1089-1103

Chapter C1089: The Job

Ning wasn't sure what to make of the man's face when he asked him if he was a criminal. He had asked it offhandedly, but judging by the expression, it seemed like he really was one.

"Of-of course I'm not," the man said.

"Dude! Who are you kidding?" Ning asked. "I should have known by how shady this meeting place even is. You're asking me to meet by the side of a random house, and are worried that I was with the guards."

"No, I'm not," the man said. "Do you want the job or not?"

"What's the job?" Ning asked. "What do I deliver?"

"No, I don't think I want to give you the job anymore," the man said.

"Hey! Come on, man. I need the money. As long as it's not something bad, I'll do it," Ning said.

The man grumbled to himself for a moment and nodded. He then brought out something that he was hiding on his back. "You will need to get this to the next city. Just beyond the bridge, someone will be waiting for you. As long as you get it to them, they will give you something back, which you'll have to bring here. As long as you do that, you'll get paid," the man said.

Ning reached out to the package, curiously and the man pulled back quickly. "What are you doing?" the man asked.

"I was just trying to see what it was," Ning said.

"You don't get to see what's inside," the man said.

"What?" Ning looked at the man. "How the hell am I supposed to believe that you're not making me do something illegal if I can't even check what it is?"

"You don't need to see what it is. You just need to deliver it, alright?" the man asked.

"I don't know, brother. You're acting really shady right now. I'm starting to wonder if you're even trustworthy in the first place," Ning said. "I think I'll give up on this job. It doesn't seem like something that's good for m—"

BANG~!

A massive explosion sounded from far away, forcing Ning to stop speaking quickly. He and the other man both looked toward the direction of the explosion.

"What was that?" Ning couldn't help but ask. "it didn't sound that far away."

The man looked in the direction of where the explosion had happened and couldn't help but frown. "Alright, listen to me. I don't have the time," the man said.

"Here is your payment, upfront," the man brought out 10 Earth coins, presenting them in front of Ning.

"No, I'm not doing your work anym—"

"I don't have time for this," the man shouted, forcing Ning to take the coins. "You are right. I am a criminal, alright? But what I'm sending with you is not something illegal by any means."

"I was going to do it myself but something's come up and I can't do it," the man said. "Take this to the other city. There will be people waiting for you to take the item there. You will recognize them rather easily after using the keywords 'loud silence', so you won't have to worry about not knowing who to give it to."

"They will test the item and give you a package as well, depending on the result. Bring back the package to me," the man said. "Do this for m—"

The man's eyes moved all of a sudden to his left towards the river from where men started jumping out at him.

"The fuck?" the man shouted as he pulled out two daggers by his side. One of the daggers had a blade that glowed bright red, while the other one glowed a dull gray.

"How the fuck did they recognize me?" the man shouted.

Ning looked to the side as well and saw nearly 6 different people in dark clothes coming towards them.

"Move and I'll kill you all," the man shouted at the newly arrived group. The group stopped and one of them go rid of the cloth around their face that was covering their identity.

The moment the cover came off, the man's eyes went wide.

"Gerrin?" he couldn't help but ask in surprise. His daggers lowered a bit as he let his guard down for a moment before quickly picking it back up.

"Hello, Carlos," Gerrin spoke. Gerrin was a young man in his late 20s and had a rather handsome face.

"What are you doing here?" Carlos asked. "How did you recognize me?"

"Recognize you? Haha, we haven't left you out of our sight since the moment you walked into the city. Your simple face change was not going to stop us from recognizing you at all," the young man said, as his eyes drifted towards the package in his hand.

"I see," Gerrin said. "So that's the thing everyone is so after. Is it really what the rumor says it is?"

"The fuck does that have anything to do with you?" Carlos asked.

"If I can get my hands on it, everything," Gerrin said.

Carlos' eyes narrowed. "Are you going behind the boss's back?" he asked.

"Fuck the boss. If I can get that, who cares about some stupid old bastard that knows nothing but to sit around and order us," Gerrin said. "I might as well kill him after I get that thing."

"So confident, for someone that is at the death's door," the man said.

"Oh?" Gerrin was surprised. "And who's going to kill me? You and that kid over there?"

"Heh! You overestimate yourself," Carlos said. "I alone will be enough."

Carlos tossed the box to Ning who was just standing there. Ning grabbed the box and looked at the man.

"Take that to my boss in the next city. Listen for the keyword 'loud silence'. Now go," Carlos shouted.

"Kid, you better hand that over, or my men will fillet you like fish on a cutting board," Gerrin spoke. The men behind him did start to pull out their weapons as well.

Ning looked at the two men and suddenly tossed the package the Gerrin. "I don't want anything to do with this. So, just take it, and leave me alone."

Chapter C1090: Crystal

Everyone that was there next to the river looked at Ning with different expressions on their faces.

Carlos was angry, Gerrin was surprised and amused, and the rest were happy if half their faces were anything to go by.

"Why the fuck did you give it to him?" Carlos shouted. "Are you with these bastards?"

"I don't even know them," Ning said. "I don't even know you. I'm not risking my life for somebody that wants me to smuggle something illegal to a goddamn mafia boss."

"It's not illegal, bastard. I told you so many goddamn times," Carlos shouted at Ning.

"Then what the hell is it?" Ning asked.

"You wanna see what it is?" Gerrin asked as he ripped open the packaging. Inside was a metal box surprisingly, which he opened simply by undoing the latch by its side. Then, he pulled out something that glowed with dull white light, that already brightened the walls of the metal box and the man's face.

The man pulled it out and showed it for everyone to see. What was inside was a white, glowing piece of crystal that had multiple long and sharp crystals growing out at the top. The main block of the crystal itself was about 6 centimeters in diameter, with the crystals growing out being anywhere from 5 to 10 centimeters long.

"Pure Essence crystal," the man said softly as he looked at the crystal in his hand. "So, it really does exist."

"You bastard," Carlos shouted at Gerrin as he looked at the crystal coming out.

"Someone leaked about the boss sending you to check on the new crystal mine somewhere around here, but I did not expect the crystal mine to actually be one for a pure essence crystal," Gerrin spoke. "No wonder you were so secretive about everything."

Ning looked at the crystal with a rather confused look on his face. He was following most of what was being said, but he also had some confusion, most importantly because he didn't realize that such crystals existed in the first place.

At the very least, the fishermen told him nothing about it.

"This is fantastic," the man said as he looked at the crystal in his hand. "With this, I can easily reach the Essence Manifestation realm and be able to fight the boss one on one in just a year or two. With the quality of this essence, my realm break will be very smooth, and the power I will acquire would be far vaster than anyone in a thousand miles."

"You bastard," Carlos shouted. "Like hell I will let you do that."

"And you're going to stop me, Carlos?" the man asked. "I have 5 men helping me today. You will die if you try to fight me."

Ning was curious about the pure essence crystals, and especially the mine for it. But he was not curious enough to possibly kill himself for it.

'This has nothing to do with me,' he thought and decided to leave the place before it became a battlefield. There was already some explosion going on in the city, so he knew better than to stick around and find out what was going to happen next.

"Uhh… you guys do what you want, I'm leaving," Ning said and turned around.

"Stop," Gerrin spoke. At the same time, 2 of his men went around to block Ning's exit, with metal swords of their own.

"What do you want?" Ning asked with a slightly serious face.

"Where do you think you are going?" Gerrin asked.

"Away from here," Ning said. "I gave you the box. What do you want from me now?"

"That you did," Gerrin said. "But you also saw my face. If you were to tell the boss about me before I can get strong, I will die. I can't let you do that."

"I don't even know what sort of gang you guys are," Ning shouted. "How the hell would I talk to your boss?"

"I don't care. You know too much today, so you die," Gerrin said. "Kill him."

Ning's face darkened with a frown as one of the men in front of him charged with his sword up high, ready to swing.

Before the man could swing it down, however, Ning moved and punched him in his solar plexus. The man involuntarily breathed out all the air in his lung and tried to breathe in again. He let go of his sword due to the pain, which Ning grabbed and stabbed the man through the neck.

The other man realized something was bad and moved at the same time. He attacked Ning way better than the first man, but even that wasn't enough.

Ning blocked the sword with his own and parried it before kicking the man in the stomach. The man fell back in pain and Ning took the chance to drive the sword through his stomach as well.

The man still tried to slash at him with what power he had, but Ning stomped on his arm, making it impossible for him to use a sword anymore. Then, he pulled out the sword and stabbed it through the man's heart.

Gerrin and the rest watched with wide eyes as two of their men died at once. Now, only four of them were remaining.

Carlos took the opportunity and charged with his fire and water daggers.

Gerrin looked around in time to see Carlos arrive next to him. He dropped the crystal and pulled out the shield on his back as he poured some essence into it.

