Chapter 120 - 111: Night Is My Arena Too

Quickly, Zoel silently arrived at the second floor of Gates’ house.

For an assassin at Level 5 Classes, the combat skill ’Stealth’ was already second nature. Coupled with special concealing techniques, it’s no exaggeration to say that even if the entire Gates family were awake, they wouldn’t notice.

Having learned of Elise, the Official Priest, during Laisa’s interrogation, combined with the Life Detection Badge just detecting two Classes-Level life energy fluctuations, Zoel directly pinpointed himself outside Raine’s room.

However, at this moment, he showed a hesitant expression.

Seconds later, with a pained look, he took out a scroll from his coat. It was a scroll recording the First Level Spell ’Dispel Protection’.

Logically speaking, a Level 1 Mage could try to create a First Level Spell Scroll, but due to the success rate issues and expensive raw materials, even Mages intending to specialize in ’Scroll Mastery’ usually don’t start trying until they advance to Level 2 Classes.

Basically, the price of a First Level Spell Scroll fluctuates around 50 Gold Coins, depending on the spell it records.

This is why it’s almost rare to see middle-low tier adventurers using magic scrolls in battle, as they are prohibitively expensive.

The scroll in Zoel’s hand, recording the First Level Spell ’Dispel Protection’, is priced at a steep 45 gold.

Caution has always been a principle Zoel adhered to.

Knowing the mission target is a Mage, perhaps with a low Classes Level, being cautious is not an overstep.

As a barely detectable spell glow passed, ripples instantly covered Raine’s room.

In fact, Zoel was overly cautious this time. Because he didn’t know that Raine wasn’t a proper Mage, so he never learned the Guardian Array, let alone knew how to use it.

Therefore, the scroll in Zoel’s hand worth 45 gold was naturally wasted.

"Boom!" As Zoel pushed the door, he suddenly felt a slight and almost imperceptible extra resistance, but he didn’t pay attention because this often happened due to the door hinge’s aging.

Yet in the next moment, when a clear but slight "ting" echoed in his ear, Zoel’s expression immediately changed. With a light point of his toes, his whole body leaped forward quickly, and a black arc slashed down at the figure on the bed!

Due to Laisa’s previous warning, although Raine hadn’t mastered the Guardian Array, he wasn’t unprepared.

For example, the Shield and weapon were within arm’s reach.

For example, some strands of hair connected to bells were tied to the window and door.

Although Raine had the support of Sensitive Hearing Lv2 and Sensitive Smell Lv2, even wild animals are less alert in sleep than in a normal state.

This is because of the physiological suppression and sensory weakening during sleep, which is a general condition for living beings.

Of course, once there’s an unusual sound, Raine would quickly awaken due to the boost from these two talents.

Thus, the moment he heard the bell, Raine opened his eyes, almost simultaneously seeing a hooded, dagger-wielding, lean figure slashing down at him.

’Frost Armor!’

In a flash of thought, Raine silently chanted Frost Armor in his mind.

At the same time, he tried his best to turn around; at least, he couldn’t let the opponent’s dagger strike his neck.

Zoel watched the dagger almost pierce Raine’s neck. He even envisioned the scene that would follow—

Once the dagger pierced, the resistance of the skin and flesh would be almost negligible, but the blood would spurt out instantly, followed by the target’s screams...

Oh, right, perhaps the other side would beg for mercy through tears.

After all, having just advanced as a Mage and not yet achieving much, losing one’s life would leave anyone unwilling to accept it.

But just when the dagger was only two or three inches away from piercing, suddenly, a shield formed of white frost flowers appeared in front of Zoel.

"Pfft!"

This white shield didn’t manage to stop the dagger, imbued with some combat skill, from piercing through. But after a brief hindrance, the dagger once again embedded itself, striking a solid piece of plate armor.

"Sizzle~"

The collision caused sparks to fly!

The inch-thick plate armor was gouged out with an almost penetrating cut, but ultimately, it didn’t break through.

In other words, the seemingly sure-kill strike that Zoel thought was in the bag had failed.

Hmm?

How is this possible?

Zoel’s pupils instantly contracted!

"Buzz~"

The whistling sound of something breaking through the air reached him, leaving Zoel no time to think. He rapidly crossed his arms, daggers clashing with a suddenly attacking dark object!

"Clang!!"

The earsplitting clashing sound rang out!

The two instantly broke apart. The bed plank beneath Raine quickly collapsed, and he stood up smoothly, while Zoel used the momentum to spring back several meters, standing by the door.

His expression was unusually odd as he looked at Raine.

Experts can tell immediately once they make a move.

As soon as they clashed, the assassination-experienced Zoel knew that the intelligence was definitely off, and even his own judgment was a bit skewed.

The young man in front of him, the classes might not be a Mage, or more accurately, could be some special Mage-type classes, like a Curse Swordsman.

Because the opponent’s shield strikes just now were quite powerful, if he saw correctly, it seemed like a Shield Bash, a combat skill usually only learned and mastered by Shield Warriors.

Similarly, Raine’s eyes were flickering.

Thanks to Laisa’s earlier information, Raine knew this person must be the assassin from the mysterious organization ’Farad Manor’.

