Mercenary Valley

The Mercenary valley was livelier than Gonfa valley. There were mercenaries everywhere. He held Eshu's left hand in his and floated over to the building where he was to sign up to be a mercenary. It was the emptiest section of Mercenaries Valley; it seemed boring even if there would be people there, in the front of the building, a blind old man sat there looking into the empty space, in the stall, a bored-looking goth woman chewed on a piece of gum and stared at her fingernails.

When she saw Feng and Eshu descending from the sky, she pointed at three things; a name tag on her black shirt, a pile of forms sitting at the side, and a training grounds.

Feng looked at the name tag; first, he saw the name "Gracia" on her tag, but contrary to her name, she seemed nothing like that.

He picked out two forms and handed one to Eshu, he also picked out two pens from his pouch and gave it to eshu along with the form, the questions were normal and expected; he answered one by one with no difficulty.

"What is your name?"

"Lin Feng,"

"When were you born, and what is your age?"

"October 26th, and 20 years old,"

"Any titles?"

Apart from the titles he used and got in the warrior's arena, he also dubbed himself Daoist Crazy Forest and was named Bandit Slayer Lin because of the sheer amount of bandits that he and Eshu slew.

"Uhh, Modern Day Asura, Lightning God Feng, Bandit Slayer Lin, Daoist Crazy Forest."

Just as he was about to answer all of them, he heard an unknown voice calling out to him,

"The maximum titles is three, hope so you know,"

He looked and saw Gracia. Unlike her clothing and aura of being boring, her voice was very pleasant to hear.

"Ok, then I suppose I choose Modern Day Asura, Daoist Crazy Forest, and Lightning God Feng."

"Ok, continue answering the questions,"

"What are your specialities?"

"Uh, I suppose, lightning magic, blade arts and Martial arts,"

Feng picked lightning magic because his other types of mana and magic were too powerful and eye-catching to be registered.

"Lightning Magic? Please come over here to confirm,"

"Why so?"

"Lightning magic is rare, and most that come here claiming to have it, only do so to stir up trouble."

"Ah, I see,"

Feng frowned behind his mask; It seemed he was wrong. He never expected lightning magic to be so rare that he would need to verify its truth. The attention he would receive would be unnecessary, but he had to bear with it. He nodded his head and took a quick look at what Eshu put on his registration form.

"Name?"

"Eshu,"

"When where you born, and what is your age?"

"Eshu doesn't know, and Eshu also doesn't know."

"Any Titles?"

"Bandit Slayer and Eshu,"

"Specialities?"

"Martial arts and Decaying magic."

The last part was something Feng and Eshu made up. There was also a way to make the colour of mana different. This technique was what Feng used to mask Eshu's unique aura. Hopefully, decay magic wasn't rare, because it saves him the trouble of displaying the method he was given.

He then nodded to Eshu, who gave the form to Gracia.

"You will start as the most basic; Low-Level Mercenary, after this level there are Mid-level mercenaries, High-level mercenaries, and Special-ops mercenaries, and as for the ranks after that, you need not know. You will be given an armband as a mercenary. Every level has a different colour on the armband, for low level's you get a red armband. Mid-level, you will get a green armband, High level, they get blue armbands. Special ops mercenaries get black armbands. Now go over there to pick a few missions, you will need to do at least one mission a year."

She says, pointing to a few bulletin boards.

As she said this, Eshu nodded his head and ran over to the bulletin board where low-level missions were placed.

Meanwhile, Feng was in the training grounds. He pulled up the sleeves of his cloak and flexed his muscles. After doing that for a hundred times, he held out his right arm and conjured the blades from it. Instantly he transformed from a blood demon into a majestic God of Thunder and Lightning. Runes formed all over the surface of his arms, and his body was shrouded with more lightning than before.

As Feng expected, the training grounds, which he stood on, were instantly hounded by all the mercenaries all over the valley. There was indeed no hiding a lightning cultivator's mana.

Sighing, Gracia spoke.

"As expected from a lightning mana cultivator, wherever they go, attention follows."

Feng's light show was becoming more intense than before, even without him concentrating or willing for the attack rune magic. It came out forming into golden runes, golden giants of lightning formed from the lightning and stood behind Feng with an intimidating pose, and the blades in his hand that weren't receiving any attention, suddenly became one of the main focuses; why? Because half-step golden primordial lightning snaked around the edges, amplifying the sheen of electricity it already had.

"You may stop Lightning God Feng,"

Suddenly, the pleasant voice of Gracia sounded out, and the words she spoke seemed to form words in the air. All the men in the range of her voice charms instantly fell into a daze. It was only Feng, Eshu, and a few other strong souled individuals that could resist her charms.

Feng immediately stopped and rolled the sleeve of the cloak back down, all the while un-conjuring the blades. He looked at her and spoke a few words.

"So what rank am I qualified to be in?"

These simple words, yet in the ears of the mercenaries gathered, they carried so much weight, he would be hounded by many organizations, that was if they knew how he looked like behind the Midnight Shroud Mask, it was all thanks to this attire that he was safe. The mask wasn't able to cover his whole face, only his mouth, but it gave off a mysterious air, which made it appear as the whole face was hidden.

"You are now Mercenary Valley's latest Special-ops mercenaries. Go over to that blind old man to get your armband."

The old man who sat down at the front of the register building did nothing when he was referred to.

"Ahh, thank you, by the way, do I get any privileges?"

"Ah, yes, the privileges are in that piece of jade, all you need to do is place it on your forehead, and you will receive information, you are expected to know."

She answers him and tosses a piece of jade over to him.

Feng nods and floats over to the old man who sat at the front of the registered building. The old man who had done nothing but looked at the void all this time suddenly looked at him.

'The fuck! I thought this old man was blind!'

His gaze seemed to stare into his very being, Feng had never felt this much discomfort, this old man seemed to stare into the very essence of the world, what could he do but stand still under the scrutinizing gaze of this man.

The mysterious old man then gave him a black armband and continues to stare into the void. Feng felt the discomfort leave, and he sighed in relief.

He placed the jade which Gracia gave him on his forehead and received a stream of information. It was little, at least when compared to The Knowledge of the World.

The information stream ended, and he got the gist of his privileges and the mercenary hierarchy. He saw eshu standing in front of a few bulletin boards, with an annoyed look on his face, so he went over to see what was wrong.

"What happened?"

"Master it's these missions. Eshu finds them too easy."

"Ah, I see, you have to bear with this, when I was still back home, my first missions were also as boring as this, do them and when you have enough points, you will get an upgrade in status, after that, the mission difficulty will increase, and you'll be able to go on missions with me, and if you get near my current status fast, I'll cook a good meal for you."

At the mention of a good meal, Eshu suddenly brightened up. And as for Feng, seeing his student motivated by food, he felt all kinds of disappointment.

His mask covered his mouth, so his student wasn't able to see his mouth twitching. Feng decided he didn't want to waste time, so he walked over to the main building of Mercenary Valley. As he walked over there, he heard the voice of Gracia calling to him.

"Wait! What are you going to do?"

"Oh, me? I'm just going over to abuse my privileges."

She was speechless, but oddly enough, it was within her range of expectations. All special-ops mercenaries always said that when they were made one.