The Perfect Assassin

Yeah. She was going to be my strength. A little hassle like this barely even counted as hard work. And shyness? That was something I could overcome just fine.

Believing that, I opened the status window ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and checked Ea’s information.

I had made her from start to finish. Just looking at the materials and the sheer volume of mana that went into her, it was enough to keep a decent power plant running for a week and still have some left over.

So how did she turn out?

Bust or jackpot. The answer was about to show itself.

“...Whoa.”

Insane. That was the only word that came to mind.

A natural gasp of admiration slipped out. Ea’s stats were ridiculous.

Normally, a summon’s total stats right after being called maxed out at twenty-five. Sometimes skills would push the numbers higher afterward, but raw base stats blowing past that ceiling? This was a first.

Starting total of sixty, and four skills instead of the usual three. Since skill levels raised stats as they grew, her starting line was already on a completely different track from the others.

Pouring money into her had been worth it.

But the admiration didn’t last. The moment I realized none of the skills were the assassination-focused ones I’d wanted, I cooled off fast.

Amphibious, which let her do water-only things on land; Super Sense, basically a sixth sense; and Blood Flow Manipulation, which let her freely control the blood inside her body—none of those were bad. They were solid, even good.

But the last one, Internal Muscles? That made me tilt my head. I had no idea how else to describe it.

Internal Muscles.

A classic joke and fantasy-manga cliché from my previous life. Compress the muscles so the character stays a beautiful girl while getting stronger, or something like that.

It was the kind of forced excuse writers used when they drew a delicate, pretty character and then had them swing around absurd amounts of power. When it worked, it became part of that world’s “setting.” When it didn’t, people just went “huh, okay” and moved on.

Most readers never nitpicked every little thing like that. And this world already had its own bizarre rule: when you reinforced your body with mana, increasing exercise didn’t bulk you up—it just made the muscles denser and tougher. I had plenty of bones to pick with that alone.

Until now I’d forced myself to ignore those things. Arguing about them only hurt me, and nothing was going to change overnight. Everyone else treated it as normal; if I alone screamed that it was wrong, I’d just look like the crazy one.

Realistically, compressing muscle shouldn’t make you stronger—it should make you weaker. Even if you somehow succeeded, every fiber would feel like it was packed with gravel, and you wouldn’t be able to move properly. Mana or no mana, it would be like trying to stretch a steel spring that had already been twisted to its limit. Force it and the spring breaks; go easy and you end up weaker than before.

And now that perfect storm of nonsense and inefficiency was sitting right there on my summon.

Normally I would have shrugged it off. But knowing it was on my summon made it so absurd I couldn’t hold it in.

“Hold on...”

So that was why she looked smaller than I’d designed? Not a level difference—this weird skill?

“...Ha.”

It was so ridiculous I couldn’t even manage a hollow laugh. Just a sincere question of whether something this stupid actually existed in the world, and a deep sigh.

No matter how I looked at it, it was ridiculous. What kind of skill was this? I didn’t even try to hide my confusion.

Ea must have misread the sudden silence, because anxious feelings started pouring out of her through the link.

...Yeah. None of this was her fault. It was mine for not designing her properly.

There had only been one muscle-related component in the design, but sure—my fault. How the hell had this even come out? I felt a wave of self-loathing. Was I really that talentless?

I could trash it later. First I needed the actual information. Swallowing the despair, I checked the skill details.

“...I’m actually getting dizzy.”

The effect was so outrageous that every passionate complaint I’d just made felt completely pointless. And it was the first skill I’d ever seen that focused purely on training and growth.

Fine. I admit it. The name was ridiculous, but the ability itself was the real deal.

Being fixed in an ideal body also meant that no matter how badly she was injured or scarred, she would return to that original perfect form. Wounds would heal with that restorative force; missing parts would be filled in. That was what “ideal” meant.

In terms of pure physicality, she might not even fall behind Kallion or Growl.

Thinking about it carefully, there was probably no better skill for an assassin. Hell, it was great for any job that used the body.

Thief-type classes like assassins prioritized agility, so they trained lean and springy like track athletes. Strength naturally lagged, and they fought with technique rather than raw power. Poison and hidden weapons were how they closed that gap.

But what if you didn’t have to give up strength? What if every bulky muscle that would get in the way of movement sat neatly inside the body instead? What if you could have both an assassin’s technique and a warrior’s toughness?

...Wouldn’t that be the birth of the perfect assassin?

An assassin who didn’t rely on poison or sharp little tools, but simply carved enemies apart with pure force. Someone who, even if the assassination failed, could immediately switch to open combat without looking out of place.

