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Chapter 421 – Gem
Wake up in the morning. Go to the zoo at 10 o'clock. Work for another 10 hours. Go back to the hotel room. Sleep.
That was Ning's schedule for the last 5 days. Ever since landing the job, that was what he had been doing all the week.
The part-time job was changed to a full-time one when the zookeepers realized how good Ning was with the beasts.
He was even given a higher-paying salary. A total of 120 Sils in a week. Quite low for someone like Ning, but again, he wasn't here for the money.
Ning was happy taking care of the Aether beasts, he had come to surprisingly realize that there weren't many other beasts out there. Especially in the wild.
Up until then, he had only learned about very few domestic beasts that were used for everything from food to clothing to other necessary products. These beasts weren't something Ning had learned about before like Cow, or Goats.
They were something completely different, and of course, the Zoo wouldn't keep something so common there.
The Xanders Imperial Zoo was established over 120 years ago when the previous emperor still ruled. The beasts that were brought there were children of the beasts they killed in that war. They were the spoils of war.
Some of those beasts had children, other beasts were added later on. That was how the imperial zoo was able to keep itself afloat during all these times.
After the war with the Aether beasts was over, the beasts were hard to see in the forest in the east. That was the reason so many people came there every day to see the Aether beasts.
This was the only way for most people.
Ning walked into a room that held a snake-like Aether beast in it. This beast was one of the only beasts in the entire zoo that never responded to Ning, no matter what he had said.
It would just calmly come to him and eat what was given. Ning walked inside with chopped-up pieces of meat in hand and put them on grass inside.
He waited for the beast to come and eat. He waited for a while. However, no beast came to eat it.
The snake-like beast lived on top of the branches in the tree that was planted inside. The ceiling was a metal cage that let enough sunlight into the room.
Ning could see the beast sleeping on top of the branch and called to it. "Come on down, the food is here."
However, the beast didn't respond at all. Ning called out a few more times before he realized something was wrong.
He walked up to the tree and knocked on it. Seeing no response, he used his magnification skill to look closely at the beast on top.
Something was different about the beast today. It took a while, but Ning realized what it was.
'It's not glowing,' he thought. The lightning-like scars which would usually pulse with a purple glow were nowhere to be seen today.
"Doesn't that mean…?"
Ning looked towards the glass window at the many people that were waiting for the beast to come down and eat its food.
Ning sighed. He had to call the person in charge.
The old man from before came upon his request and ordered someone to check up on the beast.
As Ning expected, It was dead.
"Sigh, it's not your fault. This was just an old beast," the old man said to Ning, just in case he would place the blame on himself.
Ning nodded.
"Can you go get some people to come to carry this beast for me please?" the old man asked.
"Okay," Ning said and left. He could carry the beast all by himself, even just by using Aether as well. However, he didn't want to show something so shocking in front of so many people.
He called a few people and they arrived to take the beast. Ning lent them a hand. He wasn't sure what was to be done with a dead Aether beast. He hadn't seen one die before this. So, he was quite curious.
The old man made the people carry the beast to a separate room that was not allowed for normal visitors to come to.
He then went out for a few minutes. After he returned, there was a man with an apron that walked in.
"Let's begin," the old man said.
The man with the apron brought out a giant weapon and without any notice started chopping the snake-like beast.
Ning was a little shocked. This was not what he had been expecting. The butcher kept on chopping with no hesitation around the neck of the beast, looking for something.
Ning walked up to the old man and asked, "Sir, what is going on? Are we selling Aether beast meat on the side or what?"
"What?" the old man looked surprised. Then, he immediately burst out laughing as he had never before.
"Hahaha, no," the old man said. "This is just a rule placed on the zoo by Emperor Kron."
"A… rule?" Ning asked.
"Yes. The emperor really didn't like beasts I guess. Whenever one in the zoo died, it was to be butchered and its gem sent to the palace," the old man said.
"Gem?"
Just as Ning asked that the butcher reached into the freshly cut meat and pulled out a spherical, black and purple, glowing rock the side of a human eye. It was rugged and nonuniform in shape, but as the man called it, it was definitely a gem.
"A monster core?" Ning softly spoke to himself. He didn't realize that Aether beasts even had cores, or as these people called it, Gem.
'I really don't know much about them, do I?' Ning thought. He planned on learning them sometime in the future.
Just then, the door behind them opened and a figure walked in, fully dressed in perfectly ironed suit and pants.
Ning recognized the man and was surprised. The old man saw and recognized him too.
"Mister Ning, I didn't expect to see you here."
Ning replied, "I didn't expect to see you here either, Mister Tim."
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Chapter 422 – Learning About The Aether Beasts
"I thought you were a bodyguard, Mr. Ning. I didn't expect to see you working in a zoo," the old man Tim said.
"Oh, I do whatever I want, Mister Tim. I was a doctor before coming here. I became a bodyguard just for a bit. Now I'm working in a zoo," Ning said. "Don't worry though, this is just a part-time job. I have enrolled in the Aether Tower, so soon I will graduate and get certified. Surely you won't reject me when I come there then, right?"
"Oh," the old man was surprised. "Did you really enroll in the tower?"
"Yes," Ning said. "I start my studies in 2 weeks."
"Great," the old man seemed genuinely happy for Ning. "What about the admission payment? Do you need help with that? I know the tower asks for a lot, one of their ways to force someone to work for them in long term."
"Thanks for the concern, but I don't need any help at the moment," Ning said.
"Alright, I will pass on the good news to the Princess and the Prince consort then. Good meeting you, Mr. Ning," the old man said and walked away.
He then took the rugged Gem from the butcher, inspected it for a bit, nodded, and then left.
"Young man, are you really enrolled in the Tower?" the zoo's old man asked him.
"Ah yes," Ning said. "That was the reason why I only wanted to work for 3 weeks."
"I see," the old man said. "We would've loved to keep you for longer, but it seems the next 2 weeks is all we have."
"I would've loved to stay as well given how well you've treated me, but I need to further my Aether studies," Ning said.
"No, no, you don't have to explain. I understand completely. I was once a youth too, I too wanted to learn in the tower as well," the old man said.
Ning nodded and looked to the side. The butchered beast was still there. "What will you do with the parts?" he asked.
