The Asshai's Bloodmage

 Returning from their mission, Jack and Jhon were getting close to the entrance of the mansion where the Tower of the Sages was located, only for Jack to quickly pull Jhon close to an alley and hide. Jhon, not understanding, was going to ask what happened when Jack made a sign for silence and then showed his ear. Not far from the entrance of the mansion there was a broken carriage and two men talking. Jack found it very suspicious because the men were doing nothing to solve the problem and so he started to listen.

"How long are we going to have to wait here? Didn't they say that as soon as the sun rise he would leave?"

"It hasn't been long since dawn, we just need to stay in position and buy time for the archers." Said the second man.

When Jack and Jhon heard the second sentence, the two began to look at the rooftops. It didn't take long for them to see 4 men positioned in different locations in front of the mansion. The two exchanged glances and moved in different directions. Soon the 4 archers on the rooftops were all dead, the two members of the Order then went towards the carriage as if they were passersby and asked if they needed help, when one of the men thought to answer the two advanced together ambushing and killing both at the same time. Soon the bodies of all the criminals were dragged into the mansion and all their belongings confiscated by them.

Inside the tower Rafael was having breakfast with Zaya, Vitarys, Zhang, Omar, Liza, Aisha, Sir Arthur, Zhang's 3 subordinates and Jhon's father. Everyone was getting ready to meet the others at the tavern and go to take the Garden of Beasts test when Jack and Jhon finally returned. Rafael asked if everything went well on the mission and Jhon replied:

"The mission was a success, but when we arrived we had to kill 6 people who were at the entrance of the mansion. Their bodies were dragged to the garden. It seems they were planning an ambush against us."

"Hm, that makes sense. Someone tried to assassinate me last night inside my room. They were professionals and none of the magic traps or alarms worked."

Jhon and Jack were surprised and Rafael continued: "I'll leave the people who are at the inn and on the ship for you to take safely to the test. Only me, Zhang, Omar and Sir Arthur will go straight there. They shouldn't attack you on the way, but if you find something like an ambush, you can get rid of them. Jack and Jhon, you'll be the group's scouts, okay?" The two nodded and we started moving.

As we walked down the street, it didn't take long for me to realize we were being followed. Without worrying about the consequences, I pulled out one of my pistols and shot the man following us. The loud shot not long after sunrise woke everyone in the area and at the same time alerted everyone to my true position. I collected the corpse of the person following us to inspect and parcel out later, while I did so I began to reload the fired gun. We continued walking at a fast pace towards the Garden of Beasts, all of us wearing our full body armor. Sir Arthur remained by Omar's side the entire time with a shield in hand and his eyes trained on the dark rooftops of the city, soon he was the first to notice another attack:

"ARCHERS ON OUR LEFT!"

With his shout, loaded crossbows appeared in the hands of Omar and Zhang and they began to fire back at the four new archers who were already targeting us. We ran to an alley to the right, trying to find cover, and I fired twice toward the roof, managing to hit one of them. I took cover against the wall, reloaded my pistols again, and then fired once more, taking down another attacker. Meanwhile, Zhang and Omar finally took down the other two. Zhang ran toward them to collect their possible bags and bodies, while I took advantage of the new pause to reload again. These constant attacks happened twice more before we finally reached the test site.

We waited at the entrance for a few minutes and Jhon, Jack, Liza, Zaya, and Vitarys finally appeared, accompanied by more than 70 people. It seems that most of them decided to give it a try and find out if they had magical talent or not. Jhon then gave me a report saying that there had been ambushes both near the inn and near the ship and that they had killed at least half a dozen criminals. But after the sound of my gun, we didn't see any more. Furthermore, there were no apprentices among them and most were ordinary people, Salim who was also in the group then said:

"These are bounty hunters, criminals and ex-pirates who made Asshai their home. They must have thought you would be an easy target. The other larger organizations may be using them as cannon fodder to test the strength of their group."

I nod in agreement, then tell him about the two assassins from last night, those guys died quickly, but one of them used a spell to get close to me very quickly.

"Boss, I am authorized to sell information at a 50% discount to you, show me their bodies or give me their heads and I will get the information on who they are."

I am surprised by the sudden discount, but I accept the goodwill of the shadow men, so finally we all enter the huge tower and soon a middle-aged man appears to welcome us. His mask only covers his mouth leaving his gray hair showing and small wrinkles appearing near his eyes. His eyes showed surprise as he saw so many people come for the test.

"You all came to take the test?"

"Yes, they are all from my organization and we are new to the city."

"Alright, you can pay everyone's fees in half an hour when the tests start. Please wait here on this floor and do not walk around without permission."

Since there was half an hour left until the test, I decided to check out the new changes to the system that had happened less than 2 days ago and all of its new benefits. There were also mission completion messages and even new ones were issued.

[Optional Quest Completed: Escape to Asshai]

[Experience Gained]

[Optional Quest Completed: Loot 3 Shipwrecks]

[Experience Gained]

[Side Quest Completed]

[Keep as many crew members of your ship alive as possible 104/109]

[Obtained 200 Soulstones] +

[Experience Gained]

[You have kept more than 90% of your crew alive and received the extra bonus from the quest]

[Obtained 10 Purified Soulstones (Empty)] +

[System Leveled Up]

[New Functions and Improvements Obtained] +

Blood Mage System Lvl 4

-System Inventory Expanded

-Separation Skill Improved

-Totem Storage in the System Unlocked (2)

-Immunity to curses(low)

The side quest actually gave me an additional reward… Two actually, it was only today that I read the details about the soul stones. The extra reward contained 10 purified stones that could be used to store a soul in its perfect state after death, and the other 200 were of average quality. When I detailed what the "quality" would be, I discovered that it was created with 200 human souls that were haunting me… It gave me a chill, it seems that all of the more than 200 pirates I killed were still around. If it were anywhere else I wouldn't care much, but here in Asshai I need to be cautious with these souls around me.

As for the uses of these stones, they were a popular currency in Asshai and a valuable form of energy for both blood rituals, soul rituals and to power the towers with extra energy. Besides being something valuable for necromancers, in that case I didn't have much knowledge yet. Last but not least, the new system functions... I now have immunity to curses too, although it is "low" I know it helps a lot. Separation can be used more easily on liquids! This is perfect, I will be able to use it on milk to create powdered milk and seawater to obtain more fresh water easily without losing so many nutrients. If possible, I can even transform the water from the River Ash into drinking water. The system totems are nothing more than allowing me to store them in my inventory, I can only keep 1 of each element. This should help me so that the situation in Valyria does not happen again, making me lose all my work and wealth.

Before I could look at the new missions focused on Asshai I saw that the tower test was about to begin, I was excited to find out what my second element was, and all the secrets that only this place could teach me, I paid almost 800 silver coins and then we arrived at a large hall.

***

Special thanks to the Patreons:

Magic Apprentice: Parsa, Pato Senalima, Axel Bour, Gabriele Sulpizio, Vinnie, Jan, frimorigo, Scott Robertson and Takatchi!