Chapter 189 - 189)Spar With Me!

As they were walking, Night looked around and noticed that the sounds of weapons clashing significantly reduced. However, even after he made this observation, he couldn't conclude that he was the reason this happened.

'Mhmm? The students seem to know him? Is he someone important? Or someone well known perhaps?'

The man thought as he continued walking, he looked back to see the blue-haired prince of darkness and his subject elegantly following him, the tiny pet was still fast asleep and showed no sign of waking up anytime soon.

"Oh, how irresponsible of me. Forgive me for not introducing myself earlier, I'm called Sketch, I'm somewhat of an elder here, although the word elder doesn't exactly fit an assassin, but it's the only other equivalent I could think of. Anyway, what do I call you?"

"It's nice to meet you, Elder Sketch," Night said while slightly bowing, "this is Shade, and the one sleeping up here, is Noctis. And you can call me Night,"

"Ahaha, after the hero of Vraun??"

"Hmm? No. It's not after anyone, that is simply my name," Night replied confused as to what Sketch was talking about.

"You seem to be mistaken elder. My Lord isn't imitating or copying anyone, he's simply the one you're talking about. The hero of Vraun? that's an adequate title for My Lord,"

"Excuse me? You're telling me, the hero of Vraun, Night is none other than the young man standing in front of me?"

"That is precisely what I'm telling you, and I am his loyal subject, and as his loyal subject, I am prepared to kill anyone. Anyone, who stands in his path," Shade said with a dark glow in his eyes.

Sketch couldn't help but gulp, just by the confidence in Shade's voice, he realized that this was indeed true. Word of a hero defeating the evil Pope that fooled the public slowly spread, and once Night's affinity with the citizens of Vraun reached the max, it started to spread like some kind of a wildfire. To the point where most of the people even in the neighboring Kingdoms, knew of his courageous feats.

"Enough," Night said as he raised his hand in front of Shade. He knew the situation could get quite messy if Shade and Sketch disagreed. Especially because Sketch was nearly as strong as the Pope. "I'm sorry but how is any of this information important??"

"...You're right sorry," Sketch said, slightly surprised to see Night behave so modest. Whether he was pretending or not was something even Sketch couldn't fully deduce. After all, if everyone knew the identity of the Hero of Vraun then wouldn't it be better for Night? He would be treated considerably better and not just ignored. "Ahem...Anyway, we're here. Now let explain,"

"The Phantom trials aren't something you can simply take, because you feel like it, and honestly, even if you feel like it, the pain you're going to undergo is going to be deadly, so I would advise you to prepare yourself before you can do so. There are many different methods or practices that you can do. Ah yes, this has to be mentioned, I cannot tell you anything about the Phantom Trials as I simply know nothing about it. If you really wish to know more then approach one of the Grand elders. This is as far as explaining the basics go. I'm sure you can understand the rest from simply looking around. Oh, and if you wish to take the Phantom trials, you'll need to talk to either an elder or a Grand elder. I shall see you around then," Sketch said as he slowly walked away, leaving Night and Shade to themselves.

"Um, where do you think I should start?" Night asked curious as to what he was to do now. Everyone around him slowly began getting back to what they were doing, the shock that Player Night was there was finally settling in, although they remained curious as to his real reason, they quickly got back to what they were doing. They didn't want to lose to him, someone who just started in the assassin's den. It would be shameful to see such a thing.

"Night???" A voice said from behind.

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"It's been a while since I've visited the Assasin's Den.....this time, I shall absolutely make sure to complete the Phantom Trials this time,"

It's been a rough few days for JetSky. After his consistent losses against Night, his public reputation drastically fell, although it wasn't as bad as he thought it would, perhaps it was because nobody really doubted the fact that Night would win. Which just further irritated him.

However, if JetSky was being honest, he respected Night, he was envious for sure but he couldn't put aside the fact that someone beat him fair and square, and effortlessly so as well. As one of the top assassins in the game and someone who sought to be the best, JetSky felt something in his heart. The others in the Den were more or less nothing compared to him, they couldn't keep up, most people couldn't.

As he walked through the cave, he felt the nostalgic feeling of multiple gazes falling upon him. The dimly lit cave, the nearly dead silence of the cave, the smell of wet rock, everything reminded him of when he was first here.

"Hah, it's been a while since I've seen Senior Sketch," he sighed as he continued walking. The sounds of weapons clashing were slightly lesser compared to how he remembered it, it was weird, especially because someone or the other would always be fighting as practice.

"Huhh?Is that?? But who is that next to him? and there's a pet on him??" JetSky raised his eyebrows as he followed the gaze of some of his fellow disciples, it seems that was indeed Player Night, which explained why the sounds of sparring were considerably lesser. Everyone was far too confused as to what Night was doing here.

"Night???" he called out to the blue-haired oddity that stood awkwardly in the middle of the large room, confused as to what he was supposed to do now.

"Hoh? You're JetSky, what brings you here suddenly?" Night asked forgetting about the fact that the man standing in front of him was one of the top assassins in the game.

"......I'm an assassin....." JetSky said as his mouth twitched, he thought Night was being ignorant and rude but it seemed as if the man genuinely forget about it. 

'That's how much of an impact I made huh?'

JetSky thought as he looked at Night's slightly shocked expression when he heard that he was an assassin. It was slightly sad to see but Night didn't mean for that, he rarely cared about classes and whatnot, mainly because of how different everyone's build can be. The perfect example of this was Ken.

He was a katana water-style user, similar to Noel, except he used a different style, and yet he was a warrior and not a Grandmaster. Night's reasoning wasn't flawed but he didn't think of how the other person would feel in this case.

"That's amazing, come spar with me then," Night said as he put his hand on JetSky's shoulder. He had a genuine smile on his face and pointed to an empty space behind them.

"Uh...why though?" JetSky asked as he was slightly suspicious behind Night's sudden request to spar. 

"You don't want to?" Night frowned when he saw the doubt in JetSky.

"No no, I was just curious....."

"Ah no reason, I didn't know what to do and I thought you could fill me in as we sparred!"