Chapter 157: Hassan and the Nine-Headed Thief (8)

Clink—

The olive tree club that I threw hit the lantern perfectly. To be honest, I believed that the odds were 50-50.

After all, stone-throwing was something that I practiced a lot back in my days as a slave and gladiator. Moreover, it seemed like my hit rate had increased because my dexterity had been recalibrated due to the blessing of the Sun God.

When the last remaining lantern went out, the underground area became completely dark.

At the same time, the thieves that were all over the area stirred.

"Turning off the lights? It's fun, reminds me of when I'm working."

"Certainly, the dark side is more comfortable for us."

True to their nature as criminals who operate under the cover of shadow and clouded moonlight, they showed no signs of panic even with their vision obscured.

It seemed that their leader, Ismail, was no different.

"Being night-sighted is not so much a talent as it is an innate ability. Do you think you can hide from me with just the lights out?"

Slide—

Eventually, he pulled out a small lantern with a glowing stone from his waist. The lantern emitted a soft blue light, illuminating the surroundings and decorating the floor.

Swoop— Swoop—

Ismael moved the lantern all over the place.

However, the guy was still unable to find me even after all of his effort and just looked at the place where I used to be.

One of the thieves spoke at that moment.

"Did he disappear?"

"Did he hide during that short period of time? He really must be a holder of a blessing."

70.

69.

68......

After activating "Night's Cloak", it becomes harder for people to detect me. However, In order to do that, it was necessary for me to disappear from the other's sight first.

That's why I turned off the lights and created a temporary blackout. Even though I was fully aware that as thieves they would be used to the darkness.

Since they were still human, I was sure that there should be a time when their sight was fully blocked before it was adjusted to the darkness.

And it seemed like my predictions were correct.

I quickly hid behind a suitable pillar and peeked through the corner for the thieves' movements.

Ismael, the leader of the thieves, continued to struggle to find me with a lantern and dagger in hand.

"There is no point in wasting time. This fight is between you and me. It will only end when one of us dies!"

Suddenly, Ismael started cutting into the air with the dagger he held. Did he start attacking because he thought that my body had become transparent?

Swiiish—

Swiiish—

The sound that the dagger produced while slicing through the air was similar to the hiss of a snake. Since the dagger was coated with Hydra's poison, it was no different from the fangs of a vicious snake.

60.

59......

The numbers in front of my eyes continue to change as I hold my breath.

Just as Ismael said, there was no point in wasting time. After all, my blessing would run out in a minute. Once that happened, he would surely find and injure me using that dagger.

If so, the only time for me to cause a variable in this match was now.

I looked around myself in order to find something that might be useful.

I saw small fragments of stones on the ground at my feet. It seems to be pieces of the base that Ismail, the leader of the thieves, had smashed earlier to show off his strength.

So, the pillar I was hiding behind right now was that pillar, huh?

After grabbing the pebbles on the floor, I prepared myself to throw them towards Ismael. Since I was currently standing behind a pillar, the best posture to throw it should be a sidearm throw.

What I was aiming for was the lantern he was holding.

Please, hit!

Fyuuh......

Since my current strength stats was sitting at 12, the stone that I threw flew like a bullet before hitting his arm.

Bam—

"Kuaghh!"

Ismail screams as the stone hits, dropping the lantern in his hands from the pain.

Tang— Tang—

It was unreasonable in the first place to hope that the stone would exactly hit the lantern, nevertheless, the result from the throw was still aligned with my goal of creating a gap.

Step—

I kicked the ground and launched myself from behind the pillar I was hiding towards the head of the thief. At that moment, the blessing was deactivated and at the same time, the people around Ismael stirred once again.

"Huh?"

"There you are!"

Ismael, the leader, turns his head towards me. Probably because of the people around him that had noticed me before him.

"You bastard!"

He moved his arms as if he was trying to counter my ambush. Unfortunately for him, my arms were already stretching towards him, so I was ahead of him by a fraction.

Grab— Bang—

I grabbed his head with the gauntlet that was hugging my palm and slammed it to the floor.

"Keuk!"

The leader of the thieves screamed as a loud thumping sound echoed.

I then climbed on top of him, raised my right hand that was holding the dagger, and whipped it hard towards his neck.

"Th-this bastard!! Why is he so strong?! Fuucckkk!"

