"Let's start the second round now."
"…!?"
The leader of the assassin's was flustered by Eurius's calm remark.
'Is this the right information they gave me?'
His guild was a very secretive group, but their information network was unparalleled in the continent.
He had performed countless missions so far, but this was the first time he couldn't properly assess the target's skill.
'He has to sacrifice all the personnel he has deployed and take care of the target.'
The guild didn't tolerate failure. It was the same even if it was a mistake due to wrong information.
The other assassins knew that too, so they didn't slow down their offensive at all.
On the contrary, they started to rush in more fiercely to catch Eurius.
'This is a perfect opponent to test the results of my training.'
Eurius had actually noticed that these assassins were following him since he left the fortress.
'I guess I have a rough idea of who they are, but I'll deal with them when I get to Loki Forest.'
He wanted to deal with them quietly, but it was too risky to do so in the plain where the knights might notice.
He had allied with the northern barbarians to replenish his forces in his previous life, while Grand duke had drawn in the southern desert kingdom's forces.
That's why Eurius was able to detect them with his keen sense and some familiar traces.
He had suffered enough from the threat of southern assassins in his previous life.
'If it wasn't for the empress I brought in, who wasn't a superhuman, I would have died ten times.'
In his previous life, he was able to survive thanks to Beatrix's help. But this time, it was his turn to avenge his previous life grievances.
How persistent were they that even Eurius, who had a weaker state than now in his previous life, woke up with a start when he felt their presence at night?
'It ruined the mood more than once or twice.'
It was disgusting to feel a blade swinging behind him when he was spending some leisure time with Beatrix.
This time, he had no intention of sparing them.
The assassins tried all kinds of methods to catch Eurius somehow.
They threw another net at him, tried to grab him with a physical charge, but none of that worked.
Boom!
Another explosion tore the net apart and the assassins who rushed in also shattered with their weapons and splattered blood.
'This is a worthwhile skill indeed! It has this much power without even using Vigor.'
Eurius was actually shocked when he received training from Duke Dios or saw Jeongal Geon, the proxy master of Cheongryong Sangdan.
His objective combat power was only due to the system's benefits and force aptitude compared to them.
Therefore, he didn't neglect his training to maximize his growth as a warrior, not just with the system's assistance.
'The only thing that makes me superior to them is my physical condition.'
Eurius was able to come up with an answer after thinking hard.
'The answer is Quad-Core.'
Through almost a year of steady effort, he was able to create his own useful skills that utilized the advantages of Quad-Core.
'First of all, it's the instantaneous explosive power due to stability.'
The four cores didn't give him much burden even if he suddenly increased the output of the circle.
That was what made Force Blast possible. It was a skill that obtained explosive destructive power by concentrating force that was raised momentarily on one point, beyond simply infusing force into weapons and body.
The power was as seen.
It tore apart a tough net that even a master-level warrior would have trouble cutting in one go, and smashed almost fifty elite assassins from the southern assassin guild who were sent to catch at least a master-level warrior with one strike, with their weapons still in their hands.
The leader who watched that scene felt his mouth go dry.
'Execute the third order.'
He finally sent the last signal.
This meant throwing away everything and anything to get rid of the target.
Thud!
"…!?"
Even Eurius, who ruled over the combat, couldn't help but be slightly surprised this time.
The remaining ten or so guys who seemed to commit suicide by blocking Eurius's sight and rushing in recklessly suddenly stabbed their comrades' bodies with their knives from behind.
The assassins' blades pierced through their comrades' bodies and stabbed at him.
'I felt it in my previous life too, but they're really crazy.'
But even their last struggle didn't have much effect.
The blades that were about to hit Eurius's body were deflected as if someone had pulled them away.
This was also one of the applications of Quad-Core that Eurius had been thinking about.
It was called Force Distortion.
If Blast maximized the destructive power of the core, Distortion utilized the delicate control possible by the core.
It was a skill that created a reverse field that pushed the enemy's attack in a different direction by adding the psychokinesis of Force Grip to a simple force field.
The attack that was shaken by the pushing force and the defensive power of the reverse field itself was difficult to hit him.
'It's not perfect yet for real battles with strong opponents, but I'll improve it gradually!'
Eurius had been satisfied with just using multiple abilities almost without any time lag with multitasking until now.
But now he had broken out of that limit and achieved significant growth as a warrior, not just as a player.
As a result, today he was able to annihilate almost fifty elite assassins from the assassin sect who were deployed to catch at least a master-level warrior without a scratch.
But the leader didn't even look at the result of his last resort and started to flee with a few subordinates he had hidden secretly.
'He had to report this to the Order.'
Whoever had taken the request and investigated the target had completely messed up. The information was utterly wrong.
But Eurius was not one to let it go.
Slash.
Before the leader could even react, Eurius cut his throat with an intangible sword.
The rest were no different.
They might have been stealthy, but they were no match for Eurius, who specialized in anti-magic.
The fleeing assassins did not get far before they met their end by his hand.
He did not bother to interrogate them this time, not only because of his grudge from his previous life, but also because he knew they were part of a group that would not reveal their backers.
[And in this life, he had other ways.]
[Status!]
[??? Order 211]
Job: Assassin, Assassination Leader
Strength B Agility B+ Intelligence B- Spirit B Force Aptitude B Force B
Disposition: Fanatic
[Trait]
Assassination (A)
Eurius tilted his head.
'A mysterious Order? I've never heard of such an organization.'
As far as he knew, there were only three Orders that ruled over the Tri-Force Kingdom on this continent.
In the past, there were some so-called cults, but they were hardly seen nowadays.
'It's suspicious that an assassination group with this level of skill would call themselves an Order.'
