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Chapter 99 – Assassins’ Arrival

Translator: Kell | Editor: Ryunakama

Assassins’ Arrival

A week later.

I woke up to a knock on my door in the early hours of the morning.

「Who is it?」

「It’s Sachilys. I came to tell you that I found intruders.」

I’ve formed a security force consisting of adventurers with inferior job classes, trained personally by me to protect the Meigis Company and the Count himself. I taught them Skills and how to fight. In this world they’re looked down upon, but in BBO they were the advanced classes. Each has their own superb Skills, and if taught properly, they can serve well.

Among them was Sachilys who showed promise in surveillance. Her class is called Spirit Archer, a class that excelled in searching for enemies. She’s been vital in looking out for enemies – Georgis’s assassins specifically – when I’m not in Elias or when I’m sleeping.

「Okay.」

I quickly got changed and opened the small window on the door.

Meigis Company employees stayed in this room, and as such, security measures were tight. One of them was a small window on the door to check the situation outside without having to open the door. Of course, the door itself is securely locked.

「What happened?」

As soon as I confirmed nothing was out of the ordinary outside, I unlocked the door and invited Sachilys in.

「Four suspicious people has entered town. Judging by their movements, they’re quite strong.」

A few suspicious persons had entered the town before. Some were Georgis’s men, some were not and most were alone or in a pair.

Four people is the most at once so far. If they’re all strong, they must be some enthusiastic intruders. Sachilys probably came to me directly because she felt they were dangerous. Otherwise she can take care of it herself.

「What does your Search Enemy say?」

Spirit users possessed Skills suited for searching enemies. Among them was Search Enemy.

Like Magic Search, it’s used to detect enemies, but there was a difference between the two. Magic Search detected mana flowing through the enemy, while Search Enemy searched for “hostility” to the one you’re guarding. It’s extremely useful against humans.

Magic Search lets one find people in town easily, but you won’t know whether the person is an enemy or not. You can probably guess from their movements. Only if you pay careful attention, though.

On the other hand, Search Enemy can sense hostility against a target so you can filter out the harmless ones. An indispensable Skill when you’re in a town like this.

「It looked like they were hostile against you and Count Meigis.」

There are a few drawbacks to such a handy Skill, however. First, the number of people you can configure it with is limited. The limit increases with level, but if it’s newly acquired, the max is two people. For now it’s me and Count Meigis, the two people most likely to be targeted. If the intruders targeted the company’s employees, we won’t have any way of knowing.

Second it’s pretty much useless against nonhumans. Wild monsters would only show hostility once they spot you so searching for monsters with it is impossible.

Basically you can’t use it for hunting monsters in a forest. The point of scouting is to find enemies before they find you. It would be too late if monsters found you first. In the case of humans, they tend to study their target beforehand so they already feel hostile towards them. As such they’re easy to find.

「Magic Search.」

I activated my own scouting spell.

With this, I now know the locations of every person in town from their mana. All I have to do is look for people acting suspiciously. Then in an alley that not a lot of people use, located to the right of the entrance to town, I spotted four people walking together.

「Is the hostility you’re detecting coming from a group of four people lurking just to the right of the entrance?」

「Yes. They’ve been moving slowly. They could walk faster and they won’t make a sound but they’re not. It’s almost strange.」

「I see. They might be waiting for the perfect timing.」

I opened the curtains to look at the sky. The moon was up but no stars could be spotted. Cloudy, it seems. Judging by the direction of the clouds, the moon will be hidden soon.

「They might be waiting for it to get dark. In that case, they might come through the roofs.」

I activated Magic Search at regular intervals to gauge how fast they were going. Indeed, they walked slow. If they were seen standing still, they could be labeled as suspicious fellows. It almost feels like they’re moving slowly to kill time.

Very few people actually took the path they were taking and there were plenty of things to block vision, so being spotted is highly unlikely. Which is also why we found them easily.