I woke up as the morning sun illuminated my room. Still in bed, I started to organize my plans for that day, "I need to start catching as many criminals as possible... I think I can throw that problem on someone else. The second thing I need to is to visit an Alifrod for the next lesson on arcane magic."

"Booom" explosion shook a castle, making me jump out of bed.

'These fuckers, they can't even let me enjoy the morning.'

I put on my armour and jumped out of the window. From a castle, the gate was coming a smoke and darks were already in rushing there. I landed in front of a gate. A smoking crater stood where was a road before. Gate itself turned into pile splinters.

I kicked a burning plank with rage, sending it flying, 'This is really the last straw. They are already attacking my castle. '

With my [??? Astral Eyes] I looked around, looking for auras that were stronger than civilians. Shining orbs of aura were moving around as darks surrounded the destroyed gate. Only one of the orbs was moving in the opposite direction, running from the gate.

'It looks like I found a culprit.'

I cast an [Camufalge] on me and jumped on the roof. Following a bright aura, I carefully ran on a roof. Aura slowed down from a running speed to a walking pace, making it easier to follow. Aura entered the main street, and I followed. Finally I could see a culprit. It was a regularly looking man with black hair wearing a simple outfit consisting of brown pants and a simple linen shirt. He kept walking through the main street, and I followed, jumping from roof to roof. Buildings around the main road were lucky of the same height making it easier for me.

The man suddenly turned to the sidestreet before he looked over the shoulder for pursuers. Then he slowed down even more.

'Should I attack him now where there are no people around? No, let's follow him and see where is he going.'

My feet hit a piece of garbage on the roof, kicking it down. Followed man stopped and looked towards a roof. I stopped moving and even breathing. He kept looking for a few seconds until he shook his head a continued walking.

I finally breathed out, 'Huh, that was close.'

The man approached a shabby house on the sidestreet. I immediately spotted the presence of three more strong auras inside and a weak aura covering the whole building. He knocked at the door three times with specific pauses between individual knocks. With creaking sounds, doors opened with a bearded man standing inside.

The man entered, and doors closed behind him.

I quietly jumped from the roof and put my ear to doors trying to listen to inhabitants with my [Enhanced Senses]. It was quiet, unnaturally quiet. The only thing that I heard was my own breath.

'Maybe that aura surrounding a building is some kind of magical protection? In that case, I can't eavesdrop on them... Maybe I can try to [Phase] through the wall, but there is a chance that it will trigger that protection and alert them. So maybe long-term surveillance of this building? Following subjects after they leave to map their connections. There is a chance that they will disperse and...'

Doors opened, hitting me. Barrier appeared and absorbed damage. My [Camouflage] dispelled, and I became visible again. I was so deep in my thoughts that I didn't notice when aura approached doors and opened them.

"What the freaking hell?" a rough voice came as someone kept trying to open the door, only for it to always hit my barrier. I was like a boulder preventing them from opening doors.

"What are you doing, idiot?" came a female voice.

"Freaking doors are stuck." The same rough voice replied.

Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author.

My heart was pounding as I realized the precarious situation I was in.

"Go away, idiot. You can't even open doors properly. Let me try." A female voice came again.

Trying to salvage a situation, I jumped backwards to clear a path for doors to open. Doors immediately swung wide open.

"Doors are working properly. You idiot, your sense of humour is so bad that I want to beat you. "

I breathed out in relief.

'Looks like I was lucky. That they didn't notice my presence.'

Then I cast [Camuflage] on me to conceal myself again.

"Did you feel it too? Someone was using magic very close."

"Fuck, someone must have followed me."

Female cast, "[Enhanced Scan]" and magical energy passed through my body.

'So it's a fight. It is not really unexpected. I am not a very stealthy

I blinked at the roof, dispelling my camouflage. Staff appeared in my hand, and I aimed it at that female. A bright magenta beam that was wild like a solar eruption erupted from my staff heading towards a female.

"[Instant Blink]" she vanished, and my beam hit the ground, glassing its surface. Luckily I reduced the amount of inputted mana, reducing its destructive effect on the surroundings. I reaimed my staff towards a nearby man. Two glowing blades descended from his sleeves. He turned into a blue as he moved out of a beam trajectory. Magenta beam bent and hit a man from behind.

"Ahhh", he screamed before evaporating.

Something hit my barrier. I looked around for the source and spotted a female mage on the neighbouring roof stabbing with a rapier. At first, it looked like she was stabbing an air, but on closer look, I spotted that each time a miniature tear in space appeared in front of her rapier, redirecting her stab towards me. I sent a magenta arc of lightning towards her. She ignored it as it harmlessly dispersed on her barrier.

She kept stabbing, and my barrier kept dropping. I aimed my staff at her, but before I could retaliate, a person in green hood came out of the house. They were armed with a massive war bow that was taller than me. They drew a bow without an arrow, aimed at me and released. Ice in the shape of an arrow materialized and flew towards me.

I blinked out of its way down on the streets, where I aimed my staff and fired at the archer while ignoring attacks from a mage. Archer jumped away. I bent a beam. Archer jumped away and fired an arrow towards my beam. Both of them met, and the arrow created a barrier made out of ice. Beam melted ice, but the archer used that time to fire three ice arrows in my direction. My barrier was already getting eaten by the teleporting mage, so I blinked out of their way to save it.

'That bitch with rapier is really getting on my nerve.'

I cast a second [Solar Destruction Beam] and sent it towards an annoying mage. She was too slow to react as the beam hit her. Her barrier started to flicker, but she blinked away in time. Before I managed to stop a beam, it had already burned a massive hole in the roof of the building.

'There should be one more of them' I spotted that his aura that was stronger than that of his ocelagues was still inside of the building. 'Is he destroying evidence? I should hurry up.'

I dodged two more arrows. I only saw archer, but I couldn't even see an aura of that mage which made me frown.

'Did she retreat? But why would see... Ohh, of course, her barrier was almost depleted, and one more hit would probably disintegrate her.'

I cast two beams simultaneously at the archer. He dodged both of them with a flip, so I bent them. He dodged and released more arrows towards me. I ignored them to not interrupt my beams. My beams bent again to aim at my target, creating a grid of beams. I already started to smile as my plan was going perfectly.

Pesky archer made a double jump, jumping over my beams. As he landed on the ground, I didn't bend my beams but moved my staff, causing a whole grid of beams to move and rearrange. Archer had no place to dodge and gave me the last look full of fear before beams hit him. He evaporated after three seconds.

Ding!

System Announcement

You killed LV 22 [Human Assasin]

You killed LV 23 [Human Bowman]

You obtained 639 XP

You obtained 1920 CE

Proficiency of spell [Camuflage] increased to 3

Level of [Fast Thinking] increased to 4

I looked at the street. Surrounding buildings were either destroyed or burned by my beams.

'I need to solve this problem faster, or my city will turn to ruin... Maybe I can track them by looking for a building with enhancement? No, the city is too big for that, and they will probably realize it after a few of their bases would get destroyed.'