Chapter 96
Inventorying Spoils of War
Eivass got out of bed in his pajamas without looking for his wheelchair.
He stepped directly onto the soft, dry carpet and couldn’t help but sigh, “It’s really clean. I don’t see any bloodstains on the floor, not even the carpet is dirty… Well done, Shadow Demon.”
As Eivass’s feet touched the ground, his contract with the Shadow Demon connected, and the Shadow Demon’s power was activated.
The morning sun’s rays shone upon Eivass.
The gentle sunlight only cast faint shadows. But after the Shadow Demon became active, that shadow suddenly deepened—like a large dose of ink dropped into water. The shadow by Eivass’s feet became like a fluffy black cat.
The entire room turned dim, and countless pitch-black smoke gradually solidified, slowly creeping onto all the windows. The gradually thickening shadow patterns resembled dense blood vessels and nerves, or slowly growing tree branches, almost completely blocking the sunlight from outside.
Only a small amount of sunlight now leaked in. It was like the dim yet barely visible state of a room just before dawn.
“It’s a bit too dark,” Eivass said casually. “But as you wish. I thought you’d tear her to shreds. I was prepared to pick up whatever was useful… I didn’t expect it to be preserved so intact.”
He sifted through, examining his spoils of war.
The more he inspected, the more subtle his expression became.
As for equipment, why was even her underwear preserved so intact?
…Ah, that’s not right. It seems reasonable. If the equipment is complete, but only the underwear is missing, it would seem more problematic…
Eivass searched broadly. The most valuable item “dropped” by the assassin miss this time was likely her dagger, that Handleless Flying Knife.
[Hawk Feather * 4]
[Extraordinary Weapon (Light Purple)]
[Exotic Dagger, Throwing Weapon, Lightweight, Sharp]
[Exotic Trait: Handleless (It must be used with a special technique to be properly utilized)]
[Module – Poison Slot: Its poison effect lasts longer and it’s easier to poison enemies upon hitting them]
[Extraordinary Module – Silent Poison: When poisoned, it will not make any sound before hitting its target]
There were four of these throwing knives left. They didn’t have any flashy attributes; all their effects were designed for assassination. Among Extraordinary Weapons, they were considered the weakest type—but for an assassin, they were excellent hidden weapons. As long as they were coated with poison, they wouldn’t make a sound cutting through the air. Using this method for a sneak attack would basically rely on intuition to dodge. For some Paths lacking the Intuition attribute, even if their Extraordinary level was very high, they would be unable to detect it through perception.
It was a shame that the assassin miss didn’t drop a “skill book.” Eivass temporarily couldn’t obtain the technique for using this weapon from the Eagle Eye assasssins…
—But it wasn’t unusable. As long as he found a trustworthy blacksmith to attach a handle to the back, it would transform from an Exotic Dagger back into a normal dagger. Although it might cause a shift in balance, it wouldn’t affect its attributes anyway. If the blacksmith’s skill was good enough, they should be able to modify it.
Accompanying this knife were two doses of poison from the assassin miss, both in the form of lipstick. One lipstick was Dark Red and named [Affection]. The poison was more subtle, causing the victim to grow increasingly fatigued over several hours and then die inexplicably in their sleep. The other was Pink, named [Lunar Mist]. It could kill someone within seconds by rapidly corroding and melting their internal organs, primarily the heart and lungs—this was clearly the poison used to assassinate the secretary.
Both lipsticks were essentially new and could likely be used for a long time. Eivass was not a poisoner, nor was he an Extraordinary of the Adaptation Path, so he couldn’t immunize himself to this poison. And he obviously didn’t use lipstick anyway. Even so, using the lipstick directly as a solid poison paste was fine. The poisons from the Eagle Eye organization were quite reliable… He’d keep them for now, they might be useful later.
Besides that, there was a Transponder. It was a badge that required Dark elemental Mana to activate, used for urgently notifying one’s superior—either for aid or for suicide. It seemed the Shadow Demon was very efficient. She didn’t even have time to commit suicide before the Shadow Demon killed her. Otherwise, this experience would have been wasted.
