Chapter 1427 The Setting Sun Part 8 Part 1

─── As long as I am you, it is only natural that you are also me as well.

And if you are me in the same sense that I am you, you must die for the sake of this beautiful world. And that I swear to you: it is me who is reflected on the surface of the water.

* * *

The highest possible stealth-oriented class: Hidden Land “Stealth Force”.

It is a class specializing in hiding its presence and conducting surprise attacks in the natural environment. It is a class that derives from the Ranger class.

Equipped with a unique class skill called Earth Sanctuary “Gaia Force”, it allows its user to obtain a strengthening effect the strength of which depends on the terrain that the user is standing on at the time of the battle…… However, the most favorite things in this class’ kit are a variety of stealth skills that you obtain as you level that class up. And most importantly: you also get to learn magic with this class.

One of the better skills and magics of this class is the skill called “Stealth Assault”. It is a skill that allows you to make one attack at the beginning of the battle without actually generating any aggro from it. Strictly speaking, the term “aggro”, which in this particular situation means gathering attention from monsters, is also recognized by Players far and wide as a kind of a sign.

Not being able to focus aggro onto yourself means that your target is never actually going to notice that you are coming for them unless you openly attack them or enter the target’s direct line of sight.

However, conversely, once that you enter the target’s line of sight and the target spots you, you are no longer going to be able to enter the stealth mode.

Therefore, what Hiiragi used here in combination with “Stealth Assault” was the Extraordinary Skill “Skillful Concealment ‘Search Camouflage’”.

This particular Extraordinary Skill can be acquired by defeating the Extraordinary Monster “Stealth Chameleon”. As for the skill itself, “Search Camouflage”, is the type of skill that conceals one’s presence from all the other environment, making the figure of the Player transparent and undetectable from the moment of its activation until the very first attack is struck.

Stealth Assault and Search Camouflage. This is the ultimate combination of skills that makes someone like Hiiragi a force to be reckoned with. A sort of undefeated Player Killer in her own right.

And the biome in located in the New Continent dubbed by the Players as the “Sea of Tree”, its official designation being “Penhedrant Great Forest Zone”, is not limited to just trees alone. There are many holes in this vast sea that allow you to go from the roots of the great trees all the way to the hidden areas of the small cavities buried under the ground.

And there is a hidden area known only to Hiiragi, one that was relatively close to the area where August was supposed to meet with others today.

Hiiragi has been hiding in that small hideout together with her Goldunine “Isuna”, but even she could not possibly expected the sudden attack by the Unique Monster Goldunine the Inexhaustible. However, the entrance to this “hole” proved to be the great sniper nest for Isuna, and once she could start sniping away, it was also the time for Hiiragi to start acting as well.

Using the combination of her favorite skills she was able to get right behind Sanraku’s back, without him even realizing what was going on. Her usual plan of action would assume that she would go for an immediate surprise attack, and then she would simply shift onto the next possible action.

However, this time around it was different. This time around it was all about Player Kill during a Boss Battle. So this meant that she had to be quick and grab the items that would fall out of Sanraku’s remains before Goldunine the Inexhaustible would take notice of her and focus her attack on her.

Fortunately enough for her, the Player known as Sanraku turned out to be a perverted guy of dubious sanity, who goes around half-naked all the time with nothing but a bird mask on his head. So if she was to score a direct Critical Hit on his neck, he was sure to go down and die instantly without much problems.

「Fufufufufu……]

After she pulled out the tomahawk that she slammed right into Sanraku’s neck, she started to giggle thinking about what kind of loot is going to come out of this poor fool who did not even see his death coming……

「Hey! Just who the fuck are you!?]

But she was then struck right to the stomach without any hesitation by a fist clad in iron, and was blown away as a result.

「UGIH…… GEHO!!!]

「What the hell was that? That thing just now…… Are you perhaps a Player Killer?]

(Why…… Why are you still alive…… No way, Luck!?)

The Luck parameter that exists in this game as a stat has the benefit of being passively activated when it exceeds a certain value for a variety of situations.

For example, it is effective in preventing death due to self-harm damage, and it would allow the Player to survive a blow that would otherwise kill them with one HP left.

「Did you come from the outside of the ring……? No, I guess that’s not it…… You must have been hiding somewhere around here this whole time…… Am I right? Or am I right?]

「Hyii!]

Even though that bird mask was making the Player look extremely goofy, the glare that was directed at Hiiragi from underneath it was more than enough to freeze her in place. In that exact moment, Hiiragi realized that she might have made a grave miscalculation. This Player…… he was bad news. Extremely bad news.

(I was unable to kill him in one hit! He did not die from my attack……! Isuna-chan! What is Isuna-chan doing!? Why isn’t she here beside me!? Geez! What a useless and pathetic excuse of a partner you turn out to be!!!)

Why is she feeling as though she was cornered all of a sudden?

Even though she was the one who snuck up on him and slammed that tomahawk into this guy’s neck, but in Hiiragi’s eyes none of those actions were actually perceived as “evil”. Her every action was thought to be the epitome of goodness, and everything and everyone who tried to oppose her was automatically deemed as “evil”. That’s just how her personal philosophy worked.

She was neither angry nor confused, but the way in which that guy was glaring at here seemed to deny everything that would make Hiiragi feel “herself”.

「Look, I don’t know just who the fuck do you think you are, but I guess that I am going to kill you for the time being. But surely you’re cool with that, huh?]

「Hyii……! You’re the worst! Demon! Fiend! Don’t you know that even though this is a game, you should at least have some bare minimum of moral standards!?]