Ismael was proving to be anything but an easy opponent. It wouldn't be strange if he suffered a mild concussion and panicked after his head hit the floor.

But, probably because his head was particularly hard, he quickly came to his senses and used his arms to block my attack. Probably an instinctive action to preserve his life.

Bam— Bam— Bam—

Because of that, my dagger, which should have pierced his neck, could only draw blood from striking his palms, arms, shoulders, and chest.

Although he escaped instant death from being stabbed in the neck, it was certain that the wound was fatal enough to turn his body red.

"Die, you bastard!"

I changed my grip on the dagger into a reverse grip to make sure that my strike would not miss. Then, I raised both of my hands, smashing it hard as I could toward the guy's chest.

"Uggggh!"

Ismael raised his arms to stop my attack. He grabbed my wrists with both of his hands and struggled to keep the dagger's blade away from his heart.

In response, I added the force of my other arm to the one striking down.

Even though my instantaneous burst of strength was quite high, my endurance was weak.

Thus, If I could not seize the opportunity and defeat this guy, it was clear that I would be the first one to run out of gas.

I squeezed my entire body as I gritted my teeth with some strength that would make people think that the thing I wanted to destroy was not only Ismael but also my molar.

"Keeeuuk!"

"Y-you son of a bitch!! I-I am Ismael, the King on top of the Mountain......! I, I......!"

My hands started to push the tip of the dagger into his heart at that moment.

Squeeze—

I could feel the sensation of the sharp tip piercing through the layer of his black clothing and slicing through his bones and organs in my arms.

"Kuhuk, heukkk."

At that moment, strength started to evaporate from the body of the Thieves' Guild leader as if his struggle until now was nothing but a lie.

Looking at that sight that transpired before me made me realize that I had finally driven the blade into his heart.

But, I was far from satisfied with that alone. So, I pulled the dagger out again and used it to stab into the guy's neck and heart.

In this world, magic, curses, and peculiar blessings exist, so I had to make sure by confirming the kill.

Pak— Papak—

As I was driving the blade into the unyielding leader's body.

Rustle—

I felt the presence of someone approaching me from my back.

"Stop, he's definitely dead. You can stop now."

It was Dorothea, an executive of the Thieves Guild. She stepped back from me, hips pushed back in a crouching stance, tapping my shoulder.

"It's over now!"

"Fyuuhh......"

Only then could I finally relax my grip. The redness in my vision slowly returned to normal, and the ambient noise I hadn't heard began to flow again in my ears.

It must be because the adrenaline that had surged to my head was gradually subsiding.

I could feel my chest and stomach throbbing at that moment. I could also feel something acidic threatening to rise up at the back of my throat. I must have suffered this injury because of the blind punch that Ismael did.

"Hu......"

After blowing one more long breath, I moved my hand towards the leader's wrist.

I could not feel his pulse at all.

The string of letters that should have floated in front of my eyes also didn't appear.

Which means, he was really really dead.

I just killed a man.

My arms and legs started to tremble at that new feeling. The hungry ghost, who used to have a lot of strength, no longer had the strength to hold the dagger.

In any case, I had won.

In this dog-eat-dog world, confrontation was a matter of life and death, so there was no room to hear what morality and ethics had to say.

Flap—

I pulled myself from the bloodied and ragged head of the Thieves Guild leader. Then, I start to rummage through his belongings for anything useful.

No one dared to interrupt or stop me. Everyone just stared at me, probably wondering what would happen to them in the future.

Rattle—

I got a lantern that contained a blue glowstone and a poisoned dagger from him. On top of that, I also get five underground silver coins. Last but not least, I also get a key with a strange decoration.

"That key...... It's the key to the leader's safe."

At that moment, the big man, Big Joe, approached me while acting like he knew about the key.

"That skull ornament at the end of the key...... That key is undoubtedly the skeleton key. It is the key to the safe where all the previous leaders have hidden their treasures."

As Big Joe said, it was a key with a strange skull-shaped decoration. A vault where past leaders hid their treasures? The unusual identity made my stomach tingle.

Were there any gold coins inside that safe? How about gold bars? I wish it had gold bars inside. It was my wish to have at least one gold bar in my life.

Gold bars.

Just looking at them seems like it would satisfy my hunger.

As I was thinking about that shiny iron bar, someone started talking to me.

