The moment Kaian left the tavern, his happy skipping stopped. Despite what he had shown Zanir, all of this weighed on him pretty hard. No matter what he came up with, what justification he made up for himself, he was still going to kill a person for money.

Fortunately, or unfortunately, his weakened second personality came out at this time, taking advantage of Kaian’s lack of confidence and grasping the reins.

This version of him whipped out the folder and looked at the page about his target’s frequented locations, skipping all information about the man as a person. They were all below him, after all. Why bother? Also the fact that he couldn't read played a part.

Scanning the pages and realizing there was only one picture, he ignored a certain memory about a mage and heroically stepped out to ask someone for directions. Why was this damn city so complicated? How was a man supposed to know where “Cloudy street’s jewel” was?!

“You, over there. Where is the Cloudy street?” Kaian harshly asked a random passerby.

The poor guy stiffened and fearfully answered : “C-Cloudy street? The one for nobles? Umm, it’s- you- the second circle of the city. I’m not sure where exactly. P-Please don’t hurt me, I-I’m not lying. ”

“Better not be.”

With this threat, Kaian walked off to the center, rubbing the shameful hair dye out of his hair. Clearly, commoners weren’t going to help him and his pride forbade him to make the guy a guide. He didn’t need anyone for something as simple as this.

…

While it was true that he didn’t need a guide, it would’ve come in useful. Kaian had never visited the noble parts of the city and he wasn’t planning to before this. Speaking of which, was his target a noble? Eh, whatever.

The most important thing was the way to the cloudy street and Kaian got there after some time of wandering. He would’ve loved to use the rooftops, but most of them were slanted and smooth, the difficulty of walking on them was nothing to scoff at.

At least it wasn’t hard to realize that he was in the correct place. The stones with which the paths were built had a cloudy shape and their color was pure white. Honestly, it couldn’t be more obvious.

Looking around to find the “jewel”, Kaian got stopped by two guards. Both of them had vials with blood in a conspicuous place. A warning.

“What are you doing here? This is no place for hunters like you.” The shorter one of the two said disdainfully, obviously having some mental problems.

Kaian sneered and moved his hand to his dagger. They would see a place for hunters like him, the arena of life and death.

Thuck.

The smarter guard hit his partner with his elbow and bowed, stopping the changer in his place.

“I apologize, sir. My friend here is new and he doesn’t know who a mana-blessed is yet, so please forgive him. I will make sure he gets punished and report him to the upper echelons.”

Surprised, Kaian stared at them before relaxing and walking off. Naturally, he didn’t forget to give them a tip for the future.

“Make sure this doesn’t happen again.”

They let out sounds of agreement and scurried off like the rats they were. Smart rats, though. Even if it was extremely easy to beat them both, he would’ve alerted an ascender in the process. That wasn’t optimal at all.

And so, Kaian started looking for the jewel again, forgetting about the existence of some guard rats.

…

“Why did you do that? He was definitely impersonating a mana-blessed!” The short guard shouted.

Shaking his head, the other guard replied: “Idiot. He was confident about defeating us both, we would’ve just gotten killed unnecessarily. And we can report him to the ascenders now.”

“Oh… I didn’t think of that.”

“Of course you didn’t. Now come on, there’s no time to waste.”

…

“Excuse me, we can’t let you in without an invitation.” A lady with a revealing red dress denied him entry.

She had a smile on her face, but Kaian could see the annoyance. Normally, this wouldn’t bother him and he would’ve forced himself through. However, it wasn’t as easy this time. There was an ascender in the building and judging from the force he gave off, it wasn’t a weak one.

Even though this Kaian was arrogant, he wasn’t retarded. Sure, he was better than everyone and he would become stronger than them all, but the problem was that he would, not that he was.

He didn’t even know if his target was inside. Dammit, why couldn’t it be easier. He was becoming more and more like that pussy other personality of his.

Going into a grimace, he turned around and left the building. Kaian ignored all the people walking on the street and changed into a snail the moment he was out of sight.

If he couldn’t go straight in, he would go snail in.

…

It took a while to get to the jewel by slithering across the walls. Thankfully, Kaian noticed an opened window and he crawled inside. They would have no idea what happened.

Unfortunately, he had picked a terrible spot to enter. There was a woman sitting in a meditative pose on a bed for two. The problem was that she had the robe of a mage. An ascender, right here.

Kaian froze, he messed up big time. He hadn’t felt the force so he thought it was fine. It wasn’t. Attempting to ignore it, he moved into the room, there was no backing out now. She wouldn’t notice anyway.

Nearly halfway through, Kaian stole a gaze at the woman. Fuck. She was looking straight at him.

[Oh.] He said in his mind.

This was the most stupid thing he had done in a long time. No matter, there was a clear solution. One that would take care of everything, a perfect one.

