《Adjustable World: Tefter》
Chapter 0
Date: [REDACTED]
Location: /
Red lights were slowly going on and off.
Each time they went off, everything would go completely dark, and each time they went back on, they shined so brightly that one would feel as if they were colorblind.
Everything would be dyed in a hue of red.
The smell of blood and corpses was so strong that it made one''s nose go numb and stiff.
Surprisingly, as for the sound, it was dead silent.
This created an invisible pressure in the air since it should not be quiet at all right now.
A little girl stepped through one of the opened sliding doors. The only clothing on her was an oversized T-shirt and underwear.
She glanced left and right, but the corridors were empty.
Her hair appeared almost dark red, but it was actually dark purple, with various pink and light purple hair strands.
She had black eyes with huge, bloated circles.
In her hands was a white pillow, pressed against her body.
Nevertheless, this hug wasn''t for comfort, as she fearlessly delved deeper into the unknown labyrinth.
"The Self-destruction protocol is suspended", a female robotic voice echoed.
The little girl paid no attention.
She didn''t know on which floor she currently was, nor did she know that she was heading toward a dead end.
Her feet were bleeding from walking on shattered glass this whole time.
The labs left and right of her all had their doors wide open, and windows broken. Some of them contained a corpse or two, but she wasn''t interested in going there anyway.
She had no idea where she was going or who she was searching for.
Stopping on a crossroad, she helplessly glanced left and right, hoping to see someone.
"Hello?", she was turning around, "is anyone there?", she asked, but nobody was alive to answer her.
At least not human.
A deep scratching sound against the floor appeared, heading towards her.
A giant snake-like creature emerged from behind a corner.
Its eyes were bleeding, and skin was missing around its mouth, revealing the big teeth. From this up close it actually looked more like a dragon, but it was crawling like a snake, leaving a trail of blood behind.
"Do not be afraid my child", it spoke without moving its mouth which made it look even more unsettling.
"A fraid? What''s that?", the girl showed no signs of fear.
She put her hands down making the pillow touch the floor.
"What is your name little one?", the creature asked.
"I am SS49! What about you?", one could not see it on her face, but she grew more excited.
The robotic female voice echoed once again, "System malfunction. Rebooting in T-30 seconds".
"My name is Dearhope. Pleasure to meet you", it approached the girl making her look even more tiny.
The girl''s expression didn''t change much from the beginning, only slightly frowning "Dearhope? That''s a weird name. Like those guys in white suits have".
The creature could not show facial expressions, however, it sighed to itself thinking of something.
"Gamma team leader addressing the remaining survivors. The Gate B21 is now lifted. Due to the shortage of personnel, no evacuation attempts will be made. Over"
Bodies of the dead people were scattered throughout the whole place, and even though the little girl noticed them, she never showed the tiniest drop of fear.
Nonetheless, the fact that she never approached them showed that she was well aware of their fate.
Dearhope waited for the broadcast to end.
"Follow me little one. I will get you through this".
* * *
Somewhere completely else
Two fully armed men separated themselves from the rest to unload a truck.
"First those mutants, now this shit", he complained, "what a start of the year, huh?"
The other soldier didn''t comment.
"I don''t understand why the higher-ups didn''t simply execute her. There is no way I''m buying all of this as a coincidence", he continued.
"Nobody said it''s a coincidence. We just do what we have to do", the other soldier finally spoke.
They both put the gas masks on their faces, turned around, and walked towards the others.
"Alright Beta squad. Rescue the personnel, contaminate, or kill other entities. The boys from the army are going to keep a watch on the outside, while we get the shit together on the inside", his voice was deep but clear despite wearing a thick bulletproof helmet, "Any questions?"
The man who was unloading the truck raised his hand.
"Yes".
"If I come across that bitch, may I shoot her?", a few of the others laughed.
"Negative. We are only to kill frenzy entities. Renai''s contamination chamber is very distinct from the other ones. We won''t see her until the time comes to drag her out", he explained with a serious tone.
"But I hope that you already emptied your bladder anyways. God knows what we''ll see inside".
The whole unit laughed.
After this, there were no more questions.
The eleven of them separated into 2 smaller units.
One headed for the elevator, while the other passed through a huge sliding metal gate.
Inside this facility, red lights were also flickering.
The unit that went for the elevator headed straight for the intercom room. They were swift and knew the layout of the whole site by heart.
One of them lifted the microphone off its charger. A notification sound resounded through the speakers of the whole complex.
"Beta contamination squad has entered the facility. All staff members are advised to remain calm and within the evacuation shelters. The evacuation process will shortly begin. Please avoid reaching the exit gates by yourself as it poses a huge threat and risk. Over".
The rough rustle of the microphone getting placed into the charger accompanied his last words.
He withdrew from the intercom room into another one with smashed computers and fallen bookshelves. The others from his unit were waiting for him.
Each had his gun in his hands with turned flashlight.
"So, what are they keeping here anyways?", one of them asked while examining a corpse.
"You work for The Source but don''t know that?", a female soldier asked jokingly.
"I do, but as far as I''m concerned there should not be any wild creatures located here".
"That''s true, but the Source offered to store and examine mutants until a cure is found".
The unit continued to move through the labyrinth, reaching multiple shelters.
"What about other organizations? Aren''t they also looking for a cure"
The female soldier pondered a little, "I don''t know. Nobody can count on a right-wing organization with a terrorist history anyway".
The latter didn''t comment but remained focused just like everyone else.
This was the Beta Contamination Squad after all, the most well-trained unit of them all. The team consisted of 11 people.
They had been working together for a very long time and had a record number of successful missions.
A record not even the alpha team was close to surpassing.
"There!", the female soldier illuminated a figure with her gun through a broken window.
It was a humanoid creature with no eyes and dozens of excrescences on its skin.
The team leader didn''t even pay attention, rather stayed focused on the surroundings for any possible abrupt event.
"Prepare the stun gun, cuff him, and open the portal", he gave the orders.
As he was giving the order, others were already executing them.
Unfortunately, the creature was faster.
It lifted one of its arms and used telekinesis to pull one of the soldiers towards itself. He flew, unable to control his body.
The female soldier frowned and shot the mutant with some form of shock wave, which visibly didn''t do any harm to it.
However, the shockwave froze it in space, and the flying soldier fell to the floor.
Another squad member jumped on the mutant, pushing it to its knees.
He rashly but meticulously pulled what looked like a napkin, tying it forcefully around the mutant''s eyes.
A split second before he tied, its body flicked, but it was too late.
The effect of the artifact already engulfed the mutant, making it peaceful.
"Wo!", his heart skipped a beat, "a close one!"
Another squad member approached him slowly. Instead of a gun, he held a shiny weird-looking sword.
"Hadn''t you used Velcro shoes until 8th grade, perhaps you would have tied the napkin faster", he commented.
Everyone laughed.
"Well you can''t blame me, they were drippy".
The sword guy swung his weapon through the empty air and created a portal.
Another man unit appeared on the other side of the portal, taking the tamed mutant from them. The portal closed.
Compared to their other missions, this was nothing.
The team leader''s walkie-talkie suddenly started buzzing, transmitting the affable voice of the other 6 men from their unit who didn''t take the elevator.
The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
"Control to Beta Team. We ran into some security gate issues. Asking for permission to reboot the system. Over"
The team leader turned around looking at his colleagues.
"Control to Beta Squad. Permission granted. Over", he put the walkie-talkie away grabbing his gun with both hands, "let''s keep moving forward".
A mere minute after that, the robotic voice echoed throughout the whole facility.
"System 1 malfunction. Rebooting now".
The red flickering lights went dark.
"That was fast", the team leader commented, "activate the night vision mode".
As they continued deeper into the well-known labyrinth, they met a couple of more such mutants.
Those started to appear randomly at some point during the very start of the year, so little to no training against them was undertaken.
Luckily, The Source was such a company that was on the same power level with the whole planet, which was one single country.
It started off as a research company, but soon gained its very own army.
Aside from the army, it also had its own special units, like the Beta squad unit.
Those were granted special missions and power.
Nevertheless, no soldiers meddled in politics but only assisted in these types of scenarios.
The Beta Squad visited several shelters, evacuating many scared staff members through the portal method.
Even though the Beta unit was usually working outside, this facility was their terrain, and they knew it better than any outsider.
"Control to Beta Squad. We checked the Scream Room for you. I know Michael is going to be grateful. Over", all 5 of them started laughing imagining the reaction of the other 6 unit members.
They were currently exiting a lift that led them to the lowest part of the facility.
Only 3 rooms were here but possessed great value. Most of the mutants were also neutralized by this point, so there was no substantial threat anymore.
"System operational", the robotic voice, and all the roles of System 1 had come back to life.
The red light got turned on once again.
Even some of the regular white light bulbs started working!
This completely blinded the whole unit who was using the night vision mode on their combat helmets.
"Deactivate the night vision mode", the team leader gave orders.
The corridor they were currently in looked the same as any other.
Nevertheless, they were close to the end of their mission.
To their surprise, the robotic voice echoed once again.
"A Demigod level threat detected".
The two separate Beta squad units didn''t communicate through the walkie-talkie but had the same reaction.
They all froze and looked at each other, for they couldn''t believe their ears.
Their heart rate rapidly rose, and some even shivered slightly as if they were swept by the cold mourning breeze.
"Cap?"
The captain frowned, "I don''t know. This doesn''t make any sense", his gaze swept across his soldiers.
He knew it. They all were sure that System 1 wasn''t in control of the contamination chambers.
The various Systems and their functions were one of the first things one had to learn in order to get a job at The Source.
"Continue the mission and stay on alert", he ordered nervously.
Sadly, what would appear around the corner in just a few seconds wasn''t something they could prepare themselves in such a short time.
They all froze once again, staring at the figure that entered the corridor with their guns pointed forward.
It was an average tall woman with white hair swinging to her waist.
She had red glowing eyes with slightly vertical pupils.
Her forehead was decorated with 2 thin but long symmetrical red horns, made out of an unknown artificial material.
She was wearing a scientist coat over her petite body, and it was very different from any other.
They couldn''t see it from their point of view, but the back side of it was labeled "Alpha Team Leader".
"Cap!", a team member quickly exclaimed, but he didn''t dare say more, nor did others dare to remove their eyes from the woman.
Nevertheless, due to the time spent working together, they knew what the soldier wanted to point out.
It was her hands.
In one she was holding a black keycard, while in the other, a thick book with a black cover decorated with golden stripes.
Her familiar relaxed poker face expression made them feel as if they were looked down at yet again.
It was simply something inevitable, no matter how strong or self-confident one was.
Everything went silent, but the pressure was just unbearable. A female squad member pulled the trigger, and a gunshot echoed past everyone''s ears.
"No!", the team leader pushed the gun down, staring at the white-haired woman.
She was completely fine. The shockwave never even reached her.
"Who freed you?", he asked.
The woman had no hostile reaction, waiting several moments before answering.
"The door just opened. I went to get me stuff back", she waved with the book and keycard.
The leader wasn''t having it, "cut the crap! Are you working with the Impedance?", he disappointingly frowned, but then realized.
"Cap, if that is true, we can just eliminate her", one team member aimed his gun at her.
"No...", he replied, "I know who did it".
The woman was staring back at him with no change in expression at all.
"You can''t get away. Not after this. Just be a human being and surrender yourself to justice".
The woman smiled slightly after the last sentence, glancing away and then back at them.
"I never possessed any hatred towards you", she meant not only the whole squad but also everyone working for The Source.
After she said that, in the blink of an eye, a wall appeared in the middle of the corridor, separating them completely.
It had the same texture as the walls that were coating the entire facility from inside.
Only then did they notice a silent rustle coming from their belt, "Unit 1? Hello?", the communication device beeped, "do you copy?".
"She shifted...", the team leader muttered.
Everyone remained quiet, yet was very nervous, staring at their commander, hoping to get further instructions, however, he was deeply lost in thoughts.
The whole time, even outside work, he tried to keep his attitude professional in front of his colleagues, even though he considered them as close as his own family. But this was the time he had to break the 4th wall.
"I think it''s really over this time", he turned around to look at them, "No. It always was".
His team members were still quiet, filled with shock, as this was the last thing, they expected him to say right now.
It was the last thing they wanted to hear from someone who was always their protector.
Meanwhile, in another part of the facility, the second unit gave up on reaching them, getting a really bad feeling yet not giving up on hope.
They continued to move through the underground labyrinth straight towards where their colleagues were pinged on the navigation device
Nonetheless, they also would experience an encounter with the Demigod.
She was standing at the end of the long corridor in front of an elevator, but that posed no problem to recognize her.
One of them gasped and quickly pointed their stun gun towards her, but another member pushed it towards the floor barely in time.
"No!", he screamed, "Come, come!", he pulled the soldier and also started to run himself.
The girl noticed their presence but didn''t even glance at them, continuing to stare at elevator doors which opened, letting her to slowly walk through.
"Fuck!", doors closed on them, however, he wasn''t giving up yet.
He quickly redirected everyone towards the fire exit staircase that were located right behind the corner.
They were rushing, accidentally bouncing against each other''s shoulders and the wall, easily overtaking the elevator.
Unfortunately, things would not go as they planned, because a random fire exit door opened on the floor above, allowing for several heavily armed men to rush inside.
Their uniforms were different from the ones Beta Squad was wearing and surely didn''t look like something the national army would wear.
Even their helmets were designed for a completely different type of combat.
They went straight down the staircase, meeting the Beta squad unit. Both sides were unprepared and caught off guard, screaming few short sentences and aiming with their weapons at each other.
During this exact moment, the white-haired girl was still located in the elevator with a faint smile on her face.
Everything went smoothly.
The doors of the elevator opened, leading her into a big room with one of its walls being a huge metal gate.
She slipped her black keycard against the small detector right next to the gate and then walked right in front of its middle.
A loud beep resounded, followed by a sound of friction. The thick metal gate was slowly opening, its left wing sliding to the woman¡¯s left, and its right wing towards her right.
A cold midnight breeze rushed inside the room, replacing the stuffy air in an instant.
To her surprise, instead of the beautiful moonlight, her eyes were blinded by dozens of flashlights.
Around 40 fully armed men were all pointing their guns toward her from the moment the gate started opening.
Some hiding behind trucks and some kneeling or standing.
Nonetheless, even though they were all already pointing at the gate prepared to shoot, not a single one of them expected this woman to appear.
They of course knew who she was and were all stunned for a second.
Suddenly a scream gave orders.
"Fire!"
These were actual guns, with anti-bulletproof vest bullets, each as big as a thumb, and they were all pointed at the same petite target.
The gate wasn''t even opened completely when they started to shoot.
Lights were flashing and racket reigned.
It became so bright and dusty that the girl could not even be seen anymore!
However, the bullets never reached her, but just vanished as soon as they exited the gun pipe.
The mags went empty, and the racket came to an end with everyone staring at her with completely terrified facial expressions behind the helmets.
"None of you was forced to join the Impedance", she said with despise, "it was your own choice".
Nobody was moving.
Some waited for her to continue, but that was everything she had to say.
This was it. They knew it.
One of the soldiers let his gun fall on the concrete, slowly loosened his belt, turned around, and went for a leave.
"Mike, what the fu-", the words were cut off with an indescribable pain in the chest. Everyone else experiencing the same.
The girl''s stare followed Mike.
Everyone facing else had their helmets hit the concrete at nearly the same time.
Mike''s entire body flicked, unwillingly turning around to see.
"Oh!", his voice cracked, and his eyes became wet.
He glanced at the girl knowing he should express anger and frustration, but only felt gratitude. He felt as if his sins were forgiven, and judgment was avoided, just because he chose to surrender.
* * *
"The complete lockdown will initiate in T-2 minutes".
The dragon-like creature and the girl were standing under the moonlight on a paved heliport.
All around them was a complete wilderness, as far as their gaze could reach, and even beyond.
In the meantime, another person joined them.
He wasn''t muscular but seemed strong due to his bulky stature and was as joyful as the little girl was. On the floor next to him was a heavy mace. It had a white half-transparent color and was lying on the ground with its handle upwards.
"Are you sure that you don''t want to check if there is any food or water inside?", Dearhope asked.
The bulky man straightened up, pausing his conversation with the girl, "Why? That won''t pose a problem".
Dearhope straightened his front part of the body, reaching over 6 meters in height, "I don''t require food, but think of the girl. Children aren''t as tough as adult men are".
The man pondered for a few moments after which he lowered himself to the girl''s height and spoke in a gentle tone, "Hey, do you want to go hunting with me? We will find something delicious to eat! Unlike those groats".
The little girl nodded with a faint smile on her face.
At that moment a sound came from within the facility, through the wide-open metal gate, but it was disturbed by an automatic system announcement.
"The complete lockdown initiated".
The exit gate started closing, and the sound coming from within grew only louder.
Something was approaching.
The bulky man stepped right in front of the girl, and Dearhope straightened himself towards the gate so that the other two found themselves underneath his neck.
The sound became so loud that the bulky man would need to scream for the girl and Dearhope to hear him, but they all went silent and watched at the everlasting darkness whose doors were gradually closing.
Little girl was yet again the only one showing no sign of fear on her face, but only a mild curiosity.
The noise was just behind the gate, and a fully armed man flew out, landing on his back, staring back at the now-closed gate.
The gate suddenly sunk in the middle but whatever was behind it, couldn''t come out anymore.
The Gamma team leader sighed. He lay on his back and rested for a brief moment.
Nevertheless, he sensed something behind him, quickly standing up and turning around.
The first thing that occupied his whole field of view was a giant snake-dragon-like creature with no lips or cheeks, staring right at him with its leaked-out eyes.
It was actually worse than the thing that just chased him.
A deep voice came from the snake, but its mouth wasn''t moving at all.
"Do not be afraid my child".
The team leader was bathing in a cold sweat, barely managing to respond.
"Sir, this is the scariest moment of my life".
The bulky man approached the man, lifting the team leader from the ground as if it were a joke.
He was stunned, sharing a glance with him, and then sizing up the remaining two survivors. The little girl seemed healthy, and the dragon-like creature wasn''t acting hostile.
He then glanced at the bulky man again and noticed an octopus-shaped badge on his clothes.
"You are the...", he paused, not knowing how to address him at this moment. He knew very well who they all were from their files.
Several minutes later.
"So, what are you doing... now? What are you all going to do?"
"Well, the facility doesn''t seem to be the safest place to stay at right now, so we are going to search for a new shelter and wait until The Source comes back to rescue us and clean this mess up".
The team leader was surprised, "really? So, you guys don''t hate The Source?"
The bulky man lifted the mace off the ground "there is no reason to hate them. They took us in and helped us when no one else would", he threw a quick glance at Dearhope.
"Well, I''m speaking for myself at least..."
The team leader stepped forward, "well if you think finding a shelter out there is going to be an easy task, you are so wrong".
"You want us to stay here?", he pointed at the sunk-in gate with his mace.
The team leader shivered, "No. There is a habitable land in the basin behind those mountains", he pointed with his index finger and then continued.
"Reaching it will be difficult, but we will be much safer once we get there. There are other normal humans as well, they are also probably headed up there".
The bulky man frowned, "what do you mean normal?"
Team leader was caught off guard, not noticing that he said that, so he just put on an awkward smile on his face.
Despite their looks, the team leader was the only normal human present here at the moment.
"Whatever", the bulky man rolled his eyes, "How long do you think it will take for The Source to reach us?"
The team leader pondered for a second, "At least one year".
"A year?!", the bulky man was shocked, but the team leader just nodded.
"The same thing happened there as well, except there is an actual infrastructure to be rebuilt unlike here".
Everyone went silent.
What he told them was far too shocking, but they had no reason to not believe him. He was working for the company after all.
"Maybe even more. It all depends", he continued.
"Things are probably just starting to escalate. People here will have to welcome the basin as their new home, that''s for sure. But sooner or later, we are all going to get back to our normal lives".
That wasn''t the truth, however.
Nobody will try to rescue them from this wilderness for tens of years.
Chapter 1
Part one:
On top of a certain mountain range lay the city of Razihelnor, surrounded by a forest from beneath, and meadows and plateaus from above.
The terrain was very rocky and hardly anything grew besides weeds.
Yet, this city was way richer than one would imagine.
Walking down the wide streets with constant changes in height level, one would find themselves surrounded by myriads of stalls, selling all kinds of foods.
The autumn had just arrived, meaning everyone was busy preparing their supplies for the especially harsh winter on these mountains, but no one was worried. The availability of water, food and wood was so big that it made them sell for cheaper prices than in most of the other cities.
This was Razihelnor, the capital of the Temper province. It was created shortly before people started counting years on the calendar, and since the start of the currently ongoing 2nd year, Temper¡¯s strength was in second place.
Nonetheless, its value wasn¡¯t achieved through democracy, but by dictatorship.
Just like every other province, Temper also had its military, and it was controlled by elite warriors known as paladins. They were rich, powerful, and directly responsible for Tempers citizens and economy, from the day they claimed the land.
Within Razihelnor, there was a certain area with restricted access named the Garden of the Elite.
Just like the city itself, this area also had its own walls that were guarded by the regular military, which seemed funny considering how powerful each paladin was.
The boy smiled. It was already night.
¡°Hey! I told you children to stop playing around here!¡± a guard scared off a group of kids that were spying on him and his companion.
However, now someone else was approaching them.
¡°Hey¡¡±, the other guard called out his companion. They were both gazing at the approaching young man, especially at his snow-white hair colour.
¡°You! Stop right there¡±, they drew their swords out, but the young man pre-empted them, stretching out his hand holding a letter.
¡°I was summoned here by the third officer Simra¡±, he said proudly.
The guard lowered his weapon, taking the letter and reading it to himself swiftly. The other one approached as well.
¡°Indeed. This is Sir Simra¡¯s handwriting¡±, he commented, ¡°Zafer, huh? Weird name¡±.
The boy smiled saying, ¡°It means ¡°The Victor¡±!¡±, while casually passing by them.
The area beyond the gate seemed nothing like the rest of the Razihelnor city. It was filled with neatly trimmed grass and bushes, in between which was a pathway that was dividing itself and leading into many other balconies and buildings.
The river that passed through the whole city was also ending in this region, on a cliff, creating a majestic waterfall, however, one could only observe it from outside of the city.
Geographic encyclopedia: Paragraph 2nd:
?¡hence the people were forced to settle down in the basin created by the Pashtrik mountain range. It was so big that 70% of it was unexplored and out of use. The events of mantle and crust that led to its creation remain a mystery¡
Paragraph 12th:
The exact number of people who lived within Pashtrik basin is unknown, but as of writing this, they were all a part of one of the 4 provinces: Nubis, Numen, ???? and a neutral territory owned by the country itself. Addendum: and Temper.
The chairs creaked against the wooden floor, and two men shook their hands.
¡°Thank you again Simra! Are you going to show me around now and introduce me to the others?¡±, Zafer seemed excited.
Simra threw papers on the side of his desk. He looked over Zafer¡¯s shoulder and noticed a huge shadowy figure through the window, waiting in front of the building.
¡°I¡¯m busy now. You can talk to Skil, he is also a member of the province¡±.
A boy no older than Zafer slowly turned around just enough so that he could see Zafer as if he wasn¡¯t checking him out this whole time.
¡°Skil! Do you have time to spend with our candidate? Thank you¡±, Simra said before the former could even answer.
Not like he could not decline anyway. Simra was a paladin and the 3rd officer of Temper.
Skil, or as his full name was, Skil, was present during their whole discussion, sorting papers and books on the shelf in the corner.
?White hair, red eyes, a striped black-red sweatshirt¡ A scarf?¡±, he raised his truncated eyebrow.
?Was he wearing that scarf this whole time, or did he just put it on?¡°
¡°Sure¡±, he got up introducing himself to Zafer whose attention was focused on the window where no one was to be seen now.
The difference in their height was distinct, but nothing that Zafer wasn¡¯t used to already. He knew not to prejudge anyone based on their looks, either in a positive or a negative way.
?We can go to a nearby pub, it¡¯s still far from midnight¡±.
With Skil being one of the exceptions, it was safe to say that Zafer already heard of about 90% of the Temper¡¯s elite squad.
Still, none of them arouse respect in his eyes like Simra did, because even though he was only a 3rd officer, he was far stronger than anyone else.
¡°You probably haven¡¯t heard of me since I joined Temper quite recently¡±, Skil continued with the introduction as they were walking through the Garden of the Elite, ?and given our age, there is no way for formality between us¡°.
Zafer nodded in agreement.
Being in the presence of a paladin was not something that a regular citizen could hope for, even though their favourite hobby was talking and sharing rumours about them.
At this moment, Temper had a total of 15 paladins and thousands of military soldiers.
The difference between the two was very straightforward.
Paladins were allowed to arm themselves with weapons and armour sets made out of Miyalin, which was the toughest and most precious material known to mankind, but only if they afford it themselves since no province was willing to spend an unthinkable amount of money just to provide one set for every paladin when each of them is capable enough to get one on their own.
¡°Before we go to a pub, do you think you can maybe show me around the Garden of the Elite?¡±, Zafer¡¯s eyes were shining with excitement.
Skil bit his lips, ¡°I¡¯m afraid not. Even I don¡¯t have the allowance to wander around here if I¡¯m not summoned¡±.
Zafer frowned, ¡°But you are a member of the Temper province, right? A paladin!¡±
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¡°Yes, that¡¯s the thing. I am just a member. The Garden of the Elite are open only to those of peak capabilities. Mostly officers¡±.
A huge smile stretched on Zafer¡¯s face, ¡°so don¡¯t you want to see as well? And you can even use me as an excuse or something! Come on, have you already seen everything here?¡±
Skil smiled by a reflex, ¡°Well¡ I have never been anywhere near 5th officer place¡¡±.
He slowly stepped aside with one foot, suddenly colliding with something not even he or Zafer ever noticed.
It was a huge man, not only taller, but also many times more muscular than both Zafer and Skil.
One could immediately notice that, despite him wearing a Miyalin armour. It had a dimly white colour, with 3 or 4 colourful strings gently wavering inside of it.
Zafer¡¯s eyes shone as he was staring at it in awe.
That was a real Miyalin armour! And this man was wearing it so casually!
¡°Oh! Priest Zer Ox! My apologies¡±, waves of heat started coming out from within Skil.
He never noticed him. Was he spying on them or just appear out of thin air?
¡°I was just explaining to our new candidate how things work in Temper!¡±
¡°Really? Like what?¡±, he widened his eyes in surprise as if he was legitimately curious.
¡°Well, like, how only top-notch paladins were allowed to-¡°
Zer Ox¡¯s husky voice interrupted him, ¡°Wait, a new candidate you said?¡±, he stared at Zafer who was a whole head smaller than him, ¡°I was never informed about that¡±.
Skil calmed down with the topic change, ¡°Indeed, a new candidate¡±.
Zer Ox pointed at him, ¡°is he a scriptman as well?¡±
Skil shook his head, ¡°I¡¯m afraid not. He is one of Sir Simra¡¯s¡ chosen ones¡±.
The Priest frowned not changing his face from the previous question, ¡°Simra¡¯s? Alright I guess¡¡± he made a big pause, ¡°you look kind of weak though, but¡¡±, he lifted both of his hands, ¡°¡if it¡¯s Simra of all people, I won¡¯t meddle¡±.
The Priest continued, ¡°Anyways I saw you two heading out for drinks and wanted to tell you not to stay up late tonight, and you Skil¡±, he turned around once more, ¡°stay sober¡±.
Part two:
¡°Are you sure you can handle more?¡±, he watched Skil leave for another round of beers, but the former just swung his hand and left.
The pub was full of people. Many would pass through the door, only to realize there were no free tables and leave. Some parties were even sharing a single table as a pad for the mugs or a space to play cards or other games.
Zafer was looking at them, thinking how he used to drink and play cards in pubs as well, but he wasn¡¯t one of them anymore. From today on, he wasn¡¯t a regular citizen, but a candidate for a new paladin of the Temper province.
In view, there was only one table that was being used by a single person. It was a brunette woman, wearing the same kind of armour that the Priest was wearing, but it was specially designed and forged for her sex.
It was so tight on her body, that one would think it was an undersized shirt, but that was to be expected, given how thin Miyalin armours usually were. The material was so tough that one could forge armour for someone to be invincible, but still remain agile.
This was of course because the thicker the armour was, the heavier and more expensive it was, but it usually made no sense to forge one either way.
The sword on her hip would rub against the floor each time she took a sip out of her mug.
She slowly lifted her head, looking at Zafer.
¡°Hey! You are out here taking the whole table for yourself, huh?¡±, three adult men suddenly surrounded Zafer.
This made him break eye contact with the pretty woman.
¡°No, I¡¯m drinking with a friend!¡±, he pointed towards the direction Skil went, but the former smacked his hand.
¡°Yeah, you can go drink somewhere else!¡±
Zafer¡¯s heart twitched. The lady in Miyalin''s armour was still staring at him from across.
He could see it via his peripheral vision and sense it via his skin.
¡°Hey! What the hell is going on here?¡±, Skil aggressively put the mugs down on the table.
Zafer stood up, ¡°No it¡¯s okay. We can share the table!¡±.
¡°Hell, no way I¡¯m drinking with you!¡± the adult shouted, looking at Zafer¡¯s white hair.
Skil leaned forward to enter his sight, ¡°then get out!¡±
The man slowly turned towards him, pressing his index finger against Skil¡¯s chest, ¡°Be careful how you speak to me, boy¡±.
¡°No, you be careful how you speak to me fucker¡±, he took a four-pointed star badge out of his pocket pushing it in front of the man¡¯s face.
¡°Hey, he is a fucking paladin!¡±, one of the other 2 adults commented in awe.
The troublemaker contemplated for a bit but continued, ¡°Fuck if I care!¡±, he hit Skil¡¯s hand that was holding the badge turning to his friend, ¡°He¡¯s probably just one of those-¡° somebody suddenly grabbed him by the forearm.
It was Zafer, and it made a deep cracking sound.
The man screamed in agony backing off, but nobody noticed since it was too loud in the pub anyway.
¡°He broke my fucking hand¡±, his friends quickly escorted him outside.
¡°Prejudging old pieces of shit. I feel so sorry for you!¡±, Skil sat down, ¡°how often do people assume you are exiled?¡±
¡°Well, I don¡¯t know, but these types of interaction aren¡¯t rare, especially among older generations¡±.
Skil smiled, ¡°But don¡¯t those same old people also have white hair? Like the colour of it means anything. Not to mention how many people get born with it like you did¡±.
¡°You know more?¡±
Skil made a brief break, ¡°Yeah. A couple. I heard the 5th officer also has white hair¡±.
Zafer nodded noticing that the woman with Miyalin armour wasn¡¯t looking at him anymore.
¡°Tell me, is that woman one of Temper¡¯s paladins?¡±
Skil looked around spotting the women. Like he could ever miss her.
¡°No. That¡¯s Arcanie, an ex-officer of the now-gone Atlantic Republic province¡±, he looked at Zafer, ¡°You don¡¯t know much about politics and the big players?¡±
Zafer shook his head, ¡°never had any interest. Only recently started investigating stuff, but mostly Temper¡±.
Although most of the regular people were constantly talking and criticizing the actions of paladins, only a small number knew what each one of them looked like, mostly because the paladins themselves either didn¡¯t want to be seen or were too busy doing their own thing.
?Yeah, she is quite a criminal¡±, he was looking at Zafer while shaking his head up and down, ¡°but as if I care. That¡¯s not my job¡±.
Suddenly someone kicked the door of the pub open, screaming from the bottom of his lungs and overpowering everyone else, ¡°This area is under attack! Evacuate immediately!¡±
The male was wearing Miyalin armour but left before Skil could turn around to recognize him.
?What was that?¡±, Zafer was still seated.
?I don¡¯t know!¡±, Skil nervously looked through the window, ¡°Simra is there!¡±, he said as he rushed towards the exit.
On the other hand, Zafer wasn¡¯t that lucky. Given his height, he was overpowered by a stampede of men, however, in the middle of that crowd, he saw a shiny figure slip out of his field of view through the opened window.
¡°Arcanie?¡±
He swiftly pushed backwards escaping the crowd and jumping through the window himself.
He wasn¡¯t yet familiar with the city of Razihelnor but was undoubtedly sure that the direction she was going towards was the one Skil and he left 2 hours ago.
The Garden of the Elite!
It didn¡¯t take him a lot of pondering to decide to go after her. As of today, he was a candidate for the new member of the Temper province after all.
Unfortunately for him, no matter how fast he ran, he could never catch up to her, thus she eventually escaped from his sight.
It made him question what was she even drinking back at the pub.
A bunch of people were rushing in the opposite direction of him, but as he was nearing the Garden of the Elite, it became quite peaceful.
At the front gate, he spotted the 2 guards who interrogated him lying on the cobblestone.
Dead.
Normally even without them around, he had no permission to enter the Garden, but in this type of scenario, regulations could be neglected, right? Arcanie probably entered the Gardens as well but with malicious intent.
Skil said that she was a criminal.
Nevertheless, he didn¡¯t even have to venture that deep into the forbidden area before he suddenly got knocked down from behind.
His body rolled on the dirt.
It was of course the very woman he was looking for. It was scary to him that she managed to notice him despite her having that big of a lead in front this whole time. She wasn¡¯t a regular elite warrior.
He quickly stood up, staring down at her. He had no weapon on him, but if he could only get close to her, he could crush her with his bare hands just like he did to the arm of that adult.
¡°Unless¡¡±, he watched a blade appear in her hand, ¡°she threw something at me¡¡±
And that was exactly what she did. Straight at the head, the blade penetrated his eye.
Both of their hearts skipped a beat at the same time. Everything went dark and quiet.
Zafer slowly straightened himself, barely able to hold his eyes open from the blood streaming out of them down his cheeks. Around him was a crater, caused by an explosion. Smoke from the fire and ruined buildings hid the smell of human corpses.
The buzzing in his ears was slowly settling, allowing him to hear the screams of people.
¡°Wow. Well¡¡±, a white-haired middle-aged man approached him, ¡°¡that didn¡¯t take that long after all¡±, he swiped the blood off of Zafer¡¯s face.
¡°Do you know what happened, son?¡±
Zafer turned around looking at the corpses, ¡°I killed them?¡±, his eyes started to water.
The man went silent for a moment but then pulled Zafer to stand up.
¡°Great! All right let¡¯s get you out of here first¡±.
¡°So, you are saying that you can teach me how to control this?¡±, Zafer asked.
¡°Of course! Have done that quite a couple of times¡±, his purple eyes were reflecting in the apple he was holding, ¡°but I won¡¯t be able to mentor you for long enough. However, I will still share some practices with you that can help you to train your control on your own. Even after I¡¯m gone¡±.
¡°You were right¡¡±
The man bit the apple forgetting he had more to say, ¡°And also, if you during that process you get a wish to become one of those paladins or whatever for the girls and the money¡¡±, he swallowed, gazing at him, ¡°forget it, that¡¯s not happening with you¡±.
¡°¡and in the end¡¡± Zafer opened his eyes and clenched his teeth, ¡°I indeed didn¡¯t end up pursuing this career for the money or women¡±.
Chapter 2
Part one:
¡°Hey Simra! Can¡¯t we just begin? You are already here after all¡±, one out of 6 present paladins asked.
¡°No. We are going to wait for Banana¡±.
Skil¡¯s body slightly trembled. Is the leader of the Temper province going to come and give a speech himself? Only those who were inside or near Razihelnor yesterday were summoned to this meeting today.
He could already guess what the meeting was going to be about. Every paladin that was present during the attack was also present here, except for the 5th officer, who was commonly never to be seen.
Given the fact that Skil was the youngest paladin, he was proportionally the most nervous one. Despite the orders he received long ago from his mentor, the Priest Zer Ox, to never engage in combat alone, that was exactly what he did.
He could have helped to evacuate regular people or seek reinforcement, but something got to him at that moment. He went ahead to fight the intruder, and since then, he hasn¡¯t able to erase the picture of his opponent from his mind.
That guy looked so young and thin yet was so strong. He had to be drugged, and the mere thought of that scared him.
Beside him and Simra in the room were also 4 other paladins present, one of which was the Priest Zer Ox, and the others were unknown to him.
He wasn¡¯t even sure if they were even members of the Temper province.
Although it was a singular faction, ruled by dictatorship, most of its members had no everyday duty, and were only called to assist when higher commands saw appropriate. This was not only dependent on their skill but also on their loyalty.
Loyal and highly capable paladins were busier than the others, but that wasn¡¯t always the case.
Loud footsteps from 2 persons were moderately approaching the door of the room from the outside, and eventually, they arrived.
The first person to walk in had a regular build and height, black hair, and the rest of his face was covered with a blue scarf, except for his purple eyes.
That was the 4th officer of the Temper province, Uk!
Right behind him followed up another gentleman, wearing regular clothes and being the same height as Zafer, making him the smallest person in the entire room. That was the leader of the Temper faction!
Despite Skil being a member of the Temper province for a whole year he never got to learn the real name of the faction leader.
This was due to everyone else always referring to him by his nickname.
Banana.
He stopped in the middle of the room, where everyone could face him, gesturing to Simra to take his seat as well, but the latter ignored him and remained standing beside him.
Banana then scanned the room, noticing everyone¡¯s scary stares.
¡°Sorry for being late everyone! My shoe kept getting undone on the way here!¡±, he smiled.
This was a common saying for when someone had no excuse for being late.
¡°The meeting won¡¯t last long anyways¡±.
The Simple Physiology of Anomalies: Paragraph 2:
?Because of the reasons mentioned in the previous segment, every human was born with 3 out of 11 genetic mutations. (Adjusted: Anomalies).¡°
?.. those mutations could be further developed and controlled. Out of the 3mutations assigned upon birth, the one that was the easiest to develop was called a primary anomaly, followed up by secondary and the tertial, which was usually almost impossible to enhance any further¡°.
Banana made a long pause before starting to speak. His voice wasn¡¯t very deep, and his appearance wasn¡¯t bulky either.
?As you all know, we are currently not far behind from taking the number 1 spot as the strongest faction, but we were only able to get here, due to the sacrifices of our brave paladins¡±, there was no reaction from the audience, so Banana continued.
?Our beloved Temper is currently short on number. With only 15 active members, we have no choice but to stay on the defense¡±.
¡°I would also like to announce that, since yesterday, we have 1 candidate who is hopefully going to become a future paladin of our lovely faction, but because he is still young and unexperienced like Skil here, we won¡¯t be able to count on his help anyways¡±.
The paladins who never met Zafer showed sudden surprise on their faces. Despite wearing a scarf, the 4th officers Uk¡¯s reaction wasn¡¯t any different than that of the Priest Zer Ox from yesterday.
¡°Our number one enemy, the one that has been holding the rank as the strongest faction since decades ago, the Nubis, currently outnumbers us in paladins by 1, meaning there are 16 of them, and most of you are probably already familiar with most of them¡±.
¡°However, that isn¡¯t that big of a problem, as them having around 6 to 8 new candidates, and if all of them prove themselves to be worthy of a membership, then, we will still be able to hold our ground, but advancing further would require a lot of brainstorming, and I hate that¡±.
Although the number of people who were training to become an elite warrior or paladins exponentially increased, that didn¡¯t ease the process of accepting new members, and the reason was simple.
To be recruited, a province expected a warrior to be capable of high combat performance which was unbelievably difficult to achieve. It could take several years of non-stop training for someone to barely pass the bar, and that was only half of the application.
The other half was usually consisting of loyalty and trust. There was no use of a strong soldier if a province or its members couldn¡¯t trust them to complete a confidential assignment, or if a danger of betrayal was present.
?A couple of months ago Sir Simra and Priest managed to capture a few hooligans of a random sect that were terrorizing our smaller cities and villages. They escaped yesterday with the help of an anomaly-enhancing drug, however, you all helped to keep the damage minimal¡°.
¡°Nevertheless, the cost of that was their freedom, and now they, as well as others from their sect, hate us even more, and plan on uniting with the Nubis province. Those were the candidates I already mentioned¡±.
?Hey Zer Ox¡±, a tall paladin called him over, ¡°didn¡¯t you manage to overpower one of them with your little student? Why didn¡¯t you chase after him?¡±
He meant Skil.
The Priest got irritated, ¡°Why are you asking such a dumb question? You already know why, but if you want me to spell it out to you¡ I am not strong enough to fight a drugged child, and no one here is¡±. This question was rather mocking.
He was speaking the truth, nevertheless.
¡°Also¡±, he stood up completely interrupting Banana¡¯s speech, ¡°I¡¯m going to use this opportunity to say a couple of words about my student¡±.
¡°Skil. You acted completely inappropriately. You were lucky that I came on time to save you. What were you even thinking when you challenged that junky?!¡±
Banana stepped in, smile not erasing from his face, ¡°he is right Skil! With you gone, our Priest would be the only scriptman in the Temper, and although you are still kind of useless to us, we have high hopes for you! That¡¯s at least what Zer Ox said¡±.
The priest looked at Banana with a crumb of disgust, ¡°You are not useless, but if you die, I can¡¯t help you to achieve your life goal, and you won¡¯t be able to repay me for everything I did for you so far. I expect you to act more rationally¡±.
By drugs, Zer Ox here meant the anomaly-enhancing drug. Its purpose was self-explaining and although it was illegal, National Security has difficulties tracking and arresting those who produce and abuse them.
Everyone remained silent until Banana coughed, ¡°Now with that settled¡¡± he had a smug expression on his face, ¡°I would gladly like to hear what happened to our new candidate during the attack¡±.
Part two:
¡°So that¡¯s everything he said?¡±, Zafer pressured him.
¡°Yes, that was it. I guess he didn¡¯t want to keep anyone there no longer since he was late in the first place. But, Zafer, you need to understand that what you did there, what you accomplished, wasn¡¯t something that those guys haven¡¯t seen already¡±.
¡°But it was amazing, right? I singlehandedly protected the Gardens of the Elite¡±, he wanted to at least hear his opinion.
A case of content theft: this narrative is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.
Skil made a brief break before answering, ¡°Well, yes. Your anomaly was strong enough to prevent Arcanie from doing whatever she intended to, but you have to admit that it was based on luck by a huge part¡±.
¡°What do you mean based on luck?¡±
Skil¡¯s voice got sharper, ¡°Like what if she aimed for your neck or chest?¡±, he let him process that before continuing, ¡°Or what if she decided to take you on in close combat? Then what?¡±, he made his point clear with that last one.
Zafer pondered for a second, ¡°well alright, you may be right about the first one, but if she attacked me at close range? Me? I would have just crushed her with my fists¡±.
Skil was shaking his head the entire time Zafer was talking, ¡°No. No you would not. Arcanie may not seem like it given her feminine looks, but she would kill you in a matter of seconds. You probably would not be able to even stall for time¡±.
¡°Look¡±, Skil continued, ¡°even if you managed to grab her without having your abdomen opened, then what? I already saw you use your Iron Fist anomaly to crush that jerk¡¯s hand, but if you think you can break Miyalin¡I have some bad news for you¡¡±.
Zafer finally remained silent. Skil was right, he never even touched Miyalin, so if he says that Zafer would not be able to break it, then that was probably true.
The latter took a deep breath, ¡°Look, it''s autumn already and you told me that you started getting yourself into this whole business at the very beginning of this year. That¡¯s around 300 days. What were you doing exactly during that time?¡±
Zafer leaned back, ¡°Well first of all I was trying not to starve. I was making some small money with my best friend, but our business would get crushed every time, so I just relied on his savings. All in all, I didn¡¯t have much time to train or read newspapers about some crazy female paladin¡±.
Skil felt bad for scolding him that much earlier. He knew the struggle, but unlike Zafer, he was way luckier.
¡°So, you wanted to join Temper in hopes that you can pay him back? Your best friend?¡±.
Zafer stuttered silently, ¡°Well I joined because I wanted to get stronger and gain experience, but that¡¯s also one of the reasons¡±.
Skil leaned back as well, ¡°Yeah, money. You can get a lot of it being a paladin, but there is also a huge risk, you know?¡±
They were both staring at the river that was falling off a cliff, thus creating a waterfall down below. Each breath they exhaled was visible due to the low temperature of the air. Winter would usually come earlier in mountain cities.
¡°So why are you doing all of this then? Becoming a paladin and being scolded by the Priest?¡±, he returned the question.
¡°I need to get revenge¡±.
Zafer straightened himself, ¡°Revenge? On whom?¡±
¡°On the damned disease. It turned my family into apparitions¡±.
Zafer felt bad for Skil but was also confused at the same time, ¡°wait you told me that you are a scriptman. Is that how you plan on taking the revenge?¡±
Skil¡¯s face got filled with determination, ¡°hell yes! I just need to learn more from the Priest, and I will be able to write a code, that¡¯s going to erase the disease from this existence¡±.
Zafer frowned, ¡°But wait, you said that your anomaly was the 8th one out of 11, which enables you to write codes?¡±
¡°No. Anyone can write codes and become a scriptman. However, only someone with anomaly number 8 can have their skin turned into a parchment. Those are then used by scriptman to write codes¡±.
Zafer nodded in understanding the difference between the 2 terms. The 8th anomaly could not really be used in the offense, so it was obvious that Zafer didn¡¯t know how it worked yet.
After having a certain part of their body flayed, the skin of an 8th anomaly owner would then undergo a ton of processes in order to be turned into sheets of paper called parchments.
On this parchment could then be written tons of codes that could alter the reality itself! That¡¯s the reason why the 8th Anomaly was also called The Adjustment.
¡°Skil!¡±, someone called him over from the nearby building.
It was the Priest.
¡°I got it arranged for you! You can go pick up your new Miyalin weapon¡±, he shouted, to which Skil only responded by making a heart shape with his hands.
¡°That¡¯s my mentor right there!¡±, he turned towards Zafer, ¡°are you sure that you want to tag along?¡±.
¡°Why not? There is nothing else that I have to do while I wait for my friend to finish the flower farm anyway¡±.
Skil frowned, ¡°he won¡¯t let you help him?¡±
¡°I guess. He is working with someone else, and they both already wasted all savings on teleportation points for themselves. I¡¯ll get mine when the farm starts printing money¡±.
¡°Well, that¡¯s good. I could use some company for the next 40 days¡±.
¡°Forty days?!¡±, Zafer jumped.
¡°Of course! It takes time to forge a Miyalin weapon!¡±
Zafer argued, ¡°But the Priest said that you can go and pick it up!¡±
¡°That was just a phrase. It¡¯s obvious that it is going to take a while¡±.
¡°I thought that the weapon was done already¡±.
¡°How could it be? They haven¡¯t even measured me yet!¡±, he explained.
¡°What? They need to measure you?¡±
¡°Yes, so that the dimension of the weapon fits my size. A Miyalin weapon is already expensive enough, and it takes a lot of time to forge it. If it¡¯s going to be forged, it¡¯s going to be done properly¡±.
Zafer went silent, pondering about something. He still had some savings from the money his best friend gave him before setting off to Razihelnor, but there was no way it was going to last a whole month!
Skil exhaled, ¡°Please don¡¯t worry about money. I will be paying for both of our accommodations and food¡±.
¡°No, you can¡¯t¡±, Zafer has gotten serious.
¡°Yes, I can. For how much do you think my skin sells? I may be the youngest paladin in Temper, but don¡¯t you think that I am the poorest!¡±, he stretched out his arm and rolled up his sleeve to reveal a bandage around it.
Although most of the paladins had to be good and loyal warriors, there were some exceptions from time to time. One of those was scriptman, a.k.a. people born with the 8th Anomaly, The Adjustment.
The Book of Runes and Curses: Paragraph 1:
The difference between iron and Miyalin weapons wasn¡¯t only in their durability, but also in runes they could withstand. Iron weapons and armour could have couple of runes implanted in them, but their performance was nothing compared to the runes Miyalin could endure.
Nevertheless, due to some complex reasons, runes that were meant for iron equipment could not be implanted into Miyalin, but Miyalin usually had its own better replacements.
It was one day later when they arrived at Aperture Temple. It was settled in a valley and the right relation between nature and man-made structures made it so that everything was functional with minimal damage to the flora and fauna.
It was however autumn, so everything was dead, but the beauty of the Temple didn¡¯t perish. It occupied a 2 square kilometer large area, making it currently the third biggest Forge Temple in the whole nation.
There were only a couple of Forges that were allowed to work with Miyalin, and most of them belonged to the National security. Luckily, Temper had an agreement to use those forges since their own got destroyed recently.
¡°By the way, since you are already here, why don¡¯t you also purchase a Miyalin weapon for yourself?¡±
Zafer laughed, ¡°Why? Are you going to pay for that as well?¡±
¡°No. I am not that rich, alright¡±, he laughed, ¡°but we, the members of the Temper province, have some special privileges, like paying in installments. When your friend finishes the farm, won¡¯t you be able to pay for it?¡±
Zafer thought about it. What Skil said was true, and he would eventually probably have the money to pay the full price, but that was considering everything goes as planned.
For the past year, every time he and his friend tried to build a functional farm, something would happen, and it would get plundered.
However, before Zafer could answer him, a slim girl with wavy hair ran up to them.
¡°Hi! Are the two of you from Temper?¡±, she smiled at them.
¡°Yes, indeed¡±, Skil greeted her. He was the same height as her, meaning the difference in height between her and Zafer was a little bit in her favor.
¡°So you are Skil, okay¡¡±, she turned around signaling to maidens to take their backpacks and Zafer¡¯s iron sword. Their rooms were already reserved, and their arrival was expected, thanks to the Priest.
¡°Yes, and this is Zafer. He is a new candidate¡±, he introduced Zafer.
The girl measured him with a couple of glances, ¡°That¡¯s good. I¡¯m glad that Temper is starting to recruit the non-scary ones¡±.
Skil laughed, but she actually meant both of them.
¡°What do you mean by that¡±, Zafer could not get the point.
¡°Well, there are only two categories for you paladins. The scary ones and cookies, like you two, okay¡¡±
¡°Us both?!¡± Skil was taken aback.
Zafer frowned slightly, ¡°wait, I don¡¯t understand what makes me not scary?¡±
The girl looked at him with a smug face, placing her hand flat in front of her forehead, moving it forwards and backward implying the difference in their height.
¡°Wow¡±, he turned to Skil, ¡°you never told me they were hiring harlequins here¡±.
¡°Yes, you are really funny¡±, Skil rephrased that for the girl.
¡°Thanks, but that is only my side hustle. I¡¯m a designer by profession, okay¡±.
Skil was surprised, scanning her petite body again, ¡°you are?¡±
¡°That¡¯s right. My job today was to greet you and take the measurements¡±.
Zafer got puzzled, ¡°You are also measuring?¡±, he didn¡¯t mean her specifically but the designers in general.
The smug smile returned on the designer''s face once again, ¡°Yes. I will have to measure every part of your body in order for the most suitable weapon to be forged later¡±.
Zafer chuckled, ¡°every part?¡±
¡°Well, it¡¯s up to me to decide if it¡¯s necessary, okay¡±, she shrugged her shoulders.
Zafer blushed on the inside, ¡°That¡¯s crazy. I¡¯m not the one who lost his weapon though¡±.
The girl¡¯s smile disappeared for a second, ¡°oh. So, it¡¯s you then, okay¡¡±, she looked at Skil.
It made more sense to her that the candidate came seeking for a Miyalin weapon since most of the paladins were only using and nurturing 1 weapon at the time. Gathering runes for it consumed a lot of time and money, meaning that Smiths usually weren¡¯t seeing the same customer more than once in a single year.
¡°Well anyways, we can do it later¡±, she turned around swiftly walking towards the nearby building, ¡°you can follow me so that we can settle other things¡±.
The building was huge, but it wasn¡¯t a smith since no banging or smashing could be heard, unlike when they were passing some other buildings.
The walls of the first floor were covered with 10 meters tall bookshelves, filled with books and scripts.
Each book resembled one rune, and their price was determined by its nature, and some other things, having the value added on that of a Miyalin weapon.
This was where runes were stored, and weapons were designed.
¡°In this notebook are all weapon designs that we have. Feel free to pick one, okay¡±.
Both Zafer and Skil approached, flipping through the pages. Each one contained a big sketch of the weapon with its number written above, and the initial dimension of the blade and handle below.
This was only useful to the designer, however, since it helped them calculate the actual dimensions based on the measurements.
There were some two-handed swords and one-handed swords, but most of the notebook was filled with axes. This was confusing, since they were shorter than swords, meaning its user would have a range disadvantage.
