Read Reincarnated as an Energy with a System Chapter 211 - Khrom online for free - AllNovelFull
Ning had barely made it past the door when he heard a shout coming from inside.
"Mister, wait," the lady at the store cried out. Ning turned around to see that she had come out from behind the counter to talk with him.
"Did I miss something?" he asked.
"Mister, you need to leave this town immediately. The men you just attacked were Khrom's men. They will come to attack you once they realize that you laid your hands on one of his men," the lady said.
"Khrom? Is that someone's name?" Ning asked.
"You don't know Khrom?" The lady asked in surprise. "He is a criminal, a bandit that lives nearby and terrorizes the town.. Not even lord Canon's people can do anything about him."
"Oh! So a bandit huh? no wonder they were so violent. Thanks for the advice miss." Ning nodded towards the lady and walked away.
Famir and Jangar followed him too.
"Have you guys heard of Khrom?" Ning asked.
"No," Famir said.
"I have," Jangar replied.
Both Ning and Famir looked towards him and waited for him to start speaking.
"I heard about him in another town I was visiting with my older brother a few years ago. Khrom was a bandit that liked staying out of town and sent his men to do his work."
"It seems he has changed towns. I hope lord Canon can deal with him. His menace shouldn't be left festering in this society," Jangar said.
"I see. so he wasn't caught in so many years huh?" Ning said.
"By the way, Senior. How did you break his dagger? I was pretty sure he stabbed you," Famir asked.
"Oh, that..." Ning tried to think of an answer and said, " I manipulated his dagger so that the sharp end was removed and it hit his buddy instead."
"Wow! You can do that with Aether arts?" Famir asked in surprise.
"Haha, there are a lot of things you can do with Aether arts. Once I give you a technique to absorb the Aether, I will teach you just how powerful Aether can be under the right user," Ning said.
Ning himself was looking forward to being proficient in the Aether arts. Something that didn't require learning extensive techniques to use was always welcome from him.
Also, a power that was based on someone's imagination was just too juicy for him to leave it alone.
'Damn, with this I won't have to rely on the system every time I need something made,' he thought.
'Although, I can only make physical objects with this and I will still need the system for anything else,' he thought.
The thing he bought most from the system was knowledge, which he knew was impossible to acquire any other way. So, in the end, he would still have to rely on the system most of the time.
They reached the village and Jangar left them to return to his house. "Wait," Ning said and took out a bunch of his clothes and gave them to him.
"Wear nice things from now on," Ning said and left before Jangar could even say thank you.
Famir followed Ning and returned back to his home. However, just before he reached his home, his pace quickened a bit. He couldn't tell whether he was hearing things or not, but it sounded like someone was screaming from his house.
Famir's heart dropped when he thought of something. He immediately ran towards his house, leaving Ning behind. As he got closer to his house, he got more and more sure that he was in fact hearing screams.
When he got to his house, he confirmed it; the screams really were coming from his house.
The screams belonged to someone with a very hoarse voice. It sounded as if the person hadn't spoken in forever, and had thus lost the ability to speak. Also, they were of the feminine variety.
"No! Mavenna!" Famir screamed his sister's name and ran into his house. He directly ran into Mavenna's room however, there was a large golden object blocking his way in.
He tried pushing on it, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't do anything.
"Mavenna! Are you okay?" he asked.
"Brother? Is that you?" a sobbing Mavenna's voice came from the other side. "Help me, brother. This monster will eat me," she started crying.
"Monsters?" Famir's face dropped color. "Move!" he started screaming and pushed the golden object as hard as he could, but it just wouldn't budge.
"What can I do?" he started thinking. He felt like he had no choice and had to do what he could as his last resort. He took a deep breath and started concentrating.
GRASP
Something grabbed his hand and he suddenly lost focus. He opened his eyes to see Ning standing right next to him.
"Senior! My sister, Mavenna, she…" he tried to explain.
"Don't worry. I left him to protect your sister. He isn't going to harm her," Ning said and walked up to the door. "Good job, Aegis. You can come back and rest now."
Aegis suddenly disappeared leaving an open door and a screaming young girl inside. The moment Aegis disappeared, Famir ran into the room and found his sister hidden behind the bedsheets, clearly scared out of her mind.
"It's okay, Mavenna. I am here. It's okay," Famir said as he got his little sister in an embrace. He held her shivering body until she calmed down.
Ning decided to not interfere with the brother-sister reunion and walked outside. He sat down on the porch behind the house and looked at the magnificent sight of the Peak spewing out the Qi and Aether.
Soon, he could hear uncontrollable sobbing from inside the room. Ning felt a little sad listening to the cries of a young girl who had already lost her mother, and now learned that she had also lost her father.
"Suddenly learning you are an orphan now isn't very easy, is it?" Ning thought. He looked to the room behind him and thought, "thankfully, they have each other. They should be fine."
He let the cries go on for a little longer and only went back in once he couldn't hear the sobbing anymore.
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Ning returned back to the room and saw the two siblings huddled together, still occasionally sniffling.
Famir noticed Ning by the door and immediately got out of bed to run to Ning. As soon as he reached Ning, he got on his knees and started thanking once again.
"Thank you, senior. Thanks to you I got my sister back."
Seeing that Famir was likely going to cry once again, Ning grabbed him and said, "You got your sister back because you persevered. You went to the library and learned everything you could. You were the one that found out about your sister's illness and the cure for it."
"I was just a person who went to get it. So, don't thank me. thank yourself," Ning said.. Famir tried to say something, but Ning left him and walked to the bedside.
"Hello, little Miss. How are you feeling right now?" Ning asked.
"Who…" the girl was a little bit scared seeing Ning.
"Mavenna, this is the senior that helped in healing you," Famir quickly got to them and said. "You should thank him."
"Thank you, senior," Mavenna said with a hoarse voice and tried to get out of the bed to bow to him, just like her brother.
