The next few days were rather busy for everyone within the group, though for Jack far more than others. He was, after all, looked for every few minutes to solve one issue or another or to provide experts opinion or advice in numerous different regards. Jack could do nothing but sigh and go along, though he had also left a rather important task for everyone else to think on as they went along with their own day- namely the name their party, and guild in extension should aim to acquire, Jack was simply not interested in taking part, thus he had outsourced it to the rest of the group. "Na- ah, I am far too busy with other things." he had said after the breakfast as he dragged his eyes over everyone else "And I am not going to listen to any complaints once I pick a name should you people don't come up with at least three options for a name." Thus, it had come to the current situation where Jack was dragged back and forth, resolving any problems that arose while everyone finalised their own, personal dream rooms, or at least got them much closer to said goal. It had to be noted that neither Kenji nor Kaede had yet left their room ever since they retired last night.

  And yet, even with all the pulling back and forth Jack had to deal with, his own focus was locked tight on the most important task of them all, spending every free moment he had to form the core of what would soon enough become their personal property defense array, supplied with the necessary energy by absorbing the mana in their surroundings. Unlike most, if not all available magitech in this plane that worked on some sort of batteries, be it monster cores or mana crystals, Jack had the knowledge to construct ones that could absorb the mana particles in the air, making his creations here damn near automated and working indefinitely.

  By the time sun finally set, Jack was done with the initial layer of his defensive array, ensuring no undesirables could step foot inside the walls of their property without them knowing the moment said undesirables did so. Next he would work on creating both defensive layers to repel invaders to be and offensive means to ensure as many of said invaders would not be able to leave with their corpses intact. That would have to wait for a short while though, namely until kids went out to do some more hunting of monsters, since Jack was running on fumes in regard to his matter reserves, a fact he did not even bother to hide once they gathered for supper.

  "Nice of you to join us." Jack started as he grinned towards Kenji and Kaede, the two lovebirds had their eyes pinned to their plates and faces red as they were well aware of the numerous gazes, some knowing, others inquisitive, that were locked on them. "It's a pleasure to see at least someone enjoying their youth." he added, poking them just a bit more while throwing a small bone to those with curious gazes, moving on to more important topics, as if to spare them the numerous questions that would no doubt soon follow.

  "I do have to inform you that I am running low on mats, so any additional changes to your rooms, or anything else for that matter, will have to wait until I am once more stocked."

  "We should still have a couple of days before the rest of the new gifted arrive to the city, if Ramia's estimations are to be believed, so we can still manage a quick excursion if we leave early tomorrow." Emi spoke, adding in a more quiet tone "There are a few more things I desperately need changed after all."

  While the last sentence was spoken in a much quieter tone, it was heard nonetheless, earning a wave of laughter, though soon enough the rest of the combat party girls admitted they too needed some more work done, thus they agreed in a quick manner to do just that- head out for a quick farming patrol in an attempt to acquire some much needed matter for Jack.

  "We will have to prioritize though if you are not coming with us." Izumi focused on the crux of the matter, well aware that with the limited space inside their spatial storage rings, they could only bring back so much stuff for Jack to dematerialize.

  "I did say I am running low on mats, yes, but what I did not mention were all the reasons why." Jack smirked as he explained, fishing out a single, once again rather dull looking ring and placing it on the table. "This baby will work to substitute me in the field, providing the same ability to dematerialize the bodies and all manner of crafting materials you acquire. All it need to work is a small mmana injection and contact with the target while invoking its effects. Do note that the creatures must be dead for it to work- a safety measure to avoid accidents and too large drain on wielders mana reserves."

  Ring of extreme cleanliness (epic)- Some people like cleaning, some like to live in clean places, others still take it a step beyond reason, obsessing with overly high level of cleanliness. Be it metal, wood, plants or the wayward body or blood puddle, there is nothing the Ring of extreme cleanliness cannot resolve. Effect- dematerializes all manner materials leaving nothing behind.

  Hidden(Ex)- dematerialized objects are converted into matter and stored in Matter Storage.

  "And no, I don't have more for the time being, so either Emi or Kaede will have to take on the holy mission of reducing the amount of stuff you actually have to loot and to fill up my matter storage. And that I suppose is all from me for now." Jack added after handing over the ring, returning to his own, half finished meal.

  A few more miscellaneous conversations arose as they dined and once done, everybody retired to their rooms in preparation for their tasks to be done come morning, not that the girls did not try and whisk Kaede away for a loong round of questioning and teasing, though they failed in the end. Jack was quite sure the lovebirds would not escape it for long though, only delaying the inevitable. With a smirk of his own, he too retired for the night, a couple of random thoughts chaotically dancing through his mind. Unfortunately, it seemed some bastards had decided to not allow Jack a peaceful nights rest as a bit after midnight he was roused from his sleep by the very same array he had developed just recently, informing him of unwanted guests entering their property.

