This is the tale of the assassin known as The Black Lizard, the one who shook the world of Quaris.
Quaris was a world where magic was possible, there were great mages, capable of destroying small cities on their own.
There were dungeons that could bring great riches to the fortunate and strong, but one wrong step could result in death.
Alot of children wanted to become one of those adventures, exploring every cravice of those dungeons.
Alot of parents told their children a folktale to discourage them, so that they would not become a adventure.
The tale went by alot of names, but the most known one was The Black Lizard.
The story was about a young man that had alot of potential, and he had conquered multiple dungeons.
He was a hero of the people, since he gave away his riches to the poor.
He was argued to be one of the strongest people in the world, and he could have whatever he want, yet he wanted to better the lives of the others.
At some point, the hero was offered the hand of a nobles daughter, allowing him to marry into the family.
However, the righteous hero refused this offer, since he had no feelings for the girl.
The noble was pissed at the hero, and he let his anger control him.
One day, there was a letter laying inside the nobles house, the letter had a stamp of a black lizard on it, and when he opened it all he found was a sentence saying "Come alone." following a set of coordinates and a time.
The noble asked his guards if he saw someone deliver the letter, or atleast who delivered it.
Most of the guards looked towards the noble with a confused expression, they had not seen anyone the entire day entering the perimeter.
The noble was scared, he had some elite guards, and even they could not detect this individual.
At some point he thought that the guards were playing a prank on him, but he quickly shook that thought off.
In the end, he went to the location that was on the letter, if the guy who sent him the letter wanted to kill him he would've been dead already, he thought.
When the noble arrived at the location, he was quite scared.
He was in a grim forest, surrounded with dead trees.
On top one of the hills stood a massive dead tree, this is where he was supposed to go.
The moment he arrived at the tree he heard a soft thud.
When he turned around he saw a person in a pitch black cloak looking at him.
Or atleast, that was what he thought.
When he tried to get a peek into the hood all he saw was darkness, the noble just assumed that he was looking at him.
The noble was surprised that he was able to reach the forest uninjured, it usually was filled with numerous monsters.
"You are the one who sent the letter, right?" asked the noble.
The figure only nodded towards him before handing him a note.
The note read as follows:
"You want to get rid of the hero, right?"
The noble looked around for a while before responding.
For a second he thought the kingdom attempted to set him up, but something was off with this person.
If the kingdom truly wanted to set him up, they would not have brought him to such a remote and dangerous location.
"Yes, I do want to get rid of that ignorant bastard..." whispered the noble.
The cloaked man rummaged through his pockets before handing the noble another note.
"I am capable of getting rid of him, but I do request a fee." read the note.
"And what may that fee be, stranger?" asked the noble.
The cloaked man took out another note, this time it simply showed a crude drawing of a golden coin with the number 5000 infront of it. Under the drawing of the golden coin stood one line of text.
"half upfront."
The noble lashed out upon hearing this, he may have been in a dangerous place, but he still had to protect his pride.
"five thousand gold coins!?! and half upfront!? Do you mistake me as a fool!" yelled the noble.
In the next second a dark and grim voice was heard, enough to make people believe that the grim reaper himself was speaking to them.
It only said one word.
"No."
The noble took a step backwards upon hearing the voice, for a second he believed that this man was a mute, but this proved him wrong.
The cloaked man took out one last note.
"2500 gold coins is only what you make in a month and no one is capable of completing this mission except me, a price such as this is a steal."
The cloaked man had a point, nobles made quite alot.
2500 gold coins was enough to buy a big house, big enough that about two families could live in it comfortably.
The noble seemed to be hesitant for a while before speaking.
"I will leave my window open tonight and I will put a bag with 2500 gold coins on the windowsill, if you manage to grab it without alerting any guards, then you are free to do the job.
The cloaked man went mute again and simply nodded before making a gesture towards the noble, telling him to leave.
The noble walked away and after a couple steps he turned around to say one last thing to the man.
...
Only to find out, he was already gone.
--
The noble ended up staying awake the entire night, observing his mansion and his guards.
He was quite sure that one of them was a insider for the cloaked man, and he kept watch on the bag of money at all times.
He stayed awake until morning before disclaiming his displeasure verbally.
"What a massive fucking waste of time."
The noble walked back towards the bag of money and picked it up, just to find that it didn't weigh anything.
"What the..."
When the noble took a look in the bag, all he found was a piece of paper, containing the image of a black lizard eating his own tail, like a ouroboros.
He was quite surprised that the assassin was capable of pulling this off, thus gave him the chance to complete his mission.
The noble waited for three days, growing more impatient with each day passing.
On the fourth day he accepted that he had been conned, but he soon was proved wrong.
There was a uproar in the city of Tethoris, as the noble controlling the area soon brought unfortunate news.
The citizens of Tethoris were lead to the center of the city, where the noble held a speech from the balcony of his mansion.
"The hero Zain has been killed in his sleep, we are currently looking for the perpetrator. There was no evidence except a drawing of a black lizard eating his tail on the wall. Let us all lay down a prayer for Zain."
The mages made images manifest in the air that displayed the corpse of the hero in his room, both of his eyes were removed and his throat was slit.
There was a image of a black lizard eating his tail on the wall, there was also one drawn on the hero's forehead.
Alot of people broke down upon hearing the news, as Zain was seen as their savior.
Some turned violent, rioting, meanwhile others had mental breakdowns.
The noble that contracted the assassin was surprised upon one of his private mages sharing a magic vision of the speech in Tethoris.
"He... actually did it..."
The noble dropped down on his bed, he was sure that he was conned but yet this individual completed his mision.
For a second he thought it was a dream, but he was sure that the man did it.
After all, there was the same image of a black lizard on Zains corpse as there was on the letter he received.
Upon hearing this story, alot of children decided to not become adventurers.
After all, they did not want to meet the same fate as the hero Zain.
Alot of children were scared, but their parents would tell them that the folktale was only a fable, never confirmed.
Yet, they did not know how wrong they were.
The story was true, but it happened hundreds of years ago, resulting in the story becoming little more than a folktale.
Zain was truly killed by the black lizard, yet he showed himself very little back in those days.
However, all of this was soon to change.
The world would soon learn the in's and out's of this individual, some even meeting their end by his hands.
He would shake the very core of Quaris himself, as this is the tale of the assassin known to the world as The Black Lizard.