Going Shopping & More Bandits! [Part 1]

"I see...so that's what happened."

"Yes.", Ethan nodded nervously as he concluded with his story.

After running into them at the Bazaar, Lyra dragged the trio back home so that they could all have a proper conversation over some breakfast. Caleb and Ava sat quietly besides Ethan at the breakfast table, both of their heads turned down from shame at the unnecessary worry they had caused their mother.

Lyra had made sure to give them a good telling off as well as a few spanks as punishment for sneaking out of the house.

"Honestly, I can't believe you two.", said Lyra in exasperation as she flipped a pancake. "What's so important to you guys to make you go galavanting into the woods in the middle of the night?"

Caleb and Ava exchanged glances, with complicated expressions on their faces. Obviously the twins had no way of telling their mother the real reason for their escapades without ruining the surprise.

Seeing that his friends had been pulled into a difficult situation, Ethan decided to come to their rescue.

"They were trying to learn how to cultivate.", Ethan blurted out without thinking.

Unfortunately, Ethan's lame attempt to save the twins only made the already tense atmosphere even more tense. Lyra stiffly plated all the food and stared at her two children.

"This again?" Lyra asked pointedly.

Caleb and Ava kept silent, refusing to meet their mother's eye. They knew how strongly Lyra was against them endangering themselves and cultivation was one thing that Lyra had absolutely fobade them from doing because she thought it would only being them trouble.

Lyra heaved a sigh as she served everyone their breakfast. "We've been over this several times before, guys."

Caleb looked a little downcast. "B-But mom–"

"No, Caleb.", Lyra cut him off. "Cultivation is a dangerous business. End of the matter."

Lyra's expression softened as she turned to Ethan. "Sorry you have to listen to us arguing like this, Ethan. And thank you again for helping my children. I really appreciate it."

"It wasn't any trouble at all, ma'am.", Ethan replied with a smile, inwardly kicking himself for his bludder.

"Please, feel free to call me Lyra or even mom if you like.", said Lyra. "You look a little young to be traveling on your own. How old are you?"

"14."

"""Heh?!"""

Not just Lyra, even Caleb and Ava stared at Ethan in astonishment. After all, although his face did look quite young, Ethan looked like he had the body of a 17 year old. Ethan scratched his head sheepishly.

"I-I had a lot of growth spurts growing up?" said Ethan in a lame attempt to try and explain himself.

Everyone else looked at him with deadpan expressions that looked like 'Really bruh? That's what you're going with?'

Lyra cleared her throat. "A-Anyway, you are indeed quite blessed. But why are you traveling all by yourself at such a young age? What about your family?"

Ethan's expression immediately fell and his demeanor became guarded as he shifted his eyes to the food on his plate. "That's...complicated.", said Ethan quietly.

Lyra noticed that the boy didn't feel comfortable talking about such a sensitive topic, so she simply patted his shoulder reassuringly. "Well, you don't have to tell us about it if you don't want to. Since you're traveling around, why don't you stay with us for a while?"

Caleb face brightened up at the suggestion. "Yeah, we have a spare room you could use. We still need to show you around the city after all."

Ava nodded in agreement. Ethan's chest felt warm and he couldn't help but feel touched at their generosity.

"I'll gladly take you up on that offer then.", said Ethan with a bright smile on his face. "Thanks for having me, ma'am."

"Mom.", Lyra corrected Ethan.

"...Thank you, mom."

Satisfied with their little talk, the family quickly finished up breakfast and cleaned up afterwards. Lyra had work for the rest of the day, so Ethan and the twins thought that now would be the perfect time to go shopping for a buddy bot for their mother. When Ethan revealed all the loot he had with him, Caleb and Ava couldn't stop staring at the piles of riches before them.

"So much stuff...", Caleb muttered in amazement as he picked up a beast core that was at the peak of the Feral Stage.

(A/N: Feral Stage is the first cultivation stage for beasts.)

"Even just one of these is enough to buy about two buddy bots."

