Assassins were everywhere, looking for Hope. He used Detect and Mark skills to track their locations, then activated Camouflage to move unnoticed. He tried to reach the exit gate but saw assassins scouting the area. At that moment, he remembered a conversation from his party days about the black market—a lawless zone where power ruled and only the strong survived.
Deciding the exit gate was too risky, Hope moved toward the center of the city. Finding a secluded spot with no people around, he sat down to think. He realized that the assassin he killed had a Mark skill, but the others didn't. Most assassins had a Mana Sense skill. When he entered the black market, they had sensed the mana from his runes. Now that the runes were in subspace, they couldn't detect him.
Hope knew his best option was to absorb the skills from the items he had acquired before he got captured. Even if there was a showdown, he would at least have a chance of survival. He retrieved the items from his subspace and used Eater on each one, except the old bone dagger. As messages of new skills popped up one after another, Hope felt a surge of energy within him. He saw that he had acquired six new skills:
From the grimoire, he got:
- Mana Control
- Affinity Control
- Wolf Step
By absorbing the black orb, he got:
- Dark Affinity
The coat gave him:
- Damage Reduction
The boots gave him:
- Evade
After that, Hope used the Growth skill to merge his daggers and the old bone dagger he bought. Unlike other times, the dagger's shape changed to a shark-tooth model and became more powerful. The dagger's color changed to a bone-white hue. Hope could feel the green aura emitting from it. He used Appraisal, and a status bar popped up:
Name: White Fang
Attack: 18
Speed: 16
Rune: None
Durability: 40/40
Critical Chance: 8
Grade: Green
Skills: 2
Skills:
- Bleed: There is a 15% chance of inflicting a bleeding status on the target.
- Lust for Blood: Increases attack and speed after each successful attack.
"Wow, a green-rank weapon, and it's made by my skills. The only way to get a green or higher rank weapon is by the tower or dungeons or a master craftsman building a weapon from the best materials from the tower. Even then, there is a high chance of getting low-grade green items or normal rank items. This has high status without enchantment. If I enchant this, it will be a beast of a weapon."
Having gained an enormous amount of XP from the assassin and the monsters, Hope decided to merge skills and allocate his stats.
Status
Species: ???
Class: None
Status: Injured
Health: 47/60
Mana: 44/50
Strength: 48
Defense: 45
Agility: 48
Luck: 45
Intelligence: 45
Skills: 10
XP: 6
Unallocated Stats: 0
---
Skills
- Dash D + Wolf Step F = Beast Step (Active/Passive): Passively grants +20% Agility. When activated, increases Agility by +50%, enabling undetectable beast-like movement. (Costs 2 mana)
- Damage Reduction F + Evade F + Camouflage F = Intangible F (Active): Temporarily renders the user untouchable and immune to physical attacks and obstacles for 1 second. (Costs 10 mana)
- Detection F + Mark F + Appraisal D = Eyes of Truth F (Active/Passive): Passively grants 360-degree vision in a short radius. When focused, extends vision to long distances, detects objects, sees through lies, and reveals user options to choose from. When active, displays information, weaknesses, and skill activations.
- Mana Manipulation F + Mana Control F = Mana Vein F (Active/Passive): Passively strengthens the user's veins, increasing mana absorption and capacity by 25%, and boosts mana flow efficiency while reducing consumption by 25%. When activated, increases mana absorption rate and strengthens all mana-based tasks by 50%. (Cooldown: 1 hour)
- Dark Affinity F (Active/Passive): Users will have a high affinity to dark magic.
- Healing Attack E (Active)
- Growth (Inherited Skill)
- Eater (Inherited Skill)
Blade Art E (Passive)
- Undead Summon F (Active)
"I have this many skills! I've come a long way from just having two skills. These upgraded new skills will make me really stronger. Now I've got a chance to get out of here."
Hope activated Eyes of Truth. He could see the entire black market subspace. He could feel every single person; he could feel everything. At that moment, he came up with a plan to save himself.
The assassins reached the top of a nearly destroyed building at the edge of the town. The sun was beginning to set in the east, yet the shadow of the building was cast to the east as well. The leader, a big man in black clothing with one white eye and a scar that reached down to his cheekbone, stood at the top of the building.
Assassin: "Boss, we searched everywhere. We can't find him."
Assassin Leader: "You can't find him? He isn't even a C-ranker, yet you can't find him?"
Assassin 2: "Boss, we think he has some kind of stealth skill. Not only that, our marksman has gone missing too."
Assassin Leader: "Oh, that idiot has done this again. Look for the idiot instead of the boy. If we find him, we'll find the boy. That boy, he has a lot of items. I sensed the aura of the items from here and it's really powerful. If it's that powerful, it can get me out of this hellhole."
The assassin with the white eyes widened, turned his head, and looked south, sensing the mana stone and pointing in that direction.
Assassin: "Sir, I think I've found the boy. I can sense the aura of the tower item in that direction."
Assassin Leader: "You can sense the items now? How was it hidden until now?"
Assassin 2: "Sir, what's the order?"
Assassin Leader: "Follow that aura, and pair up in groups of two. I can't get rid of the feeling something's wrong."
Assassin: "Sir, nothing's wrong. He isn't even a C-ranker. He is not a threat. I can take care of him myself."
The assassin leader turned from looking south and lifted the assassin by holding his neck.
The Assassin Leader opened his blind eye and choked him.
Assassin Leader: "I will say what to do, and you all will do it. Don't decide for me, okay?"
Assassin: "Okay, sir."
Assassin Leader: "All of you, move out."
The two assassins disappeared in a flash. The shadow of the building suddenly disappeared, revealing at least 20 assassins coming for Hope.
The assassin pair was running south, but the assassin running in front suddenly stopped.
Assassin 2: "Hey, why are you stopping?"
Assassin: "I can sense the same aura from the direction we came from."
Realizing it was a trap, the assassin ordered the others.
Assassin 2: "He fooled us. The target was our boss from the beginning. Everyone return to the boss's side. This is a trap, and it's meant for the boss. Call for reinforcements."
Assassin: "No! I think he is aiming for the escape gate. If we go there, we can find him. He must have used the tower item to distract us and escape. We must go to the exit gate."
Assassin 2: "He isn't the target. We only want the tower item, but now our boss must be in danger. We need to get to him now."
Assassin: "He isn't even a C-ranker. You think he is a danger to our boss, an A-ranker?"
Assassin 2: "I am not afraid of him. I saw that old man with him before. Maybe this is his doing. That's why I am saying to get to the boss."
Assassin: "I am not going to him empty-handed. I and my group will go to the exit gate and the aura location. You can do whatever you want."
The assassin and his team left after saying that.
Assassin 2: "Everyone return to the boss."
Both of the assassin teams arrived at their respective locations, and when they saw the site, they were shocked to their core.