Loki was heading home after an intense workout in the gym. He had fully drained his mana pool and had to wait for it to regenerate. Due to the mana in the world being so small the speed of regenerating was slower than what he was used to. Still, because he was the only one who was accessing the mana pool within the city, and seeing everyone else was manaless, the regeneration was still faster than he expected.

'Hmm, I see, after using up all of my mana I actually feel my inner mana pool steadily growing. I guess the same mana training can be applied in this world as well. The only problem is that like everything mana-related in this world, the increase is too little. At the rate this is going, even if I continue to repeat this process non-stop, it would take me around fifty years before I reach the amount of mana I had in the old world... I wonder if there's a faster way. I guess I can check the myths of this world, and see if any of them hold some truth.'

While Loki was thinking about how to get back to his peak state his phone started ringing. He looked at it and saw that he had received a message from someone called Niel.

'It's marked here that he's Liam's friend. I wonder what he wants.'

"Hey Big bro Loki, I heard you're feeling better now. It's good that you survived, if you died back then, Liam and especially big sis Alisa would've been broken. Well anyway, let's celebrate your recovery next time, for now, I have something to report. The leader of the thugs that messed with Liam yesterday confronted him outside the school gates. The guy was huge and he told Liam to tell you to come to the abandoned building near the shopping center on Greenfield Avenue. He pretty much threatened Liam that if you don't come he would do something to Liam."

When Loki read the text message Niel sent him his expression became ice-cold. He felt irritated at himself for forgetting that those kinds of thugs were usually part of a bigger group.

'Should I have just killed those guys back then?' The moment Loki thought of that, Shera's sad expression flashed in his mind, as he remembered that promise he made with her. After a short pause, Loki was able to calm down. He then replied to Niel and thanked him. The next thing he did was send a text message to Alisa telling her that he would be late coming home as he wanted to stroll around for a bit.

After he was done with sending his messages, Loki headed to a nearby store to buy some yarn.

...

In the abandoned warehouse at Greenfield Avenue, a group of several dozen young men were gathered. Each one of them was holding a weapon, from bats to steel pipes. In the center of this group was a rather large man who seems to be older than the others.

This was Luke Gardner, the boss of a certain high school delinquent group. His group had the largest and most fearsome gathering of delinquents, some of them were even being scouted by some famous gangs from the nearby cities.

"Hey boss, do you think that guy would come?"

"I bet he will, based on what Bull and the others said about the guy, he seems pretty loyal. So now that he knows that I threatened his little friend he should be worried. Well, if he doesn't come then we just need to f*ck up his friend until he shows himself."

"Boss, I really don't think we should be messing with this guy, he feels different. He might be one of those martial artists that had joined in that competition." Luke suddenly smacked the guy in the head before responding.

"Tsk, he just beat you up once and you're already acting like a wuss. Also, if he really is a martial artist that took part in that completion then you guys would already be dead. So shut up and stop whining."

After that, no one bothered to say anything and the group simply waited for their guest to arrive. It was already past eight when the person they were waiting for finally showed up. The person that showed up was a rather lanky-looking man, which was not what Luke was expecting.

"Boss it's that guy, that's the guy who beat us up yesterday." One of the men pointed at Loki.

"Are you serious, that lanky-looking guy beat up the four of you?"

"Don't judge him by his looks, that guy's dangerous."

Hearing his subordinates warning Luke shrugged his shoulders. Even if this guy was more powerful than he looks, he was still a fool for coming here. There were thirty of them and one of him, and even if something goes wrong, Luke had an ace up his sleeves. He touched the item that was hidden in his back before he smiled and spoke to the newcomer.

"You must be the guest that I've been waiting for. I heard that you got a little bit rough on my boys yesterday. So how about you let us beat you up and we can call it even."

Loki didn't respond as he simply stood there in front of the group of delinquents. Seeing him act like that made Luke sigh.

'So he's scared stiff, what a letdown.' The moment he thought of that Luke suddenly felt something heavy descend upon him. It was getting harder and harder to breathe, as his heart was beating ever so loudly. He then noticed that his subordinates seem to be experiencing the same thing as him. As Luke was getting confused as to what was happening, he suddenly heard a voice with an ice-cold tone that sent chills down his spine.

"Were you the one who threatened my brother?"

Loki was looking at Luke with such emotionless eyes, which made Luke gulped dryly as the fear was encroaching his very being. The last time he felt something similar to this dread was when some gang boss pointed a gun at him. No, this feeling was even worse than back then.