The Roamer

Chapter 13: Replacement Arm

Aeolus immediately stopped his arm from growing back the second he saw it coming out, and cut it back off. This was because he realized something heavily important when he sensed his arm growing back, something that he never would have thought possible.

When his arm was growing back, it seemed to be dramatically stronger than before, maybe enough to destroy a house with just it’s physical prowess alone? He realized that it might relate to his spirit, and that depending on how much spirit he had, his arm would regrow bigger and stronger.

He looked at his left arm and thought about chopping it off and regrowing it, but he immediately swallowed the thought back. This was because he didn’t know if such a thing had a limit, maybe it could only regrow and become stronger than before once, so he didn’t want to risk it.

However, he did focus on his right arm, and tried something new. He tried to infuse spirit and make it stick out of the nub of an arm he got left, and make a spirit arm! It would be an arm that is just made out of spirit, yet it could function just like his normal arm. Of course, that was only in theory, as Aeolus didn’t know exactly how it would turn out.

As soon as he tried it, he felt his soul tearing up, and a pain so immense that even a giant would probably cry came up. He immediately stopped it, and began to breathe heavily. He didn’t think that he would have to give up a part of his soul to do such a thing. Well, at least he now knew that it was possible to make a limb out of spirit!

He moved down from the center layer, and tried to make an arm with the mid-layer spirit. A tearing pain pierced through him, though it was less painful, and the chances seemed somewhat good. Unfortunately, to do such a thing, he would have to stop using all techniques since they needed spirit to use, so the soul infusion technique would stop whenever he began to tear out a piece of his soul, making it irreparable, so he stopped once again.

He finally gave up on getting a somewhat decent spirit arm, and went to the outer layer. Here, there was still a pain, but it wasn’t as painful as before. Still, it was extremely powerful, as if someone was whipping him with a tree over and over again. However, he held out this time, as he knew this was as weak as the pain got, and there were no more options.

After a minute, he had successfully ripped out a piece of spirit from his soul, and sent it into his right arm. A few seconds later, some wispy white arm appeared from the nub that had nothing connected to it before, and he could operate it extremely well, almost as good as a normal, physical arm!

“Heh, this turned out successful!” Aeolus said to himself, while also proud of himself for being able to withstand the pain. His soul infusion technique was currently at work and trying to repair his soul, which would probably take many days to reproduce the spirit he had ripped out.

He then laid down, and began to sleep, the fatigue clearly reaching him. He removed the spirit from his eyes, and was about to close his eyes, when he realized something. He looked towards his spirit arm, but it was gone! He immediately put spirit into his eyes once again, and he could see the spirit arm again.

‘I see, people can’t see it if they don’t infuse spirit into their eyes!’ Aeolus realized, and then thought about how he could strategically use it. He got up, and punched towards a wall to see what would happen since spirit couldn’t make contact with solid objects, but the next scene that happened shocked him terribly. His arm went through the wall, and he sensed the spirits of many people within the building.

“Right, spirit can’t make contact with solid objects, only spiritual objects…” Aeolus muttered to himself, clearly depressed at how useless this spirit arm was. Of course he would be upset, he couldn’t even punch the enemy with this arm! However, he realized another thing once again, and brightened up.

He realized that he didn’t have to attack the enemies physical body, but could instead attack their soul! This way, he could stop their techniques momentarily, and maybe even knock them out. He tried it on himself, and threw the fist towards the spirit which was being used by the soul infusion technique.

As expected, it immediately disrupted the soul infusion technique, and all the spirit that the technique was using returned to his soul. He could use this arm for things that his left arm couldn’t do!

He walked out of the alley since he didn’t feel like letting someone see how he was acting and get suspicious, and soared out of the town. He immediately thought more and more about his spirit arm, and finally compiled a list of disadvantages and advantages that his arm came with.

First of all, he couldn’t make contact with physical objects, and it would probably be the most severe disadvantage of them all. Second of all, he had to keep spirit within his eyes, or not only would he not be able to see the arm, he wouldn’t be able to sense it either! Still, even though he couldn’t sense it, it was clearly still there, and keeping spirit in his eyes was second nature except for when he sleeped, so it wasn’t much of an issue.

However, the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages. For one, he could use this arm to directly stop a technique, something he had considered almost impossible before. Second of all, he could directly attack the soul, which was something that he could not do before. Third of all, the enemy wouldn’t even know he had an arm unless they were experts and always had spirit in their eyes.

Besides, having a spirit arm was better then not having one at all. Aeolus smiled to himself and soared towards the mountains, planning to refine himself once again. He landed on the mountain, and sat cross-legged, and began to temper with his soul using his spirit arm.

He found that he could pull out the layer within his soul and play with it, though that probably wasn’t that useful. Other then that, he had already found out all the features of the spirit arm, and understood it enough to use it in a battle well, or so he thought.

“I’ll try and challenge the people within that manor now!”

he yelled at the sky, and immediately descended towards the poor town.

As soon as he descended, he saw that the town was even worse then when he first came. People were lying on the ground with their bones showing from their stomachs, and the buildings that had plants and trees growing out of the were crumbling even more.

‘This… these people have truly been living in such a situation for too long!’ Aeolus motivated himself, thinking of how he had once been ruined by other people too, and how he and the villagers had been separated. He immediately made a dash to the manor, and arrived in a few minutes.

