The crispy autumn winds hit Magnus full on as he traveled down the busy streets of Exastrand, it was only thanks to the ever constant heat from the Mouintainbelly that Magnus didn’t have to wear heavy clothing.

It was pure genius, constantly lighting the forges of the Mouintainbelly, the Starry Mountains laid far off into the north where it was always cold and chilly. Heating the mountain itself just made living here that much more bearable.

Magnus pushed and shoved his way through the crowds. The place was always crawling with people no matter the hour of the day.

Whether it be the commoners or guilders, everybody traveled down the same streets getting to and from their destinations. However, you could still identify one from the other; the commoners were wearing plain trousers and tunics or in the female population case, a simple one piece dress. On the other hand, the guilders were wearing different assortments of clothing like trousers, vests, sashes, robes, and turbans.

Magnus passed caramel, grey, or black colored buildings which lined the streets and were all made of stones from the mountain that we lived on, some more ancient buildings were built into the mountain itself. Set before the building where street carts lined with goods and products, as the owners shouted and yelled their wares.

The young practitioner was already getting sick and tired of the crowded streets, two brats already tried to reach for his coin purse, and he had to chase them off with a cuff to the ears. He decided to make this easier on himself and, at the same time, save himself the trouble and time by taking some short cuts.

Making his way into an alleyway littered with vagabonds, Magnus held tightly on to his dagger, which he got from Bulut, yesterday. The occupants gave Magnus a clear way once they say he was armed with forged steel.

He then cut through a back passage, climbed on to a roof, jumped across a few buildings, slipped underneath a path, and tightroped down a narrow lane.

In under a few minutes, Magnus finally made it to his destination. These last few moon turns, he made it his goal to know this city like the back of his hand, and now it looked like it was paying off.

Magnus jumped off the roof he was on then rolled as he landed, he dusted himself up and turned on to the alleyway that the tavern was hidden in. As he walked into the alleyway, Magnus bumped into another person who was walking out of the alleyway.

Once they collided it was Magnus who fell back on to the ground right on his ass, he looked up from his spot and gazed up at the person he crashed into. The person turned out to be a middle-aged man with mountain folk features in a long priest robe with a book held in his left hand. He had short cropped white hair, black deep set eyes, a clean shaven narrow face, and a lanky figure.

Magnus did not have a clue with what the hell is going on with all these diverse colored hairs and eyes. At first, he thought it was dye, a cultural thing that they did in this world, but he washed his head plenty of times, and it is still an azure shade of blue.

So the only way to identify different types of people in this world is by their skin tone, going by their hair or eye color is no way to go at all.

“Oh, my apologies, my boy, I was not watching where I was going,” the man said, as he bent forward a bit towards Magnus and held out the hand which was empty.

Magnus did not take the offered arm considering that he was no longer the trusting sort and got up by himself, just so the man did not take it the wrong way, Magnus said. “It is alright. I was also not watching where I was going, and I did not see you there.”

Seeing that no harm was done, and no reason to stick around to waste everyone's time, Magnus walked around the man and headed off to his final destination. However, before he could take even a few steps, the man called out to him, “My boy, I was wondering if I could share with you the light of our new church?”

Magnus spun around to look at what he now knew for sure was a priest with one of his eyebrows raised. Magnus was never a religious sort; he could say that he sort of fell into the atheist group.

God was never at the forefront of his thoughts, and he/she never played a part in his life. If he was some hateful bastard, he would have been blaming god for the situation he was in back on earth or even the one he is in now.

However, he knew that it was not by some divine mandate that he could not work as a mech builder or that he is an orphan right now. It was thanks to a green hat asshole that he lost his license, and it was thanks to no good parents that he is a street urchin.

Furthermore, it sure as hell will not be by some divine hand that he gets out of this hopeless state, it will be by his strength and guile that he will make it out.

Anyways, the people of this world also fall into this bracket. They do not follow any god or practice any religion. Only a few strange folks worship the founders, and that isn’t even an organized thing since some holy book does not exist, or there are not some teachings to follow.

That is why it is surprising seeing a priest, preaching some new religion, it truly is something you don’t see that often.

Nevertheless, Magnus was not interested, and that is what he voiced, “Thank you, priest, but I got to be somewhere, so maybe another time.”

