(28) Heatless Flames

Caophre ventured into the forest and quietly whispered a string of words that made no sense. At least for the uneducated in soul energy arts, that is.

After he uttered the last word, his senses expanded a few ten more meters. Nearby, he could clearly perceive the presence of a man approaching his carriage.

Caophre properly fitted his leather sleeves and dashed towards the man's position.

Unknowingly to the man, he was already spotted.

'The detection device is telling me that there's three people nearby… the fourth person must've left, but where?' This man's name is Gurmed. He stared at the metal plate in his hands with a copper coin in the middle of it and three water droplets.

Gurmed has long black hair and a face that was fairly decent for a bandit. He clutched his sword next to his hip and rubbed the dirt off from it.

There were two water droplets huddled closely to each other, but they didn't mix at all nor did they move. The third water droplet was circling around the area though.

These water droplets represent Owen, Oslan and Riang.

"I just checked the detection device, I got some guys on my side. You might want to check this out." Gurmed called out on the other bandits behind him.

"Really?" Qivef, a tall and fierce looking bandit wearing a wolf's head as a hood, went over to Gurmed and grabbed the metal plate from him to check it out for himself.

Qivef noticed a trail of water that leaked off the plate. "Oh..?" He wiped it with his finger and inspected it closely, "There's a fourth person coming towards this way…"

The other scouting bandits looked over to him when he said that.

"Stay alert, we have a visitor." Qivef heaved out a deep sigh and grabbed the longbow from his back and an arrow from his quiver.

The bandits all prepared their weapons and looked at the direction where the road was the nearest.

Because they never started a fire, all of them were concealed by the night's cloak of darkness.

Soon enough, Caophre approached their location.

Qivef and the rest watched her carefully and assessed the level of her threat to them. Caophre's demeanor was nonchalant and steady at the same time.

Under Caophre's cloak, there wasn't a single weapon at all. He was unarmed.

Qivef didn't waste time and aimed his longbow at Caophre, not before using a green magic circle on his palm to shoot a soul energy imbued arrow.

The arrow flew through the air soundlessly and imperceptibly. There was no doubt that it would hit the target.

Caophre did not dodge the arrow. It lodged itself into her mouth, confirming it for Qivef that he managed to hit her successfully.

But just as he was going to lower his guard and watch Caophre's body bleed out, an unexpected sight played in front of him.

Caophre smiled. The arrow's tip almost touched his throat, but it was caught by his teeth, unable to move any further.

"Pweh-!" Caophre spat out the arrow and looked at the direction where it came from.

With a provocative grin, he locked eyes with the barely visible Qivef.

He didn't know why, but Qivef was overwhelmed with the feeling of a rabbit being spotted by a tiger. He gnashed his jaw and shouted, "We've been discovered, attack her, now!"

The other bandits nodded and jumped down the trees and dashed with the style that trained combatants would have.

Caophre straightened her hands like blades, a large red magic circle appeared on her back as thin vein-like tendrils extended out from it, going to her hands.

*Fwoo– Gsash!*

Bright red flames ignited on Caophre's hands.

"Whoo! Let the trade commence!" Caophre was filled with exhilaration.

Although she wasn't here to fight because as a merchant, she prioritizes money over anything else. But then again, fighting does have a charm of its own.

So, what was Caophre's purpose here to begin with?

— Four days ago…

Caophre was in her carriage, checking out all her wares and thinking of how she could sell them quickly.

Suddenly, the entire carriage shook. The sacks of food vibrated, the metalwares and glasswares rattled, even the wood that made up the carriage began to shake violently.

This happened until everything broke apart. But they broke apart into a peculiar manner, all turning into golden starlight before fading upwards into sparkles.

The entire scene changed before Caophre's view. He was now in a lonely hill surrounded by shimmering golden mountains with an honest wooden hut on top of the hill.

'What does God want from me now?' Caophre was used to this sight. She walked towards the wooden hut and opened the door.

Unlike what was expected for a God's residence, the God of Equality and Trade preferred simple accommodations for himself.

The door creaked as Caophre opened it. The familiar interior with a bed in the corner, a circular wooden table with two stools in the middle.

She saw a man with very regular features. However, she couldn't see his eyes, nose, or face clearly. It's just like looking at a moving crowd, you see the different people in the crowd, you know that they have their own unique faces, but you can't seem to stick that image in your head clearly.

This man in front of Caophre was indiscernible despite looking directly at his figure. He seemed so distant, yet so close.

A blurry mirage of a close friend, a fading memory, a ghost of the past.

