It’s been two days since I got Erfia as my slave. She’s not talking at all unless I asked her or I needed a reply.

Well, my plan worked perfectly. Even better than I thought. I hoped to get a slave which can use a magic so I can fill this mana storage ring easily. And by stole the egg of the monster that attacked our caravan a few days ago, the snake would follow me and destroyed everything around me. So, I could get a free slave as the owner died. But, if the snake came too soon, the owner could die before I bought the slave. If that happened, the slave would be free and it would be hard to own a free slave.

The better part is, I got myself a half elf. A half elf is well known for their high affinity toward magic. Unlike human that needs a magical item or meditation to restore their mana when they run out, an elf can restore their mana by absorbs the mana in the nature. In other words, the life force of nature is at their disposal. However, it seems not everything worked just fine. Erfia is just a kid, so I need to protect her or my unlimited mana source will be gone.

Right now, we’re taking a rest at some oasis. She’s asleep after had a dinner. It seems putting the food and water supply in the keeper is indeed the right decision. I take a roll of paper out of my trousers and open it. I trace back where we going for today. It seems, by the day after tomorrow, we can reach the relic.

I need to go to sleep.

~~~

“Hey you! Wake up you bastard!”

Huh? Who’s there? I don’t recall having another person other than Erfia. I open my eyes and see a shiny thing right in front of my eyes. A spear is ready to pierce my head any moment.

Oh, finally, they appear. The desert bandits.

I look around. About 15 people surround me. Four man are equipped with short range gun, two with a bow at a range about 50 meters, six with a sheathed sword, and three with spear around my head. One people with the sheathed sword are holding Erfia with him.

“Look what we’ve got here. A traveler and a little girl. Let me guess, she’s your daughter or something?”

“Nope, she’s my slave.”

“Huh?” The bandit in front of me narrows one of his eyes. It seems he doesn’t believe in me.

Well, looking at my age in my late twenties and Erfia at nine, it’s not totally wrong to assume she’s my daughter. And, as she’s wearing normal clothes rather than a rag, nobody would have thought of her as my slave.

“Yeah right, like hell a slave has such a nice clothes on her.”

I sigh.

By the will of red blood, let this body of mine contain your whole might. As I say, blood transformation.

A silent incantation. Well, it’s silent because I said it in my mind. Unlike the spell of speed of wind which increases my speed by lowering the friction around me, this spell lets me gain a more agile body by making the blood run faster. It also increases my reflex and my sight. So, it’s like looking through the world in slow motion. It is also another small mana spell. Normal spell increases the agility of its user by increasing the whole muscle power, blood circular, perception, and reflex of its owner. But as my spell only deal with the blood circular, it’s only consume a quarter of a normal spell. But without a suitable body, it could destroy the whole body and takes one’s life.

I try to look at the distance to look their vehicle but I can see nothing. It seems they hide it somewhere. I’ll let one live.

I grab two spears in front of me and I push it with all my might. The spear is sliding through the holder’s hands and piercing through their chest. Even the dull side of a spear could penetrate a flesh without an armor. A shoot is fired and I use two people at the end of the spear as my shield. While the man with the gun is reloading, the man with the spear behind me makes his move and tries to pierce my back.

I let go two dead bodies in my hand and step backward with a little sidestep. The spear is sliding through my armpit and I take it from his hand. My hand is faster, and a lifeless head is rolling. A pair of arrows is coming through me. With my blood transformation spell, I see the arrow is moving in a slow pace. I deflect both arrow and start to run toward one of the six men that already unsheathe their sword.

My agility is increased but my speed is not as fast as if I use the speed of wind. At least I can dodge their attack and kill them at ease. But you need to remember even if you see everything in slow motion and your agility and reflex is increasing, your mind processes thing even faster than all of it. And it feels like your body is lagging. So, avoiding a bullet shot by short range gun is a big no.

Sword and gun user have been down. Apparently, the gunner is not a professional gunner. I can see it by the time they took to reload. In the distance, the two archers are trying to escape. A hover motorcycle is rising from the sand and they ride on it.

Wait a minute, a hover motorcycle? How could they lay a hand on the angel’s technology?

“Oh no, I won’t let you!”

