Hitman with a Badass System

"You wouldn't have given me this if you didn't think I'm the right man for this task. So let me give it a shot," Michael said, confidence oozing in his tone. Ever since he became an Alchemist, he had refined thousands of pills and potions. Refining pills and potions had become his second nature, as easy as breathing.

When Michael was inspecting the parchment, Lord Information took a few inches tall hourglass and placed it on the table.

"You ready?" Lord Information asked.

Michael nodded, conjuring the emerald green flames to dance above his palm.

"Your time starts now," Lord Information put the hourglass upside down, letting the sand from one side slowly rain down.

Regardless of the short time he had to finish, Michael remained calm. Because the calmer he was, the more focus he could put on the task at hand. He focused like a hawk, throwing one ingredient after another into the flame. Sitting beside Michael with one leg atop another, Gaya heard the ingredients crackle in the flame. The gentle warmth from the flames blankets her like a motherly hug, protecting her from the chillness in the air. Every time she exhaled, she could see her breath. It was that cold inside the room due to the coming winter.

Little by little, the sand grew taller inside the hourglass. Finally, almost half the sand had fallen down from the top when twelve dark purple beads hovered above the jade green flames. Lord Information had seen several top alchemists in Awor try and fail at what Michael had just done. Bluntly speaking, the elf was terrified of Michael's ability. Even among the orcs who had a natural talent for alchemy, there was no one like the human before him. Lord Information knew with time, Ghost would become the top dog in the alchemy world.

Gaya and Lord Information remained without speaking a word, fearing if they did, it might break his focus. After the beads had formed above the flames, Michael willed the flames to disappear before pulling his arms together. As though the beads were connected to his hands, they slowly pulled towards each other. The beads then gradually merged together, forming a hand-sized ball, and then condensed into a sparkling purple pill in the air.

"Finished in roughly two minutes," Michael said with a smirk. Lord Information stared at the pill while inhaling the sweet aroma coming from the pill. It turned the musty paper-smelling air aromatic.

"As you wanted, ninety percent pure pill. Now it's time to fulfill your part of the bargain, Lord Information," Lord Information examined the pill until he placed it in a wooden box cushioned with red cloth inside. After that, Lord Information opened up a drawer on the table. Michael and Gaya heard some ruffling as though the elf was rummaging through some parchments. Then, he eventually took out a parchment made of red paper.

However, the elf didn't hand it over to Michael. Instead, he opened it up to read it himself.

"The Grim reapers are no more," Lord Information said nonchalantly.

"What?" Gaya furrowed her crease. She could swear she had just heard the elf say the grim reapers are no more.

"That's right. They were all wiped out last night. If you go to their headquarters, you will find nothing but ruins," Lord Information stated.

Lord Information looked up from the parchment to see Ghost's reaction. As expected, Ghost had dark lines on his forehead.

"It's definitely connected. Whoever sent a reaper after me killed the others to wipe out the evidence. But who and why?" Michael questioned himself.

"At Least you won't have to worry about the reapers anymore. After all, no guild, no contracts," Michael's train of thought got interrupted by Lord Information.

After hearing Lord Information, Michael had no intention to go to their guild locations because he knew he wouldn't find anything. Whoever wiped them out was nothing but thorough. It would be a waste of time to go check the ruins. Lord Information hadn't built his empire by giving false or unverified information to his clients. Besides, Michael had to brew more cures for the plague instead of wasting his time.

"Thank you, Lord Information," Michael stood up since he had nothing more to ask of the elf.

"Here's a piece of free information Master Ghost. Awor isn't all rainbows and butterflies," Lord Information said as Michael nodded before leaving the elf to his works.

"What the hell was that?" Gaya exclaimed as soon as they walked out of Mary's flower shop.

"The grim reapers are no more? I don't think it's a coincidence someone sent a Fusion stage reaper after you and the reapers guild suddenly got wiped out from existence," Gaya's voice was grave.

"It's not," said Michael calmly.

"I'm telling you human. I have a bad feeling about this. It's like someone is stalking us," Gaya took a deep breath.

Michael, on the other hand, stayed calm as always. Just making everyone think Hunter was the Dark Lord took tremendous pressure off his shoulder. Without this pressure, Michael was able to plan and see things more clearly.

