"Hey Meteor Shower, wait up!" Elle called out.
Meteor Shower turned around, he recognized Elle and Krilly as the two people he had imposed upon during lunch hour. They had helped him out during school by lending him a spare magic pen.
Every student took notes directly on their desk with a magic pen they owned and it would store their notes inside the pen. Once they wanted to review their notes, they could press the button and it opened a kind of menu to access notes. It was a very handy tool, but Meteor Shower had only ever used ink and paper.
"Hey Elle, Krilly. What's up?" Meteor Shower asked. "Oh if its about Parrotise, I still have no idea why humans live there."
"It's not that, Krilly and I were just about to go shopping, we were wondering if you wanted to come with us," Elle said.
Meteor Shower's eyes shone. Could it be, they were going to a mall! He had never been to one before.
"Hell yes, let's go!" Meteor Shower said excitedly marching out of school before he came to a sudden realization, he had no idea where it was.
"Um, maybe you should lead the way?" he asked embarrassedly.
Elle and Krilly exchanged glances.
"Sure, it's this way," Elle said, walking to the right.
It took them no more than 15 minutes before they arrived at an outdoor mall.
Barely able to contain his excitement, a big smile was plastered on Meteor Shower's face as he saw the double story buildings with floor to ceiling glass. Various Magical robes and outfits displayed on mannequins. One shop called "The Productivity Space" had many different magic pens on display as well. Meteor Shower was instantly attracted over.
After cruising through all of the magic pen options and designs, Meteor Shower eventually chose a purple one with golden vines etched on it. The shade of purple exactly matched his hair and although they had a green vine option, with the purple color it just looked creepy and so he opted for the golden vines.
Because Professor Parrot had completely blown his funds, Sylv stepped in to provide him with some credits. However, Sylv is not good at math. Meteor Shower is. Hence, by explaining that a constant inflation rate of 12%, 25 credits of pocket change which was the norm 50 years ago when Sylv was last in the Clear Seas Kingdom, should be roughly 7,225 credits. This was total bullshit because the actual rate of inflation was only around 3-4% but Meteor Shower used the information on percentage increase in school fees in his example when making this pitch.
Thus, our nouveau riche lad was strutting around with a solid 8,000 credits in his identity plate. Buying a custom magic pen for 300 credits was nothing.
Seeing how casually he spent money Elle and Krilly were surprised as they had been completely prepared to have to pay for somethings for him as Meteor Shower not only dressed like a country bumpkin, but acted like one too.
"Alright, magic pen acquired. Now to shop for clothes!" Meteor Shower dashed into a magic clothing store.
"Dear seamstress auntie, can you please help me pick out a few outfits?" Meteor Shower asked an old woman sitting at a designing station inside the store.
Seeing the young boy with shining eyes the woman was a bit surprised. Indeed, only the young are innocent and would be so polite. Most customers treated the sales people like herself as laborers these days.
"Of course sweetheart, what kind of designs are you looking for?"
"Um, I have no idea. Something that makes me look cool and imposing, but is also practical for lots of different environments and won't hamper my mobility," Meteor Shower scratched his head.
After hearing his response the designer began to patiently explain to Meteor Shower the different materials, enchantments, looks, and limitations of the clothes she could make while helping him pick out what he liked. This treatment from her was exclusively reserved for the customers who treated her nicely.
At the end once they had designed and printed Meteor Shower 5 different outfits, she silently applied a 10% discount.
"Thank you so much auntie! I'll come again next time!" Meteor Shower waved goodbye while heading out to find Elle and Krilly. After waiting for him for 20 minutes, they told him they were going to head to the arena and watch some duels.
…
"Come on you little sh*t. Is that all you had in you?" A boy dressed in a blue robe taunted his opponent.
The boy facing him was bruised in many places, had several tears in his robes, and was even bleeding from a large cut across his abdomen. The referee on the side carefully observed him.
"Trash," the boy in the blue robe sneered while aiming his right palm at his opponent. Green energy began coalescing into a crescent shaped blade after a second or two and then shot off at the bloodied boy.
"Why isn't the referee stopping the matching? If this goes on that kid is going to die!" Krilly whispered to Elle.
Elle looked grim as she was watching the match. The matches before were fair duels where the opponents were of roughly equal power and the referee would step in the moment anyone was about to get hurt. But ever since that blue robed boy stepped in the arena, the referee only blocked attacks that were aiming at him and not stopping any magic he released on his opponents. Not even calling the threat the blue robed boy had made about selling his opponent's siblings into prostitution.
Clearly, it wasn't just the referee though, even the opponent after hearing that seemed to be filled with despair and was just letting himself get beat. Obviously the blue robed boy had some kind of background.
"Blue robes, black hair, silver eyes, he's from the Aom clan," Elle cursed under her breath.
The Aom clan was a very old fashioned clan that was incredibly protective of their members. Most clans that rose to power had more liberal thinking but this conservative clan was known for being tyrannical. They were also known for manufacturing magical weapons of war, so naturally, their descendants included many such bullies.
But even then, this was just going too far. However, no one in the audience wanted to get on their bad side. It was rumored that in addition to selling the weapons they made to the government, the Aom clan also sold weapons to gangs and terrorists. Whenever the authorities investigated the claims though, nothing would turn up. Hence, they had become a clan that no one wanted to offend.
No one even dared to say anything.
Well, almost no one.
"Hey, stop it, that kids going to die!" Meteor Shower who just walked into the viewer stands shouted. He had been briefed at the door about the rules of the duel and the backgrounds of the contestants. The rules clearly stated that they were not contests of life and death but just spars for entertainment and practicing magic.
The blue robed boy turned in annoyance to look for the guy who was so daring and instantly spotted Meteor Shower silently making him a target in his mind. After he was done with the trash in front of him, he would challenge Meteor Shower. Who the hell does he think he is patronizing someone from the Aom clan?
He might be a lot of things, but he isn't a killer. If the boy in front of him hadn't seduced his girlfriend why would he be here? Why pay so much to the referee to rig this match? Everyone else seemed to understand, why did that twerp not seem to get it?
He was Rohi Aom, a genius engineer and mage. He refused to believe that his girlfriend wanted to break up with him, hence here he was beating up her lover. He thought that maybe if she saw that he was definitely the superior one, she might change her mind.
Seething with anger he clapped his hands together before slowly pulling them apart. The air between them began distorting and was faintly thrumming. It was the strongest 23 mina spell of wind, AirLess Blade. Like the name suggested it created an extremely low pressure blade that was practically a vacuum. Once unleashed, it found its way into the lungs, completely removing all the air inside and causing the lungs to collapse. Although it wasn't fatal thanks to healing magic, it would still cause permanent respiratory damage!
But before Rohi could finish casting the spell his concentration was disrupted by an arm wrapping around his neck and pulling him backwards into a headlock.
Meteor Shower had teleported into the ring.
The referee reacted immediately, "Foul: Rohi Aom is the winner."
Then with a wave of his hand Meteor Shower and Rohi were separated.
However, after the crisis had been resolved and Meteor Shower detained he paused. How the hell did Meteor Shower get into the ring? The enchantment prevented bystander magic below the advanced mage level. Was the kid an advanced mage? But how did he move that fast?
No, none of it made sense.
While the referee and most of the audience were confused, there was one person who wasn't.
"Astral mage," a woman with cyan and sky blue hair raised an eyebrow.