Kill or be Killed!

Sumhail City Black Market.

A bustling crowd of people were loitering from different stalls which offer unusual set of things.

Some were selling different kind of artifacts while others were trying to barter their goods with everyone who has some money with them.

Who knows if they are real or fake as long as they get some profit out of it. And there are even slaves for sale.

These are people from different races who's being sold were either captured due to the wars from the neighboring states or have comitted crimes from their kingdoms.

There are ways to train these slaves to become loyal and one of which is the Soul Slavery Seal.

The selling price of these slaves depends of their quality and their talents. Some offer beatiful slaves to attract potential buyers.

Others were offering a slave Ki practitioner which is more valuable than the other.

There are other interesting places Mikhael haven't visited but were only available for those people with higher status or those who know this place very well.

After walking and looking around the market for sometime. Mikhael had found the things he needed for the competition. The things that he bought were Magic powder, longbow,some arrows and shin guards for his arm and legs.

Yesterday when he visited the plaza, he was able to see a list of requirements a candidate must have before joining the school's selection. One of which is a weapon of your choice.

From the information Mikhael had gathered when he was roaming around the city, he knows that there will be 3 types of selection process for every candidates.

The first would be talent comprehension.Even before the catastrophe started and the Kingdom were built. They had already adopted this kind of system ever since the ancient times to test the participants.

For the Huldwick Empire and the people of Sumhail, they have long come to an agreement that it is important for someone to have a talent if you want to be chosen by their school or sect.

This is a great opportunity for many who wants to dream big and be a dragon amongst men. Especially if you want to travel dangerous places, you have to had a strength to survive difficult ordeal.

While for Mikhael this is an opportunity to learn how to wield his power efficiently. After he was taken in by the Lumiere family.

He tried helping them with their business. Before Mikhael joined, only Cherry and her father run the business.The family were selling exquisite materials from different villages and towns.

From time to time the family had to hire some mercenary units for protection. Danger lurks everytime they set off from their post. One of Cherry's bodyguards had taught Mihael some basic fighting style with a sword stance in which he also trained them passionately.

Not long after he also began to spar with other guards to broaden his knowledge and grasp more skill maneuvering to his taste.

But some people just can't contain their greeds. They had met thieves along the way.

Mikhael even had to experience his first fight with one of these people and barely survive if not for his basic martial comprehension and the luck that the thieves has too little experience with martial arts.

Since some thieves don't really know any complex martial arts but fights head on like a brawler with a dagger instead of their fist.

The fight was nowhere to get the attention of the mercenaries who was busy pummeling the other party. But for Mikhael it is a battle between life and death.

This is where he gotten the first scar on his left face accidentally after he gave mercy to the thieve begging him to keep its little life.

After he turned around that was the time he felt death is coming and made a side step to turn around and swing with his sword to stab the bandit on the body. He was able to kill it luckily after the stab he made was directly pierce to the targets heart and it stopped moving before it falls down.

After the thieves death he also felt warm on his left face while he carressed the blood flowing on it. He checked again and found out that the wound is deep and it may left a scar.

Luckily it did not get in contact with his left eye or he would be a person with disability later. Everyone knows that a man with a two eyes open is better than one eye open with the other eyes closed.

His new family was worried and wanted to help him cure it but he tacitly refused them. He understand that it is possible to heal it but he wanted to keep it so that he will always remember what caused him to have this wound.

Yes, he gave the thieve a chance to attack him after showing kindness.

Deep inside he knew that the person is only making some excuses to prolong his little life, but since he was still young and have an innocent heart of a child he felt the guilt of killing the man itself.

He was not used to this kind of environment he is experiencing and did not have the resolve to end a life.

But after a trial of blood. He was now sure if he met the thieve on another life in the same situation, he would not hesitate to kill it. The law of the war states that 'kill or be killed'. When fighting someone to death don't hesitate or you will be the haunted instead of a hunter.

After a painful lesson, he vows not to show pity and carelessness during a death fight like that.

They also had been ambushed by a large group of bandits and if not for the hired mercenaries protecting them and their goods they would have been caught and enslave by this uncivilized people.

Bandits can be cruel the most if the target they have are well protected by mercenaries. They would not even care if no one survives from their targets as long as the goods were intact.

Mostly bandits were composed from 10 to 20 people. There are even 30 to 100 people but it is rare to meet this bigger group since they target big merchants or goods the most.

They leave small merchants from other bandits for them to fight on by themselves. What Mikhael and group had encountered were composed of atleast 30 bandits. they hired 12 professional mercenaries.

If not for timely formation and a good command from the leader of mercenaries they would have been wipeout the minute the bandits attacked.

That time is where Mikhael had been baptized by blood and awakened his magic talent. When he was fighting one of the bandits in the most ruthless his state of mind was in.