I did some minor missions for 2 months. I had made another batch of Millennial Foxbite. I also made sure to not neglect my Dragonvein. I recalibrated and got a proficiency of 3.7% and 2.9% authority. Everything got a huge boost. But the most important one was my lightning. I liked using lightning for assassinations, it was quick and decisive and if could briefly paralyze or stun the target whenever it didn''t instantly kill. I could use red lightning again because of this boost. A bit more and I can go orange when I want. Hey Esher, let''s spar!
“Huh, that''s sudden.” I want to steal your shadow tricks, come on show me or I will torch you!
“You do know that I’m the leader here and I can kick you out at any moment, right?” Then do it.
“Ugh, fine, I won’t go easy on you!”
I pretended to coat a dagger with Millennial Foxbite.
“Wait! Are you insane?!”
I [shadow bound] him and threw the dagger at him, he evaded but I swapped with the dagger and tried to kick him but it got blocked. I finally saw what his trick was. His shadow blocked it. But not my kick, the kick of my shadow. The shadow punched at me and I blocked it so my shadow would block it and I got sent flying backward.
Well, this is interesting. Esher’s shadow split into 3 and he himself put in no effort in breaking out of the shadow bind. I could easily deal with these with the bright dragons but I won''t learn anything.
“You''re not going to use those bright dragons this time?” I can beat you up with those after I figure out how this works.
“Good luck.” Esher started throwing hidden daggers at me while the shadows were moving as shadows do but without bodies.
I had to pay attention to them on the floor and Esher as the real body. Esher threw another dagger except he didn''t. Only the shadow of a dagger flew at me. I dodged it. It didn''t feel like anything passed me but I knew it was thrown for a reason. I stopped moving because I got [Shadow bound]. Esher used [Shadow clone] and now there were 4 Eshers and 7 shadows, oh the shadows detached from his clones and himself. Now it was an 11 vs 1.
I can see how this can be extremely strong. I’m not used to tracking shadows on the floor. Tracking the real bodies was easy. I threw out some wires and they cut the shadows but that didn''t seem to hinder them. I bound the shadow clones but the shadows cut the shadows of the wires. So, the shadows don''t care what the original material is made of… if the shadow gets cut it breaks…
“Impressive, eh?” I managed to defeat 2 shadow clones but they turned into shadows when I defeated them. Is this why you’re the leader?
“No, it’s because of my charisma and fast thinking but this might have contributed yes.” I assume you avoid fire and light users like the plague.
“I can choose to not use it and just use standard assassination.”
Fair point. He kept sending more shadows at me and I jumped back. A cloud was passing over the sun and it cast a shadow. The shadows couldn''t do anything as I stayed in the cloud''s shadow. Esher started harassing me with dagger strikes and dagger throws together with his shadow clone to get me out of the shadow of the cloud. One of his shadows could move around in the shadow of the cloud. I assume this is the real shadow of Esher. I shadow bound it and Esher stopped moving.
Oh, so these rules also apply to you. I kicked Esher away; this broke the shadow bind but also sent the shadow flying as if it got kicked. It seems that no matter what happens the shadow is still linked to his body but that''s the same for me. He can make his shadow attack my shadow which will affect my real body. So, if I fight back and my shadow hits his shadow his real body should take damage.
He could move separately from his shadow so fighting him was always at least a 2v1.
This is very nasty if you’re fighting him and you''re not aware of this. Esher started preparing something that looked like a poison mist. I took liquid shadow vodka out, and used [Shadow Vodka Blaze], destroying the poison mist.
“That is… a very creative way of dealing with [Poison Mist]... mind if I steal that one?” Sure, because soon I will steal your shadow tricks.
Esher started to throw hundreds of hidden daggers and went into stealth. He also made his shadows split into 6. I couldn''t find the real shadow. I used [Shadow Tendril] and attempted to [Shadow Bind] all of them. I dodged the daggers and flung daggers in every direction as I dodged. I heard clanking noise to the side and sent some wires in that direction.
Esher dropped out of stealth, jumped back and used [Poison Mist]. I didn''t have enough time to counter this so I had to create distance. I didn’t know what poison he used but I was only immune to 1 and resistant to another. I wasn''t going to gamble with just 2 resistances. I narrowly parred a dagger strike from a shadow. It was hard to keep looking at the ground when I know Esher is lurking around and probably with another shadow clone. A shadow clone appeared from nowhere and 3 shadows were closing in on me. Jumping was useless because I would still have a shadow. I concede. That was amazing.
