The sun shone brightly above the bustling city. By now the streets have turned less crowded, as the period of worker induced traffic had passed. Carriages drove by, fanatical religious believers trying to impart their belief to the masses before being promptly shushed off by passing people simply wishing to talk undisturbed without hearing such nonsense. Some simply glanced at them before continuing with their day, others insulted them, some spit on them and from time to time these believers were victims of physical assault.

  It was clear that their mere presence was detested by most.

  “Well, at least it pays well.” A young adult muttered under his breath who wore a small rustic copper bracelet on his arm. Although he wasn’t handsome nor attractive by any means, he still managed to procure said job due to the rough working conditions. As if standing in the burning sunlight for many hours on end and fending off any assailants wasn’t enough I also have to spend time with this partner of mine. He said before glancing at this partner of his.

  Brown hair and pupils, wearing the same whiteish robe as him, one that was accentuated with yellow tones and on the back was a symbol of a broken sun depicted. His Partner, Elliot, simply looked average with nothing special to him except for a small silverish earring also depicting a broken sun. He was a true believer unlike him and the young adult had to often bear with him wanting to impart all the religious knowledge he could whenever no people walked by. In contrast, he was someone who neither believed in this wannabe god nor had good looks.

  But at least Elliot was good at what he did, allowing him to take it easy most of the time. At the end of the week they would be paid in accordance to how many people they convert, which often didn’t amount to more than two or three. Fortunately their contribution was counted as a pair and not by person.

  “Can I tell you a bit about our lord and saviour?”

  “God protects us with every step, shall we not pay him back?”

  “Do you want to live a more fortunate life?”

  The young adult often zoned out listening to this partner of his try to convince the passing people to join his belief. “As if someone will simply outright believe whatever you say, one has to build trust with the recipient before upping the ante.” He thought inwardly before giving off a small chuckle.

  “Sir, you seem in a bad mood. Might I try to tell you a little about ou-”

  A middle aged man suddenly stood in place before making eye contact with Elliot and even the young adult, his face riddled with many scars. “As if my day wasn’t bad enough.”

  “You’ll do.”

  In the next moment the man simply dashed forward and pulled Elliot into one of the nearby alleyways. By now the both of them were very familiar with such a situation having experienced this multiple times. Elliot and him had made an agreement that if someone was physical with them we wouldn’t help them out, otherwise it might anger the person even more.

  Though, the young adult had other plans. Normally he wouldn’t care for whether his partner would be injured or hurt. He was by no means a good person recklessly jumping in to save someone in need. Just before that day he came across something supernatural, a feather that could shapeshift into most things. This alone proved that magic could likely exist, as this phenomenon was unexplainable no matter what he thought of. Although he wasn’t given a full education, he was still literate to some extent and knew surprisingly about many matters as he often read the newspapers.

  He then followed the man into the alley. His bracelet turned into a dagger of poor quality. The young adult wasn’t yet able to make something bigger since it took way too much mental capacity for him to do so.

  The young adult turned a corner within the alleyway and found the man. He punched into Elliot’s stomach continuously, a small puddle of blood had already formed on the ground. Meanwhile the young adult slowly walked toward the man as if taking a stroll. Once he came close enough to the punching man, who had his back facing him.

  “Boo!” The young adult said in a joking tone, his face clearly expressing ridicule. A wide smile formed.

  The man recoiled and jumped back in shock, sizing the person who had just touched him up. “What? It’s you from before.” He chuckled before noticing the dagger in the young adult's hand. His expression quickly hardened and turned serious.

  The young adult then suddenly sprinted forward. “He should be frightened and confused why I didn’t just attack him. He’ll probably follow up with an obvious attack.” He thought. Surprisingly the man followed suit with a right hook, which he dodged. The man didn’t stop there before using his left palm to push the young adult away. He was quite strong and had thrown him outside of their attack range, nearly toppling his balance in the process.

  “I did not expect that.” The young adult analysed, his intent with the fight was to gain first-hand experience with combat, as he was still just a rookie. This was also why he had not immediately thrusted his dagger into the back of the man. Although incredibly risky, in the worst case scenario he could still run away.

  Unlike before, the young adult didn’t rush to fight him, but rather took up a stance. He had the advantage of the man being cornered and couldn’t escape. Additionally, he was already somewhat exhausted from beating the absolute living hell out of Elliot. Both were in a stalemate, not moving and simply trying their best to foresee any potential attacks and counter. After all, blindly rushing into the fight will simply make one tired within just a few exchanges.

  The tension heightened as the young adult slowly approached the man, gradually approaching and cutting off his space.

  Then the man made his move, he first rushed forward getting into the range of the young adult before abruptly stopping. He took up his right hand, balling it into a fist and trying to punch him. The young adult immediately took up guard, but the attack didn’t come. The man had done a feint, his left hand immediately followed and punched straight into the stomach of the young adult. He barely managed to keep hold of his dagger and jumped back.

  This moment had allowed the man to quickly flee, to the surprise of the young adult. Although the man could have easily punched again, he had refrained himself from it and ran away instead! “Just as it was about to get exciting.” He sighed whilst looking in the direction the man had fled.

