There were two reasons as to why Rio was going to meet the Archlord of the Kellar region.
Firstly, last time the Lord had said he would let Rio know about somewhere he can earn a lot of money.
Secondly, he needed a new book of healing magic.
Ever since Rio crossed over, he acquired an extraordinary magical affinity with all the laws and elements found in nature. But he was still unaware about how to control them or use them in certain situations.
Rio warped inside the building, ignoring all the defenses and arrays, and reached in front of Kal's room. He had learned it the hard way, never to warp inside someone's room unannounced.
The person standing beside the gate was young. Rio knew him as Kal's son, and had seen him around many times, but he had never tried to remember his name.
Rio tried to walk past him but the man tried to stop him, with a hand on his shoulder.
Rio stopped at the right time to not hurt that guy.
"What are you doing here?" The man grumbled.
He was wearing a white judo dress, or so Rio thought. The guy had brown hair and a competitive look in his eyes, which Rio knew all too well.
Kal's son Cale, was waiting for his father to get free from his paperwork and spend some time training with him, when he saw Rio warp in. He remembered Rio as the guy whom his father used to praise a lot. He wasn't about to let him just walk in as if he owned the place.
Rio knew those spoiled rich brats from earth enough to know that the guy in front of him wanted to prove himself better than Rio. Just to please his father.
Alas, Rio had no free time to entertain him.
The guy continued to say, "You have to spar with me if you want to pass from here."
'And please a round of applause for my correct guess.' Rio had a look on his face as if he had just lost a bet.
He walked towards the wall on the opposite end of the hall.
Cale had a smug grin on his face, thinking Rio had given up.
Rio touched the wall, making it crumble into dust, and walked through the hole.
[AN: And all pokemon players cursing at Rio with creativity, me included.]
While the wall fell like sand, it made no sound, and Rio fixed the wall with Earth magic and Metal magic, then used his warden spells to repair the arrays. Making new arrays and that too with your imagination was a subject he was not proficient in yet. But the repairing was easy, all he had to do was cast an array revealing spell and then draw the array back the way it was before getting destroyed.
Rio went near the window from which the whole Wales city was visible and jumped from it.
His feet slowly touched the floor of the training hall which belonged to Kal, making no sound as he used air magic to soften his fall.
The window was made to give an illusion of the city outside, but was actually a dimensional corridor that connected with the training hall. One needed to jump from that window to enter the hidden room.
Rio sidestepped the compressed air bullet which was shot towards him, then jumped to avoid the air condensing near his feet to slow his movements.
Kal came dangerously close to Rio and lunged at him with the spear, condensed from the air with the Law of Condensation, and lunged at him. Rio tried to blink away but found a dimension sealing array on the ground.
Blink was a dimensional magic that allowed its user to open a warp gate and move the gate around their body in a split second, so it appeared as if the person had teleported.
Finding blink being sealed, he used the next best thing, he created a strong pulse of air towards his right, which pushed him towards left, and away from Kal's spear.
Rio took out his gun and shot at Kal's head, which Kal blocked by condensing the surrounding air around him to form an air barrier.
The reason why people in Galen, the current world Rio was residing in, didn't develop guns was, they were useless against magical barriers. But because they didn't have a way to utilize a gun didn't mean Rio's was the same.
Rio pulsed a small amount of his mana into the gun, the gun's exterior glowed yellow and shot a bullet at the barrier, pierced it, and flew towards Kal's head.
Kal's years of experience and his quick reflexes saved him from getting shot.
Rio put his gun on his waist, reminding Kal once again that humans couldn't utilize the power that certain weapons held, that they had the guts to abandon them. And, that Rio didn't need a gun to defeat anyone.
Kal smiled and deformed the spear in his hand.
The two men walked closer to each other and soon both were enveloped in their respective aura. Kal looked as if a mighty creature had taken the form of a human and condensed the might of their body into that of a human's. The perfect combination of might and majesty.
Rio looked like the moon in the night sky, powerful but the only one of its kind, surrounded by many but still the brightest among them all.
Kal punched Rio's left shoulder, which Rio sidestepped and moved his left leg towards Kal's right knee. Kal moved his left hand down to block Rio's kick, which Rio reacted by turning on his right leg and kicking on his left side.
Kal took the first hit and dashed towards Rio's left. Rio reacted by dashing towards Kal's left which was Rio's right and dealing a lower kick with his left leg. Kal jumped to ignore the kick.
Rio smirked, and punched towards Kal's chest but hit an air cushion that Kal had conjured.
Kal landed on the ground and started punching at a near sonic speed, and Rio started deflecting them at the same speed. After 32 such punches, Kal tried to deal a final punch, which Rio countered by his own punch. Causing a sonic blast, which if not for the training hall's advanced protections would have destroyed it.
Rio breathed and filled his lungs with world energy, and Kal took a potion.
"Well that was nice, you got better at controlling your body." Kal said while drinking the potion to get his lost stamina back. At his level of strength, a potion was hardly enough, but he didn't use any real magic to fight Rio so one potion was more than enough.
"Yeah, I was half expecting you to turn blue with a single punch." Rio started chuckling at his joke which was not such a good one for Kal. Reminding him of the horrors when Rio had woken up from his bed all those years ago.
"Anyways, why are you here?" Kal knew Rio wouldn't come to pay him a social visit, and the only time Kal could see Rio was when he needed some magic books.
"Same old, same old. I need a new set of books. Those that you gave last time were nearly similar to the first batch, so they were completed quickly".
Last time, Rio had taken the second version of academic study material, but that was only five months ago. Him finishing all those books about different branches of magic and laws, along with having a job as an adventurer was quite a feat.
"I also want to know about the new way to get money you mentioned in the letter. The new year is coming and I need to prepare gifts for a lot of people." It was agreed among Rio and Kal that, to communicate they had to send out a blue pigeon, which Rio would shoot down to get his letters.
"Take a seat and let me bring the proper files we will need to discuss them. It might take some time, so feel free to workout, with my babies." Kal pointed a thumb at the training golems which were also considered one of the strongest war machines.
"Just don't break them or you will have to pay for them. They don't come cheap."
"Wow... and look, I'm the one called a cheapskate!" Rio mocked the idea of paying.
Kal ignored Rio and went towards the door at the back of the hall, which connected the hall with his room.
Rio took his shirt off and was ready to fight the golems. The golems' eyes turned red, signaling they had started working.
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