Before Jin’s regression—back when he had just been banished from the Garden of Swords—there was a period when he roamed from country to country, sleeping out in the open.
He had lost his lifelong goal after being banished from his clan and was surviving like a cripple on the streets. But everything changed when he met his magic teacher.
Nevertheless, until the day he met his master, Jin had seen and experienced countless types of criminals and scoundrels in the dark alleyways where no one entered.
Petty thieves, robbers, beggars, alcoholics, etc. Those people lived like no tomorrow, and were only loyal to their desires.
‘The most notable scumbags amongst them were druggies.’
Drug addicts.
Those people couldn’t survive for another day without their drugs. Without their ‘medicine’, they would sit lifelessly with hollow eyes and foam in their mouths. But if someone were to offer them the drugs, it was second nature for them to be willing to carve out their hearts to pay.
Ten times out of ten. A hundred out of a hundred. A thousand out of a thousand!
Every single drug addict Jin had seen was the same, without a single exception.
There were some rare people who had managed to stop their addiction with their superhuman willpower and returned to an ordinary lifestyle, but obviously enough, they were one in a million.
In any case, according to Jin’s observations and the documents he had read, Alkaro Tzendler wasn’t someone with such strong willpower.
“Fuck! Please, do me a favour, alright? I don’t think I can survive for another hour without it. Please, I’m begging you…”
Alkaro flopped onto the floor and put his hands together, begging his bodyguards.
The Hidden Palace guards were all wearing composed looks, but Jin noticed the slight disgust in their gazes that appeared momentarily.
“As I’ve said before, it cannot be done. Our task is to prioritize your safety, Young Master. Please keep in mind that we’re not here to babysit you. If you continue to have a temper tantrum, we will have to—”
“Aaaaargh! I don’t care! Shut up! If you won’t get me the drugs, then I’ll do something myself! Fucking hell, just you wait. Once my sweetheart returns, you’re all losing your heads! Your heads, do you hear that?! I’ll make sure you’re all executed!”
“Haaa.”
“Huh? Did you just sigh? Am I a joke to you? You lowly guards! You insignificant pleb bastards! I’m from the Tzend—”
Thwack!
One guard suddenly punched Alkaro in the abdomen. The arrogant druggy trembled on the spot for a few seconds before fainting.
“Goddammit. How much longer do we have to protect this piece of crap?”
“I wish he’d just die from an overdose or something. Just why is the master keeping this piece of shit alive…?”
“Silence. We just need to fulfill the mission we’ve been assigned. You mustn’t get your personal feelings involved.”
The guards carried the unconscious Alkaro back to the room.
Having witnessed the entire scene, Jin felt like he had discovered a treasure chest full of gold.
‘Alkaro’s relationship with his bodyguards is the worst. And it seems like he’d be willing to do anything to get drugs once he wakes up.’
Hm…
As he drank the beer the inn’s employee brought him, Jin pondered to himself. Assassinating Alkaro would not be such a difficult task in the end.
The druggy young master’s tantrums would get worse and worse as the days went by. And if his outbursts repeated enough times, Jin would have more opportunities to assassinate him throughout the next few days.
Whether he used magic, spiritual power, or a plain old dagger, killing Alkaro was going to be a piece of cake.
‘But the problem is the aftermath. I need to find a way to avoid the guards and return home safely after I’ve killed him.’
That was the most difficult aspect of this mission.
It was impossible to kill him in broad daylight inside the inn and escape alive. The 6-star or higher bodyguards were far more physically capable than Jin and could catch up to him in no time.
Poison wouldn’t work either. If Jin baited Alkaro with drugs and killed him using poison, the entirety of Mamit would be in an uproar.
The greatest unwritten taboo in the lawless city is the usage of poison.
Jin’s head began aching as he tried to come up with a plan. Assassinating Alkaro inside the Moonlit Well using traditional methods was impossible.
Bang.
Having chugged down his beer, Jin placed the mug back on the table with vigour.
