Sam's POV.
"Come on Argo, you know those potatoes only go for seven coppers at most. It's just highway robbery for you to insist that they cost 12."
"If you can't pay then step aside, I have other customers to tend to."
I said nothing, I just glared at her.
Because there could be no way that she was actually trying to sell me three potatoes for a whopping 12 coins.
After realizing she wasn't gonna back down I just Side in frustration.
What did it matter anyway I had the money needed to pay for them, I just wanted to get some drinks after this.
They smile almost appeared on my face as I thought about the girl I had met at the end.
She hadLong black curls and big brown eyes, and the voice so soft and made me think she was whispering.
The thought only made me frown harder as I realized I didn't have enough money to go and get a drink at this tavern.
As Argo counted out the three potatoes and handed them to me, I resisted the urge to snatch up both of the potatoes and the money and takeoff running at full speed.
"No I can't do that, mother said everyone who steals will have their soul stolen by tracker on the way to the land of bines."
Picking up the potatoes, I walked away, without a second look backwards.
I was still grumbling about the unfair haggling Argo had done no that didn't even count, at that point, she was stealing from me.
These potatoes would barely last me and Ma a few days.
Yet she had to insist that it cost in my entire pay.
Well, not all of it.
I thought thoughts as I figured the eight other coppers I had concealed under my shirt. Grinning I realized I could still go to the tavern.
I had a bounce in my step as I made my way through the streets.They bounced that quickly faded as I realized just how crowded said streets were.
Frowning,
I decided to go through the alley, they were quicker route back to the house anyway.
I would have taken them in the first place except for it was where homeless people and pickpockets lurked.
"But no one was going to get the best of me, not even the pig pockets."
I thoughts as I wrapped my fingers around the hill of my beltknife with my left hand, while gripping the three potatoes with my right. Even if I didn't have the beltknife, I would be fine.
Jody and course back at the stable taught me how to throw a good punch. So I wasn't in much danger.
Making my way through the alleys, my nose wrinkled in discussed.
The city never actually smelled good at any time of day, but the smells seem to get worse when the sun was beating down like this.
That along with the sight of would have to be the fifth man I witnessed today, puking up his guts on the pavement in front of me made me quick in my step.
Turning down a side alley I continued moving, changing my quick walk into a jog.
I was nearly home, and then I could clean my boots of whatever disgusting muck had gotten on them from walking through these dirty alleys.
"I knew there was a reason I didn't go here, I just knew."
I muttered to myself as I once again increased my pace.
I didn't know why, but it felt like something or someone was watching me.
It could've been just a feeling, but it didn't matter either way.
I would be home soon and whatever it was wouldn't pose a threat.
Then something whistled past my head.
Years of dodging rocks from the other village boys made me turn my head to the side instinctively.
The pale blur shot past me, and I quickly look back.
What I saw nearly caused me to scream.
Not 3 feet behind me was what look like a teenager chasing after me with steps so silent.
I didn't even notice he was there.
I couldn't tell any other details about him due to him wearing a combination Of a cloak.
That was a naturally dark, a black tunic, and what looks suspiciously like to Mitch match boots.
That along with the strange black piece of fabric, he had tied across his face, only revealing the strangely silver eyes and his brown hair.
Made him nearly nothing more than a shadow.
A bolt of fear shot through me before I poured on another burst of speed.
It could've been in my imagination, but I could've swore.
I heard a snort of Distain from the kid as I turned another corner.
"Just one more, I'm nearly there."
The adrenaline pumping through me caused me to run faster than I ever had before.
I turned to look back at where the kid had been and found him falling behind.
I smiled in relief, yet I looked back several more times as I ran.
"Did he Actually think he could catch up to fast as a horse, Sam? Because no, he
couldn't." I said between puffing breaths as I slowed my run into a jog.
I didn't have much further to go anyway, just around this bend and I would be home free.
All my focus was on keeping my feet from tripping over each other.
Running full speed after pulling a 10 hour shift at the stables was a bad combination.
"Just a bit further Sam."
I told myself as I grew closer to my house. "Just a bit."
My eyes were so focused that I didn't notice the arm around my neck until it was too late.
Raise POV.
It took barely 3 minutes for the bastard to go limp.
It wasn't that he was weak, it was that all people collapsed after something around that time after being put in a blood choke.
I glared down at his gangly body in distain.
I wasn't mad at him specifically, I was mad at the fact that this shit was taking too long.
I had been out here for nearly 5 fucking hours, and I had only caught nine mortals.
That was due to two reasons. One, do I look like a fucking top Tear assassin to you.
I had spent my entire life, beating the living shit out of anyone and everyone who either has something I wanted, attempted to take something from me, or just happen to be in a 5 mile radius when I got annoyed.
