I wake up in the morning and go downstairs to the pub. I am shocked by how it is so packed even though morning just broke.

I guess people of this world don’t care what time it is for them to drink, huh.

“Oh, you’re awake wonder boy. What can I get you?” asks Naomi behind the counter as she polishes the few whisky glasses she possessed.

“Surprise me.”

A seductive smile creeps from her blackened with lipstick mouth.

“Why don’t you go sit over there. I’ll have your food ready in a jiffy.”

She disappears to the kitchen. I sit down at the table she told me to sit. Eyes are fixed on me even today.

So annoying.

A bulky man pulls himself a chair and sits next to me.

“Name’s Jasper. What’s yours?” asks Jasper as he hands me a giant wooden mug filled with rum.

“Allen.” I answer as I took the beer.

I haven’t tasted this world’s alcohol yet. So far, I have been drinking the recreated alcohol from my previous world. I wonder how it tastes.

I sip it and an unfamiliar taste drowns my mouth.

It is disgusting. I guess it wasn’t made for me.

“You look like this is your first drinking?”

Let’s just lie. I can’t seem to shake off the embarrassment of that night.

“Yeah. It is.”

I take another sip.

It’s weird. Even though I can swear that this thing is disgusting, I can’t seem to stop myself from drinking it.

And just like that, the mug is empty.

“Hahaha. Looks like we have a drinker over here.”

Another round of beers comes and just like the last mug, they all go empty.

After a few minutes, Naomi finally comes out carrying the food. She is surprised to see the table filled with empty mugs.

“I never took you for a drinker, wonder boy.” She speaks.

“I’m not *burp*.”

Jasper places his colossal arm around my shoulders, drunk as shit, and speaks.

“Hahaha. This kid, no matter how much he drinks, he doesn’t seem to be getting drunk at all. And you say this is your first-time drinking.”

Well, you wouldn’t like me when I’m drunk. I get the chills just thinking about what happened last time. Poor Marco.

I take the food and eat. The food isn’t bad. In fact, it is good. It is a plate of boar meet and porridge. There is a lot of fat on the meat and the gravy floods the plate. This kind of meal reminds me of the meals I would eat back on earth. Simple yet delicious.

As I am busy enjoying my meal, two men enter the inn. Silence dawns.

“Looks like y’all are having a good time, aren’t you?” says one of the men.

Jasper stands up and walks towards them. His drunkard state dissolved by fury.

“What are you fuckers doing here?”

“Look who we have here. If it isn’t lil’ol Jasper? Shouldn’t you be sucking on your big sis’s tities?”

“I’ll fucking- “before Jasper can finish talking, Naomi steps in.

“Enough, Jasper.” After hearing those words, Jasper pulls himself back. “Now, what are you ladies doing here? I’m sure we already paid our fee for the month.”

A look of anger rises from one of the men, but he is halted by the man in front.

“Don’t worry, Naomi. We are not here for you.” he says as he looks at me.

He then walks towards my direction.

“Not many people with that hair and eye colour in these parts. Are you new here, boy?”

I don’t respond and continue eating away at the plate in front of me.

“Well, since you’re new here, you probably don’t know the rules. You see, in this city, everyone pays what we call a “protection fee”. So, newcomer. Pay up.”

I look at him and smirk.

“What if I don’t need protection? What then?”

The man is shocked followed by an outburst of anger.

“Stinking brat. Do you know who I am?” asks the man as he takes out his sword and points it at me.

The atmosphere in the room changes.

“Sigh, why can’t guys like you judge the strength of their opponent. At this point, you guys are just stupid.”

“What did you say?”

I become a blur as I appear behind him. Blood goes spraying as his head spins across the air before thudding to the floor. Everyone’s eyes go wide.

“You crazy fucker.” Shouts the other man as he charges at me, armed with his sword.

I glare at him as I release an intense bloodlust that halts his movement in place.

W-what?! I can’t move. Just what is he?

I walk up towards him. Sweat drips down his face. I smile as I raise my hand, engulfed in mana in the form of a blade, ready to cut his head off.

“Wait!” shouts Naomi as I halt my attack. I glare at her with my cold sapphire eyes. “You can’t kill him. If you do, then you’ll make yourself the enemy of Raizer and his men.”

A sigh of relief drifts out of the man’s patched lips. I look over at her and smile before cleanly slicing the man’s head off his shoulders.

What the hell? No hesitation at all.

“Now, tell me about this Raizer.” I ask Naomi as I take a sit and finish my food.

Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

***

Naomi’s men took a few minutes cleaning and disposing of the bodies.