¡°What¡¯s up with so many axes?¡±
Skil smiled, ¡°They are more preferred, especially the ones that have a blade only on one side of the handle. This is so that the opposite flat end could be used to smash, and not cut¡±.
Zafer frowned having little experience with Miyalin, ¡°But why choose smashing over thrusting? You can¡¯t pierce anyone with an axe¡±.
¡°You can¡¯t pierce Miyalin armor with anything if it¡¯s strengthened with a rune. You can¡¯t cut through it, and even if you can, there is a huge chance of your weapon breaking or getting dull¡±.
¡°Because of this, most of the paladins prefer using axes so that they can smash, bend, or break the armor. That¡¯s why your 6th Iron Fist anomaly is so valued in the world of paladins. An experienced Iron Fist user is strong enough to bend and tear Miyalin with their grip in a matter of seconds, faster than any Miyalin axe¡±.
Zafer shrugged his shoulders, ¡°It¡¯s still not as close as broken as other anomalies and their abilities¡±, he humbled himself, but genuinely believed this was the truth.
Some anomalies were indeed very overpowered.
The girl came up to them again, ¡°You can also use this if you need it¡±, she pushed a much thicker book towards them on the desk.
It had a cover and looked very high quality, despite the dust on it.
It was labelled, ¡°The Book of Runes and Curses¡±.
Skil paid no attention to it since, as a scriptman, he already was familiar with every rune and curse, but Zafer¡¯s eyes widened. He stepped away from Skil, flipping through the pages of the book.
It was a manual for every rune that exists!
If he had enough time to learn the content of this book, he would immediately be way more competent in combat, even if he wasn¡¯t using the rune himself.
Chapter 3
Part one:
It was the 20th day at the Aperture Temple, and the night had already fallen.
Nonetheless, it wasn¡¯t late yet.
If it was summer, the sun would be visible for at least 3 more hours. It was time for dinner, and both Zafer and Skil were headed toward a nearby town to satisfy their hunger.
The town wasn¡¯t big and developed like Razihelnor, but it was still the 3rd largest city that was part of the National neutral territory.
They found an interesting-looking pub and decided to eat there. It was decorated with a fishing net and anchors, revealing the type of food one could taste here.
¡°Can I order for you this time?¡±, Skil asked.
Zafer wasn¡¯t the one paying for this trip anyway, so he agreed.
Skil started listing through the menu as if he was looking for something.
¡°Have you ever tried octopus?¡±
Zafer frowned, ¡°No, what¡¯s that?¡±
¡°It¡¯s an undersea animal. You will see¡±, he put the menu down, ¡°the National Security paladins are using it as a badge¡±.
¡°Just like we are using a four-pointed star?¡±
Skil nodded, ¡°Yes, except they also use it as a strength measurement. The more tentacles someone¡¯s badge has, the more powerful the individual is¡±.
Now, spotting a regular paladin was rare for a regular citizen, but a member of the National security? That was even rarer!
Despite Zafer venturing into the world of paladins, he was nowhere near the depth of being constantly surrounded by such individuals, so it was expected for him not to know this fact.
National security members didn¡¯t have a single badge for the whole organization, but rather 5 isomers, versions, of a single idea that revolved around the octopus.
This sort of ¡°ranking¡± based on their strength was different from rankings in other factions where you had recruits and officers.
It was known as one¡¯s Threat Level and was very important to them. Zafer will recognize this importance shortly.
¡°What¡¯s the highest number of tentacles one can have?¡±
¡°Six, and there is only one person designated with that badge¡±.
¡°Only one?¡±
¡°Yes, and not only that but there is also only one person designated with a 5 tentacle one as well¡±.
Zafer was shocked.
¡°How is that possible?¡±
¡°Well, I don¡¯t know how they are measuring that stuff, but obviously not every paladin can reach such strength and power¡±, or so he assumed.
¡°Their weapons must be equipped with every strongest rune¡¡±
Skil laughed, ¡°Oh no. Their Threat Level doesn¡¯t have anything to do with one¡¯s weapons. It purely resembles one¡¯s combat and destruction capability¡±.
This meant that no possessions like weapons or scripts were taken into consideration when deciding one''s Threat Level.
Important note was that this didn¡¯t apply to one¡¯s anomalies, since those were considered to be a part of every human¡¯s physiology.
The Simple Physiology of Anomalies: Paragraph 11
The anomaly under serial number 8, the Parchment, was the feature of the skin of its owner to be transformed into parchments on which scripts are written. Using the ancient language, codes could be written on said parchments to bring imagination into existence, and that what is present into nothingness¡
As they were returning to the Temple, walking through the naked forest, a strange aura started radiating in the air. Only Zafer sensed it, but he thought nothing of it.
It was only halfway towards their accommodation when they spotted a tiny figure appear in front of them. In the middle of the woods.
Had the trees not lost all their leaves, the moonlight wouldn¡¯t be able to reach and illuminate the ground as it did now.
It was wearing Miyalin armor and was equipped with a sword made out of the same material.
It was Arcanie!
They both halted.
¡°Well, your anomaly really did mess me up. I had a headache so strong I could not stop throwing up for 3 days¡±.
Arcanie eyed Zafer down.
¡°Crap! I don¡¯t have my potions¡±, Skil looked at Zafer who already had his sword out.
¡°Drawing your blade? I won¡¯t kill you¡±, she said calmly, ¡°However, I will kill you¡±, she pointed at Skil, ¡°and everyone else in the Temple. So that only one suspect remains. I wonder who is going to get to you first. The National Security, or your beloved Temper?¡±
Zafer swallowed his saliva and it slowly descended his throat.
He wasn¡¯t aware just how strong Arcanie was, but if she really was capable of carrying out her threat, then it definitely would be a huge problem for Zafer, since nobody really knew anything about him.
Even Simra¡¯s sympathy was a mystery to him.
Also, until now Zafer only saw regular guards patrolling the Temple. This was because NS supposed that nobody was crazy enough to attack the Aperture Temple since it was located near the 3rd largest city within the neutral border.
If an attack happened, and an alarm was sounded, there were plenty of NS members in the city to take care of that.
At least, such an attack never happened.
¡°I think it would be Temper¡±, a voice came from behind Zafer.
Both he and Skil reflexively turned around to see the 4th officer Uk! He wore a Miyalin armour that resembled that of a samurai and had a long thin sword hanging from his waist.
It seemed that not all paladins were preferring axes over swords, however, just as Zafer thought of that, Uk stretched out his arm, and a Miyalin axe appeared in his palm out of nowhere.
¡°Sir Uk! I¡¯m unarmed!¡±, Skil informed him as he walked by.
It was rather a shame for a paladin like Skil to be in a situation like this.
Experienced paladins were always on alert and armed.
¡°Don¡¯t get in my way¡±.
This was meant more for Zafer than Skil, but the former didn¡¯t realize this at the time.
Arcanie frowned unsheathing her Miyalin sword and dashing towards Uk.
As the two were fighting, Zafer remained frozen, unsure about what he should do. Should he disobey and try to help, or just watch like he was useless?
He clenched his sword but was still not strong enough to break the handle.
Skil grabbed his shoulder, ¡°Don¡¯t. It¡¯s an axe versus a sword¡±.
This implied that officer Uk would come out victorious.
The two were moving too fast for their eyes to catch every detail, so they could not tell who was winning. Neither Uk nor Arcanie possessed superhuman speed or strength, meaning that both had to have drunk a potion before they stepped out of the shadow.
There were only 3 major types of potions with different effects.
The blue one which enhanced one¡¯s reflexes and overall speed.
The red one was granting regenerative power and,
The purple one was enhancing one¡¯s raw strength.
The blue and the purple ones lasted 20 minutes, while the red ones lasted only 10. There were special places where one could buy potions, and the price was the same everywhere, as well as the dosage.
Zafer didn¡¯t know how much the dosage was in numbers, but it was approximately 3 big gulps for him.
This information will prove to be meaningful later, as the speed at which one could consume a potion is highly important.
This was because it was much easier to harm someone while they were consuming a potion, so a paladin would try to keep that consumption time as short as possible.
An interesting fact was that although one was fast and had sharper reflexes, the rate at which they could swallow remained the same.
Once the liquid was consumed, however, the body took only a couple of seconds to absorb the active substance, granting its user its effect.
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A lighting bolt suddenly fell from the clear sky right on Arcanie.
Her armor protected her from the damage, but the lightning bolt created another problem for her.
It neutralized all the potion effects she had, forcing her to consume all of them again, while simultaneously fighting Uk.
This was a rune that could only be implanted in a Miyalin weapon.
Zafer remembered reading about it in the Book of Runes and Curses.
It was called the Purge rune and was able to summon lightning even from a clear sky on a single nearby enemy, resetting their potion effects and burning them, even though it was way weaker than the real lightning.
The rune could activate automatically, each time its cooldown ended, and also manually.
Nevertheless, this time Uk was unlucky, and Arcanie managed to create enough distance to drink the blue potion.
Now that she could move as fast as Uk, it would be somewhat easier to replenish her body with the remaining red and purple potion.
However, just as she was taking the gulps, Uk did something rather surprising.
He unsheathed his katana, completely letting go of his Miyalin axe which fell on the ground.
Although he was over 50 meters away from Arcanie, he swung with his sword horizontally in the empty air.
By the point he returned his katana in its case, a deep horizontal cut appeared on Arcanie¡¯s neck. Blood spilled down her throat.
Her head and neck were unprotected by the Miyalin armor.
¡°Damn it. Barely within my range¡±, Uk scolded himself.
She dropped her vial, having the potion leak out on the fallen leaves. It was the red potion, and she was so close to consuming it.
The fight lasted only 15 minutes, and it was already over.
She fell on her knees, grabbing her neck and trying to catch a breath. But that was impossible.
She was drowning in her own blood.
Even if she managed to pull another red potion out of her pocket and successfully drink it, it wouldn¡¯t change her fate.
The wound will close, but her respiratory system will still remain filled with blood.
That was after all how fragile humans are. Both anomalies and weapons were able to cause mass destruction, but a single cut across the throat, and one was a goner. The same applied to the heart and the head.
No red potion could regenerate those 2 before one''s soul left.
Zafer came down running to her, kneeling down beside her.
Her chest was heavily rising and descending at a fast rate as her eyes were filled with tears. Was this really what she deserved? Death? And this kind of one? He wasn¡¯t sure why, but he could not accept that.
He pulled a red potion out of her pocket, placing the vial on her lips, but she spilled most of it coughing, and not like it would help her anyway.
¡°What are you doing?¡±, Uk was still holding his axe.
Zafer could not take his eyes off of her, ¡°I don¡¯t know. Maybe¡ we can just hand her to the National Security and have them deci-¡°.
¡°That¡¯s impossible. Nobody cares about that piece of trash. Just leave her, come on. Get up¡±, he ordered.
Zafer exhaled, pushing himself to stand up, but then Arcanie grabbed him by the clothes. She didn¡¯t want him to leave her.
She maybe wanted him to keep trying to help her, or to just stay by her side, but that wasn¡¯t something he could do.
Not after the 4th officer of Temper ordered him. Just the mere act of him approaching her like this was enough to question his loyalty to the faction, and if not that, nobody really needed a fragile paladin who would act on his emotions.
He heartbrokenly pushed her hands, standing up to join Uk and Skil.
Part two:
¡°Yeah, since the beginning. Banana told me to¡±, Zafer could now hear the conversation between Uk and Skil.
Skil frowned, ¡°but how did Banana know that Zafer would decide to tag along with me?¡±
Uk looked at Zafer, expecting him to answer this one.
¡°Well¡¡±, Zafer felt embarrassed, ¡°Simra actually told me to ask you to come along. But! I would have asked you myself anyways¡±.
¡°Wow¡¡±, Skil felt as if he was taken advantage of.
This whole operation was a plan made by Banana.
Having spent a lot of time with other adult paladins, he knew how most of them were thinking.
He knew that Arcanie would try to kill Zafer at some point out of hatred, so he had him join Skil, and officer Uk spying on them in order to get rid of Arcanie.
It was unknown to Zafer, but she actually indeed was hated by almost every other paladin, no matter the faction they belonged to.
She was a criminal, and a multiple traitor, who abused her charm quite frequently.
The fallen leaves on the ground rustled.
All three of them turned around to where Arcanie was still lying.
Her body wasn¡¯t moving anymore as far as one could see from that distance, but both Uk and Zafer felt something strange.
She wasn¡¯t dead yet, and only Uk knew why.
¡°You have to be fucking kidding me¡±.
A weird and disgusting gurgling sound resounded, and she threw up all the blood throughout her mouth on herself.
She then slowly stood up, turning around, showing her both eyes liquefied and leaking down her cheeks.
¡°What!¡±, Skil was horrified, ¡°I thought that dead people cannot turn into apparitions!¡±
Uk gritted his teeth, ¡°They can¡¯t¡±.
It turns out that she went inverse with her last breath.
The skin on her face started to solidify and horns were puncturing through her skull. She kneeled grabbing her sword, as if she was still self-aware and sentient.
But she wasn¡¯t.
She wasn¡¯t human anymore.
Everyone was born with random 3 anomalies that were at the beginning almost negligible in intensity, but as one trained, the strength and intensity of anomalies would increase.
An apparition on the other hand, had all 11 anomalies unlocked and boosted to a certain degree of development that was based on their former strength and the individual¡¯s former anomalous stamina.
Since Arcanie used to be an officer of one of the major factions, it was safe to say that her anomalous stamina and strength were formerly finely developed, but now, when she turned into an apparition, they knew almost no limits.
If a regular human turned into an apparition, only a skilled paladin could take it out, but if a paladin turned into an apparition, it was a death sentence.
This happened very rarely because paladins were somewhat resistant to mutating, but if it happened, it was a huge problem for everyone living in that area.
They indeed were very unlucky.
¡°Run!¡±, Uk screamed.
The leaves on the ground scattered as the invisible wave of the air approached them, hitting the officer at the speed of the sound.
His body was suddenly pulled towards inverse Arcanie as if he was a magnet.
It was all her doing, and she also readied her sword to penetrate both his armor and body. With her current strength and the speed at which Uk was flying towards her, it was quite deadly.
Luckily, Uk was able to kick himself off the ground in midair, flying over the inverse Arcanie and rolling on the ground until hitting a tree.
However, she immediately followed up, not letting him take a break. They were at it once again, but this time Arcanie didn¡¯t need to drink any potions. Her raw strength, speed, and regeneration were far surpassing that of Uk¡¯s potions; hence, she could fight far more aggressively.
Cutting her limbs wasn¡¯t enough to tame her, as she could grow them back in tens of seconds, and her heart was protected by the armor.
That only left her head and neck, but as she currently had all 11 anomalies at her disposal, she could repel any attack that was meant to her face, just like Zafer did to her, except in this case, it would immediately kill Uk.
That¡¯s just how strong each of her anomalies currently was.
However, her technique and fighting skills remained the same, if not worse than before she turned into this abomination.
Unfortunately, the presence of all anomalies was making up for it, and even the 4th officer Uk stood no chance of fighting her at all. At least not without some sort of a special artifact or script, but those just weren¡¯t things paladins would walk around with.
¡°What should we do?!¡±, Zafer was panicking.
¡°We should run! As far as possible from here!¡±, Skil obeyed Uk¡¯s orders.
¡°No! I¡¯m not leaving him!¡±, Zafer unsheathed his sword, but Skil grabbed him by the arm¡¯s and pulled him aggressively.
¡°Are you out of your mind! We can barely see them!¡±.
Both Uk and Arcanie were moving even faster than before, mostly because Uk was just being tossed around by her, trying his best to protect his vital points.
Zafer pushed him, ¡°But he will die! I can see that much!¡±.
Skil got frustrated, ¡°He can¡¯t run away or teleport because of us! Let¡¯s go!¡±
This was true. The only reason Uk was still fighting that thing and not trying to get away from it was that he was afraid of leaving Zafer, especially Skil alone since the Priest cared about him a lot, and he was actually a contributing member of the Temper province, unlike Zafer.
Skil was a scriptman.
¡°So, if all three of us manage to vanish, what happens with that thing? Do you think it will go to the Temple or the city first?¡±
Skil went silent.
¡°We need to stop it here!¡±.
At that moment Skil fell into a state of hesitation. He was so close to jumping on Zafer and dragging him away using force, but that wasn¡¯t possible.
He was weaker.
Zafer rushed towards the apparition, waiting for the right time to jump in so that he didn¡¯t get in officer Uk¡¯s way.
He could not see them very clearly but relied on his senses, and as soon as he jumped into the battle, his skull was immediately pierced by a blade.
However, this was exactly what he wanted to happen.
Since he wasn¡¯t lacking only speed, but also fighting ability, the only way he could help in this situation was to provoke the apparition to harm his face in as deadliest was as possible.
This was enough to automatically activate his anomaly, and the stab that should have killed him got repelled in a non-physical way.
Unlike the last time, however, he didn¡¯t hold back.
This emptied his anomalous stamina almost completely, but it was a blow that could kill even an experienced paladin.
That was the whole point of his anomaly after all.
The explosion blew all the leaves off the ground away and even ripped out the nearby trees from the soil.
The constant pounding between Miyalin came to an end, rendering silence.
The explosion also created a crater in the ground and a sound that reached both the Temple and the city.
The leaves were slowly falling on the ground again.
¡°You did it!¡±, Skil stared at Zafer who was running away from the crater as fast as he could.
His face was sweaty, and blood was flowing down his eyes.
This was a sign that he was close to overheating himself since his anomalous pool got almost completely emptied.
Unfortunately, that wasn¡¯t nearly enough to stop it.
The apparition was still standing there, in the middle of the crater.
Unfazed.
¡°Fuck!¡±, officer Uk¡¯s hope got devoured.
He spun his axe, summoning another lightning bolt, but that didn¡¯t knock down the apparition either.
It seemed invincible, but in reality, Arcanie was still there somewhere. She had no memory or any cognitive function active, but could still feel pain, most of which was actually coming from the transformation itself, rather than these futile attacks.
Zafer¡¯s bloody eyes were staring at his superior who was getting thrown left and right, and it was only Uk¡¯s skill and technique that were keeping him alive.
The feeling of knowing that even his superior felt helpless in this situation, awakened a new emotion inside of him.
Someone suddenly placed their hand on Zafer¡¯s shoulder.
It was a man who was the same height as Skil but was brimming with strength. He wore a straw samurai hat and had a katana sword hanging from his waist, just like Uk did.
¡°This doesn¡¯t look that good¡±, he observed the fight.
Zafer was still staring at him since he never sensed him approaching.
That was when he noticed the badge on the man¡¯s shoulder. If he saw it yesterday, he would have thought that it resembled a monster from stories, but now he knew that it was actually an octopus.
Its head was a skull and had 6 tentacles coming out of its jaw.
That was a badge of the National Security! The strongest one of them all!
The man looked at Zafer seeing his condition calmly telling both him and Skil to close both their eyes really hard.
They did so without a second thought, almost reluctantly.
Everything went black, and the sound of Uk being thrown around immediately ceased.
¡°That should curb it until someone from the extermination unit appears¡±.
When Zafer and Skil opened their eyes, they could see both Uk and Threat Level 6 guy standing next to each other, while the apparition was pinned down to the ground with several Miyalin blades penetrating its limbs.
It was literally over in a blink of an eye.
¡°What do you mean? Lightning bolts falling from the clear sky, explosions¡ This is after all the 3rd biggest city in neutral territory near the 3rd biggest forge! I thought of coming to check earlier but had to go buy eggs before the store closed¡±.
Uk said something in a lower tone to him and neither of them looked away.
¡°Yeah, sure. I have to go now anyway¡±.
Zafer was baffled. Someone who was supposedly one of the strongest paladins in the whole Temper province was almost killed by a paladin apparition, but the strongest one from the National Security not only restrained himself from killing it but did it in under a minute.
¡°Is this the strongest elite warrior in the National Security?¡±, he wanted to confirm it with Skil.
The latter nodded, ¡°Yes. Wabler. Many consider him to be the pillar of the whole Pashtrik¡±.
Zafer pondered for a few seconds, ¡°he doesn¡¯t even seem to be that old¡±.
Skil laughed, ¡°How old do you expect him to be? After 50 one can only degrade and get weaker. His body is currently at its peak! The one who is actually talented is our officer Uk¡±.
The one who almost lost his life.
Zafer frowned, ¡°how old is he?¡±
Recalling how the apparition got him by surprise and how officer Uk managed to fight it off for several minutes, it was obvious to him that Uk indeed was one of the strongest paladins in the whole Temper.
¡°He lived to see 20 summers. The same age as us¡±.
Zafer¡¯s bloody eyes widened, ¡°What?!¡±
The Simple Physiology of Anomalies: Paragraph 9:
The anomaly under serial number 6, the Iron Fist, was easily distinguishable by the extremely strong hand grip its owner possessed¡
¡ A strength-enhancing purple potion could only imitate a fraction of its strength.
Chapter 4
Part one:
It was a whole week since the incident at the Aperture Temple, and the first snow already fell upon Razihelnor. Given the altitude of the city, it will linger until the spring comes.
The streets and the rooftops of houses were regularly cleaned from the accumulating snow, but the mountains above and below the city had layers that were a whole metre deep.
Zafer and Skil were both resting after completing their mission.
Skil¡¯s mission was to get a new Miyalin weapon, and Zafer¡¯s to lure the vindictive Arcanie so that officer Uk could slay her.
It wasn¡¯t that Temper paladins hated her or that she posed a threat to the whole faction. It was just that having a sinister and chronical traitor like her running around wasn¡¯t good for anyone, and once Banana saw a chance to trap and kill her, he used it.
However, on the brink of her death, she randomly turned into an apparition just like any other human could at any moment, causing officer Uk the unforeseen trouble.
Because of these troubles and the fact that he didn¡¯t get any praise for his bravery, Zafer decided to take the Book of Runes and Curses from the Aperture temple as his reward, just because he needed it and doubted anyone would notice it¡¯s absence.
¡°Alright but what did you mean with the designer girl? Did she sell you the book, or did you just blatantly steal it? Please respond¡±.
¡°Report to the Garden¡±.
Those were two scripts that were laying on the table of Zafer¡¯s accommodation.
The first one was a message from Skil while the second one was coming from Simra, summoning him to the Gardens of the Elite.
Zafer closed the book of Runes and Curses he was reading and replaced it with yet another book labelled ¡°The basics of the Ancient language¡±.
It was a manual gifted to him by Skil that could be used to write simple codes such as instant messages via scripts.
The S-mails or Script-mails were a common way of communication on distance between 2 paladins. They were sold in a pair of 2, and each of the paladins would take and carry one of them.
No matter how far apart the two paladins were, every time one of them wrote something using the ancient language on their S-mail, it would also appear on the other pair that was kept by the other paladin, hence allowing them to write instant letters to each other.
Nevertheless, for the message to copy itself onto it¡¯s distant pair, a specific code in Ancient Language was necessary before and after the wanted message.
Zafer was still learning these codes.
The Simple physiology of Anomalies: Paragraph 3:
It was a common misconception of what the difference between Anomalies (A) and Artifacts (AR) was. A simple example would be the A-8, the Adjustment. In this case, the anomaly was the SKIN of a living owner of said anomaly, but after the skin gets peeled of and processed, it becomes an artifact called the PARCHMENT.
It was the same thing, but in different circumstances. Each anomaly could be transformed into its corresponding artifact, and the stronger the anomaly, the stronger its artifact would be.
?He¡¯s here¡±, someone spoke from inside of the building.
A black shadow passed near the window, opening the door from the inside before Zafer could even reach the door handle.
¡°Take this¡±, Priest exited the building throwing a backpack on Zafer.
It wasn¡¯t bulky but was somewhat heavy.
?What¡¯s inside?¡±, he didn¡¯t know if it would be disrespectful to look inside himself.
?Potions¡±, Simra followed up, ¡°come on. We need to check something bellow¡±.
He meant bellow the city of Razihelnor which would be the foothill.
¡°Bellow?¡±, Zafer got confused, ¡°you mean the foothill?¡±
Although the mountain range was huge, it¡¯s pedestal wasn¡¯t nowhere near the sea level.
¡°Yes. Our guards spotted some changes using binoculars this morning¡±.
All 4 of them were walking towards the waterfall at the edge of the Gardens of the Elite.
Zafer bent over the fence, gazing down on the snow-white landscape. Not even trees could be spotted since they were also covered with snow.
¡°What changes?¡±
The fourth person spoke up in an annoyed tone, ¡°The snow melted on a specific area. You can¡¯t see it from here. Now shut up and listen to your orders¡±.
Among Temper, just like any other province, a conflict between its members was usual, but despite that everyone still managed to work as one. This was usually due to the fear of the stronger paladins and the banishment one might face as a consequence of bringing turmoil.
The one who silenced Zafer was the 2nd officer of the Temper province, and he was the 4th member of today¡¯s expedition.
?It is alright to ask but stay focused¡±, Simra commented.
Did Simra just defend him? It felt that way, but it also might be that he just wanted to silence the 2nd officer.
The na?ve Zafer still could not understand the relationships between each paladin of the Temper.
?We are set to go. You drink this¡° he turned towards Zafer handing him a long but narrow vial that was filled with an opaque white liquid.
?Is this a potion?¡±, Zafer placed it on his lips.
?Yes. The saliva of fliers¡±.
Zafer chuckled but still drank everything.
Its taste was even more awful than that of a red potion and it will linger for hours. If he was required to drink another one, he would probably reflexively spit it back into the vial.
¡°What does it do¡±, he didn¡¯t feel any difference.
The second officer looked at him somewhat disappointed, ¡°seriously? He never even drank a white one, yet you wanted to have him around?¡±
He was speaking to Simra.
¡°Well Uk said that he is a fighter¡±.
This was a reference to when Zafer purposely let the inverse Arcanie smash his head. It was a whole week after the incident and he finds only now that his action was in fact noted.
He suddenly felt somewhat bad for taking the Book of Runes and Curses from the Temple. Well, not like the book belonged to Temper, but he just hoped nobody finds out.
The Priest walked over to Zafer, ¡°alright now, it¡¯s just better to show you than to explain¡±, he squatted and grabbed him by the legs.
¡°Hey! Wha-¡°, he was too afraid to resist but was also scared of what was going on.
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Nonetheless, it suddenly all made sense to him.
The Priest threw him of the cliff.
The droplets of water and frozen ice particles were colliding with his face as he was accelerating towards the foothill, and then he hit the ground, leaving his body print in the snow layer.
Zafer felt no pain from the fall and just stood up unscratched.
The effect of the white potion was indeed easier to show than to explain.
¡°Don¡¯t be mad¡±, the Priest approached him from behind, ¡°nobody jumped voluntarily the first time¡±.
Behind them was a lake that was formed by the waterfall, but falling into it would just wet their clothes and maybe even sink those who wore Miyalin. Not to mention how cold it was.
Zafer wore a special coat made only for this weather, but those who were training their anomalies were rarely getting sick anyways.
The two of them waited for both officers to get down as well, and once they did, they set on a hike towards the suspicious area where snow was melted.
The uneven and steep terrain was covered with snow, making their every step more difficult than it should be. The constant uphills and downhills as well as the slippery ground made it quite troublesome to progress, and as the time went on, it was obvious that Zafer definitely wasn¡¯t the one that will slow them down.
Due to his constant financial struggles, Zafer never relied on portals for travelling like the most paladins did.
It was safe to say that his calves and legs were the second most prominent muscle on his body, right after his forearms, but that was thanks to his anomaly anyways.
The distances that he would usually travel were quite enormous since most important cities were just that far away from each other.
He would sometimes come across a farmer or a caravan that were transporting goods who were willing to take him with them on a trip, in return for safety from monsters, beasts, and robbers.
This was happening too rarely however, since the pathways that Zafer took were usually those that horses or caravans could not travel over.
To him this was just a normal walk outside, but for the 2nd officer it posed quite a challenge. The only reason why Simra and the Priest were keeping up was because of their battle experience.
To become an officer of a faction, one was not only required to perform excellent on the battlefield, but also to do a lot of paperwork, construction work, and so on.
Since the 2nd officer wasn¡¯t known for his fighting capabilities, he had to make up for this by doing paperwork.
This extra time spent in an office took a noticeable tool on his physical capability.
Luckily, his torture ended an hour later when they halted on a viewpoint to scout at the dried area with binoculars from afar.
¡°So, Zafer, you are the only one here with the Iron Fist anomaly. Can you break Miyalin yet?¡±, the 2nd officer asked him while Simra was looking through the binoculars.
¡°N-not yet. But I can break iron!¡±, he over-exaggerated. He could barely break iron.
The officer smirked, ¡°well I¡¯m glad that I brought my axe¡±.
It was obvious that he was picking up a fight, but Zafer could not do anything about it. The fact that he could not break Miyalin was his fault.
Usually, paladins with the Iron Fist anomaly were given a special treatment, since it was one of the biggest advantages to have on a battlefield.
The paladin whose armour or axe first broke usually died, and the Iron Fist anomaly could break Miyalin faster than any weapon.
It seemed to everyone that Zafer was given extra privilege by Simra, but it definitely wasn¡¯t due to his A-6.
Everyone else remained silent on that topic, Simra and Priest didn¡¯t pay any attention.
¡°So?¡±
¡°They are building a cannon. It¡¯s almost done¡±, Simra was still looking through the binoculars.
¡°Which one?¡±
¡°The 101¡±
That was a name of the cannon.
The priest laughed, ¡°a 101? And what are they trying to do with it? That thing can¡¯t even reach Razihelnor from here!¡±
Simra didn¡¯t find it funny, ¡°I don¡¯t know. It¡¯s Nele¡±.
Most of the experienced paladins knew each other very well due to the years of being around.
Nele was an experienced paladin known for being the best cannoneer and had destroyed a fair number of fortresses.
Faction fortresses.
¡°Which faction does he belong to?¡±, Zafer has never heard of him.
¡°None. He is the leader of the strongest gang¡±.
Gang was a party of people who were conducting business just like factions did, although they were not seen as one officially.
The difference was that anyone who wasn¡¯t a member of some recognized faction was not allowed to use Miyalin or to grow magic plants which were the main source of income for any paladin.
Gangs were practically illegal factions.
Nevertheless, most gangs delved into this kind of business since the National Security wasn¡¯t numerically strong enough to raid and seize every single one of them, so they were usually just waiting for factions to raid and get rid of them.
Such raids were happening frequently since no gang was usually strong or smart enough to withstand the pressure from the major 3 factions, but those gangs who did were especially dangerous and cunning.
This time the strongest gang was trying to raid Temper!
Since cannons could not be brought over, they were usually constructed right in front of the fortress. The melted snow area was where the cannon was currently being built.
Now since they know who was behind this, their next mission was probably going to be to get rid of the enemy.
Or so did Zafer assume.
¡°What is he doing?¡±, the Priest asked.
He was referring to the gang leader, Nele.
¡°He is looking at us with a pair of binoculars¡±, Simra put his binoculars down.
¡°Why don¡¯t we just wait for him to finish the 101 and see what he does with it?¡±
The Priest was a very experienced paladin and Zafer will only come to understand that in the future, as he keeps making progress.
To Zer Ox (the Priest), it was laughable that Nele was trying to raid Razihelnor with the 101 cannon.
However, Simra frowned, ¡°don¡¯t underestimate him. He used the same cannon to raid the Atlantic Republic. We aren¡¯t going to let him finish constructing that cannon¡±.
Although Simra was the 3rd officer, he had the strongest say among them, and this will be their mission.
As soon as Simra issued the order, the snow beneath all 4 of them suddenly got scattered in all directions, revealing an adult male covered in Miyalin. His body was rotating horizontally midair, kicking the Priest and the 2nd officer in chest with all his might.
The impact of the kick was as strong as if he struck them with an Miyalin axe, which was unbelievable.
This was an experienced gang member.
Both Priest and 2nd officer flew in the opposite directions of each other, rolling downhill.
Simra also got caught by surprise, and was about to summon his Miyalin axe, but man¡¯s hand grabbed Simra¡¯s palm. Due to how the summoning rune worked, that was impossible now.
Nonetheless, there was still another person present on their side. Zafer
He dashed forward, unsheathing his iron sword as there wasn¡¯t anything that he could do with his Iron Fist anomaly. Almost the entirety of man¡¯s body was covered with Miyalin armour, expect for his head.
That was exactly where he aimed.
The man gazed at Zafer with a faint smile as if he was taking forever to reach him, but when he finally did, the man just let go of Simra¡¯s palm and swung with his hand at Zafer.
CRACK
The iron sword got broken just like that.
Zafer got kicked and ended up the same way that the Priest did.
On the bright side, this allowed Simra to finally summon his axe and engage in combat.
The priest and 2nd officer already recovered but weren¡¯t going to assist Simra. Their teamwork and experience told them there was no need.
What was currently required was to destroy the 101 cannon.
Simra¡¯s orders were absolute.
The person they were dealing with right now was the same one who chased the Atlantic Republic into despair and ruin. If the whole gang was here, they stood no chance of killing or arresting anyone, so the main goal at this point was to just destroy the cannon and retreat.
Simra was currently overpowering the gang member in terms of skill and technique, which was to be expected. As far as Zafer knew, Simra was the strongest member of the Temper province.
Zafer took some time to recover because he was drinking the potions that were in his backpack. He was ready to assist Simra. The purple potion gave him strength and the blue potion gave him speed.
However, as soon as he arrived at the scene ready to fight, a loud explosion resounded between the mountains, making everyone¡¯s ears turn off for a couple of seconds.
Zafer reluctantly flicked his body, scared by the loud sound.
Simra and the man didn¡¯t get scared but stopped fighting.
The explosion¡¯s sound was boosted by the echo of the mountains.
Zafer didn¡¯t know what it¡¯s source was. Was that an anomaly?
Simra was as baffled but knew that this wasn¡¯t Priests or 2nd officers doing.
Something happened, but he could not see what.
Everything was as peaceful as it used to be.
¡°What was that?¡±, Simra had a bad feeling.
The man smiled, ¡°it seems that the cannon has fired¡±.
Simra turned around looking at Razihelnor. One cannon ball could not destroy a whole city.
There was no way that was possible.
Right?
Nevertheless, both Simra and Zafer soon understood that it was.
The silence and buzzing in their ears got replaced by a horrifying sound, and now he saw what it was. It was never about the cannon ball in the first place.
All the mountains around them trembled due to tons of snow mass gliding downhill.
It was an avalanche, and it was coming straight towards them.
The gang member summoned a large sword that had an oblong hole in it¡¯s very middle. He then swung it vertically in the air, cutting the fabric of space and thus opening a portal. It was just a line, but if stretched with hands, one could fit and pass through it with no problem.
Simra quickly did the same but with his Miyalin axe, ¡°Zafer! Come!¡±.
The man smiled gazing at the Razihelnor, however, his smile than turned into a poker face. There was no avalanche falling on the capital of Temper. The snow above it stood fix in the place.
¡°Wow. That damned Banana. He thought of this didn¡¯t he?¡±, the gang member stepped with one leg through the portal, but then something unexpected happened.
Zafer who was supposed to run towards Simra and escape through the portal actually jumped on him with all his might, pushing him away from the portal! As a result, Zafer accidentally fell through his portal.
Simra¡¯s eyes were wide opened.
The avalanche was already in front of them, and the gang member would not get up in time.
Did Zafer just kill him?
Simra glanced at the portal Zafer passed through, contemplating if he should follow him, but there was literally no time anymore.
He quickly passed through his own portal and closed it.
This happened the very last moment.
The gang member got buried bellow the tens of metres of snow and died.
On the other side, the snow streamed through Zafer¡¯s portal since it was still opened, but due to how portals worked, it got closed a couple a minute later.
Zafer stood up, scanning his surroundings.
He was in a swamp, possibly enemy territory.
The portal could have led him on a whole opposite side of the Pashtrik country! He was in a wilderness by himself, but this was nothing new to him.
The only problem was how he is going to return to the civilization without knowing where he is.
Chapter 5
Part one:
¡°I am glad that you are well. Take a break¡±.
This was written on the S-mail he shared with Simra.
Zafer made sure to not make Simra too worried about his well-being despite the fact that he was lost in the middle of a nowhere.
What¡¯s even more concerning was that an enemy opened a portal to this location.
Although there were not many swamps inside of the Pashtrik basin, he could not tell where the portal took him. Therefore he was just following the least muddy path, hoping to find any kind of a guide mark.
Normally when Zafer was traveling on foot, he would have a compass and a map with him, but this time they were left at his inn.
This was the first time in a while since Zafer was wandering alone through the wilderness.
Unarmed, since his iron sword got broken by the Iron Fist anomaly.
One could argue that Zafer¡¯s hands themselves were also a pretty dangerous weapon, but not as close as dangerous as they could be, so he still preferred to always carry a sword with him.
After a whole day of careless wandering the fear of coming across wild beasts or bandits went away.
It was weird since the places just like these were the ones that were usually overflowing with danger.
This was the first time he saw absolutely none while traveling, and he was usually traveling through even more secure areas like forests or meadows. Never through a swamp.
The night was drawing closer again, which meant the fog. This will make it harder for him to orientate in space, but he still decided to keep on walking.
At this point he was starting to speculate that he was just going in circles this whole day.
There were a couple of landmarks which he thought he could recognize.
His thirst wasn¡¯t that much of an issue, since he still had that backpack with potions, and although they tasted awful, they provided a good alternative for water. For now.
The problem was food.
He had none, and it started to irritate him that there were no beasts or animals at all. His self-confidence about slaughtering one was only growing.
Starting fire wasn¡¯t a problem. He was experienced in those kinds of stuff.
Aside from some bugs, the only other sound that could be heard was the one of a wind passing through a specific type of plant.
It looked like a terrestrial coral, and each time the wind passed through its holes, it made either a creepy creaking noise, or a very deep one, similar to the tuba.
There was no end to this unpleasant melody, and it got carved inside of Zafer¡¯s head that he was starting to hallucinate hearing things.
Somewhere, when the moon already appeared on the zenith, he spotted a light far away through the dense fog. And those weren¡¯t fireflies. He found something man-made.
Now it could be an enemy outpost which would be bad for him, but he still believed that he could sneak up and at least get some information on his whereabouts.
As he was carefully approaching it, he passed near other objects like dilapidated wooden fence, a small boat and chains from which lanterns were hanging.
It turned out it wasn¡¯t a camp or anything of that kind. It was just a single house.
He decided to approach the building, carefully looking for any signs of recent human activity, but there were none.
It seemed as if the place was abandoned for ages, but the light source from the inside told him otherwise. Did someone live here?
Darkness covered the whole swamp as a cloud walked in front of the moon.
Everything was almost pitch black.
He approached the tinted window and took a look inside of the house.
It seemed as if there was only one room and there wasn¡¯t much to see. A couple of furniture and a single shadow.
He felt a little uneasy but there seemed to be no danger or a sign of paladins.
There was no way that this was a hideout for the world¡¯s strongest gang!
He knocked and stepped away from the door.
The silence reigned.
Wooden planks from the inside screeched as someone took strides towards the door, finally stopping in front of them.
The door opened, revealing a small girl that was holding a lantern in her hand. Her eyes were almost totally closed due to her cheeks and eyelids, and her black hair was long just enough to cover her large chest.
She was smaller than Zafer by a whole head!
Nevertheless, the girl was very lean, which was easy to spot due to the tight clothing she was wearing.
¡°A stranger¡¡± she said with a soft voice.
Zafer¡¯s heart skipped a beat. He wasn¡¯t expecting this kind of encounter.
¡°I got lost and saw a light¡±.
¡°I see¡¡±
Zafer was puzzled by her answer.
¡°May I enter? I haven¡¯t eaten anything the whole day¡±.
¡°I don¡¯t know. I might have to think about that¡±, her worried face frowned.
It occurred to him that she was scared, but she didn¡¯t give off that kind of aura.
She was just standing there. At the door.
¡°What is there to think about? I don¡¯t know where I am!¡±, he got irritated.
The girl spoke, ¡°alright. Come in¡±.
As he saw through the window, there was only a single room inside of the house and he scanned it the second he entered. Everything was ruined but the place could be used as a shelter.
There were also male clothes scattered all around.
¡°Whose are those?¡±, Zafer pointed at the clothes feeling somewhat uneasy.
A myriad of possibilities crossed his mind, but he didn¡¯t want to make any assumptions.
The fact that he ended up here was maybe a fate.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about those. We are alone¡±.
Zafer paused for a moment, taking a look through the window, but there was nothing to see even on the other side of the house.
¡°Do you have something to eat¡±, that was his main concern anyway. If there indeed was an enemy here there was nothing he could do. At least not on an empty stomach.
The girl stood quietly in a place as if she was thinking what to do next.
¡°I do. Please take a seat¡±, she pointed at a wooden chair near the entrance.
Zafer took a seat and watched her disappear in a dark corner of the room before she returned with a bowl of stew that was already half eaten.
It wasn¡¯t even warm.
She stood there in front of him like she was waiting for him to take a bite, ¡°is something wrong?¡±, she asked.
Beggars could not be choosers. A hungry man would not complain, but Zafer¡¯s body was giving him a strange feeling.
Was she eating this?
He opened his mouth in order to say something, but before he could even tighten his vocal cords, he spotted something.
The light of the lantern was illuminating the girl¡¯s figure.
The large chest of hers were very noticeable given her small and lean body, and exactly on that area was a skull badge with tentacles coming out of its jaw.
Five of them.
Her hand approached Zafer, slowly grabbing a spoonful from the stew and putting it in his mouth.
¡°Who are you?¡±
Girl straightened up, ¡°Laura¡±.
She took another spoonful drawing it closer to Zafer¡¯s mouth, but he backed away a little bit.
¡°Do you live here¡±, he glanced at the male clothing once again.
¡°No¡±, she gazed at his mouth insisting with the spoon.
Zafer backed away again, ¡°then what are you doing here?¡±.
This time she did not answer before Zafer took a bite.
She was feeding him.
¡°I was waiting for someone, but I don¡¯t think it¡¯s you¡±.
Zafer frowned, ¡°why not?¡±
¡°Because you are way too weak¡±.
His heart skipped a beat as she pushed another spoonful into his mouth.
¡°I am not hungry anymore¡±, he waved his hand trying to stand up, but he suddenly lost control in his legs, and just fell back on the chair.
The girl followed up immediately ¡°That won¡¯t do. You said that you were hungry. Were you lying?¡±.
Zafer was still trying to move his legs, but they were paralyzed. It was the strangest feeling ever. He started to panic from the inside.
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¡°Now I want to ask you something¡±, Laura straightened herself, ¡°how did you really end up here?¡±
She placed her foot on the chair Zafer was seating on. In between his legs.
She then wide opened her both eyes, revealing a yellowish-green iris with a slit pupil. He felt as if she was gazing into his soul.
This wasn¡¯t a clueless innocent girl! Was she even a human?
The atmosphere shifted drastically in such a short period of time it made him a little dizzy.
¡°I am a candidate for the Temper province. We got attacked and I suddenly passed through a portal that led me here¡±.
Girl seemed interested ¡°Really? Attacked by who?¡±
Zafer frowned. Simra never mentioned the name of the gang, and he could not remember the name of the cannoneer Zer Ox (the Priest) was talking about.
¡°I-¡I don¡¯t know. I was just following orders¡±.
Laura went silent pondering about something. She was taking her time.
¡°What happened to them?¡±, Zafer pointed at the male clothing bringing Laura back to the room.
¡°Oh. Don¡¯t worry about them. I already told you that we are all alone¡±.
The silence reigned once again.
The badge that Laura had was a skeleton skull with 5 tentacles coming out of its jaw. Although it wasn¡¯t an octopus, everything pointed towards the same conclusion.
She was the only person designated Threat Level 5 in the whole country!
¡°Are you working for the National Security?¡±, he mumbled.
¡°I do¡±.
Zafer swallowed his saliva, ¡°so you are a Threat Level 5?¡±.
She nodded.
There was no doubt about it now.
Despite her petite body, this girl was actually ranked the 2nd strongest person in the whole world!
Zafer swiftly forgot that he was in an interrogation, and silently admiring her.
The biggest fear Zafer had when he first committed to this business of paladins was if his height and anomalies are going to bottleneck him forever.
These were some things that he just could not control, and the question was if his peak strength is going to be held down by them.
However, now, seeing Laura, he was starting to get hope that might not be the case.
She was the ultimate proof to him that the height didn¡¯t matter if he wanted to become a great and strong paladin!
¡°Um¡ can you please be my teacher!¡±, he fell on his knees touching the floor with his forehead.
Laura seemed to like this type of attitude and all in all she indeed was someone who deserved a huge amount of respect.
¡°You are weird. I don¡¯t know if I can trust you¡±.
Zafer lifted up his head somewhat scared, ¡°I didn¡¯t lie to you!¡±
Laura smirked, ¡°I know. I can see that¡±.
She knelt down to his level.
¡°Your primary anomaly is A-6, the Iron fist, and your secondary anomaly is A-11, the Almighty Eye. Same as mine¡±.
Zafer got goosebumps. There was no way anyone could guess someone¡¯s anomalies by just looking at them! Was that due to her Almighty Eye anomaly?
¡°Can you please help me train my Almighty Eye to be as strong as yours!¡±
Laura stood up.
¡°No. Yours is an euclid¡±, she closed her eyes again, deactivating her Almighty Eye anomaly.
¡°An euclid? What does it mean?¡± he stood up as well.
¡°An euclid anomaly is when the anomaly is already developed to some extent, instead of it starting at 0. They are unpredictable, hard to control and impossible to train¡±.
Zafer argued, ¡°but I already learned how to control it!¡±.
¡°Well controlling it isn¡¯t a problem. Your repelling ability seems to be quite strong, but you can¡¯t learn any other techniques. It¡¯s stuck. You can only train your Iron Fist anomaly¡±.
Zafer was confused, ¡°What do you mean other techniques?¡±
¡°Anomaly isn¡¯t a superpower, but a chain of possibilities which someone can explore¡±, she opened her eyes stretching out her tiny arm towards him, ¡°try to break it¡±.
Zafer was puzzled as he slowly grabbed her arm and squeezed it gently, but as he increased his grip strength, he slowly realized that there was no difference. He felt like he was giving his 100%, but Laura¡¯s hand was just the way it was.
¡°One of the main and easiest A-11 techniques is to cancel other anomalies, but I can also repel attacks like you can, because I trained for it¡±.
This suddenly started to make sense. Laura made his legs go numb and could also tell if he was lying thanks to her anomaly!
¡°This is absurd! How are you so strong?! How is anyone supposed to fight you?¡±.
¡°I told you already, you are too weak.¡±, she explained, ¡°I can bet that one activation of your Almighty Eye is enough to overheat you¡±.
Zafer blushed, ¡°well¡ kind off¡±.
Laura waved he hand, ¡°I can¡¯t train you. Ask Mio¡±.
¡°Who?¡±
¡°He is the other guy from my unit. He is also designated Threat Level 5 like me but has the Iron Fist anomaly like you¡±.
Zafer was astonished, ¡°really? I thought you are the only Threat Level 5!¡±
She smiled, ¡°well he does like to keep the low profile¡±.
If what she was saying was true, then Mio might be a perfect coach for him!
Someone with a weak and useless anomaly like A-6 Iron Fist actually managed to climb to be a Threat Level 5!
Maybe the only limits Zafer had was the ones his mind put on himself.
¡°Where can I find him¡±.
Laura exhaled.
¡°In the Koth city. I should also get going, my job here is done¡±.
She slowly walked towards one of the cabinets, pulling out a huge sword with an oblong hole right in its middle. It was the same artifact which that adult man who attacked Temper used to open a portal!
¡°Your job? What is that unit of yours called?
Every member of the National Security was a part of some unit determining their job.
¡°The anti-paladin unit¡±, she threw the sword artifact at him, ¡°that one leads to Koth¡±.
Just like there was regular police for regular citizens, Mio and Laura were the police for paladins. They were the only people strong enough to handle them!
Zafer took the sword and penetrated the fabric of space with its tip. The blade of the artifact slowly reached the floor and Zafer opened his first portal. It felt as soft as if he was cutting through a butter.
Part two:
There was this fallacy which the regular people had about paladins, and it was that they got paid by their respective province a huge amount of money for their assistance and skills, but that was far from the truth. In reality it was quite the opposite.
Paladins were indeed very wealthy, but that wasn¡¯t because they were getting paid, instead it was because of the status that a faction was giving them. It was this status they were paying the ¡°membership¡± for, and thanks to which they could conduct some business that would otherwise be illegal.
A good example of these businesses would be a cultivation of magic plants, however, this type of business required a huge amount of initial capital, knowledge about building a farm, time, and effort.
Zafer had none of those, but he still needed money.
Given the past events he realized just how much he is lacking in strength and fighting skill, which meant a training arc was inevitable, and for that he needed a lot of potions and a new weapon, both of which costed money.
The first thing he had to do was earn some cash, and this time he could not just ask his best friend Semi to lend him some. It was a time for Zafer to take his independence seriously.
What he could ask him, however, was a job opportunity.
Unlike him, Semi was a lot more social person, which meant that he knew and got along with a many people. Zafer didn¡¯t like some of them, but that was exactly where money was.
Easy opportunities for a weak but capable guy like him.
The city of Koth was the 2nd biggest city in the whole country, and it was located within the neutral territory owned by the National Security.
It was also referred to as a city of paladins.
Two men walked into a pub Zafer was drinking in this whole-time. It was one of the most popular pubs for paladins and freelancers.
Freelancer was a name for people who were training and usually engaging in the same or similar businesses like paladins, except they were part of no official faction.
There were some adult and experienced freelancers that were sometimes hired by the National Security, but most of them were just young people.
Those had it the worst since they were usually pretty weak, had nobody to protect them and had to be really careful how they earn money, especially if it was by illegal means.
Both individuals sat at Zafer¡¯s table, but only one of them was known to him. It was his best friend Semi, his first business partner and the one who took care of him ever since Zafer started training.
They greeted each other excitingly.
The other guy sitting next to Semi was someone he never saw before, but could take a wild guess to his identity.
¡°So, this is the guy I¡¯ve been talking about. His name is Knuckles¡±, he turned to Zafer, ¡°and this is Zafer¡±.
¡°I glad to meet you!¡±, Knuckles stretched out his arm towards him.
Zafer shook his hand with a plastic smile, ¡°same¡±, he leaned back, ¡°so how is the farm looking?¡±
Up until now Zafer and Semi were always sticking together and building magic flower farms. These were illegal but were very efficient at making money.
Unluckily, both of them were too inexperienced and had their farm raided by other gangs or even paladins a couple of times. Each time they had to start from scratch.
This was the first time Zafer was not part of the construction team, as he got replaced by the Knuckles, a new member of their team that Semi met.
This was the first time he saw Knuckles in person, and he definitely didn¡¯t look like a fighter. Zafer was kind of disappointed.
They both looked at each other slowly nodding in affirmation, ¡°quite good. The construction is near the end, but we still need to purchase the magic flowers¡±.
Zafer¡¯s body tensed up, ¡°have you yet decided on which type you are going to cultivate¡±?
¡°The cheap one¡±, Semi said immediately.
¡°But, as soon as we have enough money, we are going to buy the flame flower¡±, he added.
Zafer¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°really?¡±
¡°Well¡±, Semi didn¡¯t want to admit it, ¡°Knuckles convinced me¡±.
¡°That¡¯s¡±, Zafer looked at Knuckles, ¡°that¡¯s great! You know I support that decision!¡±.
¡°Have you ever cultivated them?¡±, Knuckles was curious about Zafer¡¯s passion.
The latter made a brief break as if he was recalling some old memories, ¡°yes¡ I had a chance to thanks to Simra¡±.
Until it all got plundered.
¡°Oh right! You are now a Temper candidate!¡±, Knuckles got excited, ¡°how is it? Have you interacted with any paladins?¡±
Zafer got more engaged, ¡°yea. A couple of them¡±.
¡°I did with some of them as well! I¡¯m good with Simra, the first officer¡ I even share an S-mail with the 5th officer¡±, he laughed, ¡°we are writing to each other quite frequently¡±.
Zafer was astonished, ¡°You were that close with the 5th officer?¡±
¡°Yes. I know a lot of people, and they know me¡±.
Semi exhaled, ¡°you two Temper fanatics just keep talking. I need to get something done¡±, he stood up turning around to Zafer, ¡°ask him about a job¡±.
He meant Knuckles.
¡°Yea, that¡¯s right. He mentioned you need a job, right?¡±
Zafer nodded.
