4.5

John skidded across the gravel ground in front of a building which was as he came to a halt from his sprint, this was the last place the two lizardmen had disappeared.

The surrounding area had corroded infrastructures all around, spaced tightly between each other, though their walls were thick many of them crumbled and are in odd shapes under the decades of wear and tear.

This was the slums of Purefold Town, a place long abandoned by the town folk, it used to serve as a temporary living space before the main buildings of the town were under construction, but now it had become the place where the homeless and poor reside. Word on the streets of Purefold Town was that this place would be demolished and reconstructed for better use soon.

“Where could they be?” he searched at the junction where the two lizardmen disappeared.

Crack!

The crisp sounds of bricks snapping entered his ear. It came from the alley to his left, instinctively John moved towards it

“Stop! Right there….”

Right in front of him was an empty alley with a dead end, aside from the 15 meter tall grey walls and broken planks, there was no one to be seen.

“Where did they go?”

“Gah!” a deep voice yelped and he recognized it. It was from one of the beastkin that he heard earlier, the sound came from the wall front of him.

“What is going on?” he approached the wall and placed an ear to it.

Crack! Bam! Wham!

The sound of fighting transmitted into his ear. He could hear quick shifting of feet, punches colliding into bodies.

“She is not going to survive from that. How can I get over this wall… Aha!”

He exited the alley and entered one of the abandoned buildings right beside the, the building had missing doors and shattered glass lying around it’s floors, all it lacked was a dead body laying on the ground to be considered a crime scene.

He made his way into the back, but much to his annoyance, the pathway that was supposed to lead him to his destination, was blocked by a pile of old furniture. John clicked his tongue.

Guess I will have to use the other way around. He moved to a pair of stairs that had cracks and broken steps and began climbing upwards. The warped planks of wood that survived years of heavy use creaked at every elevation that he made as he went from one floor to the next.

He was aiming for the highest floor, the one where a balcony extended all the way to the back where the fighting was still ongoing.

Eventually, he reached it, to the top floor of the 5 story building. Though it smelled musty and some parts of the floor was squishy with mold growth, he bravely stormed though it and went to the balcony where the it showed the fighting below it.

With a tight grasp on the metal railings, he heaved his head downwards, prepared to jump downwards and save the girl if something serious had happened. He swore to never forgive himself if he knowingly let someone to be murdered while he knew he had the power to prevent it.

Down below, the two lizardmen stood in a distance to the hooded girl. Stains of blood leaked from the lacerations on their body. The clothing they wore were now no more than rags, as though they fought against a humongous tiger.

However, the tattered clothes and bloody wounds only extended to the two lizardmen. Their so called ‘target’ was unscathed as so that she faced her two opponents without even lifting her fists. She stood there idly and stared at the two of them.

She survived?! Against two lizardmen?!

Though beastkin had lower intelligence and status than humans due to their impure nature of being a breed of half man and half animal, their physical prowess was nothing to scoff at, an adult beastkin had the physical prowess to hold itself against ten humans and still come out on top.

Yet, this girl survived the attacks of two beastkin despite her size difference.

Normally, something like this deserved a hearty celebration, where the lizardmen had wanted to murder their target because they outnumber her, that it served them right for underestimating others based on their numbers. But John wasn’t rejoicing. He found the scene in front of him strange, very strange.

She was able to deal with the two of them on her own without so much breaking a drop of sweat, let alone assumed a fighting stance against those two.

His hands curled hard at the metal railing as he took in quick breaths, calming himself as he tried to not make a noise.

I should have noticed. I should have been more careful. That bump was to hard for someone like her.

Tingles zapped across his sweaty back, all of this might have been an elaborate trap set up by one of the adventurers who had a gurdge against him for entering the guild so nonchalantly earlier.

The girl, the two beastkin, the reason that no one had saw or heard them could be explained in a very simple manner…

John cursed himself for not taking Kaldor’s words to his heart. Adventurers may be friendly in general but if one angered a petty one, there would be hell to be experienced.

…He was under the spell of a high level charm.

He gritted his teeth so hard that his gums stretched his cheeks.

Calm down, just calm down. It’s just a harmless charm.

Charms were intricate magic that infiltrated the mental defenses of their target. It took an immense amount of mana and concentration to cast in on somebody, but it was possible considering it might be one of the adventurers who used it on him. Once taken effect, the person affected by a charm will act according to the controller’s command through a series of hallucinations without even noticing it. If left unchecked, a powerful charm would cause complete submission of one to the caster.

“[Heal],” John called upon his magic to act as a cleanser to the effects of this potential charm that was placed on him.

His familiar blue aura covered him briefly and faded away indicating that all negative effects on him were purged. Satisfied with his quick thinking he resumed to observe the fight, checking if he was being overly paranoid.