  “You good?” He said to Elliot sitting on the floor, his back against the wall.

  “I might have a fractured nose, I’ll go to the doctors later. But Jasper, didn’t we agree to not help the other out?” Elliot looked at the young adult Jasper trying to convey his disappointment, but his relief was clearly apparent. Otherwise he might have been beaten even worse.

  “Don’t mind it. Just pay it back to me in some way.” Jasper stated without showing any care.

  “Want to get food? On me, of course.”

  “Sure, but don’t talk about this damn god of yours whilst eating, I hear about it plenty already during work hours.”

  “Sigh, I’ll make an exception. Just today.”

  …

  On the ship’s deck captain Teal looked up at the mast. The first mate Carter hung from it upside down.

  “If you fall you’ll be dead. I don’t want to clean your splattered innards.” Shane, the second mate, shouted with anger.

  “Shane you killjoy, you need to learn to let go sometimes!” He said while losing his hold on his legs and falling down, but just before Carter hit the floor which would ultimately split his head into two he simply disappeared.

  Then all the other crewmates were also erased, as if they never existed. Then a new scenario played itself out, this time Shane tried to teach the quartermaster, the first mate and a few other pirates arithmetics, a monumental task.

  Captain Teal sighed, as a spirit magician he was able to conjure the spirit of the dead, but was forced to live through different scenarios of these people, some real and others completely fictitious. He could use their powers in a weakened state, but was it worth it?

  These were all once part of his crew, all people he had chatted with all night long whilst drinking kegs of rums until they hit the floor. Teal had lived through peril many times before, only surviving with the teamwork of his crew. He saw them cry, laugh, love and eventually die.

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  Now he had to live with them, knowing full well they weren’t real. Yet to him they were. They acted just like he remembers to a tea, with no deviations.

  He quickly returned to his usual dead-pan expression and looked toward the sea where an island was.

  “Anchor the ship, we have arrived in Bayden.” Teal commandeered.

  …

  Frontled, in the middle of the night.

  Moonlight shone through the window shutters onto the hardwood floors. Within this one-room apartment sat a young adult on his back, in his hand a squirming purely black blob. This adult was Jasper and he was currently focused on reshaping the once black feather into a dagger once again. First, he tried to reduce the amount it took to manipulate it into the right shape and then he focused on making it as sharp as he could.

  As of now he could only create a small, low quality dagger and other objects of similar size. Whilst experimenting he had found, if the item he tried to shapeshift into was one he was familiar with the creation process would ease significantly. He managed to create a spoon, bolts or a kettle nearly instantly just with the thought.

  After Jasper fought the man, he had also noticed recreating the same dagger he had used before became much more streamlined, without having to focus on every single detail. Because of this Jasper had decided to use his free time to either practice manipulating the mass or become more familiar with an object of his choice.

  For the first time in his life Jasper had finally found something to shoot for. Simply the potential existence of magic or some other mystical power motivated him to improve.

  He finally had a goal.

  Jasper had hoped for something to happen at work today as well, but the day simply panned out as regular. After asking Elliot whether his nose was fine he waited for work to end before walking not toward his single-room apartment, but toward the city’s slums.

  As Jasper had learned, that true experience was the best way to spur growth, he had resolved himself to find people to fight. In actuality his goal wasn’t to go deep into the slums, but rather remain at the edge of it. Most people who live within the slums should be well acquainted with violence and always bring a weapon with them. Not to mention, he didn’t want to aggravate any gangs in the vicinity unless he had a death wish.

  Not being able to afford a horse carriage Jasper plainly walked. Generally speaking, no matter where one went they would come across a stretch of makeshift houses, trash and girls selling their bodies, but by far the largest slum area was situated east of Frontled. Although Frontled was one of the largest population dense cities and also an enormous hub for commerce, it still suffered from these issues.

  Throughout the day Jasper had been practicing the manipulation of the black feather. By now it only took merely four seconds to manifest a small dagger. Additionally Jasper was able to sharpen the dagger ever so slightly with more time. He had also thought of creating a throwing knife, but with no way of being able to retrieve it other than manually picking it up, Jasper decided against it.

  By now the sun slowly set and the night engulfed the city with orangish tones being displayed on the horizon line. As he walked Jasper noticed the street lamps gradually lessened and eventually they were fully nonexistent, the streets were littered with trash, the roads were rougher than before, his nose caught a putrid smell which didn’t want to disappear, all of these a sign of the slums.

  Although night approached, for some it meant the beginning of their day. Continuing his walk Jasper saw girls with revealing clothing lined up at every corner. Even if prostitution was clearly illegal in Frontled it didn’t hinder most to still continue. After all, people would always find a way. Not to mention, Jasper had heard and read that rich people would enter these slums in private to partake in this service. The newspapers would always mention such controversial topics, as it was the best way to catch a reader’s attention.

  One thing Jasper immediately noticed was how everything was so cramped and dirty. He felt disgusted just walking through here, not to mention having to dodge the many unidentifiable liquids simply flowing on the road. Everything was much worse than depicted in the media.