“Raizer is a gang boss and he is also the person who controls this city. He deals in slavery. In summary, he isn’t a person you want to get yourself involved with but I guess you already did by killing two of his men.”

“I see. So, what you’re saying is that leaving a man like him will only bring more problems for me? Very well then, I’ll just go and kill him.”

“Wait what?!”

“What?”

“You don’t know what you’re getting yourself into here. Raizer isn’t just anybody. He is also the second in command of Dread, the bandit who is in the top five of the most wanted in the continent with a bounty of five hundred gold coins.”

Aargh, I don’t really have time for this. I need to finish this guy off before this afternoon. I still have a lot of things to do.

“Yeah, yeah, see ya.” I say as I teleport out of there.

Huh, he disappeared. Is this kid crazy? Shit. Can he really kill him, though? After all, Raizer is a ‘gifted’ and a damn strong one at that. His strength rivals some of the Five Slayers. Even if he does by some miracle, Dread will be another problem. And angering someone who is in the Bandit Society is suicide.

In the town.

Fuck. I jumped out without even asking her where this Raizer guy lived. I’d only look like an idiot if I returned to ask her about it. Well, it’s not like it’s that hard to look for him. I just need to find where they keep the slaves.

I look around for a few minutes and I manage to find some slave traders. It isn’t that hard since people seem to regularly buy slaves like they are buying grocery.

It is a huge warehouse and after sneaking in by turning myself invisible, I am able to find quite a lot of captured beastmen. The good thing is that most of them have slave collars instead of slave marks. That makes my job easier

There are two kinds of them. The beastmen that have wolf ears and ones that have snake eyes. Of course, they have bodies that are human or humanish. There are also a variety of monsters that I have never seen before. There is a black panther looking monster, a gorilla and more.

As I pass one of the beastmen cages, one of the wolves beastman growls at me.

Can she see me? Weird. It’s impossible for anyone to find me be it by sight or sense of smell.

I look closer at her. She is about the age of twenty-five or so I presume. Even though she is growling, it doesn’t seem like she can see me.

Is it instinct? Or is there something else.

I look at the snake eyed beastmen. A lot of them were looking at my direction. It is as if they are sensing me.

Are they sensing my body temperature or are they more sensitive to magic?

“Hey you idiots. Don’t slack off. The boss will be here any minute now. Better prepare to move these guys. I heard a big time noble from the Great Empire bought a load of them.” Says one of the slave traders.

“Really. Who is it?”

“The boss didn’t say. Just get your asses off and prepare.”

Sigh, I guess I should probably save them before it’s too late.

I deactivate my invisibility magic and materialise before them.

“Huh, who the fuck is this?”

The slave traders are shaken. So, are the slaves. The slave traders unsheathe their weapons.

“It doesn’t matter. Get him.”

Ten people charge at me and swing their swords. I dodge them easily as I punch two of them in the guts sending them flying towards some crates. Three then attack at the same time.

Their swords tear through the air towards me. I evade by leaping up into the air. Wind trails followed by a gust of wind. I grab two of them by their heads and smash them into the ground. A puddle of blood forms in the craters created by their skulls.

I pounce at the other one and slash his head off using my mana blade.

Another one appears behind me and swings his sword. I dodge it by moving to the side and kick him in the knee, breaking it, before kicking him in the face, sinking him to the wall. Four are left. They start shaking as they back away slowly.

I smile as I disappear in front of them appearing from behind as blood spews everywhere. All four of them collapse dead on the ground, bathing in the pool of their crimson blood.

A look of fear and anxiety shoots out of the hostages’ faces. Their caution is raised even more. I look over and walk up to them.

“What the fuck happened here?”

I stop and turn around to the voice that had just spoke. Standing in the door is a man with thirty people behind him. All carrying weapons.

I guess that must be Raizer. Saves me a lot of time of looking for him.

He is a man wearing sunglasses and has a toothpick in his mouth. His hair is oiled and laid back. He is wearing a suit of sorts. Kinda like in my previous world but different.

“Who the fuck are you?” asks Raizer.

I don’t answer. He glosses around the room and sees the dead bodies of his men.

“I see. Kill him.” orders Raizer as all the thirty men charge at me.

“I would love to play with you but I don’t really have the time to fight all of you one by one so, lightning field.”

The area turns blue as all thirty of the charging men get electrocuted by lightning, dropping dead on the floor. Raizer remains as he is standing by the door.

What the...? What just happened? This kid. He’s a mage.

“So, you’re not going to tell me who you are? Do you work for the Freedom fighters?”

“The what?”

Guess he’s not. Besides, those cowards prioritize freeing the slaves more than anything.

