Paranoia!

It was Sunday, hence his last day to find his fourth quest. Hopefully, everything will go smoothly, he was kinda tired of dealing with variables that has the ability to kill him.

Albeit that armed man he dealt with yesterday wasn"t that threatening; his gun, however, was. Especially since he wasn"t yet at the level where he could avoid gunshots or recover from a deadly wound.

He really needed to get stronger, the prospect of dying at any moment as a result of some inhumanly strong person"s whims didn"t thrill him at all.

Nevertheless, he was really lost on how to even start. Regrettably, he hadn"t enough time available to reach satisfying results.

Despite having free time from afternoon till nightfall, he was skeptical that with only that much time he"d get sufficiently strong.

With a grunt of pain, he gently stood up, trying to adapt himself to his aching body whilst he steadily headed towards the bathroom.

...

Jered got out of the shower with a towel covering his private parts and small drops of water trailing his hair and torso.

He sighed in contentment, all it took was a refreshing shower to invigorate him, yes, his body still hurt like h.e.l.l, but it was more tolerable now.

After cleaning the steamy mirror with a cloth, he looked at his build and noticed a positive improvement.

His abs" shape were more prominent as was his pectorals and biceps. Obviously, it wasn"t still at a level where he could say he"d make a favorable impression in front of others, but he was getting there.

Overall he was quite fulfilled with the outcome of his training.

Nonetheless what he really looked forward to was his magic training, all he had to do was to complete his last quest and he"d finally get a taste of magic.

He smiled.

Besides, he had to find something that might remunerate him handsomely, he did mean what he said last night, and there was no way that even after getting this power he"d let her endure that suffering anymore.

His eyes glinted with a resolute light as he got dressed and prepared to go out.

It was late morning, so his mother wasn"t at home and his sister wouldn"t come back earlier than that night, which gave him quite a bit of time to complete the quest and get back quietly.

Well, that"s if something unforeseen doesn"t happen.

Once outside he kept looking around himself in the hopes of finding anything that might give him a quest, he wanted to make that awful burden on his shoulders disappear and fully concentrate on getting stronger.

However, it didn"t matter how much he looked, there was nothing worthy of his attention, or at least that of his system"s.

In the end, he still hadn"t figured out how these quests worked or by what conditions they would show up.

Every time he came up with a theory he disowned it immediately, it was like Paranoia acted in a whimsical manner, and since he had no information about it whatsoever, whatever a.s.sumption he made was a meaningless attempt by his part.

He sighed, an action that he had been doing a lot of times recently.

Walking without aim he suddenly b.u.mped into a man, who instantly fell down, the rag-covered box that was on his hands dropped on the stone floor.

And he"d swore that he heard something inside it move.

"Oh, sorry. Are you okay?" Jered asked, feigning concern.

"Y-yeah, I am!" The man said nervously as he hastily picked the box up and stood up.

Jered noted with extreme curiosity that the stranger was heavily sweating from the haste and his hands slightly trembling, symptoms that he was in an urgent to go somewhere, maybe an important conference? Hospital?

He kept looking at the man and instantaneously discarded what he had just thought, the man hadn"t shaved for days, and judging from the ill smell, showered.

The fear in his eyes hinted something though.

The man quickly excused himself and sprinted towards his opposite direction.

Jered just tilted his head, something deep inside him was telling him to follow that man. Was it his instinct? Or something else entirely? Should he really follow him?

How curious.

.

.

.

It was an abandoned place if the lack human presence and decayed buildings were anything to go by. Debris and other various sorts of broken goods were spread everywhere on the ground.

The suspicious man, however, didn"t pay his surroundings any attention and arrived in front of a somewhat large wooden door. He knocked a few times.

It slowly opened, the creaking noise signaling its old age.

An aged and wrinkly hand jutted out, slightly gripping the edge of the door before a hooded head followed.

"Samuel, did you bring what we asked of you?" The hooded man asked in a croaking voice.

"Y-yes! It"s here with me!" The newly named Samuel replied, motioning to the content on his hands.

"Good, come inside." Was his answer.

Samuel nodded and followed him inside before the door closed.

...

"Mmh... how do I enter?" Jered wondered.

He had been watching from far away and witnessed the whole meeting. Obviously, he couldn"t listen to what they said but he could guess it had as its main subject the mysterious box.

However, there was another thing that somewhat disturbed him.

He felt a strange energy coming from the fleeting man that momentarily appeared. It was very faint but it was there. He didn"t know what it was but of what he was sure about was that the old man was definitely someone out of normal standards.

It was dangerous, the kind of situation he wouldn"t get involved in, but the stir deep inside him kept urging him to get in there.

