[You died!]

Right as Neil stepped out of the main building, this message flashed in front of him, as everything got devoured by darkness.

’Huh? What? I... died? What the hell, what is going on?!’ Neil was so baffled.

It was way too sudden, was there a powerful enemy in his domain?

Then why didn’t the bell ring or why didn’t Nemo warn him about it, but what if the enemy had never entered the domain.

Or even gotten closer to it?

Then was it a sniping from a big distance? And that strength has to be at least in the 4th Origin, that too in Gold Class or above.

This was really too baffling, now Neil was also worried for others in his domain.

His chest tightened as several ugly possibilities flashed in his mind.

’What can I even do?’

[Would you like to start over or give up?]

He read the message and there was no continue option, which meant if he appeared right at that point again, there was no chance of survival.

And just when he wanted to not use Analyzer skill, this shit happens.

First, he calmed himself, not in a hurry to start again just to die.

He forced himself to breathe slowly and think properly.

’Oh right, I have yet to absorb the gene potions of those nine men too.’ He remembered, because of Randy’s sudden entry, he completely forgot about it.

Wait, could it be Randy doing this? Does he want Neil to join his settlement that badly that he would kill him?

Nah, that doesn’t seem right, unless he knows his skill.

Then is it Marco?

Neil really couldn’t think of anything, but for now it was more important to defend against that attack.

’Start again.’ He thought and after a moment was back inside the core room.

"Hoo, Nemo can you sense any enemies around?" Neil asked while also extending his senses to cover a large distance.

"No master, there is no one around." Nemo replied after a moment.

Maybe it is some assassin with excellent hiding skills, this was such a headache, was it another enemy of those bastards who are his parents?

He couldn’t even tell from which direction the attack came from or where the enemy could be.

"Nemo, there is some assassin outside hiding somewhere, warn everyone to stay inside the buildings and not go out for now." Neil ordered as he paused right by the door of the building.

"Alright master." Nemo instantly followed the orders, the guardian was currently outside.

Thankfully the only target of the assassin seemed to be Neil so he or she didn’t hurt anyone else.

"Now, even moving my domain around won’t help as I don’t know where the assassin is hidden. Nor can I just stay hidden inside my domain." Neil began to ponder.

Various thoughts quickly flashed through his mind.

Then he might have to go out in his disappearing state, using the Escape skill.

But it consumes too much energy, he would have to find the enemy as soon as possible and hope that the enemy doesn’t have any way to counter it.

’Maybe it is time to test out my phantom form in real world, and I believe the disappearing state will hide my aura, if not I also have Freya-’ Neil suddenly paused as he remembered the phantom trapped in his body.

Did she too not notice that thing earlier? Isn’t she very powerful and prideful or was her energy really so low?

Maybe he should give her a few more gene potions, for his own safety as well.

"Freya, can you sense any enemies?" Neil asked.

"No, I cannot, I would have warned you already otherwise." Freya shrugged, just surviving had become difficult here for her, she needed to beg for gene potions.

How would she have any energy for that at all? And when she is on such low energy, Neil even made her use her ability.

"Haa, I guess I will have to go out and search then." He decided but first gave several 1st and 2nd Origin gene potions to Freya.

Making her sigh in contentedness, it was enough for some time.

"Make sure to hide my aura if it leaks in my disappearing state, and be careful, we are going to hunt the hunter. If you do good, I will give you more gene potions." Neil muttered.

"Okay!" Freya agreed excitedly, then wondered why was she so enthusiastic?

It was like she was his pet and he will give her treats for doing something, this made her so angry but she held back, for now.

Still, the thought of more gene potions calmed her slightly.

"Let’s go."

[Escape Activated!]

Just as the skill got activated, his body disappeared and Neil wasted no time as he began to transform.

[Phantom: 1st Phase]

[Phantom: 2nd Phase]

[Phantom: 3rd Phase]

Neil’s body first transformed into the 1st phase phantom, blood pumping rapidly throughout his body and black veins bulging.

Black mist surged out of his body, ready to corrupt anything.

His body then rose to a towering height, an armor of darkness surrounding him, his senses heightened to the extreme instantly.

It felt even his skills had gotten a little stronger, he pushed through the door and his invisible body passed right through it.

Moving at extreme speed, he decided to first check out the north direction, as Neil sprinted at full speed.

Before leaving the domain, he even stole the speed of one of the elven archers who was present in the watch tower.

It won’t give him much increase but it was still better than nothing.

Thankfully, Escape had even masked his aura, or all the surrounding settlements would be on high alert.

A phantom’s attack is something that can only be defended against when various settlements and top powerhouses come together.

Freya didn’t need to do anything so she just carefully observed the surroundings for any sign of the enemy.

After running nearly 10 kilometres, Neil paused and ran towards the east from his domain, he held his breath and pushed forward with every bit of his strength.

’Hmm there is a fight going on ahead.’ Neil sensed faint sounds as he got to the east part.

But upon getting closer it was just young lords fighting among themselves, though it was the subjects who were actually fighting.

Neil only spared them a glance before moving again.

Neil shifted as he ran towards the south of the domain, he was yet to sense anything at all.

After he covered several kilometres, Neil who was counting the time in his mind, had already counted up to 20 seconds.

There was still enough essence left but in the three directions he hadn’t found anything, now only the west remained.

The deadly figure of the big monstrosity rapidly charged towards the west, covering several kilometres within seconds.

He was starting to feel a slight headache, was it because he used Analyzer again?

This was getting too strange, he was fine with using it before, so why all of a sudden such changes were occurring?

Suppressing his thoughts Neil soon arrived in the west direction but it shocked him that there was nothing in this direction either.

’Is the enemy too far away that I can’t even sense them or are they too powerful? They possess some special skill?’

Neil frowned, not pausing as he continued to circle around his domain, continuously increasing the distance.

Or maybe he missed something, what could it be?

There wasn’t too much time, as even with mana regeneration potions, this skill can’t remain activated for too long.

His remaining essence was slowly dropping with every passing second.

Suddenly, something flashed in his mind, as doubt crept in.

’Could it be because of those lords fighting among themselves?’ Neil was sure that none of them were capable of doing that sort of damage.

But as he observed them carefully this time, Neil noticed that although they acted all angry as if they wanted to kill each other.

But they weren’t exhibiting any killing intent, even their attacks weren’t lethal, it was all fake.

So someone was using it to mask something...

What was it? Neil concentrated as he paused not too far away from the group of fighting lords and subjects.

Even the surrounding air felt tense for a moment.

’The killing intent!!’ finally he understood, no matter how well the killer was hidden.

If they even possessed a thought of killing him, then they would exhibit at least a little killing intent.

And previously Neil thought this faint killing intent was coming from those lords, however in reality it was not.

[Aquamorph Activated!]

A liquid containing a strange odour was released into the air, it quickly turned into vapor and spread in all directions.

The first to be affected would have been the unsuspecting lords and their subjects, but Neil had created a bubble around them.

Otherwise, the assassin would be alerted.

Closing his eyes, Neil focused on the direction from which this faint killing intent was being released.

’It really is locked towards my domain!’ Neil thought, this was definitely the assassin who had tried to kill him.

ACHOO!

Out of nowhere, from somewhere under the grass a sudden sneeze sounded.

Neil’s senses instantly locked onto the sound and the person who had created it.

The assassin was shocked as he sneezed, smelling a strange scent in the air.

He instantly realized that his location had been compromised, he is caught, it was just too sudden.

Neil’s lips slowly curled upward, the hunt was over.

"Got you!"

❖❖❖

Thanks for reading... adios