When we got to the stairwell, she began leading me down into the basement of the building. It was dark down here, so I activated [Pyroclasm] and a ball of fire appeared above me to light the way.
"Why are you doing this?" the girl asked without looking at me, "I don't think I've ever taken anything from you before."
"Let's just say that the past finally caught up to you," I answered simply, "How many of you are there?"
"Three," she said and I smacked her on the back of her head, "Ow! Okay, there are eight of us! You don't know what you're dealing with here. We aren't people you can mess with in this city."
I didn't say anything more until we got to the basement. Some voices were talking in the distance, and as we got closer, I could hear them clearly.
"Hey, I think Lace is back," one of the voices said.
"Yeah, hope she got something good this time," another voice said, "that last guy didn't even have a single silver on him."
"Shut up," a gruff voice finally said and everyone else shut up, "They're here. Hey Lace, who did you catch this time?" the gruff voice called out as we walked into the light, but he immediately narrowed his eye when he saw me holding Lace by the shoulder and leading her forward, "Who the fuck are you?" he asked me.
"You'll find out soon enough." I said as I tossed Lace away and she stumbled to the ground, "You see, I'm going to kill five of you and the other three are going to do something very important for me."
The man chuckled as he stood from the chair he had been seating on. He was a very tall man with bulging muscles that made him look like a giant brick wall, "If you want a fight then you came to the right place," the man said, "Take out all your money and put your head on the floor to apologize, and maybe we'll think about letting you leave here with your life."
"Yeah, I'm definitely going to kill you," I said as I moved faster than they could react and drew my sword from my scabbard. The man standing in front of me quickly tried to cast a spell, but I didn't even let him as I immediately applied magic power to my legs, lunged forward, and buried my sword in his neck! He spluttered in shock as blood leaked from his mouth before he fell to the ground.
The other seven men in the basement were stunned by how quickly their leader died and they immediately tried to get up and attack me.
One of them sent a blast of wind at me and I easily dodged around it. The skill was only an E rank and there was no power behind it. I ran for him and he began to backpedal to try and create some distance between us.
He was obviously an air mage, so long-distance battles would be more beneficial to him and he wouldn't have much chance in a close-quarter battle. Once I got close o him, I grabbed his mouth and applied magic to my hand before slamming him into the ground!
His head cracked against the floor and his eyes rolled the back of his head as he stopped moving. I quickly sidestepped a rock that was thrown at me and activated [Shadow Web] as the man behind me was trapped in one place. His eyes widened once he realized that he couldn't move and he cried out for help from another man, but I moved faster than the other man and slashed off his head before he could get any help. The man that was running towards me to help him tried to stop and turn around, but he was already too close and I easily grabbed his hair and pulled him down.
He slammed into the ground with a yell of pain and I stabbed him in the neck to shut him up. I then paused my ramage and I flicked the blood off my sword, "That's four," I said as I turned to the four other men in the room and started walking toward them "One more slot left. Whos going to try their luck today?"
One of the five men quickly turned around and started to run away and I clicked my tongue, "Guess you're it." I said as I activated [Pyroclasm] and twenty balls of black fire appeared over me and shot towards him, engulfing him in flames. His screams filled the basement and the other four men realized the futility of their actions as they stared at me like the devil.
"Well?" I asked, "Does anyone else think that I should cough up all my money and beg for my life?"
"No," the tallest man there that looked like the most confident one said as he shook his head, "We'll listen to your request. Whatever it is, we'll do it"
"Of course you will," I smiled as I used a cloth to clean my sword and began to tell them what I wanted, "There is going to be a small group of students from the Magus Academy on this floor soon, maybe in a week. I want you to follow them around and tell me what dungeon they decide to go to and when. I know there's a larger number of you, so use everyone for this."
"How many children, sir?" the man asked
"five," I answered," And don't even think of running away," I said as I pointed my sword at his nose, "I know everything. I know about your bases. One in Harlam, one in the east city, one in the slums, and another one down on the third floor where you go to blow off steam when the adventurers are onto you up here. I know that there is no real hierarchy among you and you all just follow whoever is the strongest, and I also know that you have a small group of officials that work with you and tell you about the new adventurers that come into this floor, that's how you choose your targets. It won't be wise to cross me, boy. I know everything. And I can destroy every one of you in one day. From what I can see, you should be the strongest right now, so you have control over the others. Unless you want to end up like your previous leader, you'll keep your men in line."
The man swallowed in fear before he quickly nodded his head, Y-Yeah, ill keep that in mind."
"If you find anything, then come yourself and tell me," I said as I turned and began walking out of the basement.
"Wait, but how will I find you?" the new leader asked.
"I'm staying at the royal hotel in the central city. Just ask for Black and you'll find me."
And with that, I left them and went back to what I was doing before. I went upstairs before trying to find the receptionist once more. I remembered that the receptionist desk was located somewhere on the second floor and the first floor was only used as a waiting area of sorts. I made my way up to the second floor and I finally saw the receptionist sitting behind a large desk and reading a magazine. She didn't look the least bit bothered by her job as there were almost no adventurers on this floor. I walked up to her.
"Hello," I said and she looked at me in surprise for a moment before she rose a brow to ask me what I wanted, "Give me a permit for the D-ranked dungeon [Galeheaven]"
She was stunned, "Really?" she asked like she didn't expect people to still be coming here to ask for missions, "Are you sure you don't want to o to another one? There are a lot of others that you will gain a lot more money at. You won't even need a permit for them."
"Just give me what I asked for," I said in annoyance. The people on this floor were already so desperate for money that they no longer go into dungeons for the sake of getting stronger. They only go into the dungeons that would give them as many crystals as possible so that they can sell them for money.
The [Galeheaven] dungeon was one of the most unprofitable dungeons on this floor. Even though it was one of the strongest D ranked dungeons on the fourth floor, it was an Air based dungeon with a cunning boss and the monsters that are in it are very difficult to kill since they moved in packs. But that was exactly why I want to go there. There is no other dungeon that would give me as many stat rewards as [Galeheaven].