¡°Well, I am no fighter or similar, but there is someone who might have an issue that you could solve!¡±
Zafer frowned, ¡°who is he? A freelancer?¡±.
This piece of information was very important to him since he didn¡¯t want to work with anyone connected to the Nubis province. They were Temper¡¯s number one enemy faction.
¡°No. He is a Temper paladin! A young one, just like us!¡±
Zafer got surprised, ¡°there are more young Temper paladins?¡±
Knuckles nodded, ¡°he is on his way. I wrote him to join us¡±.
Finding out that Uk is the same age as him was already quite shocking due to his strength and combat capability, but the fact that there were even more paladins from his generation was too unreal to Zafer.
Young paladins were usually prejudged as being weak and having no experience, and even though that wasn¡¯t true for some, it was for the most.
Where were all the adult paladins?
As he was talking with Knuckles about Temper, waiting for the respective paladin to appear, he started pondering about this.
One of the reasons could be that there were no adult freelancers, all of them being already recruited by a province or gang or maybe even the National Security.
This meant that the number of adult members within one faction could only decrease, and not grow, since there were no free adults that could join a faction unless they left their former one or got kicked out.
Whatsoever, it was pretty dangerous for an adult to be a freelancer.
Given that adult paladins had a lot of experience, it meant that they also had a lot of enemies, and being a member of no faction wasn¡¯t a good omen for them.
It was like having no roof during a storm.
Although every province like Temper had its own law and police, those were not very effective, and were only eligible for regular folk.
In scenarios where Miyalin, potions or runes came into play, it was a job for National Security police, no matter if the criminal is actually a paladin or not.
The regular police were not allowed to arrest such individuals, and there were only a couple of National Security members that could intervene. Two of them being Laura and Mio.
In a nutshell, this meant that an adult freelancer could get killed by a paladin and face no charges or consequences, even if the murder is made public.
Take Arcanie for example.
Although she turned into an apparition, nobody questioned what were Uk, Zafer and Skil doing there with her before.
The National Security was responsible for arresting paladin criminals, but they didn¡¯t really care in cases of paladins killing each other.
They only cared if a paladin was assaulting regular people.
But then, what about young freelancers? They were extremely vulnerable and also had no one to protect them.
It seemed as if they had it even worse than the adult paladins, but that wasn¡¯t true since nobody really cared about them.
Sure, the young freelancers were weak and would get beaten up and plundered quite often, but nobody had a need to kill any of them.
Adult paladins could do it easily if they had a reason, but on the first sight they were just bugs to them.
This was a case with Zafer and Semi for example. At the beginning of this year when they were freelancers, they got raided quite often, but never killed.
From their conversation Zafer could see why Knuckles was so important to Semi. He wasn¡¯t a fighter but knew a lot of paladins and important people
After a while a stranger sat down with them at the table.
He wore a black-green uniform with a 4-pointed star badge. This was a member of the Temper faction that had a job offer for Zafer.
It was going to be a good and a fair amount of money for the both of them, but it is also going to be a beginning of Zafer¡¯s steep descent towards the recognition and fame.
In just two years from now, Zafer¡¯s name is going to be well known by every single paladin all around the Pashtrik basin.
Chapter 6
Part one:
¡°I convinced Semi to buy a flame flower right away!¡±
That was an S-mail Zafer shared with Knuckles. After meeting him the previous night, they talked a lot to get to know each other.
He was lucky that Knuckles was always carrying a spare S-mail pair with him in case he needed to exchange them with someone like Zafer.
But that wasn¡¯t the only S-mail pair Zafer received that day. Wizaruth was a member of the Temper province who was introduced to him by Knuckles the same evening.
He was the one who wanted to offer Zafer a job.
It was a simple one, yet it made him feel somewhat uneasy.
The city of Koth where he currently was is the 2nd biggest city in the whole country, and it was located in the neutral territory controlled by the National Security.
It was also referred to as ¡°the city of Paladins¡±.
That was due to the huge attraction located in the very middle of the city.
It was an approximately 100 quadrat metres large area, untouched by modern humans.
It consisted of various biomes whose origin could not be explained by anyone.
It was called the Arena and was the only place in the whole country where anyone could legally wield a Miyalin weapon and use potions.
No matter if they are an official paladin or just a random citizen.
This was where the freelancers were most active.
It was a place where many would come to in order to train, and one could even say it was a place where Zafer¡¯s journey started.
Despite the cold weather today, the Arena was full of people he had never seen before.
Those were all young citizens who wanted to become a successful freelancer or a paladin, training and hoping that no adult would pick on them.
He was only approaching the walls that were bordering Arena from the rest of the city and could already hear loud explosions and people screaming as they were flying through the complete turmoil.
That was very typical for Arena.
A clash between Arcanie and Uk was very chaotic but imagine if you put more than 50 paladins and freelancers in the same place!
Zafer passed through the enormous gate of the Arena and spotted a poster on it.
It featured a graffiti drawing of a weird-looking human with fur all over his face and his nose and ears were like the one of a fox.
The only thing that gave away his humanity was the sunglasses which was hiding his eyes.
This type of morphology was something that would happen to someone during the mutation, expect normally it would not end there.
In normal cases, when someone randomly undergoes a mutation like Arcanie, they become a mess and lose their humanity.
However, there were some very rare instances where humans were able to resist, and only mutate a certain amount, but not completely.
This allowed them to hold onto their humanity but would still cause some irreversible changes to their body.
The poster read, ¡°Wanted dead or alive¡± and the price was 10 million units.
This type of offer was the most legal and efficient way to earn money, but it still wasn¡¯t something Zafer could hope to claim yet.
The headhunting price was issued by the National Security themselves, meaning this criminal wasn¡¯t a regular person, if that wasn¡¯t obvious by their looks yet.
Zafer had neither the resources nor the weapons to hunt someone down, especially if they were stronger than him.
This was the reason why he needed to find a job that was suitable for his skills and equipment.
The job that Wiza offered him was just like that. Perfect.
It was a bodyguard job.
Wiza wanted to challenge Tori to a duel.
He started training in Arena since several months ago. A young troublemaking freelancer.
The winner of the duel receives the opponent''s weapon. It was a bet.
Nevertheless, despite Wiza¡¯s self-confidence in beating him, there was always a danger of dirty tricks being pulled.
The duel was supposed to be a classical one versus one with no potions, but that wasn¡¯t something one could guarantee before actually engaging in combat.
And if you engage in combat against someone who is using potions while having no yourself, it¡¯s a game over.
Wiza observed Tori for weeks and noted all the weapons and tricks he is using to dominate other young freelancers.
He even figured out all the anomalies the freelancer had. This was planned very well.
The only thing Zafer had to do in this job was to observe the duel and intervene if Tori was cheating in any way.
Wizaruth was putting his own precious weapon on the line after all.
The Simple Physiology of Anomalies: Table of contents:
¡A-1
¡A-2 [EXPUNGED]
¡A-3
¡A4
¡A5
¡§¡-6, The Iron Fist
¡A7
¡§¡-8, The Adjustment
¡§¡-9, The Force
¡A-10
¡§¡-11, The Almighty Eye
As Zafer was walking through the Arena towards the meeting point with Wiza, his senses picked up a strange aura coming from somewhere nearby.
He was currently in the forest biome of the Arena where the huge thick trees were growing.
This was one of the most peaceful parts of the Arena, unlike the desert biome which was a complete mess.
The aura Zafer could sense wasn¡¯t anything threatening, and it was coming somewhere from the nature around him.
He stood in place, slowly looking all around him hoping to spot the direction it was coming from, and soon enough, he found it.
It was a Miyalin axe lying on the soil, covered with long and dense strings of grass.
It actually was a real Miyalin axe! Even those with no runes implemented into them could cost up to 200 thousand units!
That was an amount of money a regular citizen could retire! Not to mention that Zafer¡¯s only weapon got broken by one of the gang members on his last mission.
The axe gave off a deep vibrating sound and his hand slowly reached to grab it.
Nevertheless, a group of young freelancers suddenly appeared and ran in his direction.
Zafer swiftly stood up, stepping on the axe with both his feet to hide it.
There was also no way anyone else could sense the axe as he did.
It was a bunch of newbies after all, and only advanced and experienced adults could have such sharp senses except if they are born with that gift like Zafer was.
¡°Faster! They are already at it!¡±, they ran past him.
Zafer watched them go by not moving an inch, unsure if he should ask them what was going on or if he should just stay invisible.
Nonetheless, the curiosity got the better of him.
¡°What¡¯s going on?¡±
¡°The leader of Numen and Mio are fighting!¡±
A couple of rookies were still running by lagging behind the others.
As Laura mentioned, Mio was the only other person in the whole National Security designated with Threat Level 5 and also the only remaining member of the anti-paladin unit.
That guy was the main reason for Zafer¡¯s arrival in the city of Koth! He wanted to ask him to be his mentor since they both share the same primary anomaly, the A-6 Iron Fist.
The Leader of the Numen faction, which was the 3rd strongest faction, was however someone Zafer knew better.
One could say that he was the main motivation for Zafer to become and live a paladin life, despite joining Temper.
This was due to the Numen leader''s strength.
In Zafer¡¯s eyes, he was on the same pair if not stronger than Simra!
A reason for this was due to the accusations that the leader of the Numen faction received for using drugs to enhance his strength.
This supposedly happened many times in the past already, and the leader had to undergo a drug test each time.
Nevertheless, he somehow never came out positive which angered a lot of paladins from the other factions.
An important mention was that these drug tests could not be falsified.
The National Security was very rigorous when it came to drugs, and their methods for testing were strict.
This time it seemed that the paladins from both Temper and Nubis wrote a petition to have him drug tested once again.
Mio was the one responsible for taking him to the drug test it seemed.
Such a battle sure wasn¡¯t something one would miss on watching.
It might even be a good learning experience, especially since Mio also had an Iron Fist anomaly like him.
The young freelancers were gone, and Zafer was left alone in the peaceful forest.
He crouched down, taking the Miyalin axe into his hands and silently observing it.
Its blade was dimly white, with a couple of colorful strings slowly twisting and vibrating inside of it.
Each string colour represented a rune, and experienced paladins could identify them just be a single glance.
Its handle was very tough and had its name carved into it.
¡°33¡±.
It was a tradition of adult paladins to name their weapon and then try to preserve it for as long as possible. Among them, that was a symbol of strength.
The paladin whose weapon was never broken or stolen was considered the strongest.
Some even fancied collecting other paladin''s weapons as a trophy for winning in a battle.
As soon as Zafer grabbed the axe, he felt the runes that were implemented into it, and like an instinct, he knew how to activate each one of them.
This many runes¡ If Zafer sells this axe, he might not need to worry about money for a very long time!
¡°Oh hey!¡±, someone called him over ¡°you found my axe!¡±
Zafer turned around, not hiding the axe since it was too late already.
He was too focused and excited about the weapon that he never noticed the guy approaching.
It was a red-haired boy no older than him.
He had nothing made out of Miyalin on him, and sure wasn¡¯t someone Zafer recognized from the last time he was in the city of Koth.
¡°This is yours?¡±, Zafer asked.
¡°Yeah, I just told you man¡±, he was approaching, but Zafer took a step backward.
¡°And how can I know that?¡±.
The boy stopped.
¡°Didn¡¯t I just tell you?¡±, he stretched out his arm, ¡°it¡¯s my axe! can I have it back now please?¡±
Zafer took another step back, ¡°what¡¯s its name?¡±
¡°What?¡±
¡°It¡¯s carved right here¡±, he didn¡¯t show it of course, ¡°what did you name the axe if it¡¯s yours?¡±
The boy went silent for a moment, frowning.
¡°Look if you don¡¯t return it to me, I¡¯ll call someone from the National Security to deal with you¡±, he threatened, but Zafer knew that wasn¡¯t happening.
That might have worked on the other newbies, but for Zafer who already trained in the Koth before, he was sure no one from the National Security cared about such reports.
At least they did not back then.
¡°Sure, call them¡±, it was funny to him.
The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.
The boy freelancer had no clue that Zafer was a candidate for the Temper province. Although it wasn¡¯t a high rank, it required way more experience than the red-haired boy seemed to have.
The boy suddenly grabbed his iron axe, jumping on Zafer to steal it by force, but something unexpectedly happened.
Zafer didn¡¯t even move before the axe 33 in his hands shone and vibrated slightly.
The sky opened, and a flash appeared right before him.
It was a lightning bolt out of the clear sky. It was one of the runes.
The Purge rune.
It got activated automatically and summoned a lightning bolt that fell directly on the boy who attacked Zafer.
Now, the lightning bolt produced by the Purge rune was weaker than a real thunderbolt and getting hit by one wasn¡¯t life-threatening.
However, for someone who had a weak body like the boy wearing no armor at all, it was enough to knock him down.
First-degree burns made him scream and roll on the ground, but that was to be expected since he attacked someone with a Miyalin weapon.
That was just how strong they were.
It allowed Zafer to remain still the whole time, despite him not wanting to activate the rune in the first place.
The bond he shared with the axe told him how to turn the automatic activation off and activate the rune manually, but it was too late for that now.
Zafer left the forest as fast as he could trying to avoid any attention.
It wasn¡¯t that he was scared of the red-haired boy going after him, but of someone older who might have noticed the non-intentional Purge.
As mentioned, the Arena in the Koth city was crowded, but mostly with freelancers who couldn¡¯t afford a Miyalin weapon, let alone the valuable Purge rune.
The Book of Runes and Curses: Paragraph 16:
A Purge rune can summon a thunderbolt, even from the clear sky, and the activation can be both automatic and manual¡
The summoned thunderbolt is weaker than a real one, but its main purpose is the removal of any positive effects its target has, like regeneration, speed, or strength.
As mentioned, paladins usually had no intention of harming or killing young freelancers, but if they had something valuable, they would go out of their way to steal it.
Luckily for Zafer, the Axe 33 had a Void rune implemented into it.
It can erase the weapon''s physical form from this reality and then project it back whenever he needed it.
Zafer currently seemed to be unarmed but could summon the Axe 33 in his hands anytime he wishes!
With a cooldown of course. Just like any other rune.
When he met up with Wiza, he didn¡¯t mention any of it, as he didn¡¯t know how much he could trust him.
No matter if he was a member of the Temper faction.
Conflicts between paladins within the same province were common and nobody cared to solve them in their name.
No officer had time to waste on things like that, and Zafer surely would not like to disturb Simra for something like that.
¡°Hey! Are you ready for the duel?¡±, Zafer greeted him.
Wiza bowed his head down holding his forehead with 3 fingers, ¡°no. I messed up¡±.
Zafer frowned ¡°What do you mean?¡±
¡°I fought him already¡±.
¡°What?¡±, he was confused, ¡°why?¡±
Zafer wasn¡¯t mad for being left out.
His job was really simple anyway.
Wiza promised to pay Zafer even if Tori uses no dirty tricks, and even though Zafer¡¯s mere presence would have possibly prevented it, it wasn¡¯t a job worth 20 thousand units.
Now, Zafer wasn¡¯t sure how much Tori¡¯s Miyalin weapon was worth, but if it had no runes at all, his share was about 10 percent.
Wiza straightened up, ¡°He attacked me out of the blue not long ago¡±.
¡°And?¡±
¡°I beat him, but now he knows that I am stronger than him. There is no way he fights the duel fairly now, and that¡¯s if he even accepts¡±.
Zafer frowned, ¡°why didn¡¯t you just pretend that you were weaker and beat him by a tiny bit¡°.
¡°I don¡¯t know! Don¡¯t ask me please¡±, Wiza closed his eyes with his fingers, standing in place.
He was furious. Weeks of planning and spying for nothing, and there wasn¡¯t anyone else cocky enough to duel Wiza.
He was a paladin of the Temper province after all.
Forget the job and the payment, Zafer felt sorry for him.
This indeed sounded like a really good plan for them to earn some cash.
Zafer wasn¡¯t sure how strong Wiza was, but he didn¡¯t seem to be much more skilled than himself.
He could just tell from their talk last night with Knuckles.
Apparently the only reason why Wizaruth was accepted into Temper was due to him applying a long time ago, when Banana wasn¡¯t the faction leader and there was another system.
¡°Stop crying. I have an idea¡±, Zafer said.
Wiza wasn¡¯t actually crying.
¡°What if we switch our roles?¡±
Wiza got confused, ¡°What do you mean? Like if you duel him?¡±
Zafer nodded.
¡°Well, you could but¡ how strong are you?¡±
Zafer went silent.
For the past few weeks, he was only getting beaten, and not once was he close to beat his opponent.
Those defeats were pretty depressing and discouraging, but not for Zafer.
He was aware that all of his opponents were nowhere near his skill level, so forfeiture was to be expected.
Despite his self-confidence in beating Tori, Zafer could not expect Wiza to put his own weapon on the line for someone else¡¯s battle.
Especially since Wiza would be getting less profit from the job.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. I will challenge him with my weapon¡±.
Wiza frowned, ¡°but I thought that you had no weapon?¡±.
Zafer didn¡¯t want to explain, but just stretched his arm out and summoned the axe 33 while being extremely cautious.
This would make him look like a liar, since yesterday he said that he had no weapon, but it didn¡¯t matter.
¡°Let me take a look¡±, Wiza approached him focusing on the label carved into the handle, ¡°whose is this?¡±
He immediately knew there was no way for Zafer to already have a named axe with so many runes implemented into it.
He wasn¡¯t even a paladin.
¡°Well, it¡¯s mine now¡±, Zafer answered.
He tried to revoke the Axe 33 back into the void, but the cooldown wasn¡¯t over yet.
Wiza stepped away, ¡°well I don¡¯t really have a use for 20 thousand units, but I can do it for you¡±.
Zafer smiled realizing how nice of a person Wiza is.
However, Wiza didn¡¯t dare propose Zafer to fight with his weapon instead of the Axe 33, in order to get paid more.
This proved that he had doubts about Zafer¡¯s strength.
But that was the main reason a smile appeared on Zafer''s face.
He is going to change Wiza¡¯s doubts.
Part two:
Both of them were walking next to each other through the arena, hoping to spot their target and challenge him to a duel.
It was dusk but the number of people in Arena seemed to have only increased compared to the noon.
The approaching winter was tricking Zafer¡¯s mind into thinking that it was getting late, when in reality it was a perfect time of the day for training, before getting to rest in a bed the whole night.
Young freelancers were flying in every direction, hoping to have a soft landing.
Many of them were just randomly attacking anyone they saw, alone or in groups, but a fair number of them was also trying to provoke stronger adult paladins into fighting.
There wasn¡¯t much they could lose anyway.
There wasn¡¯t a way to track everyone who ¡°accidentally¡± died while sparing or training in Arena.
However, if a famous paladin was constantly killing every teenager who attacked him, National Security sure would respond, and it would not be nice for the murderer at all.
In any case, it was far easier to frame someone strong for the murder of someone weak, since the chances of it happening the other way around were pretty minuscule.
Not to mention how all paladins knew each other, so it was easy to estimate if someone was holding back or not.
Tori, the freelancer they were looking for, was together with his friend in one of the more neglected parts of the Arena.
It was on a stony cliff on the opposite side of a big lake.
There were some lonely trees and ruined stone buildings together with a lighthouse, making it a perfect spot to replenish strength before returning to the chaos of the desert biome.
¡°What do you want?!¡±, Tori called them out from afar as they approached.
¡°My friend here wants to duel you¡±, Wiza answered.
Tori stretched his body, ¡°Oh yea? How about I beat up both of you?¡±
¡°No need. It will be a fair one versus one where you put your weapons on the line¡±.
Tori¡¯s friend whispered something to him from behind before laughing.
It was the same red-haired boy who attacked Zafer when he found the Axe 33!
¡°So what weapon are you gambling?¡±, Tori asked with a smile.
Summoning his weapon now might be risky, but there was no other choice.
Wiza¡¯s current weapon was an iron sword with a couple of runes that was hanging from his waist, but it was way weaker than the Axe 33 and could not match Tori¡¯s Miyalin axe anyway.
Zafer stretched out his arm and summoned his Axe 33.
Both Tori and his friend Akumi carefully observed the weapon and nodded.
¡°Alright, but you can¡¯t use it in a duel!¡±
Both Zafer and Wiza frowned, ¡°How come?¡±
¡°Simple. Look at it. Purge, Void¡ God knows what other runes it has¡±.
He was right.
The main reason Wiza was somewhat confident in Zafer winning was due to the Axe 33.
It was also a Miyalin weapon like Tori¡¯s but surpassed it by the same amount Tori¡¯s axe surpassed Wiza¡¯s sword.
That was just how important runes were, and Toris axe had no runes whatsoever.
That was the main reason why no adult paladin picked a fight with him. The axe was worthless, despite it being made out of Miyalin.
In Zafer''s case, however, he could just use his Purge at the beginning and then hold on until he can use it again, and that would be a victory for him.
Two lightning bolts from the Purge rune were enough to put down someone like Tori.
It wasn¡¯t known as one of the strongest and most expensive runes for no reason.
Only the Purge rune itself costed as twice as much as Tori¡¯s entire axe.
¡°I don¡¯t have any other weapon¡±, Zafer argued.
Tori pointed towards Wiza¡¯s hips ¡°Use his. You are friends, right? That sword isn¡¯t part of the negotiation anyways¡±.
They looked at each other.
It was true that Wiza beat Tori using that same iron sword, but it was his weapon, not Zafer¡¯s.
It would be bad if Zafer broke it by accident.
And being careful to not break someone else¡¯s weapon would put even more pressure on Zafer which was bad.
He could not be careful not to break a sword and simultaneously spar against someone wielding a more powerful weapon.
Especially not without blue potions.
The one versus one duel meant they were fighting with no potions at all, until someone got hurt bad enough to need a red potion.
¡°Take it¡±, Wiza pulled his sword out of its case.
Zafer was surprised by his generosity.
It could be that this sword was stolen, or a trophy gained on the battlefield, which meant Wizaruth didn¡¯t work that hard to pay for and gather all the runes for it.
But it could also be something else.
¡°It has a mending rune, so don¡¯t worry about breaking it¡±, he saw right through Zafer¡¯s worried face expression.
Mending rune was perhaps one of the few runes Zafer was already familiar with.
It was something one must have on their weapon if it was made out of iron since Miyalin weapons weren¡¯t supporting it.
The rune didn¡¯t prevent a weapon from breaking, but it did enable it to regenerate itself to its fundamental form with some time.
Approximately 2 to 3 minutes.
That was quite fast, so even the naked eye could watch the weapon regrow or fuse itself.
Zafer took the sword, revoking his axe into the void.
He was still nervous.
If it was a battle to death with no restrictions to potions, he would be optimistic, but this type of duels really limited Zafer¡¯s style of facing his opponents.
Tori gave all of his potions to his red-haired friend Akumi before stepping forward, but just at that moment, Zafer sensed someone approaching them from the woods at high speed.
He swiftly threw himself on the ground, a big shadow flying right over him before hitting the ground and rolling on it.
Everyone was surprised by the man¡¯s appearance, but even more by how Zafer saw him coming from a blind spot.
The figure slowly stood up, seemingly also surprised.
If it wasn¡¯t for his Miyalin armor they would notice the goosebumps he got.
¡°There is no doubt about it now. You were the one who found it¡±.
Everyone remained silent, Zafer playing dumb.
¡°The Axe 33. I just saw it. Summon it and hand it over¡±.
Now Tori and Akumi had no idea who the man interrupting the duel was, but it was quite the opposite for Wizaruth and Zafer.
They weren¡¯t freelancers after all.
Of course they would recognize the 2nd officer of the world¡¯s strongest faction.
Skank.
¡°Hey there wait a minute. We are in the middle of the duel!¡±, Tori opposed not aware of the man''s status.
Skank was wearing the Miyalin armour, but remember that Tori was cocky enough to attack Wizaruth!
The possession of a Miyalin armour didn¡¯t mean anything in particular anyways, like preserving a weapon for a long time.
¡°So? Why would I care?¡±, Skank asked.
¡°The axe is already promised to me if I win!¡±
Skank felt provoked, but despite him being the 2nd officer of the current strongest faction, he could not act rashly and just force his way through.
At this point, it seemed as if he might face all four of them at the same time, since he was unfamiliar of the situation.
This might just be a friendly duel or a bet.
On top of everything Wiza was a paladin of the Temper, their number 1 enemy faction.
He could be in a possession of an artifact that can teleport other members of the Tempers province, which would not be nice for Skank.
Skank wasn¡¯t very confident in Nubis faction members answering his call for help. The relationships between the members of the same province were different.
Not to mention Zafer, who was present both times when Arcanie¡¯s assault on Temper failed and who just showed his unexplainable sixth sense.
Despite that, he could not afford to lose face, ¡°you dare to oppose me?¡±
They all shivered.
The Miyalin armour Skank was wearing was painted black, which was common for Nubis faction members.
It¡¯s not every day that you see someone casually walking around in full Miyalin equipment.
Akumi whispered something to Tori.
¡°Of course not!¡±, he smiled nervously, ¡°when I beat him, we can discuss, like¡¡±
¡°I¡¯ll buy it¡±, Skank cut him off.
His willingness to pay seemed as if the Axe 33 was worth more than they all thought it was.
All of them were rookies, and even Zafer, who held the axe, didn¡¯t know the function of all the runes nor how much they costed.
He only knew how to activate them.
¡°Alright then¡±, Tori smiled sincerely, ¡°let¡¯s go¡±.
As he rushed towards Zafer, clashing with him, the latter couldn¡¯t help but feel nervous because of Skank''s presence.
Now even if he wins the duel, he might be too weak to resist if the Nubis officer tries to forcefully take the Axe 33 from him.
And to spoil it, Skank was planning on doing that.
The only reason he let Tori fight Zafer was as already mentioned, to avoid too much attention.
The interesting thing about the Void rune was that upon the user¡¯s death, the weapon wouldn¡¯t remain lost in the Void forever.
It could either respawn on the deceased body, if the weapon was properly held by the owner, or on the last place was laid down.
To send a weapon to Void, its wielder could just touch it while it¡¯s lying on some surface.
This was probably an unintentional error in coding the rune, but it had its own advantages.
This would make the weapon not respawn on the user¡¯s deceased body which increased the chances of them not being killed since the weapon would be lost.
As the battle was progressing, however, it was clear that Zafer had a slight upper hand, but then he made a crucial mistake.
He tried to block Tori¡¯s Miyalin axe with his sword, underestimating its strength.
The iron sword Wiza gave him didn¡¯t break but got completely bent.
This rendered his weapon more or less useless since the Mending rune could not straighten it back, only regenerate it if it broke.
The smiles appeared on everyone¡¯s faces except Wizas, but Zafer did something unexpected.
He distanced himself from Tori, after which he used both of his hands to break the blade of Wiza¡¯s sword.
He used his Iron Fist anomaly to break off the bent part of the iron blade!
This will allow the Mending rune to regenerate the weapon now!
Tori panicked and quickly rushed to end the duel before the weapon regenerated, but Zafer lifted his hand to throw the broken-off part of the blade at him.
He didn¡¯t even stretch his arm completely before feeling the perfection behind his own throw!
The broken-off blade will meet Tori¡¯s abdomen, there was no doubt about it.
However, something grabbed Zafer from behind, making him unable to move and throw the blade.
It was Skank.
It was clear that Tori would lose anyway.
Wizaruth rushed to intervene despite having no weapon, but Akumi blocked his path.
¡°Don¡¯t kill him!¡±, Skank said while holding Zafer in a full nelson
¡°Fuck!¡±, Zafer screamed inside his head, summoning the axe 33 in his left hand.
There was no other escape from this.
A lightning bolt fell from the sky right on both Skank and him.
The former had a Miyalin armour, which made him feel almost nothing, but that wasn¡¯t the target anyways.
The thunderbolt was enough to activate Zafer¡¯s euclid Anomaly, creating a huge explosion and repelling both Tori and Skank away from him.
Zafer then took his blue potion out, drinking it before the dust settled on the ground, running away with all speed.
¡°Run!¡±, he said to Wiza.
Facing Skank the three of them simultaneously was impossible. They could only run, and it was everyone for themselves.
Zafer knew the whole Arena quite well, so the terrain wasn¡¯t a problem for him, but could he really escape from the 2nd officer of the world¡¯s strongest faction?
Both he and Tori were following behind him, nearing as every second passed.
Although the blue potions all of them drank was the same 10% one, their physique and speed weren¡¯t the same.
Skank can still run faster.
The air beneath Zafer¡¯s feet suddenly shifted, lifting him off the ground and giving him a slight boost forward, but straight into a tree.
That was Tori¡¯s primary Anomaly, The Force.
The complexity and usage of this anomaly were infinite, but the easiest technique every beginner first learned was something similar to telekinesis, which was exactly what Tori showed right now.
Zafer hit a tree, but there was no time to enjoy the pain.
Skank jumped on him, and even after Zafer rolled to the side, Tori was already there waiting to strike.
There was no way he could beat the 2nd officer of Nubis in a one versus one, let alone in a one versus two.
Especially if both of his opponents were under the effect of a blue potion.
That was almost humanly impossible to track with eyes. No matter the potions someone used.
At that moment someone dressed up as a samurai appeared, blocking both Tori¡¯s and Skank¡¯s swing simultaneously.
Zafer was right beneath him.
¡°Well, you guys are surely going two versus one. If you need someone to spar and train with, I will gladly join¡±, he said with a smug smile.
It was nobody else but Wabler! The only person designated Threat Level 6!
Skank frowned, attacking Wabler instead of Zafer, but there was no use. Wabler was just too skilled.
He didn¡¯t even use his katana but easily handled both Skank and Tori at the same time with his bare hands and legs.
He wasn¡¯t even using his anomaly!
The whole purpose of the Arena was for motivated young people to train, and bullying someone in a two versus one surely was quite outside of the scope of its meaning.
This was the reason why Wabler was called the pillar of the peace.
The previous mention of how National Security members don¡¯t care about young freelancers getting bullied was true.
Wabler wasn¡¯t the exception to this either, but there was a catch.
He only intervened if someone was going two versus one.
The reason for this was because it was nearly humanly impossible to fight 2 people simultaneously who are under the effects of the blue potion.
If Tori leaves, Wabler will let Skank do with Zafer as he pleases. If Zafer had a problem with that, he could simply get stronger.
¡°Kid!¡±, Skank screamed at Tori, ¡°Fuck off!¡±.
This wasn¡¯t the first time that happened, and Skank knew well that Wabler would let him fight Zafer if it was a one versus one.
Tori backed off, and Wabler moved aside.
At that instant, Skank went after Zafer who was more confused than ever, but he understood that his loss was only his fault.
The Axe 33 wasn¡¯t his anyway, but it was still sad since Zafer really needed the money.
Zafer could not even blame his age, since there were individuals like the officer Uk who were quite capable despite their lack of experience.
The only thing that wasn¡¯t making this fair was the fact that Skank had a full Miyalin Armour and an even stronger axe.
But again, that wasn¡¯t something that would bother a skilled warrior like Wabler. The threat level was independent of one¡¯s equipment.
Zafer stood up, not knowing if he should dodge or block Skank''s swing, however someone else appeared in front of him.
It was a much taller male with really long messy hair, wearing nothing but ragged shorts, and a belt from which 12 meat choppers were hanging.
Each with only a single colourful string within a blade made out of Miyalin.
He pushed Zafer to the ground and then punched Skank right in the middle of his Miyalin chest plate.
With his bare fist.
The Miyalin armor sunk in, and Skank disappeared from everyone¡¯s sight in a fraction of a second.
The only thing that his presence left behind was a strong wind that made Zafer¡¯s hair and clothes jiggle like crazy.
Wabler frowned, ¡°Why would you do that?¡±
The half-naked man popped his knuckles, ¡°I just hate that guy¡±.
He wore no identification or a badge, let alone armor, but it was clear that his main weapon were his bare hands.
It was the same anomaly that Zafer had, the Iron Fist.
That man was the one Laura was talking about. Mio.
The second member of the anti-paladin unit who fought the leader of the Numen faction this morning.
The one Zafer wanted to ask to mentor him.
Chapter 7
Part one:
After Mio and Wabler secured Zafer from Skank, he could breathe again.
However, the adrenaline still rushed through his body, making him tremble slightly.
It felt so good.
At this point, Wiza also appeared.
In the end, their mission was successful, and they could now sell Tori¡¯s sword for a good amount of money.
Zafer decided to split the cash 50-50 with Wiza. It would strengthen the friendship between the two of them and therefore maybe with a whole Temper.
He also wanted Wiza to be the one to sell the axe.
Zafer didn¡¯t know yet to whom he could sell it for the best price, so he let Wiza do that,
As a symbol of gratitude, Wiza let Zafer keep the Mending iron sword.
It only had two anomalies but was certainly better than having no weapon at all.
As they separated, Zafer rushed to catch up to Mio.
According to Laura, Mio lived in the city of Koth and always trained in the Arena.
Zafer could not remember ever seeing him in the past, but since Mio was dressed so humbly he might have overlooked him.
¡°Hey! Wait¡±, Zafer called him over.
Mio turned around.
¡°You are Mio, right? Laura told me about you!¡±
¡°Really?¡±, he was sincerely curious, ¡°What did she say?¡±.
Zafer stopped before him, ¡°she said that you should be the one to train me¡±.
Mio frowned, ¡°what are you to her?¡±
¡°Nothing. I just met her recently¡±.
Mio shrugged his shoulders, ¡°well you are not the first one to ask me that. Many got surprised by my performance and wanted me to mentor them¡±.
Zafer frowned. He could not lose this chance.
Even if Mio thinks Zafer is too weak to personally train him, Zafer could still extract as many useful tips from him by asking specific questions.
¡°How did you punch him so hard?¡±.
He was referring to Skank.
¡°It¡¯s just my anomaly. Iron Fist¡±.
Zafer was shocked, ¡°That can¡¯t be! I also have the same anomaly and my punches aren¡¯t as nearly as strong even when I drink a purple potion¡±.
¡°That¡¯s because you are weak¡±, Mio answered.
That was obvious.
¡°But how can a stronger grip make me punch harder?¡±
¡°It won¡¯t. You see¡¡±, this topic was starting to get Mio engaged, ¡°the Iron fist anomaly isn¡¯t only about a strong grip. It¡¯s a mutation of muscles that are located in the forearm, fingers, shoulder, and chest, which is most in charge of punching¡±.
¡°But I never felt the strength in there!¡±, he argued.
¡°That¡¯s because you never trained them. Society made you believe that the grip is the only thing that you should focus on, making you neglect the other parts of your body¡±.
¡°But look at me¡±, Zafer took off his shirt, ¡°I am muscular from all the fighting and labor! Shouldn¡¯t I have hit those muscles as well, even by a pure chance?¡±
Zafer¡¯s body was indeed muscular and lean, but still nowhere near the level of the Priest.
¡°You probably did, and it perhaps made your chest and shoulders stronger than that of an average male by a little, but do you think that you noticed it? Maybe you just accepted that as the way you always were. For example, have you ever noticed that not everyone else are tall, but that you are just short?¡±, he didn¡¯t give the best example.
Zafer restrained from commenting, ¡°so¡ how do I train the punch¡±.
Forearms were usually trained by crushing stones or even iron and Miyalin if one could find them. The most difficult part of the A-6 was that training and improving the anomaly got intensely harder as one got stronger.
Other muscle groups of the anomaly were also difficult to train past a certain point, but Zafer was a long way until then.
Mio then showed him a couple of exercises that Zafer could do with his own bodyweight, but what concerned him more was Zafer¡¯s speed and technique.
Those two were the primary keys to becoming a skilled warrior, and anomalous strength and stamina would come along that same path by themselves.
Hence, in order to get stronger, Zafer was given a task to complete.
These types of quests were given by Mio to anyone who asked him for mentorship because he had no desire or time to practice actively with each one of them.
The tasks were difficult, but not impossible, and the time one needed to complete them was highly dependent on their skill and past experience.
After all, it wasn¡¯t like Zafer was doing it for Mio, but for himself, and a direct guideline was everything he needed for the beginning.
¡°What do you know about the blue potion?¡±, Mio asked him.
¡°It makes you faster and your reflexes sharper¡±.
Mio crossed his arms, ¡°well that¡¯s not the entire truth¡±.
¡°What blue potion does is that it increases a human limit for how fast we can process information from the environment. But you are far from even reaching the normal human bottleneck, so there is no reason for you to worry about that¡±.
Zafer frowned, ¡°but I still get faster when I drink a potion. Especially the 15% one¡±.
¡°Running faster doesn¡¯t have anything to do with sharper reflexes. Although both 10% and 15% solution blue potions slightly push both limiters back and they make you generally faster, that doesn¡¯t mean that you will be on the same speed as someone else¡±, Mio continued.
¡°The speed of your reflexes when you drink a 15% solution potion might be on the same pair as someone¡¯s who did not drink one. Take strength for example. Think of someone who is unbelievably strong naturally¡±.
Zafer thought of the Priest. It was the biggest man he had ever seen after all.
¡°If you both drank a purple potion, it would make both of you stronger, but do you think you two will be on the same pair? It¡¯s the same with speed¡±.
Zafer argued, ¡°but there is no such man who can be stronger than me without drinking the purple potion if I do¡±.
Mio nodded, ¡°yes, you are right. Those who drink a purple potion will always be stronger than those who don¡¯t, no matter the size of their muscles, but the blue potion is slightly different. The boost in speed that you get from drinking it is not proportional to that of a purple one¡±.
¡°If you drank a blue potion right now, I am sure that my reflexes would still be much faster. That is because my speed and reflexes are limited by my human body, hence I need to drink a blue potion to go beyond that. However, yours is not. You are far from that bottleneck.¡±.
¡°If you hit your human limiter without potions, then upon drinking one, you would truly go beyond what was previously considered humanly impossible¡±.
Zafer understood what Mio was trying to say, but that was all theoretical.
¡°So, how do I get closer to the human limit?¡±
Mio explained, ¡°regular sprinting and running for the speed. As for the reflexes, there isn¡¯t any better way than to fight while being under the effect of a blue potion. You will also improve your reflexes if you fight without the blue potion, but that will take a while¡±.
In the past, Zafer didn¡¯t have enough money to buy enough blue potions to constantly be under its effect, but even if he did, there was another problem
Although the potions had a pleasant smell, they all tasted completely disgusting and dull. Even a drop on the tongue would make someone not try it ever again.
This type of training was also a challenge for mental strength.
The only people who could theoretically constantly live under the effect of a blue potion were those who possessed the Anomaly 7, Repeater.
It was a special mutation of blood, that enhanced one¡¯s reflexes and muscles on will, hence making them naturally as strong or as fast as someone who drank a potion.
This was the most common anomaly among paladins and freelancers since its most basic techniques like regeneration, strength, and speed were unbelievably easy to unlock and control while being very useful.
The effect amplifier was of course highly dependent on one¡¯s anomalous strength, but due to the nature of the anomaly, unlike Iron Fist, it was maybe one of the easiest anomalies to train and develop.
Nevertheless, the real challenge was to increase anomalous stamina. That was the intensity and time one could use their anomaly for before starting to overheat.
But even then, some people could go even days with their Repeater activated, and not overheat, which was absurd.
Zafer¡¯s single Almighty Eye activation would drain his whole anomalous stamina supply, while some Repeater users could go days without even deactivating their anomaly.
One such capable person was Hydra, an adult member of the Nubis province who was also very active in the Arena of the Koth city.
He was also known as the fastest man alive.
The assignment Mio gave Zafer was simple. He should give his best to train and spar with Hydra until he manages to land a single fair and direct punch on him.
Only then will Zafer know that his reflexes and speed have improved.
The Simple Physiology of Anomalies: Table of contents:
¡§¡-6, Iron Fist
¡A-7, Repeater
¡§¡-8, Adjustment
¡§¡-9, The Force
¡§¡-11, Almighty Eye
Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.
It was 2 days after Zafer talked to Mio.
He was again walking on the stony cliff in between the ruined buildings.
One of those buildings was a small lighthouse.
Now, a lighthouse might not seem weird on a cliff behind the sea, but what lay beneath was only a lake, and even though it was large, there was definitely no need for a lighthouse.
On top of that, its structure and materials out of which it was built were different than that of the other buildings.
To a spontaneous observer, it would seem as if someone extracted a lighthouse from the sea, hundreds of kilometers away, and placed it here, where it didn¡¯t belong.
An interesting thing about the Arena was that these types of anomalies were all around the place.
Starting with numerous diverse biomes and ecosystems within such a small area.
Surrounding the rocky cliff was an oak forest, but once someone exited the woods, they would see a totally different type of tree that was scattered all around the rocky plane.
Its trunk was very thick and twisted, but the most bizarre thing about the tree was its white leaves and vines that were densely intricated into a huge messy canopy.
A young boy flew past Zafer, rolling on the ground until hitting one of such trees.
He was thrown by the very one person Zafer came here for. Hydra.
The Nubis savage was frequently visiting these peaceful parts of the Arena, looking for weak freelancers to bully.
He was currently fighting two more teens at the same time, but they stood no chance.
Hydra was too skilled.
Zafer observed the battle trying to figure out the techniques from Hydra, but the latter wasn¡¯t doing anything complicated.
His speed was enough to get rid of those weak freelancers.
The main point of this quest was for Zafer to improve his speed, and landing a punch on Hydra was only the indicator that he succeeded and made progress.
He took out a vial filled with the blue liquid and started drinking it with a frowny facial expression.
That was the blue potion.
Zafer didn¡¯t even take the last sip before he noticed his field of view slightly expanding, as if he was on drugs.
His mind got clearer and he started perceiving the world as if everything around him was moving just a little bit slower than it actually was.
This was due to the number of information and detail his brain could now process at the same time.
It was like switching from a 30 to 144 FPS screen.
However just as he finished drinking, a dark figure appeared beside him.
It was Hydra, and although his armor was made out of Miyalin, he, as well as some other members of the Nubis province, colored it in black with a special type of paint.
He kicked Zafer and it felt as if he got hit by a truck.
Hydra¡¯s Repeater anomaly as well as the Miyalin leggings made the impact much stronger than it would have been, making Zafer fly away straight into a nearby wall of a ruined building.
One could say that Hydra was currently on a rampage, smashing every young freelancer he saw just to entertain himself.
However, Hydra knew that Zafer wasn¡¯t a part of these freelancer¡¯s group.
¡°You again?¡±, he said to him, ¡°are you targeting me or something?¡±
Zafer slowly stood up.
He didn¡¯t need to drink a red potion yet since he broke no bones.
What Hydra said was true. Zafer did attack him the previous day, but it ended almost instantly, just like it would have ended now if Hydra didn¡¯t hold back.
¡°I am just training¡±, Zafer drew his sword out.
It was the one Wiza gave him. The one with a Mending rune.
¡°Oh yeah? So, you are going straight for the boss fight? You think you can improve by attacking the strongest one there is?¡±, Hydra approached him.
Zafer frowned nervously, ¡°I am not fighting the strongest¡±.
Hydra burst into laughter.
¡°And who would that be, who is so stronger than I am?¡±
The first person that came to Zafer¡¯s mind was Wabler, but since Hydra was an experienced Nubis paladin it would hurt him more if Zafer mentioned someone from Temper.
¡°Simra, the Priest¡¡±
Hydra was still smiling, ¡°Really? And how would you know that? Why don¡¯t you ask them what happened the last time we met?¡±
Zafer was left speechless. He didn¡¯t know what event Hydra was referring to.
He clenched his sword, but Hydra disappeared, appearing in front of him only for a split second, before sending him straight through the wall of a nearby house.
The collision only decreased Zafer¡¯s speed by a tiny bit, and he continued to roll on the ground towards the edge of a cliff.
At this rate, he will fall into the lake!
He dropped his sword and pushed both his hands into the stony ground, using his grip to decrease his speed as much as possible.
However, the moment he touched the ground, his whole body got redirected sideways, crashing into another building¡¯s wall.
This happened due to Zafer¡¯s inexperience.
He quickly stood up on his feet, pulling himself together, but Hydra was already in front of him again!
He grabbed Zafer by the neck and pushed him against the wall.
Although Hydra wasn¡¯t as tall as Mio or the Priest, there wasn¡¯t much Zafer could do to free himself in this situation.
His A-6 grip was too weak to crush Hydra''s arm which was embraced with the Miyalin armor.
As usual for this part of the Arena, there was no one else around, and someone like Zafer might fear for their life, but he knew Hydra would never kill him.
He was perhaps the biggest sadist among Nubians, and torturing young freelancers like this was what entertained him the most.
Hydra carefully used just enough of his strength to make Zafer feel helpless, but also not to break him apart.
The only thing Zafer might worry about was getting kidnapped because of the Axe 33.
However, that won¡¯t be happening either.
He wasn¡¯t sure how Skank found out that the axe was with him, but it was obvious that he was perhaps the only one aside from Tori and Akumi who knew this.
Despite Skank and Hydra serving the same faction, this didn¡¯t mean they got along well, so there was no need to worry about Skank ever telling Hydra or anyone else about Axe 33¡¯s whereabouts.
Whatever rune the Axe 33 possessed that Skank was after had to be something rare.
¡°So, who is the strongest now? Say it¡±, Hydra choked him even harder.
Unfortunately for Hydra, Zafer still had an ace up his sleeve.
He opened his palm, activating the second rune of Wiza¡¯s iron sword.
Devotion.
This was the equivalent of the Void rune but for non-Miyalin weapons.
The sword sensed Zafer¡¯s call and started accelerating on its own, dragging itself on the ground until it hit a random stone which made the sword fly upwards.
Nevertheless, the Sword was still accelerating toward Zafer¡¯s hand, and if it continued this trajectory, it would pierce both Zafer¡¯s and Hydra¡¯s heads.
None of them had helmets, and this was where Zafer had an advantage due to his secondary anomaly, the Almighty Eye.
The sword stab should definitely kill Hydra, but not Zafer. His anomaly will save him.
This was a very risky stunt that no man could predict.
Even after killing Hydra, Zafer¡¯s training would not end, but he could always find someone else to spar with.
Most of the paladins possessed the Repeater anomaly anyway, it was just that Hydra was the fastest one.
He was also a sinister adult member of an enemy faction and getting rid of him would bring fame to Zafer.
Unfortunately, it wasn¡¯t as easy as that.
Hydra slowly turned around facing the sky, accurately sensing the location of the sword despite being blinded by the sun.
He stepped slightly to the side while still holding Zafer against the wall.
Zafer creeped out.
Only a couple of seconds have passed since he activated the Devotion rune! How could Hydra sense a sword that was mid-air?!
Zafer had never met someone whose sixth sense was sharper than his own.
This was ridiculous for a human!
The sword was falling faster and faster. There was no way to stop it at this speed.
Its blade penetrated Zafer¡¯s head, nailing it to the wall behind it.
Or so it seemed.
Everything turned black, and a loud explosion blasted Hydra away from Zafer into the ruined old buildings.
Rocks got scattered in all directions and started falling all around.
Zafer opened his eyes, blood leaking from them, trying to spot Hydra in a mess through the dust.
Despite him piercing his own head, the impact still hit Hydra who was only a bystander.
He got blinded, and his anomalous stamina pool was drained by a certain amount.
This was due to how this A-11 repelling technique worked.
The stronger the threat was, the bigger the repelling effect multiplier was, and since this would have been a certain death for Zafer, its impact was maximal.
The last time this happened was when Arcanie threw a knife at him, but the only reason it didn¡¯t instantly kill her was due to Zafer holding back.
However, Zafer did not hold back now, and even though Hydra wasn¡¯t the one who activated the anomaly, he still experienced almost the same intensity of repelling Arcanie did then.
Nevertheless, there he was.
Standing up, pushing the rocks and rooftop parts off of him.
Zafer¡¯s heart skipped a beat.
Hydra didn¡¯t seem to even get a headache!
This guy¡¯s anomalous pool is way bigger than Arcanie¡¯s! He was a monster!
Zafer wasn¡¯t sure if vast anomalous stamina was something usual for Repeater users, but it was still outside of what he expected.
¡°You know I can see if you have Almighty Eye, right?¡±, Hydra straightened himself, ¡°I just didn¡¯t expect it to be this powerful¡±.
Aside from experienced paladins being able to tell what runes were implemented into a weapon just by one glance, they could also suppose what anomalies someone possessed.
For example, if one used no potions, they probably had the A-7 Repeater anomaly, and if they had wounds or callouses on palms, it was most likely the A-6.
Anomalies like Almighty Eye didn¡¯t have a specific indicator, but after years of experience, an experienced paladin like Hydra learned how to recognize it.
He just knew when he saw it.
It was a dark everlasting chasm whose opening was a pupil.
However, there was also something else that Hydra spotted in Zafer¡¯s eyes.
It was as if something was staring back at him from that very abyss.
Was it some sort of a unique A-11 technique that only Zafer had?
He didn¡¯t know, and it wasn¡¯t even important.
Vroom.
A Miyalin axe appeared in Hydra''s hands. Its blade was stuffed with 10 colorful strings.
This meant 10 runes.
That was a strong weapon, easily worth more than 2 million units.
Since Zafer activated his secondary anomaly without holding back, his anomalous stamina pool was almost fully drained, and as a result, blood was still leaking from his eyes.
On top of that, regardless of how much Hydra got hurt, Zafer was the one who started to experience a minor headache and dizziness.
He was in no state to fight, and his training was clearly over for that day.
Nevertheless, Hydra wasn¡¯t done with Zafer yet.
A light flashed for a moment and a roar resounded.
It was a Purge rune, and it fell directly on Zafer, knocking him unconscious.
The Simple Physiology of Anomalies: Paragraph 4:
Each anomaly could be measured in intensity and stamina pool, both of which can be developed, except in the case of an euclid anomaly.
The stamina pool is in a strong coloration with intensity. Every human contained only one stamina pool, and not each for every of 3 anomalies. The stronger the output and the longer the time of an anomaly being activated, the more of the pool will get drained, and once it reaches a certain point, the user will start to overheat experiencing typical symptoms like bleeding from their eyes.
After this state is reached, not restraining from the further use of the anomalies can lead to a burnout, causing permanent and irreversible damage to the user (Head 21).
Zafer was climbing a cliff with his bare hands, using only his strong grip.
His eyes were already leaking drops of blood, but he wouldn¡¯t burn out before reaching the top.
This was three weeks after Mio gave him the quest, and although he was trying very hard, the finishing line always seemed to move further and further away from him.
Aside from fighting Hydra at least once every day, Zafer was also doing all the other exercises Mio recommended him to do, like running, sprinting, doing push-ups and others.
Thanks to the money Wiza gave him from selling Tori¡¯s axe, he had enough cash to buy himself food, rent a room in an inn, and purchase potions.
Nevertheless, since Zafer insisted on splitting the money 50-50, his savings were slowly decreasing.
Due to him being a Temper candidate, he could buy things with paladin currency, which were banknotes of a much bigger value, with no tax at all.
However, even then, his savings won¡¯t last forever.
This day was particularly tragic since he lost his sword. One that Wiza gave him.
Although the weapon could regenerate and return to Zafer whenever he wanted, the principle of how it worked wasn¡¯t that simple.
There was something called ¡°weapon ownership¡±.
It was either determined by a special rune called Splinter or by who last held the weapon handle.
Wizaruth¡¯s sword possessed no Splinter rune, so naturally the ownership was easily given to the Zafer by him simply taking the weapon in his hands.
Nevertheless, this also had a bad side, since anyone else could just take the weapon from him, and the ownership would be transferred to them.
This was exactly how Hydra stole Zafer¡¯s weapon.
It wasn¡¯t that he needed an iron sword or any of those 2 anomalies it possessed. He did it purely to bully Zafer.
And it succeeded.
The fact that Zafer knew Hydra didn¡¯t need the weapon and still took it, hurt him more than losing it.
He was furious and couldn¡¯t do anything but lay on top of the cliff completely wet, with dust and weed stuck to his clothes.
At least he was glad that Hydra didn¡¯t take his scarf.
Someone approached him from behind.
¡°Uh¡ are you alright?¡±.
Zafer had no strength left to turn around or sit, but based on the voice he knew it was some young freelancer.
¡°Yes¡±.
It was quiet for a few seconds.
¡°I see you here every day¡ running, sprinting, and fighting that guy. Do you want me to help you?¡±.
Zafer straightened himself upwards.
He didn¡¯t really need help since nobody was forcing him to spar with Hydra.
He did it to get stronger, but without a short-term reward, it became mentally exhausting.
