Ios And The Others’ Leveling Day (Part 2)

“Assassination Arts came up.”

“Ooooooooooh!”

After Misha raised an excited voice, she said this.

“Do you have enough points?”

“Barely.”

I was glad I had bypassed Lockpicking. If I had taken it, I would have ended up saying, “Not enough…” again.

If I took this, my points would become zero, but—

The reason I had become a scout in the first place was to get “Assassination Arts.” I should probably stick to my original intention here too after all.

And so, I mastered Assassination Arts.

This was the ability of Assassination Arts.

Its distinctive feature was “fixed damage.” This was damage that pierced defense power.

The common sense of the world was that damage would never go through unless attack power surpassed defense power, but this fixed damage attack always dealt damage, even if the opponent’s defense power was infinite.

That was probably the assassin’s pride in killing their prey for certain.

…Though I did not really know how powerful this “attack power/50” fixed damage was.

“Do you feel stronger?”

In response to Misha’s question, I held up my Demon Wolf Broadsword and answered.

“No… not at all. Because the condition is that it has to be a dagger.”

“Ahh, true!”

After nodding along, Misha continued.

“Are you going to buy a dagger?”

“…I’m not in that much of a hurry, so—”

After thinking a little, I said this.

“Should we make one ourselves?”

“Huh?”

“Like this Great Green Scale Shield. How about making it from materials from enemies we defeat?”

The moment she heard my words, Misha’s eyes sparkled.

“That sounds good!”

“Right? Should we aim for a C-class or B-class monster around here?”

“Nishishishi! This is getting fun! Ah, if we’re going to do that anyway, would it be better to make something that also works as a countermeasure against the Ice Guard Largorin?”

“Yeah.”

“Ice means fire! Let’s aim for a fire-attribute dagger! Around here, maybe the Flame Tiger Brennen Tiger!?”

…Amazing… Just by casually dropping a few words, Misha kept advancing the conversation one after another…

“All right! I’ll look into all kinds of things!”

“That’d help if you do.”

The discussion was settled. When we started walking to hunt new prey again—

“Ah, right, Ios.”

“What?”

“You got the Assassination Arts you were after, but are you done being a scout today?”

“No, not yet.”

I shook my head.

“At the very least, I want to get Backstab.”

“Backstab?”

I explained to Misha, who tilted her head.

“It’s one of the scout’s higher-ranking skills… You know that attacks from behind are treated as ‘surprise attacks,’ right?”

“Yeah.”

Surprise attacks—in the most recent example, there was the Giant Lizardman battle. Nyankoromochi, whose form had been hidden by Schrödinger’s Cat, attacked from behind and dealt major damage.

If you “attack from behind” “without being noticed by the opponent,” it was treated as a surprise attack, and attack power increased greatly.

Backstab was a skill that strengthened surprise attacks.

The first effect meant “the judgment for surprise attacks becomes more lenient.” I did not know to what extent, but even if the opponent’s attention was only diverted slightly, or if the attack came from a little diagonally rather than directly behind, it could succeed.

The second effect was exactly what it said: attack power doubled. If it landed, it had the power to decide the fight in one blow.

“—The Ice Guard Largorin’s weak point is its back. Backstab is what pierces through it.”

“Ooh!”

Since the ace adventurers “Twilight Lightblade” were moving, I did not think our blades would reach the Ice Guard Largorin.

But—there was always a one-in-a-million chance.

Preparing for that was a lot of fun.

“Let’s work hard, Misha.”

“Nishishishi! Yeah!”

We continued leveling up after that too, and over these two months, we raised our levels to 10.

Two young people, a man and a woman, were walking along the road toward the city of Frast.

The man’s name was Giltea. He had vivid blond hair and was a handsome man with a cool air. He wore jet-black plate mail, and over it, he had draped a white cloak. On his back, he carried a large two-handed sword.

The woman walking beside Giltea was Listea. She was also a beautiful woman with blond hair of the same color. She wore white leather armor, and over it, she had draped a black cloak.

They were about in their mid-twenties, and just like their names, their beautiful faces were also very similar. If one put aside the difference between male and female, it was as if they had been reflected in a mirror.

That was because the two of them were twins.

“Sis, it’s about time you got motivated.”

“…As if I could? Even if it’s named, Largorin is just small fry. Why does it have to be us in the first place? We could just have the organization’s assassins do it, couldn’t we? A quick stab from behind.”

“To stab Largorin, you need ‘Silent Step Lv5,’ you know…”

There were few assassins who had acquired it that far.

On top of that—

“The main point this time is testing the new weapon.”

Ore Magic Red Beryl—

It was an ultra-high-power magic released using monster ore as a catalyst. Until now, it had existed only in the realm of theory and experimentation, but it had finally been brought to the stage where it could be deployed in actual combat.

“That is just so a-nnoy-iiiiiiiiiiiiiiing!”

Listea raised her voice loudly.

“Even if I compromise a hundred steps and say we defeat it ourselves, a slowpoke that’s only tough like that can just be ground down from the front, right!?”

“Well, yes.”

“But if they even specify the way we have to defeat it, I can’t get motivated. Gather a huge amount of B- to C-class fire-type ore and fire off the new magic, or whatever…!”

“Monster ore is hard to get, you know.”

Giltea let out a small breath and shrugged.

Giltea was rolling along a carry bag that came up to about his waist. Inside it were countless pieces of ore given to him by the organization—the “Company.”

They had already met the minimum conditions to activate Red Beryl, but its power was determined by the number of ores投入.

Therefore, the person in charge at the Company had ordered Giltea and the others.

—Gather ore on-site as well and conduct the experiment at maximum power.

For a low-ranking organization member whose work increased, it was nothing but painful.

Listea opened her mouth.

“Around here, I guess there’s the Flame Tiger Brennen Tiger. Small fry, small fry. Let’s hunt them down indiscriminately. Let’s make them extinct.”

“Monsters spring from miasma, so they won’t go extinct, though.”

“I know, I know. Like, emotionally? Something like that?”

Listea’s tone was light to the very end. It was because she was a natural genius, but that occasional carelessness made Giltea uneasy.

“…Sis. ‘Twilight Lightblade’ is moving too. You shouldn’t let your guard down too much.”

“Hmmph, you’re right. They might certainly be a bit of a threat… if they had their full members.”

In other words, they did not have their full members.

Originally, the six members of Lightblade were acting separately due to various matters, and only half of them—three members—would appear for the Largorin subjugation. Giltea and the others had been informed of that by the Company.

“Three people are not even worth discussing. Because we’re the stronger ones!”

Ahahahahaha! While laughing, Listea continued.

“If they get in our way, this land will simply become Lightblade’s graveyard.”

After speaking only the simple truth, the corners of Listea’s mouth curled into a grin.