Nick remained silent in the face of the woman's violent temperament and the woman grew impatient with him in response. She snarled and said:
"Oh, you must be new here. Well in that case, why don't you give big sis here a little something for her troubles? Be careful, if you refuse, I might have to do what I did to my last non-compliant friend."
Nick didn't like being threatened for no reason and openly snorted, mobilizing his power against this rank 2 Magician:
(Dreadful Aura.)
A wave of dark, fear inducing aura emerged from Nick and enveloped the woman, also disturbing the other people walking past him. One person commented:
"What is up with this guy's magic power. It's really off putting."
The murderous woman felt the power of the dreadful aura in her bones but she did not back down after being influenced by it. Instead, she smiled and ran forward with her chain saw magic tool waving in the air, clearly looking to cut Nick in half with a swing of it.
Nick felt that he had no choice but to deal with this woman severely so he raised his right index finger to the level of his face while casting Space in order to envelop his surroundings, including the approaching woman. Using his special space, Nick stopped the woman in her tracks for a few moments and used that time to cast another one of his spells.
A sphere of red light appeared at his raised finger tip and immediately shrunk down to the size of a marble. Nick was about to blow the red marble towards the woman when a white young man suddenly ran towards the scene from the woman's flank at high speed and slapped the woman on the back of the head, planting her body into the dirt face first along with her magic tool.
The man quickly turned to face Nick and apologized:
"I am sorry for my friend's over-eagerness, she had a troubled upbringing. If you could let her off just this once, I would really appreciate it."
The man had short, light-brown hair that flowed freely from his head and was dressed in a pair of dark jeans pants, a buttoned up, blue leather jacket, a pair of hiking boots and a pair of rider's gloves. Nick wasn't really interested in killing someone at the gate of the settlement so he cancelled Mars in response to the man's apology, then retracted his special space in order to have it remain in place a few inches all around his body.
Nick waved his right hand and replied:
"Just forget about it."
Nick then cast Absolute Push and Absolute Pull in order to raise himself into the air and fly away from Naptser. The young man observed Nick's departure with hidden trepidation. He then turned his attention to the woman on the ground who was slowly raising her body up and he cursed at her:
"What is wrong with you, Sherry? That guy was clearly not someone that you could beat. If I hadn't come along, he might have killed you."
Sherry stood up with her chain saw at her side and complained:
"You don't know that. He just caught me off guard and froze my movements a bit."
The people who had witnessed the scene and heard Sherry speak shook their heads in disapproval. Someone commented:
"She won't last long."
Sherry heard those words and turned around to ask menacingly:
"Who the fuck said that?"
Her friend looked at her with disappointment and said:
"Sherry, just stop. Please do not get us killed out here. Remember that we just came to Forgotten Peril for some magic materials, not to cause trouble. Don't kill anymore people either."
Sherry turned her attention back to her friend and grumbled:
"Fine, but if we don't get a decent amount of benefits while we're here, I'm blaming you."
******************************************************
Nick flew over an expanse of tree filled terrain with sparse amounts of grass on the ground; the trees were fairly spaced apart. Nick maintained three spells at the moment, namely: Space, Absolute Pull and Absolute Push which was a relatively easy thing to do since he was a space path master and he was getting more used to flying.
(The mutant shifter should be hiding in the Rot Oak region at this time based on information that I received from the mission hall. The mission was apparently put up by someone who has a grudge with the magic beast and wants it dead. The reward is about £100,000 pounds but considering the risk involved and the time it will take me to find the mutant shifter, it is too little. To get to the Rot Oak region from where I started will take over five months because I cannot fly all the way there.)
No sooner than Nick had this thought, the reason why he could not fly all the way to the Rot Oak region reared its ugly head. Fourteen meters from his right flank, a vulture like magic beast the size of an SUV flew toward him, swinging its bald head from side to side and making screeching noises. It's blood shot eyes were filled with crazed hunger.