"Whoever wiped out the reapers did us a favor. As the elf said, now no one can put a bounty on our heads. It's a pity we couldn't swallow the grim reapers into our organization. But it paves the way to something greater, something I'm best at," Michael grinned. Looking at the bright grin on his face, Gaya was taken aback by surprise. His smile was like that of a kid who received a brand new toy he had wanted for a long time.

The smile wiped away the worries in Gaya's heart as it always did.

"Okay. You're clearly planning something. Tell me what it is?" Gaya asked.

"Isn't it obvious, my dear snakey?" Michael pinched her cheek hard enough to turn her cheeks red.

"We are going to start our own assassin guild," Michael smirked. After finding out about the Sea Folks' arrival, Michael knew he needed to further strengthen the might of his army. He knew the nature of these cultivators. Sooner or later, they would try to control the upsiders so they could be more powerful. As far as he was concerned, they just used the Dark Lord as an excuse to step into their world. He couldn't care less about the Sea Folk for now. However, since they were set on finding the Dark Lord, he would fight back. That was his resolve. To his glee, he received a new opportunity to increase his power.

**********************************************

At the moment, General Quintus was walking through a dark cave. He used an oil torch to light the path in front of him. There was something odd about the cave. Quintus couldn't describe the feeling, but it was there. If he had to, he would describe the cave as a nest of evil. Even a war veteran like Quintus shivered, taking steps forward.

Eventually, after walking for almost fifteen minutes without any guards or weapons, Quintus reached a stone door. He took a deep breath before knocking on the stone door three times. The door slowly creaked open, revealing a dark room lit with red orbs on the walls. Quintus twitched his nose, trying to prevent the putrid smell in the air from entering his nostrils. He looked around to locate the master of this place. Instead, he only found steel tables with bloody knives, blood stains on the walls, and a few pieces of flesh.

The place reminded Quintus of some butcher shops. Only they butchered humans instead of cattle. Quintus made a fortune sending slaves and orphans to this place. Quintus feared nothing, no war or no famine could make him shudder except his employer. Just the thought of meeting his employer gave him chills.

"Quintus," His body went rigid when he heard a whisper resonate in the room.

"Did you finish your task?" the voice whispered again. It sounded neither of a man nor a woman. Rather, this voice was beastly.

"Yes," Quintus said. Beads of sweat formed on his forehead as he shivered. He tried to turn his head, but his brain refused to obey his commands.

"Good good good," the whisper sounded close to his ear. He could feel his neck air stand up straight. True to his words, Quintus finished his task.

"It's time you received the gift, my dear Quintus," A cold chill ran through his spine. He hardly had time to wonder when he felt a strong force pushing him onto one of the steel tables stained with blood.

"ARGH!" Quintus wiggled violently to fight the invisible force. However, the force lifted him off the ground, putting him on the table. His hands and legs went rigid as Quintus couldn't feel them anymore. In fact, he only had feelings in his eyes.  Sooner, Qunitus noticed red orbs flicker.

"You will thank me later," The voice said. It wasn't too long before Quintus saw his mysterious employer. He didn't know the employer was a he or a she. In fact, he even doubted it was even a human. The figure that appeared in his sight had a humanoid shape, approximately three meters tall, and was covered in dark hooded cloaks, making them closely resemble spirits. The face was barely visible due to the cloak. Whatever Quintus saw was grayed and decayed, looking like a decomposing corpse. Its breath smelled putrid, like blood and poison.

"HRRRRRMMMMM!" Quintus tried to move his body only to fail. Except for his eyes, he couldn't move an inch of his body.

"You rattled the death's cage," the creature whispered, gliding in the air around Quintus. This meeting was supposed to be an exchange. He was supposed to show the bloody blade that took Heinberg's life and receive the said gold coins in exchange. But, not in a million years Quintus thought he would end up on this torture table.

"Only the gift can save you now," the figure touched Quintus with its slimy-looking grayish hand. He felt a bone-chilling coldness throughout his body when it touched his skin.

"EEEGGHH!" Quintus gasped for air as his eyes suddenly turned as white as pure snowflakes.

The creature slowly glided over Qunitus's head, running its cold nails through his neck. Then, suddenly, it lunged his teeth at Quintus's neck. Blood sprayed out of his neck as the creature sunk its teeth deep into his neck. His entire body started to shake. Little by little, veins popped out from Quintus's skin. In just a few moments, Quintus opened his mouth, revealing his canine tooth slowly, taking the shape of vampire fangs.