The smith had a new lock installed the very sa day he discovered his shop and ho had been broken into, sha that he kept the keys on the inside. I was able to open his front door and step out into the street without a hitch, locking the door behind as I kept the key safely stored in one of my pockets.
Now… Should I target a place with lots of steel, or should I start with just a good old ho invasion and ho execution? If I only went to certain places, it would be noticeable that I was not just after the people, but also after the sweet, sweet and delicious steel…
I didn’t want to attract attention by having a clear and noticeable gimmick. It might lead to so people imagining things about what I may be, and I would rather have them think that what was happening was just murderous robberies.
So as a starter, I headed down the street and picked a small place that focused on selling herbs. I frankly did not know what the difference was between a healing herb sold by such a shop and a healing potion sold by an alchemist, but there had to be sothing, considering that both kinds of businesses were quite common.
It was so small, I was doubtful if there was even enough space for the owner to live in here as well, but after twisting the door open, I found out that there actually was a small basent.
As I crept around, I was able to hear soone breathing softly.
I wish I had a light of so kind. Having to find my way around by touch and sound was miserable, especially since knocking anything down in this place was deed to be painfully loud.
But I must have acquired so experience from spending so much ti blind and crawling around underground, as I eventually found my next experience bag. I think it’s a woman, but I didn’t bother to check. Once I figured out that they were sleeping in a small space underneath the floor that they had arranged into a makeshift bedding area, I just pulled open the hatch and stomped down on what I believed was their head.
A faint, guttural noise rose out from below.
That might have been their torso, actually… Anyway, as long as they’re dead. Now, did you have so hidden riches anywhere, my good friend? I can sll so sort of tal or steel sowhere–Ah, a pouch of coins.
I gobbled it all on the spot, and whilst I was looking around, I found a small oil lantern, providing myself with so illumination.
Oh, ewww… I definitely missed the head, and they were sleeping on their side at that… No wonder it felt a little weird when I stomped down, I crushed an arm and the ribcage. I didn’t give the ghastly sight more thought than this, and instead got busy devouring the body, but this ti. I decided to leave the blood where it was. The disappearance of Benait and the three other guards would probably be linked to the other cris I committed, so it was best to change my modus operandi a bit, I could miss out on so of the blood for the sake of reducing the chances of more guards showing up to look for , especially those like Benait, I managed to get away with getting in a fight with one skilled swordsman, and as immaculately powerful as my steel body may be, I would rather not risk it a second ti.
Instead, I used the lantern to look around the shop a bit. Any tools that had even a little bit of steel to them were snacked on imdiately, and while I was at it, I made a ss by spilling herbs all over the place and breaking so stuff.
I guess I’ll close the hatch. The blood down there should make for a nice surprise when soone cos to check on what happened here! I rub my tallic hands together, already picturing a concerned bystander noticing the state the shop was in, only to be t with the horrific sight of blood stains where the owner was supposed to be sleeping.
That should make for a nice dose of fear once that happens-
Light, I saw a light peer from outside just after I bent down to close the trapdoor.
At this hour?
“Sorry, I am late! I got held up–What the hell happened here? Is everything alright?”
Did I really manage to pick the one shop that was going to have a visitor at this hour? Is my luck rotten? Do I have bad karma? I never did anything wrong! I am not doing anything wrong. It's just my nature as a Steel-Bound Curse and Vengeful Spirit! My character is golden considering what I am now, I swear!
Urgh, there is no point in trying to use the content of my character here. I rely remained still behind the counter, listening as the man speaking took careful steps forward through the ss I had created, calling out to the shop owner by na.
Yes, just keep moving forward, don’t call for help, don’t shout. Just… Keep moving closer…
“Is no one here? I can see light…”
The man was basically having a conversation by himself at this point.
But the shop was small, it did not take him long to arrive at the counter and see the silhouette that was crouched down… My fra was blocking the sight of the blood, so for a mont, the man did not panic.
“Oh, what are you-”
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringent.
He must have thought that I was the owner for a mont before realising that I looked nothing like them, but even then, he was more confused than anything, or so I guessed, since he didn’t scream or say anything else.
I rose and spun around, hitting him squarely in the jaw with the back of my hand with as much force as I could muster. An assortnt of flesh, blood and teeth was sent soaring through the air, only to splatter against the wall as the man was sent against the wall, slumping over.
Did that kill him?