"Oh, we'll send them to experts who can make use of these beasts. They usually get turned to clothes or weapons or whatnot. I leave the worrying to them," the old man said.
"Alright everyone, return to work," the old man said and walked out.
Ning looked back one more time at the dead beast and walked out. The rest of the day went normally. A dead Aether beast didn't really cause a scene or slowed down the visits to the zoo at all.
Once the day was over, Ning returned back to the hotel. He immediately made the system buy him a few pieces of information on Aether beasts since he didn't know a lot about them.
What he learned gave him a fair bit of surprise.
Aether beasts came in every shape and size. From small creatures the size of rats to big ones the size of elephants, and everything in between existed.
The Aether beasts could only be found in the massive forest that separated half the continent. The other forests all around the world didn't contain them at all. That was to say that in most of the world, aside from Xandria, the Republic of Ember, The Principality of Losmana, and the Ruins of Afterlife, no other countries and empires had to worry about them at all.
Of course, there were also the Aether beasts in the ocean that many of the places bordered, however, the Ocean Aether beasts never left their place, so the people had nothing to worry about.
Another thing Ning learned about the Aether beasts was that they had no abilities at all. That was surprising to him. Considering he had been with beasts that could cultivate the same way humans did, it was surprising that these beasts were not the same.
Instead, Aether beasts were physically gifted. An Aether beast's body couldn't be so easily harmed. They had a superior body that also had enhanced speed, defense as well as reaction speed.
Fighting against an Aether beast as anything less than an Aether grandmaster who could enchant his own body to improve their physical status was a death wish.
"Would weapons work?" Ning wondered. From what he just learned, normal weapons like swords, spears, bows, and arrows would surely not work at all. Even something like a gun would barely do any damage to Aether beasts.
If anything, you wanted heavy artillery, the kind that could put holes in a steel door, destroy bunkers. Maybe even get a few bombs. Only those should be sufficient enough to deal damage to these Aether beasts.
However, the planet Vilmore wasn't at that time period yet. It would still take them a while to create such strong weapons, Ning was sure of that.
"So only Aether users can truly fight against them huh?" Ning wondered. Suddenly, his face changed to one of confusion as he thought of something weird.
"Didn't Emperor Kron fight against the beasts with just a sword? How did he do that? Did he have his weapons enchanted? That would take the constant attention of some Aether users," Ning thought. This was a really curious thing of the past that he had come across.
"Wait, maybe he was an Aether Grandmaster. He could definitely fight them if he was one," Ning thought.
"System, was Emperor Kron an Aether Grandmaster?" Ning asked. He had learned that the Emperor didn't have talent in Aether, but even without it, being an Emperor, he surely had found Aether Ores or Liquid Aether to improve himself to the most basic level.
Yes
"Ah, that answers it," Ning thought. He stopped thinking about the emperor and went on to learn more about the beasts.
The beasts were all similar in nature as they held an Aether Gem on their neck area that strengthened their entire body.
The gems usually had to be large, so Aether bugs didn't exist in the world. There were only normal bugs.
Ning read about the beasts for a bit longer and was finally done with them.
A few days passed. Ning was working in the zoo once again. His job was still the most important of all— Tending to the food of the beasts. By now, everyone in the zoo had come to realize that the new recruit was loved, or at least not hated, by the beasts.
Some became jealous since Ning earned a lot more now, some became thankful since they didn't have to be the ones to confront a hungry Aether beast. Most however didn't really care about Ning at all as they didn't pay attention to him mostly.
He opened a door and walked in to feed a monkey-like Aether beast. Once he was done, he walked out to see the group of visitors that were looking at the monkey.
Ning walked away from the room and went to get the food for the next beast. Along the way, he saw a group of visitors part ways as fully suited up people walked left and right of a black-haired man.
Ning too moved to the side and let them pass. 'Some son of a noble?' Ning wondered for a bit and went back to his own task.
"Hey, brother Ning, how's your day going?" one of the staff members asked. The kid who had just called out to him was a new staff that joined just 2 days ago and was meant to replace Ning once he left in a week.
He was about 15 years old from Ning's perspective and was really eager to be earning some money.
"Oh, Hi Mark. I'm doing okay, how's your day going? Are you accustomed to feeding the beasts yet?" Ning asked.
"Uhh… I wouldn't say that. I still get terrified when I get near those beasts," Mark said.
"Well, you gotta learn to tame in your fear kid. The ones you are feeding are the dull ones, known to never hurt anyone. If you cower in front of these other vicious beasts, they won't let you go in and out so easily," Ning said.
Mark's face paled a little. He was scared of what he was to do.
"Don't worry, there's a trick," Ning said.
Mark's eyes perked up. "What trick?" he asked.
"When you go in, act like you are strong. Don't cower, don't hideaway. Look straight at the beasts and let them know the food is here."
"Make sure you don't intimidate them too bad though. Some of them will think they are in danger and instead attack you. Just let them know that you aren't afraid, but you aren't a threat either."
"That's how I mostly do it," Ning said. "Despite how they look, Aether beasts are intelligent creatures that will know when to not try to harm someone for their own safety."
"Oh," Mark said as he nodded. "I will keep that in mind, brother Ning. Thank you." The youth was enthusiastic about working in the zoo now.
Ning didn't lie or anything. This was something he had learned from the system as well as just being here.
If one wasn't scared of the beasts, the beasts would assume they have the strength to match that confidence and leave you alone.
The boy named Mark was about to leave the room when a man entered. Ning and Mark looked at the plainly dressed man and didn't recognize them at all.
Whoever he was, given that he wasn't wearing the zoo staff's uniform, he was not welcome here.
"Sir, you will have to leave this—" Mark was just speaking when the man brought out a gun and pointed at the two of them.
"Remove your uniforms right now, or I will kill you," the man spoke.
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Chapter 423 – Hostage Situation
The short man with the mustache didn't look particularly threatening, but the gun in his hands said otherwise.
Mark, who was standing next to Ning immediately started cowering at the sight of the gun. He didn't know what was happening, but all he knew was that he didn't want to die.
"Do-Don't kill me, please," the young man said with his hands in the air
"Shut up and take off your clothes now," the man said.
Ning scratched his chin as he wondered with a weird face, 'Surely this guy doesn't like young men right? That shouldn't be true.'
