Walking into the alchemist's house was the same as last time, a strong odor filled the air and bottles were lined up at the shelves. Instead of window shopping this time around Ron got to the counter and waited for the alchemist. Soon the door behind the counter swung open and out came the alchemist himself, he looked the same as the last time yet Ron noticed he looked a little annoyed at being disturbed.
"Hi, how can I- oh it’s you" the alchemist recognised Ron as the one who brought him the scorpion glands and bought from him a while ago.
"Hello there, I hope those scorpion glands were to your liking" Ron decided to break the ice with some chit chat.
"Yes very nice, now what do you need or were you just here to disturb me while I was working on them" The alchemist was indeed disturbed from his work and didn’t like being called out just for idle chit chat.
"4 light healing potions and 4 rejuvenation potions please, if you have them in stock" Ron quickly got down to business and revealed his objective, the healing and rejuvenation potions were top notch items as Ron had first hand experience with both of them. He was going to use them both to get to the tournament as quickly as possible.
8 bottles quickly appeared on the counter, it seems like the alchemist has more than enough wares for Ron’s objective, just how many bottles were there under the counter? "Anything else?" The alchemist was in a slightly better mood with his sales.
"Nope, I’ll be out of your hair now" Ron told the alchemist and transferred the merit points and stored the potions. He turned to the exit and walked out, once he was out of the house the alchemist went back in the door behind the counter. On the other side of the door there were multiple vials with different kinds of liquids and the scorpion glands from Ron, there were also a multitude of other herbs and dry ingredients on the shelves. The alchemist looked at the vials and at the scorpion glands and muttered to himself "How to make the most powerful poison without it blowing up in my face? Ugh, why did I even accept this request".
With the potions now in hand Ron noticed that the gazes were still there, they had left when he entered the alchemist’s house but when he left they were back. It didn’t matter who was targeting him he needed to be out of the wish free zone so he could spend wish points for the first level of the body forging technique. He needed to be the strongest he could be for the tournament and thus needed to get to the first stage of the body forging technique.
Exiting the town Ron looked back and realised he wouldn’t be back for a long time if ever, there was a chance he could come back with Sabrina if she would take on the second level of the dungeon. Walking ahead in the desert Ron didn’t start running just yet, there were still people tracking and following him. Last time he was being followed he didn’t notice it until Scarlett pointed it out however now he was able to spot it, was it his increase in strength or his bloodline that did it? Thinking about his bloodline ever since he got it Ron had been more perceptive about people stalking him and bloodlust overall, was it the mutation or just something from the Belmonts that was never told?
Dismissing his thoughts Ron focused on the men following him and walked for another 15 minutes, he kept tabs on the wishing store and made sure it was still unreachable before he turned around and sprinted to where the stares came from. Sprinting for a few 100 metres Ron could see a small party of 4 people trailing behind him, they were suddenly surprised and quickly drew their weapons. Ron could see that all of them used guns, clearly wishmasters.
Stopping 10 metres in front of them Ron yelled out to them "You’ve been following me even all the way back in the town, I don’t believe we’ve met so why are you following me?" All 4 of them were men who were dressed in simple t-shirts and pants, one of them had a beard and was clearly the older one and also clearly the leader as he stepped forward still holding his gun. "Were you the one who destroyed the black ant and the scorpion nests?".
('So it was about this') Ron had initially guessed someone was sparing these nests to farm wish points or prepare a party to raid them yet he was a step ahead of them. "What if I am?" Ron didn’t care if these men wanted to raid these nests, first come first served. The leader grinned at Ron "Well then, we were about to raid those nests for their wish and merit points yet you managed to kill them by ‘some method’. As a result we’ve wasted our time and require compensation, so how about you give us that pretty pouch you have there".
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('Did he think I used wish points to destroy those nests?') Ron noticed the man implied his method of destroying the nests was using a wish, it was the completely wrong answer as Ron used his pure strength which meant he was being underestimated now. "What if I refuse?" Ron asked, fully expecting the answer that would come.
"Then we just have to kill you" The man said as they all took aim, 3 assault rifles and 1 pistol were pointed at Ron. Ron however was completely calm, these men only probably only bought weapons and didn’t have anything else, ('what a complete waste of wish points if this was true'). In the old world hot weapons reigned supreme as the strongest weapons yet here they were just toys if used like this, there were possibilities of hot weapons becoming the strongest again however that required investing the wish points into enchantment and learning skills that favoured guns.