Kaian yielded control of his body to the other personality. It thought lowly of him so it would certainly come up with something.

[Dammit! That fuc- No, I need to think. Phew, what are my choices?] The calmer Kaian immediately started overclocking his brain after gaining control.

All of the things he could do were risky, but that was to be expected. He didn't have much time to consider so he chose the least dangerous one.

Naturally, there were other matters to think about - that's why he didn't automatically go for the least risky.

He would have to ambush her.

Walking to Kaian, the lady smiled at him. Hold! He had to hold on! The pressure of the situation was pressing down on him. She was coming closer and closer!

"Aw, hello little guy. How did you get all the way here?" The ascender asked, stopping Kaian in his tracks.

[Huh?]

She didn't give Kaian much time to think and lifted him into the air, putting the snail on her hand.

Utterly confused, he just stared at her. It was quite the treat too, the upper part of her brown hair was in a ponytail while the lower part freely flowed down her back.

She was dangerously smiling at Kaian who thought that she was going to eat him at this point. Her crescent shaped eyes and red lips definitely didn't help.

"What a cutie," she proclaimed as her hand petted Kaian's shell. "I will get you some food, don't worry."

The woman stood up and walked to the window, closing her eyes on arrival. She took a deep breath, stood still for at least ten seconds and threw her arm up.

Kaian expected some brutal explosion that would level down half the city, but nothing like that happened. Instead, a dandelion leaf floated up and into her hand. She took it and put it in front of the snail, smiling in anticipation.

[...ah.] Kaian thought as he got hit by a wave of sadness.

Despite knowing that he was a snail, that he was merely a temporary pet, this form of charity made him feel emotional. She gave him something without expecting anything in return.

Taking a bite of the leaf, Kaian hardened his will. He would become powerful. So powerful that nobody would dare to mess with him. So powerful that he wouldn’t need to feel like this…

…

After surveilling that he ate the entire leaf and petting him some more, the ascender gently put him outside of the establishment with magic. The ride was smooth and felt pretty good, in short, it was uncomfortable.

Upon landing on the ground, Kaian once again started climbing up. This time into a different window. On his way, he noticed someone walking towards the door. It was his target!

Okay, no more time to waste. The time for action was now.

Kaian changed into a lizard, the form that was combat exclusive until now, and ran up the wall like his life depended on it. He transformed back into a snail immediately after entering, hoping that nobody noticed his wall-running.

The room was the exact same the lady mage had. A bed for two in the middle and that was about it. Though, Kaian had to admit that it did look fancy. The bed had red sheets and dark red curtains draped over wooden bed posts.

It made him wonder what it was used for before he realized. This whole establishment was about, well, adult entertainment. That was great, nobody would want a guard inside the room you were having sex in.

Confirming that the room was empty, he turned into a lizard again and checked the door. He could see many other rooms and the staircase. He continued to observe it and soon, his man showed up with an attractive girl.

They headed into the same room Kaian was in and he took the opportunity to get on the ceiling. He had heard that humans rarely looked up and he counted on it being true. Even if it wasn’t, he could handle two people easily.

Slam.

Kissing while opening the door, the two fumbled over themselves and fell on the bed in one entangled mess. Kaian stared at them with his imaginary lips pursed, he would have to strike when they were both sleeping. Silently, like a true assassin. Close to the one from a certain franchise back on Earth.

Was it assassin’s cred? Wait, that sounded wrong, like something was missing. Well whatever. The man didn’t last very long and it made Kaian chuckle in his mind. Both of them fell asleep with one being clearly unsatisfied.

Now! He took a leap of faith and changed in the middle of the fall. He used his heightened abilities to pull out his dagger mid-air and aimed it at the man.

Unfortunately, the man opened his eyes at the last second and a blast of something hit Kaian out of the way. However, Kaian predicted that something could go wrong and he shot a water pellet at the man after changing into his lizard form.

Slap.

It missed him and hit the woman instead. Kaian didn’t have enough time to comprehend what happened before his back slammed into the wall. Quickly, he shook it off and shot again, this time hitting the mark.

The man stumbled with a small hole in his chest and closed his eyes. No! Kaian couldn’t afford to get hit by magic of any kind!

“Vexi, WOLF!” He shouted and launched himself at the man.

His teeth ripped through the man’s leg and the mage’s eyes went wide open. There was nothing he could do against a wolf without his magic, dying in pain.

Jumping out of the window, he stole a last look at the room. The woman lay on the bed in a pool of her own blood and there was a partly chewed up corpse on the ground. As if that wasn’t enough, the door opened and the lady mage stepped in, staring at the bed darkly.

[Vexi, Snail.] Kaian said in his mind, shrinking down and falling on the street.