“One thousand gold…” a devilish grin whispered in the darkness, the glint of a gold tooth tempting muggers from the shadows.

Parker decided that tonight he would search for Kai himself, before reporting the details to the bounty hunter guild in the morning.

This was a breach of his own contract, but if he found Kai himself then all of the one-thousand gold bounty would be his, rather than a small cut for finding the bounty contract in the first place.

Plus, he was not stupid enough to sign a blood-contract, and his own contract with the guild would be hard to enforce.

Besides, one thousand gold was enough to buy a small estate or even start his own bounty hunting guild. It would set him up for life - and all he had to do was to find some measly kid.

The Cult of Two’s compound was military-esque and industrial-looking on the inside, but was designed to look like rundown ruins on the outside.

As Parker left, he questioned a few of the cult’s guards on his way out, and found that Kai had escaped through a narrow passage designed for supply transfers.

A few of the supplymen went after him, but lost him after a desperate chase. Neither of them had wind boots or knew any agility magic so they really had no hope in these winding streets - despite that, one had since been executed and fed to the mist walkers lurking below the city.

Unfortunately for Kai, the cult’s compound was located deep within the slums of Knight’s city, meaning he was in danger.

“He’s probably dead by now, but if not, I’ll bet he’s found a tavern to hide in… or to be kicked out of.”

Parker used his map spell. While it made a floating ethereal map appear before his eyes which was invisible to anyone else, it was considered a basic spell.

The map’s details would be filled in as he traveled to places, or from looking at other maps.

A few hours had passed since the incident, and the rain was still heavy, distorting all vision and sound. Parker didn’t blame the supplymen for losing him, but their lives were not of his concern.

Traveling through the alleyway where they last saw Kai, he met another cobblestone street filled with potholes. Across the street was another alley to run through.

Checking his map, he could only guess where Kai ran off to.

“Three pubs left, an inn to the right…” Parker looked up and down the street.

Finally, his eyes landed on the alley across the road.

“Or the den sector, through the alley…” he said a little more quietly, squinting his eyes.

The dark alley seemed like the black maws of a beast, but after looking up the street which was a little more well-lit, he concluded that this was the most obvious choice an escaping prisoner would run through.

The darkness in the alley and drenching rain provided significant cover for anyone who would pass this way, and for someone running it would be the optimal choice.

While the slums were the most dangerous place someone without magic, weapons or knowledge could be, the den sector was many times more dangerous.

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Unofficially named the ‘den sector’ by miscreants of Knight’s city, it was where the drug lords, slum kings, cults, secretive noble militia, and various terrorist groups had free reign.

Illegal forms of hexamist magic, drug labs, turf wars, human experimentation, and abominable lifeform creation all existed alongside petty mugging, murder and theft - not that there was much to steal.

Some vile beings simply ventured there to kill other humans.

Once inside the darkness of the alley, he formed a mana shield for protection; a few shimmers of a blue bubble gleaned around his body before disappearing.

Next, he placed a seeing sphere to his shoulder to watch his back; an enchanted black stone sphere with a ruby gem iris. A quiet, soft red glow came from the ruby eye as it levitated on his shoulder.

Finally, he readied his weapon. It was his pride and joy, which he had claimed as a reward for conquering a dungeon.

The weapon in question was a magic black dagger, though it was as slender as a needle; more like a letter opener than a weapon at all.

The enemy would only feel a slight prick, but the magical effects of the dagger would soon open up the wound to create a blood-gushing hole the likes of which only a greatsword could inflict.

Over the years Parker had come across a few other, more powerful weapons, but to Parker, there was nothing like watching the shocked, fearful look on peoples faces as giant flowing wounds started appearing all over their body.

Parker had learnt an agility spell too, which allowed him to dash a short distance, appearing only as a blur. Combined with his pin-like dagger he was a formidable opponent.

For emergencies, he had a few other expensive consumables in his inventory, but saved those for tight situations.

Despite all this though, he was clenching his jaw from the stress as he entered the den sector. By no means did he feel prepared, and was relying purely on chance - yet he could not let such a huge fortune pass him by.

He gazed up at the sky, but could only guess the time.

“Nearly midnight. I’ll need to get out before daybreak.” he thought, stepping into the next street - if you could call it a street.

Most of it was mud, with different weeds creeping up through various cracks.

As for the trail, he was guessing up until now. Across the mud-street were three more alleys; one created by a destroyed building.

“Dammit. Why did he have to run through here.” he sighed, taking out an expensive white potion, and a golden glow shined out as he channeled some mana into it.

As he drank it, his pupils turned from round to square, and a golden yellow color filled up the whites of his eyes. Glancing around, he soon found what he was looking for.

Ghostly white shoe-prints filled his vision, different paths trailing everywhere. The magic potion had taken effect.

The older shoe-prints had turned gray, while some were so faint they may as well have disappeared. These were faint mana signatures, condensed by the human foot - though the mana-infused potion revealed them as shoe prints for convenience. It revealed tracks from the last seven hours.

Thankfully, there was one trail which was quite recent, and Parker was glad that his guess of Kai running through here had turned out to be correct; there was little chance that anyone else would be running through here in the pouring rain of the night, while all of the other slowly disappearing tracks pointed away from the den sector - or at least didn’t head directly into it with large strides.

Following the tracks, he moved deeper into the den sector. Most buildings were ruinous and partly caved in, rebuilt with parts ripped from others. Truly a perilous ruin.

Despite the heavy rain he overheard the occasional screams as he crept through the darkness, with some painful howlings in the night.

Either information was being extracted, or some sick psychopaths fantasies were being fulfilled - Parker couldn’t be sure. There was also the chance that the screams were just a lure, a bait by some abominable creature.

Yet Parker ignored them altogether; the only thing that mattered right now was not being caught.

Moving deeper, he would soon step into the shadow of the bridge which traveled over the slums, but before that he noticed something unusual.

A pile of scattered trash. The shoe-prints became erratic as another set of prints had appeared around it.

“Fuck, what the hell happened here…” he pursed his lips.