Chapter 349: Chapter 341: Scouting the Site

At the outskirts of Mushroom City, at the edge of a fungal mat bordering the mushroom fields.

Keroro had been waiting here for quite some time.

He was hidden in a patch of woodland connected to the mushroom fields.

Looking out into the distance, there were vast, orderly mushroom fields, with some humans either picking mushrooms or carting the bodies of demons over.

The forest where he was situated cleverly formed a visual barrier; from the direction of the fields, one could only see a dense canopy of trees, unable to glimpse the activity within the woods.

Finally, the person he had been waiting for appeared—a shiny bald man dressed in the common leather armor of an adventurer.

This highly mobile identity of adventurers was indeed often used as the perfect disguise for various covert meetings.

This time, the two parties were strangers to each other, meeting here only due to the needs of the mission.

For this reason, Keroro had even altered his appearance to some extent.

For this meeting, Keroro had even made slight adjustments to his appearance.

For such temporary secret contacts, spies must exercise extreme caution.

However, upon seeing that the visitor’s face was indeed unfamiliar, Keroro couldn’t help but secretly breathe a sigh of relief.

His current situation, though not quite “a heart in the demon while dwelling in the mushroom garden,” if he were to truly harm those former colleagues with whom he had a good relationship, he would inevitably feel guilty.

Not knowing them makes things much easier!

Keroro handed over a secret scroll that recorded detailed intelligence about Inanna.

Miro, the bald man, leaning against the mottled shadow of the tree trunk, quickly skimmed through the contents, a subtle hint of surprise flashing across his face.

This intelligence not only included the target’s basic strength and appearance characteristics known at the mission’s outset but also current location, possible times and places of appearance predictions, and a detailed assessment of the usual guard strength around the target.

These key pieces of information were enough to save him a lot of initial reconnaissance efforts, greatly improving the efficiency of his actions.

Miro deftly stowed the secret scroll away, without any unnecessary conversation or probing, decisively turning around to leave.

He was a part of the assassin group, needing no cultivation of interpersonal ties like the intelligence personnel, no need for cohesion and support.

The mission was the only goal.

After leaving the meeting spot, Miro did not enter Mushroom City but instead ventured into the depths of the dense forest near the city’s outskirts, weaving through until he arrived at a highly concealed temporary camp.

He looked around but saw no one, causing him to impatiently mutter in a low voice, “Stop hiding like a tortoise, I’ve got the intel! Always sneaking around, are you a bat or a rat?”

A low chuckle sounded nearby, and a figure slowly emerged from the thick shadow of the trees not far away, “Caution never hurts. After all, you’re a human. Who knows if you’ll suddenly decide to bring the Church’s Wing of Judgment back by surprise?”

“You talk as if you were born a vampire!” Miro didn’t bother entangling with this topic, directly throwing the secret scroll to his partner.

Miro was a genuine Diamond Level assassin, currently still a bona fide human.

The opportunity to defect to the Demon Race was quite simple; as an assassin, he had previously taken on various dirty jobs.

Using his exquisite and seamless assassination techniques, he earned a large sum of money for his enjoyment.

However, frequently walking by the river, there’s no way your shoes will remain dry. A careless mistake once led to him appearing on the United Kingdom’s wanted list.

Not wanting to spend the rest of his life hiding in gutters like a rat, defecting to the northern empire became his only choice.

This is also why, as a human, he is extremely reluctant to easily enter human cities—too much trouble!

Logically, someone like him, with a level surpassing Diamond Tier and having defected for only a short time, would typically need to undergo a lengthy period of trials and waiting to receive the valuable “Initial Embrace” transformation opportunity.

However, this time, Lord Sigmund was unusually generous, promising them that if they could successfully complete this mission, he would exceptionally grant him a transformation quota directly.

It’s worth noting that for him, an LV56 Diamond Level expert, the blood core energy consumed during transformation would be sufficient to ennoble a Vampire Earl. Many experienced Viscounts eagerly awaited such a chance, yet missed it simply because their assassination skills were inferior to his.

His partner, Giles, an LV50 Vampire Viscount, was similarly selected for this mission because of his expertise in breaking various protective magic arrays.

