Chapter Five
Marcellus luckily had a satchel with him to bring the monster parts from the beasts to sell in the market. Unfortunately, the most important issue for him at the moment was entering the city. He was not sure if the guards would allow him to bring a living elemental with him into the city so he simply had Alyssa hide in the satchel with the beast parts.
He approached the guard who took notice of him as soon as he stepped outside the forest. He tried to hide his nervous look but was failing terribly. The guard asked him, "Who are you?" Marcellus put up his hands and replied, "I am from the Mercenary association. I got lost a few days ago and am now returning from a quest."
The guard had no choice but to believe him as he looked younger than 16 and you could only get identification from the association after becoming a hunter. Just in case the guard told him, "Open your bag kid I want to check." Marcellus opened the satchel slightly, displaying the bones and meats from the beasts he had killed.
"Kid don't lie to me, did you accept a hunting quest?" the guard asked with suspicion. Marcellus realizing what the guard was thinking quickly replied, "No sir I was supposed to look for some flowers and got lost but stumbled upon a mother and son lion dead in the forest. I decided to clean them and collect their materials so that I could make some money. Originally I also wanted to sell the beast souls as well but they were already taken from the corpses.
The guard thought that a mid-tier mage probably passed by and left the kill taking only the soul to evolve. "Alright, come inside," finally said the guard while signaling the other guards to open the gate. "Thanks," Marcellus told him kindly. He entered the city again for the first time in over a week and saw all the familiar locations of the commoner's section.
He made his way through the commoner's section with his tattered battle gear until he finally reached the shop he was looking for the "Savage Hunt." It was a type of restaurant that also distributed rare meats and bones for manufacturing weapons and producing rare foods. The restaurant was full and had lavish decorations throughout the hall.
He walked to the reception desk. "Can I get you a table sir?" asked the host at the counter. "Ah, no. I'm here to sell some items," replied Marcellus a bit shyly. "Would that be in our auction or to our establishment?" asked the host pulling out a ledger. "With the company," Marcellus told the man. Recording the information he asked, "And your name sir?"
"Marcellus," he responded. The host took another second to organize the ledger and check the time before closing it and saying, "All right everything is in order, please follow me." Another host came and took the man's place while he escorted Marcellus to a back room. The hallways were elaborate and decorated with gold linings and white marble walls. Suddenly the man stopped in the hallway and opened a door to his right making way for Marcellus. Marcellus walked through and then he shut the door returning to his spot at the desk.
Inside the room was a small table and a woman sitting on a couch. "Come in, sit down," she said enthusiastically waving him towards the couch on the other side of the table. He sat down setting the satchel next to him on the floor. He took out a bit of the lion's meat for the lady to see. She sniffed the meat exclaiming "Ironhide lion,two, beast cub. That would make it a tier one beast. Oh and I also smell the mother in there. How many pounds of the cub do you have?"
"I have 40 pounds of the cub and 85 pounds of adult meat." She looked at him once again and questioned, "How many pounds of bone do you have?" Marcellus gave her an estimate, "About 100 pounds but it's lightweight," he said, bringing out the rest of the satchel. She nodded, "I'll give you 1 gold for the cub meat, 20 gold for the adult, and 15 gold for the bone. Marcellus thought for a moment, he knew that her prices were cheaper than the actual prices but he was only 15 and could not do anything about it.
"Sounds good," he said as she handed him a small bag with the correct amount of gold which he counted. "Please consider doing business with us again," she said as he went through the door. He smirked and continued walking, slightly annoyed that she ripped him off. Upon leaving he thanked the host and exited.
All together Marcellus now had 86 gold. He was hoping for a fair price so that he could afford a new place to live but unfortunately, that was not the case.He headed for the slums back to his house. Although it was not late in the day he was tired because of the trip and the constant training with the elemental. His house just entered his view when his path was suddenly blocked.
He didn't even have to look up to know who it was. "Acrisius, to be so annoying you must have some type of brain damage," Marcellus said looking into his face. Acrisius swung his fist and hit Marcluus in the face but something unexpected happened. Acrisius fell to his knees holding his fist in pain. Marcellus was chuckling softly at the scene, having used his earth mana to turn himself to stone.
He shook his head smiling, "You need to learn when to stop." He punched him in the face as hard as he could with his fist turned to stone. Acrisius flew to the floor and a loud, "crack" was heard. The rest of Acrisius' crew flinched and took a step back not wanting to suffer the same fate.
