27 I have good eyesight?

A Danger Zone, a place where monsters and beasts like to live due to the excess amounts of mana, some are underground, some are open fields. The monsters in the Danger Zone do not like to go out of the boundaries of the Zone however will do so when chasing down prey.

Although they are dangerous, they are also a source of profit.

Mana crystals are the physical manifestation of mana that the world produces. They are the things that power current day technology.

A kilogram of a mana crystal can power a city for an hour. However although the crystals are very nice, they are a tad bit rare. So people also use mana cores, a type of inferior mana crystal that form in entities with mana. This includes monsters, beasts and humans. Previously there was a scandal where a kingdom gathered enemy mages and used them as batteries. Another kingdom massacred a whole village to get mana cores from people.

This led to the discovery of Danger Zones. Kingdoms and empires needed a source of energy that was stable and wasn't from human or any other intellectual race. So they decided to farm cores from monsters and beasts. Monsters came from these creatures called Queens because these Queens could nonstop breed all year long and give birth to many monsters. However, the monsters were weaker than same ranked humans most of the time. Beasts were different. They were not able to mass populate like the monsters but in turn they were stronger.

Seeing the chance for a profit, kingdoms started to build walls over the Danger Zone or built cities near it. They then hired mercenaries or sent expeditions to acquire mana cores. Eventually, a global company called the adventurer guild was built. They were affiliated with no country and stayed as a neutral force. Their purpose was to maintain the safety of Danger Zones.

"God damn this gloomy ass forest, it's creepy as hell."

A man was standing in front of the forest keeping an eye out for any beginners. He let those he was familiar with pass on into the forest while forbidding anyone who couldn't match the requirements.

"Hey student over there, you need five people to go in unless you are rank 2."

"Why do you have to be annoying."

"Shut it kid, I'm saving your life."

The man sighed. These stupid idiots who think their dick is big just because they awakened. They think fighting is a walk in the park and end up getting their arrogant faces killed.

The man saw a black haired boy with a blank mask walking towards the entrance. Suspicious, the man stopped the boy.

"Hey kid, what rank are you?"

The boy looked up tilting his head.

"Rank 1, why?"

"It's too dangerous for a rank 1 to solo the Danger Zone. I recommend you to go get a group."

The boy seemed to ponder before replying.

"But I'm all alone?"

The man sighed.

"If you go to the adventurers guild, you can find groups to party up with."

Seeing the boy hesitate, the man sighed.

"What is ur class?"

"Assassin? I think."

"Ok, wait a bit. HEY JACK, I HAVE AN ASSASSIN FOR YOU GUYS!"

"REALLY? COMING!"

A blonde man jogged over and smiled.

"Thanks man, we were about to quit because we couldn't find an assassin who wasn't taken."

The blond man glanced at the boy wearing a mask.

"I hope your good, I am Jack."

"I'm... I'm..."

"No need to tell me your name, I can tell you want to keep it a secret."

Jack tapped his face.

"The mask."

"Oh..."

Jack turned around and thanked the man before turning around and went back to his group with the boy in tow.

The man frowned.

I hope the boy is good.

—————————————————————

"Let me introduce you, this is Ward, our tank. The boy with a bow is Pale. The boy with the book is called Ali and is a fire ability user while the girl is Ver a mage."

Jack turned to the group.

"This is our substitute assassin. Call him, uhhh, Mask."

"Very detailed."

"Oh be quiet, you didn't give me much to work off with."

Jack faced the forest with a serious gaze.

"Ok mask. What you have to do is scout ahead for danger and tell us. You don't need to engage."

"Ok."

"Can you scout."

"I can track and hide, if that's what you want."

"Show us."

Mask immediately disappeared into the shadows.

Jack let out a gasp of surprise.

"Impressive, not a lot of people can do that."

Pale let out a snort.

"Bet he doesn't know how to even hold a knife."

A voice spoke from behind Pale in a lazy manner.

"Bet you wanna reconsider that statement."

Pale froze.

A pitch black sword lay on his throat, like a noose on a hanging pole.

W-when did the sword get there.

Pale let out a weak laugh.

"You idiot, the sword is dull."

"I know it is. I have sharper thing that I use on my enemies. I have a feeling that you don't wanna be my enemy, don't you think so too?"

Pale sighed.

"Ok, he has some skill."

"Thank you."

Jack let out a grin.

That man sure did get me a hella good assassin. Even I couldn't see where he was until he stroke.

"That was a good demonstration Mask. We will be counting on you."

"No problem."

Mask tools the blade off of Pale's throat and disappeared into the shadows.

Jack faces his group.

"Lets go hunting shall we."

The group walked into the forest high alert. They glanced back and forth trying to find any stray beast or monster that might have escaped from Mask yet they had not seen a single living being throughout the entire hour they were hunting. However, dead ones were seen a lot.

The group of five continued to walk upon recently killed monster corpses that shared one single feature: slit throats.

I hadn't heard from Mask all this time too.

Worried, Jack called out for Mask.

"Hey Mask, you still kicking?"

Immediately a voice replied.

"Nope, this is the ghost of Mask speaking. How may I help you?"

"So you are still alive."

"Why does it sound like you want me dead?"

Jack laughed.

"Do you know what happened to these monsters?"

"Yes."

Silence descended in the forest, except for an occasional owl hoot and wolf howl.

"What happened?"

Mask went silent for some time before answering.

"I killed it, was I not supposed to do that?"

Pale let out a yell.

"You are saying that you did all of this?"

"Yeah."

Pale started sweating bullets.

What would have happened if Mask didn't show me mercy?

He would be dead.

Jack sighed.

"It's fine that you kill the monsters but did you collect their cores?"

"Yeah, here you go."

Mask handed a jingling bag of cores.

"You can keep them, and don't push it. You can alert us of the monster instead of fighting it solo."

"Ok, there is a group of goblins up ahead about one hundred meters."

"What!"

"A pack of wolves to our left about three hundred meters."

"!!!"

"And a murder of crows resting on a tree on our right about two hundred thirty meters."

"H-how the hell do you know this?"

"I have good eyes? I think."

I just got a hella good scout and assassin.

Jack couldn't help but gaze at Mask in admiration.

"Take us to the group of goblins."

"Sure thing."

The group of six went on with five of them having incredulous faces and one person walking as if he owned the world.