With that statement, Magnus tried to walk off; however, once more, he was stopped by the priest, and this time, the man decided to get all physical. Magnus frowned down at the hand resting on his shoulder, he tried to be polite to the man by not having to say no to him, and this is how he gets repaid.

“It will take only a few moments, my boy, and I promise it will be worth it. The message of light is awe-inspiring and will take your breath away,” the priest said, either not noticing the irritation on Magnus’s face or merely ignoring it.

Magnus shoved the hand off his shoulder, and he decided to make it very clear to the priest that he was not fucking interested. There was no reason to go nuclear... yet, the priest was naturally just doing his job, preaching, even if Magnus was not too keen about it.

“Look, buddy, I am not into this whole religion stuff, so maybe try somebody else, huh?” Magnus asked, but it was clear that it was more of an order than a question.

Despite the clear disinterest that Magnus showed or more accurately what little fucks he gave about what the man was peddling, the priest was still relentless. “This is not any old religion that appears every odd century, my boy, this is something more! The message of light will change your life forever. You will be graced by the lord of light himself.”

Magnus tunes out the man as he kept going at it, now this was not even funny anymore. It was obvious that the priest will only be taking one answer, a yes!

Magnus was not going to regret what was about to happen one bit. He hated how the man kept on saying, my boy, it just sounded so patronizing, and to be honest he did not like the vibe he was getting from the man.

“Look here, asshole, I do not know how to get this across to your thick skull, but I do not care about your new religion, nor am I interested in learning more about it. Go shove it up somebody else's ass.”

This time Magnus hoped his message got across loud and clear, but that did not look like it would be the case. Magnus saw the hand reaching out for him, before it could touch him, Magnus grabbed the hand in a vise grip and bent it the fingers backward.

Immediately results came through as the priest fell onto his knees while Magnus loomed over him still with the man’s hands in his grip.

“What the hell is wrong with you, man, huh? Can you not understand me? I am not interested in what you got.” Magnus shouted at the man as he lost all patience with the man.

“You must receive the message of light,” the man said, completely ignoring Magnus and the situation he was in.

Magnus frowned down at the man, the anger he was feeling disapparated and confusion took its place. He peered more closely at him, and what caught his attention was the man’s eyes, that cleared all his confusion and bewilderment.

The man was a zealot, pure and simple, the mad gleam of over enthusiasm in his eyes gave him away, now Magnus was uncertain with what he should do with him. It is evident that he will not give up until Magnus accepted this message of light he was going on about.

Magnus took out his dagger from his it's sheath and held it in the light, once the man saw the pure glint of cold steel he finally shut up. Now, something other than his religion was worrying him, his life.

“My boy, there... is no reason t-.. to get furies. That is th- the demons influencing you,” the priest said in a shaky voice, making his fear evident.

“Oh, please just shut up,” Magnus said in annoyance as held the dagger ready to strike.

“Alright, i- I will leave you along,” the priest said, now really freaked out.

Magnus shook his head as he said, “so now you decide to leave me alone, huh? Well, it is too late now.” Then Magnus swung down the dagger, and the priest fell down limply onto the ground.

Magnus dagger came away, but it was not slick with blood, “Did you have to give him a heart attack near the end?” Codex asked in chagrin voice.

“Well, I had to make him pay for the biggest headache he gave me all day,” Magnus said as he looked down at the bruise he gave the man on the back of the head. Then Magnus patted the man down as he took out a coin purse from his inner priest robe.

“And what was that?” Codex asked in a disappointed voice.

“That was interest,” Magnus responded with, as he also pocketed the book the man was carrying.

“Let me guess, that book was double interest?’ Codex asked.

“Nah,” Magnus said as he made his way to the tavern, “I just felt like doing that.”

---------------------

“You should return that priest’s holy book,” Codex said.

“Why should I?” Magnus asked as he shoved food into his mouth, “books are rare around here. I am pretty sure it could sell quite well.”

“How he is going to preach, huh?” Codex asked.

“Well, he looked like a very pious man. I'm sure he has it remembered from front to back. Anyways you saw me steal way more than just books, so what got your knickers in a bunch?”

“I just don’t like this,” Codex said, “something feels off. That man was clearly a zealot, how rarely does that happen, in a world that barely has any religions?”