Ava rubbed her chin, deep in thought. "We need to properly sort all this stuff out and figure out what needs to be sold and what should be kept. Do you have your own buddy bot, Ethan?"

Ethan shook his head. "Everything that I own is right in front of you."

"Well, you own a lot." Caleb commented.

"Right. So we need to get that sorted out as well.", said Ava, eyeing the small mounds of credits on the table. "It's not safe to move around with so much hard cash. We need to open an account for you and also sell what needs to be sold. Luckily for us, I know just the person who can help."

Ethan raised a brow, his curiosity piqued. "Really? Who?"

"You'll see. Come on."

The three packed up everything and left the house, strolling back into the bustling streets of Aurumville, taking in the sights and sounds of the city along the way. As they walked, Ethan asked them a bit about their interests and hobbies. Caleb simply said that he wanted to learn how to fight beasts while Ava said that she held a deep interest for the art of alchemy. Ethan was surprised to hear this because alchemy was a very high valued profession because it was especially difficult even for older people to learn. Alchemists were considered very talented individuals and we're well respected wherever they went.

"The person we are going to visit is actually a decent alchemist himself, even though he mostly specializes in engineering.", Ava explained. "Ah, here's his shop right here."

As they turned a corner, they came across a small secluded tech shop. The sign above the door read 'Niffty Nova Gadgets' and inside, they saw a scrawny looking young man with blond hair wearing a work apron and a pair of goggles arguing with a couple of people by the front counter.

"Oh no.", Ava's face darkened when she noticed who the people inside the store were. "It's Ryker again."

The trio approached cautiously and hid behind some items on display as they eavesdropped on the conversation.

"Come on, lad. We're giving you a pretty fair offer here.", said the man in the lead of the group of four, whom Ethan assumed was Ryker.

The blond haired young man snorted in distain. "Fair for whom? Why don't you give up and go home, Ryker. I'm not gonna let you rip me off."

Ryker's men chuckled sinisterly as they watched their boss mess with the young shop owner.

Ryker flashed a crooked smile and tapped a finger on the counter in front of him slowly. "How's business these past few days? Pretty slow, right? You're running out of materials, right? Well, we can fix all that for you in a jiffy, lad."

"You're the one limiting my resources, you bastard!" the young man retorted angrily, clenching his fist in anger.

Ryker backed away a bit and lifted his arms up in mock surrender. "Whoa now! Why so worked up? We're just offering to do you a favor in exchange for a few in return. So what do you sa–?"

"I think he was clear when he said that he wasn't interested."

Ethan finally couldn't sit still and decided to come out and confront the thugs. Ryker looked at Ethan in distain, clearly annoyed that he'd been interrupted.

"And just who the hell are you?" Ryker asked with a sneer. "Can't you see that we're handling some important business here?"

Ryker's three lackeys inched closer towards Ethan, cracking the knuckles menacingly. However, Ethan wasn't intimidated in the least. Each of the goons was only at the sixth level of the Vitalis Stage while Ryker himself was at the eighth level. Ethan was confident that he could handle of them just fine, with only minor difficulties.

With his head raised up confidently, Ethan walked calmly past the other bandits and stood directly in front of Ryker, looking him dead in the eye. "I came to handle some business of my own. Real business."

Ryker expression darkened. "Are you not aware of who I am? I am the sixth captain of the Blackclaw Brigade and this shop is under our jurisdiction. I'd advise you not to overstep your boundaries."

Ethan smirked, almost as if finding Ryker's words amusing. He turned to the blond shop owner standing behind Ryker. "This true?"

The young man had a calculating look on his face as he observed Ethan closely. After a moment of pondering, the shop owner smirked as well.

"Not at all.", He answered, making Ryker frown in displeasure. "Would you be so kind as to see them out?"

BANG!

Ryker slammed his fists onto the counter in anger. "You two think you can just mess with me and I'll just stand by and watch? Who do–"

"What's going on here?"

