It Turns Out I Knew the Syndicate
「Oh, you dodged my knife. From the diversion to your smooth infiltration… you"re one skilled dude. You even lost the rest of the guys.」
A man strolled forward from where the knife came from. I was dumbstruck the moment I saw him. Not because he managed to find me, but because of the crest on his chest.
「… The Garden of Despair.」
I"ve laid eyes on that symbol a number of times in BBO. An organization whose goals and structure was completely unknown; their sole purpose to destroy human society.
There were a few so-called evil organizations in BBO, but the most dangerous of them all was the Garden of Despair.
「You know our name, huh? Where"d you hear it?」
「Of course I"d know the name of the organization that tried to sink the s.h.i.+p I was on.」
「Well, color me surprised. The Sea Dragon thing was supposed to be confidential even within the organization.」
I only blurted that out randomly because I wanted to take the opportunity to get some information, but I apparently got it right. The man opened his mouth to speak again.
「I heard there was an unidentified skilled swordsman with a shabby sword on board who prevented the s.h.i.+p from getting destroyed. Was that you?」
Is that how they"re talking about me? I"m pretty sure the only reason I"m "unidentified" was because I didn"t know anyone on that s.h.i.+p. And please stop calling my sword shabby. It cost me 150,000 gils!
「So what if I am?」
From stats alone, I"m sure this guy is stronger than me. The way he presented himself gave the impression that he was an experienced fighter as well. I can"t let my guard down. I wouldn"t be surprised if he suddenly attacked while talking.
His next move was not expected, however. He sheathed back the knife he was holding on his right hand and reached out to me.
「Would you like to join us? I"m one of the organization"s top bra.s.s. My name is Brazis. I can vouch for your skills. Money, women… I"ll give you anything you want.」
Now this was completely unexpected. A recruitment. I"ll have the highest chance of survival if I accepted his offer.
I may be a Sage now, but I"m still only level five. I don"t have a lot skills in my a.r.s.enal and they"re not even that powerful.
Joining the Garden of Despair could be interesting. After all I couldn"t get any cla.s.sified information on the organization back in BBO. I made up my mind and answered.
「No thanks.」
The man looked disappointed. He took out a platinum coin and showed it to me.
「Here"s your advance payment. If you join us, you can have one million gils right away. I"m not asking you to stay in the group forever. You can join in a trial basis for a week. The Garden of Despair is awesome! Besides getting paid a hefty sum, you get to kill all you want!」
「Unfortunately, I"ve never killed anyone before.」
「You"ll know once you"ve tried it. You"ll get addic.. ted!」
Without even changing his tone while talking, he threw a knife aiming straight for me eye. All that talk just now was just a diversion to find an opening to attack. Had I accepted his offer, he would"ve waited for the right timing to stab me in the back.
「All right, then. I"ll just have to kill you first to see if it"s really addicting.」
I slipped past the knife and lunged forward with my sword.
「That"s one light sword.」
The man blocked my sword with a small knife. He was strong even though he didn"t use any critical counter. I held my sword with two hands, while he had his knife on only one hand. He pushed my sword back.
With my sword deflected, I was greatly exposed. He took advantage of the opening and quickly followed with an attack. He didn"t use spells, only pure swordsmans.h.i.+p. Which is why I couldn"t find an opening.
He"s good at combat, all right. But I got a trick up my sleeve.
(Clay Bullet.)
「Oops.」
He stopped his attack to dodge the magic spell I cast silently. I took the chance to leap back and put some distance between us.
「No wonder your sword felt light. You"re a wizard.」
「Yeah. I used『Float』 to escape. Didn"t you see?」
What I used just now was an extremely basic earth-type magic spell that fires clumps of dirt at a target. A Novice or a Swordsman can"t use it.
I a.s.sumed he"d find out my cla.s.s belonged to the spellcaster type as soon as I used the spell. I wanted to end this in one shot, but this guy"s tough. It won"t be easy.
「If I saw you, I"d have shot you down with my knife.」
「Is that… so?!」
I charged once again with my sword. Him knowing I"m a spellcaster doesn"t change the fact that my sword is still useful. I don"t know if I can best him with it, but I can make it more troublesome for him.
Then right before our weapons clashed, I cast a spell at his foot.