He didn't mind the stares of the people in the vicinity and kept climbing, till he arrived at the bell area. He made sure he was careful not to make contact with the massive bell that was almost twice the size of his body.
He reached the top and sat on the roof of the bell tower.
'It is better up here but there still isn't a lot,' Landria thought as his body began to attract the mana in the surroundings.
Only a few people who had an affinity with mana could sense the suction force in the surroundings. They turned to stare in his direction.
'Looks like I have internal injuries... Why do I have internal injuries?' Landria wondered as the mana flowed through his body giving him a sense of his internal body structure.
'My mana core is slightly damaged too... What?' Landria was surprised but at least he could understand why all his mana reserves were gone now.
'It will take a few days for it to recover with the amount of mana here... *sigh* if this was in Razledania I would be able to repair it within a few hours,' Landria thought but now wasn't the time to lament.
He closed his eyes and focused on his internal injuries first.
Zzzhiiiinnnnnn~ Ting~ Ting~ Ting~
Tiny dots of fluorescent-colored light suddenly began to appear all around him.
They kept appearing in multitudes all over the place causing the top of the bell tower to glow up with magical light.
"Natures glow... Silent recuperation," Landria muttered underneath his breath and suddenly opened his eyes to reveal the glowing white light within.
He had just cast a level two healing spell which was the highest he could conjure up right now based on the amount of mana in the surroundings.
The dots of light glowing in the surroundings were being pulled towards him and merging into his body. These dots of light were mana in visible form.
The magic spell Landria just cast made them visible.
Albeit slow, with every light absorption, his body was getting healed.
The top of the bell tower looked like a beacon of stars from afar.
The people in the vicinity had looks of awe since magic was a rare sight around here.
There were a few people with magic in town but they had never seen anyone of them perform this feat.
The more gifted people with an affinity for magic usually moved away from town to a bigger city so they could better their lives. The ones left here were the less talented types.
People continued with their business after some time since Landria's act wasn't a threat to them.
However, it would soon spread all across town that there was a gifted magic caster around.
A few days went by in the blink of an eye and during this time, Landria would come to the bell tower every day to recuperate.
Due to the low mana in the surroundings, he always spent the entire day there before Viktor and Orion would come looking for him and tell him to come back home.
On this fateful day, Landria was glad because his internal injuries had been completely healed and he felt physically stronger than ever.
Also, his mana core was whole again and now the only thing left was to fill it up with mana so he would be able to cast magic properly.
"Big brother Landria are you going to the bell tower again today?" Mira the youngest girl in the house asked.
"Yes, I am," He answered while finishing up his breakfast.
"What do you do there every day? People say you create fireflies, is that true?" Orion asked with a look of excitement.
"Haha no, it's not fireflies. What you see is mana. It is just like air, invisible unless magic is cast making use of it. That is when it turns visible," Landria explained.
"Can you do it here I wanna see I wanna see," Mira voiced out while jumping with a cute expression displayed on her face.
"Sorry Mira but there is no mana around here and I don't have any within me if not I'd have used some light magic," Landria responded with an apologetic gaze.
"Oh," Mira looked a bit crestfallen as she heard that and her excitement died down.
"Don't worry I'm going there again today to absorb some mana, I'll make something interesting for you when I get back," Landria said while patting her head with a comforting smile.
Landria was almost twice her height since he was 5'11 so it was easy for him to see the top of her smooth black hair.
Her eyes shimmered with excitement again as she heard that.
"Be careful not to fall, it's pretty high up," Laura said with a tone of concern.
"Nothing to worry about, I can..." While he was responding a scream from outside alerted everyone.
"They're here!"
Everyone turned to face the door area as they heard that.
Clang! Clang! Clang! Clang!
Along with the scream, came the sounds of the ringing town emergency bell.
Gbam!
The door was suddenly pushed open and a middle-aged-looking bald man ran in.
"Laura, the Usurpers are here again," He shouted out with a look of fright.
"What? It's only been two weeks, why are they back so soon?" Her expression instantly turned worried as she voiced out.
"We don't know. Rahman and the others are headed to the town square to find out what they want," The man responded.
"What's going on?" Landria asked with a look of worry.
"Stay here with the kids," Laura said before rushing out of the house with the bald middle-aged man.
"Wait," Landria voiced out but they were already gone.
He wanted to walk forward but Mira held his hand and shook their head with a look of fright.
Landria stared at the other three and they had looks of fright as well. Viktor was always looking the boldest among all four of them but right now there was no sign of that.
"What is going on?" Landria asked with a tone of confusion once again.
Mara moved towards a side of the room and picked up a gardening tool, holding it like a weapon.
Even though she looked frightened, she also seemed ready to fight.
"Give me that!" Viktor voiced out and collected it from her.
"I'll hold it, y'all stay behind me," He added trying to be brave.
Landria moved towards the door and tried to open it but the kids shouted, "No big brother Landria, the Usurpers are dangerous,"
"Who are the Usurpers?" He asked.
"They are bandits... They terrorize local towns around here and loot people of their properties," Viktor explained.
"They even kill sometimes if the town folks don't cooperate with them," Mara added with a look of terror.
"What? doesn't this town have guards or an authoritative figure that is supposed to protect the people?" Landria asked with a tone of annoyance.
"No... no one can stand against them, they are magic casters. Even the strongest hunters in town would not dare mess with them," Viktor answered.
'So everyone's scared... Why does the Asaruis Kingdom not send capable guards to protect the town? Is it because it's at the border?' Landria was starting to get upset about this.
He recalled something Laura said and quickly asked another question, "How often do they visit?"
"They come here every month to receive what they call protection tax," Mara answered with a look of annoyance.
"Laura said it had only been two weeks since they last visited, why would they come here again?" Landria wondered out loud.
"They are monsters, they don't care about the livelihood of the town, they only want to take and keep taking," Mira said with a saddened expression.
"What happens if the town folks decide not to give them anything?" Landria asked.
"They end up killing some people..." Viktor said slowly.
"I hope we won't lose Laura like we lost Uncle Jack," Mira said with tears in her eyes as she jumped into Mara's embrace.
The others too began to panic as they heard that.
"I'm going out, you all stay here," Landria said as he pushed the door open.