Author's Note:

This is a very short one but I just couldn't add anything else. It was supposed to contain many other things but it looked like a good place to end the chapter and Ace no longer wanted to do anything. He needed a bit of a rest before being able to stand up again. ;)

****

"You sure this is a good idea? We'll waste half of our resources for it."

"We must. No one can escape after opposing us or we'll become a laughing stock. We can't let our name be damaged!"

"But it's just one person! And a kid at that!"

"That's why we'll look like idiots if truth was ever found!"

"We'll look like monsters if we actually succeed. Do you imagine how will the world see it? As you just said, they don't know a thing about him doing anything!"

"Shut up, Caro. You seem to not understand the point of it so just go and follow your orders. I hope you can do that at least, can't you?"

***

Ace woke up in a welcoming blackness. There was no one around to disturb him but it was time to get up. He had promised those people outside to play a game with them and he didn't want to disappoint anyone.

Outside of the wagon it was much lighter. Wagons were moved to make a big circle and large fires had been lighted in two rings; one outside, surrounding wagons and one inside, where all the people had gathered. None of them were sleeping, all looking around with wide eyes, grasping their weapons tightly. 'So you chose to be sitting ducks? How boring.'

But they were in a large group which prevented him from just assassinating them one by one. He needed some other way to take their lives. 'Should I just throw stuff at them? But that would reveal me... Mask!'

He rummaged through his backpack and found the fox mask he had bought in the carnival. It covered his eyes and nose, leaving his malicious smile to be seen by everyone. Done, he looked for something to throw in his inventory. There were five throwing axes, two metal fans, thirty swords and fifty throwing knifes. Well, there were also fifteen claymores but he wasn't sure whether he would throw them or be stuck at trying to lift them.

Carefully he took out all the weapons in succession at different roofs of all wagons. He covered all blades with random poisons to be tested out; some would probably be deadly while others probably only gave diarrhoea. He was going to enjoy watching them deal with it all.

*Swiish!*

One of the axes embedded themselves into a mercenary's forehead. "Awghh!" he screamed, pulling it off. Purple liquid dripped from it.

Moment later when people grasped the situation, they looked at the direction the weapon had come from. A dark figure stood on a wagon, outlined by the fires. His clothes were tattered, burnt and bloody along with his whole body. Crimson covered everything but a single piece of wood which resembled a trickster fox. It gave off a strange contrast with the rest of the body. The guy held an axe which quickly embedded itself into another mercenary.

This time white foam formed onto the wound and the man started to claw at it. "Burns! It burns! Get it off of me!" he screamed but no one was able to help him. There simply were nothing on the man’s wound. So all everyone could do was watch in horror as the man kept on tearing his own skin and screaming. That is until one of them couldn't it take it any more and killed his own comrade. "I'm sorry Lilian..."

'So it was a girl? Oh well, too bad. But that poison was interesting. Not only did it corrode blood but made a person start to hallucinate in an instant. If I ever planned to scare anyone to death, this would be the perfect choice.' Strange shadows danced in his eyes as he jumped behind the wagons to reuse [Shadow Veil] and choose a different direction to attack from. Even if they had no mages, they could throw something at him and that would be dangerous. There was no reason to take any risks.

"What is that thing? Is he even human?"

"What are these cursed weapons?"

"We're doomed! There's no chance for us to survive!"

Ace listened to them walking on the rooftops, choosing a position. It was just luck that those poisons worked and were deadly. He didn't count on others to follow the same path. It was rare for many of his creations to actually be useful. Maybe every fifth or so brought actual results and even of those half were only minor de-buffs. But people had no knowledge of that and it showed on their paper white faces.

"Calm down! If you lose to panic, we'll all be wiped out! We must determine from where he's attacking and catch him there! He's just a single person! And there are fires outlining him from both sides!" the pristinely clean mercenary said, still pretending to be the leader. He was annoying Ace so the kid aimed his next attack at him.

The third try brought results. Of the worst kind, of course. The mercenary received only a small slash on the cheek and didn't seem to show any kinds of sickness. He even looked better, the wound closing up in seconds and his skin starting to glow soft yellow. 'Dammit. Why do poisonous plants mixed up sometimes turn into potions? It's stupid. And like always on all the wrong people' he cursed jumping down and finding another place to throw a dagger.

It had no real effect again. The guy started to cough. 'Dammit'.

