21 Muspelheim[8]

An unknown amount of time, Khan's eyes opened, the sight of a blemish-free ceiling greeted him as he woke up. He stood up and found that he slept in an unfamiliar room.

Near the bed, he saw a strange sight of a bath placed inside the room. Taking a peek, he saw that the liquid in the bath would occasionally bubble, and the fragrance of herbs permeating the air indicated that it was a medicinal bath.

Dipping his fingers in the water, Khan smelled and almost spat his entire breakfast.

'What the hell? Why did its fragrance suddenly became so disgusting?' Khan felt alarmed, the smoky fragrance of herbs that it gave off in the air differed so much from the smell of its water.

After pondering for a while, Khan's face suffused an amused smile and thought. 'Hmm, so it's a mixture of poison and medicinal herbs. Although it's too low-leveled to heal my dantian, it should be able to nourish it, and the mixture is actually precisely controlled, not even a speck is amiss.'

Stripping down, Khan leaped in the bathtub like a turtle meeting water and moaned in pleasure. Khan's eyes couldn't help but narrow due to the relaxing feeling of the medicinal efficacy entering his body.

While Khan relaxed inside his room, inside another room, and also inside the same bathtub that Khan hopped in, the figure of a middle-aged man could be seen.

If someone who didn't know about the current situation, they would think that the middle-aged man had a unique sexual preference, for before him stood two men, one a young man, while the other wore a formal attire for dealers.

Clearly, the two were Kizz and the dealer.

"Your name... Kizz was it right? The other dealers frequently talked about you, especially with how greedy you are." The middle-aged man spoke.

Kizz stood there, his complexion looked like he was enduring something within his mind, although it could not be seen, his back had cold sweat dripping down.

'Calm down, calm down, calm down... Act like nothing happened, act indifferent!' Kizz shouted in his mind while on the outside, his lips twitched as he gave a small smile and spoke.

"Y-yes... My name is Kizz."

The middle-aged man wore an amused smile as he glanced at the trembling Kizz.

'This kid, although he acts like this, I can see that within that scaredy-cat like appearance, there's something sealed within, but it also seems like he has a dual personality disorder.'

The middle-aged man pondered for a moment before speaking.

"Do you know that kid?"

"Eh? Ah, yes! No, I mean no! I-i just met him today... he said that he will help me take back all the money that I lost... so I asked him for help... else, father will kill me if he finds out that I..." Kizz trembled in fear, the gaze of the middle-aged man looked like the eyes of a predatory beast, seeking to hunt for its prey.

"Hmm... I see... How about this, I think, with that kid's constitution, he must be awake already..." He glanced at the dealer and continued. "Tell him to come here, I have something to discuss." With this, the middle-aged man closed his eyes, his face gave an indistinct smile while his right hand rubbed his left wrists.

Inside Khan's room, Khan had his eyes closed, feeling all the changed within his body, There, he found that no matter how much he urged the Qi in the air to condense towards his meridians, a strange repulsion would appear and scatter the condensed Qi.

It was as if his meridians itself doesn't want to accept the entrance of such lower quality Qi. Khan could only sigh in helplessness. Back then with a wave of his sleeve, he could gather the Qi in the entire continent towards his location, but now, he couldn't even muster the power the assimilate the condensed Qi.

As Khan pondered about his next actions, the door opened, followed by a familiar figure entering the room.

"Yo!" Khan waved his hand and smiled.

"For you to be that cheerful, you must've recovered already." The dealer smiled, however, within his eyes, complicated emotions could be seen.

"What's the matter, old man? I feel quite relaxed here so I will not be going out." Khan spoke, a cunning smile on his face.

"Haaah... How troublesome, the boss has called for you to come to his room. I don't know about what you will do, but I'm sure that you will regret it if you don't go." The dealer sighed, didn't bother about Khan anymore and walked out of the room.

Khan slowly stood up, the liquid on his drenched body dripped down, revealing his bronze colored skin, his eyes had an interested glint as he dressed and walked towards the room where the middle-aged man was.

Arriving inside the room, there he saw that the middle-aged man and Kizz standing, their faces solemn as they stared at each other. They stood there with their figures in a subtle stance.

The room which had a bathtub and a bed earlier was now clear of obstacles.

'A duel?'

Khan murmured, however, he stayed at the side and observed.

"Attacks that may cause irreparable damage to your enemies are forbidden! That's all." After the dealer spoke the latter part of his sentence, the two tapped on their left wrist and stretched their hand towards the other.

