Chapter 8: Testing The New Member

Venture not sure why Note wanted him to follow her, but he can say for sure it's not a meal together to get to know each other since they've passed the fourth floor now.

"Have you been to this floor before?" Note asks Venture, as they stop at the fifth floor's door.

"Not really, the only floors I have been on so far are the ground, second, fourth, and the sixth floor." Venture replied honestly, as this isn't something worth hiding nor does he have anything to hide about it. No way was Venture going to enter these unknown floors while on probation.

"Then, let me explain what the fifth floor is for the [Dark Star Faction]." Note open the door and step in while moving to the side, to hold the door for Venture to enter.

Cautiously, Venture enters while tightening his grip on his book, ready to trigger his [Unique Skill] onto one of the written pages of the gamble to save his life if Note tries to kill him.

Note close the door behind Venture, "This is the floor is where everyone uses to train when one doesn't require going outside the city improve themselves. These machines over there are all made by our blacksmith. Pretty much all the training equipment is built by a single person." Note begins pointing out which machine does what and warnings on using them as she leads Venture around the place for a tour until they stop in front of a big see-through glass cube shape room, where nothing is inside. "Now, as to why I bring you here. I've been assigned to test your [Assassin-Type Skill] and I just came back from something I was busy with. Therefore, you shall face me and do your best to kill me if you can, that is."

Venture blankly stare at Note, wonder what the hell did he get into. Because this is something he did not expect nor was he expecting to be told kill a member of the [Dark Star Faction].

"If you're worried about actually killing me." Note notice the blank look on Venture's face. "Don't." She didn't bother to explain herself nor does she think someone who only trained solely on working on their [Skill] without any combat experience from the outside of the city would be a threat to her. "Now come inside." Note place her left palm against the glass wall, which caused green digital numbers of 0s and 1s to appear around Note's left palm until it grew to forms a door out of these green digital numbers. Then, walk through the door of the digital number as if it wasn't there, to begin with, nor was it a glass wall either.

Venture feels like he should have written a few more pages for gambles related to combat because he did not expect this as most of them mainly in escaping than fighting off the enemies. Nevertheless, Venture did write a few gambles towards combat at the very least. But, he only made three just in case he needs something to help him out if someone from the [Dark Star Faction] wants to spar with him.

Therefore, Venture considers this testing as a spar with Note. So, the moment he steps inside the giant glass cube room. The 'door' behind Venture vanish and to his surprise, instead of seeing an empty space like before from outside this glass cube room. Venture found himself in a forest.

"I'll head off and your job is to kill me. We'll stop in an hour, where it doesn't matter if you kill me in that timeframe or not. As I'm just here to test your [Assassin-Type Skill]." Note said to Venture before walking deeper into the forest and in a matter of seconds. Venture can no longer see the shadowy figure of Note's.

"Keep calm. Venture. You got this." Venture mumble to himself, as he opens his book. Flipping a couple of pages until he found the one he needs.

Survival option (Winning): Instantly gaining knowledge and instinct of a master assassin without any side-effects during the process.

Dying option (Losing): Become extremely weak against foes in hand-to-hand combats.

Condition: Sparring with one of the members in the [Dark Star Faction] within a month during probation to achieve the survival option, if not, then it will be the dying option will occur.

Honestly, Venture didn't know if he should have written down year instead of a month, but it looks like it didn't matter to Venture. Because it hasn't even been two weeks since he joined this faction and now he having a spar with Note.

Venture tore the page from the book and trigger the [Everything Is A Gamble]. Making the torn page fade from existence as knowledge of a master assassin being directly into Venture's head, giving him the information on how to kill much more efficiently along with the instinct to figure the best methods to perform the assassination. Yet, the only few things that prevent Venture from truly becoming a true master assassin with all the knowledge and instinct. And that is his current physical body as well as lacking personal real-life field combat experience against other people with [Skills] and [Titles] that potentially turn these [Skills] even more powerful than it should. Meaning, that Venture only needs to train and gain experience while surviving the whole ordeal before he truly becomes a master assassin.

Luckily for Venture, he made sure to include in the gamble to have no side-effects and he guesses that having a migraine considered as one of the side-effects Venture potentially would have obtained during the whole process of gaining both knowledge and instinct of a master assassin.

Now, Venture has no idea what kind of [Skill] and [Title] Note possesses. But, Venture could guess it won't be any good for him since she was picked to test him. Luckily, the members of [Dark Star Faction] only guessed that Venture's [Skill] is a [Assassin-Type Skill]. True, but not fully as Venture's [Unique Skill] can be anything as long Venture bet on it.

Therefore, Venture will have to work on his stealth first and later with assassination.

