"Hey Mullark, are you sure we should take this mission seriously? Just because Veyron said it? We are not his dogs...we serve only the King."

A man in full assassin clothes spoke while running through the forest.

His whole body was covered in fitted black clothes made for assassination. A dark hood covered his head, and a mask hid his face. Only his eyes could be seen through the narrow opening, and even those eyes did not stay still for long. They kept checking the trees, bushes, ground, and the direction ahead.

Beside him ran another man wearing the same kind of clothes.

Mullark.

"We can’t disobey him either, Josh," Mullark spoke without slowing down. "He is the right-hand man under the King after all."

Josh clicked his tongue slightly but did not argue immediately.

Both of them looked forward.

There were only massive trees and thick bushes around them as they moved through the forest. Their speed was high enough that an ordinary person would not be able to see them clearly. Their bodies crossed the gaps between trees in quick movements, and their feet barely stayed on one branch or stone before pushing away again.

These two were assassins sent by Veyron.

The same Veyron who was currently handling Project X.

After King Azarion gave him permission to remove any possible variable before the upcoming Operation, Veyron had given the job to these two. They were not ordinary hired killers from the streets or some noble family’s private shadow guards.

They came from the King’s personal assassin security.

They were known as the Martial Cleavers.

The team had only twenty assassins in total.

Each one had been trained from birth. No one outside the Royal Palace knew their origin properly, and even the assassins themselves did not know where they had been taken from before training began. They had no family names, no ordinary childhood, and no normal loyalty toward anyone except the King and the Royal system that raised them.

As of now, Josh and Mullark were running through a forest route that led toward the Angelic Continent, Celestara.

A day had already passed since they departed from the Human Continent’s inner region, and they had already covered more than half the distance. Their route did not follow the public roads, merchant routes, or borders used by common travelers. They moved through hidden forest lines, old paths, ruined checkpoints, and places where normal patrols never appeared.

That was why they could move fast.

Josh glanced to the side and spoke again.

"Still, isn’t this mission strange? A single explorer from Ormolio, and Veyron sends us across borders like this? If the target was really important, he would send one of the higher numbers."

Mullark answered calmly.

"He wants us to do this job clearly, he had already stated that right?"

Josh frowned beneath his mask.

"That means the target might not be important."

"It means the target might be uncertain."

Josh became quiet for a moment.

That explanation made more sense.

They were not being sent because the target was already confirmed as a true danger. They were being sent because the target was a possible variable. And for the King’s side, a possible variable before a major Operation was enough to be erased.

These two were not high in cultivation rank compared to the true monsters of the world.

From the twenty members of the Martial Cleavers, Josh and Mullark were among the lowest ones.

They stood at A-Rank.

But their individual strength was not the same as ordinary A-Ranks.

They had been trained for assassination, not open battle. Their movement, concealment, killing techniques, poison resistance, Spirit suppression, and body control were all built for one purpose. If they had the right situation, they could kill targets stronger than themselves.

Even then, no one could call them S-Rank.

The difference between A-Rank and S-Rank was too large.

Just the Spirit reserve of an S-Rank was almost a hundred times more than an A-Rank. At this stage, the gap between ranks became much wider than in the lower levels. Between D-Rank and C-Rank, or C-Rank and B-Rank, the difference was large but still understandable. But once someone crossed into S-Rank, the scale changed.

That was why Josh and Mullark did not treat S-Ranks lightly.

They could assassinate some A-Ranks.

They could threaten many B-Ranks.

But an S-Rank was different.

If an S-Rank noticed them before they made the first move, the mission would fail immediately.

As the two continued running through the forest, their conversation gradually decreased.

After a few more moments, they went completely silent.

They were trained for this.

No unnecessary words when approaching enemy territory.

Their target this time was Atlas Crosswood.

The same variable Veyron had learned about through Mark’s report and his own speculation.

A human explorer.

A possible survivor of the Eternal-Class Ruin.

And someone who might or might not be the same commoner the King had thrown away as bait.

For Josh and Mullark, that truth did not matter.

