Interesting Discovery

A few hours later at the capital of the kingdom Duke Adaro arrived at the palace.

"Lord Belgrave, I have an urgent request I must meet with his Highness" Announced Adaro with some urgency in his voice.

"Adaro, what could have you so worried that you rushed to the capital and demanded a meeting with the king?" Knowing that he wouldn't be able to get a meeting with the king unless he gave Belgrave a rundown of what happened Adaro told him the facts of what had just happened hours earlier.

Once he heard what Adaro had to say Belgrave understood the severity of the situation and rushed towards the king's study. "Your Highness please excuse the intrusion" opening up the door to the study two guards standing behind the door pulled out swords wrapped with multiple elements flames, water and earth almost blending into one around the swords lunging them towards Belgrave's throat.

"Stand down. Belgrave what could have caused you to barge into my study disturbing me like this"

Hearing the kings command the elements on the swords disappeared and they put them back into the sheath. "My king" After giving the King a bow whilst wiping the sweat dripping off his head Belgrave reported the reason for him barging into the study "Adaro's estate has been attacked"

Looking at Adaro behind Belgrave, seemingly unharmed, the King seemed to be confused as clearly the intruder must have been stopped for Adaro to be in the capital.

Gesturing for Adaro to enter with his hand, the King asked him a question "Why have you come here Adaro, you seem unharmed and must have it under control" "Excuse me for this intrusion Your Highness but this matter is not as simple as my estate being attacked" Said Adaro after bowing to the king. "Oh... please enlighten me" replied the King with some interest.

Explaining that it was one person who attacked his estate caught the King's attention even more, after all for one person to cause one of his strongest dukes to worry this much they must have been powerful. After listening until the end the King started to grow uneasy. "The power to steal other magic and the ability to teleport" Rubbing his chin the King seemed to be deep in thought. "You were indeed right to come here Adaro this information is extremely valuable, you will be rewarded heavily for this Adaro" "Your Highness I have no desire for a reward your Highness, I simply thought this information was too important not to come here and warn you"

"Hahaha, humble as always I see Adaro. However are you sure you wish to reject my good will?" Reaching into his pocket the king pulled out a stone that radiated mana. "This is something I acquired when I was a young prince traveling the endless Jungle, I've never been able to use it or figure out its secrets. Perhaps you will have more luck" said the king as he threw the stone towards Adaro who caught it in midair.

Seeing the stone that radiated mana, a hint of desire flashed through Belgrave's eyes, quickly hiding it, he recomposed himself before anyone noticed. To think that the King had something so valuable and was so wasteful as to give it away. Was all Belgrave could think after seeing it land in Adaro's hand.

After catching it, a coolness started to spread throughout Adaro's body. "Not bad eh, are you sure you don't want it?" Said the king with a joking tone. "Surely you jest your Highness, how could I reject such kindness?" Replied Adaro chuckling and rubbing the back of his head. "But what will we do about the attacker?"

"The information you provided is extremely valuable Adaro, it seems this person can only steal magic through touch and you can use magic to attack him judging from the fact that one of your guards could move him using earth magic" The King looked to be deep in thought "This means he can still be killed by magic as long as you're careful not to let him touch you. Next, it seems that he can't understand our language and wasn't speaking in the beasts tongue which is truly strange perhaps he isn't human or beast and is using transformation magic which would be another lost art" After taking a deep breath the King started to speak again "Very well, Belgrave send a message out to all the dukes that they are to arrive in the capital within one week, tell them to try and be discreet. We must prepare. Oh yes, I almost forgot, I assume you will be able to get me an image of this attacker Adaro?"

Hearing the King's request Adaro responded telling him that he would get his best memory mage to get an image for him. After bowing, Adaro left the study returning home. After everyone left the King's study he started to mutter something following that something flashed from the room.

After flying for a day Seth finally stumbled upon a river, seeing this tears almost fell from his eyes. Perhaps they would have if he wasn't so thirsty. Getting on his knees and scooping up some water with his hands, Seth continued to drink it until he finally felt refreshed. Hearing his belly grumble Seth knew he had to find some sort of village or town soon overwise he was going to starve, after all, he hadn't eaten in a few days and he had nothing to cook his noodles. Thinking about it Seth understood that if he followed the river he should reach a village or town after all water is needed for life to thrive.

After walking for a few hours upstream Seth finally caught sight of something that looked like a village in the distance, just as he was about to keep walking he heard footsteps come from the woodland area on the other side of the river. Seeing three men with scars up their arms and on their face suddenly charge towards him and leap over the river Seth looked concerned. "What do you want?" Hearing the strange language the three had smiles that looked malicious. "We the metallic bandits will take everything you own, hahaha"

Charging towards Seth whilst metal started to form around their hands the bandits started to attack him. At that moment time seemed to slow down for Seth, seeing one of the punches coming straight for his gut Seth twisted his body slightly dodging the punch. With time seemingly going as slow as it was Seth thoughts didn't seem to slow down at all. Seeing an opening on the first bandit Seth clenched his hand and swung as hard as he could towards the man's head.

Just a few days ago I'd never fought anyone in my life, who would have thought I would have been in so many recently. But I have to say it is thrilling haha. Seth couldn't help but be excited.

As soon as his fist connected with the bandit's jaw Seth felt his power start to grow feeling this strange sensation Seth felt far too relaxed almost impossibly so. Seeing their companion take a hit and fall to the floor the other two bandits started to realize that they had underestimated their opponent which was a deadly thing to do in their line of work.

