The party walked with Ashton part of the way ahead of the rest of the group.

  "So it's over there somewhere?" Ashton asked, pointing ahead down the road.

  Jacky quickly replied, though from her voice, he could tell that she was nervous to really tell him.

  From everyone's point of view, this was a lose-lose situation. If they let Ashton go ahead, then he was going to kill a human. Or at least, someone that was a human less than a week ago. On the other hand, if they didn't, then that same former human was going to keep running around and killing anyone he came across.

  Neither was a particularly appealing option, though of course, the first one was the only real choice they had, even if it felt like some kind of failure to them.

  "Are you sure you can do this alone?" Jacky asked. Paul quickly added something as well.

  "Right, if you need someone to hold him off for you, then–"

  "Thanks, guys, but I'd rather do this alone." Ashton smiled at them. They were going to have to do something like this sooner or later, actually pretty soon, all things considered, but there was no reason to have that time be right now. Plus, though Ashton didn't want to tell them since it sounded pretty messed up, he needed to complete the Executor's quest, and he wasn't sure if a group kill would really count. And considering that he should be able to kill it easily enough, with the physical description that Ashton got, there wasn't any reason to do this in the first place.

  "Stop!" Jacky put her arm in front of Ashton as he was walking. She quickly whispered to him. "He's down the road, right ahead of us!"

  "Perfect, thanks." Ashton said with a smile. For now, he quickly decided to change his equipment out. A fight with this guy was probably easier with the metal bar, and this was good practice for fighting in the future, anyway.

  However, as Ashton was changing, someone else spoke up.

  "What... is that?" Clementine muttered confused. "I mean, what? Is that seriously supposed to be a human?"

  The others were silent, as they weren't really sure what to say. They didn't even really know who this person was. Ashton had briefly introduced her to them, but he didn't really give them a lot of information.

  "Mm-hm. I don't know exactly what it looks like yet, but its transformation seems pretty advanced already. The Marked change pretty fast."

  "What even is a 'Marked' supposed to be?" Clementine asked, still not sure what exactly was going on right now. She just heard some bits and pieces of the conversation earlier and felt the need to join Ashton on this trip.

  "They're people who did something to throw away their humanity. At this point, most of them will be folk that killed others to complete the first quest. But just being extremely brutal toward other people is enough to become a 'Marked'," Ashton explained. "The more brutal, the more people you kill, the worse it's going to become."

  "Wait, so isn't what you're trying to do dangerous? Won't you change, too?"

  "No. Marked aren't considered 'true humans' anymore. They're considered monsters for most purposes. But no matter, just..." Ashton sighed lightly. He didn't really want Clementine to come with him here. Hell, he didn't even really want Jacky's party to come with him. Because that meant that they were going to watch him kill someone that they, even just slightly, still considered a person.

  Ashton didn't need to see their faces to know what they were thinking.

  'How does Ashton know all of this?'

  'What if he's wrong?'

  'What if this is just some dumb prank by the council?'

  Of course, Ashton understood that sentiment well. He had thought the exact same thing when the invasion started in Lumia and the first Marked started to show up. But obviously, things weren't perfectly black and white. If this one still had some kind of conscious left, and if he could still speak and be communicated with, then Ashton would probably try that first.

  It wasn't like the system differentiated between cold-blooded murder and self-defence when it came to counting the kills in the first quest. Depending on the exact circumstances and your personality, the 'monster' that a person would shift toward would change, and some would be able to retain their sanity more than others.

  Hell, there were those that were able to fully retain their sanity, though those were rare. Usually, it just stretched things out a bit. After all, even though this part of the system seemed to have been made to dissuade brutality, from Ashton's point of view, it really just seemed to be something made to create more conflict. Conflict meant growth, and growth meant better final products.

  The author's narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

  That was obvious especially when you considered that future quests would literally force people to kill each other. During those quests, the only way to turn into a Marked was if you were taking particular joy in the killing for the sake of killing, or if you were brutal and tortured people. But at the end of the day... people would still come to kill each other.

  Maybe considering that, it was good for these guys to watch Ashton do this. Hopefully it would help them realise that this was a necessity sometimes.

  Ashton gave the summoner's staff and cloak to the Backpacker, in exchange for the heavy metal bar. He still didn't have a change of clothes though, so he was just shirtless. Trousers, shoes, and a mask over his face. It felt like a slightly weird combo, but at this point Ashton's body should have changed enough that he was actually quite 'aesthetic' to look at.

  'Hah, a blind man worrying about the way he looks to others,' he silently laughed to himself before turning to his friends. "You guys, stay back here."

  However, as he turned, he just heard a few sharp gasps. One from Clementine, Oliver, and Nicole each.

