“What happened to Rada-san?”
A few hours after Aria returned earlier than expected, the Guild member who had taken on the role of liaison returned. However, Rada-san, one of the most capable members of this Guild, who had been sent to monitor Aria, had not yet returned.
Dino, the Guild Master, cast a questioning gaze at the liaison, who had just returned from his mission, and the liaison made a disgruntled face.
“I haven’t seen Rada-san since the Ash-covered one finished the assassination. Guild Master, haven’t you received any reports from the Ash-covered one?”
“No…”
Although this liaison’s combat ability was low, he excelled in detection and Stealth Skills, and his Wind Magic allowed him to hear conversations from distant locations, making him one of the top intelligence operatives in the Guild.
Rada-san was there to cover the combat aspect, so he sent the intelligence specialist with her, but with a combat ability that barely reached Rank 2, he couldn’t enter the Dungeon alone.
What happened inside the Dungeon?
Certainly, Aria’s combat ability had grown surprisingly since they first met. For a child of only about 10 years old to raise her combat ability this much in just four months was extraordinary, even for a disciple of that Evil Race who had instructed Dino.
However, with a maximum combat ability of about 500, it should be difficult to face a Rank 4 party unless she did it very skillfully. Dino thought that Rada-san had helped her defeat them, but perhaps Rada-san had been defeated by the target there?
But if that were the case, it was strange that Aria hadn’t reported it. In the first place, it wasn’t easy even for Dino to find Rada-san, who was hidden in the shadows.
If the opponent was a Rank 4 party, there was certainly a possibility of being discovered, but that should be difficult unless “someone” suggested Rada-san’s presence.
(…Betrayed?)
Someone betrayed them. Individualistic Assassins often acted on their own, and anyone could betray them, but for that reason, Dino and his father, the previous Guild Master, had created a “shackle” called “Executioner Gord” with the help of the Sage.
Precisely because they were individualistic, Assassins were particular about their “lives.”
The reason they belonged to the Guild was because they could obtain both “safety” and “money” at the same time, and Dino, as the Guild Master, understood best that they had no sense of belonging to the Guild.
But that was precisely why Assassins would not antagonize the Guild in order to protect their own lives.
Because there was no advantage for them in doing so.
There were cases where conflicts between members escalated into killings, but even in that case, this liaison had no reason or skill to defeat Rada-san, and this veteran liaison knew the importance of Rada-san in the Guild.
If so, assuming that Rada-san was dead, what was the purpose of the person who harmed her?
The Guild members did not need to antagonize the Guild because they were selfish, and they knew the danger of antagonizing Rada-san, who was a capable person, and the disadvantages of killing her.
There was only one person in the Guild that Dino could think of who would not consider that.
The Ash-covered Assassin, Aria.
The disciple of the Evil Race whom Dino had forced to cooperate by taking her master and herself hostage and threatening them.
With that combat ability, she should be able to trap Rada-san. He had reminded her of the existence of the hostages as soon as he noticed her combat ability, but why would she harm Rada-san and take actions that would antagonize the Guild in a situation where she had her master, the Evil Race, as a hostage, let alone cause a small quarrel with someone like Keira?
There was almost no one who could endure a daily life of being afraid of Assassins from the Guild by antagonizing the Guild. In the past, there were rulers who tried to destroy the Assassin Guild itself, but even then, the Assassins hid in the shadows and killed those rulers, even if it took time.
There were no fools who would antagonize the huge organization that was the Assassin Guild.
It was impossible to completely overwhelm the Assassins who lived in the shadows with the power of the surface, and that was why the nobles had no choice but to choose a path of coexistence while fearing their existence.
Therefore, no matter how suspicious the situation seemed, it was “normally” impossible for a child whose foster parent was taken hostage to turn against the Guild.
Dino didn’t know.
While living in the somewhat unconventional world of the Assassin Guild, he had been looking at Aria through the framework of common sense that he had lived as an adult.
He didn’t know that a single woman with memories of her previous life had given the girl a chance to gain wisdom for purely selfish reasons, and as a result, a mental “monster” had been born into this world, who would kill all the “enemies” who disturbed their peace and try to correct it.
Dino left the room to confirm Aria’s true intentions. If he saw any intention to antagonize the Guild, he would eliminate her on the spot.
But that decision was a little too late.
There were not so many people called “strong” in this world.
