The Roamer

Chapter 22: Conquest

After Aeolus and his match, everyone else had fought, and it had reached the strongest point now. Right now, Aeolus was guaranteed an affinity bouffet no matter what, so he was clear. However, he was still going to try his hardest, because if he could reach even third place, it would be amazing.

“Now that everyone has fought their battles, pick your next opponents!” the announcer yelled in an excited tone, still as giddy as a child. Aeolus smirked at the thought of him being more childish than himself, and began to walk towards the silver hair.

“I see, one of the most interesting characters of this tournament wants to challenge me?” he said, with a grin on his face. Aeolus sensed his soul, and could see curiosity within, but there was something even stronger within silver-hair, that he just could not identify. Though, that aura he was sensing did seem a bit eccentric.

“Is there any issue if I want to challenge you?” Aeolus asked, while being respectful. He wasn’t going to start talking crap with someone who talked to him nicely, he had his own manners. However, the next thing that silver hair said completely pissed him off.

“No issues, it’s just that you might not walk out of it victorious.” he said, with a sly grin on his face. He was clearly toying with Aeolus, and not taking him seriously at all. Aeolus was interested in this character, so he decided to agree to his challenge.

“Now, who would like to come up and fight with their partner?” the announcer said, while looking at all the pairs expectantly. Some crimson haired person with a body built to the extreme walked out, along with some normal looking man. They began to battle, and while battling, many of the fighters who were watching were clearly taking notes.

At this point, Aeolus realized something. The more he fought here, the more he would expose his trump cards and secrets. In fact, this applied to every fight, it was just that Aeolus had never realized this before. He considered giving up and just taking his reward to leave, and decided to go through with it.

“Excuse me, mr. announcer?” Aeolus roared into the sky, and attracted the announcers attention. He immediately descended towards Aeolus, and stood right in front of him.

“What is it that you need, esteemed fighter?” the announcer said, with both respect and arrogance in his tone. Though he was excited to watch their fights, that didn’t mean that he couldn’t put up a fight himself. If necessary, he could mop the floor with at least half of the fighters here.

“I’m going to drop out at this point, so do you mind giving me a plate full of affinity food?” Aeolus said, while carrying some disinterest in his tone. He just wanted to get out of here and hide his trump cards, and there was also the matter of the wanted poster. Previously, he was oblivious to it all, but he acknowledged anyone could realize him.

“Are you sure you want to drop out?” the announcer said, disappointment painting his face. Aeolus was one of the more interesting characters in this tournament, so him dropping out was basically him declaring that he’ll take away some viewers from this tournament.

“Yes, I’m sure. I can’t risk showing off more of my abilities; There might be a day when I will have to fight against all these people, so them knowing how I operate isn’t something I need.” the brat sure was decisive, as he didn’t even take a second to doubt himself.

‘Sadly, we never said fighters couldn’t drop out, so I’ll have to allow it.’ the announcer said in his mind, and sighed. He really was excited for this brat to fight, but now that he was gone, he would probably not get the chance again.

“Here’s a list of all the affinities we could instill in the food, take your time to pick one.” the announcer said, while handing over a paper with a list of names on it. Aeolus looked at all the affinities, and found the affinity of time perfectly in the middle.

‘Right now, time seems to be the best for me, but I may be narrow visioned right now, so I’ll just check the rest of the list for now.’ Aeolus said within his mind, and continued to look through the list.

He didn’t really expect to find other affinities that might be worthier then time, but he was wrong. There were many that interested him, such as life and death. Some of the more minor ones would be teleportation, reincarnation, and etc, but those wouldn’t be as helpful to him.

The life one gave him the power of a healer essentially. He could instill it into the string, and steal the vigor of someone whenever the string hit them, and take it for himself. However, he already had the soul infusion technique, and the poison affinity would ruin the opponent’s body and make it less healthy, so he scratched that one out.

