Durin's Diary

Ten miles from the city of Salik, the snow was falling heavily. The airships, with their snow-braving advance, had been finely tuned by the engineers of the Craftsmen's Guild—this was Durin's perspective since the concept, similar to that of a helicopter, had been proposed by Durin himself. The Craftsmen's Guild and Durin had spent three years tinkering with these three prototype crafts, originally intended as platforms for various weapons. Weapon operators sat in the front seat, with all sorts of firearms hanging on both sides.

Of course, now there were seats attached to the sides, where the well-wrapped members sat.

As the city of Salik came into view, Durin confirmed the human city in front of him—the resemblance to ancient European cities as he imagined was uncanny, with three-story houses being the most common residence. Now, with the heavy snowfall, there were hardly any pedestrians on the streets. Perhaps someone in the blizzard would hear the engines of the airships, but this completely unfamiliar sound would not make them think of an invasion.

Thus, the airborne drop near a small hill was extremely successful. The lynxes split into three teams, following Durin, Enrique, and Old Yishu respectively.

On the route for the invasion, Enrique led his team through the back door. He was one of the few Grassland Elf knights capable of shooting slugs from a Model 13 pistol with one hand and hitting the target with every bullet. Old Yishu was also a good fit; after all, he was a Silver Dragon Magician—blessing with a pat, his hand holding the gun was even steadier than Enrique's.

There were guards at the main gate, but with such heavy snowfall, the two had already sought shelter in the pavilion to the left of the gate—an obvious spot for the guards to shield themselves from wind and rain. Normally, this would seem a benevolent gesture from the household, but when two slugs pierced through the gunbarrels, traveled silently due to specially made long suppressors, flew forty-nine yards, penetrated the wooden walls, and ultimately pierced through the two bodies, benevolence lost all meaning.

Old Yishu shared the Life Peeking Spell with Durin at his request. This spell allowed the practitioner to see the Life Aura of living beings within their line of sight. The intensity of the spell determined its radius, and with the spell shared by Old Yishu, Durin could already see the humanoid auras inside the manor right from the front gate.

Had Durin executed it, the effect would probably have been greatly reduced.

The rearguard lynx cubs opened the pavilion door as they passed, checked the human's condition, and chose to ignore them—massive blood loss and the cold would soon claim their lives; there was no need for overkill.

Old Yishu, holding his crossbow, one after another took out the large dogs that were on patrol. These dogs were responsible for guarding, a job entirely different from that of a human nobleman's hunting dogs. In the Salik household, even the hunting dogs had their own dormitories, they ate beef, and drank milk—literally living better than some humans.

Meanwhile, Durin followed the path to a fish pond.

The boy by the pond was chattering nonstop to the girl next to him about the tales of his three hunting dogs, even mentioning that the dogs were traded for with prey.

"Prey?"

"From the dungeons."

At this point, Durin chose not to listen further but approached the boy from behind. He covered the boy's mouth first and then plunged a dagger into the boy's waist with his other hand. He slit his throat with a claw blade and pushed him into the pond.

Old Yishu controlled the girl: "What's his name, and what's yours?"

"His name is Royce, my brother. I'm Sasha, and we are both children of the Salik family. Who are you?" The girl looked in terror at the invaders in front of her.

Durin narrowed his eyes—the screen showed the girl's true identity.

Karen Maria Salik

Swindler Path Ladder 8: Scammer.

Attributes:

Strength: 9

Agility: 12

Constitution: 8

Intelligence: 17

Perception: 14

Charisma: 15

· Life is always fighting for its survival, even when sometimes it makes no sense, but until the very last moment, life will not give up on itself.

The evaluation by Big Orange made Durin soften his heart for a moment.

Yes, just like his younger self, facing death but instinctively not wanting to die.

At that moment, Miss Karen, who claimed to be Sasha, had already stopped moving in the fish pond. The freezing weather, thick and wet clothes, a small child, the icy water, massive blood loss, a slit throat—each was a significant strike against life.

Durin took over and pushed her to the edge of the pond.

The girl seemed to understand her fate, looking at her half-submerged brother in the water, and asked, "Why?"

"Just now, your brother mentioned what the three hunting dogs were traded for. Have you forgotten, Miss Sasha?" After that, Durin's dagger stabbed into her right back—having an inverted heart sometimes works out, but the Life Aura doesn't lie.

A twist, lifting her hem to cover the wound, a pull, wiping the blood on the dagger onto her clothes, and pushing the little scammer into the pond.

I pity you because I see in you the desire to survive that I once had.

I kill you because the victims require justice, and this justice has already been delayed by many years.

After completing his task, Durin sheathed his dagger. Old Yishu was already leading his group to the main gate. Durin, with his lynx cubs, moved to the other side.

· We must leave now! The caravan on the Lublin route has disappeared! The team transferring the merchant hostages has been intercepted by an unknown group twice!

· Perhaps it's an accident. Our informants in the town of Lublin haven't sent any news yet. We should wait.

· How long are we going to wait? Until the avengers' blades are upon our heads?

