Liam watched the early morning rising sun as it ascended over the giant dark stone wall. Over the years he had gotten so used to dark and shady mornings in the city, that it felt almost surreal for him to feel real sunlight on his skin this early. Then again, he had never been able to scale this high before.

Originally this day had been meant for Liam to gather some money. The end of the week was drawing closer, and Liam knew that when it did, David would be there for him.

The last few days it had been the ecstasy of his new powers that had distracted him from David's call, but now it was a different thing altogether.

Liam had spent most of the night sleepless. The scenes of yesterday were still haunting him. Terrible, bloody, and soul wrenchingly familiar. The whole night he had been tortured by the parents' wails, and sometimes, only when he dared to listen, there was a more familiar voice underneath.

Liam felt responsible. Maybe these things wouldn’t have happened if he had just fled the city immediately after his encounter with the noble. He should’ve known that the nobility would be after him. There was no way they could’ve let a thing like this just rest on them.

By running he could’ve at least drawn their ire away from the city. Maybe. A small voice had started whispering it in his mind already the moment he had gotten his powers. But he had been too scared to listen. Had been too scared of what lurked outside of the walls.

Now these people were dead. And it was more than partially because of him.

He knew he was responsible for those deaths in a way. He couldn’t say that he hadn’t killed that noble unintentionally. If he could have, he would've started killing them years ago already. Pantheon knows they deserve to die. But he should’ve made sure that the rest of the city didn’t have to suffer for it.

He could chide himself to not running away the moment he had killed the noble, or turning himself in, or doing anything else really to make sure that the nobility didn’t vent their frustration towards the innocent people of the city. But the reality was, Liam knew there was nothing he could’ve done to prevent that. He knew these people.

Liam felt angry. Mad at himself, but furious at the nobility. He had seen these people do things over the years that no normal human being would do. Things that made him despise and hate them with deep guttural passion. He should’ve known they would react to the death of one of their own in this way.

What got to Liam the most though, was the fact that he hadn’t even tried to help. He stood there, unmoving and just watched those people being executed for something he did.

He didn’t regret killing the nobleman for one second, he didn’t regret getting his powers. But his soul squelched in torment because he had simply stood by.

Even if it would've been a fruitless thing, Liam wasn’t sure if he could ever forgive himself for not acting.

There was some self hatred to be sure, but more than that, he felt the old rage against the nobility flare up in him again. Smoldering and scorching inside of him, reaching unprecedented heights.

How could he have these powers and still feel so helpless?

Liam looked over to the looming walls rising in the distance. He could barely see shapes moving on top of them. He knew the wall had been built to keep the monsters out, and there had been many days when he had been grateful for the wall. Days when the might of the stone colossus had been tested by the attacks of roaming hordes.

But right now, Liam couldn’t help but feel like the walls were trapping him. Like they were slowly drawing closer and suffocating him.

He thought about running again. The thought was more real now than it had been before, having grown from a small whisper to a loud roar. He couldn’t help but imagine him being on the executioners board. Couldn’t hold any other thought than hope that his guilt would somehow be washed away by him escaping the city.

It didn’t make sense, but Liam was well past sense. The boy was dead, and it was his fault. His fault, the nobility's fault, the fault of the city, of all the people that had stood by watching, and the fault of every damn god up there that hadn’t dared intervene.

He felt sick to the stomach.

Running wasn’t a solution. Liam knew that.

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This wasn’t about small things anymore. Not about stealing silverware to pawn. Not about getting the good pieces of meat from the market and not about gathering enough coins to keep David off his neck for a few more days.

No, his horizon had suddenly become so much bigger than that. Liam didn’t just want the executions to end and the nobility to forget about him. He wanted to make sure these things never happened to anyone again. He wanted to take the whole nobility right along with all their houses and estates and burn them to the fucking ground.

His mind went to the days he spent fantasizing and daydreaming with Grace. How they had laid in their little hideout, dreaming about better days and possibilities. And then he remembered how that had been taken from him and his anger only intensified.

