Chapter 66: An Assassin Unleashed

Chapter 66: An Assassin Unleashed

With a final nod to Suse, Nathan stepped into Hibors room to get out of sight. He extended his aura and bored an upwards-angled hole in the wall. His goals lay high in the gigantic building, and the main exit from the suite would take him down a few hundred feet into the park at the center of the low-tier residence hall.

Also, the lowest levels are likely to have the densest patrols because thats where Ive killed the most people.

He reached out with his magical senses, feeling around through the material of the Academy for open spaces. He didnt want to pop out in the middle of a hallway by accident, but he also didnt want to climb the height of the entire Academy inside the rock. Not only would it be fairly slow, but unless he wanted to travel at a fairly shallow angle hed need to spend Stamina on [Airwalk]. And since the tunnel was sealing up behind him, eventually hed run out of air.

I can use my aura to carve out stairs, but that would be even slower. Come on, theres gotta be a hallway somewhere over here.

He was also worried about running into some important piece of magic and breaking it by accident. While damaging the magic of the Academy wasnt a problem, he didnt want to give the Giantsrest mages who ran the Academy any clues as to what was going on. His ability to tunnel through the Academy seemed like an ace hed like to keep up his sleeve as long as possible. He didn't want to give the mages any reason to try to manually track him burrowing through the Academy.

Nathan felt a void in the wizardry ahead of him. It was embarrassingly close, he just hadnt felt it through the magic that surrounded him.

Wizard Senses 10 achieved!

He approached the wall and poked out a spike of condensed antimagic to bore a small hole in the stone and give him a peephole into the space beyond. It was a corridor he wasnt familiar with. But he didnt hear anything, so Nathan enlarged the hole to give him a broader range of vision. Sure enough, the corridor was deserted.

He broke through the wall, stepping out into the corridor and thinking over his options. His goal was pretty simple - go up. Everything he was interested in was at the top of the Academy. Badud was probably at the top of the tallest tower, but most of the other towers should also have archmages living in their peaks. He also wanted to investigate the place all of the wizardry had been pointing to, and that was also somewhere high up, though he didn't think it was at the top of a tower.

Im not sure what to go after first. On one hand the wizardry signal might be the heart of the Academy, and killing it could be incredibly valuable. But its an uncertain reward. My most tangible goal is killing Badud, but thats also probably the hardest task. I should go after some archmages first. Then they wont be able to escape or help Badud if we fight later. They should also give me enough levels to Develop [Magekiller]. That will make killing Badud a whole lot easier.

Nathan shrugged, looking around. He knew generally where he was in the Academy, but the place was huge. He wasnt sure where the central tower was in relation to him, or the other towers for that matter. This was the problem hed been hoping to solve with another day or two of scouting, but he hadnt gotten that chance. He had the advantage of surprise for one night, and he intended to use it.

With a sigh, Nathan started looking for a staircase, willing to spend a few minutes trying to find a faster way to ascend the Academy. If he couldnt find one, he would just tunnel up to a new level and look again. He spent fifteen minutes jogging towards where a staircase should be, only having to dodge a single patrol. The staircase wasnt quite where he thought it was, and he ran around in circles for a few minutes, sweeping the area before he detected a wizardry lock on an inconspicuous wall.

With a grin he went through the wall next to the lock, pleased with how much easier it was to access the stairs now that he didnt have to mess with the complicated locking spells. Then he started climbing the stairs rapidly, trying to hit the sweet spot between Stamina expenditure and maximum speed. He was going to climb a lot of stairs today.

It took a while to hit the top of this staircase, where he found a more complicated piece of wizardry blocking the entrance. It was once again easily bypassed, and Nathan peeked through a small hole into the upper levels of the Academy. Previously hed only gotten a single glance at these upper floors, and hed been astonished by the level of opulence on display. Hed also noticed a directionality to the wizardry towards some sort of central point high in the Academy.

That was still present, but what grabbed his attention was a golem standing guard right outside the staircase, posed to examine anybody who entered higher floors. Luckily enough his peephole hadnt been spotted, so Nathan carefully backed away from the wall. Then he jumped upwards and into the ceiling.

The stone between each floor of the Academy was thick, and Nathan crouched down to fit fully between the ceiling of one level and the ceiling of the next. Then he created another small hole to inspect the space above. It appeared to be a well-lit and luxurious bedroom. After a moment he heard the sound of a page turning. Enlarging his peephole he saw a handsome middle-aged woman wearing an orange robe. She was sitting in an overstuffed armchair, reading a book. This chapter is updated by nov(e)(l)biin.com

Lecturers are a fair target. I also need to refill my Stamina.

Nathan crawled horizontally through the floor, ending up directly in front of the armchair. Then he stood up, using his aura to push through the layer of stone directly overhead. It took a second for even the thin layer of stone to disappear, giving the lecturer a second of warning as the floor at her feet evaporated.

She reacted by lurching backwards in the chair, causing it to topple over and sending her sprawling. The woman tried to cast [Message], but Nathan had already wrapped her in his aura.

