The instant my sixth sense detected danger, every nerve in my body sharpened.
A poison-coated dagger cut through the air behind me, heading straight for my heart.
Instinct told me to dodge.
But that instinct vanished the moment I saw her standing there.
If I stepped aside, she would.
Instantly, I activated Hollow Body and pushed Lily far away from me.
"Stab!"
The dagger pierced straight through my heart, causing blood to spill from the wound.
The assassin behind me immediately stepped back, wary of a final counterattack, but my hand had already reached his throat.
"Snap!"
I twisted his neck before throwing his corpse away.
A sharp wave of pain and weakness spread through my body.
Fortunately, Hollow Body had already activated, temporarily granting me partial undead characteristics.
My heartbeat slowly stopped.
Then the bleeding stopped as well.
After stabilizing myself, I looked around and noticed nearly twenty assassins surrounding us, all wrapped in black cloth from head to toe.
"Talking about numbers, huh?" I muttered coldly. "Come forth."
I snapped my fingers.
Dark portals instantly opened around me as undead creatures began emerging one after another.
The assassins’ pupils contracted in shock when they saw giant wolves and massive centipedes crawling out from the portals, each one releasing an E+ rank aura.
Meanwhile, most of the assassins were only F- rank and one was E- rank at best.
The moment Grathmok appeared, he immediately used Root Bind.
Roots burst from the ground and tightly restrained every assassin before they could react.
At the same time, the Vine Serpents shot forward like cannonballs. Instead of killing the assassins, they wrapped tightly around their bodies, further restricting their movement.
The assassins’ faces turned pale as they desperately struggled to escape, only for the bindings to tighten even more.
I drank a healing potion and then picked up unconscious lily in my arms.
After that, my gaze shifted toward the dead assassin lying nearby.
After Releasing one undead, I immediately used Resurrection on him.
Fortunately, the skill succeeded.
"Master," the undead assassin said respectfully while kneeling before me.
The sight genuinely surprised me.
"System, why can he speak while my other undead cannot?" I asked inwardly.
[Host, your elite undead have only recently begun developing intelligence. They currently do not understand your language.]
The system continued:
[However, these assassins were once human. Since they already knew your language before death, they can still communicate freely after resurrection.]
"Interesting..." I muttered. "Another hidden feature of the Divine Class."
The remaining assassins stared at the resurrected undead in complete disbelief.
Did he just revive the dead?
How was that even possible?
Only gods should possess such power.
"Who sent all of you?" I asked the undead assassin, though I already had my suspicions.
"Master, our leader accepted this mission from the quest board. We do not know the identity of the client," he replied respectfully.
A frown appeared on my face.
So they were merely low-ranking pawns.
"What happens if all of you fail and I remain alive?" I asked again.
"Master, the Black Requiem never abandons a contract. If one attempt fails, they will simply send stronger assassins next time. However, the client will be charged double," the undead assassin explained.
"That’s troublesome..." I muttered.
The Keaser Family clearly had no intention of stopping after a single failed attempt.
I glanced toward the captured assassins before giving another order.
"Kill them all."
Soon, all of the assassins were dead and revived under my command, including their E- rank leader.
I let out a mocking laugh.
"Sending an E- rank assassin after an F rank awakener... the Keaser Family really thinks highly of me."
I then looked toward the undead assassins kneeling before me.
"Return to the organization and act normally. Tell them you failed because a powerful D rank fighters is present in caravan. After that, withdraw from the mission."
As I thought about the future, my expression slowly became serious.
My SSS Ranked Class consumed massive amounts of resources, and my undead army would continue growing stronger.
I couldn’t continue handling everything alone forever.
Then I looked at the undead assassins once more and smiled faintly.
"But this is a good beginning."
Laughing softly, I picked up the sleeping Lily before returning back with my undead army.
I handed Lily over to Elena and told her that Lily had fallen asleep after drinking too much.
Elena gave me a strange look, though she didn’t say anything.
As I return back, I noticed Rose staring at me with a suspicious expression.
"Why were you carrying a girl around?" she asked with narrowed eyes.
Her sudden question nearly made me slip.
I gulped nervously.
"She’s Lily... the girl I saved from Kevin before. While I was walking through the woods, I found her passed out drunk, so I carried her back," I explained.
After hearing Kevin’s name, Rose’s expression became even stranger, but I chose to ignore it and returned to my tent to sleep.
## Morning
The next morning, I woke up to the sound of birds chirping, instantly improving my mood.
After stretching lazily, I opened the system logs.
[Host has gained 25,000P]
"Seems like they didn’t find much prey to hunt," I muttered to myself.
After freshening up, I joined everyone for breakfast.
While eating, I noticed a woman dressed entirely in black standing silently behind Elena.
Her presence felt strange.
I couldn’t even sense her aura properly.
Lily was eating with us as well, though she looked away whenever our eyes met.
"She is still shy from last night" I thought with a smile.
After everyone finished preparing, the caravan resumed its journey.
We traveled peacefully for the next two days without encountering anything significant.
Still, I managed to gain nearly 60,000P during that time.
As the third day approached, I assumed this day would remain just as uneventful.
Unfortunately, I was wrong.
"Halt! State your purpose!"
Hearing a loud voice from the front of the caravan, I immediately looked ahead.
"Please save us!"
A young man suddenly rushed forward with tears streaming down his face.
"Our caravan was attacked by bandits! Our leader barely managed to send a few of us to seek help. Please... help us!"
He dropped to his knees and began begging desperately.
By the time I reached the front, Elena and Rose were already there.
"Do you think this could be a trap?" Rose asked calmly.
"It could be... or it might not be," Elena replied thoughtfully.
"In the end, it doesn’t matter," Rose said while looking ahead. "This road is still the fastest route to the nearest town."
After questioning the young man further, we learned that most of the bandits were F rank fighters, while their leader and his brother were E- rank.
"Prepare your armor and weapons," Rose ordered loudly. "A fight awaits us ahead."
"Should I use different elements to try? after all they are weak and I don’t need to use my full power" I thought before agreeing.
I browsed through the system shop.