Their order was simple.

Find him, Confirm him or not - Kill him.

---

Meanwhile, Atlas, the target of those two assassins, stood in an entirely different place.

In front of him was a massive door.

The door was purple and black, and its surface looked strange even from a distance. It did not look like normal stone or metal. The outer frame had dark patterns carved across it, and faint purple lines moved slowly between those patterns like liquid light.

This was the Abyss-Rank Ruin Seraphiel wanted him to clear.

Atlas stood before the entrance and looked upward.

The door was much taller than the Hollow-Rank Ruin entrances he had cleared before. The Spirit pressure around it was also different. It did not simply leak out. It pressed against the surroundings in a slow and heavy way, as if the ruin itself had weight.

Behind him, the route from the outside was empty.

Seraphiel had already left.

When Atlas had walked out of Veloran’s hut with the newly forged scythe, he found that Seraphiel had returned from her short visit to her father. She had taken the carriage back to Veloran’s place and waited for him there. The moment she saw the scythe in his hand, her eyes had stayed on the weapon for several seconds.

She had asked questions immediately.

Which rank was it?

What abilities did it have?

Did Veloran accept the Whirlstone properly?

Did anything go wrong during crafting?

Atlas had not answered everything truthfully.

He had told her half-truth and half-lie.

"It is Legendary grade, but its abilities have not surfaced yet. So I have to test it to know that, and that is exactly why I asked if we could directly go to the ruin."

That was what he had said.

The weapon being one grade above Legendary was not something he wanted to reveal. Even Veloran did not know the name of that grade. If Atlas told Seraphiel that part, then the value of the scythe would become too high, and even if the Spirit Contract protected him from Rosaria Household, information itself was still dangerous.

So Legendary was more than enough and telling the truth to someone?

He didn’t trust anyone to begin with.

It matched what Seraphiel had expected from the Whirlstone anyway.

After hearing his answer, Seraphiel had not pressed too much. She was curious, that much was clear. But the Spirit Contract had already been signed, and Atlas had already stated his need for privacy and safety. She had no reason to push him and damage the business relation they had just formed.

Then Atlas had made his request.

"Could you directly take me to the Abyss-Rank Ruin now?"

Seraphiel had paused when she heard that.

She had asked why he wanted to go immediately instead of returning to the Rosaria Household for the day.

Atlas had answered directly.

He wanted to test the newly made weapon.

He also wanted to test his current strength.

He had not properly tested himself after raising all his Attributes to 30. He could feel the change in his body, but feeling it and proving it in combat were not the same. Hollow-Rank Ruins had already become less useful for testing his limits. An Abyss-Rank Ruin was dangerous, but that was exactly why it could show him where he stood.

There was also another reason.

Crowbeast Wings.

The S-Rank Trait he had never been able to use properly because his Spirit reserves had been lacking before.

After his Spirit reached 30, his reserves had grown much larger. He could already use Velgrath’s Spirit Sphere for a short time, even if it still consumed too much Spirit. That meant Crowbeast Wings might also become possible to test now.

Atlas wanted to know.

If he could use that Trait, even for a short period, then his mobility would change completely.

After hearing his explanation, Seraphiel had not asked too much further. She probably understood that Atlas would not tell her the full truth anyway. So she guided him here in the Spirit carriage and left after confirming the location.

That was part of their agreement.

No one would wait or observe or do any type of action near the ruin while Atlas cleared it.

Atlas looked at the massive purple-black door again.

Then he lowered his gaze toward the long scythe in his right hand.

The handle was completely black with faint green lines running through it. The blade was pure black, long, and curved, with a thin edge that looked dangerous even while still. It was taller than him, but somehow the weight felt natural in his hand.

He still did not know its abilities.

He could feel the resonance Veloran had spoken about, but it was faint and unclear. It was there, like a connection in the background, but it did not give him direct knowledge yet.

That meant testing would be necessary.

Atlas exhaled.

"Hah... let’s go."

Then he stepped toward the Abyss-Rank Ruin’s door with the scythe in his hand.