It was no trouble to sneak near the leader's tent.
Despite the ten or so guards patrolling the area, they all steered clear of this particular tent.
Kumi, hiding behind a barrel that was being used as a bin, filled with ash and trash, listened over two guards speaking just a few dozen steps away from the leader's tent.
"Hey, don't tell anyone, but I heard that Ty was pissing in that guy's food supply."
One of the guards told the other while pointing towards the leader's tent with his thumb, the guard was grinning as he spoke.
"Seriously? Now, don't get me wrong, that's still hilarious. But right now? That same guy is acting as the boss here. We could very easily be whipped by him, literally. Like, all of us. You know?"
"Hmmmm~?" The first guard hummed in response, tilting his head far back for a moment before shrugging his shoulders and answering, "Nahhh~"
"This is the third time this week that someone has pissed in his food. The second time he found out that his food was pissed in, he looked pissed himself. Every time it has happened has been when we have taken the night watch. He'll figure it out and blame all of us soon enough."
"It's fine. It's fine. If it comes down to it, just blame it all on Ty and his little buddy Orchy."
"That's what I was planning on. I can't lose this job man. The benefits are way too good."
"Tell me about it. In two weeks, I'm getting a paid vacation to Central's Capital with my wife. Can't wait for this damn mission to end."
Kumi, having gained no important information from the conversation at all, moved out from behind the bin barrel and sneaked up to the leader's tent.
'They were talking rather loud and they aren't far from this tent. Since they didn't sound worried that they would be overheard, then the leader could very well be a really deep sleeper.'
Kumi thought to herself as she snuck behind the tent.
Using one of her knives, she pierced a small hole through the tent and looked inside.
It was a fancy tent, definitely, but not as fabulous as she imagined.
'There. On the bed.'
Kumi watched steady breathing coming from the bed. After a few moments of observation, she concluded that they most definitely are asleep.
Cutting a small hole in the tent, Kumi quietly got in and moved to the bed.
In silence, she looked over the soon to be body.
'This guy... or rather, this kid?'
It was a kid. Soon to be adult. Seemingly no older than 17.
Void white hair and a semi-muscular physique. There was nothing much of note about him.
Kumi couldn't directly feel anything special when looking at him. But there was this silent, almost non-existent oddity.
'Since there's no one else in the tent, this one must be the leader.'
Taking out her knife, Kumi quickly and efficiently stabbed the boy through his neck.
At that moment, his eyes shot open. Black coloured eyes nearly instantly locked on to her.
Deeming the damage insufficient, Kumi pulled out her knife and stabbed again while grabbing her other knife at the same time.
The boy couldn't make a single sound verbally, considering his diced up neck. Regardless, he seemed as though he was about to move and grab onto her hands.
Kumi, not daring to hesitate, pierced his neck once more with both knives.
Twisting them, the boy's head was removed from his body.
'Sheesh.'
Kumi was uncertain what to think about the corpse. Hiding it under the covers, she looked over her knives and the bloody bed.
'It smells like blood. If the smell lingers too long then someone might be alerted.'
Kumi cleaned up as best as she could before moving back out of the tent, closing up the hole as she did so.
'One guard. One leader. This is going really slowly. Everyone here is just a scout by profession, the difficulty feels higher than it should be.'
Kumi rubbed her face with her hands.
'Only the patrolling guards and the sleeping scouts remain. Total number was about... 80 or so.'
Kumi, sneaked off back towards the storage tents.
Over the next half an hour, she would deliberately wait for patrolling guards to be alone and isolated before eliminating them.
With this strategy, there was a clear time limit since if anyone noticed a dwindling amount of others or a sudden decrease of people patrolling, it was guaranteed for them to wake everyone up.
Regardless, Kumi's process was smooth and without hiccup. Whether luck paid her back for the unfortunate pissing incident from before or simply by coincidence, Kumi managed to eliminate all but two in a short twenty minutes.
During this short amount of time, she even managed to Level up to 39. One more and she could Achieve Master Rank. But that wasn't something she could comfortably attempt at present.
The two remaining guards were sitting and chatting away at one of the campfires, smoking and eating pieces of bread without a single care.
They had not moved this entire time and Kumi doubted that they would.
There were two choices. Attempt to eliminate these two right now so that she could more assuredly focus on killing the remainder of the sleeping scouts. Still, this option could go wrong since if the two guards made any substantial noise, the entire remainder of the camp might awaken.
Or she could attempt to eliminate all the sleeping scouts first, leaving these two for last. Yet this could go wrong as well since she wasn't sure when the remaining guards would notice the disappearance of all their comrades.
Weighing her options, Kumi chose the latter as she sneaked around the camp and entered one of the sleeping tents as silently as she could.
It was pitch black inside. No one was awake to witness her entrance. Snoring filled the tent, providing a small layer of sound so that she would have to worry even less.
Carefully, Kumi took out her knife and a thick piece of cloth she had stolen from one of the storage tents. She had soaked this same cloth with her rot element.
In one quick movement, she shoved the cloth into the mouth of a sleeping scout before piercing their neck with her knife before twisting it and fully breaking their neck.
They barely made a single sound and died without ceremony.
'Another one down. About 60 remain along with the two remaining guards. I need to work fast.'
Five more sleeping scouts met the exact same end.
On the sixth, however an issue appeared. Something Kumi had never deeply thought about.
The sixth perished, quickly and silently just like the rest.
However, a green light appeared right next to Kumi's head the moment she killed him.
In contrast to the darkness of the tent itself, the light was bright. Bright enough to wake up two or so of the sleeping scouts.
Yet Kumi ignored the light herself.
She didn't even notice one of the scouts behind her waking up. The scout, shifting in his bed, was silenced by the sound of snoring.
Since, after all, it was a glow that she had often seen before.
{Level has Increased to 40}
...
At the same time, in a different tent, a boy with white hair put on their red coat, getting dressed and ready to go outside and find their murderer.