Ultimate Assassin System Vol 1 Chapter 3

Lunch time. Tang En who has been leaning against a withered tree unmoving for a long time suddenly jumped up and ran back to Little Stone Village.

Luckily, he quickly met the old farmer from before.

Hearing Tang En’s intention, he generously lent him a short ax.

Tang En took the ax back to the forest, at a quiet area he found a tree that has a large body, it’s branches reaching out far and wide.

He spat on his hands and began climbing.

“First, I must observe the surrounding and choose the most optimal base location.”

While mumbling, Tang En eyes shone, he took aim at a thick tree branch.

This tree branch was solid and strong, next to it was many other small sub branches, using it to build a wooden hut was ideal.

“Next I must build a reliable foundation, as well as create walls.”

—

After two hours,
“Ha Ha Ha… I am an incomparable genius.”

Tang En stood beneath beneath the tree and danced wildly, his eyes full of pride as he looked toward the wooden hut.

Of course, if a random person walked through here and saw Tang En’s “Genius Creation”, there would be no way for them to think it was a wooden hut. Because the strange architecture on this tree branch was less like a hut and more like a barrel. The kind of barrel that seriously challenges one’s imagination.

Once a good treasure has been created, of course one must find a professional to evaluate it.

Tang En head inside the a.s.sa.s.sin s.p.a.ce, only to see the butler staring at his “genius workmans.h.i.+p” through a bright screen made of light.

“How is it? Not bad right?” Tang En looked extremely excited.

Housekeeper nodded: “Hmm, it has special.. artistic merits.”

“Ho, really? I only casually made it, it’s entirely by chance, ha ha…”

The butler softly complained, “This is absolutely made by chance, this kind of post modern abstract artwork cannot be created by ordinary humans.”

Even though the wooden hut had a “powerful” outside appearance, the butler can somewhat accept it based on its practicality. As long as they don’t run into really bad weather, this wooden hut can be relied upon.

Next, after failing several times, Tang En succeeded in combining several flexible wood with some strong and tough tree vines into a simple crossbow.

Well, it was the crudest of simple crossbows. The notches on both sides didn’t match, the strings were uneven, the distribution of strength was scattered, and it was entirely powered by hand with no mechanism common in crossbows. From the practical point of view, it was almost a total failure, from the aesthetic point of view, the entire object wrapped in green vines must’ve been a joke. But no matter how ugly it was, it could shoot slingshot bolts.

Looking at the simple crossbow, Tang En thought that it’s weaknesses is overshadowed by its core function.

The Housekeeper thought that this item was perfect for close combat.

If described in a word, the old butler’s opinions are one of an experienced professional. Even though this small crossbow looked appalling, its usage was… well, also extremely appalling, but one cannot deny that after being tutored by him, the killing force behind this simple tool was guaranteed. Combining it with sharpened bolts, within three to five steps it can pierce through even protective armor.

Three to five steps? Didn’t you see the old butler’s judgement? This is definitely a melee weapon. Outside of five steps, this crossbow was probably useless.

Even though crossbows can reasonably be counted as a close distance weapon, its accuracy would usually drop from fifty to a hundred steps instead of five. Tang En did his best in a short amount of time to create this small weapon that transformed a long distanced weapon to a melee weapon, and maybe this can be counted as some sort of pioneering work.

Successfully making the small crossbow, he immediately wanted to go test it. No matter what, his dinner still hasn’t been a.s.sured. The rye bread given to him by Father York could be considered to be lunch, but Tang En had digested it long ago.

Because this was the first time he went hunting, Tang En was very excited. Hundred of metres inside the forest, he finally found a brightly colored pheasant. This pheasant was looking for food, occasionally it was digging the ground and grinding up whatever prey it found.

After Tang En approached it within fifty steps, the pheasant became cautious and started to observe its surrounding. Tang En hid and covered himself, sneakily putting the crossbow in front of himself.

But before Tang En can even take aim, the pheasant flapped its wings and fluttered away, disappearing from his sight in an instant.

“d.a.m.nit!” Tang En punched the ground in frustration. I haven’t even finished preparing and you already fled…

Starting off on the wrong foot! But Tang En was not willing to give up yet. He continued his hunt.

This new world’s environment is really quite lovely, the air is fresh, the wildlife lively. While heading deeper inside the forest, Tang En discovered no small amount of prey, wild pheasant, wild hares, even plenty of wood rats.

But their survival instincts were too powerful, none of them waited for Tang En to approach before scurrying away. An hour later, he still hasn’t made a single shot.

d.a.m.nit! Tang En was growing angrier, making it even harder to conceal his presence. While dozens of metres away, he just randomly took aim and shot.

Woosh, woosh…

The power behind the bolts were not small, each time he shot out the wind releases a piercing cry.

But the accuracy… Wherever he aimed, the crossbow releases a powerful bolt that is always off. As Tang En gradually learnt to adapt, he tried to aim off target hoping to catch the targets, but the bolts just end up even more off-course.

Cuckooo, rustle rustle…

The pheasants flew while the rabbits jumped, this entire section of the jungle became pandemonium due to Tang En’s incompetence. Lots of bolts were shot, but not a single success. There were some bolts he couldn’t even retrieve to reuse.

First hunt, complete failure!

Tang En’s returned to the a.s.sa.s.sin s.p.a.ce while feeling disgraced.