"So, you are now our new leader. To think you'd really kill that Ismael. What should we call you now?"

At Big Joe's question, my head went pure white. What should they call me? Is he asking me to decide on a title, a nickname, or a pseudonym?

But, as I always said, I was not good at this kind of thing. The only names that came to my mind were Oldolgol and Meng Huo.

Rather, why in the world did Luna and Hippolyte not arrive yet? It's about time for them to arrive. And here I am, having accidentally taken out the boss and become one myself.

Fuck, what should I do?

Since this was something that I had not planned beforehand, my thoughts were out of order. It was as if an earthquake rumbled in my head.

Hassan the King of Thieves.

To think I became the king of thieves......

I had become the leader of a criminal group that was said to be the best in Sodomora.

"So, what now? Are we canceling today's plan?"

"Since we have a new leader, we will have new rules. What are you going to do?"

I could feel everyone's eyes were turning towards me.

Now that it's come to this, I realize that I don't really fit in a position where I have to make decisions.

To be the leader of criminals in this city... If I get tangled up in some strange law and get caught, it's straight to jail, regardless of my adventurer rank, even reaching the gold tier wouldn't help.

I might even be dragged off to a prison city as a big-shot criminal. Damn, a prison city. That's a future I must avoid.

Therefore, I forced my head to go into overdrive and opened my mouth.

"Didn't you say that the leader's order is absolute? Then, to commemorate my coronation as a leader, this is my first order. All of you, surrender yourself."

"What the fuck?"

"What nonsense is that!"

Their reaction was fierce. Even though I had killed their previous leader, these guys were also known as criminals. If these guys make up their minds and pull out their swords and attack, can I, who was close to exhaustion, overwhelm them?

The figure of Caesar being stabbed by his own people suddenly appeared in front of my eyes.

Because of that, cold sweat broke out on my back

"No, no, I am just kidding. You are free to not surrender yourself. But, how about disbanding the guild itself......?"

"Disbanding the guild?"

"Are you serious? That's honestly not a bad idea."

I just thought I better say something like that because I felt like I had a rat in my head. However, the response from the Thieves' Guild executives was something I didn't expect.

A man with a slender and thin build opened his mouth at that moment. If I remember correctly, his name was Astrid.

"Honestly, Hydra is already past its prime. Since the pressure from the top is big, it would be nice to dissolve the old guild and reorganize it with a new name."

As if his opinion was the cue, everyone started to voice their opinions too.

"Pretending to be subjugated and disappearing before growing new strength? Then, it will be the first time the guild will change its name."

"Good. It's common practice for thieves to make up new aliases."

"I have suggested it to Ismael... No, I have repeatedly suggested it to the previous leader as well. But, they never accept it. They are strangely obsessed with the name Hydra."

"But who are we supposed to tell that we were subjugated by? No one would believe us if we said we were subjugated by an adventurer. It will make it obvious that we are trying to abandon the old boat and change to a new one."

"What about the rest of the guys in the underground market besides us? They don't even know we are having this kind of talk."

"Apart from our executives, they are actually not even members of the Thieves' guild, aren't they? Those guys are like parasites who cling to the value of our name, just let them take care of themselves......"

As the seven executives conversed, this wide common area reverberated as if it had become a forum.

It was at that moment that a really great idea popped into my head like a bolt of lightning. Is this what artists felt when they got inspiration?

I then said.

"Let Hydra be known as vanquished by the great archangels of the gods, a hero of the people. Spread that fact far and wide."

"The hero of the people? Are you telling us to lie about being subjugated by a gold-tier adventurer? It would make it too easy for people to see past our lies. If they say they didn't do it, that's the end of it. Forcing this kind of story would be dangerous."

"No, not by a gold-tier adventurer. But, by Mars Guild's Bronze Tier Adventurer. Hassan of Samar......"

As my words were nearing their completion.

Boom—

Black smoke that was accompanied by a loud explosion, as well as the heat of the flames soared in all directions.

"Look, Elfie! Following these arrows will lead us to where the rats are hiding!"

"Indeed, it must be Mercury's guidance. My prayers have been answered."

It was Delphina who appeared along with the flames. To her side, her party members could be seen. They were armed with a staff and sword.

Fuck!

"As I said, start a fire, and the rats will jump out!"