"Wait wait wait wait wait, don't move. You can't move just yet," Ning said.
"That's right, Mavenna. You've been in a coma for nearly a year, you will need to wait for a few more months of training to get you back on your feet," Famir said.
"I… can't walk? I see. Okay," Mavenna said in a sad voice.
"I am sorry, but that's just how it is," Famir said.
"Uhh… not really. Not when you have me," Ning said. He immediately brought out some random ingredients and started smashing them in a mortar and pestle that he brought out himself.
Once they formed a paste, he put some water in it so that her body could handle it better. He handed it over to her and said, "Eat this."
The girl hesitated when she saw the weird-looking green water and looked towards her brother for confirmation. Famir nodded when he saw this and the girl drank it.
The moment that she drank it, Ning remembered something and winced a little. A terrible scream was going to come out soon.
"Aaaah! What's happening to my body? What is this?" the girl started shouting in a normal-sounding voice rather than a hoarse one.
"It's okay, Mavenna. I went through that as well. We can get you cleaned up. Let me carry you," Famir said and walked forward.
However, before he could reach the bed, Ning stopped him and shook his head. "Little miss, can you walk now?" he asked.
"Walk? Didn't you say I can't walk?" she said and suddenly put her arms over her mouth. "I can speak normally now. What's going on?"
"Huh? You can? But how?" Famir was surprised as well.
"The medicine I just gave you helped you. For now, try to come out of the bed, " Ning said.
Mavenna slowly lifted her bedsheets and showed the black goo all over the inside of them. From there, her two legs slowly lifted and she placed them on the ground next to her.
She pushed herself off the bed and tried to stand. She nearly lost her balance, but Famir came in to give her a hand.
"It's okay, brother. I can walk," she said.
Famir nodded and slowly let go of her hand. Mavenna tried to balance herself and succeeded in doing so. She slowly placed a foot forward and then placed another forward.
Famir was behind her all the way to grab her in case she lost her balance, which she didn't. She went outside to get washed and Ning decided to wait for them inside.
He looked at the mess there was on the bed and asked the system to clean it. Within a second, all the unnecessary gunk disappeared from the room, and it barely cost him a dozen or so million energy.
"Is my daily cap off cooldown, system?" he asked.
you still have 5 hours before the cap comes back
"God, it's so hard to keep track of time here. There is barely 6 hours of sunlight and yet, it never gets dark thanks to the aurora. I need a watch or something," he thought.
"Actually, no. Do I even have enough energy to waste? I need to make the Nigh indestructible ball to go through that wormhole," he thought.
"Speaking of which, how much energy will it cost to make a small marble-sized ball that can survive that onslaught of Qi and Aether?" Ning asked.
It will cost you exactly 23 Billion energy to make a ball that can survive the Maelstrom without external help
'23 Billion, huh? If I can get Kinetic's cap increase… 23 billion will take me exactly a month or so, assuming I don't use it elsewhere, and I can even absorb so much energy in a day,' he thought.
'Given that I have the other few things to buy, let's give a conservative 2 months' time before I have to leave,' Ning thought.
"Urgh! I am going to be late again," Ning thought as he remembered the promise he had made to the other people.
"System, save those things at the top of the auto-buy list," he said and forgot about it for now.
Famir and Mavenna came back to the room. Ning looked at the little girl with her clear face with 0 blemishes and her body that was suffering from no muscle atrophy.
'It seems the medicine from one world works well in another world as well,' he thought.
"Congrats, little miss. You are all healed now," Ning said. "Now, don't go using those Aether arts once again just yet. You don't have any Aether absorption method, so you can't absorb any when you are down."
"I won't," Mavenna said with a serious face.
"Haha, you won't have to worry about it for long. I will teach you an absorption method very soon."
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Ning decided to check his status before he did anything. He wanted to see how much heat, Qi, and Aether energies he had with him. Unfortunately, his Aether absorption speed was very slow, so he didn't have any more than a couple of thousand Aethers.
As for Qi, he didn't have a lot of it either. In the end, he would have to use his heat energy, which he only had about 3 billion of after buying those knowledges back in the library.
'That should be enough,' he thought. Then he decided to get himself a new absorption technique that he could pass to these kids.
'System, are there good Aether absorption skills under a billion energy?' he asked.
You can buy 'Abyssal Absorption Art' for 980 Million energy
'Do it. Also, make a copy for these kids,' Ning said.. The system used a little more energy to create the book, but Ning didn't mind.
Suddenly, a book appeared in front of him at the same time information loaded into his head. Mavenna was shocked when she saw it, but Famir was used to it and assumed he was using his storage device once again.
"Here, take this. It's a book that will teach you an absorption technique. After that, you can learn Aether as much as you can," Ning said.
"A-Are you really giving this to us, senior?" Famir asked in surprise.
"What is that, brother?" Mavenna asked.
"It's a technique that lets you absorb Aether and get stronger. After learning this, you won't ever have the same problem as before even if you make the same mistake again," Famir said.
Mavenna gasped. "Then it must be expensive right?"
"Of course. Even the worst of the worst absorption arts apparently cost around a hundred rops from what I read in those books," Famir said.
Mavennaa couldn't help but gasp once more. "Senior, we don't need this. Us brother and sister won't ever use this Aether. I-it's bad luck for us. Not only did using it make me go into a coma, it was also the reason why we lost our father. We don't want to ever use it," she said.
Famir was a little surprised when he saw his sister take such a strong stance against it. He was very conflicted about what his answer should be right now.
On one hand, it was a golden opportunity that was too good to be missed. On the other hand, it was in fact very inauspicious for them whenever Aether was in question.
In the end, he decided to follow in his sister's lead despite his gut saying not to. "I'm sorry, senior, but I will have to go with Mavenna here. Also, you have already given us so much. Any more and we will start feeling guilty about everything. So, we can't accept this. Please, understand," he said.
