The night was long, though not nearly long enough for Jack's liking. Once he was finished with the slavers/drug dealers, he moved on towards his next target, a foul taste in his mouth and a glare that could wither lesser men- in his eyes. He offloaded the girls, the ones that could still perhaps be saved- all sleeping at that point- to Ramia's men, giving them a few instructions as well as contacting the merchant himself who was up and about as well, already expecting Jack's call, for one reason or another. The merchant then received Jack's quick recount, as well as a few sets of instructions on how the girls could perhaps be fixed, as well as the needs he had just acquired- namely as much info on this particular gang as could be unearthed. Jack did not even try to sugarcoat his reasons for needing the info either. A simple response of 'For I will wipe their ilk off the face of this plane.' to the question that Ramia asked soon enough. Thankfully, and as expected, Ramia was more than agreeable with Jack's decision, though the merchant would not devote his own life to the same pursuit. Sure, he would have his informants digging up what info they could, but he would stop at that. Still, that alone was already more than most would ever be willing to do, thus Jack not only did not complain but also thanked the older man for his willingness to go as far as he did.

  With their exchange of words finished, Jack proceeded towards the next two gangs he had planned to deal with. Unlike with the drug dealers den however, he had no reason to go the stealth route, for all that he needed here was to do a bit of cleaning and send a clear message. Thus, with his sword drawn, he approached his targets, his intention clear as his form would be, had he approached during the days light. Regardless, his approach did not remain unnoticed for long, as the moment his blade slid through the gates of the next gang's hideout, alarms were sounded, with men rushing out from all corners of the place, armed with whatever weapons they could get their hands on, though Jack did note that none had anything worth mentioning, with the goons themselves barely above level ten for the most part.

  "Mere pests at most." he sighed as the greatswords in his hand was swung, its blade creating a song of its own as it sliced through the air to begin with, followed by entirely different tunes as it split its fleshy targets in halves of varied sizes. It cared little for blades or pieces of armor, poor quality and low level that they were, as it was swung, reaping life after life. And, due to the obvious carnage left in Jack's wake, it took less than twenty goons getting dismembered, before the rest would be defenders scurried away like rats at the first sight of a cat, all too eager to kill as many as possible.

  It was at this moment that Jack, in his merc's disguise added a bit of a pep to his step, darting back and from among the fleeing and terrified bandits, ending even more lives in the process. This second gang specialized in racketeering and extortion, preying once again on the lower status denizens of the town, wisely staying away from the nobles, though even the better off merchants, most of them at the very least, did not escape their notice. If that was all there was to it, Jack might have, perhaps, not gone so brutally on the gang, but due to their tendency of either crippling a large number of those people that could not fork out the demanded 'protection fees', or outright selling them to the previous gang, such leniency was not in the cards.

  And unlike with the first target of the night, here he was more than willing to leave a number of bloody corpses in his wake, clearly sending some sort of a message, though the meaning would differ based on who was reading said message. Some would take it as a warning, not to get so conceited and overconfident as to move in broad daylight with their crimes. Others would take it as a challenge, issued by a fresh, no named upstart picking them as his stepping stones towards glory and riches. Others still would see it as an advertisement, clearly flaunting the perpetrators skills in all of their bloody glory. There was plenty of mercenary work for someone with the stomach for violent and gnarly work and no real name to him.

  By the time his blood soaked frame reached the third, and last of his targets for the night, most of the slums, as well as a fair number of guards on duty were wide awake and watching the mercenaries each step, at least as far as the normal folk could keep up with him. Even the guards, though quite a few in number, stayed away from the bloody demon as he crashed the gates of the third gangs hideout.

  "So, what do you think?" asked a cold, though clearly aged voice, as one of a rather peculiar group waiting atop a nearby roof spoke up. Their vantage point provided quite a good vision range towards the third hideout, even allowing the group to see the inner courtyard of the place. It was precisely there that a massacre was taking place as the mercenary was going through the roster of the poor, poor gang.

  "He is an enigma." came a reply, the voice of the woman who spoke rather unique and anyone close enough to the commander on the wall after the monster tide would recognize it without a doubt. "Whatever item, or skill, that obscures his stats is a danger of incredible proportions on its own. Add to that his clearly honed combat techniques and movement, and the impressive stats he already has, and you have one man wrecking crew right there. Dangerous, incredibly so, yes, but still, the entity could be taken down by our group, not without heavy casualties though. But then you add that sword of his to the equation, and we are wiped out in every scenario I can think off, and all the previous assumptions rest on the idea that he is already fighting at max capacity." she finished her analysis, none of their gazes leaving the fight happening in the gangs courtyard.