First things first, he had to find a way to infiltrate it. The possibly "superhuman" inside hadn"t found him, so his powers were either limited or he was too weak to notice him. Still, it was too early to make suppositions.

He had no information on the man, nor did he know the number of people inside, if there were any.

Everything was like a blank sheet of paper, the absolute unknown.

This was not a battle he could win by sheer luck or smarts. His enemy was certainly stronger, trying to fight him or them head-on would be plain stupid.

He took a deep breath and slowly headed towards the other side of the building, careful with his steps.

Looking around, he found a shovel on the ground. He picked it up and brought it with him. It was probably a futile effort considering his enemy, but he needed at least something to defend himself with.

Unwaveringly he approached the building, trying his best not to make any sound, no matter how small.

He gripped the shovel in his hands while observing the location the construction was in, getting ready for possible attacks as he got nearer.

Seeing that even after he was in front of the door n.o.body came out he sighed in relief, however, it didn"t mean that those inside weren"t aware of his presence, who knows, they might already know he was there.

That"s why he couldn"t calm down his beating heart.

d.a.m.n...

He kept on walking, checking the entire structure"s circ.u.mference, thankfully it wasn"t that large, but not that small either. There were no other doors, but he did find windows that could lead him inside. They were not that high so with a bit of strength, he could reach it.

He gathered all the stuff big enough that was dispersed on the ground and made a heap with it and placed it right under the window frame. Once done doing so he climbed it and reached the top.

Mustering all of his 13 points of strength he jumped, making a part of the pile under him fall down.

It was a leap of over 5ft, so he easily caught the edge of the window with his hands. He lifted his body and entered through it.

And then...

[ Quest received! ]

[ t.i.tle: A Dark Feather For a Dark Friend ]

[ Description: It gazes up, dreaming of being free from the burden its misunderstood origin brought upon it, free from seeing its brethren killed for the sake of a joyous laugh. It gazes down, and stopped dreaming, resigned to follow its doom. ]

[ Reward: 15 Attribute points350 System points. ]

[ Time-limit: Until its death. ]

[ AcceptDecline ]

He felt a thump in his heart reading the description. For some reason, he felt very saddened. It was strange, like he was about to lose someone he cared for.

He pressed "Accept", and the screen popped out of existence.

Also, the reward just told him that whoever he"d end up facing would be more dangerous than an armed man, which was not good news for him.

He rubbed his chin, and decide to allocate his points. He wanted to save them for when he"d unlock his cla.s.s, but right now he really needed them.

Intelligence seemed like a good attribute to put points in but the situation demanded more physical power than wits. So he upped his "Strength" by 2, the same for his "Dexterity" and "Vitality", and his "Endurance" by 1 point.

Luckily the pain that shot through him wasn"t as strong as his first time, though he had to clench his teeth to not scream, at least he didn"t spasm or tremble.

After a minute or two, he relaxed, feeling his upgraded power flowing through his body. He stood up, his motor responses faster than ever. He really wanted to run and punch things to see the difference but he had a quest to complete, so he"d do it later.

...

"So, Samuel. You"re telling me that with 1 month of f.u.c.king preparation, you only managed to capture this useless weak bird!!?" Shouted the hooded man, his voice cracking as he looked at the wounded crow inside the box.

Aside from him, there were two other cloaked individuals behind what was supposed to be the leader. And all of them was emanating strange energies.

Samuel flinched, clearly scared by his employer"s outburst. It had been half a year since he found the existence of magic thanks to witnessing a murder case where a man sp.a.w.ned what he thought were wind blades and sliced his opponent. The gory and brutal sight was imprinted on his brain and made him throw up every time he recalled it.

But with it came his obsession to learn magic, which let him meet the old man in front of him. When he had asked for an apprenticeship, he had been coldly rejected, he"s been told he had no talent or affinity for it whatsoever.

Ridiculous, right?

He was rich, disgustingly so. Yet when he offered money he was almost killed by him. Fortunately, after a lot of begging and promises, he managed to convince him to teach him, in exchange, however, he wanted him to catch a special type of crow, a magical one, it seemed.

However...

"You idiot! What am I supposed to do with this s.h.i.t!?" He snarled.

"I-I"m sorry, I... did my best-"

"If this is your best then I really hope to never see your worst! For G.o.d"s sake, I even told you to pick a male one and what did you bring me? A f.u.c.king female!" He berated him again, heavily breathing from the anger.

Samuel just stayed silent, taking in meekly whatever words were thrown at him.

