Reborn with a Necromancer System - Chapter 86

Chapter 86: A Taste of Vagrants and Bandits
The two figures stood by a rusted oil drum with a weak fire sputtering from inside. One had his hands shoved in some worn-out gloves, the other leaned against a crate gnawing on something unidentifiable.

‘A rat, maybe? Doesn’t even look cooked.’

Neither looked up.

The blades at their hips shone from the faint fire beside them. They were chipped and rusted, and would probably kill someone from tetanus before anything else.

Kai walked up to the men slowly and tried to feign looking lost.

Then they gave him all of their attention.

“What, kid? You want somethin’?” The bigger one asked, smoke drifting from the corner of his mouth.

“Just a snack. I really need some food.” Kai held his hands out as if he was hoping they’d drop something into his palms.

‘Just a little closer…’

The thief walked up to him, chest puffed like a lizard to make him seem more intimidating. “Does it look like we’ve got food for you? Like we’re some sort of bloody charity?”

The other pushed himself off the wall, stepping closer. “Get lost before we gut ya.”

Kai smiled.

“Thanks for the snack.”

“What snack? We ain’t feedin-”

From his shadow, Shade bloomed like a fluid nightmare, tendrils of shadow coiling and locking around their limbs.

They froze mid-step, panic flooding their eyes as Kai leisurely walked forward and placed a hand on both their chests. Fabric withered to dust beneath his fingers. The second his skin met theirs, black veins surged outward beneath their skin, arcs of spreading pitch-black lightning twisting under their flesh.

Their screams died in their throats as Shade’s tendrils slit them cleanly, crimson mist spraying silently into the air before soaking the dirt below. Their bodies collapsed, twitching.

[971/27,500]

Kai stared at the notification, disappointed. ‘Really? Pathetic. Almost not even worth it.’

He spat on their crumbling corpses, annoyed. ‘Maybe that’s not the best way to go about it?’

As their bodies turned to ash, Kai started down a different route. One worth less trouble.

He put his concealment back up and stalked deeper into the yard. Among the rotting crates and overgrown tracks for the transport carts.

There were others around. Many of them.

Beggars and the homeless, huddled under sheets of fabric or curled up in shelters cobbled together from barrels and crates.

‘Just like the slums of Ylthara. I guess even the famed citadel isn’t immune to poverty.’

Kai found one by the edge of a half-collapsed storehouse, wrapped in ragged cloth, wheezing with each breath.

Kai lowered his veil just enough to show a tired, ragged face, barely recognizable, obscured by shadows.

“Do you need help?”

“Get lost-” the frail-looking man coughed. “You brat. What could you give me?”

He dropped a silver coin beside the man’s bowl and placed a hand on his chest.

A silver coin was enough to feed a person bread for a month. Not fancy, but enough for someone in this situation not to say no.

The beggar let out a confused gasp.

“I’m here to help. This coin is yours as long as you give me some of your life.” Kai whispered. His voice was a thread of silk and stone.

The beggar nodded. Closing his eyes and waiting for whatever was to come.

He took only the smallest wisp. Barely enough to notice. A few drops of life essence.

[984/27,500]

The man blinked, unsure of what had just happened. Kai vanished into the dark before he could ask.

Kai repeated the process again. And again. A silver coin for a taste of life. It felt transactional, balanced. Not moral, he wasn’t fooling himself, but efficient enough for now.

He didn’t know then, but he would later be called the Shadow Devil. The one who lifted those up in the slums for what seemed like nothing.

[1,730/27,500]

But he wanted more.

He needed more.

He sought out more. For people who wouldn’t be missed at all. Not even by their families, and if their families would miss them, he could always take them as well.

Then came the second night.

That’s when he found them.

Kai was leeching a little life from a homeless man when he saw it.

A figure darting between buildings with a bag slung over their shoulder, nimble, practiced, quiet. Kai followed from the rooftops, veiled.

The mana trail of the figure shimmered like oil over water.

‘This one might even fill my life essence completely.’

The mana was dense.

Vibrant.

Stronger than most at Thesiones.

They led him to a dilapidated warehouse tucked behind a row of broken carts. There, three men were waiting. One knocked the thief to the ground the moment she stepped through the door.

“No more excuses,” one growled.

“I got something, look!” a girl’s voice rang out as her hood fell from her face.

She pleaded, pulling obviously stolen goods from her bag. They yanked them from her, throwing her to the floor.

As she clawed for her bag, another kicked her away and she hit the ground even harder.

She coughed, cradling her ribs.

“What’s this, copper? You think this is enough? You’ll have to do better than that, or you’ll be ”

“But there’s a ruby in-”

The first man smacked her down, splitting her lip.

“Shut up, scum!”

“She’s just holding out again,” the other spat, kicking her hard in the side.

Kai watched from the shadows, hand already forming a spell to kill them all.

But he stopped. The girl pulled something from her shirt once the thugs turned around.

A silver locket. She clutched it tightly, as if hoping beyond hope that it wouldn’t be taken from her.

Inside, a small drawing of a younger girl.

“Firra… I’ll fix things, I promise.”

Kai’s hand trembled slightly.

Pain rose in his chest like frostbite. He understood. That need to make it right. To redeem oneself in the eyes of someone who mattered more than the world. Especially when you’re at the lowest point in your life.