“This dropped?!” Eivass gasped when he saw the assassin miss’s Corset. “—Is her status so high within Eagle Eye!”
This was because it was another piece of equipment from the “Eagle in the Shadow” set, and also the most valuable and crucial piece:
[The Stealthy in the Shadows]
[Extraordinary Equipment (Purple)]
[Armor – Torso]
[Trait: When undetected by enemies, the ease of entering Stealth or Invisibility increases (Only triggers for Adaptation Path)]
[Extraordinary Trait: While in Stealth or Invisibility, your sneak attack always gains +1 Advantage (Shadow) (Only triggers for Adaptation Path)]
[Set: Eagle in the Shadow (1/4)]
[“—Be silent, be quiet. The shadows are our mother.”]
Although its rarity was only Purple, with no resistance attributes or enchantments at all… this was undoubtedly the most valuable piece of equipment in the set. In the game, it could be purchased, but in reality, this particular piece of equipment was not mass-produced. Therefore, this set attribute couldn’t actually be completed; most players could only complete a three-piece set. The fourth piece had to be obtained through special channels. This was because it provided an increase in “priority.”
The reason Extraordinary beings in this World summarize their levels by “Energy Level” is because, in case of conflicting abilities, Extraordinary beings with higher Energy Levels have a higher chance of success. When the Energy Levels are the same, the outcome is uncertain. For example, the Path of Authority has the Law Spell “Ubiquitous Exposure,” which can reveal anything hidden by Extraordinary Power within a certain range. This spell has a +1 Advantage (Reveal) and can be successfully cast even when one Energy Level lower than the opponent, but it is basically useless if two Energy Levels lower. Therefore, those low-level Supervisors and Law Masters couldn’t find the assassin miss—their levels were too low, and they couldn’t find her no matter what they did.
And the meaning of +1 Advantage (Shadow) is that with the boost of the shadow domain, the assassin gains a temporary Energy Level when ambushing. However, if the opponent is immune to shadow abilities, this priority boost is invalid. Based on Eivass’s judgment, Gordon should be a Level 39 Sky Cavalryman. At his age, the old man should have accumulated enough. Therefore, he must be stuck at the level before advancement—that is, exactly Level 39. He must have failed his advancement repeatedly, so he decided not to advance further. Attempting to advance from the Fourth Tier to the Fifth Tier would already cause significant damage to the soul, and even risk death during the Full Moon Ritual.
Although Gordon didn’t bring his mount, the assassin miss didn’t ambush him either. As a weaker profession, to be able to fight head-on with a Sky Cavalryman and be evenly matched, or even run faster than a Gryphon, the assassin miss should also be around Level 38 or 39. This aligns with the Eagle Eye organization’s strategy: the assassins they dispatch abroad are generally Fourth Tier. Because assassins at this Energy Level can safely evade tracking and reconnaissance, and operate in unfamiliar dangerous areas.
If the assassin miss could complete the Advancement Ritual to Level 40, Gordon would be unable to suppress her. Although it’s only one level difference, it’s still a whole tier. But if those “Grand” Extraordinary beings of the Fifth Tier really came, Chloe’s stealth would be useless against them. They could easily scan her out and control her. This is Energy Level suppression. It is precisely because of this strict “level” system that Extraordinary beings call it “Energy Level,” meaning the priority of Extraordinary abilities.
While the Adaptation Path has the ability to prevent sneak attacks and sense danger, and some Paths also have defensive abilities, as long as the assassin wears this piece of cloth armor with no defensive attributes, she can successfully ambush enemies she couldn’t before, pierce defenses she couldn’t before, and hit targets she couldn’t before. Even if it’s only +1, temporarily increasing the judgment by one Energy Level is extremely valuable!
