07 - First Day in The City

After a few days of mental preparation Beat flew up, with just a few seconds he made a sonic boom, he flew until he was below cloud level, from there he stopped and looked down, with his heart loudly beating against his chest, he stared at the small island below and the other beside it, looking a bit farther he saw a huge island in the distance.

'I guess that's Madagascar huh.' After looking around some more and only seeing blue, he checked the direction one more time he took off to the north, flying at more than Mach five, he felt as if he was just jogging even at this extreme speed, he once more confirmed the absurd power that he now possessed, he had now a bit more than fifteen thousand of PL, he also didn't know the true limit of his physical strength as the weights he used to train didn't strain him anymore. Thinking of the future he couldn't wrap his head around the strength and speed he will have in the millions, billions, and beyond.

'I wonder if this universe has someone that can keep up?' While thinking this he couldn't help but chuckle at his thoughts, in the beginning when he realized where he was, he felt relieved to know that this was a weak version of the Marvel universe, but now he felt that it will be lacking challenges, he found himself wishing that this will not be a limited universe like the MCU, but a universe with all of what the Marvel has to offer even if he didn't know the dangers that it may bring with it.

Flying through the sky, high enough to not be seen even if someone were to be looking up, he shot off leaving a ten meters tail of whitish energy fading behind, after an hour he arrived at the north part of the African continent, he had to change direction a bit after he found out he would pass completely off his destination if he continued going north in a straight line.

Beat was now looking for the biggest concentration of humans life forces he could find, he had passed by humans while flying above the desert so he knew what to search, Beat has increased the limit of his precise senses to a few kilometers, it was like looking at something small in the distance, with practice he was getting better, he could increase his range if he concentrated but he didn't think it was necessary, he was in no hurry, after a few minutes looking around the desert while flying at the side of a huge river, he sensed huge life forces in the distance.

"Holy shit! Is that the Eternals? I thought they were much weaker than this, they seem as strong as me if not stronger!" Beat said while stopping mid-air.

'But in the movie they got their asses kicked to a few deviants, this doesn't make sense.' While moving again, this time slower Beat began trying to understand what was going on.

'With my strength I'm certain I could one punch those weak-looking deviants that appeared in the movie, if the Eternals have the same power level as me, they should've been able to do the same.'

'Unless this energy is being used to other things, if I remember correctly they have limitless cosmic energy, but it's been used to make them immortal, this and their stupidly high physical resistance, Druig wasn't even combat-oriented and he tanked a full power laser beam from Ikaris that was clearly trying to kill them, thinking about it makes sense, just because their power level is high didn't mean they are as strong or fast as me.'

'I'm not in the DBZ world, the power level here will not always be raw destructive power... I think.' Finishing his line of thought he moved his attention to where he felt the big life forces, concentrating on that direction he felt a great number of small ones all relatively together, it must be the city, he thought.

After flying over a small mountain he finally saw in the distance a huge city with tall blue walls, he landed a few kilometers away and began walking the rest of the way, after some minutes he arrived at the constructions in front of the city, looking around Beat was slightly surprised.

'Those are signs of combat, and it seems recent too'. Beat began to look around until he saw a group of people around something, curious Beat walked in their direction, getting close he finally remembered, he didn't know the language.

'Shit.' He decided to look into the shop later to see if he could find something helpful, while thinking he had closed the distance to the crowd, he made his way through the people, while pushing them out of the way as gently as he could, he arrived at the front and saw what caused the commotion.

'Deviants! Dead ones, so it's theirs doing.' Looking around to the people gawking and pointing fingers at the dead beasts Beat understood what was going on, 'This is just like a car accident, everyone stopping by to see what is going on while forgetting or just ignoring that people might have died.' Beat thought while also being aware of himself doing the same thing.

He lost interest quickly, so he exited the gathering and crossed the gates, no one stopped him, there were guards in the gates but they just eyed him strangely, Beat guessed that it might be the hair. Walking through what seemed like the guards resting quarters, navigating to the most populated area he entered deeper into the city until he arrived at what could only be seen as a market, stalls on the two sides of the road with people screaming repeatedly the same thing, announcing their products, there were lots of things, clothes, foods, grains, animals, tools of all different kinds and more.

Beat stopped at one stall, this one selling clothes, fabric, and leather, looking at the distinct lack of colors he sighed, 'I think they don't have artificial colors yet.'

He then looked to the clothes for sale and shook his head, 'I don't have this city currency, but even if I had I would not use those things.'

He frowned while looking at the robes and thongs, he didn't like it, the experience of the fur he was wearing when he first came to this world still bothered him, even if he used underwear he didn't think he could use something that wasn't pants, looking down he saw his clothes, the ones Frigga have given him, it was all battered, he had been using it for a year now, he washed it of course, but using just one piece of clothing for so long was too much, he tried making new ones with leather and fur of the animals he hunted, but it ended horribly, after a few tries and some really bad creations, he gave up.