-LIABG-

Among the knowledge Venture gained, the [Hidden Arsenal] is one he practice first by trying to hide the book and pen on his person. Which took him a few minutes, thanks to the instinct of a master assassin, that Venture now has both hands free, but this is only with a book and a pen. Anything else will require further training.

Afterward, Venture begins working on stealth and he has plenty of stealth tactics for him to work with. 20 minutes in and Venture gave up on it for the time being due to the instinct of a master assassin let Venture know, that whatever he doing to hide isn't working and someone has long detected him and lock onto Venture from the background.

Therefore, Venture relies on his instinct to locate Note's current location. Something that's hard to do at the beginning, but as time passed. Venture's instinct begins to improve towards searching for Note. Yet, Venture didn't dare to go near her until he finds a way to take her down without him ending up being the one taken down, where at worse, Note may cripple him or outright kill him in the name of a test.

So, Venture is very limited on what he can and can't do. Furthermore, the test has a time limit and he already wasted half the time given to him, to take Note down. But, Venture still doesn't have anything to work with. As he's going in blind by facing Note, whom Venture has no idea what she could do.

Of course, Venture can just kill Note right here and now by using his [Unique Skill] to gamble very easily. With the paper being the price for using the [Unique Skill] and Venture can just make the condition for the gamble by snapping his fingers or not. Simple as that. But, that would lead to questions Venture rather not answer if he truly manages to kill Note by the snap of the fingers.

So no. Venture can't use this method at all costs unless he willing to take on all the [Dark Star Faction]'s members that are after him. Even then, if Venture somehow manages to kill everyone in the [Dark Star Faction]. Other people will start questioning how this happens and chance is, they will find Venture at some point in the future. It just bound to happen.

Suddenly, Venture felt his instinct screaming at him to move away from his current spot. Not hesitating one bit. Venture start running to his left and kept on moving straight in a zig-zag pattern. No idea why he should, but Venture just follows what his instinct has to say about this whole running away as it mostly Note coming down to hunt down Venture after waiting for too long, for Venture to come at with the intention to kill her.

But, before Venture could get too far. He tried to roll to his right; however, he wasn't fast enough as something push Venture from behind, causing him to awkwardly crash into the ground before his instinct kick in and resume rolling on his right side, but sadly, this wasn't enough. As Venture himself floating in midair, with his arms bound to his back and his feet together as if someone tied them together with ropes.

The sound of footsteps came behind Venture, but he was too busy figuring out what is holding him in midair.

"I must say, I'm a little disappointed." Note said from behind Venture.

"I don't have a weapon." Venture tries to come up with an excuse, for his failure.

"Well, why didn't you say anything?" Note find this excuse weak and wonder if the newcomer could come up with a better believable excuse.

"You literally told me to follow you the entire time, then tell me you're testing me on my [Assassin-Type Skill] and didn't even give me an option if I need any equipment at all." Venture point this out to Note, to hint that his [Assassin-Type Skill] requires equipment for it to work.

"I see." Note slowly nods her head after thinking about it. In fact, she recalls what the others mention about Venture along with the conditions he needs to use his [Skill]. Therefore, Note technically did plan Venture to fail from the very beginning unless he lied about his [Skill] and could assassinate her without all the conditions he placed down beforehand with the others.

"Does this mean you'll give me a weapon to use now?" Venture spoke in a hopeful tone of voice.

"No."

"Oh." Venture finds himself a little bit sad about not being able to use any weapons for the first time.

"Now, seeing how you failed to kill me and I barely gain anything from you during the test. We shall do this again tomorrow. By the way, what kind of weapons do you use to assassinate your targets?" Note asks Venture, where he slowly floating back down until he is no longer floating nor being bound by some invisible ropes.

"I can use anything I can my hands on to do the task. It just will take some bit of practice before I have 100% confidence in using the said chosen weapon to assassinate the target." Venture answered, as he got back on his two feet and wonder what the hell held him captive, which made him so helpless. Yet, this is good for Venture as he experiences it now than later when he will get caught off guard as he did just a few minutes ago. So, Venture just has to come up with a few more gambles related to Note, for safety purposes of course.

"I see." Note narrows her eyes at Venture, "Alright, meet me here tomorrow first thing in the morning." Note paused for a second to think about if she has anything else to do in the morning that may require her attention. "Actually, make it near noon. I have something to do the entire morning." With that said, Note walk west towards the exit, and with Venture following right behind her since he has no idea how to leave this place by himself.

-LIABG-

Lying in bed after having a good late-night meal to bring down his physical fatigue. Venture start thinking about what he could have done better when facing Note and someone with similar [Skill] and [Title] as her. Because if Venture doesn't come up with one soon, then chance are. Anyone like Note would easily take Venture down without him being able to fight back.

