Chapter 17: Shadow Guard
'Is the Shadow Guard after my head?' A thought crossed Charles's mind.
'Is he planning to eliminate me because I'm a weak one? But I still don't sense any abnormality around me, though.' He furrowed his brows and soon thought of an idea.
'I will show him an opening and lure him out from the shadow.' He muttered to himself and relaxed his guard a little.
A moment later, he sensed an unpredictable danger from behind!
It was the same [Sixth Sense] skill's warning!
He held the Ghost Dagger tighter and turned around while aiming it towards the upcoming Shadow Guard, who had two swords in his hands.
Charles's heart sank as he saw Shadow Guard's speed!
'My dagger is not suitable for long-term battle. And, he is moving faster.' He made a swift decision and bent forward a little.
Simultaneously, he cast his [Fire Wings] spell, flapped it forcefully, and leaped forward.
He flew towards those two upcoming swords like a bullet and curled his lips upward.
'I got you now!'
As he moved near the Shadow Guard, he used [Snatch] and [Trickster's hand] skills at a time.
A second later, he took a side step while flapping his right side wing and calmly evaded the Shadow Guard's swords.
He then let out a cold snort and touched the Shadow Guard's elbow area with his left hand. Then, he released an invisible string and let it move towards Shadow Guard's sword.
At the same time, he also thrust his dagger towards the Shadow Guard's chest.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Guard felt a numbing sensation from his elbow and got startled.
But he didn't lose his calm, though; instead, he moved his other sword and blocked Charles's dagger.
Sword and dagger collided against each other, leaving multiple fire sparks behind.
After a second, both backed away from there and stared at each other cautiously.
Shadow Guard's expression turned gloomy as he felt something odd and soon looked at his right hand.
'Wha-!... My Ring sword is gone!' His yellow eyes squinted sharply.
In the meantime, Charles stared at the enemy coldly and took a step back. After that, he inspected the long sword in his left hand and nodded.
[Item: Ring Sword
Quality: Uncommon
Effects: Sharpness, High-durability, Self-Repairable.]
'Good sword. But I'm not a swordsman.' He let out a disappointing sigh and then thought to himself.
'It seems my [Snatch] skill is very effective with the [Trickster's Hand] skill.' He nodded thoughtfully and looked at the Shadow Guard.
But there was no fear or anxiety in his eyes; instead, his deep-set jade eyes were now filled with greed!
It's because he saw a notification that appeared in front of his eyes.
...
[Chain Quest Triggered!]
Quest Details: One of the four Chaotic Church Organizations called Divine Order is causing genocide in the name of Righteousness and Justice. Due to their actions in the past few centuries, multiple variables have appeared and caused the future to move unpredictably!
The Edhen world is moving to its destruction. Join any Lawful Faction permanently and help the Churches to eliminate the Divine Order from this planet.
Quest Rewards: You will get double Exp when killing a Divine Order member from now on!
Time Limit: None
Accept/Decline
...
"The Divine Order, huh. Hmm, this chain mission looks good." Charles muttered under his breath and accepted the Quest mission.
'It seems the game system in my head is siding with the Lawful Faction. My real backer might be a member of the Lawful Faction. But, there are thirteen Gods in the Lawful Faction. Among them, who is responsible for my transmigration?' He thought for a second and soon shook his head.
'I will think about that later. For now, I should kill this guy and increase my strength.' He held his dagger and moved.
But he didn't attack, though; instead, he took two steps back and ran in a different direction. Seeing his action, the Shadow Guard widened his eyes in shock and chased him.
Emilia also noticed the Shadow Guard's action and furrowed her brows.
"Should I go and help him?" Luke released an enchanted arrow at the Distorted Shadow and asked.
"He isn't an official member yet. Moreover, we have to finish off this monster sooner and kill the other Divine Order members." Emilia said and continued after a short pause,
"His mission is to help us, not the other way around."
Upon hearing their team leader's words, both Andrew and Luke glanced at each other and nodded.
After that, the trio split up and started attacking the seriously injured Distorted Shadow from a different direction.
...
Meanwhile, a blonde-haired lean guy stood on a nearby building terrace and looked at Charles with a cold expression on his face. He wore a unique red gem embedded bracelet and appeared like a mysterious expert.