While he was daydreaming about his clothing problem, he was awakened by a weak pull in his waist and a scream from the stall owner, looking up he saw the man was shouting something while pointing to his left, looking in that direction he saw a skinny kid not taller than himself running with a leather bag in his hand, the small leather bag Beat was carrying around, he had been stolen, and the thief was right now running away.

Beat looked around and saw something funny, a few stall owners in the vicinity were screaming while pointing at the fleeting boy, they must be calling the guards or something, of course they would, the kid had just robbed a possible buyer.

'I guess this is a normal thing in every era.' Beat thought while internally laughing at this situation, he wasn't going to run after the little thief, why should he? That bag was full of rocks, it was just to make the sellers think he had money and not think he was a beggar or something, so this way he could look around without everyone staring at him with hostility, Beat had read too much of those cliches wuxia novels, he wasn't getting any of that. He pitied the kid as he stole his fake money, he didn't look healthy at all, Beat just shook his head he wasn't going help the kid, in every era there was poverty, this is who the humans are, he wasn't a horrible person who couldn't empathize with the suffering of strangers, but it was just that he didn't think he would go around helping people.

That aside, he was just looking around right now, he wanted new clothes but seeing what the people wore he decided to try craft his own clothes until he became good or find another alternative, there wasn't anything he wanted to buy right now so he was just looking around. Seeing that there wasn't anything he wanted he decided to explore the rest of the city, it hasn't passed even one minute and he saw in the distance two guards jumping on the surprised kid, it seems they were prepared for this and had planned an ambush.

'A bit too much if you ask me.' While this was happening at the corners of his vision, Beat saw four kids sneaking to the food stalls, they each had a bag on their shoulders, while the owners were paying attention to the thief they used this distraction to stuff their bags with fruits, vegetables, and lots of bread. They were swiftly, as fast as they appeared they were gone, as they were sneaking out one of them looked back, she like all of them was skinny, had long messy dirty hair, Beat didn't know if she was a boy or a girl but looking at her face he would guess a girl, she had a look of concern while staring at the one that was caught, one of the other three made gestures to her and quickly pulled her away from the main street, she gave one more glance behind and as she did she met eyes with Beat, he had an amused smirk on his face while looking at her, she panicked thinking he was going to expose them, but to her surprise, he just made a gesture of shooing her away with his hand while he turned around, she was confused but she quickly began to run away nonetheless.

After seeing the four kids vanishing from his sight, Beat looked back at the little captured thief, the owner of the clothing stall marched on the kid's direction while fuming in anger and shouting what Beat could tell were profanities just based on the anger evident in his voice, he pointed at the kid's hand then at Beat while saying something, one of the guards snatched the bag from the kid's hand and threw it at the clothes seller, the man fumbled with the bag but couldn't catch it, the bag fell on the ground, with a few rocks scattering on the ground, the clothing seller had a confused look on his face that quickly changed to anger when he saw the contents of the bag, at this moment the others had returned and realized that their properties had been robbed, they screamed their confusion and anger at the robbers.

Looking around and quickly connecting the dots in his head the clothes seller said "|It must've been these pests doing, distracting us while the others rats stole our goods!|"

After his bag full of rocks fell Beat knew that he would possibly be in trouble, after that man screamed something while pointing at him, the thief, and seeing the look of everyone around him change, he knew that he definitely was in trouble, he could just run but seeing these kids he decided to play along a little more, just to make sure.

He looked down at the little thief that had been struggling all this time and sighed, looking at the desperation in the kid, Beat could more or less predict what will happen to him. Right now one of the guards was walking in his direction, with a spear in hand and saying something Beat didn't understand.

"|Surrender thief!|" the guard said while holding a spear at Beat's neck, Beat, of course, didn't understand anything, but he didn't want to cause problems right now, there will come the right moment to escape, and now in the middle of a crowd wasn't the best one, if he still wanted to move around the city as an unknown person it was best if he didn't attract too much attention.

|"Move!"| screamed the angry guard while pushing the two kids forward, the scrawny kid few down because of the strength of the push, Beat pretended to stumble giving a few steps forward, then he went to help the kid stand up.

The kid nodded to him and they began walking while being escorted by the guards, the kid kept sending side glances at Beat while they were walking until he finally spoke.

|"so-sorry... for dragging you into this...| the kid said looking at Beat sideways, then to the ground, he kept staring down waiting for a response, but seeing Beat wasn't responding he looked up, Beat was looking at the kid with a blank face, he didn't have any idea of what the kid said.

|B-But you should've said to them that you didn't know me, and-and what was that? A bag full of rocks, what you're planning to do with that? Buy a lot of things and throw the bag at them and hope they don't check it?| he quickly murmured with a frustrated voice, just loud enough to Beat hear.

