Kalvin and Jasmine were frozen at the scene. Daniel and Abby who they had just had dinner with the other day were dead. The bomb department and computers department had already gotten there by the time they did and the ambulance were on their way.
Jasmine looked coldly at one of the tech guys.
"What happened she asked." She looked back at the scene in front of here. The lady along with her teammates were nothing more then burnt skin and bones. The tech guy being held by the collar fixed his glasses as he tried to show the scene before the incident.
"It appears like an unknown man impersonating an officer knocked on investigation room #1. The two victims Daniel and Abby are seen opening the door. As soon as they do, the man detonates a potion which caused his body to be nothing left." Jasmine felt cold as she heard this.
"Was it truly a person and not a fake body being controlled?" Jasmine inquired. The tech guy could only shake his head.
"Since the person dodged all our cameras and is nothing more than ashes now, it is hard to tell." Jasmine took a deep breath before sighing. She gave her old team mates a quick salute and moment of silence, Kalvin did the same before they both took their leave. They were not a part of the case and their presence would only further disturb the teams taking part in it. The case would be quickly brought up to the government and a higher ranking investigation team would work on the case.
As they walked out, the air around the two was solemn. In this new era, death was just a step away for everyone. These kind things happen quite often. People die, people move on. It was only after a while that Kalvin broke the silence.
"Do you think this is connected..." Kalvin asked hesitantly.
"I am almost 100% sure." Jasmine said coldly.
"Do you think it is Silvers's doing?" Kalvin asked. Jasmine shook her head.
"There are 3 types of criminals Kalvin. The brutal, the crafty and the spontaneous. Erin is more of a spontaneous criminal if any at all and I find that he is probably too lazy to actual cause harm to people. The person who did this was the crafty type..." Kalvin agreed to her statement. The more he thought about it, the more he felt like Erin was just at the wrong place at the wrong time. Suddenly Kalvin realized something.
"That call we got. Maybe that was not from a civilian. Maybe they wanted us to find the Killer Monkeys. If Erin had not taken care of them, the city would gone into another panic. With last year still fresh in their minds it would have been another hard Christmas." Kalvin said grievously. Jasmine stopped walking as she heard this.
"But why? Why do this?" Jasmine constantly asked herself this.
The two finally got to their office after a long discussion. Waiting for them in their office was a dead body and an empty cell. The two quickly read the note left on the man.
"Dear police officers,
This dude's name is Andrew Longhorn. He was snooping into files from year 4 December 3rd. He was part of the people that smuggled in those damn monkeys of yours and there is probably more bad stuff to come. You should probably do some research on anyone who has ever shown a bad impression or hate of the government system in your city.
Love always,
Erin <3"
Kalvin was tempted to tear the paper off for many reasons but at that moment, Jasmine took the paper into her hand and read it over and over.
"More bad stuff has already come." Jasmine said coldly. She turned to her partner and gestured for him to call the general department.
"What should I tell them." Jasmine was silent for a second.
"Tell them we have a lead on our case. " Kalvin nodded and called them.
Miles away from the station, Erin was playing with a ring he had gotten from the man. Once the ring owner dies, the ring becomes assessable for others to take. Erin searched around the ring while Mevern sat on his shoulders observing the whole thing.
The man had a lot of money which made sense since he owned a Red Rover. Erin could not help but think that the man probably did not like the money. It was most likely from the insurance left from his parents. The fact that he only had money to hug at night instead of a family probably drove him near mad.
Erin continued to dig through the man's materials before finding a ring but this time it was not a storage ring but a guild ring.
Guild rings acted as another type identification. Others would know what guild they belonged to once they wore it. Erin examined the ring.
Name: Macfire Type: Guild ring Level D
Description:
Those who posses this ring are members of the Macfire guild
Erin smiled after he saw this. He quickly put the ring on and walked towards a busy part of mac city. Mevern hid under his hood again as he started to enter the congested center.
"Erin what are you doing?" Mevern asked curiously. Erin smiled.
"There are probably a lot of members in this Macfire guild. Best way to find them is to be obvious." Mevern nodded as she heard his explanation. The two did not have to walk for too long before a man hiding his face grabbed the two and dragged them to a shady looking alleyway.
"What are you doing with your ring equipped?! Are you trying to alert the world?!" The man with dirty blonde hair and cold black eyes looked incredulously at the bewildered Erin.
"I am so sorry sir! I am new to this guild so-" Erin tried to play the newcomer game which only made the man angrier.
"New you say, did you not get pamphlet? Rule number 1, don't wear the ring in public. Your guild name will be viewed easily by others." Erin nodded his head quickly and continued to apoogize.
"My-my apolageez." Erin said as he put his head down.
"Who are you anyway?...Erin Silvers? Sigh when did our standards drop so low even people who are lower than level 20 can join..." Erin just looked down sadly as he heard this.
"What team were you put in." Erin suddenly froze.
"Uhhh, well Andrew-" The man almost popped a vein as he heard to here.
"Andrew! That guy again...Great, now we are letting idiots in. I guess he is probably in one of the suicide teams." The man said the last part softly but Erin could still hear him. Erin decided to examine the guy while he was trying to keep his patience.
Jake Philips Species: Human Age: 35 Level: 46 (120 exp to reach next level) (Black)
Titles:
Class: Fighter [D] Job: Teacher, Activist, Assassin
Attribute: Lightning Con: 158 Mana: 1230
Ag: 60 Str: 158 Int: 62 Rec: 56 Def: 128 Wis: 59 Lck: 55
points: 0
Lightning Affinity: 28%
Skills:
[Block] level 43
[Examine] level 21
[lightning casting] level 31
[Swordsmanship] level 44
[Lightning bolt] Level 43
[Rage] Level 37
[Present] Level 21
[Stealth] Level 31
Equipment: None
Description: A middle age ex teacher who resides in Mac City a government run city.
