Asher sat cross-legged atop a wooden table that probably would have cost a few thousand dollars back on Earth as he waited for his ‘surprise’ visitor to arrive. The room he and Samantha had been given by Donvath was a tad grand for his taste, consisting of a truly massive bed that looked like it had been created for a giant, an artisanal furniture set that screamed of wealth, and even an attached bathroom that was practically larger than Samantha’s entire cabin. According to Donvath, it was one of his royalty suites, a series of rooms that were generally reserved for high-ranking nobility from other countries, whenever they actually deigned to come visit the Noala Kingdom.

  With how large the kingdom felt, it was easy for Asher to forget that the Noala Kingdom was actually one of the smaller ones on their continent, initially founded only a few hundred years ago by armies of the Eight Crests and the Lambit Republic who were tired of all the fighting. Thanks to that, the whole kingdom was isolated from most of the continent, completely surrounded on all sides by those two countries.

  He still didn’t quite understand why the two different, vastly larger countries who seemed to love fighting to the point that their war with one another had simply been called The Forever War didn’t just attack and reabsorb the Noala Kingdom when it was first founded, but he supposed geopolitics wasn’t exactly his forte anyway.

  He was more of a stabbing kind of guy.

  Asher’s eyes swept across the bleached-out room as he peered out from his position within the astral, double checking that he hadn’t missed anything while his mind had been wandering. Thanks to his ring of False Death that he picked up back in Dormaul, he’d gained the ability to completely still his body as if he were a corpse, removing the need for him to breathe and even for his heart to pump. It was a jarring sensation, but necessary for him to remain within the astral for as long as he wanted. The skill required him to stay almost perfectly still, and thus he waited, curious when the assassin was finally going to show up.

  Donvath refused to go into detail about most of his skills, but he at least explained that unless an event was what he considered one of those critical points, most future events weren’t things he could see all that clearly. In fact, he’d apparently only noticed the assassin who would be dropping by in the first place because he’d feared something like this might happen and personally took the time to look ahead before their meeting. When Asher had asked why he’d expected this, the High Prince had merely shook his head.

  ‘Lily publicly announced by the main gate that you three were persons of interest to me, right? And then summoned a wizard of all people to bring you guys straight here? That’s quite literally all it takes for someone to decide to get involved.’

  Donvath had offered to tell him about the future assassin’s elements and fighting style, but Asher had dismissed the offer. He much preferred being surprised when it came to these things, and he was itching for a more regular fight after his last one with the greater demon two days back.

  Not that the fight with the greater demon hadn’t been exhilarating, but getting ripped in half was certainly a humbling experience. He could really use an ego boost right about now.

  While he waited, Asher pulled up his interface, casually sifting through his current progression. He’d come quite a ways in the last few months since first arriving in this world, but he had plenty farther to go.

  Name: Asher Holden

  Class: Assassin

  Unique classes available: Demon Slayer, Awakened Beast Hunter, Assassin, Librarian, Guardian

  Element: Spatial

  Ability: Astral Dip - Lvl 29

  Ability: Distortion - Lvl 30

  Ability: Personal Rift - Lvl 27

  Ability: Spatial Lock - Lvl 26

  Ability: Recall - Lvl 15

  Element: Knowledge

  Ability: Identify - Lvl 28

  Ability: Comprehend - Lvl 28

  Ability: Incorporate - Lvl 22

  Ability: Secret Seeker - Lvl 24

  Ability: Judgement - Lvl 15

  Element: Eternity

  Ability: Eternal Regeneration - Lvl 32

  Ability: Complete Resilience - Lvl 31

  Ability: Eternal Mark - Lvl 21

  Ability: Permanence - Lvl 15

  Ability: Sever the Thread - Lvl 17

  Resistance: Darkness - Tier 2, Truth - Tier 2, Scrying - Tier 2

  If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.

  Shards: 1,823,841

  Other than suddenly finding himself an actual millionaire, the most curious recent development was his latest class unlock. Unlike most people in this world, who were usually granted a class by the System based on their actions and inner desires shortly after unlocking their origin element, Asher’s situation was a bit different. He’d managed to piece together the fact that his Spatial element's passive allowed him to unlock and gather different classes by doing certain actions, and then swap them out on the fly whenever he wanted. Generally, classes weren’t as powerful as elements or skills, but they did come with some minor benefits. For example, the assassin class provided sure-footed, silent movement, whereas the librarian class allowed one to magically locate specific books and information they were trying to find within a cluster of books. For the longest time, Asher had held only four options for his class.

  But two days ago, after his battle with the greater demon, he’d been surprised to discover that he finally unlocked a fifth. The guardian class.

  He wasn’t sure why it had taken so long for whatever god that ruled over this world and its system to award him the class, but they finally did. There had been plenty of instances of him taking damage he could have avoided in order to save other people’s lives before now, like when he’d rescued Samantha from the wooden-splinter maelstrom that an assassin had turned their wagon into, or when he’d thrown Brian to safety within his Personal Rift before a Shark element user attacked them in Dormaul’s public bath. He suspected the final straw must have been him inadvertently taking down the greater demon before it could slaughter its way through the royal guard academy, which had been filled with children who didn’t even have their origin element yet.

