Assassins Guild

"Are you sure this is the right place?" Shadow asked skeptically. After yesterday night's agreement, Bai led the way and brought Shadow to the Assassins Guild.

In front of them was a dilapidated wooden building. There was nothing special about it, except for the fact that it was so run down that it made one question about its stability.

Bai did not reply but instead, gave a smirk. After which, he pushed open the wooden door, making a creaking sound. In the next moment, he disappeared into the darkness.

Still skeptical about it, Shadow hesitantly entered the doorway.

After adjusting his eyes to the darkness, Shadow discovered that other than a seemingly new bookshelf at the corner of the one-story house, there were also a dusty dining table and a few chairs around it.

Bai slowly paced to the bookshelf and after pulling out a few books in sequence, turning of gears could be heard. Soon enough, the bookshelf started to rotate and stopped when it has rotated 180 degrees. What replaced the books was a stone wall with a small box protruding outwards.

Bai glanced at Shadow's shocked face and casually said, "Cool right? There's still more. Watch this."

Next, Bai took out a jade pendant and tossed it into a small box in front of him. Immediately, the small box retracted into the wall and emitted a humming sound.

Once the sound died down, a gush mysterious energy flooded out of the box, opening up a green colored portal on the spot.

"Let's go!" Bai shouted as he grabbed Shadow's hand and stepped into the portal.

Once both of them entered the portal, it immediately disappear and soon enough, the bookshelf returned to its original position.

***

When Shadow reopened his eyes again, he witnessed that in front of him was a grand hall filled with people. The hall was still extremely spacious despite the number of people and 3 golden pillars were on each side of the hall, supporting the entire building.

"This...is Assassins Guild." Bai sighed as he gazed at the spectacular of the hall. Every time he came here, the dazzling scene of pure gold pillars never failed to disappoint him. 'Ahh...Imagine selling all this gold, how rich would I be...' Unknowingly, a glob of saliva slightly dripped out of its mouth.

With a nudge to his side, Bai immediately awoke from his stupor. Shadow was looking at Bai with a disgusted expression, of course, Bai could not see it due Shadow's hat.

"Haha...you can go ahead and register at the reception counter over there." Bai sheepishly laughed and pointed towards a counter up ahead.

Upon hearing that, Shadow quickly turned and headed towards the counter. Meanwhile, he thought, 'Didn't know Bai was so disgusting...salivating at the sight of men...' Shadow could not help but shudder a little.

Bai did not notice but several men were gathered at the golden pillar he was staring at which caused Shadow to misunderstand. If Bai was to know what Shadow was thinking, he would have coughed out a mouthful, no, a sea of blood, turning the golden hall into crimson hall.

When Shadow reached the reception counter, the receptionist greeted him before asking if any assistance was required. The receptionist was a bald plump man in his late 30s, wearing a pitch black colored robe. Other than a small mustache on his face, there was also a small knife by his side with orange veins coiling around it.

All this was extremely new to Shadow, as if it had opened up an entire new world to him.

"This is my first time here. May I know more about the Assassins Guild?" Shadow decided to start off with the most basic question as he was entirely clueless about this guild.

"Hohoho, a first timer. Let's see." The receptionist was a bit taken back before gaining back his composure immediately.

"The Assassins Guild was founded by the Lord of Assassins, also known as Instant Death, several eons ago. At that time, Instant Death was one of the gods that ruled over the god realm. No one ever saw his face before, well, those who did never make it to tell the tale. That was also how his name came about."

The receptionist reminisced a bit before continuing, "Back to the guild. Assassins Guild is a place where individuals come to kill for money. Only death missions are listed here, meaning that all missions are about killing someone or something. Of course the rewards are generous too. They can be found at the board over there." Next, he pointed at the pillar where the group of men was gathered at, in the middle of the crowd stood a board filled with papers.

"If you want to do a mission, tear of the related piece of paper and accept it here at the reception counter. Mission difficulties are classified into 4 levels, level 1 being the easiest and 4 being the most difficult. Next, is choosing your life weapon. Life weapons represent your rank in the Assassins guild, starting off with yellow, orange, red and finally, black. As your rank increases, the amount of missions available to you increases. As of now, a minimum of 1 level 1 mission is to be completed before choosing your life weapon. Now if you are ready to join the Assassins Guild, please give me your name."

The receptionist briefly stated the general knowledge of the guild and sneakily prompted Shadow's intentions.

"Shadow." Shadow replied immediately.

"Hmm..." The receptionist raised an eyebrow at such an interesting name.

"Please place your hand on this jade pendant." Next, he took out a rectangular shaped pendant and presented it to Shadow.

Upon seeing that Shadow did not move. He quickly added, "It's your identification pendant, used for entering the guild."

"Your cultivation stage will be recorded too. For security purposes of course. Don't worry, your information is secure with us." He did not forget to add in the last detail.

Slowly, Shadow reached out and placed his hands on the jade pendant.

Nothing happened.

"Sir, your gloves..." The receptionist responded in an awkward tone as he felt the tension in the air.

Slowly, Shadow took out his pitch black hand and placed it on the jade pendant.

The receptionist eyes widened but he did not make a sound, instead, he just stared timidly at the black colored hand. 'Fuck! What in the world is this!?"

Soon, the jade pendant gave a small green glow before displaying a few things on it.

Upon taking a closer look, it stated:

Name: Shadow

Cultivation: Qi formation upper stage

Rank:

No. of missions accepted: 0

No. of missions completed: 0

"Done. It's all done sir! It will be 50 spirit stones." The receptionist expertly prepared the documents and details before asking Shadow to make the payment.

"..." Shadow did not know that one has to pay when registering which caused him to not bring a single spirit stone, well, it's not like he has any left after buying the daggers.

When he was panicking, he accidentally made eye contact with the receptionist, scaring the daylights out of the poor man. When he saw Shadow looking at him with the gold and red eyes, he was scared shitless, almost peeing his pants.

"Ah..ah...ah...S-sir, it's...it's f-free...ha...ha...ha..." The receptionist tried his best to force out the few words, he has decided to pay the fee himself than look at Shadow any longer. That person was out of this world!

Confused, Shadow replied with a quick "Okay" before turning around and walking towards the still dazed Bai.

Right now, many thoughts were running through Shadow's mind such as, what is the god realm? Life weapon? And the indecisiveness of the receptionist.

On the other hand, the receptionist could be seen running towards the direction of a toilet. 'Shit! It's too scary! How am I going to sleep from now on! God! Help me!'

In the end, one left with a confused look, one left with a dazed look and one left with petrified look...