Lith’s dorm, Abalax sky island.
Sitting on his couch, Lith was waiting for Hecate’s arrival. He didn’t need to wait for long as within a few minutes, space fluctuated and out of thin air appeared a lady that seemed in her early 30s and had heterochromatic red and blue eyes.
Hecate was wearing purple robes with a black pointy hat, a signature piece of clothing of the Witch race. She walked towards Lith and said, “How may I be of help to his highness?’
“Miss Hecate, can you please tell which company’s insignia is this?” Lith showed her the bullet of the shotgun and asked about the nine red roses inscribed on the bullet.
Hecate noticed it and, with a quick glance, she could piece together what had happened and deduced what Lith was trying to ask her. Without taking the bullet from Lith, she explained to him,
“That’s a bullet manufactured and issued by Scelestus. It is the number one organization in the underworld and they naturally have an assassin branch in their organization too.
This bullet is available in their assassin branch for purchase, and any assassin can buy it as long as they have the right membership card.” Hecate roughly explained calmly.
Lith nodded his head in understanding and understood the matter a bit.
“So it can be any assassin who may possess this bullet?” Lith asked.
“No. They only issue the bullet in your hand to people with a silver card and above.” Hecate replied.
“So the assassin is someone in possession of a silver card and above. Doesn’t this filter it down a little for us to track him?” Lith questioned.
“Well, it filters it out a bit, but there’s a lot of silver, gold and amethyst card members. So it’s still difficult.” Hecate replied calmly once again.
“Miss Hecate.” Lith looked Hecate in the eyes and called her out in a neutral tone.
“Yes, your highness?” Hecate looked back into his eyes and asked calmly.
“I suffered an assassination.” Lith replied in a neutral tone.
Lith’s straightforward words surprised Hecate rather than the fact that someone assassinated him. It was only natural that someone would try to do it, as he was the Vampire Prince.
On an average, royal families, be it of a small village or an entire country, suffered two to four assassinations per year, and it was normal.
Lith was a direct descendant of the Vampire Queen and the heir to the royal clan of vampires, The Evure Clan. He was both young and weak, making him an easy target for everyone.
Many people had forgotten about the Vampire Queen’s terror and had no idea what the consequences of assassinating him would be, making him an easy target. Hecate was aware of it and was not surprised.
She assumed it because if the news got out, it would cause chaos in the world, and Lith had to be aware of it. Just one word from him to his mother and the world would be flipped upside down. But, despite knowing the consequences, Lith said that to her, which surprised her.
She handpicked her words and asked in a neutral tone, “I am sorry about that. Does his highness need help in tracking the culprit?”
“Yes.” Lith answered.
Hecate nodded her head and took out a tablet from her spatial ring. She worked on it in finding the culprit and after a few minutes, she said,
“I am sorry. I can’t find any missions related to your assassination. But what I found was, someone named Relz Khiv, a gold card member, bought an anti-regeneration bullet a few days ago. This is the same bullet you are holding in your hand.
There’s nothing about his background available, and we only have information regarding the missions he did.”
Lith nodded his head in understanding. He closed his eyes and went into his own thoughts. In the meantime, Hecate didn’t bother him, and after a minute, Lith opened his eyes and said calmly to Hecate.
“Miss Hecate, I want to be an assassin in this organization. Please get me the same level of membership card as Relz Khiv or above. I’ll track him down myself.”
“Your Highness, you don’t have to bother with it. The next time Relz Khiv comes to the organization, we’ll know about him and can capture him.” Hecate said calmly.
“Yes, you can. But no. I won’t be satisfied until I kill the man with my own hands. This is the very first time someone has threatened me for my life. I won’t let this slide easily. Telling mom or big sis may solve the problem, but I don’t want to bother them.
It’s my problem. I’ll solve it myself.” Lith replied in a neutral tone.
Hecate was amused, but her expression didn’t change despite finding Lith more mature than his age. She applauded him internally for such a resolution of his.
“No problem. I’ll hand it to you right away. What pseudonym does his highness want for his fake identity?” Hecate asked.
“Ray.” Lith replied with one word.
“Just Ray?” Hecate asked.
“Yes.” Lith replied.
“Okay.” Hecate said and went back to work.
After a few minutes, she asked, “I’ve made you an amethyst card member with the name Ray. What assassin name does his highness want?”
Lith thought for a bit and, not being able to come up with any answer, he said, “Just make it Ray for that too.”
Hecate nodded, and a few minutes later, she put the tablet back in her ring and moved her hands in front of her a little. Soon, a purple card appeared in her hand, which she gave to Lith and told him,
“This is your amethyst card, your highness.”
Lith took it and was amazed by how good it looked. The card read:
Amethyst Card
[ XXXX XXXX XX94 1901 ]
12/XX
Ray
The card seemed exquisite, luxurious and was colored purple. The letters were all in silver. The background of the card had a photo of some sort of building that Lith couldn’t recognise and at the bottom right corner were nine red roses inscribed.
He liked how the card looked, and turning to Hecate, he said with a smile,
“I appreciate your efforts, Miss Hecate. The card is nice. Right, about your payment for this. Please don’t mention about me suffering an assassination and you can collect payment for this from my big sis. Just tell her truthfully what it is for, except stating that one part.”
Hecate nodded her head in understanding. She wasn’t dumb enough to get herself killed for stating such a reason, and she would not say it anyway. She said goodbye to Lith and left after her job was done.
Lith held the card in his hand and gazed at it. He was determined to take his revenge on Relz Khiv by hook or by crook, and the more he thought about the day the assassination occurred, the more his blood boiled.
Placing the card in his ring, Lith went to sleep after that.
…
A dorm, not too far away, nor too close from the main building of the academy.
A black-haired, black-eyed teen was writing a few things on paper while sitting on a chair behind his study table. Putting down the pen, he said in relief to himself,
“Phew. I finally made the plan. Now all I need to do is execute it well and capture Liam. I developed the affinity enhancer potion after so many years of research. I wonder how long it will take for me to make an ability pilferer potion.
Nevermind, that’s for the future. First, I should focus on capturing Liam. Without him, everything is a waste and not capturing him would be an enormous loss.”
The teen went to his bed and slept on it. Before going to sleep, out of habit, he muttered,
“Open Missions.”
He heard a cold mechanical voice in his head and a blue screen with a string of words in white popping in front of him, stating,
<Missions>
[Daily missions]
[Monthly mission]
[Pending missions]
“Open daily missions.” The teen muttered softly.
<Daily missions>
Unranked mission[Workout]
*Information:
– Workout daily to increase strength, stamina, agility, endurance and flexibility.
*Requirement:
– Run 10 kilometers within 30 minutes with the help of a limiter provided by the system.
– 100 squats with equipment provided by the system.
– 100 bench presses with equipment provided by the system.
– 100 deadlifts with equipment provided by the system.
Time limit: 24 hours
Time remaining: 00:01
*Reward:
– 2 body stats points
*Failure:
– Dropped into a 20 floor D class dungeon with escape only possible on clearing it.
“FUCK! I FORGOT TO DO THE DAILY MISSION! FUCK!” The teen jumped out of his bed and said in fright. He once again yelled in panic after reading the clock,
“HOLY SHIT! ONLY A MINUTE IS REMAINING! WHAT THE FUCK!”