"Don't let him escape!" The guy who had been rolling said and the other guy quickly dashed and blocked the path behind Lyren. There was no way they were going to lose in terms of speed to a commoner.
"No escape for you. Did you think you could escape? The rules don't allow us to beat you but that does not mean that we cannot make you pay. You will be doing 500 jumps," the other guy said as he made himself as big as possible by opening his arms and legs.
"Hold your horses, gentlemen. I have no desire to run away and I am a man of my word. I will be showing you all that I am eligible to enter immediately."
Lyren said with his hands raised. He then lowered them when he saw the guards had started paying attention once more to what mattered.
He stretched his hand forward and a spark flew. When the two saw this, they were just to break into another fit but a flame bloomed immediately and started glowing.
The two watched with their eyes popping out and they blinked several times in quick successions and their eyes still held disbelief.
They rubbed their eyes vigorously and the flame was still burning. Their faces turned to that of shock and then to anger.
"You…" Guy behind pointed at Lyren as he drew his sword and pointing it at him.
"You tricked us into giving you our coins. Do you think that our academy students are easy to bully? You must be dead wrong!"
The other guy also drew his sword and pointed it at Lyren. There was no way they were going to give up their coins to a commoner. No, a kid.
It was obvious that the limit a commoner could reach on his own was at most the second stage.
Judging by his age, he was not that old and he was a recently awakened. He was not yet into the second stage and if they gave him the benefit of doubt, he was just in the second stage with no Elyria in him.
Ganging up on him could have been bad but they had their reasons.
Since he was no longer a commoner, they could beat him up and remind him that he was just a commoner. There was no one who was going to save him
They also could not let him enter easily after he had played them for fools. They guy behind was charging but his feet came to a standstill when he felt an aura land on him.
He looked around at who was observing them but there was no one. He did not for a moment think it was coming from the kid who was glaring at him.
His eyes landed on him after searching around and it was then that their eyes met. He could see an unfathomable depth in them and the sudden wind that was blowing on the kid's white hair gave him chills.
Just who was this kid? He did not want to believe it was because of the kid he had stopped and he was about to move when a voice came to his ears.
"Come on King, have you already started chickeing out? I never thought you were coward…" there was sarcasm in his tone and no matter how he tried to speak he felt a chill warning him that he shouldn't.
He watched as his friend charged too but he stopped immediately when the kid glanced at him. It was impossible. There is no way the kid was responsible for that chill in their back.
"Bullies are generally cowards and you guys are a perfect example. Why are the two of you stalling? Could it be you are afraid of this commoner?"
Lyren's words were a rage bait and it worked perfectly on them but they stopped once again when their eyes met.
"You guys are so boring. You did not give me a chance to have some fun. What a drag!" Lyren said with disappointment as he turned towards the gate.
"You…"
"Seventh stage…"
"Huh? What were you two thinking? Ooh about that… I just did not think you would be this foolish. Anyways, I will take good care of the coins for you. I am grateful."
"Wait!"
Lyren turned to look at the guy King. He wore a smile as he awaited to hear what they had to say.
"Please, give us the money back. We swear that we will do anything for you."
"Yes, yes… we are deeply sorry for our rashness. Please don't go with the money."
"It's a fair deal and I think I should be charging you more for trying to dishonor you side of the deal. How about a hundred coins each? That surely does sound fair… Hmmm…"
"We don't want it back. You are more than eligible to enter. Just forgive us for our rashness."
"That's more like it. Okay, see you around."
The two watched unmoving as the kid walked through the gates and disappeared from their vision. They then looked at each other and they wanted to shed real tears.
"We are dead." King said with a quivering voice and the other guy was in an even worse situation as he fell on his knees.
"We forgot to ask for the entrance fee…" the other guy said and this was the knockout blows as King too fell on his knees. They might have ended their good days with their rashness.
***
If Lyren knew that there was an entrance fee, he would merry at his luck because he would not know how he could have entered. He was lucky to have found to idiots who were just there for appearances.
He could not help but wonder why they were begging for the money back. If only he knew it was the entrance fee that everyone had to pay…
Lyren looked around and this city was definitely better than everything he had seen in his village.
There were stalls but they were not open yet. There was story buildings made of stones and others were made of wood.
It was often case where many people who encountered him gave him a weird gaze. One similar to the ones the guards had.
Lyren could not help but sigh because everyone was still looking down on him. It was a good thing though because people underestimated him that he was able to stand out which he did not want.
There were people of all ages here and horse carriages that seemed to number in hundreds.
He was looking for a hotel to spend his day but all he could see were pretty luxurious.
He was sure that they could not even bother letting someone dressed as him enter because it was obvious he was poor.
He kept walking till he reached the outskirts where there were hotels made of wood and he was pretty confident that he could afford his stay there.
Well, it appeared that even in these lower-class upper society, he was still bound to be ostracized.
He had been wondering why no one was able to sense his cultivation and he had come to a conclusion that it had something to do with the palm pattern.
The fact that no one saw it meant that it had even abilities beyond imagination. The fun fact was that he now knew it was a concealment pattern.
If his understanding on arrays improved, he was totally going to use it to conceal things. But as things stood, even trying to study it threatened to destroy is mind's eye.
He was not ready for such a risk and thus, he was going to take the long way there. Only the ending mattered.
He stood at one of the wooden hotels by the road and when he saw people of relative state of clothing to him, he knew that this was the hotel he was going to stay in.
He made his way into the hotel and he was welcomed by the smell of a sweet aroma that had a mixture of alcohol. And all of a sudden, he was hungry…