Blood flowed from my nose as it was kicked. The ground beneath me already was colored red by my blood. It was a common occurrence in my life of the late. Being dragged to a dark alleyway for a beating. It ended only after they had taken all my money and anything of value.

“Levi, Levi,” Markus called my name as he lifted me up. “It doesn’t have to be so difficult for you. All I asked was the money you own me, that is all.”

Markus was a blonde bastard with blue eyes and a square face. A head taller than me, and that says a lot when I am already quite tall. I almost reached two meters. He was wearing steel-plated armor with a longsword on his belt. Behind Markus were his goons, Jack and Jonny. They were always behind Markus, doing his bidding.

“There no way I would have that much,” I replied in a defeated tone.

“That not my problem, but yours,” Markus laughed and threw me back to the ground. “This should be enough for this month’s interests, at least.”

I didn’t talk back. It was pointless to do so. For a year, this was my life. What could I even do? A Bronze rank hunter who barely got money to eat. How could I pay back my debt to that bastard? He knew I couldn’t, but it didn’t mean that he couldn’t take everything that I had.

It was my mistake to trust him when I first started as a hunter. I should have known better. As an orphan who lived most of his life on the streets, I should have known that there weren’t kind people in this world. Joining the Association of Hunters at the age of seventeen was a mistake.

Markus had approached me when I first started as an Iron rank. He was a Silver rank, strong with great equipment and skills. Promising to take care of me if I joined his party, I gladly did so. Afterward, he made me sign a contract saying he would make me a Bronze rank in half a year. Giving me the equipment I needed if I paid him later. It was my mistake to think it would be that easy.

I was a kid who barely knew how to read and count. How could I have possibly known of the underlines of the contract? Markus kept his promise, I became a Bronze rank in three months, and then I had to pay him back.

My debt increased with each month, from twenty thousand orens at the beginning to now a hundred thousand. A hunter could earn money in various ways. Treasure hunting, monster hunting, and bounty hunting were just basics a hunter could do. But what people like me didn’t know is that to survive doing so, you needed skills, weapons, and armor.

A basic skill book cost up to ten thousand orens. A sharp steel sword costs up to five thousand orens and that only without runes engraved on it. Iron breastplate, gauntlets, and trousers are worth seven thousand orens.

This should be basic equipment for any Bronze rank hunter, yet I could only get two daggers and leather armor. I could easily manage some wild beast or some low-life bounty with it, but it only earns me a couple thousand orens if I am lucky. And what I have earned first would go in my rent and food. What was left would be taken by that damn Markus and his gang.

I couldn’t keep going on like this. I needed a breakthrough, just enough to buy a skill book. Stoneflesh skill would cover me for the need of armor. But it cost five thousand orens. I could probably afford it if I didn’t eat for a month or so. I knew I needed to take a riskier job to get out of this hole I dug myself into.

Those thoughts went through my head as I got up from the ground, brushed ash grey hair from my grey-green eyes, and started to walk home. A crappy apartment of one room, but home was home. Getting inside my bathroom, where a basin full of water was waiting for me. I left it filled with water so it could become at least lukewarm. Otherwise, I could only get a bucket of cold water.

Looking at the cracked mirror, I found my bloodied face. My hair grew too long again. I picked my dagger and cut it short. I knew that I couldn’t live like this anymore, cutting my own hair because a barber cost too much. Fifty orens could buy you a bottle of milk, a loaf of bread and butter. Why should I waste my dinner’s money on a haircut?

I needed money, lots of money. That was my dream from the beginning. Now I only wished to free myself of this debt. I wish to live freely, eating luxurious meat with all kinds of spices, drinking aromatic wine, and wearing silk clothes. For that, once again, I needed money.

After cleaning myself up, I went to see the association to see if there was some job I could take. The association building was full as usual, with aspiring hunters who thought of earning a fortune. There were mostly Iron and Bronze rank. Silver and Gold rank hunters didn’t need to look for jobs. They get offers personally.

I checked if something could earn me a nice sum of money and wasn’t life-threatening. Hunting a demonic beast was out of the picture, even if it would earn up to fifty thousand orens. My daggers wouldn’t even pierce their skin.

A brigand chief was wanted, twenty thousand orens. It would be nice, but brigand chiefs had at least a dozen men under them. It was a job for a party, not a loner like me.

