11 Yet Another Betrayal

Max followed through with the adventurer's request and followed them around as they killed several monsters, he didn't like the energy they emanated, but they were his only hope of getting out of there alive and safe, his stick broke because of the fight against the wolf pack, so he needed to find a new one now.

"Phew~," the leader wiped the sweat from his forehead as he finished off a monster, "this is gonna be enough for today, let's head back."

The other three nodded and turned around as they were carrying bags filled with monster cores, but before they could start walking, Max approached them again, he had been observing their battles from afar so as to not let them know he could fight, he didn't know why, but his gut feeling and his divination told him to keep it a secret.

[An assassin never reveals his cards at the beginning of the game, playing slow is the best way to achieve victory]

Another reason for that was that he didn't have a weapon anymore, but he decided to gather his courage and ask them what he wanted.

"Hey, do you guys have any spare weapons?" he asked, "my stick broke during a fight and I need something to defend myself with."

"..." the four adventurers looked at each other and laughed, "hell no kid, so that you can backstab us later on? Just say put and follow us around without a weapon, it will be good for everyone involved."

Max frowned, he didn't like being called a kid, but he couldn't do anything about it, so he just nodded and continued following them.

But after a few minutes, the leader suddenly stopped walking and looked at his companions, "Hey, did you guys hear that?"

"What?" one of them replied, "I didn't hear anything."

"Me neither," another added, "maybe you're just tired, boss."

"No, I definitely heard something, maybe it's another monster, let's check it out!"

The three adventurers sighed and started running in the direction their leader pointed, but Max stayed behind, he knew exactly what was going on, and it wasn't anything good.

'So you want to play like this huh?' he thought as he looked at the party, 'fine then, I too can play that game.'

He prepared his mind and body for the worst outcome and dashed towards the location they headed to as he couldn't see them anymore.

He hadn't heard any monster, his super-assassin hearing wouldn't allow him not to, and you're telling me this random guy can?

[An assassin prepares himself for the worst, an assassin is someone who can rely on himself to get out of such situations, and a trap is one of those.]

As he finished reading the message and avoided another tree, time slowed down around him yet again and a blade came rushing towards his head.

'Weak Point,' he whispered as he activated his skill, immediately noticing the red line drawn upon the attacker's chest, unfortunately, he had no weapon and couldn't end him using his hands as his strength stats weren't high enough for that.

Instead, he moved right and dodged the attack, causing the sword to hit the tree, leaving a small cut in its bark.

"How did you...?" the adventurer, precisely the leader, asked, surprised that his sneak attack failed.

"You're really bad at this," Max smirked, "you should've attacked me from behind if you wanted to kill me."

The man growled and swung his sword again, but the boy simply jumped backward, avoiding the attack once more.

"See boys!" the brown-haired man roared, and suddenly his three companions came out from behind different trees, "I knew this kid was lying and trying to backstab us!"

Max's brain clicked immediately as he heard those words: they never planned to get him out of the forest even if he hadn't asked for a weapon or acted suspiciously, they would have killed him either way...

"We saw all those monster cores in your pockets, boy, they look juicy," one of the adventurers, a buff and tall one muttered, pointing at the reincarnated boy's pockets, "trying to hide those from us aren't you?"

"Now hand them over," the leader grinned, "and we might just make your death painless!"

[An assassin doesn't let himself get bullied by anyone, especially scum like these]

Max was furious, he had always been treated as an insignificant piece of shit in his past life, and now he was being treated the same way in this one too, but he wouldn't let it happen, not again, he was an assassin now, and an assassin kills their targets.

He tightened his fists and glared at the four adventurers, "No."

And this is when the unexpected happened: his "perception" skill activated.

He could now see screens above the adventurer's heads.

[Leader - Level 18]

[Weak Adventurers - Level 15]

'Why...?' he wondered, after all, it clearly stated his perception skill only showed the levels of monsters...?

His divination didn't spare long before explaining, it frankly enjoyed the boy's continuous lapse of bad luck and wanted to see him get out of these situations with its help.

[An assassin considers all its targets as monsters, it means you started considering those people as enemies not worth being considered as humans]

Max couldn't believe his ears, but he still understood the concept behind it, and so he smiled, it was logical.

"You wanna know what I'm smiling about?" he asked the men in front of him as he noticed their confused faces, "it's because you're all going to die."

The adventurers laughed, "We are the ones with weapons and levels kid, you're just a weakling that got lucky in this forest!"

Maybe they were right, maybe Max truly had no chance of ever surviving this encounter, but he would make sure to give it everything he had, he didn't spend these last few days fighting tooth and nail just to die like a bug here.

'I'll show them...' he thought, 'I'll fucking show them!'

He charged at the leader, who swung his sword at him, but he quickly dodged and grabbed the blade with his bare hands, ignoring the blood pouring from the cuts as he used all of his strength to pull it away from the man.

"Wha-?" the adventurer tried to speak, but he was too shocked to say anything, after all, he was supposed to be the strongest in this group, and yet a kid that had been begging for their help minutes ago was now showing such determination he himself could feel it wouldn't be an easy fight.