‘I’ve made up my mind.’
Jin had come up with a strategy.
He would do a terror attack on the Moonlit Well using magic from inside his room.
The Moonlit Well was the inn where the kings of Mamit resided.
A building where the most notorious and prominent figures amongst the worst criminals of Mamit were gathered. As soon as the terror attack begins, these ‘kings’ of Mamit would counterattack and track down the culprit.
Moreover, their main suspect would be a ‘6-star or higher magician’.
‘If I cast a 4-star spell and enhance its effects with spiritual energy, it should be as powerful as a 6-star spell. The most effective way would be to use the lightning spell ‘Summon Lightning’ and amplify its firepower.’
Who in the world would ever believe that a 15-year-old kid was a 6-star magician?
No one. Not a single soul.
Even Beradin Zipfel—a candidate to become the next Zipfel patriarch—had just become a 6-star magician at the age of 18, shaking the entire world with his genius.
Blindly casting 6-star spells at the age of 15 was impossible to do, even for geniuses from the Zipfel Clan.
‘No need to overthink this. I’ll fill my room with spiritual energy to cover up the traces of magic being cast.’
When something gets covered in spiritual energy, its existence and presence becomes faint, no matter what it is.
Jin had once thrown a dagger covered in spiritual energy and easily managed to kill a 4-star warrior. Mana and aura weren’t an exception to this rule either. Jin was confident that he could effortlessly conceal 4-star spells with his spiritual energy.
Thus, the guests residing in the Moonlit Well would believe that the terror attack had originated from outside.
There was no way the powerful kings of Mamit wouldn’t notice mana suddenly being generated inside the inn. Therefore, they’d trust their senses and believe that the culprit was outside.
‘I’ll amplify the Summon Lightning spell and drop it on the Moonlit Well. I’ll probably be injured as well, but I should be fine since I have Orgal’s Pendant with me.’
Orgal’s Pendant could nullify most of the effects of 5-star or lower magic spells. 6-star and onwards were a bit more dangerous, but the pendant’s nullifying powers weren’t completely useless.
‘With my current mana and spiritual energy, I think I can use the amplified Summon Lightning spell a total of four times. If I cast the spell four times on different areas of the inn, it should start an uproar amongst the guests.’
In the meantime, Jin would pretend to be injured and walk around the inn. And once he found Alkaro, he’d kill him and complete his task.
It would be even better if Alkaro unluckily got hit directly by one of the lightning spells and died immediately.
‘I’ve always felt annoyed by how young I am, but it’s pretty helpful at times.’
Just as its name implies, Summon Lightning is a spell that attacks someone with a sudden streak of lightning falling from the sky. It only lasts for an instant; thus, it would be hard for people to notice that there was spiritual energy mixed in with the spell.
And even if someone did discern some dark energy within the streak of lightning, it was likely that they’d just think of it as some unknown variant of the normal spell. Spiritual power wasn’t very well-known around the world, whereas all kinds of magic variants existed throughout the continent.
Jin’s regression, his spiritual power, along with his innate talent with magic.
Had he been missing one of these, he wouldn’t have even thought of attempting a terror attack on the Moonlit Well.
‘There’s no need to wait a few more days. We never know what that drug addict might attempt to do if I wait for too long. I’ll initiate the plan at noon tomorrow.’
Instead of attacking during the evening or the middle of the night when most people were asleep, it would be far more efficient to attack in broad daylight.
The more people witnessed the 6-star Summon Lightning spell with their own eyes, the more beneficial it was for Jin.
***
***
10:30 AM.
Jin descended to the lobby and ordered a late breakfast. He was served freshly baked bread, boiled eggs, and soup.
This was all part of his plan. He had to behave like every other guest staying at the Moonlit Well and start his morning as a normal human being.
Five of Mamit’s kings were at the lobby eating breakfast as well. They smirked as they sensed the weak aura exuding from Jin.