"What are you looking at? Hurry up!" the man shouted.
"Woah dude, chill," Ning said.
"Brother Ning, what are you doing?" Mark was terrified. Seeing Ning not do what the man was saying, he thought he could see death approaching.
"Don't worry," Ning said. Suddenly, the gun in the man's hand moved. The metal gun was crushed by something invisible and deformed to a point where it was unusable.
"What?" the man cried out in surprise.
"Yeah, that's what you get for trying to rob us," Ning said and walked up to the man.
"Don't come close—"
SLAP
Ning slapped the man and made him drop onto the ground. The man felt his cheeks burn from the pain and started tearing up.
Ning crouched and placed his hands on his head.
"Stop crying," Ning said. The man did what he said. "Who are you? And why are you here?" Ning asked.
"I am Gregory Jewels, Master," the man said. "I am here to take someone hostage."
"Take someone hostage?" Ning was surprised. He turned around to look at Mark. "You're here for him?" Ning asked.
The man turned to look at Mark and said, "I don't know who that is. We are not here for him."
"Who then?"
"We are here to capture prince Felix," the man said.
"Prince? There's a prince here?" Ning questioned. Just then, he remembered the young man that had 4 or so bodyguards around him.
'Could it be him?' he wondered. 'But he had black hair. I don't see how that prince could be significant to the kingdom at all? I guess he would still be a prince in the end, regardless of his hair color.'
"Prince Felix, that's the firstborn of the Emperor, right?" Ning asked. The man nodded.
"Yes, Master," the man said.
"You guys think you can bypass his bodyguard? He's a prince you know. His bodyguards shouldn't be normal people," Ning said.
"No, master," the man said. "Prince Felix might be the firstborn, but he doesn't have as much importance in the empire as the 2nd or the 5th prince. The guards he gets aren't comparable to those two."
"Also Prince Felix is a person who stupidly takes pride in his weak Aether powers, so he doesn't keep strong guards around him, or so we've heard," the man said. "That makes it easier to get close to him."
"Mmm, I don't know. Still sounds impossible given that the guards would have been chosen by mister Tim, and he wouldn't let just anyone be a guard for the prince," Ning said.
"We have strong people too, master," the man said.
"Oh," Ning said with a surprised face. "How strong?"
"We have 12 Aether Grandmaster, 3 Aether Magister, and…" the man took a long pause before he said, "1 Aether King."
Ning's eyes turned solemn. An Aether King was a strong individual that could probably take on their entire guards.
"Hmm, if this is true then guards would be in danger now," Ning said softly.
"They won't be in danger, master," the man said. "They already are in danger."
"Hmm… what do you mean?" Ning asked.
"2 of the prince's guards were already killed before he even came to the zoo and replaced with 2 of our Aether Magisters. Once we take control of the Zoo, they will reveal themselves and handle the remaining 2 guards," the man said.
"Take control of the zoo?" Ning asked in surprise.
'Shit! Their plan wasn't just to kidnap the prince, it was to take hostage of everyone in the zoo,' Ning thought.
Suddenly, Ning saw something move behind him. A mop came right for him and hit him on the back of the head.
Ning was pushed forward and he got angry. He immediately turned around to see Mark holding the mop.
"What the hell are you doing?" he asked angrily.
"Yo-You! You are with these bad guys, aren't you?" Mark asked.
"What?" Ning asked angrily. "Didn't you see me beat him? Didn't you see you interrogating him?"
"Y-yeah, I did," Mark said. "But I also heard him call you Master. You must've planned this."
Ning was about to get angry again when he realized what had happed. "Sigh, how do I explain this?" Ning thought. There was no explanation he could give that would make sense for a criminal to call him Master, and him not be the bad guy here.
"Screw it," Ning thought and stood up. He grabbed the mop that Mark attacked with again and threw it to the side. He then grabbed Mark's head but didn't use Supreme Domination. He didn't want a loyal servant out of this young man.
Instead, he asked the system, "Erase the last 5 minutes from this kid's mind."
Confirmed
A slight glow appeared beneath his hands that disappeared just as quickly. The youth involuntarily closed his eyes and opened it back up again.
"What… huh?" he was super confused.
"Mark, are you okay? Are you alright?" Ning asked as he violently shook his body.
"What… what's going on?" he asked.
"Ah, thank god you're okay. You just fainted when you saw this guy point a gun at you. Be careful, he's a kidnapper. Hide in this room, I will go out and take care of them, okay?" Ning asked.
This was way too much information for Mark to handle at once. "Huh? What?" he asked.
Ning grabbed the man by the collar and pulled him up. "Just stay here, and hide. I will come to get you later on okay?"
With that, Ning left with the man and walked out.
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Chapter 424 – Fighting An Aether Magister
"Go to the authorities and tell them what you and your group are going to do here. Confess your crimes," Ning said.
"Yes, master," the man said and walked away.
"Alright, since the prince is in trouble, let's go save him. That will hopefully get me on better terms with the royal family," Ning thought.
Just then, Ning heard something through the speakers that were laid all over the Zoo.
"Attention Everyone! We are the Great Raiders group, and we have taken over the zoo. Any attempts at running away or fighting back will get you killed. This is not a joke."
The man spoke no further. He was on the point and short. Ning continued walking after hearing that and saw people along the way.
There was a group of people huddled on the floor next to a giant glass window. In front of them was a man with a gun.
When he saw Ning, the man didn't attack. Instead, he looked at him first. Ning looked at him as well.
'Did he get the zoo staff's uniform from someplace else too?' Ning wondered when he saw the man's clothes.
It took the man almost 5 seconds before he realized he wasn't looking at his ally. This was someone he didn't know, an actual staff.
"Hands in the air," the man shouted as he pointed his guns towards Ning. The people on the floor made wimping noises.
Ning looked at the man carefully and used Aether Analysis on him. 'Aether Starter? Not even an Aether Student?' he thought in surprise and confusion.
'Shit! There must be way more people than just the 16 that guy mentioned. There should be a lot of henchmen for the lower-end work,' Ning thought. The situation was a bit more dangerous than he had at first expected it to be.
"I said—"
The man was about to say something when he felt a force tug on his body. He slammed against the wall opposite the glass and dropped to the ground.