Find the source of undead in the Raven woods, fifteen thousand orens. That was something I could do. It was dangerous, as there was never just one undead in one place. At least there would be dozen of them. Still, they were slow and had horrible senses. I could sneak past them, and if I was in trouble, I could always run away.

I took the poster from the board to the receptionist’s desk. After waiting for half an hour in the line, I was greeted by a dark-haired receptionist. She had a sharp, beautiful face and spoke politely, pleasantly. Her voice was sweet, and it was music to many men.

“Levi,” She greeted me with a welcoming smile.

“Sarah, I will take this job,” I told her and presented her the poster.

“Are you sure? I know that you are agile, but if the source of the undead is a Lich, there would be nothing you could do to survive.”

“Don’t pretend to care for my safety,”

The association didn’t care for their hunters. Every year there would be hundreds who would join the ranks. There was no end to orphans who wanted to earn some money. Bastard son of nobility who doesn’t have any other prospects in their life.

If they are not wanted criminals, everyone can become a hunter. Losing a Bronze rank hunter would mean nothing to them. Even a Silver rank didn’t mean much in their eyes. So I knew for a fact that the concern of receptionists was fake.

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“Just stamp the papers and be done with it,”

“At least consider making a party.”

“If it is a Lich, it wouldn’t matter if I had a party or not,” I replied. “Anyway, it can be anything from a simple necromancer to some artifact. Just sign the papers so I could go.”

“Very well,” She agreed and stamped the papers so I could take the job. “Good luck in your hunting.”

Luck, I never had much of it.

…

Raven Woods was three days away from Iron town. A name this town got from having plenty of iron mines. I hate it, the name, the town, and the people. Once I get enough money, I will get out of this shithole. I didn’t know where, but I have no good memories of this town, and it would be nice to start over.

I didn’t have money to buy much food or equipment for camping. So it would be safest to travel at night and sleep during the day. That way, I could avoid the wild beast. So once I got permission to take the job, I left, not waiting for the next morning.

The town was quite big, at least I think so. I never visited another town or city within the empire. To my knowledge, there are at least thirty cities in the Clear Sky Empire bigger than this town. If what I heard was true, the capital city was ten times bigger and made of gold and silver. I always wanted to see it for myself.

It was already an early evening when I went through the town’s gates. It took an hour to walk from the Association building to the northeast gates. The twin moons could be seen rising.

The first part of my trip to the Raven Woods wouldn’t be hard. Not even brigands go to the main road. And so I walked on the stone-paved road, sometimes seeing a wagon or carriage passing by.

I walked in my lonesome, thinking of how to reduce my boredom. As I was thinking, a party of hunters passed by. They were laughing and joking around. I looked at them with annoyance. In the beginning, I wanted to belong to that kind of party too, but now I couldn’t bring myself in trusting anyone else.

The hard truth of this world is that you can only trust your own ability and nothing else. Yes, parties can cover your weakness and watch your back, but you can’t rely on them. There will be a time when you are left alone, and if the most you did was relying on others in the past, you wouldn’t be able to defend yourself when you are alone.

Of course, to me, all came to trust. Something that I tried once, and now I have to pay for it, in a literal sense. Without trust, there was no way a group of people could work together well. So it was better to be alone for someone like me.

...

The Raven Woods. A dark forest that few go into. Where only trees grow and nothing much more. It was a great place for criminals to gather, but now it was filled with the undead. It wasn’t uncommon for necromancers to do their experiments in places like this.

I walked inside after three days of traveling. After entering the woods, the first thing I could hear was the low gurgling croaks of ravens. The sun soon disappeared over the trees too. Their branches and leaves made it so that it would be impossible for any light to reach me. Shadows filled everything else.

I walked slowly and carefully. I just needed to find who was responsible for the undead, so the association would know who to send to take care of it. That all there was to it, but it wouldn’t be a job worth fifteen thousand orens if it was that simple. Just after ten minutes of walking in the woods, I could already hear the clanging of bones.

The undead walked everywhere. There were dozens of them. I knew the deeper I went, the more there would be of them. Probably hundreds, and that would be a problem. It was already surprising to see that many of them. I could take care of a few of them, even without holy water, but dozen was too much. They would kill me, especially if I was surrounded.

I walked silently, not stepping on branches or dead leaves. Trying to not trip on protruding roots. I walked behind lone wandering undead and stabbed them in the head. When they fell, I grabbed them, so they didn’t make much sound while hitting the ground. They had terrible senses, but I wouldn’t want to risk it.