“Well, I know you don''t normally fight like this but I will take the win.” I’m sure you don''t fight like this either, normally. I think I got the gist of how it works. When your shadow hits my shadow it is as if you physically it me right?
“Yeh, the shadow obeys the body and the body obeys the shadow. When you [Shadow bound] my real shadow, my body had to obey the state my shadow was in. You could have also kicked my shadow and I would have flown back the same. You also noted that my shadows didn''t care what material your wire is made out of, if they cut the shadow of the wires, the wire breaks. Now you were so kind to use the thick wires but the thin wires will not cast shadows, they won''t hit my shadows either but well... I still have a physical body.” And it seems to be countered by dark shadows and light although your real shadow could move through it.
“Yeah, because it is the only real shadow.” Some cool techniques you have.
“Thank you for thinking that but honestly anyone proficient in shadow magic can learn this. Just like you can freely move [Shadow Tendrils], you can freely move your own shadow, you do need [Shadow Split] though.” Makes sense, so question, if I form my shadow in the form of a fish, what will happen to my real body?
“It will take the same shape, I wouldn''t recommend changing the shape of your own shadow, that would be an easy way to die…” Hmm ok, thanks! This was educational. Do I have a mission or can I practice?
“We have a lot of assassins out of the field so we just ran out of missions. Good luck with practicing. You have a good basis so I expect to see results within 2 months!” Long mission?
“Probably, Shade will give you your next mission.” Alright, I’ll try to get this down. Esher and I went inside to rest a bit. Esher sat down on the couch.
“That was an interesting fight, unfortunately I have to leave tomorrow so you’re on your own.” That is fine.
We talked a bit and Esher left. I rested for the day and started the next day. I did know [Shadow Split] but I never used it much. Whenever I used it, it just turned into a formless blob so I had to practice forming these. That was actually the only thing about it and controlling them. Controlling different shadows was like controlling my tails separately. I’m cheating with my race again I guess, this was difficult for humans who don''t have multiple limbs or tails. Maybe all these assassin techniques were so easy to compensate for leylines being so hard. That would be nice. After mastering this I just needed to polish my skills. I couldn''t let these shadows control my wires because the wires wouldn''t be thin enough if they had shadows, that was unfortunate.
I could make shapes into daggers but I couldn''t make functional shadows of myself like Esher could. I could only split my own shadow and make 1 extra. I might not be as talented as Esher in this but I have a wide range of skills so this isn''t that big of a deal.
A month is all it took for me to master the basics it was possible to split off 3 shadows now. I wondered if it was possible to teleport with this. My shadow could snap to my body when I wanted to, does this work vice versa? I attempted to teleport behind a tree and... I crashed into the tree… It works but it’s not a teleport. I rolled on the floor while circulating nature energy to my face.
Shade appeared. “What are you doing?” Teleporting into trees, a new mission?
“Yes, you are to go to Jarn Kingdom and assassinate the king who is plotting a large-scale war and is making the lives worse for its subjects. You are to go with Io, here is some medicine against headaches, good luck.” Shade left as suddenly as he came. I read the details of the document he gave me and I heard Io cheer in the distance… Maybe I should consider retiring from this place… They couldn''t find a mentor for her in the end. Almost half a year has passed since I’m here and Io hasn''t been addressed, she is a nice chick just… a dragon. Maybe she is the mascot of this place.
And the mascot was currently dashing towards me.
“Hey! Did you know! We’re on a mission together!” I took some of the medicine Shade gave me.
“Hey, what is that? Can I have too?” It''s toxic to dragons.
“Oh, never mind! Hey, have you seen who we have to assassinate? Why do we have to do that if he''s so weak?!” Hmm? I read the details of our target.
Taylor Schneider(m) is the king of the Jarn kingdom. It is a small yet wealthy and powerful kingdom. Taylor is so weak that he needs a magic suit that creates a sterile environment inside. It is said that salt in his food could kill him, all his food needs to be bland. The walls and floors are soft. No furniture has corners as they''re all round. There are no doors but veils. The only places where he doesn''t need a suit are in the dining hall and his bathhouse because the sterilizing magic covers those completely. He can only shower because he once almost drowned in a bath of 15 cm of water. All his rooms are cooled with wind magic to prevent any heat strokes. They are also not too chilly to prevent him from getting a cold. Hmm, this sounds easy to kill him, the security must be top-tier.
“Let''s just go in and punch him! He will instantly die!” Did you forget that we’re assassins?
“Let’s throw a dagger at him and then punch him!” How have you not massively failed a mission yet?