At this moment, Khan's eyes narrowed in concentration, particularly towards the peculiar young man, Kizz.

A whizzing sound echoed as a flow of runes materialized from their Rune Decipherer which flowed towards their body.

"Overpower!"

"Roar of the Wind Emperor!"

Numerous incandescent runes shaped in a circle materialized before Kizz's stretched palm, with a shout, a fierce wind appeared out of nowhere and surged towards the middle-aged man.

The wind had enough power that Khan found it hard to find a firm footing, while the dealer already had his knees bent to withstand the rushing winds.

The middle-aged man who received the full brunt of the attack groaned, however, his body still rooted on the ground as if he was a mountain.

'This guy... He didn't use his full force when we fought earlier?' Khan frowned, the feeling of having someone hold back when fighting against him made him frustrated.

"Kid... I admit that your wind is strong, but it is not enough to force me to submission!" The middle-aged man shouted, with a deep grunt a shockwave roared with his body as the source and forcefully scattered the roaring winds.

"Eh?" Kizz's figure started, he didn't expect that his attack that could defeat a Gold Tiered Magician was unable to defeat the middle-aged man. His right hand moved towards his left wrist, tapped, and stretched. However, his eyes widened when he noticed that the middle-aged man had already appeared before him.

"It's over!" The middle-aged man's right hand formed a palm and was about to strike Kizz when his figure suddenly turned stiff, his eyes that he used to look at Kizz widened in shock, for he saw that Kizz's eyes suddenly became indifferent as it looked at him.

And the aura that Kizz directed him, caused his body to falter. For the origin of the aura was something that he never expected to be within such a young man.

The Aura of Slaughter.

"Wha-..." By the time he could speak the complete word, Kizz had already punched out with his left hand, a slapping sound echoed followed by the middle-aged man flying towards the wall.

The dealer stood there, his mouth opened and his pupils narrowed in shock.

'What a goddamned monster!' He could only think of such words to compensate his own mind that suffered from the shock of seeing his boss being sent flying with one punch.

Khan frowned, a wry smile covered his face, earlier, when the middle-aged man was about to punch Kizz, he noticed that the middle-aged man's figure turned stiff for a moment before Kizz had sent him flying.

Of course, Khan knew the reason, for the young man called Kizz unleashed an aura of whom he was most familiar. An aura that he embraced and felt every day, back when the world wasn't so peaceful as now.

The gaze that he used to look at Kizz changed, from mere indifference, it changed into curiosity, just what did this young man experience for him to be able to exude such killing intent. And how was he able to disguise it and act like an innocent young man?

Khan couldn't wait to unveil the answer to such mystery.

On the ground, the middle-aged man slowly stood, while Kizz ran towards him and said.

"Are you okay, sir? I didn't mean to do that, I-I can ask, father for money to send you to the hospital, just please don't call the cops..."

"Kid, I'm not that weak for you to worry about me, scram at the side." The middle-aged man coldly spoke, causing Kizz to look at him like a scolded child.

Looking at Kizz's complexion, the middle-aged man felt endless irritation, causing him to weakly stagger backward.

"Kizz, stop doing that, you're gonna kill him with anger." Khan sighed and spoke, causing Kizz to turn towards him and say.

However, Kizz's next words caused the middle-aged man to completely erupt in anger.

"Eh? But I'm just saying it to console him..."

"GET OUT!" The middle-aged man angrily shouted Kizz immediately ran towards the exit like his rear end was on fire.

"Finally that kid is gone..." He sighed and popped a pill that the dealer handed over.

"And, you, kid, what's your name?" as the middle-aged man spoke to Khan, his tone became gentle, as if he was looking at a fellow brother in arms.

"Khan Liverto." Noticing that the man had no ill-intent, Khan smiled and spoke.

"Now that I think about it, we fought without even knowing each other's names." The middle-aged man wore an amused smile, he stretched his hand and continued.

"I am called Barhan, and as you can see, I run a casino for a living." Barhan's eyes revealed all his thoughts, Khan gave a knowing smile and shook his hand.

"Well, a casino business such is this is really lucrative, especially if you censor the amount that a person can actually win." Khan gave a provocative smile towards Barhan.

'Hoooh, and he's this clever?' Barhan's amused smile intensified as he replied.

"Well, actually, although everything that you see here looks luxurious, I'm not really that well off in life, so I gotta do something to survive, you know right?" Barhan's smile made the dealer who looked at the side nervously, while Khan's smile made him unsure of what the intentions of the youth before him had.