Zafer turned around.
It was indeed a freelancer, no stronger or older than him.
¡°No thanks. I don¡¯t want to defeat him¡±, he pushed the dust off his clothes, ¡°I am just training¡±.
¡°Well then¡ can I train with you?¡±
Zafer contemplated for a moment.
The boy seemed really innocent and nice, which was most important since Zafer didn¡¯t want someone to get in his way or to disturb him.
He could of course just decline, but Mio, who was far stronger than Zafer, took a whole hour trying to explain to him how Iron Fist anomaly and potions worked.
Who was Zafer to be so vain to reject someone?
¡°What are your anomalies?¡±
¡°A-11 as the primary and A-6 as a secondary¡±.
Zafer stood up.
Those were the same anomalies he had but reversed, except that Zafer¡¯s Almighty Eye was a euclid.
If the two trained together, they could learn from each other!
¡°Sure. I¡¯m Zafer, a candidate of the Temper province. What about you?¡±, they shook hands.
¡°Luch¡±.
Luch was a freelancer.
¡°Why do you want to train?¡±, Zafer asked.
It was important to know someone¡¯s motives in order to approximate their determination.
¡°I need to get stronger for my loved ones¡±.
Zafer was caught unprepared, ¡°what happened to them?¡±
¡°Nothing, but I can use my Almighty Eye to prevent them from turning in apparitions¡±.
Zafer frowned, ¡°really? That¡¯s possible?¡±
Luch nodded, ¡°only if you possess the A-11. I was born for that purpose¡±.
Slowing or completely preventing someone else from turning in an apparition with the help of the Almighty Eye was indeed possible.
It was done several times in the past by very strong individuals.
¡°What about you?¡±, Luch returned the question, ¡°why are you training¡±.
Zafer pondered to himself, ¡°I just want to join Temper¡±.
¡°Why?¡±
¡°Well¡¡±, he pondered even harder, ¡°I¡¯m in someone¡¯s debt¡±.
He was referring to Semi, and although this was true, Zafer actually started training before even meeting him.
Zafer didn¡¯t really consider his motive to be anywhere near as deep as Luch¡¯s or Skill¡¯s, who weren¡¯t training for themselves, but for the greater good. For the altruism
This was the reason Zafer kept his true motive to himself.
Anyways, from that day on, both trained together during the morning.
Luch had to work much harder to catch up to Zafer and he also had a part-time job, which just showed his tenacity and motivation.
And while Luch worked afternoon hours, Zafer sparred in the Arena with young freelancers and, most importantly, with Hydra.
Chaper 8
Part one:
Two weeks have passed and Zafer was very consistent about his daily training routine.
Accompanied by Luch, he would always start his training at the same time and end it at the same place.
He has already gotten used to the plan and schedule he established ever since he first met the Mio, the Threat Level 5 warrior.
As expected, the latter was also a regular in Arena, sometimes practicing and sparring with other strong and skilled adults and sometimes just lazing around talking to people.
The last time they had a conversation, Mio commented about Hydra using a certain type of drug that was boosting the speed at which his anomaly was progressing.
This way, he could reach a higher anomaly strength with less time practicing and training.
It was something like steroids were for muscles, and there wasn¡¯t really a method of confirming if someone was abusing the substance or not.
There were some tests, but the best and most reliable way was to lock the suspect in a cell for 4 weeks, ensuring they don¡¯t consume anything else, but the food and water provided to them by the National Security.
This method was efficient thanks to the strong withdrawal symptoms that would set in approximately at the end of that time, and it sure wasn¡¯t a nice experience for the suspect.
If they did consume a drug, withdrawal symptoms would hit them pretty hard, and if they were clear, they would lose one month of their life doing absolutely nothing.
Contaminating someone in quarantine was viewed as human rights abuse, and despite the lack of regulation in this land, such methods were not carried out unless the suspect agreed or if National Security managed to find an arguably good reason.
This was exactly how the leader of the 3rd strongest faction, Numen, spent 2 months of his life, on two different occasions.
He was forced to undergo the quarantine examination in other to satisfy the majority of other paladins from both Nubis and Temper who signed a petition to have him checked.
However, both times he turned to be clear.
This was a proof how certain individuals could reach strength levels that were unimaginable, even for other experienced paladins.
If Mio himself suspected Hydra of abusing that same drug, it was obvious how difficult Zafer¡¯s task was.
The only reason why Hydra wasn¡¯t forcefully petitioned to undergo the test like the leader of Numen did was because there weren¡¯t enough people to sign the petition.
The only ones who could pressure him to do so were Temperans since the Numen faction was consisting of only 2 active members.
That was nowhere near enough people like for example the whole Temper and Nubis combined, but that was just the power of abundance.
All in all, Zafer¡¯s task was obviously not easy, but the more he was fighting against Hydra, the more his eyes could see.
Hydra¡¯s movement wasn¡¯t as blurry and flashy as it used to be, and although Zafer knew that the Nubis member wasn¡¯t going all out, it was still a sign of improvement.
The training was actually not only for his body and reflexes but also for his eyes and brain.
Those two should get used to rendering all the information from the environment faster so that facing Hydra becomes comfortable for Zafer.
Nevertheless, he was still very far from that point, but managing a single strike was becoming more and more promising with every passing day.
Zafer was now fast and capable enough to avoid taking a decisive strike from Hydra.
This influenced the duration of their battles to last longer, with Zafer starting to be dependent on red potions in order to regenerate his wounds and continue fighting against the sadist.
Due to the self-confidence, he now acquired, Zafer was more willing to fight with random and young freelancers as a way to warp up for his daily big brawl with Hydra.
It was perfect to make his body engine heat, and today in particular he chose to attack no one else but Tori, and for that, he would prefer to have a weapon.
Since Hydra was very strong and always wore Miyalin armor, it didn''t matter to him whether Zafer had a weapon or not.
For others, however, it was changing the fight interaction so much to the point where Zafer was afraid he will forget how to use weapons!
Yes, he still had the Axe 33, but using it in Arena against mere freelancers would be an overkill and an invitation to trouble.
Since he didn¡¯t want to spend the money he earned with Wiza on a new weapon, he turned to his good friend Skil, who possessed the first numerical Anomaly, the Synthesis.
It was a very useful anomaly for paladins, and it enabled them to create simple shaped objects out of different materials from their skin, like a blade for example.
Synthesizing it left no scar or wound on users¡¯ skin, even after completely extracting it out.
What was even more interesting was that the A-1 users with a lot of practice could synthesize blades with runes implemented in them!
This was of course a difficult feat, and it got more tiring the more complex a rune was.
Nevertheless, some strong paladins could synthesize a Miyalin weapon equipped with every rune and curse that exists.
Zafer who was currently too focused on improving his own rune had no clue about this until Skill told him.
It seemed to Zafer that facing strong Synthesis users in the future would be troublesome.
Skil could currently only synthesize iron blades, but although he was young, he could synthesize an iron blade with a Mending rune.
That was the simplest most useful rune for iron weapons anyway.
¡°It should fall apart in 2 or 3 days¡±, Skil handed him over the blade.
This was to be expected. The synthesized weapons usually had a life span that was dependent on the user¡¯s skill.
That was another thing the Synthesis users had to work on.
However, 3 days was enough for Zafer.
Having no weapon at all also played a major role in his increased self-confidence, and finally holding one in his hands felt more reassuring than ever.
There was no handle to the blade since thick and circular shapes were very difficult to create, and Skill was still far from that.
Nonetheless, this posed no problem to Zafer either way, since the skin on his hands was particularly resistant to cuts due to his Iron Fist anomaly.
Zafer could just hold the blade with his bare hands and fight.
¡°So, who are you planning on fighting?¡±, Skil was new to the Arena.
¡°Do you want to watch?¡±, Zafer asked.
Skil smiled, ¡°of course!¡±
As they were walking through the Arena searching for Tori, they had a meaningful and satisfying conversation.
It wasn¡¯t that they didn¡¯t talk to each other via S-mails, but writing a message using the ancient language was sometimes very restrictive and it took a lot of time to summarize what one wanted to say.
Talking to someone in person on the other hand was much more efficient, and eye contact and body language were also a huge part of the communication.
S-mails are a great invention, but could never replace a traditional face-to-face conversation.
Regular people were forbidden to buy and use S-mails anyways, to talking to people at a distance was a dream to them.
This was one of the reasons why many regulars tried to become freelancers or paladins.
As the two of them were talking, Skil suddenly changed the subject of their conversation.
¡°I have something for you¡±, he just remembered.
He stretched out his hand and summoned a huge bag out of the thin air.
It had a whiteish colour and weighed more than silk but still less than iron.
The bag was made out of small Miyalin hooks, all connected together in a closed shape forming a bag with an opening on the top that could be widened and shrunken by pulling a string.
¡°What is this?¡±
¡°It¡¯s a Miyalin bag¡±, Skil was excited, ¡°it just came out in the market few days ago. I was waiting for this for so long!¡±
Zafer took it in his hand, examining the bag.
It sure was more durable than his backpack, but was it worth it?
The bag had nothing he could hold on, unlike his backpack.
¡°But why make it out of Miyalin?¡±, he didn¡¯t want to sound ungrateful.
¡°Have you not heard of the Void rune?¡±, Skil explained as they were walking.
Zafer nodded.
¡°It¡¯s a rune that could only be applied to Miyalin material, and this bag is made out of Miyalin!¡±, Skil gave him a tip.
¡°So, I can recall this bag into the void?¡±, Zafer didn¡¯t believe someone would waste a Void rune on a mere bag.
¡°Wait, is the bag going to disappear with everything that is put inside?¡±
Skil smiled, ¡°yes!¡±
¡°But what if that something is not made out of Miyalin?¡±
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter!¡±, Skil explained, ¡°I¡¯m not sure why it works myself, but if you close the bag properly, it will go to the void with all your stuff! No longer need to carry your inventory everywhere physically with you!¡±.
Zafer revoked the bag into the void and then back.
This was actually maybe the best gift he has ever received since getting into the paladin business.
Since Zafer was constantly traveling on foot, carrying and managing inventory was always an issue for him.
How did nobody think of making this before? The inventors of these Miyalin bags just had to become millionaires.
Zafer thanked Skil and promised to pay him back, although he doubted there was anything as useful as this bag.
The Simple Physiology of Anomalies: Table of Contents:
§¡1 ¨C Synthesis
§¡2 ¨C [EXPUNGED]
§¡3 ¨C ¡
§¡4 ¨C ¡
§¡5 ¨C ¡
§¡6 ¨C Iron Fist
The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there.
§¡7 ¨C Repeater
§¡8 ¨C Adjustment
§¡9 ¨C Force
§¡10 ¨C ¡
§¡11 ¨C Almighty Eye
¡°The grinder is complete! Write me when you are free to meet up so that I can set you a TP. 26h 11m¡±.
That was an unread S-mail message that Zafer received from Knuckles last night and it was referring to the flame flower farm he was constructing together with Semi.
Nevertheless, Zafer will only read it past the approaching midnight.
The numbers at the end represented a time the S-mail was written.
It was a practice that Knuckles started introducing recently and over time it is going to get copied and used by almost all other paladins.
Zafer and Skil were still walking through the Arena, looking for Tori.
Skil laughed, ¡°I don¡¯t know who we are searching for, but I don¡¯t think we are going to find them¡±.
They made a full tour through the Arena.
There was no sight of Tori which was weird since Zafer was always bumping into him when he didn¡¯t want to, like during the running sessions with Luch.
¡°It seems that way¡±, Zafer gave up as well.
The arena was still half full of people, but it was more peaceful than usual, likely because it was already dusk.
Fights could only be seen here and there, most of the paladins and freelancers were just walking around talking to each other or enjoying the scenery.
It was then that Zafer spotted someone screaming.
It was a boy both younger and smaller than even Zafer was.
He was nervously and loudly trying to explain something to an adult male.
Zafer was surprised to remember who the young boy was, even though he saw him only once in the past.
That was Semi¡¯s younger brother Mint!
It seemed as if Mint got him into some trouble with an older paladin. Probably getting bullied.
¡°What¡¯s wrong?¡±, Skil called him over, but Zafer was already headed towards Mint.
The adult paladin wore no Miyalin armor, but his masculine face made one feel uneasy.
Beside Mint and the scary-looking adult paladin, there was a third person there, just standing nearby.
It was a very skinny and tall man, with long messy black hair.
Still not as long as Mio¡¯s hair though.
Zafer came to them running.
¡°Hey! What¡¯s going on here? What do you want from Mint?¡±, he was looking at the bald scary-looking paladin.
¡°Huh?¡±, he frowned ¡°Who the fuck are you?¡±
Zafer got irritated but didn¡¯t show it on the outside, ¡°that doesn¡¯t have anything to do with my question!¡±.
He placed his hand on Mint¡¯s shoulder.
The bald guy looked at Mint, ¡°who is this to you?¡±, he repeated the question making Zafer even angrier.
Mint gazed at Zafer nervously.
¡°I¡ I don¡¯t know¡±, he smiled by reflex.
¡°WHAT?¡±, Zafer screamed, ¡°what are you talking about? You are Mint, Semi¡¯s little brother. We met before once. I am Zafer! His best friend!¡±.
Mint¡¯s heart sunk, waves of heat washing him.
He took a better look at Zafer, especially his eyes.
¡°Oh no! I remember now! I know him, yes!¡±, he felt uncomfortable, ¡°I didn¡¯t recognize you because of your hair!¡±
At that point, Skil also appeared at the scene.
He grabbed Zafer by the shoulder, pulling him back.
¡°You realize that those two are from Nubis?!¡±, he whispered.
Zafer¡¯s face expression and mood changed, staring at them once again with perplexed thoughts.
He never saw these two particular members of the Nubis faction, but starting a fight with them right now would not benefit him at all.
¡°So, what do you Nubians want from Mint? He would never do something bad on purpose!¡±, he chose a more peaceful dialog.
Mint jumped in between them facing Zafer, ¡°no it¡¯s alright! I kind off work for them and am behind the quota¡¡±
Zafer was puzzled for a second. He knew that Mint would never work for Nubians since he was a Temper supporter.
At least the last time he met him.
¡°Did they make you work for them?¡±
Mint smiled again waving his hands, ¡°no! It¡¯s a library of runes and we just have a contract with the Nubis faction. We store and rewrite runes for the Nubians and I accidentally made a mistake, but Sir Tule actually defended me in front of the others¡±.
Tule was the bald scary-looking one.
¡°Oh¡±, Zafer felt somewhat embarrassed.
¡°I see. I¡¯m sorry¡±, he turned to Tule, ¡°I just wanted to protect him¡±.
Tule exhaled, ¡°sure¡±.
He didn¡¯t really care. Not all Nubians were sinister.
¡°By the way, if you really are the Zafer I think Hydra mentioned, you should get going¡±, Tule added.
Both Zafer¡¯s and Skil¡¯s heart dropped. They both knew very well who Hydra was, especially Skil due to interacting with Temper paladins and listening to their stories.
¡°What did he say?¡±
Tule knew about Skil¡¯s and Zafer¡¯s status as Temperans, but didn¡¯t mind talking to them.
¡°Well, he mentioned an axe with the Execute rune¡±.
Skil looked at Zafer with a confused facial expression since he thought Zafer had no weapon, but Zafer was terrified.
¡°That¡¯s not good at all¡±, Zafer started to panic, ¡°how did he find out¡±.
Although Zafer possessed the Book of Runes and Curses, he couldn¡¯t recall what exactly the Execution rune was capable of, however, it seemed to be a very rare and powerful rune.
Some runes were so rare that they could not be found on a market as a book.
It was just easier to acquire those runes by extracting them from other weapons.
A sudden breeze passed through the entire Arena, and it took only one glance behind them to realize that a human made it.
It was Hydra. The only one who could run so fast.
He didn¡¯t say anything, but rammed into Zafer and dragged him away.
Hydra was obviously not in the mood for games, and Zafer couldn¡¯t do anything to free himself.
They stopped on a small field where wheat was growing.
The field was vast, and a small river surrounded it¡ªalso a very popular place for paladins to spar.
Wild wheat and weed were stubbornly sprouting each year even despite the influence of paladins and freelancers training, and now when it was autumn, it was completely dry.
It was a large piece of land with nothing, but dead wheat and a windmill surrounded by a small river and other random biomes.
¡°Alright, summon the Axe¡±, Hydra said.
Zafer was still holding the blade Skil gave him thanks to his grip strength.
¡°Don¡¯t act like you don¡¯t know. I already had to torture someone today¡±, Hydra continued.
If Zafer refused to hand him over the Axe, Hydra could only beat him until he gave up.
This was the first time Zafer wanted to precautionary drink a red potion, because this time, he sure would get hurt a lot.
Nevertheless, given Hydra¡¯s speed, such a feat would not be as easy as he thought.
One of the fundamental tactics when fighting someone was to prevent them from enhancing themselves with a potion.
Zafer barely just opened the lid of the vial and Hydra was already in front of him, forcing Zafer to use both hands to block his almighty Miyalin axe.
The red potion fell on the ground, getting spilled, while Zafer got blasted away.
There was a distance between them now. Zafer only had 2 more red potions left.
Luckily for Zafer, his hands were very tough, and Hydra also didn¡¯t activate a Crushing rune since he had to torture Zafer until he summoned the Axe.
A Crushing rune would have instantly killed him.
Hydra dashed towards Zafer.
The adrenalin rush was so high that Zafer didn¡¯t even agonize in pain but just focused on Hydra''s next move because it might also be his last.
The worst-case scenario would be if he got knocked out and kidnapped.
Luckily for him, Skil appeared in Hydra''s path, colliding with him sideways.
Both of them rolled on the ground.
This might look like a disgrace to an outside observer, but Hydra was still way stronger than both of them combined.
If one explored how politics in Nubis worked, one would figure out that the rank of an officer has more to do with loyalty than with individual strength and fighting capabilities.
As the future will show, there were some real menaces among regular Nubis paladins.
Zafer quickly used this opportunity to consume a blue potion, but it still wasn¡¯t enough.
Hydra was just too fast.
Nevertheless, instead of rushing towards Zafer, Hydra decided to smash Skil away.
This was barely enough time for Zafer to consume a single blue potion.
However, he still had in mind to drink a red one.
There was no way he would get away without any broken bones. Not against Hydra.
Zafer turned around and started running away from Hydra as fast as he could.
The good thing was that Zafer¡¯s knowledge of Arena¡¯s terrain was on the same pair as his Hydra¡¯s, despite their difference in fighting experience and age.
Since Zafer was way inferior to Hydra both in anomalous and physical senses, he had to use his surroundings to their full extent.
He took out a red potion vial and stepped on a holey surface that was very different from the surrounding earth and dirt.
It was the surface of an underground plant, Welkin, and was frequently used by fighters in Arena, mainly to buy time.
The ground shook and an intense blast of wind swept all the nearby dead wheat and pinned all the grass to the earth.
It was enough force to send Zafer flying into the sky!
Outside of Hydra¡¯s reach
Zafer¡¯s body was slowly flipping over, but he still managed to drink almost every drop of the red liquid.
Hydra also stepped on the Welkin plant and got sent flying, however, he missed Zafer by an inch.
After both of them fell on the ground, the close combat began.
Although Zafer was the one who wasn¡¯t restricted to killing, he fought defensively the whole time while Hydra was the aggressive one.
His every swing possessed so much force it could break Zafer¡¯s bone instantly, so Zafer was giving his best to dodge the swings.
He only had to take less damage per minute than his red potion could regenerate.
Drinking 2 red potions was meaningless since it didn¡¯t enhance the regenerative ability at all.
It was far better to save them and prolong their consumption.
Zafer only had a single red potion remaining after all.
Hydra on the other hand didn¡¯t need to drink potions due to his Repeater anomaly giving him inhuman speed, strength, and regeneration while activated.
To mention it one more time, Hydra can go even a full day with his Repeater Anomaly activated. That was just how much anomalous stamina he had.
Truly a monster.
There wasn¡¯t a clear light at the end of the tunnel for Zafer, but he continued to fight.
At some point, Skil came back.
They were now fighting Hydra two versus one. However, it wasn¡¯t as simple as it seemed.
Neither Skil nor Zafer fought someone together before, and it seemed as if they were getting in each other¡¯s way more than they profited from it.
The only good thing about this was that the damage Hydra was doing was now cut in half, meaning Zafer¡¯s red potion had more time to regenerate before his body got injured again.
Nevertheless, it was only Zafer whom Hydra didn¡¯t want to kill.
Not Skil.
A sharp thud was suddenly heard in the middle of a messy fight.
Skil¡¯s chest got penetrated, and although he was also enhanced by a 10% red potion, it was a serious question if the regenerative effect was strong enough to stop the bleeding before he went beyond the point of no return.
Despite the fact that a red potion could regenerate some amount of the lost blood, that amount was negligible.
Skil froze, backing away by a few steps, but Hydra wasn¡¯t acting in a theatre.
He kicked Skil in the stomach with superhuman strength, making him fly away.
Zafer wanted to prevent this by jumping on Hydra, but the Nubian was simply too fast.
Hydra swiftly turned around, only to see Zafer who was in the middle of a jump animation.
Wide open.
Zafer got kicked away in the same way.
He was rolling on the ground, but unlike Skil, Zafer got unlucky in his own way.
The potion vials he kept in his pockets shattered, spilling the liquid, but that wasn¡¯t the worst part.
All of the vials were made out of glass and hundreds of small smashed fragments got stuck in his flesh.
This was a huge problem since the regenerative effect could not get them out but only close the wounds.
This meant that those broken parts would stay stuck in his leg muscles, making it almost impossible for him to move.
Every contraction of his leg muscles resulted in cut muscle fibers and pain.
¡°Miserable Temperans¡±, Hydra spoke as he slowly approached Zafer.
He was aware of what happened with the glass vials.
He grabbed Zafer and started dragging him across the withered wheat field, but the former wasn¡¯t giving up yet.
Zafer let loose of his blade, caught Hydra¡¯s arm that was covered in Miyalin armor, and then clenched his fists as strong as he could.
His training with Luch focused mainly on A-6, the Iron Fist, but despite him making noticeable progress, he was still nowhere near even cracking Miyalin.
It wasn¡¯t the toughest material known to man for no reason.
Hydra threw him in front of Skil, before walking to the Temper paladin himself.
From afar across the river, Mint and the bald Nubian was observing the whole fight.
¡°This is bad!¡±, Mint commented, ¡°can you stop him!? Please!¡±, he glanced at Tule, the Nubis member who was previously scolding him.
Tule looked at him, ¡°probably, but I will get in trouble¡±.
Hydra laid his axe on Skil¡¯s shoulder so that the blade was looking at the sky. The low-pitched buzzing sound that the axe gave off could be well heard since it was right next to his ear.
¡°Typical Temperan weakling¡±, he commented, ¡°summon it¡±.
Skil went silent and Zafer looked at the ground.
This wasn¡¯t a situation Zafer hoped to end up in, not only because Skil voluntarily risked his life to protect him, but also because it was all about an axe that wasn¡¯t even his.
He found it, and although it was thanks to his sharp senses, it was still by pure luck.
This just wasn¡¯t worth it.
However, there was still something wrong about this.
Something that motivated Zafer to go this far in the first place, and it didn¡¯t even have anything to do with the Axe 33, but with Hydra.
He simply didn¡¯t like him at all.
Zafer gritted his teeth and with a great irritation summoned the Axe 33.
Hydra¡¯s eyes shone upon seeing the weapon he had been looking for.
With this, his own axe is right at the threshold to become a Divine.
Nevertheless, right in that instant, a humanoid creature appeared right next to the 3 of them.
It swiftly snatched the Axe 33 out of Zafer¡¯s hands and vanished again, only to appear behind
Hydra.
Hydra¡¯s heart suddenly started beating heavily, flexing all of his muscles to turn around as
quickly as possible, however, it was useless.
This all happened so abruptly and fast that even Hydra was no match for this humanoid
creature!
It hit Hydra¡¯s back with the axe very gently.
A silent clinging sound was heard.
All the preconditions for the Execute rune activation were met!
106
Hydra¡¯s eyes instantly went from alert to blank and his body instantly shut down, making
him fall on the ground!
¡°Yo! That was a banger!¡±, the humanoid creature spoke.
Its whole body was covered in white-orange fur and it also had the nose and ears of a fox.
That was the person from the bounty poster!
¡°Is- Is he dead?¡±, Skil was caught in awe.
¡°No. He only blacked out¡±.
Unlike Skil, Zafer was more curious about the humanoid creature rather than Hydra.
¡°Who are you?¡±
¡°I¡¯m Key Em¡±, he made a weird sign with his hand, ¡°this axe is mine. Thanks for looking after
it¡±.
He meant the Axe 33.
Key Em then turned around a bit nervous.
¡°Take this in exchange¡±, he summoned yet another Miyalin axe.
Zafer grabbed and inspected it.
It had no name but had a couple of runes implemented into it.
¡°I like you for real. Stay safe¡±.
At that same moment, he just disappeared into the thin air.
Zafer rubbed his eyes, straightening himself up as much as he could given his condition, looking
all around him but not seeing anyone.
He was one hundred percent sure that Key Em was the same person he saw on the bounty
poster at the entrance of the Arena.
This meant that he was a criminal, yet he seemed more friendly than Hydra.
This was the main reason why Zafer was satisfied with this outcome, with Key Em taking the
Axe 33 rather than Hydra.
At this point, both Mint and Tule appeared at the scene.
Tule approached Hydra''s body, lifting him up on his shoulders.
¡°Hey! What are you doing?!¡±, Skil protested.
Tule frowned, ¡°What? I can¡¯t just leave him here¡±.
107
This was maybe the best chance they had to get rid of Hydra! One if the Nubians menances!
Unfortunately, both he and Zafer were too tired to oppose Tule. None of them knew how
strong he was and honestly Zafer didn¡¯t care.
The main thing he was concerned about right now was that his quest got completed.
His speed definitely improved and it was time he also starts to work on other things.
Mint stood by the side this whole time, waiting for both Tule and Skil to leave after Zafer bid
his thanks and goodbyes.
¡°Hey¡ I wanted to apologize once more for not recognizing you earlier, and also thank you
for standing up for me¡¡±.
Although Mint was in Arena, he was way too weak to evaluate the strength difference between
Hydra and Zafer, meaning he also saw nothing wrong with this outcome, completely ignoring
it as it never happened.
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it¡±, Zafer was still on alert.
Mint continued, ¡°I want you to have this¡±, he gave him a folded piece of worn-down paper,
¡°It is a map to the rune library I am working at. You might want to visit it¡±, he hinted
something.
Zafer frowned, ¡°I thought the Nubis owned it¡±.
Mint shook his head, ¡°It¡¯s only a mere contract. You aren¡¯t even an official paladin of the
Temper, right? Just come by! Trust me¡±.
Not all rune shops were selling runes for the same price, and those that were hidden or had
a contract with some gang, or a faction was especially cheap.
Zafer nodded.
Although his main goal wasn¡¯t fulfilled, he certainly did improve his reflexes by a huge
amount in a short time.
Hydra was simply a monster.
Despite Zafer¡¯s willingness to stay with Koth and train, he now had other things to look forward to, like his first very own Miyalin axe, a visit to rune library, and a finished grinder farm.
Chapter 9
Part one:
¡°The lake seems to be entirely shallow¡±, a boy with black hair said gazing at a huge lake.
This lake was dug artificially and its size was comparable to that of a sea, the way its end could not be seen in any direction.
In the middle of the lake were concentric walls wrapped around each other.
They were so tall one could not see their end by gazing at the clear blue sky.
They were surrounding a Box of the Temper faction.
A bald man equipped with Miyalin armor walked over to the two teenagers.
¡°How did you even find their box?¡±
The black-haired boy smiled, ¡°by accident. While traveling¡±.
That black-haired boy was Zafer, and the others next to him were his best friend Semi and Tule, a member of the Nubis province.
¡°Well, that¡¯s an advantage of not using a TP¡±.
Tule was here referring to Transport Points, an Anomaly 9 script that was capable of teleporting humans.
¡°So?¡±, Semi asked.
¡°I called for reinforcement. We¡¯ll see how many decide to come¡±, he sat on the grass next to a lonely tree.
They were in front of the eastern wall of the Temper¡¯s box. Despite it being in the middle of the lake, the wall¡¯s left and right ends could not be seen.
That was how huge the construction was. It sure took a lot of money and time to build this.
Nobody knew for sure what was on the inside of all the walls but it had to be valuable.
The insides of boxes usually contained a perplexed system of rooms, that were mainly used to cultivate magic plants like flame or star flowers.
This entire building possessed almost the entirety of the Temper¡¯s wealth!
Everything that the faction had of value was inside of those walls.
Not to be confused with each paladin¡¯s own vaults and grinders though.
¡°Hey, look!¡±, Zafer pointed at the lake.
There was a boat with two people on it, both of which were probably paladins of the Temper province.
One of them was as big as the Priest was, while the other one was Semi¡¯s height.
¡°What are they doing?¡±, he asked as he watched the smaller one steer the boat by pushing itself off of the lake¡¯s bottom with a stick.
Tule paid no attention, ¡°they are probably transporting the Miyalin armor and weapons to the box¡±.
¡°Why don¡¯t they just teleport inside?¡±
¡°Teleporting with Miyalin makes the connection unstable. They would need to teleport each piece one by one which would tear down the Transport Point faster. They are just saving money¡±.
Every script had a limited usage depending on its nature and it was usually only one.
The only famous exceptions were artifacts like S-mails with infinite usages or TPs with a couple of them.
¡°But how are they going to get it inside? If there is an opening in the walls we can use it to get inside and plunder!¡±, Semi concluded.
Tule exhaled. These two teens just got into the world of paladins and already thought it was that easy to raid a box.
The last time the Nubis faction raided Temper¡¯s, they had to summon an ancient beast and guide it to destroy the walls since even cannons were useless.
¡°There probably is an intricated sealed door system somewhere, but if you try to enter there as an intruder you will just get stuck and killed¡±.
Semi drank a blue, purple, and red potion, ¡°in that case, we will just take their loot now¡±.
Zafer nodded, also drinking the potions.
Tule was somewhat shocked at this.
¡°I don¡¯t recommend that! That big guy is an Exterminator for the National Security¡±, Tule warned but the two didn¡¯t care to listen.
A boat filled with Miyalin equipment was a jackpot for them.
It was in fact enough money for them to start their business again from scratch 10 times.
Of course, someone like Tule couldn¡¯t understand it.
The two friends rushed through the lake, splashing the water left and right, their speed only reduced by a little.
This was an artificial lake and its depth wasn¡¯t above Zafer¡¯s hips even hundreds of meters from the shore.
As soon as the water from the lake started to splash all around, the Temperans on the boat noticed Zafer and Semi.
The bigger one who was working for National Security jumped off the boat into the lake, water reaching only to his knees.
Their box was well hidden in the middle of nowhere and under Banana¡¯s guidance, not a single soul knew about it being constructed the entire time.
However, such a huge construction was bound to be found sooner or later.
Some individual freelancers were getting paid by factions or gangs to just walk around and look for other faction¡¯s hideouts.
It didn¡¯t matter anyway. The huge Temperan summoned his uncommonly large axe, preparing for battle.
Unfortunately for him, Semi and Zafer had tricks up their sleeve.
Just as they were about to clash, Semi pulled out a small stick and broke it right in front of the enormous Temperan.
That was an artifact of the A-9, The Force. An Ar-9.
The broken stick produced an invisible force that swept away some of the water, even revealing a small portion of the lake¡¯s bottom.
The force was so strong that the big Temperan got blasted away into the thick wall of the box.
Zafer and Semi didn¡¯t know it at the time, but that wasn¡¯t just any wall, but a ¡°regen wall¡±.
This meant that the wall could regenerate itself, possibly trapping and suffocating the adult Temperan.
Nonetheless, that won¡¯t be happening.
With the big guy gone, there was now only the younger Temperan left to defend the Miyalin goods.
Tule was watching as the other members from the Nubis province joined him. That was the reinforcement he was talking about.
The water of the lake was still unstable due to the artifact, making it hard to firmly stand on the boat.
Semi, who just climbed on top of it, almost lost his balance due to this.
This was a perfect opportunity for the young Temper paladin to strike.
He swung with his Miyalin axe directly at the left side of Semi¡¯s ribcage.
Unfortunately for him, both Zafer and Semi drank 15% solution blue potions, making them faster than the young paladin, who was only relying on his Repeater anomaly.
Zafer jumped from the water onto the boat, placing his head below Semi¡¯s armpit where the young Temperan was aiming at.
If Zafer didn¡¯t possess the euclid A-11 anomaly, this strike would have killed him.
However, his anomalous ability was activated.
It was only thanks to Zafer holding back that the young Temperan didn¡¯t die instantly.
Zafer''s anomalous stamina got almost completely drained, making him bleed from his eyes so much that he could barely keep them open.
But that didn¡¯t matter. He trusted Semi enough to finish the job as quickly as possible.
This event was way before Zafer got stronger.
The explosion erupted, but this time it completely drained out all the water from the lake within a radius of 50 meters.
The boat that transported Miyalin''s equipment literally stranded on the bottom of the lake!
Tule flicked in disbelief. Eyes wide open.
The young Temperan got hit by the repelling ability and fell from the boat. Completely disoriented and blinded.
He could not differentiate above from below.
Rain fell on all of them, and the surrounding water surged towards them to fill the empty hole in the lake.
This almost made the boat tip over.
Semi grabbed Zafer and pushed a wrapped bag into his hands.
It contained a full Miyalin armor set!
¡°Let¡¯s go!¡±, Semi jumped from the boat holding another bag himself, but at that very moment, a large figure fell from the sky onto the boat.
This made the boat sink below water and touch the bottom of the lake.
It was the large Temperan Semi blew away.
Semi shivered in front of his sight.
The paladin summoned his large axe, gave Zafer a knockout with his elbow, and then swung at Semi with all his might.
There was no way for him to dodge this.
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Another member of the Temper faction appeared at the scene in that instant, grabbing the large axe with his left hand just as it was about to smash Semi¡¯s skull.
On his right shoulder, the member also carried the younger Temperan who got hit by Zafer¡¯s A-11.
Everyone froze. Semi, the big Temperan guy, and even Tule and other Nubians who watched the whole thing happen from the shore.
Tule frowned from afar, cursing ¡°Damn it. That¡¯s Banana!¡±
Indeed, that was the leader of the Temper province!
The bulky paladin also frowned, ¡°what do you think you are doing?¡±
Banana smiled nervously, ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but please rethink this!¡±, he removed his hands from the man''s large axe, ¡°look at him!¡±, he pointed at Semi, ¡°he doesn¡¯t know anything!¡±
The bulky paladin stared at Semi with an insanely aggressive aura.
Nobody would sue him or make a problem if he just killed both Semi and Zafer. They were within the territory of the Temper faction after all.
Still, he resisted and listened to Banana.
He picked up Zafer and threw him over his shoulder, turning towards Semi.
¡°You can leave¡±.
At that instant Semi dropped the wrapped Miyalin equipment he was holding, placing the right palm of his hand in the left one.
¡°No! Please!¡±, Semi dropped his head facing the water, ¡°let him go!¡±
He was already scared to death and aware that his life was spared but still wasn¡¯t satisfied. He couldn¡¯t leave without Zafer, even if he was the one constantly lending him money and making sure their small business worked.
Banana stepped aside, ¡°Alright!¡±
The older paladin looked at Banana, handing Zafer over to Semi and watching them leave towards the shore.
¡°Do you realize how much the Priest is going to scold me? They could have killed Nemo, and you are just going to let them go?¡±
Banana was still smiling, ¡°Come on, you and the Priest get along pretty well! He could not have dodged that artifact either!¡±
The older paladin clenched his fists desperately. Even though he was a Temper paladin and worked as an apparition exterminator for National Security, he still couldn''t prevent others from dying, even when they were right beside him.
Someone like Banana wouldn¡¯t understand that.
¡°What about them?¡±, he gazed at the Nubians assembling to attack their box, ¡°Simra and Uk are not here¡±.
Banana pulled out a vial filled with a pink liquid, smiling.
¡°Just take Nemo inside. I¡¯m caught by the mood¡±.
Part two:
This was a vague memory that was still engraved in Zafer¡¯s head from a year ago.
It was one of those moments that connected him to Semi the most, even after being separated for this long.
Now that the grinder is finished, Zafer can finally see Semi again.
However, before that, he needs to complete a side quest, which will later prove to have played a major role in his life.
It was only 1 week after the incident with Hydra, and when Zafer thanked Skil and mentioned that he needed not to hold back from asking for a favor, the latter almost instantly knew what Zafer could do for him.
That favor was the same reason why Skil came to the city of Koth in the first place, which normally wouldn¡¯t happen since he mainly focused on coding and writing scripts instead of working on his fighting abilities.
That was the only way he could achieve his life goal after all. By coding, and not by fighting.
Despite being a paladin of the Temper province Skil wasn¡¯t limited to being friends with regular people, but there was a risk coming with that as well.
One of the easiest ways to crush a paladin who was a member of the enemy faction was to blackmail them by kidnapping someone they cared about.
This is why paladins often either kept their friendships and love lives a secret or avoided forming connections with regular people altogether
In Skil¡¯s case, his childhood friend with whom he was still actively in contact got kidnapped by someone from the Nubis province named Zlatko.
Zlatko kept Skil¡¯s friend in his new underground dungeon, that he was going to use as a grinder. To cultivate flame plants.
The grinder was located in a cave system not far away from the city of Koth, and the rescuers were already next to the entrance, preparing to delve inside.
The party consisted of Zafer and another two Temper paladins.
Those were Skil and the young paladin whom Zafer almost killed in the previously described flashback. Nemo.
Nemo was one of the 4 members of Dominion, which was a sub-faction of Temper that merged with Temper.
This didn¡¯t happen a lot before people started counting years on the calendar.
It was currently the second year and since there were no such thing as months, calendar dates were only approximated based on the ongoing season which currently was autumn.
The 4 members of the Dominion sub-faction were:
Nemo, who was also the youngest and the most aggressive one;
The Priest, who was the strongest of them all;
The current 1st officer of the Temper, who possessed a very unique anomalous ability;
And the current 5th officer of the Temper, who had officially become the 3rd richest person in all of Pashtrik since the beginning of last winter.
Locating Zlatko¡¯s grinder was not going to be an easy task at all, but they kept going, using the unripe flame flower fruit as a light source.
This was of course not the way Zlatko would get to his grinder, except for the first time before placing a transport point.
In simple terms, a Transport point was a complex pattern resembling a tattoo, only visible during teleportation, which could last anywhere from 10 to 3 seconds, depending on the totem that was used.
During this time the individual had to prevent as much movement as possible since it could cancel the teleportation, but still tear down the TP durability.
Another weird prerequisite to this was that the individual could not be in water or any other type of liquid, since it could also disrupt the TP.
There was no special movement that one needed to do to activate their TP.
Activating a TP was an instinct for those who possessed it.
Anyway with Skil being their guide, the party has reached Zlatko¡¯s den.
His grinder.
It was like a box made out of several walls, constructed inside of a cave chamber.
There was no opening or door and what Zafer and his party could see was only the outer side of these walls.
The only way to get inside was to teleport or make a hole through the wall.
The walls of Zlatko¡¯s grinder were constructed narrowly along the cave chamber stone walls, but there was enough space for a human to sneak sideways in between.
¡°Let¡¯s fucking do this¡±, Nemo whispered grabbing a flask filled with potion.
Skil grabbed his arm aggressively, ¡°No! We don¡¯t know who all is inside!¡±
Zafer also approached in order to hear them.
¡°We will slip in between the walls and listen. When everyone teleports out, we go in¡±.
They all agreed.
Grinders were mainly used as a place to cultivate magic plants and rarely as a vault for valuable equipment or a place of residence.
It was hard to tell from the outside, but it seemed that this grinder consisted of 3 or 4 rooms, and the biggest one was probably the one reserved for cultivation.
Zafer¡¯s naturally small build lets him sneak in between walls with ease.
He sidewalk to the opposite side of the grinder and then listened.
¡°I thought that you Nubis members aren¡¯t allowed to have any private grinders or farms¡±, a voice could be heard from the inside.
¡°Screw them all!¡±, another one answered, ¡°I¡¯m sure that everyone has their own grinder but just can¡¯t talk about it!¡±.
¡°Well, if you say so¡±, the former one answered, ¡°how did the other guy even escape?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t know!¡±, he shouted but his voice was still silenced by the walls, ¡°now I need to build another grinder¡±.
One of the two men talking had to be Zlatko, but Zafer wasn¡¯t sure who the other one was.
Both of these men are unknown to him anyway.
He won¡¯t need to interact with them, only wait until they teleport away.
For that, someone had to have 2 TP¡¯s, one to teleport to their underground grinder, and one to exit it.
That transport point could be anywhere else. Some big cities had TP¡¯s in their middle to allow for quick travel, but these were only accessible to paladins and some merchants.
The two men kept talking for a while before they suddenly went quiet in the middle of a sentence.
Zafer couldn¡¯t see either Skil or Nemo since they were on different sides of the outside walls.
¡°There¡±.
In that instant, a loud sound was heard from outside the grinder, opposite of where Zafer was.
He couldn¡¯t see what happened, but it sounded like Skil had penetrated the wall and gotten inside! And then once again, from the direction Nemo sneaked to.
¡°Is that all?¡±, one of the men who were previously talking asked, and the other one took some time to respond.
¡°There¡±.
At that moment Zafer¡¯s whole body got attracted towards the outside wall of the grinder, and the pulling force was getting only stronger to the point he thought his body would crush against it.
However, that didn¡¯t happen, and he penetrated the wall just like his companions did.
Dust got into his eyes and before he could even respond he hit something and fell, or to put it in a better way, someone hit him.
He then quickly opened his eyes only for a second, barely dodging a kick that was going straight for his head.
¡°Don¡¯t!¡±, the other man shouted, his voice now escaping into the cave.
Zlatko¡¯s heart skipped a beat, and he was glad that Zafer dodged that, immediately figuring out why his friend warned him.
¡°Don¡¯t tell me¡¡±, he turned away from Zafer asking his friend if it was what he was thinking.
This was the perfect moment for Zafer to make a comeback.
He summoned his Miyalin axe that Key Em gifted him and swung with all his might Zlatko.
Unfortunately, in the blink of an eye, he found himself lying on the ground once again, with both arms broken.
Yes. It was that fast.
It made Zafer ponder who these men even were.
He was in enormous pain, but his mind was more occupied with this irritating feeling of being taken down so easily by some random Nubian he never even heard of before.
How strong were exactly these guys?
Hydra was a casual member as well and he was unbelievably capable, but now these two as well? With fluent aikido techniques and unexplainable 6th sense.
How many more people is he going to come across who are much stronger than him?
Like when does this end?
In less than 5 minutes all of them had their legs and arms cuffed and were thrown into a large trough filled with cold water.
This was done to prevent them from teleporting somewhere safe.
Zlatko then put special blindfolds over their eyes.
Those were A-11 artifacts that blocked their anomalies.
All in all, they were completely incapable of resisting now.
They got to be in the same room as Oli, Skil¡¯s friend whom they wanted to rescue, and the only one who was singled out was Zafer.
His hands and feet were also tied, but to a chair that was then put in another room behind thick metal doors.
¡°Are you sure you don¡¯t want to watch¡±, Oma asked.
Oma was Zlatko¡¯s friend who felt the presence of the intruders through the walls.
He was the 1st officer of the world''s 3rd strongest faction. The Numen.
That faction only had 3 active members by the way.
¡°I am¡±, Zlatko responded
Zlatko was more curious about identifying who these intruders were and if they were any good for blackmailing.
Nemo was undoubtedly the most valuable one since he was part of the Dominion sub-faction, and a very close friend to both the 1st and 5th officer of the Temper province, who was, once again, the 3rd richest person in the whole nation.
There were some really good artifacts and runes that he could ask them in exchange for Nemo.
Heck if he decides to ask them for the legendary Temperan Das Luci weapon, they will probably have no option but to hand it over.
If that was a possibility, then Zlatko would not mind his friend Oma taking the Execute rune from Zafer.
That¡¯s right. They knew and still thought that the Axe 33 was in Zafer¡¯s possession, somewhere in the Void.
Now, an individual can only have a maximum of two different items made out of Miyalin in Void at the same time, and Zafer already revealed one to be an axe, but that axe didn¡¯t possess the infamous Execute rune the Axe 33 had.
The only remaining slot Zafer had in Void had to be the axe with the Execute rune, and the only way they could make him summon it was through torture.
Unluckily for Zafer, Oma was the worst person he could face.
Even worse than Hydra.
Oma was a true lunatic, and that will only get more obvious as Zafer continues his journey.
Zafer wasn¡¯t blindfolded with the artifact because Rod liked it when victims could see everything that was going to happen to them.
For the next 1 hour, Zafer was tortured in an underground enemy grinder, in a cave somewhere in the middle of nowhere, and it seemed as if there was no end to it.
The water he was put in was slowly changing its color to red.
It was obvious that Rod was experienced at this, using various methods, and not having to worry about Zafer dying because red potions existed.
The only thing he had to worry about was for Zafer to not bleed out, but that wouldn¡¯t be happening.
Oma was very accurately measuring blood with his eyes, and he had all the time in this world, meaning he could wait for the red potion to slowly replenish his blood, which took a couple of hours.
Zafer¡¯s face was all sweaty and his eyes looked twisted as if another small pair of eyes was located within his pupil, looking at Oma¡¯s every move with patience.
A whole hour passed, and Oma was starting to enjoy the hate in Zafer¡¯s eyes, however he couldn¡¯t get over something.
Something felt different from the others he tortured.
¡°I don¡¯t mind spending a whole day here with you, so I hope being stubborn pays out¡±, Oma smiled, but Zafer lifted his head returning a smile himself.
He then started laughing out loud, and it didn¡¯t make sense because he was obviously feeling pain.
That was noticeable from his reactions that just could not be faked.
Nevertheless, he was laughing, and Rod figured he was just either going crazy or trying to act tough and unbothered.
However, at that moment, something appeared in front of him.
Something that would make him question this whole one hour he spent torturing him.
It was a bag made out of Miyalin links that Skil gifted to Zafer.
That was the second item Zafer had in his remaining slot in Void.
The two items were an axe and a Miyalin bag.
That¡¯s it.
That was the undying proof.
Why the heck would Zafer summon it only now? He didn¡¯t have to go through all this torture.
Is Zafer¡¯s laughter not fake? Is Oma actually being mocked right now?
Why else go this far?
Zafer¡¯s gritted his teeth and his muscles seemed as if they were about to burst.
It gave a feeling like Zafer would rip Oma apart the very second he gets uncuffed.
Oma threw his handkerchief and left the room in big strides.
The heat was starting to wash him from the inside out in waves.
¡°What¡¯s up?¡±, Zlatko stopped daydreaming about blackmailing realizing something was wrong with his companion.
Oma frowned, ¡°the fucker doesn¡¯t have it¡±.
That was frustrating, sure, but why was Oma so off?
Zlatko quickly threw a glance behind the metal door where Zafer was before Oma slammed it shut.
The room was pitch black but something reflected the light.
Those were Zafer¡¯s wide-opened red eyes, and Zlatko felt as if he could see Zafer¡¯s facial expression based just on them.
It made him kind of creep out.
A whole hour later Zafer was still sitting alone in that dark room, spontaneously having muscle spasms and contraction.
The absence of any stimuli made him only think about escaping this chair and going all out at those two, even if he knew he was nowhere near beating them.
He fell asleep into a state of stupor, completely unaware of what was happening in the other room of the grinder.
He woke up for just a second, looking at the stars before falling asleep again.
He was out somehow.
Nevertheless, the unpleasant experience he had that night completely changed his path in life. He just didn¡¯t know it yet.
Chapter 10
Part one:
¡°Hey, I heard what happened! I hope you will get well soon, please write me back. Semi is also wishes you all the best! -Knuckles¡±.
¡°Hey, I feel awful about what happened. It was my fault, and I will make it up to you once I get released¡±.
Skil wrote the second S-mail.
Zafer opened his eyes.
He was comfortably lying on a bed, under two blankets in a small room.
On his left side was a door and on his right was a window opened to the tipper with almost fully closed curtains, barely letting the last dark-orange rays of sun inside.
The night was approaching, but midnight was still a long way off since it was autumn.
He slowly got up and approached the window.
Pulling the curtains aside, he peered into the courtyard, only to see the biggest magic flower conservatory in his life.
It glowed from within, and even though he had only seen it once before in person, Zafer was certain it was filled with flame flowers.
He could tell by the smell and the sensation caught in the air.
Aside from the conservatory, the yard was huge, as well as the house. He was currently in a room located in the attic.
It was only then that he noticed that both of his forearms as well as some parts of his abdomen were wrapped in several layers of soft white bandage.
These scars originated from yesterday¡¯s torture, and they weren¡¯t as easily healable with a red potion as one might expect.
If the red potion isn¡¯t consumed in time, the living tissue will die, forming a scar or a wound.
These types of wounds required special treatment, usually taking several days to disappear.
For example, if one¡¯s arm was cut in half and the body naturally repaired it, no amount of red potion would bring that arm back.
The arm would have to be cut open again because that was just how regeneration worked.
It could only heal fresh wounds, not scars.
Scars were bad.
Of course, Zafer as well as a majority of the people didn¡¯t know anything about how scars are formed on a cellular level or what a tissue is.
Only educated people knew how to treat scars the right way, without scooping out the flesh and feeding the patient with a red potion.
He took another breath of the fresh air and then pulled his head inside the room, going to the door.
The whole house was illuminated with hand-made baskets filled with flame-flower fruits. Those emitted light.
The walls were decorated with paintings.
There was even a green banner with a Temper province symbol.
The white four-pointed star.
Zafer was obviously in a safe environment, inside the Gardens of the Elite, but the question was in whose house.
He couldn¡¯t tell, since he never ventured deep enough to see anyone¡¯s home, but there were only a few possibilities since only a couple of Temper paladins were allowed to have a stay here.
Those were Banana, all 5 of the officers, and 3 more individuals with special treatment.
One of them was the Priest!
Almost all rooms had sliding doors, and Zafer came across a slightly open one.
It was a dining room and he was dying of hunger. Couldn¡¯t tell for how long he was sleeping.
Eating food at the officer''s house on his own would be too rude, but entering a room just to look around wouldn¡¯t hurt, right?
Just as he stepped into the room, he sensed soft footsteps from around the corner, and in just a few moments, a short girl appeared, carrying a blanket, bandages, and a couple of vials filled with some tincture.
She had white hair long to her chest, black eyes, and a very petite figure.
She was smaller than Zafer by a whole head!
¡°Hello¡±, Zafer greeted her.
¡°Hi¡±.
The silence reigned.
¡°I¡just woke up¡±.
¡°I see¡±, she responded, ¡°go take a bath. Downstairs left. I will bring you your clothes¡±.
She stood there continuing to stare at him.
Zafer nodded not sure if he should say anything.
He was too tired and weak, so he just obeyed the girl without further comments.
The Simple Physiology of Anomalies: Paragraph 4:
The strength of an anomaly was measured in ¡°Verms¡± which was a new logarithmical SI base unit, where 1 Verm was equivalent to¡
A system was established so that 24 Verms represent the very maximum intensity, while 0 the absence of an anomaly.
Since the biggest noticeable jump in strength of an anomaly was achieved after any primer number of Verms from 1 to 24, including 24 as an exception, non-prime values in Verms were neglected and rounded to their precursor (2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19, 23 and 24).
If one¡¯s anomaly strength was measured to be 16 Verms, it would be rounded up to 13, and treated accordingly.
Zafer could not remember the last time he enjoyed a bath so much to the point he just didn¡¯t want to leave.
The water was coming from a thermal spring right next to the house, and everything was made out of such high-quality materials, from the tiled floor to the spacious bathtub.
This room was also illuminated with flower plant fruits, creating a very pleasing atmosphere.
The Gardens of the Elite lived up to its name and if he could just stay here forever, he probably would.
But that wasn¡¯t important. His goals come first.
He put his clothes on and returned to the main room where the girl was waiting for him.
She was sitting at the low table, on a floor pillow, wearing a black-green uniform with a hat.
¡°It sure took you long¡±, she commented, but Zafer awkwardly ignored it and sat across her.
He expected her to continue talking, but instead, she just took a sip of the tee, staring at him.
