I wake up once more in an abandoned house a house that burnt down centuries ago, it was almost completely destroyed and indeed it was dirty and full of insects or spiders.
What am I doing here ? Pretty simple, that's where I live since I can't find a real house or a real shelter to stay in. It's not I can't afford them, that most likely the opposite, but it's because of what I am.
In my world full of magic and blades, there are many different species : humans, demons, angels, elfs, dwarfs and dragons ; and there are rare cases of hybrid creatures and depending on the hybrid they are, the person is more or less loved or hated.
Every hybrid creature is for some reason born from a human, as it seems other species can't hold another specie's baby than humans.
The half angels and half dragons, as they are rare, are loved, praised and almost as worshiped as their angel or dragon parent, but indeed not at their level, but indeed hated by the demons
Half-dwarf and half-elves, as they are not that different to humans are considered as humans so there are no differences, they are the most common hybrids, though uncommon indeed.
And finally, half demons, they are the most hated ones, because demons absolutely hated humans and all the other creatures hate the demons, so a cross between those are extremely rare, but hated by absolutely all races in general.
But even with my birth conditions, I didn't lose all hopes and one day as a teen, I met a half demon just like me that was loved and respected by humans, so we talk and he told me that I can be like him depending on my birth skill and what I can accomplish.
So there was hope and therefore I decided back then to go to the church to see my skill, even though reticent at first, they accepted when I mentioned the half demon I've met before coming.
But when my birth skill was displayed, all my hopes and dreams were annihilated.
「 Skill - Betrayer (Super Rare)
Whenever the user kill a person of his own species, he can make the stats of the person he killed his. 」
At first it didn't seem to bad, to my point of view I could help the humans by killing the demons and grow stronger, therefore being able to kill more demons and so on.
But the people in the church saw my skill another way, as I was also half humans, they saw my skill as a potential threat as I could just kill humans like a demon and become stronger.
Therefore just some seconds after my skill was displayed, as I turned around, I saw almost all the priests chant and cast a light spell and everyone in town knew that spell, it was 'Purification' a high spell that can kill all demons regardless of their power.
They were preparing that spell and looked me with a greater hatred than I was used to see, they really wanted to kill me.
Indeed I didn't stand there and let them kill me, so I fleed and ran into many direction to make them lose their concentration to where they should cast their spell.
And then I managed to run outside the church, saving my life from a painful and inevitable death sentence.
It's been 5 years now since that event and because of that, I am wanted and tracked by the guards and the church, as an extremely dangerous threat to humanity.
Therefore I had no choice but to hide my true identity, but to eat and drink, therefore survive, I had to gain money.
Hopefully there was a solution : becoming an adventurer.
The guild didn't care about the adventurers true identity as long as they can't recognize dangerous criminals, and as I came in 2 years ago, with long clothes and a mask to hide my face, they didn't ask me a thing and I could register without much problem.
And since then, I accomplished many missions in a row without failing even once, accomplishing 2 or 3 missions in a day and getting money.
Therefore as I told you before, if I wanted to buy a house even at the countryside, I have more than the money to do so, however as I gathered intel, I was told the persons selling houses needs to know the identity of the person buying it, it was a dead end for me indeed.
One day after I completed another mission, I found that abandoned house, it was almost nothing buy ruins, but it had a bed and a roof so that was more than enough to me.
But well, all I told you now belong to the past, I wake up as usual and prepare to go to the guild to take care of some other missions.
But as I was heading with my long clothes and mask on, I saw some familiar faces : it was some members of the church ; and as I could hear from then while I walked past them, even after those years they are still after me.
This is as troublesome as annoying, if they find out my true identity, I can say farewell to my life as an adventurer in that town.
So I past those members of the church who seemed to look at me, but I had no problem passing them by, and then I entered the guild and I took a look at the dashboard.
As usual it was mainly some extermination of monsters, medicine collection or demon extermination for the higher grade missions available.
As I looked the missions, I heard some rumors and according to them, Aamon the Demon Emperor of Envy was defeated and killed by the party of the heroine Sariel.
What is an heroine ? Well it's simply a person born once in every centuries with the enough power to have a chance killing the Demon Emperors.
The Demon Emperors are the 7 most powerful demons, leading armies of many demons, representing a great menace and reigning more and more lands as time went by.
So for the humans, that was great news, as one of their greatest threat was defeated, it was all for the better ; I stand neutral with that news.