"Putting that aside, I asked and found out that you didn't have a Rune Decipherer with you, is that true?" Barhan swiftly changed the topic and asked as he continued his smile.

"Yeah, that's because I don't have one." Khan nonchalantly spoke.

"You don't have one?"

"Yeah, Well I could have one, but I don't know where they were being sold." Khan's next words made Barhan facepalm

'Does this kid really think that Rune Decipherers are like cabbages that can be bought from a stall?!'

Seeing Barhan's facepalm, Khan's eyebrows locked as he asked.

"Did I say something wrong?"

"Yeah, extremely wrong." Barhan murmured in the air.

"Hmm?"

"Nothing..."

"But wait... How are you that strong when you're not using a Rune Decipherer? I can't even detect even an inch of Qi from your body when we're fighting earlier... That doesn't make sense." Barhan's eyebrows frowned as he asked with a questioning tone.

"Do I really need to answer that question?" Khan's visage became frosty, his voice became cold as ice.

"No... you don't really need to answer, I was just curious." Barhan immediately spoke, panic could be felt in his tone.

'Why the hell am I panicking when being berated by a youngster?!' Barhan scolded himself inside, it seemed like he became soft after not being exposed to the battlefield for a long time.

After thinking for a while, he noticed that Khan had stretched his hand over. Barhan turned his gaze towards him and asked.

"Hmm? What's the matter?"

"Let me borrow your Rune Decipherer," Khan spoke in an indifferent tone.

"Haaah? You can't just borrow a Rune Decipherer since each one of this is locked to your mind signature." Barhan spoke his face covered in confusion about Khan's actions.

'Could it be this kid... Doesn't know a thing about Rune Decipherers?' Barhan exercised this thought, but just as he dismissed the thought, Khan suddenly threw a bombshell which made him look incredulous.

"I don't really know much about it, I'm just curious," Khan spoke as if it was the most normal thing in the world to talk about.

"What the fuck?! Are you fucking kidding me? Rune Decipherers are something that even people living in the slums knows of! And you who looks so well off in life don't even know a speck of information about it?" Barhan rapidly spat, prompting Khan to cover his head from the barrage of saliva that came flying towards him.

Barhan spoke until he ran out of breath, however. Khan still had that look of innocence causing him to sigh and give up. He turned towards the also dumbfounded dealer and said.

"Bring my laptop here, I think that this kid is really not lying..." His words turned the dealer even more dumbfounded.

'This kid doesn't really know about Rune Decipherers? Or perhaps his lying... No- that's impossible, with the boss's runic ability Gaze of the Beast, he is able to detect any kind of lies... But if that is true, then this kid really is strange...' With this thought in mind, the dealer moved to the exit and out of sight.

"Now then, Khan, I'll ask you, what do you know about Rune Decipherers?" Barhan turned his gaze towards Khan, his visage solemn, but on his face, suffused a curious smile.

"Well, I do know that it utilizes an energy different from what cultivators use, and that users of such device are called magicians?" Khan spoke but when he reached the latter part of his sentence he became unsure.

"Yes, they are called magicians, but as for why, I don't really know the reason nor I do care about it anyways since it's just a way of recognizing something. Is that everything that you know?"

'Well, I also know that it uses an ancient technique that is extremely similar to talisman creation... But like hell, I could tell him that. ' Khan thought for a moment before speaking.

"Yeah, that's all that I know about those Rune Decipherer's."

"Hmmm, okay then, you're right about the magician part, but about the energy, it seems like you don't have a clue about it so I'll tell you, the Rune Decipherer's uses the energy of the soul itself to run... and it is called... Mana..." Barhan purposely lengthened the latter part of his sentence to make it even more thought-provoking.

"Oh?" But Khan's response made him facepalm once more.

"Oh? Is that it? Can't you act like, shocked or something? It's the power of the soul you know?" Barhan furiously spoke, his saliva once again formed a barrage towards Khan's directions while Khan raised his arms in defense.

'Seriously, this guy looks like he is in his thirties but he acts like a kid.' Khan frowned, followed by a small smile that only he could notice.

"Well, let's continue then, as you see in the name, It deciphers something called Runes, and of course you do know something about runes at least right? It looks something like that Kizz kid had on his palm when he cast that powerful wind." At this moment, the door creaked open and the dealer came inside, on his palm a device called Laptop.