Ning walked up and grabbed his gun. Then he looked towards the huddled-up people and asked, "Are you guys okay?"
The people were so scared that they couldn't even speak. One of the kids in the group finally gathered up some courage and said, "Yes, we are fine."
"Alright, sit here and don't go anywhere. There are a lot more bad guys and since they should be wearing Zoo staff's clothes, you can't tell them apart. Although, they shouldn't hurt you as long as you don't move or act stupid, okay?" Ning said.
The people there nodded.
Ning nodded back at them. He tied up the terrorist and left the place. Along the way, he found another few people in the same situation. He saved them too.
'Geez, this is starting to remind me what happened back in the Five Professions academy,' he thought. 'I hope it's not a similar situation as back then.'
After a few minutes of taking care of the terrorists, Ning came across the first bigshot of the group. It only took him a single Aether Analysis to realize that he was an Aether Magister, a step above Aether Grandmaster, and was an Invoker at that.
'This should be one of the 3,' Ning thought. He was curious how Invokers fought in this world now. He hadn't met a lot of them.
Ning realized that the man was in charge of stopping the guards of the zoo. The guards were huddled up in a corner, covered in some sort of slime that was making it impossible for them to move out of.
"Who are you?" the man asked the moment he took notice of Ning. Not for a second, he thought that he could be their men.
'This is a clever one,' Ning thought.
The man immediately took out a gun and pointed at Ning. 'Eh? He's not going to use Aether?' he thought.
BANG
Without any notice, the man shot Ning. Ning immediately twisted his body to get out of the bullet's way, but the bullet still grazed his arm.
"Dammit!" he cried and glared at the man. When he did, he noticed that the man already had the next shot ready.
BANG
Ning jumped out of the way to dodge the bullet, and when he looked up, it was time to dodge once more.
BANG BANG BANG BANG
Four more shots came one after another, all shooting at Ning with the intention to kill. This man didn't care about keeping hostages for his demands at all. He was ready to kill anyone that posed the slightest threat to his plans.
"Goddammit! I will kill you," Ning shouted at him while holding his left shoulder where one of the four shots had landed.
'6 shots done, that should be—'
The man cocked his gun again and pointed at Ning. Ning's eyes went wide.
BANG
The man shot for the 7th time, using a gun that could only hold 6 bullets in total. Ning was caught off guard and got hit right in the legs.
Then the man cocked his gun again and pointed. Ning wasn't going to let him shoot this time.
Ning swiped his hands and even as he did, the man shot. The aim was already off due to Ning's interference, but the fact that a bullet even escaped through the nuzzle surprised him.
'He's creating bullets directly into the gun,' he thought. That was not very different from creating arrows to shoot with a bow, but the composition of a bullet was far different than that of an arrow.
The fact that this man was creating them so effortlessly was not only because he was used to it, but also because he had the talent for it.
'I need to stop him now,' Ning thought and immediately forced the man's arms to straighten up sideways like he was ready for a hug.
The man showed no reaction and simply did something, however, it didn't work. Finally, the man's face changed. It went from confusion to worry in very quick succession.
"What… What's going on? Why can't I feel your enchantment?" the man cried out.
Ning let the bullets in his body fall to the ground and stood up with a fully healed body.
The man was about to question what was happening once more, but Ning didn't let him.. Instead, he slammed the man to the side of the wall as well and dropped him unconscious.
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Chapter 425 – Scar Faced Leader
'That was an Aether Magister? He was so easy to fight against,' Ning thought. Being a magister, Ning would've thought that he would've had more tricks up his sleeve, but it seemed that being an invoker really wasn't that useful in such fierce combat after all.
'I guess invokers are only useful in other sectors where they don't have to rely on creating something to fight,' Ning thought.
He walked over to the guards that lay unconscious, covered in some sort of slimy substance. The clear slime was sticky in texture, but it didn't really stick to his hands as he expected it to. It worked more like tape, rather than glue.
'Did that guy make this? How did he imagine something like this?' Ning wondered.
Ning couldn't pull it out with his hands, so he had to use telekinesis to pull it all out. Due to the massive area, the sticky slime was covering, it took Ning a lot of force to fully pull it out.
"Hey, wake up!" he lightly slapped the faces of those guards who struggled to open their eyes. They had been barely breathing under the massive slime, so it was understandable.
After a few slaps, with red cheeks, the guards opened their eyes.
"Wha—" they looked around and saw the terrorist unconscious on the ground. "That bastard, he surrounded us with his men and… and… what happened after that?"
The men were confused.
"You guys, capture him and don't let him wake up. There are still terrorists around, so go capture those as well," Ning said. He explained a bit more about the situation so that the guards were up to date on it.
The guards were hesitant about letting Ning do it all by himself since that hurt their pride and reputation as a guard, but seeing an Aether Magister unconscious right now, they had to swallow their pride and accept that they would only hold Ning back.
These guards consisted of some Aether masters and grandmasters, so they would be able to handle most of the terrorists.
They would only face trouble if they came across a group of Aether Grandmasters, or the stronger terrorists, but given that the terrorist's main objective was the prince, Ning was sure that if the guards didn't come across them as he had explained to them, they should be fine.
Once done, Ning watched the guards leave. Now, he needed to locate the prince and help him.
'System, where is the prince right now?' he asked.
The Junction
"I see," Ning thought and walked off.
The junction was a resting area at the center of the zoo. The zoo itself was circular in shape. People entered from the gate, took a left, and went around the place as they looked at the various Aether beasts.
They would walk around until they went a full circle and returned back to the gate once more, whereupon they would leave.
At the center of the circle was a massive open space with no beasts at all, where people could rest and enjoy their free time.
There would usually be a lot of people at the place, so Ning got a little worried if something happened to them.
'I need to hurry,' he thought and walked off. He walked out of the circular building and into the open sky. There were a bit more buildings around the place before he reached the junction.
Ning quickly got rid of a few more terrorists who were keeping a few of the civilians hostage and sent them back towards the outer ring of the zoo where he knew there were no terrorists.
Ning hid behind a building and slowly peeked out to check the situation.
Sitting on the bench in the middle was the black-haired prince. Next to him were two of his black-suited guards, while the other two were on the ground beside him.