"It seems they are planning to put him in a life and death situation. Is this a trap to lure me out? Too bad, I have no plan on helping him." He mumbled calmly and soon groaned as he saw a black thread appear out of his bracelet. The black thread then slithered towards his neck and started tangling him.
"Damn it, I shouldn't have signed the 'Abyssal Contract' with Eddie," Jimmy grunted in a displeased tone and then shouted inwardly.
'You may have put a restriction on me from killing your descendants, Eddie. But you made a grave mistake. Tsk, tsk, my freedom is bound to happen, and I will have my vengeance then. I will let them know what a true hell looks like.' He let out a creaky sinister laugh and then disappeared from there.
...
Unaware of the upcoming hidden dangers, Charles ran towards the more chaotic area and noticed that hundreds of citizens were tied down and knelt on the dirt road. He also saw tens of black-cloaked men next to them, holding different kinds of weapons in their hands, and they appeared to be preparing for something.
'Are these guys making some blood sacrificial ceremony?' He narrowed his eyes for a moment and soon shook his head.
'It doesn't matter. But, those guys will give me more Exp.' He was about to move in their direction but paused. At that moment, he saw that a knife had sliced through the air and appeared behind him.
'Tsk,' Charles clicked his tongue in irritation and barred the knife with his dagger. After that, he made a few turns and went in a different direction.
In the meantime, a black-robed guy followed after him like a mad dog and threw darts at him from time to time.
But whenever Shadow Guard's weapon was about to land on Charles, he noticed that his target had somehow foreseen his attack and blocked them like a skilled hunter.
'Oh? Did he have [Foresight] skill? Impossible. He is too weak to gain that skill.' He got puzzled and started throwing darts while adding some strength.
Meanwhile, Charles started noticing something was odd in Shadow Guard's earlier attacks and got puzzled.
'He is not aiming for my life... His strength is way above mine, and from his earlier attacks, I can tell that he is just playing with me... Wait, is he testing me? But for what purpose?' A grim expression appeared on his face as he recalled the earlier chasing. After thinking for a moment, he stopped running and activated [Conceal] skill.
His whole body turned transparent a second later and soon disappeared from the Shadow Guard's eyes.
'H-How?'
Meanwhile, Shadow Guard became stunned inside and soon looked around in confusion.
"Looking for me?" A sharp voice came from behind, causing him to turn around in surprise!
But to his astonishment, Shadow Guard couldn't see Charles, which caused him to be more confused inside.
'Did he already manage to upgrade his [Stealth] skill?' An absurd thought appeared in his mind. He knew that only Rank-3 [Rogue] Class Mystics could get the upgraded [Stealth] skill and became puzzled inside.
'Damn it, he is an abnormal one. If he started building spell models in the future, he would be invincible among his rank members.' He muttered to himself in shock.
Shaking his head, he took out a white crystalline card from his pouch and tapped it twice.
A moment later, hundreds of green vines sprouted out from the ground and spread in every direction while destroying the nearby houses and walls. The whole 100-meter surrounding turned into an area filled with green plants and vines in a blink.
Meanwhile, Charles got startled by this strange spell and soon backed away while evading those slithering vines.
After that, he took a moment to breathe and cast [Inspect] skill on the card.
[Item: Card of Arcane
Rank: Rare
Effect: A rare rank-3 spell model called the 'Nature's Hands' is engraved in this Arcane card. Whenever you activate this card, poisonous green vines will sprout from the ground and help prevent the enemies from getting close to you.
Cooldown Time: 1/1 per day.]
'A card item?' Charles looked at those vines for a moment and soon frowned.
'It's not an easy task to kill him.' He sighed in disappointment and silently moved the sacrificial area. Although he was eager to kill this Shadow Guard, he didn't like to take risks. He knew the possibility of him defeating a Rank-2 Mystic was very slim.
'First, I need to increase my strength. Those ten plus mystics will be more than enough to satisfy my hunger.' He nodded thoughtfully, entered the nearby alley road, and went towards the main road.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Guard looked around the surroundings cautiously and waited for the invisible enemy to enter his attack range.
One minute later, he grew irritated a little.
Three minutes later, he got impatient and started cursing him.
After five minutes of silence, he got tired of waiting and taunted the invisible enemy.