The earthen shield suddenly created a highly realistic illusion of an earth wall in front of him that blocked a slash of fire and water that came from Carlos's daggers.

"You three, take care of the kid," Gerrin shouted as he brought out a fire sword of his own, one that was very bright. "I will take care of Carlos."

"I would love to see you try, you bastard," Carlos shouted as his fire and water dagger started glowing in bright colors as well.

Ning wanted to look at the battle, but his own was coming right up.

Chapter C1091: Sword Fight

Carlos swung his fire dagger, sending out a burst of flame toward Gerrin. Gerrin moved his water shield in front of him, and a water blast stopped the fire from approaching.

He then swung his own fire sword, sending a spray of fire at Carlos. Carlos took the flame dagger and sent a spray of fire of his own.

He struggled a bit in the match as the fire that was used to make his dagger wasn't as much as the fire that was used to make Gerrin's sword. As such, the spray of fire coming from Gerrin was much stronger than his own.

Thankfully, his dagger stopped most of the flames, and the ones it couldn't stop weren't strong enough to reach him at all, and instead directly went up into the air.

Carlos jumped to the side and slashed with his water dagger. A crescent-shaped water flew through the air, coming at Gerrin.

Gerrin stopped the water attack before it reached him by sending a spray of water at the attack.

The attack was still strong enough to make its way out of the spray, but then it stuck the shield and did no damage to him at all.

The two of them continued fighting with each other, using this Essence weapon to attack each other with fire and water attacks. Meanwhile, the remaining 3 others arrived in front of Ning.

Ning looked at the 3 of them and looked at their weapons. Fortunately, it didn't look like the 3 held any essence weapons, but they still had metal swords and daggers with them, that would cut him all the same.

The man on the right charged at him first, very careful as they had seen what he was capable of. He stabbed from afar, and stayed out of Ning's reach.

Ning struck the sword away with his own metal sword that he had taken from the first guy he killed. He tried moving forward towards the man, but another one to his left swung at him.

He turned around in time and struck the sword away. Then, he dodged the next sword's attack and sliced at the third man that attacked him.

The man moved back in time and dodged his attacks as well. When he was trying to think how to kill at least one of them, the first man attacked once more.

He started fighting the three of them at once and could only hold his own against the 3 in front of him. He was afraid that if he let his guard down, he would get hurt. In that case, he wouldn't know what to do to heal himself at all.

There most likely were ways, but he wasn't aware of them for sure. Bleeding at the moment would be disastrous.

He saw through his Omni-directional vision that Gerrin and Carlos' fight was still continuing, but Carlos seemed to be slowly losing his edge. If it continued, Carlos would most likely die, and then Gerrin would come after him.

Ning wondered if he had it in him to ignore the fight and run away. However, he couldn't lie to himself that if possible, he would want to save Carlos.

'I'll have to get out of this situation first though,' Ning thought.

He struck one sword after another, perfectly parrying each one as they landed. The 3 people fighting him were shocked at how good his swordplay was.

Ning was never a swordsman. His primary choice of weapon was always a spear as that was what he had used for most of his life. However, that was not to say that he had never used a sword at all.

His his hundreds of thousands of years alive, he had used a sword long enough to be more than a lifetime's worth for most people.

That was to say, he was a more capable swordsman than any of the people in front of him.

The battle had gotten monotonous, with Ning defending himself while the three tried to cut him. Ning was able to continuously defend himself, not making a single mistake, while the 3 were not above that.

Ning saw the first mistake after two minutes of fighting. The three of them had been attacking him one after another, which had kept him in a defensive stance. However, right this second, two of the three attackers were attacking at once.

Ning noticed it and dashed to the side, approaching the third person. The third person wasn't expecting his arrival at all, and his swing had to change mid-preparation, so he was flustered.

Ning took the opportunity and stabbed the man in the throat. He sent his whole body into the attack so that the man's swing wouldn't hit him at all.

The two of them fell to the ground, with Ning on top of the man. Ning looked to the side and saw the closest one approaching him.

He quickly pulled out the sword and tossed it toward the man. The man struck the sword aside and continued his charge at Ning.

Ning had thrown his sword at him, and the dead man's sword was behind him, so he was plenty confident about killing the helpless Ning.

He arrived right on top of Ning and slashed downwards. However, before he could fully attack Ning, a dagger went up through the man's jaw straight into his skull.

Ning stepped aside and watched the man fall.

He had taken the first dead man's dagger without being noticed and killed the second man. Then, he took the 2nd dead man's sword and looked at the final remaining person.

He gave an evil smile, terrifying the last remaining opponent. However, before he could attack, he put his sword to the side to block the burst of water that had flown at him.

Then, Gerrin came charging at him and swung his sword.

Ning put his sword up and blocked it, but the fiery sword wasn't so easy to stop. He watched in surprise as the metal sword in his hand started to heat up and even deform in the location where it contacted the fiery sword.

Chapter C1092: Conduit

Ning moved back and stared at his sword which had a dent on what should have been the edge. The blade of the sword itself was bent, so he tossed it aside.

"You're quite good at this," Gerrin said with a not-so-happy face. He was angry at the sight of his men dying.

Ning looked toward Carlos who was next to the wall of the house. He seemed to have struck the wall and couldn't move anymore.

"Look at me when I'm talking to you," Gerrin shouted as he sent out a massive burst of fire on Ning's way. Ning ducked at the last second, and the fire darkened the outer wall with black residue.

"Who are you exactly? Are you part of our gang too?" the man asked.

"I'm not with your little gang," Ning said. "He was just giving me a job because I needed one."

"Oh, nice lie," Gerrin said.

"I'm not," Ning said.

"Are you now?" Gerrin asked. "Whatever. It doesn't really matter, does it? After all, You killed my people, so all you can do now is die too."

Ning frowned and looked at the sword in Gerrin's hands. If he was struck by it, he was most likely going to burn alive. He did not want that.

'What do I do?' he thought. 'Think, Ning, think.'

He looked at Gerrin's fiery sword once more and then at his shield. 'Fire and Water Essence,' he thought. How were they using the Fire and Water Essence exactly?

Ning had learned something about Essence Weapons from the shop he was at yesterday.

The reason an Essence Weapon was rare and expensive, aside from the fact that it was hard to acquire, was the fact that it was very sought after.

The reason why these weapons were so sought after had nothing to do with the fact that they could be used as weapons, but rather that they could be used to use one's Essence inside of them.

For the first 3 realms on one's Essence journey, they could not use Essence on their own at all. It was always at the 4th realm, the Essence Manifestation realm that one finally was able to use their Essence on their own.

Before that, if they wanted to use the Essence, they had to rely on a conduit.

Natural conduits existed, but they were very rare. Essence weapons on the other hand were man-made conduits that allowed one to channel their Essence and turn it into an element of the conduit.

The conversion rate of Essence with these man-made conduits wasn't as high, but they were high enough that everyone owned one.

Sometimes, people even owned multiple ones, as Gerrin and Carlos did.

Ning owned one as well, the Earthen sword. And now he was wondering if he could also use the sword as a conduit.

He wasn't wondering if it was possible or not, but rather if he could do it or not. He hadn't practiced that just yet and was worried he couldn't do it.

But, worrying wasn't going to help him at all. So, he reached his waist and pulled the sword out.

The sword came out wrapped in the loose cloth, which he quickly got rid of, revealing the Earth sword.

Gerrin's eyes narrowed when he saw the sword and gave a nasty little smirk. "I knew you weren't normal," he said. "To own an Essence sword, you can't be an ordinary man."

He prepared his weapons. "Now, you will tell me who you are exactly. If you don't I will burn your leg first, then your arms, and finally your head," the man said.

Ning looked straight at him, but his eyes weren't seeing anything. His whole attention had gone to his body, which he was using to search for Essence deep within him.

He knew that he definitely had some Essence in him. After all, he had reached the first realm of every Essence user's journey, the Physical Improvement realm.

His body was stronger, faster, and more agile, so he knew he had improved. The only question now was if he could find the Essence deep within him.

"Hey! Are you listening to me?" Gerrin asked when he noticed that Ning's eyes weren't focusing on him at all.

"This bastard! He's not paying attention to me at all," he shouted. "Very well then, you can die now."

He thrust his sword forward and sent out a massive flame spray toward Ning.

At the same time, Ning's eyes shined as he felt something move in his body. The Essence in his body entered his sword through his hand.

The Essence mixed with the Earthen energy in the sword, and Ning imagined an earth attack emerging from the sword.

Just as he thought that something did appear out of the sword.

Ning looked at the thing that appeared out of nowhere, and his eyes went wide. Gerrin looked at what had appeared and his eyes went wide as well.

Carlos who was looking from the side was shocked to the point that he wondered if he had already died, or if he had been hit in the head too hard and was now hallucinating.

