Invitation

A light rain was drizzling on to the unpaved roads of the slums. Four youngsters were walking with hurried steps side by side on a muddy dirt road. They wore coarse green robes and had steel daggers strapped at their waists.

''How long until we reach their base? ''

Mayton asked. After he told his plan about the thugs to the hunters, at first they objected him going alone and wanted to tag along. But Mayton adamantly rejected despite their insistence. Even though he was confident of his ability to leave unscathed if things go south, he wasn't sure he can guaranty the safety of the hunters. He was strong, yes, but he was after all one person. He couldn't be everywhere in a fight. Thus he only took Zgar and Ghorzhang with him.

He knew that both of them were destined to not live simple lives. A little danger they experienced now might save their lives in the future. Since there were only two people with Mayton, it wouldn't be too hard to protect them. Going with only a small group of youngsters had one more advantage. This way the thugs won't put their guard up. If three dozen hunters attacked them, they would retaliate with their full force. But if a group of ten to twelve year olds attacked their base, they would just take it as a joke.

As for the fourth youngster in the group, he was the clerk from the tannery, tasked with bringing them to the base of the thugs. His task was pointing out the base and then returning to the shop without getting involved in any fights.

''It's just around the corner, the biggest building on the left. Good luck, I hope I will see you again.''

The clerk said and left with haste. In his opinion, attacking thugs with three children was pure craziness akin to trying to smash a rock with an egg. But ultimately they were strangers so he didn't nag unnecessarily and went his own way.

''Guys, let me warn you upfront. What we are going to do is by no means safe. You don't need to try helping me. Just stay out of the way of trouble and keep yourselves safe.''

Mayton warned Zgar and Ghorzhang for the umpteenth time. He was already feeling guilty because of the fate their village suffered, he didn't want to be responsible for the last remaining fire from the villagers' lineage to be snuffed on top of that.

'' We got it already. You just do your thing we will watch from the sidelines.'' muttered Zgar.

'' Look guys! This should be the place, right?''

Ghorzhang was pointing towards an old two storied wooden house with a relatively big size. Its entrance was directly at the street without any garden in between. Two middle aged men were sitting in front of its door as they bawled profanities about a common acquaintance of theirs. From the way they sounded, they were probably drunk.

''Hoh, kiddos what are you doing in the streets this late? Didn't your mommas teach you to return early?''

One of the thugs approached Mayton's trio after seeing Ghorzhang point at them.

''Uncle, my father sent us to give you money. He said we owe money to your boss.''

Mayton said as he got closer to the man sitting near the entrance and moved his hand towards his dagger. The thugs assumed that he was going to grab his money pouch instead of the dagger. This was a fatal mistake on their part.

When Mayton was finally next to the sitting man, he sliced his neck in one swift move and turned behind to take care of the other thug. But he was a step too late. While Mayton was finishing off the sitting man, Ghorzhang already stabbed the nape of the other thug with all the strength he can muster and his dagger went all the way through the thugs neck, finally exiting from the other side as blood splashed all over Mayton's face.

'' Sigh, what happened to watching from the sidelines? It may have worked this time but please don't repeat it.''

Mayton said after clearing the blood on his face with his sleeves. He started to regret bringing them a little.

''Since we managed to kill them silently we should use this advantage. I will try to kill as many of them as I can. You two should set an ambush outside, near the entrance while I go in. Don't let anyone escape or they might call for reinforcements. ''

Even though Zgar was just a ten years old boy with little to no battle prowess, Mayton was confident in Ghorzhang's ability to successfully kill anyone who tried to escape. Mayton brought Zgar here to gain some experience even though he knew Zgar would just be dead weight because Zgar's determination to improve moved him. Mayton didn't expect any contributions from him.

After exhorting them to stay safe once more Mayton entered the thugs' base as silently as he can. Unfortunately for him, the base was an old wooden house. His very first step inside caused a loud creaking sound which alerted the people inside.

''Hey, Ramires, Greg, you useless drunkards, didn't boss say that you should stay outside?''

A voice came from the nearest room on the right side of the hallway. On the first floor of the house, there were four rooms. All but one of them had their doors closed. It was unknown if there were any people inside them. As for the room with its door open, it was exactly the room the voice came from.

Mayton cursed the thugs for the poor state of their base as he stopped caring about not making more sound and dashed towards the voice. When he entered the room, he saw a man lying down in the bed at the corner of the room.

''What the hell are you?!''

Shrieked the man when their eyes met. Mayton wasn't interested in talking with him though. He swiftly moved towards the bed and plunged his dagger to the man's chest while avoiding his flailing arms. Mayton did expect to kill the man easily, but his reaction seemed a bit off to Mayton. There was no time to ponder the reason though. Sounds of people rushing were already coming from the second floor.

Mayton knew that if he waited for them to come, he will be ganged up on. Thus he decided to get rid of the thugs left alive on the first floor if there were any.

Meanwhile, on the second floor of the house, a black robed old man and a middle aged man with rough linen clothes were sitting face to face as they sipped their tea. When the middle aged man opened his mouth to say something several shouts were heard from the first floor.

''Ramires, what's going on?''

''Was that the voice of Mir?''

''Intrud- Aaargh! ''

The black robed old man put his teacup down as he smiled faintly to the middle aged man and said;

''This place doesn't seem like what you promised Andam. I expect you to sort this out if you want to do business with me. I'll give you a minute.''

