Lurking In The Night

The air was temperate, and soft breeze blew, the stars hung on the dark blue blanket of the night with their ethereal glow seemingly highlighting the moon.

In the Hachiman main clan compound there was hardly any movement, except the occasional movement of the guards on watch.

The experienced guards kept quiet so they would be alert even though the chances of an intruder was almost nil, it was just so arranged that the more important the person was the more protection was guarded.

That was why Jason, whom also lived in the main clan compound had no guards protecting him.

At the entrance to the main clan compound, the two guards posted there idly chatted, they were both rank 4 hunters whom were rank 5.

"Did you hear the news?" One of them asked.

"What? I haven't really been up to date, the night shift is taking and I have to train to break into rank 4 these days." He said, his interest piqued.

"We'll soon be sent into a rank 4 dungeon." He said, expecting his co-worker to reply.

But no sound came, the quietness was almost eerie to him.

Before he could talk again, he felt a cool metal resting against his nape. Then in an instant, he could not move again, he had been turned into a corpse.

The lifeless body fell onto the ground with a thud, from the wound scarlet red liquid escaped from his body forming a small pool of blood on the ground.

Next to the corpse was another body, his colleague had died in a similar fashion as him, taken down before he could respond.

…

"Why should I risk myself to retrieve a girl from the Hachiman clan?" A middle aged man asked the person in front of him.

He had black hair, small eyebrows, black eyes a hawk nose and dry lips.

"Because of the pay." The masked figure in front of him said. "Like I mentioned before, I'm offering 10 million if you retrieve the girl and a bonus of 2 million if you manage to kill the person with the girl."

The masked man handed him a photo of the girl as if sure of the answer of the person in front of him.

As someone whom had awakened a rank 4 talent as a hunter he was unable to enter dungeons above rank 4 in fear that he would die in them, the pay in those dungeons were somewhat non-existent when compared to the sum offered to him.

Since he was unable to pass rank 4 he reached the peak of rank 4 and settled to increasing his skill-set, though he couldn't compare to a rank 3 he was one of the strongest rank 4's.

"And not also that, we also have detailed information of the defense system of the Hachiman clan." The masked man said as he brought out a scroll seemingly from air.

'What is that?' The middle-aged man couldn't help but wonder at the magic this person had just performed, though magic was common this was on a whole other level.

"Their guards are stronger the deeper you enter." The masked person pointed to the scroll which had intricate designs. "For example, they will barely have guards and those will be at the rank 5, but as you go deeper you encounter more powerful guards. Fortunately for you the person we want you to go after is only at the outskirts of the main compound with zero guards."

"How can I trust you? Are you willing to make a pact?"

"Of course! I mean would you believe my words without that?"

He once again brought out a pen from air, this pen was an important item that was needed when making a pact.

The masked man poked his finger with the pen, a small wound was formed and a drop of his blood fell onto the table. The middle aged man proceeded to do the same thing, on the same exact spot.

As their blood met the air around them intensified as the mana in the environment became known, with a whoosh it stopped as if it had never happened.

The purpose of a pact was to make sure an agreement was never broken, though, it did not prevent the people involved from breaking the agreement it hindered their growth. If someone was meant to become a rank 1 his potential would drop to rank 3.

If it was someone whom had already reached rank 1 and had met his potential his rank would forcefully be degraded to rank 2.

A pact could only be made by creating a wound with a special pen, and that pen was hard to come by costing half a billion.

Seeing this the middle-aged man not only felt assured that the girl was not guarded and the money he had been promised would be given to him, because of this he would make sure to kill the boy.

"Since we have already made a pact I can assume that there is nothing else to speak of?" The middle-aged man asked getting ready to go on the hunt.

"There's just one last thing Mr. Clark, please remove the evidence if you decide to kill the boy." The masked man said.

"I'll try, but if I can't it will be impossible." He said.

'Crap, I didn't say it correctly.' Clark thought.

"Should I bring back the head if I kill him?" Clark asked after giving it a brief thought.

"Why wouldn't you?"

…

He moved silently through the night, his steps not even eliciting a sound due to a concealment skill he had learned. Thanks to the instruction given to him he located the house that the girl he was sent to retrieve was in though it wasn't easy to find it.

He moved silently through the night still vigilant, checking to see if there were any guards watching him waiting to kill him.

Even though they had made a pact that didn't mean that didn't mean he could be careless, if it turned out that the information given to him was false the only thing the masked man would suffer was a decrease in his rank but he would lose his life.

As he entered the compound he moved through the low grass and checked the door.

'It's open.' He thought as he pulled down the doorknob silently.

The door creaked as it was opened, the sound almost like a bell in the silent night.

Clark could only look back at his mistake now hoping that the targets hadn't woken up.

He entered the vast sitting room, to his surprise he saw the two targets sleeping like babies, the earlier noise not even hoping of waking them up.

But the greatest surprise of the night was the boy who was with her that he had been told to kill if he could.

'He's a damn dark-skin!!' Clark almost shouted in jubilation.

He felt like he was on top of the world at this moment, only God could tell how happy he was at this new development, now he knew the ten million would be in the bag.

He took out his weapon, a short knife inscribed with some mana to increase its durability and improve its sharpness.

He walked over to the sleeping boy intent of cutting his head off.

But nobody would have expected that at the last moment he would dodge.

The dark-skinned kid got up looking at the man in front of him.

"I see, do you want to die?" He asked.

Even though he was dark-skinned, at that moment Clark felt a chill run down his spine, it seemed like he had met the devil.

A/N: Add this book to your collections!!!!