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Chapter 40 - The Mysterious Girl (1)
'Level 200... Maybe her level is even higher than that.'
Among the possible second job changes, there was one passive from an assassin-type job that could make your steps silent.
Is that a skill, or is she just trained very well...?
There was only one thing he was sure about: their level was higher than his.
'I can't read their expressions.'
Neither of them showed any kind of emotions in their eyes.
They were the eyes of assassins who didn't have any humanity.
It was hard looking at them in the eyes.
At moments like that, he hated how real virtual reality felt.
It didn't feel good to shrug because you felt overwhelmed by the enemy.
«Vision Sword».
Whir- A giant blue light appeared on his hands.
The sword that illuminated the darkness resembled a sacred sword.
As he took out the «Vision Sword», the opponents stepped back cautiously.
Hyun noticed that slight change in them.
'Yes, you should be at least a little bit scared.'
Even though «Vision Sword» lasted for 1.5 seconds, it was enough to scare the opponents.
—Even a corner rat can scare off a cat.
It was better to bluff rather than be looked down on to earn some time.
On the other hand, he kept thinking

'If we fight, we're going to lose.'
The moment he had seen the opponents, he had known they were in another league.
Escaping was the best option.
But the problem was the difference in the speed.
The opponents were probably at least level 200 and with job related to the Thief class, so there was no way that they were slower than him and Louise.
Could they escape?
He had doubts. Hyun bit clenched his teeth.
He had to at least try it.
"Run!"
Hyun grabbed Louise's hands and pulled her.
Louise also used all the strength she had to run.
He looked back—the two masked assassins were chasing them.
You could feel a sense of calmness in their steps.
It was probably the confidence of knowing that they could catch their prey whenever they wanted.
«One Second Absorption»!
Hyun, who was paying attention to his back, reacted immediately.
Clang-!
A blue knife hit Louise on her back and bounced away.
Louise shrugged her shoulders.
"Don't worry about that!" Hyun shouted.
Louise didn't answer. She didn't even nod.
They just ran forward with all their might.
Hyun had no other choice but to react to all the long-range attacks.
The moment he lost sight of their movements, it would be their end.
Clang-!
Once again, the dagger hit Louise's neck.
As soon as the dagger hit Louise's neck, she, who had been struggling with her breath, coughed.
He grabbed Louise, who was about to fall.
"Don't stop!"
Hyun pushed his concentration close to its limits.
From the moment they threw the dagger to when it reached them, there was a time frame of 0.1~0.2 seconds.
—It was faster than any other attack he had seen in Asrian Online.
It seemed impossible to see it and react with human capabilities.
'My reaction is too slow...!'
The process of defending against a long-range attack was separated into three parts: see it, judge it, and react to it.
But that only made things slower, so Hyun removed one part.
It was the second part, 'judge.'
He just saw the attack and reacted.
He needed to minimize his time thinking if he wanted to react faster.
He didn't think who the attack was targetting.
He immediately applied «One Second Absorption» on Louise.
But there was a limit to such kinds of strategies

«One Second Absorption»!
Hyun realized it a moment later
That time, the target wasn't Louise
 It was him.
By the time he noticed it, the dagger had already penetrated him.
[You've received 672 damage!]
[You've received more than 33% of your HP as damage at once!]
[Until you stop 'bleeding,' your HP will slowly go down by 1% per tick!]
"Ugh...!"
The sensation of being stabbed in the back made him groan.
The pain disappeared quickly, but the dangerous situation hadn't ended yet.
If they couldn't leave them behind, they would continue being hunted.
The only good thing was that the woman wasn't attacking them.
Was that because only one of them had throwing skills?
Then maybe using the «Vision Sword» to bluff had been a great decision.
Clang-!
Once again, the dagger hit Louise and bounced away.
That time, Hyun also felt relieved.
He had been about to apply «One Second Absorption' on himself but had changed the target of it at the last moment.
'Damn it! What's this? An O, X quiz show...?!'
Hyun clenched his teeth.
Every time the masked man put his hands on his sleeves, he felt like he had stopped breathing.
He understood what the people that played Russian roulette felt.
He only had two options.
«One Second Absorption»!
Thud-!
This time, he was wrong.
The dagger went through Hyun's shoulders.
[You've received 629 damage!]
[You've received more than 33% of your HP as damage at once!]
[Your left arm has been stunned, so you won't be able to move it for a while!]
[Because your HP has dropped to less than 20%, the effect of 'The Blood Fairy's Frenzy' has activated!]
He had no other choice.
If he tried to react after analyzing the attack, he wouldn't be able to protect either of them, so he had to pick one of the two.
'This is the worst...!'
Even though the Blood Fairy's buff was on, the situation hadn't changed much.
Even if Hyun's speed increased, Louise's running speed stayed the same.
The problem was the 'reaction speed.' It wasn't something that increasing 'moving speed' could solve.
He couldn't think of a proper solution.
Should he gather all the monsters in the surroundings and confuse them?
After considering that for a while, he shook his head.
If they were really over level 200, there was a chance that the monsters would be scared of them and not get close at all.
—How they hadn't seen a single monster while running was proof of that.
In the end, he could think of only one solution.
He couldn't think of anything else.
"Louise, entrust your soul to me!"
Hyun turned his head around and looked at Louise.
While Hyun shouted that, a system interface appeared in front of Louise, It was her first time seeing something like that.
For inhabitants of Asrian, the system box was probably some kind of unknown magic.
[Player 'Hyun' wants to control your body.]
[Will you entrust your soul to him? Y/N]
"Th... This...? What's this...?"
Louise's face seemed flustered by the sudden message she received.
"Quickly!"
"O-okay...! I'll entrust my soul to you!"
Even though Louise had accepted the proposition because of their situation, she still felt uneasy.
Entrusting her soul?
That sounded like evil words that a dark priest would say.
What would happen to her body from then on?
Would she be able to regain control of it?
She probably wouldn't have accepted it if her life weren't in danger.
Accepting that was like trying to grasp onto whatever hope she had left.
[The other party has accepted your request!]
[Now you can use «Assimilation» on 'Louise.']
«Assimilation»!
Hyun became light, scattered, and then entered Louise's body.
Louise felt something different once her body shone.
It was as if someone else existed inside her.
As soon as Hyun finished Assimilating, he used «One Second Absorption» on Louise's body.
At the same time