What had appeared out of nowhere was a massive rock that was larger than the house they were next to. If not only appeared but flew toward Gerrin.

The flame spray struck the massive rock, doing barely anything to it at all. He used his water shield as well, but that didn't do anything either.

Both Gerrin and the other man next to him turned around to run away, but before they could make it anywhere, the rock landed on them, and immediately crushed them to death.

Ning's eyes remained wide in shock as he looked at the massive rock and then at his sword. He couldn't believe what he was seeing at all.

"Is that… what this sword is made up of?" he couldn't help but ask. If that was the case, then he could finally understand why 15 different people were not able to pick the sword up at all.

Chapter C1093: Different Job

Both Carlos and Ning continued watching in surprise at the massive rock that had appeared out of nowhere and watched until it disappeared into thin air.

What remained was the crushed bodies of the two people that were caught underneath the rock. Not only the bodies but even the Essence sword and shield were destroyed, only their hilt and a small disc of the shield remained.

"Yikes," Ning exclaimed when he saw the bodies and turned around. "What the hell happened to the rock?"

Carlos looked at Alex with a shocked look on his face. "How did you do it?" he asked.

"What?" Ning asked.

"How did you… how did you make that rock?" he asked.

Ning shrugged. "I don't really know. I was just thinking of attacking them with a big rock and that thing appeared," he said.

Carlos's eyes drifted from Ning to his sword, and Ning noticed that.

"What? Do you want to steal my sword?" Ning asked. "I might be tempted to give it to you if you tell me where I can find that crystal mine of yours."

"What?" Carlos looked back up. "What do you want with the mine?"

"Sounds like a good place to improve my Essence rank, you know," Ning said. "So, are you going to tell me where it is at all?"

Carlos slowly held out his daggers once more. "I would rather kill myself than tell you where it is," he spoke.

"Damn, alright," Ning said and turned around. He started wrapping his sword once more. "Thanks for the money, I guess. I will go get a sheath for my sword and buy a few more things. I'm really curious about this world, you know?"

"You're leaving?" the man asked.

"Of course," Ning said. "There's no reason to stay here anymore. Especially since the guards might be coming here, you know."

"They won't," Carlos said. "That explosion from earlier, they will be gathered there."

Ning thought for a moment and nodded. "You're right," he said. "Still, I don't plan on staying around a place with so many dead people." He looked towards the road that was hidden by the house. "I suspect people have heard the commotion and reported it already."

Carlos couldn't deny that. He quickly picked up the crystal that Gerrin had thrown close by when the fight started. He found that there was no packaging to pack it in and simply wrapped it around his tunic.

"So, what are you exactly? Someone from some other gang?" Carlos asked.

"Huh? No, I'm a nobody really," Ning said as he walked away from the place. Carlos followed him.

"You don't strike me as a nobody," Carlos said. "I don't think you were trying to steal this from me, you didn't even know about it, so I'm curious why someone so strong like you would be looking for a job."

"Huh? I'm not strong at all," Ning said. "It is my sword that was strong. Oh right, do you know why the rock disappeared so suddenly?"

Carlos thought for a moment. "Are you only in the Physical Improvement realm?" he asked.

"I'm afraid so," Ning said.

"Hmm, then it is because your Essence wasn't strong enough to exist as a physical element for too long," Carlos said. "Don't you know what?"

"Nope," Ning said. "I know nothing about anything."

Carlos was surprised someone could admit to their ignorance so proudly.

"Anyway, if you're not gonna tell me about the mine, then goodbye," Ning said and walked towards the other side of the city.

Carlos quickly followed behind. "Wait," he shouted.

"What now?" Ning asked without stopping at all. Carlos quickly ran up to him and walked next to him.

"I have enemies in the city and they are most likely waiting for me outside," he said. "Can you please help me?"

"Dude, I told you, I don't want to help you deliver some package," Ning said. "I have no interest in that."

"What if I add more Earth coins?" Carlos asked. "I will give you 30."

Ning stopped. "30?" he asked while thinking how good that was. "No, I would rather have the crystals themselves. I bet they would sell for way more."

Carlos frowned. He needed to get Ning on this side any way he could. "Fine 50," he said. "And you won't have to deliver it. I will do it, you just need to be my guard. And I'll even put a good word with the boss to help you get into the gang. You okay with that?"

Ning paused. "50?" he asked.

Carlos nodded.

"How dangerous is the job?" he asked.

"Nothing more than what you just went through," Carlos said.

"That's… alright, you got yourself a deal," Ning said. "When do we leave?"

"Right now," Carlos said.

Ning looked at him weirdly. "You got the money here?" he asked.

"Yes," Carlos said as he brought out a pouch from his pockets. Ning glimpsed the two daggers hidden underneath his tunic as well.

"What else do you need to grab before we leave?" Ning asked.

"I doubt I have anything of those sorts anymore," Carlos said with a slight frown.

"What do you mean?" Ning asked.

"That explosion from earlier, I suspect that it was for me," Carlos said. "They have most likely exploded the place I was renting to stay."

"Damn," Ning thought. "They must really care about the crystal enough to come after you."

"Yes," Carlos said. "Now, can we leave?"

"Sure," Ning said. "But money first."

Carlos frowned and pulled out the pouch from before. He opened the pouch and pulled out 25 different brown coins.

"Here," he handed it over to Ning.

"25? You said 50," Ning said.

"Half now, half later," Carlos said.

Ning looked at the coin and sighed. "Fine, half later," he said and pocketed the coins. He had already received 35 coins just this morning, so he was more than happy.

"Now that you've received the money, can we go?" Carlos asked.

"Sure," Ning said. "Lead the way."

Chapter C1094: Chill

Carlos and Ning got onto a carriage that could handle about 6 different people, but only the two of them were on it.

Carlos had paid off the driver for the whole carriage so they could get some privacy.

Ning placed his sword to the side and sat on one side of the carriage with one leg on top of another. The carriage rattled, but he had been in way too many of these things to really care about some rattling carriage.

Carlos closed the blinds on the carriage's windows and sneaked a glance outside from time to time by opening it a little.

"Damn, man. You're worrying way too much," Ning said. "Just chill, okay?"

"I can't just 'chill', okay?" Carlos said. "My life is on the fucking line here. So many people are after me."

"Can't you like hear the people if they get too close or something?" Ning asked. "That's what the Essence sense realm is about right?"

Carlos turned towards Ning. "I can't sense them if they hide it very well," he said. "Or if they choose to come through a place that is heavy with Essence."

"Like if someone comes from the river?" Ning asked. "Is that why you couldn't sense that Gerrin dude and the others approach?"

Carlos nodded.

"I see," Ning said. "The more information I learn, the better. Anyway, tell me about this gang of yours. I am very curious about your gang and your boss."

"My boss is a secret I can never tell you about. As for my gang, we call ourselves the Paradise Hunters," Carlos explained. "We are a big gang, one of the biggest in the Crowler Empire."

"Crowler Empire… is that where we are on right now?" Ning asked.

Carlos gave a weird look when he heard that question. "How do you not know that?" he asked.

Ning shrugged. "I lost all my memories, so I don't know where I am right now. A few fishermen dragged me out of the ocean with this sword in hand. So I'm trying to learn more about the world and see if it jogs my memories."

"Woah!" Carlos said with a surprised look. "I did not expect such a backstory from you."

"Forget about me, continue with yours," Ning said.

"Okay," Carlos continued. "The Paradise Hunters consists of over 500 members, not including people that just work for the gang. Although, none of us really know who we work for. Our boss is just that secretive."

"And you still work for such a boss?" Ning asked.

Carlos nodded. "A month or so ago, the boss came across a small piece of information," he said. "Some place… uhh… close to the Frailheart city, there was a large deposit of pure Essence crystals and he made his underlings find out if that was true or not."

"I was one of them who was made to search the site and bring back a sample piece to report to the boss," he said. "But, it seems other people somehow got the wind of it, and not just the other gangs are after the location, even some members of our own gang are after it."

Ning gave a curious look as he heard it all. "Have you ever seen the boss? He sounds secretive," he said.

"Not directly," Carlos said. "We don't get to see their faces, but we do hear him. The boss is currently in Grayfire city, waiting for me to return with the crystal. I suspect I will finally be allowed to see how he looks exactly."

"I see," Ning said. "And you think you can put a good word in for me?"

"Of course," Carlos said. "Are you interested?"

"No, not really," Ning said. "Especially since it sounds like you're a group of criminals."

"We are not… dammit," Carlos couldn't deny. "I try not to do anything really bad."

"Whatever," Ning said.

Carlos sighed and turned around to look outside once again. Ning sighed as well and was about to close his eyes to rest for a moment when he noticed something.

"Hey, what's wrong with your neck?" he asked.

