"So we start with you first, young lady", Brent said as his shadow suddenly moved. A young woman stepped out of the shadow as she bowed to Brent.
"This is Nysa; she will teach you some techniques to be a good assassin. You have potential, and thanks for ending the life of my subordinate again.", Brent calmly said.
Nysa looked at Remi as if both were communicating through their gazes. Suddenly, they disappeared into the shadows, leaving only Brent and Aldrich in the room.
"so, who were the guys hanging on the wall" Aldrich scratched his chin as he sat down on a chair. He had to know where Brent's true personality lay, and Brent said,
"Nothing much, the ones that had betrayed or were looking forward to betray us. My poor subordinate had to suffer because of them." Brent closed his eyes as he massaged his head.
"What do you think? Is it worth trusting others? Is it worth giving others your time when they might try to betray you anytime? I don't want slaves; I want companions. "he slowly spoke.
"Aah, I'm getting too old for this", he said as he chuckled.
Aldrich smiled, as the Brent he knew would never show his weakness to others, so there was still a chance he might be able to fix his situation.
"You can never be sure; you cannot tie them to you; all you can do is give them your trust. They might betray you, but you will find at least one who will stick with you till the end, and I assure you that one companion at the end of the road will be worth it for all the betrayals you had to face", Aldrich said, reminiscing his past experiences.
"You talk like an old man, but thanks, kid, I will think about it", Brent said.
He clicked his fingers as a notebook appeared in his hand.
"kid, I believe you have the talent to bring changes to the world.", The words which Aldrich was keen to hear were slowly spoken by Brent.
"Hence, my organization will support you in your endeavours .", Brent finished.
"Yes", Aldrich knew the importance of this, as he needed the most information about artefacts, organizations, and even demonic activities.
"Now, it was pretty high for the information you wanted; even my subordinates could gather just the essential information. "Brent took out a sheet of paper, handing it to Aldrich.
"You might be able to find some deep information in the Academy or Emperor's library",
Aldrich closely looked at the sheet of paper, which provided him with information on affinities which could only be acquired, and humans were not born with.
[ Name: Blood Affinity
Description: Affinity was primarily discovered in the race of Vampires. Humans cannot be born with this affinity. It allows the user to manipulate their blood at their own will.
Method to gain affinity: Discard humanity and join Vampires and become their own
]
"The system would have put me in the body of a Vampire if this was needed; they do have an artefact I need. Also, Lucas might still be a part of his family", Aldrich thought, thinking about his close mate from past life.
He flipped the pages, looking at other mana affinities. The Affinity to spirit magic required the human to be accepted by the world tree, whereas the transformation magic required the human to consume the blood from the current Beast King.
"Yeah, like anyone can do that" Aldrich could not find many clues about the affinity the system was referring to.
Aldrich had gone through most of the pages and was about to flip to the final few pages.
"These ones have been rare throughout the history of humanity, and there is no confirmation if humans could even inherit these affinities, " Brent said.
"Necromancy", Aldrich looked closely as anger rose from within his heart.
"Kate", he gritted his teeth as he remembered the mage who stood against humanity, using necromancy to pit the world against each other.
"I will kill you", He mumbled before flipping onto the final page.
Meanwhile, in a basement close to the shop, two shadowy figures could be seen clashing against each other before disappearing into shadow again, only to appear for another clash.
"You are too slow", Nysa said, as she fluently dodged all the attacks by Remi, but Remi didn't back down, as she launched another barrage of attacks, more ferocious than the last ones.
"You have the tenacity, but that's it", Nysa smirked as she merged into the shadows.
Remi closed her eyes as she knew it was time to implement her new technique.
Nysa leapt from the shadows as she slashed her dagger towards Remi's back, but to her surprise, Remi phased through the dagger before jumping on top and landing a kick on Nysa's face.
Nysa got up from the ground, wiping her face, looking at Remi, "I never expected you to learn it so quick.",
"But you are still sloppy", she said as she leapt towards Remi again.