Combat Skill Level 1… [Rank 1] could be acquired by children after several years of training. Generally, they were beginners but not amateurs, and they were skilled enough to be considered recruits, and a few of them could even deal with Rank 2 Monsters.
Even soldiers who had served for several years were mostly [Rank 2], and those who reached [Rank 3] were seen as “capable” and were selected as unit leaders.
Considering that more than 70% of the members of the Adventurer’s Guild, where almost all members were “combatants who could fight alone,” were Rank 1 and 2, one could understand the rarity of the strong.
There were only a few hundred people in the Kingdom of Claydale, which had a population of several million, who were [Rank 4] or higher.
The same was true for the Assassin Guild.
Unlike Adventurers, Assassins did not need to fight the strong by force, and what was required of them was the ability to gather information and make accurate decisions to eliminate their targets, even if it took time. Like the Thieves’ Guild, there were few who boasted personal bravery.
Among them, the Elven Magician “Sage,” the Dwarven battle maniac “Sharga,” and the Beastman Shadow User “Rada-san” were feared as “exceptional” within the Guild as Rank 4 powerhouses, but even [Rank 3] like Keira and Guy were rare within the Guild and were considered capable because most of the members were Thief-type scouts who emphasized Stealth Skills.
Most of the members of the Assassin Guild’s Northern Frontier Branch lived mixed in with the townspeople.
Aside from those who monitored the citizens who didn’t even know they were involved with the Guild, there were one or two people in the big cities who usually did ordinary jobs but returned to being Assassins only when there was a request to assassinate a citizen who didn’t have combat ability, and some were even Assassins who specialized in poisoning and didn’t have combat Skills.
But they didn’t take jobs on their own, didn’t even know the faces of the other members, and were no different from ordinary people on the surface unless there was a request.
It was the Guild’s job to manage them, and the members currently in the Guild were those who allocated the necessary jobs to the members who didn’t even know each other’s faces, those who compiled and managed the information, and the front-line Assassins who had a certain level of combat ability and did the assassinations. They were the “core” of the Northern Frontier region.
Currently, there were nearly 80 members in the Northern Frontier Branch.
They knew that a child called the “Evil Race’s disciple” and “Ash-covered” had become a new member and had a combat ability of nearly 200.
They, whose combat ability was around Rank 2 to 3, knew that information was their weapon. But they also understood that the Ash-covered was only strong for a child, and only had a combat ability that was generally around the upper Rank 2.
That’s why they were careless.
They thought that even if she threw a tantrum because she was a child, she couldn’t do much because she was a child.
They thought that even if she rampaged because she was a child, she couldn’t beat other strong people because she was a child.
Because she was a child… they made an unforgivable mistake as Assassins, thinking that she had nothing to do with them if they didn’t get involved.
Easy-to-understand Skill Levels and combat ability numbers caused the weak to fear the strong unnecessarily, and led the strong to arrogance.
“…Hmm?”
The middle-aged man tilted his head, feeling a sense of discomfort for a moment.
The man was in charge of receiving assassination requests from liaisons in various locations, collecting the information, and assigning it to members based on the difficulty of the job.
He had five subordinates in the Guild. They sometimes went to the site to gather information, and all of them had some kind of Stealth Skill, so he thought that someone had just passed by nearby using Stealth as usual.
“…It’s humid today.”
Even inside the Guild, which was located in a relatively cool basement, it could get humid depending on the season. He felt a slight haze in his head due to the heat, and he thought that his attention had been distracted because of it, and he was about to head to the sofa in the room when–
“Gah!?”
The man couldn’t walk properly and fell face-first onto the hard stone floor.
What was happening? Had he been poisoned?
But the man had a Poison Resistance Skill. If it was a poison that would kill an ordinary person instantly, he should have noticed it even in small amounts.
There were also tasteless and odorless poisons, but I figured those would take time to work, and if he had [Poison Resistance], he could deal with them given enough time.
But at that moment, I noticed a faint sign of someone entering the room. One of his subordinates, perhaps? The instant I trembled, unconsciously trying to call for help, he felt the “coldness” of a blade sinking into his neck without any killing intent, and his consciousness sank into darkness, never to return.
＊＊＊
I released the poison inside the Guild.
I only learned the basics in my master’s class, so the formula was almost entirely my own, but it seemed to work well.
This poison takes effect even with the [Poison Resistance] Skill.
In the first place, the Poison Resistance Skill isn’t perfect. Even Light Magic’s [Treat] can’t handle a poison unless you know what kind it is, so there’s no way it could unconditionally deal with all poisons.
