Leo glanced at the treasure map before putting it back into the ring. He wished he could go immediately and find whatever the map was leading to, but he couldn't. Valkyr's Forest was dangerous because the Inner Forest was filled with 2nd Circle Magical Beasts.
That was only the Inner Forest. The center of the forest would definitely have a 3rd Circle Magical Beast. And this wasn't even considering the recent change in Valkyr's Forest. If there was indeed a Beast Wave that would happen in the near future, there were chances that the Magical Beast could be a 4th Circle Magical Beast.
Once he had everything sorted, he got up and went to the pool. It had been 3 hours since he had come to the mansion, and the destruction he had caused was tremendous. Half of the mansion was burnt down and the Blacktooth Gang was completely gone.
After making sure that the fire wasn't going to spread anywhere else, he left the place to go back to his house. He got back and quickly went to sleep. He would have a long day the next day and wanted to be in his best condition for it.
He woke up the next day to a loud knock on his door.
"Come in!" He said. He slowly got up from his bed while Daphne entered the room.
"Why are you still sleeping? We should go to the festival today!" She said excitedly.
The festival was an annual New Year's celebration that the city had. He had been to the ones before and they were fun as long as you had a little money to play some of the games there. He had always saved up enough to play them the years before this, but now he didn't have that problem.
"I'll get ready. Don't worry." He said. He yawned while getting up to get ready. "You go outside. I"ll be out in 30 minutes.
He quickly got ready and they both set out to the festival. It was early in the morning, but they were planning on spending the entire day there. The day went by incredibly quickly, and the night approached.
As it did, the streets started to get bright with lamps and colorful lights. Everyone was enjoying their time. Leo and Daphne were also having a fun time. Eventually, the crowd started clearing out and they all went back to their homes. Both of them also went back.
When they got back, they were exhausted. Before she could go back to her room, Leo stopped Daphne.
"Wait," he called her. She turned back.
"What?" She asked him.
"Happy birthday," he said. He didn't have any gift in his hands, but he wanted to wish her.
She smiled. She leaped into him and hugged him. "Happy birthday to you too!" She said.
She was only turning 13 while he was now 14 years old. They were still incredibly young, but they had always been that. Every year that went by, they got more mature and more stable.
"Okay, now we should sleep. We'll see if we can go do anything tomorrow." Leo said. He didn't have anything planned, but it was the New Year. He was going to start off with some fun and then go back to training.
The next day, the two of them went to get lunch at a nice restaurant. After that, they went back to their house and the celebrations died off. Daphne went back to her room while Leo left the house again.
He was going to the Thousand Treasure Tower. He had gotten so much money and so he had to use a lot of it. He was only planning on buying one item for the day and saving the rest for a later day.
When he got there, he went to buy the Aura Gathering Pill. He was finally going to start learning how to use Aura. Ever since he became a 2nd Star Mage, he was able to see the aura that Aura Knights use. He was able to detect it and understand its flow.
He hoped that this experience would translate to actually gathering aura and being able to use it. If he could do that, then he would no longer have to hide his magic as much and use Aura instead.
He bought 5 Aura Gathering Pills. The money came solely from the money he raided from the members he killed. They had a decent amount of money themselves since it included normal gang members as well as higher-level members.
He stayed even after purchasing the pills to browse through any interesting materials. He looked at the items that were on display and he realized that there wasn't anything on that floor for mages.
Everything there was for Aura Knights. He realized that he would have to go to the floor above for items that would actually help him, but he couldn't do that since the qualifications to enter the first floor were that he had to be a 2nd Circle Aura Knight or be a noble.
He decided to leave and go back to his house. When he reached the house, he didn't start training immediately. He wasn't in a hurry to become an Aura Knight yet. Instead, he went out to the inn that he normally went to.
This was because he needed information. The entirety of the previous day, he had spent time with Daphne. That was why he didn't know what information about the Blacktooth Gang actually spread out.
He needed to know out of curiosity and because of his own involvement. When he got to the inn, he could hear a lively noise from the inside. When he entered, he saw that the adventurers and mercenaries were all partying.
He was curious and went to the front. He saw the owner was incredibly busy serving a lot of beer to the customers. He saw Leo and stopped his work.
"Hello, Leo! How are you?" Miller greeted him enthusiastically.
"Hello, Miller. I'm doing good. How about you? Why is the inn this lively today?" Leo asked him.
"Oh, this? I gave everyone here a free beer on the house. Today is the New Year. And we started this year with such wonderful news!" He said.
Leo could already guess where this was going, but he still had to ask.
"What happened?"
Miller smiled widely. "A Mage from Eldridge came and wiped out the Blacktooth Gang. Now, I don't have any more debts left. All thanks to that noble person. I would give them a big kiss if I could see them."
Leo cringed inside but kept a smile on the outside. "That is such good news! Good for you. But why would a mage come to Solhaven?" He asked.
"I don't know. Now that you've mentioned it, I never actually though about that. Why was he here?" Miller went deep into thought.
"Okay, I'll see you around!" Leo waved and left the inn. He didn't get any food because he did everything he wanted to.
All he wanted to do was plant the thought of why the mage was there. Once Miller asked the adventurers, someone would start making rumors. Eventually, there would be enough rumors about the mage that everyone would think this person definitely existed.
