Currently, in a mountain range near, a group of people stared at the distant castle that was once owned by the Dynasty.

"This is our next target. If we fail to take over it by today, not only will reinforcement come from their side and we will be forced to retreat." A robed figure holding an orb said to the other group.

"So if we fail all the walking that we done would be for nothing?" A cloaked figure said with annoyance. Her voice is clearly feminine.

Among the whole group, she excluded a crushing pressure far superior to the whole group.

"Alright then, you guys wait here and I will clear the whole-"

"Do you know if the castle holds a 4th-tier expert?" A chilling voice interrupted the cloaked woman.

Turning her head towards the knight who wore dark armor, she frowned slightly.

"Do you want to do it?"

Instead of answering her, the knight stared at the robed figure as if waiting for his answer.

"...As far as our information goes, there should be a couple of 3rd-tier with several that reached the 2nd-tier. I also heard that among them were a few Phoenix warriors...but among them, there shouldnt be a 4th-tier expert. I believe that miss Vanessa would be more suitable for"

"No, I will go." The chilling voice said while looking at the cloaked woman which was the dark elve Vanessa.

"Let me do it."

Sighing to herself, she shrugged her shoulders at him.

The other group of three people looked at their exchange with frowns.

"Then its only right that I follow suit, Abdiel. I specialize in those sorts of missions." A dark cloaked man said who held daggers in his hands.

"..."

Silently agreeing with the rogue, the dark knight sends out a mental command.

`You all, follow me.

And right behind the group of those people, a dark mist started creeping near them, with many many footsteps to be heard.

The dark mist hid the owners of all those footsteps, but one could clearly feel through the ground that they were more than a hundred people walking in the dark mist.

The only thing visible through the mist was several dark green lights.

The dark knight taking the lead had his sword flashed with the same dark green light that brought an extremely ominous feeling by just looking at the blade.

But even those lights were soon engulfed by the dark mist and blended in the forest and drawing closer to the far away castle right under the dark knight.

***

Currently in the walls of the same castle...

The walls surrounding the castle were constantly being patrolled with soldiers looking at the surroundings for potential threats with vigilance.

They were specifically instructed not to take their jobs lightly and to be always on the lookout for enemies. But after several weeks of seeing only a few rabbits coming out of the forest, it was bound for a few of those soldiers to be less vigilant.

"I wonder how much longer we will be stationed here." A soldier said with a bored expression to his colleague.

"Get a grip already, If one of the leaders catches wind of you slacking, I will also be dragged into your mess."

"Heh, as if they come out in the middle of the night. Wherever I look at the forest, is just the same. We also have several experts that reached the 3rd-tier in the castle. Who would even dare to attack us?"

"...Still, stay on your guard. Those last months they have been rumors that the Dynasty has been acting suspiciously near our territory."

"Right, right. All the rumors about a necromancer or whatnot. As far as I see, where were are there is nothing but trees." The slacking soldier said, before extending his spear to his colleague.

"Hold this for me, nature calls to me and she is quite impatient." He said with a grin.

"Sigh~if any of the leaders come, dont expect me to side with you."

"Yes~yes."

Seeing him leaving, his colleague shook his head before focusing on watching the usual scenery.

But today he noticed something different.

Bits of dark mist seemed to appear for a split second before disappearing again.

"Mist? But it hasnt rained for days..."

*Crack~

Hearing suddenly a noise, the soldier immediately became alerted and bend to see where the noise came from.

And what he saw there gave him almost a heart attack.

There was a knight equipped with dark-plated armor, standing in a spear that pierced the wall itself.

Once those two made eye contact, the soldier felt an overwhelming bloodlust crawling to his neck.

With every part of his body screaming danger, the soldier raised up from his bent position and yelled out to alarm the others.

At least that's what he hoped to do.

The man suddenly felt an enormous pain going through his chest and before he knew it, he was dragged towards the edge of the wall, making him start falling.

But rather than meeting the ground, he came to face with the dark knight who pierced his sword through his hurt while covering the man's mouth.

He wanted to yell, but he felt the grip of the dark knight close to crashing his jaw.

Soon enough, he lost all his strength soon after drawing his last breath.

