The Masked Men

Silently, Jake chased the strange movement.

Due to his years as an assassin, he had mastered the art of stealth.

It was evident in the fact that Jake made sure he stayed about 10 feet away from the movement.

Due to the distance, he could not see what the movement actually was. Though he had a guess, it was better to see it up close.

He was interested in how the abnormality would sneak into the guest house. It was rather easy getting past the gate than actually getting into the house.

The building was lit with light crystals and the abnormality wouldn't be able to use the cover of shadows.

It seemed the abnormality also knew they had met its challenge as it paused behind the main door.

This allowed Jake, who was hiding, to get a close look at it…..or rather them.

The abnormality was, in fact, a group of two masked men dressed in dark-grey stealth outfits.

'That is good. At least they are humans?' sighed Jake.

He had not yet gotten over his mysterious creatures and also the thrashing he got back in the Dark Forest.

He watched as the masked men tamper with the light crystal in the lampposts.

One second, the light crystal dimmed. The next second, it went out. In the third second, it was back on, but.....

The masked men weren't at the main entrance of the guest house!

'Hmmm. It seems like they possess good skills,' analyzed Jake.

He had thought of what they did before. Days ago, when he was bored, for fun, Jake had asked him how to infiltrate the guest house. That was one of the answers he had thought of.

However, the masked men did it more smoothly and most likely, this was not the first time they had done something like this.

Jake left his position and chased them. He was getting more interested in them, minute by minute.

Upon getting inside, he noticed he had lost track of them.

He looked down and saw no footprints, 'Of course, they don't have footprints. No sensible idiot would leave a footprint.'

He looked at his surroundings and deciphered their path, 'Despite entering the house, the masked men can't just walkabout. They would need to still be in stealth mode. There!'

He spotted a dim lamppost and knew instantly it was the work of the masked men as they had done it before.

Left, right, left, left, right, right, left.

He trailed the path of the dim lampposts and found himself at a particular room.

It was nighttime and most would be sleeping by now, so it was no surprise that nobody noticed the masked men or even him!

Jake placed his ear on the wall of the room, trying to gain information from their sound.

To his surprise, he noticed that he couldn't hear anything and his senses could not find the group of masked men.

Without further ado, he silently opened the door of the room and entered it.

Inside, he realized that the room was empty and cold which was impossible as he clearly sensed the masked men entering it.

Still suspicious, he scanned the room, checking every corner of the room. By the time he was done, the room was practically one-dimensional to him.

'Hmmm. Interesting, how did they disappear?' mused Jake.

He smiled as he paced around the room trying to figure out the secret behind their disappearance. It became an interesting challenge to him and made him understand the intricacies of the power system of this world.

'Hmm. On one look, it looks quite simple, but on the second look, one would discover the hidden details and well-guarded loopholes.'

For instance, the trick the masked men did with the lampposts and the existence of [Hidden Stages].

Jake was happy that this world wasn't as free as those he read about in the library of the Dungeon of Miracles.

Anyway, an idea came to Jake as he was deep in thought.

He bent down, rolled away from the floor carpet, and came in contact with the cold wooden floor.

Jake traced his hand along the floor, trying to feel an uneven side.

After a few seconds, his fingers detected an irregular side, which made Jake smile, 'Sure enough.'

The masked men had pulled a popular villain move. They had used a hidden passage to disappear.

Jake was familiar with it because he had also done something similar in the past.

After he traced the whole outline of the hidden passage, Jake lifted the wooden up and revealed a hollow and deep hole with a ladder fixed to its side.

To cover up his tracks, Jake sets up the carpet to roll back. He enters the hole and by the carpet got to his side, he had already covered the hole back.

'Perfect,' he smiled.

The holed was dark and he couldn't see.

He also couldn't make any unnecessary noise as it might draw the masked men.

Slowly, slowly, he used his instinct to come down the ladder and landed on the ground.

He realized the passage must be a tunnel, as the room above was on the ground floor.

Touching the wall, he hoped it was a single path tunnel, so as not to get lost.

Jake used his sense of touch to guide himself under the dark path.

It took him minutes before he could find his first sign of life.

Toward the end of his path was a light. He spotted the masked men, holding a light crystal contained in a cube, looking at what seemed like the end of the tunnel as they conversing.

Hiding behind a boulder, he spied on what was going on.

"So, it is not here?" asked one of the masked men. He had a deep voice.

"Yes. The path ends here. We have to report back," sighed the masked man with a rather young voice.

"Such a shame. We picked this place as it was the most likely to have it," regretted the first mask man.

"Yeah. I guess we are just unlucky," sighed the other.

Listening to their words, Jake deciphered, 'Hmm...it seems they are looking for something. With the way they are going about it stealthily, I don't need to worry it would involve me.'

After hearing them, Jake decided to leave. He had heard enough and had judged the matter irrelevant.

After all, lots of things happen in life, and who is confident is saying they know them all. As long as it does not concern him, he would not butt head with an unknown figure.

With a sneaky pace, Jake walked back to the start of the tunnel, but was it ever going to be that easy?

Before Jake could take two steps further back, one of the masked men detected him!

"There is someone behind us," he hissed.

While it was subtly, his super-hearing could pick up Jake's footstep.

"What?! We made sure we were not followed!" reacted the second one.

"Well, I guess we didn't make sure enough!" hissed the first one.

The footstep became louder as if it was coming for them.

When it got so close, they could see the appearance of the intruder.

It was an extremely handsome young man, about sixteen(16) years old, with jet-black hair and different colored eyes.

The young man looked at them in surprise, "Ehh! Who are you?"

"That's our question. Who are you?" retorted the second masked man.

"I'm Jake. I live in the guest house. I was just checking around when I noticed this tunnel. I never knew someone was here. Are you guys part of the guest house's staff?" ignorantly asked the boy.

He seemed to believe that they worked for the guest house. Or at least that was what they thought.

"Hey, Kid. Did you come here alone?" asked the first masked man.

"Yes, but I told my friends that I wanted to check something up in the room. I kept it so I could surprise them. Hey, mister, are you a secret staff?" beamed the boy.

"Hehe, you could say that?" chuckled one of the masked men.

"Really? That's cool! Too bad I have to keep your identity secret coz you are a secret staff!" bubbled the young boy.

The two masked men looked at each other and felt strange. They distanced themselves from the young boy, turned around, and conversed with one another.

The first masked man said, "He is strange!"

"So, what do we do? Do we kill him?" asked the second masked man.

"Yes. Remember, we can't leave any tracks."

"But, he is so young and ignorant!" protested the second masked man.

"Would you rather spare him and tell the higher-ups you left an open end?" whispered the first masked man.

"No," decisively uttered the second masked man.

Evidently, one could see that he was absolutely scared of the so-called higher-ups.

"Then, the case settled."

The two masked men turned back their heads and saw no one, "Shit!"

With astounding speed, they ran back to the start of the tunnel and saw the young boy, just about to open the top of the hole.

With their tall body, they yanked the boy off from the ladder, but the boy managed to get a kick in and free himself from their hold.

"Shit!" he cursed.

Of course, the young boy was Jake.