The moment the lone stranger spoke, danger bells rang in Fez's mind, as if screaming at him to run away as fast as possible and hide away to the best of his abilities and hope that this stranger would give up soon without finding him. Cold sweat dripped down his forehead and spine as his eyes darted to the sides, checking out his buddies who did not seem to have the slightest sense of danger flaring in their own systems. The stranger was bad news, the question remained as to just how bad it actually was. He had lived long enough in this cruel world, having picked up a trick or two to realize which fights he could take and where he had to run away, and now? Every cell in his body was still screaming at him to run.

  His buddies, fellow thugs more like it, did not share his sharp and honed instincts, intuition really, as one of the braver and dumber ones pulled out a dagger, brandishing it against the newcomer and sneered. "You asked for it cunt. Should have run away while still had the chance." With the supposed foreshadowing out of the way, said thug advanced towards Jack, ready to spill his blood given the slightest chance.

  "Get him." the rest of his buddies cheered him on, just as clueless as the brave one, clearly expecting some fun show, something that Fez would have joined in on your typical day. Not this time. No, he was looking for any opening to bolt away, though he also saw the sharp gaze of the stranger locked in on him. Even now, he was seething inside at just how insidious the bitch and her bloodline was. Even after her death she continued to ridicule Fez and cause him more trouble than necessary. Her daughter was no better either, having directly caused this calamity.

  Once the braver fool was close enough, he lunged forward, trying to stab the stranger in stomach, only to hit empty air as the man deftly sidestepped the attack and delivered a nasty looking elbow strike to attackers back, earning a gurgled, half wheezing groan of pain, resulting in said attacker to stumble forward and face plant into ground where he proceeded to drop his knife and clutch his back, whimpering in pain. During the entire exchange, the stranger still had his eyes locked on Fez, as if unbothered and unthreatened by the thug attacking him.

  "Too weak. Too damn weak." the stranger spoke, earning the ire of Fez's remaining buddies who now drew their own knives as well, deciding to join together to take on the now clearly dangerous individual. They did not shit talk anymore now, too focused on the problem ahead. That did not mean their opponent did not though, as he sneered at the action taken, though he did not speak further, as if deeming their group now worth enough to waste more words on them.

  The first of the thugs lunged forward, no finesse or technique behind his action, clearly the move of an amateur, a street rat that knew no better, followed by his buddies just moments later. Fez felt it would fail and as if a prophecy, the stranger proved him right, stepping forward, disrupting the assumed spacing and grabbing first thugs hand that held the knife. Strangers free hand was then buried in poor bastards gut, causing a heavy 'puh' sound as air was forcibly expelled from the recipients lungs. Then, with seemingly greater strength the thug was pushed back as though he weighted nothing, flinging him towards his buddies and causing them to crash.

  Luckily, they had just barely managed to move their own knives out of the way, resulting in slight bruising at worst, though neither Fez nor his pals had the time to celebrate, as right before their eyes, a dangerously looking weapon materialized out of thin air. Fez inhaled sharply, clearly understanding the implication of what he just saw. Their opponent was no street rat, how could he be? There was simply no fucking way a street rat could ever possess such a quality weapon, much less a spatial artifact to hide it in.

  Sure, he knew there were plenty of people he could not risk crossing within the city, but each and every one of them could be easily discerned among the common rabble, usually giving him plenty of confidence to 'work his trade' so to speak by picking the weak and disenfranchised. There was only a certain period of time every now and then that he and thugs like him would lay low, too scared to risk running in one of the recently summoned gifted, but he could not be that unlucky, could he? There had been no news about their arrival, nor the usual grand welcoming after all. And yet, the confidence the stranger exuded betrayed his relatively plain appearance. He had clearly gone through his fair share of fights and felled plenty of monsters.

  Just his luck then, though it did seem to have a silver lining. For all his apparent physical superiority, the stranger had yet to utilise lethal, or even crippling force, apparently something he had yet to encounter and deal with. As his buddies were huffing and puffing and groaning as they got up, Fez utilized everything his mind could squeeze out at this moment, trying to get out of this without more problems. If you can't take them out, join em, right? Or at the very least distract them and send them off on a wild goose chase if nothing else works.

  "H-hey now stranger. I know my fellow men here were indeed hasty, but there is no need to escalate. You must understand there are plenty of wicked people within towns like this, and simple folk like us often fall prey to them, lest we act first."

  "I understand well enough, Fez. That is why for the sake of those small people, the ones like Viki for example, I have to do what I must. You understand, right?" He replied unexpectedly, twirling his dangerously looking weapon as he advanced forward.

  "Come now man, no s-sir." Fez struggled, cold sweat dripping more and more down his forehead and spine ashe tried to worm his way out "You must know that murder is a heavy crime and has just as heavy punishment attached and the guards around are quite good at sniffing out such cases."

