The assassins arrived at the locations. The team looking for Hope split into two groups: one went to search for the tower item while the other, with the leader of that group, investigated the gate. The team tracking the tower item arrived at a spot where the item's location kept shifting. They thought that Hope was moving with the tower item, confirmed it was him, and sent a signal to others by firing a green smoked rocket into the sky. They started to move around in search of it, unaware that in the shadows, a skeleton holding a rune stone was merging with the darkness and leading them further away.
The assassins at the gate stared in surprise as people in suits emerged, one after the other. They tried to flee, but the leader noticed not only that the people from the association were coming from the gate but also that they were all already surrounded.
Assassin 1: "Everyone, don't move, they got us surrounded."
One after the other, people from the association poured in. Finally, the last person came out of the gate: it was Carter, an A-ranked magical assassin, one of the top men in the association.
Carter: "Oh, it's so lucky for us that we found you. Originally, we came here for another reason, but this is a bonus too, and as a plus, I can get the bounties on your head."
Assassin 1's inner thought: Why did it have to be him? He's an A-rank, just like our boss, and his class is a magical assassin, the rare variety of assassin class. I need to escape and get to the boss; that is my only way of survival.
Unknowingly, by instinct, Assassin 1 tried to turn his foot to the side. Carter, sensing his intent to escape, called forth a skill. A cage of black steel bars wide enough for two people to pass through appeared, trapping the six assassins inside.
Carter: "Oh, you're leaving so soon? The party is just about to start."
Assassin 1: "Everyone stick together."
Carter: "Okay, stick together. It will make for an easy target, and all of these guys are dead or alive targets, right?" Carter asked his subordinates.
Assassin in the team: "I can't do this anymore. If you want, you stay here."
Assassin 1: "Wait, don't go between the bars…."
The assassin in the team used a movement skill to run faster, aiming to slip between the bars of the cage. Strangely enough, no person from the association tried to stop him. His movement made it easy to view what the situation was going to be. When he looked at some people from the association, they didn't move, but their faces had a smile. Unaware of the trap, the assassin ran at full speed, but the further he got from the cage, the more intense the pain in his entire body became. He ran and ran, finally vomited blood, and fell down face-first, dead.
Carter: "Oh, so you know about my skills, huh?"
Assassin 1: "The farther you go, the quicker you die. It's a good skill to have, but too bad so many people know its weakness."
At the same time, the signal of green smoke in the sky was visible to all of them. The assassin, knowing all of them were distracted by the green smoke in the sky, activated his skill, Dig. The assassin and his team passed through the floor and escaped.
Carter: "Hah, I hate this. Too many people know about my skills. What are you waiting for? Go after them! And team, split into two and go after the boy."
Meanwhile, Assassin 2 reached the boss's side and found him with a dagger in one hand and the leader's head in the other.
Hope: "I thought I had more time. Did I waste my mana by calling skeletons to distract them?"
Assassin 2: "Boss! Everyone, kill him!"
More than ten assassins charged toward Hope. He dropped the head and activated Beast Step, moving with super speed toward the assassins. Their attacks passed through him as if he were intangible. He reached Assassin 2 and swiftly decapitated him. Each of Hope's movements was precise and calculated. As the head rolled through the air,
Assassin 2: "What happened? Why am I rolling? And why is time moving so slow? We arrived here and saw that kid kill our boss, then what happened? I can't remember anymore." His head rotated in the air, seeing his headless body. "Is that me? Oh right, this kid killed me. Why is my body standing there? Move, damn it! Kill that kid! Move, move." At the same time, he saw Hope killing the others with ease, their attacks futile against him. One by one, Hope killed eight assassins. Finally, only two assassins remained. As Assassin 2's head hit the ground, his last sight was the remaining assassins fleeing with Hope in pursuit, like a wild beast playing with its prey.
After killing all of them, Hope said, "Eater." The assassin leader and Assassin 2's bodies got eaten by the purple dark teeth. Hope got two skills called One with the Blade and Steal. Hope then avoided the other assassins and people from the association thanks to his skills and moved to the gate. Before going there, he went to an alchemy shop where the shop owner was hiding inside.
Hope: "Open up, you have customers."
Shop Owner: "Have you lost your mind? There is a big fight going on between the assassins and association people. Escape if you want to live."
Hope called forth skeletons and merged with the shadows to reappear in the shop with skeletons. The shop owner got scared. Hope used Eyes of Truth on him, revealing he had a skill called Alchemy and his class was an alchemist.
Shop Owner: "Don't kill me! You can have anything from the shop, just don't kill me."
Hope: "I told you I am a customer. I'm here to buy."
Hope moved to a corner where the shop owner was standing and said, "Move," then opened up a secret door and moved inside. The owner got scared and confused about how Hope knew about the place and moved with him.
Hope: "What's with this place? I looked through this entire subspace with my Eyes of Truth skill, but this place is a blur to my eyes. Is it hidden with advanced magic or something?"
Hope looked at the place. It was dark, so he used his Eyes of Truth skill. The place brightened up, revealing many books, potions, alchemy tools, and experimental subjects like elves, dwarves, goblins, demi-humans, beast folk, and other monsters.
As Hope looked at all of them, the owner of the shop took his blade and attacked Hope. Hope did not move, confident the attack would fail. The blade passed through Hope, making the owner move forward. Hope, in a single swing, killed the owner. He freed all the slaves, healed them using the potions from the shop owner, and told them to escape. When he looked through his skills, he found a page hidden in the walls. He punched it and got the page; it was a half-burned drawing. Hope used Eyes of Truth, and the drawing became whole in his eyes. He could see the elixir drawing. When Hope saw it, the idea of saving his mother came to his head.
Hope: "If it's the same elixir I heard of in the stories of the old days, I can save my mother. It was when the tower first appeared. There was a great war between the awakened and monsters, and finally, from the tower, the heroes got elixirs as a reward. It was so powerful that when the great war ended, two of the heroes died in the war. With the help of elixirs, not only were they brought back to life, but their strength was on another level."
Hope finally looked at everything and realized that the way to get it is by searching for clues in the tower. He used Eater on the owner and learned the skill "Alchemy." He wanted all the information the owner had about the elixir, so he used the Growth skill to level up his subspace skill to D rank, then stored everything there and moved to the gate. There were association guards there, but Hope used his Intangible skill, Beast Movement, and Mana Vein skill to the max and got inside the gate super quickly and reached the outside.
Carter was watching all of this happening from the top of a shop afar and said by telepathy, "Let him pass. Don't go after him. After all, he is a target to watch only."
Extra
Hope reached the assassin leader. He knew what was happening everywhere because of the Eyes of Truth skill. He saw that the leader was really powerful, and there was only one way to kill him. He moved to a building near the assassin leader's location. Hope activated his Mana Vein skill, providing a boost for all his abilities. He summoned all the skeletons he had to the shops where the assassin leader was. When the skeletons appeared, the leader got his sword and started swinging, but he could not move his legs because the shadows were pulling him down. As the skeletons attacked, the leader untied his boots and jumped to escape, but the sun from the east blinded the leader for a moment. Hope was in the sun's light, blinding him for a moment, and used Beast Movement, Blade Art, and all his skills to kill him in one fell sweep. The attack was expected by the assassin leader. He tried to block Hope's dagger with his sword and kill him with a hidden dagger coated in poison in the other hand, but the blocking of the sword failed due to the Intangible skill Hope had. Hope cut his head off easily. Hope reached the top of the shop holding the head and dagger in both hands. At that time, he saw the assassins approaching.