Chapter Twenty Seven
"You let him get away?" Kylie looked down at their lowest member in the council room.
"I didn't let him do anything." Rukil sounded annoyed. It had been a day of listening this bitch say the same thing. "He just got stronger than me, don't ask me how."
"The kid couldn't be any higher than level five, Rukil." Kylie said condescendingly. "You're saying that someone that has been a leveler for less than a week could be stronger than someone who's been a part of Blood Pact for more than a year?"
"That's exactly what I'm saying." Rukil said without a shred of malice. Instead he had a small smile playing on his face. "The kid is good. I don't know how he's doing it, but he's ignoring the barriers you and I have. He was level five, I can confirm that. But somehow he was able to break through to stats only a level nine could have."
"Is that admiration I see?" Kylie said with a hint of a smile. "You get your ass handed to you by a boy and the only thing you can do is appreciate the exchange. You never change, do you Rukil."
"Not everyone can change their entire personality within a year, can they." He said sourly while looking up at his so-called superior.
"We came into the Pact at the same time, Rukil. It's not my fault that I've outpaced you. We have access to the same resources, maybe you should spend more time leveling and less time sitting on your ass."
"That's bull shit and you know it." Rukil spat. "Maybe if I had your 'charm' I would have extra time in dungeons, or showered with bonuses for new weapons and armor."
"That sounds like you believe I've been dealt a better hand, that they are showing favoritism?" She cocked an eyebrow.
"I think you can read between the lines." He sighed. Whether he needed to sleep within the next to days or not, the conversation was making him tired. "We've been here for a year like you said, here I am," he raised his arms in the air. "An almighty level eight while you're nearing twenty."
A superior smile played on her lips as she heard what she must have read as praise, though he had thrown enough scorn to make it an obvious implication. "It's not my fault you're not stronger, Rukil honey. I just don't think you're Blood Pact material. I've done so many special missions for the guild, I've lost count. How many have you done?" Her smile faded as her eyes narrowed. "Must be nice, holding onto that innocence of yours."
"No one held a gun to you and forced you to do them." Rukil gave her the same leveled glare. "It's on you to decide the price of your own soul. Don't put that shit on me."
"I'm not putting anything on you. I'm just giving you your answer, why I'm so much stronger." Kylie put just the right amount of arrogance in her voice to grate on his nerves. "I've accepted the Blood Pact with everything I am, you on the other hand have stayed at the door with one foot out."
"Just because I've decided not to take part in torture doesn't make me less of a person." He looked away from the girl's face. He still remembered when they had first joined.
He had run into a leveler while he was on the street. He was used to people walking right past him, not giving him the time of day. This man not only stopped, but he had also given him a phone with an app already downloaded. He didn't say anything past that, instead kept walking.
Rukil had first thought to sell the phone in order to get a decent meal for the night, or at least a place to stay that wasn't a shelter. Instead, he decided to check out the game the man had downloaded first. When he entered his name, the screen went an eerie white and he felt himself faint. The next thing he knew, he was fighting those damned rabbits.
He wasn't very high a level when he made it to the Blood Pact's headquarters. The man had left the address in the maps section of the phone. It took time to make it to the mansion, but when he got there, the man was waiting at the door.
He accepted admittance into the guild without hesitation. They had taken him on a few leveling assignments, which he threw himself wholeheartedly into. He enjoyed the thrill of the battle. After some time, he was able to earn an iron sword. He spent his stats mostly on agility. He wanted to focus on the more believable aspects of being a leveler. Throwing a ball of fire reminded him far too much of a wizard, which now he knew existed, but he couldn't accept the ridiculousness of it all.
Many other of the levelers played with fire like it was a hacky sack, or lit cigarettes with it. That was the only thing he had adapted it for. Other than that, he felt pride in his speed. It was something he wished he had while growing up. If he had been faster at track, maybe he could have gotten a scholarship to college, or became a police officer or something. Instead, he was only fast enough to escape his drunk father before the bastard could kill him.
He had been at the guild for less than a month before a girl not much younger than him joined. She was a jumpy little thing. When a rabbit appeared, she jumped and ran away, screaming for it to leave her alone. She was the closest thing to pure he had ever seen.