  Regardless of why he’d been given the class, it certainly proved to be an interesting one.

  From one of the many books he’d Incorporated in Whikoga’s library, he’d figured out what the class did easily enough. The guardian class offered its holder some very limited precognition when it came to protecting their charges. For example, if an assassin were to jump someone with a guardian hired as a bodyguard, the guardian would get a split second warning of what was about to happen. A rather curious ability, and one he was immensely grateful to have in order to keep Brian and Samantha safe, but not one that did him any good while fighting on his own.

  Thus, it was an assassin sitting cross-legged on the table when his surprise visitor finally arrived.

  One of the first questions Asher had had for Donvath when the High Prince informed him an assassin would be stopping by later that night was why the royal palace of all places didn’t have the same levels of protection that the noble families did. Back in Whikoga, he’d witnessed how the Frent family estate contained large enchantment arrays that would alert the guards if anyone without the proper identification dared to enter their buildings. In response, Donvath had explained how large sections of the royal palace did in fact have similar enchantments prepared, but seeing as his current room was one used for visiting guests of high status, they purposefully kept it free of anything like that, leaving the guests’ own defenses entirely up to them. Asher hadn’t really given it too much thought, but he supposed it made sense that nobility from other kingdoms probably wouldn’t feel all that comfortable sleeping within a room that had been enchanted with unknown magic.

  Donvath also explained that the unfortunate truth was that even if he’d placed him somewhere else, any assassin truly worth their salt would have methods of bypassing the enchantment array anyway. It was a never-ending battle between his enchanters and people with bad intentions, which was why the primary line of defense was really the patrolling royal guards with all their impressive skills. It was far harder to slip past people actively hunting for intruders than it was a static enchantment.

  A fact Asher knew all too well, seeing as he’d managed to infiltrate the Frent estate without too much difficulty only a few weeks back.

  Pulled from his inner musings by some sudden movement, Asher watched curiously as the reinforced window he’d kept shut simply melted without warning, the glass pooling down onto the floor as though it had been exposed to ridiculous levels of heat. Based on the lack of any sort of shimmer in the air, and how the adjacent curtains hadn’t just exploded into flame, he probably wasn’t dealing with a Fire element holder.

  Probably a Glass user… Let’s hope the woman who made Crush’s indestructible fishtank doesn’t moonlight as an assassin on the side. He still needs a new tank made, so I’d feel pretty bad about killing her before the order was finished.

  Silently, a person clad in pure black slipped through the now open window, staying low to the ground as their eyes swept across the large room. Naturally, their eyes passed right through Asher as he sat there, hidden within the astral realm barely a dozen feet away. While the assassin looked for any sort of trap or bodyguard, Asher took his time analyzing his opponent with Identify.

  [Assassin] - 3/3 elements

  In any other city, having all three elements would make them a senior assassin within the Guild. But it seems as though people within the capital are all a bit more affluent than anywhere else in the kingdom, so it’s hard to tell.

  The intruder’s aura certainly gave the impression that this person had seen their fair share of killing. His Judgement skill revealed a dark, grainy cloud of death and obedience around the assassin as they swiftly moved further into the room, making a beeline straight for the bed. Judgement was perhaps one of the most important non-combat skills Asher had ended up unlocking during his time in this world, as it allowed him to ensure he only used people with blood on their own hands to satisfy his hunger for battling intelligent opponents. Even after all this time, Asher had yet to kill a single person who didn’t have a history of inflicting pain and suffering on others, and he wanted to keep it that way.

  He was a tad more flexible about his moral code when it was self defense, or when it came to keeping Brian and Samantha safe, but thankfully, no conflicting issues had arrived thus far.

  Asher couldn’t help but grin as the assassin reached the bed and held out a hand. What looked like grains of sand magically flowed out of one of the pouches secured to their belt, the grains quickly coming together to solidify in the form of a jagged dagger that looked like it could do some real damage.

  The battle hadn’t even begun yet, and Asher had already figured out two of his opponent’s elements.

  Glass and Sand… Someone’s certainly been hard at work gathering complementary elements.

  The room was pitch-black, but thanks to his evolved darkness resistance, Asher was capable of seeing in the dark just fine. He could only assume based on the confidence that the assassin displayed while searching the room that they had a similar ability, as they’d managed to avoid all the furniture without issue. That said, seeing through the dark was one thing.

  Seeing through a heavy comforter probably stuffed with griffin feathers based on how heavy it felt was something entirely different.

  Sand dagger raised above their masked head, the assassin yanked off the lumpy comforter and plunged the blade down in the same moment.

  Stabbing the ever-loving hell out of a bunch of pillows that were too soft for Asher’s tastes anyway.

  “I’ll be honest, I didn’t think that was actually going to work,” Asher said as he suddenly manifested back by the window, his steel daggers already in hand as he hopped off the table and flashed a wide grin at the startled assassin. Cracking his neck, Asher flexed Spatial Lock and conjured a large bubble around the confines of his room, preventing sound and anything solid from getting in or out. “But seeing as it did…”

  Lowering himself into the combat stance his old mentor Moxy had spent days drilling into his head, he pointed a dagger toward his frozen opponent. “Let’s have some fun, shall we?”

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