¡°So, who are you?¡±, Zafer finally asked.
¡°Ika. An expert for love problems¡±, she responded.
The silence reigned once again.
¡°Who brought me here? Where are Skil and Nemo?¡±
¡°At Priest place. They are fine¡±
Zafer was starting to get irritated by her dry and short responses.
¡°And who brought me here?¡±
¡°The Priest¡±
¡°How¡±.
Ika exhaled, ¡°Boy you ask so many questions, I wasn¡¯t there! You will never find a loving girlfriend if all you do is worry!¡±
For some reason, Zafer took this as literal advice. He relaxed a bit knowing that Skil was fine.
Ika still wasn¡¯t moving her big black eyes from him. It made him uncomfortable.
He had almost no experience with females, but also never cared enough.
One of Zafer¡¯s unique features was that he felt no need to associate with the opposite gender or form any sort of relationship with them.
Besides, how could he form a bond with someone with whom he shares no similar interest?
All of Zafer¡¯s friends were either paladins or freelancers. What could he possibly talk about with a female?
He lifted his gaze at Ika for a few seconds, but it was enough to notice an eye patch at her right eye.
He hadn¡¯t noticed it before since it was slightly covered by her hair.
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¡°What¡¯s wrong with your eye?¡±
Ika smiled slightly, ¡°Huh, I bet you would really like to know¡±.
The silence reigned once again, and she was still staring him down.
This girl¡
It was as if she wanted to talk to him but didn¡¯t want to initiate anything on her own, sometimes even dodging his questions.
This can¡¯t be how all females talk, right?
¡°Who are you actually?¡±
Ika shrugged her shoulders, but Zafer continued immediately.
¡°You know what I think? I think that you are someone¡¯s wife or girlfriend. Maybe even a sister, but you won¡¯t tell me whose.¡±
Ika frowned, ¡°And why? Why can¡¯t this all be mine?¡±.
Zafer was taken aback by this comment, his brain processing the context.
¡°You can¡¯t be an officer¡±, he said unsurely.
Ika couldn¡¯t believe this. She didn¡¯t even frown. Just shocked.
¡°What?!¡±, she stood up aggressively, ¡°do you see this coat?!¡±
Zafer now realized.
The infamous 5th officer of the Temper province was a girl! Ika was the 3rd richest person in the world!
¡°But why are you wearing it in your house?¡±
She changed while he was taking a bath.
¡°Why do you care? I like it¡±, she turned sideways a bit.
Zafer took a deeper look at the uniform. It really was immaculately crafted, and the combination of black with green edges created a sort of indescribable sensation.
¡°Well, I like it too¡±.
¡°You better¡±, this was the first time she removed her eyes from him.
She sat down at the table.
¡°So, for what purpose am I here?¡±
¡°To heal¡±.
Zafer leaned on the table, ¡°what about the others?¡±
He now knew that Nemo was also a part of Ika¡¯s sub-faction, Dominion.
¡°They are grounded and won¡¯t be leaving the Priest''s side for some time. Poor souls¡±.
Zafer frowned, ¡°What about me?¡±.
He meant why he wasn¡¯t grounded.
¡°What do you mean? I told you that you will be staying with me. That¡¯s a blessing¡±, she corrected him not realizing what Zafer meant.
He was after all the one who went through the worst.
Zafer could only speculate that the Priest and someone else came to rescue them somehow, but he wasn¡¯t sure how.
Forget the way they found out about the grinder¡¯s location, he was shocked how any paladin could not only enter that Nubis grinder, but also return alive with 4 kidnapped men.
That was exactly the type of strength Zafer was aiming to achieve, or perhaps even higher.
It was also then that he remembered he currently had so much going on in his life, like his training, the TP to the grinder that Knuckles was supposed to paste on him, and the rune library Mint was operating at.
The rise of his name had only started, and there was no time to waste.
After witnessing what kind of strength someone as short as Laura and someone with an Iron Fist anomaly like Mio managed to achieve, he was sure that the only limit to his growth was his own lifespan.
Zafer was never a social person, but interacting with other people definitely was the best and fastest way to improve.
One¡¯s lifespan was way too short to experiment and learn on his own. It¡¯s better to use other people as an example and learn from their experiences to save time.
¡°How strong are you?¡±.
Ika laughed, ¡°Weak and vulnerable. I am a girl after all¡±.
Well, this was a surprise. Didn¡¯t expect that one coming from a Temper officer.
Zafer argued, ¡°That doesn¡¯t mean anything! Some women are extremely strong!¡±
¡°Really? Like who?¡±, she leaned her head on her hand.
¡°Like Laura¡±.
Ika inhaled, ¡°Oh, her¡I guess she is strong¡±.
It was still weird to Zafer how all of the experienced paladins and National Security members knew each other, despite their diverse attributes and abilities.
That was just how it was once someone entered the circle of infamous.
Every officer of the Temper province had to be wealthy, a good fighter, and a person capable of doing paperwork and constructing grinders and farms in order to receive said title.
Ika was an exception to that.
She was so rich that it made up for everything else that she was lacking.
However, her wealth wasn¡¯t a gift. She worked really hard for that.
Waking up each morning at 6 to take her medicaments and cultivate flame flowers 15 hours a day.
Every day.
After a few hours of talking, Zafer asked when was it right for him to leave.
He suddenly had so much to look forward to in his life, and his path toward becoming a Temper paladin was becoming visible.
Ika replied that Zer Ox insisted on Zafer resting at her house until his scars were gone. He will also be a company for hardworking Ika during that time.
After this point, all the events that occurred were part of a short filler arc.
Ika was very smart and educated, and Zafer learned a lot of things from her during this time.
He also found out that her right eye actually leaked out when she almost went inverse but was saved.
The stopped mutation, however, still caused irreversible damage and was extremely unappealing, so she always wore an eye patch to hide it.
Ika was now the second person Zafer met who managed to resist mutating. The first one being Key Em.
Regular people, among which was Zafer not long ago, believed that to be impossible and nothing but rumors.
However, only now after becoming stronger and getting involved with powerful and influential people, Zafer realized some rumors were truthful.
He still didn¡¯t know if resisting was possible to achieve all alone.
Ika never revealed who helped her to remain human, but there was someone.
Now one might argue that an anomaly whose strength was measuring 23 or 24 Verms was able to conduct such a feat, but that wasn¡¯t even that important, since the number of people who possessed such high-grade anomalies was countable on fingers.
The current strongest man who was known as the symbol of peace, the only human designated Threat Level 6, Wabler, had his primary anomaly measured at 23 Verms, and it was only due to him being born with it like that.
His primary anomaly was an euclid.
The main issue with anomalies wasn¡¯t that they were impossibly difficult to train, but that one usually didn¡¯t have enough time.
Around the age of 50, a person''s strength began to slowly decline, making it pointless to try to further enhance their anomaly.
Improvement required constant and exhausting training, both physical and mental, and the payoff wasn''t nearly as great as when one was young, full of energy, with good eyesight and flexibility.
However, even if Zafer now devoted himself only and specifically to developing his Iron Fist anomaly to its maximum capacity, there was a vague chance he might succeed until he hit 50 years.
He was turning 20 this winter and Ika already turned 20 this spring.
When he found out about this, he was stunned.
This was another Temper paladin that was around 20 years old, and compared to the Nubis province, it seemed like a joke.
Nubis province consisted of highly experienced and adult men, and it wasn¡¯t as nearly as age-diverse as Temper.
Nonetheless, this was maybe a good thing for Temper.
Maybe Banana pondered things out way before anyone else, since, as mentioned, humans were starting to lose strength once they went past 50 summers, and most of the Nubis paladins were near or even past that point.
When all of them fall out of shape, Temper will be full of young paladins at their peak age.
If this was what was happening, no¡ This was sure to happen, but if it was intentional, then Banana¡¯s brain was sure to make up for his inability to fight like Uk or Simra.
One morning Zafer woke up earlier than usual in a desperate attempt to match Ika, but she was already working in the conservatory, collecting the precious sap.
At that moment someone rang the front doorbell.
The only 3 people who were visiting Ika during the entire week while Zafer was staying at her were also the other 3 remaining members of the Dominion sub-faction.
Nemo, the Priest, and the 1st officer but their visits were never this early.
Zafer opened the door but there was nobody to be seen, instead, there was a 3 by 3 crate with milk sealed in glass bottles.
He took the crate in one hand and pulled out one bottle with his other, feeling the warmth engulfing his palm.
¡°What¡¯s the matter?¡±, Ika sneaked up behind him.
¡°Someone left all this milk in front of your door¡±.
¡°That¡¯s the supplier. I¡¯m too busy doing important stuff so I rarely go outside. You saw that note Priest took yesterday?¡±
It was a note containing everything she wanted to have, and once it reached the Priest or the 1st officer, they made sure she got it, no matter how small or big the quantity was.
Ika had a huge basement and a couple of pantries for the food and ingredients she used for cooking.
If the meal she wanted to prepare wasn''t just for one person, she would invite others over.
¡°But he left yesterday pretty late¡±, Zafer commented.
¡°Yes, and the milk is from this morning. It¡¯s warm right?¡±, she had a smug face.
Zafer nodded.
Ika always got what she wanted, no matter what or when.
¡°Take a sip and tell me if you envy me¡±.
Zafer smiled, placing the casket on the floor.
He knew she only wanted him to try it.
Nonetheless, the thing was that the milk was meant for Ika, and it was not only fresh but also packed in a brand-new vacuumed glass bottle.
Drinking from a glass bottle that he had never used before was a luxury that Zafer never had a chance to experience in life and he in any case didn¡¯t know what a vacuum was.
He was trying to open the lid, but it wouldn¡¯t flinch a bit, and the more he dragged his hand over it, the more embarrassing it was for him.
Again, he didn¡¯t know a vacuum existed.
Ika didn¡¯t smile but was looking at him with a normal face.
¡°Are your hands wet?¡±
Zafer took a break.
This was something one does not say to someone who possesses the Iron Fist anomaly, especially since Zafer was working really hard on improving it.
That phrase was commonly used among warriors to make fun of and humiliate each other, but someone like Ika shouldn¡¯t know about it.
Zafer gripped the bottle once again and used more strength than a normal human without the A-6 anomaly would ever have.
His hand was holding the bottle so firmly that it was just stuck in that spot, and soon enough, the glass started to fracture.
At the point he relaxed his muscles, the bottle fell apart, causing the milk to spill on the stoney floor.
Zafer looked at Ika, not knowing what to say since he wasn¡¯t weak, but he also knew he wasn¡¯t so incompetent to complete such a simple task.
Ika finally smiled, ¡°Stop looking at me like that. There is no use crying over spilled milk¡±.
She turned around and left the house into her garden where the conservatory was, leaving Zafer to clean all the mess she was responsible for.
She invited him to try the milk intentionally. Zafer will only realize this in a couple of years.
The two spent the rest of the week somewhat together.
Zafer could not leave her place and just wandered outside since he already was deep into the prohibited area of the Gardens of the Elite.
Nevertheless, he still made sure to perform all the sweaty exercises he used to practice together with Luch in Koth city.
The rest of the time, when he wasn¡¯t cleaning, he helped Ika with cultivating flame flowers, not because it would be less job for her, but because he really wanted to learn how it¡¯s properly done.
Luckily for him, there was no bigger expert than Ika, since she was spending most of her every day doing exactly this.
The goods one gets from a flame flower are the sap extracted from a mildly hardened stem and an underground storage organ made out of the weirdly evolved leaves.
Those were being used as food, an addition to the meal, or even as a spice. It was most comparable to how onions were used, except its taste was something completely unique.
This was just so deeply engraved into the culture of Pashtrik people that life without it was as hard to imagine as one where salt didn¡¯t exist.
Its name was Ahrix.
Every flame flower plant could only have one Ahrix at a time, and once it was removed, a new one would form and be ready for extraction after a few hours.
Due to a National Security law, only the 3 official factions were allowed to cultivate and sell them at a maximum price of 77 units per Ahrix.
For comparison, a single loaf of bread costs around 20-30 units.
If plant cultivation wasn¡¯t only limited to paladins of an officially recognized faction, its price would surely drop, but that wasn¡¯t possible.
There was a very good reason why only paladins were allowed to cultivate not only this magic plant but also any other.
It didn¡¯t have anything to do with Ahrix, but the sap.
The sap was the main ingredient of the ink that was used to write runes or any other type of script, including the transport point tattoos.
Writing ancient language on a piece of parchment had no meaning if it wasn¡¯t written with the ink.
Only then did magic come to life, bringing the written code into reality.
It was so valuable and useful that scriptmen demanded to be paid with ink as well as money for a book of rune because those were the largest ink and parchment consumers.
The methods used for extracting sap from the flower plant stem were a little bit tricky, requiring unique and special tools, like long and unbelievably narrow glass pipes, but that wasn¡¯t anything.
The extraction could take some time, and one had to know how to automate this process but still effectively get the most sap.
Knowledge about the plant was required to know where and how deep to stab the plant. The flame flower was a very bushy plant, but it still only had one flower with one pistil, resulting in one seed that would replace its precursor after the year of its life span had ended.
Ika¡¯s farm had an astonishing amount of little over 400 plants, which was also the upper limit of how much one person could cultivate without losing any sap or Ahrix.
Just around the time she would place the needles and pipes into the last plant, the first one was also ready to have its goods collected.
After some time Zafer managed to get decent at it and until his scars faded away, he was really above average at it, understanding how the plant works and its morphology.
Had he declined to not help Skil and gone to Semi¡¯s and Knuckles¡¯s grinder, he realized how wrong he would have been doing things
However, now that he learned the craft, he was ready to cultivate flower plants on his own in an underground grinder.
This will consume a lot of time from his training, so before getting his TP, he decided to visit Mint¡¯s rune library first and see what he had to offer him.
Then, he will take notes of how runes work and which ones he needs to buy first for his Miyalin axe.
As a token of appreciation for his help and a birthday gift, Ika gave him around 200k worth of bank bills which seemed like a lot, but to her, it wasn''t very important.
That was after all the reason why she was the 5th officer of the Temper province.
Chapter 11
Part one:
¡°That¡¯s completely fine, but since you will be the last one to get the TP, you won¡¯t be able to pick your time with the flower plants. Maybe I can swap with you if the schedule doesn¡¯t suit you. 25:56¡±
For someone to become a successful paladin, they need not only to excel in their fighting ability but also in their knowledge of architecture, magic plant cultivation, and even certain scripts.
That¡¯s what Ika used to tell him. Not everything was in the muscle.
Aside from treating his scars like the Priest asked her to, Ika also made sure that all of the broken glass fragments were removed from Zafer¡¯s leg as soon as he told her the story of fighting Hydra.
She also bought him the famous 12-slot waistband for potion flasks, so that something like that doesn¡¯t happen again.
These days those were safer and more popular to use than the glass vials.
Once the healing of his scars was completed, and once the Priest made sure Zafer was in the right shape, he was let free to go.
This was to be seen as a token of gratitude and respect for going through the troubles his apprentice Skil and ¡°family¡± member Nemo dragged him into.
Those two were severely punished by having to spend 1 month with him and Zer Ox made sure that they regretted it to the point of never acting on their own like this again.
Oli, the friend of Skil whom that whole rescue operation was intended to, was also forced to endure the same fate since he was the main reason everything even happened.
It turned out that Skil lied to Zafer.
The whereabouts of Zlatko¡¯s grinder were known to Skil even before Oli got kidnapped.
How he stumbled upon such discovery remained a mystery, but it¡¯s said that he wanted to portray his dear friend, Oli, as the man behind the scenes who not only discovered the location of Zlatko¡¯s grinder but also helped Skil to raid and plunder it.
He hoped that this feat might be enough for Temper to recognize him as a potential new candidate.
This was the only way Oli saw to join Temper.
In the end, he did receive what he longed for, but not in the way he expected.
The Priest was so furious that he just gave up and agreed to give Oli a job, but not as a paladin though, rather as a bookkeeper.
In Nubis numerous bookkeepers and staff members weren¡¯t paladins, whereas in Temper most of these types of jobs were done by the 1st officer or the Banana.
This was mostly because they didn¡¯t want to employ regular people and then use harsh measures to ensure that they stayed obedient and loyal through fear.
Nevertheless, Oli was an exception to this now, since he wanted it so badly.
Obviously, raiding Zlatko¡¯s grinder wasn¡¯t as easy as Skil and Oli thought, since Oli got trapped and Skil barely managed to escape.
Since Skil was too scared of telling this story to higher-ups, he decided to ask Nemo and Zafer to help him rescue Oli and possibly finish the job.
To plunder Zlatko¡¯s grinder.
Nevertheless, that plan also failed, however, if Priest¡¯s rescue team failed, then it would be pretty bad.
They were lucky that Zer Ox was strong enough to enter Zlatko¡¯s grinder and extract everyone alive.
This was the level of strength Zafer wanted to achieve, and although the Priest wasn¡¯t alone, the heights of Zafer¡¯s dream were set right there.
Or even higher. Priest didn¡¯t rescue them alone, of course, he had help.
However, Zafer wanted to get strong enough so that he could do everything by himself, because only then would everyone be able to rely on him.
The closest person to that description was Wabler, but Zafer wouldn¡¯t mind surpassing even that if his limits didn¡¯t restrict him.
The foundation of that goal was to become a good paladin, and that wasn¡¯t possible without knowing how to cultivate magic plants.
He could try to reinvent the whole science behind it, but that would take him several lifespans.
Either way, cultivating magic plants wasn¡¯t something he ever intended to learn, but it was a necessary side quest, and that was exactly how he viewed his whole stay with Ika.
She taught him everything he needed to know about cultivating the flame flowers, from extracting the sap, and pruning the branches so that they don¡¯t overgrow into an intricated mess, to using metal pipes to stabilize the plant when it¡¯s still young.
She even talked about the conservatory the plants were kept in and the type of ground and humidity that was necessary for them to not wither.
After that part of his life was over, it was time to continue his journey, and that was towards the rune library where Mint worked.
Cultivating magic plants without purchasing runes made no sense, and to live a life like this without good gear meant death.
He used the map Mint gave him to find his way to the library.
The place he was traveling towards was a small village in the very south of the country, and he was close.
He knew it since he could see the Pashtrik mountains in the distance.
Those hills weren¡¯t something that someone would see every day, because most of the important and big cities were located around the middle of the basin, but once someone saw them, there was no way they would ever forget.
The average height was around 6000 kilometers.
Aside from it being illegal, nobody was skillful enough to climb over those mountains.
The hike was a suicide even for a paladin, and those who were capable were exactly the people who lacked that childish curiosity and thought of it as a waste of time.
Mostly because they already knew what outside of the Pashtrik basin was.
They heard it from those who went outside.
It was similar to a school classroom, where all the students know each other and someone from another classroom would be merely an uninformed outsider who was not part of the whole network of information exchange.
That was Zafer currently.
The only people who were legally allowed to and who were actively venturing beyond the Pashtrik mountains were members of the National Security expedition squad.
In any case, the map that Mint gave Zafer wasn¡¯t very accurate meaning that he knew where the village was but didn¡¯t know how far he was from it.
However, given the fact that the Pashtrik mountain range is now well within his sight and that the last human civilization he came across was 3 days away, it was obvious that the village he was looking for was near.
Two more days of walking at most.
The Book of Runes and Curses: Paragraph 11:
A Patronage rune is a constant-active rune, as long as the item it was implemented in physically touched its user¡
¡and the main function was to harden human cells, making the body more enduring to physical stress and force.
He was currently on a plateau with his sight only being limited by the Pashtrik mountains in front of him, and an endless horizon in any other direction.
The wild grass that grew here was to his knees, and there wasn¡¯t any other noticeable diversity of plants, except for some bushes and evergreen trees here and there.
This was normally a problem since he had no cover in case of strong wind or rain during the night when he ate, rested, and slept, but not because he would catch a fever or something.
He was a paladin in training after all, and it was widely known that those whose anomalies were strong were always the last to get sick, no matter if it was an euclid or a regular anomaly.
No.
The main issue with staying outside during the bad weather was due to his belongings getting wet and destroyed like the book of Runes and Curses, however, this was not something he had to worry about anymore, thanks to the Miyalin bag Skil gifted him.
It not only made storing his items easier, but also the whole traveling process shorter, since he was deprived of having to carry extra weight.
The sun was slowly settling in, and it was the best opportunity for Zafer to have dinner before the last rays of the sun disappeared behind Pashtrik.
He summoned his Miyalin bag and pulled out 3 potatoes which he then boiled and waited to peel with his knife once they were done.
Just as he was about to finish eating the first one, the scarce fog started to set in, but it was nothing that would disturb him from finishing his meal.
However, something else did, and he spotted it quite late given that he was on a sight-clear plateau.
It was a humanoid figure, and he couldn¡¯t tell if it was walking toward or away from him.
It was toward him of course.
It was a woman, no taller than him, with her black hair in a bun.
She wore regular metal armour which meant that she was not a regular citizen.
What would someone else look for in this wasteland?
¡°Hey¡±, Zafer called out and that was when she stopped.
Only her silhouette was visible.
For narration context, her name was Yana, but Zafer didn¡¯t know it yet.
An axe appeared in her left hand and at that same moment, Zafer felt a chill in his ears.
Vroom.
It was a lightning bolt, landing directly on him.
He got hit, and still swiftly dashed sideways hoping that the fog and dust would give him cover, at least until he drank the potions from his 12-slot belt.
He had 5 red potions on the left and 5 blue on the right side, with 2 remaining slots empty.
Those 2 were reserved for the purple potion, but Zafer never bought any since he didn¡¯t need it for training and it was expensive.
Unfortunately, he didn¡¯t even manage to take one flask from the belt before another lightning bolt struck him.
He again suppressed the A-11 activation, since it would drain a lot of his anomalous pool in an instant, but taking the second lightning bolt knocked him down on the ground.
To summon two lightning bolts in such a short period, meant that she either possessed the Purge IV, which was the most advanced version of the rune, or wielded two Miyalin axes.
Did Zafer accidentally stumble upon someone¡¯s territory? A gang? Maybe her grinder was nearby.
Everything was peaceful once again.
Yana observed Zafer lying on the ground before taking slow strides toward him.
He was conscious but scared, calmly lying on the ground.
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This was nothing like the brawl against Hydra or any other men where everyone else could spectate the fight and see what happened.
Yes, even in Arena he could still die, but that was never the main intention of his opponents.
This however was all happening in the middle of nowhere.
If something was to happen to Zafer nobody would even raise any suspicion until several days had passed.
Zafer was still too early on his journey of strength and martial arts. 95% of all paladins were capable of killing him.
He could not allow himself to get killed while still unhatched.
Hit and run was an option here.
Zafer suddenly pushed himself off the ground and attacked her, hoping to finish the fight before the cooldown on her axe ended.
Yana reacted somewhat late but still managed to block Zafer¡¯s swing, after which she pulled out a flask, nearing it to her lips.
¡°She didn¡¯t drink her potions in advance?¡±
This was the best opportunity to take her down then.
Zafer risked it all and went directly at her, hoping she would hesitate between drinking or blocking his attack.
After all, blocking while holding an open flask without spilling a drop was a difficult task.
Surprisingly, Yana didn¡¯t contemplate a bit but poured the entire liquid down her throat.
It was over in less than a second!
She threw the flask away and with the help of the blue potion¡¯s effect deflected Zafer¡¯s swing at ease, and kicked him in the stomach, knocking him down on the ground once again.
Zafer rolled on the ground over 2 times and then forced himself to jump right back, ignoring all the pain in order to defend himself from the next session of attacks.
However, it never came.
Yana stood there throwing another flask on the ground, gazing at Zafer.
She already drank another potion.
To be so confident to attack someone without using the advantage to drink the potions beforehand was absurd.
Even adult paladins did this without exception, and she definitely didn¡¯t seem to be someone of that strength.
Furthermore, the speed at which she consumed potions was unfathomable and Zafer never saw anyone before do anything similar.
It was as if she didn¡¯t swallow at all, but only let the liquid slide down her throat.
Was this even possible for anyone to do?
Zafer never tried it before, but maybe this was the perfect time to learn a new skill.
He quickly flicked, pulling his own flask in his hand after which he faked to open it.
Yana fell for it dashing ahead, but Zafer only stepped sideways, summoning his axe just in time to hit her.
She blocked it, but still went flying due to Zafer¡¯s impeccable strength that was granted to him by the Iron Fist anomaly.
As said, Yana went flying but she was still under the effect of the blue potion, which meant that Zafer had to hurry up.
He opened the flask, this time for real, and poured the liquid down his throat, even lifting his head just like Yana did.
However, he was surprised to find out that this trick wasn¡¯t that easy to pull off.
A mere drop fell on his still-opened Epiglottis, the reflex kicked, in and his throat muscles tightened, making him cough the whole potion out.
He was embraced by fear.
He lowered his head, gasping for as much air between his coughs as possible.
The liquid slid down his mouth and his face turned red.
He could not straighten himself up to fight!
His body started moving on its own as if the wind had lifted it.
Yana pulled him towards her.
That was her secondary anomaly, the Force.
Her anomaly was still weak though so she could not completely lift Zafer off the ground.
He dragged on the ground for 2 seconds before hitting Yana''s sole.
He was still undergoing the choking reflex but managed to blindly put his axe above himself to block any possible incoming swings.
Unfortunately, the spasm didn¡¯t only affect his throat but also made it difficult to firmly control other muscles in his body, like his forearm muscles, despite the A-6.
Yana swung and knocked his axe out of his grasp.
¡°Got wet hands?¡±, this was the first time she spoke.
Was it over? Is this it?
For some reason, instead of finishing him off, Yana threw her axe beside her and kneeled, starting to punch Zafer wherever she could.
She was punching him as if it was out of hatred.
They were currently on a very steep part of the hill but one could still stand upright without losing the balance.
Nevertheless, Yana chose to hold onto Zafer¡¯s sweater with one hand while punching him with her other.
The second potion she drank was the purple one, but Zafer didn¡¯t seem to take as much damage as one would expect, and she noticed this right away.
¡°His body is way tougher than normal humans¡±.
Suddenly, Zafer pushed her hands away, standing up.
Because of the hill being steep, their faces were at the kiss distance. Yana was caught off guard.
She gasped knowing what happens now.
Zafer gritted his teeth and rammed his forehead against hers with all his might.
-Death-
The next thing Yana felt after that was a punch in her abdomen.
Her armor sunk in, and she went flying downhill.
Zafer stood in the same place, somehow managing to balance himself.
¡°What do you want?!¡±, he screamed at her as she rolled down the hill.
If she wanted to kill him, she clearly could have done that by now, and the only reason Zafer could think of not doing that was that she maybe wanted Zafer to overheat himself first.
This was a common practice when fighting someone to death for a maximal profit.
Once someone enters the last 10 or 15 % of their anomalous pool they start to overheat and bleed from their eyes, but something that also might happen is that their skin reveals the Transport point if they had one tattooed on them.
Once tattooed onto someone¡¯s skin, TP drained a minimal portion of one¡¯s anomalous pool to stay invisible.
Once someone overheats and dies, their TP would stay visible on their corpse for others to copy.
This was similar to preventing someone from dying with a Miyalin weapon in the Void, to avoid its loss.
Zafer had no TP on him, meaning that this practice was pointless.
Yana¡¯s vision slowly returned, and she gazed up at Zafer.
Her axe was still under Zafer¡¯s feet but he dared not to touch it.
He still didn¡¯t trust himself to identify the Splinter rune.
Both she and Zafer started drinking from their flasks at the same time once again, and obviously, she finished way before him, already pouncing towards his direction at full speed.
There was no way Zafer could get to his own axe in time, so he just focused on drinking to blue potion.
Yana reached him in no time, landing a kick on his stomach.
Zafer flew away, but this time at least he successfully drank his first potion during the entire battle.
The blue potion.
The two of them were now even in terms of speed boost, and they immediately went back at it.
Zafer had 5 more red potions and 3 blue ones.
He wasn¡¯t sure if he missed something, but it seemed that the Yana never drank a red potion, only blue and purple ones.
She was confident and brave.
This girl obviously wasn¡¯t here only for the kill, but also to humiliate Zafer.
No, wait.
Was she only here to humiliate Zafer and give him a good beating? Perhaps even to scare him?
While the two exchanged blows Zafer also managed to get to his axe and after about 20 minutes the effect of the blue potion started to wear down.
During these 20 minutes, Zafer was getting overwhelmed, however the main threat only came now.
It was time to replenish his body with the blue potion.
He had open cuts all over his body, and although he wasn¡¯t bleeding out that much, deferring the consumption of his first red potion wasn¡¯t logical anymore.
He had a broken rib, and his shoulder was also feeling somewhat off.
The good thing was that Yana¡¯s blue potion effect was also slowly wearing off.
Nevertheless, Zafer knew that mutual potion consumption was impossible, so he remained close to Yana at all times, putting more pressure on her.
Will Yana still try to drink the blue potion under all this pressure or will she rather fight with no effects?
It was interesting that since Zafer had the Iron Fist anomaly, he had an advantage in close combat, but Yana never let him approach her within a grabbing range, and she also wasn¡¯t running away from him either.
To say that she is more skilled than Zafer would be an understatement, but even being aware of the strength difference, she finally panicked a little bit.
She wrongly calculated the distance between them and went to grab the flask with her hand.
This was the opportunity Zafer had been waiting for.
He revoked his Miyalin axe back into the Void and grabbed Yana by both forearms.
Her heart twitched, but quickly realized that Zafer¡¯s grip strength wasn¡¯t as strong as she thought it was.
Her forearms were covered with iron armor.
Despite focusing on breaking her forearm bones, Zafer wasn¡¯t letting her trip him over with her legs, and to an outsider, it seemed as if they were dancing, constantly pushing, and pulling each other while their legs were entangled.
The armor bent a little, creating a force on Yana¡¯s hands, but don¡¯t forget that she was under the effect of a purple potion, making her a little bit tougher.
That pain was nothing she could not withstand.
The more this went on the more Zafer realized he wasn¡¯t going to do anything except overheat himself.
This made him furious.
If only he was stronger. If only he trained his Iron Fist more.
Nevertheless, Zafer wasn¡¯t giving up, and seeing this, Yana had no other choice but to activate her primary anomaly.
The A-1, Synthesis.
Three sharp iron blades penetrated her own armor from the inside and extended into Zafer¡¯s shoulder and chest.
They penetrated his body. It hurt.
He groaned and then stiffened his whole body before smashing his skull against Yana¡¯s once again.
Only then did he let her go and backed away.
Yana cried out. The second time her head went numb.
The 3 iron blades got separated from her body and were now only sticking out from Zafer.
They both tried their best to stay balanced, but Yana couldn¡¯t endure it anymore.
She knelt, groaning in pain.
Zafer on the other hand remained calmer, pulling the blades out of his body, drinking his first red potion, and renewing the blue one.
This left him with 4 red potions and 2 blue potions.
Yana couldn¡¯t see properly but figured out how Zafer was using this time to his advantage.
So, she merely touched her axe.
Vroom.
The Purge rune fell on Zafer once again, neutralizing all potion effects.
This only bought Yana more time to recover, since Zafer now had to drink his potions once again.
He was left with 3 red potions and a single blue.
This ratio was bad because he had no use of red potions if he wasn¡¯t fast enough to prevent getting hurt.
If he fought her with no blue potions at all, he would quickly run out of the red ones as well, that was if he even managed to drink them.
Yana straightened herself, but her vision was still blurry. Zafer was in no hurry to attack her anyway.
He knew he could not prevent her from drinking the potions.
They stood about 30 meters away from each.
This battle had become quite exhausting.
Due to the blue potions, they covered great distances at ease.
The blue potion, however, didn¡¯t make one more enduring. This was why Mio had Zafer jogging every day.
Had that not been the case, his stamina would have been depleted a long time ago.
Yana opened her first flask of red potion, pouring it down her throat.
¡°When Sir Simra rejected me, I somewhat did understand¡±, she spoke, ¡°I could never match someone as strong as him or probably most of the other paladins. But then they accepted a new candidate¡¡±, she squeezed her hand that was holding the axe, ¡°I wonder why that was¡±.
Zafer paid no attention to her words, instead rolling up his trousers as much as he could.
Experiencing the winter breeze on warm, perspiring skin was both refreshing and delightful.
He then blew his nose in his naked hand and whipped it off of his leggings.
Yana wore armor, had the effect of the purple potion, and even possessed an axe with the purge rune.
On top of that, she always managed to finish her potions right in front of him, and the only way he could stop her was to risk getting severely hurt.
But if that was the case, then let it be.
He was angry and frustrated, and his eyes were wider than normal, with enlarged pupils, and it seemed as if something starred right through them.
Yana stared back, watching Zafer strip the upper part of the body.
He first removed his thick black scarf.
This scarf that Zafer carried all around, just like officer Uk, was not for looks.
Regular runes could technically be implemented into any material other than Miyalin.
Some paladins used to implement a Patronage rune into an article of clothing they could always wear around.
This way, they were somewhat protected even when not wearing the Miyalin armor.
Yana had it as well right now but did not dare take it off.
Why would Zafer do that? She could not figure that out.
She frowned.
Was it some kind of trick? Maybe his scarf possessed no runes after all.
By this time Zafer pulled his sweater over his head. He had no shirt underneath.
This was the moment when Yana¡¯s heart skipped a beat.
Her facial expression got caught in shock.
She stared at Zafer¡¯s naked body with many questions in her mind.
His abdomen was full of fresh scars that she dealt to him, but there was another wound in the middle of his stomach that was utmost disgusting.
It was half rotten and intertwined with messy sewing threads as if an amateur threatened the injury.
It was something she could not describe
Did he do this to himself? How?
Zafer pulled down the empty flask from her lips revealing a smile.
Zafer¡¯s whole body emitted visible heat.
He was only starting to get caught by the mood.
He suddenly disappeared.
¡°Shit!¡±, she screamed.
Zafer has gotten way faster.
They clashed once again.
Yana did not hold back on her anomalies anymore, but Zafer paid no attention.
He got penetrated multiple times by her Synthesis iron blades, and still attacked her with all his might, as if the pain didn¡¯t exist.
Those wounds were actively being regenerated via the red potion, yes, but this approach was still highly risky.
Even under the regenerative effects of the red potion, nothing could heal a damaged heart quickly enough to prevent death.
Nevertheless, Zafer was just dashing around, finally forcing Yana to take the defensive side.
He was moving too quickly and recklessly for her to accurately penetrate his heart.
Zafer¡¯s eyes never stopped from moving and observing and it seemed as if his every movement was done one purpose, consciously.
He has finally reached the flow state.
Maybe even beyond that.
Yana panicked so much that she decided to drink another red potion despite the 10 minutes not passing yet.
She should be stronger than him, but his Iron Fist anomaly made up for the absence of a purple potion in Zafer¡¯s blood.
It was also important to note that even if both of them were way faster than a normal human, this didn¡¯t mean that they were more enduring.
Only during the current session, did they cross over 8 kilometers.
This was a huge strain on their legs, liver, heart, and lungs.
Zafer was very thankful to Mio for making him jog and train his body without potions.
Zafer suddenly made a very risky move, breaking Yana¡¯s hand, but also getting hit by her axe and blasted away.
For her hand bones to reconnect and merge it would take just enough time for Zafer to consume another red potion and his last blue one.
Yana frowned staring at Zafer realizing the risky trade-off he pulled off just now.
¡°I get it now¡ You are just like him!¡±, she screamed, ¡°you are crazy! You are fucking crazy!¡±
Zafer smiled slightly at her, feeling something sliding down his cheeks.
It wasn¡¯t sweat, but blood.
He wiped it with his hand.
He was starting to overheat, which meant that any further usage of his anomalies could make him burn out and cause terrifying consequences.
¡°Heh¡ I might have to go for a kill¡±.
Yana gritted her teeth.
Both of their throats were burning in pain from inhaling the cold mountain air.
Breathing through the nose just didn¡¯t supply them with enough oxygen.
They weren¡¯t experienced enough.
Zafer could even taste blood in his mouth, and there wasn¡¯t any wound in there.
He stepped forward but suddenly felt an intense pain spreading from his calf to his chest.
His legs were burning, and he had a feeling as if his muscle fibers were intricated into lumps.
Running with a mediocre pace was one thing and sprinting at full speed was another.
His facial expression froze, unable to step neither forward nor backward.
Yana took continuous deep breaths, also tired and terrified from the encounter.
Although Zafer still didn¡¯t reach his peak performance, he was physically exhausted and on the verge of falling apart.
He had to train more.
Yana wasn¡¯t aware of this, however, and with Zafer¡¯s sudden increase in strength, she didn¡¯t know what to expect next.
¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±, Zafer asked calmly.
He was aware that it was over. Yana had more endurance than him.
¡°Yana¡±, she responded standing across him, ¡°why did you want to join Temper? Why become a paladin¡±.
At this point, it was clear that she gave up on killing him if she even planned on doing that.
Sometimes when we feel that life treats us unfairly, we get a need to take that frustration out on someone who might be a part of it.
But in the end, not everything is as it seems when viewed by an angry eye.
Zafer indeed proved not to be a spoiled someone with privileges, but rather a man that would become quite fearsome if he continued his journey.
Yana hated it, but that was the reality.
¡°Never mind¡¡±, she said after reflecting a little bit on their fight, ¡°I know already¡±.
To become a paladin one needed to devote his whole life to acquiring the necessary skills, which was a perilous path, and even after becoming one, the risk of losing everything while constantly giving endeavors to keep a place in society never went away.
That was the reason why many found the fortune of paladins not worth it, hence all the paladins have an excellent reason for pursuing this kind of a lifestyle, abdicating any normal relation- or friendship.
Still, in some cases, those reasons weren¡¯t that noble.
Sometimes they were similar to why gamblers keep returning to their bad habit, despite the fear of losing everything.
However, after observing the individuals who have nothing to lose, and nothing to do with the time their life granted them, it might start to make more sense.
Chapter 12
Yana and Zafer were still standing in the cold meadow, staring at each other.
Moon has completely replaced the sun by now and although it was reflecting the moonlight, darkness prevailed by a lot.
Not to mention the fog.
All in all, continuing the fight now would be too difficult
Zafer was too physically exhausted anyway.
But Yana didn¡¯t know this.
She recalled her axe into the Void. Zafer has gotten way faster and more unpredictable.
Fighting him in this darkness would be way too risky for her.
¡°I have no intention of seeking you in the darkness. The next time we meet you better get stronger, or it might not end like this¡±.
Zafer placed his axe on his shoulder, ¡°and how will it end?¡±
Yana turned around, ¡°I might give your head to Sir Simra and ask him to take me in as a replacement¡±.
Her soft voice vanished as the last words were covered by the cold breeze.
She was gone.
Zafer finally threw himself on the ground. His muscles reveled in pain.
It felt good.
Soon after that, he threw up.
Part one:
The next morning Zafer experienced major muscle soreness but continued his journey anyway.
He managed to light a fire despite the cold weather and moist air, baked his food, and used the charcoal to brush his teeth.
After that, he immediately continued his journey.
The village where the rune library was located wasn¡¯t that far after all and it took him only 1 more day to reach it.
The distinction between this town and any other he visited before was obvious even before entering the village''s parameters.
An uncommon number of dead birds were lying on the ground and no animal seemed to touch their corpse.
Zafer didn¡¯t understand why, and he also didn¡¯t want to entertain his curiosity.
He believed it might be some bird disease.
Individuals with significant and well-defined anomalous pools tended to fall ill less often than the average person.
However, when they did become sick, their condition was much more severe and harder to treat, often being fatal.
Even a mere cold could kill a paladin if he managed to catch it.
Aside from the dead birds, there was another weird thing about the people in this village.
They couldn¡¯t understand him, nor could he understand them.
The concept of any other language existing besides his native was unimaginable to the point of thinking that the folk of this village were cursed or underwent a mutation that affected their vocal cords or brain.
¡°Why are you asking about him?¡±, someone finally spoke in a way he could understand them.
It was a woman working in the garden around the house.
¡°Oh! You understand me!¡±, Zafer exclaimed, ¡°he told me to visit him in his library¡±.
The woman opened the door of her house, speaking incomprehensible words to someone else in it.
¡°You are Zafer?¡±, he nodded.
¡°Igen¡±, she called out again, and after only a couple of seconds, a man appeared, probably her husband as far as Zafer could assume.
He was very bulky and had a dense black goatee beard.
He also had a couple of long black hair strands at the back of his head tied into a ponytail. The rest of his head was bald.
Nevertheless, the most distinctive feature of his was his mustache which was longer than his beard and was just hanging like that, as well as his yellowish skin colour.
Now Zafer knew there were people with different skin tones and that it was dependent on sun exposure and inheritance.
For example, Ika¡¯s skin color was light grey, almost completely white, while Wiza¡¯s skin was slightly tanned, but it was always a spectrum between white and black.
He never saw someone whose skin color had a yellowish hue and wasn¡¯t sure if this was some kind of unique trait or a consequence of being exposed to yellow-colored food.
You are what you eat, that was what Ika kept telling him.
The women left, and the man introduced himself as Hok after which he let Zafer in the house.
It was a humble old-fashioned home and household.
They ate the crops they personally grew and the cattle they personally raised.
They immediately went downstairs into the basement. It was filled with food supplies for the upcoming winter.
Nevertheless, that wasn¡¯t the end. There were other stairs leading even deeper.
That was the rune library.
It still looked as if it belonged to the house with similar aesthetics, just newer.
It consisted of only 1 room and tens of bookshelves filled with books.
Rune books.
Some shelves were labeled with a rune name like ¡°Purge IV¡±, ¡°Purge III¡±, ¡°Anointment¡±, or ¡°Everlasting¡±, while some were labeled with names like ¡°Hydra¡±, ¡°Skank¡±, ¡°Lee Thal¡± and so on.
The ¡°Execute V¡± section was empty with accumulated dust.
That was the rune that Hydra, Skank, and Zlatko wanted to get from Key Em¡¯s Axe 33.
Once Hok and Zafer reached the opposite side of the room they could see Mint sitting at a very large and thick table with a couple of books arranged on it.
Mint had his head buried in one of the books as he applied ink to its empty page.
He suddenly lifted his head surprised and cheered up by Zafer¡¯s presence.
¡°Hey! You came!¡±, he straightened himself on the chair, ¡°what took you so long?¡±
Zafer smiled, ¡°oh well, you know. My shoe kept getting unlaced¡±.
This was a common slang expression implying that it didn¡¯t matter.
More importantly, Zafer couldn¡¯t help but stare at Mint¡¯s desk in awe.
¡°Are you writing a rune?¡±, he bent over the table to have a better look.
Mint laughed, ¡°No silly! I¡¯m only rewriting them. But I wish¡±.
¡°What¡¯s stopping you? You are very creative and can surely think of something!¡±, Zafer wanted to encourage him.
He was after all older and felt the duty to act accordingly.
Mint shook his head, ¡°that¡¯s way too complicated. I don¡¯t know anyone who can do something like that¡±.
Zafer took a seat across Mint, on the other side of the table, ¡°don¡¯t be like that. Who was then the first to write these runes?¡±
Mint shrugged his shoulders, ¡°I wouldn¡¯t know. I never dealt with the history, but whoever was it, they had to be incredibly smart¡±.
Zafer frowned, ¡°well, I heard there are scripted who are developing a multi-S-mail¡±.
Mint waved with his hand, ¡°those scripts are peki-leki compared to runes¡±.
Zafer could not evaluate the complexity of a code since he knew nothing about it. He only knew that runes contained longer codes.
The book that lay open in front of Mint was full of weird symbols and scribbles that Zafer couldn¡¯t understand.
That was the ancient language, and although there were some signs that Zafer recognized back from writing S-mails, their usage here seemed to be something completely else.
At this time Hok appeared placing a plate of cookies and a glass of milk on the table for them to enjoy.
The cookies were very dry.
¡°By the way¡±, Zafer swallowed a bite, ¡°why can¡¯t he understand me? Or anyone in the village?¡±
¡°They just speak another language¡±, Mint responded stuffing a whole cookie in his mouth, ¡°and my bad for not introducing him! His name is Hok. He is the owner of this rune library and a very low-ranked member of the Nubis province¡±.
Mint was a regular guest at Hok¡¯s house since they worked together but was not a bit publicly supportive of the Nubis faction¡¯s ideology.
¡°Alright¡¡±, Zafer pondered for a moment.
¡°Yes¡±, Mint continued, ¡°This rune library has an agreement with the Nubis province to store and sell runes to them. I¡¯m not sure how it happened or if Hok is happy with that though¡±.
Zafer smiled nervously, ¡°Isn¡¯t it a bit risky for me to be in a Nubian rune vault? They know my face¡±.
The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.
Min, casually waving a cookie in his hand, dismissed the concern, ¡°Not at all. All the runes here are either duplicates or low quality¡±.
It made sense.
No paladin would keep their most valuable runes in the same space others had access to.
Even if they were from the same faction.
Zafer asked, ¡°What do you mean by bad quality?¡±
Mint leaned back, ¡°You know how anomalies and artifacts are measured in Verms? For all anomalies it¡¯s referred to as the intensity, except for the A-9 and Ar-9. They are measured in quality¡±, he explained.
Ar was the abbreviation for Artifact and A for anomaly.
Zafer listened carefully so Mint continued.
¡°You see, the Adjustment is a very unusual anomaly. It¡¯s the only anomaly that can¡¯t be improved. Whether it was about an euclid or a regular anomaly¡±.
Zafer ruminated for a second, ¡°But doesn¡¯t that mean that people born with a regular A-9 are useless? If they really can¡¯t improve their anomalous strength. Quality I mean¡±.
Mint was satisfied with his explanation, ¡°Yes! That¡¯s true!
¡°So all these scriptmen like you were born with an euclid A-9?¡±
Mint smiled awkwardly, ¡°Well, no. Anyone can be a scriptman since it¡¯s a form of written language. Just like anyone can learn to draw. I think what you referred to are parchment donors, not scriptmen¡±.
Zafer tilted his head, ¡°I guess. But aren¡¯t scripts and parchments the same thing?¡±
Mint tried not to sound smarter, ¡°yes, about that. Parchment and scripts aren¡¯t the same thing. That¡¯s a common misconception¡±.
¡°A parchment is the processed skin of someone with the Adjustment anomaly A script is what we create when we apply ancient language to that parchment. Simply said, parchment is useless while the script has a purpose¡±.
Mint was actively learning the ancient language, which meant that he was a scriptmen, but he was also born with a euclid A-9, which meant that he was also a parchment donor.
Zafer could also learn the ancient language and rewrite runes like Mint but he will never be able to donate his skin for parchment since Zafer wasn¡¯t born with an A-9 anomaly.
Mint continued, ¡°Artifacts, no matter the anomaly they were derived from, can take various shapes. For example, Artifact 11, the Almighty Eye, often appears as a pair of sunglasses, but it can also take a different form. However, the Ar-9 always takes the form of a parchment, since that¡¯s the whole purpose of its anomaly¡±.
Despite Mint being one year younger than Zafer, his knowledge of scripts and runes was impressive. Zafer never expected someone younger to be so bright.
After mastering the flame flower cultivation from Ika, Zafer saw this as the perfect opportunity to learn about runes and the Anomaly 9.
¡°Well if A-9 can¡¯t be defined with intensity, then what is meant by quality?¡±
It was difficult to understand what exactly a Verm stood for, but a vague explanation would be that the more Verms one has, the stronger output and the larger quantity of techniques were to be expected.
For example, Mio¡¯s Iron Fist anomaly had more Verms than Zafer¡¯s, meaning his hand grip was stronger.
The Adjustment was a passive anomaly. It was only useful as an artifact (the parchment). What was the difference between the quality of A-9? Why were more Verms better?
Mint explained, ¡°You are born with a regular Iron Fist, right?¡±.
Zafer nodded.
¡°The more Verms your Anomaly measures, the stronger your grip will be. I was born with an A-9 measuring 13 Verms in quality and as I said, I can¡¯t increase it. I¡¯m stuck at 13 Verms¡±.
Mint continued, ¡°That means that when my skin gets peeled and transformed into a parchment, its quality will also equal to only 13 Verms. Does it make sense?¡±.
Zafer nodded. He didn¡¯t see himself as a dumbass, but curious.
¡°A 13 Verm and 17 Verm parchments look the same, but there is a huge difference¡±.
Zafer was glad that Mint got to the point, ¡°So what is it?¡±
¡°Well, it¡¯s a little bit difficult to explain to someone who never wrote any other code except the S-mail, but to put it bluntly, the 17 Verm parchments support bigger and more complex codes¡±.
Zafer frowned in confusion, ¡°so¡ the difference is the size of the paper? The size of the parchment?¡±
¡°No¡±, Mint cut his off, ¡°The size of the parchment doesn¡¯t change, but higher quality parchments are denser with¡ let¡¯s call it ¡®essence.¡¯ Think of it like adding honey to water. The more honey, the sweeter the water. The more essence in the parchment, the more complex codes it can support¡±.
Zafer could grasp this metaphor.
¡°So, does that mean for example that a rune like Purge IV can also be written on a 2 Verm parchment, but it would take 1000 of such parchment pages¡±.
Mint paused again.
¡°No. Like I said, the size of the paper doesn¡¯t matter. The surface doesn¡¯t matter¡±.
A moment of silence reigned.
This knowledge wasn¡¯t vital to Zafer in any obvious way, but Mint felt sorry that he couldn¡¯t explain it better, and Zafer was too deep in his stubborn rabbit hole to give up now.
¡°You see, the minimal parchment quality for it to be used as a vessel for any rune was 7 Verms. The size of the code and the number of pages needed to be assembled to write them has nothing to do with how complex and heavy the code is¡±.
¡°It¡¯s really all about how complex the purpose of a code is. If the code¡¯s purpose is like an S-mail, to copy text on another sheet of parchment, then it doesn¡¯t require a high-quality parchment¡±.
¡°However, if you want your code to seal the souls of people or extract anomalies from someone¡¯s body, that code would need a very high-quality parchment¡±.
Zafer nodded, ¡°I see. But what does that have to do with these low-quality runes? They are already transcribed on parchment. Why not use them?¡±
Mint crossed his legs enjoying Zafer¡¯s ambition, ¡°There is another important difference, especially when we are talking about runes. For a rune to be functional it needs to be transferred onto a weapon. That is something I know how to do, but it¡¯s a process that can fail or succeed, and it doesn¡¯t depend on me but on the parchment quality¡±.
¡°7 Verms parchment can support runes, but the success rate was so low that it was almost close to 0%, while the quality of 23 Verms meant 99%¡±.
Zafer frowned trying to comprehend these odds. He wasn¡¯t good with math.
Mint recognized this silence and explained.
¡°That meant that 1 in every hundred runes should fail, but those are good odds¡±.
This was way easier for Zafer to understand than the previous concept, ¡°so that means that 24 Verms equal to a 100% success rate!¡±
Mint squinted in contemplation, ¡°Well¡ that¡¯s the correct way of thinking, but a parchment of 24 Verms doesn¡¯t exist, so¡¡±
Zafer was baffled for a second.
He understood that the occurrence of euclid anomalies was rare and that the occurrence of a euclid 24 Verm anomaly is even rarer.
But to say that something like that doesn¡¯t exist¡ or did he mean something like that just didn¡¯t happen yet?
¡°How can you be so sure?¡±, he asked.
Mint leaned back once again, ¡°This might awaken some confusion, but there actually is a way to increase the quality once the skin of the A-9 bearer is peeled and transformed into the parchment. It¡¯s done by using something we call Krale¡±.
This meant that Mint¡¯s skin could still produce only 13 Verm parchments, however, that quality could be increased via Krale.
¡°Krale? What¡¯s that?¡±
¡°It¡¯s a perplexing process, but the main ingredient is unicorn¡¯s horn¡±.
Zafer¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°Unicorn horn?¡±.
¡°Yep. That¡¯s what Krale is made out of¡±.
¡°Okay¡¡±, Zafer let him continue.
Although it was common knowledge among higher paladins that unicorns were a crucial part of their lives, many regular people and even young paladins considered it to be nothing more than a myth.
That was partly because unicorns were bred in private facilities, mostly outside of Pashtrik.
That was to protect their endangered species.
Unicorns bred rarely, produced a low number of offspring, and also died upon the removal of their horn.
Given the soar in paladin activity, the unicorn population was almost impossible to increase.