Nick sighed, thinking:
(This realm is greatly populated by different varieties of magic beasts and the flying species are numerous and savage. The only good thing is that most of these magic beasts mature at rank 2 with the rank 3 and rank 4 magic beasts living in the specific and identified regions so I can avoid the latter two.)
Nick unsheathed Failed Tool from his left side with his right hand and spread his special space towards the incoming magic beast, enveloping it in an instant. Nick swung Failed Tool down and cast his method:
(Big Sever.)
Using the power of his special space, as soon as an almost formless arc of magic power formed where Failed Tool had swung, it disappeared and reappeared directly in front of the incoming magic beast, crashing into it without resistance. Before the large vulture could react, the formless arc passed through it with relative ease and then dissipated.
The magic beast was then split in half from its head to the base of its torso, killing it. Its carcass then fell to the ground and became as insignificant to Nick as the dirt below.
"I'll continue flying for now but when the flying magic beasts grow too numerous, I'll have to start traveling on foot."
Nick kept flying towards the Rot Oak region and after four hours, he was already forced to kill seventeen flying magic beasts that all looked like variations of common birds except that they were much bigger and they had 'crazy eyes'. He killed them by merely using his special space and waving Failed Tool to cast either Big Sever or Big Cleave depending on how muscled the magic beast seemed to be; Big Cleave could more easily cut through the thicker magic beasts.
As Nick was flying near the clouds over a thick canopy of tall evergreen trees, a dense fog suddenly rolled in from out of seemingly nowhere and spread throughout the sky. Nick's brows creased in response to the change and he pondered:
(Should I begin traveling on foot?)
While Nick remained unsure of the decision that he should make, a portion of the dense fog suddenly parted and a large eyeball that was over ten times his size looked down on him as a loud, beastly moan spread throughout the surroundings. Nick became alert, even frightened.
(That sounds like a whale's moan and based on the size of this magic beast's eye, it must be huge.)
Nick had no choice now but to land since he was sure that this magic beast was stronger than rank 2. As soon as Nick made his decision, however, the dense fog began to move in to surround him as if he had been targeted. Nick closely observe the magic beast's eye and realized that it had grown increasingly blood shot since it appeared and focused on him. Clearly, the magic beast was not going to just ignore him.
Nick tried to force down his internal panic and act rationally by cancelling Space, after which he tried to cast one of his spells in order to escape the unknown magic beast. Nick quickly flew away from the magic beast's flank as he formed the laws for the spell but the dense fog gave chase and soon arrived within inches of him but Nick managed to avoid being enveloped by the fog up to the moment that he finished forming the laws of his spell. Nick cast his spell immediately:
(Grey Room.)
The space around Nick warped and when it stabilized one moment later, Nick had disappeared. The dense fog lost its target but continued spreading throughout the air. The magic beast's huge eye lost some of its redness and became unfocused before its huge body immersed in fog moved on past the area.
Nick observed the magic beast's departure as he fell from his raised position within the Grey Room. His body was currently manifested as a peculiar kind of smoke that occasionally generated small, twinkling lights.
After one minute of falling, Nick reached the Grey Room's equivalent of the adjacent space's ground. The sun had already set and due to the thick canopy above him, the surroundings were dim but due to the peculiarities of the Grey Room, Nick could still see his surroundings clearly but it was like looking through a lens tinted with a grey hue.
Nick moved past the corresponding space of the closely positioned evergreen trees within the Grey Room and covered a distance of about two kilometers before he was forced to leave the Grey Room because of his almost depleted magic energy reserves.
When Nick left the Grey Room, it was clearly night time and the surrounding forest was bathed in darkness. Nick acted quickly to create a rest area for himself by casting Space and using his special space to dig out a ten meter deep pit in the ground area next to him. Nick then jumped into the pit and sealed the opening of the pit with the dirt that he had removed from it in the first place.