"We underestimated him, we need to go all out" Hearing them talk and seeing their faces get serious Seth knew things were about to get more intense. Getting himself into a completely amateur boxing stance if it could even be called that Seth signaled for them to come at him.

Charging towards Seth the metal on their hands started to change shape and warp into a small daggered knuckle dusters. With time slowing down once again Seth was relieved that this kept occurring. Seeing the daggers fly towards his temple and heart he rolled to the side dodging the strikes, not knowing what to do he was about to run away when he suddenly felt a searing pain in his shoulder. Looking in that direction he saw the face of a bandit smiling mockingly and metal pierced into his shoulder slowly being manipulated into his arm and throughout his body.

"AGHHHHHHHH" Seth screamed as he grabbed the bandits arm pushing it away when he suddenly felt the metal start to disappear from inside him and the wound closing, feeling his power surge again Seth thought that he must have some other power. Seeing the bandit drop to the ground just from being touched, Seth figured it must be because of his new power thinking up to this point he realized that this must have happened in his apartment with the two strange people who tried to kidnap him as well.

Seeing the last bandit who seemed to be slightly scared Seth decided that he would try and experiment with him. Feeling a slight control over his newly discovered power he prepared to test if he could control it or not. Noticing the gaze on him the third bandit had a feeling this was a life or death battle. Feeling a change in the atmosphere Seth was a little surprised when the bandit seemed to form some sort of knights armour around his body parts.

Looks like this will be more difficult than I thought, wait why don't I use telekinesis. DAMN IT, why didn't I think of that sooner Seth thought.

Feeling his body suddenly become light the bandit thought he had leveled up his power when he noticed he was moving towards his enemy. Almost passing out from the shock. After having him float in front of him, Seth ripped off the bandit's helmet with telekinesis. Seeing his magic be removed so easily and without resistance, the bandit pissed himself. "Gross" Hearing Seth even if he didn't understand what he said the bandit could understand from his disgust on his face.

"Right, lets test this new power then," Seth said as he reached for the bandits face. Realizing that his fate seemed to be sealed the bandit suddenly felt enlightened after accepting that everyone would eventually die, even the strongest beings to walk the earth they would turn to dust, feeling his power surge his armour started to turn into dust.

Noticing the change in atmosphere and seeing the armour disperse but dust start to fill the air Seth backed off. "I suppose I should thank you for helping me surpass my limits, however all I ask for is my life" Said the bandit on his knees kowtowing. Witnessing the act Seth was taken aback, getting the general gist of things Seth decided he would let them go despite the fact that they were looking to harm him, it didn't look like they wanted to kill him.

"I guess I'll have to wait to test my new power, thinking about it you guys can manipulate metal from the looks of it" Not understanding a word of each other the two seemed to come to some sort of understanding. "Please allow me to follow you" Said the bandit pointing towards himself "Jansen is my name" Hearing the name and seeing the action of the bandit pointing towards himself Seth guessed he was giving his name.

After turning around to leave Seth was surprised to see Jansen follow him and leave his companions passed out on the floor. How strange I knocked out his companions and he just abandoned them, Seth thought to himself keeping his attention on Jansen.

About halfway to the village, Seth's stomach started to grumble again. Noticing that he must be hungry Jansen called out to Seth making a crossbow bolt out of his metal magic pointing towards it then the river signaling for Seth to use his powers to control it and spear a fish. Noticing that he didn't have any plans of attacking him Seth decided that he would trust him one time and if he betrayed him he would try his new power on him.

Witnessing Seth control his bolt like it was nothing confirmed what Jansen was thinking, that Seth could control others magic far too easily. For someone to control another's magic they would have to be significantly stronger, and if you are that much stronger there is no need to control their magic because you could easily wipe them out from existence. Unless you were helping them master their magic, and people only did that if they were being paid a substantial fee or you're their student.

About 3 seconds into attempting to spear a fish with the bolt, Seth suddenly realized he was an idiot. Seeing a large fish swim past he used his telekinesis to lift it out of the water and then used the bolt to stab through its brain killing it.

Witnessing was believing but Jansen still had trouble believing. "You can control life, just who are you" Hearing the questioning tone of Jansen Seth still had no idea what he was talking about shrugging his shoulders he put the fish on the floor as he snapped off some branches from across the river and floating them over Seth started to attempt to make a fire using the technique he had seen on a survival show once. When suddenly the stick he was spinning to make embers caught fire. Looking up at Jansen and seeing his nonchalance he noticed that it must have been his own doing.

So, I can make fire with my hands? What the hell, this week has been a way to weird Seth thought to himself.

Floating the fish and bolt back over to him Seth pointed towards the bolt making a knife like hand signals. "AHH, Knife, Knife" Hearing how he was pronouncing knife and turning the bolt into one Seth realized that this Jansen could help him figure out where he was. "Knife, Knife" Seth repeated while nodding his head.

After making some fish fillets he realized he didn't have a pot or pan to put it in. Ahh, I guess I'll just use telekinesis. Seeing the fish float in the air Jansen realized what was happening and made some bars to stick into the fish holding it above the fire.

Looks like this guy following me could be useful, I wonder if I can make metal appear out of nowhere.

After thinking for a little about what he was going to do next when the fish started to smell amazing seeing the abundance of it Seth was sure he wouldn't be able to finish it all today. Seeing a bit of fish float towards him Jansen bowed his head slightly "Thanks" Getting the gist of what he said, Seth repeated it and gave him his thanks whilst pointing towards the metal.