It had been two days since he had escaped form the mines. He wasn't sure where he was going, but it didn't seem to be getting colder, so he was quite confident that he was walking south. Nothing significant had happened as he walked along the road. He had only met a few travelers who wanted to visit Freljord and had asked some of them where this road led to. They told him that it would lead to a more southern city of Noxus called Drugne. Based on their information he would reach the city in 2 days from his current position.

As he continued walking, he marveled at the beauty of nature. He had only ever seen stone and minerals; never had he witnessed this level of beauty. He noticed how the setting sun was casting an orange hue onto the surrounding, making it seem like the forest was glowing, alive through some kind of magic. It was truly breathtaking.

"Hands behind your head, kid. If you stay still, we won't kill you." A deep voice called out from behind him, catching him by surprise.

Having been too absorbed in his thoughts, the brown-haired boy hadn't even noticed someone sneaking up on him, and he silently cursed at his own stupidity. Quickly glancing around as he put his hands up, he noticed 5 men surrounding him, all very muscly with knifes in hand.

'This will be difficult.' Narlou thought as one of the men approached him, his knife raised in a threatening manner. He was confident in taking them on one on one with his newfound strength, but he didn't delude himself into thinking that he could take them on all at once. Slowly, a plan started to form in his mind.

"Alright lad, don't try anything funny." The man said as he stopped in front of him, scanning him for any threatening movement.

"You don't look half bad mate, too bad that you won't recognize your own face after this."

Narlou ducked down to avoid the knife aiming for his throat.

'Bastards!' Narlou sneered as he took his own knife out of his inventory, stabbing it into the thief's heart in one smooth motion, surprising himself slightly with how quick he reacted. A gruesome gurgling made Narlou freeze for just a moment, but that was enough for the muscle head in front of him to hit the young man straight into the cheek, sending him flying.

It may have been the punch of a man at deaths door, but his muscles weren't just for show. Narlou's vision flickered for a second, and a strong pain erupted in the area he had been hit.

"You bastard! What are you waiting for?! Get him!" One of the remaining four shouted as the man with the lethal wound fell to the ground with a thud, not moving an inch.

Narlou caught himself just in time to dodge the punch aiming for his head, but had to dodge again instead of counterattacking, a knife just barely missing his chest.

"Fuck!" He cursed out loud, his face rapidly paling.

This was not going as planned. He'd thought that he would be able to kill without a problem now that he has his first kill, but his mind was apparently still sensitive towards the action.

"HAAAA!"

Narlou almost stumbled as he deflected another knife from the third man who had just joined the fray. He needed get the fuck out of there before the last one joined in too!

Narlou suddenly noticed movement from his right, but he was just a tiny bit too slow to dodge the incoming knife, earning him shallow wound that stung unpleasantly, blood slowly beginning to run down his side.

'Ugh! It's now or never!'

With strength born from years of working in the mines, Narlou dashed forward and pushed the man off his feet while dodging under the punch that said guy had thrown at him rather sluggishly. The big thief, caught off-guard by Narlou's power, stumbled back and tripped over his own feet with a yelp. He landed on his ass with a thud, but Narlou paid none of that any attention as he immediately used the momentary distraction to jump over the downed man and escape into the surrounding forest like a madman.

His heart was pounding like crazy and the wound at his side was pulsing painfully, but a quick look back revealed that the thieves didn't follow him. Still, he kept running for a few more minutes before stopping to tend his wounds and rest.

He let out a sigh. This had been way to close for his liking.

'Well, once I'm done here it's time to set my original plan into action.'

With the sun already setting, it didn't take very long for its light to vanish, making place for the darkness of the night. The moon's glow gave the forest an eerie feeling, but that didn't deter the young brown-haired boy named Narlou as he trailed behind the group of criminals.

After he'd escaped and tended his wounds, the boy had snuck back to them and had been following them ever since, though he had been appalled to find out that the group had just thrown the one dead member into the bushes and left it there. It had pained Narlou to see this, but he reminded himself that this was Noxus, the nation in which showing even a small weakness could be one's downfall.

