Getting Ready [3] - Small sum of a million dollars

Months passed after that. Every night Silas went to the forest with his grandmother, his father, or Diveen. He was surprised that Diveen was willing to go with him, or that she was asked in the first place, but she seemed to willingly comply.

She had taken his father's place after his paternity leave ended. It was shocking that paternity leave for men was even a thing in this world, but he enjoyed it while it lasted.

Nevertheless, Silas increased his strength every day, but he knew that his increase in strength was nothing compared to before. Now, he had to stick to a schedule that gave him less time to train in the forest. At the same time, having someone around essentially crippled his body's progress since he needed to be hurt to strengthen his body, and not only did his supervisors not allow such a thing, but his body had strengthened to a point where he didn't even need to use any of his fusions to massacre a small group of pristine-garnet cored dire wolves.

His spells were overkill, and fusion ended the battles far too quickly for him to enjoy them or learn anything from them,

Over the months, Silas racked up quite a number of mana crystals. When his family saw his stash of mana crystals that he already had, they were completely gobsmacked. Unfortunately, he could not get the mana cores from the monsters and beasts he killed during the horde since they all went to Uladia's government.

His parents had asked him how he created the inferno spell, but he told them that he didn't really remember since everything was kind of a blur. He ensured the rune stone wasn't with them when they asked him the question.

Anyway, he was pretty happy that his grandmother let him keep the topaz crystal that he got from killing the shadowswarm. Sadly, he wouldn't be able to make a staff out of it since it wasn't really his chosen element.

At the same time, the staffs were far too expensive. Sure, he had a small fortune now that he was hunting, but he used all his money on books teaching advanced magic for all elements.

Besides that, there was another problem forming.

After he reached the age of 6, the official story was that he awakened the water, earth, and light elements. Even when he went hunting, he used only those elements. Monsters and beasts with elements were hard to find, so he didn't really get to use any other elements.

Rumors about him being a bastard son flew around occasionally, but his family didn't care.

Or at least that was before people began protesting on the streets about him and Nymira, the pink-haired girl.

Apparently, committing massacres around the forest, and inflating the price of mana crystals, beast scales, fur, and other beast parts wasn't something people praised.

Adventurers now had to hunt more, and even then, beasts were beginning to thin out of their part of the forest, also considered the "Safe section" of the forest.

Uladia's forest was enormous. It wasn't nearly as big as the elf settlement located between the Xylem kingdom and the Delaer empire. However, it was the largest in the county, and Uladia town was just outside it.

Due to the size of the forest, there was a certain hierarchy. Since the mana in the middle of the forest was far richer, stronger monsters and beasts could be seen when reaching the center. Some even say that there's a dull-ruby-cored creature in the middle of the forest, capable of wiping out most of the county within less than a day.

Nevertheless, this meant that going deeper into the forest was the only way to get stronger beasts, and despite begging his family to let him go deeper, they only allowed him to go up to the area where there were mostly only garnet-cored beasts with a few possible topaz cores.

The sound of whispering entered Silas' ears. Looking around, he saw that a few people were whispering while looking at him, but that was essentially a common occurrence now. He did see that his sister was beginning to get bullied, but after breaking a few arms and sending a few others to the clinic, no one dared to bully his sister.

It was well known that Silas was one of the most powerful people in the town. Well, the be completely accurate, he was only one of the strongest because that didn't really count in the guards who guarded the gates, or any of the church's or the chief's warriors.

The fact that he was one of the only mages in the town increased his reputation by a lot, but to find out that he was a healer too, and a toki user on top of that sent the entire town into an uproar.

They compared him to Nymira, but many doubted that he was at her level.

That was because almost all mages are incapable of using toki.

Toki and magic were seen as two different things, and even though some might have been able to use it before awakening, all the training they did essentially went down the drain the moment they awakened.

However, despite this, Silas was not told to not use toki outside their house or while hunting. His parents didn't really seem to have a problem with it.

After all, since one of his blessings was the light element, they figured they could tell everyone that the light element affinity allowed him to use toki.

Strolling through the town, Silas and Keira bought a few things, mainly food, and supplies.

However, when Silas reached the town square, he began to pace toward one of the booths.

"Hey." Silas announced his presence.

"Hey kid. How you doing?" A man with a lax demeanor nodded at Silas.

"Good, you?"

"I'm fine. You finally got your pocket change to by some of my armor?" He grinned. Silas had known the man for less than 6 days. He hadn't really bought anything from him since he didn't know what kind of armor he wanted.

Throughout that entire period, Silas dangled the bait over the man's head, making him think that he would spend enormous amounts of cash to buy armor.

"Me? Pocket money? Don't I earn more than you from hunting alone?" Silas chuckled.

"Yeah, but it doesn't count as a salary since you haven't joined the adventurer's association." The man harrumphed.

"Sure, sure. Anyway, how much do you think you can get me for a standard enchanted iron armor?" Silas asked.

"It's 50 silvers for plain armor, and 2 gold for enchanted."

"HA. You think you can scam me. It's fine, I'll go to one of the merchants and get some used armor." Silas laughed and walked away.

The man was certain Silas was bluffing, but after he saw Silas conversing with one of the merchants, he began to panic and ran over to Silas to convince him.

That man was clearly new to town. He was most likely a representative of a guild of blacksmiths and forgemasters. There was also a chance that he was in Uladia on behalf of a well-known blacksmith shop living in the central county.

There was a reason why Silas wasn't liked by merchants either. Merchants usually moved around the kingdom, or at the very least, the county. The town square was filled with merchants, but that didn't mean they were the only ones selling things there.

Blacksmiths, tailors, butchers, and even food vendors could be seen there. Merchants usually stayed for around a month or so before leaving the town and going to another.

However, within less than a week, in their eyes, Silas would go from a rich child with too much money to a scammer who would put them into bankruptcy if they tried the moment they heckled with him.

Of course, Silas tried maintaining a good relationship with most of those settled into Uladia. That way, they didn't tell the merchants about him. At the same time, they benefited greatly since Silas usually tipped them well.

Despite him making the lives of hunters difficult, others actually saw him in a good light. He was killing beasts and keeping the town safe. He was helping local business owners and scamming others.

He essentially had the entirety of the town's market in the palm of his hand.

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