C17 Old Sack of Bones

RUDE!

A woman in her early twenties sent another explosion towards me, but this time I successfully broke it as I expected the explosion.

Combustion style was powerful, but unless you were against a true master like P'Li, it was easy to avoid and block.

The state of mastery P'li had reached, controlling her explosion before it exploded and guiding it to wherever she wanted, curving it as she liked wasn't something common.

Even Sparky sparky boom man could only shoot straight, although they were extraordinarily powerful.

'Damn! Do they not speak my language?'

''Calm down!'' I tried to say without sounding threatening.

But she seemed even angrier?

'Bitch.'

I dispersed another one of her explosions and ran towards her.

I was here to learn from them. I couldn't make an enemy out of them, and burning this girl wouldn't help my intentions.

I had to knock her out or at least restrain her without much damage.

I leaped forward and dodged another explosion.

She gave a frightened expression as she saw me not reacting to my burning back. Yeah, Gamer's mind is amazing like that. I can feel the pain, but I don't let it control me.

I slapped another explosion to my side with the back of my hand before it could explode and felt the hot air blowing my hair to the side.

As I finally got in front of her, I tackled her to the ground and pressed my palm towards her third eye. Not really an eye, just a tattoo but whatever.

''Please calm down. I came with good intentions.''

'Ughhhh, how do I even convince her. Bitch just straight up attack me, I doubt she is willing to listen.'

But to my surprise, her face slightly calmed down and she stopped struggling.

I hesitantly and slowly let her go while maintaining eye contact.

As I finally fully let her go and sat down to the ground, right beside her, I gave a silent nod.

'Thankfully she isn't that violent. She probably thought I was some kind of thief or something. I broke into their mountain after all.'

''Can we talk? I really came with good intentions.' I feel like I said that a bit too many times.

''...Who are you?'' She asked after slowly putting a small distance between us.

Seeing her still cautious expression I sighed on the inside and answered calmly on the outside.

''I'm Kunyo. I came here from the royal capital in order to hopefully learn your art.''

''We don't teach outsiders.'' She said with a small frown.

''I'm a pure advocate of the supremacy of explosions. I think they are the most elegant and beautiful art in the world. I simply love them...'' After rambling about my love for a little longer and seeing her face, I restrained myself and got to the point.

''I would do anything to learn your arts.''

I bowed my head.

I knew she probably didn't have a choice in this matter. It was tribe traditions after all. But I still had to give a good impression. I couldn't force them to teach me after all.

She had a complicated face for a few seconds before she finally gave a resigned sigh.

''Alright, come with me. I will take you to the elders.''

I contained my inner joy and obediently walked beside her.

Along the way she introduced herself to me.

''I'm Kouilin. I was guarding and patrolling the vicinity when you arrived. I apologize for my actions but you must understand me.''

''Of course. I would probably do the same. No hard feelings.'' I casually chuckled as she kept her stoic face.

Come on, give me a smile. You are really unnerving you know that right?

As I entered the small and surprisingly modern village, I couldn't help but glance everywhere.

Everybody's eyes were on me, of course they were. How long had it been since there was a stranger in their small community?

As far as I learned, the third eye tattoo isn't a simple tattoo.

It's a focal point created with a ritual.

Combustion bending requires extreme amounts of chi control. You would need to be master level firebender to create explosions they create in the matter of seconds.

Third eye helps with that. After learning how to control and compress your chi to a certain level, you get your tattoo as a sign of acknowledgment. Like a boy becoming a man.

That's all I could find from various resources and lots of gold.

It was unnerving to walk and see hundreds of people with those tattoos.

If they worked together, they could probably create a nuclear bomb.

'Thankfully, it's impossible to mix your explosions with other people's explosions. They can only be combined after the explosion, but not at the compressed state. If they could do that, they could erase the whole capital.'

We come across a gigantic house, almost like a castle guarded by muscular 3 eyed people.

Observe tells me they are both master level firebenders.

Yeah, Fire Lord's information about this place is lacking I guess. I thought they were much weaker than this.

Guard 1 raises a single eyebrow in a questioning manner as Koulin gets in front of me to talk.

''He is an outsider. He is very... very enthusiastic about explosions.''

As they turn their head towards me, I nod quickly. Not a single lie there. I indeed love explosions.

They look at each other for a second before shrugging their shoulders.

''Sure, go ahead.''

They were surprisingly relaxed compared to Koulin.

Well not that surprsing for me actually. Observe had already told me Koulin gave lots of importance to her job. Compared to her, rest of her people were a lot more relaxed. They didn't have a single intruder in years and not a big war in decades. They practiced combustion bending mostly because they simply loved it.

I went inside the large house along with Koulin, this time behind her instead of beside her.

Not long after we met with 3 elders.

'SHIT!'

I didn't gulp solely thanks to the Gamer's mind.

Motherfucker. One of the old guys, the one that looks like he could die in a second with his wrinkly skin and barely seeable eyes that probably went blind years ago. He looked weak. You would think his most dangerous action would be taking off his clothes and revealing his disgusting half-dead body to you and trying to kill in fear and disgust.

But no.

This wrinkly sack of bones was a pinnacle level firebender.

Pinnacle?

I have never even seen a single pinnacle level firebender before. Not in the capital. Not in my travels.

Masters were rare. Pinnacle was extremely rare.

Even though I kept my composure perfectly, not letting a single drop of cold sweat, not changing how I breathed nor changing how I looked at them. But that fucker just gave me a creepy eye smile as if he could see through me. I never felt more naked before. Maybe this guy could actually erase the capital with his explosions.

Also, he is 169 years old. How the fuck?

-----

Check out https://www.p@treon.com/lowkeygoodstuff to see 10 advanced chapters for 1 Euro