Also, every time I did so I approached Them directly, no schemes, no tricks only direct combat.
soHow the fuck was I supposed to know if you move fast enough, even mortals can hear your feet hitting the ground, or that if you glared at someone hard enough, they could physically feel your eyes on them, or maybe punching A mortal in the back of the head with your entire body weight behind it would snapped their neck.
The second reason was that I was running on an empty stomach. I had stole a few bites to eat here and there, yet a first ring cultivator needed more than just a few bites to be full.
I was getting to the point that even the lumpy potatoes the kid held in his hand while he ran we're starting to look appetizing.
anyway, the nine people I caught could be considered as10 if you counted The bastard at my feet yet. "It isn't enough."
I growled out as I tossed the bastard onto my shoulder.
Narrowing my eyes I looked around where I was.
I quickly let out another curse as I realize I was lost, before turning my eyes on my newest sacrifice.
"Why the fuck did you have to run so far?"
I growled at his sleeping face, for obvious reasons he gave me no answer.
I decided to stop fucking around, if I was gonna get this done before Leon got home and clean up all the evidence this need to be clean, efficient, and without a single fucking mistake.
It took me nearly half an hour to find the warehouse.
A few homeless people had so old so generously donated to my just cause.
Tossing his body to the ground with the rest of them, I looked over what I had gained in the last few hours.
Lying at my feet was a pile of unconscious mortals.
There was nothing special about any of them, nothing that made any of them alike, or said any of them apart, except for the fact that all of them were both mortal and wouldn't be important enough to anyone who mattered to give me any trouble.
Shaking my head, I focused on the present, I didn't have time to waste.
This had to be done with time to spare.
Looking at my 10 captives cough, I mean Guest I began to contemplate the best way to gather all of their blood. Then my eyes drifted up to the rafters and I had an idea.
"Stay where you are, I promise it is the best and only suggestion I will be giving you."
I whisper to them as I turned and walked out of the warehouse.
In less than 10 minutes, I was back with rope, and dragging two of my reluctant guest with me.
"I give you two free lodging, and my great hospitality and this is how you repay me?" How ungrateful.
I said to my two current burdens. Ihad both of them by the back of their tattered shirts in one fist as he dragged them across the ground.
They probably would have responded to my words, if they weren't knocked out so completely.
The reason Ford was obvious in a fist size bruise on the sides of both of their faces.
"Did I hit him a bit too hard? I'm not even sure they're still breathing."
not bothering to check, I tossed them on the floor in front of me.
"OK now how to do this without killing any of them?"
I thought, as I looked at the people, then the rafters, then the rope in my hand. Then I remembered the kids belt, knife, quickly drawing it. I tested it sharpness.
It wasn't exactly razor, sharp, but it would do for now.
I uncoiled some of the rope and began to cut foot-long pieces off of it.
When I finally had 10 pieces in total, I grabbed one of the people laying on the ground, I would have to make this quick because they seem to be waking up.
The man I was holding, had his eyes halfway open, and he was slurring something about being thrown out of a tavern, but I paid it no mind.
Grabbing both of his hands I lifted them upwards, then frowned.
"Damn this short ass body.
Even after the few inches of height gaining my first ring had given me, I was too short to touch the rafters.
Looking around, I realized more and more of the people I had kidnapped will be beginning to grown and wake up.
Quickly, I took control of the blood in my body and thought of lifting it, while still allowing it to do all of its functions.
The loan ring in my soul spun rapidly, as the ether fought to do my bidding.
Realizing just the blood element wasn't enough, I tapped into using the metal element as well, focus, focusing in the various metals in every human body.
Then eventually what I had been hoping for happened.
"Fucking finally. I thought as my feet finally lifted from the ground.
it's only lifted me about 2 feet in the air, but that was all I needed for one of my hands to reach the rafters.
It was perfect timing as well because as soon as I got a grip on the raptor, my ether sputtered out.
"You have to be fucking kidding me.
I growled as I look down at the captives they were now getting to their feet.
I had accomplished exactly nothing by learning how to goddamn fly, and to top it off I was out of ether, and my head was pounding like a bastard.
Swinging my feet, I dropped to the ground below.
If it was normal, cobblestones, I landed on I wouldn't have made a single sound, but it wasn't.
I had left towards the floor of a rusty abandoned warehouse, so what came next should have been expected.
As soon as my feet impacted the wooden floor, I had exactly a second to realize just how much of a colossal mistake I had made before the entire floor collapsed inward.
The mortals all screamed as we fell, I instinctively reached out to the nearest mortal.
My hand climbed around the front of his shirt before tossing him below where I was falling.
He tried to resist, but it was futile.
His eyes were wild with fear as his nails scrambled uselessly against my forearm.
We fell for barely half a second, yet I was glad for the actions I took.,
As my feet landed on my meat shield I observed our surroundings.
The other mortals lay sprawled out across, would look to be a tunnel of some sort.