The prince had a serious look on his face, maybe even a hint of anger, but thankfully he wasn't acting upon his anger and the situation was still fine.
Ning poked out his head a little further and saw a few more people standing beneath a tree's shade.
'More terrorists?' he thought. This was going to be troublesome. It was obvious that the two guards next to him were the two Aether Magisters that the other terrorist had told him about.
Still, Ning used his Aether Analysis to check. As expected, there were 2 Aether Magisters and 6 Aether Grandmasters at the place. Both of the Magisters were Enchanters too, so he wouldn't be able to win as easily as against the Invoker.
Ning was having a hard time figuring out how he could save the prince without revealing his abilities. Maybe he might have to after all.
Just then a man in a gray overcoat walked towards the prince. The prince noticed his arrival but said nothing.
The man had a large scar running across his face all the way from his right eye to the left of his lips. Half his nose was gone and instead, there were only two irregular-sized holes instead.
The man flicked his fingers and suddenly a seat that was far away from him arrived right behind him and he sat.
'Another Enchanter,' Ning thought.
The man took out a pack of cigarettes from his coat and looked at one of the Invoker grandmasters who quickly walked up to him and lit up his cigarette.
"Your highness, do you know who we are?" the man spoke to the prince.
"Who the hell are you people? I have been asking this since forever, and now you come to mock me with this same question?" the prince shouted angrily.
"Oh, my apologies," the man said. "I asked my comrades here not to interact with you more than what was necessary, so they might have offended you a bit," the man said.
"We are the Great Raiders group. You can… think of us as thieves or more accurately, bandits I suppose. We usually stick to the roads and steal whatever walks upon it… but we were paid a hefty sum of money to kidnap you," the man spoke as he took a drag of his cigarette.
"Do you know why?" he asked.
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Chapter 426 – Monologue
"What? Why the hell would I know?" the prince asked. "Look, you might not be educated and not know much about the empire. You might have just come here and kidnapped me because you thought as the first prince, I am very important to you."
"But I'm not okay? I am just—"
"Ssshhh!" the man put a finger in front of the prince's face and shut him up. "We know who you are, Prince Felix. We know what your place in the royal family is as well."
"In terms of importance, you would be the fourth most important child of the emperor, we do know that. We also know that a father never truly loves his children based on their merits, so he will do anything to save you," the man said.
"Wha— What do you want?" the prince's face got serious.
"Hmm… we came across a special tidbit about the zoo from someone. Do you know what it was?" the man asked.
"Wh-what are you talking about?" the prince asked.
"I would be surprised if you don't know this since this is just simple information that even we learned about it," the man said.
"I know this? What do I know?" the prince impatiently asked. The terrorist wasn't getting to the point fast enough and that was making him angry.
"Don't worry, I am explaining, aren't I?" the terrorist said as he made a hand gesture that said everything was okay.
"You see, apparently, when Aether Beasts die in this place, their Gems are handed to the royal place. You did know that right?" the terrorist asked.
"What? Of course, I knew that. Everyone knows that in our family. What's so important about this information" the prince asked furiously. He wasn't happy that he was being asked such simple stuff.
"Well, do you know what's so important about Aether beast's gem? Why your family collects them?" the terrorist asked with a sinister smile.
The prince looked confused. "They have no point. My family only gathers them because my grandfather hated those beasts and wanted to eradicate their kind. He wanted the deaths of these beasts to be something everyone learned about in the family, so he made sure that after every single beast's death, its gem was sent to the palace in full glory."
"The glory ended after grandfather's death, and the transport of the gem became not important. That's all," the prince said.
The terrorist didn't speak and only smiled at the prince, making him more uncomfortable.
"What?" the prince asked as his face changed from confusion to curiosity. "What? Do you know something about the gems that we do not?"
"Hahaha, good job on trying to get me to answer your questions, but don't worry, I'm not so easily manipulated. But god, you sure do know how to turn every answer into a question, don't you? Is that something that they teach you in the royal palace?" the man asked.
The prince stayed quiet and didn't say anything. "So? Are you not going to answer me?" he asked.
"Unfortunately, I was not asking you to see if you were also aware of something, but rather if you knew something we didn't," the man said. "You see, we were tasked to get the gems by our boss, but we too don't know what's it's all about."
"We are also curious what all of this is all about. Why anyone would need gems of those stupid animals anyway, but… hey, it's our boss so we can't really disobey him. Besides, I hear we are getting paid a hefty sum for this simple job, so we can't complain either," the man said.
"What your boss?" the prince looked surprised. "You are not the head of this operation?"
"Oh no, I am the head of this operation, yes. But our group is a lot bigger than just us few, " the terrorist said. "Haha, don't bother asking any more questions. I am not going to answer any of them after all. You can't make me jeopardize our group's safe from just a couple of questions."
The prince kept quiet and looked angrily at the man with the scar. "Sir, he is looking at you quite disrespectfully. You should teach him a few lessons so he knows to respect you," a man walked up to the scar-faced leader and tried to get on his good side by suggesting some things.
"You idiot. Do you think we will get to leave freely after hitting a prince? Just taking him hostage has already made us public enemy number 1. Not to mention we have taken so many other people hostage as well," the leader said.
"Just sit tight and wait," he ordered. He took another drag of his cigarette and blew out the smoke.
"We have already contacted the royal family, your highness, so you won't have to wait here for long. Anytime now, they will come here with the gems and we will be out of your hair before you know it."
"Until then, if you want to talk about anything, I can accompany you. Just… don't try to be smart and use that Aether of yours."
"Yes, I know you are an Invoker, an Aether Magister at that. But you should know you won't be able to beat all of us, especially since the 3 of us are Enchanters," the leader said.
The other two 'guards' walked forwards and smiled at the prince. "So, just sit tight and wait for until—"
The leader stopped speaking when he saw a human head quickly back away from behind the building it was peeking from.
"It seems someone is here already, prince. Hopefully, it's someone to present to us the Gems… or else, we might have to kill that person."
Ning had focused too much on the conversation between the leader and the prince and forgot that he was hiding at the moment.
'Shit!' He thought. 'I guess I will have to fight now."
He had nothing prepared, but he had no choice.. So, he openly walked out from behind the building and started walking towards the group of terrorists.
