***********

4 months before joining the World Academy,

Asher was coming out of an E Rank Dungeon with Emmy, who followed him around every dungeon.

“Young Master, I have brought that guy,” Emmy pointed at Tom, sitting in the lounge waiting for Asher.

“Wait here; we will move to the next dungeon immediately after I am done,” Asher said as he entered the lounge.

“Ah, Boss, I heard you called me?” Tom asked, but he was still not comfortable around Asher.

“I need you to find some dirt on Darren Marks; he is one of the executives for the Abyss Corporation,” Asher said to Tom, who started finding the basic information about Darren.

A hologram depicting Darren’s image with his family appeared before Asher.

‘So this was the guy who leaked the information to the Williams,’ Asher knew there were a few moles in the Abyss Corporation, but Darren was the biggest one who profited off the loss of the Greville family.

He was personally given a spot in the new company in a joint collaboration introduced 2 years later by Leonard Tarvian. It was a company that Leonard made together with Reece Williams, who was Eva’s older brother and the heir of the Williams Family.

“Strange,” Tom muttered, which made Asher raise his eyebrows.

“Did you find something?” Asher asked as Tom presented some other faces.

“Darren Marks did some shady stuff, but I still can’t find something that can be used against him. However, he was in contact with these guys all the time when he moved out of Somaria,” Tom replied.

It was easy for him to find information related to Darren as Asher had allowed Tom to use the Abyss Corporation’s information network that contained information on all the executives and below for himself.

“Hmm,” Asher looked around to find familiar faces.

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“Find out more about them,” Asher pointed at two people.

“Them… Found it, this man is Gemard Ratliff, and he is Robert Willis,” Tom pointed them out as he looked into further details.

“Keep digging about them. I need details of their every move,” Asher said.

After 3 months, Tom finally found the information he needed, and Asher could eventually move.

In his office at the Abyss Corporation building,

“So this is his son?” Asher said while looking at the information Tom had found.

“Yeah, and he was involved in kidnapping people, mostly girls,” It was apparent what Tom was trying to say.

“He is a D Rank hunter and currently is 20 years old,” Tom said while Asher looked at the other information regarding Gemard and Robert.

“That Darren guy had invested a lot of money cleaning his son’s mess, but there is still some proof we can expose them,” Tom explained, but Asher looked at him indifferently.

“Why do you think I will expose them?” Asher asked.

“He is a bad guy, and we-” Tom was speaking, but he realized that Asher had got him to work similarly.

If Asher wanted, Darren would have been removed from his position due to the amount of authority Sylvie had in Abyss Corporation. No one who knew about Abyss Corporation underestimated her.

***

Two weeks before joining the World Academy,

In a mansion,

“What! Where am I?” The 20-year-old young man shouted as he saw he was cuffed to a chair.

But his eyes went wide as he saw Asher entering the room.

“You’re Asher Greville, right?” The young man spoke, but Asher looked at him with an indifferent look.

‘Did one of my victims have a connection to him?’ The 20-year-old kept thinking of reasons why Asher would kidnap him.

“Wait, I’ll give you money. My father works as an executive in Abyss Corporation; you might even know about him-” He was speaking when Asher dashed forward and plunged his sword into his heart.

Host has gained 5000 Exp

Host has leveled up

“So, I get experience for killing humans as well,” Asher smirked.

Asher left the room and saw Emmy, who was waiting outside.

“Send the video you recorded earlier to Tom; he knows what to do with it,” He said as Emmy disappeared to clean up the dead body.

**

“What? Why do you have my son?!” Darren shouted as he never imagined that his only son would get kidnapped.

“I’ll give you money-” He spoke but realized that the man in front of him wouldn’t need money from him at all.

“Just arrange a meeting for me and a simple task,” Asher said with a calm look on his face.

“And you’ll get your son back, simple, right?” Asher said as his eyes stared at Darren.

Even through the screen, Darren got nervous, staring into his eyes.

“I’ll do it. Just tell me. Don’t hurt my son,” Darren had no choice.