Schegial Nwieg held a cup of hot tea as he sat on one of the wooden stools. He blew on the tea, moving the steam away as it danced before thinning out.

"I have a mission for you." Schegial sipped on his tea. Without opening his mouth, Caophre could still hear his crisp and melodic voice.

"What do I need to do? I still need to dig coins and you know that I take that very seriously." Caophre sat down on the empty stool.

Digging coins is a term that means making money. It is an informal way of speech, showing that Caophre regarded this God of his as someone he knew closely.

Schegial shook his head and chuckled. "So impatient, so impatient… I've heard that the Heavenly Mother had already picked her first disciple. I want you to check him out to satisfy my curiosity… Can you do that?"

Caophre shrugged. "Yeah, yeah… I guess I have time to spare, just tell me how much I am getting from this."

Schegial grabbed the cup of tea with both hands on different ends before pulling it apart. Magically, the cup duplicated as if it underwent mitosis. Both of the cups had equal amounts of tea and both had the same appearance.

"Here's the information that you need to know."

Caophre didn't question the bizarre abilities of his God and drank the tea in one gulp. He was practically used to it already.

Huge numbers of scenes flashed before Caophre's eyes, images, sounds, scents and other information imprinted itself to her brain instantly.

She spaced out for a bit before looking at Schegial once again with her clarity regained.

"Your reward will be in Mysteriea… A blonde man with blue eyes will buy something from you. You can extort him enough to get 159 gold coins maximum if you do it right." Schegial calmly sipped on his tea.

"Hey, I'm not the type who exto-"

The scene began to crack like a mirror. Large shards broke apart, bringing Caophre back to her carriage as if nothing happened.

"He didn't even let me finish." Caophre grumbled.

— Present time…

[Basic Soul Energy Technique, Heatless Flames]

Caophre bent one of her knees and leapt forward. A shallow footprint was left on the ground where she previously stood.

A spiky short haired bandit in front of Caophre swung his one-handed sword at her. With a wide shield on his other hand, he had a great method of offense and defense.

This bandit used several magic circles that rotated on his legs, elbows and arms of varying colors. Providing him with an excellent power boost.

Caophre caught the sword with his left hand and used his other hand as a spear to stab through the shield.

*Thukk-!*

The bandit was nothing short of surprised. He looked down at his chest with Caophre's hand in it. He wasn't given enough time to think when a red flamed elbow strike broke his spinal cord, killing him as his neck was horribly misplaced.

Qivef shot another arrow at Caophre as she dealt with the bandit. The arrow hit Caophre's mouth once again, but was caught by her teeth like earlier.

"Pwah-! Can you stop aiming for my mouth?" Caophre sprinted forward and faced three bandits at once.

One of the bandits was someone who specialized in soul energy. She waved her hands, three green magic circles spun on her right forearm like revolving bracelets. The woman pointed her right hand at Caophre.

The ground moved as if it came to life. A stone spike emerged between Caophre's legs. Qivef wasn't idle and kept shooting arrows at him as this was happening.

A normal person would find themselves stuck in such a tight situation.

But for a direct apostle of a God, this was barely even a challenge.

Up until this point, Caophre hasn't used any advanced soul energy techniques except for the magic circle that made it as if her hands were as hot as 7,560 degrees Celsius. However, even though it doesn't exude heat at all as it couldn't produce any ambient heat around it, whenever the flames come in contact with most metals, they instantly melt.

She only relied on her physical capabilities to fight them. There was no need to waste soul energy that was beyond her regeneration of it.

Caophre punched the stone spike with the red flames shaped like a drill, pulverizing it into a molten mess. His other hand wasn't idle, a flick of a hand expanded the shape of the flames into a flat protective screen that destroyed the arrow upon contact.

The wood was turned into charcoal and the metal tip melted. There was zero heat involved, only soul energy.

Like a grasshopper, Caophre targeted the mage.

"Watch out!" The two melee bandits protected the mage with their swords, but faced against instantaneous melting from Caophre's hands?

Caophre felt as if he stabbed his hands through the air.

The two bandits swung their swords, only for them to be melted through, getting their throats pierced and their brain stems burnt to a non-existent crisp.

Using her grip on their necks, Caophre used them as leverage and leapt forward to kill the mage.

The mage swiftly dodged Caophre's strikes by utilizing a unique soul skeleton that appeared on her skin as blue, strange glowing tattoos that depicted human hands, bones and eyes with two irises in a massive portrait.

Her excellent footwork allowed her to avoid the swift barrage of punches aimed for her face. She ducked and weaved like a professional boxer. Some of the mage's hair was singed because of the red flames.

