Red Stone

Even as training continued, he still had to constantly move places to try and find civilization or atleast a source of water as his biggest problem still was dehydration. He ran into a straight direction as fast as he could, enhancing him while doing so. Focusing strictly on becoming stronger despite his low energy. The only thing that kept him standing was the hot food he had eaten hours ago. His whole body was tired and aching but he still did not stop. His ability's had massively grown and both his amount and control of mana had very quickly improved. He did not know how long it took but the hot and vast dessert still made massive amounts of sweat drip down his body. Fortunately for him, an object was seen a vast distant away, slowly growing bigger as he got closer. The giant square structures made of stone were increasingly getting bigger as he got closer and more of them could be seen without a clear end, a giant wall that circulated around all of the buildings and the giant stone gate as the entrance to all of it. There were two guards standing outside watching the vast and endless desert in all directions, suddenly seeing a man running at lightning fast speeds straight towards them. 

"H-Halt! Stop right now!" One of the guards screamed, holding his spear, pointed at him. The guards didn't even know if it was human or a monster and were terrified at witnessing the speed of it alone. Sand was flying in the air behind Velios as he continued running. The guards had a petrified look and stood there not being able to move from where they stood. Velios jumped up into the air and landed only a few meters away from the guards with such stopping force that sand flew everywhere around them. As Velios switched to a regular stance, staring both of the into their eyes as if he waited an answer. "A-Are you human?" One of the guards asked afraid. "Of course I am, look at me." Velios answered as if that answer was supposed to be natural. "But that speed, and that weird smoke surrounding your body, and... and..." Velios just stared confused. "Smoke? This is my ma-" Velios stopped his sentence mid-way. Am I supposed to talk about magic so casually? Is it a big deal? Maybe its not that common, that's probably what it is. Velios dispersed his aura before he decided on what he would say. "Oh, uh, the smoke is actually just a side effect from my skill. The reason I ran so fast was thanks to my skill which doubles my speed for 15 seconds, I won't go into more details." 

The guards now stood firmly, staring Velios directly in the idea before speaking. "It looks like you're not from the area looking at your clothes. If you seek shelter, food and water there is a city around 20 kilometers west of here. By the looks of it, you're an adventurer and quite a strong one. There is not much here in this city despite its size. I advice you to go now before they see you." The guards had an overdramatically serious look on their faces but Velios just sighed. "I guess there is no helping it then." As Velios turned to a random direction and went walking off along the wall. The guards stared confused as west was the complete other way but Velios' business didn't actually matter to them. As the guards continued to scan the surrounding deserts, a carriage was seen coming towards the city. The reason they couldn't let anyone in was not because it had little resources or no things such as restaurants, adventurers guild or inns, but because of what was going on inside the city. They had both got strict orders to not let in anyone without a special pass or certification and if they did, the person found would be punished extremely. Afraid of the boy being found, both of them turned their heads towards where Velios would be but instead found that he was completely gone.

Velios jumped down from the wall, landing into a back street alleyway with clearly broken down stuff, narrow paths and void of life. He may have been in the middle of nowhere in the giant city, but even with his hightened hearing, the place was way to quiet than both of the towns that he originally had been to. Velios wasn't the type of person to help others as everytime he had forced himself, it always ended badly. Yotsuya often talked about ethics and morals and common sense after learning and seeing how strong Velios actually was but also how little he knew about the difference between him and other people. Therefore, Yotsuya gave him the advice to under almost any circumstance, hide his true powers around other people. He took the time to walk around while circulating mana strictly inside the body making him not seen conspicious. From out of nowhere, he had heard something that sounded like a young child sobbing and crying and not too far away either. Velios had almost forgot, but many of the players were probably children, it was just not something that he had layed attention to since there were not many children were he was in the first place. But, hearing the child continue to cry, Velios decided to rush there for no specific reason.

As Velios had arrived, he was at a loss for words as the sight he saw managed to horrify him. The utter cruelty of just imagining what happened to the child that was sitting against the wall was enough to make Velios, who thought he had seen the worst, fill with an indescribable feeling of wrath at what or whoever did what it did to the poor child laying against the side of the wall. There was another feeling that he was feeling that he couldn't describe, a sort of compasion or sadness towards the kind of pain the child must have experienced. That feeling of compasion was completely overwritten by the immense rage he was feeling. Velios just stood there, looking down at the site before him, clenching his fists as hard as he could. The cold, gray and flat stone walls surrounding the scenes was instead a dark red color, covered in the blood of the child laying there. The child, sitting in a pool of its own blood, had stopped crying as soon as Velios got there and instead stared right at him. Velios saw the dehydrated and the slim body of the child no older than 10. The child had ripped clothes, both burn and whip marks covering its little body and a missing leg that had been crushed off. The entire scene was incredibly graphic and the little boy was still alive, even on the verge of death, feeling the pain of it all.

Velios saw the leg a couple steps away and went to pick it up. Velios walked back to the boy, put the leg where it was supposed to be and unleashed as much mana as he could into the little boys meager body. Mana was stated to be the energy for life itself, but could it revive someone on the verge of death? Velios didn't care about possibilities. He kept on injecting mana into the boys body as best as he could, hoping for a miracle. Now screaming, Velios tried even harder, not thinking about the side effects of using to much mana. Come one! Come on! It can't happen again! Velios tried doing everything he could, supplying more and more mana for every second that past, circulating it in the boys body, hoping for the natural healing to increase its effect by such a degree it could save his life. Velios' face was covered in visible frustration as the boys condition did not seem to get any better, his eyes still barely moving. Velios used up so much mana healing the kid that he himself began coughing up blood. As he continued doing everything he could, he watched as the child started moving his lips. "Thank you." Was the only and last thing that child would ever say to Velios as his arms feel limp and his heart ceased to be. Even with all of his efforts, the child that couldn't be a day older than ten, trapped in the same scenario as everyone else, the child that experienced the cruelest fate Velios had ever seen, died right in his arms.