I am not proficient in silent assassinations before but I certainly have experience in sabotage. If only I can do that right now, they won't see what is coming for them. Too bad the class known for the sabotage and traps specialized experts, Saboteurs are not yet implemented yet and will only be available after the First Expansion that will be happening next week.
Observing these guys, I can easily tell that they are indeed what you call the "scums". Even Hyde who seemed like a mafia member doesn't have the vibe they are exuding out of their bodies. But I don't think I will just lightly challenge this guy. NPCs in Alternate World are strong and if you are not careful and skilled enough, the NPCs can easily kill you if they wanted to. Even with my high stats and weapon skills, that is not a certainty for me to be able to kill them since they hit hard and these kinds of guys have some sort of dirty tricks like paralysis and other stuff to cause you to freeze and can be killed easily.
There is already a plan in my head that is already ready to execute but I need more time and preparation. If only the skill Clairvoyance which is a skill given to all classes is available, I have a better option for listening and spying on them. Too bad that it is similar to the Saboteur class, they are only released after the First Expansion due to its primary usage in the later maps. My abilities are too limited at the moment.
Since spying to those guys are not possible at the moment, I decided to just focus on the deployed shady guys on the streets. Different from those guys before, these people are easy to dispose of. Even without assassination abilities, I can easily snipe them from where I was hiding and they won't even notice what comes from their deaths.
This quest is needed to be cleared perfectly or I might not receive the reward for activating the Ex job Blacksmith. The other rewards are also unknown so I am enticed to fulfill all of the necessary objectives just to complete this thing. But since the only option is to confront the perpetrator, that might be the only way for me to finish it. If that was the case, defeating all of these guys here might or might not increase the probability of my rewards.
These guys are randomly stationed in different places and most of them are not strategic at all meaning that if one team is wiped out, the other team will not even notice their disappearance. You can say it is kind of pointless but it was still the same a formation for them. Of course, I am not complaining. In fact, this was the perfect opportunity to ruin their team plan.
The necessary skills to immediately defeat a group of enemies is also purchased. After all, if I want to wipe them out without anyone noticing, I have to immediately kill them all in one go.
I did not hastily move and take my kills. One wrong move and every one of them will notice me. I also don't want to hit an innocent NPC. My influence might drop a lot if I do so and the guards will definitely capture me and put me in jail for doing so which I don't want to happen while the quest is ongoing.
Scouting on the surroundings, two groups are secluded to the other groups and have a smaller amount of people compared to the ones near the shop. Might be their purpose is just for the lookout for enemies. Since that is the case, these two groups immediately became my targets. Using the rooftops to silently move to the two groups, I target the group upon the north part. They were not expecting anything to happen around them so they are too lax on their movements which are pretty ideal for me.
I nock my bow and activated the Hunter skill, [Rapid Shooting], allowing me to shoot arrows continuously. Since the Versatile Weapon is a weapon that can transform anything, arrows can materialize as soon as the string of the bow is nocked and it was being used to aim an enemy, saving the time on pulling an arrow out of the container to reload, which is perfect for [Rapid Shooting].
SHUSHUSHUSHUSHUSHU
The arrows quickly left the bow and silently pierced through the heads of the adventurers. Because they were hit in the head which is a vital organ with the additional damage to the sneak attack, HP parameters did not manage to trigger and they immediately died. Of course, I have no idea if the [Death's Favorite] special effect was triggered but if it was, they were killed twice I guess.
"6 down, 7 more to go."
Still using the rooftops, I silently move to the second secluded group. I made sure no one would notice me at all by using [Stealth] skill that is available in the skill tree of Ninja and Assassin class. Once I managed to get into position, I waited for the cooldown of the [Rapid Shooting] to finish since it needs 1 minute and 30 seconds before it can be used again.
As soon as the cooldown refreshed, I didn't bother to leave it alone and immediately used [Rapid Shooting] to the adventurers with quick succession. And due to the ability of [Stealth] that allows the player who is under its influence to inflict a critical hit, the first one immediately died without any realization of his death. The arrows followed up and before the others can react, the arrowhead manages to pierce their brains, immediately killing them.
Getting rid of the second group allowed me to lessen the danger the enemies possess once they start to command an attack later. Since I can't openly make trouble for these enemies located in the open field, I have to wait for them to eventually move before taking them all down since their circumstances are different.
Then, the door on the shop burst open and the nobleman earlier flew outside followed by the guy who was labeled as the impostor. The next one to come outside is Lina who is currently fuming in rage.
"Motherf*ckers! Did you really think we are that easy to fool just because we are poor?! You bastards are the trash of the society! If you think you guys can scam money on us, then be sure to have money to pay in Healing Sanctuaries because I will be breaking every single bone of yours!"
Lina once again cracks her whip to the ground causing the two to tremble.
"F*ck! Looks like we are in for a fight," the impostor then looked behind him and tilted his head, which means it is a signal for battle.
And as expected, those guys stationed in the streets pulled out their weapons, and their grins on their faces are menacing. But like hell, I would let them do whatever they want. Since they are too weak, I nock my bow and release a barrage of arrows to the adventurers without even bothering if they hit or not. I didn't use [Rapid Shooting] this time but [Homing Arrows] that allows me to shoot arrows that can immediately hit targets without targeting them. As long as they are not friendlies, they will not be able to escape the arrows.
SHU SHU SHU SHU SHU SHU
The targets fell one by one as the arrows hit them. And this time around too, I saw Hyde appear from his hiding spot and begin his assault to the adventurers too using his sword. Despite the heaviness of the sword he was using, he was able to swing it around like a shortsword without much effort and hack through the adventurers that tried to attack him.
"Hey, this isn't what was planned!" the guy who looks like a noble profusely sweat as he looks at the adventurers fall one by one.
"This isn't what I had in mind! I also didn't expect that weak looking maid is a monstrous individual! Let's get out of here before we got caught up in the crossfire!"
I can't hear these guys talk but lipreading is easy and since this game is easily able to replicate even the lips of the NPCs talking the right words, lip reading is easy to analyze here. After confirming that they will be running away, I immediately changed my weapon to a Staff and released one of the skills I learned before in case something came up.
"Creeping Paralysis!"
ZAP!
The two fleeing guys didn't expect it and before they can take a single step, the paralysis kicks in and the two shivered and fell to the ground with a struggling face marked on their faces. Normal [Paralyze] skill is a single target and a tier 1 skill of the Magicians. However, [Creeping Paralysis] is an AOE skill that can paralyze multiple entities in one cast, the bad side of this one is that it is a bit weaker in terms of Paralysis power compared to the normal [Paralyze] skill. So when they got paralyzed, they were lucky enough to barely feel pain from [Creeping Paralysis].
I didn't kill them off because I knew that Hyde would interrogate them. Killing them might result in the mission to lessen its progress. And after finishing off the rest of the adventurers, Hyde finally approached the two paralyzed guys. Lina did not bother to leave the doorway of the store to protect her mother at all. If nothing goes wrong, I will be able to complete the quest immediately and get the reward for finishing the quest.