He couldn"t do anything to retaliate, not that he even desired to begin with. It was his fault, but he really didn"t find any potentially magical crow.

Jered watched the scene unfold behind a container, trying to come up with anything to save that small crow, but these men didn"t give the feeling of being weak.

The only way to have a chance to win is to separate them and slowly get rid of them.

"f.u.c.k! if it wasn"t because we"re haunted I would have caught one on my own. " He finally calmed a bit.

"Now... what do we do, boss? We can"t summon it without the blood of a Cursed Crow." One of the mysterious men said.

The leader stayed silent for a while before saying:

"Throw the crow inside the container, with the others. It"ll eventually die there. As for how we summon it?" He paused before continuing. "We can use another source, it won"t be the same but we can"t be picky right now." He chuckled while looking at Samuel.

The man just nodded and went away.

.

.

.

Jered hadn"t to follow the man for long before he arrived in front of a blue rusted container. The cloaked man put the box with the crow inside on the ground, and afterward opened the container.

And when the doors were finally wide open, Jered"s body started to tremble, not believing what he saw.

Inside it...

There were dozens of dead crows, some were already rotten while others were still fresh. Some had cuts on their necks, others eviscerated. The already dry blood painted the interior walls in a guttural display of wickedness.

The man took the whimpering crow and hurled it amidst the others.

Jered watched with incredible anger and sadness the at cruelty shown to him.

Mhh?

He was surprised when he felt wetness on his cheeks. Lifting his hand up, he touched his face.

Was he... crying?

He was puzzled as tears kept gliding down from his eyes, his lips quivering.

Why? He didn"t understand.

He looked at the small crow that was watching, visibly sorrowful, at its dead brethren, it pecked some of them, trying to wake them up. It used its beak to nuzzle them, but everything was to no avail. It, however, kept doing it.

Something deep inside Jered started to break.

Why were they killed? For what purpose? And why the f.u.c.k was he feeling sad for them?

His mind was a mess of unanswered questions.

"Mhh... you"re already half dead, isn"t it better if I directly put you out of your misery?" The man suddenly said with a sneer.

Jered"s mind snapped back to reality, and rage took over, his eyes became bloodshot, his breath quickened as he tightly gripped the shovel.

The man lifted his right index finger as something was slowly gathering at its tip. It revealed to be a small ball of pressurized water.

When he was about to shoot it, however, he felt a presence approaching him.

He turned his head to the right and saw a black haired young man running fastly towards him, a shovel in his hands. He was mildly surprised for a moment, the fact that there was someone else here was troubling. Whoever he was couldn"t leave alive, it"d be risky, therefore he decided to eliminate the new arrival. He moved his finger in Jered"s direction and shot.

The small ball of water wasn"t fast so it gave Jered time to defend himself, and so he did.

Rising the shovel, he used the metal part of it to cover himself from the attack. The pressurized water clashed into it, leaving a small hole and some water drops on his face.

Seeing that his opponent was unharmed got him a bit angry. He was a magician, a being superior to a normal human.

He repeated the same spell, this time though, on two fingers. He was weak, he knew it. But he didn"t believe he couldn"t deal with an average person.

Jered saw what he was about to do and accelerated, he put everything he had on his sprint, his legs hurting from the force he put on them.

He was almost there...

The water shot came back at him again, this time aiming at two different parts of his body, namely, his head and his left leg.

Thanks to his enhanced dexterity he sidestepped to the right avoiding one shot while using his shovel to ward off the other.

Jered thanked G.o.d that the man he was fighting with wasn"t strong, rather, he was very weak. Maybe it was because he upped his stats or the place they were in that hindered the full use of his abilities.

A magician"s weakness is in their physical stats so should they engage in close combat he"s sure he"d win, indeed...

Jered arrived in front of the now panicked man and using the inertia of his run, hit the man right in the face with the shovel, making him fall down.

He tried to lift his body as his head was a mayhem of pain ripples that left part of his face swollen while blood dripped from it, staining his cloak.

Jered dropped the shovel and pushed the man to the ground, making him be completely laid as he sat down on him.

He formed a fist and using the entire strength left in his body hit him in the head, opening a wound on his skin while also cracking a few of his bones.

"Aaaaah!!" He screamed in pain.

Jered kept pounding him in the head, he did it till his hand started fracturing, he did it till the man"s head was a b.l.o.o.d.y mess of skin and flesh.

He was breathing heavily as he got up, his hand hurting while blood trickled from it, coloring a chunk of the floor underneath it in red.

"d.a.m.n..." He cursed while looking with a grim expression the unresponsive body of his enemy.

He had killed him.

Yet, why did it feel so good?