I glanced at the screen before me. The last thing I’d earned by defeating the Web Realm Weaver and escaping the Soul-Sheer.

  It was both a welcome boon and extremely concerning at the same time. Particularly that part about those internal and external effects that might not be noticeable. I had more than enough worries about being home without having to worry about some sort of vaguely worded consequences for surviving something that by all rights probably should have killed me.

  I activated [Stealth] and wandered out of the park, my aura expanding and contracting with each breath. As I wandered, I worked on my control, manipulating my aura into different shapes. I found that I could get more or less details on what I was using my aura to examine based on how much I focused on one particular thing. It was good information to have. It meant my new senses weren't infallible, particularly if I was distracted. If I were in a fight, I would have to be careful about relying on my aura senses until I could get some real training in. I wandered the familiar streets of Hadford, and it felt different. The city was the same as it had always been, but I was different.

  Stepping out under a street light, I realized I was going to run into a problem wandering around the way I was. People were going to ask questions about the guy running around town in an armoured chest plate, bracers, and ragged, bloody jeans. I could solve some of that issue right this second, thankfully, but the rest would need to be addressed sooner rather than later. [Mirage of the Root-Nexus], the cloak I wore, came with the handy ability to change its shape. It wouldn't have any combat bonuses or improve its abilities, but it would help me blend in better and draw less attention. Which in turn would help my [Stealth] Skill hide me better.

  It was a fair distance to my apartment from where I was now, so that was out as far as options went. There was, however, a large chain store only a few minutes away. I found that my conscience didn't rebel at all at the idea of liberating a few pieces from a massive corporation. Once upon a time, I might have hummed and hawed a little more before making the decision, but those days were gone. The simple reality was I needed clothes, and I'd get them however I had to. Preferably without hurting anyone who didn't deserve it.

  I was off once again at a brisk walk following the familiar streets towards the store. As I approached, I saw the familiar blue and white sign glowing in the distance. The parking lot was mostly empty at this late hour, with only a few cars scattered about. Perfect. I adjusted my cloak, willing it to take on the appearance of a simple dark hoodie. The fabric wrapped around my form easily and quickly; it was extra baggy to help hide my armour. The armoured chest plate underneath would still be noticeable if someone looked closely, but it was better than nothing. I took a deep breath, focusing on maintaining my [Stealth] as I approached the automatic doors.

  Unfortunately, it wouldn't be so simple as walking in, since store hours were ages ago. I questioned the wisdom of approaching the store from the front, where most of the cameras were likely pointed. In the end, I figured the deep hood of my sweater would cover my face and that would be a non-issue. I was certain there were alarms on the doors, though I was uncertain as to the nature of them. Loud or silent? Police or security? Once I was inside, I'd have a limited time to act. As I prepared to pry the doors open, I was struck by a thought.

  What am I doing? I'm going about this the wrong way. Like, I'm still just a normal person.

  I backed away from the doors, turning and jogging around the corner. The taste of home, the familiarity, had lulled me into thinking I was like the rest of the people here. I was not. Turning the corner, I leapt into the air, taking me most of the way up the twenty-foot wall of the building. My [Reach of Webs] easily found purchase on the wall, and I skittered up the wall easily. It was almost as if I'd been in my spider form; it was so simple. Then again, if I'd been in my spider form, I probably would have been able to just jump straight to the roof. I was keeping that under wraps, though, trying to keep a relatively low profile.

  On the roof, I found what I was looking for: a simple roof access door. I pried the door open with a single quick wrench, the steel unable to resist my enhanced strength. I slipped through the door and into the building, quickly navigating through halls and stairways that led to what seemed like the security area, employee break rooms and such. I ignored all of that, heading straight to the main floor of the building.

  I made my way quickly to the men's clothing section, grabbing a couple of pairs of dark jeans and a few plain t-shirts, stuffing them into a backpack I'd pilfered a couple of aisles back. As I moved, I kept my senses alert, my aura pulsing gently to warn me of any approaching danger. It felt strange, almost like I was cheating at a game I'd played my whole life without realizing the rules. I could do quite a bit more than even the strongest or fastest human, and I had senses the average person couldn't hope to match. If I were a more criminally inclined person, who could stop me from doing what I wanted, taking what I wanted? That thought settled in my gut in a way I wasn't quite sure what to do with.

  I slipped into a change room with my pilfered goods, changing quickly and making certain to remove all the security tags I could find. It wouldn't do to set any alarms off on my way out because of carelessness. I'd much prefer it if no one realized I was ever here outside of security cam footage. I could feel a tingle run across my skin every time I came within view of one of those cameras. I wasn't sure how my [Stealth] skill would interact with them. Reason and logic said I should still be recorded on the camera feeds, but it was hard to know with system fuckery that was skills involved. Magic made regular old logic hard to follow.

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  As I finished changing, I caught a glimpse of myself in the mirror. The man who stared back at me was not one that I recognized. I'd gotten glimpses of myself in the lake water back in the Soul-Sheer, but nothing with the clarity of a mirror. Long dark brown hair framed a pair of intense-looking brown eyes so dark they almost looked black. I'd been tall before I entered the Soul-Sheer, but it seemed I'd gained a few inches from all the stat boosts, or maybe it was the bloodline; I couldn't be sure either way. I wouldn't be joining any pro basketball teams with my new height, but I'd still tower over most people standing at six foot four or so. The new clothes fit well, and I looked far less conspicuous now that I was wearing pants that weren't more holes than pants. Thankfully, I'd managed to grab things that would accommodate my apparently new size. I stuffed my old, tattered jeans into the backpack, along with a few extra items I'd snatched up along the way, such as a smartphone that had a charge and a prepaid SIM card. My old phone was long gone, who knew where to. Probably lost somewhere in the cosmos.