I looked down and saw what looked like one of his cervical vertebrae poking against his skin.
Yep, that definitely killed him…
Looking around in case soone else decided to be a nuisance, I decided to grab his lantern and put the one belonging to the owner back where it was. This action didn’t an much, but I already had a whole storyline made up inside my head about what the people would think when they started investigating what had happened.
Even if the fate of commoners was of lesser interest, soone would have to get involved to at least give the illusion that the city lord had so care for them.
The story I invented on the spot, without any amount of facts to rely on, was simple. The idea was that the store owner, whom I was fairly certain had been a woman, had been in a tumultuous relationship with this random guy that I was currently stuffing headfirst into my maw.
And that, this one night, an argunt broke out between the two lovers, and bam! He killed her and ran away. If the idea that there was sothing between them had any ground to stand upon, which I had no clue about, then leaving bloodstains belonging to the woman, but nothing of the man, should give so credence to the theory.
Boy, I must really be getting bored to be inventing stories like this now… Let’s head back to the attic.
I wonder if there are any shops that deal with curses or cursed items? Surely, so oddballs specialise in that… Or in ghosts.
Where does one even find ghosts or spirits to begin with? I am a Vengeful Spirit, so I should be able to see them… Where do they put graveyards in this city?
I only rember the one where my parents are buried, but it was rather deep into the heart of the city, and since necromancy is a thing, those with the ans to do so are very protective of their corpses…
But considering just how populated the city is, there should be multiple graveyards lying around for to visit, and with so luck, the commoners are poorly buried and their necrotic? Spiritual? Phantomatic? Their whatever energy that causes them to co back as ghosts or to form ghosts is accumulating without check.
Aah… I wonder what would happen if soone tried to curse? Would I just eat it like with the totem?
Food for thought…
___
“Honey, it seems like the nightmares are not stopping…”
“I know… I had to co check on him, too…”
“I worry that this is affecting his health. He barely sleeps! He has nightmares every night now! He keeps talking about a figure standing at the end of his bed or hiding underneath it…”
The smith and his wife were dealing with problems concerning their youngest child, as far as they could tell. The nightmares had begun because of the spike in unexplained deaths and disappearances of the last two months.
Hos had been struck, shops had been struck, and even people rely wandering the streets at night had been struck.
People were being found as mutilated corpses, as just a single limb, or sotis, they were not found at all, leaving only so blood in the best of cases, and in the worst, it was like they had been abducted.
Everyone was on edge, and nobody knew for sure if all of this was the work of a single person or group, or if multiple sources were to be blad. The only thing everybody was aware of was that the guards were useless in helping them.
For the smith and fellows in the sa line of work, it was actually an enormous business opportunity, as everyone wanted to arm themselves, and everyone wanted durable locks and doors.
People were bringing out their savings to buy reinforced doors and windows.
Everyone was afraid for themselves and their families…
And this constant paranoia seed to have gotten to their youngest son in particular. His nights were plagued by constant nightmares where the sa figure would tornt him. They had tried everything they could think of, even going as far as getting special candles, supposed to keep any unseen creatures that might be responsible for it.
But nothing worked, the nightmares never stopped, and their son seed paler and paler, growing feeble due to the sleep deprivation.
Their son insisted that he wasn’t having nightmares, that the figure he was seeing was real, physically present, even swearing that it would escape whenever soone approached his room, vanishing into the darkness.
Of course, his parents did not believe him in that regard. There was just no way for sothing or anything to so easily co and go into his room without ever being noticed, especially since they would be checking on him often at night.
And certainly not with the way he was describing the figure, according to him, it was tall and it was large, a veritable monster.
Not to ntion that none of their other children had ever had anything like this happen to them…
Moreover, he claid that he wasn’t ‘allowed’ to just go sleep in the sa room as his other siblings. That he had to remain in his own room, retain his privilege as the youngest child to have his own room, or else… The monster supposedly claid that it was going to kill his siblings.
“There is… There is sothing weird, though”
The wife hesitated a bit, but she decided to speak about sothing.
“What is it, Darling?”
“I was speaking with friends at the market the other day… And they… They ntioned that their youngest children were all having nightmares as well… And were describing the sa figure as well…”
“What?”
“They don’t seem to have nightmares nearly as often, but still… I feel like that would an that there is really sothing inside his room at night!”
The smith frowned and covered his face with one hand.
A monster in their ho? Could this really be possible?
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