Chapter 8: Approaching (Part 2)

Angele ran towards the tree immediately. The two guards did not expect Angele to hit anything, and they were confused for a second before walking towards the tree.

"It's a single-eyed snake, a red one!" Angele checked the information about the snake before.

The small snake on the tree was about the width of a finger, and it had a bloody red eye on its forehead; that was where its name originated. The color of its skin was very similar to the color of the tree. If it was not pinned by the arrow, the guards probably could not find it.

Angele took out his sword and hit the snake's head precisely with the hand guard. The snake fainted right after, and it stopped moving.

"I heard its eye is good for me, I am going to eat it." Angele said in a light tone.

The two guards did not know if they should stop their Young Master or not.

Angele took out a hunting knife from his belt, and he spent some time trying to gouge the snake's eye out. Finally, he had the red bloody eye in his hand, and he threw it into his mouth right away. Angele did not chew it, but only swallowed it.

Though the snake had strong venom in its teeth, its eye had no venom at all. The two guards decided not to stop Angele because they did not want to disappoint the Young Master.

They watched Angele swallow the eye, and they saw a weird expression from his face.

"Let's keep moving." Angele said, and threw the dead snake to one of the guards. The guard took out a linen bag and placed the snake in it.

The guards had no idea what was going on, and they soon heard the sound of an arrow hitting the tree again. Angele smiled, and he quickly ran to the tree that wasn't too far away. The guards saw another single-eyed snake pinned to the body of the tree.

"Young Master, splendid shot!" One of the guards said, "We couldn't even see the snake on the tree from such a distance." He was surprised actually.

Angele heard the praise, but he did not say anything; he just smiled.

He walked to the tree, and retrieved the arrow back into his quiver. This time he hit the snake's eye, and it was a mistake. If the eye was hit, it would not be edible anymore.

Though the chip could help him modify his action after finding the target, he still needed a lot of practice to master it. When he was on Earth, people were competing with their archery skills one kilometer away from their targets. They used mechanical bows, and they could hit targets from a long distance. People all had chips assisting them, so the ones who practiced more had a better chance in winning the competitions.

"Let's move on." Angele said.

The group of three started to look for targets in the forest, and Angele had a hit rate of 60%. The two guards were kind of used to his performance. 60% hit rate was more like an average performance in a forest with so many trees. Angele did not have the seed, and he needed more strength to unleash the full potential of his high quality longbow. He would be no threat to a strong warrior; he was more like a common archer.

Half an hour later, the two guards had their linen bags full. The bags were full of animals Angele hunted, such as squirrels, grey rabbits, and single-eyed snakes. The guards could barely carry anything else.

"Go back and put those down, I will wait for you here." Angele said. "I am just going to take a rest here." He threw the snake he had just gotten to the guards while speaking. Angele stabbed the snake's mouth, and he took the white venom sac out of it before the guards put it away.

The guards grabbed the dead snake, and they looked at each other for a second.

"Hank will take those back; I will stay here with you." One of them said.

"That's fine too." Angele nodded. He was kind of tired, so he sat down by a tree. He had eaten about forty snake's eyes. He could feel there was something warm in his body, and he felt he could perform actions faster now.

One of the guards took the animals back to the castle, and the other one sat on the grass by him.

"Actually, we've already heard about the benefits of the snake's eye. Someone once tried it before, but nothing happened." The guard smiled, and he said.

"Nothing happened?" Angele asked.

"Yes, they had a bad time in the toilet, but nothing else happened." The guard answered.

Angele nodded; he knew that this method would probably not work for everybody. The report from Zero stated that this method was only compatible to certain people. The raw eye balls of the snake had a special element in it, and it could help Angele increase his agility. People had their differences for sure, and the method might only work at a certain age range.

Angele was happy with what he obtained today. He missed several shots on purpose because he did not want to astonish the guards too much. He could easily hit every shot with the help of the chip.

"I am done for today, let's head back." Angele said after resting for awhile.

"Understood." The guard said.

They went back through the route they came.

The next fifteen days, Angele went hunting every day in the forest, and the people in the castle began hearing of his superb archery skills. People weren't surprised anymore about the huge amount of animals he could hunt every time.

*****************

It was high noon in the forest, and the shades that was created by the sunlight underneath the trees were sliced into pieces by the leaves.

A white-feathered arrow was shot by a man.

