43 First time for everything

On second thought...I'll put this aside for tomorrow.

I am tired, I'm hungry, and fucking drunk asshole kicked me in the head. It didn't hurt, but I'm still pissed. In any case, I already know where their base is. I can come back and do this tomorrow.

I sheathed my dagger again and jumped off the rooftop.

Landing on an adjacent building's rooftop, I looked back at the thug's base.

"I'll be back."

I returned to the inn easily. Aura is really convenient.

After entering my room, I laid down on the bed and slept like a log.

...

"Welcome!" A store clerk greeted me as soon as I opened the door.

After doing reconnaissance last night, I realized I was a bit under-equipped.

There will be multiple enemies and there's only one of me. I need a safe way of blocking incoming attacks in case I can't dodge.

I do have metal-plated arm guards, but I doubt that's enough. Blocking with my dagger would prove to be stupid as that would most likely chip and damage the blade. I need something better, a shield.

After waking up from the crappy bed in the inn, I wandered around the city looking for a weapon and armor shop.

Found one after looking around for a while and bought a buckler shield. It's a really small metal shield, but the size is perfect for my fighting style.

It cost me 1,500 Lumens. If you asked me, I think the store clerk ripped me off. But I couldn't really talk my way into charging me the original price.

I was still wearing my cloak during all of that, but from my short height and my voice, it was obvious that I'm a kid. I didn't really want threaten the clerk to charge me the original price as I don't want to cause trouble or attention. And so, I just grit my teeth and paid the money.

1,500 Lumens is a small change compared to my monthly allowance anyway.

I waited for the night to come to cover the land with darkness, then I made my way back to the thug's base.

From the noise I could hear outside, the thugs were drinking.

I carefully approached the front door that was left hanging slightly ajar and listened in.

"*Gulp*...*Gulp*...*Gulp*....AAAaaahhh!!! After we sell these Dust, we're getting out of this dump boys!!"

"Fuck yeah!!"

"You're the best, Boss!"

"I'm gonna miss Stacy from the new whorehouse though."

"Bah!! There's a lot of fuckin' whores out there! Just go find your new favorite woman to plow."

"You know, yer right. Yer right..."

Seems like the thugs are doing the stereotypical thug stuff.

*BANG*

I banged on the door and left the premises. I hoping to distract one of them and start from there.

"Huh? Who's the fucks bothering our good time?!" I heard a thug exclaim.

"Hey Richie, go check it out. If there's someone out there, beat the shit out of 'em"

"Yah got it, Boss."

Right after I heard footsteps approach the door.

The door creaked open and the thug stepped out and closed the door.

Quickly channeling Aura to my body, I rushed towards the thug, unsheathing my dagger, and then stabbed the son of a bitch in the neck.

"Kuek...! KhhAkkhuuekhjj.....!!" The thug made undecipherable noises because of the blood filling up his airways.

While the thug struggled to breathe, I was starting to hyperventilate. I could feel my blood rush to my head as I stared at the dying man in front of me.

"I...I did it."

The thug soon stopped moving and a puddle of blood formed beneath me.

I just killed a guy. This is the first time I have ever taken another human's life.

I calmed down soon after and my breathing slowed down. Strangely, I felt at peace with this. There's no guilt weighing on my mind.

This is weird. As a person who's lived for 27 years on Earth, I think it would be normal to freak out over this.

But strangely, I'm not. Other than the rush I felt after stabbing the bastard, I feel calm.

I looked down at my blood-stained hand and contemplated.

Was I really this cold-hearted?

"Richie! You alright?!"

The thug's voice snapped me out of my thoughts.

Shaking my head, I focused on the task at hand.

I increased the output of my Aura for a moment and slammed the door open, startling the men inside.

"Who the fuck are you?"

I dashed towards the nearest thug and sliced his throat. Blood sprayed on my face, but I ignored it.

"He just killed one of our own, get him!"

The rest of the thugs pulled out their weapons. There were three of them left, but only one of them was covered in a white blanket of energy. Good, the other two are normal scrubs.

One of them rushed at me and swung his saber. Dodged it quite easily and countered by slashing his thigh.

The thug dropped his weapon in shock and grabbed the slash wound in pain.

Thug #2 attacked right after. I deflected the downward slash from his sword with my buckler and trusted my dagger towards his throat.

Pulling out the dagger, more blood spilled on me but I couldn't be bothered by it. I was more concerned by Thug #3, the one using Aura.

The thug with the wounded thigh rushed at me after picking up his saber.

He swung the saber, but because of his wounded thigh, his posture is wobbly. I took advantage of that and killed him like the rest.

Immediately after I killed him, the one with Aura pounced and attacked. I haven't pulled my dagger from the corpse's neck, so the sudden attack almost caught me off guard.

Luckily, I dodged the thrust of his sword just in time by bending my body at a sharp angle.

I swung my fist towards the crotch of the thug.

As my fist made contact, I felt a cracking sensation on my knuckles

"GAH!! YOU SON OF A BITCH!!"

While the thug reflexively grabbed his injured crotch, I quickly grabbed the dagger stuck in the throat of the corpse of one of the thugs.

I thrust my dagger and pierced the stomach of the now-infertile thug.

Quickly pulling the dagger out, I put some distance between us.

The thug's shirt was slowly being stained red with the blood leaking from his stab wound.

The thug glared at me as his Aura flared.

"You're gonna fucking die, kid."

"I already did."

This would be a good time to try something I've been wanting to test.

Kicking off the ground, I flew towards the wall. Then I kicked off again, jumping towards the ceiling. Reorienting my body so that my feet would touch the ceiling, I kicked off again.

I did this many, many times. Jumping from wall to wall, ceiling to floor, floor to wall. Each jump gained me more and more momentum, increasing my speed.

"Wha-! What fuck are you doing?!" The thug was starting to get confused.

To him, I probably just look like a white blur whizzing around everywhere in the room.

It's time to end this. I landed on a wall behind the thug, and this time I jumped towards the thug.

I momentarily imbued Aura into my dagger and swung it towards the neck of the thug.

*SWOOSH*

I landed on the ground and did my best to halt my momentum. I almost banged my head on the wall there.

"*Gasp*...*Gasp*...*Gasp*...holy shit."

Looking behind me, I saw a headless body on the floor. So much blood was pouring from the neck stump.

The thug's head slowly rolled and stopped at my feet. The face on that head was one of confusion and shock.

"Holy shit! I decapitated him!?!"

That shocked me. I wasn't expecting that thing I did to cut off the thug's head.

Looking around, there were bodies everywhere. Then it happened.

"Oh fuck... Ohhhh shit. Everything's spinning!! BLEUGHHH!!!!"

The feat from earlier made me extremely nauseous to the point that I vomited out my lunch.

After regurgitating everything, I wiped my mouth and tried to relax and catch my breath.

"Note to self, train yourself to not get motion sickness."

I just killed 5 guys tonight. There's a first time for everything... I guess...

I noticed a trapdoor in a corner of the room just as I was about to leave.

Overcome by curiosity, I checked it out.

I opened it, climbed down the ladder, and entered the basement.

What I found inside was crates upon crates of... something. Prying open a nearby crate, I saw a green powder inside.

"So this is the drugs they were talking about. I guess it's like cocaine, but it's instead."

From my boot, I took out a piece of iron and flint.

"Well, time to burn it!"

Minutes later I was standing outside the building the thugs were in. Said building was now smoldering in flames with the corpses of the low lives inside.

I looked down at myself. Bloodstains were covering every inch of my body.

"I need to have a bath."