Clang-! The dagger hit the chest and bounced away while making a metallic sound.
'Yes...!'
With that, he no longer needed to decide between them.
Thanks to Assimilation, both of their bodies had become one.
Hyun, who sighed in relief, opened the status window.
[ Louise (Lv. 35) ]
<Currently Assimilating with the following soul: Hyun (Lv. 68)>
HP: 312/525
Mana: 1904/1960
Job: (???)
[Strength: 1] [Agility: 12(+2)] [Vitality: 10(+5)] [Mana: 110(+86)]
<Skill List>
[Steps of the Wind Lv.3(+1)]
- Blow a strong wind toward the floor, which makes you move faster.
(You can't use it in the air)
- If you attack with the wind, deal [Magical Power]X0.4 damage.
- It costs 10 mana per minute.
[Low Fever Lv.0(+1)]
- Light a small flame in the palm of your hands to shine on the darkness.
- If you attack with the fire, deal [Magical Power]X0.05 damage.
- It costs 5 mana per minute.
<Thanks to the soul of 'Hyun,' the following skills are also available for use!>
[«One Second Absorption» Lv.8] - <+Expand>
[«Shield» Lv.0] - <+Expand>
Hyun smiled bitterly after checking out Louise's stats.
She didn't have any offensive skills.
The only good thing was that her principal moving skill, «Step of the Wind», didn't consume a lot of mana.
[The Blood Fairy's Frenzy effect is currently active!]
[All speed has increased by 50%!]
The effect of the items buff was active even after Assimilating.
‘So after Assimilating, the previous buffs don't disappear? Or do both buffs get added on top of each other?’
He planned on investigating it later on.
Vrrrrrr-
Suddenly, an attack came from the side.
The girl who had been silently looking from the sides had decided to make her move.
The rapier was about to cut Louise's waist when

Pang-! Louise's light body bounced up as if it were a rocket.
It was all thanks to Hyun using the «Steps of the wind»!
'That was dangerous...!'
Because Louise's skills used the wind to move, it was a little bit hard to control it.
It was as if her body bounced from here to there without being able to control it.
But at that moment, he couldn't make a single mistake.
«Vision Sword»!
A giant sword appeared in Louise’s hands.
The sight of a little girl holding a two-meter sword looked funny from the outside.
But there wasn't weight to the light, so even a kid with little arms could use it.
The masked woman was about to pierce them.
Louise looked at her and attacked.
—A blue light beam that pierces what's in front!
The rapier and «Vision Sword» clashed against each other.
Because of the impact, Louise's body bounced away.
Without killing the effect of the impact

'Steps of the Wind!'
Louise kicked on the ground and accelerated again.
Louise, who leaped forward incredibly fast, landed on a giant tree that was on the other side.
There was still some time left for the «Vision Sword».
Clink!
Before leaping forward, Louise chopped down the tree.
"...!"
Both masked assassins were planning to use that tree to land before leaping forward again.
But thanks to Hyun cutting the entire tree, they had no place to safely land.
Paf- The masked woman stepped on the falling tree and moved on to another one, but the masked man made a mistake mid-air.
Crumble-
He fell to the ground with the tree branch.
After rolling on the ground a couple of times, he looked up to the sky.
There he saw a little girl and his partner chasing after her, both getting far away from him at an incredible speed.
'Did we leave one behind?'
Hyun jumped from tree after tree.
In that forest, there were many giant trees.
He stepped on the tree branches and tried to get as high as possible.
The higher they went, the thinner the tree branches became. Hyun thought that the one chasing after them would struggle compared to Louise, who was very light.
He turned Louise's head around and saw her getting annoyingly close.
Her steps were so light that it was as if she was using leaves to step on.
'There's one minute left to the Blood Fairy's buff...'
The distance between Louise and the one chasing them didn't increase nor decrease.

But once the buff was over, the distance between them would shrink.
'I have to lose her before that!'
The movements of the masked woman weren't normal.
Her posture was perfect even while running stepping on trees that were tens of meters over the ground.
Hyun changed the direction of the track in the air.
He stepped on the trees as if they were stairs and reached the top of the forest.
More than running, it was as if they were flying.
They were nearly 100 meters over the ground.
From the sky, he could get a clear view of the scenery.
—Lat Forrest.
From the times of Asra Online, this place was famous for its vastness.
Looking from the top, he found the place he had been looking for.
'It's over there...!'
The woman was still chasing after them.
‘A little bit more!’
Hyun, no Louise, sprinted through the sky.
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