"Look at it! This guy is just using whatever he has! It's all a farce to make us afraid!" some merchant shouted throwing a dagger back at Ace who easily avoided it and returned the favour by throwing a long sword at the guy. He, unlike the merchant, hit his target. It skewered the man's heart.

Ace laughed maniacally. Merchants were a class without any defence characteristics allowing them to be easily killed. But even Ace didn't expect to see such a big contrast between his power and their defence. Were they level twenty or something?

"How did he..."

"Is that even possible? To one hit anyone?"

"That's insane!"

People shouted in raised voices with their wide eyes looking for confirmation from each other. It was an extremely rare thing to see anyone die from a single hit because people with such big differences never fought against each other. There was just no point to it.

"He's a high level user. Be careful to evade all the projectiles!"

"But we can't see him before he attacks!"

"So you think you could evade then?" Ace asked in a whisper. "We'll see about that."

This time instead of hiding he picked up a dagger coated in a random poison and started to run around. He jumped from one wagon to another, back and forth before throwing it from one of the farthest corners. It only scratched one of the merchant's hands but it was all it took for poison to take effect. The guy started to convulse and vomit blood. "Iagaha - waghga..." He tried saying something but no words could be understood between all the coughing. He died soon after that.

To annoy them more Ace’s laugh echoed in the night's silence, disturbed only by the cracking of fire. He continued with his running around and throwing. There were still enough of them to hit someone with ease.

One guy couldn't take it and tried to run through the fires in a vain hope to escape. "I hate those who try to run away before finishing what they had started" Ace hissed and jumped down from a wagon, appearing right in front of the man. He didn't live long after that.

The game continued on. They had thought to protect themselves by making three rings of defences but now it worked against them. There was no way to escape his daggers that flew without ever missing their designed targets.

"Should we make a break for it? Then at least some of us might survive" someone said, suggesting a new kind of plan which Ace didn't like at all.

"Is everyone ready?" the leader mercenary asked after a moment’s delay.

Ace hissed like an angry kitten and took out a bunch of daggers. Two of them were coated in one of his favourite poisons in existence. "Go mad!" he screamed, aiming it at the leader and the mercenary who suggested the stupid plan. They tried evading to the best of their abilities but mercenaries weren't known for their high agility. They tended to sneer at rogues who relied on quickness while priding themselves in their strength, now which was their folly.

Theirs eyes turned red while face's twisted in strangest of ways, hands grabbed onto weapons and swung them. Crimson liquid splashed around and screams rose in the night as soft fires cracked continuously. Their warm light fell on the two who were slaughtering everything that moved, themselves included. Few people that managed to escape their eyes were picked off by uncounted for daggers.

Ace watched it happening and smiled gleefully; the man who wanted to save everyone the most was about to be finished with killing them all. Only he and another berserker were left standing. Ace took out a piece of dried meat and sat down on an edge of a wagon. Dangling his legs, he watched the fight before him.

Both men used claymores, wore similar armour and seemed equal in levels as neither had the advantage. Or wait. The pretend leader was bleeding from his eye, it couldn't be helping for him to see better. Yet both fighters were on equal footing. 'Does that mean the pretend leader is a much more experienced player?'

Sparks flew as swords clashed, their wielders quickly attacking again and again. Somehow the claymores were moved easily in the hands of the two mercenaries as if they were as light as feathers. Left, left, right, left, left, a kick. 'So in berserk mode you don't fight fair even though normally you would? I haven't noticed that before.'

That kick fell the plan maker and he received a huge slash over his chest which destroyed armour and took his last health points. Ace used that moment to sneak behind the pretend leader and use his attacks. "Curse of the Hungry! Heart-seeker!" It killed the man in an instant allowing Ace to look through his inventory. There were many maps, books, letters, orbs and jewellery. No heavy items like weapons or armor were present.

"Aw... I expected him to have some more high level equipment as he kept his so clean. Probably he took care of it himself and then walked cleanly pretending to be rich. What a loser" he said, moving all the items besides a silver wing to his own inventory. After that he collected all the other items dropped by dead players and put out most of the fires. One was enough.

He sat down next to it and decided to look through the messages he had received.

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

You have leveled up!

Dagger master has reached Intermediate!

Flare has reached Master level!

Heart-seeker has reached Average 9!

Curse of the Hungry has reached Average 6!]/window]

[window]Phantasm has reached Average 3!

