They got to the manor and found their boss sitting in more damage than Evan had seen before he left. Roy looked up and saw that they arrived. He stood up.
“So, Zack. Who was the friend who visited us?” He asked him.
Zack stuttered while answering. “He- He was someone at the Mercenary Guild. He came to- to register with us for- for no reason. I thought it was a free member so- so I sent him here.”
“Do you have any idea what the person did to me?” He asked.
Evan interjected at this point. “But sir, you are a really powerful person. On top of that, the group has more than 300 people that we constantly milk. Surely we can recover whatever you lost in a year at best.”
His roar made the both of them take a couple of steps away from him.
“I lost my one chance to become a 5th Circle Aura Knight! Do you think I care about the money in that dimensional ring?!”
Far away from the mansions, Leo stepped out from a wall. He stretched a little and let out a chuckle while transforming back to his normal appearance. That was the easiest steal in his life. It only took him a few seconds to escape from the manor.
He decided to check the ring again, properly this time since he was interrupted the last time. As he was checking the dimensional ring, he found something interesting. There was another item apart from the money. It was a compass.
He took the compass out and stared at it. For some reason, he felt it wasn’t as simple as it looked. The compass was made out of wood and didn’t have a glass encasing protecting its needle. The needle seemed to point in a single direction. Normally, he wouldn’t have wasted his time on something that looked so mundane, but this item gave a very similar feeling to him.
When Leo looked in that direction, he only saw the sun close to setting in that direction. The compass wasn’t even pointing north. He threw the compass back in his ring.
“A broken compass? Why was it in his ring?” He thought to himself. He didn’t throw it away because he wanted to inspect it closer. The compass had a weird sense to it that Leo couldn’t figure out.
When he got back to his apartment, he saw Marcus training. Marcus noticed that Leo had come back and immediately went to him to ask about what happened.
“Are you okay? Did anything happen?” He asked.
Leo shook his head. “I don’t know if what I did is going to help you, but it solves your trouble to some extent. You don’t have to go to do Mercenary work for this month.” He said.
Marcus was confused. “What do you mean? How do I earn money if I don’t go to finish missions?” He asked.
Leo took out 200,000 Starcoins and put them on the bed. “This is the compensation that I got out of them. But they might still try to get revenge on you so don’t venture out into the forest. You won’t have to worry once you enter the academy anyway. Just focus on training for this month.” He said.
“They gave you compensation? What did you say to them?” Marcus asked. He still couldn’t understand Leo’s rambles.
“Marcus, do you want to know how, or do you want the money? Consider the matter as resolved and focus on training. It’s bad if you have to go to work every day anyway.” Leo said.
Marcus sighed. “Fine. Thanks for taking care of this for me.”
He took the money and started training on his bed. Meanwhile, Leo left the apartment. He was going to the Thousand Treasure Tower.
He was going there to look for a second elixir or pill that could help him break through. He needed it to make sure he would succeed. If he failed, then he would have to buy more anyway.
When he got to the tower, he had a very clear target. He immediately went to the places where they put pills for Aura Knights and started searching for the right one.
As he was searching for one, he noticed that he was the only one in the entire section. He shrugged. There weren’t really a lot of commoners who could afford to splurge on pills. Especially not at the section that Leo was looking at.
Only nobles could afford the costs that the pills displayed. Each pill was more than 5 million Starcoins.
He quickly found what he thought was the best pill for him.
[Aura Luminary Pill]
[Aids an Aura Knight to break through to the next level. It gives Apprentice Aura Knights a 90% boost to their success rate and 1st Circle Aura Knights a 20% boost to their success rate.]
[6 Millions Starcoins]
It was less expensive but the effect it gave him was also low. He bought the pill and went back to his apartment.
He was incredibly grateful to Marcus for telling him about the Crown Band Mercenary Group. He was only okay with stealing when it was from people who stole their wealth, and Marcus found someone like that for him.
Now he gained 10 million Starcoins that kept him from going back to being broke. Just to break through, he had spent 14 million Starcoins. If not for the money he stole, he would have lost more than half his money. But now, he still had 20 million Starcoins left.
He got back to the apartment and got everything ready. He wanted to create the optimal environment for his breakthrough. After making his bed, he waited.
As much as he appreciated Marcus’ presence, having no one near him was Leo’s optimal environment. He couldn’t have that anymore now that they were roommates, but he could still wait till Marcus went to sleep.
Unlike Leo, Marcus still needed rest so he slept throughout the night. So that period would leave Leo alone to concentrate.
5 hours after sunset, Marcus went to bed. Leo immediately got ready. He didn’t know exactly how long it was going to take him, so he was going to start as quickly as possible.
He took out the pill and the elixir. He stared at both of them, uncertain of how to take them. Was he supposed to take one of them first, and then wait for the effect to subside before taking the next one?
He rejected that idea since that wouldn’t be combining both effects. He decided to take the risk and take both the pills at once. He guessed his body could take the effect since it could handle more than one Aura Gathering Pill at once.
He had tried it once when he was taking the pills to become a Peak-Stage 1st Circle Aura Knight. If it worked then, it had to work now right?
He took a deep breath. First, he swallowed the Aura Essence Pill. After that, he immediately gulped down the Luminary Essence Brew. He immediately felt a burning sensation in his stomach.