Chapter 14: Side story: some bystander’s perspective.

"Hey, you still keeping that adventures dream of yours? You know you don't have any mana at all right?" He said to me while I was swinging my sword over and over again.

"Yeah, yeah. Anything's possible. Also, to answer your question, money," I replied while wiping off my sweat.

"Then why don't you just be a merchant like me?" He retorted. "That ought to earn more right?" 

"Just wait till a bandit ambushes you."

"Ahh, a bandit. help me oh great adventurer!"

"Just get behind my back oh desperate merchant! The last thing these fools will ever see is the edge of my blade!"

An awkward silence arrived making me sweat with nervousness.

Did I mess up?

"That's..." My friend worded which made me curious and frightened about the upcoming climax. "Sound cool!"

He laughed at my "cool" short speech which made me ultimately laugh beside him too. Not gonna lie, it was cringe though.

This is the town of Uru. Northeast side of the empire of Fama.

The town is relatively peaceful and monsters don't attack that much and when they do, adventurers get rid of them.

Now adventurers do get paid a lot. I dunno how much but I heard it depends on the mission.

This got me intrigued by them and dreamt of becoming one of them.

By the way, I'm 14 years old. To register, people needed to be at least 15 years old so I only have one year now. One year of training.

"See ya later, Zed!" My friend said before he ran towards his home which was a bit far not gonna lie.

I waved my hand at him before going to an alley.

By the way, as my friend said, my name is Zed. I'm a werebeast in a town full of humans so people can already guess what kind of situation I'm in. Also, I do have a fluffy tail and wolf-like ears but I tend to hide them.

These alleys have a complicated system and people can easily get lost. Not for me though, I'm smart enough to know the turns.

After a few left and right turns, I finally manage to get to my destination. My house, or whatever this is.

It consists of leather that serves as a ceiling and two sticks to support its heaviness. Some bags here and there that I sometimes take during hunts and my treasure box.

This treasure box has all the money and valuables that I own. I'm trying to save some coins so that I could afford the equipment for my adventure.

Since the alleys are complicated, no one ever got to this place, except for me of course.

Food is not a problem too because stealing from stores without them noticing is easy.

Maybe, just maybe, I could get a better life than this. That is, of course, if I worked hard enough.

Good night.

***

A cold evening.

The walls that surrounded my small house were big enough to block the wind yet somehow, it was still... Cold.

A lingering feeling suddenly sprouted inside my chest. Somehow, I can tell something is coming.

With nothing but pure instinct, I immediately ran from my sleep going left and right at fast speeds. It would be an understatement to say that I'm scared.

What's happening? Why am I like this? Is my "other side" acting up again? 

My other side, let's just say it's just my body moving without my consent. Complaining would be a waste of breath because every time it would act up, something bad will happen. That doesn't mean I won't retaliate though.

Shit, my treasure box. Stop, stop, stop, stop, STOP!!! I told you to STOP!!!

Whatever I do, my body wouldn't listen. Even when I tried to force myself to stop, it wouldn't even budge. Now I'm about to see why.

A huge explosion erupted beside my home. What comes next is a full barrage of shockwaves destroying everything around it.

With every passing second, years' worth of hard work continues to deteriorate into nothingness. Yet all I could do is watch it silently. It was painstaking in the least.

Tears erupted from my eyes but I forced myself to be strong. It is, but a shame to my race.

No such time for grieving. I'll search for my treasure's remains later.

I steeled my resolve. Now, it's time to find an escape. Survival will be my priority. Whatever it takes, I will survive.

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First off, the routes. The passage system of these alleys is very complicated. That will not be a problem as I completely memorised it immediately after getting here.

The explosion that destroyed my house indicates that there is some kind of fight around here.

Going the opposite way where the fight is happening would be the best option. While I was thinking, my body is already going to where I wanted it to.

It seems that my "other side" have the same conclusion as me.

I ran on four limbs at insane speeds to the point that the walls and rooftops that I'm running on immediately get destroyed.

This doesn't stop me because every time they got destroyed, I'm long gone. As in I'm already far away before they got obliterated.

It wasn't before long I found a very dense human crowded at the roads. Since I can't control my body, I just jumped above those crowds and went on to my run.

While all of these are happening, explosion upon explosion wear heard behind me. All of that was okay up until now. A huge explosion erupted but this time, it was so strong that it made the most powerful shockwaves I have ever seen.

Not before long, my instincts and my other side went haywire. My body movement became slow and my senses became dull. The pain slowly crept up on me slowly but surely. Until it became unbearable.

With little to no strength, I crash-landed into one of the rooftops destroying everything. It also might have fractured most of my body's bones which almost knocked me unconscious.

Now, my will is the only thing that keeps me from being out cold. All of those hardships were gone in an instant yet somehow, I still find hope within me. Suddenly, a spark came in. A spark of a new dream.

I want to keep this pain away from everyone. The pain of suddenly losing everything.

For some people, it was petty but for me, it was everything.

***

It is an underestimation to say that I'm shaken. To be honest, I'm honestly scared right now.

This is the town of Uru. My team and I came here today because of a coincidence.

We were supposed to investigate, or rather, scout the empire of Fama if it survived the calamity or not and surely, it didn't. It was a relatively weak empire but we had to make sure.

There are many pros and cons to this event and one of them was us having a piece of their land. This town was one of them.

It took us half a month to get here due to the distance and we're now about to make a report to the king. Just how unexpected this was.

A big crater. No other words could describe it better.

It's just a big crater spanning over 2km and yet I'm scared.

People who use mana will always leave some mana behind after a big fight. Since I'm a scout, detecting them is one of my expertise yet I can't sense anything at all. As if someone already cleaned it up. That's not even the worse part.

"Hey, Reinhard, could you cast a spell here?" I asked one of my colleagues.

"On it, what kind of spell?" Reinhard said with a rather confused voice. He had black hair and blue eyes. He also has a standard uniform for scouting.

"Anything will do, just aim it inside the crater."

"Roger that, water: pressure!"

A destructive yet elegant form of water came out of his hands aiming at the crater at full speed. Despite this, the moment the spell came in contact with the crater, it began to lose its mana until it became nothing. It was fast, so fast that it all happened in less of a second.

Reinhard stood there in shock while I was nodding here covering up my nervous behavior.

"This is the most terrifying thing I have ever seen," Reinhard said.

"Block all of the news about this immediately. No one should ever find out about this and no one will ever leak this one out to the public. If someone ever leaked this, that soldier along with his family will be executed immediately. Kill if necessary, even if it's a civilian or a toddler. Never let any mages study this crater, UNDERSTOOD?!!"

""Yes!""

My whole battalion yelled in a chaotic yet synchronized way. Some had disapproving faces but it was not the time to deny such orders. They shouldn't.

I hope this won't start any trouble. A place with absolutely no mana is a place where the strongest mages fall. In other words, the strongest trump card. And my country needs this, for the greater good.

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