  "And do you think he is fighting with everything he's got?" the same aged voice asked, though from his intonation it was clear that man himself did not believe that to be the case.

  "Why ask when you already know the answer?" the woman scoffed back.

  "Will you try and contact him any time soon then? It would be such a shame to miss the opportunity we have right before us to at the very least establish some sort of a contact with such a promising mercenary."

  "Later, once he seems to be at least a bit calmer, though timing is crucial. Wait too long and he will most likely disappear just like he did the last time."

  "A good choice, all things considered." the older voice agreed, adding "I do wonder though, just what kind of a person, or group, did the gangs offend to warrant the offended party to hire someone of his caliber to do the deed."

  Before a response, if any was planned by the woman, could be delivered, a new cloaked person lept on the roof, making a quick way towards the woman in question and handing her a small roll of paper before departing in just as swift a manner as they arrived. Before the older man could ask however, the woman handed over the note. A quick few glances later, the older man spoke once again as his gaze returned towards the courtyard where action was finally dying down, only the last, bravest, and more than likely dumbest of the gang members still tried to cut down the merc, clearly failing as well.

  "Thing that was what it all started with? "

  "I'm positive. I told you how he can disappear like he was never there. It stands to reason he should be able to just pop up in the same fashion. And besides, anything less than that would have resulted in a similar bloodbath as here, upped a few notches by the explosives that criminal organization has reliable access to and stocks."

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  "Fair enough." the aged voice agreed with a nod. "Hmm? Something's changed."

  The massacre was finally over, with only the merc still standing among the numerous corpses all around him. What was more unnerving however, was how he had now turned to face their location, raised his hand and waved in their direction for a short moment, before his other hand rose up as well, his palm facing upwards and balled in a fist, save for his index finger that was being bent, beckoning them over. The message was crystal clear- come here you peeping Toms or I might just take offense and who knows just how that will end.

  "Add another note to his profile- extremely sharp and large perception range." the woman spoke to one of her subordinates as she moved ahead, dropping from the roof, followed both by the old man she was having a conversation with just moments ago, as well as the rest of her group, quickly making their way towards the mercenary.

  "Speak." a single word came from the mercenary once the elite squad was close enough, all finding themselves within the same courtyard that still housed a large number of corpses of the recently slain lowlifes and seemingly having handed over the reigns of the conversation to the other side, the merc then proceeded to focus on cleaning up the battlefield, dispersing the bodies of his victims one by one, leaving behind small puddles of blood where each corpse had last been. It was both incredible and disturbing to see no matter how many times she witnessed the sight of bodies scattering into way, way too few motes of dust, leaving nearly no traces of their existence mere moments ago.

  Realizing that she would get no better opportunity, Rebeca Siral- the woman appraiser as well as commander of the elite squad- stepped forward, removing her hood and introducing herself properly, followed by thanks for the mercenaries role in the recent monster tide as well as expressing the desire of both her superiors as well as herself to, if possible, establish some sort of a positive rapport with the man. With his skills he was bound to grow even stronger in the future and only a fool would let such a great opportunity to slip by. And by a possible fool, she referred to her side, not the mercenary himself.

  The mercenary was silent most of the time, responding with simple words, or short sentences. It felt as though speaking was optional and not the most liked of activities for the powerful mercenary. Still, Becca got what she wanted, sort of, as she was now aware of a way to try to contact him, though that too was quite the hassle.

  The merchant Ramia was both a blessing and a curse for whichever place he deemed home and place of business. Sure, the man was quite capable, if what info she had on him was true, as far as trading went, but that did not, and would not, matter when put next to his most powerful card. The man had a brother, one that no sane, and even most of the insane, would never go against directly. Only absolute fools, or those with a deathwish, would act against the merchant himself. The man had a brother, who was among the very top of this world when it came to personal power. The last known reports spoke of the man having reached level nineties- A feat that would put the fear of god in most in the man's presence. The brother of Ramia was also both fond and protective of his brother, as well as a bit of a battle maniac and level junkie. Put that all together, and you have one, untouchable powder keg in the form of an old merchant. The only saving grace was that Ramia's brother was willing to turn a blind eye on the fair game that was played by merchants and the likes, though the emphasis was on the fair part. Unfortunately for those that would try and do precisely that, the younger of the two siblings was one hell of a merchant, making all attempts made against him to fail as quickly as they began. It did confirm that the merc had quite the knowledge at his disposal if he could so easily earn the cooperation of someone like Ramia who could not be interrogated to extract whatever information the trader would need for a proper conduct of business among the two.

