Chapter 41 – Staring Up Trouble.

After being able to gather finally some information about our targets, we decided to hold a meeting.

"So, our 3 targets are very important figures in the city. On top of that, people still don't know what happen to the mayor Joshua Emerald since the minotaurs got rid of the evidence and his body. They do know that the mayor is missing, but they don't know if he is alive or not." – said Oron.

"Our 3 targets will be probably on since they have very close relationship with Joshua Emerald."

"We still couldn't dig out any dirt on them or anything that we could use." – said Shri.

"Yea. However, we were able to finally manage to get some info about that caravan that was attacked by minotaurs." – said GreyHunt.

"Apparently the caravan belonged to the company named "Albenotoi". The only thing we found out about them is that they are a company that have branches in many different countries. We also know that the name of the owner of that company is named Abram Oonol. Honestly, I was hoping to find out if that guy and the guys we are dealing with have any connection with each other, but we couldn't find anything."

"Next is the caravan. We couldn't get good or solid info what was inside, people say that there were some old and priceless artifact or something, but we don't know that if that piece of information was really a truth. We do know that caravan did contained some valuables like jewelries, since the minotaurs took the half of the treasure, but we do not know what their client took for their half. There is a good chance that the half they stole was something that they aimed for or something, but we still don't know if they really attacked the caravan to just steal something."

 "The only way to find out anything about the relationship between them and that Albenotoi company as well as the content of the caravan is to forcefully extract the information from our targets." – said GreyHunt.

"Anyway, how should we deal with our targets? Should we try to bring them alive to the minotaurs? Or just straight up kill them?" – asked Shri.

"It depends. Probably if we were to bring them alive to the minotaurs, the rewards would become much better and not only that, we would be able to more easily extract the information about them if we take them somewhere where nobody could find them, but the question is: How we would do that?" – said GreyHunt.

"If we were to by any chance do anything to them, the other 2 will be on extremely high alert if something were to happened to one of them. Honestly, splitting up and targeting them all 3 at the same time would be stupid, since they would probably have something like soldiers and guards keeping them safe. Meaning, we have to work together if want to get one of them at least."

"And that is probably not only problem. Right now, the minotaurs are hiding and their hiding spot is extremely good, but we don't know how long it will take until somebody finds about them or something. So, the sooner we do that quest then better." 

"Hm… The mine is quite big and all. Some people will go inside thinking there might be a "Hidden Loot" there like in some games, but they will obviously won't find anything. The problem would be if they find the hidden lever like we did." – said Oron.

"The more people will come, the higher chance of them being discover will increase, so I say we maybe have around maybe a mouth or less time to finish the quest. We can't say for sure how much time we have." – said Oron.

"So, what do we do now? Should we go straight for them right now?" – asked Shri.

"No. You saw how strong minotaurs were and even their leader, we couldn't even stand up to them. There is a good chance that there would be a powerful enemy working for any of our 3 targets if not for all." – said ClownFrog.

"What if the enemy have somebody as powerful as minotaur or even their leader? WE BE FORCED TO FIGHT. However, before we try even fighting them, we need to prepare. And that obviously mean we level up like crazy."

"Honestly, we also have no choice but to stay in this city even though it's a shit. If we leave, we won't be able to provide the food to the minotaurs and that would obviously mean that we would fail the sub quest." – said ClownFrog.

"So, how much should we level up?" – asked Shir.

"I say at least to the level 130, but that will obviously take many days. We have no choice; we go full risk. We need to desperately level up if we want have any chances of succeeding our quest." – said ClownFrog.

"Hm…Yea. We have to risk it if we want to succeed. All of us are right now above level 100, so we are much stronger than before. However, the problem are monsters. Our risky strategy relies on hunting the monsters much higher level than us, however once we are high enough level, our leveling up speed will drop, on top of that the higher level we get, the longer it takes to level up. It won't take 4 or 5 days; it could take a week or even two if we are unlucky or something." – said GreyHunt.

"Well, do we have any other option mate?" – asked Shri.

"Nope. And that is the annoying part. – replied GreyHunt.