Qivef shot three soul energy infused arrows at Caophre which were dealt with quite easily using one hand. This gave the mage enough time to retreat far away from Caophre.

"Change of plans, we can't let this woman reach us. Those red flames are troublesome to deal with." Qivef took another arrow from his quiver and said, "Wilha, get ready to use your strongest spell.. Thast, use all of your restraining type spells. The rest of you, try to circle her as distraction and keep dodging before Thast casts his spells…"

"Gurmed, you will be going…"

Qivef began to give them all tasks to complete.

"Understood!" The other bandits acted quickly and implemented the plan.

Qivef activated a large yellow magic circle on his palm that was roughly the size of head and infused three arrows at once before shooting.

The three arrows flew with a bright yellow light, making them look like pure energy.

Caophre guarded against the arrows and waved his hand to create a screen of flames to cover him from the arrows. But unexpectedly, the arrows blew up and separated into long tiny needles of light that fluttered around Caophre like bugs.

When the needles of light surrounded Caophre completely from all angles, they all darted towards him with the intent to turn Caophre into a pin cushion.

"I really don't want to use more soul energy than I have to… I like this guy's tricks." Caophre saw the arrows and the attacks of the bandit's encirclement. Even if he dealt with the arrows, swords will be able to find their way to slash him, which isn't good.

Clapping his flaming hands together, a thin wave of red soul energy spread out in a spherical shape, destroying the arrows of light and even giving the nearby bandits that tried to pull a fast one on him with some nasty burns.

This move cost considerably more soul energy than just covering her hands with the red flames.

Although that gave her some breathing space, chubby vines with red spikes suddenly sprouted from the ground, snaring her legs tightly.

Not only that, the bandit named Thast used an ice trap spell and a spell that shot out a spurt of a clunky gray liquid that acted like fast drying cement after a few seconds.

The female mage from earlier waved her hand, using a lime magic circle stacked with several layers of smaller white, red and violet magic circles.

[Fifteen Layered Soul Energy Technique, White Cloud Torrent of Primal Beasts]

*Fhooooshhh—!*

Thick clouds that formed the shapes of four legged beasts with large bodies, sharp teeth and claws almost appearing like lions, tigers and bears mixed into one unholy creature. These beasts were disfigured and rushed out like an amalgamation of stitched creatures in a pure, cloudy form.

This large jet of cloud beast amalgamations with enormous soul energy brandished its claws and bared its numerous fangs at Caophre who was still stuck in place.

Unable to dodge, he was covered in this torrent.

The violent energies within this attack tore the affected trees apart into splinters, the rocks were further fined down into smaller fragments, showcasing just how much damage it can cause. An unlucky bandit was caught in the attack and was reduced into a red mist as she shouted in pain.

The other bandits didn't mind the extra loss and merely observed if this managed to kill Caophre.

Soon, the clouds dissipated, leaving the mage named Wilha a bit fatigued. She felt that her arm was so sore that it made her blood feel cold because of the shock and adrenaline.

The reason why she was so fatigued is because of a simple reason.

Soul energy not only needs a magic circle, but it requires physical endurance of the caster as well. If you used a magic circle on your hands, your hands will be dealing with the energy load caused by the spell. That's why a wand or a staff is useful because it shoulders the energy load damage instead of the caster.

All magic circles require a physical medium to activate.

Continuous use of a magic circle on your hands will tire it out physically. If you keep using too much soul energy on a single body part, it will eventually break apart as it is unable to endure the soul energy forced into it.

Therefore, mages in this world are physically fit and aren't just your typical squishy spellcasters. This goes the same for archers because pulling back a bow is harder than how one might initially think.

Qivef looked at the spot where Caophre earlier stood. But when the clouds revealed that there wasn't anyone there but a human sized hole, everyone froze.

Wilha felt the soil under her shake before seeing the unharmed Caophre jumping out of it with a clean uppercut to the chin, burning her jaw clean off that spurted out blood as her face was ruined into a charred mess.

Qivef was enraged. The rest of them backed away from Caophre, quite hesitant to fight him once again.

Caophre stretched all his fingers out into tiger claws, adapting a peculiar and low stance.

"That almost grazed my clothes, well done." Caophre's eyes shone with a ferocious and playful glint. She could've used a high leveled spell from the start and ended this fight in a few seconds, but where's the fun in that? Only by handicapping yourself and giving the opponents a fighting chance would the fight feel fair and a bit more fun.

Merchants have to de-stress as well even if they were a God's apostle.

