Eric had created a persona of a respected and mysterious master with fantastical abilities in front of these people. He had been running this scam for a few weeks now.

Eric then brought out a small lighter and said, “This is one of the new objects I have for sale. It is called WildFire. It allows the user to burn any object in a 10-meter radius around them. The user only has to ignite the lighter and focus on the object you have to burn. The strength of the flame is pretty decent.”

The moment Eric explained about the lighter, everyone in attendance started discussing among themselves in hushed tones. Even Axis was a bit interested in the item. He had not expected this guy to show a real mystical item.

But to Eric’s disappointment, nobody was interested in this item. They seemed to be reluctant due to the latest murder spree.

Eric inwardly cursed the two idiots who had started the murder spree as they were affecting his business.

Eric then showed a couple of other items which were not offensive in nature but only 3 of them were sold, netting him a total of Ten thousand Aur. Even though Axis was shocked by the amount, Eric had a deflated expression as if he had made a loss.

Axis curiously whispered to a man sitting adjacent to him and asked, “Why does the Master seem disappointed?”

The man first looked at Axis for a moment and said slowly, “You were able to grasp the situation on your first visit. Previously he earned close to four times more than what he earned today. Everybody seemed excited to buy stuff and almost everyone bought one. I even brought a drug that could enhance my strength for a few minutes. But the murder affair has made everybody scared,”

Axis was shocked by the amount of money this guy could earn from these rich kids. He was also interested in the method this guy was using to get his hands on these items.

Axis then inwardly squibbed The Watch Tower for trying to apprehend him rather than preventing this guy to operate.

The meeting ended and everyone started leaving turn wise with Axis leaving around the end.

Axis was still not sure why his tendril had gone nuts but he could only sigh and return. Unknown to him Eric was following Axis at a safe distance to ambush him.

Eric then saw Axis take a turn towards the central road leading out from the district and his eyes flashed sinisterly.

Axis unaware of the situation was walking at a fast pace without removing his mask to prevent accidentally meeting other members of the secret meeting.

As Axis turned a corner behind a warehouse a blade suddenly emerged from the shadows targeting his neck. Axis reacted quickly to this development and was able to move out of the striking range.

To Axis’s surprise, Eric emerged from the shadows with a creepy-looking smile. He then pointed at Axis and said, “Too bad my initial ambush failed. Now you will have to experience hell. I advise you to hand me that spiritual item you are carrying. I will at least kill you quickly.”

Axis thought, “Who in their right mind would accept such a threat. Why do bandits and scammers use the same lines?”

Axis kept himself at a safe distance when Eric lunged suddenly again. He had grossly underestimated Axis’s skills as Axis effortlessly dodged his attacks.

Axis still had not attacked as he knew that he did not have massive offensive output. He also knew that he was at a bit of an advantage as he was aware of his opponent's Magic Tower.

Axis from his previous skirmish had realized that his abilities excelled in the realm of trickery. To effectively win he had to resort to trickery and Axis had given this a lot of thought.

Axis had a bunch of coins in his pocket. He grabbed a few of them in his fist and waited.

Eric was getting frustrated as he was unable to land a single blow on this mortal. As he was about to attack again his third skill, Danger Sense activated as he saw his opponent retrieving something from his pocket.

Axis noticing the hesitation smirked and said, “Mister, You made a simple but dangerous error in your judgment. I am not an ordinary mortal. I know magic just like you.”

Eric’s eyes turned bloodshot hearing this when Axis threw the coins towards Eric.

Axis manipulated the coins to stop just before hitting Eric. Eric fearful of the attack dodged towards his right. Axis knew he would dodge and he was ready with his revolver this time.

Axis fired Drill, emptying the chamber on Eric. He shot it in a way that 3 bullets almost hit the pocket watch and the rest of his head.

As if expecting his bullets to be blocked he rushed towards Eric. Eric’s tower had suffered a little damage from the bullets and had created a barrier that prevented his head from blowing up.

Eric, seeing Axis rush started chanting and a bunch of black chains appeared around him.

Axis smiled seeing the similar ability and knew its weakness. The casting will fail if the caster moves. Axis fearing an attack when his tendrils had initially gone haywire was secretly weaving bullets all this time for Drill. Before being attacked he had managed to create eighteen bullets.

Axis reloaded Drill and started shooting at Eric. Eric unfazed by the shots manipulated the chains to absorb and block these shots.

Axis shot a total of twelve times. Way beyond what Eric was expecting. Axis still had six bullets left which he had kept for the finishing blow.