"My… what?" Carlos turned towards Ning.

"Your neck," Ning said as he gestured to his own neck. "It looks like you were cut. Your skin is coming to off. Let me check."

He got up and got close, but Carlos quickly stopped him. "No need, just stay. I'm not hurt," he said.

"Huh? But your skin is flapping," Ning said.

"No, it's…" Carlos felt the flap and smushed it onto his neck. However, the flap continued popping out. "Shit, the adhesive is gone."

"What's going on with your skin?" Ning asked.

"It's not my skin," Carlos said. "It's fake skin, which isn't working anymore."

Carlos slid his fingers into the flap and pulled out the skin, very much surprising Ning. It was not just his neck where the fake skin was, but his face and his hair too.

When he pulled it off, it came off entirely, revealing a rather handsome-looking face with dark blonde hair underneath. The man looked no older than in his early 20s, rather than the middle-aged he looked earlier.

His acne-scarred cheeks were also gone, revealing a smooth face underneath. "Shit, this is bad," he said.

"I don't know. I think you look quite good this way," Ning said.

"Huh? No, I meant bad because everyone will recognize me now. At least previously I had a mask to hide behind while on the road," Carlos said.

"And was that helping?" Ning asked. "Didn't the place you were staying at get attacked? Hell, you yourself were attacked."

"That… I suppose you're right," Carlos said.

"Think of it this way," Ning said. "Either you are going to get attacked, or you are not going to get attacked. Either way, you being so hyper-scared isn't going to change the situation."

"Just chill and we'll see if we do get attacked," Ning said. "If we do, we'll fight back. If we don't, we continue chilling until we reach the next city."

Chapter C1095: Hanson

"How long does it take to reach the next city again?" Ning asked.

"It would take half a day by foot, but on a carriage this fast, we should reach there in less than 3 hours," Carlos said.

Ning sighed and rested. "I should just sleep for the time being then," he said and was about to lay back when he felt his body jolt forward as the carriage came to a halt.

"What the?" he looked around.

Carlos quickly opened the window blinds and looked out. "Hey! Why did you stop?" he asked the person in the front.

"Dear sir, all the carriages have stopped. Something to the front seems to be burning," the man said.

"Burning?" Carlos frowned. "What the hell is—"

Suddenly, something struck them from behind, causing the two of them to slam into the back of the carriage. Ning hit the carriage door so hard that he flew out of it and landed on the ground outside.

"Urgh!" he cried a bit and tried to stand up, but before he did, a man was already on top of him with his sword ready to attack him.

Ning saw the sword move down and quickly rolled to the side. At the same time, there were a few people on the carriage that seemed to have slammed into them that were coming out with bows and arrows.

"Carlos!" Ning shouted to alert him, but it looked like he didn't need to.

Carlos arrived out of the carriage with his two daggers in hand. "You bastards!" he shouted. "You dare attack us out in the open?"

"Fire!" the man with the sword shouted at his friends that had the bows.

A volley of arrows shot out immediately, but Carlos hid inside the carriage. The arrows stuck to the wooden wall of the carriage.

"Let me show you what real fire looks like," Carlos shouted as he quickly jumped back out of the carriage, right in front of the man.

The man tried to move his sword, but it was stopped by Carlos's water dagger. As for his fire dagger, she stabbed the man with it. Then, he let it burn.

A plume of fire burst from behind the man, charring his chest and the surrounding area immediately. He fell to the ground, next to Ning who had managed to get out of there.

Cries of shock and panic rang from the road as people in other carriages ran as far away as they could from the two that were there.

"You okay?" Carlos asked.

"Yes," Ning said. "Surprisingly, I don't feel pain at all."

"Where's your sword?" Carlos asked.

"Inside," Ning said and quickly jumped into the carriage to get his sword. In the meantime, the people on the other carriage had finished loading their bows and arrow.

"Surrender, Carlos," another man from inside the carriage shouted. He came out holding a sword that seemed to be made up of beach sand. "Tell us where you acquired it, and we will let you live."

Carlos's eyes narrowed. "Hanson, huh? Did Gerrin get to you too?" he asked.

"Gerrin? He was a nobody. Why would he get to me?" Hanson asked.

"Then why are you after what the boss wants? Why do you want to go behind his back? Do you really think that you can escape the boss's reach just because you have a single mine?" Carlos asked.

"We don't fear the boss," Hanson said. "Why would someone who even fears to show his own face to his own people fear us? Just because he's then boss, doesn't mean that he can't be overthrown."

"You underestimate the boss way too much," Carlos said.

"And you overestimate him too much," Hanson said. "Do you think the boss can live to see another day when Dale, Bordick, and Firepalm are all coming to get him today?"

Carlos' eyes went wide. "What?" he shouted in surprise.

"You heard me right," Hanson said. "We have notified the other gang's bosses of the boss's presence in Grayfire city. After today, he won't be alive at all. At such a period in time, don't you wish that you were on our side?"

Carlos wasn't thinking about Hanson's offer at all. His entire being was only thinking about the boss's situation. 3 other gang bosses were coming for him, and they knew where he was today.

"You bastard," Carlos shouted. "After all the boss did for us. After you got a job, a shelter, a family, you still dare betray him!"

"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Carlos. Why does it sound like you're refusing the offer?" Hanson asked.

"It sounds like that because he is refusing the offer," Ning said as he walked out of the carriage with his sword in hand.

"Hmph! Who the hell are you to butt in on this conversation?" Hanson asked.

"Me?" Ning asked. "I am his bodyguard. And I am getting paid to take him to Grayfire city. So, if you won't mind us, we will be killing you quickly so we can go on our merry way."

"Kill that bastard," Hanson said to the archer next to him.

Ning swung his sword before the archer could release his arrow, and a fist-sized rock flew through the air, striking the archer right on his face.

"Argh!" the archer cried in pain as he clutched onto his face. Hanson looked shocked, but he quickly gathered himself and turned around.

"Kill them!" he shouted as he used his sword to blast sand toward Ning and Carlos.

"Get behind me," Ning said as he stabbed his sword onto the ground, and out from it came 3 massive rock spikes that were enough to block all the direct attacks. The sand still spread onto the afterward, but the main attack was blocked.

The attacks stopped after 2 seconds, and a second after that, Ning's rocks that had appeared in front of them disappeared as well. Since their opponents were reloading and the pathway was empty in front of them, Ning dashed forward to go attack them.

Chapter C1096: Race to Grayfire City

Ning was surprised at how fast his dash was. For a body that was nowhere close to being as strong as his other one, this was surprisingly great.

Some of the fighters on the enemy noticed him coming out of the massive amounts of sand on the ground and tried to shout at him. But before they could say anything to warn the others, Ning swung his sword while putting as much Essence into the attack as he could.

The sword cut through the wooden carriage as easily as carving through butter. It only stopped when it struck the ground and went nearly half a meter deep into it.

Then, his essence went to work. A massive pillar of stone jumped out of the ground, sending the destroyed carriage into the air. It reached over 10 meters high in just a second, sending the people on it scattering everywhere.

Some landed in the field by the road, some landed on other carriages, and a few fell directly onto the road they were in.

Carlos moved at the same time and arrived in front of Hanson. Before Hanson could do anything, he stuck his water sword into his mouth and started flooding his mouth with water.

The pressure causes the water to come out of Hanson's nose, and at the same time, he breathed in a massive amount of it, filling up his lungs in the process.

Carlos moved towards the others and used his fire swords to attack them. Ning moved as well, killing a few of the others that were trying to find their bows and arrows to shoot at them.

Once they were done, they returned to Hanson, who was choking on the water as breathing was impossible for him anymore. Ning watched awkwardly as Hanson drowned on the dry land and Carlos moved to pick up his sword.

"That was… something," Ning said as he watched the dead man slowly turn pale after death.

"Let's go," Carlos said, not looking back at all. "We need to go to the city fast to warn the boss."

"Well, I don't know how we can do that, with such a long line," Ning said, looking at the carriages that were left behind, causing traffic. "Our own carriage is broken too… and the driver is gone."

"Damn these bastards, causing needless problems," Carlos shouted. "We will need to just run now and maybe catch a ride somewhere far away."

"You really want to run all the way to the other city?" Ning asked with a hesitating look.

"We don't have any other choice," Carlos said. "I need to warn the boss about the attack."

"Argh! Fine," Ning sighed. "I haven't eaten anything this morning really, so I will warn you that I might get hungry."

"I'll put a feast in your name when we reach the city. With the money you get, you will be able to buy as much as you want for yourself too," Carlos said.

"I get it," Ning said. "Let's go save your stupid boss."

The two of them started running away. A few people pointed at them as they ran, remembering them as the two that killed people today.

"Sigh, I'm going to have to get away from this place now," Ning thought. He continued on his way, hiding his face as much as possible.

