Assassin

Gold, enough gold to satisfy a dragon's greed, enough to make hills and lakes, enough to even make him, a count, salivate in anticipation.

"Are you sure you want to trade so many golden coins for my land and title?" He asked, looking at the shady individual who had casually dropped so much wealth in front of him, being stared back by the calm blue eyes made him a touch nervous; There was something unnerving about this man.

"I assure you, I dare not poke my nose into your business kind sir, it's just with this much you could go to a more prosperous kingdom like Falmuth..." He cursed his own stupidity, why would he say this? It was as if his own tongue was actively working against his interest.

The man stood up, "It seems you are not ready to part with your land and title, even if I give enough gold to fill this mansion."

The count panicked, "No, no, please, stay. Let's proceed with it, I am more than happy."

When he saw the man sitting down again, the count laughed inside his mind, 'This fool, with this much wealth, I can become one of the richest man in the western nations, one could even buy enough land and soldiers to make their own kingdom, how foolish...'

Of course, he dared not say such things to the mystery man, after a contract was made and signed, he happily took the gold and left, a brighter or perhaps, a grim future awaiting him.

The mystery man didn't even look at the gold being taken away, instead, he looked to the lands from the window, and a smile found its way to his face.

'Location, check!'

...

It is quite surprising how power changes one's state of mind and thoughts. I would have never been able to go through with giving away wealth like this in my past life, but here, it means nothing. I can just make more with a wave of my hand, just as I had transformed common rocks into exact replicas of golden coins this kingdom used with transmutation.

It is a profound realization when something once so precious becomes so common, I realized just how small and insignificant my problems were like money, how I looked, etc. in my past life but unfortunately will always be terribly difficult to solve for the powerless.

There is greater meaning in life, a greater purpose to seek, and truths to find, a more enjoyable existence but only for those who have power. It is a grim and dark world, or perhaps multiverse is a better word, for the weak.

It made me all the more determined to succeed in what I was about to do.

Now I had bought the location to make my lab and it only took some research to find the noble who was in the worst financial situation and then buy it. The title came as a surprise, but it was a good one, with it I didn't have to deal with countless annoying things commoners had to deal with.

I was henceforth officially called Count Adam Flamesworth, the owner of 2 mansions and a few dozen square miles of land, almost all of it used for farming of course.

Why Flamesworth? You couldn't just legally buy a title, the count had to first adopt me into his family legally to give me the right of inheritance and then surrender his title and everything to me, a shady way to do things, perhaps very illegal, but it works. And I didn't mind the last name, it sounded okay.

I had no intention of doing much with it, for now, I wanted to make use of the remote location and the immense size of the land to make some interesting experiments and that was it, the lazy count had delegated the managing of everything to his butler, and I was not going to change that.

But everything had to wait for tomorrow, I needed shards to make a power to help me construct my lab and the buildings needed for experiments.

After dealing with everything that had to do with the recent purchase and changes, I settled for the night.

Only to wake up due to the pain of a slashed throat that was slowly being healed, and an assassin looking at me with wide eyes of horror.

I activated superintelligence and the world slowed down.

'Who could it be?' I wondered and countless clues and thoughts passed through my head.

And the answer was obvious, who would benefit most? The count, after the so-called death of his inheritor, he would retake everything. So boring and predictable...

Yeah, I was going to kill that count. But doing so personally would take too much time and effort. Looking at the assassin, I had a thought. Checking my shards, there were 5 available, I grinned and created a power.

...

How many had he killed? Thousands? He didn't remember. He only remembered the first, his friend in training. Did he feel remorse? No. He was always a cold-blooded killer, and now, a very expensive assassin.

Was he satisfied with his life? No. He killed, used the money to drink and fuck then repeat. There was no meaning, only the next mission.

But this mission was strange. First, the money offered was too much, enough to kill a king, let alone some newly risen noble kid, and second, said noble was looking at him with eerily glowing blue eyes and an excited smile while his throat was still open and bleeding. It was healing fast enough to be visible to the naked eye...

It was enough to make him feel scared for the first time since he had first killed a person.

The young man in front of him was not a human, he was a monster, or worse, a demon.

He turned to escape, activating his skill. He merged into the shadows and wanted to flee, feeling safe in the shadow, nothing could obstruct or touch him...

He was forced out stunned, the entire room was filled with small fireballs, even under the bed, no shadows were present.

'How did he instantly figure out the weakness?!' His shock grew but he didn't give up.

His second skill came into play, invisibility, and coupled with his already extreme speed, He expected to run to the window and escape easily, but somehow, he found a dozen fire needles appear around him in a formation of sorts midway, he could not move an inch, the heat was already burning him, and he did not want to touch the needles pointing at his skin in every direction.

How had the monster of a man calculated his position in less than a second?!

'What kind of monster is he? How can he think so fast and deal with my skills!' He was now truly horrified, even more so when said monster approached him and put his palm on his head.

Pain erupted in his mind and brain, he tried to fight back, but the thing that had intruded was far too strong and far too fast, he was crushed and any attempt at counterattacking was swiftly and efficiently dealt with.

The next thing he knew, he was filled with worship. He had found salvation, he had found his god.

He kneeled.

---

Power Manipulation Shards:

[Self-Healing x2] [Pyrokinesis x1] [Enhanced Durability x1] [Flight x1] [Item Creation x1] [Transmutation x2] [Superintelligence x2] [Mind Domination x1]