<h4>Chapter 63 Infiltration</h4>


    On the other side of the battlefield, Brunar and Troni were holding up well. They were starting to feel more pressured but the sudden "Bloody cross" from Maynard lessoned that.


    The goblins had started to pay more attention to Maynard’s battle after the surprise attack. All the goblins were frightened when they saw one of the captains in three pieces by the wayside. Their morale was starting to be affected and they focused more on preserving their lives them immediately killing their opponents, ying into the adventurers’ ns.


    "Brunar!"


    Brunar slew a goblin before he turned around while delivering a crossbody sh to a now visible target.


    The partially paralyzed lv. 20 goblin was caught off guard by the sh attack across its back and had no way to defend in time. Digging a few centimeters into the goblin’s flesh, Brunar quickly offed the goblin before he returned to face his side of the goblin encirclement.


    "Thanks," said Troni while he cut off a goblin’s arm and kicked its torso back into the crowd.


    "Master’s showing off again," mentioned Brunar.


    "Yeah, so what? He always gets excited at times like this," replied Troni.


    Brunar blew hot air from his nostrils as his de began to glow. "I won’t let him steal all the limelight!"


    Troni sighed and let Brunar do as he pleased. This was amon urrence among the samurai party, so this casual conversation did nothing to impede the onught of goblins.


    "Aaagghh!"


    A sudden whine caught the goblins’ attention again as the goblin encirclement looked back at the captains that they respected and revered. What they saw was a big blow to their self-esteem.


    One of the goblin captains had tried to hold back Rydel while the other did his best to contact the two remaining captains. But no opportunity was given. Instead, the captain with a contact crystal still in his hand screamed in pain as that same hand was sliced off at the wrist thanks to Maynard’s "Sudden death."


    "I told ya, it’s toote!" berated Maynard. "Ya got to try harder than that!"


    *****


    In the outskirts of the pce, a figure would appear and disappear sporadically among the shadows. Thenky figure always stayed hidden, never revealing himself.


    Keeping an eye on the pce’s outer walls, Rydel noticed the increase inmotion. He soon heard a voice in his mind.


    ’We’re doing well out here. One down, four to go.’


    ’Keep it up, you old demon,’ replied Rydel with a smile.


    The hunter watched the pce guards as they became more uneasy. Soon enough, the pce doors swung open and a fresh batch of a few dozen guards ran towards the front gate.


    Pushing the front gate shut, the two guards in the immediate vicinity didn’t notice the throwing knife that wedged itself on the ground exactly where the doors would meet.


    Unable to closes the doors enough to lock it, the guards began to inspect the doors. But before they could find the knife blocking the door, there was a knife that slit each of the two guards’ throats. Their silent death went undiscovered as Rydel leaned them against the wall and tilted their leather helmets down to cover their eyes as if they were sleeping on the job.


    Thanks to his nightly adventure before, he had already mapped out the best route towards the inner pce.


    Rydel snatched his knife off the floor and crept into the outer walls of the pce. Thinking on his feet, he dashed across the corridor and into a small room. Once he was alone in the room, Rydel ced his hand on the floor and activated his "Predator sense" skill.


    With "Predator sense" he would be able to feel the movements, smells, or sounds of anything in his immediate vicinity. Also, he could feel movements and vibrations further by focusing on a particr source, like how he was feeling all the vibrations in the stone floor.


    Sensing a few targets, Rydel readied himself and took action. One guard walked past the door but was unsuspectedly pulled inside and silenced immediately.


    Rydel resumed to dart through the hall with throwing knives at the ready. A couple more guards around the corner had knives lodged in their throats before they even noticed Rydel appear.


    Wanting to create somewhat of amotion in the outer pce, Rydel left those guards there for others to find and worry. Three more guards were silenced before he found the entrance to the inner pce. Not wasting a second, Rydel put his hand back on the floor and reactivated "Predator sense."


    Unlucky for him, he felt two guards slowly walking down the corridor on the other side.


    He nned to create a few problems within the outer pce before he hid away inside the inner pce. While investigating the inner pce with his "Predator sense," he was going to map out his next n of attack from there.


    However, if he were discovered entering the inner pce, then he’d be in trouble. The guards of the inner pce were stronger and had better armor. There weren’t as many, but they were more troublesome. If his original n could work, some inner guards would need to go investigate in the outer pce, thinning the ranks and making it easier for Rydel to reach the throne room.


    Thinking on his toes, Rydel hurried into a nearby closet of sorts. It was like a mix of a mini armory and a clothes rack.


    He waited inside for a couple of minutes, giving any guards a chance to pass by. Rydel reluctantly used "Predator sense" again, leaving him with onest use for the day.


    This time he was luckier. There were no guards present on the other side of the door to the inner pce, but a guard was rushing to the aid of his fallenrade. Not giving that goblin guard a chance to act, Rydel bolted out of the closet and jabbed a knife into the back of the goblin guard’s neck.


    As the guard drew hisst breath, he tried to reach out towards Rydel, who quickly opened the doorway to the inner pce and slid in while closing it behind him.


    d to have that over with Rydel dashed into the nearest empty room which he located with the previous "Predator sense." Rydel let out a deep breath as he collected his bearings and prepared for the pce to go into a frenzy.


    Rydel was d that the pce wascking guards thanks to phase one going well. He sent out a message.


    ’Just entered the inner pce and the outer pce is about to get hectic.’


    ’Thanks, captain, I’ll start phase three shortly.’


    Jack was near the outskirts of the pce but kept Bowser and himself hid in an alley. The resplendent bracer was active, making sure to cover them both.


    When Jack had vanished that morning, Bowser wasn’t on his shoulder, but in his coat pocket. He discovered that lv. 1panion mirroring wasn’t going to let Bowser be invisible, only illusory in appearance.


    However, he fixed that soon after finding this alley to rx and wait for his turn to act. While waiting, Jack was checking the system notifications and his own stats. After quickly iming the achievement [Find the goblin city] he was rewarded with fifteen skill points. Jack also noticed he now had an achievement specifically to save Slivia, which reminded him how serious this mission would be.


    With thirty-three skill points to spend, Jack upgraded hispanion mirroring to lv. 2 for twenty skill points. Ten skill points then went toward upgrading perception to lv. 2, leaving Jack with three skill points to spare.


    Withpanion mirroring up to lv. 2, they tested Bowser’s invisibility. The fox was able to fully disappear that time, but the light didn’t bend around him as smoothly as it did with Jack. But they didn’t care about that because Bowser would only be using this to dash from one part of the city to the next. At high speeds, it was just as effective as Jack’s stagnant invisibility.


    Also, Jack and Bowser were happy to reach lv. 15 while they waited for phase three to begin. The weathered jade would be wearing off within the next two hours, so this couldn’t have been any tighter. Jack was still tired due to having little sleep, but he felt it was worth the EXP.


    Now at lv. 15, he was confident in Bowser’s ability to handle the distraction on his own. In his fire form, if he doubled in level like the first time, Bowser would be at lv. 30. And if Jack activated hispanion bloodline skill and it went the same asst time, he’d reach lv. 18. It wasn’t as nice as Bowser, but three levels meant a lot for the current Jack.


    ’You know what to do boy, so go and let loose,’ said Jack while rubbing what he assumed was Bowser’s back.


    ’Yup, yup,’ said Bowser with excitement.