The city was much quieter than usual. I preferred this to the noisy tides of men and women but knowing the reason for their more reserved demeanor spoiled my pleasure. Derrick was certainly dead by now. News of small towns being overrun had begun to reach the city a week ago. If the horde was taking on towns surrounded by palisades and small stone walls, there was no chance for undefended villages.

Contracts for adventurers were now solely focused on escorting refugees and eliminating hurlocks. Villages were no longer being defended, and rumors were spreading of non-hurlock horde creatures involved in the larger attacks. I wasn't convinced. The horde spawned hurlocks by abducting and changing human women; if they were creating different variations, they would have to access one of the older races.

Dwarves, elves, and minotaurs were overrun and exterminated by the horde a long time ago. Some small group of those peoples might have remained hidden away for a thousand years or more in the deep roads below the earth. Still, even if that was the case, the horde should have found and killed them by now. They now owned those dark tunnels below the ground, and none would dare to go looking for some long-dead civilization in their domain.

The sky was growing darker at all times of day, and black rainless clouds spat lightning down upon the woods. Each day the size of the storm increased, and more rivers dried up. Mutated animals were now more common than normal ones. Newborn children and animals were born sickly and small. Mothers openly wept as childbirth became less and less likely to succeed. Four in five children died within a week of birth.

People were scared and getting desperate. Crime was spiraling out of control as civilians dirtied their hands with their neighbor's blood. Everyone wanted to get their hands on just a few extra Stones. It was typical hysteria that led these people to violence. During a horde attack, killing humans was perhaps the most ironically stupid thing I had seen in this life. Murdering someone may improve your personal strength enough to survive this disaster, but the cost was quickly piling up. As more and more men and women died, fewer and fewer bodies were left standing to fight. By the end of this, we may have killed more of our kind than the horde had managed to.

*

In four days, I would be studying at the most prestigious institution in the kingdom. To be fair, there was only one academy in the kingdom, but I was still excited. The black sky couldn't kill my mood. This could be my first chance to gain meaningful insight into my affliction. Being a student also meant I would have a much lower chance of being conscripted to serve alongside the other adventurers.

I was heading into the more shady parts of the city to make a purchase. There were many less than legitimate deals for Stones going on right now, and I was going to need all the magic I could get my hands on. I'd just have to avoid asking where the dealer got his product, or else he may decide to add my Stone to his wares.

I knew I was heading in the right direction as the cobble streets turned into mud paths and the smell of shit battered my senses. Most of the city had sewers, but here they just threw their waste into alleys. Pairs of eyes watched me from side streets and quiet buildings, but none of the onlookers approached me. I probably looked like more trouble than I was worth, but I wouldn't be the first adventurer to disappear in this area.

After a half-hour of searching, I found the inn I was looking for, named The Drunken Huntsman. According to my informant, it should have been near the wall halfway between the northern and eastern gatehouses. I'd say it was closer to the north by a sizable amount. The building looked well taken care of for its location. An overflowing mug of ale was branded into its signpost, below the words Drunken Huntsman.

I opened the door and stepped inside. My anxiety had been slowly lessening as my environment became more dangerous, and it completely disappeared as I scanned the room. Almost every patron was visibly armed, and those that weren't were likely just hiding their weapons. As three-fourths of the room turned to look at me, I noted the patron's lack of armour. Most of their weaponry was poorly taken care of, and some were even coated in rust. I walked to an empty stool in front of the barman, and six of the eighteen men stood and left the inn.

The barman wasted little time. "Whatcha want?" I placed a gold coin on the counter in front of him as my contact had instructed me. He swiped it quickly and stepped backward to pick up a small brass cowbell, which he rang twice. Chairs scraped along the ground all around me, and my suspicions were confirmed. I fought the grin spreading across my face. This was also a reasonable way to acquire Stones, and less costly too. Could I be blamed for self-defense? Of course not.

"You know the drill boys, the last one to hit him gets half of what he's got on him." It occurred to me in this instant that I was, in a way, doing what I had just earlier condemned as ironic stupidity. Sadly I was forced to commit to the act now, but I'd have to question the decisions that led me here at a later date. These were the kinds of men that took Cass from me. Their thirst for power drove them to kill indiscriminately. I would give no mercy today.

I stood and turned to face the room. Ten men and two women were scattered around the room. Each wielded a sword, axe, knife, or some combination therein. They had all certainly killed before, and they'd be challenging for civilians. A small pause of calm swept across the room. Only interrupted by the sound of breathing and shifting feet. I threw two steel axes before the room exploded into action. Both women took an axe to the forehead; call me old-fashioned, but I didn't like witnessing women in distress. It was more agreeable to end them early. The previous silence died just as swiftly, morphing into a chorus of yells and falling furniture.

They charged at me with less coordination than a mob of hurlocks. They seemed to stagger their arrivals in the worst ways possible. The first thug reached me from my left side, coming from his previous position on a barside stool. The second came from the opposite direction, but he was two meters further than the initial man, so I ignored him. A poorly sharpened sword stabbed into my upper left chest, doing absolutely nothing. The man had enough time to look shocked before he was half decapitated. I turned to face the next man to find him still approaching. These guys were slow. I stepped towards him and planted an axe a few centimeters into each of his collarbones.

The remaining eight men wised up at his screams of pain. They formed a half circle and held their ground. They waited for something, maybe for me to make the first move. I used this moment of calm the same way I always do. I threw my right steel axe at the barman behind me and drew a mithril one. The throw was aimed at his chest, and he almost managed to avoid the attack. The axe landed in his left shoulder, and he fell to the ground with a groan.