Ning was a little stumped. 'But I paid so much energy on it,' he thought. He didn't want to take it back just yet.
"How about this? You say you want to thank me right? Then learn this. You are free to choose if you want to learn Aether arts or not, just learn this absorption art. This way I can be sure that you guys won't fall into a coma again," Ning said.
The siblings both hesitated, but in the end, accepted his request.
Ning sent the both of them to the other room to learn the book, while he decided to try it out himself as well. He looked into the absorption art and was a little surprised.
'Holy crap! This is a good technique. Perhaps much better than my automatic one,' he thought.
The Abyssal Absorption art was designed to rapidly intake Aether from the surrounding within the least amount of time possible and then slowly filter it once it got into your body.
This usually required a robust body to handle the intensity of those small bursts of Aether absorptions at the start. 'They should be fine, they are in a sense cultivators now. Although I should hand them the body cultivation art just in case,' Ning thought.
He didn't know if those worked or not, but he was damn sure he would try to teach them that. He ignored all stray thoughts and took a deep breath.
Suddenly, he felt as though the pores in his entire body were all opened at once. The Aether in the air was rapidly sucked in through those pores, and within the next second, his Sea of Aether was full and his pores closed.
He suddenly felt bloated as if he didn't need to eat anything for the next few days. That did happen with absorbing Aether, as one could sustain a few days with it, but this one felt way too unnatural.
After his pores closed, he slowly started to refine what was in his Sea of Aether. His body started to slowly separate the junk from the Aether and it was introduced back into the environment through some random pores that opened up to dispose of them.
After 2 hours of continuous refining, he was able to clear away all of the non-Aether parts from his Sea of Aether and collected about half of the original volume instead.
"So, I have to do it again huh? Okay," he thought and redid the whole absorption process again. However, he soon realized that there was a problem he hadn't expected.
One couldn't just do the whole process again, and hope to gain the same amount of Aether. Since the overall available volume in the Sea of Aether dropped each time he distilled the absorbed Aether to get pure Aether, the volume available for the next absorption was less.
So, the closer one got to completely absorbing it, the more they would have to do it, and it would also take less time.
Fortunately, there was an incredible benefit to this system that Ning only noticed after a few iterations. Since he was fundamentally filling his Sea of Aether every single time, it increased by a tiny amount with each round of absorption.
This was far better than simply just using Aether and expecting the Sea of Aether to grow.
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After he was done fully absorbing the most Aether he could for the day, Ning decided to check out how much he had grown. He took a bowl outside and closed his eyes to focus on creating more water.
Soon, water droplets formed in the air and started dropping down into the bowl. One after another, they dropped into the bowl without any restraint. By the time he was nearly out of Aether, he had managed to collect an entire bowl of water.
'Holy Sh*t! My Aether amount nearly tripled. This absorption method is not that bad,' he thought. 'If not for the fact that my automatic one works all the time, I would definitely be getting this.'
He threw away the water and put the bowl back inside the house. Then, he checked up on the brother and sister, who were concentrating on the book in front of them.
.
'Well, I guess I can leave them for a bit,' he thought.
"Famir," he called.
"Yes, senior?" he looked up.
"Once you are done reading it and have completely learned it, hide it somewhere where no one can find it. Or better yet, destroy it. Do what you think is best, I will go away for a bit," Ning said and left.
Famir went back to reading the book.
Alex walked outside and teleported to the mountain's base. He walked up to the barrier and flicked it as fast as he could.
"Ow!" he screamed out loud and looked at his finger that was very swollen.
"Damn, how strong is this seal?" he wondered once again. His energy had been filled, but unfortunately, he mostly got heat energy from this.
He decided not to waste any more energy and didn't buy anything to heal his finger. It would heal on its own in due time.
Seeing that it didn't even take him a single minute to gather his energy for the day, he couldn't help but laugh. He teleported back outside of Famir's house and decided to go around the village once more.
He needed to pass the time for a bit. He walked around the village again, however, this time he couldn't see anyone there.
"Weird? It's finally daybreak. They should be here," Ning thought. He walked a bit further and saw a group of people gathered somewhere.
"Hm… isn't that the old man's house?" Ning thought and walked closer. As he got nearer, he could hear the old man shouting.
"… to do this. We have to. Those criminals dare think they can waltz up to us and demand that we pay them just because they say so? No. They cut my son's hand today. Tomorrow if we don't have the money, they will cut off your hands. Can you stand that?" the old man's enthusiastic voice spoke out loud. However, there was also a hint of sadness in that voice.
"WE CAN'T!" the entire crowd shouted.
Ning felt a little chill go down his spine when he heard a little whimper come from the crowd. He walked up and shoved aside the crowd to get to the front.
When he saw what was ahead, he was horrified. In the middle of the crowd was the Old Grand Uncle filled with tears, an old woman by his side sobbing quietly, and Jangar whimpering as he clutched his left arm which was cut at clean at the elbow.
He had a cloth wrapped around the cut, but blood was still pooling below him and he was starting to look pale.
"Step aside," Ning shouted and immediately walked to the center of the crowd.
"Get away from my son," the old man tried to stop Ning, but for some reason, he couldn't move at all. It was as if an invisible force was keeping him at bay.
"Show me," he said to Jangar who willingly showed his cut. Ning saw it and immediately pulled out a few ingredients from nowhere, shocking the entire crowd of villagers.
Ning then quickly made a paste out of them and fed it to Jangar. Before soon, he started to be immune to pain and was no longer bleeding from the cut.
Ning then picked up the arm from the ground and picked up Jangar easily and walked into the house. As soon he reached inside, he placed the cut-off hand at the place it was cut and then asked the system to heal it back.
The system asked for nothing and healed his arm after taking the required amount of energy.
