Chapter 33: Offering (2)

"Lord Raphael, I wasn't trying to escape. This is my offering to you."

Lord Raphael was a bit taken aback by the sight of mana cores littering his floor.

"I…"

"That's not all of them." Verro spoke, his tone turning dangerous. "What do you plan to do with the rest?"

Van bowed deeper. 

"I am planning to keep only 25% to myself, so that I may grow stronger, and hunt more in the future. The rest I am offering to my lord." 

Lord Raphael stroked his chin.

"Tell me Van," His words caused Van to look up at him. "What possible need would I have for low rank mana cores?"

"Honestly, my lord, I doubt you have any use for them. I simply wanted to show what I can do."

"Hmm." 

Lord Raphael took some time to think. 

"How long have you been here, Van?" 

"Almost 4 months, my lord." 

Lord Raphael's eyes narrowed. 

"4 months is a short time. You can see why I find you very suspicious. Why, Van? Why are you trying so hard to become stronger and get into my good books?"

Van, knowing that his answer would be very important, remembered his goals. How he needed to get stronger, to kill the red plume knight Elias and avenge Sid, to reach Transcendence, and to finally get back to Pibar and kill his 8 bullies. 

Lord Raphael saw a determination burn behind Van's eyes which surprised him, but he didn't let it show.

"It's because of ambition, my lord. I have goals, dreams, and I want to achieve them!" Van screamed with as much emotion as he could. "I do not wish to be a servant my whole life!"

Van was slightly nervous. He sincerely hoped that they would believe him. Otherwise his plan would have been all for naught.

Fortunately, he seemed to have moved Lord Raphael with his words. Even Verro let his guard down.

Lord Raphael smiled at him.

"Is that so. In that case, I'll accept your offer." He gestured to Verro, who picked up the mana cores, storing them somewhere in his cloak. 

"I will help you with your wish. Starting tomorrow, you will no longer work in the garden. Instead, you will clean the upper hallways of the manor."

Van was liking what he was hearing.

"And from now on, you get to join the shopping trips to town every month. The next one is in a week. I allow you to go hunting in the forest 5 times a week, and no need to wait for night to begin."

He waved his hand. 

"Now run along, we wouldn't want you sleeping on the job."

"Thank you, my lord. You won't regret it." 

Van immediately got up, bowed, and left the room.

On the way back to his room, Van was counting his lucky stars.

There were some close calls, but his plan was successful. Now he had a way to get stronger as well as more access to the world outside the manor. 

Van planned to work for Lord Raphael and rise the ranks until he got strong enough to either buy his freedom or fight for it.

Back in his room, Van pulled out the 4 mana cores that he was able to keep for himself. 

Since Van's battle with the geyser rabbits was quite lengthy, the mana left in the cores were only in the single digits. Still, at least it would provide an increase to his mana capacity.

Van picked up one of the cores, inserting his mana into it. Inside the core, Van felt the small amount of mana left in it merge with his mana, and he watched as the core in his hand lost its blue glow. 

Now reduced to a rock, Van tossed the empty core aside, checking his status to see if it worked.

<> Status <>

Name: Van Brown

Mana: 8/36

Rank: 1st Sword Knight

<> End <> 

"Good, it worked." 

Van immediately drained the rest of the cores of their mana as well, raising his total mana capacity from 36 to 51.

'First, I'm going to raise my mana capacity to the limit, then I'll work on my skills and continue through the Knight rank.'

Van thought back to his fight with the rabbits. He had spent a lot of that fight trading blows, and Van felt he needed to dodge more. He wasn't a tank, Pain Resistance only made sure he couldn't feel the pain from the attacks, it doesn't actually reduce any damage his body takes. It's why his mana was so drained by the end of the fight, it was being consumed by taking the geyser rabbits' attacks. 

"Next week I get to go to town, too…"

Van opened a drawer near his bed, revealing a pouch full of silver coins, some gold coins, and a few small gems. This was all of the allowance he gained the past 4 months. Lord Raphael was quite generous with paying his servants. 

'Maybe there's some cool stuff I could buy. Skills would probably be expensive, and I doubt a simple town would have some… I guess I'll look for gear or useful things to make me stronger.'

Just like that, Van's routine had changed again. He would split his work time between hunting and cleaning the hallways, offering 75% of the mana cores he made to Lord Raphael, and studying during his breaks, resting on the weekends (only doing his job as a servant).

Later that week, Van was once again in the forest to hunt mana beasts. The sun was out, the air fresh. He had encountered a few new types of beasts aside from the occasional geyser rabbit, such as the dirt wolves, tunnelfangs, a rodent-esque beast, and the biteworms, all low ranked beasts with no affinity.

Van's arms were bloody, as he preferred to fight unarmed, in order to be as skilled as he possibly could, and because of a certain thought process he had. 

On a battlefield, if you saw an adversary surrounded by the corpses of his enemies, what would be more terrifying? The man wielding a refined weapon, or the man using absolutely nothing?

Van didn't know about the others, but he would surely be more scared of the latter.