Nick kept his special space active all around him to keep himself slightly raised in the pit and to keep the dirt above him from crashing down on him. Nick then summoned a mask like breathing apparatus from his space band and attached it to his face, thinking:
(This is a basic apprentice grade oxygen mask that can supply twelve hours worth of oxygen to a grown man. I bought dozens of these for situations like this. Since it's night time, I do not want to be traveling out in the open and I don't want to set up above ground shelter in the forest either so the next best thing was to simply dig a pit and hide myself inside it. if any magic beast tries to dig its way in, killing them from where I am now would be easy. I just have to keep my senses about me until day break which should be in about eight hours.)
Nick set the alarm on his smartphone and waited in the dark while he meditated for the remainder of the night. When his alarm went off the next morning, Nick ceased meditating and quickly removed the dirt from above him, following which he left the pit.
No sooner than he had left the pit, an arrow made of ice came flying towards him from behind, the only reason that he noticed it being that his Spacial Awareness talent generated an image of the attack within his mind, warning him.
Nick quickly manipulated his special space in order to spread it towards and envelop the ice arrow, at which point Nick's magic power forced the ice arrow to crumble. Seeing that his attack failed, a white young man wearing blue jeans pants and a graphic t-shirt jumped from the thick branch of a nearby tree and when he landed onto the ground, he started speaking to Nick in a language that Nick could not understand.
Nick creased his brows and waived his hand in order to signal for the young man to stop speaking. He then instructed the young man in Valteese:
"Hey genius, use the universal language while within this realm. You don't know where anyone is originating from."
The young man had a sudden realization and then began speaking in Valteese:
"Hey, you destroyed my ice arrow pretty quick but I am warning you, if you don't leave this area right now, I will kill you!"
Nick's expression became dark in response to the young man's threat and he instantly disappeared from his position.
(Blink.)
Before the young man could react, Nick appeared a little over one foot away from him and grabbed at his neck with his right hand.
(Battle Armor.)
A dense, silver miasma emerge from Nick's right arm and flashed with a dull-silver light while the miasma condensed over and fused with his right arm, turning it metallic silver in color and incomparably tough in texture, from his shoulder joint down to his finger tips.
Nick grabbed onto the young man's neck with an iron grip and raised him slightly off the ground. The young man began to struggle madly until Nick's cold words entered his ears:
"Struggle anymore and I will crush your neck like a piece of bread."
The young man's movements immediately ceased and he just hung there listlessly. Nick thought of just killing the young man but considered the possibility that he was camping out here in order to protect something and Nick wanted answers; this was an adventure, after all. After noticing the obvious fear on the young man's face, Nick released his grip and dropped him at his feet. Nick spoke sternly:
"Speak clearly and honestly and I wont bother killing you. Why do you want me to leave this area?"
Having felt Nick's power first hand and realizing that this strange looking man was far stronger than himself, the young man raised himself to his feet while rubbing the short, black hair on his head and awkwardly replied:
"I...uhh...I found a piece of gold embedded into the ground a few meters from here so I assumed that there might be some deposits in this area so I wanted to guard the area. I contacted some friends in Napster to come out here with mining equipment in order to dig up the gold so I was waiting on them to arrive."
Nick raised both his eyebrows in surprise, saying:
"So honest."
The young man pursed his lips and inwardly cursed:
(Well, what the fuck else did you want? You almost killed me, I don't know if you have some method that can pick up on lies.)
Methods that can identify lies were actually common in the world of magic but unfortunately for this young man, Nick did not have any such method. Nick rubbed his chin with his silver right hand and said:
"I've heard of this gold before. Apparently, it can be used as a sort of currency within Forgotten Peril and it is a valuable material in making magic equipment."
The young man spoke further:
"Yeah...so you know the worth that natural deposits have. The only problem is in searching for them in this forest filled with magic beasts and the trees make it difficult to search using pick axes and shovels."
Nick asked curiously:
"Since your people are coming from Napster, can't they obtain mining machines?"
The young man shook his head and replied:
"We're not from a rich mining company. We're just normal people and I happened upon a chunk of gold. Even if we somehow managed to rent mining machines, there might not be any gold to find."
Nick pondered for a while, then made an offer:
"Okay, how about we make a deal? I will mine the gold in this area if it exists and in return for you and your friends keeping an eye out and giving me some minor assistance if I ask, I will give you 10% percent of what I find."
