My lungs burned in a way that felt almost good.
My legs begged for mercy in a way that made me feel more motivated.
I staggered to a slow walk in the narrow backstreet, sweat running down my face. The timer in the corner of my vision chimed softly.
[Task Complete – Run 3km without stopping]
For a second, I let myself grin. My muscles ached, sure, but it wasn't the deep, tearing fatigue I remembered from before my death.
This was the first time I've ever trained in my life.
It made me realise that I was truly transitioning from normal... into something else.
The Trickster's Path had built something inside me I couldn't have grown on my own. It was there in every step, more spring, more drive.
Two down. Two left.
[Cycle 1 – Time Remaining: 01:27:51]
Tasks Remaining:
– Help a stranger in some way
– Buy something and give it to a person in need
Only one hour was left.
Time is ticking and I ain't moving.
Let's start off with the easier one. Let's just buy some food for someone in need.
Even though the trickster's path was there to help me get stronger and rewrite my mistakes, it's also there to make me a better person.
In my past life, I hadn't given anything to the people in need. In my eyes, the only important thing in the world is my mother.
Oh well, looks like I have to do this even if I don't want to.
Even though I was revived, I still wasn't wealthy, so I couldn't spend too much on the person.
The market was the obvious place to find an opportunity.
Its heartbeat was noise, clattering wagons, haggling, laughter, the flick of knives through fish bellies.
It was near my house, the place I still haven't gone back to.
I wove through bodies until I spotted a target: a scrawny man hunched on a crate in a shadowed doorway, staring at his empty hands.
Scarce clothes, sunken cheeks. Easy choice.
Target acquired
I bought two skewers from a grill cart. The vendor flipped them once over smoldering coals before passing them to me, still dripping with fat.
"Eat." I crouched by the man and held one out.
His brow furrowed. "Why?"
"Because you'll drop dead if you don't," I said simply.
Just take it so I can go on with my day.
After a beat, he took it. "Thank you."
We sat down and ate together.
Never in my life would I have thought that I would be sharing lunch with a homeless man.
It felt odd, however.
It wasn't as bad as I thought.
I had always had my mom as my top priority, so I never had any fun times with anyone.
It felt good.
Huh. Interesting
"What's your name, son?" The man asked me.
"Why does it matter? Just eat your food." I wasn't obligated to tell him anything.
He looked at me and smiled, "I just didn't know that young people like you were still so kind. I'm Mazu."
I nodded and then stood up.
"It's Kael."
Maybe people weren't so bad after all.
[Task Complete – Buy something and give it to a person in need]
One left.
Alright, one more task to go, then I can finally rest easy.
I'd barely moved away when the shouting started.
People running away in different directions.
Chaos erupting everywhere.
The old man curled up. Hoping he doesn't get involved.
It was obvious, he didn't have enough muscle or energy to run or find help.
The crowd split like oil from water.
Through the gap came a man in a ripped jacket and cracked leather boots, eyes too wide and shining, skin faintly veined with sickly orange light.
He's strong. For some reason, he feels boosted, no, he feels like he's powered up by something.
Even from here, I could feel the wrong hum in his Essence.
He didn't go for the loudest or richest target. He went straight for the man I'd just fed.
It seems like he thought that he was the easiest target.
The man didn't look sane, craziness in his eyes.
I could tell that this wasn't a human anymore. It was a monster.
He took out a dagger, aiming for Mazu.
Mazu screaming in terror.
I ran.
I don't know what came of me.
I held his arm before it landed anywhere near Mazu.
The poor man tumbled backward, untouched.
[Task Complete – Help a stranger in some way]
[Cycle Complete – Upgrades Applied: Speed +1 | Intelligence +1]
The change was instant.
The color of the world deepened.
Sound sharpened like glass, the scrape of his boot on stone, the rhythm of his breathing, the twitch before he swung.
My muscles lit with the urge to move, faster, cleaner, smarter.
The attacker snarled and lashed out.
Waving his dagger everywhere around him, hoping to slash anything.
This is the true nature of Humans. Monsters.
