Chapter- 5 The Chaotic Hermit

In the dead of the night, Alex walked past the streets, drenched in lion blood; filled with enthusiasm to try his newly acquired ranged attack on the Priest. Other than the fact that Alex learned a new ranged ability with his element, he also got some important information about it. The colors of the energy changed when he fired a ranged attack. Normally, it would be a blue-purple shade, but while shooting ranged attacks, the shade turned into a redder color, looking like rotten blood. Alex found his hotel after a little bit of treading around, and he snuck into it, trying not to wake anyone up.

He got to his room and slept. Tomorrow's day was going to be quite busy for Alex. He had to find the Priest and also train Max a bit. If he had the Light element and was considered quite talented with it, he needed to find someone strong and experienced with the Light element.

Alex threw his blood-covered cloak aside and lay on his bed, drifting off into a sound sleep.

***

The next day, as soon as Alex woke up, he went to the local library to find a book about all the local strong Elementals (aka strong individuals who use their elements to become op gods) in the area in or around this city.

He was surprised that he was allowed in the library looking as shabby as he was, but that didn't matter much at the time, as he had work to do. After finding the book he was looking for, Alex started flipping through to where the Light elementals were listed. To his astonishment, there weren't many of them listed. He found only four.

They were the Priest, Richard Stevens, who Alex didn't want to read about at all. The other two were these youngsters known as the Smith twins, two men in their twenties who were born in this town but were rarely ever found here as they were out travelling all the time.

The last on the list was an old man who lived at the very corner of the town, called "Chaotic Hermit". All that was listed about him was that he lived at the northwest end of town and that he isn't involved in any matters regarding the town or the Church of Light, giving him the name hermit. Chaotic was there because he was one of the rare people who was requested by the Church to join them, and he refused. Even more remarkable was that the Church respected his decision and didn't bother him since. There was also a quote by him on the page saying- 'I'm pretty generous of a man, so I will tend to help people. Keep in mind, though, that since I'm a hermit, money, fame or influence wouldn't change my opinions.'

Alex felt like this was a match made in Heaven. He thought about what he had just said and regretted that sentence an instant afterwards. According to his analysis on this man, he was perfectly sure that he was extremely powerful and was almost sure that since material wealth didn't affect him, resolve and determination would, so he borrowed... stole the book and went to Max's place.

After getting Max to come with him, Alex started wandering to the northwest, in search for the Chaotic Hermit. After a bunch of wandering, they reached a place that had been surrounded by fences, with a signpost above them, with 'The Chaotic Hermit resides here.' written.

Alex was happy, as this man was a potential trainer for Max, but Max, on the other hand, was freaking out. From his point of view, the sign looked like a death sentence, and the fences looked like gates to hell. A couple of miles up until here were completely deserted, and he had started to have second thoughts since then, but he kept on going because of Alex.

Alex didn't think much of the fence and kicked it away, getting inside the Chaotic Hermit's territory. As Max saw this, his heart stopped beating for a couple of seconds, presuming that he was dead. After recovering, he still didn't want to come in, so just told Alex that he wasn't gonna risk dying.

"Uhh, Alex, I think I'll stay out. I don't wanna die," Max said, trying to look for the Chaotic Hermit from outside the fences.

"Well, since you won't come in, I'll just have to find the old geezer on my own then. You do know that I'm finding him so that he can train you."

"Oh, who do you want me to train?" a voice answered out of nowhere.

Suddenly, Alex and Max felt an immense degree of pressure. It was equivalent to a meteor hitting the Earth at full force and lading on a baby. Max instantly felt to the ground and was barely able to breathe. He started sweating like crazy and felt like this was the end of him.

Alex, just like Max felt such an immense pressure, but he was stubborn, and stood looking up straight at the old face in front of him. On the inside, he felt like he would die any moment, but he didn't let that show on his face or body. The Chaotic Hermit was impressed and increased the pressure on Alex by tenfold. He just wanted to see for how many milliseconds Alex would be able to survive, but the Chaotic Hermit didn't believe what he saw in front of him.

Alex didn't budge. Veins on his body started emerging, and he started sweating, but was still able to smirk at the old man in front of him.

"That's all you got, eh," he was able to say, as Alex felt like this was it.

He started losing consciousness and all sense of his body or mind. The Chaotic Hermit watched in awe. He was appalled that Alex hadn't budged from his place. He had originally decided to stop when Alex was no longer able to handle such other-worldly pressure, but he didn't even budge at this level. As he looked at Alex, who had seemed to have lost his consciousness, for less than a second, he saw Alex's eyes turn pure black, and his body emmitt that pure black colored energy, as well as a pressure that easily equalled that of his own, rendering his pressure ineffective on him. After that split second, Alex was in control of himels again and had seemed to completely recover from the pressure that the Chaotic Hermit applied on him.

Alex smiled at him, unable to remember how he had seemed to live despite that pressure, but didn't decide to think of it. The old man was shocked, and also overjoyed.

"After all these years here, I have finally found someone," he muttered, smiling at Alex, "so, you wanted me to train that kid, right? Well, consider your job done!"