"Deli...."
When he was about to say something, he choked on the rice he ate. Like a King Kong, he repeatedly hit his chest finally letting the rice slide to his belly.
"Hah...Hah...It was delicious." Finally the words he wanted to speak left his mouth.
Aunt Yi chuckled and said, "That's the first time you complimented my cooking."
"Oh?" Oslo turned red and faked a cough, "I'll be going now and will be back in few days. Tell Ric that he can do as he wishes."
When he reached the door, Aunt Yi spoke, "Wait, you just arrived home and you're already leaving?"
"Haha, I've some work, sorry to trouble you again." After saying that, his shadow disappeared immediately.
Aunt Yi was dazed at how fast he was to run again. She then picked up the plate and returned to her house with a smile.
Oslo on the other hand was very happy because of the message he had received. His face was brimming with joy. It was the notification from the bank that he had received money on his account. From what he could guess, it was an advance payment transferred from Anna. If he didn't do her job even now then he was doomed.
But for now he was happy that he had received the money. As the saying went, if you have money, then you should spend it. What he wanted was to pay the debt and get it over with but he realized something.
'I don't have their address. How am I going to find them to pay them?'
Even though he had just received two million dollars as an advance payment from Anna, he couldn't just put it in use. How could he? After all, he didn't know where the money hounds resided.
Now that I think about it, I never asked them where they lived. Oslo gritted teeth and and cursed himself for his carelessness.
"Looks like, I'll have to wait till they again come to rampage in my house."
Oslo even with the sum felt powerless. The hounds came a week and would destroy their house and leave after asking for money. As Aunt Yi said, it was day before yesterday when they last rampaged on his house, so could guess that next time they arrive would at least take three more days. Oslo thought about it for a while decided to go to the Magic Land again.
He had something in his mind that he wanted to test in the Magic Land.
***
"Get Out!"
A hoarse and harsh voice pushed the boy in a normal attire off the shop. The boy who fell the the ground sat there beside a old man and looked at the shopkeeper and said,
"Why are you being so stingy? I just asked for that skill. I can pay up as well."
"Pay?" The shopkeeper snorted, "Even if you can pay for that skill, you and your pathetic excuse of a mana doesn't meet the requirement for the skill you wish to purchase."
"Seriously, you're trying to buy the skill from my shop with that hybrid mana of yours?"
Oslo scratched his head and said, "What's bad with that? My hybrid mana is at least better than the mana someone possesses. The purple color mana is even inferior."
"Eh, how rude." The shopkeeper said, "You and your green and light blue mana doesn't even compare to my purple color mana."
"So what if you have half light blue mana. Hybrid mana is called the second most dangerous type of mana one could possess after the black mana. It also has the risk of harming its owner body." The shopkeeper snorted, "So, why would I let someone who is such worthless scum to practice one of my skill? Hybrids are the worst."
The quality of a mana an adventurer used and absorbed from the surrounding was determined by its color. The inferior the quality of mana, the degraded the color would be. Black mana was the lowest quality of mana one could possess and was deemed as worst mana one could use because the mana which was low in quality would end up harming the users as well.
The more the impurities in the mana, the more it would degrade from the color blue. The purest quality of mana one could have was blue colored mana. The deeper the color, the better. It was very beneficial and even one with light blue mana was considered talent because the mana every humans possessed were not pure. They had to go through many vigorous ways just to make the mana even purer.
"And you even look like a beggar." The shopkeeper added, "Get away from my shop now and don't come back here again, you beggar!"
Cursing Oslo, the shopkeeper entered his shop again. Oslo felt dejected.
"What's wrong with having hybrid mana? Its way better than the mana with inferior quality."
Oslo previously had green mana circulating inside his body but now half his mana Oslo controlled had become sky blue in color. How did the color of my mana change? Was it after my battle with William? He couldn't think any other reason.
Oslo contemplated for a moment and, just when he was about to stand up, he saw two big eyes staring at him. Those eyes belonged to an old man, or how he looked, sitting right next to Oslo.
Even Oslo could see through the man's disguise and knew that the man wasn't that old. He glanced up and down at the body of old man before letting out a sigh. With tattered clothes and a plate in the ground in front of him, he was no doubt a beggar.
The old man stared uncomfortably at Oslo before saying,
"Are you trying to take over my area?"
Pffffffffffffff~
Oslo was dumbfounded when he heard that. If he had a mouth filled with water then he would have spit it out without a doubt.
"Just because that worthless shopkeeper said that, it doesn't mean I'm really a beggar." He immediately said to clear the misunderstanding. Seriously, who would want to take over this area of his.
"Hmmm..." The old man frowned and scratched his chin and said, "If you really aren't after my area then I'll let you go."
The old man who heard the argument between that shopkeeper and thought that Oslo was really a beggar and tried to confirm that if he was after his area. So, after Oslo's confirmation, the old man revealed a smile.
Oslo found it very hard to believe that there were people begging in Magic Land so, he couldn't help but ask the old man,
"Old man, why are you begging in here. You still have your limbs intact and not a disable. If you become an adventurer then you don't have to beg, you know."
Old man sighed with emotion and said, "Actually I was a hero before I started begging in this crappy place. I was actually a platinum ranked adventurer and because of my good deeds, I always got praised because of my deeds and was awarded with several gifts and titles but then I realized something."
"I realized that power and fame wasn't everything and everlasting, so I decided to donate everything I earned. After I donated all my belongings then I again realized the growl of my stomach."
"I tried buying something for my stomach but I again realized that I had no money left because I had donated all my money. So, just to earn money o stared begging...and being an adventurer? I quit it long time ago because you know, these hands are too old to kill a magic beasts and engage in a battle."
Hearing the old man brag on and on, he sighed and deemed the old man as big mouthed beggar. Not only was he lying too much and this crappy disguise of his made Oslo feel that he must have some reason doing it...but why was he lying? Even kids knew that high ranking adventurers could live on without eating food for years.
Old man could easily see through Oslo and he had guessed what Oslo was thinking, so he came to an abrupt pause and asked,
"What? You don't believe me?"
With a disappointed expression, he shook his head and replied solemnly, "NO!"
"Oh?" The old man lifted his brows, "Then I'll prove it."
"That hybrid mana of yours. I know a solution to fix it." He claimed.
Oslo perked his ears upon hearing him. Hybrid man solution? Although he didn't fully trust the old man, he wasn't in a rush to push him out. If what the old man said was indeed correct then, why not listen to him for a moment.
"But tell me kid, what are you going to do after I tell you the remedy? What will be your goal? Who are you going to surpass?" The old man asked expecting to get an answer, "A copper rank? A silver rank? Or someone even higher?"
"Surpass, huh?" Oslo frowned for a moment before replying with a smile, "If I were to surpass someone the I guess it would be me. I would want to surpass this weak self of mine."
"Surpass yourself? Hahahaha" The old man laughed heartily before standing up, patting his old clothes, "That's a nice one. Surpass yourself!"
Watching old man laughing without any regards as if he had just cracked a funny joke, his face turned red in embarrassment. Oslo said,
"What's wrong with surpassing myself? Everybody has to surpass themselves to become even stronger. Them surpassing the others is but a illusion and in truth, it would be them surpassing their old selves."
Hearing him, the old beggar laughed even more as if he had no care for the world and started walking away saying,
"Hahahaha, I like you kid!"
"But wait," Oslo said looking at the old man's back which was walking away, "Old man, what about the remedy you talked about?"
"Oh?" Old man halted for a moment before started laughing and walking again.
"It's Mana Exhaustion!"