When they got back, Daphne immediately rushed back into her room to try out her new Aura Technique. She wasn't going to shoot the arrows, but she could still try to imbibe her aura into them.
"Don't stress too hard. Once you think you have the hang of it, we can go to the Forest to practice." Leo said.
"Yes, got it." She said. She was not planning on listening to him.
Leo sighed and went back to his room to get rest. This was because the next day, he was going to do some recon work. He was going to go to the slums to look into the matter of the Blacktooth Gang.
He didn't know what to do with them yet and had to form a plan. He knew he had to deal with the Blacktooth Gang, but he didn't know how. The officials wouldn't care even if he told them after all.
He first wanted to find out the deal with the Blacktooth Gang. If they were truly scum, then he would just kill them.
Leo might be a teenager, but he wasn't new to death. Living in the slums, the Blacktooth Gang wasn't the first group that he had seen try to exert its power over the slums. Around 3 years ago, there was another gang that tried to do the same thing.
They were called the Thorn Roses. They set up in the slums and collected a toll on merchants passing through the area into the city. They were a lot tamer compared to the Blacktooth Gang and didn't bother with the commoners in the slums who didn't have any money.
One day, some of the members got too drunk and went into the slums. Thinking they had a lot of power, they knocked down a few doors and entered the houses. They thought they were invincible in the area.
Leo was only a few shacks down the shack where they kicked down the doors of the shacks. He heard some of the shrieks from the females who were living there. The screams were very short-lived.
Inside one of the shacks was an old degenerate adventurer who just drank all day. However, this adventurer was a 2nd Circle Aura Knight. Leo saw the man kill all of the degenerates who were messing around with the people in the slums.
After that day, the Thorn Roses disappeared, but the man disappeared as well. But it gave Leo a sense of reality. Leo was going to determine whether the Blacktooth Gang was just as bad that they deserved death or not.
The sun set and the entire city dimmed down. He chose this moment to set out to the slums. He didn't want to go during the day so that he could hide this from Daphne. She didn't have to know about the Blacktooth Gang and what he planned to do about them.
He walked to the slums. The streets were dimly lit by the lamps hanging down a few Inns and houses. Very few people were actually on the streets. He was wearing his cloak so that no one would be able to recognize him.
When he reached closer to the slums, he became careful. He cast a body-strengthening spell on himself and slowly crept into the depths of the slums. Because he lived there for more than 7 years, he knew the way in and out perfectly.
He expected them to be lodged in the same hideout as the Thorn Roses. After they were gone, he visited the place and knew how to get there without being seen.
While he was walking toward the hideout, he heard a female shriek.
"NO!!"
He immediately pulled up the hood of his cloak and went closer to the noise. He was ready to act if there was any danger. He went to the source of the noise. It was a shack. The door was already open and there were two people outside it, guarding the door.
"PLEASE NO!" Another scream came out of the shack.
At this point, Leo understood what was going on. There was clearly another person inside the shack that wasn't supposed to be in there. He now had to make a decision.
If he took out his dagger and tried to fight the two people outside the door, he would definitely lose the fight. Body Strengthening was only so good. It didn't make him as strong as a real Aura Knight.
Also, the person inside was probably stronger than the two people outside. If that person heard the commotion and came outside, he would be dead meat.
The only way he would be able to make an impact would be if he used magic. No one would expect there to be a mage in the slums. After all, only nobles were mages. He could use the element of surprise and kill all of the people there.
However, if he did that the entire Blacktooth Gang would know about his existence. They wouldn't know who he was, but they would know that a mage was after them. They would prepare to meet him.
He heard a thud from the door.
"Please let me out! Let my daughter go!" This time, it was a different person screaming. This person sounded a lot older than the first person.
"Blame your husband for selling you off." One of the men said.
"Don't blame me. Blame yourself. Why did you have to dress pretty when you lived in the slums? Now the good sir likes you, so you should please him." The other man said.
Leo tightened his fist. He made his decision.
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