Ron had already decided he was going to kill them, it wouldn’t be the first time he killed someone as he did kill the thief with the Dagger of Time even if it did take 4 tries. "Well in that case" Ron said as he suddenly activated the kindling state, his power spiked and the men didn't see that coming. Ron charged and in an instant was in front of one of the men, he stabbed with his left claw and went through the man’s chest. "FIRE!" The leader snapped out it as he yelled, gunshots sounded out and blood spurted out in the air however it wasn’t Ron’s blood as he was nowhere to be seen, it was the blood of their comrade now shredded with holes.
Ron had dove into the sand and erupted back in front of another man, fear was clear on his face as Ron swiped at his neck. Blood spurted out and the man dropped his gun to clutch his throat, Ron then grabbed his whip and lashed out grabbing another man’s assault rifle and flicking it away. Another gunshot sounded out and Ron was hit in the arm, he turned to see the leader looking at him with fear and horror. "S-Stay back! You monster!" The leader began threatening Ron who simply looked at him and dove back into the sand, an instant later he erupted once more from the sand stabbing the leader’s heart with his claw killing him instantly. The man whom he disarmed screamed and ran away in terror, Ron didn’t bother to chase after the man and deactivated the kindling state. He doubted he would ever see the man again and killing blindly would only lead to negative experiences.
Looking around there were now three dead men laying on the sand each with terrified expressions, "Monster huh?" Ron muttered. It wasn’t far from the truth, he did have abilities that couldn’t be classified as ‘human’ anymore however they wanted to kill him so he killed them. Ron realised how much stronger out of the conventional human statistics he had become, killing 4 armed robbers with his hands and a whip was something that could only be seen in movies in the old world. However it still wasn’t enough against people like Ankhtakelot or Scarlett, he still needed to become stronger.
The only things worth taking were the guns, Ron inspected them but couldn’t find any inscriptions on the weapon proving they just bought guns and ammo with their wish points. ('Maybe I can sell these to someone?') Ron could try to find a seller for them but wasn’t too optimistic about his chances, guns required enchantments to work correctly. Ron felt his arm sting and was reminded that he was shot in there, digging out the bullet Ron noticed how the bullet was halfway through the muscles . As he held the bullet in his hand a realisation suddenly came to Ron.
('The bullet was stopped halfway by my muscles, were my muscles that developed? No, so what did I do when I got shot?') Ron thought back to the moment he got shot, he heard the gunshot then a moment later did he tightened his arm? ('Isn’t that-?') Ron immediately linked it to a certain technique he’s been slacking with, the ‘Muscle guard’ where one would harden their muscles to prevent piercing attacks and have an active defensive technique. Ron looked down at the bullet in his hand and the gun in the other and a mad idea suddenly came to him. He put the gun a small distance from his and tried to harden his muscles, gritting his teeth he suddenly shot the gun *BANG*. A stinging pain came from his arm and a hole was made. Ron looked at the back of his arm and didn’t see an exit wound thus he began to dig it out, once again his muscles stopped the bullet halfway from reaching his bones confirming his theory.
('I might really become an M at this rate') Ron joked in his head, he had found a way to help him get a better feel for the ‘Muscle guard’ which was actually shooting himself with a gun. It sounded crazy however it was an attack that was always consistent in power, if he mastered the technique he should be able to stop the bullets with his muscles only damaging the skin. His skin would eventually be boosted by the first stage of the body forging technique, if he used them both in tandem then his defence would be nigh impenetrable. ('Then there’s the second and third levels of the body forging technique, would I be able to stop an attack by a level two being by then?') fully stopping damage meant he was unbeatable by everyone under level three!
Looking at his healing arms he knew it was going to take a fair few tries but he could drink a healing potion to speed up his training methods however he couldn’t do the body forging method yet as it was possible to stop the bullet with the body forging method alone. He would also need to reach the centre in two weeks which meant tons of running, Ron recalled the other techniques he wanted to learn which were the ‘Shadow steps’ and the ‘Multi-step’. While he was running he could try to get a feel for the ‘Multi-step’ if he also mastered that one along the way his combat power would increase once more.
('This is going to be a long training session') Ron sighed at the prospect of this gruelling type of training but if he could master the first level of the body forging, the ‘Muscle guard’ and the ‘Multi-step’ technique his chances of winning the tournament would increase drastically. Those 15,000 wish points were nothing to scoff at and Ron doubted there would be more dungeons in the future, he also now knew of the general lay-out of the entire floor and how big it was. ('Speaking of floors, where would the stairs be?') all this time Ron still hadn’t seen stairs that extended into the clouds, were there even stairs? Only time would tell. Looking into the distance towards the centre Ron began running, he only had two weeks to get there.