The only ones left that he was seriously considering was time and death, but he didn’t know how to pick between them. Time let him accelerate and decelerate as he pleased, including any items that he forced it on, though he couldn’t apply it onto another creature directly.

Death was very special, he could raise anything that had died within the last hour into his soldier, and they would get stronger as time went on if he let them experience it. In all honesty, he was imagining skeletons wielding strings with him, and just how strong he and his army would become.

However, there was something that he had to also consider. These affinities were exceedingly rare, and many people would hunt him down if he were to ever become famous throughout the world, as many would want the affinity for themselves. Above all that, there was probably many places where affinities such as these were banned, as some affinities were classified in the god realm, something that some places thought was not right.

‘I think I’ll go with death, if I can become an overlord in with my own views, things can get exceedingly good for me.’ Aeolus thought to himself, and began to recognize the benefits and disadvantages of the death affinity. However, the announcer to his side said something that terrified him.

“May I just say, if you are to choose any of the god realm affinities, you will immediately be hunted down within this city, as they are not allowed here?” the announcer said, with a smile on his face that seemed to be maniacal. Aeolus was immediately terrified, but the next thing the announcer said comforted him a little.

“However, unless you actually have the affinity, we are not permitted to make a move against you.” the announcer said, calming down Aeolus. In reality, he wanted Aeolus to take a god realm affinity, since he wanted to see just how far he could make it. However, rules were rules, and he would try to enforce them if Aeolus were to eat the plate.

“I’ll take a plate instilled with the affinity of death, when will it be ready?” Aeolus said, decisiveness in his eyes. He was going to book it the second he ate the plate. Besides, he could just come back when he was strong enough for cities to do nothing. He could already see it, a day when he could use an army of undead, and throw them at the walls of this city.

However, it didn’t take any time to prepare the plate, as the announcer seemed to have just summoned it. He extended it towards Aeolus, with a smile on his face. Aeolus took it, and flew towards the sky. He was going to leave the city and eat it, since that sounded so much easier. Only, some damned idiot and his screaming seemed to have screwed him over.

“Wait a minute, isn’t that brat on a wanted poster?!” screamed some nobility who was spectating the tournament, while looking up at Aeolus. Aeolus immediately booked it before anyone could confirm what he just said, so that nobody would cause him any issues.

Considering that his main affinity was wind, he was average in speed when he was flying in the air. However, compared to others, such as the announcer, who didn’t even have the wind affinity, he was like lightning. The announcer couldn’t even reach out towards Aeolus, as the second he was about to touch him, Aeolus disappeared from sight.

“God damn it!” the announcer roared, clearly unpleased with what just happened. The nobility would probably be mad that he let him escape, and would punish him or something. Frustrated at how such a thing could happen, he didn’t want to accept it, and continued to soar in the sky, searching for Aeolus.

However, Aeolus was already long gone, and was now tens of miles away from the city. After going on for about ten more minutes, he found a cave, and soared into it. He then sat down, and held the plate with food on it. However, the food really wasn’t normal. He could sense an aura coming out of it, and it was so stifling that he felt some weird emotion growing within him that he had never felt before.

“Now that I have this plate, I can finally finish my affinity set, and I can walk on my path of cultivation with these assisting me.” Aeolus muttered to himself, and began to stuff himself. It tasted a little like chicken, but considering that he was stuffing himself with slop, it had a mix of everything.

After thirty seconds, he had fully stuffed the plate into himself. He could sense something growing within his soul, and immediately checked it out. Inside his soul, he looked at the mid-layer. As expected, there was something within it, and Aeolus focused even deeper onto it.

He saw that it was some black mist, and it was slowly growing. He sent some spirit towards it, but the black mist seemed to have rejected it, and shot it out. Aeolus was confused at the phenomenon, and sent in some spirit again. However, it was shot out again, and this time, the mist seemed to have grown huge enough to cover the whole mid-layer.

