Mobi The Miner

The southern part of the Capital city was a very crowded place as it was home to most of the commoners living in the city.

It was also a place where the empire's smithy was located. It was also here where the FireBorn empire's finest and sharpest weapons were made.

'Kindlepot.'

A rather large nameplate hung on the archway— which acted as the entrance to the southern industrial area— that had the name of the smithy carved on it welcomed the trio of Raymond, Jasmine, and Sasha.

"Welcome to Kindlepot, a gathering spot for the empire's finest blacksmiths."

Sasha spoke excitedly as she showed around the place to Raymond and Jasmine since, on the way here, they had told her about coming here for the first time.

So she took it upon herself to be a tour guide to them and show them around since this place held a special place in her heart.

Sasha still vividly remembered sneaking out of the Imperial Palace and coming here to play with the commoners' kids when she was a child.

Not only that, her father was born and brought up here on these streets. He used to live here with his mother— Sasha's grandma— before he was found by the previous emperor and named as the heir to the throne of the FireBorn Empire.

Sasha had grown up hearing stories from her father about the wonders of this place, about the hard working people, and about the simple yet beautiful lifestyle of the people living here.

Even though she knew everything here wasn't as pleasant as her father had mentioned in the stories, it was still better than the treacherous place like the Imperial Palace.

Here, she didn't have to worry about someone from her own family turning against her and stabbing her in the back.

Here, she wouldn't be forced to marry someone she didn't like just for the sake of politics.

However, living here wasn't all roses. If one didn't have enough strength to protect themselves, they would become prey to the stronger ones.

Since the main focus was on blacksmithing and weapons forging, the competition was brutal here. Most of the blacksmiths had formed their own gangs and fought for resources, making the skirmishes between those gangs a pretty common sight in the back alleys of these streets.

Raymond felt a wave of hot air wash over him as he neared the smithy. He could even hear the metal being hammered and shaped into a weapon.

'Should I get a weapon?'

Raymond, though not an expert, had a basic knowledge of how to use spears. His father was a famous spear user, so naturally, he had tried to teach Raymond some of his techniques when he was alive.

Even though Raymond managed to grasp some of the basic spear moves, he wasn't all that impressed by them. Now that he thought about it, he wasn't impressed by any of the weapons he had seen so far in his short life.

It was as if his body and mind had an aversion to the use of weapons. Thinking back on his fight with the wyvern where he had only used his fist to defeat a level 9 beast, Raymond had to admit that he felt refreshed fighting with his bare hands.

'Meh, who needs weapons when you can punch them to death.'

Raymond was distracted from his thoughts as he saw a man clad in black from head to toe coming towards them.

He gestured for Sasha to come to the side alley. Raymond and Jasmine curiously followed her.

"Alright! What do you want to know?"

The man in black went straight to the point without beating around the bush. He seemed to be in a hurry judging by the way he was fidgeting his hands.

'This must be one of her informants.'

Raymond guessed as he had heard from Sasha about her impressive network of informants.

"The Miner."

Sasha replied curtly and waited for him to answer.

Instead of answering he took out a piece of paper from his bag and handed it to Sasha. With that, he hurriedly exited the side alley and went on his way.

After reading what's written on the paper, Sasha's eyes brightened up.

"Come! Let's go to the residential area. Mobi was just seen yesterday in one of the taverns there."

Sasha led them back the way they had taken before and turned right just before the archway leading outside the southern part of the Capital city.

Thousands of small to medium sized houses occupied this part of the city which acted as a housing area for most of the workers in the smithy and their families.

"So, how do you want to do this? Do you want me to just grab him and knock him out or do you have anything else in mind?"

Raymond asked along the way. He needed to make sure that he fought Mobi alone away from the prying eyes so that he could take whatever Mobi had on him.

"Nuh-uh, he is my prey. I will be the one fighting him, you just have to make sure that he doesn't run away."

Sasha replied quickly, pumping her fist in the air. If everything went according to her plan, she would be able to catch him this time.

They soon reached the tavern mentioned in the paper and tried to enter it as sneakily as possible.

The keyword here is 'tried' because as soon as they entered everyone's eyes landed on Raymond. There was dead silence for two or three seconds before everyone burst out with a peal of raucous laughter.

"HAhahaha…"

"Look at that guy, is he a gigolo?"

"Hahaha, yeah, he looks like one…"

"I wouldn't mind keeping him, he is really handsome."

"Ewww! Get away from me man, I thought you were weird before but now you have confirmed it."

Raymond felt something break inside his mind when he heard someone commenting about keeping him.

-Swoosh~

Nobody knew what happened but the man who was commenting about keeping Raymond, disappeared from his seat.

-Tap! -Tap!

Only when they saw the debris falling to the floor did they realise that the man had his head buried in the ceiling.

-Gulp!

Everyone looked at Raymond and gulped audibly. They lowered their heads in fear looking at his blazing eyes and started drinking the booze quietly.

"Good, don't talk about keeping me if you are not a beautiful rich lady."