"Thanks, place it on the desk and you may now leave." Barhan smiled, the dealer nodded, tapped on the Control Panel on the wall, and with a rumbling sound, the ground opened followed by a desk rising up out of nowhere, which caused Khan to leak an intrigued smile.

The dealer bowed once more before taking his leave. But before he could leave, Barhan said to him.

"Entertain that kid called Kizz, we may take a quite a long time here, and also, give him his earnings." The dealer's steps faltered for a moment before he nodded and walked away.

"Now, now..." Barhan opened the hinge of the laptop and pressed the power button, after about two seconds, Barhan opened a file which revealed something that couldn't be even more familiar to Khan.

It was a Talisman Engraving. Khan's mouth leaked a shocked cry which made Barhan turn to him before giving a cocky smile.

Barhan then moved towards the Control Panel, pushed a button, but this time, instead of a desk appearing, what appeared was a strange grey colored device.

Tapping on the Control Panel once more, Barhan summoned a huge device that looks like a fax machine from Khan's memories.

"A fax machine?"

"Prfft! A fax machine? Seriously, what age are you living in, man? We're in the year 2090 bro, why is your information still in the year 20th century?" Barhan couldn't help but laugh when he heard Khan's words.

"Well, sorry about that, just explain to me how this guy works."

"Tcch... No other choice other than that, then... Okay, listen, this baby is called a Rune Scanner... What does it do, you say? It tells you in the name, it scans the created runes."

"Created runes?" Khan spoke his tone full of interest.

"Yeah, and you create runes using this silver paper, and as for how you make runes I don't really know about it, but they say that you just simply make it by writing some shit in a paper then use the Rune Scanner to scan it."

"Interesting... and what do you use to write?" Khan asked another question which greatly irritated Barhan.

"With a pen of course, or more precisely, a fountain pen, Khan, you need to stop asking this stupid questions or I'll punch you in the face." Barhan's words made Khan frown his eyebrows, but at the same time made him quite happy in his heart.

For he knew that although Barhan doesn't seem to be polite in words, the crassness in his words was enough evidence towards his straightforward attitude, if not for this, Khan wouldn't even bother to entertain this Barhan.

'You two bastards, I'll promise that I'll get to the bottom of our sect's destruction.' Khan's eyes shone with great melancholy for a moment, causing Barhan who was explaining further information about the Scanner to stare blankly at him.

'It looks like this kid has quite the story.' Barhan sighed.

"Barhan, can you let me borrow that so-called fountain pen? I'll try writing some runes?" Khan indifferently spoke.

"What the fuck, Khan? Are you trying to scare me to death? Do you really think that anyone can just draw runes? Especially you who didn't even have a speck of knowledge about runes? Stop kidding me here, Silver Papers are expensive as hell."

"Can you stop yapping like a stepped-on dog? I just want to confirm something." Khan frowned and harshly spoke, causing Barhan to snort, but in the end, he still handed Khan a Silver Paper and a fountain pen.

"Kid, The papers used for making runes in other words, Silver Papers are hard to get if you can't make a mistake don't you dare come crying to me and ask for more." Barhan snorted, however, his gaze still glued towards Khan, he was curious about how the hell would such a clueless young man create a rune out of nowhere.

Khan held the fountain pen on his right hand, his hand flashed and he wielded the pen in a unique way, such that his hand looked as if it was plucking something in the air if the fountain pen wasn't there.

Calming his excited nerves, Khan closed his eyes and took a deep breath, when he opened his eyes, the sight greatly startled Barhan, for it looked like Khan had changed to a different figure.

The aura enveloping Khan felt majestic enough that he had an urge to slam his knees on the ground and worship him as a god. Gulping a mouthful of saliva, Barhan had a cynical thought, it felt like the youth before him, would be able to do it.

Rune Creation.

Dispelling the nonsense thought within his mind, Barhan focused all his concentration towards Khan's hand. Although he was a complete layman towards Rune Creation, he does know that creating a rune requires a complete symmetry and harmony between all sections of the runes.

Khan's eyes momentarily gazed at Barhan before sighing.

'It's the first time that I let a person become a witness at my talisman creation session. But well, I'm not even sure if this would work, so I'll just let him be.' Khan gave a small smile, and with a grunt, his hand flickered in the air.

After about several flashed, the first layer of the rune was completed. Back then, the first layer of any talismans was called the foundation, it was the most important part of talisman creation. Without a perfectly firm and balance foundation, a talisman could easily backfire or crumble upon casting.

