The party sat around a table, they had calculated their funds and combined they had over 900,000 gold.
It was quite surprising, after buying the plot Akiol only had around 50,000 gold. Tilia purchased new equipment somewhat frequently, so she had even less. However the rest of the party was just passively saving money like Akiol. Jarvis was too obsessed with finding rare creatures to care. Yielya found no need to purchase new equipment. Wrock didn't need new equipment. And Kan'na was busing herself with other things, claiming basic equipment was unnecessary for her class.
Akiol pocketed the collected money and chatted with the party, "Have some of you begun your Occupation yet?"
Tilia was first to respond, "Yep! The line to receive the Appraisal Occupation was incredibly long. I only just received it."
Kan'na also answered, "I got that Inscriber one. Currently I can only write small things, but I feel like there is something special about it."
Wrock hadn't obtained one, due to none catching his interest. Jarvis' choice was surprising. He had chosen the Gardener Occupation.
"I want to grow rare food for the herbivores." He explained.
This was all the party needed to hear, it made sense that he would choose an Occupation for his hobby. Yielya was especially pleased, "We have a space at the front for plants, you can use that as you please."
Everyone chatted for a bit before Akiol arose, "I think I should begin the construction of our house. So I'll be taking my leave here."
After excusing himself he asked a few NPCs for the location of the construction shops. It took a few minutes before he obtained the location.
He suddenly stopped, feeling someone's eyes watching his every step. Akiol looked towards the direction he felt the presence from, but saw no one. Akiol eyed the area before moving on.
Eventually he made it to the construction shop, it was called Construction and Renovation. Akiol walked inside and saw several people as they walked in and out of the building, being guided by different individuals.
An NPC walked up to Akiol, "Good day, how may I be of assistance?"
"I was told I could get my house built here?"
The NPC smiled brightly, "Of course! Do you have the blueprint?"
Akiol nodded.
"Then follow me, you will have to talk to one of our experts."
Akiol was lead through a hallway and into an office. A plump man gestured for Akiol to sit. After doing so they began to speak, "So your here for the construction of your house? I am going to need to see the blueprint to give you an estimate on the costs."
Akiol handed the man the blueprint. The plump man looked through it thoroughly, "I see, a manor made of brick and dark oak. The brick and wood are relatively cheap, I can acquire enough materials for a mere two-hundred-thousand Gold. The glass will be more expensive, since you have nine windows plus these four it's gonna cost you another hundred-grand. The cement to keep the brick together will also be expensive, that's another one-hundred-fifty-thousand Gold. The nails for the wood will cost around fifty-thousand. With the addition of labor it's going to become a total of six-hundred-thousand Gold. If you can't pay that upfront normally we would offer a payment plan, but with the large amount of requests we simply cannot."
Akiol was surprised, the total cost of the house dropped by 200,000 Gold.
The reason for this was because of Akiol's Title, normally the business would charge a lot more to make more profits. However the plump man immediately had good opinions on this customer, so he gave them an honest price.
Akiol nodded, "I will pay upfront."
The plump man smiled, he liked these kinds of customers the most, "Right away, once the payment has been received construction will start within an hour. Due to the size of this it will take a day or two for full completion. Once it's finished we recommend visiting one of our branches for furniture and decoration."
Akiol payed the price and watched his once rich self drop back down on the wealth ladder. Though it wasn't his money to begin with. Now that was taken care of Akiol took a breath. It was time to deal with with them.
. . .
Akiol stopped, he was a decent ways away from the city. He even went off the path and was alone, or it looked like he was.
"Come out, I know you have been following me." He ordered.
There was silence, no one appeared. Akiol was about to give another warning until an arrow was shot. Slightly annoyed he snatched it out of the air. However when he grasped it, the arrow didn't stop. Instead it dragged Akiol's hand along with it towards his head. He quickly let go and move his head to dodge the arrow.
Pang~
The metal tip of the arrow hit a stone, instead of bouncing off it pierced the stone. Akiol looked at it and frowned, the way the stone was pierced was odd. The stone had no cracks from the impact, instead it looked like the hole had been carved beforehand.
Phiw~
An arrow sliced through the air towards Akiol. He smacked it with his sword, the arrow knocked off course and landed in the dirt. It was good news that he could defend himself from the arrows.
A figure appeared, "Impressive, not many are capable of dodging my arrows."
Akiol clicked his tongue, "You didn't make it a challenge. Who are you anyway?"
"My identity isn't important, I am here to finish a job by my employer. The only reason I made myself known is to tell you the message they left. Don't mess with Infinity Base."
Akiol sighed in his heart, it looked like he would have issues with Infinity Base for a while. However one thing perked his interest, the individual facing him wasn't a player, but a NPC!
NPCs have a special mark next to their name tags, even if it was only question marks like Akiol's opponent. He came to the conclusion that NPCs could be hired for things like assassination!
This could be bad to the player base, by the force of the arrows alone Akiol knew he was facing a high level NPC. If players could hire NPCs with incredibly strength, then no one would want to mess with anyone. Lest they send a high level assassin after them.
Akiol readied himself, "Message received."
The figure smiled a wicked smile, "Good, now time to end your life."
Pow pow pow!
Three arrows were shot at a rapid succession, all aimed at three different points in Akiol's body. He knocked one away and dodged the other two, only to see more arrows after him.
He jumped and twisted his body to dodge the arrows. Before he landed he swung his sword and knocked away another two arrows.
The enemy stayed away at exactly fifteen meters. Meaning Akiol's [Dimension Skip] wouldn't reach. He ran towards them while dodging and deflecting arrows, but the figure always managed to keep a fifteen meter distance.
They shook their bow, a part on the end extended. On the ends was string connecting to the middle of the bowstring. The bow string now looked like an extended cross, the size increasing as well. The figure drew a strange looking arrow and released.
Bang-!
It sounded like a gunshot, the arrow zoomed faster than all the others. The speed more than triple the last. Akiol felt the movements of air, he moved his body so it would miss. However the arrow turned midair to keep following him!
The arrow was a few inches away from hitting him. The worse part was that it aimed for his core, Akiol was willing to bet that the arrow was guided by Apollo himself!
He didn't hesitate and used [Dimension Dive]. The arrow sailed through air and crashed into a tree. The poor tree was splintered down the middle, falling into two halves.
Akiol rushed towards the figure, who was confused and wary of his target's disappearance. An arrow constantly nocked. Within five seconds Akiol appeared next to them. The figure reacted quickly, spinning and drawing their bow. An arrow was fired at point blank range, directed towards Akiol's face.
Akiol used [Dimension Skip] to appear behind the figure. His sword curved towards their back, aiming to cut.
Clang~
The figure drew a short sword sheathed on their lower back. The blade was crimson, a white jagged line was in the middle.
The figure's bow was stored in some place, it looked like it simply vanished from their hands. They retracted their blade from blocking and gave a kick.
The kick was aimed high, so Akiol ducked low to the ground by extending his leg outwards. Before the figure placed their foot back down Akiol did a sweep kick. The figure fell down, only to quickly recover by rolling backwards.
They swung their short sword. As it curved through the air the white line extended past the blade. A split second later a crimson metal formed to match it.
The short sword turned into a long sword, now reaching Akiol. He sprang up and jumped over the swing. Once the figure missed they stood up and the blade retracted back into a short sword.
Akiol frowned, it was troubling that the sword could change size.