  It was both unfortunate, and quite lucky indeed, for while they could not do anything but approach the merc through this one path, everyone else in the future would have to do the same thing as well, allowing people like Becca to get a headstart in the whole game that would inevitably be played to draw the man before her eyes in some organizations permanent service. She knew for a fact that Valkia was too small a place to bound someone like the mercenary before her, but that did not mean that her own allies could not be propped up in a better light. Time would only tell though, as she had too little to go on at this moment.

  "With everything we had to say spoken, we will take our leave and stop taking your time. May we have fruitful cooperation in the future." Becca spoke as she slightly bowed her head in mercs direction, only a second later seeing a couple of rather poor quality journals of sorts landing near her feet, clearly thrown by the mercenary. Thankfully, she did not have to guess, as the merc spoke.

  "Gang nobles. Evidence within. Deal with them."

  Rebeca Siral was quite the beauty indeed, Jack had to admit as he saw her facial features when the woman was handed the ball of conversation and introduced herself, removing the cloak in the process. Heart shaped face with rosy lips, though he noticed the absence of any sort of cosmetic or spell that would enhance it. Dark- filled with life and caution as well as experience for her relative youth- eyes that spoke volumes. The girl had seen some shit and was wiser, more grounded for it. Her skin was a light, slightly pale even, though it made a stark, and honestly quite pleasing contrast with her dark eyes and hair, which was tied in a neat ponytail. Utility over looks, screamed everything about her, though her posture indicated that the woman was also quite aware and capable of using her natural gifts of beauty quite effortlessly.

  Still, Jack had seen divine beauty, so unless he felt reaaaly backed up and desperate, just this much could never entice him. Personality had to match the looks for him to even turn his head after all. If not physically, then mentally he was old enough to not chase any loose skirt in his reach. That and he was, once again, not all that much into kids. And while Becca was an adult, for both this and his old world standards, being around ages old gods did fuck with one's understanding of what was young and underaged.

  Still, the girl had been polite enough, in more ways than one, so he felt that it was fine leaving any further testing that might be needed done to those with better people skills than him- namely Ramia. Thankfully, even his current company was wise enough to back off at about the same time he was done cleaning up the bodies, having gained just that bit of extra matter.

  "Nice." he hummed just barely under his hood as another level up notification popped up. It was not his own kills that had made the push though however. It was both the kids and Anastiela's group he had armed that had done a lion's share of work, the latter being the final push as they seemed to have started earlier than he would have expected. That or he had dragged on his own night duty for a bit too long.

  'Damn, did not even notice.' he thought as his eyes rose towards the horizon, the first rays of sun peeking behind the horizon, just out of their reach, though still visible. It was almost morning and he knew he would be expected at breakfast. 'Time to bounce.' he thought and rose to his feet, rolling his shoulders a bit. Then, like a ghost that had never been there, he disappeared, startling the group of his conversation partners from just mere moments ago, leaving them with even more questions than ever,

  "What was that?" the old man asked a minute or so of deafening silence after the merc had disappeared. Everyone, including Becca was left speechless. That level of stealth was not something just anyone possesed, clearly far above what the authorities here had to counter it.

  "Were we wrong? Could he be an old monster?" Becca thought aloud "With such stealth, it would be a triviality for him to slip past whatever guards we have outside the city."

  "No, cannot be. One of my skills can determine the age of things and people alike, and while I could not sense any actually precise readings, I got the distinct feeling he is younger than me, notably so as well, automatically making him anything but one of those old monsters that roam about under various disguises."

  'I feel a headache incoming.' Becca could not help but already imagine the city lord speaking the words once she delivered him these latest news, bringing a slight smile to her otherwise calm and cool facial expression.

  Jack Raja(?)

  Age- 27

  Species- human(?)

  Level- 22

  Class- Twin aspect of Creation and Destruction(EX)

  Stats unassigned: +11

  Attributes:

  Strength- 24 (14+7+3)

  Vitality- 23 (12+8+3)

  Dexterity- 21 (15+6)

  Intelligence-7

  Spirit- Spirit- 25 (20+5)

  Skills- Wisdom of Creation and destruction(EX), Choice of the creator(EX), Eyes of procurer(EX), Matter storage(EX), Arukain language(C), Spark of inspiration(EX).

  Spells- none.

  Titles(unlocked): The real Monster, Big Game Hunter, The brilliant rookie, The insane Solo. Monster debugger.The actor. Executioner. Survivor. Pioneer, Record breaker.The new champion supreme.

  Gear: amulet +2 vit: weapon- Gundao+3 str. Rings- spatial storage, vit +