As I slept, I dreamed.

Ryo was sitting on a stone in front of me. He was wearing nothing but his tight blue pants, actual armor that were soft and dark blue on the inside, so he could move easily, and covered in aquamarine scales on his flanks for protection. The scales were a little uncomfortable to sit on. I knew that from experience, I’d once owned something similar.

For a moment I just paused to admire his beauty. Ryo was built like the finest of spearmen, strong and fierce but above all, agile. I was seeing him from behind and even his back was beautiful, all the muscles perfectly sculpted. An itch seemed to build in me and I realized I wanted to touch them.

Ryo’s hair was cropped short, an untended ruffle of curls, careless perfection. I took a step towards him and his head turned and he saw me. His eyes widened and he jolted to his feet, turning to face me in a combat stance. I just stepped towards him. This was only a dream, after all.

“You! Haven’t you done enough?” Ryo spat, raising his hands in a combat ready pose. But I could see the tremble in his body, the well hidden tremors of pain and fear. Ah, he was so afraid of me.

“I didn’t do anything. You did it to yourself,” I murmured, feeling a deep sorrow. That was a fundamental truth of Karmic Retribution… if there was nothing to work with, nothing would happen. “Oh Ryo, it truly breaks my heart.” I’d only wanted the best for him. Yet, it had all come to this.

I stepped closer and he trembled visibly this time, lowering his hands slightly as his eyes widened. He knew he was no match for me, that I could destroy him with merely a thought. Trying to fistfight me was an exercise in pure futility. I could almost see the shards of his soul, broken and fighting against each other, causing him constant pain. Not really thinking, I reached out and touched his chest. A large soul fragment resonated to my touch and as Ryo drew in a sharp breath, I gently stroked it, smoothing some of the broken edges. That would make it easier for Ryo to slot it back into place. A broken soul was something like a three dimensional puzzle, I knew that quite well.

“Why…” Ryo whispered and I looked into his face. He was so handsome, his blue eyes wide with shock and his lips so full and kissable. I wanted to kiss him. I wanted…

“I didn’t want this either, Ryo,” I said before following my impulse and kissing him, a quick brush of lips. He jerked away so sharply it jolted me and in that moment, the dream broke.

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I jolted awake, my heart beating quickly. Looking around, I was briefly confused. It was dark and this smelled like a barn?

Then my mind caught up with me and I knew it was a barn. It wasn’t morning yet, but a bit of light was just beginning to filter in, the start of the dawn. Knowing well I wouldn’t get back to sleep I sat up and pulled out a brush from my dimensional storage. Settling in, I began brushing my hair. My hair was silver white and long, a thick wave that ended halfway down my back. Brushing it was a zen thing for me, something I did every day, even when there were faster and easier ways to remove tangles. As I untangled my hair, I tried to untangle my mind. Why was I dreaming of Ryo? And why like… that?

This is why I wanted to descend, it’s just been so long that I had forgotten. A sigh passed my lips. Reaching the higher levels meant you… changed. As the body became less and less important, attachments to it became less important. Fertility waned until you were functionally infertile and that was followed by complete disinterest in sex. Many level forty-nines were impotent. As a long term level forty-nine, I had been completely divorced from physical intimacy. I had admired Ryo like a fine vase, not like a man.

Now I was level six and that side of me had come back to life. I had always loved other men. All my life, women had no charms for me, I only craved my own sex. So was it any surprise that now I lusted after Ryo? I shook my head at myself, a wry smile on my lips. Descending like I had was a one-way street. I would never meet Ryo again.

Putting that foolish dream out of mind, I put away my brush and stood and stretched. Ah, what a thing, to feel aches and pains again! I hadn’t really understood how the changes in my [Soul] had affected me. It had all happened so gradually, over thousands of years, that going back felt just incredible. Did I even WANT to advance again?

My smile flattened as I thought that. Yes, I wanted to gain levels and advance. The golden rule of all things, that your worth was determined by your level, was still in effect. I had not been as lucky as Ryo, in where I had been born. My Kingdom had followed the law that those beneath level ten had no rights. My only good fortune had been that the local lord had been looking to build his own forces by nurturing talents, and I had been given that opportunity. Although my silver hair and striking appearance had not always been to my benefit.

