[Black Vipers]!!!

[Jason POV]

I walked through the street on the fourth floor and I hummed as I looked around the corner of the street. 'I was sure that the shop was somewhere around here,' I thought as I glanced further down the street, 'He told me that the store was packed between two large buildings on this street, so that means. Ah, there it is.'

The store that I was looking for was a small medicine store located between two large office complexes. The name [Gregory's] was drawn on a board and nailed to the top of the store.

'This idiot' I thought as I started moving towards the store, 'How will anyone even know that you sell medicine here if you just call yourself Gregory's?'

A small bell chimed as I opened the door and I heard a loud crash from behind the shelves as someone fell over.

"Sorry! Sorry!" a young voice shouted as I saw a boy frantically packing up some glass vials containing multiple colored liquids. He was wearing a simple shirt and trousers with a long white coat over all of them, "Ah, a customer!" the boy shouted once he looked up at me. I smiled as he clumsily got to his feet and tried to sound professional," Welcome to Gregory's," he said while pushing his glasses up his nose, "What can I do for you?"

Gregory was one of the people that I knew from my last life. I met him in the army during the war where he worked as a healer and he was one of my closest friends. In that future, Gregory was one of the most serious people you will ever meet. He had a permanent frown fixed on his face almost all the time and I could tell that the war had taken every bit of playfulness out of him. But right now, he was only a child. I found it hard to relate the smiling boy in front of me with the jaded man I knew from the future.

I walked up to the counter and looked down at him. We were both the same age, but he has always been much smaller than me.

"I was wondering if you have any Silicon grass," I asked, and Gregory perked up.

"Yes, I have some. Hold on for one minute!" he quickly started to search through a box of grass and I saw him pull out a bag that held many silver leaves inside. He held it up with a smile, "You want to use it as anesthetics right? Do you want to buy some healing potions as well?"

"I heard those weren't very effective," I said and Gregory's face immediately fell. Gregory was a researcher that like to play around with mana and medicine. In the future, he would become one of the best doctors because of the healing potions that he created, but for now, he was still very young and he still hasn't perfected the potion.

"It works on small injuries, like kitchen knife wounds and stuff," Gregory winced as he realized how pathetic that sounded. What adventurer would spend that much money on a healing potion just to heal a kitchen knife wound?

I hummed and made it look like I was thinking deeply about something, "You know," I finally said, "A friend of mine once told me that your healing potions are very dangerous if you take it with low mana."

"What!?" Gregory shouted, "Why would you drink it when your mana is low!? It'll kill you! Wait, are you here to arrest me for killing someone!? I didn't do I on purpose!" Gregory turned around and was about to run, but I stopped him.

"Calm down, they aren't dead," I said, "They just took some Silicon grass and they were able to survive. In fact, the silicon grass completely neutralized the pain and their mana increased."

Gregory was shocked into silence and he just stared at me for a few seconds before he looked down at the grass in his hand curiously, "Can I meet this friend of yours?"

"Of course not, they died in a tragic accident a long time ago. It was absolutely terrible," I lied through my teeth. There was no way Gregory could meet this friend, after all, this friend was him.

"O-Oh?"

I grabbed the silicon grass from him and paid the amount that I needed for it before leaving the store and tossing the grass away. I didn't need to do anything else for now since I was sure that Gregory's curiosity would get the better of him and he would definitely try it out. I just had to wait for him to get it before making my next move.

I wanted to go into another dungeon soon, but there was still something that I needed to take care of. The student of Magus Academy that came down to this floor yesterday was still out there and I haven't received any reports from the bandits that I told to watch them.

'Did they run away,' I wondered, but I shook my head, 'They know that I know all their bases. They aren't smart enough to try and find a different base to hide that quickly. That means it has something to do with what he told me yesterday.'

I started walking down towards the slums with my hands in my pocket. It seems I had to deal with this myself

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[Third Person POV]

The sound of fighting resounded across the streets of the slums as deadly groups of bandits clashed. Two rival gangs struggled for dominance over their region as they battled against each other.

The residents of the slums that weren't part of the gangs all ran away in fear as they didn't want to get caught up in the conflict.

"The [Black Vipers] rule these streets now!" a bald man with a large tattoo of a snake on his head shouted as he rose his sword in the air. Lightning crackled across the sword and illuminated his excited face, "Their leader is dead! Kill them all!"

The hostile gang of bandits screamed a battle cry as they began to attack with renewed vigor! Their swords clashed against that of the rival gang and the bald leader cackled maniacally as he charged for the leader of the rival gang!

"You think you can stop me, Paul!?" the bald man shouted as he activated a body-strengthening skill and slammed his sword into his opponent's knife, "Just give u! You have no hope since your leader died! I'll kill you and then ill go kill that backer of yours! Hahahahah!"

Paul grunted as he tried to hold the man back. He grit his teeth and glared at the bald man as he tried his best not to be pushed back by him. Their swords released sparks into the air as neither one relented!

"I can't fall here," Paul growled at his opponent, "If I fall here then he'll kill everyone else. I won't let my brothers die because of a bastard like you."

"It hurts when you talk about me like I'm not right here!?" the bald man cackled again as he thought that he was the one Paul was afraid of. He had no idea that Paul was terrified of Jason and what Jason would do to him. He pushed Paul down and drew his sword back before delivering two devastating blows in quick succession. Paul grunted as he was thrown back, "Do you see how weak you are!?" the bald man cackled as he licked his sword, "Just come under me peacefully and there will be no more bloodshed. I'll welcome you into my gang of vipers and call you brother. Let's both go and kill that backer of yours together and the vipers can rule this land!"

The bald man started to cackle again until he slowly started to realize that there was something wrong. He stopped laughing and focused on his hearing. 'Why is it so silent?' he wondered as he turned around to see a young boy holding a bandit up by the shirt.

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[Jason POV]

I threw the last bandit to the ground as the idiot that was laughing finally turned around. There were bandits everywhere and I stepped over their bodies to get to the bald idiot.

"Who are you? Are you the backer that Paul has been ranting about all this time? So you are strong enough to beat up these many men?" the bald man asked. I didn't bother to answer him as I kept walking until I was standing right in front of him and staring up at him, "You didn't even spare you're own men. You're a ruthless little child, aren't you!? I'll enjoy taking you apart one limb at a time!"

Slap!

The slap that I delivered to him echoed through the empty street and he was thrown to the ground in shock. He slowly got up while holding his cheek in stunned silence. His face contorted into a look of fury and he got up and charged for me.

"Youuu bastarrrdddd!" he shouted