I’ll think about it later. I throw the spear in my hand like a javelin and it pierces one archer. The hover motorcycle remains on standby. The other hover motorcycle is starting to get away. I raise my right hand to the sky and the space is distorted around it. I take a longbow with a curve shape on the edge out of the Keeper. And then I take one of the spears in the dead body and aim with the spear as my arrow. This longbow is a very big one, even it nearly touches the ground as I’m aiming with. I release the spear from my bow and it pierces through the air. In just a moment it’s already going through the man’s body.

“The might of the red blood has emerged in victory.” Another incantation to dispel the blood transformation.

Erfia just stand in silence. After all that killing, I’m pretty sure she becomes more afraid of me.

“Erfia, come! We’ll take the ride”

Erfia just nod in silence. I put my longbow back to the Keeper. We walk toward the hover motorcycle. I check on it before riding on it. It had been tweaked so it can operate by using black water. Black water is a type of water that contains the essence of nature. So, it’s like a magic fuel to inanimate things. I keep the other one in my Keeper for caution if this thing out of fuel. With this ride, we will reach our destination by dusk.

But, I still wonder how could band of bandits got their hand on the angel technology. This dessert is located on the southern part of the Ma Continent, Human and Beastmen continent. The Angel’s Realm located fifteen thousand kilometers away. Even Ul Thadur is closer than the Angel’s Realm. I’ll look into is after I get this relict.

As I guessed, we arrive at our destination by the dusk. A ruin of a big city in the middle of desert.

“Erfia, can you guess what place is this?” I try to break the silence.

I hate silence. But it’s really tiring to start every conversation and you get a short answer out of it.

“A big city?”

I smile faintly, “It was a big city. In the past, this city was a capital of a very great kingdom known as Mestoah. By that time the land of no man is not yet exist. At its peak, this kingdom rulef everything at the east side of Ma Continent. But a couple generations after its peak, the royal family fought for the throne and it led to its destruction. After the fall, a lot of its treasure is raided and spread all over the world. Most of the treasure are wielding a magic on its own and have a very great power.”

I can hear no reply coming from her. It seems I’m talking to myself. But, nothing wrong with remembering the past glory. I can still feel it, the people walk around in the market, the sound of iron being forged in the blacksmith, the children run around playing.

Finally, we’ve arrived in the biggest building in this ruin. We get off the ride and start to walk.

Erfia casts a spell to summon a ball of light so that we can see in the dark. She does it without my order.

“Um, mister.”

Finally, Erfia has started to speak. Oh, Erfia, you don’t know how much it means to me for you to be the one’s starting to speak. Is it mean you have finally opened your heart to me?

“Call me Mada, it’s my name.”

I need to make her feels more comfortable to me. Even if she’s my slave, I can’t shake my fondness of cute little girl like her.

“Bu, but.”

“No but, call me Mada.”

“Al, alright then. Mada,” Erfia does it awkwardly. “It might be a little bit too late for me to ask. But, what are we looking for in this ruin?”

“A last relict to make a new mana storage ring.”

“And Mada, I also wonder, are you one of those people who don’t have any affinity towards magic?”

“You should have already known about it. That’s the reason why I need you to fill this mana storage ring of mine every day.”

“How is it any different from your current mana storage ring?”

“Well, the current mana storage ring which is already an expensive item is a very low quality. It could only store mana for a day because it’s leaking. The mana will deplete faster if being used. With all of the relict that I’ve gathered, I will create a perfect mana storage ring which can be used for a whole month without being filled. Its perfection makes the mana won’t leak so if it left being unused for decades, the mana is still intact inside of the ring.”

Finally, we’ve reached a big door that leads us to the room I’ve been looking for.

“This door is not a normal door. The wood of the door is created by Nava Wood, the oldest wood in the world that contains a huge amount of mana, so it can withstand any magic or anything that trying to break in. At this time, this kind of wood only available in the A’nnua, the capital of Elf. The lion ornament is not for show. It will come to life and tear apart anything that trying to break in. The red stain in the mouth indicates it has torn apart a lot of people before.” I explain the door to Erfia that’s standing in front of me.

Erfia looks back at me with a scared face. “The, then, how can we enter?”

I smile. “It’s easy, just say the right incantation and it will open by itself.”