  "Ash, what... happened to you?" Clementine asked, and with a smug grin, Ashton leaned onto his staff.

  "Oh, this? Yeah, it's not like it was during my peak, but I'm glad that I'm getting some muscle definition back."

  "Huh? What are you- Ash, I'm talking about the fucking scars covering you from head to toe!"

  "Ah, that's what you mean. Yeah, I don't know, just kind of happened. You know, being stabbed, poisoned, eaten by maggots, bitten, scratched, all that. It happens," Ashton briefly explained. It wasn't like this should be all that big of a deal. Sure, there were a lot more scars on this body than there were a week ago, but why would he care about scars?

  For the most part, most of the entities that cared for Ashton's looks didn't mind whenever he had some, or a lot of, scars. Rather, it seemed to make him a bit more appealing to him. Like his body had a history for them to appreciate. Sure, a lot of fairies liked the 'boyish', 'smooth' look a lot more, but that was mostly a preference thing. So if that was the case, why would Ashton care if he was covered in scars? Not like they got in the way. And worst case, there were always some ways to make scars fade faster or even make them disappear altogether. Those just felt like a bit of a waste of time and valuable materials, though.

  He could tell that Clementine was trying to say something else, but he was a bit busy. The rest of the group was on their way, and Ashton wanted to deal with the Marked as fast as he could.

  Making sure to watch out for the sounds around him, Ashton walked down the road, right to where he was sent. And then, before long, he heard a scream. It was more like some kind of roar than anything. With loud stomps, something was running straight at Ashton, soon coming into view of his channelling range.

  It was a huge person. Close to three metres tall, and the barrel-shaped, massive body of a strongman. From the tusks coming out from his mouth, it seemed like this guy was turning into some kind of orc. Generally, the image of orcs during these invasions, at least in this stage, was that of some kind of war-hungry maniac that loved to tear things apart with their bare hands.

  Though, this guy wasn't using his bare hands, instead carrying around some kind of large axe. Did he still it from a monster?

  Well, whichever the case, Ashton still had a few questions to ask.

  "Hey there! Just wanted to stop by real quick and ask if you–"

  Ashton was immediately interrupted by the swing of that massive, rusted war-axe. He buckled his knees and bent backward to dodge under the swing, before pushing his temporary staff into the ground and using his strength to force himself up.

  He kicked the Marked into the underside of the jaw. It was stunned and confused momentarily, a situation that Ashton used to leap away, kicking off the Marked's broad chest. The moment he landed on the ground and slightly bent his knees, he sprung back forward and started hitting the turned man.

  Right elbow, left leg, left shin, belly, chest, throat, right eye, left shoulder, right temple, left temple, solar plexus, underside of the chin, nose, top of the head, and lastly, as the man fell to the ground, Ashton once more pushed down onto the throat with his weight and strength behind it.

  During the entirety of the fight, the man was muttering something. Ashton was wondering if that meant that he was still sane, but in reality, this was just something that happened with some Marked.

  "I didn't... mean to, I didn't mean... to, I... didn't mean to, I–" was the first part, which he had been repeating the entire time. Ashton felt almost sorry for him, until the rest of the sentence came, gurgled out while half-dead on the ground below Ashton. "That bitch just–just pissed me... pissed me off... I didn't... mean to..."

  Hearing that part, Ashton rolled his eye—or he would if he still could—and crushed the monster's throat. As it was struggling to breathe and drowning in its own blood, Ashton bashed down on its face one last time, and a message appeared before him.

  [You have killed a [Marked Human]. For your efforts, you are awarded 31 Coins]

  "Hm. Weaker than Gordy, but still pretty hefty, huh?" Ashton said to himself. The counter of the Executor's quest also went up. It should be easy enough to clear that quest over the next few days.

  With that in mind, Ashton turned around and started walking back over to where the others were waiting.

  "Alright, there we go," Ashton said with a smile on his face. It was still raining, so on the way here, he had just used the rainwater to clean all the blood off him. Or, at least he thought so. He might have missed a few spots, but Ashton just didn't want to seem too freaky to the others.

  As he came back to them, the first person he noticed was Clementine. She was just standing there, stunned.

  "How did you...? When did you learn to move like that..?"

  Ashton raised a brow. "I just explained it to you earlier."

  "I can't blame you, Clementine," Jacky said, stepping up to her side. "It's still crazy, no matter how many times I see it. And this time, you did it without being able to see?"

  "Yup," Ashton said with a smile, holding his hand back out to the Backpacker to get his cloak back. Yeah, he was a lot more resilient, but there was no reason to risk getting a cold. Making cold medicine was surprisingly a pain in the ass. "If you see any other Marked, please let me know."