Chapter 26: The Arrangement
The gigantic Basilisk was releasing his killing intent at Solomon like trying to challenge him for a deathmatch. He was a Mythical rank creature and finally found a good opponent to fight.
"See, That"s why. I don"t know what creature is hiding inside your shadow as your Familiar but I"m certain it is able to fight on even terms with me. Even Stragabor won"t be able to kill you if you used that creature in a fight against him.
That"s why I decided to hire you for this job in the first place.
I have no intentions of killing you or discarding you after the job is done. Why make Enemies when you can make Friends?" said Solomon in a s.a.d.i.s.tic & evil tone.
Kahn thanked his previous life experiences at the moment. Because both the men sitting in front of him weren"t some saints and upright people who cared about Law & Justice like their previous demeanor made them look like throughout the entire day.
These were the real faces of both these elderly men. The Elven mage looked no different than someone who"d kill anyone to hold his power and authority intact and the elder man looked like someone who had bathed in a river of blood and grew numb to killings.
If this was the gullible Elric of his past life, he would"ve believed that these men had a right cause and would"ve agreed to help them like some idiot main character of some munchkin Manga & Novel made for the teen audience where every elderly figure who helped the protagonist was a trustworthy & kind old man for some reason.
This was the reason why they helped to get his name cleared of the murder accusation. They just wanted to have Kahn owe them a favor and reel him in their plan.
"Fine. But I have my conditions." said Kahn, the businessman inside of him waking from a long slumber.
"I want all the resources you can provide me for the job. Your people will bring me the intel on the targets and I"ll finish the job in any way I see fit. As for the remunerations.. I want lots of high-grade monster cores, a lot of money and a small share in the bodies of rare monsters that have been hunted by adventurers & brought to the a.s.sociation for selling & salvaging. If there are five, then I want one." said Kahn as he put out the terms of their arrangement.
"Fine. We can manage that. But know that our deal is strictly based on what you deliver. If you fail in your tasks, then the deal is off." said Solomon with a calculative expression on his face.
Kahn responded in hurry again, "And one more thing."
"Now what? Aren"t we already giving you a lot?" Arkham asked furiously.
To his loud voice, Kahn replied gently.
"I want your strongest fighters in every job, let it be a swordsman, a mage or an a.s.sa.s.sin to train me."
"What?! Why do you want to do that? Aren"t you a swordsman?" asked Arkham.
"Obviously.. It"s to understand all my targets. Stragabor"s people & the government officials you mentioned won"t be some n.o.bodies, right? I"ll need to understand and know their weaknesses before I make a plan. Otherwise, not only would I fail the job, but I"ll also lose my life. Then you can go and search around for another killer in whatever time you"ll have by then." Kahn said sarcastically.
"Sounds reasonable. But we don"t have time to waste. I can only give you one week for your study of possible targets. And getting our top-ranked people in every job to train you will have to be done in secret as well. Otherwise, it"ll raise unnecessary questions on why a newbie adventurer is receiving such favor." said Solomon as he found Kahn"s method reliable.
He figured that he wasn"t dealing with an amateur here. Kahn asking to study his targets by increasing his own experience in their cla.s.ses meant that the young man knew how to plan his a.s.sa.s.sinations. Just like how he didn"t leave a single trace after killing Stragabor"s brother & men who came with him.
"One week is more than enough. But I need some advance first. I also need to know who will be providing me with intel and blueprints for these targets." Kahn said in a serious tone.
What followed for the next hour was an elaborated plan for how to take down Stragabor"s men & his connections in the government strategically without raising suspicion towards them.
"Here, there are 10,000 Gold Dramus and 200 B rank monster cores. This should be enough for advance and some of the monster cores are of very high quality. I don"t know why you even need these other than just money. This is just 20%, you"ll get the rest as you start your job after a week. You kill, we pay accordingly." said Solomon as he summoned a big pouch filled with gold coins and another with monster cores out of nowhere. There wasn"t a s.p.a.cial ring on him either.
It was s.p.a.ce magic!
The Elven mage was proficient in the rare s.p.a.ce magic. This surprised Kahn as another plan hatched in his mind.
"Deal. Let"s shake on it." said Kahn as he shook both Solomon & Arkham"s hands as a form of agreeing to the deal.
