[POV: Assassin]
We might have been assassins who specialized in stealth and underhanded murders, but we were also Fourth Tier cultivators. We possessed abilities that set us apart from ordinary mortals, along with qualities that distinguished us even from cultivators of lower tiers. Every rise in tier meant gaining new abilities and becoming stronger, but there were certain milestones where the changes were far more drastic than usual.
The Fourth Tier was one such milestone.
“Keep up!” I ordered through sound transmission as I continued cutting through the creatures blocking our path. “Don’t lose momentum! Forget the two-cell system for now. Watch each other’s backs and rely on your spiritual senses. Do not let your guard down!”
It was at the Fourth Tier, Spirit Mystery, that a practitioner began expressing their individuality through their spirit, most often manifested as a unique special ability. Not everyone could manifest such an ability, however. The nature of a mystery was often unknown even to the practitioner themselves, and many cultivators could spend their entire lives without ever discovering one.
I had been among the few in my cohort who had manifested a mystery.
“Use your movement techniques!” I ordered. “I’ll open a path!”
I poured my qi into my sword and prepared the technique taught to every captain of the Purple Rope Hall.
“Severance of the Purple Hope.”
The killing blow descended.
Combined with my mystery, the power of the technique increased severalfold. Normally, Severance of the Purple Hope consisted of a single movement, but my mystery changed the nature of that movement.
For a brief moment, time seemed to stand still. My perception accelerated. Everything around me slowed. The rain, the creatures, and even the movements of my subordinates froze in place as my mystery took over.
I moved, and my sword swept across the battlefield. In the span of a single breath, I cut through more than a dozen cores. The blue creatures blocking our path burst apart, finally creating an opening for us to break through the forest.
“Defensive formation!” When we reached the barren land, free of trees and greenery, I shouted through sound transmission. “Turtle formation! Back to back! Protect the wounded and keep your spiritual senses extended!”
We gathered together, our backs pressed against one another as we watched the forest. The round, blue creatures had stopped pursuing us. They remained within the forest, their beady eyes staring at us without moving. There were still so many of them.
I felt as though I had already cut down hundreds, yet there seemed to be no end to their numbers. I looked around. Of the forty subordinates I had brought into this forest, only a dozen remained. The creatures began slowly retreating into the depths of the forest. They did not pursue us. They simply disappeared among the trees, as though we were no longer worth their attention.
I did not understand it. Why did they stop?
“Captain!” my vice-captain called out, pointing toward the sky. “There’s something above us!”
I immediately looked up and saw a blurry silhouette appear through the rain. It was the beast we had been ordered to track, thought to have snatched the Sword General in their midst. It was a winged, four-legged creature with a beak. The sight of it lasted only an instant. Before I could issue a single order, the beast dropped something toward us.
It was a human-shaped figure.
My heart skipped a beat. Was it the Sword General? No. It wasn't him.
The figure crashed down among us.
Four of my subordinates died instantly.
One had his skull crushed beneath the creature's hand. Another was bisected by a stone longsword. A third had his chest burst apart when the creature's foot tore straight through him. The last was crushed beneath the creature's knee.
The moment the figure landed, the ground beneath it cratered. Blood and gore decorated the impact site. I stared at the creature. It looked human, but it wasn't. Its body had an earthy appearance, as though it had been carved from stone and soil. Its movements possessed the shape of a human's, but there was nothing human about the thing standing before us.
“M-Monster...” my vice-captain cried.
She was staring at it in terror, then she looked at me.
“CAPTAIN!”
Huh? What was she talking about? My vision suddenly tilted. I felt nothing but confusion at the lack of pain and impact. My head tumbled into the air and rolled on the barren soil. When I finally pieced it together, horror assailed me. My head had fallen to the ground, presenting me with a terrible sight. I watched as my headless body collapsed onto its knees, blood spurting from my severed neck.
The creature's deep and sonorous voice echoed through the rain. “Offer your lives to my Great Lord. Struggle as much as you can. Show me the extent of your resistance before I claim you.”
Death slowly embraced me, yet the light did not completely vanish from my eyes.
I watched as the rest of my subordinates were slaughtered. My mystery allowed me to stop time for at least a single breath, slowing my perception and heightening my abilities in the process. Perhaps it was my survival instinct or desperation. Whatever the reason, I instinctively tapped into my mystery.
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The world stopped. The rain hung motionless in the air. Blood droplets froze above the ground. The monster's movements became still. I saw every single detail of the horror that had descended upon my squad.
That single breath felt like an eternity.
Ah.
So this was how it ended.
Thus concluded the end of the 101st Squadron of the Purple Rope Hall.
…
..
.
[POV: Sloth]
Goldenreach Mountains.
Nature Sprite had cast a Wind Barrier over me, protecting me from the rain I had just summoned.
“Thank you, Sprite,” I said, not particularly interested in getting soaked.
When I used Weather Control and summoned the rain, I hadn’t really thought that far ahead. If this had still been a game, I wouldn’t have minded being wet. I could simply tweak the settings, just like adjusting sensitivity or other environmental effects.
Here, however, I was standing beneath an actual downpour.
Nature Sprite lamented from atop my staff, her tiny expression filled with concern. “Oh, my great lord, there is no need to fuss over such little details. This offending rain should simply learn how to treat you better. They should just die. Hmph!”
“But it was me who summoned this rain.”
She immediately became flustered.
“I-I didn’t m-mean it like that, my lord! P-please forgive me. I… I…”
She looked genuinely troubled.