The road up ahead was mostly empty on one side as the accident from earlier had left it completely open, so the two of them could run on flat land without having to suffer running on uneven terrain.

Ning was surprised at how high his endurance was as he ran hundreds and hundreds of meters without experiencing any shortness of breath. For a body he created about a month ago that hadn't gone through any sort of physical training aside from the Essence rank, he was rather strong.

'I wonder how strong I am,' he thought. It was hard to judge against others he had fought with as they were not in the Physical Improvement realm the same as him.

If he wanted to test himself, he would have to do it with hard numbers, but if he had to guess, he was at least 5 to 7 times as strong as a normal person.

That was judging based on just the speed too. He wondered what other improvement his body had had by now.

"I'm surprised you can keep up with me," Carlos said. "You don't remember how you got this strong?"

"I have no idea," Ning said as he ran.

"After you join the gang, I will help you find out about your past," Carlos said.

"Thank you," Ning said.

"Alright, eyes up front. We'll have to go through this forest for a shortcut," Carlos said.

Ning looked towards the forest around which the road seemed to curve. "People won't be waiting for you in there, would they? They seem extremely envious of that crystal and would go above and beyond for it."

"With such a massive forest, it's impossible," Carlos said. "Still, just keep your eyes out."

Ning nodded and they continued.

Fortunately, there weren't any nefarious people waiting for them in the forest. The forest wasn't that big either, and they passed through it in about half an hour, saving about half an hour had they just run on the normal road.

When they came out on the other side, both of them were finally starting to feel the shortness of breath from running for so long.

Carlos stopped an empty carriage on the street. It was hard to tell if the carriage driver stopped because he was a good person, or because he was afraid of the two random people that had come out of the forest with naked swords in their hands.

Either way, he let them on the carriage and took them on their way to the Gray fire city.

An hour later, the two of them could see the houses grow denser and denser, and not long after that, they saw a river.

They got off and turned toward the river. Just past it, they would find Grayfire city.

Chapter C1097: Underground

"We're here," Carlos said as he looked at the city from the other side of the river. Ning stood next to him as well, looking at the bridge that was mostly filled with other people.

"So, what now?" Ning asked. "Do I get paid or is there some more work?"

"I need to get the crystal to the boss," Carlos said. "But I don't know who exactly I can trust right now. Anyone could have betrayed the boss and is waiting for us in ambush."

"So… no 'loud Silence'?" Ning asked.

"I can't trust anyone, even if they know the secret code. I must go meet the boss himself and hand over the crystal and information to him," Carlos said.

"So you know where he is?" Ning asked.

Carlos nodded. "Let's go," he said and started walking.

Ning placed his sword through the belt around his tunic to hold it for now. There was no cloth that was wrapping the sword, so he had to be careful not to be seen by some city guard or he would be in some more trouble.

Although, he had enough money to make a sheath for his sword.

The two crossed the river and arrived on the other side. Ning glanced to either side of the river and noticed some people that were standing around there doing nothing.

He looked towards Carlos, who was staring at one person in particular. The person looked back and waited for Carlos to approach him. However, Carlos ignored the man and increased his pace.

"Let's go," he said to Ning, moving faster and faster.

Not even a minute later, Carlos was taking Ning through alleyways, rather than the city roads as those were much better shortcuts to reaching the Gang's hiding place. Not only that, it also hid them from city guards which was a very much-needed benefit right now.

After going through 4 different alleyways, climbing over 2 different walls, and running across two major roads, Ning and Carlos finally arrived in front of what looked like a tavern.

It was the middle of the day right now, but the tavern was still full of people drinking and shouting.

Carlos ignored the drunkards as much as he could, while Ning held his sword at the ready for any random attacks. Carlos went up to the tavern manager and said, "We would like to make use of your finest rooms."

The Tavern manager was a middle-aged woman with thick, brown hair. She put down the jug she was wiping and looked at the two of them. "You can't get something fine just by asking for it," she said.

"I'm willing to hunt for it," Carlos said.

"Good," the woman said. "Clara, come help show these hunters to their paradise."

A woman came from the back that was barely in her early 20s. She wore modest clothes with her pitch-black hair in two braids that hung down to her her lower back.

Her eyes were black as well, through which she stared at the two of them. Carlos seemed unphased, but Ning felt a little awkward as the girl stared at him more than she did Carlos.

The girl named Clara turned around and started walking away. Carlos quickly followed her and gestured for Ning to follow her as well.

"Do you still need me?" Ning asked as he walked along. "Isn't everything basically done?"

"Not until I hand over the crystal," Carlos said. "Also, I plan on telling the boss about you, so it will be easier if you are there with me when I explain stuff to him."

"Yeah, but I'm not sure if I wan—"

"Less talking, more walking," the girl from the front said and took a left turn, going downstairs into an underground lair.

They followed her through a large hallway, before coming into a room that was glowing with light that was captured from outside.

The room was rather small and mostly empty.

The girl moved to one side of the room and stood by the wall, next to a man that was already there. Carlos and Ning stood in the center, and Ning could see a silhouette of another person behind a very thin curtain that stood between them and another section of the wall.

A bunch of rocks suddenly appeared around Ning while he was looking at the silhouette, trapping him in it. He tried to move, but he found it rather hard to do so.

Carlos turned around and then turned toward the man next to the wall. "Free him."

"You know I can't do that, don't you?" the man spoke. "I'm not sure why you brought him here, but he's not a member of the gang, so he will have to stay that way. Don't worry, unless I find a reason to, I won't kill him."

Carlos frowned slightly but said nothing else. "You'll have to stay that way for a bit brother," he said.

Ning was annoyed by the situation, but there was nothing he could do.

"Why are you here, Carlos?" the man spoke. "You were supposed to find the crystal and hand it over to the ones that were waiting for you."

"I don't trust them," Carlos said.

The man frowned a little. "You found it okay to come to see the boss just because you couldn't bring yourself to trust in the members of your own organization?"

"Two of our members tried to kill me today, and many other no-name ones were with them too," Carlos said while looking at the man. "The last thing I would do is trust ones I don't fully know. I'm sorry, brother Kepli, but I don't trust you either. I can only trust the boss today."

"You were attacked?" Kepli asked with a chilling look on his face.

"By Gerrin and Hanson," Carlos said. "And I doubt they are alone in betraying the gang today. This is one reason I came to rush to the boss today. I have important news for him."

"What news?" Kepli asked.

"Boss," Carlos spoke directly to the person behind the curtain. "Dale, Bodrick, and Firepalm are all coming after you."

Chapter C1098: Under Attack

"What did you say?" Kepli asked when he heard the words from Carlos.

"Hanson and the others have told the other gang bosses that you are here, boss. You need to leave as soon as you can," Carlos said. "I have no idea who else is in on it, so you have to be careful not to trust anyone else."

The figure behind the curtains moved silently, but it said nothing.

"How confident are you?" Kepli asked.

"Hanson spoke those words to me to try and dissuade me to come to his side, so there's a chance he could be lying too," Carlos said. "But I don't think the boss should be taking that chance."

"How do we know you're not in on it? And that the friend you've brought along is actually one of the people that are trying to kill the boss," Kepli said.

"Don't trust me then," Carlos said. "This friend is someone who saved me twice today. If not for him, I would've died to both Gerrin and Hanson. He currently has some memory loss, so I was hoping to use the gang's influence to try and find where he's from."

"You brought him here for that?" Kepli asked.

"That and I was hoping to have him join the gang. He's strong," Carlos said.

"He's a Physical Improvement realm kid," Kepli said.

"Yes, and he's strong," Carlos said, only looking at the boss, who didn't speak.

"But he's still a—"

Kepli stopped talking when he saw the boss move. The boss's silhouette gestured for him to move on with the matter.

"Alright, enough talk about him. It's time to talk about the crystal," Kepli said. "Bring it out so we can see that you at least did what you were asked to do."

The boss nodded on the other side of the curtain.

Ning looked at the silhouette as well and tried to understand why the boss was being so… quiet. He had heard the boss give orders, but for some reason he wasn't speaking at all this time around, only moving his body slowly… like a puppet.

Ning's eyes went wide. "Carlos, stop," he said.

Carlos, who was reaching to the back of his belt where he had stuck the crystal, paused and looked back towards Ning.

"The boss," Ning said. "He's not talking. Confirm the boss is alive."

Carlos's head quickly spun around to the silhouette which was still moving. "Boss? Are you really there?" he asked. He slowly used his Essence sense to sense for his boss, and while he did notice the Essence from the area, it wasn't necessarily from a living body.

Kepli frowned. "Stop being stupid," he said. "The boss is here. Just take your crystal out and let us see how good it is."

"No," Carlos said. "Not until we talk to the boss. As long as the boss says something, I'll hand it over."