After taking care of dozen or so of the undead and clearing my way, I moved deeper inside the forest. Somehow I was mistaken, and the deeper I went, the fewer of the undead there was. I started to think that I had passed the source, but the eerie silence said it was the way. So I concluded that it wasn’t anyone powerful enough to create too many of the undead.

I walked around trying to find some tracks, something that could lead me. As night fell, I found a cave guarded by pair of the undead. These were different, bigger, and had better weapons. Rusty iron swords and wooden round shields were on their bony hands. I knew it was the place to get answers.

I hid behind a tree and watched the entrance of the cave. I just needed to see the necromancer with my own eyes and then get out of there. The association has many magicians who have a lie-sensing spell. I could return and report when I see the one responsible for the undead, but I needed to see it with my own eyes.

The two undead with weapons stood on each side of the cave entrance. There was no way to pass through them without a fight. After thinking for a moment, I moved. First, I took a big stone and threw it at one of the skeleton heads. Then, while the one I threw the stone at fell to the ground, I rushed at the second one.

Thrusting my daggers at its shoulder blades and ripping its arms off, I kicked him to the ground. As it fell, I ran at the other one, who had already stood up. It had its shield in front and a sword above its head. I waited until the sword started to fall and then sidestepped to its right and stabbed at its spine. It crumbled to the ground, and I walked to the one without the arms to finish it.

Now that the entrance was clear, I walked to the cave. For the most part, it was just a simple, dark, and damp cave. The deeper I went, the colder it became. At the end of the seemingly endless cave entrance, I find myself staring at two statues holding a stone sword within a spacious room.

The first of the statues looked like a noble. The man depicted had straight and tied-up long hair. His face was serene and well-defined. He wore elegant robes that only a noble would wear. He was holding the stone sword by its hilt.

The other man depicted had wild and spiky hair. He looked excited with a big smile and gleeful eyes. He wore some kind of armor that I couldn’t identify. Overall he looked like a wild beast, glad to have a fight. He was holding the sword by its blade as if he was defending himself. The sight was somehow mesmerizing.

The stone sword itself was weird. It was wide as my two arms were put together. It was as long as I was tall. The sword's color was light grey, but it had dark grey ripples.

“A rat had come,”

I turned to the voice that I heard. There stood a robed being. It had long fingers, without any flesh on them, grasping a staff with a human heart on top of it. The heart was still beating. Looking at the uncovered face of the being, I could see its empty eye sockets that had a blue fire burning in looking back at me. It was a Lich.

“Hmm, you came at a good time, just as I needed fresh blood,” It spoke in a monotone voice.

I threw my daggers at it and ran without any hesitation. Like a rabbit, I jumped at the entrance and started to run for my life. But it was too late. The entrance was filled with undead soldiers. Despair engulfed me as I looked back at the Lich.

“Feisty one, a bit young too,” The Lich spoke. “Well, that is for the better. The fresher the blood, the bigger chance it has to succeed.”

Looking at its empty eye sockets with blue flames burning in them, I could see death. There was no escape, with a desperate shout and ran at it. I didn’t know what that could have accomplished, but it didn’t matter anyway. It grabbed me by my neck and lifted closer to its eyes.

“Yes, you will do,”

As the Lich spoke, he threw me on the top of the sword held by statues. I felt the stone sword digging into my skin as I was impaled. I let a painful yell as I looked at the stone sword penetrating my chest.

“Oh, Heavenly Demon who ruled with its strength, please accept my offer and grand me your power.”

As the Lich spoke these words and as my blood ran down the sword, I could see the eyes of the statue, with a wild look, move. Its stony eyes looked at me with interest. The Lich let out an exciting sound.

“Oh, Heavenly Demon, you are finally awake.”

The statue’s head turned to look at the Lich as I tried to get myself off the sword. The Lich moved forward to the statue holding his hand towards it. But the statue crumbled into the dust, and I fell from the sword to the ground.

“No, it can’t be.”

The Lich mumbled in disbelief as I tried to crawl away. Blood seeped out of me as darkness started to surround me. I didn’t want to die. Even if I hated my life, for the most part, I wanted to live. All I wanted was a fortune to get my life straight. I saw the Lich leave as the statue of noble crumbled too. This was the last thing I saw.

‘If you want to live, accept my power.’

I heard a booming voice in the darkness.