"Nah, p.i.s.s off and go back to your mom brat. Come back and ask me when you've learned how to request things of people."

Sending the knightling on her way Dax went along with his perfectly peaceful day which had no major events and was nice and relaxing.

"HOW DARE YOU INSULT ME AND MY MOTHER!"

Or at least that's how his fantasy of the current events. Completely outraged by his insults, the knightling charged at Dax as a fury of mana surrounded her and acted completely ignorant to the surrounding spectator's and their well being.

(What the f.u.c.k is she doing!?)

Choosing not to draw his own weapon, Dax adjusted his stance and met the young knight's downwards swing and deflected it to the side with his bare hand.

"Wha!-"

As the knightling's sword crashed into the stone lined pavement she lost grip of her sword due to the force of impact which travelled up the sword's metal core.

"Congratulations, you've just disarmed yourself."

"Eh?"

Showing how completely incompetent she was in a real fight, the knightling was utterly surprised and completely open to attack, something Dax took full advantage of. Taking a half step backwards Dax clenched his left fist and went in for a hook as mana surged through his body and enhanced the already deadly speed and strength he could punch at, resulting in the knightling being completely unable to say anything before it was already too late. Stopping his punch right in front of the knightling's face, Dax sent her stumbling down on the ground with a potent mix of fear and wind pressure alone.

"And congratulations, you are now dead. End of the duel, now f.u.c.k off for good." 

Leaving the knighling behind as he went to find an inn which had a shower Dax was unaware of the actions he had just set in motion. 

Finding set inn which had a first cla.s.s suite which contained a ma.s.sive tub which he could fully submerge himself in, Dax had a nice and relaxing night which served to lower his rising stress levels.

"Please excuse me!"

Or at least that's what he hoped to do.

(I swear to G.o.d I should just start killing everyone I interact with on this continent, that way it'll be far less trouble in the future…)

Recognizing the voice outside his door which sounded out from outside his room right as Dax had submerged himself in as the first knight he had saved earlier in the day Dax was exactly 100% done with everything. Getting out of the tub in his birthday suit the qiton tracked water and soap all the way across his first cla.s.s room (in where he had been promised peace and quiet and paid good money for it) and opened the door with sword in hand as he addressed his late night visitor.

"I believe I made myself clear last time we saw each other, but it seems like you really want to die so let me take care of that for you right now!"

"HIIII!"

Succeeding in almost scaring the life out of the poor hostess that had escorted the knight to Dax's door with the amount of bloodl.u.s.t he had displayed (among other things), the qiton slightly calmed down and put on a towel before helping breathe life in the hostess once more.

"... So? What the f.u.c.k do you want? If you really want to die we can take care of that after I'm done with my bath."

Having returned to his bath Dax half paid attention to the knight which had sat down on his legs in front of the tub.

"Please help me save my lady. In return, I will offer you everything I have."

Looking at how desperately the knight buried his face into the wooden floor, Dax taught long and deeply about how to respond.

(Gaining the resources of this so called knight might help me reach the imperial capital faster, but gaining the ire of an unknown faction which are trying to crush this unfortunate 'lady' is too great… Killing this knight would be the easiest solution.)

"As I have told you before I have no intention of getting myself involved in some hopeless power struggle where your precious little lady is crushed. People die all the time, but I will not put myself needlessly in danger when I have more important things to do."

"Yeah, I have been made aware of that already. You wish to join the imperial knights, right? In that case, making a name for yourself fighting strong opponents will make your eventual application that much more noticeable."

(Wait, what? The imperial knights are usually chosen among n.o.ble houses, an outsider like myself would have no way to join… Unless my intel is severely outdated.)

Keeping up his perfect poker face Dax didn't answer the knight's question, which he took as an answer in of itself and continued explaining.

"The people who took my lady were highly organized, they knew exactly how we were and how we looked. They ambushed me and kept me busy while taking my lady away, moreover, they appeared to have been modified."

While Dax still considered just killing the knight he abandoned all those lines of thought when he heard the word 'modified'.

(Now that is interesting… Those a.s.sailants might come from the same place as that angel and such might provide some actionable intelligence. Better play along with this knight's a.s.sessment of me.)

"That does sound interesting… Could you tell me more about them?"

Seeing Dax's interest in his opponents the knight started to hold hope for a.s.sistance and therefore told the demonkin everything he knew about them.

"As far as I could tell there were 6 of them, but there might be more. While they looked like normal humankin on the surface something about them seemed off. Their eyes looked like ones you would normally see in monsters and at least one of them had spider like legs growing out from its back."

(So genetic augmentation and at least some amount of cross species fabrication/transplantation… That should still within the ability of that strange slime I recovered, so we might be onto a winner. ICI warm up the drone link, download the wide angle footage and extrapolate their location.)

(DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED, CONNECTING TO LAZARUS MP-SUAV 'HAWK'... CONNECTION ESTABLISHED. PROCESSING REQUEST, STAND BY…)

(Dax are we killing stuff again?~)

(Yeah we are and these opponents might actually be worth it, so I need you at your best. No f.u.c.king around this time and disobeying my orders, or I will throw you into the sun.)

(Understood~ Blood~✿ Blood~✿ I love fresh blood~✿)

"... Okay then, get out. I'm going to get dressed."

"Understood!"

With spring in his step, the knight stopped kneeling and went to leave Dax's room.

"Wait a second, I don't think I've heard your name."

"It's Chad, I'm my lady's first knight."

"Nice to meet you, my name is Dax."

(That is not exactly the name I would have imagined… ICI is there anything wrong with my translation framework?)

(RUNNING DEBUG… COMPLETE, NO IRREGULARITIES FOUND.)

--- 

"This looks to be the place… Stay put, I'll handle the rest."

After having located the a.s.sailants and tracked them down to an abandoned warehouse on edge of the towns industrial district with the help of ICI, Dax let Chad stay outside and keep watch while he entered alone. Walking in the front gate Dax was met with a bush of dust covered wooden crates of varying sizes with a narrow central walkway that lead to some sort of backroom.

(Dax you're spotted~)

(I realized that already, 6… 9 total active heat signatures, huh? So at least 8 hostiles.)

Feeling eyes on him, Dax put his one hand on his sword as he walked forward in a relaxed manner, stopping in front of the closest crates.

(ICI mana.)

(DIRECTIVE CONFIRMED. INITIATING AMBIENT MANA ABSORPTION, ALLOCATING PROCESSING POWER FOR SCRIPT… COMPLETE, MANA FORGE ONLINE, RUNNING AT 100%)

Instantly Dax's mana flared as he stomped his foot into the ground, creating a formation of artificial looking black runes. The result was immediate, as numerous rock spikes emerged out of the ground and struck at the qiton's unseen opponents.

(No hits… Seems like this really will be worth my time.)

Drawing the cursed sword as it started glowing a dim red in the dark warehouse, Dax dodged a poisoned throwing knife which was aimed at his head. Hearing more knives fly through the air towards his position Dax once more send a surge of mana into the ground, this time creating a defensive wall as he focused his attention towards the hostiles which were closing in on him. Switching to a reverse grip Dax blocked a sword meant to cleave off his head as he blocked some sort of stinger with his free hand.

"What the f.u.c.k are you!?"

Seeing clearly in the dark Dax still half wondered if he was seeing correctly. Standing at about 1 meter 70, the creature in front of Dax could be considered a normal human, if one only glanced over it in a crowd that is. Irregular eyes and scaring around them made Dax conclude that they were transplanted, moreover, its mouth was sewn shut and nose amputated. The irregularities were not only limited to the creature's head, as the creature's stance was also highly irregular and while Dax could not see its legs due to the nun like clothing it wore, but Dax was also certain they were not anything that would normally belong to a human. 

Once more dodging the creature's stinger that tried to stab him in the eye, Dax managed to grasp it as it retreated and with his immense strength his crushed it. 

(No sense of pain either… What a ha.s.sle.)

As the creature remained completely unflinching even after Dax destroyed a part of its body, the qiton had to change up his plan of attack. Blocking another sword trust Dax let go of his sword and switched the hand he was wielding it in, instantly striking at the creature which was caught off balance.

"That's one, who else wants to play?"

Pulling out his sword from the creature's skull Dax ventured further into the warehouse.

-

"We have an unwelcome guest… Seems like he already killed one of the drones."

Below an abandoned warehouse in a covert safehouse, a group of intelligent homunculus' were gathered. 

"And there goes the second drone… Seems like he's after our mark."

Getting up from his chair, one of the homunculus' walked over to a tied up young lady that wore a blue dress.

"How about we just kill her now? That should be the easiest solution."

Grabbing the lady's chin, his nails extended until they started digging into the lady's flesh as she started crying like she had done so much over the last few hours.

"Quit playing with her already, I really can't handle when she makes that sound. Why do humans even do that when we start picking them apart? it's so annoying."

"Tch, I'll get to crave you up someday, remember that."

Quite annoyed that he didn't get to crave up the n.o.ble lady, the homunculus sat down next to his kin once more and was just about to continue complaining when a sound alerted all of them.

"He's in… That's impressive."

"Yeah, but there's no way he can stand up to us all, let's go slaughter this intruder."

"Oooh~ Good idea, I call dibs on the killing blow. I really love to slowly choke the life out of them, it's so fascinating to slowly see the light disappear in their eyes~"