He tried to walk in the manor, but one of the guards stopped him. The guard then pushed him back, and went back to where he was standing before. Aeolus tried to get in again, but the guard did the exact same action.

“Why’s a damn peasant like you trying to get into this manor?!” roared the guard in Aeolus’ face, with displeasure written all over his face.

‘He’s probably mad that I’m not leaving by now…’ Aeolus muttered within his mind, and reached out with his spirit arm. He reached towards the soul of the guard, and forcefully ripped out the whole thing. He left only a shell of it, and absorbed the rest for himself.

The guard immediately died on the spot, but who wouldn’t after they had their whole cultivation ripped out? The other guard immediately saw what happened, and his face turned pale. The man standing in front of him had killed one of the guards stronger than him so easily, just by reaching out with his nub of an arm!

He immediately turned around and booked it, trying to notify the people within the manor. However, Aeolus shot out some spirit using his mind, and that guard fainted. He then ripped out the soul of that guard and absorbed it as well, thoroughly ruining his years of cultivation, and ending his life.

Aeolus proceeded onto the manor, and many guards had tried to stop him while he was walking towards it, but none of them came out of it successfully. Meanwhile, Aeolus had already powered up a lot since the last time he came, but absorbing the soul of around twenty or so guards really did power him up quite well, satisfying his thirst for power.

He immediately opened the manor door, and nobody within paid him much attention at first, since many nobles and lords were constantly coming here to chat with others. However, after they saw his appearance, they immediately knew something was wrong.

For this man was wearing rags just like the people in the town, and he definitely did not seem like a lord or noble! At first, everybody was staring at him with shocked expressions, but after a bit, everyone roared with laughter.

“Were the guards drunk or something and let him in?!” roared a man, while beginning to tear up with laughter.

“They must have been if they let a peasant like him in!” replied another person, who then dropped onto the ground and began to pound it while laughing.

No matter who it was within the manor, everyone could tell that this peasant did not get in with conventional ways, and the guards had probably been drunk or something. Finally, some man radiating gold descended down some pair of stairs, and made his way towards Aeolus.

“Damned peasant, I don’t know how you got in here, but I demand that you leave!” roared the man while radiating his aura, immediately making Aeolus vomit, although not quite as severe as the other times. However, all the other people within the manor seemed fine, and Aeolus quickly realized that he had been rash to come here.

‘I was the only one to vomit from his aura, so all the other people are clearly stronger than me!’ Aeolus realized, and quickly began to call himself a fool. He had really overestimated himself coming into this manor, of course lords and nobles would be powerful!

“S-sorry sir, it’s just that the guards invited me in…” Aeolus muttered, with anxiety in his eyes bursting out. He immediately excused himself by using the guards as an escape, and burst out of the manor, but the man radiating gold clearly didn’t want to let Aeolus get away as easy as that, so he immediately floated Aeolus back in here.

“For a peasant like you to step into my manor is a humiliation to me, so I’ll take it upon me to whip you before you leave!” roared the man, while forcing Aeolus to kowtow using his aura.

He finally made a whip that seemed to be made out of golden spirit, and began to whip Aeolus. Aeolus kept kowtowing the whole time, as he knew that if he tried to do anything, he would receive even worse punishment! Thankfully, the man was going easy on Aeolus, clearly thinking that he was just another weak peasant who wasn’t even at the foundation levels! Thanks to that, the pain wasn’t very severe at all, and felt like he was getting slapped.

After a few minutes of whipping, the man raised Aeolus onto his feet, and sent him flying out of the manor. Aeolus had fainted from the force that the man sent him flying out with, which clearly showed how strong it was.

Aeolus’ body finally landed, and he still laid asleep, not knowing what was going on around him.

--- sequence 2 ---

After a few hours, Aeolus finally woke up, and started his day off with vomit coming out of him. He immediately remembered what had happened, and began to get angry at himself.

“How could I be so weak that literally everyone within the manor was stronger than me!” Aeolus roared, clearly disappointed with the events that had happened. He had never thought that he would lose bitterly, and even had the thought of victory within his mind, yet he was now lying on the ground and about to vomit again.

“All those months in the prison, all those months going from town to town absorbing spirit, and all these techniques that I have, were they all for nothing?! Why can’t I even beat a damned lord or noble when I plan on becoming the strongest?!” Aeolus hollered into the sky, clearly fed up with how weak he was.

No matter how hard he tried, whether it be forming his first layer, absorbing new techniques, learning new attacks, and even forming a spirit arm, he still couldn’t even beat someone at that level!

“My current ways aren’t working, it’s not experience that I need, as experience won’t help me when the opponent is that strong. What I need is a true explosion in power, one that will bolster my cultivation greatly!” Aeolus hollered, quickly realizing what he needed.

“I have enough experience, I’ve been fighting for months on end with no break, it’s just that I need a good opponent, one whose soul is so amazing that my soul and spirit will reach new levels easily!” he yelled out, with his eyes flickering left and right like a mad-man.

“What I need… is a challenge strong enough that he or she is on equal grounds with me, not lower or higher.” Aeolus calmed himself down, and finally understood what he needed. He then stood up, and soared towards the sky once again, but he wasn’t going to the town he had just been sent flying out of this time.

This time, he was going back to where his path in cultivation had begun, where he had first experienced good opponents.

Aeolus was heading back to the slave prison.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

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!