“Because I''m a dragon!” All kinds of details indicated how weak he was. The walls are special because any decent magic wave will knock him unconscious. How is this guy still alive? He takes it out on his country and Zanyr because he’s so weak and he wants to feel powerful. The country controls 80% of the continent''s textile industry.
Why do they keep doing this? One small country has like 80% of the continent''s electronium, and another controls the textile. Are they not afraid that the whole continent gets crippled if something like an assassination of their king happens.
I took more headache medicine. Humans make no sense. Io, what is a good city to shop in, it can''t have sand.
“Hmm, Itris has a big department store.” A what? And those guys are still alive? I don’t like that place though, how about somewhere else? We need to buy a lot of clothes because it is gonna go to shit after our mission.
“Oh, I always wanted to go to Luja, it''s close to Zanyr, the city and Zanyr river and not too far from Jarn Kingdom!” They called a river and a place both Zanyr?
“Yeah, humans are weird” How far is it?
“2 days by flight and almost 3 weeks of running.” Ugh, running it is.
“But that takes so long! Let''s go by air!” No Io please…
She turned into a dragon, picked me up, and flew away. I covered us in an illusion so nobody would notice a dragon flying over multiple cities. In hindsight this wasn''t such a bad idea, I had 2 days of peace and quiet.
We landed close to the city and Io at least had sturdy underwear on.
You really need to do something about that… I gave her a robe because that was the only stuff, I had that she could wear and we went to the city. There was nothing special about this city. Io had been here before so she showed me the best place where to get clothes and I cleared out the place. Even stuff I can''t wear and women''s clothing because a certain dragon keeps destroying all her clothes. Io was finally in normal clothes again.
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"Let''s find some meat!" I grabbed her by the back of her shirt to prevent her from running off. Lets find a hotel first and I swear, you''re paying if you destroy this one!
"This early? It''s just past 15:00." I''m going to make the weapon that''s gonna kill that weakling.
"Is it dragon fire? How about a dragon claw? Or a dragontail!" It''s as if you''re doing this on purpose… We arrived at the hotel and got 2 rooms. I couldn''t get my room far from Io''s this time.
Right, now you can go get meat, time to make this weapon!
"I wanna watch! But also eat…" Just go. Io left and I started on my secret weapon.
She came in 15 minutes later. "Ugh, what is this smell? My nose and eyes! Why are you wearing a gas mask?! Give me one too!" I only have one, feel the wrath of my secret weapon!
"Huh? It''s just mustard, wait why are you boiling mustard?!" To make a concentrated mustard sauce of course.
"I thought you would make a secret weapon!" Here taste. I pushed a spoonful into her mouth and she reacted strongly.
"Aggh! It''s reaching for my brain! My nose is tingly!” She made weird faces in reaction to the strong mustard sauce I made.
"Whoo that packs a punch! Are you trying to kill me?!" Nope, but this certainly will kill that weakling. He will have his mind blown hehe. Io took another spoon and was suffering from its effect.
"Aaagh!" Why did you take another spoon! I made dinner and used the extra strong mustard sauce with it. Both Io and I got defeated by the might of this mustard sauce.
<hr>
It was time to head for Jarn kingdom and infiltrate the palace.
"Hey, can I have more of that mustard?" No! Stop eating my secret weapon! You already ate too much yesterday!
“But it gives me a kick and makes me feel truly alive! That''s called addiction, you''re not getting any more.
We reached the border and got in easily. It didn''t take long to reach the capital. Everyone was wearing interesting clothing in this city. I am bad at remembering names and faces but I would be able to remember people by their outfits here, everyone wore something unique. It looked a bit like a circus.
"We need to do that too!" I don''t like this idea but you''re right, we stick out like a sore thumb.
We went to a clothing store but it looked more like a costume party. The people saw us come in and ran to us immediately helping us out of our ''hideous'' outfits.
I can see why this king needs to be assassinated, normal clothing is seen as hideous. These people had a lot of fun making us try the weirdest outfits. I didn''t like most of them. I went for a fox onesie and Io wore something that made her look like a peacock. Why is it always something that draws attention… Everyone was loving it and compliments how good it looks on her. My fox onesie had room for ears and 1 tail so I could technically walk around like the real deal. I looked if there was one with 9 tails but there was no such thing.
I bought up most of the onesies and anything that could pass for being ''normal'' outside of Jarn.
