One hour after Drake and his group reached the Poison Valley.

Sword, Shield with more than a hundred thugs and the three explorer groups arrived at the Poison Valley Fog Zone. They purposely reached their late to ambush Drake’s group from behind.

“Do we need to go in? If they are as weak as you say, we do not need to go in, they will die on their own”, said Joseph, leader of one of the explorer groups, who had a slightly scared expression watching the scenery of the fog zone. He was also a veteran.

“Are you scared Joseph? If you are then you and your group can just stay here and wait for us, but then you have to forget about the prize that Young Master Faulrum promised”, mocked Trent.

He was the leader of another explorer group. He was a veteran just like Joseph. He was the one who made the lewd comment about playing with the twins before killing them to Faulrum.

“Do you want to die Trent?” Joseph and Trent were rivals and enemies and would leave no chance of fighting each other.

“Do you think I am afraid of you, p*ssy”, mocked Trent once again.

Joseph unsheathed his Sword, ready to attack. Trent was not to be outdone, also readied his spear. Their team members also readied their respective weapons and faced each other, waiting for their respective leader’s orders to attack.

“Will you guys cut it out? I don’t know about you guys but I want to complete the job and get the Mortal Skill promised by Young Master Faulrum”, shouted Ariana, leader of the last explorer group.

She was the only woman veteran among them. Moreover, her team had the most female members, as it was comprised of more than half female members. On the other hand, other explorer groups had barely two or three females.

Joseph and Trent didn’t want to stop and were about to ignore Ariana, but then they saw the eyes of Sword and Shield focused on them too. They could handle one veteran, but handling three would be too much. So, they honestly lowered their weapons, and following them, their team members also lowered their weapons.

“Hmph, I will give you face Ariana, and let him go for now”, said Joseph.

“Haha, I will also give you face Ariana. I will deal with this p*ssy later”, said Trent with a mocking smile.

“YOU-” Joseph was interrupted by Ariana’s death glare, who also removed the smile from Trent’s face.

Sword and Shield meanwhile were thinking if it was a good idea to team up with the explorers. The explorers came only for the reward but they mainly came for revenge for both Peter and their friends Arrow and Knife and the reward. Of course, that was what they told their underlings, but after the promise of Mortal Skill, revenge was the least of their concerns.

After the argument, everyone prepared to go inside. Together with hundreds of thugs, fifteen to twenty members in each explorer group, and the five veterans, there were more than two hundred individuals who came.

All of them consumed an antidote after watching the inside scenery but it was nowhere near close to what Drake had exchanged from the shop.

They moved together inside. Occasionally they would find snake carcasses on their path, that they dismissed as those killed by Drake’s group. But they got alert thinking of encountering snake monsters on the way.

“Aah”

One of the thugs suddenly screamed. Everyone turned to him and saw that a snake was biting his throat and the neck area was already purple. The thug clutched his neck but in a few seconds fell and died.

Another snake lunged from the branches and attacked another unsuspecting thug, but it was noticed by Sword, who cut it before it killed the thug.

“Everyone be careful. The snake monsters are hiding and ambushing us. Stay aware of your surroundings”, said Sword.

But the warning had little effect. People continued to die on the way. Many fought but many also died, both the thugs and the explorers.

The veterans tried to protect as many as they could but they were limited. Previously the twins only needed to make sure that Drake and Aria were not attacked by anything unexpected. However, it was much more difficult for only five veterans to protect more than two hundred individuals from unexpected danger.

By the time they reached the fifth area, less than twenty people remained, rest died on the way. Many wanted to return midway but were stopped by the veterans who were blinded by greed. Those who protested were killed by them.

All of them were not in a good condition. Many had lost their limbs or were injured in various places. Some even had purplish or greenish marks on their skins, clear signs of poison.

Even the veterans were looking weary and had varying injuries, but their injuries were much less than the others.

They were lucky that the bosses which were the most poisonous were killed by the twins previously, so the losses were that many. Otherwise, it would be uncertain if all five veterans would have survived till the fifth area.

BOOM

BOOM

“What are those noises?” asked Sword.

They looked at one another and then moved towards the noise. After some time they reached the location where the twins were fighting the final spider monster boss. They were amazed by the scene of destruction, blackened ground and spider parts were everywhere. After looking around, they returned their focus to the fight.

