared. The tattoo within her palm changed as the daggers disappeared, the mask was still black but the two daggers were now glowing red. LeeLee then used [Hidden Weapons] on one dagger to be equipped, the dagger appeared in her hand and one of the daggers on her palm turned back to a plain black color. It was very handy to be able to pull a dagger out in this way, normally LeeLee would have to open her inventory and select her daggers to equip them. When you get ambushed by monsters or players you don’t have time to open your inventory and search for your weapons. LeeLee returned the dagger into her symbol and thanked the instructor.
“A mask can be obtained in the first room near the entrance you came from, go there and show the person within the symbol on your hand. Although a mask doesn’t have high defense, it will help protect your identity and can be enchanted more than a helmet or hood could. When you are ready to leave head through the door on the opposite side from the entrance and you will see a stairway leading back up to the first floor of the tower. Welcome to the Phantom Corps.”
Wolf did a small salute before leaving back to the combat room. LeeLee went to the mask shop and showed the man there her symbol. The shop had many different masks, there were animal masks, demon masks, masks with a human face, masks with complicated patterns on them, and plain masks. LeeLee decided on a white fox mask with a sakura blossom pattern near the top right. LeeLee used [Hidden Weapons] to store the mask before leaving through the door to take her to the first level of the tower.
…..
LeeLee had been gone for one and a half hours now, Sora and Blossom were talking about some of the things that Blossom had read when she was under the effect of sleep. Sora casually explained each and every thing so that it was easy to understand. From behind the assassin instructor came a small figure with a rare smile on her face. Seeing the smile, Blossom and Sora both knew that she had passed the test.
“Th-thank you… mister fisherman.”
“Don’t mention it, I’m going to need to you be strong in the future.”
“B-but there are many others who are better…”
“Strength is something easy to obtain, a good character can only be found.”
Sora had many ways to get stronger, but he knew that even with all that knowledge he couldn’t go through the entire game solo. Things like dungeons, raids, guild wars, events, and other harder tasks could only be completed with a strong group of players. Sora decided to groom these two girls to be core members for the guild he will establish in the future, when he had saved the two of them from Julius, he didn’t think much of it and only did it because he was passing by and was itching to see if he could still fight well. He didn’t expect the two girls to be so insistent on repaying his kindness, it showed Sora that they were people who wouldn’t forget kindness shown to them. He used the fight with Luna, The Silver Wolf to test their abilities and he was not disappointed. The two of them not only had good characters, but also good potential to become professionals. They weren’t greedy for the loot from the boss and were very reluctant to take any of it. Now that both of the girls had their special classes it was time to let them grow on their own, he can’t pull them through the entire game and needed them to learn through trial and error. It was also time for Sora to get his class, he wasn’t sure if it was possible to get it right now but he had an idea of how he might be able to not only get his class but also get tons of loot and help his faction.
“Alright, for now we will separate so that you can learn to fight. Any questions before we disperse?”
“I have a question that I forgot to ask earlier, how do I get new skills for my class?”
“The basic way to get the skills is to simply fight and level up until you are given the skills. If you want stronger skills then you will have to have a skill book drop from a named enemy or there is a very slim chance you can get one from an enchanted creature.”
“Got it, if I have any other questions then I will message you. By the way, what about your class?”
“For now I’m going to become a knight, it isn’t quite time for me to get my hidden class so this is all I can do for now.”
“Hmmm, alright then. Good luck mister fisherman!”
Blossom and LeeLee left to start training, leaving Sora alone. The building where the orders are found had a steady flow of players, most players have already been transferred to the city and it was much more lively. Sora headed to the hall for The Order of the Knight.
When Sora entered he could see a few other players surrounding a large NPC with tanned skin and armor that looked heavy enough to leave a dent on the floor if dropped. The walls were decorated mainly with shield and armors, there were lances here and there and a couple swords could be found. Sora worked his way through the other players to talk to the NPC.
“Greeting adventurer, you look like a man who would be perfect for The Order of the Knight. Would you like to join us?”
“Yes.”
“Alright, head through the hallway to take part in a trial to test your strength. Good luck.”
Sora walked through the hallway and found a doorway that seemed to lead to another world. Sora stepped through the door and found himself in a gladiator style arena with a crowd surrounding him. This trial was a basic test of combat, all you had to do was fight other gladiators until the challengers stop coming. For Sora it was a cakewalk, even in his past life he was able to easily beat this challenge. The first gladiator was dressed in basic clothes and used a normal iron sword. Sora used a basic attack and [Slash] to instantly kill the man. The second gladiator had leather armor and a greatsword. Sora used two basic attacks and [Slash] with a parry in between to finish him off. The third gladiator was still easy but the fight lasted a little longer because the man had a shield. After Sora defeated the 7th gladiator the final challenge commences.
In front of Sora was a lizard the size of a man, it wore heavy armor with a lance and shield. The gladiator was a special race that lives deep within the Great Western Swamp area, they were called the Chaliz race, and was hardly seen around the Eastern part of the continent. The gladiator roared as he ran toward Sora. Sora used [Purge With Silver] and went on the offensive. The lance pushed forward as Sora sidestepped it, leaving him in the perfect position to launch a counter attack. His sword continued to swing as he made his way around the gladiator using [Slash] whenever it came off cooldown. Just as the gladiator had turned to face Sora he was hit with [Concuss], leaving Sora with plenty of time to get behind the gladiator once again. The fight ended when [Purge With Silver] and [Slash] hit at the same time. The crowd roared in excitement as Sora disappeared with a flash. Sora now had the Knight class and was almost prepared to get his hidden class.