Ning had barely made it past the door when he heard a shout coming from inside.
"Mister, wait," the lady at the store cried out. Ning turned around to see that she had come out from behind the counter to talk with him.
"Did I miss something?" he asked.
"Mister, you need to leave this town immediately. The men you just attacked were Khrom's men. They will come to attack you once they realize that you laid your hands on one of his men," the lady said.
"Khrom? Is that someone's name?" Ning asked.
"You don't know Khrom?" The lady asked in surprise. "He is a criminal, a bandit that lives nearby and terrorizes the town. Not even lord Canon's people can do anything about him."
"Oh! So a bandit huh? no wonder they were so violent. Thanks for the advice miss." Ning nodded towards the lady and walked away.
Famir and Jangar followed him too.
"Have you guys heard of Khrom?" Ning asked.
"No," Famir said.
"I have," Jangar replied.
Both Ning and Famir looked towards him and waited for him to start speaking.
"I heard about him in another town I was visiting with my older brother a few years ago. Khrom was a bandit that liked staying out of town and sent his men to do his work."
"It seems he has changed towns. I hope lord Canon can deal with him. His menace shouldn't be left festering in this society," Jangar said.
"I see. so he wasn't caught in so many years huh?" Ning said.
"By the way, Senior. How did you break his dagger? I was pretty sure he stabbed you," Famir asked.
"Oh, that..." Ning tried to think of an answer and said, " I manipulated his dagger so that the sharp end was removed and it hit his buddy instead."
"Wow! You can do that with Aether arts?" Famir asked in surprise.
"Haha, there are a lot of things you can do with Aether arts. Once I give you a technique to absorb the Aether, I will teach you just how powerful Aether can be under the right user," Ning said.
Ning himself was looking forward to being proficient in the Aether arts. Something that didn't require learning extensive techniques to use was always welcome from him.
Also, a power that was based on someone's imagination was just too juicy for him to leave it alone.
'Damn, with this I won't have to rely on the system every time I need something made,' he thought.
'Although, I can only make physical objects with this and I will still need the system for anything else,' he thought.
The thing he bought most from the system was knowledge, which he knew was impossible to acquire any other way. So, in the end, he would still have to rely on the system most of the time.
They reached the village and Jangar left them to return to his house. "Wait," Ning said and took out a bunch of his clothes and gave them to him.
"Wear nice things from now on," Ning said and left before Jangar could even say thank you.
Famir followed Ning and returned back to his home. However, just before he reached his home, his pace quickened a bit. He couldn't tell whether he was hearing things or not, but it sounded like someone was screaming from his house.
Famir's heart dropped when he thought of something. He immediately ran towards his house, leaving Ning behind. As he got closer to his house, he got more and more sure that he was in fact hearing screams.
When he got to his house, he confirmed it; the screams really were coming from his house.
The screams belonged to someone with a very hoarse voice. It sounded as if the person hadn't spoken in forever, and had thus lost the ability to speak. Also, they were of the feminine variety.
"No! Mavenna!" Famir screamed his sister's name and ran into his house. He directly ran into Mavenna's room however, there was a large golden object blocking his way in.
He tried pushing on it, but no matter how hard he tried he couldn't do anything.
"Mavenna! Are you okay?" he asked.
"Brother? Is that you?" a sobbing Mavenna's voice came from the other side. "Help me, brother. This monster will eat me," she started crying.
"Monsters?" Famir's face dropped color. "Move!" he started screaming and pushed the golden object as hard as he could, but it just wouldn't budge.
"What can I do?" he started thinking. He felt like he had no choice and had to do what he could as his last resort. He took a deep breath and started concentrating.
GRASP
Something grabbed his hand and he suddenly lost focus. He opened his eyes to see Ning standing right next to him.
"Senior! My sister, Mavenna, she…" he tried to explain.
"Don't worry. I left him to protect your sister. He isn't going to harm her," Ning said and walked up to the door. "Good job, Aegis. You can come back and rest now."
Aegis suddenly disappeared leaving an open door and a screaming young girl inside. The moment Aegis disappeared, Famir ran into the room and found his sister hidden behind the bedsheets, clearly scared out of her mind.
"It's okay, Mavenna. I am here. It's okay," Famir said as he got his little sister in an embrace. He held her shivering body until she calmed down.
Ning decided to not interfere with the brother-sister reunion and walked outside. He sat down on the porch behind the house and looked at the magnificent sight of the Peak spewing out the Qi and Aether.
Soon, he could hear uncontrollable sobbing from inside the room. Ning felt a little sad listening to the cries of a young girl who had already lost her mother, and now learned that she had also lost her father.
"Suddenly learning you are an orphan now isn't very easy, is it?" Ning thought. He looked to the room behind him and thought, "thankfully, they have each other. They should be fine."
He let the cries go on for a little longer and only went back in once he couldn't hear the sobbing anymore.
