In the middle of the slums in a small neighborhood that consisted of small cramped houses in a dark house in the corner of it. A group of gang members stood together, closely gathered giving small hushed whisperers to each other as each of them looked around cautiously at their surroundings vigilant and suspicious of anything.
"hurry and give us it!" one of the gang members hissed in an annoyed voice, "we don't have all day"
The person that all of the gang members were surrounding. A hooded person in a black cloak extended his arm out showing a human hand that had glowing purple lines going up and down his arm. The purple lines pulsed at a steady pace and gave off a creepy and ominous glow.
In a careful fashion, the cloaked person placed down 7 small vials of glowing purple liquid just like the color of the lines on his arm.
The gang members hurriedly took a vial and gently placed it into their various pouches. Making sure that they were carefully stowed.
Everyone eyed each other cautiously. The liquid in those vials were both extremely expensive and dangerous.
One of the gang members looked at the hooded figure and said in a hurried voice
"give us the money!"
The hooded figure let out a snort and turned away. On the small table that the vials rested on before, 70 silver pieces clattered onto bouncing off the table and scattering everywhere, the gang members erupted into chaos as each of them chased after the silver coins desperately.
As the hooded figure looked at the gang members running around he gave a look of ridicule at them and then turned away and disappeared in a cloud of dark mist.
A few moments passed and soon the gang members returned back to the table each one holding about 9 or ten silvers in their hands.
They nervously felt the vial of liquid in their pouches. A single wrong move could spell danger for everyone in the entire room, maybe even the city.
They had been commissioned by that mysterious hooded figure on a task, and those 7 gang members were the few who weren't deterred by the shadiness of the situation.
Like it was said, high-risk, high reward.
The gang members were about to take these back to their own hideouts to prepare the vial in the required way and then spread it out. They had done this before, but each time they were extremely nervous handling the vials.
A sudden noise made everyone in the tiny room freeze. They all looked in the direction of the noise their brains quickly churning trying to figure out what that noise was.
The noise came from the door.
And then they saw it, the door to the house fell in a thundering manner and a group of huge men rushed in holding various weapons. The 7 gang members let out a surprised yell as they all scrambled to find a place to hide.
The huge men strode in with thundering steps they didn't wear any amour but the clubs and sword in their hands were good enough for any person.
The huge men crashed through the house, some broke through the flimsy walls with sheer force while others swept their weapons around the room breaking any furniture the gang members could be hiding behind.
The house only had so many places to hide in and soon 4 of the 7 gang members sat tied up in the middle of a group of 4 men who looked at them threateningly.
As the other men searched the house, they saw broken windows in different rooms and discovered traces of blood on the broken glass. They didn't know what it meant but left it alone for their leader to take care of.
And the leader of these huge threatening men emerged from the door. He was dressed in the garb of rouge with dark sleek clothes that had numerous weapons hanging off of them.
It felt like he could sink into the shadows any second and the daggers that he held in his hands gave off an aura that would bring fear to many.
Behind the leader walked a group of 5 kids, well they were much shorter than the huge men, but they walked in holding weapons.
Renya held a large hammer that she easily held at an angle over her shoulder. Prilisca held a short wand that Jason had gotten from his friend at the wand shop. She was still training her mana manipulation skills so she was currently pretty harmless.
Rah had a rapier that Perseus had gotten her, Theo had a long spear, Terrel a shield, and short sword, and finally, Alfredo had a bow.
They looked at the leader of the huge threatening men who ransacked the place with only a hint of discipline.
He slowly took off his hood and revealed his face.
A young boy about 10 years old looked back at his 5 friends and gave a small nod to them as he walked over to where the 4 men laid tied and beaten up while putting his hood back on.
Jack slowly paced over to the group of men. This was a small test that Perseus had given to him. Lead a group of men to take down a suspicious group of gang members and steal whatever money or goods they had.
One of Jack's friends Renya had seen a suspicious-looking person walk into the neighborhood he constantly looked over his back and he seemed extremely jittery and worried about every little thing.
Jack had brought over a group of gang members who had just put themselves under his banner and brought them over to where Renya followed the suspicious-looking person.
Those huge men all shivered in fear as the small rouge figure walked into their vicinity. The rumors about him had spread to them all. They sought him out because of the rumors and his aura seemed to match them.
Under his wings, were beings that could kill even the executives of the reapers gang.
They had no idea who he was, but he claimed to be a part of the reapers group and nobody wanted to contest that claim.
Jack slowly walked over to the 4 tied up men, his eyes gave off a cold glint from beyond the hood making the tied up men quake in fear.
Jack looked at one of his men, who was standing straight at attention as he faced Jack.
"what were they selling?" He asked calmly
The gang member replied in a trembling voice as he held out the 4 vials of purple liquid
"We searched their bodies, sir, we couldn't find anything valuable besides these"
Jack's eyes widened as he looked at the 4 vials. Jack reached out his hand and took them.
The gang member's expression visibly softened as the vials were taken off him. He even gave off a sigh of relief when they left his hands.
The gang member looked at his hand which was still trembling and took a deep breath.
Jack looked at the 4 vials and hurriedly placed them into his pouch that Perseus had gotten him.
He had handled deadly herbs and even more deadly poisons, but this was much worse than that.
Almost any person living this day and age knew what it was. The rumors of its terrifying power reached even to the slums. Though it could be potentially harmless at the beginning and even a bit useful, it could turn into a catastrophe in a few months.
Jack walked over to the 4 tied up men who were shivering in fear and said in a cold and dark voice
"where did you get these vials?"
The tied up men shook their heads and cried out
"I-I don't know, I was just given it"
Jack narrowed his eyes. He was raised up in the slums, he wouldn't have lived if he couldn't differentiate truth and a lie.
Jack raised his dagger, it shone briefly in the small amount of sunlight that streamed through the windows.
And one of the tied-up men fell to the ground unmoving.
"anyone else?" Jack said as he held his dagger out as blood slowly fell from it.
The tied up gang members shook their heads furiously. Jack looked at them again with cold emotionless eyes and motioned to the men who stood nervously around
"interrogate them"
The men nodded and hurriedly dragged them away.
Jack felt the vials again and hurriedly prepared to head to the silver wings guild house.
The vials in his pouch were vials of liquid that could raze an entire city to the ground if processed right.
Even he knew it and most of the slums did too. After all most of the refugees that lived there were victims of the product of the liquid.
It was an item that brought with it, chaos, destruction, and death. Every time it was exposed to the air, monsters slowly gathered around it, forming leader class monsters then general, then king class, and even worse when not found.
Though the liquid could evaporate and lose its ability, if it was constantly circulated in a machine it could endlessly bring monsters to it.
It was one of the cursed products of the apocalypse known as the (Ichor of Chaos) also known for its most prominent use as a monster attracter.