As Caophre observed his fearful enemies, he noticed that one of them was missing.

"Wait, where's the other one? I could've sworn he was-" His eyes widened when he noticed footsteps heading towards Owen and the rest.

Qivef laughed out loud. "You just noticed it now!? You're too late, whoever your friends are back there, they're dead once you get there!"

"Sh*t!" Caophre immediately stopped playing around and activated a high leveled spell on his hand.

[Advanced Soul Energy Arts, Multiple Heatless Flame Clones]

A red magic circle appeared from Caophre's palm. He smashed his hand against the ground which made the magic circle expand from his feet a few meters wider.

From this magic circle, numerous phantoms that looked exactly like Caophre with blank expressions and eyes crawled out like ghouls from hell.

They all rushed towards the bandits as Caophre herself used a soul skeleton that specialized in speed to arrive at Owen's location faster.

— Owen's location…

Owen stood beside the wagon and carriage and walked around to waste stamina to keep his fatigue from fading away just in case he sat down for too long.

He then heard leaves rustling as a man with a beard and sharp eyes with anxiety written all over his face running towards him.

[Gurmed Amval - Level 24]

[Affiliation - Lanuz Bandit Group]

[Skills - Unavailable] (You do not have the necessary detection skill/s to view the following information.)

Gurmed spotted Owen and was immediately ecstatic. When he saw Riang and Oslan, he figured that Owen and Caophre were supposed to protect these two.

He can kill Owen and use the two as hostages against Caophre. That was the plan.

Gurmed grabbed his sword from its sheath and ran towards him with a crazed smile.

Owen reached his hand out to the right, grabbing an empty space. This confused Gurmed for a bit since he didn't feel any soul energy from Owen's movements.

Suddenly, though…

*Slegch!*

A crimson arc flew towards him in a split second. He also saw Owen possessing a sinister red crystal knife that was previously not there.

Gurmed activated a blue magic circle by reflex, summoning a shield to protect his face as he backed away from Owen. Cold sweat drenched his back just from that short encounter.

*Crack!* The blue shield shattered into fragments after being struck by the crimson arc.

Owen raised an eyebrow, a bit troubled about the bandit's skills. He already noticed the difference between this Gurmed fellow and Yuhmbir. They weren't even at the same level.

Gurmed scolded himself.

'He has a missing hand and doesn't seem troubled after seeing me at all! Of course he'd probably be as strong as that monster back there! Why didn't I notice this sooner!?' Because of Caophre, Gurmed's evaluation of Owen's strength was thoroughly off.

Without a choice, Owen knew that he had to bring out his hatchet to help out even by a little bit.

'I really need that shield ASAP.' He called out the inventory while lamenting in his heart.

The usual panel appeared with all of his items and equipped spells. On the side, it shows all of his armor slots with all of his equipped armor. Other than that were the empty ring slots, jewelry slots, offhand slots, cosmetic slots, and the not so empty utility slots. There were currently two used utility slots on his waist and neck.

One for the scarf and one was for his belt. Using the inventory, he unequipped both the belt and scarf and put it on his left forearm.

Suddenly, the scarf and belt was now on his left forearm as if they teleported. Owen took the [Iron Battle Hatchet] using his left forearm.

This was once again, another impossible feature to do in the normal game. Owen tested out several features of the game interface during his free time and saw that he could equip some items wherever he wanted and in what manner he wanted it to be equipped.

There was one instance where he was just thinking to himself as a joke to equip the belt on his forehead as a bandana, and to his surprise, it actually worked. He then tried it on his shoulders, knees, his di- erm… ankles.

It seems to equip itself in the way he wanted as if it could read his mind.

Of course he wanted to know how this could be applicable to combat and found out that he could use this to make some use of his forearm.

Who knows? Maybe Owen could use this to equip a shield on his forearm and switch it with a weapon in the middle of a fight. It potentially has a huge tactical advantage that he liked very much.

Gurmed saw Owen's left forearm 'grow out' a hatchet out of nowhere which added to his fear. Not only that, there were zero traces of soul energy when Owen did that.

This was unbelievable for him. The fact that Owen could do this meant that he isn't a simple opponent at all.

Gurmed imagined several possible abilities that Owen could have in store for him. Could he use that blood arc continuously? Can he grow his arm into a sword? Can this man cast spells without him noticing?

He had so many thoughts in his mind that he didn't want to be answered by paying with his blood.

'What did I put myself into?' Gurmed reluctantly raised his sword in front of him all while he cursed himself and his life decisions for leading him to this very moment.

To be fair, he should really stop scaring himself for no reason at all.