Hitman

Dorian looked at Charles in the eyes and asked "Are there any other option? To be honest, I won't stay in this city for long."

Hearing him, Charles started frowning so Dorian quickly said "But I guess that against the Red Scorpion Gang, you are ready to accept any kind of help, right?"

Charles' frown lessened a little and asked "What do you have in mind?"

Dorian shrugged and said "Well, I could deal with Red Scorpions, in exchange of a reward of course."

Charles' face returned to normal and he asked "So you want to be paid for killing gangsters, a hitman in other words… How much are we talking about?"

Dorian smiled and said "I don't care about money, but I would like books similar to this one." As he said that, Dorian reached to his bag and took out the book he had taken from the thug's corpse.

Charles looked at it but didn't see anything special, unlike Dorian who was seeing a weak grey halo of light. Dorian handed it over to Charles, and used observe on the book as Charles looked through it.

[Swords for beginners volume 1]

[Type: Ability Book]

[Rarity: Novice]

[Requirement: None]

[Effects: Once used, learn the skill: Basic Swordsmanship.]

[Remark: The most basic lesson on swordsmanship.]

When Dorian closed the status page of the book, he heard Charles ask "You wish to study swordsmanship? Learning from my men would be easier than by reading books."

Dorian smiled and said "Thanks, but I'm alright, books are fine. And I will also take books on how to use daggers. Movements are great too."

Charles nodded and said "I see what kind of books you want. Perhaps you want to become a warrior? If you do, then I am sorry but I don't have any of those manuals, they are far too precious, if I had them I would sell them or use them myself."

Dorian tilted his head and asked "Warrior? Manuals? What are you talking about?" Charles facepalmed and said "Right, I forgot you should come from the countryside, don't you? Warriors are those men and women with superhuman capacities. As for those manuals, they are the secret of becoming one."

Dorian was greatly interested once he heard this. He wondered at first whether he was talking about other Dreamers that had come before him, but rejected the idea because that seemed unlikely, those warriors seemed quite present and spread in this world.

Dorian thus shook his head and said "That would have been interesting, but if you don't have them then it's alright, just pay me with books like this one."

Charles nodded and handed him back the book. Before Dorian could leave the office he said "If you think all those gangsters are the same as the ones you killed then you are deeply wrong. If you chase the rest of the gang, be careful of the Leaf, he is their assassin, he took the lives of many of my men."

Dorian nodded in thanks and left the room. As soon as he closed the door, he heard the sound of a notification, a row of words appeared before him:

[Side Mission accepted! (Hitman)]

[You have refused the Mission (Officer) and accepted a higher leveled mission.]

[Mission Content: Kill members of the Red Scorpion Gang. Final Rewards will be influenced by the amount of members killed.]

[Deadline: End of the main mission.]

Dorian did not immediately headed out but instead went to the toilets first. Once he entered a putrid smell entered his nose, and Dorian was reminded that this wasn't a modern world.

But he tried to ignore the smell and looked at the book in his hand. He wasn't really sure how he was supposed to use it, so he did the most sensible thing to him.

He opened it. On the first page, a message was written:

[Turn the page to accept, close the book to cancel.]

Dorian didn't hesitate and turned the page. The book emitted a grey light only he could see, and Dorian felt knowledge entering his head.

This continued for ten seconds before the book shut itself, the light disappearing from it. Dorian tried opening it again, and discovered that it had become a normal book. He tried reading it, and it indeed explained the stances and included some experiences. But Dorian couldn't learn anything from it as he discovered everything was already in his mind.

Dorian unsheathed his sword, curious about what he had learned. He tried to slash, and immediately felt the change. The sword was much faster than before, and Dorian felt like he could continue with other attacks to make a combo.

He went through the new knowledge and managed to learn his approximate level. That thug leader he killed hadn't managed to learn the entire book, and yet he could become a soldier. So basically Dorian was now slightly above the average soldier in swordsmanship.

The improvement was incredible and only served to show how amazing this Dreamland was. Dorian then opened his status:

[Boring Guy]

[Race: Human]

[Title: None]

[HP: 130/130]

[MP: 80/80]

[Strength: 14]

[Agility: 16]

[Vitality: 13]

[Intelligence: 8]

[Perception: 15]

[Skill: None]

[Ability: Basic Swordsmanship (Level 1/10)]

[Equipment: Steel Sword, Steel Dagger…]

Learning [Basic Swordsmanship] had actually enhanced his strength and agility by two points! Although the upgrade wasn't much, he had already dominated the thugs with a strength of two points higher than them, so with the upgrade it would be even easier.

Moreover, for now wielding his sword with one hand was possible but used more stamina, but now with 13 of Strength it became easier to use it.

But Dorian was also surprised by the Level behind his ability. He saw that an explanation was available.

[All abilities are split in the grades of: Novice, Adept, Expert, Master, Grandmaster, Perfect and Nirvana. Those grades represent your ability and technique. Then, each grade is further split in ten levels. The difference between each level is very little compared to the one between grades, and represents the familiarity with the level. But a Novice lvl 1 ability isn't much different from a Novice lvl 10 ability.]

[Basic Swordsmanship: Novice]

[Level 1/10: 0/100 Exp to level up.]

Dorian looked away from the status page and slashed against the walls. He made ten continuous attacks before looking back at the status page. He discovered that the Exp needed to level up his swordsmanship couldn't be earned by slashing randomly.

Dorian sheathed his sword and finally got out of the toilets, before leaving the station as well. Once out, Dorian began thinking about what he should do.

Honestly, right now he had a pretty good grasp of everything in this dungeon. Clearing it meant surviving for a month, and this was probably quite easy to do. If he hid then they wouldn't be able to find him. This was only the first level after all, it shouldn't be too difficult.

But Dorian didn't care about clearing the mission. Although he was forced to enter Dreamland, surviving was very unappealing to Dorian. He wanted to feel the thrill that came with danger, blood and death.

And after those 17 years of existence, Dorian had finally found something he seemed good at, that is surviving and killing people. So just surviving wouldn't do it.

Moreover, if he just stopped at barely surviving, then he wouldn't get enough rewards, and without rewards he wouldn't get stronger, but the worlds would get more and more dangerous, so barely surviving would only lead to his death.

That's why Dorian didn't care about the main mission this time, what he aimed was not surviving, but perfectly clearing this world. And from what he observed until now, there were two paths that could be taken to get a perfect clear.

One would be to join the police side and use any kind of way to kill the Red Scorpion, he wouldn't even have to kill the entire gang, all he had to do was to kill the leader.

The other way was to join the Red Scorpion and kill the commissionaire or whatever the name of the boss of the police was. But Dorian wasn't too sure about that way as he would need to meet the Red Scorpion to be sure of, something he would rather not.