The young man was confused.
(How are you going to mine gold by yourself? Your just a rank 2 Magician like myself.)
The young man had that thought, then looked at Nick's metallic right arm and his doubts partly dissipated. He meekly said:
"My name is Horace Ranger. What is your name?"
Nick answered indifferently:
"My name is Nick Capitol. You did not indicate your acceptance of my offer."
The young man nervously replied:
"I accept but I cannot guarantee that the others will be as gracious as me."
Nick laughed internally when he heard Horace use the word 'gracious'. Nick waved his right hand, saying:
"When they get here, they'll see that it is in their best interest to cooperate."
Horace then asked:
"What now?"
Nick instructed:
"Show me the gold piece that you found."
Horace hesitated for a few moments, not wanting Nick to take his gold but after considering the value of his own life compared to the gold, he decided to hand it over to Nick. The piece of gold was the size of a river pebble but its raw quality was unmistakable. Nick further instructed:
"Show me where you found it."
Horace led Nick to a nearby tree about eight meters from where they were previously standing and pointed at a shallow hole in the ground. Horace explained:
"I dug the gold piece out from there after I saw a beam of sunlight reflect off a portion of it that jutted out to the surface."
Nick nodded his head, thinking:
(That's good enough for me. I don't know anything about mining but it shouldn't be difficult to use a magic formation to extract similar gold pieces from this area. First, I'd have to deal with the magic beasts and the trees though...)
Nick looked around and ordered sternly:
"I am about to clear the surroundings in order to prepare for the mining. Do not move a muscle and do not try to use your magic or I swear, I will kill you."
Horace's spine stiffened upon hear that threat and he became completely still while remaining at Nick's side. Nick breathed in deeply then out before cancelling Battle Armor and folding his two hands into each other. Magic power then erupted from him and spread into the surroundings.
(Malevolent Shrine.)
Horace watched as a black void covered this area of the forest in all directions for over several dozen meters. Bones of many sizes began to litter the ground and a decrepit temple at least ten meters tall appeared behind Nick. Before he could even ask what was going on, Horace only witnessed everything around them except the ground being divided up until they seemed to become dust.
By the time two seconds passed, the black void, bones and temple disappeared and Horace found himself standing in the middle of an ocean of dust. Nick quickly waved his right hand and cast Absolute Push in order to remove the dust from the area.
SILENCE
Horace swore that this section of the forest had never been so silent. Usually, even the faint movements of magic beast that leaked their magic energy could be sensed but now there was none of that for many meters all around as if the magic beasts had just disappeared. Horace asked Nick a question while trying to hold in his shock:
"Did you kill all the magic beasts in the surroundings, just like that?"
Nick replied indifferently:
"Yeah...they were all relatively weak."
Horace stayed silent for a long time when he heard that, his mind replaying the scene of the two seconds within the black void. Nick ignored Horace for the moment and began the next phase of his plan - designing a magic formation that could mine gold.
Nick stood in his position for about eight hours before he finally designed a viable rank 1 formation within his mindscape. Nick quickly summoned paint and painting materials from his space band. Horace notice Nick's movement and moved to his feet from his sitting position in the dirt. He wanted to see what Nick would do clearly.
Nick cast Space and his special space instantly enveloped the over two hundred meter radius area of cleared space.
(This was actually the largest area of space that I've affected with Malevolent Shrine. This should be about the limit of the spell's area of effect for now.)
Horace sensed Nick's space path magic power and became uncomfortable but soon relaxed since Nick did not seem interested in harming him.
RRRRRRRRAAAAAAAAAWWWWWWWWRRRRRRRRR!
RRRROOOOOOOOOOORRRRRRR!
Over one hundred meters away from their left flank, two magic beasts ran on their four legs towards Nick and Horace, probably attracted here by Nick's magic power. One magic beast looked like a puma with brown fur and spotted forelegs but was twice the size of an actual puma.
