Thieves

Ray quickly frowned and said, "How did you know?" In an aggressive tone.

"Woah woah, calm down." Carl chuckled. "I'm not your enemy. I simply felt a weird feeling come over me, as if my soul was being examined. And right after that you came into the gate riding upon your horse. I figure you must also be a new mage who hasn't yet learned how to control your soul sense."

"Ah… yes. I became a mage quite recently, and I still don't know too much about these things." Ray replied in a calmer tone.

"It's pretty simple! What's happening is right now you are letting your energy leak out a little so it creates an aura around you. While this aura can detect things and send information to you, it can also alert others of your presence. Just imagine you are sucking up your energy and keeping it bottled within you."

Slowly all the information of humans walking around him disappeared as Ray concentrated on keeping his aura tight.

"This is hard to maintain!" Ray said in a trembling voice.

"It was also hard at first for me too, but I got used to it within a day or two, it shouldn't be too hard." Carl reassured him.

Suddenly Ray realized how similar he and Carl were. Both young apprentice mages who happened to be crossing through this town, it can't be a coincidence. "Are you also going to Mythri school?" Ray asked.

"Yep! You guessed it. I suppose we might be seeing each other in the future, it's good to make friends beforehand." Carl said with a smile.

'This Carl is really charismatic, any normal person would have trusted him by now.' Ray thought. 'Still, I don't believe in purely good people in this world! No matter what, I can't let my guard down.'

"Are there other mages in this town?" Ray asked.

"No, it's truly a coincidence we met!"

After they reached the inn they split ways to their own rooms. He took a shower and cleaned himself, going to bed for the first time in a while on an actual bed. He was so tired from riding on horseback for a month, after all his body is still that of a regular human. He quickly fell into a deep sleep after lying down on his bed.

-A few hours later -

Two men were standing outside his door wondering what to do with the poor young noble.

"Are you sure that's the room that kid is staying in boss?"

"Yeah, I threatened to kill that innkeeper's son if he didn't tell me where he slept. No way that cowardly old man lied to me. He wouldn't dare!"

"Should we make a plan or just barge into the door boss?"

"You fool! Why would I need special precautions do deal with a little brat?"

"Sorry, I just thought it's a good idea just Incase, he might be a mage…"

"Why would a mage be coming to our little town in the middle of no where hmm? Just shutup and help me rob him."

One of the men took out a knife while the other knocked on the door.

A dark figure stood at the corner of the hallway watching the robbery in progress. "Let's see what he can do." He whispered.

Ray quickly woke up from his sleep after hearing the knocks on his door. It was still completely dark outside, so this wasn't someone normal. 'There are no windows in this room, so the door is the only wait out…' He tip toed to the door as quitely as he could, and tried to listen through the door.

"Is that kid going to respond to the door? Should we just barge in?" One of the men whispered to the other.

"Be a bit patient, maybe he just didn't wake up yet."

'So they want to barge into me.' He narrowed his eyes. 'Carl said there were no other mages, so these should be ordinary people. But since they clearly have bad intentions, I won't give them the benefit of the doubt.' He thought while s smile curled on his mouth.

Without any hesitation, he readied a bolt onto his palm.

When the thief saw the door open, a exited look appeared on his face and he immidietly shouted, "PUT YOUR HA-"

Before he could finish his sentence a bright yellow flash lit up the hallway. The two bodies fell onto the floor with a loud thud.

Looking down on the sizzling bodies he sneered. 'Two little thieves thought they could block my path?'

The bolt left a hole through the wooden wall, but what was the innkeeper going to do to him? A couple gold would shut him up anyways.

Meanwhile the figure in the dark mentally clapped his hands. 'He quikly got rid of the intruders, and he even learnt a powerful skill already. He will certainly be useful later on. I should make my appearance now.'

While inspecting the body to see if it had anything on it, Ray heard footsteps coming towards him. 'Reinforcements?' He quikly got a other bolt ready.

"Ray it's me, Carl."

Carl ran to the scene with a 'shocked' expression on his face.

"What happened here?"

Ray relaxed his arm, but still kept the energy flowing and replied, "Nothing, some thieves were about to attack me so I was forced to attack them."

Carl's face quickly turned into a smile as he said, "Those thieves must have seen you coming into the town with a fancy horse and clothes and figured you were easy prey. Don't worry about them, they are only normal humans."

He had bean told a couple times that in this world mages were supreme, and they could do whatever they wanted. He didn't realize the extent to this, but judging how Carl saw this as a completely normal thing, it seems to be common for mages to kill normal humans.

"You should get some sleep now. You're prebobly leaving for Mythri tomorrow?"

"Yes."

"You wouldn't mind me tagging along right?"

'...'

Seeing as how Carl was silent he quickly added on, "Two people is better than one, and I have learnt a skill myself!" He said with a proud expression.

"And what exactly is that skill?"

"It's not nearly as powerful as yours, but it's called vine trap. It creates powerful vines from the ground that you can trap an opponent with."

'Knowing Carl's skills does make me more willing to go with him, but why does he want to come with me?'

Seeing as how Ray wasn't responding, Carl said, "You know the forest we need to pass through in order to reach Mythri had beasts in it?"

"Oh I didn"t know that." Ray said, slightly embarrassed. "If that's the case then I suppose it only makes sense we stick together." Although he didn't trust Carl, he still wanted to make connections with him for the future.

"Alright see you tomorrow then, goodnight."

"Goodnight."