"You blustering idiot," Kepli shouted. "The boss is alive and well. He just doesn't want to talk right now. Just bring out the crystal so we can be done with this."

Carlos dropped the sand sword he had taken from Hanson's corpse and brought out his two daggers.

Kepli was getting angry now. "You stupid fucking dumbas—"

A loud explosion sounded from somewhere in the building. From what they could all hear, it was from the floor above them.

"The hell is happening up there?" Kepli shouted.

Just as they said that the wooden roof croaked, and then the entire upper floor came caving in on them.

Carlos jumped to the side and Ning was close enough to the door that the debris didn't come close to him at all.

Kepli on the other hand was trapped underneath the rubble.

Carlos got back up and looked up in fear. he got behind Ning and stuck his dagger into the rock constriction he was in. "I'll break you out," he spoke softly.

"Don't bother," Ning said. "I could get out whenever I wanted to." At some point early on, Ning realized that since his body was in contact with his sword, he could use Essence to get rid of the stone if he wanted to.

He had only stuck around in it so Kepli wouldn't kill him for acting out.

Above the rubble, 3 men stood, with one of them standing next to the corpse of the middle-aged woman from upstairs.

"Haha, so it was hidden so close to us, huh? To think we could get here so easily," one of them spoke. The man was middle-aged at best and his physique was in a state which could make any other men jealous.

He didn't wear any upper-body clothing and showed off his fine features. He held a massive hammer in his hand, which was made up of wood for the handle, and something fiery for the actual hammer itself.

"You guy sure we didn't kill him already?" another man asked. This one wore a red ribbon around his forehead and held two single-handed axes in his hand, each of which seemed to be made out of fire and earth.

The last man looked more intellectual than the other two. He had long flowing hair that was tied behind his back while he held a book in his hand. He held a simple staff in his hand, with a jewel attached to the end that was made up of water.

Kepli grunted in pain and forced himself out of the debris. He made small gaps using rocks he created and crawled out.

However, right as he was out, the man that was dual-wielding axes stepped on his back and stopped him from moving.

"Is this the boss?" he asked.

"His feature matches the one they called Kepli," the staff-wielding man said.

"Oh, the Boss's right-hand man, huh?" the man with the axes said. "Good to meet you, buddy. You know who I am right?"

"You attacked us, Bodrick," Kepli said through his grunted teeth. "You won't survive today."

"Oh yeah? We'll see about that," he said and looked around. "Where's your boss?"

Chapter C1099: The Boss

"Come on, speak," Bodrick said. "Tell me where the boss is, or I'll have to torture all 3 of you."

"The boss is not here," Kepli shouted while grunting in pain. Bodrick was still stepping on his ribs which were starting to hurt by now.

Carlos looked at what was going on in surprise. Was Kepli protecting the boss? Was he not in on it as well?

As he thought, he looked toward where the boss was. The curtain had disappeared and beyond it lay nothing. There was no sign of any human there at all.

Let alone a human, there wasn't even any essence on that side of the room.

'Where's the boss?' he thought.

"We need to leave," Ning said softly. "After they kill him, they will come after us."

"Oh, we're coming after you no matter what," the man with the staff spoke as he turned toward Ning.

Ning frowned when he realized that he had been heard. 'Just how good do their senses get?' he thought.

"Since you three are the ones here, you are probably the only ones who know about where the boss is," the man said.

"Hey, speak up," Bodrick shouted at Kepli. "Keep this up, and I'll have Grayfire here smash your head in with his hammer. And I'm sure you know how bad that can get."

Kepli's eyes moved toward the big man with the glowing red hammer. He knew something about Grayfire's hammer that others didn't.

Most people saw his hammer and assumed that it was made using the Essence of Fire. However, it was in fact made using the Essence of a fiery explosion.

As such, each time the man used the hammer, it was an explosion appeared, not just fire. That was probably the reason why the roof had come caving in, but nothing was burning at all.

"I don't know where you heard about it, but the boss isn't here. He never was. It was all a lie," Kepli said.

"Oh, is that so?" Bodrick looked surprised. "Such a shame then. Hey, gray. You wanna do some smashing?"

The bulky man walked forward. "Haha! I love smashing!" he shouted as he arrived in front of Kepli.

Kepli's eyes went wide as she saw the big man prepare his hammer.

"Wait!" he shouted. "I'll tell you. I'll tell you."

"Come on!" Grayfire shouted in disappointment. "I was just about to hit you too."

"Speak quickly," the man with the staff said.

"The boss…" Kepli breathed heavily. "The boss… is me."

All 3 of the other bosses looked confused for a second. "You're joking," one of them said.

"No, I am the boss of the Paradise hunters. I act like my own right-hand man so no one finds out it is me," Kepli said.

"What? That sounds dumb," Bodrick said. "It's dumb, right?"

"It sure is," Grayfire said. "You know what's dumber?"

"What?" Bodrick asked.

"He spoke just now to stop me from killing him, but if he is the boss, we have more reason to kill him," Grayfire said.

"You're right," Bodrick said. "This stupid idiot tried to save himself and instead is going to get killed. Such an idiot ended up making one of the strongest gangs of the empire?"

As he spoke, Bodrick felt like something was wrong. He was right, the man in front of him was stupid… but only if he were the boss.

But if he wasn't… then he was lying to save the boss.

Grayfire prepared to attack once again, but Bodrick put his axe before Grayfire. "Stop, I don't think he's the boss," he said.

"Huh? Then what's wrong with killing him?" Grayfire asked.

"Just wait," Bodrick said. "Oi, Dale! You're the smarter of us 3. What do you think is happening here?"

He waited for Dale to answer, but he heard nothing.

"Dale?" he turned around and saw Dale standing still with his staff in his hand. He seemed to be lost in his own thought for some reason. "Bastard? Are you daydreaming or wha— what the fuck?"

Dale's eyes slowly opened and Bodrick couldn't help but feel creeped out when he saw it. Dale's eyes were completely pitch black from the iris to the whites.

"What the fuck is going on with you dude?" Dale asked.

"What the fuck is that?" Grayfire turned around to see what was going on as well.

Dale didn't speak or do anything at all. All he did was looked at the two men with his pitch-black eyes, while holding his water staff.

Ning managed to slowly make his way out of the rock's hold on him and looked at what was going on in front of him.

'The hell?' he thought too when he saw the situation.

Carlos was at a loss for words as well. He had no idea what was going on at all. Of the 5 people that were staring at Dale in the room, only one of them seemed to have any idea what was happening at all.

"You guys are fucked!" Kepli shouted loudly even though his chest hurt to speak. "The boss is taking direct actions against you all, so you better not hope of leaving him alive today."

He started laughing maniacally, unnerving even Ning and Carlos as they stared at Dale and the others.

Suddenly, Dale's head twitched for a moment and he dashed forward. He moved at an unbelievable speed and arrived in front of Bodrick and Grayfire in an instant.

Bodrick attacked to block the incoming attack, but Dale's body twisted mid-dash and moved toward Grayfire in the last second.

His staff came slamming down on Grayfire who was ready with his own attack. The two attacks slammed against each other, and Grayfire's explosion sent all of them in different directions.

They all got back up quickly, and the two bosses looked at the 3rd boss with weird looks in their eyes.

"You…" Bodrick spoke as he looked towards Dale. "Are you the real boss of the Paradise Hunters?"

Chapter C1100: Black

Bodrick's words surprised Grayfire who was getting back up. "What? That's Dale. Why would he be the boss of the Paradise Hunters?" he asked.

"But he said—" Bodrick looked toward Kepli for a split second before turning back toward Dale. "Forget about it. If he's not the boss, then he's working for him. Either way, we have been backstabbed."

"I really don't like being backstabbed," Grayfire said. "I think you should die for this, Dale."

Dale stared at the two of them with his black eyes and his lips stretched until it formed a forced smile. He face seemed slightly darkened by the explosion, but everything else seemed fine.

Carlos slowly moved toward Kepli and pulled him up. Kepli had some broken ribs, and his leg seemed to have fractured as well from the rubble.

"Brother Kepli, what is going on?" Carlos asked.

"Just— just shut up and sit back. Boss will get rid of these two now," Kepli said.

Carlos looked at the two that were focused on the third one and was surprised. "That guy… is our boss?" he couldn't help but ask. Was he trying to act like he was here to kill himself? Did he just watch as these two killed their way into his own hideout.

'No, can't be,' Carlos thought. It simply didn't make sense. But then again, who knew?

Dale moved forward once again, attacking the person closest to him. Bodrick blocked the staff attack with his two axes and immediately used the earth axe to launch large stones at the man.

Dale's body moved unnaturally, as it changed its dodged by bending sideways at the waist. It immediately got back into shape and slammed its staff at Bodrick.