¡°Anyway, Krale can boost a parchment¡¯s quality, but only up to the next bottleneck. So, from 7 to 11, from 11 to 13, and so forth. Nevertheless, a parchment with a quality of 23 Verms can¡¯t be improved to 24 no matter what, which meant that 23 Verms was a limit¡±.
Zafer mulled this over.
The idea of limits existing¡ It struck a chord with him.
Many relied on the hope that no ceiling existed on what they could achieve, in order to keep pushing forward.
Skil talked about how his life purpose was to end the mutation disease that has taken countless lives and destroyed many families.
He was sure that someday he would write a code that would cure the disease, but what if that wasn¡¯t possible?
What if the code for curing that disease was so complex that even a 23 Verm parchment could not support it?
After all, no human becomes a God. Right?
Mint shrugged his shoulder unaware of Zafer¡¯s silent philosophy.
¡°All in all, increasing the quality of a parchment was possible but very pricey. This was the main reason why parchment donors such as myself were valuable, which reminds me of the main reason why I invited you here¡±.
Zafer perked up.
¡°There are runes that can only be applied to Miyalin weapons and those that can be put on whatever. Some runes, like the Purge, function better on specific weapons like an axe, while others are best suited for swords¡±.
Mint leaned forward, eye sharp. ¡°Nevertheless, there¡¯s a special class of runes which can be applied to anything with a 100% success rate. Do you know which runes I¡¯m talking about?¡±
Zafer shook his head.
He had seen the ¡°special grade¡± section in the Book of Runes and Curses, but the complex descriptions had discouraged him from reading further.
Mint continued, ¡°It¡¯s 2 runes. Anointment and Eucharist. The Anointment rune protects a weapon from breaking in case any other rune-implementing process results in a failure¡±.
Zafer listened carefully.
He didn¡¯t know that weapons can break if a rune fails to get implemented into it.
This made the Krale even more important.
Imagine losing your 14-rune axe because the 15th-rune failed to implement due to randomness.
Special grade runes weren¡¯t special grade for no reason.
¡°And what does the other one do?¡±
¡°The Eucharist increases the number of rune slots. Normally, any object can hold only six runes. Each Eucharist rune unlocks one slot for a new rune¡±.
Zafer got stuck in his thoughts.
This concept changed the way he thought his rune-collecting journey would look like.
It meant he¡¯d have to invest in runes that would help him in combat and also spend time and money on Eucharist runes just to make room for the others.
¡°Wait, how many runes are there for Miyalin weapons?¡±
Mint answered immediately, ¡°15¡±.
Zafer was calculating in his head.
If a weapon could only hold six runes naturally, he would need nine Eucharist runes to max out his axe.
¡°That¡¯s a lot¡±, Zafer was indeed shocked to discover this.
When a weapon holds all 15 runes it becomes a Divine and unlocks a special ability.
This was the main reason why people strived to collect each rune on their weapon.
Mint agreed with Zafer.
¡°Yes it¡¯s a lot, but the amount of money that needs to be invested into a Divine isn¡¯t what represents the problem for most paladins, but the fact that some runes are very rare, like the special ones I just told you about¡±.
Mint stood up and retrieved a thick book from his desk. It looked like it had at least a thousand pages. He set it in front of Zafer and flipped it open.
¡°This is the Eucharist rune. It¡¯s the most demanded rune you need 9 per weapon. Check this¡±, he flipped through some random pages
Each page was filled with dense ancient text and intricate code. Zafer¡¯s eyes glazed over at the sheer amount of information.
¡°I mean someone has to rewrite this 9 times only for a single Divine! Not to talk about how long it takes to collect all these parchments!¡±
¡°How long does it take?¡±, Zafer asked sincerely.
Mint leaned back.
¡°Well, it depends on how many people contribute and what part of their skin they are donating. For example the most common is forearm skin, but back and legs can work as well¡±.
Zafer was baffled, ¡°what do you mean how many people? Can¡¯t someone just continuously regenerate with a potion or repeater and generate however much parchment is needed?¡±
Mint laughed, ¡°No, never. If a parchment donor uses Repeater or a red potion to heal their skin, it will permanently decrease in quality over time¡±.
The A-9 was indeed a very unique from other anomalies.
Its value in Verms can¡¯t grow, but only plunge.
This made sense since the Priest and Skil always had bandages wrapped around their forearms
¡°What?! So, how do you go about it then? Just wait until your skin regrows?¡±
¡°Yep. We just wait until it heals naturally. Drinking or eating some natural products can enhance the healing process without endangering the quality. Like these cookies¡±, he pointed at the empty plate of cookies from which they ate.
¡°I usually drink milk since they are very dry¡±, he lifted the empty glass and then placed it back on the table.
Hok brought only one glass.
The cookies were meant for Mint.
Zafer blushed, ¡°wait they were meant for you?!¡±
Mint exploded into a burst of laughter, ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it, though I¡¯m surprised you managed to get them down your throat with no milk¡±.
Zafer smiled in embarrassment, ¡°I¡¯m training my saliva¡±.
He was joking of course.
Mint laughed.
¡°Anyway, the point is, you won¡¯t have to worry about hunting down runes here. In this rune library, you¡¯ll find most of what you need¡±.
Zafer scanned the bookshelves around him.
¡°May I see your axe?¡±, Mint asked.
Zafer summoned his axe without a second thought and handed it over. There was no need not to trust him.
Mint accepted it carefully, using a thickly folded kerchief.
He carefully observed the colorful strings that danced within the Miyalin blade.
As a skilled scriptman, that was all Mint needed to identify the runes already present.
¡°Your axe doesn¡¯t hold the Anointment rune. I will treat you to it¡±.
Zafer straightened up, serious., ¡°No, you¡¯ve worked hard to rewrite. I¡¯ll pay¡±.
Mint chuckled. ¡°You can¡¯t afford it.¡±
¡°How much are they sold for?¡±, Zafer asked bracing himself.
¡°The standard price for an Anointment rune is 500 000 units¡±.
Zafer¡¯s mouth fell open.
He only had the 200,000 units, gifted by Ika. That wasn¡¯t even close.
¡°Well... I don¡¯t know what to say,¡± Zafer finally managed. ¡°Thank you.¡±
¡°It¡¯s my pleasure. You won¡¯t have to worry about losing runes now, and even if a rune fails, you¡¯ll be safe¡±.
¡°I heard the Numen faction¡¯s officer Oma didn¡¯t have an Anointment rune on his half-Divine axe when a 23 Verm grade rune failed. His axe broke. Apparently, he had a bit of a breakdown¡±.
Zafer laughed out loud. That breakdown had to be a beautiful sight.
The implementation of the Anointment rune occurred the day after, but he stayed 5 days in total, sharing stories talking with Mint and even trying to with Hok.
As a token of gratitude, Zafer left his Book of Runes and Curses with Mint. Though Zafer had grasped the basics of runes, the complex explanations were still beyond him. But Mint might find value in it.
He was in any case sure to repay Mint with real money.
The good thing was that he had a place to acquire it. The grinder Semi and Knuckles have been working on.
As soon as he collects enough money, Zafer promised to come back to this library and buy many runes for his axe.
Chapter 13
Part one:
¡°I just found out that the book you gave me wasn¡¯t made out of regular paper but parchments of 24 Verms in quality! You need to tell me where you got it from!¡±
This was an S-mail Zafer received from Mint 2 days after departing.
This was very confusing since Mint himself mentioned that 24 Verm parchments do not exist.
Either way that was not Zafer¡¯s field of industry.
The simple physiology of Anomalies: Paragraph 35.
The 8th Anomaly was very unique compared to others, for its quality couldn¡¯t be improved, only degraded. It was also completely useless in its anomalous form; hence the whole value was located in the artifact form.
To prevent the degradation of their anomalous skin, the A-8 owners had to eat a specific diet, follow a meticulous skin routine, and avoid consuming direct regenerative substances.
Once Zafer returned to the city of Koth there were 2 main things he was looking forward to.
The first one was receiving the TP tattoos, however, the process of applying the tattoo took a long.
Knuckles already readied Zafer in advance to reserve a whole day just for that, since getting an appointment with a scriptman was also not that easy.
This left Zafer with a free evening to spend with his friends which he was also looking forward to.
Traveling on foot took him several days to reach his destination and during this time he was all by himself.
Loneliness never bothered him but from time to time he would speak out loud just to remember what his voice sounded like.
Due to the nightfall, a lot of paladins and freelancers were also out having drinks, since it was too dark outside to train properly.
He first wrote an S-mail to Skil, since he was someone Zafer felt closest to during this period.
Skil was also the one who introduced Temper to Zafer as a candidate and was the second friend Zafer acquired in his life, right after Semi.
The two of them met at their usual pub and occupied their usual table for two in the corner.
The first hour they didn¡¯t even talk about any specific topic, but made jokes and shared stories of people they know.
It was only after a big laugh caused pause when Skil asked Zafer what was he up to this whole time.
Zafer talked about visiting a friend (Mint) but focused more on the girl who attacked him. Yana.
It still wasn¡¯t sure why she did what she did but a good guess was that she was just jealous.
However, Skil couldn¡¯t recall hearing her name or her supposed application to become a candidate of the Temper faction like Zafer.
Nevertheless, that wasn¡¯t as important to Zafer as her anomaly was.
Fighting her was the first time Zafer faced someone who possessed the ninth Anomaly, the Force.
All he knew was that the anomaly allowed its user to attract or repel and although Yana¡¯s Force was very weak, it scared Zafer to think of all the possibilities that Anomaly had to offer.
¡°Have you ever fought against someone with that Anomaly? It¡¯s brutal! I only realized it now¡±.
Despite being the same age, Skil was in this business longer than Zafer.
He was picked by the Temper province to work for them very young due to him being born with an A-8.
¡°Yes, many times because of the Priest. He did put me through a hell of a training¡±, he laughed.
Aside from him and the Priest, no other Temper paladin was a parchment donor, meaning the script economy of the whole faction revolved around the two.
¡°So, you know how to counter it?¡±
Skil frowned, ¡°What do you mean?¡±
¡°Like, how do you fight it? How do you fight against someone who can freely control your own body and everything around in the environment¡±.
During his fight against Yana, she would sometimes push or pull Zafer¡¯s body in a position that benefited her more.
¡°It¡¯s not that difficult really. If you had the Force you wouldn¡¯t be thinking that way¡±.
Zafer frowned, ¡°You are saying that the Anomaly is not overpowered?¡±
¡°Not if you know how it works. To be able to pull or push something, they can¡¯t just think of doing that in their head. They need to aim¡±.
¡°Aim? With what¡±.
¡°Most of them use their hands but the more experienced ones can do it with just their fingers or eyes, though it requires a lot of focus from what I¡¯ve learned¡±.
¡°I meant what do they AIM with? There is nothing physically pushing you¡±.
Skil smiled, ¡°There is! The Force! The Priest once told me a thought exercise to practice and it helped me a lot! He said to try and think about the Force as an invisible hand or a portion of the wind¡±.
He continued, ¡°The force user doesn¡¯t throw that wind at you like an axe, but first needs to summon it at your position and hope that it engulfs you. Only then can they push or pull your body or whatever they engulfed in that invisible smoke¡±.
Zafer argued, ¡°But then how can I avoid something invisible that just instantly spawns around me?! It¡¯s easier to avoid a flying axe!¡±
¡°No, it¡¯s not. When you throw your axe at someone, you only need to worry about them dodging right or left, eventually ducking under it. You don¡¯t need to worry about your target stepping forward or backward since the axe will hit them¡±.
¡°With the Force, it¡¯s not like that. They can miss you in all 3 dimensions! Add the blue potion into the calculation, and you are uncatchable!¡±
Now that Zafer thinks of it, Yana only used her Force when Zafer was right in front of her.
It was very annoying but if you expect it to happen, it didn¡¯t make much of a difference. Making such predictions only required some more experience, but there was another problem.
Yana¡¯s Force was after all very weak, and Zafer didn¡¯t plan on staying at his current strength level.
¡°I understand. But what happens if they do catch me with their Force? If it¡¯s someone strong, it¡¯s game over¡±.
Skil frowned, ¡°How? All they can do is push or pull you once, and then they need to aim again. The damage one can cause with that is nowhere near the damage of an axe or let¡¯s say your Iron Fist Anomaly! You can literally crush someone''s skull if you grab it!¡±
This was a good point but Zafer was thinking of a very specific scenario.
¡°Well, let¡¯s say they catch me and lift me in the sky, then catch me again midair since I can¡¯t dodge and just smash me against the ground! What am I supposed to do then?!¡±
Skil laughed, ¡°Well have you never heard of Miyalin armour? Some runes significantly reduce such impact!¡±
¡°Dude I¡¯m broke!¡±, Zafer smiled but what he said was true.
Even affording runes at Mint¡¯s library was a challenge, let alone buying a whole Miyalin armor!
¡°That¡¯s too bad!¡±, Skil laughed as well, ¡°Just kidding. Have you heard of the white potion? Just use that!¡±
The only time Zafer used the white potion was when the Priest threw him off the cliff in Razihelnor but it did its job, saving Zafer from the fall damage.
Although the white potion was the most expensive one, it also lasted the longest, so it was a good deal.
Maybe the Force wasn¡¯t that strong anomaly after all!
As of now, it was obvious that Zafer only lacked experience and knowledge.
If he knew how every anomaly worked, he could develop tactics to counter each one of them!
The Force was a perfect counter for Zafer¡¯s Iron Fist Anomaly since it could just push Zafer away and prevent him from laying his hands on his enemy''s body.
Nevertheless, this was good, because Zafer never had to use his anomaly, while his opponent would eventually overheat and lose in a battle of stamina.
It was a boring strategy and battle to initiate, but it guaranteed a victory for Zafer!
At this moment he felt as if he was much stronger, but in reality, he had no clue what other anomalies were all capable of.
Part two:
The next day he spent with Knuckles.
He reserved a scriptman, who would tattoo a TP on Zafer.
The scriptman used a special artifact that had the form of a neon stick light bulb to reveal the Transport Point tattoo of Knuckles.
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It was a very complex tattoo with no form or structure, and after examining Zafer, the scriptman suggested that it would be best to paste it on Zafer¡¯s left side of the face.
After the job was done, the tattoo became invisible by normal and they were free to go.
Zafer obviously couldn¡¯t see what he looked like with the TP but it suited him well.
Knuckles then reminded Zafer that the TP became visible during the teleportation process during which he had to remain still and dry.
For this particular totem that time amounted to 10 seconds, which was a lot, but Zafer hoped he wouldn¡¯t need to use it as an escape.
Nevertheless, this Transport Point was only his entrance to the grinder.
He also needed another TP to serve as an exit.
It will be his only way of leaving the grinder since it was located deep underground.
The second ¡°exit¡± totem was located in the heart of Koth, where various parts of the city were connected by long and wide avenues.
Upon teleporting to the totem, one would always face the avenue that led directly toward the Arena.
This was the origin of an infamous saying ¡°step forward¡± between the paladins that indicated someone teleporting to the TP of the Koth city and then walking only forward which would lead them directly into the Arena.
This was a provocative way of challenging someone to a fight.
By the time Zafer received his second TP tattoo, it was already dusk, and as per agreement, it was Zafer¡¯s shift to nurture the flame flowers.
He stopped on the side of a street and activated his TP by thought.
The 10 seconds began and all the colors around him started to shift in hue.
In the blink of an eye, he was in a dark cave room.
It was very warm here, and after giving it some thought that was only logical since the whole purpose of this grinder was to cultivate the flame flower.
The plant itself emitted no energy but it required a warm environment in other to grow properly to its full potential.
The design of the grinder was pretty simple and nothing fancy compared to what Zlatko intended to make out of his.
Upon teleporting one would find themselves inside of a small room that was only meant for the totem and docking of the people teleporting here.
Further down the cave hallway, there was a big hall whose ceiling was so high that the light source from the bottom couldn¡¯t illuminate it.
This was the second room, and it was where the flower plants were cultivated.
There were significantly fewer than there were in Ika¡¯s farm, but the room the plants were cultivated in was bigger.
There were wide and deep rows of special soil from which the flame flowers grew.
Aside from that, there wasn¡¯t anything fancy like Ika had in her hothouse.
This was fine, however.
A single flower plant sapling cost 750 000 units and Zafer was very grateful to be able to be here for free.
Someone suddenly jumped in front of him.
¡°Boo!¡±
The voice echoed in the cave.
It was a small and a young girl. At least half as young as Zafer was.
¡°Uh! Another one I can¡¯t scare!¡±, she spoke to herself.
Zafer didn¡¯t even flinch.
The girl¡¯s hair was pink-purple with a couple of hair strands differentiating in hue, slightly darker or brighter.
Nevertheless, the main attraction to her appearance was a horn on the left side of her forehead.
It was pure white and even gave some particles off that would fly even under the slightest disturbance in the air.
Although Zafer had never seen it in person before, that had to be it!
He just knew it when he saw it!
It was a unicorn horn!
This little girl actually mutated to have a unicorn horn!
¡°What¡¯s your name?¡±, she asked.
¡°I¡¯m Zafer, and you?¡±
The girl smiled, ¡°I¡¯m Neimell, the purple unicorn!¡±
She then randomly turned around and ran towards the flame-flower plants.
This is a typical unforeseeable child behavior.
Nevertheless, as his gaze followed her into the distance he caught another figure standing next to the flame plants.
It was a man, not significantly tall or bulky, dressed in Miyalin armor.
Now Miyalin was supposed to have a blurry white color, but this one was variegated!
Moreover, the colors seemed to be constantly moving on the inside of the Miyalin!
Those were all runes!
There were so many that Zafer couldn¡¯t even count it!
Who were these people?
Zafer summoned his axe and opened a flask filled with blue potion.
With the element of surprise, he shall take the intruder out without even having to fight him.
Suddenly, a firm hand grabbed him by the shoulder from behind, actually scaring and making Zafer flick his head backward.
It was Semi! Zafer¡¯s best friend and first comrade!
¡°He is my friend, it¡¯s alright¡±.
Zafer gazed back at the man.
The man took the yields that he got from the flower plants, Ahrix packed in bags, sap in small bottles, and slowly swung with his axe vertically towards the floor.
The blade of his axe punctured the fabric of space and cut right through it, creating a portal just like that sword artifact did!
Only axes that possessed every existing rune could do this!
His axe was a Divine!
The man was practically a ghost, and many regular citizens viewed Divine owners to be one.
There were only a few of them due to how difficult it was to collect every rune on a single weapon.
There were so few of them that, every experienced paladin knew the names of all the Divine weapons and their owners.
For example, there were only 3 Divine owners in Temper!
Simra¡¯s was called ¡°Ransacking¡±, Zer Ox¡¯s was called ¡°Biotoxin¡±, and Kviki¡¯s was called ¡°Banana¡±.
That was how he got his nickname.
Skank, the second officer of the Nubis province, also had a Divine called ¡°Og¡± but rarely used it in a battle or carried it with him because he was supposedly afraid of it getting broken.
¡°Who was that?¡±, it was only the 2 of them left not counting Neimell.
¡°Lieutenant Hammerman¡±, Semi answered, ¡°he used to be the 2nd officer of Atlantic Republic. How do you think we managed to get this many flower plants?¡±
Semi believed that less than 7 flower plants were completely useless, hence he probably didn¡¯t want to build a flower plant farm unless he and Knuckles found a way to buy more.
Of course, Zafer saw this as nonsense.
There was a short period in his life when he had the opportunity to cultivate only 2 flame flowers and that was the wealthiest he ever was in his life.
¡°What about her then?¡±, Zafer asked.
Semi frowned a little bit, ¡°She is Jean¡¯s sister. The only family he¡¯s got left¡±.
Jean was a paladin of the Nubis province, infamous for his fighting capability.
Many considered him to be one of the strongest paladins ever and even someone who could take on a Level Threat 5 National Security member in a one versus one.
¡°Jean asked Knuckles to let her stay here so we can look after her when he is busy¡±.
Zafer frowned ¡°Here in an underground cave?¡±
¡°Yeah¡±, Semi wasn¡¯t very happy about this ¡°I guess Jean doesn¡¯t trust any other paladin and is too scared to leave Neimell with a regular babysitter¡±.
Zafer didn¡¯t care about Neimell too much except that her brother was a Nubian.
¡°It¡¯s just that I thought it was going to be only the 3 of us¡±.
¡°Knuckles only cares about expanding his relationship and trust with other powerhouses. You might think that he is all nice but in reality, he does that only for his benefit¡±.
These were very harsh words to hear especially since it was Semi who introduced Knuckles to Zafer.
Semi had a sullen expression.
¡°Yeah. There is another one from the Nubis province. You will meet him around midnight when you need to hand him over the shift¡±.
Zafer got even more concerned with this declaration, but the more serious issue was how Semi felt about it.
Knuckles is a positive person who¡¯s always willing to sacrifice a little bit of his piece of pie for the sake of others, but in reality, he wants to have authority.
It was as if no true compromise could ever be achieved with him since his demands were always too weird.
¡°I thought that you supported Nubis?¡±, Zafer tested him.
Semi took a glance at the farm before he faced Zafer again, ¡°Knuckles is getting too comfortable¡±
Zafer didn¡¯t care but Semi¡¯s authority clashed with Knuckles¡¯es
¡°Do you have the tools for cultivating?¡±, Semi changed the subject.
Zafer knew everything that he needed to cultivate flame flower plants and purchased them with a portion of the money Ika gave him.
¡°Yes, I bought everything¡±.
¡°Well, that¡¯s new¡±, Semi was a little surprised,
The simple physiology of anomalies: Table of Contents:
§¡1 ¨C Synthesis
§¡2 ¨C [EXPUNGED]
§¡3 ¨C ¡
§¡4 ¨C ¡
§¡5 ¨C ¡
§¡6 ¨C Iron Fist
§¡7 ¨C Repeater
§¡8 ¨C Adjustment
§¡9 ¨C Force
§¡10 ¨C ¡
§¡11 ¨C Almighty Eye
Since the day Zafer acquired the TP, he developed a pretty straightforward routine.
He would spend the night at an inn in the city of Koth. In the morning, he¡¯d have breakfast and then head to the Arena for the rest of the morning and noon.
There, he would stretch, train, and spar with random amateurs.
Occasionally, he would run into Yana.
Although they already fought, she still possessed hatred towards him.
So, every time they accidentally came across each other, Yana would immediately attack Zafer until he could not fight anymore.
The first couple of days Zafer saw this as an opportunity to use Skil¡¯s advice and train to fight against the Force users, however, the problem wasn¡¯t in Yana¡¯s anomaly.
It was in her ability to consume potions faster than anyone else.
In addition, some young freelancers would interfere in their fight and help Yaha since she was a strong and pretty girl.
Wabler and Luch would help Zafer to keep the fight fair, but most of the time he was left all alone.
This bullying went on for weeks and Zafer slowly started to hide and train in the most abandoned parts of the Arena.
This made him very angry but on the brighter side, he was at least improving his wealth during this period.
Eventually, he started to adapt to Yana¡¯s fighting style and her Anomaly.
She was still drinking potions way too fast, but Zafer relied on his environment, using the Welkin flower to lift him and drinking potions mid air.
Most of the time, however, he did not need to consume potions, since he was sustaining less and less injuries.
This meant that his fighting skills improved.
It was all thanks to Skil. The teachings he passed on to Zafer played a crucial role in this improvement.
Zafer could not be more grateful to have him as a friend.
The first time he defeated Yana, was one of the best feelings he experienced in a while.
From that day forward, he was the one kicking Yana out of the Arena, unless she found someone to help her overpower Zafer.
But even then, he didn¡¯t care.
Beating 2 people at once was an achievement he was nowhere near.
He got stronger, and that was the only thing that mattered to him, so every time he lost a 2 versus one, he did that with a smile.
The winter was almost at the threshold.
The daylight illuminated the vibrant city only during the morning.
That was the only time during which Zafer could train.
Although training and sparing in the Arena during nighttime was not enjoyable, Zafer felt bad.
His swift and noticeable improvement motivated him to train like never before, but he also understood the importance of the rest.
In addition, his shift in the grinder was at dusk, which was the time he couldn¡¯t train even if he wanted to, due to the nightfall.
He would clock in every day just when Lieutenant Hammerman would leave and cultivate flower plants until midnight when it was Triso¡¯s turn.
During this time he would sometimes talk to Neimell and try to make her time spent in the grinder as pleasant as possible until her brother Jean came to pick her up.
That always occurred during Triso¡¯s shift, so Zafer never really got to meet him, but he knew from conversations with others that he was half mutated.
Just like Key Em.
¡°Whew¡±, he straightened himself gazing at Neimell.
The fact that she had a unicorn horn and that nobody did something malicious to her yet was good, but also very unbelievable.
Unlike regular wounds, changes that occurred during mutations were permanent.
This meant that if Key Em decided to shave all of his fur, it would naturally regrow as if it was always a part of his body, and if Neimell¡¯s horn got removed, a single red potion would probably be enough to bring it back.
On the other hand, if someone¡¯s tooth fell out during the mutation or they lost an eye like Ika did, regardless of how strong a regenerative power something had, it would never bring it back.
The changes under mutation were everlasting.
What I mean by this is that somebody could kidnap Neimell, and use her as an infinite source of unicorn horns to craft Krale.
The way Mint explained it, Krale was a very precious and expensive item.
¡°Oh¡±, Neimell moaned, her soft voice echoing in the cave.
Zafer straightened himself, only to see her standing still in place, looking down at her palms with her head bent down.
¡°Is your nose bleeding again? Just squeeze it and keep your head down like that¡±, he was already used to her weak blood vessels.
Neimell lifted her head to look at Zafer, her visions somewhat blurry and incomplete.
Her left eye leaked down her ruddy cheeks, mixed with tears and blood as if it had melted, only leaving behind a now empty eye socket.
Her whole eye was missing!
¡°Ah!¡±, Zafer panicked, rushing towards her.
He caught her by the shoulders with both hands, ¡°How did-¡°, he suddenly realized ¡°Oh fuck!¡°
Neimell was undergoing mutation for the second time in her life!
Her unicorn horn slowly began to grow even larger and emerge outside, ripping her forehead skin open.
She fell on her knees, making soft but high-pitched cries.
The two of them were completely alone.
How long is it going to take for her to mutate, and more importantly, will Zafer be able to fight her off?
In an underground flame flower grinder?
She will destroy everything and even kill him!
Zafer suddenly got reminded of the incident with Arcanie. The unstoppable force.
Neimell was crawling on the ground in agony.
This was the best opportunity to kill her!
Naturally, the only way to stop mutation was with Anomaly 11, the Almighty Eye, however despite Zafer possessing the anomaly, its euclid nature prevented him from ever being able to learn that technique.
It was completely useless in this scenario.
Zafer¡¯s got washed in the heat of waves.
¡°Fuck!¡±, he cried out.
He swiftly summoned his Miyalin bag and started writing an S-mail as fast as he could.
¡°God, please¡ It hurts so bad¡±, she whispered in agony while holding her head.
The Simple physiology of anomalies: Addendum:
¡As of now the only known way to stop or prolong the mutation is with either A-11 or Ar-11. The intensity in Verms required for this feat must be at least 23 Verms. In addition, the healing person must be very skilled in the needed technique.
Chapter 14
Part one:
¡°I transferred your shift to the Lieutenant as you asked. I hope to see you soon in good health! 25:12¡±
The same scene repeatedly played in Zafer¡¯s mind over and over again.
He witnessed in first person what is said to be the biggest fear of today''s society.
Going inverse.
There was little Zafer could do, and the mere thought of killing Neimell continued to hunt him even days after the incident.
How could he even think of something like that? Was he that scared?
He recalled the scenario countless times in his head and tried to convince himself to never think of something like that again. Even reflexively.
Nevertheless, he couldn¡¯t neglect the fact that he was lucky enough for everyone to react as fast as they did.
The S-mail Zafer wrote was directed to Knuckles, who then told Zafer to evacuate which was what he did.
Shortly after that Neimell¡¯s brother Jean opened a portal to the grinder and helped Neimell to suppress the mutation once again.
There was no notification sound or alert when someone received an S-mail so it was very lucky that both Knuckles and Jean checked their S-mail scripts around that time.
Zafer never saw her after the incident.
Every day after training in Arena and venting his emotions on other freelancers like Yana he would return to the grinder during his shift in hopes to see her.
Sadly, that didn¡¯t happen, and Knuckles provided no further information.
Eventually one day Simra wrote an S-mail to Zafer, saying he would come to pick him up at Razihelnor due to some faction duty.
That¡¯s right. Zafer was currently in Razihelnor.
Due to its altitude, the capital of Temper was still covered in snow despite spring slowly settling in.
Nonetheless, that didn¡¯t change the motion of the regular citizens.
Something else did, and it was an announced attack issued by the Nubis faction.
Normally, an announcement wouldn¡¯t be made but this time the Nubis faction had no choice.
Since Temper had no box, all the faction¡¯s belongings and wealth were located in Razihelnor, which was the 4th most populated city in Pashtrik.
According to the law issued by the National Security, any official and organized attacks are to be announced for the safety of the regular citizens.
The NS always stood to promote peace, but if Nubis weren¡¯t to play by their laws, there was a threat of them becoming the enemies of the country.
This meant not only that Temper and Numen could unite with NS and annihilate all Nubian paladins, but also that the NS could sanction Nubis which would also result in their demise.
One might wonder why didn¡¯t National Security make any effort to prevent the attack completely, but the reason would be clear after one reviewed how the government worked.
The National Security wasn¡¯t in complete control over the laws but also had to cooperate with a senate.
The senate consisted of a handful of people, some of who are retired paladins.
Those people also had control over some key resources like the Miyalin mine or other dangerous and prohibited scripts.
This meant that even if the NS wanted to act on their own, they would face major difficulties.
There would probably be a division in members who would act under the NS commander and those who would decide to obey the senate, resulting in a war.
What¡¯s more, even the commander of the NS didn¡¯t have full authority over his members.
As mentioned many times before, there were only 3 people in the NS designated above Threat Level 5. Who could control them?
Those 3 were doing NS a favor, not the other way around.
Perhaps it was because they shared the same pacifist ideology the NS promoted, but there was no mean that any of them would risk their lives for the sake of the ¡°country¡±.
To put it in a nutshell, the strong individuals had free will but chose to comply and assist NS in certain jobs for their reasons.
As for that, none of them cared about the conflicts between factions.
Yes, Mio and Laura belonged to the anti-paladin unit, but they acted only if civilians were assaulted.
Since all magic plants and valuables of Temper were stored within Razihelnor, and not some lonely box in the wilderness, any organized attack had to be announced in advance.
Civilians had time to prepare and evacuate during this time, and as for the paladins, as said earlier, nobody cared.
Nevertheless, the decision to construct the Gardens of the Elite within Razihelnor was intentional.
Banana did this to avoid surprise attacks, and although this decision was seen as unethical it served its purpose pretty well.
Almost every Temperan was in Razihelnor in just a few days, waiting for the attack.
In comparison, the Nubian box wasn¡¯t located in their capital but was still waiting to be found in the vast wilderness of Pashtrik.
Once discovered, it was only a question of time when it would get raided. Just like it happened to the former Temperan box, during the reign of their previous leader.
During this time when they were awaiting the inevitable attack, any Temper paladin was allowed to enter the surface area of Gardens of the Elite.
There were dozens of market stalls outside and inside the office buildings where one could buy weapons, runes, artifacts, scripts, potions, and so on.
This increased the traffic by a lot, especially since a lot of the paladins never visited the Gardens of the Elite before.
Most of such individuals were members of the Temper province even before people started to count years on the calendar. Significantly prior Banana became the leader.
On this day specifically, there was a big crowd of paladins in the Gardens due to a meeting.
Zafer was also there.
¡°Hey!¡±, he waved at Simra.
The officer wasn¡¯t dressed in his Miyalin armor but the aura he gave off proved that he was prepared for a battle.
Simra quickly waved back and turned for a leave.
Many considered Zafer to be Simra¡¯s favorite, but he didn¡¯t see it that way. The two rarely spoke even when Zafer initiated a conversation just like he did now.
This made him feel somewhat awkward and contemplate the next time if he wanted to obstruct the busy officer
The last time the two of them spoke was when Simra came to open a portal to Razihelnor for Zafer. He was, after all, one of the three Divine weapon owners in the entire Temper.
Simra asked him if he interacted with any paladin since the incident with Zlatko and Oma, to which Zafer only mentioned Lieutenant Hammerman.
He didn¡¯t want to talk about Hok and Mint. That might question his loyalty although Zafer would never betray Temper.
Someone hit Zafer on the back.
It was Skil.
¡°Looking for something to buy?¡±
Zafer smiled forgetting what he was thinking about, ¡°Not really¡±.
¡°Why not? Aren¡¯t you rich now?¡±, Skil asked playfully.
¡°Honestly I didn¡¯t even know there was all of this here. I just arrived¡±.
Skil frowned, ¡°Didn¡¯t I tell you 2 days ago there would be shops in the Gardens?¡±
¡°Yes, but I didn¡¯t know anyone can visit¡±.
Skil put a hand over his own face.
¡°It¡¯s alright. We still have some time before the meeting starts¡±
As mentioned the whole Garden was full of market stalls. As they were walking through Zafer noticed there were 2 types of stalls.
The private ones and the ones from Temper.
Private stalls were owned by some paladins where they sold their own belongings, while Temper stalls contained valuables the faction was selling.
The first stall was also the biggest one and sold Ar-3 or Artifacts derived from the 3rd Anomaly, the Alchemy.
The artifacts took various forms but most of them were spray bottles of a very low quality.
There were hundreds of them.
¡°What¡¯s up with so many low-quality artifacts?¡±, Zafer asked.
¡°Those are low quality on purpose! They are used to repair walls should they be breached!¡±, Skil explained.
Razihelnor had only 3 walls with little to no space in between them. There were a couple of different types of walls but Zafer didn¡¯t know any of this yet.
Nevertheless, the right assumption was that some paladins of the Temper were not going to directly engage in combat but would be constantly repairing walls.
This seemed like a disadvantage in number on the battlefield, but it was not. There are also going to be Nubians who will only be in charge of the cannons.
Those two units will cancel each other out.
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¡°Where would they get so many artifacts from though?¡±
As far as Zafer knew, the only way to obtain an artifact was to slaughter someone using a special rune.
This logic didn¡¯t add up to this scenario since there were hundreds of them!
Skil¡¯s smile got a little rigid, ¡°Well, many people died¡±.
Zafer chuckled.
¡°Though there is also a way to have your anomaly permanently extracted without harming you¡±.
¡°Really?¡±
Skil nodded grabbing one artifact and examining it, ¡°It can¡¯t be too strong though. If the anomaly is too strong then it can¡¯t be extracted unless you have a very strong extraction artifact¡±.
So, they use artifacts to make artifacts¡
¡°Have you heard of the anomaly class? That¡¯s like a university but they only help you improve your anomaly to a certain degree. Most of the people who go there are regular citizens who would then sell their anomaly for a good amount of money¡±.
Zafer never heard of it since he could not remember the time from when he used to be a regular.
His A-11 anomaly at the time was so difficult to control that each activation would result in amnesia. Skil knew this so he always explained things to Zafer.
In reality, this Anomaly Class was so popular that every child was expected to attend it.
This was another reason why there were only a handful of paladins since most children were pressured to sell their anomalies.
¡°I see¡¡± Zafer lowered his head a little. He was embarrassed of not knowing this.
¡°Yes¡±, Skil continued, ¡°Banana actually also attended that class and sold his anomaly. I think it was his primary anomaly¡±.
Zafer¡¯s eyes widened, ¡°What!? No way!¡±
Having no secondary anomaly was a big blow since that was a whole set of powers less, but having no primary anomaly was a disability for any paladin.
It wasn¡¯t strange that Banana was no fighter at all. Even if it wasn¡¯t a euclid, the secondary anomaly was twice as hard to improve.
Many people who trained every day didn¡¯t manage to develop their primary anomaly to even 19 Verms, let alone the secondary anomaly.
Zafer couldn¡¯t comprehend how Banana became the leader of the Temper province.
Apparently, connections and knowledge played a big role in the way of paladins.
The only impressive thing about Banana that Zafer knew about was that he graduated from the Architecture University in the Pashtrik capital.
He heard that the guy invented some type of roof for boxes.
¡°Stop!¡±, a sudden roar pierced the air.
Everyone present turned to observe.
There were two paladins, one lean and tall while the other was slightly shorter and as muscular as the Priest.
¡°Why are you so evil to me!?¡±, the tall one cried out.
¡°Shut up! You aren¡¯t getting anything anymore!¡±
Zafer leaned to Skil, ¡°Who is that?¡±
¡°I don¡¯t have a clue, but that big man is an exterminator for the National Security and also a paladin of the Temper. He is a veteran. I¡¯ve heard that he has the biggest collections of weapons and armor sets, most of which are half Divine or stronger¡±.
Zafer listened carefully. The two paladins were still arguing loudly and none of the two showed any sign of fear.
¡°Alright!¡±, Banana showed up behind them. He was a whole head smaller than the two paladins. He was the same height as Zafer.
Naturally, nobody paid attention to him.
¡°Hey!¡±, someone else shouted. It was the Priest.
Everyone went silent.
¡°The meeting will commence now¡±.
Zafer looked at Skil remembering what they were talking about but Skil just shrugged his shoulders. They both followed the crowd of paladins behind the office building.
Out of the blue, every thought Zafer had at that moment perished when something flashy entered his vision.
Everything else became blurry and was put out of focus. It was Ika!
¡°Hold on¡±, Zafer told Skil while dashing to Ika.
She was the one responsible for his income and he couldn¡¯t wait to tell her how helpful her knowledge was.
Despite everyone at Knuckles grinder having an equal amount of time to cultivate the flame flowers, Zafer always had the biggest profit!
He stopped right in front of her, melting the snow he stood on.
Despite the cold weather, she wore her official Temper officer uniform.
¡°Ika! You look very nice in that uniform¡±, he greeted him, but she maintained a poker face.
¡°What do you want?¡±, she frowned.
Zafer was taken aback but held his composure, ¡°Nothing, I just saw you and wanted to tha-¡°
¡°No!¡±, she closed her eyes lifting her hand in front of Zafer¡¯s face, ¡°I don¡¯t want to hear anything! After everything I taught you, the way I supported you¡ You are a disappointment¡±.
Zafer closed his mouth, thinking of why Ika was so upset. What did he do?
He swiftly flipped through his memory recalling his every interaction with her.
The two of them didn¡¯t share an S-mail so this was the first time he talks to her in several months!
He suddenly realized. How could he forget!?
Ika lowered her hand, ¡°Don¡¯t ever talk to me!¡±
Some of the bystanders heard their conversation and threw a few glances. Ika really didn¡¯t care!
Zafer backed off a bit, ¡°Don¡¯t be like that! I got you a present!¡±
Ika¡¯s heart twitched, ¡°What?¡±
A Miyalin axe and a bar of chocolate appeared in front of her chest. The Miyalin axe was the one Zafer used and a bar of chocolate wasn¡¯t meant for her but he was lucky to have bought it earlier.
Having money motivated Zafer to try things he never did before, and chocolates were one of the expensive luxuries not everyone could afford.
As the Miyalin axe goes, he saw a couple of affordable Miyalin axes that were quite good.
Ika was dumbstruck. Why would someone as poor as Zafer ever worry about buying her something? Was this a try of flirting?
Zafer¡¯s smile widened as he lowered his scarf, ¡°I could never forget your birthday!¡±
Ika¡¯s facial expression froze. Her eyes went empty staring into oblivion.
She was never angry at Zafer but was only making fun, and now this?! It made her feel really bad since even she forgot about her birthday!
Since calendars only counted years and not days or months, people celebrated birthdays and other events based on the season.
Ika was born in spring but since she never left Razihelnor, she never realized that spring had already arrived in the non-mountain cities!
¡°Oh shit! That¡¯s what you get for playing too much¡±, Ika forced a smile.
¡°Wow¡hahaha¡¡±, she stretched her hands to take the gift, ¡°you are nice after all¡±.
As she grabbed the chocolate bar she glanced at the axe. Just by looking at it, she could tell there was no way she could even swing it.
Wasn¡¯t Zafer aware of this? Wasn¡¯t the same axe he had the last time they saw each other?!
¡°Uh¡ you can keep the axe though, hahaha¡±
Several meters behind them Zer Ox summoned his axe and jumped at the tall paladin but Nicpa tried to separate them.
Zafer didn¡¯t even hear how it escalated to that.
He boiled from the inside. It actually worked.
He hoped Ika would reject it but offered his axe to show how much she meant to him.
The meeting was held outside under a huge gazebo that kept the floor and benches dry from the melting snow
On one side, across the entrance, was Banana, while everyone else was lined up from the entrance both left and right from him.
Those sitting closest to him were all the officers.
Zafer even spotted Wizaruth and they both waved at each other. It¡¯s been a while since he last spoke to him.
The meeting started.
Banana first explained how the attack would probably play out and which side of the wall was most likely to be targeted.
The city of Razihelnor was sitting at the very edge of the mountain and there were only 2 sides where the attack could occur.
One of them was on the east, where a road led to the mountain foot, however, this road was too narrow to support a battle or cannons, so that only left the west side, where there was a meadow on almost the same altitude as the city itself.
Furthermore, the capital was embraced by 3 one-kilometer-high walls sitting directly one behind another in a concentric shape.
If the capital hadn¡¯t been on the mountain, Banana probably would have built even more walls.
¡°In the end, I also want to talk about the evacuation protocol of regulars¡¡±, he paused making sure that everyone heard him.
¡°There will be none¡±.
The entire gazebo went into an uproar of revolt, everyone throwing their opinions and words at him at the same time.
¡°Please just hear me out¡±, he tried to calm them down, but to no avail.
It was only when Simra stood up that everyone slowly went silent.
He was maybe pretty forgiving and nice to Zafer, but not necessarily to the others, and that was indeed justified.
As far as Zafer knew, Simra was by far the strongest and one of the oldest members of the Temper.
¡°Wow. Simra stood up for Banana. What are these moments?¡±, the tall paladin commented under his breath.
Banana took a deep breath while maintaining his nervous smiley expression.
¡°As I was saying, it will be extremely difficult for them to penetrate the Gardens of Elite without causing collateral damage. That is exactly what we can use to sue and get rid of them!¡±
As expected, Banan always preferred to use his brain more than his muscles to solve the conflict between Nubis and Temper.
Zer Ox cleared his throat, ¡°So you are proposing to use regulars as human meat shields?¡±.
Banana looked away, ¡°Well when you put it that way¡¡±
At that very moment, all the paladins slowly stood up one after the other and left the gazebo, leaving Banana and his nervous smile all alone.
Even Ika walked away right behind the Priest!
Zafer still remained there, unable to grasp the absence of agreement and respect within his faction.
His gaze bid everyone goodbye and then slowly fell on Banana once again.
¡°Bleh¡±, Banan stuck his tongue out. A complex tattoo appeared on the right side of his face.
A Transport Point! He disappeared.
The meeting ended just like that.
The Simple physiology of anomalies: Table of Contents:
§¡1 ¨C Synthesis
§¡2 ¨C [EXPUNGED]
§¡3 ¨C
§¡4 ¨C Alchemy
§¡5 ¨C
§¡6 ¨C Iron Fist
§¡7 ¨C Repeater
§¡8 ¨C Adjustment
§¡9 ¨C The Force
§¡10 ¨C Soot
§¡11 ¨C Almighty Eye
Part two:
¡°POTIONS¡±, said one sign under which was an arrow pointing to the 2nd floor.
Zafer was still in the Gardens of the Elite, but inside an office building that was currently transformed into a shop.
The upper floor consisted of a single huge room in which the middle was a hole surrounded by fence.
Zafer didn¡¯t plan on purchasing armor so he just skipped to buying potions.
Mio also talked about how Iron Fist owners should use their hands as both a weapon and armor and Zafer wanted to live by that.
He did have a weapon, but his excuse was that his anomaly was still too weak.
He promised himself that he would use a weapon only until his grip strength could bend and break Miyalin.
As for the defense he planned on keeping his scarf with the Patronage rune.
Nevertheless, he still wanted to take a look at the potion stall.
They offered 5 types of potions.
The red, blue, purple, pink, and a white one.
At that moment Skil walked up to him.
¡°What does the white potion do exactly?¡±, Zafer asked gazing at the liquid.
¡°It takes away the fall damage¡±.
Zafer frowned, ¡°How though¡±.
Skil pondered a little, ¡°Well I don¡¯t know in detail, but it just nullifies the damage you take when your moving body hits something immobile. Getting hit by Crushing V will still instantly kill you¡±.
He meant the axe that possessed said rune.
Zafer nodded, recalling the first time he was forced to use it.
That time when Zer Ox threw him off the cliff.
¡°What about this pink one? I never saw that one before¡±.
All 5 types of potions were in big glass containers with a faucet, so that one could freely pure the liquid into his flasks.
There were also flasks for sale in the very same room.
¡°That one makes you invisible. You didn¡¯t know?¡±
¡°Why would I?¡±
¡°Don¡¯t worry about it Zafer. You shouldn¡¯t¡±, Ika walked up to them, ¡°if I saw that potion in my house while you were staying at my place I would have you castrated immediately¡±.
Both Skil and Zafer swallowed their saliva consciously.
At that moment another male approached them, wearing a black-pink uniform that had a different design to that of Temper¡¯s.
It was a Dominion sub-faction uniform and the one wearing it was Nemo, Ika¡¯s supposed brother.
Not by blood though.
He took the hat off of Ika¡¯s head, ¡°Stop wearing hats indoors¡±.
Ika snatched the hat back and placed it on her head, ¡°no¡±.
Ika was a whole year older.
¡°It¡¯s weird!¡±, Nemo was getting irritated by her attitude.
¡°Not this hat though. It represents my title and makes me look cute¡±.
¡°Oh yes, I forgot to mention how ugly it looks like¡±.
Ika maintained calm with a smiley expression.
¡°No need to. It¡¯s only to be expected. A peasant boy like you could never understand my eternal drip¡±.
None of them knew what drip meant, but to Zafer, it sounded like a word Key Em would use.
Nemo raised his hand in a fist getting into her face, ¡°What did you just call me?¡±
Ika was maybe way richer, but it all meant nothing in this world if she was weak.
Nevertheless, the officer didn¡¯t flinch nor blink but gazed at Nemo with confusion.
To others, this might seem like she just tried hard to suppress her reluctant reaction, but Zafer knew this wasn¡¯t the case.
Her behavior could only be explained by one thing.
She had never been hit before and, hence she had no reflex.
That was a pretty unique and wholesome trait to have, especially for a girl.
¡°What? Didn¡¯t you ask me earlier to lend you some money¡±.
By this point, both Skil and Zafer were slowly retreating their attention from the siblings, focusing on the potion stall once again.
¡°Ten thousand units!¡±, Zafer exclaimed in a low voice.
Both white and pink potions cost 10 000 units per flask.
Naturally, the quantity of liquid one needed to consume for it to take effect differed from potion to potion
For example, although 1 flask of a pink and white potion costs 10 000 units, that price is meant for a special flask designated only for those potions.
It was as half as small as a regular one since that was the quantity one had to drink to feel the effect.
Yes, the quantity was also dependent on the weight of the person consuming it, but it was negligible.
The effect would only vary a couple of seconds up or down. In reality, nobody paid attention to that.
¡°You won¡¯t find a cheaper offer anywhere else¡±, the 1st officer of the Temper province approached them with a solemn stance.
He was also wearing a Dominion sub-faction uniform.
The duration of both white and pink potions was more than one would need, but the price still made Zafer heavily contemplate if he needed them or not.
The pink potion rendered someone invisible, as well as the clothes they were wearing and sometimes even the items they were holding.
However, this didn¡¯t apply to Miyalin, so the question was, how was a pink potion useful on a battlefield?
Another interesting thing about this potion was that its effect withdrew for half a second every time the person who drank it touched something.
This withdrawal also applies to the ground, but if someone walks they would stay invisible since one of the feet would always maintain the connection with the soil.
Unless they jumped.
In any case, the pink potion was useless in Zafer¡¯s eyes.
Now a white one was something he wanted to buy. It was a perfect counter to the A-9, the Force.
Ika sneaked over, whispering to Zafer playfully.
¡°Don¡¯t worry. I will lend you some of my money because that¡¯s how generous I am! You just need to pay me back with your everlasting loyalty!¡±, she smirked.
¡°No need. I have my money grinder now¡±, Zafer rejected her respectfully, ¡°I also wanted to thank you for teaching me everything you know. I can¡¯t say how much advantage it gave me over the others¡±.
Ika nodded in satisfaction, ¡°That¡¯s good to hear! So you are making fat sacks, huh?¡±
She already knew from when they lived together that Zafer should receive a grinder. She was indeed happy that her teachings helped someone.
Skil suddenly stepped in between them, facing Ika.
¡°Hey, I could use some money!¡±, he whispered with a smile.
Ika looked at him with a confused expression.
¡°Umm¡ Who are you?¡±
In a nutshell, he didn¡¯t receive anything.
Chapter 15
Part one:
A man wearing a purple mask over his face waved his hand
¡°Move, make some space¡±.
Hydra frowned but obeyed, moving to the side among other paladins.
A bearded man walked through the cleared path; all the gazes focused on him. Some were filled with hatred, some with anticipation.
He placed his palm on a kilometre tall wall focusing on his anomaly, but to no avail.
¡°No?¡±, the Nubian with the purple mask asked.
¡°No¡±, the man responded.
Hydra smiled visibly, ¡°All those anomaly-enhancing drugs and you are still useless in front of some moss¡±.
Both the purple mask Nubian and the bearded man ignored Hydra¡¯s comment but lifted their gaze to the very top of the wall.
It was hard to see from this distance and angle, but a small silhouette sat at the very edge of it. His legs dangling and swinging back and forth.
It was Banana!
He was looking down at them with his usual smug smile.
¡°Smart bastard¡±, the bearded man turned around, summoning his Divine and opening a portal.
He went walked through and disappeared.
This happened minutes before the first cannons would fire at Razihelnor''s walls, issuing the long-anticipated attack.
Naturally, a Divine could open a portal to literally anywhere, as long as its owner could visualize the place.
This took no effort and only required the Divine wielder to have visited the place they wanted to open a portal to before.
However, there was a way to prevent this.
Certain script totems prevented the unmarked Divine weapons from opening a portal around them. Some could even block the activation of Transport Points!
How this exactly worked was a little complicated, but the important thing was that the whole Razihelnor was protected from unmarked Divines, meaning that no enemy could open a portal anywhere near the city.
Hence, the only way is by penetrating the walls.
The only legal and efficient way of doing this was with cannons.
Several different types of cannons were designed over time, each for a specific purpose or an upgrade of its previous version.
A whole week after the meeting has passed. Zafer partly lost the hype and tension of going to a battle.
On this specific morning, however, the adrenaline would suddenly rush throughout his entire body in just a couple of minutes, making him prepared for combat like never before.
It was the first time he had ever heard cannons firing.
It was not as loud as his A-11 explosion but was still loud enough to wake him up after a tiring evening of training.
It took him only a couple of minutes to get ready and head to the battlefield.
Just a couple of days ago everything was still very peaceful although the city was full of Temper paladins and police.
It was during those days that the Priest told Zafer he should head outside of the walls if he wanted to help, and that was exactly where he was running towards right now.
This was a perfect chance to prove himself.
Despite his schedule being dense with grinding flame flowers he still trained every single day.
And every training session was accompanied by sparring, usually against Yana since they hated each other.
Now was the perfect time to put his abilities to the test and show everyone that he wasn¡¯t lazing around this whole time.
Regular knights and policemen evacuated the panicking citizens downhill, and there were even traces of smoke coming out of nearby buildings.
Did Nubians already breach the walls?
Zafer took out a flask of blue potions and emptied it, after which he started running uphill, towards the west gate.
That was where the sound of cannons firing came from.
As Zafer was nearing the gate, thinking about the upcoming battle, there were fewer and fewer civilians running past him.
Eventually, he was all alone, since most of the regulars were already evacuated into the mountain, while paladins were outside battling.
Suddenly something flew right through a nearby building, crashing in the middle of the street Zafer was running along, obstructing his way towards the gate.
The dust slowly lifted, revealing a sturdy-looking male.
He wore a black painted Miyalin armour which indicated that he was a paladin of the Nubis province.
An enemy!
The man straightened himself up as if nothing had happened, sticking out of the crater he created.
He had his back turned to Zafer, completely neglecting his existence.