The other magic beast looked like a hyena except that it was twice as large as an actual hyena and it had a pig like snout and ears similar to a jack rabbit. Nick didn't hesitate in dealing with them. Just as Horace was about to act to kill the magic beast himself, Nick quickly unsheathed Pressure Piece With his left hand and swung it horizontally at the big puma.
(Direct Dominion.)
Half of Pressure Piece's single edged blade disappeared and reappeared over one hundred meters away, cutting through the air and soon slicing through the bug puma's neck.
SSSSHHHHHHHIIIIIIINNNNNGGGGGGGGG!
The air whistled where the blade had swung and the big puma's head fell to the ground while its body still ran for another meter before also falling to the ground. Hot, red blood spurted out of its neck wound like a fountain.
The other magic beast saw what took place and its survival instincts immediately kicked in as it tried to turn around in order to run away but Nick would not let it just leave. Nick used the influence of his special space to momentarily stop the big hyena's movement then swiftly swung Pressure Piece horizontally in its direction, Direct Dominion still being active.
Pressure Piece's distant blade harshly bit into the hyena's head, slicing away half of it and revealing the lower half of its dark colored brain. When Nick released its body from the halting influence of Pressure Piece, the big hyena's carcass fell to the ground with a 'plop' sound being heard; the upper half of its head fell beside its carcass one moment later.
Nick then cancelled Direct Dominion and sheathed Pressure Piece. Horace stared at Nick, shocked once again.
(That spell was too deadly, too subtle. What type of magic was that, I couldn't tell? Should I ask?)
Horace ultimately shook his head and decided to stay silent while Nick worked. Nick manipulated his special space in order to paint symbols into the bare ground using his painting supplies. The process was long and monotonous and so Horace did not pay attention to most of it until the moment that the magic formation was completed enough that he realized what Nick was doing.
(This is a magic formation. Just like the one that I and others used to come to Forgotten Peril. This guy knows how to draw them. What academy does he attend? Maybe he's one of those rich elitists from one of the academies directly supported by the royal family and old Magician families.)
Whatever Nick's background was, Horace already figured that he was not a normal person so reneging on his agreement with Nick seemed less and less wise as time went on. Soon, the foundation for the formation was complete, drawn in red paint, but the sun had already gone down and darkness was approaching. Horace suggested:
"We should make camp now."
Nick had similar thoughts but then decided against it.
(There is no telling what will happen to this formation if I just leave it here while making camp. I have to remember that there could be other Magicians within the area. I should start the mining as soon as possible and get out of here before something annoying happens.)
Nick was very familiar with his own luck. It was usually the case that the longer he stayed in one place, the more nonsense he would attract so he wanted to get his rewards as soon as possible and that meant working through the night. He informed Horace:
"I will work through the night. Make camp if you want to."
Nick decided that there was no point in forcing Horace to stay up along with him during the night since that would put Horace's life at great risk.
(If it was me, I definitely would not stay out in the open at night in a realm crawling with magic beasts with some guy I just met. If I force him, he might cause me more problems than he helps me solve.)
Horace observed the formation on the ground and decided to stay with Nick throughout the process of what he was doing.
(I want to see what Nick does.)
Nick summoned over thirty tall, self-standing LED lamps from his space band which were among the ordinary equipment that Nick purchased before he came to this realm; he bought so much because they were relatively cheap devices.
The lamps provided well needed light to the area taken up by the large magic formation. Nick then summoned a large amount of assorted space path materials that included: bushes, precious minerals, dried magic beast parts and herbs and a few synthetic materials and used his special space to place them at specific points of the almost circular magic formation. He then also summoned a few formation path materials and put them in place to keep the formation stable.
Nick did not intend to man this formation himself since that would distract him from the surroundings so he intended to sacrifice a fair bit of his space path and formation path materials to keep it going as long as he could instead of feeding it with his own magic energy. The formation was now completely set up and Nick was ready to activate it. Nick cancelled Space and signaled Horace with hand movements to indicate that Horace was to move with him.
