after two tries, he had made, and stacked the patterns for the starlight inscription. but since it wasn"t an inscription that could be put on a coin, he allowed it to collapse. after a bit of thought, he got up and left the inn. on the streets, only a few people aside from Levi were walking. as he was walking, he felt 5 presences following him from a certain difference from him. he made a left turn and walked into a wide alley. "..." he silently released a thick fog from his body, forming a boy with long black hair, wearing a blue robe with a sword at his waist, and a slight smile on his face. he quickly sent the person to the other end of the alley, and waited. swoos.h.!.+ the 5 people ran smoothly, as their black cloaks fluttered in the wind." kill!" the gruff voice of a man rang out, as terrifying killing intents erupted from their bodies. " humph!" levi snorted coldly as he made the illusion fog run towards himself. clank! Levi barely stopped the sword of the man with his sabre, his right hand trembling under the pressure. " don"t get involved in other people"s business!" one of the four remaining men dashed towards the illusion fog. puff! he cleaved it from shoulder to waist, before it exploded into a white fog. " wh" the man was slightly startled, but jumped to the side all of a sudden. during his confusion, levi had jumped back and slashed toward him, intending to liberate his head from his body, but he had reacted in time, only receiving a deep gash on the side of his neck. "...tch." levi"s expression darkened as his attack failed. he also wouldn"t be able to use the illusion fog to fool them again since they had already seen it.
"humph! don"t even try to fight back! you sold a defective sword that cost our commander his arms!" the first man said, as he shot out, the others closing in from the sides. whoos.h.!.+ veins appeared all over Levi"s body as blood red wings sprouted from his back, as shoot into the sky, only barely dodging the swords of the men. "..." his fingers bent weirdly as his black fingernails grew out with a curve, the skin on his hand hardening. vivivi! poisonous wind blades shot down, causing the 5 people to scatter. in their confusion, Levi shot a ball of ant acid onto one of their hooded heads. " glalalalal!" he thrashed around while trying to get the liquid from his head, his hands dissolving as a result.
still in the air, Levi extracted the man"s blood from his body before flying off. cras.h.!.+ after a few minutes of flying, Levi plummeted from the sky, cras.h.i.+ng into a wooden box filled with old vegetables. " ughhh....." he groaned in agony, as his bones s.h.i.+fted. his face was begining to stretch forward, while his back began bending. he resisted the raven"s bloodline forcefully, as it tried to transform his body. he had tried not to use the raven"s bloodline, since it was one of the hardest to control, but since he was in danger he had to take the risk. the fact that he had to constantly restrain the bloodline made it harder for him to fly, since he had to split his concentration. " haaaaa....haaaa..." he lay in the box of old vegetables panting after suppressing the ravens bloodline. " when you pay less for something than it"s worth....haaa..haaa...the quality also decreases...haaa" Levi sneered coldly. he was referring to the sword which he sold for 1,000 gold. since the soldier wanted to rip him off, he left a special present in the sword, in the form of the exploding water-like inscription.
getting up from the box, he looked down at his right arm, which was still shaking. although he didn"t use blood energy this time, he decided that it would be better to run, rather than stay and fight. since his bloodline abilities were a large part of his fighting strength, in his current condition, dragging out a fight would lead to his own death. those people were also stronger than him, based on the sword strike by the leader of the five, he estimated that the man was at the mind opening realm 1st level at the very least. he had only managed to kill that one based on pure luck, and he was only able to get away because he acted swiftly, and ran while they were confused. as all of these thoughts pa.s.sed through his head, he clenched his fists tightly, causing cracking sounds to ring out. it seemed that just as he had found a bright path to power, dark clouds came and blocked it out. he needed to get stronger.
"there will be a war soon....." he mumbled as he absorbed the floating blood. although he didn"t want to get involved in the war, wouldn"t there be a lot of people dying on the battlefield? in that case....wouldn"t there be a sea of blood for him to absorb? but he had to think about this carefully. if he were to join the war, with his current strength, there was a good chance of him dying. "....but so what? you cannot gain strength while hiding under a rock...." he mumbled, as a cold light flickered in his eyes.