Eurius searched the leader's corpse for anything that could be a clue.
But he found nothing. He then looked at their wrists.
[In my previous life, they had strange tattoos there, right?]
Sure enough, he saw a weird pattern on the wrists of the leader and the other bodies. It looked like a snake, or a simple geometric shape.
"Ding!"
[The quest Forgotten God's Order is unlocked.]
'A quest?'
It was a notification he had not heard in a long time. Eurius checked the information.
[Forgotten God's Order: In the past, there was a secretive group that worshipped the fourth god on this continent, apart from the three existing Orders. Find their traces.]
'So they were not just hired assassins by Wallace, they had their own backers.'
There was only one suspect for these annoying bastards in the south.
Whether he acted on the Grand duke's orders or on his own, there was no one else who would sponsor such deeds except that old fox.
'I was going to wait until I had a more solid weakness, but if he goes this far, I have no choice.'
If Wallace was so desperate to get rid of him, he had his own plans too.
On the day he finished his mission in the north, he decided to make Wallace pay dearly for this.
Next was the quest.
'I'll have to leave this quest for later.'
He could not rush to the desert right now anyway, and according to his memory from his previous life, these guys were persistent. They would probably send more of them if they thought he failed.
'I can dig up some clues then.'
Eurius quickly returned to the camp.
He had not spent much time fighting the assassins, so he probably did not raise any suspicion.
'Phew, luckily I didn't miss much.'
Eurius entered the camp with a sigh of relief. It would have caused quite a commotion if they noticed his absence.
'Where did His highness go?'
Linfield had just woken up and was looking for Eurius.
"Hmm? Are you awake?"
Eurius came near the bonfire with a wet body, as if he had just washed himself at the lake.
As soon as he saw his face, Linfield became thoughtful.
"Why did I fall asleep?"
"Don't worry too much about it. You must have been tired from assisting me with your inexperience. I won't hold you responsible."
"I'm sorry."
But after observing him for a while, Linfield cautiously spoke in a serious tone.
"Your highness! I don't mind if you punish me for this, but I have something to say."
"…"
"It's not appropriate for a commander to move around alone at night. And it's also dangerous in the north to not wake up the guard who falls asleep."
It was not easy for Linfield, a mere knight, to say this.
He had no excuse if Eurius got angry, but he sincerely wanted to advise him, since he had seen his personality for some time and understood what he meant.
And Linfield also had a slight suspicion that Eurius was hiding something.
'There's a faint smell of blood. Did he encounter a monster alone?'
In fact, if he revealed this, it would also implicate Linfield himself for not detecting the danger approaching the camp.
But Eurius was impressed by his frankness.
'It's not easy to say something like this… I'm really sorry for him.'
Actually, Eurius also knew that dealing with the assassins was a risky move.
He knew better than anyone how vicious these Order guys were from his previous life, so he did not want the knights or soldiers to be sacrificed because of him, besides testing his performance.
Of course, he could minimize the damage if he acted more openly, but then he would expose his skills too much. He had not yet earned enough trust to keep everyone quiet.
Linfield and Eurius's eyes met for a moment.
"I'll be more careful next time. Linfield, I appreciate your advice today."
"I apologize again for daring to say this to Your Majesty."
"Let's keep this between us two."
And Eurius winked at him. It was a silent plea to keep it secret from the count for now.
"…"
'He's such an unpredictable first prince.'
Linfield felt relieved that he was not punished, but he still had to stay up for a long time after Eurius went into his tent.
…
After that, Eurius's group continued their mission smoothly.
The Loki Forest was not an area where powerful monsters or spirits roamed frequently.
There were only northern orc tribes, goblins, and sometimes trolls or ogres of medium or large size.
"There's a fleeing goblin horde on the left. Move the soldiers to block their escape route!"
"An ogre! It's a fast runner too. Let Heinz and the skilled ones handle it."This chapter was originally shared via n(0))vel(b)(j)(n).
"Kieeek!"
The troops led by Eurius quickly blocked the retreat and slaughtered the goblin horde. The core of this regular patrol was to eliminate as many monster groups as possible along the route.
Especially ogres or trolls, who can pose a big threat as single entities, they can't be allowed to escape.
That's why they had to reduce the number of monsters regularly by patrolling like this. It would prevent the occasional large-scale monster attacks.
Eurius performed his role as a commander splendidly.
The northern knights, including Linfield, had no choice but to respect him more as they carried out their mission.
'He seems to have experience in leading troops several times.'
The most important thing for a commander was to have an eye for the overall situation.
Although this mission was not very dangerous, Eurius gave efficient orders to block the monster's escape routes or break their formations.
'He graduated from the academy of the kingdom with excellent grades, and he also has a great talent as a commander.'
'Maybe the emperor and the bureaucrats didn't send His highness to this front line without any thought.'
The knights gradually recognized Eurius as a trustworthy commander.
Linfield also only acted as a temporary commander for a day or two after leaving the fortress, but after arriving at the Loki Forest, he only had to perform his duty as a lieutenant faithfully, since his evaluation of Eurius had risen so much.
Finally, Eurius completed his first mission successfully and returned to the fortress.
"Your highness, you did a great job."
"It's thanks to the people you assigned me, Count Anderson. They assisted me well. I'd like to take on bigger tasks next time. Haha!"
Count Anderson was very satisfied after receiving the report.
'His Highness always exceeds my expectations. If he keeps doing this, I'd really like to help him personally with his achievements in the north.'
It was not easy to gain trust and respect from people, and it was not something that happened overnight.
But the advantage of trust was that once you won someone's heart, it was not easily broken.
Eurius planned to approach the northern people slowly like that.
'In one year. I have to build enough trust in one year for the duke to entrust me with the northern army.'