A few seconds later, I found out what they were waiting for. A dozen more men entered the inn, all armed to the teeth. These guys had shields, swords, and a few of them had some scraps of leather armour. These numbers were getting into a range I wasn't entirely comfortable with fighting. Time to thin them out a little.

They came at me in a wave this time, so I couldn't mentally map the entire fight. While stepping towards the center of their formation, I holstered my steel axe to dual wield the mithril ones. The central three men took swings at me, while the ones further to the left and right tried to catch up. I was vaguely aware of the other dozen or so men closing in on me. At the same time, I dodged the first attacks and retaliated. Two of the three men missed, and the thirds attack was batted aside by my right axe. Two hacks into the leftmost man put him down, one more swing made a corpse of the man in front of me, and a kick to the right man's knee crippled him. Their strength and speed were laughable. I focused on the men just outside arms reach and turned into a tornado of death.

My minimal movements were enough to dodge the few strikes they managed to begin while my axes spun in a blue arc around me. Four for men fell in a shower of blood before one managed to land a strike. Detached arms and legs flew through the air around me. The first two lay in pools of blood unmoving, while the other two cried out in pain at their missing limbs. I felt a dull pressure apply to my right upper back and replied with a spinning backhand swing to decapitate the man.

Twelve remained in a circle around me at varying distances. The two nearest the door turned to run, but they were far too slow for me, and I caught them before they could make it. I cut into their knees, breaking all four and causing massive blood loss. They would bleed out before they reached the exit. I turned away from their crawling forms to face the last ten.

Three steps and I was in front of three of them. Three more on my left and four on the right were closing in fast. I'm sure they've realized running isn't an option anymore. Two swings from my right axe and the rightmost of the three had lost his left arm. One more swing at the central man split his collar bone in half down to a depth of eight centimeters. I ignored a stab at my stomach from my left and a slash down my back from my right. They both drew blood, but not much. The third man was ended painlessly, with a stiletto spike through his left temple. I put too much force into the swing, and his skull crunched where the back of the axe impacted. His body was thrown into the crowd of three to my left.

I turned to the four on my right and was met with an axe arcing downward centimeters from my face. I managed to jerk my head to the side, and my collar took the hit. I felt the bone fracture on impact. The assailant's face flashed through emotions of joy and then despair as he realized how little his hit had affected me. He was dead a moment later, and the man to his left fell as well. Both took a single swing from my left axe while my right deflected an incoming axe strike. The assailant's weapon broke in half upon contacting my mithril blade, and he chose to back away from me.

He was spared for the moment, three men behind me had caught up, and the man to my left had begun his attack. I turned around just in time to get stabbed in the chest and stomach, causing light bleeding. There were now two in front of me and one on my left and right. I raised my arm to strike and was interrupted. "I surrender!" The man in front of me shouted and dropped his weapons. Each of the remaining men followed suit, and I was left with a conundrum. "You're practically fuckin invincible to us. Please just let us go." The little bloodloss I had suffered ended during his pleading. The five of them weren't a threat to me now, if they ever had been.

"Fine." I hadn't committed a crime here, so witnesses weren't an issue, and I didn't care enough about petty revenge to take their lives. I pointed towards one of the corners furthest from the door. "Sit there; I can't have you bringing more men here before I leave." I got a few hushed affirmative responses before I began finishing any of the living men and harvesting the spoils of my fight.

Most of the men had yellow Stones, but there were a few yellow-green colored ones among them. If they had proper gear, I might have limped away from this fight, but I doubt they could have killed me without mithril. My skin provided enough protection to turn away glancing blows from dull steel and prevented deep penetration from sharpened steel. Maybe if they managed to pin me down, they could stab something through my eye. That was something to look into.

The total count came out to fourteen yellow and six yellow-green Stones. Damn, this was a hell of a lot more profitable than adventuring. I gained around a hundred and fifty hurlocks worth of Stones in less than a half-hour. I cut those thoughts off where they stood. It wouldn't do well to turn down that path, however tempting it may seem.

For now, I'd keep most of the Stones on myself. I wanted a supply to use after getting a better idea of what I'd need at the academy. If my magic wasn't good enough to attend some classes, I could upgrade. On the other hand, I planned to take some studies focused on the human body. I may find some useful enhancements and regret not having a store of Stones. Either way, I didn't exactly need a power-up right now. The fight today served as decent proof of that. Five of the yellow Stones were allocated to enhancing my magic. I didn't know what to specify my intent towards other than magic in general, so I opted to slightly enhance every aspect of it.

None of the men had more than a few silver coins on them each, and their weapons weren't worth anything. I considered searching the building for anything useful, but I'd spent enough time here as is. I turned to the men sitting in the corner. They had a mixture of boredom and anxiety on their faces. "Wait here for a few minutes after I leave. If anyone asks, you either weren't here, or I was wearing a mask and hood. You don't know what I look like, am I clear?"

"Yes, sir." Some of them put on a brave front, while others were visibly shaken. I guess seeing your friend's chests torn open in front of you will do that to a man.

I looked each one of them in the eyes for a moment. Really I don't mind them talking about me, as I'm confident I can handle whatever comes my way, but I figure the request can't hurt. I hesitated when I got to the door as thoughts I won't give voices passed through my mind. After shaking my head, I stepped into the street and headed for The Pompous Prophet. I need a drink and a night of sleep.