  "Someone must find a corpse and report it first though." the stranger replied and then, as suddenly as he had appeared, he was no longer there, as if vanishing in thin air, like a ghost or a hallucination- one moment there and the next gone. Unfortunately for Fez, the truth of the matter was far worse than just the slight scare his group had received. No, the next moment he collapsed, his consciousness growing heavy and disappearing entirely as died, not even understanding how. The same happened with his thug buddies moments later, leaving a quiet back alley with a group of rapidly cooling dead bodies, though it did not stay so for long.

  Jack reached out and called upon his power of destruction, willing it to go to work, erasing all traces of said bodies, scattering them in the air like simple dust that they had come from.

  "From dust to dust, as all things eventually go." Jack whispered quietly, turning around and leaving the place behind without a single trace of what had transpired here, never to return to this place either. For Viki, this was, undoubtedly, a place of countless memories, both good and bad, but for Jack, it was just another small and insignificant place in time he would forget soon enough, or so he reasoned. His task was done and Viki could live on without her painful past showing up to haunt her ever again. At least the past with thug Fez as the main villain. At the end of the day, it did not matter to Jack, for no matter who or what came after Viki, she was now under his care and if need be, he would revert to his past self- the incarnation of destruction- and eliminate all those would be threats. Viki was a crystal dryad, even if only half breed, and those were rare, unreasonably so. Add to her uniqueness the sad life she had led and Jack could admit that thanks to the time he had spent along with the kids, small acts of kindness like this one did bring a smile to his face, so why not do them ever so often, he reasoned as he quickly returned to their inn where his group was already sound asleep.

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  The next couple of days went by relatively calmly, no unexpected or unwanted situations arose, though whoever left the inn, always returned with news of incredible activity within the city. It was clear that a small welcoming party of sorts was prepared due to the knowledge of several of the larger guilds passing through after their successful recruitments of the new gifted. It was a small matter for the towns coffers, but the goodwill they could possibly earn from such an action was potentially immense, possibly even city saving level huge. So any leader with even a grain of brains would act to ensure such possibility existed, thus the preparation.

  "Should we hole down for a week or so to avoid them all?" during groups breakfast Izumi asked, having already talked it over with the girls she bunked with and reaching a general understanding.

  "I know I am." Jack replied instantly, earning a few eye rolls in his direction.

  "And how would that be any different from usual?" Asked Fumiko with a stifled laugh.

  "So you don't like the ring I made I take it then? You are welcome to give it back in that case. I bet old Ramia would be quite interested in the possible venture, especially due to its unique properties." Jack smirked back, well aware of just how happy his combat party was for the disguised spatial rings they had.

  "Hey, that's playing dirty!" Fumiko grumbled back, protectively shielding her new ring with the other hand and clutching it close to her chest.

  "Heh." Jack just smirked in return.

  Minor ring of vitality(epic)- A simple, yet well crafted ring that boosts wearers vitality. Vitality +1.

  Hidden(EX)- spatial storage. Size- one cubic meter.

  Those rings were the result of Jack's latest work, having blasted through the night as he spent what still remained from the recently absorbed Viki's flowers, though he did not feel the slightest pang of pain about said expenditure.

  "Then again on the serious note, I believe your idea is a sound one. We did cause quite the commotion with the two bastard groups in the village back then and I am sure at least some among everyone who was present there could recognize us should we run into any of them here, particularly so since they did not see us in that banquet of theirs. No doubt they would have questions neither I nor anyone else here would be willing to answer. I also know we can't stay holed up all the time and because the city will be swarmed with representatives of many guilds make sure you keep your weapons stashed away in your rings. While no doubt valuable to ordinary guys, those from the guilds should find them lacking, what with the single vitality stat provided, even as epic rarity item."

  "izumi will still have to head out, at least to visit Ramia for updates and the like." Jack continued.

  "Or maybe not." He added a moment later as he noticed a familiar face- one that belonged to a runner Ramia employed often for small errands he needed done.

  Without any more delay the teenager, with a lean body frame and clearly powerful and trained legs that were emphasized due to the shorts he wore, walked over to the table Jack and Izumi sat at, lightly bowed towards them and spoke. "Siur Ramia sent me to fetch you. He says he has acquired the item you wanted and asks you to visit him as soon as possible."

  "Understood. Thank you for the hard work." Jack nodded and thanked the youngster for his work, giving him a few copper coins as a tip of sorts. The younger man bowed once again and headed out, no doubt to continue with his daily tasks.

  "That was faster than expected, but I sure am glad it is. Would have been a pain in the ass a few days later." Fumiko laughed as she commented.

  "Right it is. izumi, you're with me. Anyone else wants to come along? Let's go right after this." Jack concluded.

  "M-kay." Izumi just nodded as she continued with her meal.

  "I'm staying behind with Viki this time." Kaede spoke.