Bodrick wasn't ready for the attack and was nearly hit, but Grayfire's hammer arrived before Gale could hurt Bodrick.

The hammer didn't explode this time around, only stopping the attack. He pulled bak the hammer and Bodrick launched his own attack before Dale could attack again.

The two of them attacked one after another, and Dale fought the both of them with very unusual movement.

"Something is off," Bodrick said.

"Yes," Grayfire agreed. "He's not using his essence to fight at all. He's holding back for some reason."

"That or he can't use it at all," Bodrick said. "Let me test which one it is."

He dashed at Dale who slammed his staff onto him. Bodrick dodged at the last second and hit Dale on the arm that was holding the staff as hard as he could. As he did that, he also used his essence to create a really sharp stone that formed from his Essence that hit the arm as well.

Dale attacked with his other arm at the last moment, punching Bodrick on the face as hard as he could. Bodrick staggered a few steps back as he held his face. That punch had hurt him very hard.

But since he had taken away Dale's arm, he was okay with wha—

Bodrick stopped thinking for a moment when he saw what was in front of him. Grayfire's eyes widened in surprise, and a trace amount of fear.

"Hey, hey, hey! What in the living fuck is that?" he shouted at Bodrick who had no answer himself.

Dale stood straight with his left fist bent the wrong way. As for his right arm that was torn off, for some reason there was now a black arm that seemed to have replaced the cut off arm.

The black arm seemed to drop wisps of black smoke with each movement.

Carlos was at a loss for word and Kepli simply smiled at the situation. On the other hand, Ning had absolutely no idea what was even happening right now.

There were too many things happening in too short a time for him to understand it without someone explaining him the situation.

"That's… Shadow Essence," Bodrick said when he finally realized what he was looking at. "That's a bloody Shadow Essence. How the fuck did we not know that Dale was a Shadow Essence user?"

"He can't be!" Grayfire said. "I've seen him only ever use Water Essence. Shadow Essence is just too rare for him to not have made himself big with it."

"Then what is going on?" Bodrick asked. "That is definitely Shadow Essence."

"That…" Grayfire couldn't answer.

"Whatever, let's kill him first. We'll deal with finding the answer later."

The two of them immediately launched into the battle once more, attacking the wounded Gale who still was fighting back. However, now that they both knew that Gale wouldn't be using any Essence, they fought him without holding back at all.

Within just a few more attacks, Dale lost his other arm as well. Even then, the shadow arm appeared from his body, replacing the parts he lost.

The two bosses attacked more and more, and Dale lost more and more body parts. However, with each loss part, a part made up of Shadow Essence would form to replace it.

The two kept attacking a few more times and managed to take Dale's head. They waited for the head to be replaced too, but instead of that happening, Dale's shadow parts vanished, leaving just chunks of body parts that weren't damaged.

The two bosses stepped back and looked in surprise.

"It's over," Bodrick said.

"He's finally dead," Grayfire said. "But, he died so easily. What was happening to his body? It looked like Shadow Essence had infiltrated his body, but who did it? You got any idea?"

He waited for Bodrick to answer him, but Bodrick didn't speak at all. "You hear me?" Grayfire asked as he turned around to Bodrick.

Bodrick slowly turned toward him as well and his face turned to a wide smile. He glared at Grayfire with open eyes that were entirely pitch black, just like Dale's.

"What the fu—"

Grayfire stumbled over himself while trying to move back in a hurry. He fell down on top of the rubble, but he quickly got back up and faced off Bodrick, who had now been taken over by Shadow, just as Dale was.

Chapter C1101: Wind

"Hey, uh… Bodrick? What's going on?" Grayfire asked as he prepared his hammer for one more fight. He looked around, trying to figure out what was going on, but all he could see was the 3 men huddled together.

"Is this your doing?" Grayfire asked loudly as he pointed his explosive hammer at them.

Carlos flinched a bit, but the other two showed no reaction to the question at all. Ning had no answer to give, and Kepli only laughed maniacally, to the point that he was starting to lose consciousness from all the flaring pain in his lungs from the laughing.

Bodrick moved suddenly, but Grayfire was prepared for him. He swung his hammer and slammed onto Bodrick. The explosion tore his body apart, and what remained was a shadowy figure, half made up of human and half made up of shadow.

To his surprise, the body still moved, albeit not as well as before. It looked like the shadow wasn't very good at holding together parts that weren't connected to each other themselves.

Still, Bodrick's body moved with a single black eye still visible, slowly approaching Grayfire who had no plans to be attacked.

He swung his hammer again and this time managed to kill the other boss he had come to this place with. When the explosion vanished, he alone remained.

There were 3 of them when they entered, and now only a single one remained.

"You bastard! Where the fuck are you hiding from me?" he shouted at the open wall. He didn't even consider that it was one of the 3 men that were the ones behind it all.

There was just no way for that to be true.

"Fine, don't come out," Grayfire said. "Just sit back and watch me kill your men."

Kepli suddenly stopped laughing when he heard that, and both Ning and Carlos got tense as well. Carlos wasn't sure what he could do, but the boss was already walking towards them.

"Stand back," Ning said as he put himself in front of the two. If he fought the man directly, he was most definitely going to die. The difference in their Essence rank was just that much.

"Brother Ning, stop!" Carlos reacted finally after Ning had stepped forward. He pulled out his daggers as well, but it was too late already.

Even Ning realized it was too late. He had been preparing his essence, but the man in front of him was too strong.

'Guess that's a reset for my adventure then,' he thought. He was going to go down, so he would go down fighting.

He used whatever little Essence he had managed and swung his sword at the incoming explosive hammer.

BANG!

An explosion rang in the room, sending dust falling from the open roof.

Grayfire looked in front of him with confused eyes before slowly moving his head to look at his arm. He should have been holding the Hammer with his two arms, but for some reason, his hammer wasn't completely there at all.

All he could see was part of the handle that suggested that his hammer had been forcefully destroyed.

Ning remained stunned as well. Everything happened so fast that he didn't even realize that his sword never touched anything as it swung in front of him. By the time it was going to hit the hammer, the upper half of the hammer had already disappeared.

He was a little happy learning that the man could not use the Explosive Essence anymore. As long as he avoided hand-to-hand combat, he should be fine.

So, he prepared his sword and got ready to attack.

Grayfire's eyes wandered around for a moment and finally noticed the top half of his weapon which seemed to be low on Essence.

'How did it lose so much durability at once?' he thought with a frightened look.

He quickly turned around toward Ning. Was it this man? It was most likely the boss, but Grayfire needed to be sure. He saw that Ning was ready to attack, so he prepared an attack of his own.

Powerful wind gathered around him as it threatened to destroy everything around him. Ning felt the winds too and frowned.

'Essence Manifestation realm,' he thought. 'Damn, I forgot they were supposed to be this strong.'

It was the 4th rank in the Essence realms, one where people could manifest their Essence as a certain element or two.

Most people could only use 1, and it seemed like Grayfire's element was Air.

The wind became strong as it spun faster and faster around him. As it picked up speed, it picked up the debris in the ground as well. Soon enough, there was a cyclone forming underground that was going to send out the objects at an incredibly fast speed.

If they had any chance of survival before, it was all disappearing now.

"You people forgot that I am alone," Grayfire shouted from inside the cyclone which was completely stopping him from being seen. "So, I do not have to hold back at all."

The wind got faster and objects started slipping out of the wind, like bullets from a gun.

"You will all die toda—"

Suddenly the objects started flying out fast as the wind itself slowed down to a crawl. Ning couldn't create a rock barrier in time at all, but a shadow barrier appeared at the last minute, saving all 3 of them.

Ning and the others could hear the objects smashing walls and doors all around the room and only the 3 of them were safe thanks to the shadow wall.

The shadow wall slowly dissipated and the first thing all 3 of them saw was a lone Grayfire standing still with his lifeless eyes wide open.

A sharp shadow spike had gone through the back of his head and come out from the mouth, killing him instantly.

The body slowly slipped to the side, falling to the ground, and revealed the person that stood behind it.

Clara stepped over the dead Grayfire's head and stomped it so hard that his skull burst wide open.

"So, we're done here, right?"

Chapter C1102: Clara

Ning looked at the girl with a stunned look on his face.

Clara, the black-haired girl, had brought him and Carlos here before to talk with the boss. That same girl had now killed Grayfire.

'Where did she come from?' he wondered as he stared at her. There were only 3 of them here the entire time. Has she come from the open roof?

'No,' Ning thought of something. 'When did she get out?'

After she had brought the two of them here, she had just… vanished, and none of them had noticed. She had definitely not left by the door as Ning had been there the entire time. Then where had she disappeared to?

"What's going on?" Carlos asked as he was confused as well.