  Once he found himself relatively deep in the slums, but still far enough to be able to possibly run away and shout for help if something went awry with his plans, he took out his wallet and began fiddling with a one-pound note. Slightly less than Jasper’s income from two weeks without having spent anything. He had prepared this in advance to attract someone with ill intentions.

  In Jasper’s eyes this amount of money was definitely on the higher end, but still passable. He had hoped it would hasten the process. What he failed to consider, the people who live in these slums were at the absolute bottom of society. Some had missing limbs, kids to feed or addictions to finance. In such a place, this amount of money would literally turn someone’s lives around.

  Suddenly, in front of Jasper an older man appeared, he looked malnourished, seemingly not able to even properly stand without collapsing within the next second. His face was rough, clearly as a result of having lived through many hardships.

  “This will be my opponent? He does look experienced, but he can barely walk upright!” Jasper thought, mocking the senior in the process. “Maybe I should have gone deeper into the slums.” He inwardly added before something moved in his field of view.

  Another person appeared, then, another. As if creeping out from within the gaps of the many crooked and makeshift buildings even more people approached him. Within seconds they encircled him, they all looked at Jasper. Some showed a crazy expression, their greed for the one-pound note clearly apparent. Others simply stared at him emotionlessly, the deep dark circles around their eyes making it seem as if they didn’t have eyes and a few showed a sad expression, making it seem as if they felt sorry.

  Jasper first thought he became the victim of a gang assault, but after confirming that these people were all wary of each other he concluded they were random passersby, who had seen him take out the money and joined in on the hunt.

  Although Jasper was keen on gaining experience, he wasn’t foolish enough to fight against all these people by himself. Although he was always quite good at keeping calm in stressful situations he couldn’t help, but show a fearful expression. After all he was only seventeen years old, he hadn’t lived long enough to be considered competent in such matters. Almost all his skill in combat came from smaller incidents and the fight from yesterday.

  Without much hesitation Jasper immediately darted into another direction, but not before throwing the one-pound note in the spot where he stood before. He wasn’t stupid enough to hold onto it in this situation. Although it hurt him to do so, if it meant he could come out unscathed he wouldn’t hesitate.

  As if some ravenous zombies all of these people leaped toward the note laying on the ground.

  Meanwhile Jasper ran as fast as he could, surprising himself with his speed. Only after checking behind him whether someone was pursuing him could he give out an exhausted sign. “That was way too scary. Had I not dropped the one-pound note I would likely be dead by now.” He thought, still feeling the sting of having lost so much money.

  After this incident, Jasper wasn’t in the mood to fish for anyone else and decided to head back home to his one-room apartment. It wasn’t much, but currently all Jasper wanted was to lie down in his bed and fall asleep. Fortunately he wasn’t too fa-

  “Interesting.”

  Jasper heard a deep voice resound behind his back. Immediately he looked back at this person and saw someone draping a purely black robe. This shadowed figure had completely white pupils and seemed to be able to light. Jasper couldn’t help but stare into them, promptly before he fell to the ground.

  It was as if he lost all control over his body, he was sure it wasn’t because of fear, but something worse.

  “The power of a reaper without being one. Is it an item?” The figure retorted, not caring about Jasper who had just fallen to the ground.

  “So, it was because of that feather. Figures.” Jasper thought, surprisingly calm for the current situation. Then he decided to take the initiative to say “It’s a black feather I picked up, I can give it to you, if you let me go that is.” During this he took out his bracelet and manipulated it into its base state.

  Jasper was long ready to give up the feather in case anything happened, if this shapeshifting abled item was the reason for attracting this mysterious figure, then who is to say it won’t happen again? He’d rather give it up than to try to escape, not as if he could since he sat motionlessly on the floor without being able to feel his legs at all.

  “Hmmm, I guess if you came across it, then it makes sense. Give that feather to me and you’ll be free to go.” The figure said before slowly approaching Jasper, his back illuminated by the moon.

  Only now had he noticed the huge scythe in the figures hands, it grinded across the street producing a harrowing scream. Jasper couldn’t help but cover his ears, but the screeching didn’t stop and felt as if it penetrated through his head.

  Meanwhile the shadowed figure came closer, ignoring the young adult squirming on the floor in pain. He picked up the feather before walking off.

  Then, just before Jasper felt as if he was losing his consciousness, the pain abruptly stopped. Not only that, but he regained the feeling of his legs and could stand up again. He looked out for the figure before spotting him on a rooftop, still illuminated by the moon.

  “You are free to go, but one has to bear the consequences of his actions.” The man said, his mouth curled up into a big smile revealing his pure white teeth. The figure then took up his scythe, as if winding up an attack. Before Jasper could react he saw a small glint of light appear.

  “Huh, nothing happened?” Jasper slowly muttered, maybe it was just a warning.

  Then Jasper felt a weird sensation on his right shoulder. Just as he looked over, his eyes completely dilated, his breath abruptly stopped in shock. Jasper was unable to think and his world turned and twirled, quickly resulting in nauseousness.

  He had lost his right arm, his shoulder cleanly cut off and blood spewing out from the wound.