CHAPTER 41- Number 3’s Identity

Number 3 cancelled her Shadow Leap skill, and a black mist slowly solidified into her real body.

"You… I'll remember you, Aerich the oracle, I don't know who you are, but don't for once think we can't find out!"

And with that she was about to escape, putting all her power in her legs, focusing on nothing else but her speed and she was confident that being an assassin, she could escape if she wanted to.

However before she could start fleeing, Ray started speaking.

"You shouldn't escape, Number 3… or should I say…Nadya Kazuo… the third wife of the Duke?"

"..!"

The woman immediately lost all thoughts of escaping.

'Impossible! H-How does he know! These cloaks and masks are specially crafted to prevent most appraisal skills…'

And once again she remembered she was dealing with an oracle and grit her teeth in frustration.

'I can't escape, the vice- leader will kill me…I will take him down with me if I have to!'

Ray was no oracle, but the special equipment created to prevent normal appraisal could in no way stop his divine skill.

However, Ray was disappointed.

He knew this woman was strong. Really strong, but it was just a bad matchup against him.

The strength of an assassin is the first strike. Hidden and unknown to the target, it can easily take away someone's life in one swift smooth slash.

But to Ray who was already expecting Number 3 to follow him and kept himself extremely alert to his surrounding mana, this 'hidden' attack completely lost its meaning.

And to Ray this woman appeared strong but inexperienced. At least compared to him.

She made a lot of mistakes all throughout. She underestimated her target, kept chatting with him, got riled up with every accusation, focused too much on the target while attacking, ignoring the surroundings.

And with that he once again looked at her status screen.

[System: Shadow Assassin System (Epic)

Name: Nadya Kazuo

Age: 45

Species: Human

Bloodline: Normal (F)

Physique: Child of Shadow (A)

Mind: Normal (F)

Disposition: Neutral, Chaotic

Title: Third Duchess of the Celestial North

Strength: (B+)

Agility: (A+)

Intelligence: (C)

Charm: (A+)

Dexterity: (S)

Stamina: (A+)

Mana Quantity: (E)

Mana Output: (E+)

Mana Control: (C+)

Mana Purity: (F-)

Passive Skills: Shadowphile (S+), Dextrous Fingers (A), Shadow Control (A), …

Active Skills: Shadow Leap (SS), Shadow Buff (S), Shadow Mist (A), …]

'Sigh… she was really unlucky wasn't she…'

Looking at the status screen, he could think of much better ways of using these skills.

If she was experienced enough, with these stats and skills she could have… still not injured him, but easily killed someone else who was as strong as him.

The sole essence of an assassin was to stay mysterious, hidden and go for the most lethal strike all at once.

Ray's appraisal skill laid bare every hidden trump card at an assassin's disposal, rendering them completely useless against him. If any other person was in his place, they would have most probably died because of this shadow leap skill.

"I'll take you down with me!"

He could feel the killing intent rising in the woman's voice as she brought out a dagger out of her spatial ring.

Ray however didn't want to fight her any more.

"You really talk too much."

'Reverse Berserk'

[Reverse Berserk has been activated.]

[Opponent's physical stats have decreased]

Number 3, or rather, Nadya who was about to charge forward with the dagger in her right hand which was uninjured suddenly felt a wave of weakness wash past her.

"W-What…"

Ray dashed forward with no weapon in hand, using his footwork to not stumble on the fallen debris from broken buildings, he arrived in front he her in just an instant.

And with that he pulled his hand back.

Nadya who had seen his punch destroying buildings couldn't help but shudder.

She was an assassin for god's sake; her defenses were not that strong!

'I'll die!'

However, Ray didn't punch out like he expected.

He changed his hand movement midair and before the woman could react, struck her with his right hand open, his palm facing upwards, parallel to her shoulder, with the region opposite to his thumb, below his pinky, on her neck, just below her jaw.

A knifehand strike.

A classic move in most bare handed battle styles.

Aim it directly below one's jaw, at the carotid sinus and the person loses consciousness. Do it too hard, and it becomes lethal, but Ray controlled his strength and applied only enough force to knock her out.

*Clang*

The dagger dropped down from her hand and Nadya began to lose consciousness.

And while she was rapidly losing consciousness, she felt her 'target' pick her up and place her on his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Right before she completely blacked out, she remembered the face of everyone she knew and loved. Everyone she was doing all this for.

Finally, she lost her consciousness completely.

Looking around at the commotion he had caused and thinking about the guards that would soon arrive and be baffled at the scene, he put Number 3 on her shoulder and dashed away to a completely different part of the city, masterfully hiding behind the buildings, using only the most deserted areas to avoid suspicion, he finally found a rundown empty building near the slums.

Entering this building, he immediately increased his mana sensitivity to the maximum and surveyed the surroundings multiple times.

'No one following… good.'

After confirming that he was in the clear, he turned back his attention to the woman in front of him.

A knockout mostly lasted for a few seconds, but if the strength was high enough to be injurious and low enough to be non lethal, it could last for several minutes.

Ray was thinking if he should kill her or not.

Obviously, not killing her had a lot more positives than the other.

First, she could become his second spy in this association. Second, he could instruct her to somewhat control the duke's actions. Third, he would gain a reliable assassin.

[Lust System: And fourth, she's a Duke's wife!]

'No shut up, not now.'

[Lust System: Why not?]

Ray shook his head.

Sure, the woman in front of him was the Duke's wife and from what he had seen during the banquet she was quite beautiful. Obviously the situation was exciting.

But Ray was in no desperate need to acquire women. She belonged to the same association that had killed him in the past, so obviously, no matter how many positives keeping her alive had, he wanted to kill her.

However he kept her alive. First of all, her disposition told she was neutral chaotic.

'It doesn't say evil, which meant she didn't take innocent lives…'

And even more so, the wrath system which would immediately issue quests on meeting with his enemies didn't even speak up.

But there was another thing that kept him from directly killing her.

Systems were assigned randomly to people, and physiques were present since birth, as such how come this woman had a physique practically tailor made for her system?

Either it was a big coincidence or…

'It might have been modified.'

And Ray knew how difficult it was to change physiques or bloodline after birth.

As such, he would first scour through the woman's memories, find out everything about her, figure out exactly the reason she was doing all this. If she was clean, she would live but if he found anything that displeased him, he would kill her regardless of the consequences.

'Dream Lord.'

Ray's consciousness left his body and entered the woman in front of him.

'Let's see…'