As the night fell, Kahn finally left the Adventurer a.s.sociation and went back the Black Griffin merchant enterprise again. He felt that it was the best place for him to stay and deepen his relationship with one of the most prominent merchants in the entire city.
As he reached the enterprise building gates, he stopped his steps and spoke,
"You can let the president know that I won"t betray or sell him out. So you lot better stop following me from now on. Or there won"t be a head left on your shoulders." Kahn said as he released his War Dominance aura and suddenly 3 a.s.sa.s.sins fell out of dark shadows from the nearby buildings under this immense pressure.
Why did Kahn accept the contract to kill these people? Obviously, it was to create connections with people who actually held authority in the city. And gain access to resources in large amount and establish himself as a prominent figure so that many doors could be opened for him just because of the fame he would gain later. There was no point in playing the underdog as long as his secrets regarding being the chosen hero of G.o.d of Darkness was kept under the rug.
He needed everything he can get and as soon as he could. And he had to do it all by himself.
Kahn continued and greeted Elanev in his office. After watching his sullen face, Kahn got the gist of why the young merchant was unhappy.
Kahn threw the big pouch of coins in Elanev"s desk.
"I know I went a bit overboard so this should be enough to minimize your losses, right? Consider the rest as repayment for saving your life." said Kahn as he laid back on the sofa placed in the middle of the room.
"Wait! How did you get so much money?" asked Elanev in a suspicious voice.
"Nothing much. Sold some of the top grade monster cores I had on me and took some advance for a big job I was offered." said Kahn as he relaxed on the comfortable sofa. He kept the sword on the side and said, "When are we eating? I"m hungry."
Elanev suddenly went from his dejected expression to overjoyed as soon as he received the pouch and started counting the coins. His experience told him it was at least 8 to 10 thousand gold coins.
"Don"t misunderstand me, Kahn. It"s just that the price was too big for me to cover up." said Elanev as he explained.
"Yeah yeah.. No worries. There shouldn"t be any secrets between friends, right?" Kahn said as he gave a slight grin.
Kahn had already planned to deepen his relationship with the father & son duo as they could turn out useful in the future so he had to start with the gullible son first.
As he had dinner, Kahn kept chatting about life experiences with Elanev. As Kahn was once 25 years old too, he knew enough topics that could get Elanev"s interests during their conversation.
When Kahn finally returned to his room again, he changed into nightclothes and jumped into the bed.
Kahn rested on the cushion and commanded the system.
[System. Give me Solomon & Arkahm"s stats.]
Kahn had shaken hands with both Solomon & Arkham for that very purpose. The system he had with him could only scan the body & their strength after making physical contact with the target.
[ Following are the Statistics for the individual named Arkham.
Name : Arkham Holland
Species : Human
Job : Magic Swordsman
Rank : Peak Grandmaster Rank
Level : 82
Strength : 1370
Agility : 930
Dexterity : 1130
Defense : 860
Mana : 440
Following are the Statistics on individual named Solomon
Name : Solomon Elfenheim
Species : Elf
Job : Magician
Rank : Semi-Saint Rank
Level : 85
Strength : 320
Agility : 670
Dexterity : 1080
Defense : 540
Mana : 1850]
Kahn let out a surprised gasp. Semi-Saint Rank? Means Solomon was close to break through beyond the Grandmaster rank? The middle-aged Elf was much stronger than he thought.
Kahn realized that he was treading in murky waters today. He was pretty sure Stragabor was no weaker than Arkham either. If these people wanted to kill him, he"d be dead before he could even react. If not for Rudra being present inside his shadow, he would not even walk out alive from a.s.sociation building had he chosen to refuse the contract from Solomon & Arkham.
Kahn took out the top-grade Monster cores and chomped down on them one by one as he was in dire need to raise his strength levels if he wanted to protect himself.
Rudra was his hidden card but he couldn"t reveal him to anyone. Plus there would be very few places where he could release the Basilisk out of his shadow without causing ma.s.sive destruction to the surrounding.
"From tomorrow, I"ll perfect all of my Combat skills and Rank as much as I can. I can"t be dependent on luck or some plot armor to always save me.. Compared to these people, I"m still an ant." said Kahn as he continued to eat up the cores.
"Power.. I need more Power!"