"Come out, coward!"
No one responded to his shout!
'Hmm, wait a minute... Why am I waiting for him to come and attack me? I should be the one to test his capabilities, right?' His expression soon froze as he noticed the eerie silence.
'Oh, shit! Did he run away?' His expression went unsightly in a second.
He also thought of Charles's earlier magic spell and grew furious.
'If he had used the earlier fly spell, he would have escaped easily. But why didn't he do it? Why is he running around in like a coward?'
He felt puzzled inside and soon took out a blue gem from his pouch. He closed his eyes while holding the gem tightly and soon opened with an exciting face.
"Found you." He muttered coldly and moved towards the direction where Charles went.
Meanwhile, Charles arrived at the sacrificial area and started assassinating the Divine Order members in his concealed form.
He suddenly appeared behind a black hooded man like a ghost, moved his hand towards the enemy's mouth like a slithering snake, and covered him from making any noise. Then, he skillfully moved his dagger and sliced his throat. After that, he disappeared into the darkness and soon reappeared behind another hooded guy. He moved in the dark like a skilled assassin and started his massacre. Although more than 25 members stayed in that area, most of them were Rank-1 Mystics and appeared pretty weak, making it easy for Charles to eliminate them.
[Target Eliminated! Due to Target's special identity, you will get double Exp! 86 Exp Obtained!]
[Target Eliminated! Due to Target's special identity, you will get double Exp! 92 Exp Obtained!]
[Target Eliminated! Due to Target's special identity, you will get double Exp! 98 Exp Obtained!]
[Target Eliminated! Due to Target's special identity, you will get double Exp! 103 Exp Obtained!]
He killed 15 Divine Order members in two minutes and scared the others away.
'I'm already getting used to it. Moreover, these killers only have a slightly abnormal strength. As for their experience of close combat, they are pathetic. Hmm, this dagger also gives me a big boost when killing the enemy.' He nodded thoughtfully.
'There are still some Divine Order members left.' His eyes glinted in cold light.
But he didn't chase after them. Instead, he chose to stay there and waited for the dumb Shadow Guard to appear.
Moreover, he had already reaped a large amount of Exp in the last few minutes. So, he thought of increasing his level.
'1351 Exp.' He smiled lightly and shifted his attention to the game interface.
'I had 217 Exp before this battle. Now, adding 217 Exp with 1351 Exp, I now have 1568 Exp. With this many Exp points, I can level up a few times.' He curled his lips up and added 225 Exp to his Apprentice Fire Mage Class.
[225 Exp deducted from the Host!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You became a Level 3 Apprentice Fire Mage!]
[2 Free Attribute point rewarded!]
[+1 Wisdom obtained!]
[10 skill points rewarded]
...
He didn't hesitate to add another 337 Experience points to the Apprentice Fire Mage Class and leveled it up again.
...
[337 Exp deducted from the Host!]
[You have leveled up!]
[You became a Level 4 Apprentice Fire Mage!]
[2 Free Attribute point rewarded!]
[+1 Wisdom obtained!]
[10 skill points rewarded]
...
He felt his mind became cooler due to the sudden increase in wisdom and noticed that he could construct more than six rank-1 spell models in his mind. Moreover, he felt that his thinking capability increased to an unimaginable level and was stunned inside.
'Is this due to increasing my wisdom to 15?' He wondered.
He thought for a moment and added two attribute points to Strength and Constitution. After that, he added the remaining two attribute points to the Dexterity attribute and nodded with a pleasant smile.
He stood in silence for the next ten seconds and concentrated his full attention on his body.
He felt his body muscles and bones had undergone some changes and felt a rejuvenating sensation. He stretched his hands and legs, checked his current strength, and soon widened his eyes.
'My body has grown stronger in mere seconds. I had already surpassed my former body's peak strength.' He got confidence in soloing the Shadow Guard.
'Hmm, I need to spend these skill points carefully.' He glanced at his sub-class skills and added 20 skill points to the [Sixth Sense] skill. But to his astonishment, he couldn't upgrade the skill, which made him stunned for a while.
'Is it because of Rank restriction? Does that mean I have to increase all my skills to 50 before ranking up?' He thought to himself and soon nodded his head in enlightenment.