Traveling through the alleyways, Damian made his way toward the top of the hill. The entire time, he was using his Wind Movement skill to help mask his movements. The cost of the skill was minimal, so why not?

  Elaina seemed to have a wide-area skill for identifying people. He didn't know how detailed the information she could gather from it was. All he knew was that it could be used in a wide enough area to track their location in the forest. How else could she have sent the dagger message so accurately?

  Did she tag them somehow? Or did she know where everyone was in a wide area? The lack of an answer was making Damian paranoid about being found by scouting guards, thus leading to this mission.

  When asked, Frey didn't know the details of the skill either. All she knew was that the younger kids could never beat her at hide-and-seek. When they claimed she cheated, she'd then encourage them to grow stronger and cheat back—quite the unique upbringing.

  The first step of their plan was for Damian to go to a more central location and look for any signs of Elaina. If she was keeping an eye on them with her skill, she should know that he had entered town. That first task was coupled with investigating any news about Gamo or themselves.

  Damian immediately noticed that the streets were empty, except for patrolling guards. Peering inside one of the residents' windows, he could see a family having a late dinner. None of them looked too concerned about their situation—just a happy meal in front of a warm fire.

  As he climbed the hill, the homes became noticeably nicer, likely those of merchants. Damian didn't dare peer into any of them out of fear that they'd have silent alarms. Even his own party had managed to acquire a basic silent alarm for when they made camp. Damian had no idea if his skill could hide this presence from the more expensive alarms.

  In preparation for his infiltration, they had taken out their own silent alarm and keyed him out of it. When he used his Wind Movement, the alarm failed to trigger. That worried the whole group, who realized one of their major protections at night could be easily avoided by the right skill.

  They'd have to look for another tool that could see through stealth effects, although they could never be certain that there wouldn't be a skill out there that could avoid its detection.

  The debate then led to the use of more traditional methods, such as rattling items on strings. Even if you were invisible, you could still trip a tripwire. Maybe a master of stealth would have too much faith in their skill to look for such simple forms of detection.

  This line of thinking then spiraled out into not relying on their skill too much. It wouldn't be good to get so absorbed in them that they forget how to do basic things, such as packing a backpack efficiently. If they packed their equipment better, Donna should be able to hold even more with her spatial ability.

  'sigh'

  Damian had finally reached the commercial district. The area he had come up was right between the area with the carts for peddlers and the night district.

  He could see that several guards were enjoying themselves, drinking alcohol and wrapping their arms around men and women of the night. They didn't seem to have a care in the world, despite Gamo being attacked just a few days prior.

  This is going to be harder to get around...

  This next tier of the hill was far wider and more open than the residential area, which had buildings practically built on top of one another. He'd have to cross the street with numerous soldiers around. Not only that, looking up toward the top of the hill, he could see guards stationed there, looking down enviously at the entertainment district.

  Should I walk across? Or should I use my wind form? Which would end up being more noticeable?

  Caught between two poor choices, Damian chose the third option that was always available, even if not presented. Do nothing. Just wait.

  His first goal had been to try to find out what had happened to Elaina. The next was to try to make contact with the Valkyrie himself. The last was to be there to support Higgins if everything went wrong.

  Being in the night district of town didn't seem like it was going to help him find Elaina, but just in case, he kept an eye and ear out for any signs of her.

  Soldiers were boasting about their accomplishments on the front lines, and others mocked them, saying they had never been there. Listening in, he found out they were stationed at the Dried Heart, the desert that divided part of the Union from the Empire. On a map, the giant desert vaguely resembled a heart.

  The ironic part is that it's a heart with no life, and the entire area is said to be a death trap. It is one of the areas in the world where dungeon monsters roam free. Not all dungeons have settlements surrounding them. Death Valley is one of these locations. It's directly east of the Barrier Mountain Range and receives zero precipitation year-round.

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  The fatal flaw of the dungeons located in this desert was that water was still an issue for survival. You could conjure as much ethereal water as you'd like, but it would only quench your thirst for a few moments before dissipating. If you continued to drink only ethereal water, you'd end up as a mummy before you knew it.

  Because of this, living there is nearly impossible. Instead of fighting against nature, people have stayed away and dealt with the occasional hordes of dungeon monsters leaving the area.

  The hordes that result from the Dried Heart dungeons aren't nearly as threatening as those from the Dark Spire. That fact shows just how big a difference in size there is between the Spires and the smaller dungeons in the world.

