The Roamer

Chapter 12: True beginning

It had been a few months since Aeolus broke out of the prison, and he was currently in the vapor nation. He was still roaming the world, in search of strength and villagers. Currently, he has not seen or heard any news of his family, but has been finding the strength he wanted to gain when he set out on this journey.

He was currently at the end of the first layer, and was about to make breakthrough into the second layer any day now. His brown hair had grown long, long enough that it could go down to his shoulder.

He was in some town in the vapor nation called ‘Swindela’, a weird name for a small town. He was staying at a tree within town. Not an Inn, but a tree. He still found money useless, and didn’t carry it with him. He made everything himself, including shelter. He was just sleeping under a tree every night.

He didn’t worry about anyone robbing him since he had literally nothing, except for a few chunks of meat, though they were raw and somewhat spoiled, so he didn’t think anyone was desperate enough to want those.

He had just woken up from a nap, so he did his usual routine of finding some sort of fight. He had been training himself through these fights, and the occasional meditation if he were to ever find parchment with attacks or techniques on them.

Though his leech attack used to be his strongest, he had now replaced it with many attacks stronger than it. His most powerful attack at this time was what he called ‘Solar Flare’. Something that released a stream of magma with a pressure strong enough to shatter mountains.

‘Even after all this time, I remember my days as slave vividly’ he thought to himself, remembering the dreadful memories. He finally found an opponent to find in the slums of town, some punk beating up other people and robbing them.

By now, Aeolus was almost twelve, and would become it by next month. He was definitely enjoying himself these days, but still kept to himself for the most part. The most social interaction he would have is when he said ‘hi’ to someone walking by, or trash talking his opponents.

“Brat, you looking to get a beating?” asked the man mugging the people. He held a knife towards Aeolus, clearly threatening to stab him.

‘That knife is the equivalent of rubber in front of me, it probably won’t even hit me…’ Aeolus muttered in his head, disappointed that his opponent was so weak.

“Yes, I’m looking to get a beating.” Aeolus said in a dull voice, with the clear expression of boredom on his face. He didn’t even put this person in his eyes, as he used a knife. To begin infusing spirit into weapons, would would need to reach the fifth tier at the very least, which he was clearly not at. So, either he was at the fifth tier, or was a person who barely cultivated, and even a knife was stronger than his cultivation.

“You damned brat, give me your money too while you’re at it!” yelled the man, and began a mad dash towards Aeolus. He reached out towards Aeolus with his other hand, clearly preparing to check him for what he had.

Unfortunately, in front of Aeolus and his soul infused eyes, this was as slow as snail. He easily dodged the attack without even using the flowing water technique, and ripped out his opponents soul. He didn’t need to gravely injure his opponent to absorb his soul this time since he was so weak, so the process was over quickly.

The man dropped to the ground and fell unconscious. Of course, anybody, no matter how strong they are, would drop to the ground and faint after their soul is ripped out. He began to invigorate himself with this man's soul, and ended up with a small advantage, which was a small boost in soul, and some attack that let him move faster when he lunged forward.

Though this may seem small for weaklings, this was huge for the stronger people. At some point, a person stops using attacks based on power, and uses even the small attacks strategically. This attack was an example. For a weak person, their speed would barely be faster when they used this attack, but would be huge for strong people, as even a one percent increase in speed was plenty to strong people.

He then looted the man's body, and found more of the useless thing these people called ‘currency’. Though it was useless to him, he wasn’t so big an idiot that he thought it was completely useless. He understood that currency was one of the big things in this world, and would be useful in most cases.

Sadly, it wasn’t quite as useful for him as, one, it took space to carry, space that he barely had. Two, collecting this currency would be an annoyance, and he didn’t want to quite deal with it. Third, if he can cause more commotions and refuse to pay for something, he could trigger a fight which could lead to him getting stronger.

For that reason, he just threw it on the ground towards the people he had mugged, and began to walk away.

“Th-Thank you so much sir, I would’ve become a beggar if I truly lost all my money!” yelled someone at his back, trying to express his gratitude as much as possible.

“No problem sir, just get stronger so that you don’t need me the next time.” Aeolus said to the man, trying to advise him as best as possible. He then turned out of the alleyway, and disappeared into nothing.

The grateful man in the alley tried to give Aeolus some money, but as soon as he turned the corner after Aeolus, his face turned pale when he saw Aeolus nowhere.

