Levi tensed. He glanced over his shoulder to the guards situated at the wall, but they were either slacking off, or didn’t care about the scene at all.
His hands went for his kukri sheathed at his waist as his thorned hammer was fastened to his backpack. It didn’t matter anyway. When it came to weapons, he was more familiar with the smaller blade. At least with it, he could channel his fire augmentation through it, powering it up.
Where’s Bram? Levi thought. Where was he when he needed him? Will I have to kill these people? Levi gulped.
The stalemate lasted for a moment until one of Rakor’s men coughed awkwardly. One of them took a step forward. He had short hair that looked like it had been chopped with a knife.
“Levi, is it?” He said, a wry smile adorning his face. He put his hands up in surrender. “We don’t want any trouble.”
“Then what do you want?” Levi asked, still keeping his hand on the kukri’s handle
“We wanted to apologise.”
“Apologise?” Levi asked, unsure if he heard him right.
“Rakor, he–” the man sighed. “Look,” he said, crouching down to be eye level with Levi. “We all do things we ain’t proud of, kid. No one was meant to get hurt that night, but–”
“But that changed when Rakor lost his damn mind?”
The man seemed taken aback by Levi’s words.
He nodded. “Aye. We’re sorry for you seeing that. The law makers’ll probably round us up shortly. We just wanted to say sorry, and we didn’t mean for any of that to happen.”
“Actions have consequences, and you have to live by them,” another one of Rakor’s men added.
“That’s true,” the first man chuckled. “We thought by stealing your wealth, we could be rid of our dangerous lives. Get away from the hunting. Again, we’re sorry for Rakor. That was never meant to happen. It was meant to be a quick–”
“Whatever,” Levi said, he walked forwards, straight towards Rakor’s men. They quickly stepped away, parting like a tide for Levi to pass. Levi looked at the man straight in the eye. “Apology accepted.”
On the other side, there was Bram, waiting with a smile on his face. Levi rushed over.
“You okay?” Bram asked.
“I’m okay.”
Was he? Levi wasn’t sure. He never would have expected Rakor’s men to apologise for their actions. Judging by their words, it was evident they thought Bram had taken Rakor’s life, not Levi. If they did, would they be apologising right now?
Were they truly apologising to Levi, saying sorry for putting a child through all of that? Or were they just doing it in an attempt to absolve their guilt, trying to get off lighter with the law makers, perhaps?
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Whatever their reason was, Levi just wanted to put it all behind him. People did what they had to do, and so would he. If anyone threatened him, well, he wasn’t afraid to show force. And that’s why he needed power.
***
30 minutes later, Levi had successfully turned in the hunting contract at the guild. He earned 4 silver for his troubles. He was starting to get the grip of money. There were 100 coppers to make a silver coin, 100 silver coins to make a gold coin, and above that, were bank notes for ease of carrying; not that Levi would have access to them anytime soon, that was.
Each tier of coin had different markings. For example, a copper coin with 5 stars meant that it was worth 50 copper, for example.
It was turning dark now as he left the guild with Bram. The orange in the sky was now no more, and as a result, Bram rushed him back to the inn.
Levi retreated to his room. He was exhausted, but he had to wait until midnight to wait and see if the krag was to arrive. Is this what Gregory meant by that all krag born always had bags underneath their eyes? They were all tired?
Smiling in amusement, Levi sat on the floor and brought out his thorned hammer and rested it over his thighs. It was time to practise fire augmentation through the new weapon. It was the same theory as the kukri, but this time, he had to carefully control his fire all the way up the shaft, and into the deadly metal at the end.
Before starting, he already knew it would be a difficult task. But with a mind full of enthusiasm, he got to work.
Fire spurted out of his palms as he held the shaft exactly the same way he would in battle, with two hands. The fire filled with his mana creeped up the shaft, but he could feel the mana become strained, until the flame itself just vanished.
Levi scratched his head. This was going to be much more difficult than the kukri.
***
Time passed in a daze. Sweat stuck to his back, drenching his shirt completely. His mana container once again was running on empty. Like the previous 4 times already, Levi Meditated to restore his mana and–
Your skill has Levelled up → Meditate (★★★)
| When Meditating, mana regeneration is increased by 130%.
| Progress to next Level-up → 0/100,000xp
Levi smiled in exhilaration. He used Mediate once more and felt the speed increase. It only took him around 2 and a half minutes to fully restore the entirety of his mana. For him, it was a godsend. It allowed him to practise his spells to his heart's desire.
He was about to delve back into practice when the door swung open. Bram arrived, and the world was cast in an all consuming darkness. His guardian darted to the window, closing the curtains.
Levi rushed for his lantern and turned the dial, turning the room into a bright purple.
He heard the wretched sounds of monsters arrive in the distance. And then he heard screams and battle, various spells and skills going off, crackling into the sky.
“So the krag has finally shown itself?” Levi asked, nerves taut.
“Today is a Sunday,” Bram explained. “That’s usually the day the titan grasps the moon. It seems that ‘he’ has decided to come to a regular bridge.”
‘He’? Levi tried not to show any emotion on his face. He was getting good at it. That means that the story Isolde shared is known by the denizens of this world. Interesting.
However, Levi was in no mood to dwell on the lore behind the titan as the fights raged on in the city. No doubt the civilians would be confused as to the buildings being destroyed, or seeing corpses littering the streets. Or maybe this was just a weekly occurrence for the people of Ubez.
For Levi, however, he hunkered down, and soon found himself falling asleep as Bram guarded the room.