“Yeah, I know,” Magnus said, he still jitters from that run in, the man obviously wanted to shove his belief up Magnus’s throat. “I will just have to avoid these followers of light from now on.”

Codex groaned, “You are so insufferable at times, is your plan to avoid all your troubles until they catch up to you?”

Magnus shrugged his shoulders as he finished the last morsel of food and said, “Yeah, I guess!” It was not like he could do anything against the guards after him, the gangs looking for him, or this up and coming cult trying to brainwash him.

So there was no reason to lose sleep over problems you can not solve, or Magnus’s hair would have turned grey already. Everything will either be solved in due time or he has to pay up when his problems catch up to him.

With his belly full to near bursting, Magnus crossed his legs together in his seat and tried out his breathing technique. In the early morning, when he is offered free meal is the best time to practice this money draining technique because he does not have to pay for the food being used to fuel the technique.

Once all the food he had eaten was all spent, Magnus stopped practicing the technique, feeling like he made good gains, Magnus asked Codex, “Hey Codex how much has my stats gone up?”

“Your agility went up by 0.00464, and your dexterity went up by 0.00274” Codex responded.

“WHAT!” Magnus shouted out loud instead of his mind causing a few sober patrons to look his way.

This time when Magnus spoke up, it was in a whisper even if it was all in his mind. “Why is my improved so small?”

“Didn’t I tell you that your gain will be small from now on,” Codex answered back.

Magnus was still upset, and said in a whimper, “but that means I will be barely making any gains at all.” He was not sure if this would be the constant gains he would be making, but if that was true, then that means each year he will only be gaining 1.67 for agility and 0.99 for dexterity.

Still holding out in hope, Magnus asked, “How much did I improve by yesterday?”

“Well,” Codex said, and Magnus could have sworn she was making this difficult for him. “You made 0.00257 gains on strength, 0.00333 on endurance, 0.00391 on agility, 0.00317 on dexterity, 0.00355 on vitality, and 0.00293 on durability.”

Magnus made the calculation in his mind, and that turned out to be 0.93 gains on strength each year, 1.2 on endurance, 1.4 on agility, 1.15 on dexterity, 1.3 on vitality, and 1.1 on durability.

Magnus recalled all the pain and suffering he had to go through to make these advancements, and he shuddered. If he wanted to become stronger, it would only be through blood and sweat.

The only saving grace in all of this was the breathing technique. Now it did not look so bad in Magnus’s eyes anymore. He would have been kissing it and hugging it close, if he had not given it to the older boys. The thing was able to give him the same growth as the training he did.

Magnus let loose a long sigh as he got up from his seat, even if it was painful and hard, his chance was right before him, all that is left is for him to take it.

------------------------

Magnus entered the hidden basement, his theory from before was correct; this tavern belonged to Soykan and his crew.

All the clues were set right before him, and once he connected it, the answer was obvious.

First and foremost, it is like the bar goes out of its way to not get customers in; it is hidden in an alleyway, which is impossible to find unless you know about its existence. The structure is so old, and there has never been any effort made to fix it even if it feels like it might fall apart at any moment.

Then there's the scent, the nasty fish scent, that thing drives off all potential customers even when they braved through everything and just want to give this tavern a try. You do eventually get used to it, but it does make you wonder where it is coming from even if it induces so much symptoms you will be literally running out of the place.

Anyways all those aforementioned problems could be fixed but it has never been, so there must be a reason.

But the straw that broke the camel's back was the hidden floor, not to mention how the so called ‘owner’ treated Soykan and his crew. That made it evident that everything was planned to be the way it is, all so this place could be ignored and stay hidden since it is, after all, a thief den.

“So you have finally decided to grace us with your presence, huh?” Taylan asked.

Magnus coughed to hide his embarrassment, that run in with the priest than his meal waste quite a bit of time.

Seeing so answer coming forth right, Wang Shui spoke up, “From now on, you are expected to be here when the two suns fully crests the sky.”

Magnus nodded his head, Shui’s meaning got across clearly. He had to be here at 8 o'clock sharp.

“Good, we will start with my training,” Wang Shui said, and Magnus was sure that he saw a ghost of an evil smile on the man’s lips.