Now, that Venture faced such a person. Picking the knowledge and instinct of a master assassin seems like a bad pick to choose from other professions. In fact, Venture could have gone with a master mage or something, at least with the knowledge and instinct over [Magic] would have brought more benefits over for Venture. After all, everyone in this world could obtain a [Skill] that beyond broken in certain ways if they have the right [Skill] and [Title]. Therefore, maybe Venture is making all the wrong gamble and should be thinking about what the best ones to help him the most.

So, Venture sat back up and pull out his book and pen from his pockets. Venture pause as something just hit him the face, figuratively. Venture just realizes that the [Hidden Arsenal] is technically like a [Pocket Dimension], but with more limitations and more combat wise. So maybe it wasn't a complete waste for Venture after all.

Nonetheless, this didn't stop Venture from writing down what he wants next. Plus, this whole idea with the master assassin thing was due to not finding any good [Modifier] for Venture to use and decide to just use his [Unique Skill] to give him other [Skills]-like ability through knowledge and instinct. Similar to how Venture knows how to use his [Unique Skill] at the get-go. Minus all the knowledge part and just the basics.

-LIABG-

It took some time, but Venture finish writing down the gamble and he had to be very careful with his wording or risk something else happening.

Gamble: Gaining knowledge, instinct, and ability of a master over a certain type of [Magic] with no side-effects and will use mental fatigue as a way to use [Magic].

List of [Magic] up to pick from: [Abjuration], [Conjuration], [Divination], [Enchantment], [Illusions], [Nature], [Necromancy], [Transmutation].

1. [Abjuration] - The power to protect/heal.

2. [Conjuration] - The ability to create or transfer an item, object or living being to a specified location.

3. [Divination] - The power to gain information.

4. [Enchantment] - The power to influence the minds/emotions.

5. [Illusions] - The power to create illusions.

6. [Nature] - The power to control the forces of the natural world for a variety of effects.

7. [Necromancy] - The power to manipulate the forces of death.

8. [Transmutation] - The power to transform living or non-living things.

Condition: The numbers of a coin flip, landing on heads will determine which type of [Magic] will Venture will gain in a total of eight coin flips.

Once that's done. The page for the gamble disappear from Venture's eyes, then begin flipping the bronze coin eight times.

First: Tails.

Second: Tails.

Third: Heads.

Fourth: Heads.

Fifth: Heads.

Sixth: Heads.

Seventh: Tails.

Eight: Heads.

Venture blinks a few times, as he gains the ability to use the [Illusions Magic], as well as having the knowledge and instinct of a master over [Illusions]. But, like with the knowledge over being a master assassin. Venture requires training in them or it just that. Knowledge. Instinct may end up causing more harm than helpful due to not having the training needed to follow those instincts.

Putting away the book and pen, with the help of [Hidden Aresenal] and instinct of a master assassin. Venture doesn't even feel the book and pen on his person when he lies back on the bed. And now is a good chance to practice with [Illusions Magic], but Venture's instinct screams him to not do such a thing as people are watching him still.

Something Venture is a bit baffled about since if someone was spying on him, then they should see the thing he wrote down for his gambles. But, Venture guessed they couldn't zoom in to see what he was writing. Yet, enough to see everything Venture about to do in this bedroom. Therefore, Venture's instinct is letting him know, that it's better to rest now and practice later without any eyes on him.

-LIABG-

"Okay, here your weapon to use for the time being." Note hand Venture a handgun, which Venture reminds him of a sidearm from a shooting video game he played. "Here three magazines. Use them wisely since you won't get any more during the testing." Note hand over the three magazines for the handgun. Venture just put them into his pockets for the time being.

Following by the instinct, Venture figures a way to eject the magazine from the handgun and check how many bullets are inside it. Counting 7 rounds; therefore, the other magazines should have 7 as well. Giving Venture a total of 21 bullets to use.

"So..." Venture looks at Note blankly, wondering if she wants him to kill her again, something he finds impossible to do since he still has no idea how to beat Note still. Furthermore, Venture can't really use [Illusions Magic] either due to his instinct yelling danger if he so much as use a hint of [Magic]. Therefore, after this whole thing, Venture planning to head to the library to research on [Skill] and [Title] again, but more in-depth.

"Same as last night. You're to kill me. I'll see how much different you can do with a weapon." Note said to Venture before she heads deep into the forest like before, but this time Venture quietly and quickly follows Note. With the handgun pointing at Note's back head.

In hindsight, Venture recalls how Note never said anything about when to start nor did she say anything about him having to stay in one spot before searching for her. Therefore, Venture practices his stealth in the morning until it's time for him to meet up with Note for the testing.

Hopefully, this time Venture can make a difference compared to before and he won't bother thinking about killing Note as that's currently an impossible task to do by just relying on this handgun along with the knowledge and instinct of a master assassin.