The old joke from my previous life—“If there are no witnesses, it’s an assassination”—would become literal truth.

By the time I reached that thought, I was nodding on my own.

Missing dedicated assassination skills was a little disappointing, but with something this good it wasn’t a crisis. Long-term, this was probably better.

When a normal person gained 1 Strength, Ea gained 2. It was basically a free level-up every time. Do that five times and you got an extra 3 stats for free. Stat duplication was even crazier than money duplication.

Keres and Comet were already benefiting from similar things. And once Subjugator kicked in, no single stat would balloon while the others lagged.

In the end she would become an extreme damage dealer who could tank better than Growl.

Not that Growl was lacking. He was the best aggro tank and sub-DPS we had, creating openings for the rest of us—including me—to conserve strength. With Reaper’s engraving arts and the changed nature of my mana, improvements to Magic Armor would come quickly. Growl and the others would all get stronger.

“...Good is good, I guess.”

Once again I was reminded not to judge by appearances alone.

Slap.

Ea, a little more used to things now, poked just her eyes out of the ground and looked at me. I glanced at her with one eye and nodded.

“Want to try killing some goblins first?”

Now that I knew her abilities weren’t lacking, the next step was establishing a combat style.

Ea blinked at my words. I gathered mana in my fingers to summon a reliable helper for her.

What I pictured was the white wolf.

“Growl.”

Snap!

With a pulse of mana, a massive wolf burst up from the shadow at my feet as if leaping out of the ground.

His presence was so sharp it felt like just looking at him could cut you, and the faint scent of blood around him had only grown thicker as he matured. Like a sword that had drunk blood. The tips of his pure white fur were faintly stained red, which only reinforced the impression.

“Kung!”

The moment he spotted me he let out a high cry and flattened himself until his eyes were level with mine. All the sharp menace vanished, replaced by the pure, fluffy look of a Samoyed.

“Huff, huff, huff!”

He hadn’t even been running, yet his tongue was lolling out as he panted. The resemblance was perfect. I stroked his neck, then looked at Ea.

“She’s your little sister. Take good care of her.”

“Kiiing?”

The emotion coming from Growl was basically Do I have to?

I knew. Ea would manage fine on her own, but this was her first real fight, so having Growl mark her full-time felt right.

Part of me wanted to send Echidna along too—she was half-assigned as an educator—but throwing two of them at mere goblins was overkill.

Ea alone could probably clear this dungeon by herself. So I decided to add a restriction this time.

“You only dodge. Ea, kill every enemy without letting them notice you if possible.”

“Kung!”

“Kiiuk...”

Both of them already had high Strength. As time passed the gap would only widen, and they would naturally start moving in ways that matched that power. Since that was inevitable, it was better to start working together now, sharing know-how and correcting weaknesses.

Growl generated speed through raw Strength rather than Dexterity. A tank—one that could hit zero-to-sixty in an instant and still change direction freely.

Ea, by comparison, was pure potential. Nothing was set yet. So we had to build her carefully, step by step, from here.

“I’ll show you a sample first. Ea, watch how I do it carefully, then make it your own way.”

I didn’t tell her to copy only this method. Reference it, then restructure it into something that was hers.

Through the Link she seemed to take that in clearly; she blinked in acknowledgment.

Her Super Sense was something close to a psychic ability. Right now the level was low, so it was mostly just enhanced five senses brushing the edge of instinct. But over time that instinct would become prediction, prediction would become foresight, and eventually it would be like seeing the future itself. Whenever that day came, the power to read an opponent’s moves ahead of time and finish them with the optimal, shortest path would be a massive help—not just for assassination, but for combat in general.

I started walking.

Growl took the lead, guiding me toward the goblins. Ea followed behind me without a single sound or presence, gliding as smoothly as water. If we hadn’t been connected as summoner and summon, even I might have lost track of her. She didn’t just know how to erase her presence instinctively—it was simply her nature.

Being quiet and shy also meant she could kill her own temperament at any moment and blend into ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠her surroundings. In group living that could become a huge weakness. For an assassin who had to face enemies alone, there was no greater strength.

In a way, Ea had been born for the profession of assassin. That fact made me wary.

Next time I make a summon, I need to be more careful.

Back then I hadn’t thought about these little details. More accurately, I hadn’t realized that the direction I set would affect even things like this. Personality and tendencies could change with environment and situation, after all.

The moment I started making them more systematically, I should have accounted for points like this. From beginning to end, everything had to pass through my hands.