Of course, Miro was well aware of the enormous risks inherent in this operation.

Consider the assassination target this time, a Duke’s daughter!

Tally up all the targets he had assassinated in the past, and their combined identities and statuses might not equal that of this young girl, whose strength might not even reach Gold Level.

However, if he pursued stability in everything, he wouldn’t have become an assassin in the first place!

But then again, if stability had always been his pursuit, he wouldn’t have chosen to embark on this blood-stained path of an assassin!

Mage Giles quickly finished browsing the intelligence and pondered, “Next, we need to verify the authenticity of this intelligence.”

“Verification is fine,” Miro folded his arms, “but the ’verification’ you’re talking about, you’re not going to silently observe for a week or two, are you?”

“For safety’s sake, that’s exactly what we should do. Any problem with that?” Giles countered.

“Have you forgotten how tight the time constraints are for this mission that Sigmund assigned us?” Miro’s words immediately left Giles speechless.

They were unaware of what kind of torment their boss Sigmund had been going through every late night recently; they only knew that this assassination mission was given exceptionally high priority and extremely harsh time limits. There truly was no time for them to follow each standard procedure slowly and methodically.

A day later, the two silently sneaked into the dense forest outside the Saint Claire Clan’s private woodland.

Forcibly breaking through the Duke’s Mansion’s solid-as-a-rock magic defense system, infiltrating it, assassinating the Duke’s Daughter under the protection of a Palace Level butler and numerous elite guards, then breaking out of the encirclement—this was undoubtedly the least successful, nearly suicidal option.

Fortunately, the intelligence mentioned one key piece of information: every few days, this young lady would come to this private woodland, belonging to her family, to play.

At that time, that intimidating butler usually wouldn’t be by her side, only the regular guard team would follow.

This was undoubtedly a heaven-sent opportunity!

Of course, as a private noble property, even though its importance was far less than the Duke’s Mansion, this woodland must also be filled with various hidden alarms and defense magic arrays.

Therefore, the two must survey in advance, with Giles pinpointing all the locations of the magic nodes, and even, if necessary, silently destroying some key nodes to clear obstacles for the operation.

In the woodland, Miro maintained a high degree of vigilance, monitoring the surroundings from the treetop.

Giles took out a ring embedded with a three-color magical gemstone from his bosom and carefully put it in his mouth.

This ring could greatly suppress the magic power fluctuations around him, minimizing the risk of exposure.

Immediately after, he tore open a specially crafted small-range scouting scroll.

Invisible magical ripples quietly spread, and all the hidden magical constructs within range surfaced clearly in his mind like underwater reefs:

[Warning Magic Array]

[Explosive Magic Array]

[Puki]

[Magic Power Fluctuation Detection Magic Array]

[Puki]

[Puki]

[Puki]

…

Giles: “…”

He paused, raised his head in disbelief, and looked around.

As far as he could see, the forest was empty and silent, not even ordinary demons could be seen.

Miro, who was responsible for the lookout in the treetops, also signaled that everything was normal, without detecting any abnormalities.

Giles silently activated the second equally precious scouting scroll.

[Puki]

[Puki]

[Puki]

…

Gulp—

He called his partner down.

“Miro,” he lowered his voice, “stay here, don’t move around randomly, lest you trigger some hidden alerts we haven’t discovered. I’ll scout another direction to see if there’s a more suitable path for ambush and retreat.”

“Then I’ll go with you…” Miro suggested instinctively.

“No!” Giles immediately interrupted him, his tone carrying an indisputable “professional” consideration, “My perception range is limited; together, I can’t ensure that you completely avoid all trap nodes. Wait patiently here, I’ll be back soon!”

After successfully convincing Miro, Giles swiftly turned, bypassed the dense bush, and confirmed that he was completely out of Miro’s sight range. He immediately stopped suppressing his inner panic and bolted in the opposite direction of the woodland!

A burst of explosion sounded from behind.

Trap! It was indeed a trap!

He hoped his good partner could stall for enough time!

After running for a while, he suddenly stopped his steps, the surrounding environment seemed to change, and when he turned back, the way he came also disappeared.

“Illusion?”

In front of him, several “Edin” leisurely walked out.

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