Jael was not enjoying herself on this job.

This reset had started so well. She had followed her brother-in-law, Jonah Moore, out to the Burn Line to ensure some of his meetings went smoothly. They did, and not only that, but the reclaimers found a valuable factory, an immeasurably valuable bloodstone was recovered, and her darling niece Ruth had gained a unique [Crafter] class. It solved the problem of Ruth being forced into a [Healer] role without putting her on the front lines of combat, and also promised prosperity for the human race in a way that would certainly make Ruth herself rich. Absolutely perfect.

Then Jonah had discovered all the mysteries around Joshua Hundredborn, and ordered Jael to kill him.

Jael still didn't disagree with the decision. There were too many dangerous questions surrounding that man to leave him free. Even though she had failed to kill him—and wasn't that embarrassing—she thought it was the best choice they could have made with the information they had at the time.

The problem was, it turned out that Ruth had known all along that Jael... solved problems. Now everything was sideways. Ruth had run away with the boy, and now an entire town had been eaten by a suspiciously large monster horde. Jael had no proof that Ruth was even still alive. She wasn't going back to Jonah without a firm answer one way or the other, though, so now she was trekking through the Jungle, hoping to find evidence of a miracle.

She sensed a monster nearby. Her Shadow Ninja class wasn't designed for tracking, but she had learned a few tricks over the years. She always learned a few techniques and spells for sensing life. They didn't have the range to help track her niece, unfortunately, but they helped immensely with battlefield awareness. She had more than enough warning to avoid any monster in her path.

She leaped into the trees, stepping between the branches as easily as stepping across the ground. Once she found the monster she had sensed, she swung down and plunged two daggers into the creature. One at the neck, one at the heart. It died instantly.

CONGRATULATIONS! You have killed a level 45 Cervidae Charger.

It was a deer the size of a bear, with sharp metal horns that crackled with electricity. She didn't even look at the experience gain; at her level, it would just depress her. Still, every little bit helped. With her speed and overspecialized assassination class, this detour hadn't even cost her a minute, and a monster of this level could have been a serious threat to most anyone else. She continued on her way. There was no need to bother cleaning the corpse. The Jungle was always hungry.

Eventually—after three more dead monsters—Jael found something curious. A camp, set out in the middle of the Jungle. While that was certainly something that happened with merchant caravans, this was a rather small camp. There was just a single tent and a dead fire in a pit. It looked like there was only one person here. That was very surprising. Even she didn't casually travel the Jungle alone.

After a moment's consideration, she decided to move on. She walked around the outside of the camp, sticking to the trees. She didn't even get close enough to see if there was someone outside of the tent.

“Are you going to leave without even saying hello?”

Jael froze in her tracks.

There was a man leaning against one of the trees that bordered the small camp. He was tall, maybe reaching eight feet, and about as broad. He was wrapped head to toe in leather armor, to the point that she couldn't see an inch of exposed skin. She couldn't even be sure he was male, but his voice sounded masculine.

Jael had met worse, and bigger, before. She was a good fifteen feet away from him, and she would normally be confident in escaping. She could even slip out of sight, then come back around and attack him from behind. It was one of her most common tricks.

There was just one problem: She couldn't feel him with her life-sensing abilities. At all.

That was hardly unheard of. There were plenty of stealth abilities that could foul her detection, even if they hadn't been ranked up as high as her detection. The problem was that almost every stealth ability she knew of stopped working once someone had eyes on you. The fact that he was invisible to her detection despite standing out in the open was worrying.

You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.

She plastered a smile on her face, even though he wouldn't be able to see it under her mask. She stood up straight, subtly balanced to leap away, and put her hands on her hips in a seemingly casual gesture. She left her knives there on purpose.

“Sorry for the rudeness, friend!” she called. “It's easy to lose my good manners out here. I was just heading on to the next town to look for my niece.”

“Oh?” He stood up from the tree and took a step forward. “The next town. Not Gilroy?”

He had a bit of a Chinese accent. Not a huge surprise. The City had a large Chinese population before the Last Raid, and after the fall, the newborn humans had done their best to resurrect the culture.

“Gilroy is gone, friend,” she said firmly. “Looks like a monster horde got it.”

“Yes, I did see that.” The man sighed and shook his head. “It always breaks my heart to see that sort of thing. What did they do to deserve such... slaughter?”

Jael narrowed her eyes. That almost sounded like he suspected that foul play was involved. She did as well, of course, but she was the personal assassin of a City operative. She had seen all sorts of crazy ways for a town to die. They generally tried to keep that out of the press, though. Civilians didn't do well if they knew there were people out there killing their towns.

“I'm afraid I don't know what happened,” she said, which was true. “All I know is that there were too many monsters.” Best not to mention the upgraded citystone. It would confuse the narrative.

The big man nodded. “Of course, of course. Please, I would not expect you to have all the answers, Miss...” He trailed off meaningfully.

“...Jael,” she said after a moment. Lying could cause problems. “And you are?”

He bowed low with a sweeping motion, like a butler at a mansion. “Hou Zheng, traveling Battle Mender, hoping to ply my skills in whatever passes for civilization out here.”

He was a [Healer]? Out here alone? Well, Battle Menders could certainly take care of themselves. She nodded politely. “A pleasure to meet you, Mister Hou Zheng. Now—”

“Brother.”

Jael raised an eyebrow. “Excuse me?”

“Brother Hou Zheng,” the man continued, still polite. “I am, after all, a priest.”

Jael blinked owlishly. That... was a surprise. She didn't know much about organized religion. That was a City thing. Who had time for all that out here in the Jungle?

“W-well,” she said, after too long a pause. “That is... good for you. Brother.” She gave an awkward cough. “I'm heading off to San Juan Bautista, if you don't mind.” She nodded politely, then left. He didn't follow, or even say a word.

She stuck to the ground, not wanting to jump into the trees until she was out of sight, to keep her true abilities a secret. She was instinctively wary of anyone out in the Jungle alone. Someone like that could be dangerous. Best to assume the worst.

A few minutes of walking later, she looked over her shoulder. She couldn't see any sign of the small camp through the trees. Perfect. She turned back around, already preparing to leap into the trees and run the rest of the way to the town.

She almost ran face-first into Hou Zheng.

He stood on the path she had been walking, a bare animal track winding between towering trees. He was still dressed head to toe in leather, and with a massive pack on his back. Though she couldn't see his face, she had the distinct impression that the priest was smiling at her.

“Hello, Miss Jael,” he said pleasantly. “I couldn't help but wonder. You said you were going to San Juan Bautista. That is the town with the pit, correct?”

Jael swallowed down her anxiety. She put on a shaky smile, even though Hou Zheng still wouldn't be able to see it under her mask. “Yeah. That's right.”

“As I thought. Would you mind terribly if we traveled together? I realize it is an imposition, but it shouldn't be much farther, should it?”

“N-no...” Jael coughed and gathered herself. She was more jittery than she had been on her first assassination mission. “I mean, no, it's not far. We can go together.”

“Wonderful! Now, we can negotiate payment on the way, but just to start with...” He wiggled his fingers in her direction. Warm energy suffused her entire body, like her heart was a hearth and the heat was spreading through all the rooms of a house. “Just a little something to speed us on our way, hm? Spirits willing, we might be able to work together.”

Jael gave a slow smile under her mask. “You know, I think we might be able to get along after all.”