  "Damn it Ramia! Could you not have warned there are jealous bastards among your ranks?" Jack grumbled as he used Choice of the creator to obscure is stats to take it seem as though some outside party was doing what he was about to do, all while donning some shady clothes as well.

  ------------------------

  Valkia was one annoying place to take jobs in for a few reasons- particularly so for people whose professions and services offered were of the less legal and acceptable sort. Assassinations, kidnapping, stealing and espionage were the more famous of these. What made Valkia such a pain in the ass to work in were the special conditions only found in a couple cities across the continents known to man.

  First was its unique geolocation, making it a place where three great powers came to hold their negotiations whenever the need arose, making it a place that could not be occupied by any major faction from either of the nations involved, resulting in the local powers to be supplied with both manpower and material aid from the surrounding lords. Secondly, it was one of the towns that were filled with numerous gifted after each summoning as one of the trial ground dimensional pockets was located nearby, making it a perfect first stop for both independant to be and those gifted who were recruited to start their new life in this world and while most recruited ones, along with their handlers leave the place soon enough after arrival, plenty more remain, resulting in the overall power of the locals to be of a higher caliber than similar sized towns.

  This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

  As a result, whenever someone of high level and not of gifted variety entered the city, they were tracked like the balance of the world depended on it, making next to impossible for high level individuals of dark affiliation to ply their trade here, thus, the group advancing ever closer to the walled property were around level twenty each, just barely below the 'keep track and make sure they don't do anything foolish' tier, at least for Valkia. One might be wondering how a group of ten Shadow walkers, most famed for their use in infiltration and subterfuge, could gain access to the city, though such questions would soon dissipate should they learn of their definitely not forged orders to travel towards Black Shadows Gorge to assist in its exploration and upcoming raid. Valkia was a city on the path there, meant to be used as for nights rest before the group headed further on towards their supposed goal. That in turn meant they only had this single night to finish their task and disappear with the morning light.

  The job was simple enough- infiltrate the property and acquire as much information as possible and steal anything that might be a recipe of any kind. The spies did not know who was their employer, a rather ordinary occurrence in their sphere of work, but the coin was good enough and their targets- wet behind the ears recently summoned gifteds'. Easier mark was difficult to find, mostly due to the rather abysmal security such groups had, purely because of their lack of this worlds understanding and lack of any local forces backing them up. Sure, there were always exceptional individuals who remained unaffiliated at their early days and would catch on to an attempt or two, but such cases were all too rare and only further confirmed the well known truth.

  Delta One, the leader of the group, was the first one to reach the wall and jump on top of it with swift and adept movement, their class skills allowing for such display of strength and agility alongside their incredible three dimensional movements, and quickly surveyed the courtyard ahead of him. The man had a more developed version of 'Treasure hunter', allowing him to perceive the presence of any sort of traps.

  Judging that there were none, he gestured towards the other nine, who then proceeded to follow in Delta one's footsteps, quickly finding themselves on top of the wall as well. A few more gestures from Delta one and each man of the ten person squad jumped inside the property garden and dashed towards the direction they were ordered. They had to map the garden and servant buildings first, ensuring no workshop had been set up there and thus escaping their notice. Once done, they would meet up at the main mansion in approximately fifteen minutes and proceed from there.

  ----------------------

  Delta Two, Four, Five and Six were sent to the survey the garden while the rest where exploring the buildings, thus they split and dashed ahead to take care of their task. While seperated, they maintained minimal, though still present, visual contact with one another, eye checking their comrade to the right every other minute or so, ensuring that in case anyone encountered any accident or unexpected situation the rest of the smaller squad could react and respond accordingly.

  Delta Two's internal count had reached two minutes and he immediately jerked his head towards the place his brother Four was supposed to be, and, noticing him precisely where he should be, returned his focus on the task at hand- all things were proceeding according to plan. He jumped to the left as he ran past an apple tree, some two and a half meters high and in full bloom, only to have his eyes widen in shock as he suddenly felt his neck being grabbed in a choke hold from behind. What? How? When? Many questions rushed through his mind in mere fractions of a second, only to be stopped by a very low sound of a crack as his neck was broken and his life- taken.

  The shadow that had just neutralized Delta Two dashed forward with speed undeniably above what Delta Two could have followed, signifying his high level and build focused on speed. In a few breaths the 'assassin' had reached Delta Four, once again utilizing the slightest of openings as Delta Four moved to one side to avoid a rose bush, only to be caught in the same manner as Delta Two, moments later joining his brother in afterlife. The shadow then proceeded to do the same to Delta five as well, covering ground and ensuring that there were no warnings and signals sent to others.