Back to the present, Narlou found himself waiting behind the shade of a big tree, looking for any kind of opening to attack. The thought of killing them made him both smile and frown. Yes, he would be cleansing the world of some heartless bastards while also getting stronger doing so, but he still didn't feel comfortable killing someone, especially considering that he knew next to nothing about them.

'Well, I do know that they tried to kill me for no reason other than to take my money. Plus, I've already decided to do this, so there's no turning around now!'

He nodded resolutely, throwing another glance at a window showing his stats.

After his fight with the group, he had remembered that he still had some stat points left, being astonished by his own stupidity. He could've probably killed everyone there one by one if he had used them all on agility, but now that they were back together as a group of 4, it would be more difficult to do so.

Talking about stat points, he had received 5 more after leveling up from killing one of the bandits. He was very impressed with his own ability to grow stronger so quickly, but when he remembered some of the stories he had heard about other so-called "Champions", it made even his progress laughable.

Narlou shook his head to get rid of those thoughts, trying to concentrate on his current mission, which was taking out those bandits. He could probably just use all his points on agility and kill them in a 4 vs 1, but he liked to be rather careful, especially when it came to his own life. So, instead of doing something risky, he waited for an opportunity to present itself.

It took another few minutes, but finally someone stood up and went into the forest. Whether to pee, collect more firewood or something completely different, Narlou didn't care. This was the perfect moment to strike!

His red eyes slowly followed his target as it went deeper into the forest. Sneaking around the campsite, he soon found himself only a couple of meters away from the man who, now that he was closer, had his pants pulled down, peeing onto a tree. Narlou didn't waste another second and pounced, his knife ready to cut the man into pieces.

A silent rattling of leaves was the man's only warning as a knife struck his throat, silencing him immediately. The now dead person slumped to the floor, blood flowing out of his mouth.

Narlou turned away in disgust, dismissing the window telling him he had absorbed the essence of his victim. A quick look at his stats later showed his agility to be 10 points higher, standing at a proud 24.

Red eyes turned towards the campfire in the middle of the clearing some distance away.

'Let's finish this quickly.'

Narlou stared at the 3 dead corpses of the thieves, not feeling a hint of regret for these disgusting beings. It had been scarily easy to kill them all with his inhumane speed.

The men had been so surprised by his arrival that he had killed two of them before they could even reach for their weapons. The last one managed to put up a fight, but the powerful strikes of his big axe were nothing in front of Narlou's absurd agility. He was killed with a swift stab into his heart.

Narlou was not surprised to find out that it took longer to level up now that he was at a higher level. Before, it only took two kills to level up, but now he had only leveled up once after killing three of the four guys.

He had thought about how to spend his points and concluded that Sense was the most important stat right now. He could easily hold his own in a fight with any normal human, but the fact that they had snuck up on him in the first place annoyed him more that he liked to admit.

So, he dumped all five points into Sense.

The effects were instantaneous. He could hear the ruffling of the leaves more clearly, could feel the wind bend around his body and could even, if only very weakly, fell some animals nearby.

"Yep, those points are well spent." Narlou decided with a proud smile.

The teenager made sure to look through the men's belongings and was pleased to find 7 silver coins and some food and water. He ignored the weapons since he had his own knife, and with nothing left to do he went back to the road.

The faster he could reach Drugne the better, and it wasn't like he would be able to sleep after that much excitement.

Branda sighed as she served another beer to the drunk man sitting at the front of the bar.

The whole place was almost empty, and she just wanted to get home to relax after a long day of work. Furthermore, it was already dark outside, so she was sure that no more customers would come in today anyways.

She threw a glance at the man in front of her, considering to just throw him out.

The chime of the doorbell proofed her prediction to be false as another person walked in. She didn't pay much attention to the newly arrived person and instead went to clean some glasses. He was probably just some other man trying to get drunk at this late hour, so her shock was understandable when a tall and lean guy with wild brown hair and piercing red eyes came into her vision.

