บท 10: #9 Back at "base"

Ren didn't really have wide variety of quests due to limitation of his rank. He just grabbed most difficult quest available in his rank.

Slay Low-Class 3 Danger beast

reward: 30 silvers

'Reward is extremely low since Danger beasts living here are much stronger than in anime. If I were to compare Tatsumi of this world and Tatsumi in anime he would be able to kill at most Medium-Class 2 Danger beast as easily as he killed Class 1 Danger beast in anime.'

He stopped thinking and just grabbed notice and went out of guild. When he was planning to leave the city he noticed 5 people following him so he decided to lead them to dark alley without people. When 5 of them noticed this they immediately grinned and followed Ren.

"Kid, if you know what's good for you then you will leave ever-"

Before he even finished his and his companion's heads were rolling on ground. Ren just looked at their bodies with coldly and mumbled to himself "What a cliche situation"

'Every time I kill people I can absorb more of Death energy than usually but after some time it disappears from my body. I already should have enough control to advance to Master level but I lack of Death energy. Shadow don't you have any suggestions?'

'Didn't you say that it is in your body for some time and then disappears? Why not just try to absorb enough energy in that time so it can't disappear anymore.' Shadow responded in his miniature form so he won't gain too much attention from people in city.

'So you basically mean...'

'massacre' Shadow finished Ren's sentence

'Whatever I will think about it later, but still this city is really full of filth, trying to rob someone in city at daylight' When he was leaving he stopped and turned around to look at corpses once again. He grinned and mumbled "Maybe I can try it here"

For next 10 minutes Ren was experimenting with Death energy. He tried to "revive" dead and make them his slaves. Unfortunately every time he used Death energy and let it enter dead body it immediately shred it's skin and muscles, what he got in the end was skeleton who could only complete primitive tasks so he just killed it since he couldn't move in city with skeleton.

His white robe got filthy from blood but he didn't care he knew what kind of city this was so he simply walked through streets with cold look in his face. Everyone who saw his appearance avoided him and gave him his own space.

------TIME SKIP, 1 YEAR------

It was already 1 year since he started to work at guild and his rank was already upgraded to Platinum! This has never happened for someone to advance their rank from bronze to platinum in mere 1 year. Most people took 2 or more years for 1 advancement. Thanks to that he got pretty famous and people in guild called him "Ryu the Demon" since he never rested and always after finishing 1 quest he took another. Most of his quests were all about slaying and always were the most difficult ones. One day he even came back to get reward with hole in his shoulder while smiling.

By doing all this Ren achieved his goal about getting famous as a cover. When he will start his own group he can easily propagate it . His control over Wind energy increased and was already on border between Adept and Expert. He also developed few techniques.

First ability was "Wind coating". He could cover his weapon with wind and make his attacks even faster and little bit sharper. Most suitable weapon for this ability were daggers. He could also throw them at inhuman speed without them losing their wind cover. This feat was not possible by Water or Death energy.

Second ability was "Wind Blade". He could create slash like blades and cut down big number of enemies at the same times.

Third ability was "Wind cloak". Ren could create cloak of wind that would protect him from most of projectiles.

He also started making plans about his Master level control of Death energy.

'Maybe my meeting with Esdeath will be much sooner than I planned. I will make trip to Northern Tribes when Esdeath will get her orders to slaughter them.'

'Few hundred thousand dead should be enough right Shadow?'

'....I rather not answer that' Shadow responded while looking at Ren weirdly.

Ren just shrugged off Shadow's gaze and was preparing to leave Capital and go back to his "base".

After leaving Capital not much happened on road just few quarrels between Shadow and Shell which was totally normal by now. But it always caused Ren big headache since they used telepathy for their fights. He also asked Shell why there is no Wind spirit and she started yelling and questioning what does he think spirits are. In the end he still got his answer and learned that he was simply lucky with Shadow and Shell, he would need to travel more to meet Wind spirit.

Ren just came back to his base and started thinking about his trip to Northern Tribes.

'If I remember correctly it should happen right before increase of Night Raid's activity. So basically few weeks after Tatsumi joins them.'

'Now question is who to "help"? Maybe I should just "help" Esdeath since they are made to be exterminated. Personally I never had any problem with Esdeath's personality in anime, this world is ruthless and if you are weak you won't survive...easy.'

'As for her burning villages of rebels and making example of them...I don't see any problem with it and if innocents were in village they could only blame rebels who were weak and still wanted to fight'

'Now that I think about it my personality is similar to her. I still have plenty enough time before it happens. Meanwhile I will train this last year, I doubt there will be time for any training when story starts. I have to become even more powerful!'