Chapter 12: Shadow Warrior

Lei En sat in the café for half the afternoon; by evening, students from the fencing academy came out in groups of three or five, and before long, the academy's staff also got off work.

Several horse-drawn carriages gathered from various directions and stopped at the entrance of the fencing academy.

As one of the best fencing academies in Longshandecheng, the instructors at Maroni's Sword were all extraordinary beings with extremely high salaries, so they could afford to hire carriages to transport them to and from work on time every day.

Lei En's gaze fell on several coachmen, and he quickly found the carriage that Eisberg rode in — he had seen it a few times before.

But this coachman was not the one who had driven the carriage during the last crime; he came from a carriage rental company and had only a hiring relationship with Eisberg.

After the carriages picked up their passengers and left one by one, a familiar figure soon appeared in view.

This was a tall, thin man, around thirty-five years old, ordinary in appearance but with extremely spirited eyes, wearing a warm smile that made people feel very approachable. He walked and talked with a female instructor from the fencing academy beside him, chatting and laughing, his manners proper and appropriate.

"Eisberg."

Lei En watched this man from several hundred meters away, sneering coldly in his heart.

If not for experiencing it personally, who could have imagined that Eisberg, known in the fencing academy for his good relationships with everyone, was in private a bloodstained executioner.

Behind Eisberg followed two young men, both around twenty years old.

One of them was Lei En's classmate Ramsay; the other he did not recognize, likely a newly hired assistant for Eisberg at the fencing academy.

Eisberg gentlemanly saw the female instructor onto her carriage, then turned back and told the two assistants a few words to let them off work, and boarded the carriage himself.

The carriage happened to be heading toward the café.

Lei En was about to get up and avoid it in advance, but he saw that in another direction, Ramsay had already left the fencing academy; trying to follow him now would be quite difficult, so he decided to stay seated and wait for the carriage to come closer.

Between these two people, Eisberg was definitely the primary one, and also the greatest threat; to find their secret stronghold outside the city, naturally he had to start investigating from Eisberg.

As for Ramsay, he was just an ordinary person — solving him would be far too easy.

A distance of several hundred meters was not far; Lei En had already adjusted the direction of his seat, his back facing the direction from which the carriage was coming, and raised the newspaper in his hands a bit higher to block most of his face.

Clack-clack-clack...

As the carriage sped past the street in front of the café, Lei En's gaze passed over the top edge of the newspaper, looking straight at the carriage's glass window, and happened to see half of Eisberg's body and his profile.

With just one glance, the soul was seen through completely.

The entire process lasted less than two seconds; Eisberg sat in the carriage with his eyes closed, resting, and did not notice at all that someone by the roadside was observing him.

Lei En slowly lowered the newspaper, watching the carriage recede into the distance.

"So he's a second-tier Shadow Warrior."

Before this, Lei En had not been able to confirm Eisberg's extraordinary profession.

Although he had personally seen Eisberg kill someone, the only feeling at the time was — fast!

Not only were Eisberg's footsteps fast, the sword in his hands was even faster; this was a pure suppression of speed — ordinary people were killed before they could even react.

There were a few extraordinary professions that could possess this kind of speed; the most common were "Ranger" and "Shadow Warrior," both renowned for their speed.

However, the combat styles of Rangers and Shadow Warriors were completely different; if one got it wrong, the price paid would be severe.

The first core Element of a Ranger was "Deft Hands" — both hands possessed superhuman tactile sensitivity and were extremely nimble, with fine-grained control over one's own strength, rapid movement within small ranges, agile leaps, and the ability to quickly master any kind of weapon upon picking it up.

Every Ranger was a versatile weapons master, proficient in swordsmanship, shooting, dual-wielding weapons, climbing, throwing hidden weapons, rope techniques, and so on, with attack methods that were often unexpected.

By comparison, a Shadow Warrior was rather more monotonous.

But monotonous did not mean weak; the core Element of a Shadow Warrior was "Shadow Concealment," skilled at lurking within shadows, concealing one's form, with footsteps both light and fast, often delivering a fatal blow when the enemy least expected it.

Lei En discovered the Shadow Concealment Element within Eisberg's soul, confirming that he was a Shadow Warrior.

Furthermore, Eisberg's soul structure had two layers.

Through observing those extraordinary beings at the inn over the past few days, Lei En knew that each time a demon soul was fused, one more layer would be added to the internal structure of the soul, and the profession's tier would rise by one level.

A two-layer soul structure indicated that Eisberg was a second-tier Shadow Warrior, having fused one Main Soul and one sub-soul.

The Main Soul of a Shadow Warrior was always the same — a demon soul from the "Shadow-Lurk Demon Spider," granting the Shadow Concealment Element.

Eisberg did not have a second Element ability; this could be because when advancing to the second tier, he still chose to use the Shadow-Lurk Demon Spider as his sub-soul to continue enhancing the Shadow Concealment Element; or it was possible that he had fused another demon soul, but it conflicted with the Main Soul, resulting in the loss of the Element.