“He has to be a bigshot, being able to teleport into nothingness!” the man suddenly realized, announcing out loud that he had been assisted by someone big within this world.

Meanwhile, Aeolus was soaring in the sky towards the next town. He only spends a week in each town, and moves on. He that that was enough time per town to experience the best it has, so he had to keep such a schedule to keep himself in shape. The time in that town had just ended, so he was now going to soar through the sky until he saw another town on land.

His affinity with the wind had rosen extraordinarily, to the point where he could fly for thirty minutes straight! He was much more powerful with attacks and techniques relating to the wind, and since wind and water had some sort of connection, his flowing water technique had improved heavily too.

Although he was only at the first layer, his experience and wisdom wasn’t at the first layer, but could be considered at the fifth layer! It was just that he wasn’t taking the time to break through, but if he did, he could probably break through to the third layer in one go. His attacks and techniques were also not something someone at the first layer should have, and had only acquired them through repeatedly fighting and stealing another person's soul.

At this point, he should be able to compete, and also probably overwhelm the person who had sent him flying back to the town before. He wanted to meet that person again, and show him that he should regret messing with someone like himself at such a desperate time.

The only issue was that he didn’t want to breakthrough into the next layer, as he wanted to make sure his foundation was strong enough. Since he could only cultivate to the third layer, he needed to be as strong as he could be when he broke through, so he would get the biggest effect when he broke through.

As he was thinking about all this, he finally saw a town below him. ‘Ah, my next home for the week.’ he thought to himself, clearly believing in what he was thinking. He descended into the town, and the scene he saw was a bit unconventional.

He saw no functional buildings, and all of them seemed to have plants or trees growing out of them. He saw that it wasn’t a ghost town and that there were people, but all of them were wearing rags and didn’t look good. Above all that, the population seemed a bit low, only one or two people on each street.

He walked for a bit, and saw big manor brimming with life, and many people within it, numbering around a thousand. Everyone was rich and enjoying themselves within there, and nobody seemed like they came from the same town.

“I see, one of the places where the rich are the only one who get things while the poor get nothing…” Aeolus muttered to himself, displeasure on his face when he compared the poor town to this rich manor.

All these people were probably taking the money of the people and using it for themselves, resulting in the situation they were currently in. Of course, they probably had no choice but to give money since these people were too strong.

“Well, I may be able to deal with at sooner or later…” Aeolus said out loud, which attracted some attention towards him.

“Get out of here stinking brat, we’ve seen people who are at the seventh layer try and help us, yet still end up with failure!” yelled some old man wearing rags at Aeolus. He was clearly mad that a simple child thought that he could help them out of this situation, when even a seventh layer couldn’t.

‘I see… they’ve been doing this situation for so long that they’ve given up on all hope…’ Aeolus thought to himself sadly, while trying to understand the despair these people were going through. Moreover, they probably didn’t have the supplies and power to migrate, so they’re stuck here.

“Sorry sir, I was clearly overestimating myself.” Aeolus said to the old man in an apologetic tone, while understanding that if he said more, the old man would truly try to get angry.

“I… I’m sorry youngin, it’s just that this town has experienced so much despair that most of the hope has been lost, I didn’t mean to insult you like that… but please don’t go and lose your life for us, the people of this place are too much for us to handle…” the old man said to Aeolus in an apologetic tone as well, clearly trying to show that he was grateful for the kid even thinking about helping them.

‘This cannot be allowed, I’ll stay here for as long as possible until I can take down these people!’ Aeolus thought to himself with his motivation surging through him. He knew the feeling of these people, to be so weak in cultivation that some people from nowhere come and screw them over.

“Old man, I’ll be going now, but don’t expect me to be gone forever!” roared Aeolus, and then soared towards the closest mountains he could find. He landed on it, and began to walk towards the closest boulder.

‘To truly have a chance, I need to make my brain believe that spirit running throughout my whole inner body is second nature, along with it running outside second nature as well!’ Aeolus hollered within his mind, and began to train on a rock. He continuously had spirit covering his whole body, trying to achieve a state of mind so perfect that he could constantly have spirit running through the inside, and outside of his body.

Having spirit continuously flowing through his whole body was already second nature, but it just wasn’t enough to stop there. He needed to make spirit naturally cover his whole body as well, which would make him more durable and stronger physically. At that point, he will take less injuries, and even just a normal punch will be able to bring down houses and buildings.

