??? POV:

I was sitting inside of the tavern bustling with drunk people. A chorus of drunken talk and laughing was filling the room together with the alluring smell of alcohol and food. I brought a mug of ale towards my mouth and sipped out of it. I wrenched my face, 'I never understood what people saw on the beer. It's sour and...'

My attention shifted towards an interesting dialogue between two drunk men wearing rusty chainmail.

"Hey, Jimmy had you seen that new notice?"

"Nah, I saw only saw same old shitty notices."

"You probably missed it. Church tore it down shortly after it was put on."

"Ssss, be quiet and do not speak about heresy. *Hick*."

"That's not it. It was a notice about a tournament to select new guards for a city lord of Nor."

"*Hick* Gahaha, imagine all of the golds and girls we would get as a personal guard of a lord. This is our opportunity."

'That sound like fun.' I thought and stood up, leaving a few coins on the table. With a swift step, I exited the noise tavern to the cold night. I looked at the puddle on the ground illuminated by the light coming out of the tavern's windows. There was a reflection of a tall man wearing a black longcoat with golden embroidery in his early twenties with long white hair and slightly glowing irises.

"Well, well, look who we have here. I hope you have the money to pay your debt or else prepare for pain." A rough voice woke me out of the trance. I immediately recognised the owner of the voice and looked towards it. It was a bulky man wearing some kind of animal skin over the dirty gambeson. He was accompanied by a group of four big men with rusty swords and wooden pols in their arms.

'Tchh, it looks like trouble again. It doesn't matter anyway as I will be leaving this town soon.'

"Of course, you can pay in other forms. I have heard that you have a beautiful companion. Where have you left her? Hahaha"

I immediately clenched my fists with anger, and my eye fleshed in purple colour. 'How dare they to drag my beautiful angel into this.' With a steady speed, I walked directly towards the ruffians. I put my hand on the hilt of my sword, wanting to draw it, but a rational part of me stopped my hand, 'I should just beat them up. Mass murder in the middle of town would only bring more trouble.'

"Boys, he looks pretty pissed of, probably will not pay. So let's beat him up, and then we will find his companion to have some fun."

One of the men swung a pole towards me. To me, it looked like it was moving in slow motion, so I slightly moved my torso to avoid it. Then with my arm full of anger, I punched him into the chest. My fist easily went through his ribcage, and after I brought it back, a gaping hole remained in man's chest before he fell to the ground motionless.

'Shit, I put in a little bit more strength than I wanted. This will cause some trouble. Now I should finish all of them. With a little bit of luck, there will be no witnesses.'

Other men were stunned after what happened, and I used it. I brought out my beautiful blade. It was a long sword that started as a straight sword but became curved in the middle only to turn straight twenty centimetres later. The whole blade was forged out of the dark glistering metal covered in purple glowing runes.

This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.

I moved towards them with such speed that they didn't manage to react as I brought my blade towards one man's neck. His head rolled on the ground, and blood erupted out of his severed neck. Another man wearing horse skin clothes swung his sword at me but was ignored as it only harmlessly bounced off my barrier. In the meantime, I swung my sword towards the next adversary. My attack was too fast for him to block and easily passed through him, cutting him in half. Simultaneously I erected my claws out of my free hand and stabbed through the face of horse skin who was staggered after his sword bounced off my barrier.

Only their leader remained, trembling in fear as a puddle formed under him.

"P-Please have mercy... Here take my money..." With a trembling hand, he tried to untie his pouch.

I moved towards him without any mercy and swung my sword towards his neck, decapitating him.

Ding!

System Announcement

You killed LV 12 [Human Novice Warior]

You killed LV 9 [Human]

You killed LV 8 [Human] X2

You killed LV 7 [Human]

You obtained 585 XP

You obtained 906 CE

I looked at the blade of my sword. It was dirty with blood, so I channelled my mana through the blade, purifying it in scorching white flames.

'Time to leave this town.' I thought as I quickly walked out of the crime scene.

End of ??? POV:

Navigating through the labyrinth of castle corridors, I walked towards a tower given to the old mage. Passages got darker and cozier as I kept getting further and further away from the central castle. Still, they were decorated with the same black marble-like stone at the central part. During my whole journey, I didn't meet a single soul. After a few minutes of walking, I finally saw a bright, magical aura that looked like an aurora borealis right behind the corner. I knew that it didn't belong to something darks were doing as it was in a totally different colour spectrum.

'This is probably coming from that tower.'

I finally saw a strong-looking ornate door blocking my way when I finally reached it. A magical aura kept radiating out of its surface, but I ignored it as I thought that it was just something akin to the alarm to alert about intruders. I placed my hand on the doorknob, and the whole door lit up with glowing symbols. The surge of magical energy surged through my hand into my entire body. My hand burned with pain as it smoked while my whole body was sent flying backwards where I hit the wall creating cracks in it.

My body was hurting, but from my HP in status, I knew that it was only a minor injury that would quickly heal. Still, I stood up with a stunned expression on my face, 'What the hell. Who would put something like that on the door? That is like a plugin doorknob into an electric socket.'

Doors opened with a creaking sound, and the old wizard walked out.

I was so angry that if I didn't need him and was stronger than him, I would beat the hell out of him, "Are you insane? At least put some warning sign there."

He just laughed as he used one of his hands to stroke his beard, "Hehe, it is not my problem that you are not knocking. Now that I look at you, you are pretty resilient as you ended without any life-threatening injuries. Well, good job."

I calmed myself down as I knew there was nothing to gain from being angry and said, "I am here. It's time to teach me Arcane Magic."

"Hahaha, I will, but I am sure that it will take much longer than one day to learn it. Follow me."

Old mage walked back from where he came, and I followed him. We entered a tower and what I saw surprised me, but I didn't show it on my face. The whole floor of the massive tower was filled with giant contraptions made out of spinning brass parts. It was like a colossal clockwork machine. Some circles were glowing in different magical auras while releasing a dim light visible even with normal eyes. A small squad of mages in blue robes similar to that of an old mage, whose name I forgot, were bustling around.

"Hurry up. Time is expensive."

I looked towards the voice and spotted that the old mage had already reached the stairs leading to the upper floor. I speeded up to catch him.