Everyone turned their heads and saw one of the city guards on patrol standing by the entrance of the store. Behind the man, Caleb and Ava stood with smug little grins on their faces, which only made Ryker want to slap them silly in anger.

"Nothing officer. These men were just leaving.", said Blondie, ceasing the god-sent opportunity. "Weren't you, Ryker?"

Ryker gritted his teeth, his eyes almost bloodshot from anger. He gave Ethan one last hateful glance before motioning to his men that they were leaving. Ryker gave Caleb and Ava a sidelong glare as well before they exited the shop.

Blondie let out a breath of relief, his eyes' lit up with gratitude as he looked at the city guard. "Thank you, officer."

The patrol officer simply gave a curt nod and took his leave. Blondie then turned to Ethan, Caleb and Ava and grinned.

"Of course, a big thanks to y'all as well.", said Blondie as he hopped into his counter and took off his goggles, revealing his ocean green eyes. "Long time no see, you two. Who's this friend of yours that's daring enough to stand against the Blackclaw Brigade?"

"Hey, No_Mic." Ava greeted him before pointing at Ethan. "This is our new friend Ethan. Ethan, this is one of our close friends, Norman Michael, amateur alchemist and well known tech wiz."

"But you can just call me No_Mic.", said No_Mic, rummaging somewhere behind his counter for something. "I believe you guys said that you have some business for me?"

Caleb nodded eagerly. "Yeah, Ethan has some good stuff that you might like."

No_Mic immediately stopped what he was doing and raised a brow in surprise, before looking at Ethan expectantly. "Well what are y'all standing around for? Let's get to it then."

•

After they had left No_Mic's tech shop, Ryker and his men stormed off into a popular tavern called The Rusty Goblet. The Tavern was actually owned by the boss of the Blackclaw Brigade and was always frequented by members of the organization in order to exchange information or just have a quick drink. Inside the bar, Ryker sat alone at one of the tables, pissed that some youngsters had gotten in the way of his 'business'.

For weeks, he and his crew had been pressuring No_Mic's business partners, effectively cutting off the engineer's supply of resources. Ryker's goal was to keep the young engineer under his thumb and force No_Mic to supply their Blackclaw Brigade with free weapons, equipment and all sorts of other good tech. The young man was a genius for anything tech related and Ryker was confident that if he was able to rope him in, No_Mic would be able to take their bandit organization to new heights.

Ryker downed his mug of beer in one go before slamming his mug onto the table in front of him. "Damn it! I was so close!"

"Looks like someone's had another rough day."

Ryker turned around and smiled when he saw a burley looking man with a scruffy beard walking towards his table.

"Butcher, my friend.", Ryker raised his mug in greeting. "Come join me for a drink."

Butcher snorted. "Only cause you want to rant to me about your troubles, as always."

Ryker chuckled and ordered his friend a mug of beer. "Isn't that what friends are for? Get this–"

Ryker proceeded to narrate his story about his run in with Ethan and the twins at No_Mic's shop. When Butcher heard Ryker's description of Ethan, Caleb and Ava, he could barely contain his anger and told his story of what had happened to him in the forest.

"It's that bastard again!" Butcher clenched his fists in anger, his eyes bloodshot. "It's a good thing he's still in the city. I need to kill that bastard with my own hands."

Ryker snickered and gave his friend a sly grin. "Well you're in luck, buddy. I asked one of my subordinates to find out about those three. Although I couldn't find any info about the black haired boy, I know that those kids are twins and that they have a single mother who owns a small noodle shop at the Aurum Bazaar."

"I have a fun little idea.", said Ryker, his eyes gleaming with malice. "Let's kidnap the twins' mother and force that black haired punk to come get her alone."

Butcher grinned at his friend, and they clinked their mugs together in a toast to their sinister plan.

________________________________________

A/N: Oh oh... it's not looking good for Lyra. I hope you like the new character, No_Mic_ :)

If anyone else wants to be a part of the story, leave a comment and be sure to vote with powerstones.

Have a good one!