An intense argument could be heard from behind the door; it seemed that the family was discussing something. Great, they were all together, which meant there wasn't even a need to clear the rooms.

Two lynx cubs approached the front door, and two explosive charges were affixed to the door and simultaneously armed. Then, they took positions behind Durin and old Yishu, who were against the walls on either side.

Durin had four shock bombs primed in his hand, all of which were armed with the pin pulled, ready to be thrown in the instant the door blew open.

To old Yishu's eyes, this was unnecessary expenditure, until he experienced one of them himself—the hearing of the legendary Dragonblood Magician hadn't recovered by half in a full three minutes, and he was seeing three Durins before his eyes.

These devices, created by Durin, could certainly be classified as alchemical oddities. Although they were costly, they were very effective: anyone who came would be in for a real treat.

The door blasted open, and Durin threw in the shock bombs—along with the defensive grenades.

Following the succession of explosions, Yishu was the first to enter.

A bullet struck his forehead, but after deforming, it lost its momentum and fell to the ground.

·Is this the true power of a Silver Dragon Magician? Truly terrifying.

Big Orange voiced its thoughts. Meanwhile, Durin held the gun sideways, using the red dot sight on the side of the pistol to aim into the hall. His first shot hit a teenage boy struggling to climb the stairs. He was far from the blast and lucky, trying desperately to leave the scene.

But unfortunately for him, he was the second most noticeable in the entire hall, so a slug fired from the gun barrel burrowed into his back. He fell on the steps and succumbed to gravity, sliding down.

The first most noticeable was a target who had cast Stoneskin and opened fire, so he received Yishu's Dissociation Spell and was reduced to ash.

Then a streak of Frost Breath, and another man who had just stood up became a statue of ice, which shattered the next second when a bullet struck it.

While firing, Durin sidestepped to leave enough space for his teammates to shoot behind him.

The struggling crowd made an excellent target; shotgun blasts howled through it, knocking many down, while slugs targeted those who looked sturdy every other shot.

Someone was transforming into a werewolf. Durin hadn't time to change magazines, so he drew his pistol with one hand and aimed it at the werewolf, firing Holy Fire at the beast.

Let's see just how effective this spell is against these evils.

Two streaks of light passed through the hall, and the moment they hit the werewolf, it was ignited by holy energy, becoming the brightest existence in the hall.

The werewolf's rapid healing became a joke at that moment, as its heightened recovery prevented it from dying immediately while the Holy Flame burned. So, the means of salvation became the most cruel torture, and its howls soon turned into wails.

For Durin, however, this energy felt warm—it burned the werewolf yet brought warmth to every innocent in the world. How wonderful.

After shooting the other targets still struggling on the ground and changing the magazine of his pistol, he switched to Durin model 13, emptied a magazine at the still-howling werewolf, which, riddled with bullets, finally died.

"Lord Enrique has entered the back hall; he's come upon the enemy's security forces and is in a gunfight!" a lynx cub with a communicator shouted loudly.

"Kahn, take your men and lend a hand," old Yishu commanded, and four lynx cubs obeyed the order and entered the corridor.

Durin stepped forward, switched the magazine in his shotgun, slung it over his back, and began to confirm kills with his pistol. The lynx cub with the communicator preferred to use an ax, dragging out the wounded from among the bodies before delivering a final blow to their heads.

Another group of lynx cubs went upstairs to secure the area, while his companion pulled out a list, started to verify the identities of the targets one by one, and taped a piece of paper with their names on the chests of the deceased.

Old Yishu pushed aside a dead body in the chair and scanned the room with a sweeping gaze, somewhat puzzled, "Is that it?"

"Perhaps the human traffickers were having a shareholders' meeting to decide their next steps. In the Grassland Elves' language, it would be a very solemn occasion. Too bad we had to interrupt," Durin quipped as he changed another magazine and continued to confirm kills.

"Kid, come here." Old Yishu gestured to Durin.

Durin put an end to the life of a middle-aged woman gasping beneath him with his pistol, then approached his grandfather.

"Holy Fire, I saw you use the spell," Yishu began, patting Durin's face with a pleased expression, "This is proof of your favored status with the gods, child. You've proven to the world that you're not an Evil Sorcerer."

Durin smiled, realizing that the rumor had spread quite widely, but he also reflected, "Wherever I am, whenever it is, I am still your grandson, old Yishu."

"Ah, my boy, you'll always be my good lad," Yishu replied, motioning, "Go on, do what you think is right."

Just then, two lynx lads dragged an old man from the ground, "Found the chieftain, he's the one."

Durin signaled for them to drag the skeletal old man before old Yishu, then turned to resume confirming kills.

·All this experience, you can't let it slip by!

Big Orange screamed inside Durin's head.

·Kill that tall guy with dark skin! He's high-level! Still has a breath left!

What's the rush, no one's competing with us.

Durin remarked, then raised his hand and pumped a 10mm round into the dark-skinned man's head.

The 10mm pistol round, with a steel core design and copper coating, was a guaranteed cure for any lingering state, one shot at a time.