He hopped out of the hole in the floor, moving around the overturned chair and dropping to the ground to clamp a hand over the mages mouth. Shush. He spun his aura into her mana pool, overfilling his Stamina as the woman struggled in vain.

Now what? I could also break her magic instead of killing her. I know that knocks people out for a while, and shell be trapped in her room since the Academy wont open doors for her anymore.

He considered it for a moment, but eventually decided the risk wasn't worth it. Shed seen that he could burrow through the Academy, and somebody would probably come looking for her eventually. It could cut down his grace period unacceptably far. Nathan drained her magic to replenish his Stamina, then snapped her neck. He paused to make sure the wound was fatal before he moved on.

Magekiller has leveled to 209! You have assassinated Mieve dha Takunza, a senior lecturer of Giantsrest

He righted the chair, scooting it back so it wouldnt fall into the slowly-healing hole in the floor. Then he glanced around the room for a second, looking for a place to hide the body. With a shrug he carried the corpse over to the bathroom, leaving it on the floor and closing the door.

I don't know what will happen if I leave her body inside the stone of the Academy. It might stay entombed, or it might get squished out a random wall, or throw up some kind of alarm since her body's not shielded from detection magic like I am.

Then he turned back to the ceiling, going up yet another level. This time he ended up in what looked like a more advanced version of the practical magic classroom, with several powerful enchantments to isolate dangerous spellcasting. It was deserted, and Nathan kept climbing, burning off his excess Stamina with repeated use of [Airwalk] to ascend nearly straight upwards.

Hed decided against trying to find another staircase, both because he didnt know where any were this high up in the Academy, and because he suspected that the staircases were being guarded by golems.

He climbed through dozens more floors, checking each time that the next space was unoccupied by boring a small hole first. On two occasions he had to divert, once finding a half-dozen mid-tier students studying [Fly] under the supervision of a high-tier student in a huge room seemingly built for the purpose. The second time was an orgy, which made Nathan blink for a moment. He departed quickly, grinding his teeth in frustration. Nobody in there had been wearing robes, but he was pretty sure both professors and students had been present, and some of the attendees had definitely been slaves.

Youve got more important priorities.

There were other rooms Nathan wished he could linger in - ranging from a library thick enough with dust he thought it might have been totally forgotten, to an enchanting workshop filled with half-completed gizmos. In both cases he had to restrain himself from stopping to examine the rooms and their magic, and continue going upwards. He kept an eye on the directionality of the wizardry, noticing the angle change as he moved. The source seemed to be high up in the Academy, and hed place bets it was in the center.

Arcane Nullfield 2 achieved!

Finally, he broke through the floor of a viewing gallery. One wall was covered with broad windows that showed a dozen towers rising into the sky. They were dominated by one spire that was taller and thicker than the rest. It was nighttime, but the magical illumination from the Academys decorations illuminated the top of the giant building in a shifting, mystical light. Nathan paused to get his bearings, using the view out the window to place himself inside one of the medium-height towers that stood above the bulk of the Academy. If his guesses were correct, then thered be an archmage living in a luxury suite at the top, with Badud at the top of the central tower.

Great, lets check the top and see what we find.

He veered towards the center of the tower, looking for the stairs. He found that the center of the tower was a huge open shaft with a staircase made from opalescent stone spiraling around it. The open space was occupied by a grand artwork made of visible flows of magic.

Nathan looked around carefully, not trusting the beautiful display to be completely benign. He spotted a pair of golems standing guard at the very bottom of the shaft, completely blocking the start of the stairs. Hed successfully avoided them by going up through the rooms off the staircase. He couldnt detect anybody else.

He climbed carefully and quickly, stopping only to bypass a few subtly laid alarm enchantments on the stairs by slipping through the adjoining walls. At the top of the shaft he found a broad door, engraved in glowing letters with a name and series of titles.

Archmage Kon dho Granon

Fourth Finger of Ascendent Academy

Master of Skargess

Permanent Talent 2: Immortal Body 1

Permanent Talent 3: Airwalking 5

Class: Void of Magic level338

Deepened Stamina: 9820/10440

Void of Feeling

Antimagic Momentum

Raging Thrill

Implacable Inertia

Unarmored Resilience

Magic Anathema

Airborne Agility

Hand-to-hand Expertise

Voluminous Aura

Denial of Wizardry

Mana Severance

Class: Magekiller level 241

Regenerative Focus: 2101/2510

Catastrophic Blows

Battle Stealth

Mage Infiltration

Forgettable

Unsuspecting Strike

Antimagic Stealth

Spell Redirection

Lethal Index

Utility skills:

Wizards Meditation 3

Inspiration 3

Acceleration 4

Wizard Senses 10

Alertness 7

Wizards Intuition 10

Effortless Dodge 3

Mental Fortress 10

Tutoring 3

Parkour 2

High-tier Noticeability 8

High-tier Disguise 1

Mid-tier Battle Cry 7

Mid-tier Aura Manipulation 10