Looking at Acrisius it was clear that his jaw was broken. "I'm going to tell the boss! You won't get off that easy," a one of Acrisius' friends said, wincing with every word. Acrisius got up and his crew led him away around their shoulders. Marcellus watched with a small grin on his face and headed over to his house. He reached his house quite quickly and sat down in the middle of the room pulling out some monster meat jerky. He snacked on it until he was full then he lay down looking at the ceiling: thinking. He thought about the last week and how much his life had changed.
It was incredible for a kid from the slums to have such lucky encounters with different people and beings. Even though he was lucky, he felt that he had made the most of each situation and would not have gotten this far without his hard work. A gentle smile grew on his lips as Alyssa crawled onto his chest curling up into a ball.
For Marcellus this was incredible: it had been a long time since he felt so at peace with everything around him. He wanted to enjoy that moment to the full extent knowing that Acrisius' boss was no ordinary person but a tier three mage. Marcellus was worried because from one tier to the next there was a massive difference in power, but he wanted to relax and leave the problems for later.
Life on the other hand always found ways to make sure that Marcellus never got any rest. As his eyes were closing he barely managed to see a shadow enter the room. He immediately reacted and turned his body to stone and heard a "dink" immediately followed by a gasp. A scrawny man with black hair and a mask was standing over him with a dagger on his chest, thankfully he reacted fast enough to turn his body to stone before the knife penetrated his chest.
His many years on the streets had taught him to be vigilant and know when someone was trying to rob him but the same concept applied to anyone who was trying to approach him. He punched the man off him and pushed him to the ground, molding the earth around the man's hands so that he couldn't move.
Thinking that the situation was handled, Marcellus pushed himself off the man. He turned around to grab the water bucket on the other side of the room but suddenly the man was no longer restrained and the rock that was holding him down before was now melted into lava. 'A mage' he immediately thought dodging the stream of fire headed his way. "Who are you?" Marcellus asked with genuine curiosity he knew that the other person was only a tier one mage because he felt that his magic was much less than his.
The man ignored him and rushed him with the knife again. This time the man was much faster with his attacks and he filled in the gaps in his knife technique with fire magic. Marcellus had just learned swordsmanship and was not a match for this person who was trained. While he managed to dodge most of the knife attacks every single flame was hitting and his mana was getting exhausted. His combat art was too sophisticated and Marcellus had no chance to attack but he was starting to see a pattern.
In a split second where Marcellus had found the smallest possible gap in attacks, he shot an earth spike from his chest. The mage put up a wall of flame that melted the spike and Marcellus reached into the ground and pulled out a steel sword. He rushed the man using parts of the man's technique that he could remember along with others that earth elemental had taught him. He pushed the man back and suddenly Marcellus stopped his attacks and simply kicked the man in the chest.
The assassin collapsed down to the ground and didn't move. "I know you are out of mana, you can't fight anymore. So, tell me who are you?" Marcellus said once again binding the man's hands. The assassin looked at Marcellus and sighed. "Sorry," he said in a tired voice. "I was a book printer for a noble company but one day my daughter was kidnapped and I was forced to become an assassin for Albin." Marcellus almost choked when he heard that name "Albin". Albin was the boss of Acrisius and his gang.
'So he sent an assassin after me when I couldn't pay? That doesn't make any sense. If he killed me he wouldn't get any money,' Marcellus pondered the situation for a moment before asking, "Did he tell you why you had to kill me?" The assassin shook his head. Then suddenly Marcellus recalled a rumor that because of damage to his body Albin was not able to evolve to tier 4 and was stuck on three. 'Maybe he has to deal with mages quickly because he can't defend himself against anyone past tier three.
Marcellus undid the restraints on the man's hands and helped him up. "You have to get your daughter back, and I have to get rid of Albin. Let's ally ourselves, for now, I help you and you help me." The assassin scratched his head and then said, "I have no choice. I can't bear to let my daughter suffer anymore because of my cowardice."
Marcellus nodded and replied, "Well the first step would be reaching the next tier as neither of us can kill him as we are now. I will leave the city immediately and go to the forest to evolve, you go back and report my death to Albin. Meet me back here in a week and we will get rid of him." The assassin nodded immediately as he could not offer a better plan and immediately left the house for the commoner's section.
Marcellus packed his things into his satchel and made a tunnel under his house leading out of the city, patching it back up as he went along. He managed to reach the outskirts of the city right before nightfall.