As I was about to take a mission of demon extermination, again, a person bumped at me, so I turned back, it was Arson, another adventurer that loves looking people down and hates being outranked.
Indeed, without knowing my true identity, he didn't see me from a good eye as I was gaining rank very fast and I will reach his rank soon enough, so he loved trying to humiliate me in public.
"Hey weirdo ! You're on my way ! Move and apologize !"
I looked him and sigh out of annoyance, I didn't answer and turned back to leave the guild.
"Hey ! I told you to apologize ! Obey to your superior !"
He tried to order me again, I decided to make it quick so I could move on to my mission in peace.
"Sorry for getting on your way.... happy ?"
I said, turning to look at him.
"How can I know your apologies are sincere if I can't see your face ? Take it off and apologize again !"
It was getting more and more annoying.
"Apologizing is a thing but I won't take off my mask."
I answered in quite the cold tone, he didn't seem to like it.
"I told you to take off your mask so you do it ! At least you have something to hide ?"
I sigh as I replied quite annoyed.
"I don't have to take off my mask if I don't want to."
He got quite impatient and shew more of his arrogant side.
"You have to, weirdo ! Don't tell me you're so ugly you have to hide your face ? Or maybe are you a criminal in disguise ?"
He started laughing, I took out a deep breath and turned back, it was a waste of time.
"What's wrong weirdo ? Did I got it right ? So you're not just any weirdo but a wanted criminal ? I should definitely report you, say your adventurer's life goodbye then !"
And right now I couldn't control myself, my emotions were so great a strong aura was emitted from my body, I turned back at Arson and told him with an authoritative tone.
"That's enough. If you have a problem with me, we can solve it easily..."
I said ready to draw my sword, Arson was surprised and didn't seem that much confident now, he took a step back and didn't say anything.
"Good. Now leave me the fuck alone."
I said as I turned back pretty angered and left the guild, heading to a forest near the city to complete my mission to exterminate a bunch of demons that were seen.
Since I am an adventurer, I mostly took the missions to exterminate demons, so that my skill 「 Betrayer 」can be well exploited.
I've killed dozens of demons, all were a bit weak or some were stronger than the others but I managed to take them out and make their stats mine permanently, killing more demons was just too easy now as long as they're not generals.
As the mission went on, I recalled that moment when Arson asked in front of everyone if I was a criminal and tried to threaten me.
If only I could show myself without the church chasing, if only I could have the possibility to be as respected as the half demon I encountered, if only I had another skill than that 「 Betrayer 」 skill of mine.
That aura I emitted at the guild became stronger and stronger as those urges became also stronger, controlling my emotions was almost impossible and as I seemed alone, I let them go.
「 A great energy related to Envy has been detected from you. 」
「 A new successor has been found. 」
「 Congratulations ! You're about to possess a new unique skill, do you accept it ? 」
「 Yes. 」 「 No. 」
Those notifications disturbed me in my emotions displaying, I was quite confused right now as tried to understand what happens.
「 Your wish and desires has been heard. 」
「 This unique skill can male them come true. 」
「 Do you accept it ? 」
「 Yes. 」 「 No. 」
I was more confused, those notifications appeared before I chose an option, but if those notifications tells the truth, then I have nothing else to do, than to click.
「 Yes. 」
And as I clicked, that dark aura I emitted out from my emotions and desires turned into a tornado of darkness all swirling around me, and then the tornado of darkness went upper me, as a great black ball, then that ball went straight into me.
I was suddenly overflowed by something I couldn't explain, it was something I couldn't control, another kind of power, greater and more seductive, it was a bit painful and surprising but then, that dark energy seemed to have merged with me.
「 Congratulations ! You possess a new unique Skill, check your skills to see it. 」
So It seems like I really recieved a new skill, I checked my status and skills to see if it was true, and yes, I just got another skill, a Unique Skill.
「 Skill - Envy of the Doppelganger (Unique)
The user can take the appearance, characteristics and the species of whoever he see. If the user kills a creature while he took its appearance, the skills of the killed creature become those of the user. 」
Wait, wait did I see right ?
I can take the appearance of whatever I see but also his species ? And more if I kill the creature I took its appearance while having it, I gain his skills ?
It seems like fate decided to take a strange twist now, but I don't refuse such skill, now I will soon reach the demons, it will be perfect to test this new unique skill