Another single-eyed snake was pinned on a branch.

Following some tense footsteps, a teenager in a green hunting suit appeared, and he held a black short bow in his hand. He came out of the high grass, and two young warriors wearing grey armors were behind him.

"Another one." One of the young warriors said, and he smiled.

The teenager nodded and walked towards the branch. He took the arrow out, and grabbed the snake. He took the snake's eye out quickly with his hunting knife, and he swallowed it right after.

He could feel the warmth coming from his body, and he felt comfortable in his mind.

"Are we done today, Young Master Angele?" One of the guards asked.

Angele closed his eyes, and he smiled.

"I am going to find some more today; you two can go back and put things down first. I can probably find a black deer." He said.

The two guards knew that Angele's ability was enough for the outer forest, and there was barely any animal that could hurt him. They grabbed their bags, and they returned at a slow pace.

'Check my body condition.' Angele said in his mind after the two guards left.

'Angele Rio. Strength 0.8, Agility 2.4, Stamina 1.6.' Zero reported.

Angele was satisfied with the result.

He had already eaten hundreds of bloody red eyes by now. It seemed like he had reached the maximum amount he needed, and eating more wasn't going to be helpful anymore. However, he had improved his agility to a very high level, and he was satisfied. The training also helped him improve his stamina.

Even without the help of the seed, Angele had achieved a lot. However, his explosiveness was still horrendous; he could've done better if he had the seed. The seed probably could've doubled or tripled his fighting power, but there was nothing he could do about it.

'But...' Angele thought.

He smiled, and he drew his sword. He performed a front slash so quick that it was nearly inaudible in the air. The branch in front of him broke into pieces and fell down. His speed was faster than Alad's demonstration at the training grounds.

'And...' He thought.

Angele looked at the broken branch, and there was a fly on it. He was actually aiming at the fly's wings, and its wings were cut off precisely. The fly was still moving on the branch.

"I am not a weak ass playboy anymore." Angele sheathed his sword, and he ecstatically laughed.

******************

A guy in grey was drawing closer to Angele from about one hundred meters away. He tried not to make any noise as he stepped on the grass quietly. There were birds and insects making noises in the forest, so Angele probably did not hear anything at all.

"Right here?" The guy stopped, and he tried to hide himself behind a tree.

The guy was named Dice, and he was a member of the assassin guild called Dark Emblem. He was an extremely careful man, and he would make sure he collected enough information about his target before starting his mission. Though he had the skill of a knight, he was still very careful, and that was the reason why he barely failed any mission.

'Assassination target, Baron Rio. Decapitate his head off as proof. According to the information, Karl Rio has the level of a knight. He took down ten heavy-armored cavalrymen on his own before, and he escaped successfully after.' He went through his mission in his mind one more time, and he was not too concerned about the baron's power.

'Ten heavy-armored cavalry? That means nothing... That's why I hate the countryside. They are like the frogs trapped in a deep well and know nothing about the world. Ha.' Dice thought; he had just killed twenty heavy-armored cavalrymen and a knight consecutively not so long ago.

He was trying to follow the order; otherwise, he would've probably just rushed straight into the castle and left after killing everyone.

'Such an easy mission... Killing a random lord at the countryside, and just a regular knight...' Dice had killed numerous knights in his life, and he really did not think this one would be any different.

*******************

Inside the castle, the conference hall.

The baron was sitting on the chair with a disappointed face, but he did not say anything.

Audis and Wade were sitting by his side, and they both had solemn expressions on their faces.

"An assassin from the Dark Emblem, who might be the one behind this? He probably paid them really good." Wade said. "Dark Emblem is a huge organization, and they are all over the country. Their members are all very strong. Big trouble this time." He was really worried.

"They sent me a letter saying they are coming for me." The baron said in a deep tone, "They are telling me when I am going to die. There is one thing I don't understand, though. It takes thousands of gold coins for one to buy a kill from them, yet my whole territory only makes several hundreds of gold coins per year... Am I really worth that much?" The baron wondered.

"There is nothing to fear. We have three knights sitting here waiting for them." Audis said.

The baron was still angry about it. He was playing with the letter he received. The letter was all black, which only had a bloody red spider symbol shining occasionally on it. It made the letter look strange and beautiful at the same time.

[TL Note: Author replaced Ye Song to Angele starting from this chapter for some reason; I am following the original text for now.]