  "Staying with Kaede." Kenji, as expected by everyone, then chimed in.

  "Doc asked us to help her out, so we will stay behind as well." added Chiyo "The duo is starting to open up a bit, so yea." the rest was left unsaid, though the hopeful expressions on their faces more than made up for it.

  "Good. Make sure they know there is nothing to fear around us." Jack nodded, then turned to Izumi and said "Guess it's just us two this time." before getting to devouring his own breakfast as well.

  The rest of their meal was silent, short as it was, the group wolfed down their food and left to take care of their own tasks. There were no complications for Izumi and Jack either as they headed towards Ramia's shop, and soon enough they pushed open the already quite familiar door, once again making the chime above it to sing a pleasant, yet relatively loud and clear melody, notifying the people inside of their arrival.

  As expected, they were greeted once again by the sight of a relatively young girl manning the counter, a rather thick and old looking book set in front of her as she had been reading it just moments prior, though her brown eyes were now locked on the duo as they walked in. After a few seconds and upon realising the identity of the duo, she quickly bowed her head and dashed towards the back, no doubt to inform Ramia of their arrival.

  In a mere minute she was back and bowed once more, before speaking. "Greeting esteemed guests. Master Ramia is already expecting you. Please follow me." and after the words spoken, she glanced back up as if to check if they were fine with it. Then, realizing there were no issues, she led them forward and soo nenough the duo were once again seated right in front of Ramia. The slight difference this time was the small stack of papers leisurely lying on the table between both parties.

  "Quick on response and decisively as always. Love that about your group." Ramia hummed in approval, not bothering with any additional small talk before going straight into the task at hand. "With the latest gifted summoning concluded, I had to move fast to snag what would fit for your needs and as you no doubt understand, the price was quite steep. No need to worry though since I will more than make it back thanks to our ongoing partnership. Had to tell you though."

  "The profits will be smaller the coming few months I assume as a result? " Izumi understood the unspoken truth.

  "Unfortunately, though not something we can just wait on. Would have to wait for months otherwise and I as sure that was not an option for you."

  "Sharp eye. And yes, we need that property to start working on our own plans as well." Jack nodded in agreement.

  "Not joining any of the large guids I take it?" Rami asked.

  "That obvious?" Jack sighed.

  "Your wish was a strong giveaway. Can I ask why though?"

  "Can you tell me of a guild that's not filled with greed and corruption that's worth joining? We will go with that one then." Jack smirked as he asked a question in return. Ramia just helplessly shrugged all too aware of how things went.

  "Good luck finding one like that."

  "Precisely. And that's why we will aim for our own." Izumi explained.

  "And how long till it starts going bad, just like the rest of them, assuming you get it off the ground?"

  "Should last for quite some time. All we have to do is focus on quality over quantity. Handpick members and make sure we have a common goal. Powerful and established adventurers are also out of the question for recruitment- too large egos there."

  "That will slow down the corruption for sure, but will not prevent it entirely. better people have tried." Ramia explained, a fond smile on his face, as if reminiscing about the past.

  "Better than the alternatives." Jack just shrugged.

  "You will need some friends in high places no matter what. That's just how this world works."

  "We have you, do we not? And we will form a cooperation with archangel Anastiela and her faction." Izumi explained, as though said cooperation was already a forgone conclusion.

  "I do have quite some reach, I have to admit and I am more than just a little incentivised to help out and if you can secure Anastielas and the angel courts alliance, things should go well enough, but can you really? Anastiela would be one thing, you have her token after all, but angel court? That sounds like a stretch." Ramia calculated, less than sure of their chance to succeed.

  "Not the whole court, just Anastiela and her faction."

  "Her faction, while well known thanks to her and a few other notable followers, is rather small, all things considered. Are you sure?"

  "Yes, even more so with this additional info." Jack nodded and added as he noticed the questioning look on Ramias face "Less people means better information control and easier time ensuring loyalties and benefits for all involved."

  Jack Raja(?)

  Age- 27

  Species- human(?)

  Level- 15

  Class- Twin aspect of Creation and Destruction(EX)

  Stats unassigned: +11

  Attributes:

  Strength- 24 (14+7+3)

  Vitality- 23 (12+8+3)

  Dexterity- 21 (15+6)

  Intelligence-7

  Spirit- 25 (20+5)

  Skills- Wisdom of Creation and destruction(EX), Choice of the creator(EX), Eyes of procurer(EX), Matter storage(EX), Arukain language(C), Spark of inspiration(EX).

  Spells- none.

  Titles(unlocked): The real Monster, Big Game Hunter, The brilliant rookie, The insane Solo. The actor. Executioner. Survivor. Pioneer, Record breaker.The new champion supreme.

  Gear: amulet +2 vit: weapon- Gundao+3 str. Rings- spatial storage, vit +1.