Nick led Horace to the edge of a section of the formation and summoned an armored vehicle from his space band. Nick instructed:
"Sit in the passenger seat. We're going to keep watch while the magic formation does its thing."
Horace observed the armored truck with awe since he quickly realized that it was one of the magically reinforced kind. He mused:
(How can Nick just casually summon one of these from his space band? He looks as young as me, does he own this?)
Horace got into the front-left passenger seat without asking Nick any questions and Nick got into the driver's seat. After he was settled and closed the doors of the truck, he spoke the formation's trigger phrase in Valteese:
"Begin"
The magic formation immediately glowed with a dull-silver light and emitted a loud buzzing sound that was partly blocked out by the armored truck's noise cancelling functions. Horace frowned and asked Nick:
"Aren't you afraid that the noise might attract people and magic beasts?"
Nick shrugged his shoulders, saying:
"I can do nothing about the noise since this is a rank 1 magic formation and I am not personally manning it. Besides, even if the formation does attract magic beasts, they probably won't be able to stop its effects and I will kill any troublesome magic beast or person that appears."
Horace asked no more questions and simply reclined in his seat, hoping that Nick's actions bear fruit. Nick watched as the ground beneath the formation jutted up in random waves continuously like a portion of ocean water and mused:
(That jutting motion is the formation using its space path laws to churn the underground rock and soil in order to search for materials similar in physical characteristics to the piece of gold that I had gotten from Horace. The problematic thing about this low ranked formation is that it is only searching below the ground that it sits on and knowing this would be the case, I purposely cleared such a large area around where Horace found the chuck of gold. The magic formation slates and flag materials within the magic formation should keep the motion of the ground from displacing the formation's markings or materials. All in all, if there is gold buried in the ground below the formation, it will probably be unearthed.)
Nick simply watched his creation at work the entire night and surprisingly, no magic beasts or persons came to disturb its operations. Nick reasoned:
(Many vicious animals are wary of bright lights and loud sounds so this magic formation might actually be repelling magic beasts from the area that aren't too brave or it could be that Malevolent Shrine left behind some residual power that has the magic beasts scared. As for the humans, maybe there aren't people within the vicinity of the formation or they died when I cast Malevolent Shrine.)
The cutting effect of Malevolent Shrine was difficult to control the more distant the targets were away from Nick and unlike Space or Dominate The Space, Malevolent Shrine did not grant Nick sensory abilities so once the effect was sent in all directions, only a few people at Nick's side could be spared from its power. The spell was truly meant for savage and unhindered killing.
Over nine hours passed and when the sun rose, Nick nudged Horace, who had fallen asleep, on the right shoulder and signaled for him to follow him out of the truck. When they got outside, Nick stored the armored truck within his space band and observed the still churning ground.
Horace wasn't happy to see the comfortable truck just vanish but since it wasn't his, he could not complain. Nick stopped the formation by speaking a phrase in Valteese:
"End."
The ground immediately became still and the dull, silver light spread over the area faded. Silence returned to the clearing and Nick walked towards the center of the formation while using Absolute Pull to retrieve the magic materials that had not been used up and stored them into his space band.
By the time that Nick and Horace walked over a dozen meters across the magic formation, they realized that there was a large pile of materials collected at the center of the magic formation. Using his Spacial Awareness talent, Nick already new what the materials were but Horace, who was apparently excited by a possibility, ran past Nick in order to get to the center quicker.
When he arrived at the center of the magic formation, his eyes opened wide as he saw a large pile of raw ore that had gold pieces and streaks embedded into it; there were also chucks and streaks representing other differently colored materials. These ores were obviously not made of just gold. Nick soon appeared beside Horace using Blink. Horace excitedly declared:
"We're rich! There are probably all kinds of materials mixed into these ores and they must weigh a few tonnes. I can retire in peace early."
Nick shook his head at Horace's excitement and immediately cast space in order to envelop the ore and divide it into a random 1:9 ratio. Horace looked at Nick with bitterness and Nick indifferently spoke:
"This was our deal."
