It turned out to be a group of assassins.
One of them peeked out from cover and informed the others that the target had started moving and was approaching them. One of them asked if he had really noticed them. His colleague told him that he definitely couldn't have seen them, since they were level 65 assassins. The man agreed with him. With the effects of their passive skills, low level adventurers shouldn't even be able to sense their presence.
Allen called out to them and told the five of them to stop playing hide-and-seek.
Then they realized he had noticed them, and even knew their number. One of them turned to the boss, wondering what they should do, and he answered that he had wanted to eliminate him quietly, but since they had been noticed, there was no choice. Let them engage.
An assassin asked doubtfully whether this was the weapon he used — a pistol, or whatever it was called. Was it possible to attack faster than that?
His boss told him that this would be no problem. The weapon did not deal damage to people. He had concluded this based on the man shooting at the farmers.
The assassin said that everything would be easy, then. Besides, he had heard that the target was only around level 20.
His boss called him an idiot and reminded him that this man was the target of an assassination despite being around level 20, so let them be wary.
Allen again told them to come out. He was not a fan of hide-and-seek.
The assassin leader came out of hiding and noted that he had exposed them. They were just being cautious. Finally, all five of them showed themselves in Allen's sight. He cautiously asked what their goal was, and the assassin told him not to look at them like that. They had just come to get rid of him.
After that, they disappeared into the fog, and Allen looked around. Five of them, with stealth skills, and they were all quite high level. It was good that he had chosen a weapon suitable for rapid fire.
The assassin called him a fool. This weapon wouldn't leave even a scratch.
But Allen dashed his expectations by firing a couple of shots. One of them hit him in the ear and tore his hood. The other bullets had already touched his comrades. Allen shot them all, leaving only the leader alive.
He said that if they were going to attack a guy with a gun, they should have come up with a better plan. He pointed the gun at him, and the assassin asked in surprise why that had happened. His guns weren't supposed to hurt people.
Now Allen understood everything. That was why they had rushed straight at him. Usually he set a limit so that accidental shots didn't harm people, but they had looked suspicious from the start. He shot him in the legs and added that, therefore, the limitation was lifted for this weapon. Naturally, if the bullet hit, they would die.
The assassin fell to his knees and clicked his tongue in annoyance, and Allen brought the gun to his forehead and asked why they had aimed at him. Let him talk, if he didn't want to die.
The man reminded him that they were assassins. They killed anyone, if there was an order.
Allen asked who their client was. He didn't remember doing anything that could make someone hate him.
The assassin answered him, "Who knows? Maybe he didn't do anything wrong at all, but he's just abnormally strong, and there's one big shot who doesn't like it."
Allen asked him to tell him more about it, and then the assassin cracked something with his teeth and said with a smile that he was also a professional. That was all he could say. After that, he fell dead.
Allen immediately realized that he had taken poison. He called him strong, but he was only level 24. He couldn't imagine someone being so afraid of a low level player like him.
And then Melissa's voice came from behind the rocks. She remarked that it was not bad. He had outsmarted experienced assassins.
He turned and asked whether she was with them.
She indignantly asked in response whether he was kidding or something. She was on his side.
He measured her with a suspicious glance, and she offered to team up with him. It would be beneficial for her, too.
He told her that he didn't need partners. Not now, not ever. And it was all because of that — Emma.
The girl sighed heavily and told him not to be stubborn. She had a guess about who had hired those assassins. What if she told him about it?
He immediately became interested and asked who that person was.
She said that before answering his question, she wanted to clarify one thing. He had broken the record for the fastest clear of the Wolf Mine. His name was Allen, right?
He asked why she was asking that. Couldn't she just look at his status window?
She irritably answered that she was asking because he had it hidden, and then he realized that he had completely forgotten about it. Fame gave him a headache, so he had changed his privacy settings. He turned the status display back on, and now she saw his name and his level.
When she found out that he was only level 24, she was very surprised. It was lower than she had expected. She was completely confused. That other time, because of the distance, she hadn't been able to get a good look at his level, but this was surprising. He really was lower level than she was. She had been sure he was around level 80.
He asked her to show her own level, and she pointed out that this was fair. She was a level 50 sorceress.
He asked who had hired the assassins to kill him, and she told him that she would gladly tell him, but she simply couldn't give that information away for free.
He frowned, noting that this meant she wanted something in return.
Melissa confirmed this. Let him help her, and she would tell him what he wanted to know.
She pointed to a huge castle floating in the sky and said that she wanted him to help her with that. Crystal Sky Castle was a dungeon with a recommended level of 50, and it wasn't any ordinary dungeon. Even among dungeons of that level, it was considered the highest difficulty. It was teeming with a huge number of monsters and bosses, and they appeared completely randomly. Because of this, it was impossible to prepare for it in advance. Besides, it was full of traps, so even experienced high level adventurers would instantly die if they let their guard down. And at the very depths of the dungeon lived a crystal dragon, a monster of a completely different level compared to regular bosses.
Allen asked what came next. She wanted him to help her clear this dungeon?
She confirmed it — or rather, she wanted him to give her the item dropped by the boss, the jade dragon orb. Only then would she tell him everything.
He thought about it. For Melissa's level, that was a high grade material.
She asked what his answer was, and uncertainly looked away. She had of course decided to try asking, but there was no chance that a level 24 could handle this.
Contrary to her expectations, Allen agreed to do it, to which she was surprised, and she asked in confusion whether he had even listened to what she had just said. The recommended level was 50. It was an incredibly dangerous, high difficulty zone.
He told her that he knew all about it — even more than she did. When he had played, he had completed this dungeon a bunch of times.
Playing by this woman's rules wasn't part of his plans, but if he didn't eliminate the one targeting him, it would hinder his leveling. So he needed to deal with this as quickly as possible.
She approached him and said that if he took it on, she wouldn't mind. She'd be happy to work with him. She wanted to shake his hand, but he ignored her gesture and headed toward the castle, saying that it was time for them to hit the road.