"O-Oh, hello! How c-can I help you sir?"

The man stared at her for a few seconds, making the bartender squirm under his gaze before his eyes turned kind and a smile appeared on his face.

"Hello. I would like a place to sleep for the night."

'He is hot as fuck!' Branda blushed heavily, avoiding his eyes while stuttering out an answer.

"U-uhm yes! Just for one n-night?"

The man nodded.

"T-that's 2 bronze coins."

The red-eyed man sighed, seeming very exhausted.

Branda had always been a woman to take chances, so when she saw the chance to get what she wanted, she didn't hesitate.

"I could a-also just make it free f-for you sir, if you would d-do me a small favor."

Her heart was pounding as she glanced his way, trying to gauge his reaction. Surely, he would understand what she meant.

"Sure? What kind of favor?"

Branda went beet red as she stared at the door behind him, avoiding his eyes at all costs. She could feel the gaze of the other drunk man on her, judging her, but she didn't care! This was a once in a lifetime opportunity!

"Y-you know, help me relieve some s-stress."

"So, you want me to give you a massage?"

The drunk man let out a raspy laugh. This was so embarrassing! How can one guy, especially a hunk like him be that innocent?!

"NO! I want you!"

Branda glanced up, desperate for any positive reaction. She almost squealed when he started to blush. He looked so cute!

"U-uhm, sorry but I would rather not." The man stuttered out.

Branda had already expected this, but it was disappointing, nonetheless.

"Fuck!" She cursed out loud.

"Right, s-sorry. Here's your room key. Have a good night s-sir."

The man took the key, put two bronze coins on the counter and left for his room in a hurry, a blush still adorning his handsome face.

Branda sighed and left for the bathroom. She might not have gotten the fuck that she wanted, but she at least had a handsome young man to think about while relieving herself.

He was way out of her league anyways.

Narlou locked the door and set down on his bed, ignoring its comfortableness in favor of thinking about the previous event.

"What the fuck just happened?"

He had never expected to receive a request like that, ever! He had never considered himself very handsome or attractive, but for some reason the lady at the bar thought otherwise.

Narlou, for the first time ever, had just then become truly aware of his sexual drive. There had never been any attractive woman at the mines, and he never had time to explore himself that way. So, this was quite the shock for the young man.

He looked down at his strained pants, hiding his hard erection from the world. The way she had blushed and submitted herself to him had triggered something in him. He didn't know what it was, but he sure as hell liked it.

Narlou shook his head, trying to get rid of those naughty thoughts.

Now was not the time for that. Instead, Narlou found himself thinking about the money he had just paid. He had done it without thinking, so now that he had calmed down, he realized that he had paid with bronze coins even though he only had silver coins. A quick look at his inventory showed that he now had 11 silver coins and 8 bronze coins.

'So, I can change them to higher or lower coins. That's useful.'

Narlou, having now completely calmed down, took his clothes off and made himself comfortable in the bed. It was quite the unusual feeling to not sleep on the floor, but it was far from bad. The comfiness of the bed and the warmth of the blanked made the exhausted wanderer very sleepy, but a window suddenly popped up in front of him.

Congrats! You have finally left the place of your nightmares and visited a new city.
As a reward for your progress, receive this quest!

Quest alert!

Objective: find out how to activate magic and activate it within the next week.

Bonus objective: learn how to use magic within the next week.

Reward: Your mana capacity will be doubled.

Bonus reward: You will gain higher proficiency with whatever kind of magic you have learned.

Narlou's eyes bulged as he stared at the message. Was this real?! He had always dreamt of being a magician, throwing around powerful spells like its nothing, being highly respected by everyone and being able to wield the powers of Runeterra herself. He had wondered whether it was possible to wield magic with his new powers, but now that he had confirmation, it felt like a dream.

He would to everything in his power to complete this quest, but right now, he was sleepy as fuck.