The Roamer

Chapter 17: Weapon of choice

After a few days of flying in a specific direction, Aeolus had finally found the old shack that he had been searching for. He walked in, and found the old monster slouching on a chair, with some sort of bottle in his hand.

‘They even have drinks down here in hell, huh? Guess I’m going to get used to this sight for the next two years.’ Aeolus muttered in his mind, reminiscing about the memories he had back on earth. He really wanted to go back to the surface from the bottom of his heart, but he knew that this trip to hell would benefit him tremendously.

“Old geezer, wake up!” Aeolus yelled into the geezers ear, or what looked to be the monsters ear. The old monster woke up with a start, and smashed the bottle into Aeolus’ head.

“Why would you do that?!” the geezer roared in anger, while preparing to jump Aeolus again to teach him a good lesson. “Why would your first reaction be to smash a bottle into my head?!” Aeolus roared back, unwilling to back down. He was the one slouching, when he had clearly vouched to train him for these two years.

“Ah, now that I think about it, you being here means you survived! Any chance you got ahold of what I meant when I gave you the tip?” The old man suddenly realized, and asked if Aeolus had understood what he meant when he linked affinity to the soul.

“Yes I did, that’s how I got back here so fast. My body is full of vigor, and my speed is amazingly well now!” Aeolus said back while smiling, as if he had just forgotten the whole argument that had began just a few seconds ago.

“That was the last bit of cultivation you’ll be working on in hell. From now on, it’s all going to be focus on your skills and control in battle, while not trying to rely on techniques such as the flowing water you have. You can’t just rush head-first into the enemy, and expect to land a hit.” the old man explained, and at the same time began to snore again.

“Don’t go back to sleep after that long explanation, you damned geezer!” Aeolus roared, while breaking the chair the geezer was sitting in.

“Fine, let’s get to work then. First of all, we’re going to evaluate your potential with each weapon. While you may think fighting with your fists is good, just sticking with your fists will not allow you to go past the fiftieth layer without extreme conditions. For that reason, the earlier you get a weapon, the sooner you can get to work.” the old geezer once again began an explanation, and once again began to snore right after it.

Aeolus picked up another bottle, and smashed it into the old geezers head this time. This thoroughly waked him up this time, and he didn’t look like he was going to sleep again anytime soon.

“Let’s go outside and duel, so I can see how you fight. Depending on your techniques and control, I’ll pick a weapon for you that is best adapted.” the old man said, while gesturing for Aeolus to go outside. Aeolus followed the gesture, and walked out the door first.

The old geezer suddenly jumped Aeolus, and sent him flying out of the shack. Aeolus didn’t stop flying until he suspected a couple of miles passed, and he began to steadily control himself. However, the old geezer suddenly appeared in front of him, and put him into the ground.

“As soon as I said we would fight, you should have put your guard up. For the second that I said that sentence, I became an enemy to you.” the old monster explained with a tone that made it sound like he had just said the most obvious thing in the world.

Aeolus jumped up, and rushed at the old monster. He threw his fist out towards him, which easily missed him. He threw a fist again, and willed himself to focus even more to not miss. He missed again, but he noticed something was slightly off.

‘It isn’t that I’m missing… it’s that he’s moving so fast that I can’t even notice it!’ Aeolus realized, with his face becoming as dark as space. This old monster was so far out of his league that even when standing in front of him, he can’t land a hit. It reminded him of some old opponents he had fought while on earth, where they were so far out of his league that they were simply toying with him.

“Ok brat, the duel ends here. I’ve evaluated you and your opportunities, and I think I got the perfect weapon for you. Follow me, we’re going back to the shack.” the old man said, while gesturing for Aeolus to head on back. Aeolus messed up just like last time, and the old man sent him flying back towards the shack.

‘I am too naive, he pulled the attack off twice!’ Aeolus complained in his head, lamenting about his perception of things. The old man appeared before him once again, and Aeolus saw a rush of wind coming in behind him. At this time, he realized that the old man was not teleporting, but was moving so fast that he couldn’t even see him, hence the wind blowing behind him.

“Come with me, we’re going down below the shack.” the old man said, and lifted the shack with a single arm. Right where the shack was originally, there was a hole the size of an adult. The old man threw the shack away, and jumped into the hole. Aeolus followed suit, but prepared himself for any unexpected things from the old man.

Fortunately, as he jumped down the hole, nothing jumped out at him or jumped him in general, so that’s something good. Once he reached the bottom of the hole, he was in an oval room, and no matter where he looked, there were weapons hanging on the walls.

“This one right here, seems to be a good fit for you.” the old man said to Aeolus, while holding some sort of strings in his hand. They were not connected to anything, and were literally just string.

“Old man, are you joking with me right now? I see halberds, katanas, swords, bows, and all of those, but I’m stuck with something I can buy with mere human currency?” Aeolus complained to the old geezer, displeasure written all over his face. He really wanted a cool weapon to end up with him, because no matter how you looked at it, he’d look way better holding it while in battle.