After saying his piece, the old man continued drinking tea as if the sounds had nothing to do with him. The middle aged man named Andam, on the other hand, couldn't stay still for another second as he darted out of the room, towards the stairs leading to the first floor.

When Andam was halfway through the stairs, he saw a terrifying scene. A kid with bright red eyes bathed in blood was slashing his dagger at the last one standing among his men. Rest of his men were lying on the floor with wounds at various places of their body. A few of them were still alive, but it was easy to see they won't live for long.

Andam was an experienced man. He has been running this gang for more than a dozen years now. While normally they dealt with shop owners and such, recently the gang ventured into a more profitable trade. They started to offer safe places away from the prying eyes of the public to people who wanted to hide in the city for all kinds of reasons. This made him come in contact with lots of cultivators just like the old man on the second floor. So unlike the ignorant, superstitious thugs, he knew what he was dealing with the moment he saw Mayton's eyes.

''May I know the reason of young master's visit at such a late hour?''

Andam said. He knew that the cultivators were a prideful bunch. Especially the younger ones. So he adjusted his attitude accordingly.

''Are you their boss? I heard you have too much money. I need some of it. Enough to buy a property in one of the expensive parts of the city.''

Mayton said calmly. He felt that his qi was exhausted. The red in his eyes were already fading. He underestimated the tenacity of this group of thugs. Only two of them tried to run away. Rest of the thugs were fought until their last breaths. ' Either they thought that it was impossible to run away and risked their lives in a bid to kill me or their boss had something on them which compelled them to fight until the bitter end.

''That's easy. Please wait a moment whilst I go fetch it.''

Said Andam with narrowed eyes. He also realized there was a high chance that this kid in front of him was already a spent force. But Andam still couldn't take the risk to attack. An important guest was waiting for him upstairs and that old man despite looking nonchalant most of the time actually had a horrible temper. The old man gave him a minute to settle the problem which meant if he couldn't settle it in a minute the old man would be displeased. Andam didn't dare to displease him. At least a bit of money wasn't worth it. As for taking revenge for his man? That didn't even cross his mind.

With those thoughts in his mind, Andam went back upstairs and returned with a sack full of gold coins.

''I hope this is enough to satisfy you.''

Andam said as he threw the sack over to Mayton side. This surprised Mayton. He wasn't really serious when he said he wanted money. He just killed this man's men and when he demanded money the man gave him a sackful of money.

When Mayton absentmindedly reached out to grab the sack from the ground, he heard a sinister voice saying;

''Little friend, why don't you come up and drink a cup of tea with us?''

The voice was not loud at all, but it sounded like the speaker was talking directly to his ear. This was not a feat a normal person was capable of. This voice undoubtedly belonged to a cultivator. Mayton's hand stopped in its tracks as he started to asses his options.

He was afraid of his peculiarity getting found out if he spoke face to face with a cultivator despite Angeza's master Glittering Calmness saying otherwise. So he really wasn't willing to accept the owner of the voice's invitation but he was also afraid of offending him by refusing to go up. There were Ghorzhang and Zgar waiting outside too. He couldn't abandon them and runaway alone.

Mayton gritted his teeth as he finally made his decision and he said to Andam who was looking at him with pity;

''Didn't you hear what the senior said? Lead the way.''

After that Mayton and Andam went up the stairs with creaking sounds. Second floor's layout was different than the first. The whole floor was a single room separated from the stairs by a heavy wooden door. The room was furbished quite extravagantly, unlike what you would expect from an old building in the slums. Inside the room, a black robed old man with a long beard sat alone as he sipped his tea.

''Come sit little friend. My name is Grau. Don't worry, I just want to know more about such an outstanding youngster like you.''

Grau smiled. But instead of looking genial, his smile made him look even more sinister.

''I dare not sit together with senior. I'm a poor youngster from the countryside. Since I am exhausted right now, I can't accompany senior. I seek senior's forgiveness.''

Mayton tried to talk his way out of this situation without offending this old man, but Grau wasn't even listening to him. He got up from his seat, and in the blink of an eye, he was only a step away from Mayton. 'How peculiar I can't sense him at all. Could it be he has ...' When Grau thought to there his eyes glinted with greed.

At first, he wanted to find out why he couldn't sense this kid even though the kid obviously was a cultivator. But then, he remembered that some legendary items could hide their owners from senses, unfortunately, those items belonged to people he couldn't offend at all costs not weaklings like this kid.

There were two explanations. Either there was a strong cultivator nearby to support this boy in case of danger, or the kid got lucky and found such a good treasure by luck. Grau thought the first explanation was the more likely one but he couldn't let this opportunity to get his hands on a valuable treasure slip away without even trying, so he decided to give it a shot.

''Little friend, we, the cultivators of the Flaming Heart City will organize a fair to trade and make new acquaintances soon. I wonder if the little friend is interested in attending? Here is an invitation for the little friend in case you want to attend. I hope we can see each other there.''

Without waiting for Mayton to answer, Grau took out a piece of metal from his pocket and tossed it to Mayton. Mayton caught the piece of metal and started inspecting it. It had a vague map carved on it at one side, and the other side had a shining orb engraved on it.

When Mayton looked up from the piece of metal in his hand, Grau was nowhere to be seen.