“You chose the wrong opponent boy.” Says Raizer as he snaps his fingers.

Fire sparks from them before opening his hand, releasing a fireball. I dodge it but the fireballs didn’t stop. He kept shooting one after the other while keeping his distance.

This kid is a lightning user. If I can keep my distance by throwing at him a bunch of fireballs, then he’ll not have a chance to cast his lightning spells. I’ll then find an opening and finish him off.

He smirks. The fireballs didn’t stop hurtling towards me. As I am dodging his attacks, I notice something weird.

How is he using magic without chanting? Is there another form of chanting that I don’t know about?

He is probably a ‘gifted’.

A ‘gifted’? What’s that?

They are individuals with magical abilities but aren’t restricted by magic spells.

Meaning they don’t need magic spells for them to cast magic. Are they some sort of a new race or did a mutation happened for them to be like this?

Don’t know.

“You’re good, kid.”

“And you are entirely average. No, you are weak.”

A vein pops on his forehead as he stretches out his hand. A spear made of fire appears from his hand as it illuminates the feint shadows.

“Let me show you my full power then.”

He charges at me with his flame spear. Spinning it around, he swings it towards me. I dodge it by ducking as a trail of fire follows the attack over me. He then follows it up by quick thrusts at me. I manage to avoid them too, easily.

“Bright burn.” Raizer releases a blinding attack before he stabs at me.

As the effects of bright burn disappear, I am holding his flame spear with my hand. He is shocked. The tip of the spear turns bright orange as a huge explosion blasted at me.

A thick dust clouds the scene. I emerge from it, unscathed and grab Raizer by the neck and slams him to the ground.

“Heat… wave.”

A burst of heat from within him pushes me off him, giving himself room to breathe.

“Cough, cough.”

Just who is this bastard? No matter what I release at him, nothing seems to work. I need to get out of here.

A sinister smile creeps on my face. There it is. The look of when they realise the difference between us.

The smile startles him as he feels a chill run down his spine. Sweat drips from his forehead as he begins to realise what was standing in front of him.

“I had fun but I guess I’ll have to end this.”

I become a blur and appear in front of him. A punch to the gut sends him crashing to the wall. I dig him out of the wall by his hair and throw him across the room. He thuds the ground hard and tries to crawl away.

I can’t win. He is too fucking strong. Just who is this monster?

Tears run on his bloody face as he begins to beg.

“I lose. You win, okay. P-please spare me. I’m begging you.” he pleads as he gets up from the ground.

I punch him in the face as he crashes to the ground. Blood pours out of his nose as he crawls backwards facing me. I walk up towards him. A crate blocks his crawling as I stand in front of him.

I raise my foot and stomp on his ankle, crushing it.

“Arrraaaahhh!”

He cries out in agony. I raise my foot again and crush his other ankle.

“Aaaahhhhhhaaaa!!!!!”

His scream grows louder, even frightening the hostages. But I didn’t stop. My foot rises again and crushes his knee.

“Aaaaahhaaaa!!!”

It rises again to crush the other knee.

“Aaaaaaaaaaa!!!!!!”

I can hear bones breaking like twigs. I raise my foot again and stomp on the flailing hand, burying it to the ground.

“Aaaaaahhhaaa!”

It rises again stomping on the other hand.

Shocked by all the pain, his eyes roll back to their sockets. But I wouldn’t let him get such a luxury.

“Fireball.”

A minor fireball shoots out of my hand, burning his entire arm. The pain of having his arm burned wakes him up as he cries even more.

“Aaaaahhaaaa!!!!Please. P-please spare me.”

“Why?” I ask as I stare at him with soulless eyes.

“I-if you kill me. You’ll make a lot of enemies. But if you spare me, I’ll make sure no trouble comes after you.” he answers in a weak voice as tears flood his face.

“You are not gonna like this then. Well, you see. It seems trouble likes following me wherever I go. And weirdly enough, I kinda like it.” I say as my eyes open wide followed by a sinister smile.

Despair drowns on the face of Raizer as he realises that he is not dealing with a human, but a monster. A shadow looms over Raizer’s face as my foot crushes down. Brain splatter and blood drips as I lift my boot off his skull.

Kid.

Yeah, I know. Some rats are spying on us. Must be Naomi’s men.

I look at them with the corner of my eye. They are startled as they duck down.

I ignore them and walk towards the cages as Raizer’s body is engulfed in my flames.

The hostages quiver in fear as I look at them. Some have each other in arms while others are crouching, hiding their faces. There are also some who have their ears covered to block out the screams.

Now, what should I do with these people.