The Underground Guild

Shui quickly closed his eyes once he realised they were open, but the damage had already been done. Serina and Fatty already had resistance to his divine aura and it was more withdrawn than before, but looking him straight in the eye was still enough to mesmerise those in the Soul Realm. He took it as a joke when Fatty implied that he should use his charm on his Sheila, but it ended up happening without him meaning to.

"...Um,"

Almost three minutes after he closed his eyes and Fatty was looking between them curiously, Sheila was finally able to speak.

"You, you can call me Sheila."

"I see, that's a good name."

The moment after he said that generic compliment, Shui wished he hadn't since he wanted to avoid adding any more fuel to her passion.

"Rea, really?! Tha-thanks."

Fatty felt sick watching his normally shameless elder sister fidget like a lovestruck maiden, but he didn't dare try to tease her lest she get back at him once Shui left.

"Well, I think I've overstayed my welcome so I'll just-"

"No, it's fine!"

"Please stay Boss!"

With Sheila blocking the front and Fatty holding onto him, Shui was stuck...not. He easily got out of Fatty's arms and left through the window.

"I'll be back by the time Serina comes out of the room."

"Wait!"

"Boss!"

Fatty and his sister stretched out their hands to hold him back, but they couldn't make it in time. By the time they reached the window and looked down, Shui had already vanished.

"Damn Boss is fast. Well, he did say he would come back so I guess it's fine."

Fatty felt a little deflated but he quickly got over it and tried to leave, but there was someone beside him who got over it faster than he did.

"Where do you think you're going?"

"Huh? Why do you ask, elder sister?"

"Did you think I was going to let you off for failing to protect Serina?"

Fatty, who thought that Sheila would still be thinking about Shui and forget about him entirely, broke out in cold sweat and slowly took a step away from the scary face that Shiela now had.

'Boss! Please help!'

While Fatty was begging for Shui to appear, Shui was heading to take care of another one of his objectives for coming to Pemacreba., registering in the underground guild.

The underground guild was very similar to the Workers' Association, except the jobs posted there had no restrictions. As long as the price was good enough, you could ask for anything. Still, the risk that came with just being a member of the underground guild was incomparable.

Though Shui's funds were slowly dwindling, it wasn't bad enough that he needed to do such dirty jobs when he could auction off his artifacts or take some jobs as a worker. Especially when he would likely find valuable treasures when he went to that elemental crystal deposit for the red spirit.

However, despite the many disadvantages of becoming a member of the underground guild, there was one benefit that Shui was looking forward. That was the wealth of information he would have access to as he climbed up in the guild.

The location of the underground guild branches was an open secret so Shui had no problem getting it by just paying a sketchy fellow. There were more than a few mayors who wanted to get rid of the underground guild, but even if they had the location of these branches, the support that the guild got from those in high positions was enough to keep it safe from any local forces.

Furthermore unlike the branches, the guild's headquarters was said to still be a total mystery to even the king of the Alterna Kingdom.

"Found it."

After many twists and turns through suspicious alleys, Shui stopped in front of a bar with a sign that had a skull with a flower-shaped crack. He boldly entered the bar and immediately sensed several gazes land on his body. Shui wore his new and improved blank-faced white mask, but in this place it didn't look out of place since few were willing to expose their true faces. His cultivation also wasn't anything impressive here, though that would change if he revealed his age.

Ignoring the other patrons that constantly had a killing aura around them, Shui went straight to the bartender who was muscular, dark-skinned man with a scar over his right eye.

"Your business?"

"Registration."

"Do you have a worker's ID?"

"Here."

Since a worker's ID was useful as it doubled as a form of identification needed to enter a city, many members of the underground guild were also part of the Workers' Association.

The only thing that could be seen on the card was his fake name and rank, but the full details on Shui's ID looked like this.

[Name: Shin

Age: 20

Rank: Silver

Titles: Juvenile Hunter

Achievements: Elite Hunter]

Titles were based off of what other workers thought of him so he had nothing to say about that, while the only achievement was what he got for defeating a beast spirit while still in the Mortal Realm. Apparently achievements were very rare so any branch of the Workers' Association would gladly welcome him.

"What type of jobs are you planning on taking?"

"Hmm, can I get some examples?"

"Theft, abduction, infiltration, torture, assassination-"

"Assassination."

A few disturbing words were said but Shui was unflustered and immediately picked the option that he thought would be best. Many 'good' cultivators would scorn any assassins and call them cowards who could only rely on sneak attacks, but Shui's righteousness was different. He had no problem becoming an assassin and didn't plan on killing any mortals. Besides, it would also be a good opportunity to train his usage of the Tome of Shadows. He was still stuck on the Perception chapter but since it would inevitably lead up to assassination, there was no problem on getting early experience.

After answering, the bartender searched under the counter for three sheets of paper. Each sheet of paper had someone's picture as well as information on them.

"I need to test your skills, pick one."

More so than the Workers' Association, the underground guild was strict in its entrance requirements. However, this wasn't to protect its members, but to retain the trust of its customers. It wasn't strange for workers to fail a difficult request, and considering that not all workers were as good as their rank suggested, it was even more likely. But due to the nature of the jobs posted in the underground guild, this was unacceptable.

For example, what if someone took a job to steal a certain item but failed and was discovered? This person probably had no idea who the client was so after being captured he would likely be tortured to make sure, before he was killed, but the troublesome part was after that. Even if it was failed attempt, it would make the owner of item more cautious and make it even harder for the item to be stolen. Therefore, the underground guild worked hard to ensure that it had a good understanding of the skill level of each of its members.

Of the three targets that Shui was shown, one was a small business owner with a cultivation level in late Soul Realm. Another was a rich merchant who was at the fourth level of the Earth Realm, and the last one was a high elder of one of the weaker average-level forces in Pemacreba, with a cultivation in early Sky Realm.

All of them were within the range that Shui could handle, but since he wanted to handle this quickly without gathering too much attention from the start, he chose the rich merchant.