Arcane Sniper

The Achievement obtained by the three individuals simultaneously with the death of Bahamut was anything but favorable.

Chiyou, Igor, and Pyro were well aware that achievements in Middle Earth did not only provide ‘positive effects’, but this particular case was exceptionally severe.

“Kyahaha! It’s great, isn’t it? If the next generation Bahamut recognizes us, won’t that Bahamut come for revenge? We’ll just have to kill that one too! With the items we looted, we could at least break even for all our efforts!”

The feature of being located by the next generation Bahamut.

Petyr immediately grasped the current situation just by overhearing the brief conversation. Although he didn’t know ‘how’ they killed Bahamut, it didn’t matter in the grand scheme of things.

‘Hee hee hee… Assassination methods can exceed a million depending on the target and situation.’

What mattered was the outcome.

Chiyou had used some means to kill Bahamut and must now pay for it. Judging by Chiyou’s expression, the penalty from the Achievement overshadowed the combined value of the looted items from Bahamut.

“Igor~? You haven’t already forgotten what you told Pyro, have you? How we ‘caught’ Bahamut.”

“Ugh… Indeed, using it ‘one more time’ would be too much of a waste.”

“Of course. Unless we can find a way to cancel this option, killing the next Bahamut will result in the same outcome. When a new Bahamut is born, the cycle will continue. Bahamut won’t come alone, and eliminating all the Metal Dragons is practically impossible within the game system. Besides, the penalty from the Achievement isn’t just limited to that.”

Petyr found it somewhat amusing.

For him, Chiyou was a rival, sharing the same Minis origin and the same assassin lineage, though they approached their craft in utterly contrasting styles.

Watching such a rival suffer, it was naturally enjoyable…

‘And there… if my memory serves me right—.’

BOOM─────!

Suddenly, with a loud explosion, an enormous amount of steam gushed from the entrance of the cave. It startled Pyro enough to cancel his skill.

“What… was that? As the external ice melted, the internal ice vaporized automatically?”

“This is perfect. Hurry up. You all follow me, quickly!”

No excuses.

Chiyou, needing to move quickly, immediately started to advance into the cave. Chiyou entered first, followed closely by Pyro.

Igor trailed behind them with three NPCs.

Petyr waited for a moment.

Were there any other unseen eyes?

The assassin, who had long known that Chiyou wasn’t acting alone, continued to wait.

The fact that Bahamut’s carcass hadn’t disappeared yet suggested there were still items to be looted. Even getting hold of one Platinum Dragon scale could lead to acquiring countless assassination missions.

Yet, Petyr remained in his place.

He resisted moving out, choosing instead to quietly organize his thoughts. Even as the looting items remained, he held his ground until the body of Bahamut completely vanished when the time limit expired.

This was a testament to why he continued to rank as the number one assassin. Only when he reached the end of the cave entrance did he dissolve his body’s outline into the darkness.

After all, to a vampire like Chiyou, Igor, and Pyro, and an assassin like Petyr who worked in the dark, the cave’s darkness posed no hindrance.

Including the NPCs, Chiyou’s group consisted of six people, with Petyr making it seven.

Though seven bodies moved within the cave, the only sound heard came from the droplets falling from the stalactites.

* * *

“Kahahah… This level of gloom, I haven’t felt in a long time. The Demon King’s Fragment is indeed extraordinary.”

“Stop boasting. I don’t feel anything at all.”

“What? What’s with you—?”

“Shh! Does it look like there’s time for joking? Kyle! Elizabeth! Keep watch in the front and back! Brown… just follow your family.”

Chiyou, feeling annoyed by the bickering between Igor and Pyro, commanded the NPCs.

They did not particularly oppose Chiyou’s words.

“Watch out for the stones ahead.”

“Yes. I see them too, Liza. Are you feeling okay?”

“I’m fine, dear.”

Brown, having been known as 『Pierce』 before Luger, had no significant problems identifying the terrain in the dark.

Elizabeth nodded in response to Brown’s question.

“It’s been quite a while since we’ve eaten…”

“No matter what, I can’t drink blood. That of humans, at least… I don’t want to become a monster.”

Elizabeth showed a faint smile.

Listening to the specific penalty that only NPC vampires suffered, as opposed to user vampires, Chiyou also momentarily sympathized with them.

‘If Elizabeth dies, Kyle becomes useless. I also have to consider the possibility of Brown committing suicide, which is quite troublesome.’

The likelihood of Arcane Sniper becoming an enemy had drastically increased.

The best option was, indeed, to keep Elizabeth alive.

In fact, Chiyou had employed various strategies to maintain this plan.

Shortly after becoming a vampire, Chiyou even used other vampires to transfer blood to Elizabeth.

However, once Elizabeth had become aware, she strongly refused, and Kyle sided with his mother, telling Chiyou not to use such methods anymore.