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Chapter 427 – Fighting An Aether King
Ning walked out from behind the building and looked at the terrorists.
"A kid?" one of them looked at him in surprise.
"Looks like the staff. How are those incompetent buffoons failing to keep a single young man in check?" one of the terrorists said.
"What do we do now, boss?" another one asked.
The scar-faced boss looked at Ning and frowned. "Are you one of the staff, boy?" he asked.
Ning found an opportunity, so he decided to take it. "Yes! Yes! I'm a zoo staff. Do you guys know what is happening around here? I was at the toilet and when I came out, it was like the zoo was closed," Ning said.
Getting closer, Ning could see the more distinct features of the boss. The gray hairs on his head, the patches of skin where he had no hair on his neck, as well as the grayed-out right eye where the scar was.
"Tsk, it's just a kid who went to shit at the wrong time. Hey you, send him to one of the others and make him stay there," one of the magisters ordered the other terrorists.
"You fucking idiot," the boss suddenly shouted.
The magister jumped a little when he heard his boss's voice. "What's wrong, boss?" he asked.
"What's wrong?" the scars on the man's face twitched. "Do you think that's just any kid? He clearly knows what's up and has been secretly listening to our conversation for the last couple of minutes probably."
"Not to mention, he said he walked here all the way from the toilet. Where do you think a staff member's first place to go is when they notice something weird?" the boss asked.
The other terrorists realized that something was wrong.
"Besides, him walking here without being noticed by anyone… that's just impossible. Get on guard, he's probably a fighter," the leader said.
Ning's facial expression immediately changed from that of someone confused to that of someone impressed.
"You have a good head on your shoulders. Shame it looks so ugly though," Ning said.
Suddenly, all the people around the leader brought out their guns and pointed them at Ning.
"Wh-Wha-What are you doing? Are you going to kill a kid?" the prince started freaking out.
"Calm down, your highness. Just close your eyes— it will be pretty quick," the scar-faced leader said. He then turned around to Ning and said, "I would've just captured you and kept you with the other hostages, but… you, you talked about my scar, teased it even."
"Unfortunately for you, I don't let anyone who talks about my scar, live," the leader said.
Unlike the other subordinates, the boss didn't bring out any guns. Instead, he simply moved his fingers.
Ning was fully focused on the boss at the moment, so he didn't notice what was happening around him fast enough.
Two benches that were laid around the junction came flying directly at Ning. He barely noticed it at the last moment and immediately ducked. The two benches hit each other, but they remained floating.
"Shit!" Ning thought and rolled out of the way before the boss dropped it where Ning was with a heavy force.
The benches were made up of metal, but even then they didn't survive the damage they were taking and were completely deformed.
That didn't mean they were any less dangerous. In fact, the jagged, crumbled metal was starting to look far more dangerous to be around.
Ning immediately stood up and saw the two crumbled benches coming flying towards him. This time, he didn't dodge. He put out his hands and stopped the benches mid-air.
The leader's facial expression changed when he saw that. He could feel a force acting on top of his own force, pushing it in the opposite direction.
'Not bad,' he thought when he realized that the young man in front of him was almost as strong as him. However, the boss had barely been using any of his powers.
Suddenly, the force behind the benches increased as Ning barely managed to react in time. The benches moved a little bit towards himself before he stopped it from moving.
The boss could feel the increase in force once again. 'This kid…' He was starting to realize how much of a trouble Ning was.
The subordinates looked back and forth and were wondering why the boss was playing with the kid. He was never the type to do so.
The boss increased his force behind the benches once again, but Ning was ready to counteract it.
The boss's eyes changed as he realized that Ning was a real threat. He then put all he could muster into the benches and pushed on it as hard as he could.
However, he couldn't move it one bit. He, an Aether King, was losing in a match of enchanting against a kid who worked in a zoo.
His pride was starting to be destroyed. However, he was never a person to act on his pride or his anger. He had a short temper, but he wasn't impulsive.
He didn't let the fact that he was losing get to his head and ruin the mission. The job came before him.
"Shoot him!" the boss suddenly said.
"What?" the subordinates were surprised.
"Shoot him!" the boss repeated.
"But, you are atta—"
"SHOOT HIM!!"
The subordinates got scared and immediately cocked their gun and pointed at Ning.
"Shit!" Ning realized he was in some trouble. He immediately added more energy to his telekinesis and ripped the benches away from the boss's control.
The men started shooting just then, and Ning used the benches as a barrier between him and the bullets. He had an actual barrier he put behind the benches, but it was daytime and hard to see.
The bullets rang all around as they hit the metal bench and made a loud noise. The prince was already looking away as he believed Ning would be dead by now.
However, not a single of those bullets even hit Ning.
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Chapter 428 – Imagine
The bullets kept on coming. Even after it should have ended by now, the bullets kept on getting fired.
'Damn those Invokers,' Ning thought. Between the loud noises and the bright sparks from the bullets hitting the metal, and the smoke coming off from the guns of the terrorists, he could barely figure out what was happening to the prince.
After all, the prince's safety was Ning's number 1 concern at the moment.
The bullets stopped coming, and there was a moment of silence. Ning knew this was the moment and immediately threw the mess of a bench directly at the few Aether Grandmasters that were standing around.
The magisters were too close to the prince for him to try hitting them. The metal accurately landed on 4 of the 6 grandmasters and incapacitated them.
"What? He's not dead?" the terrorists looked at him surprised.
Ning looked at them dead in the eyes. The fear he was feeling in his head was already lowered by a lot when he had realized just how weak an Aether King was against him.
The prince turned around after the noises had disappeared and were surprised to see Ning still alive. He wanted to say something, but he kept it to himself for the moment.
"This one is strong. Move with me," the boss said.
"What do we do, boss?" the two magisters asked.
"Tear him up, limb from limb," the boss said. The two magisters nodded and got to work. 1 of the other 2 grandmasters also got ready.
Suddenly, Ning felt a force tug on his body like he had never before. The people in front of him were trying to control his body.
Ning felt a force on his head and a stronger force on his torso. A force on his arms and legs as well. In all the 6 distinct parts of his body, he felt something tugging at it.
"Shit!" he thought and suddenly, the forces changed direction. The right arm was stretched to the right, the right leg was stretched to the right.
