Tian suddenly felt his mana drain significantly as he limped out of the alleyway he had tucked himself into and into the crowd of people.
‘These are barely even bandages.’ Tian was looking at the shoddy first aid work performed by the “Doctor”. Unfortunately, it seemed like it was just some old rags meant to stop the bleeding.
The doctor had brought him into a very poor district of the city, probably because there was much less supervision and any real impact by the law truthfully. Tian tried to blend himself in with the crowd while he looked for any piece of clothing he could use to cover him completely.
Tian suddenly felt lethargic at the massive loss of mana, almost falling down as people continued to walk around him. Although he knew very little about summoners, most knew that to keep a summon going one had to continually invest their mana into it and the significant loss of mana telling him that it had just taken massive damage.
He continued to walk as his vision was feeling blurry, taking a coat he was able to successfully snatch off of a table. Although he didn’t leave the vendor without anything, leaving the broken pendant on the table as he continued to trudge forward.
As currency was entirely digital he did not have the time to pay the vendor in credits. The pendant would be worth significantly more than the coat, but he did not have time to make a deal either as he did not know how far away the doctor was.
Given his poor condition he didn’t make it too far before he started feeling the pressure one would only associate with a ranker, typically most people wouldn’t be able to understand the feeling however as someone who had been around many rankers in the past it was not very hard for him to distinctly note it.
‘I’m glad I underestimated the limits of that golem.’
Tian had decided to value the golem at a D- rank all around as most summons were typically a few ranks below their caster. He had created his plan of escape based on that idea. Because of this Tian was able to make significantly more distance than he first thought.
He had left a golem there to stall himself some time, the only command he had given it was ‘If someone walks out of this hole in the wall, attack them.’
Suddenly feeling a bit of relief as he felt the connection to the golem sever, some mana returning to him through it, Tian was finally able to breathe properly for a moment. The golem was finally completely destroyed, meaning the pressure he had felt from a ranker before wasn’t the doctor that should have been distracted fighting the golem.
The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.
Now that he thought about it, Tian realized that the pressure was much less than what would come off of even someone of C, even a D rank may have more pressure than what he felt. His being on edge was what made him mistake it before.
‘Aha.’ Tian was able to locate the direction the feeling had been coming from, heading in that direction he saw the person he was feeling the pressure from. It looked like a completely normal person walking in the opposite direction of where he had come from.
‘Might as well risk it.’ Tian decided since it was away from where the doctor was he might as well test his luck. Being able to walk more comfortably now as he had gotten the mana from the golem’s destruction. Tian pulled his hood over his head and tried to not be noticed following the ranker.
After only a few minutes the ranker had made his way to a group of others in a barred off area, taped off with a few officers around. Tian instantly recognized this scene; this was a guild preparing to clear a portal.
Besides that, officers that were unawakened and simply watching the perimeter trying to ensure nobody walked into the dangerous areas; there were only rankers, around 15-20 people were preparing to clear this portal.
Nobody here felt particularly strong, probably being mostly D-F rank, however he definitely didn’t overlook the man at the front of the group. He felt much stronger whether that be from his items or because of his innate strength, regardless Tian did not want to combat with him in his current condition.
‘Probably a basic guild training exercise.’ Tian noticed the guild symbol on a patch on different parts of their equipment, although it wasn’t one he knew, meaning it wasn’t one of the big 5, their equipment was still of a very high quality for their rank.
Although Tian still felt the pressure from the doctor, knowing it was somehow slowly drawing nearer to him Tian still had the presence of mind to carefully wait for them to enter the portal. In fact, the more pressure he felt the more he knew he would enter into the portal as whatever method the doctor was using to follow him would be completely cut off.
As the last few members went in, the portal happily swallowed each person one by one. The pressure mounting on his back Tian decided to rush into the portal, even with the limp slowing him down with C- rank physical strength there was no way the police would be able to stop him.
Although he thought he had heard shouts telling him to stop or slow down he could not really spend the time to explain the situation, especially given that they were unawakened. He did not want to pull them into it.
As he darted through the shimmering gray and blue portal, a sense of exhilaration washed over him. The air around him crackled with energy, and he could feel his heart racing in his chest. As he took the final leap into the portal, he felt a sudden rush of familiar warmth envelope his body, and a flash of blinding light consumed his vision.