Aether roamed the streets and parkoured on the rooftops before the patrols stopped him.

“Don’t waste time, we don’t even know how much time it takes to travel to the capital. We don’t even know how we’ll even go there. We don’t even know where the damn capital is.” Said the pig. He was tired of watching Aether play around.

“Settle down pig, we’ll find a way. I rarely get to enjoy time like this.” Aether said. It had been too long, way too long before he had enjoyed his time like this.

“Oh yeah, ‘I only did a little work, OH, I don’t deserve it, OH plus you saved me.’ You had to be a goody two shoes, didn’t you? Why didn’t you just accept the gold coins?” said the pig, copying Aether’s tone.

“He is a good man but he is powerful and I don’t want to owe him any favours. As if I would refuse such a deal, but there’s always a catch.” Said Aether.

“I’ve been meaning to ask you, how much of a level do you think the captain was?” he asked.

“Taking it statistically, he should be level 50, even though he is only barely over thirty. He is quite talented.” Replied the pig.

“If he is talented then I'm monstrously talented. I reached level 22 from nothing in 18 months.” Aether said with a smirk on his face. Although it was hell, training and living like a maniac for more than year it was worth it.

“Don’t be too proud of yourself and stop smiling, you’re scaring people away. You’re only progressing fast because of the system. It’s not easy to get to level 50. Most people can’t even reach there in their lifetimes. It’s a long time before you reach level 50, besides the average level of people on this continent of adults is 25. Anyone can get there with a little effort.” Said the pig, as if he was looking down on Aether.

“I’m still young and I still have a lot of room to improve ok? You can’t compare me with them. I wasn’t even born on this planet you know.” Aether said.

They started asking around the streets and found out that a caravan was leaving for the Capital tomorrow. They head towards their campsite and found the leader of the caravan. The caravan was quite big. Around 35 carts were there with many horses to pull the load.

“You want to come along? Do you have money if you can give me some silver coins I’ll consider bringing you along.” The head said.

“I don’t have money but I could protect your caravan.” Aether said with confidence.

This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.

“Haha! You? Protect the caravan? You’re a kid who barely went through puberty with a … pig on your shoulders. Forget it kid, we have men protecting us, you don’t have to bother, just go.” Said the head.

One of mercenaries who was behind them had listened to the whole conversation. He was responsible for protecting the caravan. He was irritated for some reason and wanted to take out his anger.

“You mocking us kid? There are experts protecting this caravan, there’s no need for a faggot like you. Now get lost before I smack you in the face.” Said the mercenary.

Aether didn’t get intimidated at all. Instead he walked towards the mercenary and looked him in the eyes.

The mercenaries behind were watching. “Look at that idiot picking on kids again. Let him go man.” Said one of them.

“Shut up you idiots, I’m just putting this kid in his place.” Replied the mercenary while turning back. He turned back to Aether. “Didn’t you hear me kid? Are you deaf?”

Aether punched the man in his face with his right hand and got in his boxing position.

The man staggered and stepped back. His face was turned and his whole face turned into a bright red tomato.

“OOOHHHH….” The mercenaries shouted.

“Hehe the kid’s got a good punch” said one of them, enjoying the spectacle. These mercenaries never said no to watching a fight as long as they weren’t the ones fighting themselves.

“You’ve done it now kid” said the mercenary who was punched in the face. He was embarrassed in front of his comrades. He wasn’t going to let this one slide.

“AAAAHHH!” he screamed as a blue beam wrapped his fist and went in for a punch. Aether ducked and side stepped and punched his ribs.

“Argh!” the mercenary coughed at the impact. “Hmph! Level 24 ain’t a match for me.” Aether said as he went for an upper cut. He didn’t even give the mercenary time to reposition himself. The mercenary was launched in the air and fell on his back, unconscious.

“That’s for calling me a kid.” Aether said. He turned back towards the caravan head. “can I tag along now?”

The caravan head was still processing the whole thing in his mind. “What the fuck just happened?” All the mercenaries were speechless. They didn’t expect it to end so fast.

“That wasn’t interesting at all!” said one of them. “You should have played around with him a little more!” said another. “Yeah!” shouted all the others.

The caravan head examined the unconscious mercenary for a while. “Well, it looks like you cracked his ribs up. This one can’t come along with us now. You’ll be his replacement.” He said while he smiled to himself. The stronger his men were, the better. He wasn’t suspicious of Aether at all. There was no need to, you could tell just by looking at his appearance.

“Alright, listen up! We leave tomorrow at sunrise. You can stay at the camp and spend the night here or you could go wherever you’d like to. Make sure you're here by sunrise.” Said the head.

The mercenaries decided to stay at the camp. It was already evening, they didn’t want to waste their energy by doing something right now. They would need their energy on the road. They decided to spend time by gambling, playing cards, arm wrestling and wrestling.

Aether also indulged himself in these activities. They waited for the night to arrive before they could go to sleep. A bonfire was lit up to warm them up since they were sleeping in the open.

BAM! The table shook. Aether had defeated another man in arm wrestling. “WHOOO!” the mercenaries shouted as another one of them left the table dejected.

“Anyone who can beat the kid gets a silver coin! But if you don’t, you’ll have to give me one!” said one them, trying to make a profit out of the situation.

“What?! A silver coin? fine I’ll beat this kid” said another. He sat on the table. Aether and the mercenary locked hands. Aether was smiling wide knowing that another man would lose to him.

The mercenary sniffed around finding a disturbing smell. “What’s this smell?” he said. “The smell of your doom you turd.” Aether said mocking the mercenary. He opened his underarms a little and let out a fragrance that could be smelled one meter in diameter.

“Fuck!” shouted the mercenary. The smell hit his nose and caused him nausea the second it did. It felt like the whole world had fallen apart for him. “Gotcha” Aether said as he took hold of this opportunity and slammed the mercenary’s hand on the round table with a BAM!

“Yeah!” shouted all the mercenaries. “Roll in the money baby.” Aether said.

The little pig who was watching this was flabbergasted. “EW! Never imagined there would actually be a use for that disgusting smell. Wait till you meet the ladies, that’s where you’ll regret your retching smell!”