Most of them looked as if they had a broken bone or two, yet that wasn't what I was focusing on.
"When the fuck have they been here?
In my last life, there was no mention of tunnels beneath Baradon.
There were only the sewers, and that was it, as far as I knew.
Yet now I stood in a tunnel about 10 feet wide and an unknown amount long.
"It's impossible that the Ironblood clan didn't know of this."
I thought, as I stepped off of the man I had thrown beneath my feet while we were falling.
He had been a lifesaver truly, if I hadn't thrown him, the fall might have even hurt me.
Who knows it might've even left a scratch on my skin.
Looking up I tried to gauge just how far we had fallen.
from what I could see of the warehouse above, we hadn't fallen far barely 4 m by my estimation.
So if I truly tried, I knew I could get back up.
Nodding my head and satisfaction at the thought, I focused on my captives.
They all lay strewn on the ground, groaning, as if they were the blocks of a child's play tower that had been pushed over. I Side in exasperation, it would take me at least 10 minutes, just to knock all of them out and line them back up in orderly fashion.
And since I had no more time to waste, I quickly got to doing exactly that.
The process took much longer than I thought. Instead of taking 10 minutes like I first estimated it took nearly 30.
I had forgotten to factor in the fact that I wasn't exactly a master at knocking people out.
When it came to killing, I was your guy, but hitting someone hard enough to send them into unconsciousness without giving them. A concussion was a very Delicate skill.
The skill I did not seem to possess in my repertoire. So I resorted to punching each one of them into face until they collapsed.
Long story short, they had many more bruises on them now, then they did before.
Deciding to leave the pile of mortals here, I made my way down the tunnel.
But before that, I dropped into a cross legged sitting position before beginning to meditate.
It took me less than five minutes to accumulate all the lost ether.
There were some perks to having such a minuscule amount of power. when I was done, I continued down the tunnel.
The tunnels were strange To say the very least, they were made entirely out of stone.
Stone that had the unnatural smoothness that told me they had been assembled like this by an earth cultivator.
but what earth elemental was strong enough to assemble something like this yet not notify anyone living above
The right edge of my mouth continuously twitched, almost as if I was about to smile.
Yet that was the furthest from the truth, the movement was only a spasm of the muscles in my face, something that seems to happen Often these days.
I had adopted the habit after being hit in the face by a lightning bolt from a Ninth fold lightning Leviathan in the void.
Yet the habit seemed to be carried over through lives.
The reason I was annoyed was because nothing was turning out how I thought it would..
All the problems began when I ran into that assassin.
He was one of the mini growing problems I didn't know of. He had started the growing avalanche of problems that were destroying my plans.
He had forced me to awaken much earlier than I wanted to.
Yes my first ring came out perfect, yet it only reminded me of what it could've been if I waited even longer.
Then came the return of Leon, someone who I knew for certain should be dead
That caused my plans that were already in disarray after awakening early to become even more disorganized.
Then the problem that took the fucking cake, these goddamn tunnels.
The thought caused My lips to peel back in a snarl.
With every day, my plans seem to become obsolete.
I had already mapped out exactly what I would do long before I actually went back in time.
It should have been easy, I was supposed to be perceived as the weak Ironblood I was even as I gathered power slowly. I would have broke through into the first ring, it's capacity to hold ether unparalleled.
Then I would find a few humans with potential before turning them into blood puppets.
For context, a blood puppet if made correctly, is as strong as a peak of the ring cultivator. It's exact strength depended on what ring the cultivator was in.
Both the creator of the puppet, and the puppet itself.
Using these blood slaves, I would have advanced by making them kill monsters out in the wild.
It would have been difficult due to the small range of first ring, Blood slaves, but I would have managed.
Using this process, I would have advanced to the second ring in the next 6 to 9 months.
Then father was meant to return, broken, ether Pathways and all.
Then the news of Leon's death would come, then that was when I would strike.
I would have spiked his wine with my blood.
So when I came to kill him, all I would have to do is use said blood to pierce his heart.
Through many calculations done in the void, I came to the conclusion that I needed to be at least in the second ring to accomplish this entire plan, something I intended on being when the time came.
Yet nothing was going as I had planned and carefully laid out strategies will be beginning to crumble before me, a feeling I didn't like in the slightest. In the last few millennia of my life, I have been in control of any and everything concerning it.
In that time having control have become more than just necessity, it had become a need.
So not having control of this situation was more than just uncomfortable.
It made my flesh crawl.
It felt a can to being dropped off the side of a cliff with my hands and legs bound behind me while wearing a blindfold.
I hated the feeling with a vengeance, and if I didn't regain control soon.
I wasn't sure what I would do.
The only thing I didn't know is, I couldn't be helpless for long, because when you took a sword from a tyrant it didn't make him less dangerous.
It only made him more focused.