Aiwass didn't look for a wheelchair; he simply got out of bed still in his pajamas.
Stepping onto the soft and dry carpet, he couldn't help but exclaim, "It's indeed quite clean here, no bloodstains on the floor, and even the carpet is spotless... Not bad, Shadow Demon."
As Aiwass's feet touched the ground, his contract with the Shadow Demon connected, and the power that belonged to the Shadow Demon was activated.
The morning light of the rising sun was shining on Aiwass.
The sunlight, not too intense, cast only a faint shadow behind him. But after the Shadow Demon's power was activated, the shadow suddenly darkened—as if a large dose of ink had fallen into water. The shadow near Aiwass's feet turned into something resembling a furry black cat.
The whole room darkened, countless pitch-black smokes slowly solidified, creeped up all the windows. The gradually thickening lines of shadow, like dense blood vessels and nerves, or like slowly growing tree branches, nearly completely blocked out the sunlight from outside.
Now only a little sunlight filtered through, resembling the dim but barely visible state inside a room when dawn is about to break.
"A bit too dark," Aiwass remarked casually, "but go ahead, as long as you're happy."
"I thought you would've torn her to pieces. I was prepared to pick up whatever was useful... Never expected everything to be so intact," Aiwass continued.
He picked and chose, searching through his spoils of victory.
The more he inspected, the more subtle his expression became.
Not to mention the equipment, why even the underwear had been preserved intact?
...Ah, that's not right either. It seems reasonable after all.
If the equipment was complete but only the underwear was missing, that would seem like a bigger problem...
After a rough search, the most valuable item among the things the Miss Assassin "dropped" was probably her dagger, that is, the hiltless throwing knife.
[Extraordinary Weapon (Light Purple)]
[Exotic Dagger, throwing weapon, light, sharp]
[Exotic Trait: Hiltless (It must be used with a special technique to be handled properly)]
[Module-Poison Slot: Its poison effect lasts longer, and the poisoned target is more easily afflicted when hit]
[Extraordinary Module-Silent Poison: When it is poisoned, it will not make any noise before hitting the target]
There were four knives left of this set.
They had no fancy attributes; all their effects were crafted for assassination. They were among the weakest types of Extraordinary Weapons—but for an assassin, they were excellent concealed weapons.
Once coated with poison, they would not make a sound when slicing. If one attacked covertly with this method, evasion would be nearly dependent on intuition alone. In some paths that lack the intuitive trait, even highly trained Transcendents could not detect it with their senses.
It's just a pity that Miss Assassin didn't drop a "skill book." Aiwass couldn't temporarily learn the techniques of the Hawkeye Organization's assassin to use this weapon...
—But that didn't mean it was unusable. All he needed was to find a trustworthy blacksmith to attach a handle to the back. That way, it would turn from an Exotic Dagger back to an ordinary one.
Although it might lead to a shift in balance, it wouldn't affect its attributes. If the blacksmith was skilled enough, he should be able to modify it adequately.
And the poison that accompanied the knife, Miss Assassin had two samples on her, both in the guise of lipstick.
One lipstick was dark red, named [Affection]. Its poison was more covert, causing increasing fatigue in the victim over several hours, leading to an unsuspecting death.
The other was pink, called [Mist of the Moon]. It could kill a person within seconds, with the cause of death being rapid corrosion and melting of the internal organs, mainly the heart and lungs—evidently the poison used to assassinate the secretary.
Both lipsticks were practically new and likely to last a long time. Aiwass wasn't a poison maker, and he wasn't a Transcendent of the Path of Adaptation, hence he couldn't immunize himself against this poison. Obviously, he also didn't use lipstick himself.
Even so, it wasn't a problem to use the lipstick directly as a solid poison paste. The poisons from the Hawkeye Organization were reliable... Anyway, he would keep them for now; they might come in handy in the future.
Besides that, there was a signal transmitter. It was a badge that needed to be infused with Dark Attribute Mana to be activated, its purpose being to alert superiors in an emergency—either for assistance or for suicide.
It seems Shadow Demon was very efficient. She didn't even have the opportunity to commit suicide before being killed by Shadow Demon.
Otherwise, the experience would have gone to waste.
When Aiwass saw Miss Assassin's corset, he suddenly gasped.
"—Is her position in Hawkeye really that high?!"
Because that was none other than another piece of the "Eagle of the Shadow" set, also the most valuable and core piece of equipment:
[Extraordinary Equipment (Purple)]
[Trait: While unnoticed by enemies, the likelihood of success when entering Stealth or Invisibility increases (limited to Path of Adaptation activation)]
[Extraordinary Trait: In Stealth or Invisibility, attacks launched with sneak attacks will always gain a +1 advantage (Darkness) (limited to Path of Adaptation activation)]
[Set: Eagle of the Shadow (1/4)]
["—Stay quiet, maintain silence. The shadows are our mother."]
Although it's only of Purple rarity, without a hint of resistance nor enchanted with spells...
This is undoubtedly the most valuable piece of the set.
In the game, it could be purchased, but in reality, only this piece of equipment is not mass-produced. Thus, its set attributes are actually incomplete, and general players could only collect up to three pieces. The fourth piece had to be acquired through special channels.