The dagger jab came quick, but my feet were already carrying me just out of reach, like my body had been waiting for his cue.
His weight was forward-heavy, center too high, easy to exploit, a thought I wouldn't have bothered with before.
It seemed like the intelligence was doing its job. I analyzed him in an instant.
I stepped in, cuffed his wrist aside, and hammered my knuckles into his ribs.
"ARRGHHH" He screamed in pain.
I could hear his bones slowly shattering from my attack.
The blow landed with a satisfying drip of emberflame, enough to jar him, but not enough to put him down.
"You've got moves," he growled, crouching again. "Let's see if you fall easily."
So it speaks.
He lunged, low and fast.
My brain processed his lines like a map: left hip twist meant right slash.
I pivoted past it, caught his arm in a hook, and drove my knee into his midsection.
It wasn't a fight anymore, It was a trial for my new body.
He spat, stumbled. But he didn't break.
He swung wildly, catching my shoulder and numbing my arm.
My strength stat wasn't upgraded, so I couldn't exchange blows with him.
Moreover, even in a new body, stabs still deal hefty damage.
Pain flashed and my steps stuttered, a reminder I wasn't untouchable.
A reality check.
He grinned at that, pressing forward with a flurry of short strikes, each one aiming to corner me.
He's trying to pin me so that I can't use my speed.
I backstepped, heart pounding, and then cut low, sweeping my foot against his ankle.
That should keep him down
His balance blew out from under him, enough for me to shove him toward a stall post. He rebounded, dazed, blade flailing.
I slid inside, using the extra reach my speed gave me, and slammed my flaming fist straight into the side of his face.
I backstepped again, then I ran towards him with my new, improved speed, emberflame in my palm, and crashed into him at full speed. Aiming at his gut.
He hit the cobblestones hard.
And fell face-first into the ground.
I circled once as he groaned, ready for a last lunge, but the knife clattered from his hand and stayed there.
"You will regret this." He said, laughing. "HE IS COMING."
His Essence flickered dimly, no more fight in him.
My chest heaved, but I wasn't broken or bleeding out. For the first time, I'd fought someone who wanted to kill me and won.
It wasn't like last time.
I turned to find Mazu hugging my leg and bowing down to me.
"Get up, I don't need this."
"Thank you, Kael. You saved me."
"You're welcome."
As I explained to Mazu that it wasn't a big deal. Something happened.
That's when I felt it, the prickling sense of being watched.
Two figures lounged in the shadow of a recessed building, too far to be passersby, too focused to be idlers.
They weren't there by coincidence. But on purpose.
A cloak hid most of their forms, but one tilted his chin just enough to show a faint, knowing smile.
Even across the noise and distance, I heard it as if it brushed my ear:
"I want him."
A blink later, he was gone, both of them, swallowed by the alley darkness.
Cold chased the rush of the fight down my spine.
I left before the guards arrived to drag my opponent away.
And just before I knew it. I was there.
My legs carried me down streets I hadn't dared revisit, not since that night.
The door had been replaced. The blood washed away. If someone didn't know, they'd think nothing happened here.
But the smell wasn't hers anymore, no tea leaves, no bread, no wind-song.
Just dust.
I stepped inside.
The table and chairs were still there. The walls were the same shade. But the air, it was empty.
The system flickered softly.
[Cycle 1 Complete: Speed 0 → 1 | Intelligence 0 → 1 applied.]
I flexed my hands, steadier now, surer.
My thoughts settled into neat, sharp lines.
Not enough to kill him yet.
Not enough to stop the kind of men like him. But closer.
I closed my eyes, saw the hooded murderer, the flash of white, my mother's eyes.
"This is just the start," I told the silence, and the fire in my chest burned hotter.
Outside, the city went on living.
And somewhere in its veins, the people I needed to find were walking.
Elswhere
"It seems like the problem with it is still on the rise, huh?"
"Yes, sir."
"Looks like we're gonna have to take action against it, the Enhancers."
"We should act quickly, sir, or more criminals like him who use the Enhancers will appear."
"You're correct. But before that, find me everything you can find about that guy."
"Alright, sir, I'll look into the emberflame user."