The group worked with practiced efficiency, as though they'd done this exact routine many times before.
Ford, listening quietly from his hiding spot and using his mana, coated with the [Stealth] ability, as a make-shift visualization of what was happening, could clearly tell that this was not the group's first time doing something like this.
Ford quickly bought another spell and quietly learned it, this one being from the system shop, an E-Tier skill according to the shop, but it's functionality far outmatched this world's E-Tier abilities.
It allowed him to scan his targets and read some basic info, the higher the tier of this skill, the more information he could gain, but it directly bypassed the mana-quality difference between the skill's tier and it's targets, mixed with his A-Tier [Stealth] ability, and his SS-Tier class, it allowed him to scan the people infiltrating his home without them noticing even the slightest fluctuation of Mana.
The result of his scan of the leader almost shook the calm from his eyes.
[Name: Maine Hunt]
[Race: Human]
[Level: 73]
[Class: Void Stalker (A+)]
There was one other A-Tier among them, and the rest were B-Tier, the lowest level being 65, and all of them having Assassin-type or general stealth-type classes.
As soon as the door clicked, they all sprang into silent motion, each agent moving to different areas of the apartment, Maine himself leisurely walking through and observing the state of the-in their eyes- young boy's living quarters.
Seeing that they had all failed to notice him, Ford silently sprung into action, taking out his C-Tier key from his inventory, and silently sneaking up on the secondary A-Tier agent among them, flooding his throat with raw mana and preventing him from making a noise as he shoved the man into his personal dungeon.
Making swift work of all of the lower tier agents, repeating the process again and again, the house stayed eerily silent through it all.
Maine, frustrated with the incompetence of his subordinates, decided to search the house for Buford himself, seeing as how none of his agents had managed to find the boy yet.
Just as he began to search, he felt a prickling sensation run up his spine, his instincts flaring that something- or someone- was coming, and he managed to turn around just in time.
Quickly grabbing the dagger from his waist, he swung it with precision at his assailant, taking a moment to study his face.
What he saw was a 25 year old man with ink-black eyes that seemed to draw you into the abyss, the calculated, almost calm look in those eyes not doing a thing to hide the feral rage behind them.
"So a sharp enough intuition can break through the [Stealth] spell, huh. Or maybe I didn't control my bloodlust well enough." Ford noted to himself, also taking note that Maine seemed to be stunned to see him.
"What's the matter, were you expecting to find a child you could easily overpower and abduct?" Ford's calm, almost chilling, voice, gave way to a rage that seemed to shake the very Mana around the two.
Giving the man no more time to think, Ford rushed toward him, swerving slightly to the side to make sure the dagger Maine began to swing didn't pierce his heart, but instead sunk into his chest next to it.
Shooting his arms out, he brought them down with as much force and [Mana Imbuement] as his stats would allow, Maine's arm's making sickening crunching noises as they broke, the bone fracturing beneath the flesh and jutting out of his arms. Ford's head quickly shot out and bit into the mans shoulder as Maine jumped back, the strength in Ford's bite tearing the flesh from his bones
As an Assassin-type, his build had never really centered around Stamina, and the pain only amplified the fear he felt when he looked up, and saw the man who just broke his arms and bit him spit out the flesh and start to smile like a predator that found a new toy, even as his chest had a knife in it and blood was flowing out from the wound, the man still stood there, unperturbed, as he walked forward with an even, steady gait.
"Don't worry. I'll send you to your men. This won't be quick."
Ford said, suddenly bursting into a sprint and shoving Maine into his dungeon just as he had with the rest of the agents.
Afterwards, Ford sat down, removed the knife from his chest, sent it into his inventory, and waited for [Well Fed] to kick in.
As soon as his HP had recovered past the halfway point, his system dinged with an alert.
[System Quest Completed]
[Rewards being distributed.]
[A-Tier key]
[System Quest Initiated.]
[Break The Threats.]
[Rewards: Void-Related Spell Book, Teleportation Spell Book, System Upgrade]
A smirk tugged at the man's lips.
"Break them, huh? I was planning to do just that, anyway, so these rewards are just icing on the cake."