Birth of the Legendary Battle Mage

Chapter 15

“Ahh, the town’s atmosphere is always murkier than the forest, right Russ?” Lance stretched his hands, signalling exhaustion as he spoke to Russ.

“Yeah. Although we couldn’t find the dragon’s lair, he had some good experience. Well expect for the assassins.”

“Alright, everyone should rest up, we’re already close to the inn so head inside. I’ll go send a report about the assassins to the Leader (the leader of their adventuring group).” Haggard said as he departed from them. ‘Those assassins were unnaturally strong. We were lucky that they attracted the attention of a Grandmaster class beast. That gave us enough time to escape because they were forced to face it.’

“mmmhmm.” ‘That should do it, as long as you are not a Demi-god class mage, nobody stands a chance against my memory manipulation. Hehehe. The only depressing thing so far is me wasting my alias.’ “Let’s go get something delicious to fill my stomach, I’ve been hungry for too long.” ‘Luckily, those assassins were quite the rich bunch.’ Julius watched the group as they walked down the road towards their inn from atop a building, before heading to a restaurant to get food.

They arrived at the town just before sundown, so the time was perfect since this was the time when street stands open for the night. Julius got quite the bag of money from the assassins, so he spoiled himself to the fullest, starting from expensive hotels to the streets, before entering the local bars. During his meal inside the last bar he entered, he overheard some men across the room from where he was sitting, talking about events happening within and around the town. Apparently, the town laws didn’t hold strong, so hooligans had it easy. Even the officials were corrupt and cared more about their safety and their pockets than the lives of the people. One particular thing caught his attention. According to the men, a village nearby had been suffering from beast attacks, but the town refuses to send help to the people of the village even after they made a direct request to the city lord.

Mana beasts are not creatures that are interested in humans, most of them won’t pay you any attention unless you invade their territory, get to close, or threaten them. So it’s not normal for them to suddenly start attacking villages out of the blue, without reason. ‘Nobody in that village is strong enough to enter deep into the forest, because of the pressure. Which means someone or something is causing the beasts in the forest to come out.’ Just as he was deliberating over the matter, he heard something else.

“Are you sure its just beasts? I heard some saying its a not just an ordinary beast, but a demonic beast.” One of the men said.

“You i***t you like to jinx things.”

“No this time I’m serious. In fact, I heard it from one of the villagers. He said that he could use magic and that he could feel strange energy from the beast.”

“Really? But he just said strange energy right? He didn’t say it was a demonic beast still. Are you just adding your own parts to the story again?”

“Well come on, everybody knows that when something feels strange especially in cases like that, it’s got to be related to a demon, right?”

*Murmuring*

“I did see a demonic beast that time. Although it wasn’t particularly strong, it could easily wreak havoc in a town, not to mention a village. If it’s a demon, then there’s a lot of investigation to be done.” Julius said in a quiet voice as he finished his table of food. Surely, after he started cultivating his stomach capacity became beastly. Even with that, the amount of food he consumed before midnight was impossible. Thanks to his magic that increases digestion by multiple times, his stomach doesn’t even get filled, so he can eat as much as he wants.

‘I’ll stop by the village tomorrow before heading back into the forest. Now that I’m in the middle stages of Core Formation, I just want to keep going. Damn this is so addicting.’ Julius lodged in an expensive inn for the night, just to spend the money he got from the assassins. For some reason, spending money that you know would not finish anytime soon felt good.

The next day, just before noon, after buying everything he needed including new clothes, some swords to practice with, shoes, and of course lots of food. He left for the forest. Since there’s no way he would have been travelling with all those things on his body, he stored them inside a dimensional space created using dimensional and space magic. If the adventurers saw this, they would surely meet the Yama of hell quicker than nature intends. On getting to the village he heard about, demonic mana was very much present around the village, and only got clearer and thicker as he moved inside. The place looked desolate, demonic mana is bad even for mages since it can corrupt one’s mana core, causing demonization. To normal people such as the people in the village, it would first cause illness, then death. Even Julius who always had a nonenthusiastic attitude and appearance, looked a little pissed as he saw the state of the place.

“Hey old man, what’s going on with this village? I heard a beast attacked, but why is everywhere so moody?” Julius asked an elderly man that was walking in front of him as he matched his pace with the old man’s so that they were now walking side by side. The old man seemed to be blind, so he probably would need to find someone else later. Since he had already asked the question, he might as well just listen to the answer.

The old man sighed before answering Julius’ question. “You must be passing by the village I suppose. But I’ll tell you something boy, those things aren’t beats, no. Those things are monstrous demons. I might be blind, but that doesn’t mean all my other senses are dull.”

“Old man, you seem to be very perceptive, can you use magic?”

“Ahh, no boy. I use to be an aux warrior back in the days, when I retired I decided to spend my last days in the village I grew up in. I was born blind you see, so I utilized my mana to boost my other senses.”

