Chương 170: Chapter 175: Miflin

I took a breath of the cool air outside of the tavern as I went with Alya towards the shop, only that, after two minutes the directions I got didn't help me find the place at all, there were no streets in the conventional way, every building was chaotically placed and we had to navigate around them, our view obstructed and unable to understand where exactly we were except for a general direction of going west.

"How are you feeling?" I asked Alya, I needed to take my mind off the curse, and the silence between us was starting to get annoying.

"Mm? Well, I'm good, actually I feel really energized after waking up, the shower and the stew helped too."

"Good to know, I was worried after you fell unconscious, it took so much lifeforce to heal you that for a moment I feared for the worst, but you did it." She was walking beside me, gawking openly at two strange elementals made of magma merging together and making strange bubbling sounds.

"Thanks… do you think they are doing what I'm thinking?" She asked distractedly. I really didn't want to know if I had to be honest.

"Probably, anyway… what level was that Baron in the end, I never asked you."

"You never ask a lot of things you know? Mainly you ask about magic, skills, monsters and what to do to complete this tutorial."

"What are you trying to say?"

"That you are not really a people person, you don't meddle in anyone's business, you don't ask personal questions… it's like your mind is on one track, and nothing else can get in between, it's actually surprising that you went with Rhea." I nearly stopped in the middle of the street, her words were light, she said it as if talking about the weather, but I knew that it was still a sore spot, and the meaning of those words was a complaint about my way of doing things.

"Why is that?"

"Because, she's very much a people person, she knows probably everyone's story from before the tutorial, what they did and what they liked, she even prepared a little birthday for Sara, you know, your neighbor? But you were too busy hunting some monsters to notice, or to ask." Her tone was very accusatory as she talked. I didn't answer immediately, I thought about it. And came to the conclusion that she was right.

I wasn't much of a people person since I came to the tutorial, because I had other priorities, not that I didn't talk with people in the group, people talked, I got to know them a bit, but I never asked about their lives before the tutorial except for things that could be useful to us right now, and I did it for a simple reason. Because I didn't care.

At the end of the day, one should be honest with himself, I didn't care about most of them, even the ones I interacted the most with I kept at a strictly professional level of interaction, that here translated into how to kill monsters better. Because of my curse, because of the life I spent until now helping and receiving little to nothing in return, and because the System gave me a way out finally. The author's tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Nothing else was interesting to me except that, I cared for Rhea, we were… something, and I cared for Alya, for some reason. Quinn too, and the others in the vanguard, I came to like them, and to know them a little, but at the end of the day, the only thing that mattered to me was to remove the curse, and everyone else was expendable to accomplish it.

"You're right," I said to Alya, I had to stop myself from giving her my reasoning, the voice of my father evoked by my memories: "In an argument never defend yourself through excuses boy, it's a sign of weakness." The words stayed with me all my life, harsh words given by a harsher man. But they made me the man I was now.

"Is there something you want to tell me about you? Something I should know?" She turned her head to look at me, thinking, then she shook her head, "Forget it, now it's not the time, I wanted your help mainly because I have no idea how to go about those stat enhancing items, and about the trait, and my class…" First you accuse me of not being a people person, then you use me for your own power up? A bit of hypocritical behavior, but ok, not that I can say no after she asked for help.

"Ok, first we need to find that shop, it should be around the fiery district, and I'm seeing a lot of buildings on fire around."

"How that works I have no idea…" She said, "Look at that! It should make sounds no? I mean, a big fire like that one should have roaring flames, the creaking of the wooden floors, hell at least it should have fucking smoke!"

"Magic." I replied, then I pointed a hand towards our left. There, surrounded by buildings on fire was a pretty unassuming entrance, but it stood out just because of the lack of flames in the building, at least on the ground floor.

"Miflin's Magical Merchandises." I read aloud.

"Let's get it over with, I hope it's not another dwarf-mole bastard." she said. Yeah, me too, but in any case, I memorized the way Vix used to bypass the alien and get to the real store, I could do it again if necessary.

Thinking about Vix a pang of annoyance entered me again, I had an aura master at my disposal, and not only did he not teach me anything, but after giving me chump change for Alya he severed any connection, I couldn't help but think that there was something strange about it all, did he get what he wanted from me? Was the life imbued potion and experiencing my aura enough? Why didn't he propose to train me?

I knew I had talent for aura, if not as a martial artist, I could have used it in conjunction with my magic, or just by manifesting it. A wasted chance that was, if I spent some time with him maybe I could have been able to solve my aura problem already, or reach higher heights, for sure. But there was no need to cry over spilled milk, I would solve my problems, like usual. I pushed the door open, a faint chime sounding out as we entered.

The place was well illuminated, a warm light that came from nowhere made every nook and cranny void of shadows, it was strange… but after I took a look at the shopkeeper, I understood why.

"Welcome to Miflin's Magical Merchandises, I'm Miflin! How can I be of assistance?" The voice was crystalline, but it had an ethereal quality to it, and the woman, no, the being that spoke was clearly more ethereal than anything. She stood behind the counter with her back to us, floating while rearranging a shelf. My attention was totally focused on her clearly transparent body, to my vision, my normal vision at least.

She was humanoid, vaguely shaped like a woman, and at first glance I thought she was one of the most human-like light elementals I saw in this city until now, but she wasn't an elemental, far from it. She was entirely made of aura. An aura being. As she turned around her eyes widened in shock as she looked at me.

"Oh my! What in the nine hells did you do to yourself!" She disappeared for a moment, then reappeared in front of me, still floating to be at eye level, coming very close to my face to peer directly into my eyes, as if she was looking at my soul…

"Mister, you need to excuse me but I have to take a look, I just have to…" I felt myself grow distant as my vision swam, I faintly heard Alya scream as the world became brighter and brighter then suddenly I got plunged into darkness, and my thoughts were no more.