“Child, you underestimate what string can do. Most of you humans, including us demons, do not know the uses of string. Though, I for one, know how immensely well it can serve it’s wielder in a battle. You just don’t know the many uses of string, which I will teach to you starting tomorrow.” the old man explained, while frowning at Aeolus for complaining about such a weapon. In reality, all weapons are good, it’s just the users of the weapon that are the issue. Whether or not they can make the weapon good is up to them, not the weapon itself. You can wield the sharpest sword in the world, but if you don’t know how to use it, then it’s as good as a stick.

“For now, go back to the shack and go to sleep, we’ll start training as soon as you wake up and eat breakfast.” the old man muttered to Aeolus, with his pride still hurt after Aeolus complaining about his weapons. Aeolus followed orders, and immediately rushed up the hole.

He found the shack a couple of miles off, which he did not believe the old man had thrown that far, and he went inside and slept on the ground, awaiting the next day.

--- sequence 2 ---

Aeolus had woken up and eaten breakfast, and ran outside while grabbing the string from the table the old geezer had left it on. As expected, standing out there and waiting for him was the old geezer, with an aura coming out of him that was enough to kill a person who didn’t cultivate.

“Use the string in the way that you think it should be used, and I’ll begin to teach you on how to use it depending on how you wield it in this fight.” the old man told Aeolus, and strengthened his aura once again. This time, even the outer layer of Aeolus’ soul was vibrating quite a bit.

‘This old geezer is still holding back quite a bit, I’m probably not going to reach his level by the end of the year, but maybe by the end of the two years.’ Aeolus daydreamed of the day when he could beat the old geezer silly, just to pay him back for all the times he’s going to jump him while living here.

Aeolus rushed at the old man with the string in one of his hands, and used it to tie him up after thinking of how to use it for a bit. The old man had lowered his power to reach the fifth layer, so he and Aeolus were on equal grounds right now. He was struggling for a bit to escape at first, but then he began to cut it up with a sword.

‘He couldn’t escape with his bare body, but could escape with a weapon. Weapons truly do power up cultivators to an extreme degree’ Aeolus thought to himself, while agreeing with what the old man had previously said about weapons making a cultivator stronger.

The old geezer rushed at him, and cut toward his spiritual arm. He had infused his sword with spirit, so it could make contact with the spiritual arm. Aeolus didn’t know what to do in such a situation, so he just formed a fist with his spiritual arm and sent if flying at the sword.

His spiritual arm had lost the conflict, and had sent all the spirit that made up the arm back into his body. Aeolus then wrapped up the sword in string, and tried to bring it down to the ground.

Unfortunately, a weapon that was not fused with spirit definitely couldn’t compete with a weapon that was fused with spirit, so the string had just been cut through. Aeolus didn’t know what the old geezer was planning to do next, so he backed up for the meantime.

However, the old geezer did something unexpected, and sent his sword flying towards Aeolus, at a speed which Aeolus could barely see. He dropped down to the ground, knowing that it was his only way to avoid it. When he looked up, the sword had flew past him, but the old man was jumping onto him. He couldn’t avoid it, and got pinned down to the ground, which meant that the fight was probably over.

“I told you, it’s not the weapon that’s the issue, it’s the wielder of the weapon that can be an issue.” the old monster said to Aeolus, while cracking a sly grin at him at well. He got off of Aeolus, and pulled him back up to standing. He gestured for Aeolus to pass the string to him, and Aeolus just tossed it to him, not willing to be jumped by walking up to him.

The old geezer whipped his hands around a bit while holding the string, and stopped after a few minutes. He then looked towards Aeolus, and smiled at him.

“Try to approach me now, you brat!” the old monster yelled at Aeolus, while laughing like a maniac. Aeolus got a little angry, and began to rush at the old geezer. However, after a second of running, he seemed to have been caught in something in the legs. He looked down, and saw some thin, nearly invisible string holding him back. He tried to swat it away, but it felt like hitting metal. He looked even closer, and saw that it was infused with spirit.

“Still think you can reach me now?” the old geezer hollered at Aeolus, while beginning to hit the ground laughing. This angered Aeolus even more, and he took to the skies to dive bomb the old geezer. However, when he began descending towards the old man, he made direct, extremely painful contact with a string that had hit him in the stomach.

He threw up blood, and hit the ground. After a while, he surrendered, realizing that the string really was too mighty, just that he was using it wrong. He fainted on the spot, while fantasizing about the day that he could wield string like that.

Right before he fainted, the old geezer whispered into his ear a line that excited him terribly:

“For the next two years, we will focus on your control of the string, and how to move your body with it.” the old geezer said, and Aeolus fainted in the spot, happily dreaming of the future.

Just like that, his extreme training with his first weapon had begun.

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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! If you could also somehow get others to read this novel too, I would be pretty grateful!