CH23: Time Skip; 2-in-1 Contract

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Three years later...

A lot happened in these three years.

Zora awakened her Pangea, which was an S-Class Spatial ability which allowed her to link two points in space together.

On the surface, it didn't have much combat ability.

Those quacks at the Hunter academy almost assigned her to a support class.

Fortunately I had thought her how to use the ability in combat both offensively and defensively. Only goes to show that the use of a Pangea is dependant on the imagination of the user.

Fortunately, aside the previous blunder of almost assigning my student to a support class, given all the combat potential I harnessed from her, going to the academy had its uses.

Most important of all was the fact that I was now an accredited Herbalist, meaning I was licensed to create my own concoction recipes.

The academy also exposed me to various other professions in the world of Arun like Blacksmithing, Enchanting, Mana Engineering, Alchemy etc.

Turns out Alchemy and Herbology were quite similar. The two disciplines could use the same ingredients.

However, their differences were quite wide.

In simple words, Alchemy dealt with mana while Herbology focussed on the body.

Alchemy extracted the mana essence of an ingredient to create a potion that would affect the mana in the recipient. The interaction of mana would then yield the required action in the recipient's body.

On the other hand, Herbology extracted the bioactive compounds in the ingredients to yield a compound concoction that would directly act on the body itself to bring about a reaction.

In essence, Herbology is similar to medicinal chemistry and pharmacology of my previous life. The only difference is the minute use of mana which is used to extract desired compounds from mana-rich ingredients and to deliver them to mana-rich recipient.

Once I looked at it from this angle, I was able to use my limited knowledge of Chemistry from my previous world to make appreciable strides in my Herbology.

I had to limit the show of my physical strength publicly, so making good stride in Herbology was the best way to maintain a good social standing. So, I flaunted my Herbology knowledge.

I was top of my class and was seen as a genius in the field.

I already have many offers which would secure my future.

That said, I still decided to join DoomMane. They didn't offer me the best benefit but they certainly offered me the most freedom and influence.

Which were things I needed.

Why?

Because my career as an Assassin was on the up.

The past three years, I had carried out a number of assassinations as a member of the House of Death.

They were small time gigs for outer members but they allowed me to test the limits of the Blessings I received.

I made sure to kill in various ways, and create different scenarios to see how the Blessings would react.

As a result, I was slowly building reputation within the organisation for my numerous unorthodox methods of killing.

Slowly but surely, I was warming my way into the organisation's inner circle. It was only a matter of time. By then, I should have a good understanding of my abilities.

It was close to graduation from the academy and I wanted to reach Tier II Assassin on my Life Path as well as an inner member of the House of Death. So, I took two contracts together.

The first contract was a man named Gunnar Brower.

There wasn't much Intel on why someone wanted him killed.

Heck, there wasn't much Intel at all.

All I knew were the guy's home and work addresses, barely much to go off.

I spent a week trailing the man to understand his routine and decide a suitable place to strike.

Humans are creatures of habit. No matter how we try, we'll always fall into a routine. Even the best operatives can only vary their routines at best, they can't remove it completely.

By understanding a person's routine, you will understand the person.

I had a pretty good understanding of Gunnar after watching him for a week. Long story short, he was a pencil pusher, just another cog in the bureaucratic machine that kept Landrose running.

The guy didn't even have enough money to take a taxi carriage. He travelled on foot to and fro work. An ordinary guy, through and through.

I still couldn't understand who he pissed off enough that they'd put a contract on his head.

After following him for that long, I decided it wasn't good to attack him at home or at work.

At home, he had a wife and two children. I'm cynical and cold, I know, but even I wouldn't kill a father were his children can easily see.

His workplace was a bigger no-no. He worked in city hall so I wasn't going to try to eliminate him there.

That left during his route to or fro work.

I narrowed down on an alleyway he takes as a shortcut when returning home in the evening.

The place was just a perfect spot for an ambush in the evening... That was if he didn't have his Pangea.

His Pangea granted him cat-like eyes. His eyes had all the properties of a cat's, plus since it consumed very little mana, he kept it on at all times.

Of course, amongst the properties of his eyes were a cat's night-vision.

During my time following him, I noticed that he never took the alley whenever there was someone there, meaning he was cautious.

I couldn't hide and lay in wait there for him, he'd see me. And the moment he sees me, he won't enter the alley no matter what I did.

If I went in after him, he could raise an alarm as I attack him. Each member of City hall was given a distress beacon. It would be difficult to take my leave even if I managed to kill him.

Sure, I could escape by taking advantage of my Blessings, but as a pro, I didn't want to rely on external power if I could help it.

The alley way was the best place for me to kill him quietly without drawing attention. So, I had to think of a way.

Which I did.

Since I couldn't hide, then I would just wait where he can't see me.

Gunnar, dressed in one of his favourite light-brown coloured suits, exited City hall. He followed his usual route home.

About thirty minutes into his journey on foot, he arrived at the alleyway. Unbeknownst to him, this would be his last evening.