I needed to approach it seriously from the start, not with the casual attitude of “I’ll just raise them and fix things later.”

They were mine.

I already treated them as extensions of myself, or something close to it. That meant the results of their actions were my responsibility too.

...Is this what parenting feels like?

Taking it so seriously was exhausting. Suddenly I wanted to see my parents.

I could barely remember their faces now, but I still hadn’t forgotten the warmth of them always saying they believed in me, loved me, and supported my dreams.

Maybe the reason I was so oddly fixated on the well-being of my parents in this life was a way of atoning for what I never got to do for the ones in my previous life.

Humans were selfish, petty creatures. We always regretted and clung only after we lost something, then desperately searched for a substitute. I was human too; I couldn’t erase that tendency. Especially the things I’d resolved again during my emotional childhood still left marks on my thinking that I could never fully forget.

Regret once was enough. I never wanted to feel that sensation of having something irreplaceable stolen from me ever again. Not twice. Never.

So I had to give it everything I had.

So that the ones who trusted me and followed in my footsteps would never have a single reason to feel ashamed.

Throb.

...Because then, when I wanted to rest, the others would push themselves in my place.

If they had any conscience, they ought to repay the guy who helped them in every possible way. Of course they should.

“Keruk?!”

“Kerek! Kakak!!”

As we ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠left the forest path, the goblins ahead spotted Growl and went into a frenzy of fear. The fact that they still didn’t run, just watched warily, looked truly stupid. Even while trembling they were greedily eyeing him.

The instinctive ambition and hostility that monsters carried mixed together and made them consider fighting a strong enemy instead of fleeing.

I slipped into their blind spots and moved quietly. I scanned the surroundings, picked a target, and advanced slowly but surely.

The target was the goblin farthest back, watching the scene. Being behind the others seemed to have given him a sense of safety; he was croaking at the ones in front to charge already, and it was incredibly noisy.

“Keruk... eub?!”

Crack!

I sealed his mouth with a shadow and, in the same motion, retreated into the building’s shadow while snapping his neck. The whole sequence was so natural it was as if the loud goblin had never been there to begin with.

I repeated it two or three more times until the small hut could no longer hide all the corpses. About one minute so far.

The goblins were still throwing rocks to test the waters. Growl either casually dodged them or just tanked the hits, keeping their attention locked on him. Thanks to him holding aggro properly, the standoff continued.

Once I confirmed that, I raised mana and pulled shadows out into wire-like strands. With their numbers dropping, even idiots would start noticing something was wrong soon.

I shifted position and climbed into a tree. The foliage was so thick that even looking up you couldn’t see inside—perfect for hiding something.

I anchored the shadow wires to a sturdy upper branch. The principle was the same as a pulley. Like a friendly neighborhood spider-man swinging through the city, I descended upside-down on the wires. The goblins’ eyes were still fixed on Growl.

I positioned myself directly above the outermost goblin, the one in everyone else’s blind spot. I locked eyes with Growl to match the timing. One, two.

“Kung!!!”

“Keruk...?!”

“Keek! Kek, kek...!”

Growl’s sudden bark made the goblins flinch. Sensing combat was about to start, they each grabbed the crude stone knives they’d carved. In that opening I sealed the mouth of the one beneath me and snapped his neck. I looped the wire, landed, and reeled the shadow in.

Whoosh!!

Like someone after a bungee jump, the corpse was yanked upward in an instant and vanished into the treetop. Neck broken, it offered no resistance or movement. Only a soft rustle of leaves falling where it had been.

With all eyes on Growl, this was the perfect moment. I lowered my stance and formed a shadow blade. In a single shimmer a dagger settled into my palm; I swept it at the unprotected necks of the goblins.

Ssshhk!!

“...?”

In one instant a head was severed. The cutting power of a blade formed from pure mana, combined with the combat correction of Battle King, let it pass through without the slightest resistance. A thin red line appeared on the goblin’s neck, ‍‍‌‌⁠​​⁠‌​​‍​​‍​‌​⁠‍‌‍⁠⁠‌⁠‌‍‌‍‌‌‌‍⁠​‌​‌​‌‍‌‌‌⁠‍​​‌‍⁠‌‌⁠⁠and fat droplets of blood began to bead along it.

The head hadn’t fallen yet.

It actually worked.

I had packed the principle of One Line into a single ordinary attack—no mana compression, just the strength of my arm. I’d tried it thinking it would be nice if it worked and fine if it didn’t. And it had actually worked.

