The Merchant

Ryuma was just walking about with his baggage and a bag on his back. Sighing as he worried about the unknown future that lies before him.

"*sigh* I feel sorry for pops. He spent about half of his salary just for my school. I've gotta paid him somehow. He's done everything he can for me. And here I am, just making him disappoint. Also, both bro and sis sure are gonna kill me if they've heard about this."

Ryuma then took out something from his pocket. It was the golem's core he just took from Ivan (Referring to chapter 4). 

"If I still remember it, that guy must have been somewhere around here..."

Ryuma then takes a few steps ahead slowly watching that guy's whereabouts. After a while, He then stops, knowing that the guy wasn't there.

"Guess he's moved elsewhere then. I wonder how much this core's price was." At that time, Ryuma then heard something was behind him. A mysterious kid wearing a hat and had old and torn clothes, pushing the carriage behind him.

The mysterious guy smiled as he looked at Ryuma's direction.

"Ahhh~ It's you again." