Martial Online.

Casper sat at the town square in the underground town and watched as some Black Hand members were fixing the damaged ceiling that was damaged last night.

It was a sleepless night for many as there was danger of the ceiling collapsing and burying them all, but luckily, before it came to that point, the strange shaking stopped.

"Good morning."

Casper turned to the person who greeted him and who sat right next to him.

"Ambrose." Casper nodded. "Did you manage to sleep?"

"Yeah, why?" Ambrose asked with a clueless expression.

"What do you mean, why?" Casper frowned and pointed at the damaged ceiling. "The whole town was shaking last night. It seems something happened above the ground."

"Oh." Ambrose looked surprised at the damage.

'I knew my attack was powerful, but to think that it even managed to damage the structure all the way here. I did focus my strength on the ground so that I wouldn't accidentally destroy the buildings in the city.

'I guess that might be the reason why most of my strength was aimed in this direction. If I had continued attacking longer, I might've destroyed this town.'

"You must be a deep sleeper." Casper shook his head. "You have to fix that. You've got to be a light sleeper, as you can better detect if someone is going to assassinate you in the dark of the night."

"Aight, I'll work on that." Ambrose nodded with a wry smile and asked, "Did we have a mission?"

"Yeah." Casper opened a few buttons on his coat and took out a piece of parchment paper from the inner pocket, unfolding it to reveal a detailed map of the target's location.

"The mission is simple, and this is near Golden Knife Street."

Casper showed the details to Ambrose.

"The mission is to tail the target, find out if he is having an affair, and if he is, kill him."

"Huh?" Ambrose's eyebrow jumped in surprise. "It first sounded like a lover's quarrel, but why does the client want him dead for an affair?"

"We don't ask such questions, and neither should you." Casper said nonchalantly. "However, if you want to know, the client is the target's wife."

"Damn." Ambrose whistled under his breath. "Women can be dangerous, hmm."

"Let's get going. This mission might take a couple of days. But, first of all, let's finish the first thing in hand, remember it?"

"Yeah…" Ambrose nodded with a serious look. "My first assassination…"

"Let's get you new clothes." Casper looked at his dirty, blood-stained outfit with a grimace. "A member of Black Hand can't look like a beggar."

…

Eli worked in his tavern as usual, but his cheeks were bandaged in a rough manner.

Whenever he tried smiling at the customers, his face started hurting, and as a result, his smile looked very ugly.

The customer awkwardly took the drink and went to the corner of the tavern to drink.

Usually, he would drink at the counter and chat with Eli, but he had a feeling like he wasn't in a mood to talk. It looked like he had been kicked in the face by a horse.

Eli turned his back to the front door and picked up a bottle of whiskey before drowning it down his throat. He was somehow trying to get rid of the pain, but even drinking hurt.

Creak—the back door leading to the back alley opened slightly, letting in a slight breeze that carried the stench of rotting garbage and cigarette smoke.

"Huh?" Eli peeked at the back door and wondered whether he had accidentally left it open.

After leaving the counter, he closed the door again and was about to return, but at the same time, the door again opened.

"?" Eli frowned and went back to the door.

This time, he was checking whether it was broken around the hinges. It was worn out and rusty, but it should still be working fine.

As he was about to close it again, suddenly a hand appeared and pulled him to the alleyway with a strong pull.

Eli crashed into the wall of the alley and groaned loudly.

Slam—the door closed with a loud slam and was instantly locked tight.

"Who?!"

As Eli rose back to his feet, he saw a black-clothed figure standing near the door. He was wearing thin clothing, and his face was mostly covered, except his eyes were showing through the narrow slit in his mask.

Eli recognized the clothing, and his expression dropped.

"B-Black Hand, b-but why? W-why have you come to me?"

Ambrose, dressed in black clothing, didn't answer and instead glanced quickly to the nearby roof, where Casper was also dressed in black and hiding behind a chimney.

"Your death has been signed. You can try to fight and die pathetically, or have some self-respect and accept your fate gracefully."

Ambrose said with a deepened voice that made him sound unrecognizable and pulled out a dagger from his belt.

"I did everything you guys asked!" Eli screamed angrily. "And this is how you repay me? I am not going down without a fight!"

"So be it!" Ambrose rushed forward with the dagger in hand and went straight for the neck.

"Barrier!" Eli quickly created a barrier in front of him.

As the dagger collided with the barrier, Eli expected it to go straight through, as the strength of Black Hand was godlike in his mind, but surprisingly enough, his barrier managed to stop it!

"Huh?" Eli looked surprised and then punched, which landed squarely on Ambrose's cheek with a flesh-smacking thud.

"Argh…" Ambrose fell to the pavement, clutching his bleeding cheek in pain.

"W-what?" Eli frowned before laughing nervously. "A fake? Y-

you're not from Black Hand, are you now? You are weak, hahahah!"

"Tch!" Ambrose gritted his teeth, looking like he was in a lot of pain, then stood up from the pavement, his legs shaking slightly, and then slashed with the dagger rather lazily.

Eli scoffed and effortlessly dodged the dagger with just a single sidestep. He then kicked Ambrose's feet out from under him, causing him to fall back to the ground with a thud.

"Haha, a non-magician thinks he can kill me?" Eli laughed mockingly and kicked Ambrose in the chest, sending him rolling across the dirty pavement.

"What did I do? Perhaps some of the girls I sold were your sisters? Your mother? Your girlfriend? Haha, I wonder what~"

"Fucker!" Ambrose swung his dagger in a wide arc, but Eli ducked it and punched him in the chest.

"Ngh…" He crashed to his knees with blood trickling out of his mask.

Eli crouched beside him, grabbed him by the mask, and removed it.

After seeing the face, his eyes widened in shock.

"It is you…" Eli frowned. "Black Hand, just let you go? Even though you are a Deathwalker?"

"You shouldn't have betrayed me." Ambrose whispered coldly, and then, few purple particles flew out of his fingertips and landed on Eli's eyes.

Eli blinked and blinked, but every time he did, his vision turned worse until he was completely blind!

'What is happening?!'

At that moment, Ambrose stabbed the dagger through his neck, and sliced his throat open.

With his throat slit open, Eli fell to the ground, gasping for air and clutching at his bleeding neck.

After his final breaths, he stopped moving, and the light left his blind eyes.

Ambrose softly snapped his fingers, and Eli's eyes turned normal, even though he was already dead.

At that moment, Casper landed gently on the pavement and looked at the dead man with a nod.

"Good job." Casper said and asked, "How did he let you get such an easy kill?"

"I knew I couldn't kill him in an outright battle, so I baited him into thinking that he was stronger, and when he saw my face, he was surprised and, because of his overconfidence, forgot to remove my dagger.

"Since he was so close, he had no time to dodge."

"Smart and decisive." Casper nodded in approval. "You're now officially a Black Hand. Congratulations."

"Thank you." Ambrose stood up and bowed humbly while his face was bleeding because of the damage he received.

Since the start of the fight, he has tricked both Eli and Casper.

If he had wanted to, he could've erased Eli's existence in milliseconds, but he had to keep up his appearance as a newcomer who didn't know a single spell.

In fact, Eli couldn't even damage him, so he had to create the illusion of blood with his magic.

After getting beaten up by Eli, he knew he would remove his mask to gloat before killing him.

That's why he used that to his advantage and made him blind with his magic. It was the perfect place to do that because Eli's body blocked Casper's sight, so he couldn't see him do magic.

Eli never had a chance to survive against him.

Casper pointed at Eli and incinerated his body into flames, leaving nothing behind but ashes.

"Now, let's go do our mission. From our intel, he should've gone to his daily coffee in the next ten minutes."

"Yes, master." Ambrose bowed humbly.