This whole thing has been absolute balls to deal with.

  The small person stood there, watching the cute girl with a tight ass walk off, the clatter of the dagger falling behind her unmistakable. She had been the one shining light in this whole fucking mess of a situation, and Adelhard was tempted to follow after her instead of getting on with things. Give it a few years of growth, and this body would be… closer to the right kind and maybe she’d entertain a few rolls in a bed.

  Shaking his head, Adelhard’s body began to shift as he went for the rather ordinary dagger. His limbs lengethend, not by much but enough to give him a dozen centimeters. The structure of his face shifted about, more angular with narrowed eyes and high cheekbones. His hair remained white, but seemed to shorten, revealing a pair of slightly pointed ears that he rather enjoyed. Maybe I’ll keep them on my next character…

  Bending over, he picked up the knife and twirled it in his hand as he flicked through menus. Onboarding seems to still be running. Inherited classes and levels have mostly been calculated though. It wasn’t a fun wake up, but being stuck like that for weeks has some benefits.

  With a few stretches, he adapted to his freedom, happy to be able to move limbs that had been practically locked in place outside of specific circumstances. It had given the body time to adjust to the many physical changes, even if his Shifter legacy trait let him hide whatever he wanted. You couldn’t be a good assassin without hiding your identity, after all.

  After another deep breath and a few bounces, he looked up at the wall. With a wide grin, he ran at it at full speed. Then his foot pressed against the cracks in the brick and he lifted himself up, running two steps before kicking off ot jump at the one opposite. He got one more kick off and was on the roof, breathing a little hard. Notifications flashed in his vision, but Adelhard flicked them away. It wouldn’t take long for his status to catch up with skills long learned.

  “Alright, if I remember which way that broad brought me…” He shielded his eyes from a nearby streetlight and started considering his route. “Three streets down, and a couple over should get me to the right spot.”

  Adelhard ran, his limbs slowly remembering how to move, the bonuses from his sign-up package still going strong, even all these centuries later. He was probably one of the few originals who was actually fine with this perpetual existence, even going so far as to pledge himself to the chief of security in a previous run. Maybe I should give him a ring?

  Shaking his head, instead he roamed his interface to the media player and started up one of his favorite playlists. The deep bass thrummed through his mind, a subtle vibration of strings and drums that gradually picked up pace. Lyrics about the kind of violence he intended to wrought upon those who had kept him captive brought him a gleeful little joy at the impeding massacre.

  The warehouse was visible, people still loitering about as they socialized amongst each other. I must be across the world from last time. Octavia? Nah, Phillip would never allow slavery, and he’s still probably floating around there. Durnham? Nah, not enough smog. Suddenly he shuddered, Oh don’t tell me I’m in Turing’s little shit hole. That’s gonna be a problem.

  The guy had been unstable before all of this, and was one of the reasons he avoided the corporate people. The corporate children were the worst. His own mother had been a diplomat and bought his admittance to form beneficial relationships with them, though. He was so glad he didn’t have to deal with that witch and her creepy artificial intelligence assistant.

  He shook his head to clear it. Focus! The memory flood had been going since he woke up in the cart, but it’d be raw for up to a month after. The music was helping drown it out, and as he watched, he saw the fat fuck who’d been tormenting himself and the rest of his ‘stock’. Apparently the inability for product to say no was one of the perks of being a slave merchant.

  The man was making nice with some of the masked nobles, and Adelhard used one of his legacy traits to put marks on them. It’s a target rich environment. Might as well put up some goals.

  Quest Accepted

  Personal Challenge

  You have marked several targets as assassination marks. For the next 20 hours, you will know the location of each individual, and for every mark killed you will earn rewards based upon evaluation of targets assets, crimes, and skill. Bonuses rewarded for speed of completion and lack of collateral damage.

  Adelhard put his hand on his chin and turned his head enough to crack his neck, enjoying the sensation of tense muscles popping. If he was smart, he’d wait and patiently track each target, following them to their residences and killing them in their sleep. It wouldn’t even be hard with how practiced he was in stealth from his time robbing the people of the Honglung province blind.

  Or the Eldren Consortium.

  Or the Tomb of the Architect.

  He tossed the idea around as he put his hand along the wall, using magic to gently grip the wall and lower him safely to the ground. Adelhard was even tempted to keep quiet because of the six guards, seven well dressed and masked people, and the fat fuck who’d spent days beating the girl who’d been unfortunate enough to be too ‘damaged’ to be sold.