Phantasm has reached Beginner 4!

Backstab has reached Average 7!

Cut-throat has reached Average 7!

Shadow Veil has reached Average 10!

Silent Steps has reached Average 6!

Evasion has reached Average 5!

Instincts of a Predator has reached Average 4

Alchemy mastery has reached Average 1!

"When was the last time I looked through this?' he asked himself, deleting all the messages 'They're so annoying. Why can't I just turn them off...’

"They said I'm a high level user yet I doubt that. I'm still in the early numbers of a hundred. And the bastard L forgot to acknowledge my quest as finished so I didn't get the experience for the siege. I'm clearly behind many others who didn't waste half a year learning dagger fighting and continues to run around doing random stuff. It'll soon be a year since I'm in a game and I've only been in a single low levelled dungeon! What am I doing?" he asked himself, gazing at the flames. "Eh... Who cares? I'm fine and with that. What's important is expanding my knowledge."

He shook his head and ate some barley bread. It was as soft as a rock and as tasty as paper but together with water it filled his stomach and his satiety went up to the maximum. Then he took a journal out of his bag. It was the girl's from the magician guild he'd once wiped out.

He had never managed to finish reading it while she almost overthrew his rule in the guild. Maybe there was more to her rage when just being killed and losing all items? People tend to share their stories with books for some reason. He could never understand why they did it, there was memory for that which kept all the important things and removed the unnecessary ones.

After ten minutes of reading an interesting paragraph caught his eye.

*I think there's a way to combine magic with weaponry but not in a way enchanters do that. Instead of giving a small buff or adding a permanent quality, it would add an ability to that particular weapon for a duration you keep the spell on it.

I've tested it with a fireball and an ice type sword. It still did ice type damage but every fifth strike it flamed up dealing extreme heat damage. The contact with it burned enemies along with allies. There was no difference even if it was me, the caster. I'll have to find a way to control it.

When you try to combine elements of the same type, the weapon's power is doubled but it breaks in a short time. Ice type with ice ball deals extreme cold damage and apply a random chance to freeze your opponent. The sword broke after three minutes. Same happened with other elements.*

After that she wrote down all other experiments that she had conducted with fusing magic with metals but there was hardly anything more than the beginning said. 'If that is truth, why didn't I read this thing before?'

He took out a normal dagger with no specifics. "Gust!" he said trying to push it inside the weapon. After a bit of fighting against a wind he somehow managed to get it in. "Item Preview!"

Dagger of Raging Wind!

Attack Damage 30

Durability 20/20

Simple dagger made by a good blacksmith.

+ Each hit releases a small gust dealing small damage. Some attacks might push your opponent back

"Amazing! How did I survive so long without it? If this low level skill can do this much, what would happen if I knew a truly strong spell? Maybe I should acquire one just for that? I'll see about that when I get to the city. I should read all other books I had taken up till now. They might actually contain useful information!" he said with a smile and exchanged the girl's journal for the guild leader's one. It was possible that the old man was actually the one that had taught the girl.

It showed up to have been a vain hope. There was nothing besides a few notes about the girl's talents and how she's the best student he'd ever had. Everything else was only guild's things so quite soon he threw the journal into the fire. There was no point in carrying a worthless book.

After that he took out a pot, filled it with water and cast [Gust] to keep it afloat over the fire. When water boiled, he put a new combination of herbs in and took out another book to read. This was how he spent four days; creating potions and reading everything ranging from magic to history and fighting descriptions.

On the fifth day's morning he heard hoof beats from somewhere far away. 'They're early' he thought yawning and put all of his things in the backpack. Then used [Shadow Veil] and decided to watch from the forest. One round against them was more than enough for him. He was pretty sure they had created gazillions of ways to counter every step he had done or might do. Otherwise, they wouldn’t have come here.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? What if he's waiting in ambush?"

"It's day now and we're prepared. Back then he caught us unaware and we didn't know what we were dealing with. Everyone had thought that he left or changed professions but to think we'd encounter him here... And we even invited him in by going to look for him! It was just very very bad luck" an elderly man said to his friend who smiled forcefully.

"I don't even remember killing him...” Ace murmured watching them pass. There was strange emptiness in his chest and many unanswerable questions rose in his head. "Gaaah!" he screamed into the bright sky, where the sun was only raising.

