Falcon Cliff city

Sam woke up early and went downstairs. He saw all six people at the dining table eating some normal breakfast. He joined them at the table and chatted with them randomly. He asked suddenly in the conversation.

"Who cleaned my room yesterday?" Everyone fell silent and looked at each other in confusion. Sam observed their faces and saw the genuine confusion. When he saw Kelly, he instantly understood. She is looking down, not daring to make eye contact with him and blushing red. He just shook his head and didn't call her out. He just diverted the topic and after sometime a knock was heard at the door. Kelly volunteered to escape the situation and when she opened the door, she just stood there in confusion.

Sam noticed this and walked there. He saw a bunch of scrolls in front of the door and picked them up. He saw a note among them and smirked.

"Indeed. Literally, information at the door-step." Sam muttered and turned towards Kelly and said.

"These are for me. I will take it." Kelly nodded and turned around to leave. Then she abruptly stopped when Sam said.

"Thanks for the room." She blushed hard and ran away without saying anything. Sam walked towards the stairs and called Jack along with him to his study.

When there are only two of them in the study, he placed the scrolls on the table and said.

"These are the info on the underworld organisations in the city. Take a look and tell me if anything is similar to Black water." Jack nodded and both of them took out a scroll each.

There are around six scrolls in total. And each scroll contained details about each gang. After looking through the scrolls Sam understood roughly about the structure of the underworld in the Falcon cliff city.

There is a total of six organisations and four are minor organisations and two are major organisations. The four organisations are namely Northern, Western, Eastern, Southern gangs which are only collect some protection fee and some other minor things. Every business has to give them protection fee to have their business run peacefully and they will do random odd jobs of intimidating, sending warnings and beating people up. These organisations are just like any normal triads in modern earth.

The remaining two organisations are the real deal. They are another level. They just don't do odd jobs, rather they are some organisations that even the city guards don't want to mess with.

The first organisation is named Piranha. This organisation is simply a Mercenary guild. We can put a hit on any person in the city and the cities under jurisdiction of the Falcon Cliff city. Not only will they take assassinations, they will also do jobs on kidnapping, arsons etc. They will take any mercenary assignments that cannot be done openly.

The other organisation is called Candiru. This organisation is even more dark than the Piranha. They are the ones responsible for all the prostitution in the City. Every brothel in the City is run by them. Not only that, they are responsible for the illegal slave trade. Every rich person and noble families have dealings with this organisation. Sam couldn't help but frown at these organisation's deeds.

The strength of the organisations is also very high. The minor organisations have few novices as core members and the leaders are at middle-stage novice. The major organisations have many novices and their leaders are at Peak stage Novice. The same level as the Principal and the City lord. Sam felt a little puzzled at this info. Because the peak of Novice stage is just in charge of a small city, but they can even be some bigshots in the Falcon cliff city. He really didn't understand this situation.

He threw the though on back of his mind and looked at Jack and said.

"There really are no direct clues connecting them to the Black water. But we can't be so sure. I think we should gather more intel."

Jack nodded and asked. "Where did you get this intel?"

"I bought it."

"You bought it? Where? How?" Jack was a bit surprised. He never thought that this type of intel can be bought so easily.

"Vickers." Sam's answer surprised him even more. Never would he have expected that the Vickers store will sell intel.

"Can we buy more from him?" Jack asked. After the initial surprise, there is some excitement that they have an opportunity of getting intel easily.

"We can do that. But I don't want to." Sam answered slowly.

"Why?"

"He would not have a problem with getting the intel. But he is giving me a weird feeling that is making me repulsive to work with him. I don't know what it is, but the feeling is not really good." Sam said as he looked at the scrolls.

Jack stayed silent for a while and then asked.

"What is our plan then?"

"I have something to do this one week. You guys keep in contact with the Principal and City lord. I will go out for a while, send someone to the inn and give the address of the Mansion to the Principal. He will have a way to contact us, if there is something urgent." Sam said and walked out of the room as Jack followed.

Sam wants to go out and take a look at the City. Just as he was about to take a step outside the door a sweet voice came from behind.

"Sam." Kelly stood there as he looked down and said in a low voice. Sam turned around and looked at the beautiful girl in a black dress which is in a beautiful contrast with the jade white smooth skin. Her red lips, the voluptuous figure and the beautiful face can make a disaster befall a man. But Sam was only dazed for a second and asked.

"Yes, Miss Kelly."

"Are you going into the city?" Kelly asked in same sweet and slow voice. Sam only nodded.

"Do you want to visit the Artisan tower today? My father asked me to take you there." She asked while trying to avoid looking at Sam's handsome face and sharp eyes. Sam thought for a moment and nodded. Both of them walked side by side as they went in to the city. The mansion they are living in is at eastern side of the city and the inn the Principal is staying is also in the same area. The artisan tower is at the western part of the city.

They walked slowly, while looking around the bustling city. The Falcon cliff city is near the foot of a cliff which is the territory of the Whirl wind Falcons which is in northern direction of the city. There is patch of woods separating the Cliff and the city.

Sam and Kelly walked on the roads and they attracted some attention on their way to the artisan tower. After all, a beauty and a handsome walking in black outfits together is not an everyday thing, but they didn't cause much commotion.

Sam is paying attention to the streets and as to see, if he can get any info about the gangs. In the info given by Vickers, he mentioned that the four minor gangs have their respective headquarters in their territories itself. But the headquarters of the two major organisations are in northern region where big shots of the city usually live in.

The northern region is the place where, the Count mansion, Falcon cliff academy, the residences of the City officials, the noble families live. The businesses are very high-end and best in the city. The northern gang only takes the protection fee from the smaller scale business in the region but they are still far better than the other regions.