Nick could have just forcefully taken the whole load but that would result in creating an unnecessary enemy that he didn't plan to kill. Nick wasn't here looking to murder people and would rather not do so if the consequences weren't clear.
(I would prefer to give up a small amount of the benefits to gain some good will at this time.)
Horace quickly decided that it was foolish to complain and simply moved towards his share, about to store it within his space band but a familiar shout quickly stopped him:
"Wait! Horace, what the hell is going on? Who is that guy?"
Eight people came running away from the forest that surrounded the clearing and the slim youth in front loudly questioned his apparent friend. The youth seemed slim and frail and had pale, white skin, he wore a pair of blue jeans pants and a tucked in, long sleeved, black t-shirt along with black sneakers. The eight others running with him also wore casual clothes and were all white people with a mix of black or brown hair on their heads.
Horace tuned to watch his friends run to his location and waited for them to approach. Nick did not care about Horace's friends and simply stored his ore within his space band. The man leading the approaching group noticed Nick's actions and frowned.
Nick then proceeded to envelop the clearing with his special space and ruin the magic formation's markings, destroying its symbols and making it completely unrecognizable compared to before. The leading man also noticed this and his frown grew more intense. When he and his group reached within two meters of Nick and Horace, the man demanded to know:
"What just happened, Horace? Who is this man and what are you doing with him? What is that pile of ore over there?"
Horace quickly began to explain the situation:
"Hold on, Jasper. It's like this..."
While Horace explained the situation, Nick was ignoring the others and plotting where he would go next. He realized that he should also take time out to study and examine the ore but not in this place. Nick took out his map of Forgotten Peril from his space band and decided on where he would head from here. Nick soon put away his map and by that time, Horace had finished explaining the events that unfolded within this clearing.
Jasper observed Nick with interest and greeted:
"Hello, sorry for the late introduction. My name is Jasper Goddard."
Nick turned his attention to the man and returned the greeting simply:
"Greetings. I am Nick Capitol."
Nick turned away from them and was about to cast his methods in order to leave but sensing Nick's intentions, Jasper stopped him:
"Wait, why don't we have a conversation? You see, my friends and I came out here to mine gold with Horace but we didn't expect to find our friend in this situation where he is now significantly richer than us. Is it possible that we could make a deal for you to help us mine gold? If you found some in this area there are probably more deposits nearby."
Nick immediately refused, he glanced behind him to his left side and said:
"I've already obtained what I wanted so I'm moving on."
Jasper expression became one of disappointment and as he was about to give up, one of his friends fired a blob of acid at Nick's right rear-flank. The attacking young man was short and wore well fitting blue jeans pants and a short sleeved buttoned up shirt. Spacial Awareness already revealed the attack to Nick so without turning around, he disappeared from the position that the blob of acid fell to one moment later. The hard ground melted into a shallow trench when it came into contact with the acid.
Horace's and Jasper's eyes opened wide when they saw the aftermath of the attack and Jasper quickly turned around while saying:
"Daren, why did you do that?"
When Jasper turned around, however, he found that there was no way that his friend could answer him. Nick now stood in front of his attacker with his metallic-silver right arm stuck into the left side of the young man's chest and coming out on the other side.
INSTANT DEATH
That was the phrase that everyone thought of when they looked at the young man's wound. Nick indifferently shook the corpse off his right arm, throwing it to the right of himself and then turned to face the other members of the group and they immediately backed away from him by over two meters. Some of them were about to prepare their spells but Horace ran in front of them and yelled:
"If you don't want to die young, then stop what you are doing. Daren's death was his own fault. There is nothing more to say than that."
Jasper's right eyelid twitched continuously in response to Nick's actions but he voiced his agreement with Horace:
"Horace is right. Do not attempt to fight that man."
Everyone backed down and remained quiet as they watched Nick's following actions. Nick raised his metallic-silver right arm near to his face and paid attention to the glowing white object he was holding in his right palm, muttering:
"So, this is a human's soul, huh?"
The others heard his words and looked at the glowing orb of miasma held by Nick's palm. They all gasped in shock.