"You have that nice smell on you again. How do you switch it on and off?! Teach me!'' I ignored her and hid my smell. I guess getting my tail out will automatically activate that smell. I paid for our getup and we stepped on the streets. We used to get stares before but not anymore now. What a weird place. I did notice that this fabric was out of this world. It was light and soft but also flexible. Forget that were wearing silly outfits, getting clothes of this caliber would cost a fortune outside this country. We visited a place where they sold textiles and I did my best to not buy everything. We then found a store that sold clothing for people that go abroad. What this means is that they sell normal clothing there. Their taste was questionable but it had a lot of good stuff. This country would go to shit in several moments so I cleared out the store.
"I didn''t know that you loved shopping!" I don''t love it; this is a necessity. It''s always good to be prepared, especially if we don''t know what state this kingdom is going to be in the next several years.
"So, is it time to feed the king?" Yes, it''s time to feed the king.
This city didn''t have a palace like most kingdoms have, this city had a big building made out of yarn.
Jarn, yarn, is this country named after yarn? Who comes up with these names?! I don''t even know how a building made out of yarn is supposed to exist but my eyes tell me that the majority of the building is made out of yarn. Only this country can do something stupid like this…
Io stood next to it and pulled out a string of yarn and kept pulling.
"We can make the building collapse like this!" If you want to pull for 37 more years, sure… I hid because Io was loud and a guard was approaching.
"Hey what are you doing?! Do you know that this is Sir Taylor''s residence?! Come here missy!"
"What wait? Agnis, where did you go?!" Io got deported and I was left by myself.
Perfect! There were anti-shadow magic guards everywhere. These also used a buddy system. Wait, all the guards are anti-shadow magic guards. Ah right, the richest country on the continent, almost forgot about that. Time to test my new skills and see who''s better, my skills or the guards. Taking down one or 2 will alert every guard. So, I have to sneak by unnoticed. I manipulated the shadow of one of the guards. It was hard doing this for shadows of living beings that are not my own but I caused him to slap the butt of another guard. They started to argue and everyone saw this because of their buddy system. My victim insisted it wasn''t him but the others told him they saw everything. It wasn''t perfect but the security dropped a bit. I moved into the blind spot this created. I tried to subtly control his shadow again. I started to sweat a bit. This shit aint easy. I made my victim trip and push down the same guy that got his butt slapped. This was enough.
I slipped inside while I heard the guards causing a commotion. More guards here but no buddy system so they were easy to trick. I want this assassination to look like the chef made a mistake or the king just keeled over so I don''t want to make people disappear. I headed over to the kitchen, which was one of the few rooms that didn''t have yarn for walls. The chefs were making the same dishes twice. One for the king and the other for anyone who likes flavorful food. I stole some samples when the chefs weren''t looking. These chefs were very good. Is it possible that they became so good because they know very well what impact every type of seasoning has? They were making food here that I think is impossible to make bland. I tasted some and I was shocked.
How does one make curry bland? And the curry that isn''t bland is so good. The spice control of these chefs is something else. I learned something new. To truly make good food you need to be able to make it super bland and learn the impact every spice has. It might take me years to learn. All these chefs were in their late 50s, some might have passed 60. This country might have the best chefs in the continent too.
I now understood why this king wanted to wage war. I would also be super pissed if there was food this good around me and couldn''t eat it. I assume they taste test this before having the king eat it so I''m not sure if dropping my secret weapon here will work. I made sure to mask its smell as much as possible. I had an idea. I swiped some cutlery and followed the convoy of chefs bringing food to the dining hall.
We entered a magic veil that sterilized everything that passed through. There he was. He looked small and weak but he had fire in his eyes, probably determined to bring the continent to its knees. The chefs told him what his first course was. It was a boring soup. It was just a liquid. Was it to prevent choking hazards? A person taste tested it and gave an ok. The king consumed it through a straw. I cringed as this was hard to watch.
“Ugh, I hate bland food!” The king shook his head.
“It can’t be helped your majesty!”
Next up was pasta ground to a mush… it looked disgusting. The taste tester gave the ok. The king started to eat.
This pasta mush had a similar color to my secret weapon. This is my chance!
I went through the cutlery I stole and found the spoon that looked identical to the one the king was holding. I put my secret weapon on this spoon and held the spoon in the orientation that matched the king''s spoon. He took a scoop. Before the food entered his mouth, I swapped the spoons with [Turning leaf]. Nobody noticed, perfect.
He took the bite and had an instant reaction. His eyes started to tear, his nose started to run and his body fell limp. He got his mind blown by some strong mustard sauce. It killed him almost instantly. I left as the chefs and attendants were causing a commotion. The food got tested again. Blame got thrown at the taste tester but also at the chefs. It was a mess. I was happy with my perfect assassination and could leave easily in this chaos. I had to get Io and get out of here but I couldn''t find her. I looked for 3 hours and decided that she must have been kicked out of the city.
