Mechanical Alchemist

Su Lun had anticipated the assassin that suddenly appeared behind him, far from being surprised.

Decisively, he tore open his leather jacket, and two puppets—one emitting a chilling wail and the other grinning grotesquely—flew towards the enemy. Their hands cracked, revealing dagger blades poisoned in black.

The assassin staggered, seemingly unable to comprehend why he had suddenly become momentarily distracted, bit his tongue, and instantly regained clarity. By then, he saw the poisoned blades already thrust before his eyes, a cold light flashing in his eyes.

With a clang, sparks flew.

The assassin blocked a dagger from one puppet but felt a bout of dizziness again: Not good!

Instinctively reacting to the danger, he performed an extreme backbend. At that moment, the dagger of another puppet passed narrowly in front of the assassin's cheek, accompanied by a slight corroding sound, tearing a slit at the edge of his hood.

"There's something odd about these puppets!"

The assassin noticed some trickery, just as he was about to reach out, he saw both puppets swiftly fly back.

Having failed to strike, he promptly withdrew.

At that moment, Su Lun, as the manipulator, also revealed a trace of regret on his face, thinking to himself, "Second-tier professionals, indeed not so easy to injure..."

The assassin, facing Su Lun, was even more startled, his eyes flickering cautiously: This guy is no ordinary puppet master!

....

Actually, ever since rescuing Lina from the pursuit of the metamorphic bugs, Su Lun's mind had constantly been reconstructing the entire assassination process.

He had long guessed that there might be a traitor within the trial team.

But that instructor, August, should be fine.

Otherwise, the assassins wouldn't need to go through such trouble to kill Lina. With his instructor identity and second-tier professional strength, there were countless opportunities to directly kill Lina.

Instead, the assassins chose to act in the caverns, deliberately applying a special scent on Lina to use the metamorphic bugs for the assassination… All this, presumably because of August's protection along the way, forced them to resort to this strategy.

Moreover, Su Lun had spotted another doubt.

That was confirming August had been following the trial team closely, yet this powerful person died without any disturbance, which was somewhat baffling.

After all, instructors from the Black Tower Alchemy Academy are rigorously selected strong individuals, and even if August had been ambushed, it was impossible for him to die without even sending a warning signal.

He hadn't understood why previously, but now knowing the fact that Daniel was the traitor perfectly filled the gap in Su Lun's suspicions.

In his mind, Su Lun could even reconstruct the entire battle process.

At that time, Daniel had left the trial team precisely to ambush August. His assistant instructor identity made it easy for him to get close enough for a successful sneak attack, and then he used his special talent "Magic Ban" to seal August's abilities.

But with his strength, he still couldn't kill a second-tier professional alone; thus, Su Lun deduced that there had to be at least one other second-tier professional in the assassin team, very skilled in stealth attacks.

Therefore, when a Stalker appeared behind him just now, Su Lun was not surprised in the slightest.

....

Facing second-tier professionals, especially agility-enhanced stalkers, firearms were almost useless.

Having witnessed the 'Red Demon' Goron cleaving bullets in half in the past, Su Lun did not entertain the thought that he, as a "Gun Master," would stand any chance against second-tier professionals.

Thus, he decisively abandoned his firearm, revealing his professional capability for the first time: puppet manipulation.

The reason "Puppeteer" is eerie lies primarily in the creation of various bizarre rune puppets.

The two blue rune-covered dolls by his side, one with a red and white grinning face and the other with a blue and gold crying face, were exactly two types of basic eerie dolls, "Wailing Baby" and "Mocking Baby."

These little things weren't like the rigid dead objects in puppet shows. Under the nimble fingers of Su Lun, they came to life, their limbs joyfully moving, joints twisting flexibly, and even the expressions on their horrifying faces were vivid, blinking, grimacing, angry, wailing...

They were like two specters dancing in the darkness, emitting creepy, strange laughter...

Upon their appearance, a terrifying aura instantly enveloped the surroundings.

Of course, these darlings were not only quaint and adorable in appearance. Their cursing effects were also extraordinary.

Both dolls were of the psychic cursing type, one attacking with sonic waves, impacting one's sanity upon hearing the sound; the other performing visual attacks similar to those spider creatures, creating hallucinations when one stared directly at its grinning face.

Knowing that there would be a fight later, Su Lun had strapped the two dolls to his back in precaution.

Although his puppet crafting skills were just at the beginner's level and the two eerie dolls were of low grade with a small attack range, this was enough to cause brief spiritual control over a close-range target.

This was also why the assassin sneaking around had suddenly staggered into view, having been influenced by the two eerie puppets.

....

"Gone again, huh. That guy's talent must be related to stealth abilities, 'Talent C-025-Chameleon,' 'Talent B-077-Invisibility,' or perhaps even the rarer 'Light Absorber'..."

Su Lun squinted into the darkness, his view once again losing track of the second-level assassin.

He didn't dare be careless, with the two puppets constantly emitting mental fluctuations, one laughing and one crying, to ensure that no one could get close enough to kill him.

Clearly, although the eerie puppets' cursing characteristics were strong, their strength was ultimately a major rank lower.

Su Lun did not think that these two puppets could save his life in front of a second-level assassin.

After all, when facing stealthy assassins, killing methods were not limited to close-range stabbing; assassins also excelled in various long-range weapons.

No matter how cautious and careful he was, the current situation was almost certainly deadly for Su Lun.

However...

If it were one-on-one, Su Lun truly had no chance of winning, but there were more than just the two of them in this dungeon!

The dark dungeon beneath Old Lington was not the domain of humans, but rather that of mutated monsters.

Since there was no chance of winning, then he had to create one!

Su Lun had made such a commotion in the cave that the lurking "Mutant Phantom Spiders" had long been ravenous.

He caught a glimpse of the dense mass of spiders above his head, his heart sneering repeatedly: "Heh, let's see who can survive among the monsters now..."

It was difficult to find a potion to block the monsters' senses, but to attract mutant monsters with bait was much easier.

Fresh human blood, corpses... were the best things.

The body of Daniel on the ground was still emitting steaming blood, and the broken "Inducing Potion" that Su Lun had previously shattered was also evaporating with a pungent smell.

Since the monsters were enemies, and the assassins were enemies, then a three-way battle would be good, wouldn't it?

"He" quite liked this feeling of dancing on the blade's edge.

....

Su Lun knew almost all of the monsters' traits and had countermeasures for them, but that second-level assassin knew nothing.

This was a type of mutant monster, which meant that the outside world had never seen them before.

Mental attacks were tricky and unpredictable, offering no room for error; once controlled, death was the only path.

Just then, those spider monsters did not disappoint Su Lun.

These eight-legged creatures hung upside down from the ceiling, moving extremely fast.

The first thing they did was not to attack the three humans in the space but to creep to the entrance of the tunnel, then spew webs, quickly blocking off the escape route.

"Sealing the entrance? Ordinary mutants don't possess such intelligence. In this group of monsters, there indeed lurks something 'eerie'..."

Upon seeing this, Su Lun's eyebrows slightly rose.

He had always felt a chilling, cold gaze from the dark, intermittently watching him. Now, seeing the spiders' unusual behavior of "blocking the door," he immediately guessed that within this tribe of Phantom Spiders, there was an "eerie" presence!

But, this suited him just fine.

He hadn't planned on escaping anyway, so whether the door was blocked made no difference.

He couldn't run, and neither could the assassin.

Just right for a three-way melee.