“Kid. You seem to be quite talented for your age, but you shouldn’t stay for too long in this city with that level of skills. You’ll just be at a disadvantage if you stir up trouble.”
One of the five spoke to the boy.
“Thank you for the advice. But there is someone I must find. I will make sure I don’t cause any trouble for the people residing here.”
“Haha, what a docile lamb. Even though you were a ferocious wolf who killed someone with a dagger in mere instants not long ago.”
“You are on a completely different level compared to those drunkards. I know my place and know when not to cross the line.”
“Your manners are adequate. Good, I shall allow you to stay here for a few more days.”
“Thank you very much. I shall never forget how the kings of Mamit took care of me even after I leave the city.”
Jin slightly lowered his head and left his seat, returning to his room. The kings of Mamit found his attitude endearing and began chatting amongst each other.
“Mamit is done for. Look, even brats like him are coming and going as they please now.”
“Well, I’m sure he’ll leave after a few days. If not, he’ll probably get killed by some random lowlifes in the area.”
“Still, he seemed like quite the decent kid. Maybe I should recruit him into our organization as a rookie.”
“Don’t. He’ll probably end up a cripple if you let your men loose around him due to his good looks.”
Bwahahaha!
The kings of Mamit all burst out in laughter.
‘My manners are adequate? What laughable pieces of trash.’
Having returned to his room, Jin also exploded in laughter. He found it hilarious that the scoundrels who had committed some of the worst crimes in the city were being advocates of manners and courtesy. He couldn’t wait to drop some thunderbolts on their heads.
Jin sat down cross-legged in the middle of the room.
He closed his eyes and released spiritual energy. Soon enough, dark smoky energy began seeping out of his entire body. In order to start the attack at noon, he had to diligently prepare the smaller details early on.
‘I’ll fill up the entire room with spiritual energy so that no one can sense anything from outside.’
As his room was tiny, he could cover up and fill in every little crack within an hour.
This single hour was the most important step of the plan. If someone came to his room during this time, his plan would be in shambles.
He could constantly hear footsteps outside his room, in the corridor. It was the sound of the employees cleaning the place, and guests leaving and entering their rooms.
‘Well, I have to take a risk. Otherwise, I won’t be able to accomplish anything.’
Jin properly began the spiritual release. As the room filled up with more and more dark energy, the sounds from beyond his door got fainter and fainter. This gave Jin a sense of security and calm.
The hour went by. The room was filled with spiritual energy, as if ink had permeated into every surface and into the air. One couldn’t discern the outline of the furniture. It was basically synonymous to total darkness.
The only entity that had retained colour inside the room was Jin.
‘I gotta say, quite the perfect work, Jin.’
Phewww.
Jin regained control over his breathing and wiped off the sweat on his forehead. All that was left to do was generating mana and preparing to cast Summon Lightning.
‘I’ll make the spiritual energy inside the room disappear by infusing it inside the final Summon Lightning spell. Afterwards, all that’s left to do is scream and run out of the room, pretending to be injured, and to check whether Alkaro’s alive or not…’
A simple, yet effective strategy.
As Jin praised himself and his plan, he began gathering mana in both his hands.
Crackle! Crack!
Blue electricity ran down his arms to his hands as they generated a lot of noise. However, not a single soul could hear sounds outside the room, just as Jin had planned.
Next, string-like strands of spiritual energy were mixed into the electricity.
‘Summon Lightning.’
Boooooooooooom!
The first bolt of lightning fell onto the Moonlit Well, destroying half the building’s roof.
“Aaarg—!”
Before the casualties could cry out in pain, before the uninjured could raise their heads to look at the sky…
A second streak of dark-blue lightning struck down on the Moonlit Well. It was the second attack.
People began running out of the ashen and destroyed guest rooms, screaming for their lives.
“What the… Looks like I chose the wrong day to come here.”
And a certain girl—who was about to set foot inside the Moonlit Well—tilted her head in confusion as she watched this spectacle.