The falcon cliff city has four exits. Southern gate, Eastern gate, western gate, North-western gate. The remaining directions are either covered by woods or dead ends. Sam walked slowly as he observed the layout of the city. They walked for an hour, when they finally arrived at the Artisan tower.

The Artisan tower is far bigger than that of the one at the Starwood city. When he looked at the tower and the people flocking in and out, he couldn't help but be surprised. He walked in along with Kelly and they went to the reception.

"Sam, you wait here. I will ask about the appointment." Sam nodded and took a seat at the waiting area while Kelly walked to the receptionist for the enquiry.

After a few moments she came to where Sam sat and just as she was about to speak, someone called her.

"Kelly?" Sam and Kelly looked at the direction where the voice is coming from and saw a person standing there. He is a young man wearing an Artisan tower uniform and he has a badge of rank 2 weapon artisan on his chest. He seemed to be in his late twenties and his cultivation is at late stage novice. The young man walked towards them and directly ignored Sam and stood in front of Kelly.

"Hello, Blyke." Kelly greeted him in a cold voice, the earlier sweet and gentle tone she has when she spoke to Sam is not there at all.

The guy named Blyke didn't seem to be offended and spoke. "I heard from your uncle that you broke through the Novice stage and also became a rank 1 artisan. Congratulations."

"Thanks." Kelly replied curtly and broke off the conversation. Then she turned towards Sam and said.

"Sam, the receptionist informed the tower head about our visit. We can go there now." Her tone became gentle again. Blyke caught the difference immediately and became displeased, but didn't show it on his face.

"Kelly, who is he?" He asked as he pointed at Sam.

Sam didn't mind and just walked around as he made his way to the stairs and stood there as he looked at Kelly.

"Kelly, if the Acolyte needs weapon, I can take the job. Why bother master with such trivial things." Blyke spoke and then turned towards Sam and said.

"Hey mister. I can take up your job. Even if you can meet up with my master because of Kelly, you cannot possibly afford his services, so don't waste his time." He said as he made his way towards Sam.

Sam didn't reply and completely ignored him and looked at Kelly. "Shall we go? I still have a lot of things to attend to."

Kelly nodded and walked up the stairs leading the way. When Blyke saw both of them ignoring him he felt humiliated as he looked at the surrounding people looking at him in a weird way. He immediately followed the duo.

After a few moments they reached the top floor of the tower and made their way into a room. There Sam saw a middle-aged man whose, features are similar to that of Kelly's father reading through a scroll. He diverted his attention to the three people who just entered. Blyke walked to towards the middle-aged man and bowed to him as he greeted.

"Greetings master." He said and stood behind the middle-aged man with a proud look on his face.

"Greetings uncle." Kelly also greeted him as he smiled at her and gestured her to sit across him.

She sat there and introduced. "Uncle, this is Sam." The middle-aged man nodded at Sam for which the latter replied in the same way and took a seat beside Kelly.

Blyke became unhappy and furrowed his brows as he saw Sam not bowing to his master.

"Nice to meet you Sam. I am Howard, the tower head of the Falcon cliff Artisan tower." He said with a smile. Sam looked at the Artisan badge on his chest. There is a golden colour badge with symbols of hammer and flames with five golden stars beneath the number.

"Nice to meet you too." Sam replied in a cold tone. Blyke got irritated due to the blatant disrespect.

"Master, if you don't mind, I will take the job of this guy. After all, an Acolyte's weapon doesn't need a respectful rank 3 Artisan like you have to make." Blyke said with an arrogant tone.

"May I know, why you called me here?" Sam asked ignoring Blyke completely, which made latter furious.

"I am just curious as to how a genius like you looks like." Howard asked before giving any chance for Blyke to flare up.

"Then, the task is completed I guess." Sam said and stood up, indicating that he wants to leave. He really didn't like the place or the people. Kelly also became flustered as she looked at Sam who was unhappy. After all, taking his time off just to show his face is not a valid reason at all.

"Don't be in a hurry, Sam. I have something to ask you." Howard said with a smile but only got a cold look as a reply. He then continued. "Do you want to join the Artisan tower as staff?" He asked directly, without beating around the bush.

"Not interested." Sam replied directly, which made Howard a bit disappointed.

"Master, why are you talking with him so politely." Blyke butted in the conversation and then he looked at Kelly. "Kelly, is this the manners of your friend? Why is he being disrespectful to the master? Does he even know what type of status master has? Him being requested is his honour."

Sam is running out of patience as he looked at Blyke. Howard also looked at his student and said.

"Enough, Blyke. Stay put for a second." He said and turned towards Sam again. He observed that the latter is looking at Blyke with an unhappy gaze.

"I have something to do. Please don't ask me to visit you, just to get an earful from your student. It is annoying." Sam said bluntly making Howard awkward and Blyke furious.

Blyke was about to lash out but was stopped by his Master.

Sam looked at the Master and the disciple and walked out of the door. Kelly immediately bid farewell to her uncle and followed him. After they left, Howard looked at his disciple and asked.

"Why are you targeting him? Do you even know who that guy is?" Blyke didn't answer and just looked down. Howard continued.

"That guy is by rank equal to me. Do you even know that?" This time Blyke became surprised.

"How is that even possible? He is even around ten years younger than me." Blyke asked with a shocked tone.

"He is indeed more than ten years younger than you. He is a pseudo rank 2 Artisan and a rank 3 scholar Artisan. He has lot more reasons to be proud of than you and I didn't see him tooting his horn. Here you are asking directly that you would make a weapon for him. Are you even worthy to do that? Learn to be humbler." He said and left his disciple alone.