"By the way, it maybe good idea if we stop gathering info about our targets for some time. People will may end up being suspicious of us if we are asking a lot of question regarding them every day. What if our targets finds out about us looking into them? Too risky. Don't try to even ask anybody anything about them for few days and focus only on leveling up. We can try gathering some info again after few days pass." – said Oron.

"So we pretty much we spend few days hutting nonstop. Sounds good." – said Shri.

"Well then, time to get to the work."

After our meeting was over, we decided hunt in more risky areas.

[1 Day.]

On the first day as planned we decided to hunt entire day. We decided to hunt monsters at least 13 levels above us. It was quite hard, but we managed to do it without dying once.

Level 110 -> 114

[2 Day.]

Same as before, hunting entire day.

Level 114 -> 119

[3 Day.]

The leveling up speed got slower since the highest level monsters in the area were level 130 monsters

Level 119 -> 122

[5 Day.]

Hunting again entire day.

Level 122 -> 124

[6 Day.]

Starting to gather information once again and also hunting.

Level 125 -> 127

[7 Day.]

Information gathering and hunting.

Level 127 -> 128

[8 Day.]

Entire day hunting. Trying to get level 130 today. Played for a very long time.

Level 128 -> 130

[Next Day.]

[ClownFrog]

[Level 130] 

[Skill List]

[Necromancer]

[Advance Necromancy]-[LVL1] [Undead Record]-[LVL1] [Create: Lesser Skeleton Servant] – [Level 10] [Skeleton Servant – Basic Upgrade]-[LVL10] [Skeleton Servant – Bone Weapon]-[LVL10] [Skeleton Servant – Basic Weapon – Shield]-[LVL10] [Skeleton Servant – Basic Weapon – Spear]-[LVL10] [Skeleton Servant – Basic Armor]-[LVL10] [Bone Darts]-[LVL10] [Necro Shot]- [LVL 10] [Create: Lesser Skeleton]-[LVL10] 

[Create: Skeleton Servant]-[LVL10] [Create: Zombie] –[LVL9] [Create: Skeleton]-[LVL 9] [Skeleton Servant – Upgrade]-[LVL10] [Bone Arrow]-[LVL9] [Necro Bomb]-[LVL9] [Dead Reinforcement]-[LVL7] [Skeleton Servant – Standard Weapon – Spear]-[LVL4] [Skeleton Servant – Standard Weapon – Great Shield]-[LVL4] [Skeleton Servant – Standard Heavy Armor]-[LVL4] 

[Burning Necromancer]

[Standard Burning Necromancy]-[LVL2] [Undead Evolution: Lesser Fire Fusion]-[LVL10] [Burning Skull]-[LVL10] [Burning Ribcage]-[LVL10] 

[Summon: Burning Head]-[LVL2] [Undead Evolution: Fire Fusion]-[LVL2] [Burned Hand]-[LVL2] [Necrotic Flame]-[LVL2]

[Blood Necromancer]

[Basic Blood Necromancy]-[LVL9] [Create: Lesser Blood Dead]-[LVL7] [Blood Bone Arrow]-[LVL6] [Necrotic Blood]-[LVL6]

[Unused Skill Points: 491] 

[Titles]

[Rare]

[Necromancer Over Necromancer] [Amaran Helper]

[Oron]

[Level 130]

[Classes] (((One The Left are classes while on the right are the class skills.)))

[Crossbow User] - [Mid Rank Crossbow User]

[Magic Crossbow User] - [Low Rank Magic Crossbow User]

[Poison Mage] – [Standart Poison Magic]

[Cursed Poison User] – [Standart Cursed Poison Maker]

[Fire Mage] – [Standart Fire Magic]

[Bully] – [Fourth Rate Bully]

[Shri]

[Level 130]

[Classes]

[Whip User] - [High Rank Whip User]

[Tamer] – [Master Tamer]

[GreyHunt]

[Level 130]

[Classes]

[Gun User] – [High Rank Gun User]

[Rouge] – [Master Rouge]

"Okay! We fuking did. It took us 8 days but all are on level 130." – said ClownFrog.

