Chapter 133 - An Old Man
It\'s been about two days since Kadyn had left the Sandrock village. In this time he worked on meditating, eating and travelling. He also tried to talk to the \'strange bird\'. However it didn\'t work out as the bird didn\'t seem to be in the mood to talk to him.
Nonetheless he would see it from time to time, flying from here to there — some time inside the shop and some time outside the shop. About which Kadyn had no idea how it exited, the bird was insanely strong and more than capable enough to kill him in a single attack.
Anyways, his hard work paid off and now he is just a step away from becoming Rank 1 mage(Rune Building). All the nine elements had been absorbed by the Blessing Element. And now he just needed to build the Magic Rune and he would enter Rune Building Rank or Rune Establishment Rank.
At first he thought that he needed to further combine all the elements into each other to advance his magic rank. However, when he tried to do that only then did he realise that how stupid his decision was, all the elements rejected each other fiercely; how could elements with different properties be combined? It was already a miracle that they could coexist together in the Blessing Pool.
If he hadn\'t realised it in time he would have injured himself once more, just like the previous time, when he failed to combine fire elemental stars. However, the impact would have been too great this time as there were too many elements involved. Anyways, in the end, he figured it out and avoided the misfortune.
Nonetheless, after travelling for two days he arrived in a town named Acton — it was a medium-sized town with a population of around 2000. As he walked towards the entrance he saw hackery entering the town. It was filled with sacks of rice or maybe wheat, Kadyn had no idea. He was a little surprised to see hackery still being used.
However his surprise didn\'t last long as he could understand, after all not everyone was a mage who could drive the car, truck, or tractor, nor could anyone afford to buy them. He also spotted the maze field not far away from him where a few farmers were weeding in the fields as he walked towards the entrance of the Acton.
"Broom!"
As he neared the gate a bike rider rushed out of the town — the road wasn\'t made of concrete, so the dust threw in the air, almost obscuring the surroundings due to the high speed of the bike, as the rider dashed away without looking back.
Kadyn waved his hand and the dust faded away. He didn\'t show any anger on his face and just shook his head. Everywhere one could find some arrogant people who didn\'t care about the law and did what they liked because they thought it was cool. Earth was the same and this world was no different.
He exchanged glances with Khrom and others and passed a few lazy guards who were playing cards at the side and were too busy to care about their surroundings, and went inside the town without bothering them. Now he knew why that guy dared to act the way he did.
The houses of Acton were built very incoherently, there was no system or order to them. They were in a jumbled form. The roads were narrow, but not too narrow as a car or a truck could easily pass.
There was a hand pump on which children were playing as they took a bath. Smashing water to one another — Kadyn smiled when he saw this and went deeper into the town. A few minutes later they arrived at a roundabout where three roads met each other. At the centre was standing a statue of a man or... a boy? He was carrying a staff in his hand and looking towards the sky with a proud look on his face.
"Are you new here?" at this moment a voice came from the side. Kadyn turned and looked at an old man with white hair standing beside him.
"Ah, yes," Kadyn exchanged glances with his companions and then replied to the old man — the old man nodded and looked at the statue and asked. "Are you curious about the statue?"
Before Kadyn could say anything the old man went on. "He is the pride of Acton. His name \'is\' Morwag. He was able to build the magic rune and become a Spell Caster at the tender age of fifteen." He sounded quite proud when he talked about the statue. But then sighed sorrowfully. "After becoming a spell caster he went to the capital to enter the army of the empire, and without problem, he was selected.
"The empire supported him — as he was worth nurturing — and at the age of seventeen, he reached the Fusion Rank(Rank 2 mage). However in the war against the Bone Spear Tower, he died, but in that war he performed remarkably, killing hundreds of students of the Bone Spear Tower all by himself. He is our pride." He puffed his chest out when he recounted the glorious deeds of their hero.
"Ah, well, that\'s… umm pretty good," Kadyn said while scratching his head, and then asked. "What is this Bone Spear Tower you talked about just now?"
"You don\'t know about them?" the old man examined him and his companions and frowned, then went on. "Are you from somewhere else?"
"Yeah, we have come from afar," Kadyn replied.
"Oh, so that\'s why," the old man nodded. He seemed rather tactful and didn\'t inquire further about his details and explained. "The Bone Spear Tower is an evil organization. They practice Dark Magic similar to necromancy. They devour blood and soul and mana of others to advance their ranks."
Kadyn\'s eyes went wide as soon as he heard. He looked at his companions and a light flashed inside their eyes — the old man didn\'t notice the shock on Kadyn and his companions\' faces and continued to vent his anger and frustration "Those bastards aren\'t human, but animals. They don\'t care about anyone other than themselves. However they are as powerful as the empire, so they are pretty hard to deal with."
The man was staring at the statue this whole time and clenched his fist as his eyes became somewhat wet. "If I had the strength I would have slaughtered every single one of them. Every single one of them!" he gritted his teeth as his body trembled in rage.
"So do you have any relationship with Morwag?" Kadyn asked when he saw the wet eyes and trembling body of the old man. One could easily tell that he had a deep relationship with the boy in the statue, or he would not act the way he was doing, no matter how great a hero that boy in the statue was. And indeed he guessed correctly.
The old man eyed Kadyn and took a deep breath before replying. "He is my grandson," when he said the last word he puffed his chest proudly.. He wasn\'t showing off, but the feeling came from deep inside him.