I spent the next day eyeing the area around the cave entrance. I did not want to be preparing my ambush when someone came to find where the ork guards had disappeared to. I frankly also needed the rest. Once the sun had set and the sounds of the forest turned into the silent rustling of the night I finally got to work. There was some semblance of a path the guards had used. I expected any scout to use it at least until somewhat close to the cave. The ambush itself would be set outside. I did not want to be caged in, in case someone too dangerous came by. So I set myself up in the trees above the path.

I hid my wand in a nook between the branches. This would be my hiding spot. Next, I wanted to make it more difficult for my targets to escape. This would be difficult. If I set up an actual barrier, anyone coming here would immediately notice something was wrong. Instead, I had to hide my tampering in the undergrowth. Setting traps would be easy with hands. Luckily I had my newly improved shadows to help out. I took simple trap designs and set them up behind bushes and trees. Pointy wooden sticks stuck in the earth, large leaves and other plant matter set up to make a fleeing target trip. Things like that. I had learned a few basic things from the goblins about tool use and now I could finally make use of them.

The path itself and its immediate surroundings were kept clear. This way my trap would hopefully avoid early detection. Once I was done I took to the air and hunted some food. I had a small stash in the trees I had set up at before, but it was further away than I was willing to travel at this time.

It was starting to get boring. Another day passed by slowly with nothing happening. I sat ready to spring my trap half asleep and nothing was happening. Why did this have to be this boring? Could I not just get a few bags of experience walk up and let themselves get harvested?

Just as I thought that I recoiled. What? What had I just thought? Urgh! I was turning into a psychopath! This was exactly why I had made my rules in the first place. I did not want to be a complete monster. A bit was fine, I loved to hunt, after all, it was my main food source. Currently even my only one. But it was not okay to think of other sapients as walking experience. I had become addicted to levelling up. And my Class only levelled from killing. This… was hard. Maybe I needed another rule?

First rule: I will kill my chosen target.

Second rule: I will not kill other living beings besides my target unless they get in the way.

Third rule: I will only choose a target for personal growth or food if I have a valid escape plan.

These were not stopping me from just randomly killing everyone. My previous fourth rule about having additional motivation in order to target another sapient might help. But it was kinda iffy. Additional motivation was such a widespread option, I could just say ‘I need more experience’ and call it a day. Night. Whatever. I was really confused huh? Calling it a day. I was nocturnal. I had always thought in terms of ‘nights’ and not ‘days’. This… was my human side coming back out again. And my owl side did not care about killing random people, but my human side certainly did. It already stopped me from eating the orks. Though I had no way of knowing how healthy those would have been for me anyways.

Maybe flux did worse than just knock me out? I only started to get these contradictory ideas after using magic. And they got stronger, or rather more dissonant since then.

There was something to be said about being aware of what I wanted. Right now only a few things truly entertained me. Hunting was one of them. Flying around and discovering new places was another. And learning new magic was the last. Anything else, I did not really care about. I really needed a hobby. And maybe magic would be the best choice. I would try to infiltrate one of those mansions. Maybe I could figure out how to go about it that way. Roguk only was an alchemist. I was pretty sure there was a Class for [Thaumaturge]. Maybe I could unlock it? Maybe I did not even need a Class to do magic? Something to think about once I had gotten deeper into one of those buildings and learned more.

And hopefully, I would learn more about the potential negative side effects of flux and magic in general.

I had left the area soon after and returned to my trees. As it was the middle of the day, I could maybe get some more information on the nearby mansions. I would have to pick one to get into. After a little snack, I took off to do some scouting. My wand was left at my stash, it might give away my intelligence which would make it more difficult to trick my target. There were three potential places for me to invade close by. At first, it was hard to make out a qualitative difference between them. Soon though I started to notice some details. One of the buildings stood out because there was not a single golem moving around. Instead, its garden was a lot more overgrown. A robed ork left the building to harvest something but soon disappeared again. I had noticed even from my height how he was shrouded in a veritable bubble of mana. He had to have some powerful artefacts on him.

The other two were less distinctive. Both had golems tending to the garden and looked very cleaned up. Both were tall three-storey buildings with curtained off windows. One of them had an inner courtyard holding something I guessed to be a forge or smithy. I could not tell the difference. The other one had a similar place but it was built on the side of the house and covered with a slanted roof.

All this led me to believe the first house was the one I could learn the most from. At least about the things I wanted to learn right now. The other two seemed focused on some more practical crafting, which I could not make use of without at least another level in [Owl’s Shadow]. So I decided on my infiltration target. I expected there to be far stronger wards and magical barriers but I would not have to deal with golems. Remembering the ones that shot the living armour made me a bit apprehensive of getting close to a golem defended building.

I returned at night for another round of scouting. This time I got far closer and focused my senses as best I could to spot any magical defences. It was pretty obvious the house owner did not want intruders. I found a dome-like barrier covering the whole estate. This was easy to pass through though using [Eldritch Shift]. It did not react to my shadows in the slightest and so I got in. I was still almost two dozen metres away from the visible border formed by an overgrown wall. A single gate stood to the west leading off onto a rarely used dirt street.

The next moment I spotted a mouse walking straight through the outer barrier and nothing happened. I felt stupid. But it might just react to sapients. Or those with a certain amount of mana. Or only notify the thaumaturge. I did not know and I would shift back outside later, just to be safe.

The wall and gate were not supported by a magical barrier, instead, I noticed small spots of mana set at regular intervals around the perimeter. They were set in three lines each one metre apart and offset from one another. This created a zig-zagging pattern forming diamond shapes along the wall. The gate itself held six energy spots on both of its posts. It would be the easiest way through had I no wings.

I watched the same mouse walking straight through the outer barrier earlier get close to the wall and as it reached a distance of about two metres a bolt of lightning shot out of one of the energy spots and fired the rodent in an instant. I was definitely keeping my distance from that.

Instead, I took to the air. I wanted to try and get a look at the house proper. The windows and door would surely leave a spot open somewhere for me to get inside. And maybe I could even see into some of the rooms and figure out a plan of where to go.

It turned out to be impossible. Every window was covered with curtains and I could not spot anything inside. More of the lightning wards from the wall were set around the building itself. This seemed to be the home of someone truly paranoid. Did he expect some random ork to come by and steal his secrets? The door was even worse. Even though there was no lightning waiting to fry me it was a perfectly slotted piece of massive wood without any handle or keyhole or even a gap near ground level. It was impossible to get my shadow inside. Otherwise, it would have likely been easy to get in through there. But then I spotted it. There was a tiny gap on the upper end. Even the most paranoid thaumaturge had forgotten the most basic rule. Always check above. It was just low enough for me to snake a shadow inside. I had an entrance. Now I only needed to figure out the resident’s schedule. I decided to spy on the mansion for another three days. That would be enough to get a basic idea of what he did. And if he was completely invisible during that time, I would just go through with my plan at night time.

I found a tree in a thicket nearby and moved my food stash as well as my wand over there. From this place, it would be easy to see any movement on the south and west side of the house, which included the largest windows, the door and the gate. It was the perfect spot for spying.