Unable to control his own Wooden Fox any longer, the summoner shepherd deactivated his power, afraid that he would lose control.

After doing so, the Shepherd punched the fox that was biting his neck, landing a clean hit that made it wince and release its bite.

But nothing had changed in his situation.

His neck was still bleeding profusely. He tried covering the wound with his hand, but it continued to bleed. There was also the fox that had somehow become part of his opponent on standby, as if waiting for another opportunity to attack, which is the most confusing thing about this fight.

’I can still feel my Piece inside me. I never heard of someone stealing a Piece without it turning Fragmented mid-fight. That would be fucking absurd. D-does that mean my power was copied?’

The Shepherd slowly turned his gaze to Cillian, who looked down at him with emotionless eyes.

Those eyes weren’t something a normal student usually looks at.

The summoner Shepherd understands it.

It was the same eye he used after killing dozens of students and a few instructors along the way before finally encountering Cillian.

The winner was looking down on him, the loser.

It was an undeniable truth.

"Y-your name...?"

The Shepherd asked in a groggy voice, but it was clear enough for Cillian to understand since he was already close after approaching him.

[Wooden Fox[Three]: Kon [0:00]]

As the Wooden Fox Mimic disappeared, Cillian tilted his head and let out a mocking laugh after hearing the ridiculous question.

"That’s what you want on your last breath? My name?"

Cillian conjured his Fireball slowly and steadily before aiming it at the summoner’s head, something that would directly hit since his opponent was unable to move.

"Pathetic."

Cillian launched his Fireball and hit the summoner’s face.

The summoner Ruiner dropped dead.

[Death Flag x14]

[Death Flag x13]

[A scent of Death is within you.]

Cillian saw the death flag above the summoner’s head disappear before feeling dizzy himself.

[Mental Load increased by 5%]

’My head feels... sick. Is this the result of using my Piece simultaneously? And it’s a heavy toll since I keep mimicking and activating mimicked abilities. But it’s not as bad as one thinks. I guess it really had something to do with structured foundation sequences.’

Cillian felt his head being pierced by something sharp, but it was not enough for him to faint or feel extreme pain.

It was doable for now.

[Domino Trace still Activated]

[Please choose which flag to trace]

[Mental Load: 25%]

’It increased my mental load? That... didn’t happen before. I thought it only worked for the abilities used by the system. Or is it because Faceless is already part of the Death Flag System? Wait, maybe I am overthinking things. But Mental Load, huh. I’m going to study it later on.’

Cillian brushed past the unsuccessful mimic screens and shifted his attention to the Domino Trace he had activated as a precaution.

He was planning to use it to locate the summoner’s death flag by tracing the cause behind, in case his attempt to defeat him failed.

If he were cornered, Cillian would trace out the summoner’s death flag and somehow use it against him, but it didn’t come to that point.

It was just his backup plan in case his main plan didn’t work.

’Well, it all works until the end. Though I wasted Buddy, Squidler, and the Wooden Fox mimics. But then again, I already planned on going all out. I don’t want to regret being unable to use everything in a fight just because I’m thinking these abilities will come in handy in the future.’

He’d be dead if he thought like that.

Most characters he had read about in the webnovels had almost always underestimated characters in one way or another, which became the reason for their deaths.

Cillian is far too early to be dying.

"Ah, right."

Cillian looked at the corpse shepherd, who was still in a trance, unaware of the happenings nearby.

While the summoner shepherd was attacking him, Cillian was keeping a close eye on the corpse shepherd to see if she would attack as well.

There was still another wooden fox he could use from the mimicked ability to try and attack them if he was forced to fight two-versus-one.

In the end, he wasn’t able to use it.

It didn’t matter now, though.

Cillian slowly walked towards the corpse shepherd while preparing his Fireball spell. The moment he was right in front of the woman, he pointed his spell at her head.

"What a weakness of a Piece you have."

Cillian aimed his Fireball spell at the corpse shepherd before releasing it. The corpse shepherd got hit and was thrown away, the flesh of her face was burnt and bleeding.

The noises from the nearby zombies abruptly stopped as Cillian continued watching the dead shepherd for a moment.

A slight frown appeared on his face.

Then, Cillian started walking back towards the summoner shepherd to grab the Fragmented Piece of the dead Ruiner.

"It’s weak, right?"

Cillian came to a halt.

’I knew it.’

He slowly looked back and saw the corpse shepherd, supposed to be dead, still talking.

The burnt face was pretty solid evidence of her condition, followed by the excessive bleeding, which should do the job.

His Fireball directly hit her face.

Cillian was sure that he had inflicted heavy damage.

But that didn’t seem to be the case.

[Death Flag]

It didn’t make sense.

But then again, half of the things had not made sense the moment he got transmigrated here.

So.

’How is this woman alive after getting hit directly by my spell?’

And.

"I was waiting for you to move. I thought you were going to continue pretending."