Horses halted and bows aimed at Ace who glared at everyone through the spaces in his mask. There was such deep hatred in his eyes that people could only stare at him with wide eyed expressions, their own anger forgotten. None dared to attack and soon like a living shadow the creature disappeared into the forest.

Only after some time did people start to ask questions.

"What was that..?"

"Is that..?"

"Yeah..."

"What happened to him..?"

"Is he really human..?"

"It is said so... But..."

"What had to be done to turn him into that... Isn't he just a kid?"

"I heard the owners of the game allowed only children who needed psychological help to enter the game. Their actions are recorded by special cameras that read brainwaves. But I never thought it was so bad... What must have happened for a kid to become like this..?"

"An avatar of destruction? He had to be destroyed from the inside" the old man at the front said. There was sadness in his eyes as he gazed at the space where the boy had disappeared.

"Why do you think he showed up to us? And what's with the ear-splitting scream?"

"Who knows? Maybe he can actually still feel guilt?”

Ace ran back into the forest, he heard bits and pieces of conversation and it made him double his speed. He had no wish to hear them talk about his life and not even come close to it. It was his own burden to bear and others had no reason to butt in.

When he was sure no sounds would reach him, he stopped to take a breath. "I'm so tired..." he murmured and sat down. "Maybe I should annoy L some?"

"Hellooo! How are you doiiing?" he asked using voice chat.

Ten or so minutes later a short reply was sent to him.

/Meeting./

'Really that took you so long to write?'

"Really? And here I thought you wanted to hear some secrets of Morion... How silly of me. I'll remember not to disturb you again, oh Master!" Ace said in an exaggerated manner cutting off the chat.

Five seconds later he received a call.

"What do you know?"

"But I thought you were in a meeting! You can't just up and leave it!"

"Forget that! What did you find out?"

"So nooow you're interested? Why the sudden change?" Ace asked with a smile. He could hear impatience in his opponent’s voice and wanted to drag it out even more.

"Stop playing around! Tell me!" L said, his voice shaking slightly.

"Say sorry and please! You know you've been a bad boy, giving me the worst of missions. And even sending people to follow me..." Ace said, improvising. It was always good to pretend to know more than you did, it kept the superiors doubting themselves and whether they can fool you.

"What? How do you know about Rowena?" L asked quickly.

'So that's what her name was! Wait! She is a spy? Since when?' "You should pick better people for that. Did you really think I wouldn't see through her?" 'Well, I didn't but you were kind enough to enlighten me on my mistake. I'll make sure to remember that you're truly an untrustworthy type.'

"Dammit, I knew she wasn't cut for it but I wanted to send her away. She should have been safer away from this city. Dammit, how did you find it out anyway?" L asked tiredly. For a moment there were sounds of quiet conversation so Ace kept silent. Only when they stopped did he answer.

"Accidents don't happen. And I'm really not the trusting kind. Suddenly a girl wants to join two kids? That doesn't sound likely. Next time find someone that could at least infiltrate..." 'What nonsense am I spewing now, seriously...'

"At least tell me how is she? Can you see her now?"

"What? Eh... Not really. Things happened and Par is in real life for a sixth day here, Rowena is in the witch's hut and I'm somewhere in a wide forest. Or that's how it was five mornings ago when I left..." Ace said, scratching the back of his head.

"You left her all alone? Are you a mad?" L screamed.

"Hey! I'm a kid here! I need protection, not she!" Ace said with his voice raised.

"You're a killer, not a kid! And she's a sheltered young lady! You should have noticed that!"

"Oh really?" Ace asked dryly. "So why in the god's name did you send this princess to follow a killer? A monster that you expected to betray you at the first possible moment? And on top of that you expect this despicable creature to suddenly develop a kind heart? I think you've read too many fairy tales when you were a kid."

"You..." L said, not finding words to express his frustration.

"No longer have anything to add? I'm grateful to have heard everything you had to say" Ace said in a perfectly calm and friendly voice. "I'll make sure to keep it in mind. Hopefully, we won't meet again."

"Wait!"

Ace cut off the chat, quickly typed North Wind’s letter and sent it to L while ignoring his calls. Then he deleted the guy from his friends list. On a second though he also abandoned the siege quest that he hadn't given in yet. After that he carefully took out a flute and brushed his fingers over its surface. It was crude and uneven but it was his only friend so he held it closer to his heart and after a moment started to play. It was the song of a little swallow.