I literally, LITERALLY, just got kicked out of the apartment.

I know having no rent for four months is way too much but people nowadays don't kill each other anymore. Goddamn it why did I even become a bounty hunter in the first place?

Five years ago it was normal for a body or two to be rotting on the side of the road. What the hell happened?

But that new King really is doing his job properly. You can hardly tell that this town was the Geisen I grew up on. Back then there was no law. Everything can be payed with gold. You'd see magic duels in every corner. Women were literally raped in the open and not even the passerbys would stop them. Hell they'd even watch and laugh about it.

Nowadays you can see a knight stationed in every block. Law is now properly enforced, the nights here look brighter now, women are now equal to men which is kind of nice if you were to ask me. I mean the only real difference between a man and a woman is a dick and tits. And probably the "wo" part.

It's already almost midnight and there's a child roaming around alone. I'd love to use him for ransom but I do not want to get arrested now. Wait a second, maybe getting arrested is a good thing. I'd get a roof over my head, three meals a day and I could laze around all I want! Except if I accidentally drop a soap bar I'd lose my ass virginity...

It's really cold out, huh. With no fucking coat that is. Why did that piece-of-shit of a landlady take my coat? And all of my stuff? She took everything I had except for my dagger.

"Achoo!"

Oh Jesus Christ I'm freezing. Wait, who the hell is Jesus Christ? Where did I even get that name..

Walking down the road main road, towards no real goal.. This is depressing.

The stars are bright tonight, with the moon as beautiful as ever. Glowing in faint lunar light, it lights the cobblestone road. The city sleeps with a bright night light in the sky. I wish this beautiful scenery would fill my growling stomach though.

A faint line of strange magic struck hard in the back of my mind.

What was that? It came from a little aisle as dark as the abyss. It was bright out tonight yet that aisle was just pitch black. The light of the moon could not reach that little space. My body was sending signals of get the fuck outta here. My instincts were telling me not to get inlvolved in whatever is about to unfold if I enter that mini-chasm.

What's the worse that can happen?

I approach the aisle. Every single step I take made the line of magic clearer and clearer. Strange. This presence is so familliar but I can't seem to put my finger on it.

Before I could even ponder deeper about where I sensed this presence in the past, a bolt of fire came shooting out of the aisle.

> Fireball, incinerate!

The ball of fire cut through the darkness like a sword slicing through paper, rushing towards me.

I tumbled to the left to dodge. The spell pinpointed the location of whoever threw it for me so I threw my sole knife towards the magus.

I channeled my mana:

> Blade clones, disperse!

My knife multiplied and swarmed  the aisle.

With this the magus has no other choice but to jump to dodge my knives-

A shadow flew high in the sky as my knives hit wood and stone, making sounds that indicated it didn't hit him. Not even once. As predicted

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

> Cutting wind

I hardened the wind into the form of a blade and threw it towards the shadow.

My spell hit the shadow straight in the head - not. I only hit the cloak the magus had left. It seems like it teleported just before the impact of the wind blade.

Shit, that's not good. I don't have any other way to track him. Did he use a teleportation spell? I might need to put some distance between us and use a smoke screen to cover my-

Before I could even jump away, a knife was pointed to my nape.

"Dropped something?"

The coarse, deep voice the entity had could probably cripple someone in fear. This guy has the presence of someone who used to kill for a living. No... he was killing to survive.

"Quite the agile guy, huh?"

I began to channel my mana again. I need to stall for this one, it takes a lot of magical equations to calculate for this spell. Goddamn it I should've studied some equation shortcuts when I had some free time.

"Why did you  try to approach me, boy?"

"Why not?"

"Are trying to fuck with me?"

"Maybe."

"You little shit." He chuckled a bit. "Say, are you ready to die for me?"

"Yeah I guess." I just completed my formula. "But not for you."

> Hands of time, obey and rewind the past

In the blink of an eye, I was back in the same spot before I began approaching the aisle.

A guffaw echoed from the dark aisle.

He emersed from the shadows. laughing hard. I couldn't control myself either. I had a nice grin on my face. This is the first time in a long time that I had a fight that was this thrilling.

"It has been a long while since I had a battle like this! It has literally been centuries!"

"Shut the fuck up, gramps. A few decades can't compare to a single century."

"It wasn't metaphoric, child. It was literal."

Is he an immortal?

A tall figure and broad shoulders. Even though he said he has lived since forever he looks like he's in the same age as me. No, probably older. Around twenty seven if I could guess. Damn this guy is kinda handsome. Compared to my sorry excuse of a face. I'm starting to hate him now, fuck. Makes me want to kill him.

"Why are you even surprised? You wielded time againts me."

"In a small area for a small amount of time only, grandpop."

> Strength

I enchanted my right hand and ran towards him. He smiled and started to chant his spell.

"What do you mean? This is a global-scale spell that rewinded time itself! I commend your-"

I stopped at the spot where he caught me with a knife on my nape. As soon as my spell expired I punched behind me with all my might.

Time distorted back to when he caught me with a knife on my nape. Blood dripped from his chest. I made a big hole in it. I pulled my arm out and blood started to gush out from his chest faster. HIs body fell and blood splat in the area.

I crouched down and asked.

"Why did you try to kill me?"

"I wanted to live longer. Your death would add more years to my life."

"What?"

So he's a senile immortal huh. I never knew that existed.

"Before Terragaia had international laws, a band of mages were trying to achieve immortality. That activity was known as-"

"Vampire project?" He nodded. "I thought that project failed hundreds of years ago. Everybody involved in that project died and it was cancelled."

"It was true that everybody died. Everybody died except me, test subject 0709."

That's why it was so familliar. The mana was akin to my former master. I just killed the last survivor of the spell that could bring ruin to the world. That escalated quickly. This is still the first chapter, right?

"And now you are test subject 0710."

"Excuse me, what?"

> Curse you not with death but with eternal life

Mana began to envelope me. Immeasurable strength surged through my veins-

"AAAAAAAAARRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRGGGGGGGGGGGHHHHHHHH"

I cannot even depict what it was. It felt good but at the same time it felt like fucking hell.

"MAKE IT FUCKING STOP."

I looked at him and he was already a pile of ashes.

Fuck-