  “Nah.” I said out loud and dashed out of the shadows next to the guard I’d snuck up behind. With a swift kick to the unarmored back of his knee, Adelhard grabbed him by the chin and drew the knife across his throat. Before anyone else could react, he threw the dagger with uncanny aim right into the chest of a noble woman in a pretty blue dress that quickly grew dark from the injury.

  Then chaos erupted as guards began to form a half circle around him, steel rods brandished. They wouldn’t kill him, not intentionally anyway. They’d strap a collar on him, or worse make him use the kill switch after they started the process of putting one of those vile seals on him. It’d just hurt a lot.

  He couldn’t have that.

  Adelhard took the steel rod from the guard and fed it a little mana, letting the shock enchantment sizzle into the air with an evil smile. As they rushed, he fell backward into the shadow of the warehouse, and reappeared from under a nearby carriage. With a leap, he shoved the end against the back of another well dressed person’s neck, a man in some kind of military uniform with gold tassles. He dashed over and snagged the dagger and ran it across the man’s throat with contemptous ease, killing him.

  Funny how little high stats matter with a slit throat. Adelhard thought, idly, as he swiped the man’s sword, using it in his main hand and the dagger in his offhand. With a quick application of umbral manipulation, the blade seemed to absorb all light, making it hard to see in the darkness. It slipped into the next man’s chest easily enough, and he swiped it to the side, cutting off his arm as it exited his chest, the umbral edge doing it’s job of ignoring barriers from whatever enchanted bobbles were probably protecting him.

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  Two guards rushed at the small man, splitting up so they were on either side. He batted away a strike from one of their steel rods with the dagger and ducked under the other man’s swing at Adelhard's head. The knife went straight into that guy’s inner thigh and Adelhard tore it out spraying blood all over himself from the arterial spray. The first guard hesitated and the sword was rammed through his armored chestplate.

  The mana in the blade ran out, leaving it stuck and he clicked his tongue in irritation. Two guards and four nobles left. Adelhard thought, yelping as a Firebolt flew through the air just past his head. He’d heard it coming, but it still hurt getting that close. The dagger flew out, catching the mage in the throat, his mask falling into a slowly growing pool of blood. Three nobles.

  The two remaining guards had started moving towards the warehouse with the auctioneer. The people driving the carriages had driven off at the first death, so the nobles tried to hide in the warehouse with the auctioneer. He slapped a collar on two with surprising speed and pointed at Adelhard, “Stop him!”

  With jerky motions, the two newly enslaved men turned towards me. The small boy frowned as he grabbed the dagger again, wiping it on the outfit of the slain mage with confidence that he had time. Or cockiness.

  Rather than go for weapons, they both just tried to tackle Adelhard, tears streaming down their faces. He was almost sad as he sidestepped each sloppy lunge, tripping the second. The second the man hit the ground, Adelhard shoved the dagger into his back three or four times before rolling from another lunge by the still mobile man in a collar. I kicked his knee in the side, bending it in a rather painful angle, and stabbed the dagger into his eye with enough force to chip the tip of the blade on the stone pavement on the other side of his skull.

  Adelhard gave the last woman a bloodied grin as she clawed at the door to her supposed safety. He reached down and picked up a new dagger from one of the corpses, something with gold inlay and a fat gem for the pommel. He tested the weight, bouncing it a couple times as he stepped closer.

  “Please…” She begged, falling against the doors leading into the warehouse. “I’ll give you whatever you want! Crystals?! Skillbooks?! I’ll set all my slaves free! Please, just let me g- ACK!” Her voice was cut off as the fancy knife was thrust into her delicate throat pinning her to the door behind her.

  Adelhard smiled, but it didn’t reach his eyes. “Sorry, love. Wrong place. Wrong time.” He ripped the dagger out and made sure she wouldn’t suffer with another thrust.

  The auctioneer had crossed the warehouse in a panic, heading quickly to the back rooms where the stock was kept. He didn’t know what vengeful god had come down to enact this slaughter, but he wasn’t sticking around to find out. There was a secret passage in his office that if he got to it, he’ll be able to escape. Just a little farther.

  There was a scream from one of his guards that was quickly cut off, and a clash of metal on metal. Then the warehouse was eerily silent.

  That was when the humming started. The lights in the hallway he was running down started to flicker, making long shadows that seemed to crawl towards him. He thought he saw a small figure in the darkness.

