Leon, a former Hitman and a world-class Thief codenamed Black Cobra, currently serves as a freelancer Mercenary and a member of a criminal organization known as the Twilight Syndicate. His secrets aside from his reincarnation are his bizarre magical ability and the heritage of the former owners of his body being a member of a prestigious noble family.

Is that all?

Barely.

His mentality is currently unstable and his reckless behavior is on an all-time high as of late. The fact that he was reborn in a world where he suddenly gained a very ridiculous amount of potential must have altered something about his persona. He feels like abusing his Magic to no end and has a lot of dark tendencies lately. So dark that they emerged physically at one point.

Today, however, it was clicking again.

It started with a whisper, a push, and a little grudge. Just this little bit of motivation turned slowly and carefully into something curious. Leon could feel his urges turn his head towards a certain possibility.

Insinuating…

As if it called for him, the damn Ring again, like a snake wrapping around his body, like a cobra hissing to his ears, like a serpent digging its fangs slowly into his neck and spreading its venom.

And it clicked deeper, harder, it amused him like the most entertaining thing ever.

It gave him a mission.

< Emergency Quest Generated! >

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[ Find the ₱#!£¡@№6®3® $70№€ ]

Conditions: ***** *** [Met]

Reward: System Upgrade

Penalty: None

——————————

It reminded him of the corrupt Data on the Bull's Token he took from Hector Norman and There was even concealed Data this time as if the System was trying to hide something or stop people from knowing… but little did he care at the moment.

The sweet moment of clearance was upon him. It is as if he was being let loose.

And he disappeared into the forest now that there was no one behind him. The night was still young. Erielle left for a commission, Vadim was busy drinking, he circled around the spot he hid in twice to make sure there were no tails coming after him.

When it was quiet, he took out a hatchet from his storage and looked at a nearby tree whose reading said that its wood is of high quality.

*Chop* *Chop* *Break*

He took off a small log with a good width then put it in front of him. With that, he took out a regular knife made of good steel which he picked from that Pearl woman.

*Scratch* *Scratch* *Scratch*

During one whole hour, Leon started carving on the log with his whole focus on it. Bits and pieces of wood flew around as Leon kept reforming the log into a shape he desires. Strangely, he did nothing like this before, and if he were in his right mind, he would be amazed by how fast he was improving.

< [Woodworking Technique Lv.1] was added to your Status. >

His wood-crafting skill kept finding itself to be improving bit by bit and with every stroke of the blade, Leon slowly lost bits of what remained of his sanity as if the flying wood chips were his thoughts that made him a human.

It wasn't ending, it was only getting worse.

In this darkness, he slowly used the Light Mana within him to make the blade shine but something inside him knew that would be bad if he was discovered. Actually, he was also afraid that his craft would be affected by the positive aspect of Light thus he stood in a spot bathed by moonlight and manipulated that light into his blade.

< You have learned [Light Magic - Light Reinforcement] >

Moonlight and Steel chipping into the wood and painting it with blood, slowly making shapes, carefully morphing its fibers to perfection.

Goblins lied dead and Leon was still mesmerized by the fact that they couldn't disturb his craft. He slew them as he was carving, he massacred them and sent those who managed to survive scared for their lives.

A lone man, carving with moonlight a piece of wood into a mask in a field littered with the corpses of goblins.

< [Woodworking Technique] Level Up (1 → 2) >

And the craft ended into something horrific. No beauty in it but rather an ugliness and an obvious lack of skill and ability. Still, this ugliness was all it needed for the mask to be just perfect.

"And now what? Blood? Yes, I have plenty of that. Human Blood? I have plenty of that too… hmmm… Mine won't work? I guess that's fair. Now…"

He could only chatter with himself as if losing himself more… as if talking to someone around him with ugliness equal to the mask he crafted.

"Who goes there?"

Yet in this darkness, this blood and horror, a voice reached him and a man holding a torch came to inspect the horrendous noises. Something made the supply caravan passing in the nearby area feel uneasy as the goblins just escaped without attacking as they were crazed to their wit's end.

And as a knight discovered the scene, waving his torch away from the trees not to cause unnecessary fires; he saw a man in the said scene standing alone with a bright knife raising the mask up to his face… and putting it on.

This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.

In the next instant, all the knight could see… feel… was the bright knife and its coldness being jammed into his skull through the eye-socket, the torch in his hand snatched and his body which failed to react being kicked away.

With his good remaining eye, all he managed to see was a man drenched in blood wearing a mask that carried the spiteful expressions of a Goblin. And screams and flames followed.

As the blood flew everywhere staining the mask, certain glyphs on the mask's forehead started to glow. Two humanoids sitting against one another raising their hands in a discussion manner, one human, the other a goblin. A cartouche was between the two humanoids containing some minor glyphs that included a scarab, a pelican, a mouth, and a few more shapes.

They all added an air of mystery to the mask.

"By the gift blood, by the hidden sun, by the beating heart, I bestow you Magic."

Leon chanted in fainting words as he stood in another pile of corpses while being mesmerized by the scenery. The blood of those whom he slaughtered flowed around him as he took off the mask and looked at it.

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[ The Goblin Mask ]

- Common/Goblin translation.

- Darkvision.

A Mask Created from the wood of a 200 years old tree. It was soaked in the blood of two species and carried the glyphs of comprehension.

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It wasn't anything special, just regular dark sorcery. How Leon learned that is beyond him but he felt like he knew about it all along.

The first stage is complete. Leon cared less for the supplies that were being transferred by the humans he just killed and threw the torch he carried at their wagon.

