Months passed in the blink of an eye. Lance, though no longer on the case, heard word of the corpse being found and the suspect being executed at the Duke’s own hand.

It seemed they would keep up the idea of this being personal.

Lance didn’t care for it.

All these months, he couldn’t shake the same feeling that Frederick Martis was responsible for this murder. Sure, he didn’t cut the throat, but he ordered; even threatened it.

That was a murder charge without a doubt.

But there was nothing the investigator could do. Going against the Duke was like going against the King, and we all know how that would go.

So he tried to forget about it all, but after all these months, it still haunted his thoughts.

Dagnus, the unknown hunter, slain by a cultist on Frederick Martis orders. If his theory was correct, and the suspect had told the truth, then Frederick Martis was a key player in this cult.

And if the suspects suspicions of possession were correct, this could be far worse than Lance already imagined it to be.

However, a measly investigator couldn’t do a thing, with the Duke breathing on his neck.

“Curses!”

***

“Ahahahaha”

A hunter laughed, engaged with its prey. Hysterical laughs following his movements, the hunter jumped around with incredible ability, striking at the large reptilian’s scales, chipping away with a beaming smile.

It was Reptol, the strongest of the reptilians in this forest. A humongous, over ten metre tall, human-like reptilian with a crocodile-like face, yet three eyes, the third having Sclera and a dark yellow iris.

From what Dagnas could tell, that third eye was helping it to predict his movements.

‘Premonition?’ he wondered, though it didn’t really matter.

Even if it knew what he would do next, it wasn’t fast enough to stop him, and with all the enhancing tweaks he’d performed to his body, he was like a jet.

“Ahahaha” he smiled with his eyes, locked onto his prey.

Crack. Crack. Slash. Slash.

Jump.

Dagnas leapt up to incredible height, his huge, oddly-shaped bonesword in hand, dyed crimson from all the previous bloodshed.

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

Stab.

Right in the black eye. The creature roared in agony then rage, yet it didn’t matter, the sword actively gaining length, drilling further into the reptol’s head.

Spinning with incredible pace as Dagnas’ right arm became one with the blade and thrusted it further inside, tremors crawled up his body as it spun, using his shoulder as the core.

“Archchchchchc” the creature’s eyes ran a fit as it began wiggling its body, trying to shake Dagnas off.

“Bye, buddy,” Dagnas felt his arm drill break through the protective skull and reach the brain.

Inside, blood splattered all over as the centre of consciousness was ruthlessly obliterated.

“Job well done” he smiled.

Dagnas was getting much, much stronger.

Thanks to his relentless training, he easily reformed his right arm, detaching himself from the bloody bone sword. It looked more like a Dao than a broadsword now, thanks to his remodelling.

Since he’d begun changing his fighting style, he saw it practical to change his weapon as well.

Hand on corpse, he removed some chunks of meat to devour. Whilst his magic wasn’t perfect, he could muster a good flame, and so he ran out to grab fire wood.

Through the months of training, he’d learned a lot about his power, and gained a lot of skill in wielding it.

One important thing he noticed was when it came to transfiguring his own body, he needn’t use his hands to do it; all it took was a thought.

When it came to creatures, it likely took physical contact to form a link, then he could begin transfiguring.

Unfortunately, it seemed he was coming towards a wall for progress in the forest; he would need those books from Marcus to continue growing stronger.

“Looks like I’m heading back to the city,” Dagnas thought aloud, lighting his fire.

It was a habit he’d formed in his seclusion. Nowadays, he talked to himself quite often, barely avoiding the pit of insanity as his days dragged on with his merciless training and constant fights.

Dagnas took the monster corpse and formed some skelton arms with hands to hold the bits of meat. That way, he wouldn’t have to hold them for ages, and they could cook themselves.

Of course, he could just build something out of wood for it, but he was lazy and this was just much more convenient than all that hassle.

That over, the meat taking a short while to cook to Dagnas’ standards, he thought of his plans for the city.

Looking like a whole different human being, he was confident he wouldn’t be recognised, and that was great, except when it came to Marcus. He’d need to gain a meeting with Marcus to get the books, but it had to be kept low-key, yet he also had to convince Marcus that this was really him.

That Dagnas was Dagnas.

Additionally, he’d need a cover name.

When he’d thought it through, he knew it had to be a single name and something bland, generic. Thinking of that, he landed on Peter.

But that was far too generic, so he went for Noah.

It was a shame really, he’d come to really like the name Dagnas.

However, survival came upon something silly like a ‘better’ name.

‘Can’t wait to have some good, quality food. All I’ve eaten is reptile for months…it’s so tough. I need me some mouthwatering beef or something’

Dagnas almost drooled at the thought of something, anything, different to reptile meat.

Then it hit him.

“Can’t I just-”

Reptol meat turned to raw beef.

“Months,” Dagnas’ eyes lit with rage. “I’ve eaten the same chewy, flavourless meat for months…and now, at the end of it all, I can just warp it? Fuck!”

Dagnas clenched the raw beef.

‘Damn it all!’

Two days. He’d set off for the city in two days.

And four days later, Dagnas, now Noah, had arrived home.