The Eternal Assassin

The next few days flew by almost as fast as Asher did as he made his way toward Whikoga. Without having to continuously stop and dodge trees like he'd been forced to do in the forest, running on an actual road allowed him to use Distortion to craft longer and longer tunnels of shortened space, effectively launching himself forward like a human missile. He didn't exactly have any measurements, but after his latest level ups, it felt like he was able to travel nearly twenty feet in a single step if he focused hard enough.

Distortion – Lvl 11

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Distortion – Lvl 13

Comprehend – Lvl 7

Eternal Mark – Lvl 3

Personal Rift – Lvl 7

Just as he was beginning to worry about the fact that Astral Dip was starting to lag precariously far behind Distortion, he spotted something strange on the road up ahead.

Expecting to see another one of the horse-drawn carriages that had become more frequent the closer he got to his destination, Asher stopped using Distortion, switching to a simple walk. He needed to rest and recover his energy every now and again anyway after using his skill so many times in quick succession, and he still didn't want anyone to see him using his skills until he could confirm that he wouldn't get hauled away for experimentation.

As he walked down the road that had long since turned to cobblestone, he was surprised to discover that the object that had caught his attention was in fact a carriage nearly identical to the ones that drove by now and again.

However, this one was overturned, lying on the side of the road, and without a single horse to be seen.

How do you flip an entire carriage? Asher thought, eyeing the vehicle warily as he walked closer. Is this some sort of bandit ambush? Seems like a lot of effort when you could just run out of the nearby trees screaming and waving a sword over your head. Granted, I'm no bandit lord. Maybe elaborate traps like this are all the rage these days.

Approaching the overturned wagon, Asher stopped about a dozen feet away, clearing his throat.

"Hello? Is anybody in there?"

Hearing some scuffling, he readied himself, preparing to slip into the astral if needed. But rather than a heavily armed bandit, a trembling, middle aged man poked his head out of the carriage, looking at him like he'd hit the jackpot.

"Oh, bless the realms, you have no idea how happy I am to see you!" he cried, clumsily pulling himself out of the sideways carriage and rushing over to shake Asher's hand. "It's been nearly an hour since my carriage flipped and my guards abandoned me. I was beginning to think I'd never be rescued!"

[Leatherworker] – 1/3 Elements

Asher stared at the man vigorously shaking his hand, trying to wrap his head around what he'd just heard. For some reason the man seemed to think Asher was there for him, despite the fact that he looked like any other random person wandering the road.

"I'm sorry, I'm a little confused," Asher admitted, extracting his hand with a bit of effort. "Why don't you start from the top? Like with your name?"

"Of course, of course! I'm Philip, a leatherworker working over in Whikoga," the man explained, talking so fast that Asher was astonished he didn't bite off his own tongue. "The healer watching over my parents sent me a missive informing me that he feared their time was soon coming to an end, so I hired a few dangerous looking people to protect me on my way to Wendar, my home village. Everything was going rather smoothly right up until this morning when a monster ran across our path. I was inside the carriage at the time so I didn't actually see it, but it must have been huge because I heard one of the men shout for me to stay in the carriage, right before something crashed into the side of my carriage, sending me toppling and knocking the entire thing onto its side! By the time I got my bearings, my horse was gone, the monster was nowhere to be seen, and the men I'd hired for protection were missing! As I said, that was about an hour ago, and I've been too scared to leave my carriage since, afraid that the monster would come back and finish what it started!"

Asher stared at the man, wondering if the leatherworker had a skill that removed his need to breathe as Comprehend worked overtime to parse through everything he'd just said.

"Okay… Just to clarify, you hired some people to escort you to Wendar, and then something knocked your carriage over, and the people vanished. Alongside your horse. Did I get all that?"

"Yes, that's exactly what happened," the man said, nodding rapidly.

"These people you hired for protection, were they Slayers?" Asher asked, remembering what Samantha had told him. According to her, while Slayers almost exclusively took monster hunting jobs, some of them would do other monster-adjacent work on the side, such as acting as additional protection for caravans when traveling through dangerous territory.

This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.

"Slayers?" Philip scoffed, shaking his head as if the mere suggestion was ridiculous. "No, just a few men who overheard me talking about wanting to visit my parents while I lamented my woes to my friend in the tavern. They offered me a far cheaper price than what going through the Slayer Guild would cost."

"I see…" Asher said, glancing at the overturned carriage. I'm pretty sure this guy just got robbed blind by a bunch of strangers as a result of him trying to cheap out on protection. Though it's surprising people who would go through such lengths didn't just kill him after all this. If shards were their goal, wouldn't that be more efficient? I wonder how much you can even sell a horse for anyway.

