Ascension of the Master Assassin

Looking through all the details of the troops under his command expended a lot of energy and time, but Venn felt that it was worth the exhaustive effort.

If he was to efficiently command his troops in the battlefield eight days later, he needed to understand everything about them from their stats till their skill set.

Even though he had his expectations, the troops he had under his command were much more powerful in strength compared to him. He was even in utter envy when he saw their skills set that a wicked thought appeared in his mind.

Similar to monsters, NPCs drop monster cores as well. Other than the need to be a part of the Oni race to use the race trait passive skill - Battle Constitution, the rest of the skills could be used by players without any requirements.

"All of them are rank C and above monster cores! I can fetch at least $140,000 for each of them!" Venn mentally thought to himself. 

But before his greed could overwhelm him, he quickly shook that thought out of his mind. The drop rate for a normal NPC is similar to monster drop rates, both of them have an extremely low probability of around one in a million.

Thus, even if he kills his troops, there could be a chance that he would end up with nothing. 

On the contrary, if he manages to kill a special NPC with a title to its name, it would almost guarantee that at least a monster core will drop as the loot. However, such NPC are often extremely powerful and irreplaceable, thus even Venn knew that it was just wishful thinking on his part. 

Returning back to the task at hand, Venn moved on to the detailed map provided by Vesra and examined it carefully. In a battle, one must always consider three things - the right timing, the right location, and the right men for the battle. Either one factor could be the decisive factor of the entire battle. This concept could also be used in commercial war as well.

Since the troops he had were weaker in strength compared to the monsters in the nearby area, he had to gain the upperhand for the other two factors to have a chance in victory.

"Should I organise a surprise attack on the Ironclad Boars?"

"Or should I set up an ambush on the White Chest Apes in the forest here?"

Numerous thoughts flowed into his mind as he examined and calculated all possibilities that he could act on with regards to the terrains of the monster's habitats and timing of his attack. If there was anything that could be advantageous for his Oni troops, Venn swore that he would think of it.

Unlike the bottomless pit of hopelessness and despair that he suffered in the past searching for the funds to save Rena, this much was nothing compared to it. Nonetheless, he just wished that he could have additional someone to help him.

Someone that thinks just like him…

Someone exactly like him…

"Wait a minute here. A bright flash of brilliance flashed through his brain like a jolt of lightning.

After checking that his health was sufficient to activate his skill, he immediately called out.

"Shadow Partner!"

An identical figure whose appearance was exactly the same as Venn emerged from within his shadow. This time, instead of moving along the ground surface, he purposely controlled the movement of his shadow to appear in mid-air, leaving behind a black silhouette in its original position.

After hanging in the air for a few seconds, his figure dropped down due to gravity and his feets returned to the ground.

"It acts like a short teleportation skill that I can use to escape from a sticky situation. The shadow comes from within me, not from my actual shadow that I initially assumed. Right now, the maximum distance of the teleportation is approximately two metres. It may or may not increase as the skill mastery ranks up. As for my hypothesis, it seems I am correct." Venn smiled. 

As he had expected, his consciousness was split into two, separate from each other yet linked together through some sort of special connection.

Turning towards the messy piles of documents, both him and his pitch black shadow began to look through them at a much higher efficiency than ever before, with one looking at the terrain map while the other brainstormed about possible plans that he could use and listing them down on a piece of paper.

"This feels like I have an extra brain!"

Venn was excited about the progress he was making. He could only imagine how much faster he could get if he was able to increase the shadows he could conjure up with his skill. He was seriously excited about the added byproduct benefit of the skill.

"Like the players said in the past, there is not one useless ability in Heaven Descent. The power of the skills depends on how the players use them." Venn muttered to himself.

Unfortunately for Venn, the entire process ended prematurely when the time limit of one minute was up. With a 'poof' sound, the shadow figure dissipated into the air, releasing a moderate amount of black smoke that took a few seconds to completely quell.

Addicted to the feeling and with the added pressure to time, Venn made a decision. He needed food, lots and lots of it.

He needed to recover his health as fast as he could to activate his shadow partner skill. Without a cooldown for his skill, he could theoretically keep launching it as long as he has enough health to expend. 

With his decision made, he called for the oni twins that he had saved back in the village to the study room. 

After arriving in the capital, both of them had nowhere else to go since their parents had perished under the goblins' hands. Thus, he asked Ysera to let them stay at the manor with him.

With a few days of travelling and staying together, the two of them had reduced their distrust against him. Hence, he wanted to instruct them to inform Vesra that he needed a banquet of food. However, when he saw both of them wearing a simple circlet binded by grass on their head, he stopped in his tracks with his eyes widened.

"Ten and Eleven. Those circlets that you are wearing, are they made of the Smoky Grass?"