"Yea. And by the look of things people still don't know about minotaurs existence, so we still have time." – said Oron.

"We also made sure that they have enough food for sometime and even explained the situation to them."

"Now, we can finally do something!" – said Shri.

"But question. How do we do it?" – asked Shri.

"That is a very good question." – said ClownFrog.

"We tried gathering some info after few days passed, the only info we got that the 2 targets who were friend with that Joshua guy were working with each other for more than 13 or 14 years and as for his daughter who is also our target, we found out that his mother died in while in the accident. Apparently, she was originally a commoner merchant who was also very talented."

"Besides that, we couldn't get a hold of the good info."

"Anyway, right now the situation in the city is bit chaotic. Apparently, the corruption of both nobles and merchants were making bit of problems to the point where the fight broke out and the guards had to arrest people."

"On top of that, people know that the mayor Joshua Emerald is missing for a long time, so some people are trying to pull a lot of different shit. Right now, the city is at high alert and the guards are patrolling more often than before, making the things difficult for us."

"People can't find out that we are aiming for them or if we were to succeed in getting them but getting being found out as culprits, then we are fucked." – said ClownFrog.

"Hm…. I guess we have to do it now." – said GreyHunt.

"?"

"Why now?" – asked Shri.

"The situation is quite chaotic in the city and there is quiet unrest after a sudden disappearance of the mayor for long time with no new information about his whereabouts. If the city become even more chaotic, even more guards patrol will be deployed, meaning it would even harder to pull off anything." – said GreyHunt.

"However, if we were to pull off anything off, then won't that make situation even worse for us?" – said Shri.

"Like we discussed before, if we were to do anything to any of these 3 targets, the others would be on high alert and everything and like said before, it will be impossible to target all 3 of them at the same time." – said GreyHunt.

"Yea. The best option would be to take them all out in the spawn of 1-3 days. If we take too long then people will have their guard up even higher, however as soon as we deal with one of them, the next day people would get worried and all, pretty much, we would have only 1 or 2 days after taking out the first target."

"Basically, the situation is quite bad for us. We need to be extremely careful when doing anything." – said GreyHunt.

"…"

"Hey, how about instead of doing it quietly, we instead make loud and chaotic?" – said ClownFrog.

"?"

"Hear me out."

[Day Later.]

"Hey did you heard?" – said the man.

"About what?" – asked the merchant.

"About that rumor, that the reason why the mayor disappeared was done by his two friends, Marcel and Hjin."

"Just some random bullshit probably. These 3 are too close with each other."

"Yea, I though so too. But apparently these two wanted to marry his daughter in order to take over his wealth, but he declined."

"Who wouldn't, they are at least 33 years old while she is 16. This sound extremely absurd Are you saying that they got rid of him because he disagreed to their deal?"

"Well, it dost sound stupid alright and all, but if you look at it, there is a chance it is true. Apparently, there is a rumor going around that the last two people who saw him were exactly these two before mayor went missing."

"Hm… If they really were the last ones that saw him, then it does make sense. But which one was the one who asked for his daughter hand?"

"Don't know. Some people say it Marcel, while some say it was Hjin." – said the man.

"Hm… I think maybe it would be Hjin. He does have his own forces and all, but the one with higher noble rank is Emerald family. If he were to marry her, he would be able to gain a higher rank." – said the merchant.

"Really? I kind of think that it would have been Marcel. He is know as the wealthiest and richest man in the city, but if he would steal the Emerald family fortune, he could be even one of the richest people in the country." – said the man.

"Oh, that is good point. He does earn a lot of money and he likes to show off his wealth around. It could have been him."

[2 Day Later.]

"People are activility avoiding the Hjin mercenaries and escorts." – said the old merchant.

"Yea, I heard that grandpa. Apparently since yesterday people began disappearing after they hired the escort from Hjin company. The merchants all other people went missing but the guards returned back without any problem. People say that the it was the escort doing, but there is no real evidence." – said the female merchant.

"Hmm… This is very worrying." – said the old man.