"What the fuck..." Barhan wanted to shout, but knowing that the Khan before him was in the realm of utmost concentration, he murmured all his disbelieving thoughts in the air.

"Here!" Khan roared, and with several quick flashes, the body of the talisman was created, after narrowing his eyes and checking for any flaws, Khan prepared his stance for the last part.

The last part of talisman creation called the Invocation Sequence contained compressed information about how should the talisman work, and so It was the most delicate part to mess with.

'Back then I could create a huge amount of this Knockback talisman in flash, but now, I'm using everything I have to create one... How laughable..." Khan had a silly look on his face as he thought, and as for the reason of that, Khan's injured soul took quite a great toll to his body when he tried to concentrate.

After staring at the canvas for a while, Khan grunted and his hand once again flashed, within five seconds, the talisman or the so-called Knockback Rune was made.

Wiping the forming blood on his lips, Khan had a confident smile as he turned towards the dumbfounded Barhan.

"It's done."

"It's done? That was it? For fuck's sake you only took about thirty seconds to create a rune?! How the fuck was that possible, wait... give that rune to me..." Barhan ranted, apparently not believing everything that transpired before him, he snatched the rune on Khan's hand as if looking for something to compensate his shaking mind with.

"Flawless... It's goddamned flawless..." At this time, Barhan could only sigh, he had felt too much shock that he couldn't feel even more shocked than he already was.

"Then? How do you make the Rune Decipherer, decipher this?" Khan spoke in a curious tone, causing Barhan to sigh once more before walking towards the device called the Rune Scanner.

Opening the hinge of the device, Barhan tapped a few buttons and connected a wire from the Scanner towards the laptop, after clicking a few buttons on the Scanner, he placed the newly made rune on the device then closed the hinge.

A beeping sound echoed and Barhan once again opened the Scanner's hinge, he took the rune and gave it towards Khan.

"Hmmm?"

"It's done."

"It's done just like that?"

"Yeah..." Barhan rolled his eyes and didn't bother about Khan anymore as he stepped before the laptop, removed his Rune Decipherer and connected it to the laptop.

"Here's the real test, although the Scanner had recognized what you created as a real rune. If the Rune Decipherer cannot decipher it, it's still useless in the end." Barhan gave a cunning smile, and after assigning a hotkey to the new spell, he removed it from the laptop and walked towards the Control Panel.

He retracted the devices he had summoned and the room was once again, free from obstructions.

"By the way, what's the name of this Rune that you created?" Barhan curiously asked.

"It's just a simple knockback rune," Khan answered.

"So all that it can do is knockback enemies?" Barhan snorted as he said.

"Of course, are you stupid?" Khan retorted.

"Then, that's really useless... But well, considering it's your first time making one, I'm not really surprised." Barhan gave a cunning smile and continued.

"But since what it does is knock enemies back, Can I just use it to you to see if it can really knock enemies?"

"Fine, just hurry it up, I want to see the results too."

"Okay then, here I go." Barhan tapped on his wrist, and stretched his hand, as the runes enveloped his body, the familiar sensation of something being sucked from the inside of his body appeared. But what he didn't expect was that the amount of energy that it took was too high, causing him to stagger backward in dizziness.

"What the actual fuck is this? It actually consumes such a huge amount of Mana just for a simple knockback effect?!" Barhan cursed, before hurriedly popping a pill in his mouth.

After about two seconds, a familiar rune materialized before his stretched palm.

Khan's eyes shone when he saw that the rune before Barhan's palm looked exactly the same as what he created, Khan had an incredible thought in his mind.

'Does this mean that... Shit!'

But before he could continue that thought, the familiar rune vanished from Barhan's palm and appeared before his body. Khan hurriedly bent his knees and crossed his arms together in a defensive stance.

BAAANNGGG!

A sound akin to a thousand thunderbolts exploding shook the room, sending even the caster, Barhan flying backward, while Khan who received the full brunt of the force destroyed the wall behind him as he continued to fly backward for about a hundred meters before stopping near a much thicker concrete wall of the establishment.

But he still destroyed about eight walls before stopping.

"Th-this isn't a knockback rune, this is a fucking CANNON!" Barhan loudly cursed before he lost his consciousness once more.

"Fuck..." Khan laid there, although he defended himself from the attack, his two arms had broken in the process and his back tattered with different kinds of wounds.

However, instead of feeling pain, he felt incredibly excited, for he knew that he would be able to find a foothold in this world, using his most beloved arts.

Talisman Creation!