‘So, it really sticks to its name, huh?’ Aeolus muttered within his head, slowly acknowledging the affinity of death. It didn’t accept anything that was living near it, including his spirit. How it was staying in his soul, Aeolus didn’t know, but he couldn’t power it up using his spirit.

“I’ll need to find dead bodies, or kill some people, to test this affinity out. I haven’t fully understood it yet, and I don’t know the consequences it will place on me, so I’ll stop playing with it for now.” Aeolus said to himself, and stood up. He then soared out of the cave, but he immediately stopped, and dropped to the ground. He felt a throbbing pain in his soul, and he once again looked.

However, the next scene he saw shocked him. The sphere that was resting in the center of his soul, which represented his layer, was being sucked into the mid-layer, which was where the affinity of death lied. It began to be sucked into the black mist, and disappeared completely.

Then, out of nowhere, a black, misty sphere replaced it. Aeolus sensed his mid-layer, and saw no sphere within it. Aeolus began to put things together, and realized what had just happened.

‘The affinity of death sucked in the sphere, and gave birth to it once again. Now, it’s a sphere that dedicates all its power to the death affinity!’ Aeolus realized, and began to worry that he had lost all the spirit and vitality the sphere had given him, but he still had it. In fact, if anything, the amount of spirit and vitality it gave him now was much better.

Along with that spirit and vitality, there seemed to be a boost in power towards the affinity of death. Aeolus realized another thing at this point. The sphere and affinity were helping each other, as the sphere powered up the affinity of death, while the affinity of death gave it more vitality and spirit.

“If I can do this for all of my affinities, my power will definitely seem weak now compared to myself in the future!” Aeolus acknowledged the potential of such a thing, and began to dream about using it in the future. However, now was not the time to do such a thing, as he still had the affinity of death to test out.

This time, he soared into the sky without failure, and went to a town that he had left string in. On the way, he was contemplating whether or not he should use a dead body, or kill someone. After two minutes, he had arrived at the town, and decided to kill someone. That way, he could absorb their soul, and also try out the affinity of death.

He began to stroll through the town, until he found a certain alleyway that he always trusted to find people in. He turned the corner, and found a guy mugging a woman, while also doing some questionable things to her, which was probably molestation. He sensed the soul of the man, and figured out that he was only at the first layer.

Aeolus smirked, and continued to move ahead. He concealed his presence so that this man would not sense him, and continued to approach. The man finally noticed him with hearing, but by the time he turned around, he already died to string. Aeolus leaned down towards his body, but did not know what to do with it, besides absorbing the soul.

At that point in time, he sensed an urge from his mid-layer, the dark mist jumping around. Giving into the dark mist, he took some of it into his fingertips, and sent it into the dead man. After a minute or two, a scene that looked like it came out of a litrpg book happened.

The man who was supposedly dead stood up, and all the color in his eyes was gone. His skin seemed to be extremely pale, and his hair color was white. He kneeled down in front of Aeolus, and seemed to be trying to mouth out words, but failed terribly. He then stood up, and seemed to have been sucked into Aeolus.

Aeolus checked within his soul, or more specifically, his mid-layer, and noticed him there. He was just floating within the dark mist, as if it was where he belonged. Aeolus stopped looking into his soul, and took a deep breath. He then cracked a sly grin, while beginning to laugh like a maniac. He then muttered a sentence that could give even a young, vigorous person a heart attack. His very words were:

“It seems my conquest of the dead begins here.”

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ABOUT ME

Name: Abdul Kareem

Age: 13 (Almost 14)

Occupation: Middle school

Goal: Idk, I’m just making a novel for now

Location: Why would I say that?

Relations: I’m not married (duh)

Favorite food: da asian stuf!

Anyway, on a more serious tone, this is my first novel I’ve ever tried writing. Thanks for being with me on this first experience! If you could also somehow get others to read this novel too, I would be pretty grateful!