"Yea. By the way, when I looked into it, almost all the victims were the people working for the Marcel. The Golden Merchant Marcel." – said the young female.

"Wait, really?! Oh no. So, it was really a truth?" – said the old man.

"?"

"What are you talking about grandpa?"

"Well, recently me and few of my friends were talking about something. Apparently, many people are saying something like the Marcel and Hjin are trying to take over the city, since Joshua Emerald disappearance. Some of my friends say that one of them even killed him. Honestly there was bit of conspiracy theories going on, but I kind of didn't seem them as real enough, so I ignored them."

"But now, there is chance that they are real…. Dear, don't get close to the Hjin people just in case."

[Another day.]

"Sir! We have problem!" – said the man while entering a room in hurry.

"Huh? What is it?"

An obese man wearing a fancy clothing was sitting next to the table and writing something.

[Marcel The Golden Merchant]

"It's the Hjin! Hjin men attacked one of our merchant and badly beat him up!"

"!"

"WHAT!" – said the man while quickly getting up.

(What is going on?! When I meet him yesterday regarding the issue of the disappearance and murder, he said that he had nothing, but now one of his man attacked my people?! I need to get bottom of this. Maybe the merchant who got attacked know something.)

"Where is he?! The merchant that got attacked?" – asked Marcel.

Marcel fallowed his subordinates and left a building he was just in, but as soon as he did, he ended up being greeted by the crowd of people.

"?!"

"W-what the?! Who are these people?!" – asked Marcel.

"Ah, sir! It isn't a good time for you to be here!" – said one of the guards.

"Just tell me what the hell is going on!" 

"…Well, the people think that you are somewhat related to the disappearance of the mayor so- "

Before the man could finish speaking, somebody suddenly threw a tomato right at the Marcel face.

"?!"

"FUKING MURDER!" – somebody shouted among the crowd.

"WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO OUR MAYOR YOU MONSTER?!" – somebody shouted among the crowd.

"?!"

(W-what the hell is going on?! Are they saying I killed him?! But I didn't-)

"!"

(Wait. First my people get killed, then one of merchants working for me got beaten up by the Hjin men in broad daylight and now people are accusing me of doing something to the Joshua?!)

(Did by any chance, he was really the one that killed Joshua Emerald and now he wants to get rid of me?!)

"This fucker!" – said angry Marcel.

While the situation between the crown and the guards continue, two people left the crowd without being noticed by anybody.

[4 later day.]

"Our supplies were burned!? What the hell do you mean?!" – said the man in green clothes.

[Hjin Sun]

"Y-yea! The supplies that were ordered by our client were all burned down!" – said the messenger.

"What about the guards?!" – asked Hjin.

"…They are dead. All of them were found dead."

"Shit! Do we even know who did that?!" 

"N-no sir, but one of our people saw a suspicious merchant wearing the golden coin company logo on their cape."

"!"

"What!?"

(Goden Coin logo?! That is Michel company logo!)

(This fucker! Did that greedy pig really ordered this?!)

"…Fuck!" – said the man before smashing a table next to him.

"…."

"Wait."

(He accused me something I did not did, like ordering my men to harass his workers, but on our end, we couldn't find anything wrong. On top of that there is some reports of some people saying that I got rid off the Joshua Emerald because I wanted to steal his position by marring his daughter.)

"By any chance, it was that fat bastard doing?!" – said Hjin Sun.

As soon as the man stood up, he noticed something shinning on the other side of the winddown and when he looked, he saw a sphere of fire coming straight at him.

"!"

The man quickly run away from the winddown before the sphere of fire hit the winddown, causing an explosion to occur upon the contact.

"!?"

"Sir! Are you alright?!" – said the man.

"Yea. I'm fine. I manage to get away in time." – said Hjin while getting up from the floor.

"…Fucker. First you killed Joshua and now you want me to be out of the picture?" 

"…. Fine. You want war? Then you will have one!"

[2 days.]

"…."

"Mam, there is another report regarding the conflict between the Marcel faction and the Hjin faction." – said the maid.