He had pushed those feelings again for a long time, pushing them down and locking them up in the farthest basement he could find in his mind. But now they had broken free again.

And for the first time in Liam’s life, he might be able to do something about it. He wasn’t a powerless orphan anymore, not fully. The last few days had demonstrated that his powers gave him the ability to make a change. He was blessed by a god now.

Liam was under no illusion about his chances against the nobility though. That one man had been able to entrance a whole square of people without breaking a sweat. Liam was able to levitate letters and small stones.

He had seen them throw fireballs and punch through walls like they were nothing. Had seen them kick down doors, lift stones heavier than men should be able to lift and slowly rip people apart limb by limb.

Liam was able to jump a little higher and faster.

Even the ones of the nobility that were followers of minor gods were leagues above Liam. If he wanted to take them on he had to grow stronger. Much stronger. Unfortunately Liam didn’t really know where to start with that.

He knew barely anything about how cultivation worked. Had no idea about skills and levels, and didn’t even know who the god that had blessed him really was. He looked at his status screen.

“Gravity Manipulation Level 5.”

“Gravity Jump Level 4.”

Those were the only two skills he had so far. Even if he was somewhat proud of the levels he had gained in that short amount of time, he knew it still amounted to almost nothing. He didn’t know what kind of skill levels the nobility had, but they sure as hell were higher than his.

Reluctantly, he opened the message he had tried his best to ignore.

“Legendary Quest: Find the orb of Kaldazia.”

He knew those quests were important for cultivators, Gravitas had even hinted at such. Somehow these quests were a keystone for him to get stronger, he felt that. Yet he had tried to ignore the message since he had gotten it.

Liam didn’t like being told what to do. All his life he had grown up resenting authorities, and he couldn’t help but feel like the quest was similar to that. He despised dancing to someone else's tune. Especially if that someone else was a god. He didn’t have the most trust in them. How could he trust someone that had chosen the nobility, someone whose brothers and sisters had shaped the unjust world he lived in.

Then again Gravitas hadn’t really given him that vibe. Something about the being had made Liam feel at ease even.

“I just need you to know that I’m not evil.”

The phrase still rang through Liam’s memory. There had been a sincerity to it. He really had no idea how to judge the god. But if he wanted to grow stronger, he knew he needed to walk the path of cultivation fully, and that included following the quest.

Unfortunately Liam had no idea where to really start with his search. He knew that he wouldn’t find this orb inside of Charville. He had never heard about a place called Kaldazia even, and he only had a vague notion of what an orb was really.

He sighed. There was one man Liam knew who could help him. Only one man who knew at least a little about how cultivation, the nobility and the whole blessing system worked.

Liam sighed again, more heavily this time. Pantheon, he really didn’t want to go to the man again.

The moon hung high above the city, hulling the streets in cold silvery light. Biting wind soared over the city walls, whistling angrily, and shaking the coats of the two sinister figures standing on top of the wall. They were barely more than tiny shadows atop the grey colloss surrounding the city, yet they seemed to loom above it.

"This is where he lives?" The taller of the two said distastefully.

“Yes, sad little backwater town,” his companion replied.

“Smells like piss here.”

“Of course, this whole fucking part of the continent smells like piss.”

The taller shadow sighed. "I hate being ordered into those hamlets. It's like people here are all a little behind. Even the nobility. It's a disgrace."

"Fucking Dannyel. He fucked up the last two jobs and he still gets treated like some first line guy, but if I slip up once its being demoted to the eastern fucking continent."

"Shit at least you got to have some jobs in the province. It's only dirt searching for me."

Both of them were brooding in silence.

"Don't even get why they need two of us for that."

"I hate the smell of piss," the other one said. "And I hate first line nobility."

Grudgingly both of them put aside their complaints and turned their attention inwards. A few seconds later they reentered with a grim smile on their face.

“Don’t worry,” his comrade said. “If we get this guy, we can be sure of our promotion.” A smile crept over his face.

“You felt it too didn’t you?”

“Yes. We finally have him. The unorthodox cultivator.”