CHAPTER 18: Robbed!!

'What?' I stared down as Silver walked through the gate he had come from and left the arena.

"He's getting better."

I turned to the left and saw that the old man's eyes were now open, and he had a contemplating look on his face.

I cleared my throat. "Excuse me, did you see what happened?"

The old man looked at me in surprise. "Of course I did, didn't you?"

'If he was able to see what happened then that probably means he's quite strong," I straightened up and gave the man my full attention. 'I should definitely treat him with respect.'

I tried to scratch my cheek before I remembered that there was a mask on my face, so I awkwardly put my hand down and forced out a laugh. "No, I'm afraid I didn't."

The old man got a sad look on his face and slowly shook his head. "What's becoming of the younger generation?" He then sighed and fully turned in my direction. "From how fast they moved it should at least be obvious to you that they're almost at the First Tier, right?"

I slowly nodded my head. "I guess so."

"Well they both ran at each other at full speed and when they reached the middle of the arena they swung their swords and clashed against each other about ten times, and mind you, that was during that brief moment when they passed by each other."

The old man then looked at the brown haired man who was being carried away by what looked like medics. "Since the speed they were moving at was too much, they reached the opposite side of where they had originally been before, and that was when the brown haired man's sword shattered since it couldn't handle the blows the silver haired man had rained down on it."

I looked at the old man with a frown on my face. "Then why did he fall to the ground?"

The old man's lips broke into a broad grin. 

"That's my favorite part. Obviously he was much weaker than the silver haired guy since his sword broke." The man stopped and thought for a few seconds before turning back to me. "I told you earlier that they clashed swords ten times didn't I?"

After I nodded my head he laughed. "Sorry that wasn't right. They actually clashed nine times, that was all it took to destroy the brown haired man's sword." Seeing me looking at him in confusion, the old man continued his explanation. "The reason he collapsed after they clashed was because after shattering his sword, the silver haired man brought the pommel of his sword down on his head."

I winced when I heard that, and unconsciously rubbed the spot on my leg where Silver had broken it two years ago. "That must have hurt."

The old man nodded his head in agreement.

"I wouldn't expect any less from my disciple." He nodded his head once again and continued casually. "It looks like all that training was worth it."

I began nodding my head in agreement before I stopped as the old man's words registered in my head.

"Wait," I turned and looked at the man in surprise. "You trained Silver?"

The old man also looked at me in surprise. "You know his name?"

"Of course I do, he's quite well known in the Underworld." I replied in confusion. "Wait, Silver is his real name?"

The old man looked away sheepishly and coughed into his hand. "His mother wasn't very imaginative."

I thought then entered my brain and without waiting to think it through my mouth blurted it out. "Sir, please train me!"

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"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"No."

"Please?"

"Goddamn it I said no!"

I had been asking the old man to train me since we were in the stands.

Eventually I had asked for so long that people had started looking in our direction to find out what was happening. When the old man noticed the attention he was starting to receive he got up, walked up the aisle and soon left the stadium. I, of course, followed him as soon as he got up and was now walking behind him down the streets of the Underworld.

The old man got a strange glint in his eye and began smiling at me in a dangerous way. "You know I could just kill you right?"

Suddenly I felt a weight pressing down on my body. My heart jumped into my throat but I pretended not to be fazed and answered calmly. "But you won't do it."

The old man's smile grew even wider. "Ohh, and why is that?"

I swallowed and immediately noticed that my throat was desert dry. "Based on how you left the stadium once people started noticing you I believe that you don't want to draw attention to yourself, that theory also lines up with the first impression I had of you when I saw you in the stands, you didn't want to be distributed by anyone, you just wanted to stay alone."

It was at times like this that I was glad that I studied Political Maneuvering in Freestone. "You probably forgot that you didn't want to talk to anybody as you were so excited that your disciple won."

As I had been talking, the smile on the man's face had grown smaller and smaller until now when there was only a scowl on his wrinkled face.

The old man turned around and walked away while grumbling under his breath. "What has the world come to, this generation has no respect for their seniors, back in my time I wouldn't have had the guts to say that to my elders."

I let the old man get some distance ahead before I hunched over and gripped my knees.

'I thought for sure that I was dead. The pressure I felt from him was almost too much to bear."

I straightened up and hurried after the man. 'This isn't the first time that I've felt a pressure like this, I also felt the same pressure from Instructor Vann. Could it be a First Tier power?' 

I bumped into a quickly walking man but I ignored him and continued hurrying after the man. 'No use thinking about it, I'll find out sooner or later.'

I then reached into my cloak for the cylinder. 'Right now I need to learn how to use this...'

Suddenly, I stopped and began to check under my cloak more thoroughly. But no matter how much I checked, I couldn't find the cylinder.

And for the second time in an hour, the same thought ran through my mind.

'What?'

I began searching through my cloak more frantically.

'No no no!' I was really starting to panic at this point. 'What happened? It has been under my cloak this whole time, and before I even left the stadium I checked again to confirm that it was there. How can it be gone?'

I began running through all that had happened since I left the stadium.

'Walking, talking, more walking, more talking, the old man threatening me, being bumped into by some boz....wait, being bumped into.'

Looking back on when that person had bumped into me, I had been so distracted that I didn't notice but in retrospect while one of his hands had touched my shoulder I didn't feel it see his other hand. 

In another situation I would have thought nothing of it, but now that the cylinder is gone it feels like damning evidence.

I turned around and began looking for the man. 'Where is he?' My eyes flew all over the street in my search for him. 'It hasn't been so long, he should still be around here somewhere.'

Suddenly out of the corner of my eye I saw the same man who had bumped into me disappear down a dark alley across the street from me.

'There he is,' I then stepped forward to go after the man but hesitated and looked back at the old man who was now some distance away from me.

'If I leave now I might never meet that old man again,' I turned and looked at the alley where the man had disappeared. 'But I can't afford to lose that cylinder.'

I closed my eyes and quickly debated the pros and cons of going after either the old man or the cylinder.

When I reopened my eyes there was now determination in them. I quickly dodged between other people on the street, crossed the road and soon stood in front of the alley.

'In the end who knows if that old man was lying about training Silver, I can't take his word for it.'

I took a deep breath and stepped into the alley.