Chapter 23: Sneaking in is the easy part

Fang sat on his bed perfectly still while mana flowed around him. He was no longer a small child and would be turning fourteen in a couple of days. Despite this he had the appearance of someone at least sixteen years old with a well built body. He did not have the huge mass of a dwarf nor the height of an elf but he was still fairly tall reaching around six feet.

His quick growth was attributed to the fact that he was tempering his body with raw mana. As it rebuilt his body he not only grew stronger but also isn't the body of a well developed young man. Because of this his mother was both happy and had a strange sad look in her eyes. Seeing her son grow to look like a sturdy fine young man made her proud but he also no longer looked like an a child she could codle.

In regards to his body refining with mana the only one who knew was East. And she was wholly against it. Every time Fang went through the refining it would cause him intense pain and blood would seep out from all his orifices leaving him weak and vulnerable. But despite her protest Fang continued and gained a lot. The strength of his body alone was more than comparable to an elite soldier using ki to strengthen himself.

His physical might even far surpassed his brother’s who was well known for his Herculean strength. In the last two years Mathias had little patience for slowly refining his ki but reluctantly did so because his father was well aware of his talents. In a while he would also be nine years old and then only have a year left of refining his ki if his ki core stopped a steady growth rate. Because Fang would soon be fourteen he was preparing to head off to the academy which his aunt Liz was in charge of.

To this day he didn’t know what kind of trouble she was in or how he could help but getting to temper himself in another area with less protection was a good thing, especially if the environment was as harsh and competitive as Lesser had told him. with everything set he would be leaving the dwarven kingdom in the next week or so.

He had also made preparations for master Dan and the steady supply of artifact swords that had been sold to the king.

It only took a year or so to notice that the king had no way to help his mother break into the Saint level and the spells while adequate could only be used to benefit the king and his men due to the deal that they had made so Fang had begun to sell swords, spears, shields, and axes of all kinds to various people with his biggest client being the king.

With that Fang would not be short on money when he left to the BrightBlade Kingdom where Aunt Liz’s academy resided. Money was something he had not thought of but it had worked out so there was no problem.

With all that in mind Fang was ready to leave on his journey. Walking down to eat with his family he saw his brother who despite his age was already taller than his father, his Mother, and his father.

“Fang you have to spar with me later and no cheating by using ki, I can't use it yet.”

His little brother was the first to see him and wanted to spar this had been something they had done for a long time. Because at a young age Fang didn’t really have a good concept of playing to have fun, he had often had little sword fights with his younger brother.

“Fine, but you still can't win.”

‘Master you should give him a good fight before you leave or he’ll get cheeky next time we come back.’

Fang nodded but not for that reason, Mathias had great pride in his strength because he already had more strength than the average adult dwarf at such a young age. If he was too prideful it could end up with him making some sort of mistake in the future and getting hurt.

Of course he could do something unrelated to combat but with his father being a great military man, his mother being a renowned magician, and his brother being a great warrior in his eyes what else could he aim for? Especially when he had been given great talent in that field. Hearing the conversation his mother gave a small chuckle.

“Well first eat then you can go out and play. And Fang no more going to the forge this week, I want you here everyday before you… Before you head off.”

Although he could see the reluctance in his mother's eyes he still had to go. These last two years had been peaceful but who knew when something might occur. And he would not allow himself to be weak in the face of adversity any longer.

That being said he also did not neglect his training in thieving skills. It was not a major focus but he had a God given talent in it and if he used nothing but his physical abilities it would be impossible for the guards of various places who focused on sensing the fluctuation of ki or mana to notice him. And now that he was going to leave the dwarven kingdom people he planned to make a heist.

Lesser had pointed out the noble who had instigated the kidnapping of his brother and Fang was prepared for some revenge. But because it would make trouble if he killed the man he opted for stealing his most valuable treasures.

And if rumors could be trusted he had quite a lot including some artifacts that were created using such precious materials that it had almost left the noble house broke two generations ago, luckily for them the successor was a wise man and brought them back up.

With that and a couple of other things Fang was sure he could leave the noble crying for days. While thinking of those things the family finished eating and Fang followed his younger brother to a small area where they could spar. Watching them was their father who came along due to Mathias’ request to make sure Fang didn’t use his ki.

Mathias did not believe that he could beat his brother, in his mind his brother was almost all mighty and beyond compare of others. But he wanted to be closer to him, closer to what he saw the day he was rescued. In his mind he remembered Fang setting the sky on fire and feeling opponents so fast he couldn’t even see him move.

And for that reason Mathias wanted to be closer to that strength. To his sides were two large war hammers forged by Tal making them as durable as possible.

