Alice in the Land of Steam

Chapter 430: Is the assassination after stealth?
These night watchers did not seem to realize that their perception abilities had been weakened by the so-called game magic, so that they turned a blind eye to the targets that were close at hand, allowing Leticia to sneak into the Quaker Arc easily.

As long as they bypass those bright red warning circles from the blind spots, they will become deaf and blind people with eyes that cannot see and ears that cannot hear, and it will be basically impossible for them to catch the vampire girl lurking in the dark night.

Of course, there are still some twists and turns in the process. After all, the night patrol spirits are not NPCs that only follow a rigid patrol route and are easily discovered by intruders. They have their own thoughts and wills. For example, some night patrol spirits are lazy and only want to stay within their own guard range, while some night patrol spirits are extremely vigilant and their activity range is several times larger than the former. They often suddenly break into the guard range of other night patrol spirits, causing the route that should have a gap to be blocked by the inserted warning circle, which brings many variables to the action.

The unskilled Leticia was almost discovered several times. Fortunately, the spirits in her head who could observe the surrounding movements reminded her in time, allowing her to respond in advance, so that she would not run into the warning circle and be discovered by the more vigilant night patrol spirits. After she became proficient, she didn't even need the reminders of the spirits behind her, and could analyze the most suitable infiltration route by herself, which made Alice admire her greatly and praised her as the "most talented assassin" she had ever seen. This didn't sound like a compliment, so Leticia didn't take it seriously.

In fact, this is somewhat related to her previous life experience. As the true owner of the [Eternal Fang], she has been spied on and coveted countless times over the long years. Even the Church Union has secretly investigated her intelligence. If she hadn't been vigilant and had the ability to hide herself, she would have been caught by the mad dogs of the Balance of Order.

Now using her rich experience in lurking to play this stealth game, it can only be said that it is a perfect match between the two professions and they complement each other.

After entering the Quaoa Arc, the mangroves here grow more luxuriantly. The wooden roots hanging from the top of the head and the crisscrossing root network under the water together form a deep and complex maze. The trees and aquatic plants on both sides hidden in the mist are like the open mouth of a monster, eerie and terrifying. There are swamps and deep pits everywhere. If someone who is not familiar with the terrain rushes in rashly, he will probably get lost in it for the rest of his life. There is only one muddy road in the entire Quaoa Arc, winding its way to the deepest part of the Fuloze Castle.

Of course, there are also alien surveillance eyes and ears in the forest. Most of them are vassal races with low intelligence, such as grassland hyenas, forest lizards, campurs, bibot stone spirits, half-ratmen, bat monsters, etc. The ethnic group still retains the primitive tribal system, and has no other function except to increase the species diversity of the swamp; as for the alien races with higher intelligence and more advanced civilization, such as werewolves, blood clans or golden lions, they probably gather inside the castle. With their pride and self-esteem, they disdain to do such trivial things as patrolling and surveillance.

These surveillance spies sometimes guarded the intersections, sometimes hid in the treetops, and sometimes even flew in the fog, looking down from a high position. But as long as their alert circles did not overlap to a large extent, Leticia could always find the most suitable route, avoiding their sight all the way and sneaking past silently.

The process was so easy that even she could hardly believe it. After bypassing a group of lizardmen hiding in the tree trunks and canopies, using their camouflage to conceal themselves, she murmured in a low voice: "Game magic is really amazing."

"Right, right!" Metien shouted happily.

"Yes!" Leticia nodded vigorously: "Thank you, Metien!"

"Hey, you're welcome!"

Alice, the game developer and the real owner of the game console: "..."

However, this smooth infiltration was soon ended.

Leticia hid behind a red banyan tree, using the thick branches to block the view. She poked her head out to observe the hyenas guarding the intersection, frowning, feeling a bit tricky. The hyenas are a small group of aliens that look a bit like hyenas walking upright, which is also the origin of their name. They are generally short, weak, and not very smart. The only blood magic they master is "scent tracking" that has no practical significance and can only be used for hunting. Unless a wizard holding a tribal bone staff is born, the overall strength level is not even as good as a human village of the same size. It is said that a long time ago, when the aliens were still active in Metosh, a team of experienced human hunters could slaughter a small or medium-sized hyena tribe.

As the name suggests, the hyenas are generally not adapted to the swamp environment. Their body organs and hunting skills are only suitable for the vast prairie. The scent tracking magic they are proud of will also fall to a very poor level under the suppression of swamp miasma and fog, often causing them to be unable to track injured prey or identify dangerous enemies, thus falling into the dilemma of food shortage and casualties, which indirectly limits their other strength - the terrifying reproductive capacity. Without the addition of new population, the tribe's living environment will further deteriorate, falling into a vicious cycle that is difficult to break free of.

The number of Hyenas who fled into the swamp during the Dark Cleansing was estimated to be about 200,000, but today the number has dropped to less than 10,000. These survivors survived only after they joined the Golden Mane Lions who once ruled the grasslands. This was all thanks to the combined efforts of the religious orders. If the combined orders had not wiped out most of the Golden Mane Lions' former vassals, how could the proud Divans family accept the loyalty of a group of lowly and dirty Hyenas?

After being suppressed by the swamp, the performance of the nasal organs of the prairie hyenas who rely on smell to capture environmental information has been sharply reduced. The most obvious manifestation is that their alert circle is very narrow, about five meters in radius, only half of the night patrol spirits, and the range they can monitor is limited. But they also have their own advantages, that is, the nature of gathering and cooperation passed down in their blood. The prairie hyenas never act alone. They will divide their manpower into small teams, one team guarding the key intersections, and the other team patrolling back and forth. With the advantage of numbers, the entire road section is included in the monitoring area, basically leaving no blind spots for Leticia to sneak in.

If this stupid method were used in the real world, it would not be as easy and efficient as the Night Watcher using his shadow perception ability to monitor. However, in the game world, it caused a lot of trouble for Leticia, because if she wanted to pass smoothly, she had to defeat these guys first.

However, if they cannot be defeated in a short period of time, the noise made by these guys will definitely attract more aliens to gather here, and may even alarm the people in the castle, and the infiltration plan will fail completely.

There was a patrol team of grassland hyenas, wearing simple leather armor and holding primitive spears or swords, patrolling back and forth on this road, monitoring suspicious movements around. Although their formation was loose, the coverage area was large. Leticia could only hide behind the red banyan tree and silently observe their route of action, trying to find a route that could be successfully infiltrated.

If possible, she would like to bypass these annoying guys and go directly through the forest. But that is not feasible. Even if we don't consider the complex terrain and dangers in the forest, there are many strange creatures such as lizardmen and bat monsters gathered in the forest. The former is a vassal of the deer-headed spirit, and the latter is a vassal of the vampire. The density and overlap of their warning circles are even more exaggerated than those of the hyenas on the road, so it is not a good choice either.

This was also the reason why she went deeper and deeper into the core area of ​​the Kua Ya Arc. The closer she got to the Foloze Castle, the stricter the defense became. It was difficult to solve the problem by simply sneaking in.

"So, just kill them all."

Alice made a very constructive suggestion and declared shamelessly: "Our game designers are well versed in the psychological activities of players and know exactly what they want, so they will not only make stealth mechanisms but not combat mechanisms."

"We need stealth and assassination."

"This is what it means to be a qualified master assassin!"

　Give me some meow
　　
　
(End of this chapter)