BXBX NOVEL Chapter 366 - Magic Stones
"GYYYYAAAAAH! GYAAAAAHHHH!"
Before anything, Zaos calmed down to decrease his bloodlust since it made Milliendra cry even more. Still, to be targeted by bandits so soon… Zaos knew that his luck wasn\'t that great, but everything had limits.
"Seven bandits, huh…" Zaos thought. "Their presence isn\'t that great, at least when it comes to magic."
Zaos used Light in the Darkness and then used Appraisal… those idiots weren\'t exactly weak, but they weren\'t that special either. However, what pissed Zaos was the fact that men armed with magic weapons were targeting someone that had a newborn baby in his arms… that kind of low life didn\'t deserve the air that they were breathing.
"I will say this once, leave now, and I won\'t hurt you," Zaos said.
The bandits flinched when they heard the commanding tone coming from Zaos\'s voice. Naturally, he wasn\'t just a traveling merchant. So, even his horse had that power. Still, they were stupid to see that it was their Golden opportunity to live a few more years in their pathetic lives.
The bandits began to laugh when they realized that they had let a single man scare them, and so they resumed their walking. Zaos understood that it would be weird if a merchant appeared to any town and brought with him several bandits, he would have to give some explanations, and he didn\'t have time for that. The only thing he could do was to kill them. That was fine, though. They weren\'t innocent people, and they also had magic weapons.
Before anything, Zaos let the idiots approach as much as possible. He couldn\'t let Milliendra go since there was no telling what might happen. Still, he couldn\'t give them the chance to escape either. When the bandits were ten meters away from him, Zaos suddenly summoned five Earth Swords and then fired them toward the bandits\' heads. Five of those had their necks broken before they could react in any way.
The remaining two looked in disbelief at their allies falling on the ground. That was disappointing, but Zaos couldn\'t have expected more from stupid bandits. Just like the first time he dealt with bandits, he killed another but knocked one unconscious by hitting him several times with Earth Bullet.
Creating fire to burn the corpses wasn\'t possible. It would draw too much attention, and Zaos didn\'t want to make the area where he was using to camp smell like burned corpses. It was a pain, but he decided to bury them… after he interrogated the prisoner.
"What I am going to do in the presence of a newborn baby…" Zaos sighed and then facepalmed. "Still, it seems like I can make a living out of capturing bandits."
While Zaos was waiting for the prisoner to wake up, he calmed Milliendra and then put her to sleep while he checked the weapons of the idiots. At first, they didn\'t seem that special, but all of them had magic stones in their handles. The spears, the swords, the axes… why melee weapons? It was so obvious that long-ranged weapons would benefit more from magic stones.
"I guess long-ranged weapons would also consume mana faster…" Zaos said.
The seven weapons could emit fire and wind… only that. It couldn\'t even be compared to Zaos level one magic enhancement. Still, it granted extra piercing power to the weapons. It also made them look more dangerous while the wind and flames passed by the blades. Zaos played with them for a while, but he didn\'t receive any notification. It seemed that unless his mana was used, his physical skills that used magic couldn\'t level up.
"They stole a whole cargo of magic weapons… I bet I can make a lot of money if I sell them to Alton," Zaos thought. "Still, while he doesn\'t seem stupid, he certainly doesn\'t look like a genius either… I wonder if he will get caught selling those and will tell about my existence to the authorities of this kingdom."
Regardless, now Zaos had some magic stones to study. However, before he could do anything, he felt Aleni\'s presence approaching, and then she suddenly hurried up when she realized that Zaos and Milliendra weren\'t alone… she suddenly began to tremble in rage when she realized what had happened.
"GYYYYAAAAAH! GYAAAAAHHHH!"
"Not again… and she just had fallen asleep," Zaos said after a long sigh. "Can you please control your bloodlust?"
Aleni calmed down, but Zaos still could see her trembling. It seemed that it would take a while before she managed to deal with the rage.
"Why did you let one of them live?" Aleni asked.
"Because I want to know where their base is, it should be a fairly decent hideout, and we can use it," Zaos replied. "Anyway, did you hear anything?"
"... Some people are happy because you paid more money than you should have," Aleni said. "Aside from that, nothing."
"I guess I was wrong in trusting them too much just because they were farmers…" Zaos said.
"I will deal with them and the others on their base," Aleni declared. "I will return once the job is done and everything is clean."
Zaos noticed by the tone of her voice that such a thing wasn\'t up to debate. While that was good since Zaos wouldn\'t have to lead Milliendra, it was bad because Aleni was finally letting her feelings come to the surface, but not in an ideal way… She had to become closer to Milliendra first and foremost.
While she was reliable, Aleni still didn\'t know many things. And she also couldn\'t see ahead all that much… Zaos will have to help her with that.
"It is kind of surprising that looking after just a couple of people can be as complicated as looking after hundreds of them," Zaos muttered as he watched Aleni taking the prisoner away while he still was unconscious.
In any case, Zaos resumed his studies and eventually learned something about the magic stones.. They had a core, where most of their energy was stored, and from there, they emitted the mana to the other parts of the stone… if Zaos wanted to recharge one of them, he would have to reach the core first and foremost.