The Return of the Genius Ranker’s Myth Warehouse - Chapter 124

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 124
Chapter 124
Enemies clad in dark masks.
I still didn’t know their true identity.
“Ugh!”
“Damn it, how did you figure it out?”
Dealing with them was straightforward.
Had they caught me off guard, it would have been dangerous, but I had anticipated their arrival and prepared an ambush. Wasn’t that the situation I had orchestrated?
The moment my ambush succeeded against them, I could say the battle was already decided.
Our formation consisted of three main groups.
“Don’t let them escape!”
“Not a single one gets away!”
First, the mercenaries forming the encirclement.
Their role was to guard the torches, prevent the enemies from hiding, and block them from breaking through the encirclement.
The mercenaries positioned on the Hill were particularly skilled archers, continuously raining arrows on the encircled enemies from their elevated position.
Finally, Jackal and those confident in close combat had charged into the enemy lines, wielding their melee weapons.
Among them, I was.
[ Night Hunter ]
( Non-Tradeable )
Type: Bow
Grade: Unique
Requirement: Level 200 or higher, Bow Mastery Lv 20 or higher, Agility 700 or higher
Description: A bow of the night blessed by nocturnal blessing, said to reveal its true power only when the sun sets and the moon rises.
Drawing my bowstring on the Hill alongside the other mercenaries.
Night Hunter.
As a unique-grade bow whose performance greatly increased at night, it proved devastatingly effective in this situation.
Even when the enemies used concealment techniques, they couldn’t escape from me while I wore the Owl Spectacles and activated my Hawk Eye skill.
Each time I released my bowstring.
Thunk!
“Argh!”
The head, neck, heart—
Arrows embedded themselves precisely into the vital points known to be lethal on the human body.
Since all the enemies wore light clothing to conceal their bodies, a single arrow to a vital point was enough to kill most of them or render them unconscious.
Moreover, my arrows were different from before.
– Skill ‘Silver Shot’ is activated.
The skill’s effects were applied as well, weren’t they?
Such arrows couldn’t be withstood without proper armor.
As I methodically eliminated the dark-masked enemies one by one.
‘That man doesn’t seem ordinary.’
I spotted a man moving with quick, nimble motions, charging through the encirclement.
Unlike the other enemies who wore masks that were merely dark with no patterns carved into them, the man wore a mask with the faint gray silhouette of a skull etched upon it.
The moment I spotted him, I activated Silver Shot and released an arrow.
Ting!
The enemy swung a dagger and deflected my arrow with perfect precision.
Even with the torchlight illuminating the area, it would have been difficult to properly see an arrow from that distance.
The fact that he could parry an arrow fired from a Unique-grade bow with nothing but a dagger—not even a shield—spoke volumes about his skill.
Immediately after.
[ Poison Arrow That Slew Achilles ]
( Non-Tradeable )
Type : Arrow
Grade : Epic
Restriction : Level 500 or higher, Bow Mastery Lv 50 or higher
Description : A poison arrow that struck Achilles’ only weakness—his heel—the legendary hero known as the immortal hero, and claimed his life.
I prepared a new arrow.
An Epic-grade arrow.
With this level of destructive power, even swinging a dagger wouldn’t easily deflect it, and a mere graze would inflict Epic-grade poison, causing death.
With that thought.
– Activating skill ‘Silver Shot’.
I released the arrow.
“…!”
The mask etched with a skull pattern.
The man wearing the Death Mask immediately sensed the existence of my arrow, and just before it reached him.
Whoosh—.
‘What is that?’
The man’s body dissolved into the darkness and vanished.
The torchlight was clearly illuminating that spot as well.
Yet his body disappeared as if it were a lie.
Had he used an extreme form of concealment?
No.
If he had merely used concealment, my arrow would not have missed him.
However, the Poison Arrow That Slew Achilles I fired failed to find the man and embedded itself uselessly into the ground.
Whoosh—.
And above it, the man’s figure reappeared.
This was no ordinary concealment technique.
‘Night Curtain.’
One of the Dark Assassin’s skills.
Or rather, it was one of the highest-tier evasion skills that only the rarest of Dark Assassins could acquire.
The skill’s effect was to cloak the body in the veil of night and evade enemy attacks.
It could only be used in dark places and had an incredibly short duration, but with sufficient skill, it was an excellent technique for dodging arrows or swift slashes.
The moment I witnessed that skill, I understood.
‘Arrows won’t be enough.’
If someone lacked skill, it might be different, but when a skilled person wielded Night Curtain, bringing them down with arrows alone was nearly impossible.
The moment I reached that conclusion.
“Hah!”
The man vaulted over the mercenaries encircling him.
His destination was.
‘The Carriage.’
Where the Carriage stood.
He wasn’t fleeing—even in this chaos, he was determined to complete his mission.
The instant I understood this.
“I’ll leave this to you.”
I dropped my bow and sprinted down from the Hill toward the Carriage.
I wore enchanted boots that increased my movement speed to catch up with him, yet even those barely let me match his pace.
[ Activating Black Flame Transformation. ]
[ Borrowing the power of ‘Black Flame Dragon, Lucknir Desperado Ignockton’. ]
With Black Flame Transformation active, my body closed the distance to the man in an instant.
* * *
The man who had taken command of Death Mask for this operation.
Black, the code name by which he was known within Death Mask, had broken through the encirclement.
Just a little further, and he would reach the Carriage.
The Steel Claw Mercenary Band’s ambush had inflicted severe casualties, but if he could just reach the Carriage, the mission would be accomplished.
‘I’ve shaken off Jackal.’
While the other Death Mask operatives were being slaughtered.
He had abandoned them, concealed his true strength, and managed to reach this point by evading Jackal.