"Again?! What the hell is going on?!" – said the Ellise Emerald while looking through the different documents.

(What the hell is going on?! First my father disappear without trace and now two other most powerful figure in the city are brawling it out?!)

(The situation is already quite dire because of the disappearance of my father, causing confusion and unrest among the people. And now the situation became even worse.)

(By any chance that the story that one of them got rid off my dad is true? But there is no real evidence that can point out that either of them are culprits.)

(What do I do?)

(If I don't do anything about this, the situation will escalate too much and everything will be out of control.)

(The group of adventures I hired are not working for either Marcel or Hjin faction and they even saved my life, meaning I can trust them. So far, they only found out that my father was attacked and there were traces of battle on the road he took, but there is still no information if my dad is alive or not.)

(The only thing I can do is to make sure the situation stays under the control until the adventures find out something regarding my father that could calm down people even a little bit.)

Suddenly while the young lady was thinking of what to do, a soldier wearing an armor burseted into the room.

"MISS! A FIGHT BROKE OUT BETWEEN THE MARCEL AND HJIN MEN'S! SOME PEOPLE WERE EVEN BADDLE INJURED!" – said the guard.

"!"

"What the hell?! Go! Now! Gather all the guards at the disposal and stop them at once! Take even the half of the mansion guards as well!" -said Ellise Emerald.

"?!"

"But mam, if we do that- "

"There is no time! We need to stop them now before people start dying, making the situation go out of the control completely! All the elites guards are currently defending the mansion, but you will need some of them if the situation turns very badly by any chance. Do you understand?" 

"Yes mam!"

The soldier quickly left the room.

"…. What the hell is going on?" – said the young lady while holding her head.

After both the mansion guards as well as city guards gathered up, they headed straight to the area where the conflict was happening.

Some time already passed by, but the situation was still quite dire in the city.

"Fuck me man. Just what the hell is going on?" – said the guard guarding a mansion gate.

"I know right. It just all hell went lose. I can bet those greedy merchants and nobles will probably try to profit from this one way or another." – said the other guard.

"Yea, I can see that, they were already pulling some shit after the mayor went missing."

"But you know-…?"

"Hey! You there are you alright?!" – shouted a guard.

A person wearing a cloak was having hard time walking near the gate where the two guards were located.

Suddenly while walking, the person collapsed onto his knees.

"!"

"I'm going to check out. Maybe he is was one of those unlucky passerby that got catched in crossfire." – said the guard before running towards man that fallen onto the ground.

The guard quickly approached the man before getting on his knees in order to see if the man is okay.

"Sir, can you hear me? Are you alright?" – asked the guard.

"No! I got stabbed!" – said the man.

"What?! Can you show me the wound please?" – aske the guard.

"S-sure."

Suddenly the man wearing a cloak pulled out a gun and put it right underneath the guard mouth.

"Eh?"

The man pulled the trigger, firing the gun at point blank range and killing the guard that tried helping him.

"?!"

"A- "

Before the other guard could even say something, a out of nowhere a crossbow bolt flew straight at him and pierced the man head, killing him.

"?"

"…"

"Clear." – said GreyHunt while getting up from the ground after killing the guard that tried to help him.

Suddenly, both Shri and Oron appeared from the alley ways.

"Well, them, let's go." – said GreyHunt.

After dealing with the guards, the trio entered the mansion terrain through unguarded gate.

As soon as the trio entered the mansion territory, all 3 began rushing straight towards the door.

"Break through the door Ami." – said Shri.

After receiving the command, the tamed monster Ami rushed straight at the door, ramming into it and breaking the doors.

"?!"

"Hey! Who are you?!" – asked the guard inside of the mansion.

"A bandits. Now die." – said Shri.

While the Oron, Shri and GreyHunt were invading the mansion, the situation in the city were turning chaotic.

"All of you! Cheese it at once! Or we will be forced to arrest anybody who even try to do anything." – said the guard capitan.

(Shit! What the hell is wrong with these people?!) – though the guard capitan.

The guards tried suppressing the situation as much as possible after the battle calmed down.

