Despite being pushed to a corner with four of them standing over him, Devon didn't look nervous maybe that was because he had something in his hand.
'Sorry, Alvis but this was necessary.' He said subconsciously before smashing the smoke bomb on the floor.
Just as he broke the case, the area was immediately covered with thick dark smoke.
"What is this?" One of the men asked with a confused expression on his face.
"What are you standing there asking stupid questions for, make sure he doesn't escape!"
The one with the water ability quickly shot out a water blast toward the area where Devon was before he released the smoke bomb unaware that he had already moved away from them at least we'll enough to avoid that attack.
[ +40 Normal Energy transferred to Energy points ]
[ Location acquired ]
[ -40 Energy ]
He was careful not to hit anyone that he was supposed to hit with his water ability and when the smoke cleared, Devon was nowhere to be found, their stash of crystals was on the floor but they didn't even notice that.
"I underestimated him." Their leader muttered before folding both of his hands into fists.
It took only mere seconds for Devon to find himself on the large rock beside the orphanage, the place where Emilia used to come whenever she wanted to be alone.
"I was looking forward to a smooth business but, oh well." He muttered and was about to check his bag when he suddenly heard someone come up the rock.
He quickly pulled down the hood and turned around to see a blonde haired who happened to be around the same age as Emilia.
"Hey, Devon, I didn't know you were up here." She said as she walked up to him and sat beside him on the edge.
"Oh, hey, Sofia what are you doing here?" He asked putting on a fake smile.
"Oh, I came to see Emilia." She replied.
"Did you see her?"
"Yeah, she was in her room."
"Oh."
Sofia Anderson didn't really belong to the orphanage because both of her parents were alive but she was the only friend they all had outside the orphanage.
She somehow got close to Emilia after the Defense Crystal disaster and used to come to the orphanage to see her.
Her parents didn't stop her as most parents in the kingdom would have and even offered to help the orphanage with the little they had.
Sofia got close to all of them through this way and slowly became a part of their family that wasn't really part of the family because she had no idea what went on under there.
Sofia had an oval face with brown eyes that seemed slightly big compared to anyone else around her.
She had pretty long eyelashes a small but slightly pointed nose and thin pink lips.
She had a slim body and her hair was just as long as Devon's maybe that was because she cut it a bit short recently.
"Thank you for protecting her from the fire boar and I'm glad her injury wasn't that bad." She said.
"You don't need to thank me for that, I'll always protect my friends if I can, although, I didn't really do a good job back there."
"Hey, don't say that." She said before giving him a little nudge. "You did more than enough, you prevented her from getting a way worse burn and killed the boar, somethings are just inevitable, the fact that you kept her from dying is enough."
Devon kept his gaze on her for a while before he smiled and turned his gaze to the sky.
"You always see through the bright side of everything." He said.
"Yeah, because that's the way we should see things all the time."
"I wish that could be true." He muttered.
"Huh?"
"It's nothing." He said before shaking his head. "So, you came up here to gaze at the night sky alone."
"Yeah, I was going to come with Emilia but she can't walk on her own, Aurora and Alvis were busy and you know John makes me uncomfortable so I didn't bother looking for him." She expressed.
"What about Krayan?" Devon asked.
"Um….I tried to ask him but he bluntly told me to get lost, I tried to persuade him but he just slammed the door in my face."
Her voice suddenly changed to match the sad expression she had on her face as she said that.
"Why do you even bother with that guy?" Devon said before smashing his palm into his face.
"Huh?"
"He doesn't like talking to anyone so just leave him alone, there's no need to get yourself worked up over someone. I can clearly see that something is bothering him but when you're like that, you talk to people about it not become seclusive."
After hearing him say that, Sofia let out a deep sigh.
"I just wish he could open up, there's no way that I wouldn't listen." She said.
"Hey, don't spoil your mood talking about him. Are you here to lighten your mood with the stars or dampen it further?"
"Yeah, you're right, I should get him off my mind for now, I came up here to watch the stars." She said before turning her gaze to the sky. "There's so many of them today."
The two stared at the stars quietly for a while until she slowly leaned closer to relax her head on his shoulder.
They stayed like that for a couple of minutes before she decided to start heading home before her parents started getting worried about her.
Devon waited until she was a little distance away from the orphanage before he put his hand in his bag and brought out four beast crystal ores.
Two of them had a blue glow, one had a green glow and of course, he still had the red fire boar crystal.
[ +60 Mystic points received ]
[ 60/200 exp ]
'Hmm sixty, so twenty for each of these basic tier crystal ores, I got a hundred for that chalice.' He said subconsciously. 'So the points depend entirely on the quality of the material stolen, that makes sense.'
After looking at the crystals for a while, he let out a sigh before putting them back in his bag.
'I need to go see Emilia but I have to buy something first.' He said subconsciously before standing up on the rock.
He stood there for a while thinking about what to do and unable to come up with anything reasonable he let out a deep sigh.
'I'll just go into the city and see what I can do.' He said subconsciously before jumping down from the rock.
He slowly made his way to the city watching everything with a keen eye until he spotted something unusual.
One of the top food vendors in the area who always had his light shining bright with beast crystals surprisingly didn't have any light on today.
That caught his attention immediately and he quickly made his way to the shop to find out that the owner was the only one there trying to call back a dead crystal to life.
"I don't think it works that way Mr. Ted," Devon said as soon as he entered the area and caught him in the shameful act.
"I know but surely there must be a chance, right?" He said before giving the dead crystal core a little nudge.
"No," Devon said before shaking his head.
Mr. Ted was a chubby-looking man with a somewhat child-like face, perhaps that wasn't his only child-like feature.
"My son left for a business trip without restocking our crystal cores, I hoped the ones I have currently were going to last until he came back but one of them just suddenly died on me today, I don't even know anything about getting these crystal cores." He blabbered.
'He doesn't know anything about getting them?'
"How long is your son going to be gone for?" Devon asked.
"Three weeks."
"Oh, that is a pretty long time."
'Perfect.'
"Yeah, and that's why I'm about to break down." Mr. Ted said before putting his head on the bed.
"I don't think there's any need for that."
"Huh?" Ted said before turning his gaze to him.
"As it happens, I have a couple of crystal ores with me." He said before bringing out the red crystal core.
As soon as Ted saw that, his eyes suddenly lit up.
"How much are you selling it for?" He asked abruptly.
"Um…just six gold coins."
"Six gold coins?" He said with a shocked expression on his face.
*****
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