Besides the dusty ground, the area below him was hollow, devoid of any living thing. Everything that he had experienced so far was non existent.

John rubbed his eyes, blinked them properly before he looked down once more.

It was still empty.His face crumpled together like paper, a small gap formed at his mouth, unable to accept the reality in front of him.

What!? So it was a trick!?

“I wouldn’t lean that close to the railing if I were you,” a voice came from his back.

John reflexively moved his hand to his waist, to his messenger bag where he kept his dagger. Only for him to wriggle his fingers in thin air, out of instinct, he forgotten that he was no longer a part of A’vetheas and the gear owned was no longer beside him. All that he had was a small pouch that consisted of 3 silver coins.

This is bad, this is very very bad.

Unarmed and in an isolated area, this was the perfect place where a crime would take place and no one would notice. He came here so eagerly that he might as well signed a death contract with the devil.

Having noticed his stiff movements, the voice continued. “I don’t mean you any harm, young gentleman. I was simply curious to why you have trespassed this building of mine.”

At that neutral tone, John turned his body around. Before him stood an elderly man in a black suit, black coat and buttoned shirt, such an attire indicated that the man was high up in the ranks of nobility.

“I…”

“Are you simply lost? This building will be demolished very soon, that’s why I came here to inspect it myself, to check if anyone had been taking shelter. And what I found is a peculiar young man like you enjoying the heights of this building.”

“Your building?”

“Precisely, young man.”

“I am so sorry for trespassing. I didn’t mean it. I got carried away by my imagination,” John lowered his head in apology. He was certain that this person in front of him was not an adventurer, nor looked like someone who had a grudge against him. The man was unconcerned with who he was, the only reason that he talked to John was because he wanted no liability if he got hurt.

“It is good to have an active imagination, but do take care of where your feet carries you, young man. I would appreciate it if you could just leave this place before it is demolished.”

“R-right, pardon for my intrusion, again” at once, John turned and made to leave. But when he turned his head away, at the very corner of his eye, the empty space below flickered for a nanosecond and revealed a two bloodied bodies of the lizardmen.

What…?

He did not have to guess who was responsible for such a scene.

He was not charmed, that encounter with the girl earlier definitely happened, the reason that he could not see the fight below was because the old man realized that he was observing and had put up an illusion.

He exited the building, ran all the way downstairs, hurried himself to leave the slums as soon as possible. He did not want to stick around let himself to have the same fate as those two lizardmen.

The old gentleman watched John from above as he sprinted his way out of the slums. Satisfied with the young man out of his sight, he nodded, then jumped onto the metal railings himself with the moves of an athelete.

He swiped his hand below towards the empty space which John stared at previously. The air below wobbled, distorted themselves to his movement. Seconds later, a scene of a hooded girl with her feet kicking the two bloodied and battered bodies came to view.

Unfazed by what laid before him, the man took a step into thin air from the railing, ignored the rules of gravitation and floated towards her. “I see you have disposed of them already, my lady. If only you would allow me, I could have ended their lives for you,” the man, with lowered his head deeply to the girl to show the respect he had for her. He would have called her his master but for it would only irritate her if he did so.

“It does not concern you, Zondrac. This is a family matter, and if anyone found out that you were the one who killed these weaklings, I am afraid that I won’t be able to ensure your safety.”

“Understood. I shall heed to your wishes, my lady.”

The girl pulled her feet away from the stiff corpse of her own doing. Despite that, there was not a single drop of blood on her.

Such ability came to her like breathing, it was only natural that she could defeat the two lizardmen that were sent after her. Even if their numbers were multiplied by the thousands, she would surely defeat them all the same.

She planned wipe any memories the lizardmen had of her after she wrung out the reason why they were after her life. She was in a good mood today and wanted to be generous, seeing that she finally got hold of valuable information, she might as well spare the lizarmend their lives.

However, the moment they interrupted her unexpected sweet reunion with John earlier was enough for her to give them the death they deserve.

“So, what happened earlier, Zondrac? Did you tell him anything unnecessary?”

“No, not at all. I did as you instructed and sent him back before he changed his mind. It appears that he was convinced that everything that he had observed about you was a trick of his own mind,” Zondrac replied.

“I see, I see…”

Zondrac continued. “My lady, if he could see you and these two earlier, could he be….?”.

“Yes, that was him. The reason that I came to the human world,” she said. “So, Zondrac, could it be done? About the matter of enrolling myself into Moxnet Academy?”

“Fear not, you are certain to enter. They have a policy of letting the strong in, you simply have to be one of the champions at the tournament that they have at the start of their orientation period.”

She then snapped her fingers when Zondrac was done, the bodies on the ground then scattered to the oncoming winds, leaving no trace of the corpses that she created.

“Very well, you are dismissed until I call for you again.”

Zondrac gave one last bow before he left in a black blur.