"Piss off! This doesn't concern you! Those bastards killed my brother after he paid them to escort him!" – shouted the angry man.

"Bullshit! You were who started it!" – shouted the man on the opposite side.

"ENOUGH!" – suddenly shouted the guard capitan.

"This is your last warning! If you don't break it up right now then we will arrest every single one of you! Got it?!" – shouted the annoyed guard capitan.

"For fuck's sake! You are acting like animals right now! I'm giving you 5 minutes to disperse, any of those that stays here will be arrested!"

"…"

"Tch. Fuking bastard. Butting in somebody else business."

Both sides began slowly dispersing. Some people remained for some time, but in the end, they couldn't stand the guard capitan pressure and just walked away peaceful.

"For crying out loud. What the hell is happening?" – said the guard capitan.

"Tch. Half of the city guards stay in this area; they maybe will try to fight again or something while the rest of you back to your duties. The mansion guards return back to the mansion, I'm coming with you since I need to talk with the young lady about the current situation." – said the guard capitan.

"Yes sir!" – replied the guards.

The guards fallowed the orders of the guard capitan and split up.

While the mansion guards and the guard capitan were going back to the mansion, an out of nowhere multiple fire projectiles were raiding down from above at the guards, hitting them.

"?!"

"We are under attack!" – shouted the guard capitan.

The guard capitan quickly began looking around, trying to spot the enemy and after a while, he spotted a flying skulls that were burning right above the guards.

"?!"

"What the hell are these things?!" – said the guard capitan.

Before the man could understand what, the creatures were, the floating skulls opened their mouths and began spiting a fire attacks at the guards from above.

At first the situation seemed very dire for guards, but suddenly-

"[Flying Sword Slash]!"

The guard capitan swinged with his sword while using a skill, sending a slash that flew straight at the flying skulls and destroying multiple skulls at the same time.

"Don't panic! The enemy doesn't possess that strong fire power and they don't seem to be that though either! Throw your spear at them or use your skills that can reach them!" – instructed the guard capitan.

However, while the guards were distracted with the flying skulls above their heads, a horde of undead monsters appeared out of nowhere from the front and the back.

"!"

(There is a lot of undead here. Are we dealing with the necromancer? I don't see anybody, are they hiding?) – though the guard capitan while looking around.

"Tch. This day is just getting more and more annoying."

"Get rid of them all!" 

The guards along side the guard capitan began fighting against the undead.

The battle continue for some time, but in the end the fight did not lasted very long with the guards as the victors.

"…"

"…Something is off." – said the guard capitan.

(Some of these undead seemed quite strong and yet there wasn't that many undeads? On top of that, the necromancer did not attack himself at all or anything? Did he run away?)

(I just don't get it. Why appear now? Did by any chance they were working for either of those trouble makers? But then why would they attack us? Wouldn't attacking us before getting there be a better option?)

"…"

"…Wait!"

"SHIT!"

"EVERYBODY! RUN TO THE MANSION! THE YOUNG LADY IS IN DANGER!" – shouted the knight capitan after realizing the enemy goal.

The guards began running straight towards the mansion at the full speed.

After a while the guards finally manage to the location where the mansion was located, but what greeted them was a flames.

"…. What?" – said the guard capitan while sweating like crazy.

After retuning back, the entire mansion was set on the fire while some random citizens tried putting out the fire.

"W-what happened?" – said the guard capitan.

"!"

"Capitan! You here!" – shouted one of the guards that was on the scene, trying to put off the fire but stopped after noticing the guard capitan.

"W-what happened?! What the hell happened?!" – asked the guard capitan while grabbing the guard by his shoulders.

"I-I don't know! Some citizen run to me and told me the mansion was on fire and as soon as I got here, me and other guards alongside the citizen started trying to put down the flames!" – said the guard.

"What about the guards that were assigned to guard mansion?! What about the young lady?!" – asked the panicked guard capitan.

"W-we weren't able to confirm anything yet becouse of the flames! We don't know if anybody is even alive!"

"…."

"…"

"Just what the hell is going on today?" – asked the guard capitan while staring at the burning mansion.