I had imagined that Momo would come out looking like a monster.
But I was ultimately glad that she didn’t change.
We could continue to move around together like we always had.
And she was so cute. That was the most important thing. The most important thing.
“But still ”
I think, as I watch Momo.
Was it a bit much for both owner and dog to be ‘Assassin’ and ‘Assassin Dog’ ?
Was it too dark?
I was 100% sure that other people would take this very wrongly.
Yes. I would definitely have to hide this fact from others.
It would have all kinds of horrible consequences if word got out.
And I doubted that I would be able to make a satisfying explanation.
In short, we would just continue as we always had.
Yes, that is good.
Was I, slowly walking down the road of working solo?
Was it just me?
“Bark?”
Oh, I was spacing out there. Momo and our new friend were looking at me worriedly.
Sorry. Sorry. I’m fine.
Yes, that’s right.
I have Momo and Aka with me.
I’m not alone I think.
And anyway, I didn’t feel like getting involved with others at this point.
I had wanted a partner with ranged attacks, but it wasn’t really important.
I wasn’t particularly dying for company.
I wanted to maintain a business-like relationship with others.
There had to be merits for both of us, and we would not get too involved with each other.
That was the best kind of relationship.
Well, reality wasn’t always so convenient
“Let’s just continue to move for now ”
I wanted to get a better look at Momo’s skills and abilities after evolving.
But it might attract attention if we did that here.
And so I was cautious of my surroundings as we left this place behind us.
After that, I chose a random house that had been abandoned and looked further into Momo’s skills.
I was not so stupid as to find out what they were during an actual fight.
I needed to learn everything in advance.
And through this, I learned that Momo had gained the same skills that I had.
Skills like ‘Presence Block’, ‘Silent Movement.’ Skills that helped you find the enemy’s weakness.
Even her skill of controlling ‘shadows’ had become more powerful.
The area of effect had increased, as did the binding power of the shadow, and even her attack power.
And her physical abilities had gone up as well.
I think that she was probably equal or even above the shadow wolf that we fought.
No, since she was much small, and could move faster, she far surpassed the shadow wolf.
In short, Momo was a much stronger version of her past self.
Now that this inspection was finished, it was time to do some leveling along with testing.
“Oh, perfect timing ”
‘Scouting’ detected something.
It was several goblins.
And there was a hobgoblin too.
They may just be the perfect enemies to try Momo’s abilities on.
“Let’s go, Momo and Aka.”
We moved to where the goblins were.
They still had not noticed us yet.
Right when we were as close as we could get, I sent Momo the signal.
Momo nodded and unleashed her ‘shadow,’ capturing all of the goblins.
The speed at which she had put out the shadow and wrapped around them
It was so much faster than before.
We successfully disabled the goblins in no time.
The binding power of the upgraded shadow power was so strong, that not even the hobgoblin could not escape it.
They frantically tried to resist, but there was no hope of breaking the shadow.
But it didn’t just end there.
The binding power of Momo’s shadow increased, and it squeezed the goblins to death right then and there.
The goblins die as their bodies and necks twisted and turned in odd directions. The magic stones rolled onto the ground.
Wow. Normal goblins were no match for Momo at this point.
The only one left was the hobgoblin, as so I dealt the finishing blow.
Goblins and hobgoblins had the same weak point.
The same weakness.
I quickly stabbed and twisted.
The hobgoblin died immediately.
The voice announces inside my head.
It was quite different from when I had been fighting at the supermarket yesterday.
I could feel just how strong I had become.
But I wouldn’t get too cocky.
If anything, seeing my own level go up made it even more obvious how different in power I was from ‘it.’
–I still had a long ways to go.
That’s what I currently felt.
Also, there was a sense of agitation that I felt.
It would probably be best to leave this town as soon as I gained a few more levels.
At the same time, at the shopping mall–.
The monster was bored.
It wasn’t fun here. Nothing held any interest for him.
He thought as he crushed the corpses on the ground with his feet.
When would some prey appear? Prey that could blow away this boredom that he felt?
No matter how long he waited, the only people that would arrive were small fry that offered no challenge.
They would quiver with fear by just seeing him, freeze or run away like the foolish cowards that they were.
His wish was not to trample over enemies.
It was to fight.
Fighting would fulfill his instincts. It was a holy ritual that gave meaning to life.
He needed an opponent worthy of him.
But when would such a person arrive?
He had had high expectations for the people who had come through the sky, but they had disappointed him.
Those who had just been here turned out to be nothing more than worthless beings.
He was becoming very irritated by this, and his fists pounded into the earth.
His brothers cowered.
He did not care.
He was disappointed in them as well, for being so weak.
Ahh, it was no use.
He could wait no longer.
He had reached the limits of his patience.
If no one would come to him, then he would go searching.
He would find prey, an enemy who could satisfy this hunger he felt.
He roared.
The sound of it shook the earth and tore through the air.
Then he moved.
Now-the time to lie down and rest had come to an end.
CH 43
43
Sniper
I decided to quickly finish alloting status points after my level up.
This time I would also raise the ‘Assassin’ job.
I took it up to LV8 and kept the other 5 points.
If things went smoothly, it would reach LV10 after I leveled up two more times.
I was pretty sure that I would then be able to get to the next level of that job.
But what came after ‘Assassin’?
It did not sound pretty.
Well, we would just have to wait and see.
Next, I raised ‘Danger Detection’ to LV8, and ‘Hostility Detection’ to LV6.
That was all of the points used up.
I was using these skills, and yet my proficiency wasn’t going up all that much.
You would think that ‘Swordsmanship’ or ‘Vitals Strike’ would go up already.
I guess I had no choice but to continue fighting monsters little by little.
Now, we should get moving.
Ah, come to think of it, there was a store somewhere around here.
I might as well help myself to some supplies while we’re here.
–We walked for several minutes.
And then we arrived at the store.
‘Scout’ caught something.
It wasn’t a monster. It was a human.
Someone had beaten us here.
I hide close by and take a peek. It was the students that were inside the store.
That looks like Nishino’s group.
There were four people in all. And one of them was the glasses boy.
They were happily shoving food into rucksacks and shopping carts.
It must have been a while since they last found some food. They seemed incredibly happy.