" hey." Levi walked silently, then, a voice suddenly rang out behind him. "...what?" Levi"s body ozed a thick killing intent, controlling his anger was indeed hard. " can you put away you killing intent, please? it"s giving me gooseb.u.mps." a girl with short, straight black hair, walked from the darkness, her body illuminated by the moonlight. her hair was cut neatly just below her jawline and the nape of her neck. she wore a short pink robe, exposing her slender legs, and a slight smile was on her face. her deep, watery blue eyes made Levi feel slightly uncomfortable. "..." looking at the girl, Levi silently tired to calculated her strength, based on her reaction to his killing intent. " what do you want?" he asked coldly, after a few seconds. " a few weeks ago, my sister said that she was saved by someone. a person with red hair and golden eyes." the girl said, as her smile deepened.
"....and so?" Levi asked again, he didn"t remember saving anyone. " come with me back to my clan, so that we can thank you." she spoke, with a welcoming smile. " no need." he replied. " is that so? did you hear that, lily?" the girl turned her head, before saying. step! step! another girl walked out from the darkness. it was the girl from the ma.s.s grave, who directed Levi to the imperial city. seeing the girl, everything came back to him, but he wondered why the girl said he saved her. if he didn"t need her to show him to the imperial city, she would have just become more blood in his veins. "..." without another word, Levi turned around and began walking. " wwait!" the girl shouted, as Levi stopped once again. "....there is going to be a war here soon..." she said. Levi already knew about the war, causing him to start walking again. " you should come with us! we are leaving the cloud continent!" the girl shouted. " what are you saying lily?!" she didn"t expect her sister to talk about their plan to leave the cloud continent, much less offer a stranger to come with them.
Levi kept walking, he had no interest in leaving the cloud continent just yet, he still had a lot of unfinished business that needed to be taken care of. seeing Levi getting further away, the girl wore a sad expression. " you should stay away from people like that in the future. those kinds of people who only do things for their own gain." the girl said to lily, who didn"t respond.
After Levi left, he took a few different roads to get to the forge, in case the people from before were still looking for him. he walked into the forge, which was still filled with men, hammering away at pieces of metal. he was quite bewildered by how these people were still in the forge even at night, didn"t they sleep? " where is the bald man?" Levi walked up to one of the smiths. " bald man? oh, if you meant Andrew, he went home not too long ago." the man told Levi. " hmm? are you the kid that he is making the swords for? he said that if you came, to tell you that he had left 5 swords by his furnace." Levi nodded before turning and walking towards the furnace. " also..." Levi paused and looked back. " thank you for the iron ore!" the man bowed and shouted. "..." Levi silently turned around and continued walking.
when he arrived at the forge, 5 double edged swords balanced on an anvil. he picked one of the swords up, and sat cross-legged on the ground. after about 40 minutes, he was implanting the last calligraphy styled starlight inscription. picking up one of the swords, he walked up to the man from before. "...test this inscription for me." he held out the sword by it"s hilt with the tip pointing down, waiting for the man to take it from his hands. " hmm, ok." the man put down his large hammer, and took the sword from Levi"s hand. vivivi! after a few seconds, the sword began vibrating. the man slashed out sloppily, as a whitish blue sword light shot out while s.h.i.+mmering. " huh?" boom! one of the blacksmiths heard a whistling sound from behind, and looked around, only to see a large sparkling sword light coming towards him. he had barely escaped from getting cut in half, when the sword light slammed into the hot furnace, causing an explosion. as the dark coal ash settled, a large creva.s.se was seen.
" youuuuuuu!!!!!!" the man shouted angrily, as he turned to look at the man with the sword. " wwait! i was just- i knew you wanted to kill me! i"ll kill you first!" the man shouted, as he grabbed his hammer and ran towards the man with the sword. Levi took the sword from the man"s hand, and walked back to the bald man"s furnace, ignoring the confusion. the other blacksmiths hurriedly held the raging man back, as the other man tried explaining.