‘There’s a limit to animal blood. She must consume human blood…’

Even consuming animal blood had its limits, as Elizabeth could barely ingest a tiny amount before reaching her breaking point.

Her pale appearance was not just because she had become a vampire; Elizabeth’s overall health had actually deteriorated, almost as if she were under a status ailment.

How to persuade a vampire who refused to drink human blood? It had become one of Chiyou’s major concerns lately.

“Hmm?”

Kyle suddenly turned around after glancing at his parents. The eyes of everyone, including Chiyou, were drawn to Kyle.

“Hmm? What’s wrong, son?”

“… No. The wind… something seems off.”

“The wind?”

“Yes. It feels like something is mixed in.”

Kyle gripped his rifle. Just as he was about to aim the muzzle towards the entrance, Igor burst out laughing.

“Kahaha! As expected from Arcane Sniper, he feels the same as me? Yeah, what’s off is the wind. That’s what I wanted to say, Pyro!”

“Shut up, Igor. Say one more word and I’ll kill you.”

Chiyou eventually forced Igor to close his mouth.

Igor growled for a short while, but with his saw-blade sword already broken, he couldn’t resist much.

“So, do you see anything, Kyle?”

“No, it’s not visible. It’s just a feeling.”

“That’s fine. You can react immediately anyway, right? Everyone, let’s keep moving quickly.”

When Kyle nodded, Chiyou immediately ordered them to hurry. It wasn’t solely because of Bahamut’s death that they hurried.

‘Tiamat was reported dead. But Ha Leeha… there’s no way he could already be here, could he?’

Yet, it wouldn’t hurt to be cautious. Above all, Chiyou remembered how close Bahamut and Ha Leeha once were.

They had to hurry. Chiyou and her group picked up speed, navigating the dark cave.

Only after everyone had passed did Petyr sigh heavily.

“Buhihit… Could he truly be someone who can see me?”

At the moment Kyle was about to raise his gun, Petyr had braced himself to use a scroll.

Fortunately, Igor had saved Petyr from misfortune. Petyr followed the others as they advanced. Minutes passed as they delved deeper into the thicker darkness and deeper underground. Eventually, Petyr began to notice a blue light.

The light was reminiscent of the early dawn, not particularly bright, yet in the perpetually dark cave, it appeared exceedingly bright.

Petyr, having fought Pyrot-Cocri’s avatar before, recognized what this meant: an increasing coldness proportional to the growing brightness of the light. And at the end of that light appeared a massive underground city!

“This must be!”

Petyr thought, as he gazed at the castle standing prominently in the center of the city. It was so bizarrely reminiscent of an American animation company’s castle that it seemed grotesque in its strangeness.

A few bats were flying toward it, clutching two humans tightly. Petyr quickly realized that it was Chiyou’s group. He hesitated briefly but decided to follow them straightaway, moving through the shadows, heading toward the castle where Pyrot-Cocri lay dormant.

There was nothing to hinder Petyr’s movements, which paradoxically made him more uneasy.

“Nothing in a city created by the Queen of the Undead…? Bwahaha!”

Who, or what, ruled this city now? Petyr knew that the third Demon King’s Fragment hadn’t awakened yet. However, given that her avatar had already emerged, some degree of activity or mental awareness must be in effect.

It was logical to conclude that this city was already under her control, implying that his movements were being tracked.

“But… bwahaha! This is interesting!!”

The information about the “Third Faction of Chiyou” that Leeha delivered to Biyemi had also reached Petyr.

In essence, the Demon King’s Fragment and Chiyou were no longer aligned. What had brought her here under these conditions?

Petyr hoped that Chiyou intended to eliminate Pyrot-Cocri. If events unfolded accordingly, he could kill Chiyou and return, gaining leverage over many individuals.

With such thoughts swirling in his mind, Petyr ascended Pyrot-Cocri’s castle, carefully employing detection skills to evade counter-tracking as he stealthily tailed his target.

“They’ve split… into two teams!”

Just below the top floor, Petyr sensed a crowd fleeing through a window, while only one continued up the stairs. Was Pyrot-Cocri deploying some tactic, perhaps splitting forces in anticipation of an attack?

A smile crossed Petyr’s lips. This non-standard tactic suggested preparations for battle or an emergency, hinting at possible discord between Pyrot-Cocri and Chiyou. He climbed the stairs silently.

The floors that had once been filled with Pyrot-Cocri’s undead when Leeha, Kidd, and Luger had visited were now empty, though their ominous aura lingered.

Petyr’s pace did not falter. Reaching the top, he leapt onto the ceiling.

Since Chiyou likely possessed significant detection abilities, remaining on the “same floor” was deemed madness.

Moreover, for a first-class assassin like Petyr, a single floor’s thickness was too insubstantial to effectively impede sound discernment.