"Well, I don't exactly have the strength necessary to drag your carriage anywhere…" Asher said, earning a frown from the energetic man. "But I can tell the city guards about your situation once I finally get to Whikoga, if that helps?"

The man seemed to deflate slightly upon realizing that Asher wouldn't be able to magically fix all his problems, but he nodded, giving him a tired smile.

"I'd appreciate that, if you wouldn't mind."

Watching the leatherworker clamber back into his overturned carriage, Asher shook his head, continuing on toward the city.

You meet all kinds on the road, I suppose.

Slipping back into his Distortion practice, Asher traveled for about another half an hour before he spotted a few people ahead of him, also heading in the direction of Whikoga. Realizing it was three men and a single, rather angry looking horse being led by the bridle, he raised an eyebrow as the distance between them shrank.

Well those three didn't get very far.

Asher barely even realized what he was doing before he found himself halting Distortion and jogging up to the three men.

"Good morning!" he called out, earning a few less than friendly looks from two of the men before him as they stopped. Asher swept his gaze across the three of them, looking for anything he should be particularly worried about. He blinked as his Identify worked like normal on the first two, before returning something he hadn't seen since the wizard's tower on the man struggling with the horse.

[Boxer] – 1/3 Elements

[Sharpener] – 1/3 Elements

[Unclassed] – ???

Well that's interesting. The list of things I need to research when I get to the library is getting long enough that I should probably start writing these down.

"What do you want?" the sharpener called out, squinting at Asher as he took them in. The sharpener was a lanky man with even more daggers strapped to his person than Asher, and if his class was anything to go off of, Asher bet each and every one of them would be capable of slicing through flesh like it was butter.

"Nothing much," Asher answered, nodding toward the fellow dagger enthusiast. "I just came across a lone man on the road a little ways back. He talked about a couple of men that he'd hired going missing. Along with his horse." Asher stared pointedly at the whinnying horse that was doing everything in its power to rip its lead free from the unclassed man.

"Oh did he now?" the boxer asked, cracking his knuckles and taking a threatening step toward Asher before the sharpener threw an arm in front of him, giving a slight shake of his head. The boxer looked like he'd actively worked to fulfill the muscle-for-brains henchman stereotype, standing nearly a full head above Asher and packing an impressive amount of muscle.

Impressive for a human at least. The demon would have snapped the boxer in half like a twig without even trying.

"Boss, this guy has quite a number of shards on him," the unclassed man said quietly, jumping back as the horse tried to bite him.

"He does, does he?" The sharpener's eyes narrowed even further as he looked Asher up and down, seeming to come to a decision. "Well now, I'm not one to throw away a present the realms put on my doorstep. I'll make this simple for you. Give us your shards."

Asher waited a beat to see if there was an, 'or' attached to that demand, but the sharpener simply watched him, waiting for his answer.

"That's it?" he finally asked, earning a surprised blink from the short gang leader. "No threats? No promises? If that's how little effort you're putting into this, why not just kill me and take them?" A small part of him still clinging to the way things worked back on Earth screamed at him that antagonizing two dangerous looking thugs in the middle of nowhere was a surefire way of getting himself killed, but Asher squashed that voice like a bug.

This world was different. He was different. He wasn't planning to go around playing super hero and trying to solve all the world's problems, but ridding the world of a scumbag like Trellis had awakened something in him that meshed scarily well with his newfound desire he'd been struggling with over the past week.

He wanted to put his life on the line, to fight intelligent opponents that would do everything in their power to kill him and force him to dance along the razor's edge of survival.

What better way to do that than taking out murderers and other people that actually deserve it?

Clicking his tongue, the sharpener shook his head, turning away and motioning for his goons to follow him. "Come on guys, let's not waste our time with this guy."

As the three of them turned and began walking away, Asher frowned, realizing he wasn't about to get the fight he wanted. There's something seriously wrong with me, isn't there? Just as he was about to demand they at least give back the horse, a sudden flash of light caught his attention.

Asher looked at the source of the sudden light, his eyes widening at the sight of the well-maintained dagger spinning blade over hilt directly at him, the weapon aimed right for his chest. The sun just happened to catch the dagger right after it had left the sharpener's hand, and only Asher's Comprehend allowed him to react fast enough to avoid the surprise attack.

Flickering through the astral, Asher let the dagger soar straight through his chest, listening to it clatter onto the cobblestones behind him as he grinned at the shocked look on the sharpener's face.

"Well now," Asher laughed, slowly pulling one of his own daggers from his bandolier, hoping the grin he felt stretching across his face didn't make him look like as much of a maniac as he suspected it did.

"If you wanted to compare daggers, all you had to do was ask."