--- sequence 2 ---

Just like that, he trained for weeks, while also going to different towns to absorb spirit and grow stronger. He continuously had spirit covering his body, and it was nearing the level of second nature. He had constantly been refining his attacks and techniques, and he was getting stronger by the day.

‘In a few more weeks, I’ll be able to bring down that manor!’ Aeolus thought to himself, and sent motivation spiraling throughout his body. Right now, he was flying towards a different town to gain more spirit from other fighters, just to bolster his chances more and more.

He found a town, and descended into it. This town was called ‘Wake-Walker’, which was unique compared to some other town names he had found. He walked in, and saw that it was bustling with life! Everywhere you looked, you could see people eating somewhere, buying something, or just walking with friends and family, very different from that town that was completely sucked up and used by the powerful rich people.

He walked through the town, and found something that no other town had. There seemed to be some stadium, and there were people cheering within it. He saw a huge opening in the stadium, and he could tell that it was the way to enter the stadium. He walked up towards it until he was stopped by a guard.

“State your purpose for coming here!” the guard spat in Aeolus’ face, clearly not showing respect to him. However, Aeolus didn’t mind at all since he was used to this behavior, and just wiped it off his face.

“I’m here to participate in a fight sir.” Aeolus replied calmly, his temper like the wind, extremely calm and soothing.

“We have fights scheduled until the next week, and you won’t be able to fight for a while. If you wish to fight, schedule now, and come back later!” roared the guard, an unpleasant look on his face. He clearly hated that Aeolus replied calmly even after he spat on his face on purpose.

“This isn’t worth my time, I can find better fights elsewhere…” Aeolus muttered to himself after seeing the fight within the arena. It was two men using weapons, and they weren't’t soul infused. That meant that they were weaklings who hadn’t achieved a first layer, so even weapons were stronger then their bodies.

“Then be gone, damned idiot!” hollered the guard into Aeolus’ face, and kicked at him too while he was at it.

‘Well, you do seem to have achieved the first layer, wouldn’t be bad to have a fight with you!’ Aeolus thought in his mind, and immediately dodged the attack. Surprise came up on the guards face, but then he threw a punch and backed up, trying to get his benefits back.

However, Aeolus grabbed the fist that was flying at him, and ripped off his arm. The man began to scream, and was about to faint from the immense blood loss.

‘This child isn’t normal, he must be far above the first layer!’ the man realized, and immediately bowed onto the ground and kowtow.

“Please, spare my life!” the guard yelled, not willing to lose his life here. He truly didn’t expect this child to be able to beat him this easily, and he wasn’t willing to summon other guards who were like brothers to him and have them killed, so he accepted the loss.

“Your life isn’t even worth taking, but your spirit is!” Aeolus roared, and immediately sent his spirit in and began to absorb the essence of the guards spirit. The guard couldn’t do anything, and he was weakening by the second, his first layer about to disappear any second now.

Yet, at the very end, Aeolus also snatched his first layer, and infused it into his. As usual, the layer became bigger, and appeared to be more vigorous then before. However, something different also happened this time. He felt that a technique he had acquired from this guard was reacting to his soul infusion technique, trying to merge or something.

He also realized that both of the techniques had an affinity with life, and that they both had to do with regenerating the body. He immediately sat down and crossed his legs, and began to let them merge, even though he had never experienced this before.

He also inspected the technique from the guard, and found that it was only foundation level. Yet, it had a pretty unique thing that it did. It would require a person to have spirit flowing throughout the body, but instead of healing it, it will make the mind clearer, and try to keep them at peace.

Of course, your mind wouldn’t keep peaceful at many parts as it was only a foundation level technique, but if it were to ever become a layer technique, your mind would probably be peaceful in many more situations than before.

At the end of it all, the technique had fully merged, and Aeolus tried to use the soul infusion technique. Now, along with it healing his body even stronger than before, it seemed to give him a serene, calm feeling. He also sensed something growing down at his right arm, and looked down.

The scene shocked him however, because it was his arm slowly, but surely, growing back!

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ABOUT ME

Name: Abdul Kareem

Age: 13 (Almost 14)

Occupation: Middle school

Goal: Idk, I’m just making a novel for now

Location: Why would I say that?

Relations: I’m not married (duh)

Favorite food: da asian stuf!

Anyway, on a more serious tone, this is my first novel I’ve ever tried writing. Thanks for being with me on this first experience!