"Phew! Thank god I was out here. If they had let you lose any more blood, you would've likely died," Ning said. Jangar was in disbelief at what he was seeing and couldn't think of anything to say.
"You bastard! What are you do—" the old man walked in expecting Ning to be onto some trouble, only to find his son's arm fixed.
"Wha-What?!" the man exclaimed. "How is this possible? What did you do?" the old man demanded. The woman was right behind the old man and was equally in disbelief.
When she heard her husband speak those words, she immediately hit him on the back of the head and started scolding him. "This young man just helped our son and all you can do is question him?" she scolded.
She then walked up to Ning and took his hand as she bowed and started thanking him. The old man came to his senses as well and started thanking Ning.
Ning told them they didn't have to, and it took him 5 minutes to convince them to stop thanking him. He then sent those two away to talk to Jangar alone.
"What happened? Who did this?" Ning asked.
Jangar was back to his senses now and started talking. "They were Khrom's men, they came asking for protection money from the villagers," Jangar said.
Ning was a little surprised.
"However," Jangar added, "I think they came for you. The protection money was all just a ruse to find you. When they noticed me and realized I was the one with you, they decided to make an example out of me"
"But really all they were doing was punishing me for what happened in the clothing store."
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Ning listened to the information and thought that made sense. Khrom's men coming to ask for protection money from villagers that needed no protection was clearly a lie.
'These bastards, I should go kill them all,' Ning thought. He was tempted to do that but somehow controlled himself. 'No, I can't do that,' he thought.
It wasn't because the bandits were innocent or didn't deserve to die. He was pretty sure that the system would allow him to kill whoever he wanted as long as they were bandits.
However, getting rid of Khrom didn't fix the main problem that was the underlying cause of the bandits appearing in the first place. It was because the protection system in this area was weak.
The city guards were merely personal guards of the noble Canon who weren't comparable to actual trained soldiers. It was unlikely they were ever going to be strong enough to deter the bandits at all..
If he got rid of a Khrom today, another Khrom would soon realize that there was a power vacuum and just fill the void he created.
'I should go talk to the noble Canon and see if he has any plans for it at all. I can also teach the soldiers how to fight if it were necessary,' he thought.
"I will get going. For now, hide that hand and tell your parents to not let the village people know that it's been healed okay? Act lie I only cauterized the wound and that you don't have any hand left," Ning said.
Jangar didn't dare ask why and simply accepted.
Ning nodded and left. He quickly went back to Famir's house and checked on them. They were still reading the book.
"How's the progress?" Ning asked.
"Oh, senior," Mavenna said in surprise. "I have pretty much learned this absorption art, but brother is still learning," she said.
'Oh, is she more talented than him?' Ning thought.
"Are you sure you don't want to practice it?" Ning asked.
"Yes, absolutely," the little girl said with determination.
"Sigh, okay," Ning said. He could heal physical wounds, but mental wounds were something he couldn't treat. The girl was likely traumatized by using Aether, so she no longer wanted to use it.
It was understandable.
"I'm gonna put him here for protection, okay?" Ning said.
"Put who h— Aah!" Famir screamed a bit. Mavenna got scared as well.
"Don't worry. He is my… pet. He is here to protect you. Aegis, take care of them okay?" Ning said and disappeared before hearing their confirmation.
He suddenly appeared outside of the town and walked a few minutes to enter it. He found a few people and asked for directions to the lord's manor.
They were a little weirded out at first, but once they saw his colorful robe, they didn't hesitate a single second before answering him.
'Color dyes must really be very rare,' Ning thought.
The town wasn't very large and it wasn't protected by any sort of wall. It was fully open and the forbidden forest was miles away from the city so they were probably fine.
Ning walked past a few crosswalks and finally saw a white manor with a rather large iron gate at the front. 'So this is the lord's manor, huh?' Ning thought.
It looked like a normal rich building from back on earth, so Ning was a little surprised. He walked up to the gate and was stopped by the guard at the gate.
"Stop! Who are you?" the guard asked.
"My name is Ning, and I am here to meet with Noble Canon," Ning said.
"Do you have an appointment with the lord?" the guard asked.
"No," Ning said.
"Are you a Noble yourself?" the guard asked.
"No," Ning answered.
"Then, I cannot let you enter. Please return," the guard said.
Ning scratched his head and pondered for a bit. He could easily go in and fight the lord, but sneaking into someone's house and then offering help was… he didn't like doing it all the time.
"Is there any other way I can get a chance to meet the lord?" Ning asked.
The guard thought for a bit, and said, "a week later, Lord Canon is organizing a party where anyone is allowed in as long as they can afford to pay the entry fee. You can go in at that time," the guard said.
"A week later? Urghh… very well. I will try to meet the Lord at that time. Thank you brother," Ning said and walked back.
He got into a remote location and teleported back to the village. For the next week, he would have to somehow spend some time.
"Should I just stop caring and leave?" he thought for a second, but that doesn't seem like the right thing to do. His mind might forgive him if he did that, but his heart would never.
He went to Jangar's house to check upon him. Thankfully, he was perfectly fine now. He was still experiencing a little ghost pain, but that was mostly it. His other problems had all disappeared and could like return back to carpentering if he wanted to.
As he was walking out, the old man appeared once more.
"Young man, wait," he said.
"Yes?" Ning said.
"I- I would like to apologize for my behavior earlier. I saw you as a foreigner who treated us like nothing but monkeys in a forest. However, it seems I was wrong. You treated my son's hand, and for that, you have my deepest gratitude," the old man said.
"It's okay, Uncle. I wasn't offended," Ning said.
"No, I must apologize. If not for you, I might have lost another one of my sons today," the old man said as tears started dropping from his eyes.