This kind of situation was not rare at all — it was even a normal phenomenon.

Demon soul conflict was the most troublesome problem for extraordinary beings, bar none.

Most demon souls were difficult to reconcile with one another and would produce conflicts, greatly increasing the difficulty of fusion; at best, an Element would be lost, failing to gain a new ability and merely simply increasing one's soul strength.

Even worse, not only would the soul not improve, even the original Elements would be affected, and one's strength would regress instead of advance.

Therefore, many extraordinary beings, in order to avoid or reduce conflicts, made the most conservative choice — fusing the same demon soul to enhance their existing Elements.

Because the observation time was too short, Lei En did not know whether Eisberg's Shadow Concealment Element had ever been enhanced, but knowing that he was a Shadow Warrior was enough.

Only when the carriage had traveled far away did Lei En stand up and quicken his pace to follow.

It was now rush hour; there were many pedestrians and vehicles on the streets, and the carriage's already not-very-fast speed was repeatedly reduced, making it very easy for Lei En to keep up.

Following the carriage at a distance of several hundred meters the whole way, Lei En was not at all worried about being noticed by Eisberg.

The carriage headed west, stopping and starting for over half an hour.

As the sky gradually darkened and the gas lamps by the roadside lit up, the carriage finally reached its destination, entering a large house located in the western part of Honiton District, and soon came back out and left.

Clearly, Eisberg was no longer on the carriage; this was his residence.

Lei En did not rashly approach, but instead observed the surrounding environment.

Next to Eisberg's house was the Phlegleon River, which ran from south to north, dividing the entire city of Longshandecheng into two parts.

The east bank of the river was the main city area, comprising the three districts of Honiton, Loss, and Lienflar, occupying two-thirds of the city's area, with over ninety percent of the population living here.

The remaining ten percent of the population lived on the west bank of the Phlegleon River, which was the Silver Star District.

The Extraordinary Academy and the Duke's Wizard Tower were both in the Silver Star District, so this area naturally became the gathering place for Longshandecheng's upper class — what people called the noble district.

Eisberg's house was very well situated, separated from the noble district by only a river, in the most expensive area of Honiton District.

From here, one could look up and see a towering building on the western horizon, its summit emitting a powerful beam of light, sweeping around like an eye in all directions.

This was the Wizard Tower of the Duke of Silver Star.

Within the range swept by that beam of light, any slight movement would be detected by the Wizard Tower immediately.

In other words, Aisberg's house was also under the protection of the Wizard Tower, so making a move at his home was the most unwise choice.

Lei En glanced at the Wizard Tower from afar, shook his head, and had no choice but to leave.

The next afternoon, after finishing his shift at the fencing hall, Lei En followed Ramsay and found his address.

Ramsay lived in a high-end apartment not far from the fencing hall; with many people around, there was no opportunity to act. Moreover, killing Ramsay would be useless—it would only alert Aisberg.

Lei En did not grow impatient. He staked out the fencing hall for several days, patiently waiting for an opportunity.

Because he knew these two would not be able to hold back and would act again.

This wait lasted eight days. It had been nearly half a month since Lei En transmigrated to Ai Lun E Si, and the landlord was about to discover the tenant's disappearance, when finally, Lei En got his chance.

Aisberg got off work as usual, but today the carriage that came to pick him up was not the usual one.

Lei En recognized it at a glance—this was the very carriage that had picked him up behind the bar on Perfume Street that night. His spirits lifted at once, and he thought to himself: could they be making their move tonight?

However, somewhat unexpectedly, Ramsay also got on the carriage.

The carriage headed south all the way, as if about to leave the city.

Lei En followed right away. Sure enough, before long the carriage left Longshande and sped up, galloping along the main road.

"They must be heading to their secret hideout." Lei En was both surprised and delighted—this was exactly the opportunity he had been waiting for.

But the carriage was too fast; he was having trouble keeping up.

Fortunately, after absorbing that fallen one's soul last time, his charge had surged by eight bars, and with his injuries fully healed he had gained another two bars, bringing his charge to 18%. Whether in stamina or strength, he was a cut above an ordinary person, barely managing to keep up with the carriage from a distance without losing it entirely.

With his night vision ability activated, Lei En ran through the darkness, and his charge consumption accelerated as well.

Before long, the carriage turned from the main road onto a small path, drove for a few more minutes, and finally pulled into a secluded manor.

Lei En hid behind a tree, panting heavily. Only after catching his breath did he begin to secretly observe the manor.

The manor was built beside a large pasture and occupied a modest area, enclosed by brick walls on all sides and surrounded by woods. The nearest manor was over a kilometer away—very quiet and secluded.

Moreover, this place was not far from the river.

Following the small path back to the main road, one could see the Freyglun River.

Lei En had noticed it when he ran over just now. He had passed through here on his way back to Longshande that day; if he went a bit further south, it would be the spot where he had climbed out of the river.

He had no doubt whatsoever: this manor was Aisberg and Ramsay's secret hideout.

But what were these two doing holed up inside?