  “Fuck this.” He said, throwing open the door to the warehouse where the stock was kept. It was already dark, but he made his way to the lights. There were still three more in here with him, a child, a crippled former bandit, and a woman with half her face burned off from a magical mishap. Not the best, but he was desperate.

  “Protect me!” He ordered them, the ring on his finger channeling his command. Except… nothing happened. “Move!” He shouted, and then hissed in pain. The auctioneer looked down and went pale.

  His hand was missing.

  The pain suddenly hit and he fell to his knees, crying out. Lights around the room flickered, and suddenly there was only a single light which was coming from his office. The door was ajar, even though he didn’t remember leaving it unlocked, let alone open. He didn’t care, as he got up and started stumbling towards it.

  And then fell, a burning pain near his feet as they refused to hold his weight. Looking at them, he saw there were two long slashes through his boots, blood seeping out of them. It didn’t matter, he started to crawl, trying to escape.

  “You know, normally, I’d play a little more with you. That secret tunnel is rather nice.” There was a sharp pain in the man’s back, and he suddenly couldn’t feel his legs. “But, I put myself on a time limit. Sorry.”

  His throat was the slit, blood spilling across the floor as his vision went dark.

  Adelhard let out a sigh of relief as the quest cleared.

  Quest Complete

  Total Kills: 13

  Time to Completion: 4:48

  Rewards are being calculated. Please acquire them from the nearest crystal.

  He wiped the dagger on the fat fuck’s clothes and scratched his head with the hand he’d took from the guy. “Now… what to do with you three…” The boy said, looking between the three. “Killing you three is a little cruel so close to freedom…”

  The child was shivering and Adelhard rolleld his eyes. Looking at the woman, he slipped the ring off the severed hand and tossed the appendage over his shoulder. Holding the ring, he asked, “Answer truthfully: You ever kill anyone who didn’t deserve it?”

  “N-no! I was still studying when I was caught.” She said, taking a deep breath after answering. It was rather unpleasant when asked like that. If caught in the middle of the breath it could even leave you lightheaded.

  “Hm…” He turned to the man who had a block of wood attached as a leg substitute. “Answer truthfully: You ever kill anyone who didn’t deserve it?”

  The grit teeth and sparking collar was a bad sign from him. As it brought him to his knees, he started clawing at the collar. Adelhard rolled his eyes and opened up his throat. “Dumbass. I’d have let you live if you’d just said yes. Had to be difficult.”

  With a sigh, he turned to the child. She couldn’t have been more than eight, though to be fair Adelhard thought his own body wasn’t more than a teenager. “And you. Answer truthfully: Ever kill someone who didn’t deserve it.”

  She balled her fists on the rough cotton shirt all the slaves wore, even Adelhard. “I’ve only ever killed my father. And he deserved it.”

  Adelhard shrugged, “Good enough for me.” He stepped over and used the ring to unlock the collar around her neck. He took it off and then did the same for the woman. Then I reached down to the auctioneer’s body and pulled out his little satchel with neatly arranged crystals and a key. He tossed it to the woman. “His safe is in the office. There’s a trapdoor under, though I don’t know where it leads. Probably into the city proper.”

  The woman fumbled with the satchel in surprise, letting out a surprised gasp at the violet and green crystals inside. “There’s so much…”

  “I think you’ve maybe got another five minutes before guards start showing up. Maybe less. I’m gonna go find some clothes and a shower.” Adelhard said, waving as he started heading towards the hallway leading out.

  “Wait!” The woman shouted as the child clutched onto her leg in fear. “C-can we come with you?”

  Adelhard shook his head and looked over his shoulder at them, “Nah. You’ll be in more trouble with me. Is Quintius still a thing overhere?” At her slow nod, he grinned, “Excellent! Leave your name with one of the shelters and I’ll try and look in on you later.”

  “Th-thank you…” She said, as he left the hall.

  Adelhard wanted to put his hands in pockets, but the pants didn’t have any. He settled for crossing them behind his head as he hummed along with his music.

  Once he was out of the warehouse again, he looked around and put his hands on his hips. He looked down at his bloody attire and let out a self depreciating sigh. “I had to start on hard mode, didn’t I? This all could have waited.” Running a hand through his hair, he let out a second, deeper sigh, “The next few years are gonna suck.”

  As he wandered off to seek a new wardrobe, he lamented the fact that he wouldn’t want to sleep with anyone as he was now. The only people he’d encounter would be sickos and the gross kind of degenerate. He stopped, tapping his chin with the pommel of his dagger. “Although… that could be a fun way to get exp. I’ve never specifically hunted pedos before.”