Axis closed the distance feigning that his weapon was empty. Eric cursing his luck stopped the casting and attacked Axis with his knife again.

This time Axis was ready for the attack. He dodged the attack, arm-dragging Eric downwards and flipped him off his back. Axis then disarmed the knife and Eric was still stunned from the attack. Axis shot at his pocket watch.

As Eric’s pocket watch started cracking, Eric suddenly started howling and a seven feet tower appeared before Axis. It looked different from his tower and there were streaks of energy flowing out of it.

Suddenly without Axis’s consent, his tendrils started wrapping around the tower and Eric.

Axis suddenly felt drowsy when he entered a Dreamscape. He was viewing Eric’s life.

Eric was a small-time trader and had connections with local criminals in his area. He was in reality a cowardly person who because of being pushed by everyone had developed a twisted personality.

Axis then saw him helping a female tower master when she was hurt. He later learned of her abilities and begged her to teach him.

Unbeknownst to her, Eric was already planning to betray her. His skill needed other’s energy to operate and he was able to with the help of a knife kill her.

The knife was the same one he attacked Axis with. Suddenly his tendrils relaxed and Axis realized only a few seconds had passed. Eric’s body had turned into a squirming pile of flesh and his tower broke.

A fragment of the tower consolidated and his tendril snatched it and disappeared.

Axis was not keen on staying around for long as the Tower had caused a bit of commotion. He picked up the items which were scattered around and double backed towards Eric’s shop.

He saw the guard sitting outside and to prevent any waste of time turned invisible with Spectral Jester.

He entered the shop and quickly moved towards the backroom.

Axis then allowed his tendrils to come outside to find the object that caused them to go haywire.

His tendrils rushed outside like a flood and they started looking around the back room fervently until converging in front of a book. Axis quickly picked up the book and to his dismay, it was just an ordinary ledger.

Axis still trusting his tendrils opened the book and laughed when he saw the book was hollowed out inside and a small metal orb was present inside.

Axis quickly stored the orb safely and left the shop as silently as he had entered. While exiting the shop Axis was laughing a bit and thought, “As that Eric guy is dead, he doesn’t need all that money. I should help myself to it.”

Axis had earned a profit of close to twenty-five thousand Aur. It was the largest sum of money he had ever seen.

Axis didn’t waste any time reaching his house and locked himself in his room.

He checked his loot first and saw that out of all the items present except the metal orb, only a belt and the knife were rather useful.

The belt was called Resting Shade and it had a rather useful ability. Eric had used this ability to launch his attack. The belt allowed its user to hide in the shadows of any stationary object. The user just had to twist the buckle and they would merge inside the shadow. The only downside was that the user could not travel from shadow to shadow and had to leave the first one to hide in another.

The second item was the knife called Venom Sac. It also had a rather nifty ability. As long as the knife is used to kill a poisonous creature, the knife will use the creature’s blood to turn into a corrosive poison. Each creature could provide 5 charges to the knife before it had to be recharged again.

Axis was happy with the knife as it would add to his offensive output and this was a perfect weapon against people like the Giant masked guy who had previously attacked him.

Axis decided to wear the belt from now on and he would hide the knife in his coat pocket as it came with its own sheathe.

Axis then started ruminating about his fight, “I was a bit lucky this time as I had already deciphered his tower. He was of the same level as me, without a domain, and from the looks of it, he was preparing funds for forming his first domain. Even then the fight was dangerous enough for me to die if had not been prepared. I was also lucky he had the similar chain skill I saw previously.”

“The way I went about the fight seems to be ideal. Adding verbal trickery and actual skill to unbalance him. Me relating to him and using the word “Magic” made him too wary of me and also the adding of mundane items with spells seems right.”

Axis was slowly getting familiar with his powers. He analyzed the fight and had realized the direction he had to go in to be able to survive.

He had to become an Unscrupulous Trickster.

Axis started counting the money and divided it into stacks of five thousand Aur and hid all the stacks in an old unfinished mechanical project of his.

It was at that moment a realization struck Axis like lightning. He had just murdered another person. Even though it was an act of self-defense, he had zero reactions to it.

Axis was a bit terrified with himself. He had just killed another person and had moments after it looted his safe. He didn’t even felt sick and acted as if everything was normal.

Axis then remembered the words he had heard from the Watch Tower. “Every Tower Master is capable of causing chaos. Chaos always follows them.”

Axis laid on his bed and laughed helplessly.