But that wasnt the end of the dark knight's plans.

With an ominous aura seeping inside the corpse of the soldier, the man once again opened his eyes and started looking around the forest as if he was genuinely patrolling.

Everything that just happend went unnoticed by the many patrols that were only a few ten meters away. Mainly because the dark knight's presence was almost none existence.

His steps seemed to blend in a dark mist and leaving none of any notice or his aura out for others to notice.

Leaving the undead soldier to continue his "duty", the dark knight left like a phantom towards the location of a presence.

If it weren't for the dark mist hiding his presence and the sound of his armor, he would have already been found out by now.

In his path, he assassinated another two of the patrolling soldier with terrifying speed. Once the remaining life has left its mortal body, it disappeared into the thin air.

Once he arrived at the door where the presence was, that very presence opened the door.

"Haah~, there is nothing better than taking a leak while slacking in work. But with that serious fellow, I better go back before he reports me."

"There is no need to go back." A chilling voice said.

"Who is there!?"

Of course, the only answer he got was being grabbed by the neck like a helpless chicken.

The dark knight that was several meters away crossed the distance in an instant!

He couldn't react at all.

"Agh-You-! Who are-agh?"

"Dead men don't need to know."

Suddenly, the dark knight's gauntlet started to glow in an ominous dark green light.

The man's eyes shrunk in horror as he felt his vitality being drained.

"Stop~, please, spare-!"

His pleas fell on deaf ears.

His struggles became weaker and soon enough, the soldier became an empty husk of dried-up skin.

His face was full of horror and tears.

But like the two others, he disappeared.

"Storage rings are truly the best tool to hide bodies after all." He mumbled before entering the door of where the man came from.

"Mhm, there 5 other people in a range of [Eyes of the Damned]. Those others should be my target."

The plan of Danzel, the dark knight was simple.

Kill as many as possible before the enemy realizes his presence.

Though those guys that he killed were small fries, it was better to lower the numbers of the enemy now rather than later when his misdeeds were found out.

"It seems it was worth investigating a portion of the XP that I gained those last few months into upgrading the [Presentless Steps] into the 3rd-tier. Such skill comes really handy in such an undercover situation.

A total of 6 months passed after he upgraded to his main class after all.

The amount of XP that he gained through each battlefield and his two harvesters was enormous.

He had enough XP to even upgrade the skill which he didn't use as much.

One of them was [Presentless Steps] which turned into the 3rd-tier skill [Mist Presence].

The modification was [Soul Affinity] and [Overall improvement].

Thanks to being of [Soul Affinity], several of the skill and talents that improve this type of affinity increased the power of the skill to much greater heights.

Even though Danzel didn't specialize in being a sneaky snake and all. Those bonuses were enough to bring him a step lower than rogue.

The skill is essential but his presence in an ethereal plain makes his usual senses or way to spot him way harder than usual.

The only disadvantage was that he constantly leaked dark most out of his body,

At night it was handy to camouflage himself in the darkness, but in the day, it would prove awkward to sneak around or hide...

'I wasted enough time here, I should start clearing all others before I-'

"Enemy!!!"

Before he could finish his thoughts, the yells of soldiers began echoing all around the castle.

"..."

If Danzel had a face, he would be frowning right now.

He was sure that he didn't leave any evidence except the sole undead.

"But even then, that's too fast of reaction."

He was sure that he wasn't found out when he was sneaking in here.

He also put the corpses in his storage ring and did not even leave bits of blood on the floor.

Going through the different possibilities, Danzel's ethereal eyes flare up.

"This dumpass must even get caught in the act..."

Danzel of course cursed the rogue that volunteered to come with him.

Back then he didn't say anything as that guy Kenn specialized in being sneaky.

"No matter, I guess I will have to move the plan forward."

In the next moment, he let sever all of the corpses out of his storage ring to fall to the ground.

Many of them were his slain enemy of the past months and few of his allies.

What each corpse had in common was that each armor had the same rune carved on the inside of the armor.

The corpses in total number more than 40.

"Let's see the results of the new version of this run."

He said before spreading his dead mana inside each armor of the corpses.