The left arm and left leg were also stretched to the left. His head was being pulled upward, while his torso was being held still so that the other parts could be torn off more easily.
When the terrorists had said they were going to tear him limb from limb, he hadn't expected it to be in such a… horrible way.
Ning lamented about not having a tough body as he felt it be really ripped apart. He immediately used his telekinesis on himself to try and stop his body from being torn.
However, he soon came to realize that he couldn't use telekinesis on himself at all.
Since Telekinesis as a skill used his body as a point of reference on whether to use actual Energy or mental energy. Thus, he was unfortunately not able to use telekinesis on himself at all.
Whoever had created the skill had after all found it pretty useless to have to move their own body with their mind, when it was already how it worked in the first place.
Ning realized too late, however, and now he was struggling.
He could fly, teleport, or even just use telekinesis on his attackers to get away from this situation. However, doing so didn't feel right to Ning.
In the first place, he didn't want to expose that he was more than just an Aether arts user.
Secondly, an Aether King was just a step above the halfway point in the journey of an Aether Arts user. If he was already struggling against an Aether King, he wouldn't be able to fight the others at all.
"I can't keep relying on the system for everything. I need to learn how to escape from all of this on my own," Ning thought.
He tried thinking of ways to get out of what was happening right now. His body was very sturdy, so it would take a bit more for the terrorists to tear him apart.
This gave him just enough time to think. Just then, Ning remembered something.
"Hmm, let's give it a try," he thought. He had never done what he was going to do, but… it was not a bad time to try.
Even as his head was being pulled out, he took a deep breath and concentrated.
'Imagine,' he said to himself. 'Imagine the feeling of power coursing through your body. Imagine the strong body you once had, the indestructible body you had as a body cultivator.'
'Imagine it as you once more,' he thought to himself.
Just then, something brilliant happened. All the Aether that was gathered in Ning's body started burning immediately. Large quantities of Aether left his sea of Aether and started spreading around his body.
Some attached to his bones, some attacked to his ligaments, some attached to his bones, some attached to his organs.
All of the Aether he was unconsciously using up was being sent to each and every corner of the body. Then, they reacted.
Suddenly, every single piece of cell that had even the slightest hint of his Aether attached to it suddenly got firm and strong.
Ning opened his eyes and pulled his hands back. One of the magisters suddenly dropped onto the ground and started vomiting.
Ning then moved his legs as well, and the other Magister fell to the ground and started vomiting.
They were both screaming in pain for some reason. The grandmaster saw all this and immediately stopped using Aether. He didn't want to go through what the two magisters were feeling at the moment.
Ning felt his head lighten up after the grandmaster stopped. Now, only his torso was being controlled.
Ning smiled. Now that his limbs were free, he could do things of his own. He suddenly raised his hands forward and grabbed the leader using his telekinesis.
The leader suddenly stopped controlling Ning's torse and Ning fell onto the ground. But he didn't let go of the leader.
It was time to give him a taste of his own medicine.
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Chapter 429 – Jamie And Fiona
The leader floated in the air, completely in the hands of Ning who was looking for revenge. The other terrorists were on the ground for some reason Ning didn't understand.
Ning remembered what happened when someone was out of Aether. They would burn up their nerves instead of Aether and fall onto the ground completely paralyzed.
If they didn't gain back Aether in some time, they would fall into a comatose state and very slowly die.
This was not it. Ning didn't have time to wonder however and focused his attention on the leader. He moved him away from the prince and started doing to him what he did to Ning.
Arms, legs, and head, all being pulled away from the torso caused incredible pain to the leader. The leader started shouting in pain as his whole body got pulled to the extreme and was starting to get red all over.
Ning could tear his limbs apart at any moment, but he didn't. Despite being terrorists, if he did kill them, he was sure that he would be in a heap of trouble from the law of this country.
In such a civilized place, he doubted people could just overlook a death or two like back in Kumia.
So, all he did was keep him there, in that exact same state for as long as he could.
The leader could breathe, could talk if he wanted to. All he couldn't do was fight back and free himself from Ning's clutches.
The prince had already turned around and was looking towards Ning with a face of awe. He looked at the terrorist leader in pain and didn't know what to say.
Suddenly, Ning saw someone attack him from behind and immediately dodged to the side. The leader fell onto the floor, groaning with pain.
Ning got back up and saw a guy with a sword. He wore tight-fitting trousers and t-shirts. His short black hair was perked up straight and his beardless face made him look quite handsome.
His face was square-shaped, and with his height at about 170 cm, he wasn't as tall as Ning.
The man's face was stoic with almost no emotion and all he wanted to do with kill Ning.
'What the hell? He doesn't look like the rest of the terrorists,' Ning thought.
"Jamie, stop!" a calm voice came from the side.
A woman appeared from what seemed to be out of nowhere and stood in front of the kid. "He's not an enemy," she said.
The kid side-eyed the newcomer and finally got back from his stance. He put the short sword back onto the sheath on his hips.
The new woman looked towards Ning. She was older than the kid, possibly in her mid or late 30s. She wore tight black pants with a large brown belt that had a gun in the holster beside it. Above it, she wore a black tank top that showed off her slightly muscular hands.
She was taller than the kid at about 185 cm, and her hair tied in a bun above her head made her look even taller.
Her fair face with the dove-like eyes made her particularly attractive, but the stance she stood in gave off a 'come close and I will kill you' kind of vibe.
She looked at Ning for only a second before her eyes changed towards the terrorists that were on the ground.
"Your highness, are you alright?" she asked, immediately shifting her attention to the prince.
'She's here to help?' Ning wondered as he looked back at the kid with the sword. 'So he's here to help too? Makes sense,' Ning thought.
"Fiona, you're here?" the prince asked with a surprised look. It seemed he wasn't expecting to be rescued.
"Of course, your highness," she said.
"Why would you do something so dangerous?" the prince was getting his calmness back and was now starting to get angry.
Ning wondered if the prince likes the girl given how angry he was for her putting herself in danger.
"What if the terrorists had decided to kill me when you attacked? Did you think about it?" the prince asked.
'Oh,' Ning thought. The prince wasn't worried about the girl. He was worried about himself.
"Don't worry, your highness. I know what I am doing," she said. "Are these the terrorists?" she asked while pointing at the terrorists on the ground.
