"W-Why—cough!"
Alex, who was looking down on Urmina with eyes as cold as ice, heard her broken voice as he saw tears streaming down her cheeks.
She was crying not in pain but in betrayal. Just when she thought that her world might turn for the better, she was dying, and she didn't even know why it was happening.
What did she do wrong?!
Alex stared at her for a second before his lips moved.
"I guess I got a bit rusty in the last two years..."
He muttered as he caressed his jaw and cheek muscles. It was really hard manipulating them and making it seem like he was a guy madly in love.
As said many times before, he was the best assassin one could think of, and assassins aren't just killers; they are planners as well.
An expert assassin wouldn't wear a black dress and black mask; they would just put on a normal set of clothes and come talk to you without even letting you know that they were going to kill you in the next few seconds.
Even in that category, there were two types of assassins: one who would just come in walking, kill you, and walk away; then there are ones who would get in your comfort zone, make it look like they are able to perfectly understand you, and it is when you have let your guard completely down that they would kill you.
Alex was the more dangerous one, which is the second type. They not only kill you physically; they kill you emotionally as well.
But Alex, who had been training a new batch of assassins, had not gone on a serious mission like that for a while, making his movement a bit stiff, but Urmina wasn't able to catch those, resulting in her death.
As for her answer—the one she thought Alex was going to give her—well, there was no answer.
Alex killed her because he wanted to; she was a potential danger to his life, after all.
He never cared about her question in the first place; no predator answers its prey's questions. Here Alex was the predator and Urmina was the prey.
She fulfilled her purpose the moment she thought about accepting his feelings, as that was the moment his image in her mind, which was one that of an enemy, changed into something entirely opposite—a potential lover.
That was the condition for Alex copying her skill—the only reason for her death being delayed for such a long time.
<Copy complete.>
The AI informed him about the successful completion of the skill copying, and as soon as he got it, he decided to use it.
*Woosh*
He extended his hand toward the spear that was impaled on the tree trunk and Urmina's body, and the next second, many thin strings of web shot toward the spear.
It was all thanks to web mastery that Alex could now control strings strong enough to pull his body if he didn't struggle against them. If he had this ability when he was escaping from the level 50+ room during the second scenario, then he wouldn't have lost his leg.
But well, losing his leg didn't really seem like a bad thing to him now. It was thanks to that incident that he was now much stronger than before.
*Squelch—Splurt*
As soon as the strings of web connected to the spear, sticking closely without letting go, he jerked his hand, causing the spear to jump out of Urmina's body with a squelch, and blood sprayed out of her chest the moment he did so.
Alex, however, didn't spare a glance at her; he simply walked past her, just like he does with any other person he kills.
He would have all of his focus on them until they were dead, but the moment they died, they were not worthy of his attention anymore.
As he walked past the tree Urmina was lying dead close to, he bent down, picking something up, and the next second, from within a stack of dry leaves, he picked up a cut-off water bottle filled with strange pink liquid.
'Still not spoilt.'
Alex muttered inwardly, and the next second, that bottle vanished from his hands, getting stored safely.
That liquid was something Alex had made way before in case he needed to set a trap for someone; it was just an experiment that came to fruition.
Alex had made a relaxing potion by using his knowledge of royal medical arts and used alchemical enchantment on it, getting several kinds of results with not many different roles other than what the normal potion did, that is, until he got this particular potion.
That pink liquid was that potion, and it had the ability to make people start hallucinating, but that only works on weak-willed ones, something Urmina wasn't.
But it also made people relaxed, physically and mentally, something that comes in handy right now.
This potion made things way easier than they would've been in a normal case, as all of Urmina's guard had almost vanished under the effect of this potion, making it easier for Alex to manipulate her feelings.
With that done, he turned too look in a certain direction, the one where he would find Ragha. He was going for Ragha next, and although he didn't plan to kill that guy, he would do it if he thought that guy was a goner like Urmina.
If Ragha had such thoughts that he wanted to kill Alex no matter what, then Alex was simply going to kill that guy as well.
But if that guy was redeemable, then he would work fine as a walking piggy bank, one from which he could withdraw coins whenever he wanted to.
With a last glance at the bushes, past which was the Emberclaw feasting on the humans before he shot away from there.
The beast was probably going to return to its zone after killing all of them, as it seemed to have forgotten whom it even came after.
But Alex needed to get rid of any clues related to him being in this place, so...
*Fwish—Tak*
He threw a stone at the beast's shell, causing a hollow sound to be heard, and the beast's eyes snapped toward him, only to find nothing.
*Thump**Thump**Thump*...
The next second, however, Alex could hear the sound of heavy thuds moving toward him, and pretty sure that it was the beast moving toward him, he turned toward the direction he wanted to go and...
*Woosh*
With his speed at maximum, Alex rushed toward Ragha, and the guy in question remained oblivious to Alex's presence, moving toward him.
He was right now waiting for Urmina's message; both of them had decided to report their situation and findings every 10 minutes, after all. Sёarch* The Novelƒire(.)ne*t website on Google to access chapters of novels early and in the highest quality.
"So, what'd you boys dig up?"
Right now, he was staring at the three boys he had sent to the forest to find out if Alex was there or not.
He got the answer to that question the moment he saw them walking out of the forest without a single scratch on their bodies, but from the look on their faces, he could tell that they had something to say.
It was as if they had found something in there.
"Big bro, there was this crazy loud roar from some beast."
The first one of the three boys, the one who seemed to be most confident, stepped forward, replying to Ragha's question, causing him to frown.
"Yeah, it was pretty far off, but I could tell it came from some massive beast!"
The second guy added, causing Ragha to frown harder, but just then, something clicked in his mind.
"Which way did you say you heard that roar comin' from?"
He questioned, his tone containing a bit of urgency, and as soon as he saw all three of them pointing in a particular direction he wished them not to, his eyes widened.
'Shit!'