Breathing out slowly, I settled myself. Yes, that had all been terrible, but it was long behind me. It was time to rebuild my power. The level cap here would be much lower than the Universe of Infinite Possibilities so perhaps even when I achieved the maximum possible level, I would still maintain my humanity. That would be ideal. And if the level cap was too high, perhaps I could deliberately limit myself to level twenty-five. I should be relatively safe at that level, yet still have all bodily functions.

“Justice!” Jahnli’s voice floated out to me and I looked up, realizing the dawn was clear now. And farmer’s woke with the dawn. “Breakfast!” My stomach growled in response. Smiling happily, I gathered up the blanket and went inside.

Breakfast was a beautiful spread of fried eggs and toasted bread and butter. I tucked in with good appetite and the conversation was light, mostly about the goings ons in the local village. After that, it was time to take my leave. They gave me some food and coins. I would have refused the latter, but Soetek laughed and told me it was what they had put aside for little Jahnli’s dowry. They could spare it now, the pelt was worth far more.

They had no map to give me, but the farmers could give me directions. Following the road in this direction would take me directly to the city of Istun. Going the other direction would take me to the village, then further into the country and then to a neighboring Kingdom. If I wanted to reach a larger settlement quickly, this was the only way to go. Smiling, I set on my way.

This was the path to my future.

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Pausing to rest, I wiped sweat from my brow and took a drink from my waterskin.

I was getting close to the city and that showed as the landscape changed a bit. The trees were getting thicker and I could smell the scent of water. I was a bit vague on the geography but I had been told the city of Istun was on the banks of a very wide river. The farmers had also told me it was quite a large city, but I took that with a grain of salt. They had never seen a city that sprawled across nearly a quarter of the entire planet.

My expectations, low though they were, were disappointed. The city of Istun was a very pretty medieval city, which meant it housed perhaps a hundred thousand souls at most. I was absolutely certain now that this was a layer where the laws of [Matter] were almost non-existent. [Soul] only levels tended to have severe problems with establishing advanced civilizations. Magic just wasn’t ideal for supporting a large population. Kingdoms in the Universe of Infinite Possibilities that tried to use nothing but [Soul] tended to be conquered by more flexible, adaptable societies.

I doubted these people had a choice, though, so I wasn’t going to march in and tell them how to do things better. The trees thickened and I noticed the path I was taking to the city seemed oddly deserted. Well, it wasn’t harvest time. Yet it still seemed odd.

I tensed slightly as I felt strangers coming my way. They were walking openly, though, so perhaps they were just ordinary travelers. I reached up and pulled my cloak down a bit. I didn’t like this cloak, but it was the only one I had in my storage… a beautiful thing of grey silk trimmed with ermine and then beaded with pearls. It was meant for formal occasions and entirely too beautiful for walking down the road, but I wanted to hide my face and it did that extremely well.

Then I saw the two strangers, and lost most of my wariness.

A pair of children. Well, not technically, they might be eighteen. But they were fresh faced and youthful, wearing bargain basement leather armor. One of them had a staff and the other had a bow and arrows. They were so alike in appearance, I wondered if they were brothers.

“Oh wow, look at that cloak! He must be important.” That was a strange way to greet someone. “Hello mister! I’m Rick and this is Heals4U.” Uh, okay, strange name but it did tell me his magical specialty. Fake names were hardly unknown for mages although they were usually not that… stupid. “Who are you? Are you going to the city?”

“I am Justice,” I said after a moment. I really didn’t want to talk to them but I also didn’t want to be rude. “Yes, I am going to the city.”

“Uh, well, be careful. I’ve heard there are some bandits in the woods,” he cautioned and that made me frown. Maybe I should put this damn cloak away. My face though, my damned face… in my own world, bandits would want me for slavery anyway. A level six with a face like mine would fetch a very fine price as a pleasure slave, and many worlds were not too careful about how people ended up enslaved. Then his friend, the unfortunately named Heals4U, jumped in.

“Hey Justice, you look special. Got any quests?” he asked and I turned my head to stare at him.

“Quests? Do I look like an employment agency?” I asked, incredulous. That was such an incredibly strange thing to say to someone on the road. Heals4U frowned and gripped his staff, but his friend quickly grabbed his shoulder.