All the veterans' faces were serious, they couldn’t believe that the twins were so strong that they were able to fight such a strong monster. The noises they heard were from the incendiary arrows that Yumi used. But they were relieved to see that the twins were tired, so even if they defeated the monster, they could easily defeat them together.

They watched the fight with bated breaths. They were not sure if they could defeat such a monster even if all of them fought together.

Finally, the twins defeated the monster. They watched as Drake reached the monster and killed it. They didn’t understand why the twins didn’t kill it and rather Drake killed it.

Then they saw something that quickened their breaths. They saw Drake pick up some parchments from the platform. Their eyes widened as they had a rough guess of what was written on the parchments. Greed far greater than before was rolling in their eyes.

“All of them are tired from fighting for so long. Kill them quickly then we will decide how to share the potion formulas between us”, screamed Sword and ran towards the twins to kill them as quickly as possible to acquire the potion formulas.

Drake had a slightly surprised expression upon hearing the shout. Aria was startled but readied herself to fight after hearing the shout. The twins' expressions remained unchanged. They had noticed the intruders earlier when they arrived. Other than those weaker ones, their opponents were only the veterans and even they were injured to varying degrees.

Drake frowned seeing them running towards them like rabid dogs, he ordered, “Kill them.”

The twins nodded. Yumi readied her bow and Ayame blended in the shadows to kill them silently.

They first killed everyone other than the veterans, who stopped at a few meters of distance from Yumi. They became wary of them. They were shocked that even after so many injuries, they killed almost all of their subordinates in a few seconds, only one thug other than the five veterans were alive.

Ayame suddenly appeared behind the last thug. She slashed her dagger to slice off his neck. But something unexpected happened. That thug stopped her attack with his dagger. Ayame moved back without much expression as if she knew that would be the result of her attack and again disappeared.

The veterans noticed her but they were too shocked to see the scene. They couldn’t believe a lowly thug stopped a veteran’s attack.

Sword and Shield knew that thug and that he was strong and in a few years could become a lieutenant. But they were shocked seeing his actions.

Suddenly something clicked in Sword’s mind, his eyes widened and exclaimed, “You are Shadow!”

“What!? He is Shadow! David’s rumored hidden fifth lieutenant”, exclaimed Trent.

All the veterans were watching Shadow as if watching a ghost. Their shocks were justified as no one had seen Shadow before. Only David knew who he was. Shadow had helped him remove many competitors and hindrances for a long time.

His name was justified as he was like a shadow, unseen by everyone, silently slitting the throats of anyone who dared to go against David. He was different from Knife who only had peak Dagger Mastery, he was a proper assassin, with Intermediate Dagger and Stealth Mastery.

Sword and Shield couldn’t believe that David even sent Shadow for the job. David did send him to kill the twins as he was burning in flames of revenge for his brother but couldn’t come to Falmise City because of his business that was taking longer than expected. That’s why he sent his most loyal subordinate Shadow to complete the job after the last failure.

Another reason was the Mortal Skill reward. He was not sure if Sword and Shield would dedicate the reward to him if they got it, so he sent Shadow just in case.

Shadow knew that his cover was blown. He knew there was no use pretending. His demeanor suddenly changed. From a wild and scared hyena, he became a silent viper.

The other veterans also noticed that change. Then they noticed one more glaring difference. It was that he was the least bit injured among them, something they hadn’t noticed before.

Ayame appeared again and attacked Shadow again, who easily dodged her attack again. She gave a nod to Yumi and ran out of sight again. Shadow followed her, he knew that if he didn’t kill her, she could kill everyone else stealthily.

Ayame had the same thought process. Only Ayame could fight him. Before her Perception Mastery’s promotion, she would be no match for him as his levels in Dagger and Stealth Mastery were much higher than hers, but after the promotion, she was confident in fighting him.

Ayame stopped hundreds of meters away from the rest. Shadow also stopped some distance away from her. They stood in front of each other in silence as if measuring each other in silence.

Yumi focused on the remaining five. It was the toughest fight for her. She was going to fight a proper party with one tank, one long-range, and three damage dealers. 

Both the twins were ready for their first fight against veterans. If they succeed in defeating them, they will be one step closer to their objectives of destroying the Falmise Family and the Goblin Tribe.

VirtuousSinner

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