I hypothesized that the Poison Resistance Skill wasn’t a skill that could resist all poisons, but rather a skill that prevented further absorption the moment the body recognized something as poison, and I even drank poison myself to verify this.
The poison I made was a mixed poison, and one alone would only be a “medicine” that relieved nervous tension.
Poison Resistance doesn’t work on things that aren’t harmful to the body. Otherwise, it would prevent the absorption of even recovery potions and food.
So, starting a week before the infiltration, I mixed a small amount of “medicine,” not poison, into the drinking water and had the Guild members ingest it over time.
Once it was absorbed into the body, even Poison Resistance couldn’t prevent it until the chemicals were broken down in the internal organs.
Then, in front of the rooms where the people to be eliminated were, I scattered a second chemical, causing poison to form in the blood of those who inhaled it.
It wasn’t a strong poison that would kill instantly, but this nerve poison weakened bodily functions.
As I carefully finished off those who were unable to move, the Guild gradually became noisy after a while.
“They noticed already, huh…”
It was faster than I expected. Rather than the person I killed being discovered, the poison I scattered must have spread, and the effects of the poison began to appear even in places where I hadn’t scattered it.
But I’ve eliminated more than half. From now on, I’ll go directly to kill the sluggish ones.
Concealing my presence with Stealth, I extended the Pendulum’s blades from the shadows of both hands and advanced silently through the passage as if gliding.
“You…”
I threw the Pendulum at an unfamiliar woman I encountered in the passage, and sliced her neck with the blade, her movements dulled by the poison.
At the same time, I extinguished the lamps and magical light sources that were lit in various places with the Pendulum and [Dark].
I think most of the members have [Night Vision], but the reason why the lights are still on is because humans can only use Night Vision up to level 1.
Even so, they shouldn’t light new lights unless it greatly hinders combat. That’s because, based on past experience, they think darkness is their ally.
They still can’t imagine the “appearance” of their enemy. They don’t even think that the opponent is more accustomed to darkness than they are.
That should work in my favor, even if only slightly.
Whoosh!
“Guah!”
“You bastard!?”
The poison slightly dulled their movements, and even though they understood that they were being attacked in reality, the darkness prevented them from recognizing me as the enemy for a brief moment.
Just a moment… one or two seconds. That slight gap is enough to kill.
While scattering cloths soaked with chemicals that turn into poison around me, I killed the Guild members I encountered head-on one after another, and I also made sure to finish off those who were unable to move in the rooms.
Some of them pretended to be unable to move, but if I attacked with the Pendulum from the beginning, there was no problem, and for those with obviously high combat strength, I used a crossbow with [Shadow Snatch] to pierce their brains from their ears.
Dogooon!!
The large wooden door at the end of the passage shattered, and a dwarf in armor, wielding a huge Halberd, appeared as if breaking through the remaining fragments, and shouted loudly when he saw me, who could move freely in the poison.
“You’re the traitor, you Ash-covered!!”
[Sharga] [Race: Dwarf ♂] [Rank 4]
[Mana Capacity: 135/150] [HP: 393/450]
[Overall Combat Strength: 825 (Body Enhancement in progress: 979)]
Sharga the Battle Maniac, huh… It’s a little earlier than planned, but it seems my betrayal has been revealed to the Guild by his voice.
The moment I recognized him, I threw a Knife, and Sharga deflected it with his Halberd.
He’s skillful with that big spear-axe. I felt that the effects of the poison were weak against a Rank 4 opponent after all, and I started running towards the planned location.
“I won’t let you escape, Ash-covered!”
His large weapon and hard armor are a bad match for me in a melee, but I don’t have time to deal with only you carefully.
Battle Maniac… Just as the name implies, his Intimidation is extraordinary. But, because he’s a martial artist with unnecessarily high concentration, his vigilance towards his surroundings has become careless.
You’re strong. But, but you haven’t noticed why you can’t see the figures of other members in this direction.
Mishi…
Cracks run through a part of the wall in the passage I passed through.
Dogooon!!!
At that moment, a long-limbed “aberration” that burst through the earthen wall collided with Sharga, who was chasing me, and rang out with fierce metallic sounds.
“Gord!?”
“Gaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!”
Gord joins the battle.
The unleashed “beast” attacks the Guild, and Aria fights in the melee.
Next time, Assassin Guild Strategy Part 4: Melee Pattern