“He means like, tasks? That we can complete for a reward?” I was about to ask how that was different but then I suddenly paused. They crave tasks and rewards. Were these the Deathless I’d heard about?

I strongly considered kidnapping them both and questioning them, with a bit of torture if necessary, about what they were. But then I checked both their level and their karma and sighed to myself. They were both level five and had excellent karma. I didn’t have to go into the specific karma ties to see they were almost universally positive, so these were good people. They didn’t deserve the attention of Justice.

“Actually, maybe there is something you can do,” I said as something occurred to me. “In the plains, following this road, there’s a leaky dungeon. It would be best to get onto that before there’s a full fledged dungeon break.” That was how this went, first the dungeon got leaky, then it broke. In the Universe of Infinite Possibilities, though, there was such a feeding frenzy of people trying to cultivate that I honestly couldn’t remember the last time that had happened. It probably happened in some backward place. “That can take years though, so there should be no hurry.” The farmers hadn’t seemed too worried and if a break was imminent, well. The dungeon normally let you know.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

“Oh, what level is it and how many recommended party members?” I quickly gave him the information and Rick hesitated. “Uh, hey, I know you’re an NPC but would you be interested in going?” NPC? I decided to ignore that nonsense.

“No, I really need to go to the city. Also, I doubt I would be a particularly good fit for your party since I’m also a healer,” I half-lied. I honestly had no inclination to get that involved with Deathless. I wanted to know more about them first. Rick looked crestfallen but Heals4U nodded.

“Yeah, we don’t need a healer, we need a tank and some other DPS. Come on Rick, let's go check out the plains.” They hurried past me and I left them to it. As I walked towards the city, I kept a wary eye out while wondering gloomily if I should ditch the cloak. Ugh, I needed to buy a new one as soon as I hit the city. Would a mask be out of the question? My old one was destroyed when Ryo caught me in that soul trap.

It hadn’t bothered me at first, with the farmers, but the longer I went without something to cover my face the more naked I felt. My face was far too striking, no doubt of it. My eyebrows and eyelashes were very strange, the same color as my hair. My eyes were the palest of grey, verging on silver and my skin was pale as milk. My strange coloring was memorable but worse yet, my face was equally memorable… I had a strong jaw, high cheekbones and a slightly crooked nose that added just that touch of character. No one could forget my face, a minor curse for an assassin.

So I tucked the cloak firmly around my face and cursed a little when the bandits showed up, fully expecting them to demand the damn cloak. They did not disappoint.

“Hah! Look at the fancy one. Are you a woman? Hand over that cloak, lady, and maybe we’ll let you go.” Oh, someone was asking for my fist up his ass. I paused to look over the three bandits, my eyes narrowing.

The one in the center was a big bruiser of a man. Heavily muscled, he was also quite tall, roughly a head taller than me and I was not short. He had a frankly slightly ugly face with a flattened nose, and his head was completely bald. His armor was quite nice, good chainmail, yet it had seen better days.

“He’s not a woman, Dahgon. Get your eyes checked,” the woman beside him said, annoyed. I turned my attention to her… a young rogue, she wore black armor that was very similar to mine. Not particularly pretty but certainly not ugly, her face had not the slightest shred of makeup and her hair was in a tight bun. A practical hairstyle for combat. I evaluated her body for a moment and approved… she was quite toned and had clearly put good effort into her physical cultivation, even at this low level. Her equipment though was similar to the bruiser, it had seen better days.

The last member of their team interested me the most because he was wearing a mask. A featureless mask similar to the one I had worn, instead of having a symbol, it just had three black lines in the bottom left hand side. The rest was simple white and the eyes I could see were a beautiful gold, while his eyebrows were grey and his lashes were black. His hair was also grey, twisted into a simple braid and lying over his shoulder. His costume made my eyes widen because it was mage robes, but cut in a very ancient style… That cross body cut, that revealed the chest, had fallen out of fashion a thousand years ago in my Universe. I still loved it though and the bit of flesh revealed was warm brown. The rest of the ‘robes’ hugged his body closely and were a fine color for him, the dark red of fine wine. The straps were black leather and of all of them, his gear was the least worn. But I could tell he was an entirely [Soul] user and likely a full DPS. He would always be standing in the back.