The man who threatened him had the power to kill his son and not get punished. In a similar way, he had saved his son countless times. The authorities wouldn’t even dare point at Asher Greville unless it was a huge crime.

Asher smirked as the video turned off, and he stood up from his table inside the World Academy. He had lied about Darren’s son still being alive and well. Darren had no way of knowing about it as well.

“Now, bring those guys inside Soran,” Asher muttered to himself as he looked at his next targets.

Gemard and Robert were people who worked for the Allister and Rothschild families and were deeply associated with some of their illegal activities.

*************

Asher was traveling to the Black Market in Maxzil, a city between Soran and Vernes in Somaria.

They took the teleporting gate to cut the distance, and both Asher and Tom arrived in Maxzil with Asher’s entire security team behind them.

Most of them were B Rank hunters, and a few were early A Rank hunters.

“Garreth, we’re going to the black market. Make all the arrangements,” Asher said, looking at one of his bodyguards.

“As you wish, Young Master,” Garreth replied as a car arrived for Asher.

“Keep looking for those two,” Asher said as Tom got in as well.

The black-colored car moved through various buildings as Asher thought about his next move.

‘Let’s see what James Rothschild will do now,’ Asher said in his mind.

Robert was not a normal person who was a simple businessman. He was involved in the business of the Rothschild family, and his going missing out of nowhere would surely confuse James.

But the biggest target was Gemard, who was working directly for the Allister family and was involved with the Tarvians as well.

Although Asher could have used both of them to his advantage, this was not his plan. Most of the Elite families had many special artifacts and items with immense value. Just like the Greville family had their secret vault that only the family head knew about.

But apart from the Greville family, most of the other Elite families allied with each other, so even if Asher targeted their businesses, it wouldn’t matter much. And the amount of impact Gemard and Robert could have had was not so high.

‘Let’s see if they take the bait,’ Asher thought in his mind.

************

In a broken-down building on the outskirts of Maxzil, two men were covered in blood, sitting close to each other.

“I told you we shouldn’t have killed him,” A man shouted at his partner.

“Now we have the whole Spyder hunting for us,” He was annoyed because they were having difficulty escaping.

“What choice did I have anyway?” His partner replied as he drank a potion to heal himself.

“That guy would have killed us anyway, and you know the real reason I joined Spyder,” His eyes were filled with anger.

“Dane, do you think we can defeat an SS Rank hunter and kill him? We should just give up,” The man said with a frustrated look on his face.

“I will break through S Rank soon; we just need to escape and stay low,” Dane replied.

“But what should we do about them?” Dane smiled innocently as he looked around at multiple dead bodies around him.

“I will burn them; can’t have the World Association on our tails,” The man said with a shrug.

“Hehe, that’s my partner,” Dane said as he wiped the blood on his face.

“Did they have any money?” Dane asked as he touched the body of one of the men.

“Not even a single spatial ring and the artifacts are marked as well; we can’t even sell them,” His partner kicked the ground in annoyance.

“It’s fine. I will stay with you even if you are poor. I’m not so mean as to leave you in these tough times,” Dane replied as he acted like an innocent person.

But his act didn’t hide the fact that half of his face and his clothes were covered with blood.

“Crazy bastard, before the Spyder kills us both, I might kill you myself,” His partner held the urge to beat the hell out of him.

************

At the famous Black Market of Maxzil,

“Milson, there will be guests coming for a deal with Mana Crystals,” A man spoke to the man before him.

“Make sure that you get the best price; there was a sudden demand for mana crystals,” He explained as Milson nodded at him.

“But who requested it, though?” Milson asked, but the man’s glare made him close his mouth.

“You don’t need to know that, and don’t try to guess the identity of the guests either,” The man spoke as his aura started leaking, making Milson tremble a bit.

The man turned and disappeared from his spot.

“Why is he so harsh on me,” Milson picked up a white mask and put it on his face.

He was one of the managers that worked at the Black Market, and they had got information that somebody wanted to trade a huge amount of Mana Crystals.