Silence before the storm

"Sir we've found her. Turns out her brother got her out of the hospital about a day before we commenced our plan." Alex informed his boss.

"Where is she?" The boss replied.

"Still in Florida. She's living with her brother in an apartment. Nikki has already disguised herself as a nurse and managed to infiltrate inside."

"The hell is she waiting for then? TELL HER TO CAPTURE THE GIRL!" The leader yelled.

"There's a problem. The girl's brother is a summoner, he used his power to summon two 'golems' to guard his sister. Both of them are strong and never let the girl out of their sight. Nikki said she won't be able to do it alone."

"Hm... send Matthew there to help her out immediately."

"Sir, he's already on a different mission."

"Then send Angela."

"She isn't available either."

"WHO THE F*CK IS AVAILABLE THEN?"

"Bob."

"Tsk. That B ranked basta*d." The leader massaged his temple, "Fine send him in and tell him, if he fails... he dies."

"Yes sir!"

"Dismissed." The leader then walked out of the room. Outside the room was a long corridor. He turned two corners, walked into an empty room, and pressed a disguised button on the wall. The wall silently slid open, and behind the door was a secret room. "Why does it keeps getting more complex!"

*****

"Claim."

Arnold was on his way back home. He really wanted to join the Black Knight guild but before he answered Natalia, he explained his situation and the deal he had with his guild. She was still interested in having him in her guild so she said she'll ask the high ranking officers and if they agree on his demands she'll contact him again. He got so occupied with Natalia and her questions that he couldn't even claim his rewards for killing the centaur.

___________________________

[QUEST REWARD] :

You've gained 2500 EXP.

You've leveled up!

Current level : 35

<You can view your stats in the main interface>

You've gained a new ability :

• [SACRED PROTECTION] : (Passive ability)

A type of defense spell. The ability will automatically activate and will protect you from a lethal damage once. Even if you're on the verge of death, this ability will help you survive as long as it is activated. However you'll lose 20% of your health after the ability duration is finished. Number of usage and Cooldown can be decreased by leveling this skill.

Duration of skill : 20 seconds

[ Rank : S ]

[Mana cost : 250]

[COOLDOWN : 7 Days]

[HIDDEN QUEST REWARD] :

You've gained a new ability :

• [SOUL GRAPPLE] : (Active ability) Using this ability allows the user to control the target for a short duration of time. The ability has a low rate of success and depends on the difference between user's and target's level. This ability will use up all of user's remaining mana, and the amount of mana consumed will decide the time limit the ability would have.

[ Rank : S+ ]

[Mana cost : Entire mana]

[COOLDOWN : 10 days]

__________________________

"Why do all the abilities I get, have some drawbacks to them too?" Arnold shook his head.

[SACRED PROTECTION] was really useful if someone managed to ambush him or attack while he was unprepared. It would save him but then he'd lose 20% of his health. He wasn't worried much about it, as he could use [ESSENCE OF LIFE] to gain his health back. He was more worried about [SOUL GRAPPLE] because using this ability would completely drain his mana supply and so far he only knew one way to counter this problem, The <Mana potion>. He made a mental note to stock up <Mana potion> in his inventory.

"Let's buy the things first. I can think about it all later." Arnold said and opened the shop. He had already placed the beast crystals in his inventory, he was all set to buy the necessities.

He opened the <knowledge> tab and bought the [BASIC SHOOTING SKILL] first.

__________________________

YOU'VE SELECTED [BASIC SHOOTING SKILL] KNOWLEDGE. DO YOU WANT TO LEARN [BASIC SHOOTING SKILL]?

•YES or •NO

__________________________

"Yes."

__________________________

REQUEST ACKNOWLEDGED.

LEARNING...

LEARNING...

LEARNING...

YOU'VE SUCCESSFULLY ACQUIRED THE KNOWLEDGE [BASIC SHOOTING SKILL].

You've unlocked new ability(s):

• [QUICK SHOT] : (Passive ability) Basic ability for <Gunslinger> class. This ability increases the magazine capacity as well as shooting speed by 15%.

[ Rank : B ]

Congratulations! You've changed your subclass to <Magical Gunslinger>

REWARDS:

ACCURACY (ACC) : +10

__________________________

As this notification appeared, Arnold felt like he had been living with guns for his entire life. He then used 40 beast crystals to buy 5 <Intermediate Mana potion> and 3 <Intermediate HP potion> and stored them in his inventory. He used another 30 beast crystals to buy 300 <Basic Enchanted Bullets>, and saved the rest beast crystals to use in case of emergency.

*****

"When will brother return..." Nicole whined, "It's already past 7."

"I think he'll be here soon." Nikki smiled at her.

DING DONG

The apartment's bell rang.

"Looks like he's already here. I'll go and check okay?" Nikki left the room to open the door.

"Okay!" Nicole replied.

But suddenly, the golems stood in front of Nicole and prepared to attack. Duke grabbed his scythe and pushed Nicole behind him.

"Hello hello hello. Is this the way you welcome a guest?" The man gave a weird smile to Nicole, "YOU'RE MINE NOW!"