Raymond muttered under his breath. Jasmine and Sasha who heard his mutter gave him stink eyes and stood further away from him.

"Well! What are you waiting for?"

Raymond asked furiously and Sasha quickly came to her senses and she started asking around about Mobi.

She didn't manage to get anything significant even after asking everyone in the tavern. Most of them were drunk as hell and couldn't form a coherent sentence without vomiting their guts out.

Even those who talked only mentioned vague details about seeing Mobi. No one gave any information that would help them track him.

"Tch," Sasha spat in frustration. "These guys are definitely in cahoots with him, they sure know how to avoid questions."

"Let's go outside and search on our own, hopefully we will find something useful."

Sasha said expectantly and went back to the way she came from.

Sun had already started dimming, showing that the evening was fast approaching by the time the trio had looked through almost all the alleys and shady places in the residential area.

Yet they didn't manage to find anything related to Mobi, not even a hint of his whereabouts.

Just as they were about to give up and head back they heard a strange voice singing from one of the dark alleys.

"Ribbity rib~ Ribbity rib~ Ribbity rib rib rib

Whenever I see a chick, I go dig dig dig

Ribbity rib~ Ribbity rib~ Ribbity rib rib rib

When they see my prick, they say big big big…"

"Wait! That song! I have heard it before!"

Sasha exclaimed. She had heard that song before, especially that foul and offensive voice of Mobi made this song even worse. She would never be able to forget it.

"It's him! He is the miner!"

Sasha pointed towards the guy who was chugging alcohol from his bottle and kept singing in a hoarse voice. He was currently sitting on the doorstep of a house and was in his own world drinking and singing.

Looking towards the direction she was pointing at, Raymond saw a lanky middle aged man with a shaggy beard and grey hair. What he was wearing could only be called rags; it was riddled with holes.

He looked like a typical beggar and no one would guess that he was an infamous thief who was responsible for many rich people's sleepless nights.

But if one looked closely they would see his sharp eyes that shone like a lighthouse in the dark ocean. Even when he was drinking, his eyes kept looking around keeping track of his surroundings.

"Ray! Make sure he doesn't escape."

With her words spoken Sasha lunged at Mobi with her flaming sword without even giving Raymond a chance to speak.

The seemingly drunken Mobi quickly sobered up when he saw Sasha. He threw the wine bottle in his hand towards her sword causing the flames to burst out vigorously.

Meanwhile, he got on his feet surprisingly quickly and jumped back to keep his distance.

Sasha completely missed her swing as she tried to take control of her flames.

"Ah! It's the red chick again! I already told ya, I am not into redheads stop chasing me already."

"You! I am not here to confess to you, you fucking lowlife!"

Sasha screamed at the top of her lungs and rushed towards him again.

Seeing her coming at him with murderous intent, Mobi quickly stretched his hands towards her.

-Spiky Spikes-

Thick spiky pillars rose from the ground obstructing Sasha's path.

-Swirling Fire Tornado-

In response, Sasha swung her sword in a circle creating a tornado of fire, and drilled her way towards him obliterating the spikes.

"Shit!"

Mobi cursed and quickly put up a wall in front of him.

-Earth Escape-

Quickly using his trump card he merged into the ground and tried to escape.

"Ray! Stop him! He is trying to escape."

Sasha yelled as she hacked away at the wall in front of her.

'Good luck catching me, you stupid bitch.'

Mobi thought as he travelled smoothly under the ground like a fish swimming in water.

-Rumble!

He heard a tremor pass through the ground where he was going and saw cracks appearing around him.

"Aack—"

He quickly dispelled his technique and resurfaced again vomiting a mouthful of blood.

Even though his escape technique was impressive it had one fatal flaw. He was practically defenceless if someone attacked him underground when he was moving fastly.

"Huff…what happened?"

He looked around in bewilderment which soon turned into astonishment when he saw a guy in the Martial Minor realm standing in his way.

"You! How did you get here?"

"Oh, I have always been here."

Raymond responded cheekily. He lazily walked towards Mobi giving him enough time to attack.

-Four Pillars' Prison‐

Sure enough, Mobi didn't disappoint him as he formed four thick pillars and blocked Raymond's path in all four directions.

With a wave of Mobi's hand, the pillars expanded around Raymond, completely locking him in place.

"Tch, go back home and train some more, boy. You are not yet ready to face me."

-Crack! -Crack!

"Huh?"

Mobi looked on with wide eyes as cracks started appearing on the pillars before completely shattering like glass.

"Man, is that the best you can do?"

Raymond walked out of his cage casually and asked with a monotonous voice.

"Damn, you!"

"Good one, Ray."

Sasha had already caught up to them by this point and saw that Raymond had managed to keep him in place.

-Deep Chasm-

Mobi quickly stomped on the ground towards Raymond's direction causing a deep crevice to form on the ground.

He knew if he wanted to escape, he needed to get rid of Raymond first. For some reason, this guy gave him bad vibes.

"Uh-oh."

Those were the last words Raymond managed to utter before he fell inside.