4 Mercenary recruitment and Murderous Arts (1)

With the abysmal amount of wealth amounting to a staggering amount of Nil and nothing, Sol starts wandering the streets once more asking about jobs in stores fronts and street stalls.

Several stressful hours later and Sol had come up in front of a run down building with a tilted sign reading ' Silver Mark Mercenary HQ' with the Q broken lying beside the door and a sign with 'recruiting' posted on the door, but what made Sol's eyes shine is the words in the fine print underneath the sign saying 'Accommodations provided.'

Walking inside the building its just as warn down as it is on the outside, the atmosphere inside the building being almost completely desolate.

"Welcome to the Silver Mark Mercenaries, are you here to join or with a request?" While sizing up the inside of the building the aged voice of a woman transmits directly into Sol's ears scaring him deeply.

It was only now that Sol turned to look towards the counter where there's an old lady standing and staring straight at him, but she's not human, rather she looks like a cross between a human and an elf, her ears are not as long as a normal elf in manga nor is she as tall, her face is nothing extraordinary, but her aura is warm like the spring sun and her smile gives the feeling of the kind old lady on the street corner who's seen through life's vicissitudes.

Just this alone makes Sol take her seriously as being able to not only directly transmit her voice into his head but also the strong but restrained aura that is coming off of her making you release your guard unconsciously is more than enough to let Sol know that she is most definitely capable of taking him down with no effort at all.

"Hello, I am Sol Soluto, i saw the sign outside and would like to sign up here as a mercenary." Sol spoke seriously trying to seem as professional as possible.

At this sentence the old lady laughed slightly narrowing her eyes, scanning Sol from head to toe "You are a good boy, but having too much untamed murderous energy inside of you, which is bad considering you are barely a beginner Body refiner, I'll let you to join so come closer." While she spoke she never stopped scanning Sol making him feel like he was standing out in a blizzard naked.

"Yes." giving a short answer Sol came closer, though his head was filled with different thoughts.

'I'm a beginner flesh cultivator? when?how? could it have been back when i sent out the slash that the murderous energy tempered my body by accident? She said I'm a beginner but what rank?' Thinking all of this Sol arrived in front of the old lady with a dazed face.

Seeing him dazed the old lady smiled and reached out her hand touching his forehead with her finger.

The moment that the finger touched his forehead Sol's entire body began seizing, the old ladies eyes showed a bit of confusion momentarily before reaching clarity almost instantly.

"I'm sorry, Sol, I did not know you cultivated in Murderous arts so when I sent some of my energy to check your body it rejected my Nature arts nearly killing you, kekeke." The old lady murmured, cackling in amusement.

But while she was speaking Sol had regained consciousness and looked towards the old lady with cold sweat drenching his back, 'with just some probing she nearly killed me?!?'

"Anyways I've already left the Silver Mark Mercenary insignia on your shoulder so you are now a member, you should know that in this mercenary group their are just you and me everyone else has...had unfortunate accidents in the field, meaning that you will have to accomplish the requests alone, please do your best to raise our name to glory!" The old lady said in high spirits taking an ominous break in her speech before finishing with a charismatic fist pump in the air like a hot blooded general.

"Ah, yes yes certainly i'll bring us to fame...but first, about the accommodations..." Sol said giving a small fist pump as well, then letting himself trail off looking towards the Old lady with hopeful eyes by the end of his sentence.

"Yes, the accommodations may be a bit shabby but I ask you bear with it, also my name is Silvia, but you can just call me old lady Silvy, and for reference I'm two hundred fifty two years old, I am a half elf, which is why although my life span is five hundred years I didn't get to retain my youth." She said sounding frustrated at the end of her sentence.

Hearing that a tiny smile formed on Sol's lips as he gloatingly started laughing in his head.

'You nearly killed me that's what you get.'

However, a women's instincts only get sharper as they age, like a sixth sense Silvy sent a tiny bit of her nature arts into Sols body causing immense pain right in front of his rooms door dropping the keys on his face.

"That's what you get for laughing at me!" She said stomping away, though her aura didn't match up her words, as it seemed happy.

A few seconds of paralysis later Sol got up and entered his room not daring to think badly of Silvia anymore as she seems to have some sort of sixth sense.

The room assigned to Sol has one bed at the corner and a small night table to the side as well as a closet for clothes, and a chest at the end of the bed with the lock and key on top of it.

Though the walls are rotting from age the furniture is in tip top shape giving a weird contrast between high quality and low quality, 'but the important part for now is that I've found a place to stay' thought Sol just happy he had a place to sleep.

The night went by fast, without incident, just like this the second day in the Shade world began.

Downstairs old lady Silvy is at the counter with two dishes of food.

"Come eat breakfast, you'll need it for today." She said beckoning Sol towards the counter.

"Thank you for the food." Sol said before digging in.

The food here is much more nutritious than on earth since here the natural energy of the world is much more abundant than earth which had it's forests destroyed and it's environment ravaged.

Finished eating, Sol looked towards Old lady Silvy "You said before that I am at the beginner level of body refining and that I'm cultivating Murderous arts but i don't remember doing any of that, could you explain it to me." Sol asked seriously as this question had been plaguing him all night.