“Hah, Felir, you have an admirer!” Hmm, I’d been a bit obvious with my interest. But I truly loved his look, it was gorgeous.

“Dahgon, hush,” the smaller man said and I felt a resonance in his voice, an innate command. He was the real leader of this party. Those golden eyes examined me closely, trying to get beneath my hood. “That cloak is too fine for you. Did you steal it? There might be a finder’s fee with the guard. Hand it over, and we will say no more about this.” I almost laughed at the rather transparent lie. Checking their levels, I frowned slightly. Two level eights and a level nine. Still, this was within what I could handle. In fact, it would be nicely challenging.

The thought suddenly lit a fire in my chest. Challenging. It had been so long since things had been challenging. Oh, I had tangled with other level forty-nines but that was an incredibly rare event and no one beneath me was truly any kind of challenge. At last, after so long, I could fight those who were higher level again! One of my fondest memories was when I was just a level ten, stalking and killing an entire team of level fifteens. I could do it all again!

“I really don’t think so,” I breathed, feeling my lust for battle suddenly surging as I pulled my knives out of dimensional storage. My level compression was so pathetic it did not exist, but the essence of my aura still changed. My enemies all became far more serious, spreading out and getting ready. Just to check how far I could go, I quickly slipped into the web of karma and checked their connections. I expected them to be silty and dark, as was usual with bandits.

My eyes widened with shock as I saw something completely different. The karmic connections of these three were quite bright. The bruiser had a particularly strong connection to the woman, with a feeling of lovers. The mage had strong connections to them both in a way that spoke of respected leader. They did have some negative connections and I felt they had been committing crimes, but not yet murder.

“That changes things,” I muttered as I reluctantly returned my daggers to storage. Much too easy to kill someone with those. I lifted my fists instead, feeling vaguely annoyed. Why did they have to be minor criminals?

The bruiser growled and suddenly went at me with his fists, and I could tell he was also holding back. They didn’t want to kill me, just steal my cloak. I ducked and felt the woman appear behind me, her knife aimed for a slash. I deflected it with my arm before using [Phase] to slip past her before slamming her with a fist in the back of her head. As I did, I noticed she was unskilled with her [Phase]. Normally phasing through a person was a terrible idea, as any decent cultivar could stop you dead in your tracks and punch you within the [Phase], but she wasn’t capable of that.

Then the mage got involved and things became sticky. Literally.

“Flypaper!” My eyes went wide as a spell I had never seen before impacted me. It was an entanglement that fouled my cloak in particular and I had to abandon it, ripping it off along with a portion of my armor and even some skin. Pearls flew as the cloak split, and I heard the mage cry out but ignored it. What kind of spell was that? It reminded me of an inferior [Branching Tangle]. What was up with the name though?

“Fuck, you ruined the cloak!” Eh? The bruiser seemed truly upset and I snorted. It was just a thing, and not something I even liked.

“Worry more about surviving!” I called and the battle continued, this time more serious. A grin stretched my face as I felt a genuine killing intent from the mage and he began using dangerous spells, mostly fire based. I had to dodge constantly and it felt like they were trying to corner me. Ah, what fun!

I love this. I love all of this. I laughed without thinking, as the thrill of danger filled me. My opponents faltered and I registered the weakness, moving in for the ‘kill’. The bruiser was the first to go down, as I punched him in the head so hard he staggered and fell, twitching a bit but not rising. The mage screamed something and a fire spell came at me, but I [Shadow Stepped] for just long enough and the magic passed through me. Another dangerous tactic, that a better [Soul] user could have turned against me, but a level eight wasn’t capable of that.

The woman went down next as we danced together in a deadly duet and my fist took her in the solar plexus. She fell to the ground, gagging and coughing as I turned my attention to the last man standing. The mage’s golden eyes were wide and he tried something new, an ice spell. It was quickly and badly done and I shattered the ice lance with contemptuous ease before casting a mana bolt. He raised a shield and I was suddenly impressed… [Mana Shield] was actually a difficult skill. I didn’t think I could do it right now, with my [Soul] as weak as it was.

Without thinking, I leapt at him and summoned [Void]. [Void] was naturally highly corrosive and the enemy of all [Barrier] magic. It was also far past what a level six should be able to use but I did it completely without thinking and somehow coated a single finger with it. My finger tore through the [Mana Shield] and a line of [Void] hit the mage in the chest. He shuddered before screaming, a sound of tearing agony.