  Delta Six was caught the moment his internal countdown had reached two minutes and he was looking towards the direction his brother in arms was supposed to be, only to find the location empty. As his eyes widened and he was reaching for the emergency signal, his neck was snapped just like his brothers had been.

  "Stop trying to give me more work." A low and raspy voice grumbled, turning his hooded head towards the direction of the main mansion. "I suppose I should just wait for them there." he hummed as he moved on, preparing his next plan of action.

  ---------------------

  Delta Three was heading towards the slave pens, one of the most likely places to have anything resembling hidden laboratory deployed. It seemed a running gag or something for the new gifted to deploy their workshops near slaves. They had some sort of a thing for 'placing things where nobody would think to look.' Like a cat stalking their prey, mowing without any noise created, though with much greater speed, Delta Three reached the slave pens, quickly deploying his lockbreaker tool kit to open the doors, only to realize they were unlocked. The then deployed a small magical tool to create a sound blocking barrier as he opened the door, ensuring no sound of creaking would be heard should the door make any.

  Once inside, he moved forward, maintaining high alert and checking every room for any evidence of recent activity, something their night vision and experience made quite easy to do. After a few minute search, Delta Three determined that slave pens were a dead end and had nothing of worth, thus turning back and returning to the rendezvous point. He was one of the first ones there, the rest of the team dealing with the remaining two buildings, main mansion not included. He waited there until the allocated time for surrounding building exploration to expire, only to see another five of his companions to return, lead by Delta One, a grave expression on their leaders face as he noticed four others missing as time expired.

  "They are not coming." A calm, yet eerie voice reached the group of six, their heads whipping in the direction of the voice as they prepared to dart away, only for two of them on one flank to gasp and fall to the ground, their heads separated from their bodies in one swift movement by their opponent.

  ----------------------------

  'Shit!' Delta One cursed in his mind as he saw Seven and Eights severed heads hit the ground in the corner of his eye, his main focus locked on the man that stood before the two, headless bodies. He realized the moment he took his eyes off of the cloaked man, his head would be the next one to roll. They had not even started to scour the mansion and there was already someone on them- clearly the info on their targets was wrong. They already had backing, and a scary one at that, for his Appraisal returned nothing but question marks as he tried to identify the man(?) before him. There was no real way out and their only hope to escape was to either try and split up in hopes at least one of them gets away to inform the organization of the results of their attempt, or to jump the man together and try and take him down, after what they would once again bolt away to report. The latter option though, as unlikely as it was to succeed, was the one with greater chance of success. The dexterity of their adversary was past twenty no doubt, making the plan to split up and run away unfeasible- they would just be cut down from behind.

  "Knight Three!" he exclaimed and all remaining six members of delta squad rushed forward as if of one mind, brandishing their weapons and swinging them in seemingly uncoordinated manner, though if one was watching from aside they could see said strikes formed a net of sorts with the intention to ensure their opposition could not escape their attack unharmed. No matter what, one of the blades would bite in the man's flesh, reducing his combat capabilities and perhaps giving them an opening to escape.

  Unfortunately, their opponent was of a different kind, not only far faster than his actual level and gear would suggest, but also much, much stronger and tougher. What would have been a dangerous wound on most non tanks for Jack whose vitality was over twenty- surpassing many tankers of his level- the strike he took was barely felt, yet in turn, he could deliver a barrage of deadly counter strikes, ensuring their opponent could not escape with their lives, sealing their fates to the last man.

  "Level fifty! shit!" Delta one cursed one last time as his gaze dimmed for the last time, their mission failed and squad wiped out. 'No matter, it was not his problem anymore.' was the last thought that flashed in the man's mind.

  Jack Raja(?)

  Age- 27

  Species- human(?)

  Level- 15

  Class- Twin aspect of Creation and Destruction(EX)

  Stats unassigned: +11

  Attributes:

  Strength- 24 (14+7+3)

  Vitality- 23 (12+8+3)

  Dexterity- 21 (15+6)

  Intelligence-7

  Spirit- 25 (20+5)

  Skills- Wisdom of Creation and destruction(EX), Choice of the creator(EX), Eyes of procurer(EX), Matter storage(EX), Arukain language(C), Spark of inspiration(EX).

  Spells- none.

  Titles(unlocked): The real Monster, Big Game Hunter, The brilliant rookie, The insane Solo. The actor. Executioner. Survivor. Pioneer, Record breaker.The new champion supreme.

  Gear: amulet +2 vit: weapon- Gundao+3 str. Rings- spatial storage, vit +1.