Earn led on his bed motionless,his hands were together ,like as if they were tied tightly like knots.
"What the heck is Frederick doing here"
At that point a knock on his door interrupts his
soliloquy .
"Hey Earn ,it's me" said Ren through the door.
"What is it" replied Earn without bothering to get up from his position of rest.
"Are we not gonna train today"
"Sorry but I donor feel like it"
"But -But ,you promised to train me"
"Okay ,how about you practice controlling the flow of malice through your body channels,then I'll come teach you later"
"Uhm alright, I guess that is fine"
"Great"
Ren was pretty upset about this ,it felt like whenever he and Earn began some training,something would appear that would derail them.
Ren went into the kitchen;which was made out of wood,it was modern enough ,for the 1600s anyway.
There was a fruit ball ,he stretched his hand towards it,and grabbed an apple and a plate.
He took a bite of the apple ,before heading to his room.
While in his room ,he placed the apple on the plate ,then dropped it on a desk,before getting on top of his bed to sit down, beginning to meditate.
His legs were crossed in a way ,you would naturally cross it while in meditation.
He was trying to tap into his malice.
He began remembering the face of Bloodfist;how he killed his family,destroyed his hometown ,and destroyed Valer.
The anger within him began to fuel his strength,his heart was racing and his blood was pumping furiously.
The effects of his meditation were getting worse until he forcibly stopped.
"That pain ,it felt …. so awesome" he thought to himself.
He grabbed the juicy red apple ,in his hand and focused on his anger once more.
His body was vibrating tremendously,it was like he was diving into newfound strength ,and well, he literally was.
The apple was instantly crushed within his hand.
Though not extremely impressive,for someone who could not previously break a breaking board ,this was impressive.
Not to forget,that Ren's hands were quite small.
He was not covering the area of the apple efficiently,making him obligated to apply even more fore to crush the apple all at once ,and as evenly as he just did.
"Woah" thought Ren
"I wonder what else I could break"
From somewhere ,he was able to find a rock and just like the apple ,he broke it with ease.
He began testing to see what else he could crush.
He was excited,finally some development had been happening with his abilities.
He was even more thrilled,than a small social media persona after they get one follower.
It was at this point,while testing his amplified strength,he came across a particular stand in the city's marketplace.
He originally came looking for stuff,he could buy,so that he could break them.
The state of the economy obviously was not affecting him.
Earn left a bag full of gold coins on the dining table of the house ,they accommodated.
Coins were the general currency in use ,the only places that would not operate using coins,were extremely remote towns.
Even highly underdeveloped towns like Aledia used coins as a medium of exchange.
There were three types of coins;Gold,silver,Bronze.
Bronze was the most common one ;as it held the smallest purchasing power.
A silver coin on the other hand was a lot more valuable,though not as valuable as gold ones.
A silver coin was worth about 500 bronzes .
A gold coin was even more luxurious;as it was worth 20 silvers and therefore 10000 bronzes.
Apart from coins ,trade by barter was also a prevailing medium of acquiring substances.
People would trade off goods for other goods, that they believed were of equal value.
Goods were not only traded ,but other stuff too.
The others included;Entertainment,and some other types of personal services like massages.
"Hey boy ,wanna play a game" said a middle aged man wearing clothing typical of that of a commoner.
The man was attempting to get the attention of Ren, and he succeeded in doing so.
The man was standing at a stand ,in the stand
were three glass bottles ,isolated on different podiums .
The man also held a chest in his hand,and he had been continuously trying to attract people but no one was forthcoming,until Ren decided to come ,giving the man immense joy.
"Welcome kiddo,wanna play a game"
"What king of game exactly"
"A very simple one,all you have to do is knock down one of those glass bottles and you win"
"Sounds fun ,but I don't really see what I gain"
"You wanna know what you gain,well take a look in my chest kiddo"
The chest was small and well decorated with jewelry.
It was had to believe a man dressed like this was able to obtain such a treasure.
