Chapter 221: Some Payback

Two hours later, Sol left Taliya's workshop more enlightened than before. The two had let him test whatever he wanted as long as he didn't kill the A-Ranker, which he never intended to do. As for why they didn't want to kill him, Fabio and Taliya didn't find him threatening enough to warrant it, and after today, he would likely never mess with them again. As long as he lived, his gang, the Fire Whispers, would continue to exist, and Taliya wanted to maintain this profitable relationship if possible.

Wearing the weird hat, Sol was able to navigate through the black market streets completely undetected. While walking, he thought to himself, 'Sadly, I couldn't learn any skills, but there was a reaction when I used [Siphon] on him.'

Sol recalled how the unconscious man had begun to convulse, not too dissimilar to the brain dead psychic from Kerman. The problem was that, unlike last time, this time it roused the A-Ranker awake, which immediately canceled the process.

'I need to either be gentler to avoid causing such a reaction or make it impossible for them to wake up or resist. What if they willingly let me?'

This required him to gain a better grasp of the siphoning process, which he had little control over. With practice, it was doable, but not at this moment. He also doubted he could find someone who would willingly let him use [Siphon] on them and take one of their skills. Even if someone was willing, the process didn't appear painless, and they would still subconsciously resist, canceling it instantly.

'Though [Siphon] didn't work as I wanted, I made some progress with [Aggregate].'

Sol's eyes flickered, and he could once more see the colorful strings of himself and everyone around him. They were much clearer than before, and in his testing, he realized something.

'I can see what skills they have by peering into the line's memories and experiences. It's like a more in-depth [Analysis]. I can also see the lines for law techniques; they are similar to the other skills but much more solid and stronger.'

He wasn't even able to make the two law technique lines of Ryogan budge because they were simply too solid. If the normal skills were thin like strings with the strength of rope, the law techniques were thick like ropes with the strength of solid steel. Still, he was able to practice toying with the A-Ranker's skills, greatly improving his ability to see and manipulate other people's skills.

'I'm lucky I had the opportunity to practice with a real A-Ranker.'

Sol felt no remorse in using Ryogan in such a way. If it had been someone innocent, the thought would never have crossed his mind, but the man had tried to attack not only Taliya and Fabio but also steal his void root. He believed he was entitled to some payback.

...

A few hours later, Ryogan woke up and could barely remember what had happened a few hours ago. After being captured by the two crafters, who had caught him off guard, he was knocked out and tied up by them. Later, he was shocked awake by a soul piercing pain everywhere. His mind, body, and even his very soul screamed in pain as he felt something intangible invade his body. Luckily for him, the moment he woke up, it disappeared, but it left him aching afterward.

He didn't stay awake for long as Taliya knocked him out once more with her hammer so that Sol could finish his experiments. By the time he next woke up, the only one in the room was Taliya.

"Please… forgive me. I won't bother you ever again."

His voice was weak as his body still ached from the previous one sided fight and whatever the unknown young man had done to him.

Taliya didn't respond to his plea but began to walk over and reached out towards him. Ryogan braced himself for what he thought would likely be the end.

Cachunk.

The chains that bound him and suppressed his mana fell to the ground. Freed from his binding, he looked up at Taliya, confused.

"What are you staring at me for? Get out of here."

He quickly realized he had been given a second chance. He struggled to stand up, and when he did, his legs wobbled unsteadily. He wanted nothing more than to leave as quickly as possible. He didn't even bother to ask for his spatial ring back and began to cast [Rift Walk].

"..."

Or at least he tried. He didn't understand why he was unable to cast spatial magic. There was no more magic suppression from the chains, and the spatial stabilizer Fabio used against him was gone.

'Why can't I remember how to cast space magic?!'

He searched through his mind desperately, but every space spell and even previous instances of using it were gone as if they had never existed.

"Are you gonna leave or what?" Taliya was getting tired of watching him do nothing.

Ryogan ignored her as his magic mattered more than even his life. After failing to find anything in his memories, he went to open something he hadn't seen in a long while—his status page. His eyes widened as the results shocked him to his very core.

"WHAT DID YOU DO TO ME?!"

He took a step towards Taliya and was about to release his law technique, but before he could do so, he was smashed on the side of his face with a hammer, sending him flying towards the wall.

Taliya twirled her hammer around and turned to him with a perplexed look. "The hell? What's your problem?"

She wasn't worried about facing him alone. Even without Fabio's assistance, she was confident in holding her own, and even more so when her opponent was severely wounded. She was more puzzled by why he reacted in such a way.

'What did Sol do to him? He only stared at his unconscious body.'

Taliya couldn't sense what Sol was doing to Ryogan, but now she was sure something had been done. She wondered for a brief moment what caused such a reaction but decided not to pry into her senior's friend's business.

"50%."

Ryogan, who was recovering from the attack, didn't understand what she meant. "50%?"

"50% markup on all future sales and repairs. Now get out before it goes higher."

His face went pale, but it wasn't noticeable under the bruises and blood. "What!? That's insane!"

The cost for her to repair peak unique ranked weapons was already reaching four digits, but with that markup, it would easily surpass that. It also wasn't an option to find someone else of similar caliber; there was only one other A-Rank smith in the kingdom, and they worked directly for the royal family. There was no chance they would accept a black market crime boss's commission.

"75%."

"N-no, wait, 50% is good."

Ryogan immediately folded.

"100%."

"Okay! Fine! 100%! No more, please! I'll leave!"

Spatial magic? Who cared? If he didn't leave right then, soon he wouldn't be able to afford even a weapon. He could figure out what happened to his spatial magic later.

As he unsteadily but briskly made his way to the exit, he thought to himself, 'I don't know what happened to my spatial magic, but hopefully it's just temporary…'

Little did he know that his spatial magic string had been torn apart after Sol twisted and pulled it for half an hour straight. As to whether he would be able to wield his spatial magic once more, he would have to start from scratch.