Although with version updates, terms that increase priority have become increasingly common—this is also a form of numerical inflation. But in the current 0.0 version, even equipment with +1 Advantage is very rare. Without the Advantage bonus, a Level 50 character fighting a Fallen Heavenly Envoy is basically impossible to win. Level 50 is already the Sixth Tier in the current version, which is almost impossible to reach. It requires the gathering of nine Level 49 Extraordinary beings from nine Paths to complete the advancement, and even then, there’s a high chance of death upon failure. Because it’s currently very difficult to gather enough people, reaching Level 50 is extremely challenging… It will likely be when the world falls into chaos and the power of the Fifth Tier is no longer sufficient that Sixth Tier beings will begin to emerge in large numbers.
In the current environment, the Sixth Tier is undoubtedly the strongest in the world, número uno. The Eternal Pope of the Church is currently Level 50, but she also had her level temporarily increased by one due to the prestige of the Eternal Pope; she will revert to Level 49 upon abdicating. As a Level 0 version’s extremely difficult dungeon, fighting the Fallen Heavenly Envoy even at Level 50 is merely meeting the hard requirement. In such a large-scale MMORPG, the most challenging raid instance of a certain version usually doesn’t even allow entry without being max level and fully geared. Even if you get in, you’ll likely wipe repeatedly.
—This is the value of a High-tier Phantom Demon. Just as “Upper Demon” refers to a Demon of higher prestige than a Demon Scholar, the concept of “High-tier Phantom Demon” began after the Fallen Heavenly Envoy wiped out the “Rose Cross” society. It refers to Phantom Demons of higher prestige than those in this World—all Apostles and Heavenly Envoys belong to High-tier Phantom Demons. The distinction between High-tier Phantom Demons and Phantom Demons is that even if High-tier Phantom Demons forcibly incarnate into the Material Realm, their levels are capped at the World’s upper limit, but they are still considered one tier higher. This was the main reason for the Rose Cross society’s failure, a pure information gap.
The distinction between High-tier Phantom Demons and Phantom Demons is whether they possess unconditional +1 Domain-wide (Divine) judgment. Only High-tier Phantom Demons can be sealed as Great Beasts by Sin Scholars.
Therefore, although the Butterfly’s level was low, its prestige was very high—this unhatched, premature little butterfly was only Level 30 at the time, but its judgment was at the Fifth Tier standard. It was almost immune to all crowd control, debuffs, curses, armor penetration, and sneak attacks. It could even penetrate the player’s resistance and shields. At the time, players thought this was standard for raid bosses… but then the bosses in the next two major versions did not have this characteristic at all. It wasn’t until after players defeated the Fallen Heavenly Envoy that they belatedly realized… the Butterfly was the first High-tier Phantom Demon that players had ever conquered.
Therefore, any equipment with the “+1 Advantage” trait should be collected as a priority. Although each domain takes the highest bonus, there are quite a few domains that receive bonuses. This is also why Eivass wants to go archaeology—such equipment is known to be good even by natives and is usually held only by the top powers of each country. In Iris, it’s Eagle Eye; in Avalon, it’s the Arbitration Hall.
Avalon’s strongest is likely the Grand Arbitrator, Meg. Although she is only a Fifth Tier Extraordinary being, she possesses three pieces of +1 Priority equipment, enhancing the “Barrier,” “Reveal,” and “Resistance” domains respectively. If she were to wield the Queen’s scepter, she could also gain priority in the “Commandment” domain; with that, she would essentially be a Sixth Tier supreme being. It is precisely because of Meg’s powerful deterrence that Avalon, with its increasingly chaotic internal politics and each faction scheming for its own benefit, has been able to survive to this day.
It is because next summer, Meg will realize that Avalon’s situation is becoming precarious, and she will decide to attempt an advancement. If she can successfully advance, Star Antinomy will absolutely not dare to attack Avalon. But during that Ascension Ritual, Meg failed her advancement and ultimately tragically died—
Only three months passed after that. Then came Avalon’s “Cruel Autumn” incident.