Cillian said calmly.

The corpse shepherd, who is miraculously alive... or that’s what he thought, talked with him with a sneer.

"Pretending to be dead? Don’t worry, I won’t do such a thing. Why would I? I’m pretty strong if I say so myself."

The lips of the supposed-dead shepherd curled upwards.

"And this body is already dead. That Fireball packed a nasty punch, you see. Now, I’m merely controlling the corpse itself with no Ruiner abilities."

Cillian slowly stepped back, readying his abilities for another fight as he carefully scanned his surroundings for something to use.

’Is it another power this Ruiner possessed? It could be, but having that as an answer is not too reliable. What my opponent had is not important. Right, I should be able to conjure a few more spells, but more than that, I might suffer from the lack of mana. How should I take action here, though?’

Cillian was ready to fight, but as if the ’corpse’ noticed what he was doing, she immediately waved her hand and stopped him.

"Oh no! Oh no! I’m not trying to fight you now. In fact, we’re pretty bumped. We’re frustrated just like you are. Don’t be like that, come on!"

Cillian wasn’t dumb enough to believe her words as he continued stepping back until he was at a distance from the corpse, which seemed to wait for him to calm down.

"Satisfied now?"

Cillian didn’t answer the question and instead prepared a Fireball spell, while the corpse appeared disheartened before speaking.

"The Sorcery Academy of the renowned Viola Family is not that weak, right? Well, I guess a bit of you guys can put up a fight. I mean, they even betrayed the Great Emperor. So you can do what we’re supposed to do. That’s why ’we’ will let you handle our frustration. Got it?"

’We?’

Cillian remained listening.

"Look up."

Cillian didn’t believe the corpse’s words until he saw its hands rising upwards, as if it were surrendering and urging him to look up.

"Hurry, hurry."

Cillian hesitated for a moment before looking up.

Under the pale moonlight above, far from the reach of his Nearby Flag Presence, are three individuals wearing white cloaks, all using an invisible platform to support themselves.

Their robes fluttered in the air as the three of them gazed below, looking at Cillian specifically.

That attire alone was similar to the Black Shepherds, except for the fact that they are white.

’White Shepherds.’

The striking gap in strength between Black Shepherds and White Shepherds can be totally felt even from afar.

[Death Flag]

[Death Flag]

The shepherd on the right waved both hands excitedly, as if glad that Cillian had finally noticed him. The shepherd on the left played with her legs, swaying them over the edge of the platform.

The one in the middle was different.

[Death Flag]

This White Shepherd was looking down at him with her emotionless, purple eyes underneath the cloak as she stood still. That cold aura emanating from behind her back was enough for Cillian to consider that she was the leader amongst the three of them.

’White Shepherds, huh.’

They are strong.

Even stronger than the Black Shepherds who killed him twenty-nine times from the probes.

Cillian might actually die today.

’Where the hell is everybody? They are taking too long.’

"Hey, hey! I’m the one waving at you."

Cillian decided to stop thinking when he looked back at the corpse speaking to him. He then gazed upward again and saw the same Shepherd waving his hand.

’They are appearing friendly, but I’m not going to take my chances.’

Cillian frowned.

"What do you want?"

The corpse stopped talking for a moment as Cillian kept looking up and saw the middle shepherd speaking with the noisy shepherd.

Then, after a few moments, the corpse started to talk again.

"Come on, I already told you, didn’t I? You’re frustrated, us as well. This is you doing us a favor. You want to eliminate the rest of the Black Shepherds sent here? Then, you need to kill the Captain of this bunch."

The corpse laughed before revealing.

"He has two Pieces called Red Eyes[Three] and Soul Touch[Five]. The first Piece can analyze your movement through blood, and the second one can eliminate your soul by merely being touched by it. He also had a Legendary Artifact, a [Seven]. Yeah, this whole maze."

The corpse was giving the Captain’s weakness and a general idea about the total number of the Black Shepherds currently in the maze.

"Remember, don’t be touched by that Captain. You’re pretty much done if you do. Second, the Black Shepherds sent here are thirty. If we subtract it from Black Shepherds who have already died, then at least fifteen people are left here. Geez, your third-year principal is going crazy hunting down shepherds. He appears to be really angry when he wasn’t able to kill Captain from the start. In fact, not just him. Everyone is working hard!"

The shepherd then finally stopped speaking.

"That’s all."

A black portal appeared right behind the middle white shepherd before she turned around and entered. The quiet shepherd, sitting down at the edge, stood up and also entered the platform without glancing back.

"Hey, tell it to your group, kay?"

The corpse spoke to him, but Cillian’s eyes remained glued to the last, friendly yet noisy white shepherd about to enter the black portal.

"Good luck!"

The corpse dropped down from the ground as it was supposed to be from the start, the death flag disappearing above her head.

At the same time, the Shepherd entered the black portal before it also completely vanished into thin air.

[Death Flag x11]