He had decided to take her under his wing. He showed her the easiest way to kill them without causing blood to spout from its corpse. He helped desensitize her to the new world she lived in. After another two months, she had grown to accept her new life.
As new recruits, Kylie and Rukil had been placed on the same assignments. They were to go out and kill ten rabbits per day, the cost for staying in the guild. When they reached level five, they had to bring ten wolf corpses instead, to prove that they could adapt to stronger enemies. He always made sure to help Kylie with her daily assignment before he worked on his, even if it meant he'd be out longer.
When Rukil made level six, he started seeing less of Kylie. His recruiter had come to him in order to see how he had settled into Blood Pact. When he saw his growth, Rukil was showered with praise and was told that he should be ready to take on more responsibility. With that, he led him to the basement of the mansion, which turned out to be more of a dungeon.
The next thing he knew, he was holding his iron sword while facing an old man. The recruiter told him to cut the man's head off. At first, Rukil had thought that the man may be joking, but when he looked into the older man's eyes, he could see a life of dying and coming back in the same room. He looked around and saw the blood stained floor. After that, whatever he heard was more white noise than true words. He didn't even feel like he was in control of his own body as the blade was returned to his inventory.
"What's the matter?" The recruiter asked. "The man will just come back anyway, do you know him?"
Rukil shook his head, his eyes wide.
"Then treat him as your assignment. If you kill him, you will gain power. If you let him live, someone else will take your place." The man left the room and locked him inside with the living corpse. "I will leave you in here for one hour a day, if I see your level increase, I will know that you have done what I've asked. Just remember, this is your home now."
Rukil sat on the blood stained floor for an hour a day until he had begun getting used to the old man. He began using his hour to talk to him instead of contemplating the man's murder. He told the man about his life before the guild. He talked about his hopes and dreams. He gave the man water from his inventory. He even brought some bread to feed him.
After a few months, the old man began to see his surroundings again, the dead look in his eyes began to disappear. Rukil looked forward to seeing the man every day, instead of dreading the thought of it.
It was at that time that Rukil made his way down the dungeon corridor to his assigned cell for the hour and saw that it was already occupied. His eyes went wide as he saw the wide arch of a sword go to the old man's head. Blood fountained from the stump, pulsing out as the heart gave its final beats.
When the occupant turned, Rukil found his face wet when he saw his friend. The girl he had taken under his wing had a blank stare as she put her sword in her inventory. She went to the cell door, her head facing his way, but not really looking at him as she got to the iron bars. She turned and put her back to him, dropping into a fetal position.
Even now, months later when he looked at Kylie, he could only see the timid girl that had entered the Pact after him. He remembered the fondness he felt towards her as they did their mission, and he felt his heart break every time he realized that the girl he knew was gone.
"There's no contract with the Pact, you know." Kylie said as she looked down at her old mentor. "You aren't forced to stay, you could easily just leave. You aren't really guild material anyway."
Rukil glared at her, but not truly at her. He was more angry at the Blood Pact within her, than at the girl he had once known. "Yeah." He scratched his head, it was a nervous tick he couldn't truly drop. "But then who will keep you human?"
"I'll decide what I'm going to be." Kylie snapped at him. "It has never been your place to decide that. Besides, that's not why we're talking today." She said as she went to a desk by the window and sat.
Rukil's breath caught short as he began to realize what this really was. He had at first thought that he was waiting for their handler. He had always been in group meetings with Kylie due to their similar status within Blood Pact, now he knew that his handler had been replaced.
"As I said, Rukil. You are not guild material. We cannot take your status away as a leveler, but we can decide who is within our ranks." She folded her hands in front of her on the desk. "I trust that anything you have learned here will help keep you safe out there."
"So that's the price." Rukil sighed.
"What?" She cocked an eyebrow.
"For your soul, this was the cost for you to sell it." He saw she was about to say something, but then her mouth went into a straight line, not uttering another word. "Yeah, I get it." Rukil said tiredly. "See you later, kid." He turned put his hand in his pocket, bringing up a smoke and lighting it with his finger.