I felt a little bad seeing her like that.
“Forget about it. I’m just teasing you. Sorry.”
Her gloomy expression vanished almost immediately, replaced by her usual spritely demeanor.
“Oh, you tease! You didn’t have to apologize, my great lord. Tease me as you please if it means bringing amusement to your noble heart! Your every jest is a blessing, your every word a treasure, and even your smallest whims are commands worthy of being engraved upon the annals of history! Should the heavens themselves dare to misunderstand your humor, I shall personally—”
I wisely ignored her.
Some things were better left unheard.
“What do you think, Sir Sun? Is this sufficient?” I asked the man beside me while watching the map floating before me.
The red markers were rapidly decreasing in number. The enemy was dying. Meanwhile, my pawn-class slimes were steadily advancing through the forest, isolating small pockets of enemies and engaging them in ambushes.
Through Share Senses, I could see exactly how well my summons were performing.
I still had no idea what had happened to the slimes that had eaten those strange stones, but normally, pawn-class summons should have been around fifty percent of my level. Slimes weren't exactly bad as fodder. I had expected to lose some. Instead, I was gaining more. The more assassins they killed, the more their replication seemed to trigger.
“It’s s-sufficient, your lordship,” Sun Jian replied.
He had a thin barrier surrounding his body, keeping the rain away from him. I had assumed he was simply a warrior because of the sword he carried, but apparently, he could also create barriers. I was beginning to doubt whether my common sense from the game applied to this world at all.
“Thank you for your cooperation,” I said. “You’ve allowed me to fight these trespassers using the most efficient strategy available.”
Sun Jian shook his head. “I merely answered your questions truthfully, my lord.”
“Even so, it was useful. I’ll proceed by applying the same strategy on a larger scale.”
The strategy itself was fairly simple. Summon rain. Send slimes above the trees to wait for an ambush. Then wait. It was a strategy I hadn’t expected to use again. Back in LWO, guilds would occasionally hire me as a mercenary. I often ended up devising strange strategies depending on the circumstances.
This kind of strategy was particularly useful for inciting chaos.
Chaos was something that could always be exploited when fighting a group of players, especially because players loved being organized. The downside was that it could easily be countered. A guild could deploy rangers with flying pets, or casters capable of flight, and suddenly my ambushes became far less effective.
Fortunately, these weren't players. At least, I hoped they weren't. I began sending more slimes into the forest, optimizing their deployment more efficiently. From what I had observed earlier, four or five slimes were generally enough to ‘slime’ a single Fourth Tier cultivator.
Of course, that wasn't always the case.
I remembered the assassin who had been capable of exerting considerably more power than the others. I had eventually been forced to send my Golem Guardian to deal with him. I believed that assassin had used what Sun Jian called a “mystery.”
Apparently, it was one of the hallmarks of the strongest Fourth Tier practitioners.
Sun Jian's assistance had been invaluable. He had enlightened me on several things while simultaneously leaving me with even more questions. My queries had been straightforward. Most of them concerned the enemy's abilities and equipment. The enemy consisted of Fourth Tier assassins, led by a Sixth Tier cultivator whom Sun Jian claimed to have killed.
Yet apparently, killing their leader hadn't necessarily meant the end of them.
The cultivation tiers still eluded me.
There was no direct reinterpretation of them into levels, which made things inconvenient for someone like me. Levels had always been a much more understandable metric for measuring an individual's capabilities. I skimmed through my summons using Share Senses, gathering more information.
I recalled my Golem Guardian alongside Gryphon and sent them toward different areas where they could act as reinforcements. At the same time, my slimes continued combing through the forest. Their other objective was destroying the enemy's communication tools.
Apparently, the assassins were communicating through a purple rope tied to a marble. It was fascinating, almost like a carrier pigeon, except it was a rope.
Shortly afterward, my summons began encountering greater resistance.
The enemy was gathering into larger groups as they pushed forward. They had also begun targeting the cores of the slimes, apparently realizing that damaging them directly was the easiest way to deal critical hits.
Sun Jian watched the battlefield on the map for a while before speaking. “My lord, I have a concern.”
“What is it?”
“If the enemy can still remain organized and continue their pursuit of the princess and me, then perhaps they have another Sixth Tier practitioner leading them.”
I looked at him. "Go on."
Sun Jian's expression had become serious. “From my professional judgment, they should have already retreated by now. Without a leader, a group like this should have withdrawn, reorganized, and devised a proper strategy before continuing their pursuit. If they continue like this, their casualties will only pile up. And as there desperation grow, the more your lordship's rank and file would suffer."
"..."
"Therefore, I would like to fight at the front,” declared Sun Jian. "I can end this once and for all by defeating their leader.” He turned toward me and bowed his head. His voice carried an unmistakable confidence. “You have already healed my wounds and given me the strength to continue. For that, I am grateful. However, I intend to fight.”
I sighed. He was being annoying. Still, I respected his candor. At least he was honest about what he intended to do. I reached through our bond and called Gryphon. The great beast soon arrived from above, its mighty wings beating against the rain as it descended toward us.
“Come here, Gryphon.”
The Gryphon made a slow descent, its massive wings stretching outward as it landed beside the warrior.
Sun Jian looked at the creature in awe.
I looked at him. “Don’t die out there.”
The warrior gave me a solemn nod. “I shall not.”
Gryphon lowered itself, allowing Sun Jian to climb onto its back.
Once he was seated, the Gryphon spread its wings.
“Go,” I said. “Triumph.”