Fang on the other hand was just standing a couple feet from Mathias’ bare handed. Mathias smiled, usually Fang would have a wooden sword and win the spars by exploiting his weaknesses in order to teach him what he should watch out for. But today was a battle it would not be a lesson but a fight, although Fang did have some restrictions. Tal looked at his two boys then with a shout

“Go!”

The battle that Mathias had been waiting for started. Tal was somewhat puzzled, he knew Fang was adept in combat and despite his sturdy frame it shouldn’t be possible to fight Mathias without a weapon after all the boy had ungodly strength. He wholeheartedly believed that Fang would dodge the first blow and engage in close quarter hand to hand combat.

But even that would most likely be a bad idea as it would be a tough fight. Without ki Tal was sure even some of his trained soldiers would lose to Mathias. But to his surprise Fang simply held out his hand towards the incoming hammer and stopped it. Both father and son were shocked. It shouldn't have been possible for Fang to do something as absurd as stopping a war hammer with one hand.

The only one who wasn’t surprised was East.

‘Hmph that’s right master went through hell and back to have that idiotic strength and you think that little Mat is going to be stronger, ha.’

“Don’t become overconfident in your strength.”

As Fang told Mathias he pulled the war hammer out of his hand and threw it behind him as if it were a light rag doll. While he was still in shock Mathias looked a his remaining hammer and grasped it tightly with both hands thinking.

‘That's right that's my brother, I shouldn’t have thought I was stronger than him. No i’m going to start working harder and then i’ll catch up to him one day.’

Not being disheartened he put his all into swinging his hammer with all the strength he could muster. Fang never moved from his original spot parrying the hammer with his bare hands until he finally struck the hammer with enough force to pry it from Mathias’ hands.

Tal still stood shocked, he had been looking for any change in Fang’s ki core but there was never any, meaning his first son possessed physical strength far greater than anyone could dream of. As the three went back home with two of them in a daze, Fang made his plans to steal treasure the next day. Like that some days passed and the time for Fang to leave drew near but before that he would make his theft.

And ancient in the night Fang made his way to the noble residence. He had left behind East who was already well known as Fang’s beast. When he reached the walls of the estate he easily jumped to the top of the wall without the need of ki. Inside was Fairly large and finding the treasure would undoubtedly be difficult.

The guards patrolling didn’t seem to be on alert for anything and took their jobs fairly leisurely thinking that no one would actually try to break in. When looking for treasure Fang had two ideas one was to head to the most heavily guarded area and the other was to look for somewhere well hidden.

Because he had yet to gain any experience in these things he decided to head to the most heavily guarded area. Due to him not using any ki the only way he would be found was of he made too much noise but this was something that he had practiced many times and if he tried his utmost he could even sneak around his father at time, although he would be reprimanded when found for sneaking around.

That was because dwarves were fairly straightforward people and only petty nobles would sneak around and resort to schemes.

For the average dwarf a straightforward personality was the norm and Fang went against a lot of that despite being able to do things in a forward manner. As he advanced he had already spent an hour searching but the most heavily spot he found was the weapon vault and food repository.

Going inside the weapon vault was easy but there was nothing that caught his interest so he left quickly and entered what seemed to be the main house hoping to find something good. But even after another hour he couldn’t find anything.

It wasn't until he found a nice looking study that he discovered what he was after a greatsword that almost shined despite it being night time.

After wrapping the sword and making sure it wouldn’t be noticed he began to look around for anything that would be sorely missed in the end he took multiple stacks of papers detailing trade and some documents that looked important. Having everything that he could get without hindering his movement too much Fang left a small wooden plat as a calling card to let people know who the criminal was.

Though he didn’t use his name he left what his criminal alias would be, lightning king. This was something that East had thought up because Fang was going to just leave a carving of some sort. After making his escape without being seen Fang had a thought.

‘Sneaking in is easy but finding treasure is a matter of luck.’

The following day the noble house was in a panic, on top of having their most valued sword stolen many legal documents that were almost irreplaceable were stolen without anyone having even seen the shadow of who did it. That was also the day that Fang left, there was a tearful parting with his family and his mother and brother made him repeatedly promised to come back during any break he had.

His brother also promised that he would join the academy when he was a little older. Because the academic system one could stay there until he or she reached the age of twenty giving Mathias just enough time to enter before Fang finished.

(Author's note: so this is the start of the next arc after this I'll be introducincing some plot things. This was mainl about the changes that Fang went through. Aslo I'm going to go through the chapters and make revisions. I'm also going to ask for some help if anyone is willing. I'm actually not that good at it, bet regardless I'll try and make the earlier chapters better. Thank you for reading. Also is there anyone who's good at drawing cause I tryed to make a cover myself a few times but failed I'll try one more atempt before giving up. I'll post my next atempt maybe on Sunday and if it's okay please say so so I don't question it. Thank you again.)

:)