Soon the thugs came infront of the shade clearly in hopes of finally robbing a fine target.
As to them his clothes although a little creepy looked like it could be sold for a high price and they could change their lives.
But ooh boy they were soo dead wrong..not only he was dirt poor. Heck even poor than them, even his clothes were made up of shadows which can't even be sold.
As for being the good target, well what do I say he was the worst target they could possibly find in this place.
They were a total of 6 people all with broken weapons. Yes, broken weapons cause you ain't finding any good weapons in this shithole.
Then one of them asked shade "Blacky, don't you know you are in the area of the backward gang"
'Well a little rude but I can still work with not like I need to give them jobs or something just few questions ' Shade thought thinking of the man's rudeness.
Shade didn't reply anything.
Then the other one asked getting his confidence on thinking the target was scared.
"Yeah you blacky , deaf or something" he said with a smug voice.
"Let's talk somewhere else this isn't a fine place" Shade said while also slowly checking there shadows if it had any Umbra.
Lucky for the 6 none of them had any meaning he didn't need to kill them as long as he scared them a little and he got his answers.
The 6 were shocked by the shade's response as none of them ever thought that someone who was about to be robbed would say something like this.
'Shouldn't we be saying something like this' they all thought the same thing with confusion but thinking they were in upper hand with weapons decided to agree.
"Hey, tonpa lead the way this guy's very cooperative" one of them said looking at a fat man clearly the oldest one among them.
'What's up with the naming sense of this world or all names like this' shade thought after coming across names like sage and tonpa.
Then the man raised his chin slightly in confidence and said "follow me"
Soon after a while of twisting and turning in different alleys they finally reached their destination as tonpa stopped and turned grinning.
The alley was small filled with darkness and shadows which was pretty bad for them but they didn't realise it.
Then shade started speaking to make something clear.
"Let me make things clear here, you'll be answering few of my questions and you're free to go"
Few of them chuckled a laugh not realising it could be their last laugh they will ever have.
One of them tried to move forward so he can threaten shade into dropping everything he had but failed to do so.
Then slowly all of them turned their eyes towards their feat which was now covered with pitch black shadows blocking their movements.
Then there eyes turn towards the man that they had just called Blacky who was also covered in the same pitch black darkness.
At that they knew, they fucked up.
Then realising that the one infront of them was an Ascender they knelt down and started to beg for mercy in ways shade didn't even knew existed.
They were stupid but not stupid enough to offend an Ascender who can break there sense of reality.
'Damm they gave up very fast, I thought they would need a beating in Asian father style' he thought picturing a belt in his hands.
"The deal still stands, you answer my question and i let you go" he said calmly but amused a little in inside.
They all looked at each other and said in a synchronized voice
"YES SIR"(6x)
"Now for the first question where are we currently at" Shade asked in a commanding voice cause if the scene with the boy were happen again he won't let them go.
Then they all started to say different things clearly loosing their synchronisation in voice and annoying shade.
"Only one of you" shade said in a displeased tone.
Then they all except started staring at the man named tonpa with the sole exception of tonpa himself as if telling him *speak motherfucker* .
Then tonpa cleared his neck still kneeling and said "we are currently in the farthest section of the The Aztec Empire from the gate and the palace also known as the outskirts. Sir"
"Are all of the Aztec Empire like this or just this area" shade asked wanting to know more.
"No sir, the closer you move towards the main gate or the kingdom palace the better the living situation and expensive it gets, Sir"
He said answering everything he knew.
Now tonpa was starting to get suspicious on how he entered here without knowing all this as one would notice it just by looking.
"What's the fastest way to earn money you know off" shade asked knowing he would eventually need money in one way or another.
"Sir, the fastest way I know is to either become an adventurer or a Hunter but since its only for strong people like you, we don't do it due to the high chances of death" tonpa said thinking shade was a strong Ascender.
"Do only humans live in this empire or any other race too" shade asked
"Mainly the humans live in this empire but its quite frequent to see someone of any other race aside from humans but only in the big cities and not in a place like this, sir" tonpa answered getting tired of shade's questions.
Then slowly the shadows around their feet disappeared and they were free to go but none of them moved until shade said it.
"You're free to go " he said indifferently but to them it sounded like the drums of liberation.
They slowly stood trying to guard against any sudden attack but once they fully stood up they ran.
They ran like their entire life depend on it cause to them it actually did.
Then seeing them running shade realized something " I forgot to ask for directions "
But they all had fully disappeared with nothing remaining.