The power itself was nothing special. That didn’t matter. What mattered was that I could now mix a skill-judged technique into normal attacks.

All thanks to Battle King.

I immediately searched for the next hiding spot and, without stopping, sliced through every goblin neck in that position while moving at high speed. Maybe because my proficiency was still low, or because my concentration slipped, the last few failed. A couple of them realized I was approaching and their eyes went wide, but before they could make a sound, shadow thorns grown by the effect of Trap Installation punched into their throats and left them only able to gurgle.

Thud.

I kicked the last one I’d killed like I was launching him, sending the corpse flying toward the far side. The target was a goblin over there holding a sword.

Splat!

The nearby goblins’ gazes naturally turned toward the sound. But I was already on the opposite side.

“Keek? Kek, kekkek!!?!”

At first the one who’d been hit got angry at the sudden impact—until he realized the thing was bleeding and dead. He shoved the corpse aside in shock. The commotion made the group murmur, and then the other corpses began reacting one after another like falling dominoes.

The moment I completely concealed myself, blood erupted from the thin lines on their necks and the heads dropped.

Fwoosh!!

Blood sprayed all at once. It looked exactly like a park fountain going off. Ten goblins left.

They saw the corpses behind them, panicked, and prepared to run. I wove shadows into a bow and opened fire—not just shooting, but constantly changing position so they couldn’t pin me down.

Thwip! Thunk!!

Every time an arrow left my hand, a neat round hole appeared in a goblin’s skull and it collapsed. Five remaining. Growl blocked the path of the ones trying to flee.

“Keeeeek!!!!”

“Kieeek....!!”

They went berserk and swung their weapons. Growl casually dodged, then shoved them just hard enough not to kill, or kicked dirt into their eyes, toying with them. Watching them roll around under his feet was no different from watching a cat play with mice. He was faithfully carrying out the aggro order I’d given.

Using the three he was tormenting as bait, I hurled shadow spears at the ones trying to escape. Direct hits.

Pkwak!

The effect of the skill Throwing, combined with Battle King, shone. One spear punched through a goblin and cleanly took the one behind him as well, turning them into a neat goblin skewer.

Three left.

At this point assassination no longer meant anything. The ones Growl had been rolling around were already at the bottom of their stamina, and watching their kin die one by one had long since broken their hostility.

I nodded as a signal. Growl’s foreleg blurred and swept through them.

Slash!!

Wind howled. Chunks of flesh and blood were left on the ground. If you squeezed a tomato hard enough, it would probably look just like that.

“Two minutes thirty-two seconds.”

That was how long it had taken to wipe out nearly thirty goblins. Even excluding the last three Growl finished, it wasn’t bad at all.

I’d worried that going through a previous life had dulled my skills, but thanks to Battle King my body moved exactly as I intended and the whole thing went smoothly.

I’d deliberately restricted myself to pure assassination without being noticed, so it took this long. If I just revealed myself with no restrictions, I could have cut them all down with shadows in under three seconds.

That was only possible because I had the power.

In the end, being strong was everything. With enough strength you didn’t need effort or time—you could just kill them.

I called Growl, who was licking his lips at the scattered blood on the ground, and looked at Ea.

“You can do it, right?”

“...Kyuuuk.”

A half-hearted little cry. That was fine. If she couldn’t, she just had to keep going until she could. Confidence had a way of appearing surprisingly easily.

Do the same thing a few times and eventually you just... could.

Luckily this dungeon was bigger than expected and full of goblins. If once wasn’t enough, we could come back in again. Plenty of chances; no reason to hold back.

“Don’t be scared. Just do as much as you can.”

This wasn’t torture. It was education built on clear results. The ones above you all went through the same thing and grew this far. So you can too.

“Grrrr...”

Splash.

Whether she read my thoughts through the Link or not, Ea let out a rather sad cry, closed her eyes, and dove under the ground. The answer was already decided; all she had to do was follow it. She must have understood that.

Better to struggle now and have it easy later than stay weak and suffer later, right? You think so too, don’t you?

Blub blub.

No answer came. I’ll just say that the sight of air bubbles rising from the dirt was pretty interesting.

“Hoooong.”

Pat pat.

Growl, who had also read my thoughts, gently patted the ground with a forepaw as if comforting the Ea who was about to suffer. The sight made me snort in disbelief.

What, am I wrong?

Again, no answer. Both of them just stared at me with half-lidded eyes.

...These little shits. I frowned and turned my head away.

“Next!”

I’d planned to wrap this up and grab a meal, but fine. Let’s roll her hard until she gets used to it.