I found her 20 minutes later in her peacock outfit trying to get back into the city. I''m sorry guards, she has ehh special needs, I will take over from here.
"Oh finally! Thank you, kind stranger!" The guards seemed happy to be relieved their duty in dealing with Io.
"Hey, I''m not done here!" We are, let''s go back. I tugged on my [Dimensional Anchor] and returned home.
"Huh, a jungle? And since when could you teleport?" Oof bringing someone with this teleport is a very bad idea. We’re in the southern part of Jurna, take us to Daggerfall.
"On it!" Io didn''t complain or didn’t feel it but she took damage from that dimensional teleport. I''m not as good with this as I thought. It also took me 3 times the effort as I expected. Hey, I’m sorry I didn''t know this teleport would hurt you.
"Hurt me? What are you talking about?" She didn''t notice… why am I even surprised that she didn''t notice. I felt like a fool for the rest of the trip.
Shade was surprised that we were back so quickly.
"You can say what you want Agnis but you and Io have the fastest assassinations of anyone here. That''s why we put you together. " I still prefer to move alone.
"Aww, how about I make it up to you! You can ask me anything and I will do it!" Really?
"Yup! I wasn''t helpful this time so it''s only fair!" Ooh good then go find a mentor!
"But Esher is my mentor!" Poor dude, anyways I''m going to rest, please leave me alone…
I have ignored this for a while but I never got truly dangerous missions with Io. They know that doing this will probably leave Io as the sole survivor but this is a problem, what if a mission escalates and becomes truly dangerous? If the city became dangerous after the assassination, I could''ve been at risk looking for Io. She could''ve also been captured. At this point, I don''t think they’re going to kick her out. She would be perfect as an Iron Wall or an Unstoppable Beast but a Silent Night? Not really. I guess if she doesn''t leave then I will have to leave.
I heard that it''s possible to leave Silent Night. Sylvana left it when she gave me the umbral pendant. It has some magic on it that makes you forget the exact location of the Loud Sun if you lost it or gave it away. There was no reason for me to return here so that didn''t bother me.
I have to find someone to give this to. I only heard it late but Willow left. Some new guy appeared and Hugo was showing him the ropes because this guy was a fresh Silent Night.
Nobody I know might be interested though. Does this mean I need to socialize? Yuck. What if I put in a request for an assassination on myself? Hmm, but there is a chance people from Silent Night or other assassin guilds take it, and not necessarily some random Silent Night from the Adventurer’s Association. Bernie might know!
Hey Bernie, how does one make friends?
"What mind games are you playing this time?" I was just wondering, you guys are colleagues and not exactly friends, it could be easy to confuse those two but how do you make friends without this setting that creates the illusion of friends? I said as I sat down on a stool.
"Uhh, you talk to them?" Ugh, anything besides talking?
"I think talking is all I got sorry, I don''t have many friends myself either." Hmm, thanks for the input and ehh don''t tell anyone but I’m planning on leaving soon.
"To be honest I am surprised that you lasted this long, Io really took a liking to you and anyone in your situation survived 2 months tops, literally or figuratively…" Oof, don''t get me wrong, I have nothing against her but she would be better off an Iron Wall or an Unstoppable Beast.
"Yeah, I get it, make sure you find a replacement and send him to me." Thanks Bernard.
"Hey, you''re not dying or something are you? That''s the first time you called me by my name." I don''t know what you’re talking about Bernie, you must be getting old.
"Heh don''t die out there."
I won''t! I [Silent Melded] and got all my stuff from the poison workshop. I had 3 vials of Millennial Foxbite.
I located some books about improvising poison synthesis and archived it and [Silent Melded] out and went to look for a successor. I needed to decide where to find this individual. I needed to make sure I don''t get too attached because he would probably be at the mercy of Io, so it should be someone I don''t like but who has skills. Preferably someone arrogant so I can whoop his ass and vent a bit.
It will make him build some character and he will be used to ass whooping. A lot of elves fit these categories but they wouldn''t set foot out of their forests most of the times. Hmm, arrogant young humans. Maybe fresh out of magic school? I had no idea where any are. Maybe I should just go to an Adventurers Association and get lucky.
Can I put in a request to find one?
I decided to go to Texiha and find out there. Saluk was closer but it had sand. I arrived in Texiha on day 209.