"So many people die in this village every year, and every year I pray it's not my family. My first son, Feroy, already passed away, so I know my prayers are mostly unheard, but today, I feel like someone finally heard it. Thank you for hearing this old man's prayer."
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Ning felt a little sad as he walked back towards Famir's house. The old uncle was a little too emotional and it affected Ning a little as well.
"Sigh, poor old man. Losing a son must be weighing heavily on his mind," he thought. He started to pity the old man now. He sighed once again and reached Famir's house.
He could hear laughter from inside the house.
'The kids are finally laughing huh?' he thought. He walked up to the door and saw Aegis's back against the door. "Come back Aegis," he said and pulled him back to the beast space.
"What?"
.
"Huh? Where did he go?"
He heard the brother and sister speak at the same time.
"Oh, senior! You are back," Famir said when he noticed Ning.
"Huh? Did you take him back somewhere?" Mavenna asked. Her face got a little sad when she didn't find Aegis there anymore.
"Do you guys like him?" Ning asked, and the both of them nodded.
"Sigh, alright. Come outside. This place is too cramped for him," NIng said and started walking to the backyard.
"Aegis, these kids want to play with you. Come play here," Ning said and called out Aegis once more.
Aegis was a little confused at first, but once he saw Mavenna, he immediately started jumping up and down. Ning thought of something and flew Mavenna into Aegis's arms.
"Fly," Ning said.
Aegis immediately opened up his golden wings and flew into the sky. Both Famir and Ning could hear cries of terror and laughter from the little girl flying in the air.
"How did you make such a beast your pet, senior?" he asked.
"Oh, uh… I found him somewhere," Ning said. "I helped him fight off a few guys and got him to follow me after that," Ning said.
"Oh, I wish I can get one in the future too," Famir said.
Ning wanted to just tell him that it wasn't possible and that beasts that practiced Aether were a different kind from Aegis, but decided not to.
"You can always keep hope. Just don't go finding a beast expecting to make it your pet. Aether beasts are very much against humans most of the time," Ning said.
"I understand," Famir said.
They waited on the ground for a little more time before Ning called Aegis down. Mavenna laughed the entire time she was with him and had seemed to have forgotten her tragedy even if it was for a few brief seconds.
Ning had a week to spare, so he decided to impart some knowledge to the kids regarding Aether and learn it himself at the same time.
He spend a few million energy to create books about the knowledge he had gathered. At first, they were quite reluctant to learn, at least Mavenna was. But getting them to do something after already making them do that once was easy.
They were now very susceptible to suggestions. Ning also had to throw in playtime with Aegis and promised that if they learned in all under a week, he would let them play with another beast of his.
"Sigh, let alone Mavenna, even Famir who is 17 is like a kid," Ning thought. "I guess I was the same too at the time."
He had a massive bowl in front of him, but it was a little further away from him. Ning was trying to create and throw water into that bowl.
He closed his eyes and took a deep breath. He then started to visualize moving water inside his mind. Usually, he would just think about water, but this time he needed it to move.
It had been 3 days since he started teaching the kids, and they were inside reading the books while he was himself outside practicing.
Water started forming out in front of him. The amount of water he was able to form now was nearly a liter. He envisioned the water flying into the bowl
"HAH!"
SPLASH
The water fell right where he had formed it. Ning's forehead, which was full of sweat, was now creased due to his frown. No matter what he tried, he couldn't get the water to move past its original location.
'Damn, am I really just an Invoker? Am I not an enchanter at all?' he thought. That thought left a bad aftertaste. He really wanted to believe that he was one of those rare Double Aether users.
'I guess I was only able to awaken as an Invoker,' he sighed.
Ning heard someone walking and looked back to see Famir walking out of the house. "What's wrong? Why aren't you studying?" he asked.
"Oh, I need to go get some wood to make some fire. I need to cook some food," Famir said and took out an ax-like weapon from somewhere and pulled down a large log from the pile of logs behind the house.
He propped it against another wood and started hitting it with the ax.
"Hah!"
Ning looked from the side and sighed; Famir had absolutely no talent at cutting woods. "You are quite bad for someone who's supposed to have done this forever," Ning said.
Famir stopped for a second and went back to cutting once more. "Hah!" He tried a few more times and stopped once more before saying, "My father never let me do any heavy works. He knew I liked reading books so he made it his job to never let me do any hard work and always encouraged me to read those books."
"Hah!"
He continued and kept on cutting the wood. Ning saw the sadness and determination in his eyes and decided to not interfere.
After half an hour or so, he had enough wood to cook his food. He brought pots and pans from inside as well as ingredients for a stew.
He then started to make a fire. He put some dried leaves inside the mud stove. He then took two stones and started to strike them to create sparks to make fire.
However, no matter what he did, he couldn't make fire at all.
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"You need some help?" Ning asked.
"No," he said. "I need to learn to do this by myself. Once you leave, senior, I will need to take care of my sister and myself. So, I need to learn how to do this now."
He kept on striking the stones and did manage to create some sparks, but nothing substantial enough to light a fire.
"You really don't need my help?" Ning asked again.
"I— I probably do, but I also want to do it myself," Famir said.
Ning thought for a moment and said, "Why don't you do this? Just think of the fire burning, and then try it. Just imagine a fire in your head and think of it appearing in front of you."
Famir squinted his eyes and looked at Ning. "You want me to use Aether?" he asked.
"I-I don't know what you mean," Ning looked to the side and started whistling while continuously looking towards Famir from time to time.
Famir looked towards the door and then turned to Ning. "Do you think I should do it?" he asked.
"Other people are desperate to learn how to use Aether, and you are letting go of such an amazing opportunity. Do you really think it's alright?" Ning asked him back.
Famir thought for a second and nodded. "Yes, you are right. I will try," he said and turned around. He seemed to have stopped caring about what his sister thought and started using the gift he had been given.
