Birth of the Demonic Sword

'This should be enough.'

Noah could sense that other soldiers were still alive on the ship but none of them seemed willing to show their face.

'My last attack should have scared them, time to go.'

About a minute had passed since the last member of his raiding team had left, there was no reason to wait any further.

Noah turned and began to run in the direction of one of the escape points.

"The dock is under attack!"

"It's the Hive!"

"Converge on the coast!"

The shouts of the reinforcements of the legal organizations could be heard in the area, they increased Noah's determination in leaving as soon as he could.

Shockwaves were created under his feet, he used the Shadow sprint many times to reach the farther escape point marked on Clive's map.

The soldiers were able to follow Noah's tracks due to the noise that he caused with the activation of his martial art but he was fast and had started to escape at the right moment, he reached the matrix before they could point out his exact position.

The teleportation matrix was in a dark alley behind a seemingly luxurious building, Noah didn't hesitate in placing a few hundred Credits on the ground to activate it.

In a few seconds, he was back in the familiar underground area.

'It's over, that went extremely well.'

Noah heaved a sigh of relief at the sight of the purple walls, he could relax now that he was back in the sect.

He lowered his hood and picked a direction, the rendezvous point was in the training area where the problematic disciples of his faction were forced to stay.

It didn't take long before he reached that area, most disciples were sleeping in corners near the walls but a small group could be seen in the distance, forming a circle as they sat on the ground.

Noah recognized the members of his team and neared them, there was an empty spot next to Clive that Noah guessed he had purposely kept for him.

'I guess hierarchy is really valued here.'

Noah was the second in command in Clive's group so he could sit next to him.

Clive opened his eyes when Noah sat, he smiled when he saw him taking two bloody hands from his robe and throwing them at the center of the group.

"What now?"

Noah asked, he didn't know how they intended to share their profits nor what they actually gained from the mission.

"We place all the loot at the center and divide it. You can request an item as long as it doesn't surpass the value of your share. Yet, if you want it even if it surpasses your share, you can add Credits or other items to the center to make up for it."

Clive answered, he seemed used to that kind of practice.

"What if two of us want the same item?"

Noah questioned, it wasn't unusual for something valuable to be desired by more people.

"You find an agreement, those not interested won't interfere."

Noah nodded at Clive's words and stood up to take back the bloody hands from the center of the group.

Then, he took the rings on their fingers and inspected their contents before emptying them and placing everything back at the center.

The soldier didn't have much, only about twenty thousand Credits, a few potions, and a scroll containing the third Kesier rune.

"We can cover the expenses for the matrixes with this, great!"

Clive exclaimed when he saw the rune, the third one was quite widespread but its value was still high.

The Kesier runes were the most common and effective training method for the sea of consciousness after all, every organization needed as many copies as it could.

Also, the missions of the factions didn't count as proper services for the sect, the missions' building would refund the Credits expended for the matrixes only if the sect greatly benefitted from those missions.

Clive then took a few rings from his robe, he had fought on the ship and managed to loot some of his victims too, the contents of the storage devices were soon exposed to the rest of the team.

'More Credits and potions, one inscribed weapon in the first rank, one in the second one, and a rank 1 cultivation technique, not bad.'

Noah thought as he watched the loot.

Clive seemed to have killed more soldiers but his loot had the same value of Noah's one.

Then, it was the turn of the other disciples, Credits and potions piled in the center of their group as the rings of the dead soldiers were emptied, scrolls containing runes or low-level technique rarely appeared.

Lastly, the runners emptied their rings.

They were the ones appointed to steal the contents of the ship, ideally, most of the gains of the mission would come from them.

Yet, everyone was soon disappointed when they saw that their loot consisted mostly of rank 3 magical beasts' corpses, with only a couple of body parts belonging to rank 4 creatures.

"Rumors are only rumors after all, there wasn't even the rank 3 cultivator mentioned in the report…"

Clive sighed as he said those words, if they subtracted the cost for the activation of the matrixes, the share for each disciple would barely reach a thousand Credits of value.

"Anyone interested in anything?"

Clive asked but no one seemed interested in those items.

'The body parts of the rank 4 creatures aren't bad but there are too few of them and not even one complete body, I'd rather have merits points at this point.'

Noah analyzed the loot and decided that it was better to begin to save for the fourth Kesier rune instead of having materials that were only vaguely useful to him.

"Good, I will send everything to Marcia's faction except for the Credits. We will first subtract those expended in the teleportation and then equally divide the remaining sum."

No one objected to Clive's conclusion, in a few minutes, the Credits were equally divided between the group.

"We are done for now, go back to your caves. I will notify you when the Leader hears another unreal rumor."

Small laughs resounded in the training area, the raiding group divided itself and its members returned to their respective habitations to rest.