Julius and the man continued talking for a while. Julius learned that the demonic beast has been attacking the village, killing villagers and destroying a lot of property each time it came. But the last time it came, a saviour appeared and killed it. So since then the attacks stopped. The saviour was injured, so she has been resting in one of the houses near the village head’s residence. After that, Julius went ahead to check the beast’s corpse. “It really is a demonic beast. And it was strong too. From the looks of it, the person who fought with it struggled a bit. I would like to meet this saviour myself, hmm.” He stood just next to the corpse, rubbing his chin as he spoke in a quiet voice.

“Young man, you shouldn’t stand so close that corpse.” As Julius turned to see who was talking, a man who looked about 60 – 70 years old stood some feet away from him. He had a muscular and healthy looking physic for someone his age, and was quite tall. Julius was 180cm in height, but this man must have been around 210cm.

“Ahh yes, of course.” Julius responded as he moved away from the corpse towards the man.

“I haven’t seen you before. What business do you have coming to our village? Surely you must have heard of the current state of the village before you came.” The man looked a little vigilant. It was quite clear that he was suspecting Julius.

“I did. I came to see for myself what actually was happening, for my own personal reasons. It’s clear that I am been suspected right now, but you shouldn’t worry. I came to fix this problem of demonic beasts attacking the village since the town ruler has refused to send support. When I got here, I heard some saviour helped the village to kill this one.”

“Yes, thanks to her we were able to subdue and kill it this time without any casualties.”

“Ah, nice one gramp.” At this point, the fact that Julius had been talking to the old man very informally was starting to get to him.

“You know, I’m way older than you.” He was starting to lose it a little.

“Yes I agree. But you look way monstrous for your age too...” all of a sudden, Julius’ face got serious, with his eye brows squeezing against each other as if he had realised something. “Is this some kind of hereditary deformative???”

Now the old man was angry, because the expression on the young man’s face who hadn’t taken his hands off his chin was belittling. It was a combination of a nonchalant and a serious look, done in such a mocking way. At least, one or two bulging veins were probably visible on the old man.

“Are you doing this on purpose boy? I am the village chief you know?”

“Uh? Really? I actually thought you were maybe the leader of the village guards or something. But the village chief? Now that’s a shocker.”

“You disrespectful brat!” The village chief dropped a balled fist on top Julius’ head, but something felt weird about his attack.

“Now now gramps. Why don’t we just calm down and try not to talk like angry people.” His fist was stopped with two fingers. He was an aux warrior when he was young, and served in the military for many years. He still is an aux warrior, it’s not like he stopped being one, and his strength is as much as that of the royal head warrior, even at his age. Yet, this boy could block his attack so effortlessly, using just two fingers no less. “I know I am strong. But still, your size is still a little intimidating. I didn’t know if my head would fly off. Phew.”

“I am... Ettar. I did co...” As he was speaking, he heard a voice that sounded familiar call his name.

“Brother?”

‘Wait, this voice.’ He turned immediately to look for the owner of the voice. His eyes lit up a little in surprise. ‘Ashia?’

“Oh sorry, you happen to look like someone I know. It’s my fault am sorry.” Her voice sounded down. It was obvious she had remembered something hurtful, as it was clear in her eyes.

“Miss Ashia!” The village chief said, “You should still be resting. I know the injuries that couldn’t be healed were dressed, but they might bleed if you move too much.” With that he faced ‘Ettar’. “This is the person who saved our village, Miss Ashia. Miss Ashia, this young man is Ettar.”

“Nice to meet you. Again, I’m sorry about earlier.” She stretched out her hand offering a handshake, but it was not received by ‘Ettar’.

“Ashia. Do you not recognize your own brother?” Julius said with a little smile on his face. The speech was perfect and the smile was exactly the way he Ashia remembered the last time she saw him smile. Tears that she held back moments ago burst out as she rushed him, burying hear head in his chest while hugging him tightly.

“Brother!” She tried to speak, but the tears and crying wouldn’t allow her, as she stumbled on her words. Julius just rubbed his hand through her hair as he consoled her. The village chief was so confused at the situation before him.

“It’s ok, cry your pain out. I’m here now, I’m still alive.” His own eyes felt watery, as he held back his tears. He could feel the pain she went through. After minutes of consoling her, a roll of tear dropped from the corner of his left eye.

“Are both of you alright? This is an unexpected surprise. We should head inside.” The chief said to Julius as he wiped his tears. He also wiped the tears and mucus off Ashia’s face with a piece of cloth he pulled out from one of his pockets. The crying made her weak, and her injuries started bleeding in some parts, probably because of the way she hugged her brother. So Julius carried her for a while before she fell asleep from exhaustion. The elder led them away from the corpse, towards the houses.