He closed his eyes and visualized fire. Even as Ning watched, a spark appeared in front of Famir that grew to become an open flame.
'Ah! He got the location wrong. I should go help him with the woo—' Ning stopped where he was. Suddenly, the fire in front of Famir that was being lit, moved forward until it reached the dried leaves and started lighting it on fire.
"Woah!" Ning said in surprise which broke off Famir's attention. He opened his eyes to see the fire in front of him and a rush of excitement shot up through his body.
"I did it! Senior, I did it! I invoked fire," Famir shouted out as he jumped up and down.
"You didn't only invoke it, Famir. You manipulated the fire as well," Ning said.
"What? I manipulated the fire?" Famir said in surprise. "That can't be. That would mean I'm a—"
"A Dual Aether user, Yes!" Ning said.
"That's… I can't believe it. Let me try once more," Famir said. "I will try to manipulate something." Famir put a small leaf out to the side and started focusing.
"Hwoooo" Famir exhaled and tried to concentrate on moving the leaf. His Aether in his Sea of Aether started bubbling soo and the leaf started to move a little.
It then slowly flew up and went where Famir wished. "Haha," Famir's excited laugh could be heard as he moved the leaf more and more.
Ning looked towards the leaf with a smile on his face as well. Just as he was watching it, the leaf fell to the ground.
"Why did you drop the leaf?" Ning asked and looked behind only to see Famir who was falling to the ground. Ning immediately caught him with telekinesis and slowly laid him on the ground.
"Don't worry, you're fine. Just use the technique I taught you a few days ago, okay?" Ning said.
"Okay," Famir grunted to answer and concentrated. Ning could see the kid's skin change patterns as the pores opened up and devoured a lot of impure Aether at once.
Finally, Famir got control of his body and slowly stood up. "Urghh… this feels horrible," he said.
"You have impure Aether right now. Go and refine it. Once you are done, you can finally stop feeling like this," Ning said.
"Later, I have to cook the f— "
"Go! I can cook it," Ning said.
Famir felt a little conflicted. "Okay," he finally accepted and went back inside.
"Damn, he really did it. A Dual Aether user, huh? Even I feel a little jealous. Good for him," Ning thought and got to cooking the food.
He looked at the ingredient he had and shook his head. "They don't have that many spices huh? I should get them a few seeds," Ning thought.
He asked the system to create a few spices that he felt were crucial to every meal and cooked the stew. He exchanged the dried meat for some fresh meat from the beasts he killed in the secret realm, and a few rare ingredients as a better substitute for the vegetables.
Once it was done, he took the stew into his storage space to keep it hot until it was time to eat. Famir was still refining the Aether and Mavenna was busy reading the books.
Even though she hated Aether, she was quite engrossed in the knowledge. 'She is his sister after all,' Ning thought. Seeing that they were both busy, he decided to do a quick run to the mountain and gather some energy.
He teleported to near the seal and quickly touched the barrier. He immediately gained the total cap for the day.
"Wait, don't I… Status" he asked to see the status.
A blue panel appeared in front of his vision as well as inside his mind. His eyes shined a little when he realized that he had finally done it. He had finally collected 10 Billion Kinetic energy.
"Aside from that… I have less than 3 billion energy left," Ning sighed as he saw that. Aside from that indestructible marble, he still had a lot of different things to buy, and he was getting a little annoyed.
"I will just get the rest of the energy through the Aether Absorption technique since I can't absorb this with sound," he thought. "System, buy the energy cap double for Kinetic energy," he said.
Are you willing to spend 10 Billion Kinetic energy to double the energy cap?
Ning had been planning this ever since he came to Vilmore, so he didn't hesitate at all and answered, "Yes."
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"Yes."
Confirmed
Congratulations, You have bought all Kinetic Energy Cap Increments
As a reward, the system has awarded host with [Toggle -Low-Level Physical Damage Ignorance]
You now have the ability to ignore 15% of Physical damage your body could suffer
You can improve this skill in the shop
Ning was a little surprised when he saw this. "Oh, I forgot this happened last time with Heat as well," Ning said and read the description of the technique.
Similar to the one with the heat, he could basically ignore 15% of all Kinetic energy he encountered. He decided to toggle it on as that would be quite helpful to him.
'I should probably get more of these techniques later on,' he thought. After that, he teleported back to the house.
It had barely been a few minutes since he had left, so he decided to collect some Aether in the meantime since he had used it just half an hour earlier.
He started absorbing the Aether using the Abyssal Absorption art for the next 2 hours. As he was halfway done with refining the Aether, he noticed something.
Suddenly, it felt like his body was much lighter and that he could use the Aether much more efficiently. "Woah! Did I just rank up from Aether Starter to Aether Student?" he thought.
What should have taken him 10 days, took him 4 days after he bought the Abyssal Absorption art.
"I feel a little bad using so much energy for the automatic one," he thought. " Whatever, there is no point in crying over spilled milk."
He went around to the rooms and called them for dinner. Thanks to Aether, they could go without food for a while without getting hungry. At higher ranks, they could go by weeks without eating anything.
Ning put down 3 bowls on the kitchen table and took out the stew before using a ladle to put it into the 3 bowls.
Famir looked at the stew in front of him and frowned a little. It looked a bit different from what he would've expected the ingredients he put out to look like.
"Senior, this is…," he asked.
"This is the stew I made. Oh yeah, I swapped in a few things of my own and added other things. Eat up," Ning said as he took a spoonful of the stew and went "Mmm".
Famir hesitated a little and looked towards his sister to see that she was going to eat it without any question as well. 'Sigh, whatever,' he thought and took a spoonful and ate it.
As soon as he put the stew inside his mouth, multiple flavors burst out inside of his mouth. The meat was very soft, the vegetable was still crunchy, and the spices used in the stew were beyond anything he had ever eaten.
"Senior, what did you put in here?" he asked.
