7 Chapter 7: Seeking For Power

Keith quickly signed up a contract with the middle aged man as to make sure that he was not betrayed by the middle aged man in the future.

He even got a few gold coins as an upfront payment for the items he sold to the middle aged man today.

After selling his items and signing up a contract with the middle aged man, Keith left the trading store and then he made his way to the city's exit gates.

He passed by the old man's food stall on his way and he waved his hand at the old man as he thanked the old man for his recommendations.

"Thank you very much for your help !" said Keith as he walked pass the old man's food stall and he even waved his hand at the old man.

"You are welcome," said the old man as he saw the young boy walk pass his food stall with a gracious expression on his wrinkled face.

Keith walked towards the city's exit gates and greeted the guards that were stationed there.

He then made his way out of the city as he started to walk towards [The Dark Forest] to go to train and kill some monsters to gain a profit while he was at it.

...

[Snowy Mountains Of The Eternal Darkness, 17 November 2034, Planet Of Delmontria]

A young boy at the age of 16 was walking up the snowy mountains. He has blueberry blue hair with sharp blueberry blue eyes.

He was only dressed up in a short sleeve t-shirt and a long but thin pants. When someone looks closer you would see that this young boy was fairly good looking, in his own right.

He was shivering from the cold and you could also see that his face and skin were pale from not being able to eat anything or even getting enough sleep.

This young boy's name is Edward Ellis and he is the protagonist of the novel "The Villain Returns".

His family is poor and he was taking on missions from the guild to help his family earn money. His father worked as a fisherman for the village in which they lived at. And his mother had to stay at home so that she could be able to take care of his younger siblings. His twin sister, Mia Ellis, was also taking on missions from the guild as well to help their father to raise enough money to take care of their large family of seven.

Their village was located at the outskirts of the city [Nophis]. It was fairly well built village despite the villagers who had hurriedly built the houses.

The villagers had also been able to turn some of their land into a fertile field for planting and they were able to get a lot of fresh produce every year.

With fisherman in their village,they were able to get a lot of fish and with the lot of fresh produce they got every year from their harvesting they were able to get a lot of food for the villagers.

There were also people who went to hunt for food in the surrounding forests. They were also able to get meat from this and some people also have cattle to provide meat and milk. And other people also have chickens to provide meat and also for them to lay some eggs.

Due to all of these ways in which they were able to get their food, the villagers never suffered from not having enough food.

But what did they do with the left over produce ? Well that is an easy guess. They took the left over produce and went to sell it in the city of [Nophis] which was located about ten kilometers away from their village.

Edward's family though, were quite poor so they were not able to pay for enough food for their entire family.

Seeing all of these events happening in front of him, Edward decided to go to the city were he signed up with the guild. His twin sister, Mia, had also followed him and she also signed up with the guild.

Both him and his twin sister, Mia, were taking on missions separately so that they could maximize the amount of money that they were getting.

They took on different types of missions ranging from hunting for monster meat or some body part of the monsters that could sell at a very high price in the market.

But these monsters did not leave drop items like the ones in [The Dark Forest] as the ones in [The Dark Forest] were very dangerous and were far stronger than the ones you would find in the small forests.

[The Dark Forest] was the largest forest on the planet. It covered at least thirty percent of the continent. Which means that the other seven Kingdoms only have ten percent each of the remaining land.

But even all of this was changing with the other Kingdoms attacking the [Human] race for their territory.

And one day when Edward was in the market to sell some of the monster meat, he walked pass a large tent with a old man sitting inside of the tent with a large crystal ball in front of him.

He was a bit skeptical about entering the tent but after contemplating for a while he decided to enter and then he sat at the chair in front of the old man who looked at him with a large smile on his face.

"What can I help you with, young man ?" asked the old man with a large smile on his wrinkled face.

"This is a fortune telling tent, right ?" asked Edward with a hesitant tone in his voice as he was looking a bit skeptical.

"Maybe, maybe not," replied the old man with a large smile on his wrinkled face as he looked at Edward, who was seemingly starting to get frustrated, deep into his eyes.

"Stop it with the mind games old man, and tell me whether or not if you can tell me my fortune !" said Edward with a slightly irritated tone in his voice as he closed his eyes and crossed his arms over his chest in frustration.

"Ha ha, tell me what it is that you seek, young man ?" asked the old man with the same large smile on his wrinkled face like it had been plastered on his face forever.

"Is it power ? Is it wealth ? Is it fame ? Tell me and I shall tell you a way in which you could gain it," said the old man as he touched his crystal ball which caused it to start glowing.

Edward began thinking about what he wanted deeply and then after a while, he made up his mind as he decided to pick power.

"I want power old man," said Edward with a flat tone as he decided to cut straight to the chase.

The old man then recited a sentence in an unfamiliar language and then the crystal ball started to shine more brightly than it already was as it displayed a cave located on [The Snowy Mountains Of Delmontria].

"Go to this place and you shall find what you seek," said the old man as he removed both of his hands from the crystal ball which caused the crystal ball to stop shining.

After hearing that he could find power in the cave located in one of the snowy mountains, Edward then stood up and got out of the tent to which the old man called out to him.

"Information is not free young man !" called out the old man as he looked at the departing figure of Edward which caused the said young boy to blush slightly as he turned around and looked at the old man.

"Oh I am sorry, it just slipped my mind," said Edward with a slightly flustered expression on his face.

"How much is it ?" asked Edward as he took out his pouch from his pocket.

"Five gold coins," said the old man with a serious expression on his wrinkled face to show that he was not playing around.

When Edward heard the old man's price he almost spat out blood. Five gold coins ! Was he hearing that correctly ?!

"Excuse me, how much did you say," asked Edward with a slightly bewildered expression on his face.

"You heard me correctly. What, did you think that such valuable information comes at a cheap price ?" asked the old man with a sarcastic tone in his voice as he looked at Edward.

Edward could feel his heart bleed out as he took out five gold coins from his pouch, which was the only money he has, and then he gave it to the old man.

Edward left the tent and then he went to the store that he sells the monster meat to and drove a hard bargain so that he could get a little bit more profits.

After getting a few extra copper coins, Edward left the market and headed towards the guild to look for any new missions that would be on his way to the snowy mountains.

And to his luck, there was a mission. The mission was to go to the snowy mountains and to retrieve a flower which was only found on the snowy mountains.

Edward then took the poster off of the wall and then he placed it on the reception desk as he took up the mission.