< LEVEL UP! >

< [Enhanced Stamina] Level Up (3 → 4) >

< [Combat Magic] Level Up (3 → 4) >

< [Fatigue Resistance] Level Up (2 → 3) >

18 Goblins and 7 Humans… leveling up started requiring more kills now. Still, compared to a regular person, it was beyond ridiculous how efficient the way he absorbed Experience and learned skills.

Either way, he's about to level up even more now as he directly sat his aim towards the Goblin Den.

***

Eleanor wasn't sure how this happened but it felt like that even with the very impressive and textbook plan Prince Edward came up with, there was a hole somewhere and he got screwed badly.

The three severed heads which were thrown out just now were a clear taunt not to the students but to the adults supervising them. The reaction of the Knights was aggressive and loud as soon as they saw the faces on those heads.

Three heads, three dead knights. The goblins accomplished such a feat of taking down even knights. But now it is time to meet the culprit, the one which caused…

"ARROWS!" Prince Edward shouted, "GET THOSE DAMN GOBLINS!"

Three heads of his knights were all it took for the Prince to lose his cool and strike with the heaviest firepower he could muster. The volley of arrows fell into the Darkness cloud and many noises of arrows hitting flesh and death screams were heard.

Silent! No reply came hereafter until ten seconds of wait passed then…

*Thud* *Thud* *Thud*

This was the last straw to both the students and their knights. From the Darkness cloud, three human corpses were thrown out… all littered with arrows… human arrows… the arrows that were just shot.

The eyes widened and the high morales from just a while ago took a nosedive as the Prince, the ringleader of this siege, was as silent as a grave.

What a fucking blunder!

In his defense, how could he know… but arguing that, how could he not have predicted that there would be hostages?

Goblins don't normally take hostages… as the most savage lifeform on the planet, they don't plan that much ahead but that doesn't mean it is a rule. They rarely have variants with higher intelligence such as Shamans, Females, and Redcaps. Still, they use hostages only if circumstantial.

This situation is an anomaly and this was realized by all those who managed to keep their cool. It seems that some goblin has picked up some nasty psychological warfare tactics as of late.

"Move aside."

As soon as the Prince heard those words coming from behind him, he turned around with hell beaming from his glares only to see Eleanor standing behind him. He couldn't react mainly to the fact that he realized how bad it has become since he screwed up in front of his main political enemy.

Eleanor, on the other hand, realized that this may be something even the students will face some difficulty to clear without suffering some irreversible casualty.

"Open a way for me, I want to check out…" Eleanor approached the Students and the Knights carrying the shields and wanted to bypass them but the situation escalated further.

"ST… STOOOP!" A voice cried, "PLEASE… DON'T KILL ME!"

Leaving no room for the students to think, what appeared next was a man all beaten up and bruised tied together by a tight rope.

"A hostage!"

"Please! THEY'LL KILL ME!"

The hostage was devastated, scared, and crying. He wasn't even a knight but rather a common soldier. This makes the problem even worse as his life can't be discarded just because he is of a lower standing but if word got out that a commoner soldier was left out to die as a hostage, this will worsen the current civil unrest even more.

The problem was what walked out from the Darkness cloud behind the man. Obviously a Goblin, black as the Darkness spell around him and holding a crossbow.

Definitely the sharpshooter from earlier.

The goblin held the man from his collar and dragged him back inside the black cloud just for the man to be barely visible alongside the crossbow aimed at his neck and the goblin took cover in the dark cloud.

"Cunning thing!" Eleanor narrowed her eyes and looked back towards her nephew, "How will you handle such a situation?"

Trick question time. Even if Edward answered right, he will have to back up his words with actions. A frontal assault is clearly out of the question, the Darkness spell is being supplied from inside the Goblin Den and it's impossible to act with it standing in the way.

There is a skill called [Darkvision] but it is not something Humans can develop at all. The only equivalent to it is a Dark Magic spell of the same name but that type of Magic is prohibited.

The options were indeed scarce but the most advantageous option is to discard the soldier's life in front of his colleagues. An option Prince Edward was sure that his aunt was pushing him towards.

"We do not negotiate with monsters." Prince Edward said, "We'll try our best to save a fellow human but backing out will only cause more losses. We wait."

To escape the rock and the hard place, Edward resorted to playing the waiting game. The soldier will eventually die and he will act as if he tried his best.

***

Things happened at a totally different pace and perspective in Leon's head.

Humans and Goblins, both are his enemies.

His purpose was very unclear even to him, but he knew where to find it yet he needed to gather some tools first. All of those tools were nearby.

The Goblin Mask, something he made and doesn't know why. After that, there are a few tools Leon needs from the Goblin Den and eventually, he will be able to go after what he is supposed to collect.

The squabble between the Goblins and the Humans seemed adorable from the sidelines. The humans using brute force, tactics, and magic; the goblins using evasive maneuvers, special sorceries, and savage tactics.

They eventually reached a deadlock but as the humans had a strategic advantage in terms of cutting the grounds off their opponents, they would eventually turn the tide as soon as they got rid of that strange Dark cloud.

Leon was sure it was a spell but there was no way he could read it at the moment. To read a spell, it can only be done when the spell is witnessed as it is cast.

Still, that Dark cloud posed various disadvantages on whoever walks in. Some of which he can nullify by the goblins most widespread trait, Darkvision.

Using that, Leon slowly infiltrated the area around the camp and stealthily ambushed a few of the scouts spread around before going to the goblin den.

That den was under a small mountain thus Leon is able to circle around it and find a method to invade the Goblins Den before the Prince and his goons do. Sadly, there was only one entrance and that was the one in the front,

For that, Leon prepared his bow, crossbow, and arrows. His aim was the three Light Magic users at the center of the formation.