The chest was small enough to be held in his hand comfortably,but was not extraordinary tiny .
The man opened his chest ,revealing what seemed to be a knife at first glance.
But something felt different,there was something about the knife that just made Earn want it .
The knife was more of a dagger with its long handle and extremely sharp blade ,it most definitely would be a handy weapon.
The knife's handle was white with a well drawn design of yellow lightning encompassing it .
It was most definitely easy on the eyes,Ren just thought this might be handy.
Ren did not just want it to use as an aid in his training, but also just wanted to have it.
In just the short time of him being spoilt by the riches of Earn ,he has alread gotten used to getting what he wants,when he wants.
Though he never asked where the money was coming from,it was just an easier life style change from his mediocre town.
He loved his family sand the people in Aledia,he just never really liked the environment.
It seems the economy was affecting him there.
The man had used the knife as an incentive due to the marks he could see over Ren's body,he had assumed that Ren loved fighting and so he decided to use the knife.
Evidently,the man's plan worked,and Ren was prepared to play the games.
If he broke just one of the bottles,then the knife would be his.
"Yeah by the way ,the first shot is free" said the man.
"Thanks" replied Ren before thrusting and throwing the ball towards the glass bottles.
To the dismay of Ren ,the ball went wide of the bottles.
"Aargh" screamed Ren in disappointment and a touch of anger.
He was about to try again with a second ball but gets interrupted by the man ,who said;
"I'm sorry,but any shot from now on is going to be worth one gold coin"
"What,that's way too much"
"Remember the dagger"
"Ugh ,Fine"
Ren yielded to the man after careful consideration.
Now obviously,on normal circumstances,if he were with regular people,he would have dimmed down the price by a long shot.
But he had noticed the bag of gold coins Ren was carrying and thought;
"He doesn't need that much now does he"
Ren was trying to hit the bottles continuously but it was all to no avail.
He had 27 gold coins and 26 had been squandered.
It was almost like the ball literally did not want to hit the the bottles.
He used his final coin but decided to approach the problem differently.
He realized that according to Earn,malice could amplify any physical trait,whether it was strength,speed or even sight.
"Let's do this" Ren thought in his mind
He began to focus on his hate ,just like earlier,his heart was racing and his body vibrating.
He was doing his best to ensure that he did not accidentally burst the ball.
He was still working out the kinks the anyway.
His adrenaline levels were higher than they had been in a while.
The glass bottles now appeared closer to him.
It was like he was straining his eyes but he was not.
With his malice amplifying his strength and his eyes focused on the ball,he threw the ball at the bottles,the ball clashe with the bottles but in a twist of events;
The ball did not ...….
Break.
"What just happened" asked Ren
"Oooh try again next time ,your throw was accurate just not strong enough "
Ren was gombsmacked,there was way that he could not break pieces of glass with amplified strength.
It was at this point ,that he realized he was sensing something familiar from the bottles.
He had sensed something similar from cursed fruits;it was malice.
He then jumped into the stand against the man's protest and punched the glass directly.
Rather than the glass shattering,he was instead screaming.
The glass bottles were artifacts;objects that had been enchanted or fortified with mana.
The bottles were actually made out of irrompible,a near unbreakable substance.
The man knew that his jig was up and so ran away with the coins.
Ren began chasing the man who led Ren to an empty alley to be beaten up by three men who were most likely also conmen.
Ren could tell that they were not assassins and had not tapped into malice.
He was able to tell because previously,he had being able to sense a kind of aura of those he had known had tapped into malice.
Now,on the other hand ,he felt none of that aura from this men.
That fueled Ren with complete confidence in himself .
With his new advancements in the use of malice ,he thought this three,a lesson.
Ren not only reclaimed the coins back but also took the chest with the dagger he wanted.
"Hey that's mine" said the man from the stand;who could barely speak.
Ren didn't even respond and just left the man to continue to lay in pain.
Ren thought to himself
"Maybe next time ,I should start with beating them up ....,Nah I'm not a bully"