As an assassin, countering his full-force Shield Bash without the slightest lag in power, almost perfectly neutralizing it, indicated that the opponent’s Classes Level most likely exceeded Level 4, possibly reaching Level 5.

But power wasn’t the only concern; more troubling was the opponent’s agility.

In an instant, Raine made his decision.

’Deep Moss Spider Bloodline’ instantly replaced ’Giant Bloodsucking Bat Leader Bloodline’.

Enemies with high agility are the hardest to deal with.

With super-fast movement and action speeds, most of the time, targets locked by an assassin can only respond passively.

Although Raine had mastered a stationary immobilization spell—Ice Ring Spell, as an assassin stronger than Laisa, the opponent surely has a countermeasure for such immobilization abilities.

Therefore, Spider Web Spell, this second immobilization spell, becomes very necessary.

As for the Frost Blade Leopard Bloodline, although it offers a higher agility boost than the Deep Moss Spider, the issue is that a bit of agility compared to Spider Web Spell makes Raine feel that Spider Web Spell might have a game-changing effect.

Having long thought about different monster bloodline combinations to face varying enemies, Raine almost instantly made the decision to switch.

At this moment, Raine’s ears moved slightly, as if hearing something, and suddenly, he jumped through a nearby window and broke out.

"Trying to escape?"

"So naive, the night is my domain," Zoel sneered, and his whole body swiftly followed, darting out of the second-floor window, leaping down.

....

In the room next door.

The fierce clashing of metal just now, along with the sound of the bed board shattering, naturally alarmed Elise in the room next door, who hurriedly picked up the nearby scepter and quickly rose.

In fact, even Gates sleeping downstairs was disturbed.

"Wild Boar People again?" Hayley on the bed showed a look of fear.

"Don’t know, quickly hide with the children, I’ll go check!" Gates patted his wife comfortingly.

Raine left the second-floor bedroom partly because the cramped room environment wasn’t beneficial for his subsequent battle, which instead favored the agile assassin, and also because he didn’t want the upcoming battle to affect Gates’ family.

Therefore, he needed a new environment.

....

In the open space in front of the door.

"Why aren’t you running?"

Zoel had thought Raine would keep running, but unexpectedly, he stopped after rushing out of the room for a short distance, waiting for him.

Thus, Zoel didn’t immediately attack but curiously surveyed the ’target person’ in front of him.

Very young, probably around eighteen or nineteen years old.

This matches the intelligence and also fits his previous guess. The other party should have just stepped into the Classes, and it’s a Special Classes similar to Curse Swordsman.

Of course, the other party is holding a Shield and Warhammer, so he shouldn’t be a Curse Swordsman, but there are so many Classes on Valzeg Continent, he couldn’t possibly know them all.

He only needs to know that the other party can cast Magic and is proficient with Shield and Warhammer, which is enough.

And Raine also didn’t immediately attack but used his extraordinary smell and hearing to quickly determine whether there were others ambushed nearby.

Soon, Raine confirmed that within a few dozen meters around, there were no accomplices of this person, but Regina and the Iron Shield Squad were also alerted and were swiftly coming from the northwest.

Seemingly hearing the footsteps and other sounds coming from his ear, to avoid lingering uncertainty, Zoel acted!

In an instant.

"Whoosh!"

In the night, Raine saw a silhouette rushing at him like an arrow leaving the string.

"Clang! Clang! Dang!"

Thanks to Dark Vision and Low Light Vision, although Raine’s speed couldn’t quite match Zoel’s, he raised his Shield repeatedly, accurately blocking one of the opponent’s thrusts and two angled strikes.

Huh? How could this be blocked?

Zoel’s eyes flickered.

Actually, Raine was equally surprised; he didn’t think the enemy this time would be so strong.

The speed was at least a grade faster than Laisa.

Though he had changed his Class, his Classes Level was only Level 1, while the opponent was at least Level 5 Classes and an assassin.

Enduring too long leads to mistakes.

Moreover, pure defense isn’t his style!

"Frost Ring!"

’Whoa’ in the blink of an eye, from Raine’s position as the center point, a circular white chill suddenly erupted, sweeping around like a tsunami.

"Crack!"

The sound of rapid freezing echoed!

Zoel, who was about to continue attacking Raine, was suddenly frozen in place, poised to stab with a dagger, but his ankle formed a thick white ice layer, quickly spreading upwards.

’What kind of Magic is this?’

This caused a moment of shock to flicker in Zoel’s eyes for the first time, feeling the situation was beyond control.

But there was no time to think because the blackened Shield was already whistling towards his face.

"Shadow Step!"

"Whoosh!" in an instant, Zoel vanished from the spot.

And behind Raine in mid-air, a leaping blurry figure suddenly appeared, lifting a dark dagger high, about to strike down!

Yet in that very instant.

Raine’s figure suddenly blurred, as if a television signal faltered, the image flickered, blurred, and then completely merged into the darkness, disappearing.

This sudden change caused Zoel, who was about to execute a backstab, to shrink his pupils instantly.

The soon-to-be-completed Combat Skills came to naught due to the target’s disappearance.

And in that instant, he heard a voice in his ear—

"Actually, the night is also my domain...."