Then the kid sighed and said |"They got me this time, but you will see my friends help us, then-"| Beat seeing that the kid wouldn't stop speaking nudged him with an elbow, when the kid looked at him, he pointed a the angry guard, they were frowning while looking at them, the kid saw that he was very close to beating him up.

|"If you have time to speak then walk faster!"| the angry guard said while poking his spear on the kid's arm.

"Agh!"

The other guard just sighed, |Stop it, you know they're doomed as of now, if they want to cry, complain, it doesn't matter.|

The guard with the spear just groaned but didn't do anything anymore, they soon arrived at a place full of guards, they were led to a building and when they were in, the guards talked to each other, looking at the kid's face Beat saw that what they said scared him, two guards quickly grabbed the two kids and dragged them to the floor below the ground, Beat recognized this as some sort of dungeon to keep prisoners, they passed a few strong-looking wood doors that were on both sides of the corridor, after they passed a few doors, the guards opened one and shoved the kids inside, locking the door while leaving.

*

*

*

Beat was with his back against the door with arms crossed seemingly looking at the air, the cell they were in was three cubic meters, with just a small caged window to illuminate it on the wall in front of the door, the floor, and the walls were humid, especially the left corner beside the window, where there was a hole on the ground he could guess the purpose of, he had made one back in the island too, although the one he made was much cleaner.

There was also a ragged man lying down facing the wall at the Beat's right, he seemed to be sleeping, Beat and the kid had been thrown at this cell a few hours ago, Beat had arrived on the city in the morning, he guessed that it was almost noon, he was seriously considering leaving right now, but looking at his left he stopped, sitting down while hugging his knees was the kid that was arrested with him, he didn't know the reason but the kid began crying a few minutes after they were in, he stopped after an hour but he had been silent since then.

Looking back at the system screen he frowned.

***

PSYCHIC ENERGY MANIPULATION

MAGIC MATERIALIZATION

***

He had been searching for skills to help his clothes and communication problems, although there was an incredible amount of skills, he didn't know exactly what they did and the system didn't show anything no matter what Beat did, after scrolling for minutes he selected those two, for the names it seemed that they would give what he was looking and much more, the price wasn't a problem, as a saiyan, he eats a lot, so in the time he was on the island he traveled to the African continent for different types of meats and fruits, he killed several big animals in the earth and the sea as combat training in those months too, after one year they gave him hundreds of thousands of coins, he earned more coins the stronger the being he killed was and he had killed lots of those in the sea, he stored what he didn't eat so right now he had hundreds of years of meat waiting to be cooked in his inventory and sufficient coins to use.

When Beat was about to buy the skills he heard a voice to his side, closing the system he looked at the one saying things he didn't understand.

|"Don't you get tired? You have been standing ever since we're thrown here."| said the kid with a hoarse voice, Beat noted that his eyes were red from all the crying, he just ignored the kid after a glance, the kid seeing this frowned.

|"Say something! You didn't speak this whole time, what's your problem!"|

Seeing the kid screaming at him Beat just sighed and pointed his finger at his ear and mouth while shaking his head. He didn't know what he was saying but he could tell that the kid wasn't happy with his lack of response, so he decided that for now, he will pretend to be deaf.

'Heh! He fell for it.' Thought Beat while seeing the kid's eyes widening in realization then understanding. After this he didn't try to talk to Beat anymore, soon the night fell and Beat now was waiting until midnight to get them out, first, he wanted to see what the guards would do to them, he didn't know what the punishment for theft was but he remembered that in some eras they would cut an ear, a finger or a hand and in the worst case, death, if it was the latter two he would beat everyone up and leave with the kid, he wasn't so sure about the first two but he thought that he would most likely interfere too.

He knew that it was normal in those times but as a modern man he didn't want his conscience heavy because he let a kid be mutilated or killed, more so knowing that he was just trying to survive, looking at the boy, he saw that he was so skinny that he could see his ribs, he also was dirty and wearing just a rag around his crotch, Beat also could hear his stomach growling all this time, Beat himself was starving.

In the middle of the night when Beat couldn't sense any life force besides the other prisoners from the other side of the door, he began to move toward the caged window, when he was in the middle of the cell he sensed three small presences coming directly at his cell two stopped a few dozen meters away and one came directly at his cell.

|"Kai! Kai! Wake up, you idiot!"| looking at the window he saw the girl that was stealing food in the morning.

'Well, let's see what they will do.' With a smile, Beat went to wake up the kid.