Jake clasped his hands as he came up with a solution.
"Ok, you know what, I am taking you over to my team until we can resolve this issue." Erin nodded his head happily as he heard this.
"Oh thank you sir. I don't know what I would do without you." Jake put his head up high and snickered a bit as he heard this.
"You little runt...wasting my time. I am going to take you right to my captain and then we will see where you end up. Almost ruining our perfect mission right before we get rolling. Damn little shit." Jake only thought this though as he gave a reassuring expression to the young man. Jake was quick to show off his stealth skills as he sneaked them through crowded areas and towards a secret building. Erin stumbled around aimlessly as he pretended to be a total rookie. Jake sneered as he saw his performance but continued to direct the man towards an unassuming building.
Jake did a special knock once he reached the building which allowed the door to open. Once inside, a tall well built and oppressive man looked down on the two. He gave Jake a knowing glance before glaring at the poor young man. Jake smirked as he could tell that Erin was already intimidated. Jake patted the tall man's shoulder with some difficulty.
"Calm down Lee. I think its a new one. " Lee turned to the man as he gestured for more info.
"I caught him aimlessly walking around with his ring equipped! I swear, Andrew is just allowing anyone in. As long as they have just a bit of hatred towards the government he goes and recruits them!" Lee nodded.
"I thought our captain had taken care of all the useless people that could slip up. I guess he missed one." Erin started to sweat obviously as he heard this. Jake laughed a bit.
"Watch what you say Lee. He can still hear you." Lee just sneered as he stared at the young man.
"What can he do anyway. Let's tell our captain about this guy before the next phase starts. We don't want to miss the show." Lee took his eyes off Erin which allowed him to move again. He looked back in fear as if he had never felt so intimidated before. Jake pushed the unwilling Erin along as they went deeper into the building. Erin looked around carefully as he examined all the people he met up with.
Most of the people in the building were around level 40 to 50 and were ex civil servants. Although this level were pretty low for adventurers, being that they lived in a government run city, it was pretty normal. This is because government run cities are not supportive of civilians becoming professional adventurers. Many people do not become adventurers if they live in these type of cities. Adventurer academies and building pertaining to adventuring are low quality and few between.
Most people who live in these cities can only go to military academies to become civil servants for the city and earn stable income. In the opposite spectrum, Guild run cities are run by the top guilds. Unlike Government run cities which are run by one government with a hierarchy, Guild run cities are each run by 1 guild and so the quality of the city varies. An example of a guild run city is Gladiator city which is run by the gladiator guild. Most of their development is ran by the gladiators and adventure academies are found everywhere. The qaulity of buildings and jobs are much higher in Gladiator city than any Government city in Clover Country. Adventuring is also greatly supported while military activity is not.
Wellington which Erin took the villagers from the slums to is known as a neutral city. It does not discourage either academies and is mostly built of middle to low ranking guilds with the support of the government in the form of a mayor. When it comes to control, the North American government controls 15 cities in Clover country while Guilds control 14 cities and 13 cities are neutral.
Although there were big difference between government, Guild and neutral cities, Erin had never felt affected by it as he wandered around the world. He had never felt a conflct between a government and their people until now ad Erin did not know whether it was because he never paid attention or the government had been up till now.
After walking around for a few minutes, the three finally appeared in front of a large door. When the door was opened, Erin saw the most egotistic sight befall on him. In front of him was a muscular and normal appearing man filed to the brim in white knight armor. He had the douchiest sunglasses known to man with two lady friends one on each side and plastered throughout the wall was pictures of only him.
Erin was speechless at the sight. 'Can someone actually be this narcissistic?' He thought to himself. The man looked coldly at the three as he pushed his douchebag glasses up a bit.
"Lee, Jake what did I tell you two about disturbing by funs with buns time?" The two quickly kneeled down as they apologized perfusly.
"We are sorry sir but at this crucial time, we thought it would be urgent to report this young man who seems to have been taken in by... you know who." The douchebag sighed as he he heard this.
"Andrew...That dude. He will ruin everything with his manic behavior." The two underlings nodded as they heard their boss's whining.
"I mean he got so much money for his family's death and what does he do with it? Nothing! He did not spend a single cent! I hope the fucker died at the damn explosion. He is way to invested in the whole project. With him gone, I will go from being 4th in command to 3rd in command hehehe." The two underlings laughed as well when he heard this. The two only stopped once their Captain stopped.
"Now what to do with this kid?" The man said with an evil grin. Erin looked at the guy who was exuding a dark aura and smirked bit. He quickly hid this before the man could notice and went back to his act.
"S-so your are 4th in command? So there are 3 others above you?" Erin asked hesitantly. The douchebag knotted his brows as he heard the word 4th. If he could only kill the two others and be the leaders right hand it would be much better.
"What does it matter to you? You're going to be dead in a second anyway." He stood up from his chair as the two women stood back in order to give him room. The douchebag walked up to Erin with a cold aura as he brought out a large sword from his ring to finish his aesthetic.
Erin opening smirked as he saw this with made the others in the room a little confused.
"Well that's a little disappointing. You do realize this is the point where the villain tells their whole evil plan right?" Suddenly the douchebag realized something.
"This man is an imposter!" Erin smiled even wider as he heard this. Mevern grabbed tightly to Erin's robe as she prepared for the fight that would ensue.