Inside the s.p.a.ce, the surrounding was still the same dense green forest. The old butler was standing there with an oddly shaped crossbow. Dozens of metres in front of him inside the forest, were a pecking pheasant.

“Wooos.h.!.+”, the old butler casually lifted the crossbow up and a bolt quickly shot out. A loud noise reverberated, the bolt hit the gap between the pheasant’s claws directly.

“Cuckooo”

The wild pheasant was terrified, it quickly flapped its wing trying to get away, but at that moment,

“Woosh” another bolt appears. The pheasant seemed like it was struck by lightning, it let out a piercing scream before hitting the ground, unmoving.

“Using this sort of toy to hunt animals from afar, truly is quite difficult.” The old butler threw the crossbow to Tang En who was standing there with his eyes opened wide.

Tang En quickly s.n.a.t.c.hed and examined the item. Sure enough, this shape, these markings, it was an exact replica of his crossbow on the outside world.

“No need to be so surprised, I already told you, this a.s.sa.s.sin s.p.a.ce can be ever-changing.”

“That’s not what I’m surprised about.” Tang En shook his head, his face looking at the old butler with some wors.h.i.+pness: “Housekeeper, your archery talents are truly frightening, even when you are using, urm, this small crossbow.”

The old butler said, “Eventually you too will reach this point. As an a.s.sa.s.sin, you must get to know the weapon in your hand within the shortest possible amount of time.”

Tang En frowned, his face getting closer: “Please teach me how to use this crossbow well, if not I really will have to go hungry tonight.”

“No need to rush.” The old butler swung his arm causing a screen of light to appear. This screen of light displays Tang En during his hunting journey.

Standing from the third person of view while watching himself struggle, Tang En’s face reddened from embarra.s.sment.

“Do you know why even though you are not that close to them, these animals instinctively had a reaction?” The old butler answered, “To wild creatures, their sight, hearing and smell along with their sense of surrounding s.p.a.ce are extremely sensitive, some even have a sixth sense when it comes to life endangering threats. When they detect such a threat, they will quickly escape.”

Tang En looked at the light screen as he watched himself scare away the animals, and could only nod in agreement. He asked, “How do I avoid detection while approaching them?”

“Good question, this is where you can make use of the a.s.sa.s.sin Concealment skill tree…”

“Whoa, wait right there, I already begged you to be kind and spare me, I’m not going to become an a.s.sa.s.sin.” Tang En suddenly woke up, he was determined to not turn into some bloodthirsty killer.

The old butler’s face remained calm: “Currently we are talking about solving your food problem. Taking a step back, even if I want you to learn these a.s.sa.s.sination skills, there is no conflict with the current issue right?”

Tang En scratched his nose: “Humph, fair enough. Continue.”

“We should use this as practice.” The old butler’s hand moved, the dead pheasant from afar disappeared, replaced by a grey wild hare. As the hare comes into existence, it began to observe its surrounding, being on high alert constantly.

“Living beings have a finite amount of perception, that’s why if you know the first steps of the concealment arts, you can..”

The old butler casually walked towards the hare, who still didn’t show any signs of hiding nor special movements. Even when the butler was twenty metres away, the hare still had no reaction.

How could this be? Can this hare be fake? Just before as Tang En hunted, the wild hare would spring away the moment they sensed him. But no matter what, this old butler with a serious att.i.tude wasn’t so shameless…

There must be some special method here. Where is it? Where?

“Hmm!” As Tang En closely observed, the hare briefly moved and looked towards the old butler as he approaches. But the old butler’s face showed no reaction, he continued to calmly walk towards the hare. The hare retrieved its eyes and turned to a different direction.

I’ll try, then I’ll know if it’s fake or real… Oh, that’s not right. Just then as the hare turned to look, a tree was in it’s field of vision instead of the old man.

No way, could it be a coincidence? Tang En quickly dismissed this thought, because the moment the hare looked up once more at the butler, a tree once again come between its view just in time.

So that’s how… But Tang En immediately frowned again, even if that’s the case, what about the hare’s hearing? Those long ears cannot be fake. With such a large human walking towards it, there must be many sounds.

While Tang En was feeling suspicious, the old butler has already made his way besides the hare.

Currently, the wild hare was focusing on eating the gra.s.s at its feet. Even so the hare was still clearly on high alert, as it periodically looked up and examine the four directions, its long ears twitching. But no matter how much it looked, it seems to never noticed the person quietly standing right beside it.

As he stared agape at the wild hare and the old butler, he suddenly felt a chill from behind his neck. Tang En twisted and peek behind himself.

“This is the Preliminary Invisible Form, want to learn it?” The old butler who had appeared there since who knows when asked.

Tang En looked at the wild hare in the distance still nonchalantly eating away at the gra.s.s, nodding his head vigorously.

—

Twilight, Southern Forest from Little Stone Village. A wild pheasant was happily pecking the ground while looking for food.

Half a day later, it suddenly lifted its head, looking carefully all around it. There was no living creatures in its view. But for some reason, it felt a foreboding sense of unease. The food on the ground however kept it from leaving, as it continue to eat. The gluttonous pheasant did not know that it has already entered a trap at this time.

“Phoosh” a soft sound resound, a basket quickly swept the wild pheasant inside.

“Cuckooo!” The frightened pheasant began to coo furiously, sounds of wings and feathers flapping continuously echoed from inside the basket.

“Oh ha ha ha… Dinner is served!”