  I was about to leave when I heard footsteps echoing through the store. My aura pulsed, alerting me to a presence moving closer; it was bright. Much brighter than any of the small animals I'd seen in the park. Where they were like lit matches, this was more like a campfire. Security guard, most likely. I froze, weighing my options. I could take them down easily enough, but that went against my goal of staying unnoticed. It didn't feel right picking on someone who really couldn't do me any harm either. Instead, I focused on my [Stealth] skill, willing myself to blend into the shadows. I could feel the skill activating, a cool sensation washing over me as I became harder to detect. I slung my stolen bag over my shoulders and climbed up the changing room walls until I was on top of the structure that lacked a ceiling. Looking around, I found the security guard wandering an aisle over. He was a heavy-set man who looked to be in his late forties. The beam of the flashlight he carried cut through the gloom that filled the store, filling that small slice with colour for my vision. It seemed an odd choice to me to leave the guard with nothing but a flashlight rather than leaving the lights on in the store. I imagined that was corporate greed at work. They probably wanted to keep the hydro bill low by leaving the lights off and making the old man wander around in the dark. Typical.

  I stayed perched where I was watching the guard for a few moments. Truthfully, he didn't seem very sharp. More like he was just wandering, doing his usual rounds and not expecting to find anything. The human mind was a wonder like that; the less you expected something different, the more the odds of you noticing anything different decreased. Confirmation bias, what a pain, what a gift. I slipped down from my perch to the ground, movement accompanied only by the slight whisper of fabric across fabric. Snatching an empty hanger from a nearby rack, I hurled it across the room, arcing up over the guard's head on its way. It fell to the ground with a clatter. I smirked as I watched the shine of the Guard's light whip around to face the direction of the hangar I'd tossed. I slipped through the racks, weaving around them, careful to keep as many between me and the security guard as I could manage. It would be better for all involved if no one knew I was here.

  The exit went smoothly, slipping through the shadows back the way I came. I passed what looked like the security room again on my way out. Honestly, looking between that room and the door I'd forced open, I had to wonder how the guard hadn't heard it. Perhaps he'd been taking a nap. I thought a job like that would probably be perfect for a mid-shift nap.

  Moments later, I was strolling down the street, newly clothed and with a phone situation to figure out. Fortunately, I'd gotten lucky and grabbed a SIM card that didn't need to be activated by the cashier, or was that my luck stat at work? Might be, might not be, but since I had more than triple the luck stat of any monster I'd ever seen, I couldn't write off the possibility. Not completely, at any rate.

  New SIM plugged into new phone. I tossed it into my bag, which was in turn tossed into my inventory. I sighed. I supposed it was time to head for the crappy little apartment I'd called home for the last few years. I had an idea of what I'd find when I got there, and what it would likely mean. That didn't make the thought any easier to deal with, though.

  ——-

  "Sir?" A familiar young man had poked his head around the corner of the office door. David Giffle sat at a large mahogany office desk that dominated the room. Such a thing wasn't difficult, as David preferred his office to be relatively spartan and minimal compared to most of his subordinates. David waved the younger man into his office, still staring at the bank of four computer screens that took up the majority of the space that his large desk afforded him for working.

  “Sir, you wanted to be informed of the analyst’s preliminary findings?”

  David let out a sigh, sagging back into the well-worn brown leather of his chair, the single most luxurious item in an otherwise bare office. It had been a long night already. David was used to long nights; his position as a member of the steering committee required a large amount of time that he didn't always have during the day. The last few days had been even more sleepless than usual, however, and tonight his office was a veritable hive of activity. The regional director was breathing down the committee's necks for answers. The last few days had seen various magical phenomena, fluctuations they couldn't explain. Tonight, every alarm they had that was set to detect spikes of mana and magical energy went off. They all pointed in the same direction.

  A small city, only a couple of hours south of their Toronto office.

  “Let me hear it, what have they found out?”

  "Sir, the analysts have determined that the source of the disturbance is in the city of Hadford, two hours to our south." The young man rattled off, looking down at a metal clipboard in his hands, which presumably held a report and several notes from the analysts.

  "The spiking and energy signatures we've seen are inconsistent with indicators of a tide coming in. We've seen no other signs of a dungeon forming in the area." The young man took a deep breath. Which concerned David greatly, Ed Galt had been an assistant to him for over two years now, and it wasn't often he saw the young man rattled. He saw it now in the tightness around his eyes and the way he held his posture tightly.

  "The analysts have concluded that it could only be one of a few things. The team concedes there is a possibility of it being a random magical phenomenon, but their current working guesses are based on the idea that someone has been initiated without our knowledge, one way or another. They suspect someone has survived a Soul-Sheer."

  David sat up ramrod straight in his chair; his mind whirled. He needed to react to this quickly; someone who'd been initiated could cause an untold amount of damage if they weren't brought quickly into the fold. That wasn't even covering the possibility that they might be someone who wanted to cause that damage and more. It was his organization's entire goal to prevent such damage from occurring.

  "Scramble teams, Alpha through Delta. I want them sweeping that city within the hour. I need the details of the situation." David Proclaimed, standing from his chair and leaning over his desk. "If this is someone who hasn't been initiated yet, they are to observe only. No contact until I say otherwise, understood?"

  "Yes, sir!" Ed turned around smartly and marched off, hinting at his previous military training before David had poached him from the army.

  "Nothing to do but wait now." David sighed, opening the top right drawer of his desk. Inside was a bottle of single malt whisky and a pair of glasses.

  "It's going to be a long night."