"Ah, it's just a few ingredients I had a spare of. Don't worry and just eat," Ning said as he also took one spoonful after another. He himself was a little surprised how good the meat and vegetable substitutes made the stew.
'Man, should I become a cook or what?' he thought, but immediately threw away the idea. After they were done finishing the meal, Famir took the dishes and brought them outside to wash them.
After this meal, they wouldn't need to eat for the next few days. In the next 4 days, Ning managed to create another 2 books and handed them to the kids as well.
He didn't know if they had finished reading the others or not, but he still decided to hand them over anyway.
"Alright Kids, since you did what I asked and read the books all week long, here is your reward," Ning said and brought out Aegis.
Aegis got out and smiled when he saw Mavenna. He was quite happy to see the little girl. Mavenna was excited too, but her face also showed a bit of sadness.
"What's wrong?" Ning asked.
"You promised another beast as well," she said.
"Haha, I was getting to him. This one is a little bit of a rascal and may try to hurt you, so get ready okay? Blue, come out," he called.
Blue light shined as Blue suddenly appeared in front of the kids. If the kids had to tilt their heads 20 degrees upwards to fully see Aegis, they would have to tilt their heads up to 60 degrees upward to fully see Blue.
Blue was around 5 meters tall, and that was just his vertical height. His real length was more like 15 meters.
"Wh-What is that?" Famir asked in fear.
"This is blue. He is a Flood Dragon," Ning said.
"Dra…. Gon?" Famir was confused. There were no dragons in Vilmore.
"Uhh… just think of him as a pet for now, and stop worrying about what he is," Ning said.
"Master. I. Can't. Feel. Qi," Blue spoke out loud. Famir and Mavenna only heard growling and got a little scared.
"We are in a place where Qi is unavailable. You will have to wait a few more months before you can feel Qi again," Ning said.
"For today, look after these two and play with them. I have somewhere to be," Ning said. "Do what this boy says, okay?"
"No! You. Are. My. Only. Master." Blue cried out loud.
"I know, and I'm just asking you to follow him for today," Ning said.
"That. Is. Impossible. He. Is. Not. Worthy." Blue said.
"I get that. Just… " Ning felt annoyed and stopped speaking for a second. Then, his eyes brightened as he had an idea. "Do what they say until I come back, and if you do your job properly, I will give you 3 drops of a True Dragon's blood essence."
Blue's body immediately perked up. "A. True. Dragon's. Blood. Essences?"
"Yes, 3 drops. That should help you in evolving, shouldn't it?" Ning asked.
Blue didn't even think for a second before answering, "Accepted."
Ning smiled and looked at Famir. "I will be back in a few hours.. They will follow your commands, just have fun with them until then," Ning said.
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"Oh, Visitor, where are you going?" the old Uncle asked Ning as he was leaving the village. There was still time for the party, so he had decided to walk there, instead of wasting energy by teleporting.
"I have a little job in the town and I was just going there grand uncle," Ning said.
"Haha, you started calling me grand uncle as well? Very well. I am happy to hear that. So, how long does this nephew plan on staying in the village? Would you be free to have a meal in our place for once?" the old uncle asked.
Ning thought for a second and said, "Sure. I should be back before midnight, I can have my meal then."
"Haha, thank you for giving me this opportunity to pay back what little I can for helping my son," the old man said. "I will make sure to have the best food prepared for you when you return."
Ning smiled and waved before leaving, and made his way to the town.
The town at the edge of the map bore no name and was only known as Lord Canon's town.
Lord Canon was a Baron who after his excellent results as a merchant was able to get the Baron title from the Emperor of the Thorman Empire.
He could've left this city whenever he wanted and gone to a better city, but he decided to stay behind for the betterment of the town. So, the residents of the city liked him a lot.
"Did you guys hear? Lord Canon is hosting a party tonight, and anyone with 10 rops can enter." Ning heard a person speak on the way to the mansion.
"Woah, 10 rops per person? Can people even pay that much? How many people will he have?" another person asked.
"I've heard that he has sent invitations to figures in the other cities as well, so there should be quite a lot of people," the first person said.
"Then he might start earning hundreds of Rops. I wonder what he will do with so much money," the other person felt quite jealous. His monthly earnings came to be around 5 rops, and here was a rich man earning so much just by throwing out a party.
"Well, if it's Lord Canon, I'm sure he will use it to help us instead. I really hope he uses it to fight back the bandits. They've been harassing us so much," the first person said.
Similar conversations could be heard everywhere along the way to the mansion. Ning saw carriages running down the street towards the lord's mansion.
'Oh, this really is a big party. I wonder what the event is,' Ning thought.
When he reached the mansion, there were two different sets of lines to enter. One was for people who were coming through the carriages. They simply handed a card and were allowed entry.
The other was a line of people, who paid coins to enter.
'Oh, so not everyone has to pay huh? Only those who weren't invited but still want to join have to pay,' Ning thought as he realized.
He got onto the line and paid 10 rops to enter. It was quite quick as not many could afford that amount of money. Ning followed the crowd and entered a massive tent that was set up right next to the house.
Inside was a crowd of well-dressed people with wine in hand, talking to the other people. Everyone wore colorful dresses that seemed more than extravagant to Ning.
'Are colorful dresses like jewelry here?' Ning wondered. He couldn't understand why that would be the case though.
'Maybe I will learn once I buy those other pieces of knowledge,' he thought. He took a glass of wine from a passing staff and looked at it.
The deep red liquid, with a slight violet hue and a strong scent of alcohol, nearly made him put it back on the tray. "Damn, I've never drunk alcohol. What the hell am I doing?" he thought.
Still, he wanted to mix in with the crowd so he decided to just try it. "I hope it's not as bad as it smells," he hoped and took a sip.
