On the outskirts of Mordu, at the edge of the Mycelium Carpet bordering the mushroom fields.

Clorro had already been waiting here for a long time.

He was concealed within a patch of woodland connected to the mushroom fields.

Looking out, vast, orderly mushroom fields stretched into the distance. Some humans were moving among them, either picking mushrooms or pushing carts loaded with monster corpses.

The grove where he hid cleverly formed a visual barrier. From the field’s direction, one would only see dense shade, with no way to glimpse what was happening inside the forest.

Finally, the person he had been waiting for appeared—a bald man wearing the common leather armor of adventurers.

The adventurer identity, with its high mobility, was indeed often used as the perfect disguise for secret contacts.

This time, the two sides were complete strangers, crossing paths only briefly due to the mission.

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

For such temporary, secret contacts, spies had to be extremely cautious.

When he saw that the newcomer was not anyone he knew, Clorro secretly breathed a sigh of relief.

His current situation wasn’t exactly “heart with the demons, body in the mushrooms,” but if he really had to harm some of his old colleagues he once got along with, he would inevitably feel guilty.

It was much easier dealing with a stranger!

He handed over a sealed scroll containing detailed intelligence on Inanna.

The bald man, Milo, leaned against a shadowed tree trunk and quickly skimmed through it. A faint trace of surprise flashed across his face.

Besides the target’s basic strength and appearance—which had already been known when the mission was assigned—the scroll even included the target’s current location, predicted times and places she might appear, and a detailed evaluation of her usual guard forces.

These key details would save him a huge amount of reconnaissance effort and greatly improve operational efficiency.

Milo neatly tucked the scroll away. Without any unnecessary pleasantries or probing, he turned and left decisively.

He belonged to the assassination division—unlike intelligence personnel who needed to cultivate connections and cling to circles of allies, for him the mission alone was the goal.

After leaving the rendezvous site, Milo did not enter Mordu, but instead slipped into the nearby dense forest. After winding through a maze of paths, he arrived at a hidden temporary camp.

Scanning the area without seeing anyone, he impatiently muttered in a low voice: “Stop skulking already. I’ve got the intel! Hiding every single time—what are you, a bat or a rat?”

A low chuckle drifted from nearby. From beneath a patch of deep shade, a figure slowly emerged. “Caution never hurts. And you’re human. Who knows if you’ll suddenly get the urge to bring the Church’s Wings of Judgment here?”

“You say that as if you were born a vampire!” Milo dismissed the remark and tossed the scroll to his partner.

Milo himself was a true diamond-rank assassin, still a genuine human for now.

His betrayal of humanity had a simple trigger. As an assassin, he had always taken on dirty jobs.

With his flawless assassination techniques, he had earned a fortune to indulge himself.

But often walking by the river, one’s shoes are bound to get wet. One mistake had landed him on the United Kingdom’s wanted list.

If he didn’t want to spend the rest of his life scurrying like a rat in the gutter, throwing in his lot with the northern Empire became his only choice.

That was also why, though human, he was extremely unwilling to enter human cities—the trouble was endless.

Normally, for someone like him—over diamond rank, and recently defected—securing a precious “First Embrace” transformation would require years of waiting and proving loyalty.

But this time, Lord Sigismund had been uncharacteristically generous. As long as they completed the mission, Milo would directly be granted the right to transformation.

And as a LV56 diamond-class powerhouse, the blood core energy consumed to transform him would be enough to elevate a vampire to the rank of count. Many long-serving viscounts longed for such a chance, yet had lost it simply because their assassination skills were inferior to his.

His partner, Gilles, a LV50 vampire viscount, had been chosen for this mission because of his expertise in breaking protective magic arrays.

Of course, Milo knew the enormous risks involved in this operation.

Their target? A duke’s daughter!

All the targets he had ever assassinated in the past, even put together, likely could not compare to this little girl, who might not even have reached gold rank in strength.

But if he had always sought safety, he would never have chosen this knife’s-edge path of an assassin!

Mage Gilles finished reading the intel and murmured: “Next, we need to verify the authenticity of this information.”

“No problem verifying,” Milo crossed his arms, “but your ‘verification’ doesn’t mean we’re going to secretly observe her for a week, right?”

“Out of caution, we should. Any problem with that?” Gilles asked.

“Did you forget how tight a deadline Lord Sigismund gave us?” Milo’s words left Gilles momentarily speechless.

They had no idea their leader was being tormented every midnight recently. They only knew this assassination mission carried extreme priority and brutal time constraints. There was no time to go step by step.

A day later, the two slipped quietly into the dense woods bordering the St. Clair family’s private forest.

To forcefully break through the impregnable defenses of the duke’s mansion, sneak inside, assassinate the duke’s daughter under the protection of a Sanctum tier["Hall tier"] butler and many elite guards, then fight their way out—that was practically suicide.

Fortunately, the intel revealed a critical detail: every few days, the young lady would come to her family’s private woodland to play.

At such times, that terrifying butler usually did not accompany her—only regular guards did.

This was heaven-sent opportunity!

Of course, even as private property, this woodland surely contained hidden alarms and defensive arrays.

Thus, they had to scout in advance. Gilles needed to map out every magical node, and if necessary, secretly disable some key points to clear the way.

Inside the woods, Milo stayed sharply alert atop the trees, watching the surroundings.

Gilles pulled out a ring inlaid with three strange-colored gems and carefully placed it in his mouth.

This ring greatly suppressed the mana fluctuations around him, minimizing exposure risk.

Then, he tore open a specially-made detection scroll.

Invisible magical ripples spread quietly. In his mind, all hidden magic structures in range surfaced like reefs beneath water:

【Warning Magic Array】

【Explosive Magic Array】

【Puji】

【Mana Fluctuation Detection Array】

【Puji】

【Puji】

【Puji】

…

Gilles: “…”

He stared in disbelief, looking around.

The woods were silent and empty—he couldn’t even see normal monsters.

Up in the trees, Milo signaled everything was normal. He hadn’t seen anything amiss.

Gilles silently activated another precious detection scroll.

【Puji】

【Puji】

【Puji】

…

Gulp—

He motioned for his partner to come down.

“Milo,” he whispered, “you stay here. Don’t move at all, or you might trigger alarms we missed. I’ll scout another direction, see if there’s a better ambush and retreat route.”

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

“No!” Gilles cut him off immediately, his tone brooking no argument, under the guise of “professional” reasoning. “My sensing range is limited. If you move with me, I can’t guarantee you’ll avoid every trap node. Stay here and wait. I’ll be back soon!”

After convincing Milo, Gilles swiftly turned away, circled the thick brush, and once he was sure he was out of Milo’s sight, he no longer suppressed his panic. He bolted at full speed in the opposite direction of the woods!

Behind him, explosions erupted.

A trap! It really was a trap!

He only hoped his good partner could hold out long enough!

But after running a while, he suddenly halted. The surroundings had changed—the path behind him was gone.

“An illusion?”

Ahead, several “Aidens” slowly walked out.