  'sigh'

  None of the soldiers in the night district was higher than 4th tier. The officers were likely in another section, enjoying a higher class of entertainment.

  Damian was still trying to piece together why such a large group of soldiers was stationed here instead of providing aid to Gamo. Higgins said that the nearby settlements would be sending relief aid, but clearly, the soldiers here had other plans.

  Ok.

  Damian bent down and took out a tool they had scavenged from the assassins. It was a cylinder-shaped rune device. Elaina had identified it as a remote explosive.

  He had never heard of such a tool before, but she had assured him that they had been around for a long time, just a little less popular than using skills with similar traits. She compared it to a trapper's skill, except you had to activate it manually with a remote.

  At first, Damian had been excited to hear that the remote worked similarly to a communicator, but she had dashed his hopes on how much they could fence it for. It was a simple, crude device that would connect only to its paired explosive.

  Not only was it crude, but it wouldn't work in areas with higher mana activity, such as dense cities or other areas where people had recently used a lot of mana. The extra mana would disrupt the signal, preventing the explosion from going off.

  It was designed as a surprise attack on the unsuspecting, typically, for people traveling on solitary roads. You could modify the remote to send a stronger signal that could cut through ambient mana, but it would become a visible arc of light that would reveal your position.

  If worst came to worst, Damian was prepared to set this off in an unpopulated area as a distraction. The owners of the food stalls would be unhappy, but that was a sacrifice Damian was willing to make.

  Some of the other goodies Damian took from the assassins included smoke and shatter bombs. By channeling mana into either, they'd be activated. One would produce smoke, while the other would explode upon hitting a surface.

  After placing the explosive device, Damian skulked back into the residential district to make his way around the town. This time, he was making his way toward the nicer-looking inns.

  The entire process was all too easy for him and his skill set. Despite working toward becoming a great adventurer, his greatest strength seemed to lie in subterfuge.

  Although this made some sense when looking back at his career. He had always placed a focus on ending fights quickly and efficiently, regardless of the prospects of leveling faster through drawn-out fights.

  The rest of his party handled wide area effects or stronger hitting attacks. He was the one to play distraction, and if the enemy didn't bite, he'd whittle them down from behind.

  Despite this newly learned fact, Damian had no desire to change careers into something more profitable, but unsightly. Who would want to work as an assassin, a bandit, or a spy? Well, clearly, some people took up those professions, but regardless, it wasn't for him!

  Up and down the alleyways, Damian went, not finding any traces of Elaina.

  He was now across from the nicest-looking building in the commercial district. It looked more like a noble's estate rather than an inn. Much of the building was made out of white stone, almost the same shade as the royal castle. The front had large windows that looked out over the town. Damian was wondering what was worth looking at and turned around to see the same view that rich customers would have.

  It was just the darkness of the forest. Ah! Damian could actually see a faint light in the distance. He was high enough to see over the trees, and the lights of Gamo shone past the trees.

  Not really a sight worth paying for. He'd experience the same sight watching the last embers of a campfire go out at night.

  The campfire would be nicer to look at, or possibly turning off all the town's lights and gazing at the stars. The lights coming from the rune lanterns were too bright to stare at the night sky properly.

  As Damina looked across the street and into the large windows, he could see numerous officers enjoying fine dining. Clearly not as fine a dinner as what Fergus could provide.

  Despite the devastation in Gamo, they were laughing and enjoying themselves as if the most significant attack on the country hadn't just occurred a few days prior.

  Damian continued to scan the crowd. There was a table off to the side with officers who looked more glum, even nervous. The one at the head of the table was bouncing his knee, subtly shaking the whole table. To pay their respects to a superior officer, the others looked away from the disturbance.

  But that wasn't what caught his eye. Behind the table, there was a hallway that led to the back of the building. And in the middle of the hallway stood a woman with fiery red hair. She was wearing a revealing black dress that could easily seduce even the most chaste men.

  It was Elaina, and she was pointing at him. She then moved her finger to her neck and drew a line across it from left to right.

  I messed up. Frey was right.

  Elaina then walked out of the hallway and joined some of the officers at a table. She had swapped from deathly angry to smiling and cheerful for the military men, playing the role of an escort.

  If she joined them to gain access to the Valkyrie, she would have had a difficult time getting away and sending a message their way. Not to mention that at least one of them might be able to detect her doing something suspicious.

  Shit!

  Damian turned around to rush back to his companions to warn them to cancel the operation. But all too soon did he see a winged figure rise from the forest, shining brightly in a yellow light.

  Damian was too late. The operation was starting.