This was a perfect chance to take him down!
It was only then, however, that Zafer noticed another unique addition to the man¡¯s armor.
He wore a long black cape made out of Miyalin fabric, labeled ¡°Stranger 1¡±.
At this time Zafer wasn¡¯t aware of it, but this man was the 3rd officer of the Nubis faction. Unlike Temper, they only had 3 officers in total.
Before Zafer could even reach his belt with potions, another paladin appeared, clashing with the Nubian officer, however, he was quickly overpowered and got blasted away.
¡°This guy is strong!¡±, Zafer grabbed his potion, contemplating if he should engage in battle.
Nevertheless, the Nubian officer dashed away before Zafer could decide. The guy never noticed his presence.
Zafer exhaled calming himself.
The sound of cannons still echoed, which meant that the walls weren¡¯t breached yet.
But then, how did this Nubian enter the city?
In any case, it was in Zafer¡¯s interest to listen to the Priest¡¯s command and go outside the walls.
His train of thought was reluctantly disrupted when a silent hand grabbed his shoulder, making Zafer turn around in terror.
¡°Relax. It¡¯s me!¡±, a floating armour stepped away from Zafer.
It was Banana¡¯s voice! He was under the effect of a pink potion.
He seemed as calm as ever.
¡°Where is everyone?¡±
Banana lifted his Divine axe, ¡°They are fighting outside protecting the walls¡±.
This put Zafer somewhat at ease, but he couldn¡¯t understand what was Banana doing here. As the leader of the Temper faction, shouldn¡¯t he put his life on the front line?
Even if he was half-disabled due to the absence of his primary anomaly, shouldn¡¯t a leader be an example for his paladins?
Nonetheless, this was the perfect chance for Zafer to make an impression by doing something even the leader was afraid to do!
¡°Take me outside¡±, he asked the faction leader to which Banana nodded without hesitation.
He swung his Divine axe vertically and cut the fabric of space, opening a portal to the meadow outside the Razihelnor.
The sound of paladins clashing and screaming became much louder, as it passed through the portal as well.
The battlefield was very chaotic!
If one thought that Arena within the city of Koth was a complete mess because of numerous freelancers and trainees sparring, they never saw the current scenario.
Unlike Arena, everyone here going completely berserk.
It was an all-out battle of the most experienced. No freelancers and amateurs in sight.
Lightning bolts, strong wind currents that could lift an adult person, and explosions constantly took turns all over the terrain.
It was hard to see what exactly was going on through the narrow portal opening.
¡°Come on, go through. I need to close it¡±, Banana said impatiently.
Zafer stopped daydreaming, taking out a red potion flask and pre-drinking it, before he finally stepped through the portal onto the battlefield.
Most of these people are stronger than Zafer and are going to try to kill him with no remorse.
This wasn¡¯t the time to spare potions.
If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.
Part two:
Zafer scouted the whole place with a couple of glances in each direction.
Everyone was dispersed all over the meadow, fighting either one versus one or two versus one.
Most of them were too far and moved too fast for Zafer to distinguish who was who, except for those near him.
The one closest to him was the Priest.
He fought both Tule and Skank at the same time! How unfair!
Was Temper outnumbered?
If a similar situation were to happen in the Arena, Wabler would immediately join the fight to make it even, but here nobody cared.
They were fighting to kill.
The Priest did a pretty good job persisting the 2 versus one for this long. He was fighting very defensively so he couldn¡¯t deal much damage to his opponents.
He was constantly dashing backward in a zig-zag movement so that it was more difficult for Tule and Skank to catch up to him.
Zafer was witnessing a battle of endurance.
He summoned his axe and started running towards them.
Although Tule was rude to Mint a few months ago, he wasn¡¯t actually a bad person. He even warned Zafer about Hydra looking for him.
However, he could not allow the Priest to die, since the man was also very nice to Zafer.
With this logic, it was obvious for Zafer to take down Skank and let the Priest and Tule fight each other.
Zer Ox was very focused on his two opponents but still noticed Zafer approaching them from the side.
He flicked his body and dashed toward Zafer¡¯s direction so that he could catch up to them more easily.
Zafer realized this of course, and it made a chill go down his spine.
Such telepathy and teamwork¡ It felt as if he could talk to the priest with just his eyes.
Tule and Skank dashed after the Priest, but that was when Zafer jumped in joining the battle.
He collided with Skank and took him downhill, leaving Tule and Zer Ox by themselves just as he wanted.
Skank was well covered in his Miyalin armor and took no damage from Zafer whatsoever.
He jumped up and lifted his axe.
It contained a couple of colorful strings but wasn¡¯t ¡°Og¡±, his signature Divine weapon. It seemed that Skill was right when he said that the 2nd Nubis officer was too afraid to bring his strongest weapon to the battlefield.
The axe shone slightly, and a rune was activated.
It was the Purge.
Due to consistent training, Zafer¡¯s body became more durable, and on top of that, he had the Patronage rune implemented into his scarf.
Being struck by the Purge rune was very uncomfortable but bearable in terms of pain.
Nevertheless, he was still stunned for a second due to the muscle spasm caused by the lightning bolt.
This was a single second that Skank needed to end his life.
The Patronage rune could not protect Zafer from a direct hit of a Miyalin axe, especially if it possessed a Crushing rune. And this one did.
Another interesting thing to note in this strike was that Skank had no clue if Zafer possessed the Almighty Eye anomaly, let alone if it was an euclid with the repelling ability.
Even so, in that single second, Skank made sure not to strike Zafer¡¯s head, but the body.
This was just a short highlight of decades of his experience. As a paladin, you never want to strike someone¡¯s head if you can kill them by striking their body.
Unfortunately for Skank, Zafer wasn¡¯t the only person on the battlefield.
Although the Priest finally had a chance to fight Tule fairly, he still didn¡¯t lift his eyes from Zafer.
Just as Zafer¡¯s chest was about to get smashed, Priest¡¯s axe collided with Skank¡¯s axe, deflecting his whole arm upward.
A lightning bolt struck the Priest, from Tule who was catching up.
This didn¡¯t damage Zer Ox, but it removed the potion effects he had, forcing him to replenish them by drinking.
After fighting Yana numerous times, Zafer knew how dangerous this was, especially since Zer Ox couldn¡¯t drink normal red potions, because it could reduce the quality of his 8th Anomaly.
Fortunately, a simple counter to the Purge rune was another Purge rune!
This time Skank and Tule got hit by a lightning bolt from a clear blue sky, and Biotoxin caused it.
That was the name of the Priests axe. It was a Divine.
All three paladins continued to fight each other in a two versus-one while re-drinking their potions.
This was a perfect chance for Zafer to intervene for the second time.
He rotated his axe, activating his own Purge rune.
Due to his axe not possessing some other runes like Biotoxin did, he could only target a single person at a time.
He chose Skank.
The Nubis officer just finished drinking his potions when Zafer¡¯s Purge neutralized the effects again.
This made him clench his teeth out of frustration.
He was now left behind by Zer Ox and Tule who were both fighting at a blue potion speed.
He watched as they moved further away from him.
¡°Fucking brat!¡±, he held back from fully facing Zafer and threw his axe blindly mid-turn.
Zafer was shocked as he didn¡¯t expect this rushed move.
Despite not completing his turn, the throw landed with remarkable accuracy, sticking to Zafer¡¯s forehead.
Right at that moment, Skank¡¯s heart twitched, realizing his frustration led him to the bad decision.
Death
The impact of this throw was the same as when Zafer got hit by Nemo when they first met.
The huge difference however was that at that time, Zafer held back as much as his control over the Almighty Eye allowed him to.
Now, however, Zafer got caught off guard and only reflexively held back.
This was due to how anomalies worked. Although intangible, they were a part of the human body just like muscles were.
An explosion that overpowered all the cannons that were shooting at the Temper walls resounded.
Dust within a 500-metre radius got lifted up, cracking the ground itself.
Zafer wasn¡¯t aware of it at the time but all of the paladins fighting on the meadow at that moment had their attention reluctantly drawn towards him.
Although he used almost all of his Almighty Eye¡¯s repelling ability, there were no drops of blood leaking down his cheeks at all.
This was due to the increase in his anomalous pool and stamina, due to the hard training.
An euclid anomaly is an anomaly that¡¯s already developed to a certain extent at the birth.
This meant that if someone was born with an anomaly whose intensity or quality measured more than 2 Verms was considered to be an euclid.
An interesting fact about euclid anomalies was that they could only be improved by 2 Verms, and even that required intense training.
So someone born with a euclid of 5 Verms could eventually improve it to 7, but this was impossible if someone was born with a euclid of 13 or 23 Verms since the jump was too big.
Those were stuck forever at their intensity level, and Zafer was one of them.
This meant that no matter how much Zafer trained his Almighty Eye, he could never improve it, but only increase his overall anomalous pool.
Nevertheless, another such activation would instantly kill him, and he knew it.
The sweat was accumulating on his skin as hot waves of heat washed him from the inside.
Was this enough to kill Skank?
Was this enough to kill the 2nd officer of the world¡¯s strongest faction?
The answer was of course no.
Despite Skank not possessing an Almighty Eye, he could sacrifice a portion of his own anomalous pool to reduce damage by Zafer¡¯s repelling ability.
And that was exactly what he did since otherwise, he would have died thrice.
The officer emerged from the now-settling dust with a perspiring face.
Skank¡¯s anomalous pool was actually vast enough to neutralize most of the damage!
As a reminder, the anomalous pool size had nothing to do with anomaly intensity in Verms.
Zafer got goosebumps.
¡°What a strength!¡±
Skank was already past his 50-es, yet Zafer could still see the trail his pinnacle strength left behind.
¡°So you want to fight me?¡±
Zafer¡¯s skin was itching and burning.
They were staring at each other anticipating for the other to make the first move.
The burning got so intense that Zafer had to pull up his sleeves to check, and just as it felt like, his skin was full of open wounds and burns.
¡°That¡¯s my signature anomaly. It took me a lot of years to perfect it¡±.
Zafer took out a vial of a red potion and emptied it as fast as he could, but Skank didn¡¯t move an inch, instead continued talking.
¡°It¡¯s an acid which I transformed your sweat into using my primary anomaly. Alchemy¡±.
Although the flask was emptied, the wounds only slowed down on expanding and the pain got so intense that Zafer had to take his jumper off.
As one would expect, his whole body was covered in open wounds as if his skin was peeling.
It felt very uncomfortable every time the wind blew on him. He could feel every single breeze, but at least the jumper wasn¡¯t touching him anymore.
No matter how much Zafer touched himself, the acid didn¡¯t seem to wear down.
¡°It¡¯s futile. You will wither away¡±.
The next layer of his skin started to rip apart and Zafer quickly realized that he was dying.
Skank seemed very calm but this was no joke.
This made Zafer panic and his heart raced. How much time has he left?
The only obvious way to stop this was to kill Skank.
He pounced off the ground, dashing forward, and swung his axe at Skank¡¯s Miyalin chest-plate.
The blade of Zafer¡¯s axe struck the armor, but it caused no damage.
Moreover, an unpleasant crack was heard and this time Zafer¡¯s heart twitched in a literal sense.
Skank stood unfazed, observing the Temper candidate.
¡°Come on! Try harder!¡±, he leaned over Zafer.
Zafer checked the blade of his Miyalin axe only to notice a small fragment missing.
It broke off.
Skank started laughing out loud, ¡°Don¡¯t tell me nobody told you to never strike the Miyalin armor with a blade! That¡¯s why everyone uses axes instead of swords idiot! To break and bend the armor¡±, he wiped the tears off his face, ¡°not to cut through it!¡±.
Zafer switched his axe into his left hand and placed his right one on Skank¡¯s armor to try to crush it with his Iron Fist anomaly.
Although he had never successfully broken or bent Miyalin before, he never really tried to, yet he was training very hard each day.
He had to be strong enough now, right? If not, this was a perfect moment to push past his limits.
It all happened quite quickly and suddenly, but as soon as Zafer¡¯s palm leaned against the armor, his hand reluctantly flicked back in pain.
Skank¡¯s armor was boiling!
It was a rune, specially designed against Iron Fist users.
Skank continued to laugh and trash talk.
¡°Well, I can¡¯t blame anyone for not teaching you properly. You are quite weak and talentless. Stupid brat. Know your place¡±.
He struck Zafer¡¯s stomach with his fist which was also covered in Miyalin armour.
Zafer¡¯s vision blurred, and he fell on his knees letting go of his axe.
Currently, the only reason why Skank didn¡¯t use his axe was because he wanted Zafer to corrode to death.
The 4th anomaly, Alchemy, was the ability to change the chemical composition of any material into any other molecule.
Nonetheless, this anomaly had a catch, because aside from its user being required to train the anomaly and increase its intensity in Verms, they also had to know the chemical composure of the molecules they wanted to play with.
This required a lot of research and experiments and was the main reason why this anomaly was considered to be somewhat similar to the Adjustment since it required brain power.
The red potion Zafer drank only slowed the rate at which he was dying, prolonging his suffering.
This can¡¯t be how his story ends.
Every part of his skin was in pain.
He gritted his teeth, grabbing his axe and swinging at Skank''s head, but the latter dodged.
Zafer then placed his palm on Skank''s armor again, but this time his skin was too damaged and in too much pain to perceive the heat of the armor.
Skank enjoyed his efforts.
Crack.
Both of their hearts skipped a beat and both of them had to check with their own eyes.
A crack appeared alongside Skank¡¯s armor.
This scary surprise made Skank back off and kick Zafer reflexively.
Zafer rolled on the ground while Skank was perplexed about what just happened. How did Zafer withstand the boiling armor?
¡°If I¡¯ll die anyways I don¡¯t mind going all out and burning out my anomalies fucker¡±, he called out to Skank.
Zafer still had the effects of both blue and red potions.
He pounced forward starting an all-out brawl with Skank, not minding about the recklessness of his moves or actions.
Just like the first time he fought Yana.
Since he might die anyway, he will use all of his creativity and risky moves.
There was no reason to fight in a safe mode anymore.
Due to the wounds on his skin, he felt as if he was gliding through the air.
Skank barely blocked Zafer¡¯s first two swings, but at the same time saw no opportunity to consume his own potions.
Remember, Skank drank no potions since Zafer¡¯s Purge rune struck him.
The only way to get out of this situation was to use his own Purge rune on Zafer.
Now they were both equal in terms of potion boost, but how could Zafer ever lose against someone who drinks potions slower than Yana?
Fighting that girl opened his eyes for spotting errors in his opponent''s decisions since there was nobody else who could empty a vial as fast as her.
Skank wasn¡¯t even aware of how slow he consumed the liquid, but Zafer did, and he sure did use it to his advantage.
With that and Zafer¡¯s reckless and risky moves, Skank never got a chance to drink any potion at all!
Even if he did, Zafer was ready to activate his purge rune yet again. It was a while since his cooldown ended.
The Nubian officer got nervous pretty quickly and started making some obvious errors in his movement.
Fighting without the effect of a potion sure wasn¡¯t relaxing, and it would soon be clear that as an officer of the Nubis, Skank wasn¡¯t very much of a fighter.
His age and relaxing life as an officer of the world''s strongest faction put little to no pressure on him, making his fighting abilities stunt.
This was the danger of a safe and pleasant life.
With every hit Zafer landed on Skank, his armor slowly sunk in more and more until it came to the point where he could not even move his hands or legs anymore!
His armor was so disfigured that he got stuck and was barely able to move.
He lost to a mere candidate who didn¡¯t even wear armor.
Zafer¡¯s couple of months of intense training overgrew Skank¡¯s years of relaxing.
This was the reason how Zer Ox managed to withstand fighting him and Tule at the same time.
Skank wasn¡¯t that strong in the first place! He only relied on his opponent''s fear to win. Acid wasn¡¯t a pleasant thing to have on your skin, especially if you didn¡¯t know what it was.
Zafer¡¯s heart raced faster than ever, excited about his upcoming victory.
He slowly started to feel the adrenaline that pumped through his blood vessels this whole time.
Only one hit was enough to kill him, but his risky and creative moves kept him alive.
He was reckless to the point of being unpredictable.
This was something that Zafer will keep in mind in the future, and it will ultimately lead to the development of his fighting style.
Not because it made him win, but because it felt excellent, and was very fun by his definition.
Chapter 16
Prelude:
?Congrats!¡±.
The boy smiled being praised by his parents.
The past year''s political conflicts made everyone¡¯s life harsher, but it was finally time for some happy events and celebrations.
A younger boy looked up to his brother, not uttering a word, but the look in his eyes gave his every thought away.
The older one noticed this.
¡°Do you want to come and watch me sometimes?¡±
The younger one nodded shyly, ¡°can you craft something for me too?¡±
The mother smiled, ¡°he is going to be very busy¡±, however, the older boy denied this.
¡°I¡¯m sure I can make something simple and safe for Skil¡±.
Skil¡¯s eyes shone bright, hugging his older brother.
This was a fragment of Skil¡¯s past which he vaguely revealed to Zafer on a random occasion when they were out drinking.
¡°Oh¡±, Skil gasped, ¡°did you hurt yourself with a hammer?¡±
The older brother looked down noticing a bruise on his hand.
¡°No, I-¡ I don¡¯t remember hitting myself with a hammer¡±, he smiled patting his younger sibling.
¡°How did you get the bruise then?¡±
The boy pondered for a second, ¡°Well, I am so tough that sometimes I don¡¯t even notice, so I don¡¯t remember!¡±
They both laughed.
Bruises and wounds were nothing unexpected given how every regular male citizen was prone to work an exhausting physical job.
Nevertheless, although Skil was way young at the time, he slowly started to notice some weird things.
His brother was invited to work at a Miyalin blacksmith, so the two saw each other less frequently.
Once however they went together on a hike to spend some time with each other.
His brother changed a bit, but that was mostly due to him growing up.
Nevertheless, as the two of them were descending the hill back home, Skil noticed a pond of blood near the hiking trail.
He was too confused and scared to admit it, but that was the same spot his brother relieved himself that very morning.
These symptoms were pretty unique for the Inverse disease. Some mutated abruptly while the others took even months.
It was a core memory that constantly reminded Skil that there was no easy or rough time.
There was no point in enjoying happiness, since the sadness that comes after always overpowers it by a lot.
Part one:
The invasion of Razihelnor was not over yet, and although the meadow had gotten quieter, Zafer was in the middle of the heat.
He was still fighting the 2nd officer of the Nubis province, and despite his winning, a problem he faced became more obvious.
He was trying to figure out how to put an end to this fight and kill Skank, but nothing seemed to be good enough.
Cutting through the Miyalin armor wouldn¡¯t be possible, and smashing it wasn¡¯t an option either.
Although the armor could get deformed, it still possessed some runes meant for protecting what was inside of it, and Zafer¡¯s axe wasn¡¯t strong enough to overpower this.
A Crushing rune really would come in handy now, and it became more obvious to Zafer just how important runes were.
Of course, there would be no need for such runes if Zafer¡¯s Iron Fist anomaly was strong enough to break Miyalin.
Striking Skank¡¯s helmet was the only option he had, but it would prove to be quite a challenge since the former always expected it.
The time slowly passed, and Zafer¡¯s mind got tired of hyper-thinking and improvising.
He had difficulties making unexpected and creative moves and was more and more afraid to do something risky.
Also, the acid was still eating his skin, and he started to bleed all over his body.
¡°You are desperate to kill me, aren¡¯t you?¡±, Skank spoke.
They were both catching a breath and Zafer finally noticed how peaceful the meadow was.
There were no sounds of cannons firing or people fighting.
Where was everyone?
¡°You aren¡¯t retreating?¡±, Zafer asked mocking him, but Skank only smirked.
¡°I will soon. Do you think our attack was focused on the city? We are already the richest province dumbass! We could care less about plundering your peasant faction!¡±.
Zafer listened.
¡°The main goal was just to send as many of you Temper rats to the Gathering Hub¡±.
In Pashtrik that was an expression for the place where the dead gathered after passing away.
Zafer clenched his teeth, ¡°How ironic¡±.
He dashed towards Skank with another inspiration. The last push.
Unfortunately for him, his hyper-focus was too concentrated on Skank to notice a shadow approaching him from the side.
As a result, Zafer got knocked down and plowed the ground in a straight line, creating a trench.
Now, there were 3 people present on the meadow as far as Zafer could see.
¡°I had it under control Marek¡±, Skank commented not to lose face, but the other one ignored his words, only passing by him.
¡°Don¡¯t interfere. He is mine now¡±.
Skank frowned.
The guy who just appeared seemed young and didn¡¯t even have a black painted Miyalin armor like the rest of the Nubis members.
He didn¡¯t even have any armor and was just like Zafer.
Who was this Marek guy?
¡°What did you say to me candidate?¡±, Skank raised his voice, but the former one ignored him again, going straight for Zafer.
Another interesting thing was that the guy held no weapon, yet charged faster and faster.
This was a difficult situation for Zafer since he didn¡¯t know what to expect.
He had play defense, but what should he defend from?
A punch? A kick?
He thought of dashing forward at the last second and striking Marek before he even reached him, but that wasn¡¯t an option anymore.
Marek summoned his weapon out of nowhere.
It was a pitch-black hammer with a long handle and a bulky head.
This couldn¡¯t be Miyalin, but still appeared out of nowhere as if it had a rune. What is this?
Could it possibly be a black-painted Miyalin hammer?
Zafer pondered but quickly gave up.
Miyalin was expensive even as a mere axe. A hammer this size would cost gazillion of units.
Marek swung sideways, and Zafer hastily stretched out his arm, so that his palm met the head of the hammer.
He trained his Iron Fist anomaly for quite some time now, and although his shoulder wasn¡¯t his main focus, its strength also increased.
It should be easy for Zafer to stop the hammer in place.
He only blinked, and the shadow of the hammer had already engulfed his entire body.
Zafer¡¯s shoulder was indeed very strong, so upon impact, his hand didn¡¯t break.
Nevertheless, his legs couldn¡¯t keep him on the ground, and he got blasted away.
This was because he positioned himself poorly, so the kinetic energy of the hammer wasn¡¯t absorbed in his shoulder.
His heart made a couple of sudden strong beats, being surprised by this outcome.
What a strength! This guy had to be stronger than even Hydra with his Repeater anomaly activated!
Nevertheless, that wasn¡¯t where it ended. Marek was still charging at him, not stoping even for a second.
Zafer quickly got back on his legs. What should he do now? Should he try to avoid or to position himself better this time?
He should try to preserve his anomalous pool for as long as he could, but then again he should end this fight as quickly as possible.
There was no telling if Skank would come back.
Marek lifted his hammer, and Zafer gritted his teeth. It was too late to think of something better now.
Nevertheless, something weird happened.
The hammer fell apart into dust, and then solidified into an axe!
This wasn¡¯t just any weapon, it was an anomalous ability! Zafer wasn¡¯t sure which one though.
He had no time to think.
He blocked each attack with his axe but got blasted away each time as if he got hit by a truck. Don¡¯t forget that Zafer was under the effect of a purple potion!
How is this guy able to be so much stronger than him?!
Is that also an anomaly? An euclid Repeater perhaps?
He had no time to think.
He didn¡¯t even have time to counterattack.
Aside from being unnaturally strong, this Marek fellow was also very skilled!
Did Skank call him a candidate? This was bad.
Zafer could not see it, but a TP tattoo that led to Knuckles¡¯s flame flower grinder appeared on his face.
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He was starting to overheat.
Drops of blood slid down from his eyes, but he could not feel it since his whole skin was damaged and covered in blood due to Skank¡¯s acid.
At some point, Marek summoned another weapon.
And I don¡¯t mean the black dust one, but an actual weapon made out of Miyalin.
It was a dagger with a single black thread writhing within its blade.
At that moment, Zafer couldn¡¯t help but lose complete focus from the battle.
Over the past few months, Zafer had devoted only a small amount of time to studying runes, as The Book of Runes and Curses was primarily written for scriptmen and was quite complex.
However, one thing that stuck with him was a vivid description of the ''black string'' rune.
While paladins made no distinction between types, the book classified it specifically as a curse rather than a rune.
The curse was triggered automatically upon killing a human, crystallizing their soul and anomaly into an artifact.
Zafer hadn¡¯t fully understood the book¡¯s explanation of how this crystallization process worked, but he remembered that only one anomaly could be crystallized per person.
Which anomaly was chosen depended on several factors, such as its grade (primary, secondary, or tertiary), intensity (measured in Verms), nature (regular, euclid, or inverse euclid), and more.
Marek didn¡¯t only intend to kill Zafer, but also seal him!
He was probably after his euclid Almighty Eye.
Zafer¡¯s heart skipped a beat as he was slowly diving more into a disadvantage.
Nobody knew what it felt like to be crystalized into an artifact. Some said that one¡¯s conscience would remain trapped in there forever.
Not like people knew what happened after death, but being turned into an artifact was definitely a different experience. Possibly a more unsettling one.
Since even blocking hits dealt a lot of damage to Zafer, he gave his best to avoid them completely, but that wasn¡¯t easy to do.
This required a lot more movement and he slowly got tired.
Despite jogging huge distances every day for the past 4 months, it just wasn¡¯t enough.
Zafer jumped away barely dodging Marek¡¯s black axe, but one of his feet slipped on the ground, making him lose his balance and putting him in an even worse position for the upcoming attack.
He couldn¡¯t dodge this one, so he tensed his whole body, bracing for the impact.
Marek lifted his axe, blocking the setting sun, but then paused, glancing to the left.
It was Skil, and he ran towards them.
¡°What are you still doing here? You need to get away!¡±, he swung at Marek to help Zafer but got instantly smacked down.
This was when Skil also had the same revelation as Zafer. This guy¡¯s strength was unfathomable.
Zafer¡¯s heart twitched, looking at Skil who couldn¡¯t stop his body from rolling on the ground. Where did he come from? Did he return to the battlefield to help Zafer?
Marek turned towards the initial target, lifting his axe again ready to smash him down, but another person appeared between them.
This time, not even Marek was fast enough to react. His heart twitched.
The mysterious shadow grabbed Zafer by the arms and dashed away with him.
It was so fast that Zafer remained in the same position, ready to eat Marek¡¯s swing.
He slowly glanced around only to realize he was on a whole different hill now!
He quickly stood up. Unlike Marek, Zafer was too tired and focused on his opponent to notice what exactly happened.
A person was standing beside him, staring at the plateau. Was he the one who dragged Zafer away?
Was Zafer even dragged away? The tall walls of Razihelnor were barely visible from here. This distance was humanly impossible to cross in just a second.
Unless of course, it was via portal.
The person beside Zafer held a colorful Miyalin Axe labeled ¡°40¡±.
It was a Divine!
His Miyalin armor was painted black, indicating that he was an enemy.
How come there were still so many Nubians in the meadow?
This wasn¡¯t good at all, but Zafer couldn¡¯t care less about his life right now. What is going on with Skil?
If he was going to die, there was no way he would drag a friend with him.
¡°Calm down. If I wanted to kill you I would have done that¡±, the Nubian guy turned around.
Zafer¡¯s breath lagged as his eyes fell upon the guy''s face. He was a mutation survivor.
His whole head looked like that of a bear with white fur, ears, and muzzle.
This was the first time the 2 of them met in person, but they both heard about each other.
¡°You are Jean? Neimell¡¯s brother?
Jean didn¡¯t comment on that.
¡°Thanks for looking after her. Most people would freak out¡±.
He referred to when Neimell went inverse. It was thanks to Zafer not killing her on the spot that Jean managed to save her for the 2nd time.
Zafer wanted to nod but wasn¡¯t sure what Jean¡¯s intentions were. Why did he interfere just as Skil appeared?
This was not the salvation Zafer was hoping for.
¡°I need to go back¡±, he stepped backward but Jean grabbed him by the shoulder.
¡°You will die¡±.
Zafer pushed his hand aggressively, ¡°So will my friend!¡±
There was no time to waste.
Only a single minute had passed since Jean appeared but given how strong Marek is, Zafer was afraid of how much longer Skil can withstand.
Not to mention that Skank was still alive.
Nevertheless, instead of permitting Zafer to go, Jean got distracted by Zafer¡¯s eyes. He looked inside of them, so deeply that he could see Zafer¡¯s bare soul.
¡°Huh¡. What are you?¡±, Jean asked.
Zafer frowned. What kind of question was this? In any case, this was a perfect chance to dash away towards Skil.
He should still be near the place he saw him last time, which was west of the Razihelnor walls.
However, before he could even tense his leg muscles, Jean grabbed him again as if he predicted what Zafer was about to do.
¡°Both of you will die. He is a monster¡±.
This time Jean referred to Marek.
¡°Speaking of which¡¡±
The so-called monster was searching for them the whole time.
Zafer couldn¡¯t Marek, nor could Marek see Zafer and Jean, but his current trajectory would lead to them, and in just a few seconds, Jean¡¯s prediction would prove to be true.
Marek stopped as soon as he climbed the hill and saw Zafer with Jean.
Zafer¡¯s heart dropped. Did Skil die already?
¡°Your friend is still alive. Marek was searching for us the whole time¡±, Jean comforted him.
The Nubis candidate couldn¡¯t care less about Skil. For him, his life goal was unreachable without Zafer¡¯s death.
¡°What are you doing?¡±, Marek asked. Wrath was spilling from him.
Jean placed his elbow on Zafer¡¯s shoulder, ¡°What do you mean? Nothing¡±.
¡°He is mine¡±, Marek lifted his black axe and pointed it at Zafer.
The truth was, Marek, got promised something from certain someone if he killed Zafer with a weapon carrying the Vestige rune.
¡°Oh, I see. Alright then you can have him¡±, Jean figured it out, ¡°beg¡±.
The silence resounded.
Marek was about to offer Jean to take Zafer¡¯s Almighty Eye artifact once he kills him, but that was out of the question now.
Such disrespect could not be tolerated, even if the two were members of the same faction.
Yes, Marek was a candidate, but Jean was also just a regular paladin.
¡°Beg, and Hydra can have him. Or whoever made a deal with you¡±.
Marek''s black axe collapsed into sand-like particles and then connected again into a halberd.
¡°Do you think I give fuck about Hydra¡¯s deal? This is also a personal matter¡±.
As Marek said that, he dashed towards Jean as if Zafer wasn¡¯t there at all.
It was obvious that Zafer was in no condition to fight anymore. This was a one versus one.
Jean chuckled, ¡°You know that I can literally see through people?¡±
He pushed Zafer to the ground and blocked Marek¡¯s halberd with his ¡°40¡± Divine axe.
Unlike what one would expect, Jean remained in the same spot, while Marek was the one who got knocked back.
He landed softly, and his weapon quickly fell apart, forming a spear that he threw directly at Jean.
Zafer observed the two fight. He knew that he would instantly get killed if he moved only a little.
He could only pray that Jean would prevail and that Skil was safe.
Nevertheless, Marek wasn¡¯t only incredibly strong but also very skilled and accurate!
The black spear went straight towards the heart.
However, could he kill Jean? How strong even was he?
Before Marek even ¡°summoned¡± the spear, Jean had already swung his Divine axe vertically opening a portal.
When the spear was thrown, the portal was already opened. Marek¡¯s heart twitched.
Through the portal, he could see his own back!
The black spear he threw went right through the portal and exited from behind him, piercing his abdomen!
He practically hit himself!
This prediction¡This intuition.
Neither Zafer nor Marek knew what Jean¡¯s anomaly was, but it had to do something with seeing the future.
Was this what Jean meant when he said could see through people?
Groans of surprise exited Marek¡¯s mouth, which made him kneel for the first time today since the attack on Razihelnor started.
The spear fell apart once, and the black dust reassembled in his hand taking the form of an axe.
His clothes were soaked in blood, but the wound probably had already closed since it didn¡¯t hinder Marek by a bit.
Jean was right. This guy was a monster.
He dashed forward once again, swinging his axe at Jean just the way he did before, except this time he put 100% of his strength in.
¡°Alright, that¡¯s it¡±, Jean was not amused.
He stepped aside, not only dodging the swing at the perfect time but also grabbing Marek in a deadlock.
He then opened another portal and with a sharp turn threw Marek over his back through it!
Zafer couldn¡¯t see where the portal led, and once Jean closed it, there were only two of them in the meadow again.
Marek was gone.
Goosebumps embraced Zafer¡¯s skin as his glance fell on Jean. The guy was unfazed.
It took Zafer a couple of seconds to come back to the reality. Skil! Was he still there? Was he fighting someone?
A lightning bolt fell on the meadow, near the walls of Razihelnor.
¡°Don¡¯t even think about it¡±, Jean spoke.
¡°He is still fighting! I can¡¯t let him die¡±
¡°No¡±, Jean denied.
Zafer was still under the impression of Jean¡¯s fighting performance, but he could not just let Skil fight alone. No matter who he was fighting against.
Jean argued that Zafer would die, but it didn¡¯t matter. Zafer would rather join Skil than do nothing.
He had to help him.
He had to be there with him.
Zafer¡¯s blue potion effect was about to wear off, so to use it, he suddenly stood up and pounced toward Skil¡¯s assumed location with all his might.
Unfortunately, he couldn¡¯t surprise Jean.
The guy started moving a split second before Zafer did! How was this possible?
Nevertheless, Zafer expected this and suddenly halted in place as much as one could with his speed. The dirt below him got dug up.
He abruptly turned around and summoned his axe, blindly swinging at Jean.
Jean¡¯s eyes widened. He flicked back as much as he could, even having to turn his head sideways, but once the blade of the axe missed him, he kicked Zafer in the liver, knocking him down.
The timing and the length of his axe were perfect!
The blade of Zafer¡¯s axe only scratched Jean''s face.
Given how sharp Miyalin was, it made him bleed, but it wasn¡¯t as deadly as it could be.
Jean took a few steps back, wiping the blood off of his face to see how deep the wound was.
¡°I¡ didn¡¯t see this coming¡¡±
He was somewhat astonished, and his comment could be perceived as praise.
¡°Why do you care about me so much?! Fuck off!¡±, Zafer held his stomach while kneeling.
Jean wiped the blood off of his face again.
¡°I will hit you harder the next time¡±, he lifted his ¡°40¡± now.
Given that his axe was a Divine that possessed every rune in existence, a direct hit could kill Zafer 10 times.
Zafer clenched his teeth, looking up at Jean with wrath in his eyes.
He bore no hatred, Jean could see that, but he could also see many other things.
Zafer stood up and dashed once again, this time towards Jean. He knew fighting Jean was pointless, especially in his current state, but it didn¡¯t matter.
If running away was impossible, maybe showing his tenacity would change something. Maybe Zafer will get pity.
Jean blocked his swing with ease and then grabbed Zafer¡¯s hands by the biceps, but so did Zafer his.
This was a huge advantage.
Yes, Jean¡¯s body was covered in Miyalin, but Zafer could still use his Iron Fist muscle strength to throw him down.
Unfortunately, all the strength from his anomaly has vanished.
This confirmed that Jean¡¯s anomaly was the Almighty Eye.
Zafer panicked. He quickly spread his legs apart so that it was harder for Jean to throw him down, but the Nubian still managed to do so!
How? Zafer couldn¡¯t help but scream on the inside as he was falling.
He specifically positioned his legs in a way that wouldn¡¯t get him thrown down! What was the deal with this guy?
Neimell never mentioned that her brother was a freak!
Jean kneeled over Zafer¡¯s shoulder, immobilizing him completely.
Zafer¡¯s face got pushed against the soil. The only thing he could see was the setting sun and the blades of grass.
Nevertheless, it wasn¡¯t over yet. Zafer couldn¡¯t accept this.
He was in multiple deadlocks and still resisted trying to get up.
That was when Jean had enough of it.
He pulled Zafer¡¯s shoulder out of its joint.
The latter let out a loud cry. Tears started streaming down his face.
Jean gritted his teeth, ¡°Now I see why Rat adores you so much¡¡±
He referred to Simra. That was his nickname among the enemy paladins.
¡°It¡¯s not that you are a crazy lunatic like Banana¡ you are just as stubborn as a mule¡±.
In reality that wasn¡¯t exactly why Simra liked Zafer, but played a role.
With another groan, Zafer calmed down.
¡°You have a TP¡±, Jean looked at Zafer¡¯s face, ¡°use it. Be gone¡±.
The tears were still streaming down Zafer¡¯s face, but he wasn¡¯t in any physical pain anymore.
¡°Fuck you¡±, he cried.
At this point, he didn¡¯t even care about assisting Skil. He just didn¡¯t want to let Jean have his way. That was just how stubborn he was. He provoked Jean to kill him.
Nevertheless, Jean also didn¡¯t want Zafer to have his way. He could care less about some random teenager, but the fact was that Jean was also a very stubborn person.
Just as he was about to open a portal and get rid of Zafer the way he did with Marek, another mysterious portal opened around 50 meters from them.
Simra flew out of it, rolling on the ground.
His armor was dented on a couple of spots and was covered in dirt and blood.
Following up another portal opened in the vicinity of the first one, and Zlatko jumped out of it.
His appearance wasn¡¯t much better than Simra¡¯s.
The two of them seem to be fighting for quite some time now given their condition, but the fact was that Hydra was also participating in this brawl but got left behind.
Simra bit his lower lip as he saw the situation Zafer was in. It had to be Jean out of all the people.
Simra did well fighting both Zlatko and Hydra at the same time, but he made a mistake by opening a portal here.
There was no way he could take Zlatko and Jean at once. He experienced enough to know that.
He spun his Divine axe and it flashed a couple of times. Each flash was a rune activation, and he might have even overheated his weapon with this.
¡°Faze!¡±, he shouted.
That was the name of the 1st officer of the Temper faction.
He was physically nowhere around, but he heard the cry.
¡°Fuck¡±, Jean stood up bracing for impact.
The space started to bend around everyone and just then Simra hit the ground with his axe using all his might.
The impact was so strong that Zafer never even observed the explosion.
He just went unconscious.
However, at the same time, he woke up somewhere else.
He was on a huge floating island that was surrounded by myriads of others. The sky was pink, and 2 moons were floating near the setting sun.
He could hear a waterfall somewhere but could not see it. The ground was covered in green grass but there were also hands sticking out here and there.
Finally, a person was sitting at the edge of the island, eating a loaf of bread and enjoying the view.
He looked the same as Zafer, but with blushed cheeks, black hair, and wide-opened eyes as if he was high.
¡°What is this place?¡±, Zafer asked.
The one sitting turned around, ¡°huh? You should like this place¡±.
Zafer didn¡¯t understand what that answer meant, although the view was indeed nice.
It was also very calm and the two of them sat there in silence for a couple of minutes.
During those times, however, Zafer couldn¡¯t help but throw a few glances at his black-haired imitation.
¡°Um¡ Are you my consciousness?¡±
The imitation frowned looking at Zafer ¡°Your what?¡±
¡°My consciousness¡±, he repeated himself, ¡°like the voice I hear when I¡¯m thinking¡±.
The imitation turned his eyes back towards the view, ¡°perhaps¡±.
This answer wasn¡¯t helpful but Zafer gazed at the floating islands, trying to see what the imitation was looking at.
Nevertheless, this wasn¡¯t successful, as he couldn¡¯t help but keep pondering.
¡°No seriously, where the fuck am I¡±.
The imitation ignored the comment squinting his eyes.
¡°Do you see that there?¡±, he pointed ahead.
Zafer frowned looking at the floating islands in the distance, ¡°Where?¡±
¡°In the direction of my gaze¡±.
Zafer looked at the imitation and then placed his cheeks next to his, trying to align his gaze with imitations.
¡°Man! Never mind. It went away now¡±.
Suddenly everything became blurry and bright.
Zafer woke up, but this time to where his body was.
He was still alive.
Chapter 17
Part one:
Four months have passed since Zafer became a Temper candidate.
During that time he learned and trained like never before, as far as he could remember at least.
In the past, Zafer was so weak that every activation of his Almighty Eye was spontaneous and uncontrollable.
Due to that, he faced difficult symptoms of amnesia and unconsciousness almost every time his anomaly would activate.
His memory would practically reset each time.
It was only around the time when people started counting years when an adult paladin saw Zafer¡¯s curse and decided to help him and teach him how to control his anomaly.
That was the beginning of his love for paladins and training. Semi was the first freelancer who wanted to team up with Zafer and form a small gang. They cultivated some cheap magic flowers together and tried to overcome every issue they faced together.
It was hard, but they both managed to survive; and now, they have successfully integrated themselves into the world of the paladins, each creating their own network of people.
However, never could have Zafer imagined that the same people he became friends with could die so early.
That worry never even crossed his mind.
This was maybe due to his personality, but even if he considered something scary like that, it would have never prepared him for the loss of that day.
The loss of Skil.
He took some time to reflect on their first meeting, never imagining that such a profound friendship could have grown from it.
As mentioned, Zafer had no friends other than Semi before, so he didn¡¯t really know what a friendship looked like.
However, Skil really did a great job at showing him what a true friend was, and as Zafer¡¯s journey goes on, the more he will understand just how good of a friend Skil was.
Compared to others.
¡°Isn¡¯t it weird that only paladins bury people instead of igniting their bodies?¡±, someone whispered.
¡°It isn¡¯t, because when a paladin dies, there is usually no body to be ignited¡±, another man answered.
This was true and mostly due to the Vestige rune.
When someone was killed with a weapon that bore said curse, their body would get turned into an artifact.
This was probably what happened to Skil since his body couldn¡¯t be found.
Zafer approached the red gravestone and placed his bouquet of flowers as well as his half of the S-mail pair which he shared with Skil.
He won¡¯t need it anymore.
Since the two of them were mostly apart from each other, S-mail was the only way they communicated. It astonished Zafer that Skil always responded to his mails in a matter of minutes.
Some of their ¡°texting¡± sessions would even last for several hours.
As mentioned, Zafer had too little experience to know what a true friendship looked like, but if this wasn¡¯t it, then he didn¡¯t know what was.
Skil¡¯s funeral was located near Razihelnor, on a small hill with a beautiful view.
It was called the Passy Valley, and it was a place where Temper buried its paladins.
Only a handful of gravestones resided here since Temper was a relatively new faction.
After the ceremony was over, most of the people left, but Zafer was one of the few who stayed.
Simra approached him.
¡°You don¡¯t need to do this. People die, that¡¯s how it is. These other gravestones were also my friends¡±.
Zafer remained calm, ¡°I¡¯m doing it because I don¡¯t want to cause a conflict between you and the 2nd officer. He is right anyways. I¡¯m too weak. I don¡¯t deserve to be a candidate or a member of Temper. Yet¡±.
A small woman hastily approached Skil¡¯s gravestone with tiny strides. She placed an envelope against the stone.
It was sealed with a heart-shaped wax.
Simra didn¡¯t comment on Zafer¡¯s statement.
After he rescued Zafer from Jean and Zlatko, he had to explain what happened to the others.
When the 2nd officer heard that Zafer was still alive despite facing Jean, he accused him of being a traitor.
There was no way that Zafer could last even 2 minutes against him.
It was a sort of public humiliation since other Temper paladins were also present when he exclaimed that.
Nevertheless, Zafer was too broken about Skil at the time, trying to figure out if everything was only a dream.
This resulted in a very heated argument between the 2nd officer and Simra.
The two would probably start a fight if not for the fact that Simra was a lot stronger.
This left the 2nd officer with no choice but to make some disgusting threats, and at that point, Zafer just decided to swallow the reality.
He wasn¡¯t strong enough to kill Skank when he had a chance.
He wasn¡¯t strong enough to fight the random candidate of the Nubis faction.
He wasn¡¯t strong enough to save Skil.
It wasn¡¯t even the argument between the two Temper officers that made him step down from being a candidate.
It was the grief that was eating him from the inside.
The 2nd officer disliked him for a specific reason, and instead of getting mad, Zafer decided to do something about it.
He had to get stronger.
In the beginning, Zafer thought that being a Temper province candidate would be enough of a challenge to make him grow, but that wasn¡¯t the case.
For unknown reasons, he was never called to assist with any mission (aside from the one at the beginning of the novel).
It perplexed him, keeping his mind awake on multiple nights. His performance on that day was spectacular, even trapping and killing one enemy in the avalanche.
What could have been the problem with him? Why wasn¡¯t he good enough?
He didn¡¯t want to sound ungrateful for everything that Simra did for him, but he couldn¡¯t neglect the fact that he wasn¡¯t getting the same treatment Skil used to get from the Priest.
Nevertheless, Zafer was still training regularly, pushing his mind and body to failure every time in hopes that someone might recognize it.
Well, now he knew why that never happened.
His very best wasn¡¯t enough.
He was getting stronger, but not fast enough.
Officer Uk was one of the strongest paladins in the Temper province, and he was the same age as Zafer!
His improvement rate had to be unbelievable since there was no way he started training at the age of 4 or such.
How were some people able to become so strong in such a short period of time?
Zafer was obviously doing something wrong, and he was slowly starting to realize what it was.
Although he was training the exercises like Mio told him and even spared against some young freelancers at Koth, that wasn¡¯t enough to push him beyond his limits.
He just couldn¡¯t push himself beyond his limits. It was impossible.
Someone else had to do it for him.
Ideally, someone who was stronger than Zafer, but not strong enough to knock him out in a matter of minutes.
Of course, he could not just go around and pick a fight with paladins who were stronger than him. That wouldn¡¯t have a good ending.
Instead, what he wanted to do was to join an organization that was actually going to put his limits to the test.
The National Security.
He didn¡¯t know what preconditions he had to fulfill to join, but he was determined to do it.
He talked to Knuckles about this, and the latter advised him to directly ask someone who was a high-ranked member like Wabler or Mio.
He believed they could employ him right away.
After several minutes of standing together in silence, Simra inhaled and then deeply exhaled.Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!
¡°I want to give you something¡±.
Zafer looked at him only now, his expression changing to a mildly surprised and curious one.
Is this going to be a departure gift or one out of pity? Either way, he dared not to decline.
Simra was after all, as the 3rd officer, always cold and distant from everyone.
¡°I know that your secondary anomaly A-11 is stuck and can¡¯t advance further, however, I accidentally caught a glimpse of something within it. I believe it¡¯s an ability well within your reach, but training by yourself will take years to unlock it, since your anomaly is an euclid¡±.
Simra gently placed both of his palms against Zafer¡¯s cheeks, all while staring deep into his eyes.
Into his soul, where the anomalies were believed to reside.
Simra¡¯s eyes turned blue and quickly started to leak a few drops of blood.
He was already starting to overheat!
Meanwhile, the only thing Zafer felt was a weird warmth in between his organs, but not the one one would feel under stress or depression.
This was a very pleasant feeling.
Simra took a step back, pulling out a napkin and wiping off the few drops of blood.
Zafer felt no difference aside from the pleasant warmth going away.
He wasn¡¯t sure if Simra even succeeded or not.
¡°Did you overheat?¡±
Simra slowly turned around walking away.
¡°It¡¯s done. You will know by instinct¡±.
Zafer¡¯s glance bid farewell to Simra before returning back to the sky.
It had such a beautiful golden color.
He wondered if Skil could still see him from the Gathering Hub.
The Simple Physiology of Anomalies: Paragraph 14:
The Soot, is a 10th out of 11 Anomalies¡
It is similar to Synthesis and Alchemy anomalies; however, the Soot can only materialize virtual particles out of thin air into a solid black material. The material is tougher than Miyalin and is known under its trivial name-
Part two:
Zafer stood in front of the door, his gaze fixed on it with a blank expression.
Even days after the funeral, his thoughts remained a tangled mess. With a long exhale, he dragged his hands down his face, steeling himself.
Finally, he knocked.
The silence that followed stretched uncomfortably, broken only after a full minute by the soft shuffle of approaching footsteps.
The door creaked open to reveal Ika, standing in her usual crisp uniform, hat perfectly in place¡ªa typical look for her.
¡°Sorry for the wait¡±, she said, stepping back to let him in with a subtle gesture.
As the door closed behind him, Zafer¡¯s eyes lingered on the locks.
¡°Why do you always lock your doors? You live in the most secure area, surrounded by the strongest Temperans¡±, he commented, his voice tinged with curiosity.
If someone made it to her doorstep, a locked door wouldn¡¯t stop them.
Ika shrugged; her tone casual. ¡°I value my privacy¡±, she replied, then abruptly changed the topic with a sly smile, ¡°I couldn¡¯t help but notice you came empty-handed¡±.
Zafer blinked, caught off guard. ¡°But you were the one who invited me¡±.
It wasn¡¯t as if he couldn¡¯t afford a gift. Still, he found the idea puzzling¡ªwhat could he possibly bring to someone as wealthy as Ika?
Even if he were to devote a whole year to only cultivating flower plants at Knuckles grinder, he wouldn¡¯t be able to accumulate such wealth.
¡°So?¡± she said, her grin widening. ¡°A bit of attention is always appreciated¡±.
The two settled at the table in the center of the living room. Zafer took a moment to glance around, noting how little the space had changed since his last visit.
¡°Well, what kind of gift would you like?¡± he asked showing concern to his senior. ¡°Some pretty flowers?¡±
Ika wrinkled her nose, sticking out her tongue for a moment. ¡°Ew, no. What do I do with flowers?¡±
Zafer faltered, clearly not expecting that reaction. ¡°You can¡ smell them? Or just enjoy how pretty they look?¡±
Her steady, unimpressed gaze made him shift uncomfortably. Was that such a strange suggestion?
¡°I already enjoy plenty of prettiness every time I look in the mirror¡±, she quipped, a mischievous glint in her eye. ¡°If you¡¯re serious about a gift, I¡¯d prefer a bar of chocolate¡±,
Zafer blinked, processing her words. ¡°Right¡±, he muttered, somewhat defeated.
¡°Exactly!¡± Ika exclaimed, slapping her hands on the table with dramatic flair. ¡°Now, would you like something to drink? I have some excellent quality beverages!¡±
Zafer was about to decline, but the brightness in her expression caught him off guard. Had she always looked this¡ radiant?
He used to drink cheap pub beer very often with Skil. It helped him brighten up and engage in the conversation smoothly, but¡ he wasn¡¯t in any mood for such.
¡°Could you make me some tea instead?¡± he asked, his voice softening.
Ika tilted her head, her lips parting in mild disbelief. Tea? Over fine spirits offered by her? What a strange guy.
¡°Well¡¡± she said, drawing out the word, ¡°I guess I could make some tea¡ if you boil the water, that is¡±.
Zafer frowned slightly, ¡°But if I¡¯m boiling the water, I might as well just make the tea myself.¡±
Leaning forward, she pressed her weight onto her hands against the table, a playful smile curling her lips. ¡°Go make it then¡±.
The air hung between them for a moment, charged with unspoken amusement. Zafer sighed, already resigning himself to the task as a smug smile lingered on her lips.
This was one of the rare moments when Ika was not being sarcastic.
After a couple of minutes, they sat at the same table, enjoying the tea.
¡°So, why did you want to see me so suddenly?¡±, Zafer asked.
If not for Ika¡¯s wish to meet him today, Zafer would have left Razihelnor several days ago.
Nevertheless, he put his sorrow and drive for improvement to the side, lingering in Temper just to pay respect to Ika on this agreed day.
Despite being the same age and 20 cm taller than her, Ika was still way out of Zafer¡¯s league, and her playful personality never deceived him to think otherwise.
Her rank and fame were something Zafer couldn¡¯t even dream of, and her wisdom seemed to originate from a place out of this world.
¡°Dominion will be separating from Temper¡±, Ika took a sip.
Zafer¡¯s eyes widened, and eyebrows rose ¡°The whole Dominion? Why?¡±
¡°Well¡±, she exhaled, ¡°Nubis used my white hair to convince the senate to exclude me¡±.
Zafer¡¯s facial expression was frozen in shock, thinking how something like that was possible to pull off.
¡°But how? You were born with white hair!¡±
¡°It doesn¡¯t matter. Nubians have people in the senate. Their former leader and founder is the president¡±.
Zafer knew this already but still couldn¡¯t understand how it came to this. How could the National Security allow such a thing?
Was this what politics was all about?
Ika¡¯s leave would cause a huge blow to the Temper faction and economy, but the leave of the whole Dominion? That included the 1st officer and Zer Ox as well!
Nevertheless, Zafer already knew why they all decided to resign. Dominion existed before Temper. They were like a family.
¡°In that case, I should be excluded as well!¡±, Zafer argued, and this sentence made Ika curl her lips into a smile.
¡°Well, as for the reason I wanted to meet you; What do you think about becoming a fully privileged member of the Dominion province?