"Kepli, do you need treatment?" Clara asked.

"I… I'm fine. I will just need to absorb some Earth Essence," Kepli said.

"Absorb the pure one," Clara said. "Carlos, give the Essence crystal you brought to Kepli, he needs it. He will also test the purity of the Essence in it."

"Are… are you…" Carlos could barely believe what he was about to ask.

"She is the boss," Kepli said as he slowly got back up. "The boss of the Paradise Hunters."

Both Ning and Carlos looked back in shock and awe as not in a million years would they have expected a young girl to be the boss of one of the biggest gangs in the entire empire.

"But… but the boss is a man," Carlos said. "I've heard his voice."

"Yes, you've heard my voice," Clara spoke with her normal voice. However, layered on top of that voice was another deeper voice, a more distorted one that sounded like a male voice.

Carlos had no doubt that this was the boss's voice. "And the silhouette?" he asked.

"A simple craft," Clara said as she created a humanoid shadow next to her, one that seemed to be filled with black fog that roiled around in itself. It was no different than the black shadow that was inside of Dale and Bodrick.

"Alright, give him the crystal now," Clara ordered.

"Y-yes, boss," Carlos said and quickly turned around to help Kepli.

Clara looked at the crystal that was brought out. She stared at it for a few seconds as the energy inside was taken in by Kepli.

Kepli's eyes went wide as he looked at the crystal in his hands and then back to his boss. "This… this is extremely pure, boss," Kepli said.

"How pure?" Clara asked.

"I… I will have to get the people to do some actual experimentation, but judging by the flow alone, I will say it's about 80% pure, if not more.

Clara's dark eyes seemed to shine when she heard that. "80%? That's quite unheard of in this section of the empire," she said. "You can only find it in big auctions on the southern side."

"If we can get the monopoly on the mine, we will definitely grow bigger," Kepli said.

"Alright, heal first. We will deal with it all later," Clara said. "Carlos, carry him. We will be leaving this place now."

"Yes, boss," Carlos said. He picked Kepli onto his back and walked out of the front door. They did not go up the stairs as they would be swarming with city guards at any time now. Instead, they followed a secret path to a secret exit that sent them out into an alleyway.

From there, they walked anonymously to another building on the other side of the city. By the time they were there, Kepli could already walk on his own, and his ribs didn't hurt as much anymore.

Clara sat on a chair at a large table and gestured for the others to sit as well. Kepli and Carlos sat on either side of the boss, but Ning sat opposite to her.

"What's your name?" the girl asked him.

"My name is Ning," Ning replied to her.

"Ning, huh? So, what's your story?" she asked.

"I have none," Ning said. "He wanted my help, so I did."

"You decided to help him because he asked?" Clara asked.

"He said he would pay me 50 Earth coins," Ning said.

"And you jumped into a gang fight for 50 Earth coins?" Clara asked.

"I needed the money," he said.

Clara narrowed her eyes and stared at Ning for a few seconds. She tried to figure out what was going on here exactly. She turned around to Carlos as she looked for answers.

Carlos explained the situation how he found him and what they had done together.

"Boss, he is strong," Carlos said as he turned around as well. "Brother Ning killed Gerren and defeated Hanson all by himself."

"I find it hard to believe someone with such little Essence can do that," Clara said with her arms crossed in front of her. "Did he sneak attack?"

"No, he is just a very good fighter," Carlos said. "His swordsmanship is out of this world."

Clara raised an eyebrow. "If you don't mind answering, please tell us where you learned how to fight," she said.

"I don't know," Ning replied.

Clara frowned for a second, but Carlos was there to explain the situation. "Boss, he has lost his memories after an accident in the sea. He doesn't remember who he was or where he came from. I doubt he remembers how he learned to fight."

Clara looked at Carlos for a second before turning back to Ning. "You don't remember anything?" she asked.

"No, not really," Ning said.

"But you remember your name?" Clara asked.

"I think so," Ning said. "I'm not sure if that's my name or not, but that is the first word that comes to my mind when I think of what my name might be."

"So you remember your name and the fact that you can fight? What else do you remember?" she asked.

"Nothing, honestly," Ning said. "I'm trying to find where I came from, so I am roaming the cities for that."

Chapter C1103: Mountain

"Someone in the Physical Improvement realm with no memory of who he was and what he even was, can somehow beat someone like Gerrin and Hanson? Why do I find that hard to believe?" she asked.

"Oh, boss. That's not the only thing about Brother Ning," he said quickly. "His sword is incredible as well. It's a really good sword."

"A good sword?" she asked as she stared at the sword in Ning's hands. "It looks like a normal stone sword to me. It might even be a dirt sword."

"It's a rock sword," Carlos said. "A giant one at that. Nearly as large as this house, I would say."

"As big as this house?" Clara asked suspiciously. She found it hard to believe something that large could exist in the hands of a normal person. "Give me the sword."

Ning frowned a little. Did she want the sword to test it? What if she liked it? Would she kill him to take it from him?

Clara noticed him getting defensive and sighed. "I don't need your sword. I can't even use it because my shadow Essence is very impure," she said.

"Oh… uh, okay," Ning said and tossed the sword over the table. "Be careful. It's heavy."

The sword slid above the table and arrived next to Clara.

Clara grabbed the hilt of the sword as it moved. She tried to stop the sword right there, but it kept going. She used all of her physical strength to block it and even went as far as to use her Essence to enhance her body.

However, even then, when she the sword went past the table, it immediately fell to the ground.

Clara realized that if she continued holding, her hand would get crushed under the weight of the sword, so at the last minute, she let go of the sword, which lightly slammed on the floor.

Her eyes went wide in shock and she got down to pick the sword up once again. She tried with all her might, but she couldn't even budge the sword at all.

"How big did you say the rock was?" she asked as she huffed a little weakly.

"As big as this house? Maybe bigger?" Ning said.

"That's not possible at all," Clara said as she got closer to check the sword's blade.

"No, the rock was definitely as big as we said, boss," Carlos said.

"No, I'm not saying you are lying," Clara said. "I'm saying that you are wrong. If the rock used to make this sword was as big as you said it was, I would've been able to budge it. However, given that I was not able to, it's definitely larger."

"The question now is… how large."

The group looked in awe at the sword on the ground. Ning walked over and picked it back up and looked at it closely. "How big can it be?" he asked.

"There's only one way to know," Clara said. "You will have to use as much Essence as you can to bring out the rock from the sword."

"As much Essence? That was what I used last time and that massive rock came out," Ning said.

"Yes, but your Physical Improvement realm barely even has any Essence. You need to be at least in the Essence Sense realm to make good use of any Essence weapons," she said.

"So, I have to wait many years before I can figure out how big the sword really is, huh?" Clara said.

"Yes, that's the only way to have a definite answer," Clara said. "But, I can make a guess based on what information I have gathered."

"Ooh, what is your guess?" Ning asked excitedly.

"That sword is made from something very large, far larger than the rock you mentioned. It's either a single rock, or multiple ones, but they add up to become as large as the largest building in this city, maybe even larger."

"How can there be rocks larger than the largest building out there," Carlos asked.

"It doesn't have to be a rock, specifically," she said. "It just has to be something with the same composition as the rock."

"Meaning?" Ning asked.

"It can be pebbles, but a large amount of it. Imagine someone went to a river bank, collected all the small rocks there, and use it," Clara said. "But I believe it's made up of something big."

"What's the biggest it can be in your opinion?" Ning asked.

Clara thought for a second. "Show me the sword again?" she asked.

Ning took the sword close to her. Kepli moved immediately, but Clara stopped him. "He's not trying to hurt me, relax," she said.

Ning smiled and let her watch it for a while.

"No, it's not what I thought it was," she said.

"What did you think it was?" Ning asked.

"There was once a rumor that something was made into a weapon some two dozen years ago. I was wondering if this sword was it, but it's not," Clara said.

"What was turned into a weapon?" Ning asked. The others waited impatiently for her answer as well.

"A mountain," Clara said. "A mountain vanished overnight in the Sernach Empire, and everyone believed it was turned into a weapon. Given the weight, I almost fooled myself into thinking that sword was it, but it's not."

"I see," Ning said. "Well, as long as it is large, it should be helpful in the future."

"Yes," Clara said. "Speaking of the future, what are your plans?"

"My plans?" Ning asked. "I don't know. I think I will just go from city to city and try to see if someone remembers me."

Clara looked at him for a second. "You know who I am and have seen my face. So I cannot let you leave just as you like," she said.

"What?" Ning asked with a frown on his face.

"So, I will give you two choices from here forward," she said. "First, you will be killed so that my secret never gets out into the world."

"Like hell!" Ning shouted back at her.

"Then you have no choice but to go with the second choice," She said.

"What's that?" Ning asked.

"You will join the Paradise Hunters."