He had reached the halfway point into the alley, then he heard a sound. He reacted to it, but it was too late.

The attack came too suddenly.

I was dressed in an all-black casual suit.

This wasn't just a fashion choice, but a practical one as well.

Human beings have a bias.

We rarely tend to look up when we walk, especially when it's on a familiar route, during the rain or... at night.

Keeping this in mind, I calculated the time and when it was almost time for Gunnar to arrive, I found a way to climb to the roof of a two-storey building, three buildings away from the alleyway.

One thing I love about 19th century buildings is that their roofs are perfect for roof running.

I jumped from one building's roof to another until I was at the last building by the alley.

Soon, I saw my target arrive and walk into the alley. I waited for him to reach the centre of the alley before I acted.

I jumped down on him.

By the time he heard the flapping of my clothes and looked up, I was already above him with a blade in hand. The moment he looked up, I swiped the blade across his neck.

I landed on the man who was bleeding profusely from his neck then finished him off with a stab to the heart.

He died cleanly without being able to launch his distress signal.

I dragged him to the side of the alley, then covered him with some wooden boards to ensure his body wasn't immediately noticeable from outside the alley.

Then I left the alley.

Not before taking a glance at the building I jumped from. Fortunately for me, the building was a bungalow, only about four metres high. So, I didn't have to break any bones to kill my target.

Although I had completed my kill, my night wasn't over. I moved to the home of my second target.

The second target was quite interesting.

Her name was Elaine Hartman

Apparently, she was the bodyguard of a notorious figure in another city. Her principal died under her watch, so the man's family put out a contract on her head.

She had been on the run ever since.

She had to leave her previous city after surviving two separate hits from outer members of the House of Death.

Suffice to say the lady wasn't soft as those members didn't live to tell the tale of why they failed.

The organisation offered the contract to me, on top of my previous contract for Gunnar's life, due to my expertise in making unique kills which were slowly gaining notoriety within the organisation.

Although the contract seemed slightly difficult, I took it anyways as it could very well be my ticket to becoming an inner member of the organisation.

As usual, I studied my target meticulously before making a move.

Fortunately, the Client was nice enough to include some details about her when they raised the contract.

Apparently, she was at 4 rings, normally Expert level, but she displayed a higher combat potential which raised her combat ability to Knight level.

Her interesting C-rank Pangea was likely responsible for this high combat potential.

According to the information provided by the Client, Elaine's Pangea allowed her to sense death... or danger to her person or someone close by to her.

This was why she was hired as her principal's guardian. It was also why they suspected she might be responsible or at least culpable for the principal's death.

I began to understand why the two previous hits failed. Those idiots probably thought they could ignore the effects of a C-Class Pangea. They thought if they were fast enough or strong enough, they'd be able to kill her.

However, that would only be the case if the difference in strength was very large. Maybe if their strength reach Noble level.

But they wouldn't have taken a hit on a 4-rings if that's the case.

I've always believed the strength of a Pangea laid not in the class but in how it is used. If the user lacked imagination of use, even an S-class Pangea would be useless while if the user had imagination, a G-rank Pangea could be a terror... even if it was only to an extent.

I suspect that Elaine's Pangea allowed her to determine where an attack would come from and land. With these two parameters known, it was just a matter of moving to avoid the attack and launch a counter-attack.

This was likely how she was able to display a combat ability at Knight rank. As well as why it stopped there.

A higher Noble-ranked or equivalent Destroyer-class beast would probably be too fast for her to react to, even if she sense those two parameters.

I certainly didn't have the attributes of a Noble-ranker. From my tests, my raw attributes put me somewhere between Expert and Knight rank.

In other words, I couldn't over power my target. I had to use my brain.

I got thinking, if she could sense death or danger, why did her principal die? Was she really culpable like the Client claimed?

It cost me some organisation merit but I used the organisation's investigation to find out how the principal died.

Once I read how he did, I knew the flaw with Elaine's ability.

So, I watched the target and noted her routine.

In order to infiltrate her building, I got a job at a plumbing company who provided their service to the apartment building.

I gained access to the empty nearby apartment. From which I gained access to Elaine's apartment.

According to the organisation, she was a guard at a high-end pub and worked the nightshift. Simply, she was a bouncer.

A strange choice of profession indeed.

But who am I to judge. It helped my cause.

I was able to keep tabs of her routine thanks to her being around in the day.

Her apartment and the one next door, which I 'worked' in, were parallel to each other. So, I just made holes in the walls and I could see everything she did in each of her rooms.

Stalker alert? Yes I know.

Not only that, I'm a deadly stalker to boot.

I would watch her one-bedroom apartment from different holes in the corresponding rooms.

After coming home from work, Elaine would close the window and switch on this world's version of an AC and ventilation machine. She would strip to her birthday suit before applying hair cream on her lush black hair. Then, she would soak in the tub for some time.

She did this everyday for the five days I watched her after she got back from work like clockwork.

Therein, I saw my opportunity.

(To be continued...)

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