Zafer¡¯s heart skipped a beat. She was offering him to become what he always desired. A paladin!
But how was that possible? Even before Dominion was never an official faction.
¡°You are asking me to join Dominion as an official faction?¡±
Ika nodded with a raised nose.
¡°But you just told me that you are excluded. Who will lead the faction?¡±
¡°Well, Zer Ox, of course. Me being excluded doesn¡¯t really mean anything. I must only resign for Temper not to lose a good relationship with the NS, but who Dominion recruits is no one¡¯s business¡±.
¡°But¡¡±, Zafer was still somewhat perplexed, ¡°Dominion will remain an ally of the Temper, right?¡±
Ika¡¯s glance got redirected towards the ceiling. She spoke with a nervous smile, ¡°Well, Banana and Zer Ox had a little argument¡ But are just kids! They will get back together like always!¡±
She rubbed her hands against each other, intertwining the fingers.
If the Priest heard what she just called him regarding such a serious matter, she would be facing a scolding session on how not to behave.
¡°So, what do you think?¡±
Zafer pondered for what seemed to be an eternity for him, but in reality, he decided quite swiftly.
¡°Actually I was about to go to the capital to become a guard of the National Security¡±.
Ika¡¯s smile transformed into a surprised O-shape with a soft inhale through her mouth as if she didn¡¯t know this already.
¡°Oooh, really? That sounds way more fun!¡±, she the last sip of the tea.
It was way tastier when someone else made it for you.
Zafer barely managed to swallow his saliva. He knew that he made the right decision, but what kind of future did he just decline in reality?
A faction required, among else, a minimum number of 10 sealed members to become official.
Dominion counted 4 original members, and it would sure take a lot of endeavor to find and recruit 6 more who were worthy of trust.
Of course, not anybody could be assigned to become a new member. Being a paladin had a purpose and a meaning. It couldn¡¯t be a regular person or someone who could be bribed.
It couldn¡¯t be any young freelancer, it had to be someone serious and devoted to his duty and the seal. The faction was at a much higher risk than the recruited member.
There was no way that Zer Ox would be aiming for more than the minimum number of 10 paladins, which meant that there would be a lot of work.
If Zafer joined, he would be exposed to improvement and knowledge like never before, and he would have all the attention he needed from the more experienced paladins.
Nevertheless, all of this meant nothing.
Yes, being a paladin would be amazing, as well as learning about scripts, architecture, magic flowers, and politics, but all of that was nothing without strength.
And although he devoted all of these months to training, the strength was what Zafer currently lacked the most.
He must join the National Security to become at least a Threat Level 4. He had to do it not for himself, but for those he cared about.
Only then he will be able to repay everyone as they deserve. Ika included.
Part three:
The two of them switched to brighter topics quickly after, enjoying the company of each other.
It was one of those conversations after which one could not recall what the talk was exactly about. It was a road between many topics and laughs, and in the end, the only thing that lingered was the feeling of satisfaction and joy.
Ika was indeed a very clever and interesting person. This was weird for Zafer since he never got along so well with someone of the opposite gender.
She had the potential to become his close friend just like Skil used to be, only differing in the subjects they could talk about.
¡°Anyways, I¡¯ll be going now¡±, Zafer stood up.
Ika leaned back supporting her wispy weight with her hands against the floor, ¡°Alright! Just go then. You know that I hate to see people off¡±.
Her voice traveled through the room as Zafer approached the door, but then she added something else with a smug smile.
¡°Aren¡¯t you going to ask me to exchange S-mails?¡±
Zafer pondered for a moment. S-mails were relatively a new thing for him, so he wasn¡¯t used to collecting contacts of people.
Nevertheless, it seemed as if he understood that question rather wrong.
¡°Don¡¯t worry Ika. You will see me again¡±.
He smiled and left without turning around again.
In the capital of Pashtrik were located two very important institutions.
One of them was the National Security headquarters and the other one was the building of the parliament.
Nevertheless, Zafer was first heading to the City of Koth.
There were also a lot of National Security paladins in Koth, and he could just ask them about joining, without having to travel to the capital.
The National Security was low on members anyway, so Zafer was confident of being accepted.
As already explained, there were many different units within the National Security.
Some members could freely choose which unit they wanted to join, but most of the time that wasn¡¯t the case.
Given Zafer¡¯s strength level, he was probably going to be placed in a weak unit.
The two strongest units were the anti-paladin unit and the anti-apparition unit.
The names were self-explanatory and there was only one reason why the anti-apparition unit was more safe than the anti-paladin unit.
Despite apparitions being dangerous in general, regular citizens were most likely to go inverse which made them easy to deal with. Arcanie was a rare exception.
The most popular unit was the Guards of the Miyalin Mine unit.
There was only one known mine for Miyalin and it was within the neutral territory of course.
The country and National Security were taxing the regular citizens, but the Miyalin Mine was its main source of income.
Interestingly, the Miyalin mine was at the same time the only prison for paladins.
This seemed like a stupid idea, but that was actually due to the shortage of staff and guards, as well as there not being many arrested paladin criminals.
Most of the paladins were too focused on killing each other anyway.
Another interesting unit within the NS was the exploration unit, which was a group of people with a clearance to go beyond the Pashtrik mountains.
Well, it wasn¡¯t a clearance, but just a TP.
The Pashtrik mountains were extremely tall and dangerous to climb, even for paladins.
The exploration unit had a rather safe job.
They were going outside only from time to time, to restock some of the rare resources that could not be cultivated within the Pashtrik.
Like unicorns for example.
Finally, there were individuals within the National Security who were part of no unit but had a unique status instead.
Some of these were Wabler, the head chef of the NS, the assistant chef, the Rangers and so on.
Zafer had no specific wishes regarding the unit he wanted to work for.
He was more curious about the resources he might gain access to. Skil wasn¡¯t the only thing he lost during the last battle.
He also lost his Miyalin axe, assuming that Jean took it after he went unconscious.
This made him feel somewhat unsafe, but the good thing was that he didn¡¯t have to travel to Koth City.
Thanks to the TPs he received from Knuckles, Zafer could now teleport to both Koth City and the flower plant grinder.
He won¡¯t be able to teleport back to the Razihelnor however, and something told him that he won¡¯t be visiting this city for a long time.
Chapter 18
Part one:
As mentioned, Zafer had no idea what the procedure for becoming a National Security member was.
He only hoped there would be no special requirements, such as money or a certain skill set level, so everything could proceed as smoothly as possible.
The NS lacked members anyway, there should be no reason for them to decline or make it difficult for someone trying to join their organization.
He also hoped he wouldn¡¯t need to visit their headquarters in the capital.
The capital of Pashtrik was located right next to the city of Koth, but in between was a huge mountain that was said to be unpassable.
This meant that everyone who traveled to the capital from Koth had to go around the whole mountain which was a huge hassle.
It was only logical for Zafer to inform himself in the city of Koth first.
After standing still for 10 seconds everything around Zafer shifted colors and he was already at a different place.
It was dark and quiet.
He teleported to the TP inside of the grinder.
Talking to Mio about the possibility of joining the National Security could wait until the afternoon. The humble-dressed man was guaranteed to be there anyway. He was always there, at the Arena.
What was more important to Zafer was to see how everyone in Knuckles¡¯es small gang was doing.
Ever since the incident with Skil, he hasn¡¯t bothered to check a single S-mail.
To his surprise, the grinder was completely dark.
Even the big hall where the flame flowers used to be cultivated was completely dead and empty.
Some garbage and random materials were thrown all around the stone floor, but it was too dark for Zafer to see what it was.
His lifeless eyes scouted the entire space as he took slow strides, stepping onto the dead weed and debris.
This cave was God knows where. There was no way someone accidentally found it from the surface.
Someone had to have insided them (that was a term for a raid that occurred from the inside, mostly through treason).
Another weird thing was that the Transport Point was still working, but Zafer completely overlooked that, hence nothing ever happened.
He activated his other ¡°escape¡± TP and teleported back to the Koth city to check into his inn room.
Once there, he sat at the table and forced himself to check on any unread S-mails.
There were none.
With a deep exhale and a last drop of willpower, he wrote an S-mail to Knuckles.
¡°Hey, it¡¯s Zafer. What happened to the grinder farm? Are you well¡±
¡°Hi, I¡¯ve been in the capital since 2 days ago! I am doing alright! It was Semi who destroyed the place and took everything. Aside from that, please have my condolences for Skil, I know how close the two of you were. I¡¯m looking forward to talking to you in person as soon as possible! 10:32¡±
Quick note, Knuckles still has no idea that Zafer left Temper and decided to join the NS.
Either way, his unexpected response gave Zafer enough motivation to reply with another S-mail.
¡°Why did Semi do that?¡±
¡°He said he did it because he didn¡¯t trust the Lieutenant! I don¡¯t know what has gotten into him so suddenly. He has also been avoidant for the past few weeks, if you find something out please let me know or tell him to contact me! I am already working on a new grinder project so do not worry! 11:02¡±
Zafer wrote an S-mail to Semi as soon as Knuckles responded with this but will receive no response until several weeks later.
He was heartbroken, and as much as he tried to excuse Semi¡¯s behavior, deep inside, Zafer felt as if he lost another friend the same month.
One of Zafer¡¯s main priorities was to repay Semi for always looking after him like his older brother, but the time wasn¡¯t on his side.
What was the point in repaying someone for something if they hated and avoided you?
It sure wasn¡¯t impossible, but, if no friendship can bloom from the repaying, isn¡¯t it only making Zafer look weak and pathetic?
Furthermore, what could Zafer possibly repay Semi with, if the guy got way richer than him?
He rubbed his eyes with his hands and after some time being stuck in that position, he cursed at Semi out loud.
In the Arena, there was nothing new.
It was still full of paladins and freelancers, but there were also even more banters than before.
That was a nickname for those who didn¡¯t come to the Arena to train and spar with others, but only to lay around and talk to others.
The majority of these people were females who were looking for a capable partner. Possibly a paladin.
As a consequence, there were also a lot of male banters who were trying to look tough and act as if they were training to attract these females.
Many actual paladins didn¡¯t mind, but to Zafer, these banters were a very disgusting part of the community.
A disgrace to humans in general as well, especially females.
This was the reason why Zafer very frequently tried to scare them out of the Arena, and the persistent ones had to be kicked out by force.
He took no pride in that although it made him feel very satisfied.
Zafer was not strong compared to an average paladin, but the regulars had to know their place.
The arena was exclusively for training and fighting, and if one didn¡¯t want to participate in that, they could leave for what he cared.
This behavior irritated some of the young freelancers in the Arena who enjoyed female company, but Zafer would usually also kick them out as well.
Using brute force. Thankfully, he was strong enough to do so, and now, given his mental state, that was the first thing he did after entering Arena.
¡°You are doing God''s work¡±, someone complimented Zafer¡¯s actions from behind.
It was Mio.
They both watched a squad of tearful females and beaten-up males walk towards the exit of the Arena after Zafer ¡°confronted¡± them.
¡°Thanks¡±, he forced a smile.
¡°If I could, I would do the same. There is no place here for horny and money-hungry bastards in this sacred place¡±.
Zafer lightly nodded in agreement, turning around towards Mio.
¡°I wanted to ask you something. What are the preconditions to joining the National Security?¡±
Mio frowned, pondering for a second.
¡°Well, there are no fixated preconditions. Most members had to undergo a test, but I got accepted right away¡±.
¡°Tell me how¡±.
¡°Why do you want to know so bad?¡±
Zafer made a brief pause before answering. Wasn¡¯t it obvious already?
¡°I want to join¡±.
Mio laughed tapping him on the shoulder, ¡°You need to get a lot stronger first!¡±
Zafer frowned stepping away irritated, ¡°I want to join to become stronger¡±.
Mio laughed again, ¡°No, no. It¡¯s the other way around¡±.
Zafer argued, ¡°I think I can still serve some purpose¡±.
¡°Have you ever seen someone who was designated Threat Level 1 or 2?¡±, Mio asked, ¡°probably no. Do you know why? It¡¯s not because they didn¡¯t get accepted, but because they are all dead¡±.
Zafer was taken aback by this but didn¡¯t show it on the outside.
¡°You can try taking the test but I doubt you will pass¡±, Mio continued.
¡°What is the test?¡±
Mio shrugged his shoulders, ¡°I don¡¯t know. Haven¡¯t done it¡±.
Zafer exhaled realizing this tiring and useless conversation was at its end. Although he and Mio had many common opinions, asking someone else seemed like a better option.
¡°Is Wabler around?¡±
The Book of Runes and Curses: Paragraph 19:
Accumulator is a Rune that increases the overall weight of a weapon while maintaining the weight its user experiences while holding it. This makes some weapons with the same amount of runes far stronger than the others. The precondition to the Accumulator rune activation is mainly the number of lives it has taken, the number of times the weapon was used, and the number of times the other runes were activated.
Part two:
¡°Wabler!¡±, a boy screamed.
It was Luch.
¡°Get ready to have your ass kicked!¡±
This was the first thing Zafer heard upon entering the dessert area where Wabler was known to be.
¡°Again?!¡±, laughed in excitement.
Since Zafer was gone, Luch seemed to challenge Wabler to a duel quite frequently.
The young lad was always in some rush to get stronger. Probably because his source of motivation was far more noble than that of Zafer.
¡°Yes, again¡±, he laughed pulling something from behind, ¡°Now I¡¯ve acquired this!¡±.
Wabler¡¯s eyes widened slightly in surprise. This wasn¡¯t expected.
Luch held a unique type of weapon called ¡°Rod¡±.
It was a weapon only some of the most skilled and tenacious people knew how to use, and their number in today''s age was only 3!
Nevertheless, the weapon has existed for a long time now, its inventor being dead for many years.
When deciding one¡¯s Threat Level, the only thing that could be taken into account was that person''s anomalies, martial arts skills, and stamina.
Nevertheless, Rod was a weapon that was the only exception to this, since using the weapon required an enormous amount of precision and skill.
Not every experienced paladin could use it, and not everyone even knew about its existence.
Rod was basically a shorter fishing rod, with a Miyalin blade along one side of its stick. The bobber was very bouncy and was pierced with several Miyalin blades, and the string it was attached to was also made out of Miyalin, sharp as a saw.
Yes, this weapon was very expensive and only a handful of people were skilled enough to craft it! Even so, the value of the weapon was quite low since nobody knew how to use it, and the Miyalin it possessed weighed very little.
Luch let the string loose and then kicked the bobber right at Wabler¡¯s face!
The former dodged it simply by stepping aside, but that wasn¡¯t the end of it.
The bobber went past Wabler, hitting a sandstone and bouncing back.
Unfortunately, it bounced in a completely irrelevant direction, but Luch wasn¡¯t giving up just yet. If nothing, he could use it as a distraction!
He dashed at Wabler and swung with the Rod before the bobber bounced off the second time.
What was interesting was that Wabler never attacked first.
He either dodged or blocked Luch¡¯s swings before hitting him back lightly.
Zafer had never paid attention to this, but it seemed like a very useful technique since one would always be wide open while attacking.
What was the point in attacking first if you know you will be wide open for your opponent to swing back?
Thinking back now, when he fought against Marek, that guy¡¯s fighting style was very aggressive.Enjoying this book? Seek out the original to ensure the author gets credit.
Zafer couldn¡¯t help but wonder how Wabler¡¯s technique would go against Marek¡¯s aggression.
After some time of ¡°exchanging¡± blows, Luch got entangled in the string of his own weapon!
Wabler saw this coming from a mile away. With every swing Luch made, the string dragged even more.
¡°You forgot to lock the pulley¡±.
Luch felt somewhat embarrassed, ¡°right¡¡±
He locked the pulley but still had to free himself and undo the knots.
Suddenly someone pulled on the string from where the bobber was and Luch just flew there screaming while the sharp string cut into his flesh and clothes.
The sound of weapons clinging and people fighting was still all over the place, but to Zafer and Wabler, it was the usual.
It was peaceful.
¡°Hey¡±, he walked up to him, ¡°I need to ask you a question¡±.
Wabler gazed at Zafer with curiosity.
¡°I want to join the National Security. Can you tell me what I must do?¡±
A short pause happened. Wabler didn¡¯t expect this because although some members of the National Security were paid, it was nowhere near the wealth an average paladin possessed.
Plus it was way more dangerous.
¡°Well¡ There is a test you can do¡¡±
Zafer was determined, ¡°Tell me¡±.
¡°Well, you¡¯ll have to go to the capital. They will deal with that¡±.
Zafer exhaled. The journey to the capital was inevitable.
¡°Can I not get accepted without doing the test like Mio?¡±
Wabler got puzzled for a second, ¡°Mio also had to do the test¡I guess he doesn¡¯t remember or didn¡¯t take it that way since he was very young back then. Anyways you need to pass the test. Just visit the headquarters in the capital and they will deal with your application¡±.
The voyage to the capital might take several weeks.
That was the time Zafer could spend training and sparring with people here in the Arena.
Zafer had never been to the capital before. A moment of contemplating if it was really worth it passed through his head.
Perhaps was traveling across the mountains a solution to this. The mountains weren¡¯t very wide, but were long, so going around them took way more time than over them.
Yes. That was the only solution to this.
Traveling through the wilderness was something Zafer was used to doing anyway.
¡°Fine!¡±, Zafer said, ¡°can you at least tell me what the test is about? Is it the same for everyone?¡±
Wabler smiled, ¡°well yes, ever since the-¡°
He suddenly stopped talking and looked to his left.
A huge sandstone boulder appeared out of nowhere and smashed Wabler against another sandstone hill next to them.
Zafer¡¯s mouth dropped open, and eyes widened reluctantly.
¡°Fuck!¡±, he exclaimed biting his lip.
Had this hit him, the A-11 would have maybe saved him, but what about Wabler?
Despite him being the only human designated Threat Level 6, his vulnerability wasn¡¯t much higher than that of a regular person.
He was also made out of flesh and bones.
Zafer quickly ran around the sandstone boulder only to see that Wabler¡¯s body got pushed through the small rocky hill!
His hands were stretched forward and buried into the sandstone boulder, and when he took a step backward, his arms fell next to his body.
The flesh from his hands was completely missing, revealing his shiny white bones.
Wabler had bones made out of pure Miyalin!
Not only that, but they also contained many runes!
How was this possible? Was he born this way? Was this his anomaly?
Zafer¡¯s mind came back to life with these thoughts of curiosity and admiration.
Wablers hands were trembling and he barely reached for a red potion, placing the flask on his lips.
¡°An apparition!¡±, a black-haired banter girl ran towards them, ¡°please! Some strong paladin save us!¡±.
She went for the Wabler but after seeing his disgusting appearance quickly wrapped her hands around Zafer¡¯s arm.
¡°Be gone!¡±, Zafer pushed her to the ground, approaching Wabler to assist him.
He was about to ask if he was alright but the latter was faster.
¡°Stay here¡±.
At that instant, Wabler dashed towards the direction the boulder flew from. Given its speed and size, it was obvious that no regular human went inverse this time.
Zafer hesitated for a second.
He just asked Wabler about the means of joining the National Security. What was the point of him staying here and obeying the orders?
Was it for his safety? Was he being looked down upon?
His face twisted with disgust as he swallowed the entire flask of blue potion, and then, without hesitation, he dashed toward Wabler.
Part three:
After a few minutes of running through the desert, he reached the snowy biome.
The transition between the two biomes wasn¡¯t sudden. Thanks to the wind, sand, and snow intertwined, having crossed the border of their biome by hundreds of meters.
Nevertheless, the temperature did fall suddenly.
Compared to the desert biome, here it was freezing. Zafer couldn¡¯t feel it, however. His body was already warmed up from sprinting, ready to engage in battle and assist Wabler in taking down the apparition.
He spotted three figures standing in the middle of the snowy valley and buried his feet into the snow to slow down.
¡°Stop!¡±, Mio yelled reaching out with his hand to catch Zafer, but the latter had already halted.
The second person who was a few steps ahead of them was Wabler, with knees slightly bent.
Finally, the third person was sitting on soil, around 20 meters from them.
She had short black hair and two thick and twisted horns.
That was Laura!
She turned inverse!
Zafer¡¯s heart skipped a beat.
Normally the stronger someone¡¯s anomalies were, the smaller the chance of them becoming an apparition was.
This was a very bad and rare occurrence.
The inverse process would unlock all the anomalies within someone and boost them, but since Laura was already at the top of her class, how strong could she get?
Never mind that, did she just die?
Zafer¡¯s sweaty face frowned with a hint of worry, not daring to act before his seniors did.
¡°Laura you are stronger than that, come on!¡±, Wabler called out, but got no response.
It continued to stare at the snow.
She lost her humanity just like that! Zafer was in shock.
Are they forced to kill her now?
¡°Back off¡±, Wabler turned his head towards them slightly, grabbing his sword¡¯s scabbard.
Zafer tried to take a step back but couldn¡¯t.
Matter of fact he could not move his entire body!
¡°I-¡° he tried to move his leg again, ¡°I can¡¯t!¡±
A momentary squelch resounded as Laura''s feet sunk deeper into the snow.
She stood up and stared at them with her wide-opened eyes¡ªslit pupils.
She had a twisted smug smile.
This was weird to Zafer since he never heard of those who lost their humanity showing facial expressions.
Perhaps humanity wasn¡¯t all black and white like he thought. Maybe it was more like a spectrum.
Maybe, there was still a bit of Laura left inside, and that was why Wabler and Mio were so hesitant.
The katana¡¯s scabbard scraped faintly as Wabler¡¯s grip tightened.
¡°Is that Sakupen or a real sword?¡±, Mio¡¯s voice exposed a trace of concern.
Wabler frowned but the 2 couldn¡¯t see it since they were facing his back.
¡°Cover your eyes¡±.
In that instant, a sudden wave of aggressive aura spouts from Wabler.
Laura sensed it of course and as an answer, countless Miyalin blades erupted from her skin, piercing her clothes, extending to Wabler and the others.
However, her reaction was a millisecond too late.
Mio closed his eyes with all his might and covered Zafer¡¯s eyes tightly with his arm.
None of them saw anything but darkness, however, the truth was, they were engulfed with light.
As soon as a mere centimeter of Sakupen slipped out from its sheath, rays of pure white light pierced the air in myriad directions, and by the time the whole thing got extracted, the entire environment was pure white.
This wasn¡¯t an illusion. It was real. But they couldn¡¯t see it.
Nevertheless, they could hear hundreds of Miyalin blades getting broken in an instant, and it didn¡¯t stop there.
They continued to break and shatter into million snowflake-sized fragments until they became invisible to the human eye.
The white light broke them since they were a manifestation of Laura''s primary Anomaly.
She was the only one affected because she saw the light only those on their deathbeds saw.
It was the same katana thanks to which Wabler contaminated Arcanie.
But will it be that easy with Laura as well?
Mio unwrapped his arm from Zafer¡¯s face, and everyone could use their eyes again.
Sakupen was back in its scabbard.
Laura was still standing at the same spot, staring at the snow with a wide slightly opened mouth and relaxed facial muscles.
¡°She made it back!¡±, Wabler smiled taking slow strides towards Laura.
Zafer wanted to join him as well but noticed Mio¡¯s stance and expression in the corner of his eye. What was wrong?
Only those who possessed the Almighty Eye anomaly were capable of terminating inversion. Jean was one example of this.
Unfortunately, Laura¡¯s Almighty Eye anomaly wasn¡¯t as strong as Jean¡¯s, and fighting off the mutation all by herself was extremely difficult.
Just as Wabler was about to touch her shoulder, she flicked and punched Wabler in the chest with all her might.
It seemed as if Sakupen corrupted all anomalies but the Repeater. Many would have died from this punch, but Wabler¡¯s body was tougher due to his bones being made out of Miyalin.
He flew parallel to the snowy ground, ramming himself into Zafer and taking the latter with him down the valley.
Zafer didn¡¯t immediately go unconscious from this but was on the very edge.
Only Mio and Laura were left on the scene.
¡°Damn it!¡±, Mio dashed towards Laura, but she dodged his attack with ease.
In base form, she wasn¡¯t faster or superior to Mio regarding combat skills, but he was still disadvantaged by not wanting to kill her.
The two went at it with all their might, and Mio didn¡¯t play around like he did when confronting banters or other random freelancers.
He had a couple of chances to penetrate Laura''s abdomen with his bare fist but hesitated, being scared if she would be able to recover from it, even as a mutant.
This only prolonged the fight which, as the time would tell, didn¡¯t go to Mio¡¯s advantage. Laura in her inverse form couldn¡¯t empty her anomalous pool or get tired.
In the meantime, Wabler¡¯s fingers passed through Zafer¡¯s strands of hair, carefully looking if the guy had any serious injury that could be fatal.
He obviously knew that Zafer¡¯s body was enhanced with a Patronage rune since he would be dead otherwise, but it was still a good measure to check for any possible injury.
Due to this, he will lose a trace of Laura and Mio, but that was all right with him. Like Mio, Wabler understood that the difference between them was subtle, almost imperceptible, hence he trusted him to at least survive until he was done examining Zafer.
Mio and Laura were already past the desert biome, fighting in a Fungi forest under the shade of gigantic mushrooms.
Many youngsters and adults saw them fight and figured out what was going on barely able to keep track of them, let alone help.
The most well-known paladin who observed the two fight at the time was Banana. He stood upside down on a hat of one of the colossal mushrooms. He held a Rod in his right hand and his both arms were tied to his body with the sharp Miyalin string.
He gazed at them, blushing from the thrill.
¡°Do you need help!?¡±, he shouted at Mio, but the latter didn¡¯t respond.
Not a single voice could reach him since his body was engulfed in many sounds created by the fight.
To be honest it was so loud that even Banana could barely hear himself but he pretended as if that wasn¡¯t the case.
¡°You ignoring me? Playing hard to get huh? I guess you don¡¯t need my help then¡±, he shrugged his shoulders and continued to untie himself from the mess he was responsible for.
Banana was not into men. Nobody knew why he chose these words.
By now 10 minutes had passed and Mio could tell that Laura had gotten faster.
Not only that, but her anomalies that were suppressed by the light of Sakupen were returning.
Despite being in top condition, Mio finally received a direct kick, and it sent him rolling on the purple mycelium ground.
Before his body even started to lose momentum, he pushed himself up and skilfully landed on his feet, anticipating the next attack.
Laura dashed towards him almost immediately as she landed the kick but was halfway met with an unexpected event.
Mio spread his long shabby vest, revealing 12 Miyalin cleavers, each possessing only a single rune, neatly hanging from around his waist.
As much as he cared about Laura, he valued his own life more.
Two of the cleavers appeared in his hands almost immediately, while another third one got thrown into the air.
It was too late for Laura to stop her momentum, but it didn¡¯t matter that much anyway.
Her predator eyes meticulously tracked all three cleavers at the same time, along with Mio¡¯s footwork. A regular apparition wasn¡¯t capable of such, but Laura¡¯s fighting skill was so ingrained that such observations came effortlessly, buried deep in her subconscious.
Mio frowned upon seeing this. He hoped she might defer even a little bit, but it was too late now to increase the distance between them.
He clenched his right fist that held a cleaver, and the rune it possessed was activated.
VROOM. A lightning bolt struck Laura, stunning her for a second and dealing some damage.
The purge rune cleaver went right back on Mio¡¯s waist, and the cleaver he threw into the sky fell into his now free hand.
That cleaver contained the rune called Mischief.
Some time ago that rune was illegal due to how destructive it was, but was made legal when NS figured they couldn¡¯t prevent paladins from collecting it.
It was unrealistic since it meant that the Divine weapons were illegal as well.
Mio clenched his fist and activated the said rune.
In that instant, a wind carrying hundreds of invisible cuts and slices blew towards Laura until it hit her.
Some cuts reached deep into her skin, while a couple of them sliced some of her fingers.
Her body bled all over the place and she still couldn¡¯t regenerate due to the Purge rune.
This was then Mio dashed forward, going all in.
There were around 100 meters between them and not a single living soul nearby.
Nevertheless, Laura was also full of surprises, and her instinct got used to the new anomalies she acquired.
She did a 180-degree kick in the empty air in front of her, with her foot reaching as high as it could
Mio¡¯s 6th sense that was forged by experience got triggered, and he lifted his arms next to his head.
Despite the 100-meter distance between them, he got hit by an invisible force exactly how Laura moved.
She kicked him. Wirelessly.
This was a technique of the 5th anomaly.
Despite blocking the kick, he had momentum from dashing towards her, and it was enough to send him rolling on the dirt once again.
Fighting an opponent who possessed all the anomalies was very challenging since their arsenal of options was uncountable.
It was almost impossible to predict what they would do next. There were just too many possibilities.
He straightened up swiftly, only to have his entire body swallowed by a looming shadow, cutting off the sunlight.
With a single glance above him, he saw numerous 3-meter-long spikes, falling directly on him.
He jumped in a zig-zag pattern trying to avoid them, but more spikes were spawning so quickly that he accidentally tripped over, forced to do a backflip to get back on his feet.
By now they were outside of the fungi biome and were in a regular meadow.
It was good that Laura still could not use multiple anomalies at the same time, but how long would it take before she reached that stage?
An invisible force engulfed Mio, this time lifting him off the ground and pulling him towards Laura.
It was the Force, 9th anomaly.
There was no way for Mio to stop his trajectory, and the only protection he had were his arms.
His primary and most developed anomaly was the Iron Fist after all.
Laura stretched her hands towards him as well.
Their palms met; fingers intertwined.
They both clenched their fists with all their might.
Despite Laura being inverse, Mio still held his ground. The iron fist was his domain after all.
They both squeezed and pushed, but none of them were moving.
Their feet got engraved into the soil.
Very soon, the dried-up ground started to crack in several places all around them.
Some cracks were even hundreds of meters long!
The earth shook and corrugated. A man-made earthquake.
The huge fragments of soil protruded from the earth, lifting bushes and trees with them, severing their roots as if it were nothing.
¡°Fuck!¡±, Mio cursed in his mind.
Not only were they going to destroy the whole surrounding area, he was also starting to get overpowered.
In his own domain.
They stared at each other. Face to face.
A wide, smug smile crept across Laura¡¯s wicked face as Mio¡¯s desperate head gradually dipped beneath hers.
It was then that her mouth slightly dropped and her eyes turned to the left.
BOOM! Something rammed into her and activated the A-11 repelling ability just like it was with Zafer.
The explosion blasted Mio and the unknown person away, over each other.
As they collected themselves managing to stand up, the dust already thinned out.
It was Wabler.
They stood next to each other gazing at the source of the explosion from the distance.
What their eyes could see was only a tiny female figure with horns, wiping the dust from it¡¯s clothes after which it returned the stare.
The sinister predator''s aura reached them in an instant, making them both bite their lips. Right now, Laura might be too strong for even both of them to try not to kill or permanently disable her.
Another male fell from the sky behind them.
He was bigger and bulkier than both Mio and Wabler, yet in reality way weaker.
That was a member of the Temper faction, who also worked as an Exterminator for the National Security!
Nicpa!
Despite him not being able to match the strength of neither Mio or Wabler, he possessed crucial tools for dealing with mutants.
Mio frowned, ¡°Why did you come?¡±
Nicpa didn¡¯t answer immediately, as if it wasn¡¯t obvious. He summoned his comically large sword and leaned it onto his shoulder.
The sword was made out of Miyalin and contained a single rune and countless weird symbols and letters.
¡°Because we are badass¡±, he spoke in Wabler¡¯s name as well gazing at the destroyed meadow, ¡°Let¡¯s get this shit over with already¡±.
To his surprise, Wabler''s arm stretched before him, blocking his next step.
¡°She is still there. I know it!¡±
Nicpa frowned. This was immature.
¡°She can fight tactically,¡± Mio commented to Wabler, giving him crucial information about Laura''s progress.
Wabler grabbed his Sakupen in one and summoned his Miyalin katana in the other hand.
¡°Well, if it comes to that¡±, he looked at Nicpa, ¡°I will seal her¡±.
Mio nodded to this before they both pounced towards Laura at the same time.
Among the whole National Security, the strongest two.
One¡¯s trajectory was slightly curved to the left and the other one¡¯s to the right. This was crucial so that they could attack Laura from the opposite sides.
She noticed this immediately of course.
Just as her eyes started to wander at the more populated parts of the Arena, she halted and faced them vigorously.
She lifted her right hand and stretched it towards Mio before he could even pass the halfway mark.
An invisible force swallowed his body and blasted him backward past Nicpa.
Such precision¡ And Laura didn¡¯t even possess 9th Anomaly as her base kit. It truly was terrifying, but Wabler didn¡¯t defer.
He let go of Sakupen and grabbed his Divine katana with both hands. It was long ago when he last sparred with Laura, and he was surprised at how many hits and kicks she predicted and blocked even as a mutant.
Nevertheless, her fighting skills couldn¡¯t match with his.
With a twist of his wrist, a rune got activated in both his katana and ulna, his forearm bone.
In both cases was the same rune, Coherence, which allowed for smooth and swift movement of the weapon, but since Wabler¡¯s bone also had the same rune, its effects grew exponentially.
In just a split second he stabbed Laura¡¯s arm dozens of times, completely detaching it from her body.
This was the first time she showed confusion on her face, as her wide-opened eyes watched her arm fly off.
As a mutant, her brain couldn¡¯t comprehend how this happened and it made her retreat with a powerful jump backwards.
During the two seconds, it took Wabler to catch up, her arm regrew in its former might, just without the uniform sleeve.
Nevertheless, by this time, Mio fell from the sky, aiming at her arm only to miss due to Laura¡¯s careful pathing.
This didn¡¯t matter though, as Mio drifted on the ground, redirecting himself towards her once again, this time aiming for the back of her knees.
Wabler realized what was going on, and turned his katana so that he could pierce her abdomen and nail her to the ground.
Their weapons shone slightly, runes activating as Laura¡¯s eyes got lost in the myriads of possibilities.
¡°Wait¡±, her voice froze both Mio and Wabler in place, their weapons just an inch away from her flesh.
She returned.
Chapter 19
Part one:
[A Knowledge granted by the Insight, originating from a near distant future]:
Date: [REDACTED]
Location: Within Pashtrik
Steady strides cracked the fallen and scattered branches of the evergreen trees.
Even years after the forest didn¡¯t fully recover from the destructive event that took place here.
The environment was foggy, but it wasn¡¯t that dense omnipresent fog.
It was a spontaneous, more silent one.
The deeper one delved, the more horrific it became. An incessant myriad of craters and uprooted trees.
Then finally, the very magnificent structure in the middle of everything.
A raided box.
Several concentric thick concrete walls embraced it, but most were disintegrated and filled with big holes.
They were one kilometer tall, shamefully standing upright as they failed to protect what used to be in their arms
A box of a faction that got plundered a long time ago.
It had the same shape and structure as a skyscraper, but it was far taller and wider with countless rooms and floors inside.
The one who observed the ruined magnificence was a mere ant compared to the masterpiece before him.
It became very quiet.
The wanderer wore a samurai Miyalin armor and a katana hung from his belt.
That was Wabler¡¯s appearance as everyone knew it, except he had a red band tied around his head instead of his samurai hat.
He looked a lot younger compared to what Zafer saw.
He had an octopus badge with 5 tentacles on his chest.
This was an event from when Wabler was a Level 5 Threat!
He retrieved an old photo from his pocket and carefully examined it under the moonlight. There was no picture but a number 15.
¡°Show yourself!¡±, he shouted at the ruins, letting the photo slip from his hands.
The voice echoed into the silence. No response.
This place was abandoned long ago. Or so it seemed.
A silent rumbling was heard as a couple of small, smashed stones fell from one of the box''s upper floors.
There was another human, standing at the edge of the floor.
¡°A visitor?¡±, he responded, ¡°Wabler? What a pleasure!¡±
The bald man seemed to be in his fifties.
He had a bulky black beard connected with his mustache and wore a blue cloak.
The most interesting feature was his white eyes.
He was blind.
Nevertheless, Wabler showed no sympathy.
¡°I know who you really are!¡±, he shouted, ¡°I know what you did!¡±
The man frowned.
He took a few seconds to process what Wabler had just said so he returned the question.
¡°Do you?¡±
Wabler cleared his throat and answered with his usual tone, ¡°She told me everything¡±.
A warm soft wave washed the old man from the inside.
¡°She¡ talked to him? She was here?!¡±
So much information and possibilities flew through his mind that he forgot Wabler was there, waiting for an explanation.
He forgot that he knows.
¡°So? Say something!¡±, Wabler¡¯s voice echoed once again.
The old man didn¡¯t respond immediately but took time to think about how big of a trouble this would be.
¡°Say something that will make me regret doing this¡±.
¡°And what exactly do you plan on doing?¡±, the man finally had enough of this.
As if Wabler could ever understand it.
¡°Do you think she was also innocent? Sinless?¡±, he continued, ¡°I bet you¡¯ve never been to the scream room. Am I wrong?¡±
Wabler didn¡¯t know what any of this meant but he continued to stare at the blind man filled with determination.
The man was expected to defend himself with words since he could never kill Wabler.
And no matter what he said, Wabler knew he must not relent.
The things this blind guy was responsible for¡ He had to be brought to justice.
¡°You know that you can¡¯t kill me, right?¡±, the man squatted looking down on Wabler, ¡°did she mention that as well?¡±
Wabler bit his lips. She did tell him.
That was the main marrow of why this was troublesome.
To kill the blind man one must also sacrifice themselves.
¡°I don¡¯t plan on killing you. I am going to put you in jail. Maybe even tell everyone else who you are?¡±
The blind man burst into laughter.
¡°You really didn¡¯t think this encounter through, have you? What do you think happens if you manage to lock me? What do you think happens?¡±
Wabler remained silent, gazing at the man with resentfulness.
¡°You realize that I have my people and their undying loyalty¡±.
These words made Wabler frown reluctantly. He wasn¡¯t sure what the blind man meant by this.
The man chuckled, his voice dripping with mockery. ¡°Why do you look so confused? Did you really think you were the only one who knew?¡±
Wabler froze. A chill crept down his spine¡ªnot from fear, but disbelief. Others knew? And worse, they had pledged their undying loyalty to this... creature?
His thoughts spiraled, the weight of the revelation pressing down on him. He struggled to process it, but the man¡¯s piercing gaze cut through his turmoil, forcing him to confront the grim reality.
This issue might be beyond him, but then why did she choose him?
The blind man continued.
¡°As for the other threat¡ go ahead! Tell everyone! But just know that as soon as I find out that you spoke, I will personally visit someo-¡°
VROOM.
The floor the blind man was located on exploded and collapsed.
Dust and small rocks got scattered in every direction.
Wabler lowered his hand.
He just summoned a lightning bolt with his bare hands!
Nevertheless, this didn¡¯t even leave a scratch on the man, his voice penetrating the dust.
¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t do that if you don¡¯t make me. I also used to have a loving family¡±, he emerged from the cloud of dust taking slow strides.
¡°If I take that away from you, you won¡¯t have anything to lose anymore. That will be quite troublesome. A man with something to protect is quite dangerous, but a man who lost everything is even more¡±.
He stopped right in front of Wabler.
None of the two were moving, and only one was smiling.
That certainly wasn¡¯t Wabler.
This very moment was the reason why he got chosen. It wasn¡¯t because of his strength for there were those far stronger.
It was because of his moral compass.
Was this something he was willing to die for? The weight of the question fell on Wabler, making him grith his teeth.
¡°Don¡¯t be so cocky¡±.
He suddenly pulled his left foot backward and punched a hole through the blind man!
No, wait.
His hand passed through!
¡°What a fast reaction!¡±? Wabler was astonished.
This was bad since not only did Wabler¡¯s punch pass through the man, but he also used so much strength that he himself started to fall through the blind man¡¯s body!The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.
The blind man slowly turned around to see Wabler fall to the ground.
¡°Maybe you aren¡¯t as strong as they say¡±.
He stretched his arm at Wabler as his palm started to glow brighter with white light
This all happened way too fast.
Will Wabler get blasted into oblivion?
Of course not.
He pressed his whole weight on his hands and rotated his body while standing on them, kicking the man''s hand.
Due to Wabler¡¯s bones being made out of Miyalin, the kick was so powerful that the blind man¡¯s whole body got twisted backward.
Wabler then fell on his feet, grabbed the man¡¯s back of the coat, and threw him at the ruins.
This impact was so strong that he made a hole through the concrete wall, landing on the other side.
He swiftly stood up, expecting a next hit, but that never happened.
Wabler still stood outside of the box.
The wall he threw him at was the load-bearing wall and as a result, 10 floors above collapsed.
Wabler had to jump backward to avoid getting crushed.
The amount of the dust that had risen was denser than the fog!
It took quite a few minutes for the scene to settle down. The biggest part of the box was still standing upright, unfazed.
There were a lot more load-bearing walls holding the whole thing together. This structure was a true masterpiece in engineering and architecture!
Wabler stared at the collapsed concrete, ignoring the dust in his eyes.
The silence reigned.
Suddenly, Warbler''s heart twitched. An enormous heat of wave washed his body over and over.
¡°Did¡ did that kill him?! Did he die on purpose?!¡±
He swiftly drew out his katana, placing the blade on his neck.
¡°Fuck! Is it too late already?¡±
He felt something boiling up inside of him.
That was it!
It¡¯s over!
¡°Easy!¡± a voice shouted playfully.
Wabler flicked so hard that his weapon almost fell out of his hands.
It was the blind man, sitting on top of the pile of collapsed concrete.
¡°It would be miserable if you just killed yourself over nothing, right?¡±, he laughed.
Wabler straightened himself, trying to get a hold of his body.
He was stronger¡ªhe knew it. But no matter how much power he had, this approach was doomed to fail.
The unavoidable impasse.
Part two:
The book snapped shut.
A foggy abyss stole Zafer¡¯s attention instead.
What he just wrote was a dream that occurred to him on one of the past nights, and he only remembered the whole of it now, while hiking over the Koth mountain.
The reason why this dream was so important was because it was a real event.
Everything he saw happened accurately sometime in the past.
Apparently during the time Wabler used to be a Threat Level 5.
How did Zafer know this?
The same way he knew how to activate the new ability.
Instinct.
Rumors spoke about how anomalies were tied to one¡¯s very soul and were hence an inseparable part of both the body and mind.
Zafer¡¯s new Almighty Eye ability allowed him to peek into a memory of the person whose glance he ¡°managed to catch", in this case, Wabler¡¯s, right before he went unconscious during Laura¡¯s short-lived rampage.
In theory, euclid anomalies were very random. Someone could be born with a euclid anomaly and use 2 or 3 techniques right from birth.
This 2nd ability of Zafer¡¯s A-11 was probably developed at around 70% the moment he was born and remained stuck at 70% because of its euclid nature.
Nevertheless, there were some possibilities to develop the remaining 30%.
In Zafer¡¯s case, it was thanks to Simra¡¯s assistance after Skil¡¯s funeral.
Why did the ability get unlocked only now?
He had no clue, but what he did know was the price for using it.
He had a 2-week cooldown on his entire A-11! This meant he couldn¡¯t rely on his Almighty Eye''s repelling ability for the next couple of days.
It reduced his self-confidence and made him feel uneasy. An important note was that Zafer had no clue about this cooldown before activating Insight (that¡¯s what he named the ability).
Nevertheless, he still thought of a way to grow from this situation.
Although his A-11 repelling ability was innate and represented a part of his very soul, he didn¡¯t like how he felt without it.
Scared and helpless.
It made him remember a couple of times when he could have died or gotten seriously injured but didn¡¯t due to his random luck to be born with this anomaly.
Sometimes in life, you only get to value what you have once you lose it.
This cooldown is to stop relying on his A-11 and use other resources he has to survive.
It was already the fourth day since the dream, and it was safe to say that Zafer had no problems with it so far.
He hiked the Koth mountain which separated the Koth city and the capital of Pashtrik. That was his destination.
The mountain was not very tall but its terrain made it difficult to cross over.
It was so uneven that most of the road consisted of swinging rope bridges that connected myriads of steep boulders.
Beneath was an abyss of unknown depth.
The thick fog, vast like a sea, lingered around 3 meters under the bridges and blocked the view downwards.
Nothing grew here. There was no soil, only rocks.
Nothing lived here. No birds, no bugs.
Zafer had plenty of water and food anyway, so he didn¡¯t worry about that.
The biggest problem was to navigate these mountains.
In theory, he should only go forward and eventually reach the capital, but the bridges didn¡¯t always lead toward his desired direction.
And there was nothing he could do.
Sometimes he had several bridges split, and if one ended in a deadlock, he was forced to walk back and cross the other.
This was the main reason why this trip took longer than it would have.
He suddenly stopped. A cold chill went down his entire body.
Using a small boulder as a cover, he observed the road ahead.
There was something there, standing upright.
Zafer could not see more than a silhouette, but it was too tall to be a human.
What was that? Apparitions also had a humanoid stance, but they didn¡¯t grow taller.
He continued to observe, but the creature never moved, which was weird and scary.
After careful consideration, he decided it was better not to find out.
During his past travels, Zafer got attacked by wildlife a couple of times, mostly by wolves or bears.
However, this scenario was different, not only because he didn¡¯t know what the creature was, but also because of the terrain.
The last thing he wanted was for a boulder he stood on to erode and take him downhill.
His eyes slowly scanned the entire area, looking for any alternative paths.
There were some bridges ways above him, hanging from the starry sky, but it was too dangerous to try and reach them.
That was when he spotted another bridge 10 meters to his right. Below.
He carefully slid down the steep boulder and reached it. The bridge hung just above the fog, its span slowly sinking into the mist.
It wiggled with each step and soon Zafer was engulfed in fog.
As the fog got darker, a peculiar scent innervated his nose. It was quite unpleasant, comparable to smoke.
Was something burning up ahead?
His hands and clothes were totally covered in ashes and soot until he reached the end of the bridge.
He could barely stand on the boulder, but it wasn¡¯t a dead end.
Another steeper bridge was connected to it, diving further into the smoke.
At this point, the fog wasn¡¯t even noticeable. Everything was pitch black with occasional embers ascending back to heaven.
Zafer gripped the bridge¡¯s rope with his left hand while raising his scarf with his right, shielding his face from the smoke.
His lungs were hurting, and his eyes were itching.
Nevertheless, there was no way a mere smoke could stop him after vowing to become stronger. Would any other paladin withdraw?
He was way past the half-point mark anyway.
The bridge ended on a small platform that was chiseled into the cliff, a steep wall connecting heaven and hell.
He squatted and sat down, rubbing his eyes.
There was absolutely nothing here aside from smoke ¨C another dead end.
Neither the sky nor the bottom of the pit was visible anymore.
Nevertheless, whatever was burning had to be exactly beneath Zafer. He could tell due to the current of the air.
Bending over the platform¡¯s edge hoping to spot the source of this hell, he spotted stairs carved into the boulder.
His heart pounded harder. This was an obvious sign of human activity.
It¡¯s not like the bridges weren¡¯t, but this was different.
Did he find something that was long lost and forgotten? Only around 20% of the entire Pashtrik basin was populated and everything else was only vaguely mapped and used as a shelter for criminals and paladins.
What was this place and which purpose did it serve?
The coarse stone wall grazed Zafer¡¯s back as he descended the stairs sideways.
They led to an iron door, incused into the cliff. They were rusty and old.
Cold sensation engulfed his ear as he leaned it against the metal.
It was dead silent.
At that moment his lungs burned from inhaling the smoke.
He gently placed his palm on the iron door and ripped it open using his Iron Fist anomaly.
His training with Luch paid off as tearing metals was no problem for him anymore.
Once on the other side of the door, the heat started to wash his body in waves.
It was a complex of several rooms, all illuminated by flower plant fruits and enveloped in neat wall covering.
The floor was spotless, made out of parquet wood.
At that moment Zafer realized this was no torture chamber or a hideout for criminals. It was an underground grinder!
Part three:
When it came to cultivating magic flowers, there were 2 most popular picks among experienced paladins.
A flame flower and a start flower.
Both of these provided the sap but were very different by other means.
While the flame flower looked more like a bush, the star flower had the form of a three, except it was much larger.
There was no limit to how tall or wide a star flower could grow.
This was the main reason why star flowers were only cultivated in boxes, that way, they can be let to grow over a kilometer, maximizing the profit.
Zafer was never inside a box so he didn¡¯t know what a starflower looked like, let alone the conservatorium for one.
Nevertheless, as soon as he entered the mysterious mountain grinder, he spotted a huge room to his left.
Countless flame fruits were scattered on the bottom and from above where Zafer was standing it looked like a starry sky.
That room was several hundred meters deep!
It was basically a cave that was chiseled to have a perfect shape from top to bottom.
Was this supposed to serve as an underground box for star flowers? He never heard of that before!
It was still just an empty abyss, so he didn¡¯t linger around too much.
As he wandered through the grinder he passed by countless lockers, chests, and hanging axes.
He took time to investigate each item but most of it wasn¡¯t valuable at all.
Paladins usually wouldn¡¯t use their grinders as vaults for storing precious stuff, but Zafer still inspected every single weapon and book.
¡°Mischief, 3rd Series¡±, with practiced ease, his fingers skimmed through the rune book.
Zafer had no way of telling the quality of the script, but it didn¡¯t cost him any extra effort to just toss it inside his Miyalin bag.
As far as he remembered from reading the Book of Runes and Curses, the 3rd Series was the latest version of the Mischief rune.
The next rune book he stumbled upon was labeled ¡°Monochrome¡±, however, its pages had a creamy color.
At that moment he realized that the only measurement he had for the rune book quality was the color of their pages.
Mint told Zafer that the Book of Runes and Curses was made up of 24-Verm scripts, and they were snow white.
The whiter the better, as weird as it sounded.
Another interesting thing that he found was a small jar with a sticker that said ¡°Krale¡±.
Zafer had to read 3 times before removing the lid.
Was this the compound used to increase the quality of a script? The one that¡¯s made out of unicorn horns?
It was more viscous than honey and had an intense but pleasant odor.
That ended up in his Miyalin bag as well.
Soon after plundering everything that caught his eye, he arrived at the last two rooms.
The one on the left had tables, glass pottery, and a lot of barrels inside.
Most of the barrels contained powders or liquids of different nature but one of them was very peculiar.
It had a huge drawing on its side.
At first, it was hard to tell what it was but when Zafer switched the observation angle he figured it was a skull.
Did this one contain skulls and human waste?
He grabbed the safety cap but it didn¡¯t want to rotate. At least not until he tried to open it clockwise.
That was when the lid slightly shifted.
He stopped, however, glancing at the skull drawing again.
It just gave off a very unsettling aura.
He decided not to open the barrel and just exited the room.
Stepping through the threshold of the final chamber the warm air hit him in the face.
His heart convulsed.
A fresh well-known aroma entered his nostrils as his eyes reflected the orange-yellow lights.
There were dozens of flame plants here! There were so many that he could not count them from the entry. This room was worth tens of millions of units!
When he and Semi first started their business, it was a dream come true to be honored to plunder and raid such a valuable grinder, but those were almost impossible to find.
Right now, Zafer might have hit a jackpot many paladins never do within their lifespan!
He fell on his knees summoning his Miyalin bag in search of the flower-cultivating tools.
At that moment something started to boil up inside his body.
His head went dizzy as he barely resisted the urge to puke.
Was this from sniffing all those powders and liquids in the previous room? Maybe from inhaling the smoke?
A normal person would realize they need medical assistance, but not Zafer. There was no way he could back out now. How bad could inhaling some smoke be?
Recalling Ika¡¯s teaching, he lets himself become a victim of his own greed.
The fruits of flower plants contained no seed, so Zafer cleaved the branches and dug out the whole saplings, tossing them in his Miyalin bag.
Even before he met Ika, Zafer knew these plants could survive several months without soil.
Another boiling wave washed him from the inside out. His head started to hurt.
Was he going to pass out? It was so unfair.
For the first time in his life, he gets so lucky, but his body decides to shut down.
His condition was only getting worse from this point, but the soft whispers of the other flame flowers gave him more determination and strength.
After a couple of minutes, he reluctantly retrieved his Miyalin bag into the void. There were just too many of them to collect and the time was running out.
At least he didn¡¯t want to collapse inside of an unknown grinder. Who knew whom it belonged to and when they would return?
The dizziness got so bad that he had to use all of his mental strength to navigate back to the first bridge without falling off the cliff.
The last thing he saw before going unconscious was the same humanoid creature he first saw, standing right where he last saw it.
He blinked again and passed out on a cold boulder, just a meter off its edge.