And aside from Jackal, the commander of the Steel Claw Mercenary Band, there was no one here capable of stopping him.
Even if a few mercenaries were guarding the Carriage, they couldn’t possibly hold him back.
However.
‘What was that arrow?’
One thing troubled him.
That arrow which had come at him just before he broke through the encirclement.
When he deflected the first arrow, he had merely thought it came from a skilled Archer.
‘The second arrow was an attack that sent chills down my spine.’
The second arrow was different.
Had he been even slightly slower, it would have pierced a vital point.
No—if he hadn’t been able to use Night Curtain, that supreme evasion skill.
If his timing with Night Curtain had been even fractionally faster or slower, the arrow would have found its mark.
‘But I’m safe now. I’ve already left the Hill’s effective range.’
That arrow had certainly been threatening, but it was still just an arrow.
From this distance, far from the Hill, even a skilled Archer couldn’t target him anymore.
With that thought, he drew closer to the Carriage.
‘…!’
Black felt an eerie killing intent wash over him.
A survival instinct that ordinary people could never perceive—one that only someone who had climbed to the position of leader within Death Mask could sense.
Surrendering his body to that instinct, the moment he activated ‘Night Curtain’.
Whoosh—!
‘A spear?’
A long spear flew through his body, concealed by darkness.
Javelin mastery, then.
Among the Steel Claw Mercenary Band, aside from Jackal, was there truly another skilled mercenary capable of such proficiency with thrown weapons?
The instant Night Curtain dissipated.
Clang!
“…Who are you?”
A sharp longsword descended upon him.
Had he relaxed after evading the javelin, this strike would have dealt a fatal wound.
Turning his head to observe, the mercenary’s body blazed with black flames that flickered like living fire.
Seeing something so clearly ominous, Black abandoned all arrogance and began engaging the mercenary with his full strength.
“Does it matter?”
“Fair point. Either way, one of us ends here.”
The mercenary’s attack came rushing in.
Swift and devastating.
That strike.
Slip—.
He evaded using Night Curtain, then immediately followed with a dagger counterattack, but.
Clang!
The mercenary abandoned his weapon and, producing a new one from nowhere, deflected Black’s assault.
In terms of pure speed, Black was undoubtedly superior.
Yet the mercenary parried Black’s velocity with such ease.
As if this level of speed meant nothing at all.
‘More troublesome than Jackal.’
In raw physical ability, Jackal held the edge, but in sheer troublesomeness, this one surpassed him.
Even as he continued fighting, he attempted to create distance and approach the carriage, but the mercenary, as if reading his intentions, skillfully cut off every avenue of escape.
‘At this rate, I finish this quickly.’
Evading that mercenary and fleeing would prove impossible.
If he attempted escape with that mindset, he would only invite a fatal blow from the mercenary.
So instead of retreating, even if it meant pushing himself, he had to dispatch the mercenary swiftly.
‘The moment I evade the next attack, I end this.’
Black focused entirely on the mercenary’s assault.
The instant he evaded the strike with Night Curtain, he would finish it through his specialty—’Night Blade’.
And the moment the mercenary thrust his sword with force.
‘Night Curtain.’
A whisper—
The man’s body vanished beneath the veil of night.
In this state, if I were to advance toward the mercenary and swing my dagger….
‘…!’
That’s what I thought would happen.
But Black witnessed something shocking.
‘He stopped the attack?’
The mercenary’s body had frozen in place.
At the precise moment, he halted his movement and locked eyes with me.
I was now concealed beneath the night’s curtain, invisible by any means.
Yet the mercenary watched me clearly, and the instant the night’s veil dissolved.
Thud!
He drove his suspended blade forward with renewed force.
* * *
Night Curtain.
Undoubtedly, an excellent skill.
Opponents who wielded it well evaded attacks like ghosts, making them formidable adversaries.
Yet I had toppled countless such enemies to reach the summit of First.
I knew the weaknesses of Night Curtain intimately.
‘Its duration is brief.’
The invulnerability granted by Night Curtain lasts only a fleeting moment.
So if I feigned an attack to bait my opponent into using Night Curtain.
‘Now.’
Thud!
“Ugh….”
I paused my assault, then struck a fatal blow against my defenseless opponent as the Night Curtain dissipated.
Had my opponent possessed even slightly more composure, the fight would have been far more troublesome.
But thanks to his desperation, I exploited Night Curtain’s weakness and felled him.
“Damn….”
The man coughed blood.
As an assassin by trade, his vitality and defense were abysmal.
A single strike from my legendary-grade blade combined with Black Abyss One Slash rendered him instantly incapacitated.
Yet I could not afford complacency.
Uncertain what he might attempt, I moved to deliver a finishing blow—
“Death Mask is….”
The man suddenly uttered something strange.
In that instant.
Fwip!
He hurled something toward the carriage.
Its identity was——
‘A bomb.’
It was indeed a bomb.
Though it appeared heavy enough that reaching the carriage seemed unlikely, I couldn’t afford to take chances.
“Luke.”
– Yes, master.
[ Night Hunter ]
I swiftly drew my bow and sniped the airborne bomb.
Boom!!
The explosion erupted mid-air, the deafening blast tearing through the silence.
But that wasn’t the end of our troubles.
The man I hadn’t finished off was now sprinting toward the carriage.
Moving with the Dark Assassin’s characteristic speed, he activated a movement skill as well.
Thunk!
I drew the bowstring and planted an arrow deep into his back.
His health was already at its limit, so that single arrow should have claimed his life.
Yet he refused to yield, activating one final movement skill.
“It will never be removed.”
Kaboom—!!
He detonated every bomb concealed within his garments.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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