That scream was like a bucket of cold water on me and made me realize I had gone MUCH too far. Cursing to myself, I quickly dispelled the [Void], realizing as I did that my finger was numb. I’d deal with that later. For now, I knelt beside the fallen mage and began casting [Lesser Heal]. It wasn’t much, but hopefully his body would be able to purge the [Void].

The mage raised his head and I could see his agonized golden eyes. Despite the pain and how his hands were shaking, he lifted a hand and began to cast what I recognized as [Purify]. A good choice, for someone with the aptitude for [Holy]. I personally had very little aptitude for that Law of [Soul], or I might have tried it.

“Sorry about that, I got carried away,” I said as the pain began to ease. Then I noticed his eyes widening in horror as his gaze drifted downwards. Following his gaze, I saw he was looking at my hand and it was not a pretty sight. “Whoops,” I muttered as I quickly grasped my pointer finger and ripped it off. That hurt, but I grimaced and bore it. Reaching into my storage, I pulled out a lesser regeneration potion and popped the top before swallowing it. My finger began to grow back immediately with a distinct itchy feeling. “Using [Void] really was a mistake. I apologize.” The problem was that I was just so damned used to using [Void]. It was a rare Law to have mastery of and had been one of my greatest assets since level twelve, when I’d truly started to grasp it. Unfortunately, a level six just couldn’t use [Void] properly.

“Felir, you idiot, you had us attack a Deathless,” the female rogue said breathlessly before heaving. The bruiser was still out cold. I shook my head, standing up.

“I’m not a Deathless,” I said before looking at my cloak, or what was left of it. The spell had dissipated but the cloak was a torn mess of silk, fur and scattered pearls. “You can have the cloak, I don’t want it anymore.” The pearls were probably worth something but I couldn’t be bothered to pick them up.

“Wow, thank you,” the rogue said with heavy sarcasm and I just shrugged. I almost turned away but then stopped as I remembered.

“Hey, that spell you used. Flypaper? I’ve never seen that one, can I see it again?” It was really quite interesting. It wasn’t impossible for me to find a new spell - Infinite Possibilities meant they were popping up all the time - but most were frankly boring rediscoveries of existing spells that people had forgotten. This weird sticky entanglement was genuinely new to me. The mage eyed me warily before speaking sharply.

“What will you pay me?” he asked and I frowned, tempted to say ‘your life’. I held back, gesturing at the pearls instead. The rogue was grumbling but picking them up and the bruiser was starting to stir.

“You can have my pearls,” I said curtly and the mage took a deep breath. “If you want more, you’ll have to prove you’re worth my time.” Although… perhaps I could make use of them. They were a mildly criminal group of young adventurers… huh, that was rather familiar actually. “Perhaps I can pay you to act as my bodyguard and guides, for a time.” Not that I had any money but the first help I would get from them would be selling some of my trash. That immediately made the mage look at me sharply, his golden eyes intent.

“We would need at least two hundred silver knuts a week,” he said and I groaned internally. I still didn’t have any fucking money! Also, knuts? Who named these things? I waved it away.

“Let’s not do negotiations in the middle of the road. Let’s take it to where important things should always be done, in the tavern over drinks,” I said as the bruiser pulled himself up with a thunderous scowl. He might have gone after me but the mage spoke sharply.

“Dahgon, calm down. He’s a noble and he might be looking to employ us,” he said and I had to correct him.

“I’m not a noble, just rich.” Technically true, if I could sell this junk. They all looked at me like they didn’t believe me, but accepted it. “However, I don’t have any actual money on me, just items. Let’s sell those pearls and find some crappy inn to stay at.” I glanced at my armor, noting that despite no longer being nano-weave, it was repairing itself. Good, I wouldn’t have to pay for that. “Then we can discuss the terms of your employment.” They all glanced at each other and I had the feeling they were very dubious about all this. But then, I’d just admitted I didn’t have any money. That was quite a thing to hear your future employer say. Nonetheless, we finished gathering the pearls and set out for the city.

Hopefully nothing else would happen, I could buy a cloak or a mask, and we could get this all sorted out.