"Wha— Ah, yes. These are the terrorists. There are the henchmen and that crying guy is their leader," the prince pointed towards the scar-faced leader.
"I see," she said. Immediately, without any hesitation, she pulled out the gun from her holster and pointed at the groaning leader, and without batting an eye, she pulled the trigger.
BANG
The prince jumped in fear when he saw the leader die. "What are you—" before he could even finish his sentence, the woman named Fiona turned around and pointed at the other terrorists.
The rest of the prince's words were lost in the sounds of the bullet firing. One after another, the gun that should have held 6 bullets, was shot out 9 different times.
"What the hell are you doing?" the prince shouted at her.
"What do you mean, your highness?" she asked. "These are terrorists. This is what they deserve after what they did today."
"Do you know how dangerous that is? What if there was a sniper aimed at me right now? I would be dead," the prince shouted.
"Don't worry, your highness. We checked the periphery before we arrived here," she said.
The prince looked shocked. "Did you really plan to kill them all along? Did you not want to negotiate with them first? You didn't even care about my life," the prince said.
"Your highness! Your life is our number 1 priority. There is no way we couldn't care about it," she said.
"Then why the hell did you decide to attack them before negotiating with them?" the prince shouted at the woman who was taking the cries of the prince without batting an eye.
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Chapter 430 – Hero?
The woman waited for the prince to shut up before speaking. "We did plan on negotiating first, your highness," she said. "We were ready to comply with their demands to save you."
"What?" the prince finally calmed a little. "You were ready to comply?"
"Yes," she said. "We had even brought the gems the terrorists demanded to rescue you."
"What?" the prince's eyes perked up. "You have the gems? Show me."
"Unfortunately I can't, your highness. Senior Tim has the gems and he's outside of the zoo. You can ask him yourself later," Fiona said.
"You didn't bring them here? Were you not planning to give it to them in the first place?" the prince asked.
"We were planning to start with the negotiations first, your highness, but they never came out to negotiate anything. After noticing something was wrong, I sneaked in to see what was going on along with Jamir."
"That was when we saw that young man fighting with the others all by himself. We were planning to return once the kid died, but… who would've thought that he alone would destroy all of the terrorists," she said.
"There are more," Ning spoke from the side.
"Sorry?" the lady was taken aback.
"There are more terrorists in the zoo. They are merely henchmen, but they should be keeping hostage of the other visitors in the zoo," Ning said.
"I see," the lady said. She looked towards the kid and said, "go deal with them."
The young man nodded and ran away. The lady watched the kid leave and turned to ask. "Who are you, kid? To defeat all of these terrorists by yourself, you aren't an ordinary staff, are you?" she asked.
"Well, I guess you could say that," Ning said. "Since the prince is safe with you, I will go look at the other staff members."
"Ah, I'm afraid I can't let you do that," the lady said. "Please stick around so we can question you a bit."
Ning stopped and turned around. "I don't see what you could possibly ask me that you won't be able to ask the prince himself," Ning said.
The lady looked at the prince and then back at him. "Sure, we could, but… I saw things that the prince won't be able to explain. So… please stick around," she said.
Ning could hear the forced politeness in her voice. He could tell that she was trying her best to sound as polite as she could.
He sighed. "Fine, ask me what you want. I'll see if I can answer it," he said.
"Great," Fiona said. "Let's start with your name then."
"My name is Ning Ruogong," Ning said.
"I see, Ning," she said. "What's your rank?"
"Sorry?" Ning was taken aback. He thought the lady would ask him age or something next, but she skipped them.
"What's your rank? Your aether rank," she asked.
"It's… I don't have to answer that," Ning said.
The lady looked at him directly in the eye for a few moments and sighed, "okay, then can you explain how you single-handedly beat so many terrorists that bested the guards we put on the prince?" she asked.
"That's easy," Ning said. "It's because I'm strong."
The lady stopped. "You're strong, huh? How strong?" she asked.
Ning chuckled. "Do you have any other questions?"
"Yes, one last one. Why did you put your life in danger to save the prince? Do you fancy yourself a hero?" she asked.
"A hero? Me?…" Ning thought. "No, I wouldn't call myself that." His face turned solemn, even a little sad. "If anything, I fail where heroes succeed. I'm no hero. I'm just a guy who saw a chance to get close to the royal family and took it."
"You… want to get close to the royal family?" the lady asked. "Is there… any reason?"
"Yes," he said. "I'm friends with your princess that just returned home. I was supposed to be her bodyguard, but mister Tim kicked me out because… I wasn't worthy. I'm just trying to show him that he was wrong."
The lady was genuinely surprised at the answer. "That… that information hasn't been publicized yet. Are you genuinely friends with the princess?" she asked.
"You can go ask her, or her husband, or even just mister Tim who you say is outside," Ning said.
"I will. This is an important piece of information so I will have to report it nonetheless," she said.
Ning heard sounds from to his right and saw the kid named Jamie to return. His short, one-handed sword had blood in it now.
"Are you done?" the lady asked.
The kid nodded.
"Did you only attack the terrorists?" she asked.
The kid nodded.
"Any casualties?" she asked.
The kid shook his head.
"Good. It seems everyone is safe and the terrorists are dead. Our job here is done. Let's go, prince," she said and made him walk.
She walked ahead of him and made Jamie walk behind the prince. Just before they reached far away, she turned one last time to look at Ning who was also going his own way.
She smiled a little, maybe even crazily. She was looking forward to something, which the prince seemed to be very familiar with.
'Goddammit!' he thought. The entire experience he had today was horrible. All the plans he had made since many days ago were totally ruined.
"Sigh, I'm tired," he said and walked out.
Fiona met up with Tim and explained to him everything she saw in there.
"Are you sure? That Ning kid defeated the terrorists?" he asked.
"Yes, and… " she got close to him to whisper, "he also knew about the princess's return. He said he was her bodyguard?"
"Yes," Tim said. "Sigh, I hope I didn't make a mistake by sending him away when he was so eager to work with us. He said he would come to the royal family, but at this point, I'm not sure anyway."
"Oh, you don't have to worry about that, senior," Fiona said as a wild smile appeared on her face.. "Even if he doesn't want to, I will make him come."
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