Mike walked into the next room and found the some of the other people that had been in the first room playing cards, but about four was missing so only six was left, seven if you included Mike. Some of the other people looked pale and was shaking and there was even one of them that muttered something to herself seemingly trying to justify what she did to pass the previous test, Mike found that there was no room in the couch that was made available for them to rest so he walked over to a wall and sat down and waited as he looked over at next door while wondering what the next test would be about
"Umm… Excuse me"
Mike looked up and saw the girl that was muttering something earlier had walked over and now stood in front of him, she had back length chestnut brown hair and two slightly dim brown eyes that seemed lost of their strength, she also had freckles on her nose and overall she was rather plain looking almost like a neighborhood/village girl
"Yes, what is it?"
"... Do you mind if I sit next to you?"
"No I don't, be my guest"
The girl gave a slightly weak looking smile and sat down next to Mike, in fact, she was sitting rather close to him, Mike could smell her scent that smelled like grassland, but he was most interested in all that delicious blood that coursed through her veins
"So… Umm… that sure was something, that test"
Mike gave a nod, from his experience with girls he could tell that the plain looking girl had something to vent and that he just happened to be the easiest target to vent on so he remained silent as the girl continued speaking
"I just barely passed… I hope that the other tests are easier, after all I have to pass… I have to"
Mike noticed some spark showed in her dim eyes as she tried to motivate herself to pass the future tests
'Looks like she has the motivation to pass the tests… but not the stomach for it apparently… I wonder why she's here in the first place? No I take that back… I don't care at all'
Having decided this Mike tuned out the rest of her talk and only gave some 'hmm' and 'I see' responses as she spoke
"--- And that's why I have to get my brother back…"
"I see"
As Mike gave another blank response, one of the doors to the room opened and a masked man from the first room along with the masked woman from the second walked in together, the two of them looked over the six people that had passed the tests for sometime applying silent pressure to them. Mike however was perfectly calm under their gaze and after a few minutes of the silent staring continued he even took out his shortsword and began to sharpen it while completely ignoring the two masked people's stares, the masked man gave a smile under the mask and stealthy pulled out a throwing knife before he suddenly threw it at Mike. Mike reacted quickly and raised the shortsword and defected the throwing knife before he went back to sharpening it
"...Very good, you come with me"
Mike gave a slight smile and stood up before he followed the masked man out of the room, after passing through a number of rooms and hallways the two of them eventually arrived at an open room, Mike noted that this room also smelled faintly of blood, but so did the rest of the rooms and hallways he had passed through
"Wait here new blood"
Mike gave a nod and sat down on the spot, meanwhile, the masked man walked into the next room where the masked woman from earlier stood leaning against a wall
"What about the rest, are they taking the next test?"
The masked woman gave a nod and spoke
"I handed them over to Dan for the next test"
The masked man gave a nod and stroked his chin as he asked
"And the ones that failed the second test?"
"They should be beginning work in the slaughterhouse about now… I just hope they get used to killing soon"
The masked man gave a nod
"Yeah it's been a while since we received this much new blood, would be a waste to simply disqualify them because they aren't used to killing yet…"
The masked woman gave a nod and asked
"So what about the one you took?"
The masked man gave a wide smile before he asked back
"How did he perform on the killing test?"
"Not only did he not show any hesitation he even used a skill for the last kill… I my opinion he's perfect, he didn't show any impatience or anxiousness from our pressure either"
"That's my opinion too, which is why I took him from the other new blood… I think we can field test him already"
"I agree"
Mike passed about two hours in the wide room sharpening his shortsword, as for the reason he didn't sharpen the knife it was simple, there was no reason to. The knife had always remained super sharp and the one time he tried to sharpen it he felt that it was angry with him, like he was insulting it by trying to sharpen it
'... Oh well saves me on whetstones too so I guess it's fine'
Just as Mike finished sharpening the shortsword for the nth time the masked man walked into the room along with the masked woman, the masked man threw a piece of rolled up paper to Mike, Mike caught it and unrolled it and saw there was a portrait painted of a man on it along with some basic information that read:
James, local guard captain in Greenvale
Frequents bars with his subordinates drinking for free by pressuring the bar owners with his status as guard captain
Level 2
Make it loud so that all of Greenvale knows of it
Mike finished reading the information and looked up at the masked man as a red light shone in the depths of his eyes as he spoke
"So this is the trash I need to clean up?"
The masked man gave a nod
"You have two days, follow me I'll show you out"
Mike got on his feet and followed after the masked man…
"OLD MAN GIVE US SOME MORE BOOZE!!!"
The old barkeep let out a sigh before he put on a slightly cramped smiling face and turned to the one that just yelled at him
"Yes at once lord James"
Then he quickly poured some ale and put it on a tray before he personally walked out from behind the bar and over to the table where the ruddy city guards sat before he put down the tray on the table and asked while being a little nervous
"Erhm… Lord James about your tap---"
James was not happy about the matter of his tap being brought up, especially in front of his subordinates and quickly grabbed the old barkeep by the neck as he stood up and yelled directly into the old barkeep's face
"What, you think I'm not good for it!? As I said wait until next month and I'll pay it, now bring us more booze!"
The old barkeep heaved for breath as he was freed from James' iron grip before he gritted his fist and was about to speak out when something happened, from outside a throwing knife flew through the window and landed right in the forehead of one of the guardsmen that were merrily drinking
"What the fuck!"
"He's dead!"
James narrowed his eyes and looked to towards the door before he ordered his remaining 6 subordinates
"Go get the fucker that threw that knife and bring him before me!"
"Yes, James!"
A group of three got off their asses and walked out of the bar with their weapons drawn, a few moments later a blood chilling scream was heard… And then another before finally one of the guardsmen that had just left the bar walked back in, James looked at him and asked
"Did you get the fucker?"
The guardsman opened his mouth and attempted to speak, attempted being the keyword as the only thing herd was a bubbling sound as an unhealthy mix of blood and saliva bubbled forth in his mouth and quickly and ran down his lower face before he fell over, when he did he exposed four throwing knives that had pierced his back and lungs from behind
"Motherfucker! Get ready for combat!"
The remaining three guardsmen quickly drew their weapons and starred towards the front door that stood wide open, but the only thing they saw was the darkness of the night until suddenly a decapitated head flew through the door and landed right in front of James that quickly recognized it to be one of the three that had walked out of the bar after the assassin
"Shit!"
"Fuck he got Henry!"
James looked at the three remaining guardsmen and noticed how they were panicking and quickly yelled
"Control your fear! If you panic now you die! He's just a coward that hides in the shadows, he would not dare to---"
Before James could finish his talk another blood chilling scream sounded out, this time it was from behind him
"AAAGGGHHH!!!"
James felt his back turn cold and reacted quickly as he swung his sword behind him without looking first, this, however, didn't really do anything as his blade only hit air before he felt a deep cut on his wrist that almost severed his hand which made him drop his sword, then before he was able to turn around he felt several knives hitting his back including his legs before a powerful kick also landed and made him fall over forwards and crash into another table as he regained his bearing he heard another two screams before he finally managed to turn around and face his enemy, the unknown assassin was dressed in leather armor with a hood over his head and a facemask that covered the bottom half of his face
"WHO THE FUCK ARE---"
Before James finished yelling the assassin kicked off the ground and stabbed forwards with a knife that buried itself into his chest, then the last thing James heard was a cold voice muttering the word:
"[Drink]"