The fruity taste of the wine entered his mouth and left a pleasant feeling behind as it slid down his throat. "Ooh, that's not bad. That just tastes like fruit juice," he thought and drank a little more.
The wine was much better than he had expected. What he didn't realize was that his body was so high level that the tiny bit of alcohol did nothing to him.
In fact, even as it entered his body, the Aether and Qi in his body destroyed the 'toxic elements' before they reached his stomach. To him, wine was just something that tasted like juice.
He looked around tried to see if he could find Lord Canon. There were quite a few people that had a lot of people gathered around them, but Ning didn't think any of them were the lord at all.
Just then, a portion of the room stopped talking, prompting the rest of the room to do so as well. Ning turned around to see what was the cause of the silence.
At the door of the tent was a nearly 60-year-old man, walking in with a cane. He had 3 people by his side, two of them were dressed in less colorful clothes and looked like servants to the man, while the final man was in perhaps more colorful clothes than the lord himself.
He looked to be in his late 20s and very closely resembled the old man next to him.
'Brother? No, Son,' Ning guessed that this was the son of lord Canon.
The old man walked up to the center of the tent, a few meters away from Ning, and turned to look at the rest of the crowd and said, "Thank you all for coming here. I and my son are grateful for your arrival."
The old man bowed a little in gratitude. The son was a second late, but he bowed as well. His serious business-man like face didn't seem to like bowing to others.
"Please enjoy the party for now."
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Ning heard a few people talk and realized that Canon's name was actually not Canon. Canon was just a family name he chose after he became a baron and was allowed to have one.
His real name was Damir. He had started his Canon merchant business from a very young age and had become successful by selling a lot of different things. Once successful, he had chosen to make the business name his family name.
The old man had started socializing with the different people and Ning couldn't find an opening to talk about the bandit situation at all.
"Look at young Kell. He's already so big. Say, old man Canon, I know that the Freed family's daughter is young and a match for your son. Why don't you get him married?" a person asked Canon.
"I've tried finding girls for him, but he just wants to focus on the business for now," Canon said as he shook his head.
"I see. He does look like a person with very high ambition and will. Maybe once Zand comes back home from his studies, he can help his brother and relieve the load. That way, young Kell can focus some of his time on making a family," the man said.
Canon's face switched from a smile to a frown for a split second before going back to a smile as he said, "I hope he comes back soon."
Canon went from one high-status person to another, acting as the host of the party he was. For some reason, he didn't socialize with the people he didn't recognize at all. That made it hard for Ning to get a conversation with him.
Ning even wanted to just go talk with Canon's son who was called Kell, but the young man didn't seem like the type of person who wanted to be at the party at all.
Even with girls all around him, all he did was half listen and half ignore them. 'That guy is no good at all to talk to,' Ning thought.
He waited for Canon to get free. However, after speaking around for an hour, Canon finally went to the podium set up in the tent and started speaking.
"Once again, I thank every single one of you that came to this party. I hope you've had a good time here," the old man said.
"While it looks like I organized this party for social gathering, but the truth is, I have a motive behind this party," he said.
The crowd didn't get surprised at all when they heard this. People were expecting that to begin with. Some people guessed he was going to expand his merchant company. Some guessed he was looking for a lady for his son.
Some even guessed that he was going to reveal that he had gone from a baron to a viscount.
The old man opened his mouth and spoke, "As many of you know, my second son Zand is in a city far away for the last 3 years, learning the ways of an Aether expert."
The crowd nodded; that was common knowledge.
"However, that is all a lie. My second son was never in any school; that was a lie I made to hide the harsh truth. In actuality, for the last 3 years, my son Zand has been paralyzed from the neck down. He can't speak or make a sound either. He can't even swallow his food, and we need to feed him gruel just to keep him alive," Canon said as tears started rolling down his eyes.
Kell who was standing behind him also got sad when Canon revealed the truth. It seemed the truth had been weighing on them a lot.
The crowd was shocked when they learned the truth. They started whispering around causing a lot of murmur in the crowd.
"Please listen to me, I have more to say," Canon said and the crowd stopped speaking.
"One day, he accidentally fell from the second story, and hurt his spine, paralyzing him in the process. For the last 3 years, I've been secretly trying to find good doctors to find the treatment of my son's paralysis, but all the ones I found have been unable to do anything."
"So, if you know of any good doctors, please let me know of them. I will be forever grateful to you," Canon bowed towards the audience.
The audience grew silent for a few seconds, and Canon's heart nearly dropped to his feet in fear.
"Have you tried the doctors from Pestonia? They should be able to cure anything," a person in the audience asked.
"I have, but they aren't replying to my letters for some reason, and it is so far away that I can't go there myself," Canon said.
"You should try Doctor Jelba; I heard he's quite good," another person said.
"Sadly, he's already seen, my son. He couldn't treat him at all," Canon replied.
"What about Aether healers?" somebody else asked.
"I've asked for the few, but they didn't even find the cause of the paralysis, so they couldn't heal him at all," Canon said.
The audience suggested a few doctors, but no matter who they said, Canon seemed to have already called them and have them be unsuccessful. Canon was starting to lose hope
"I am a doctor myself. I can look at your son," Ning said from the side.
Canon's eyes lit up and looked at him in hope. However, when he saw how young Ning was, he quickly lost it. Canon smiled a little, and said, "Thank you young man, but I think I will need someone with more experience and knowledge. I hope that doesn't offend you."
"Not at all, but are you sure you want to miss an opportunity to save your son?" Ning asked. That got Canon to stop and think once.
"Kid, how can you even prove you are a doctor. How can we tell that you are not trying to take advantage of the situation to get close to us," Kell spoke bluntly towards Ning.
Canon frowned a little when he heard this but shook his head as that was the truth.
"I won't deny it; I am trying to get close to Lord Canon," Ning said.. "However, that doesn't mean I am lying about me being a doctor either."
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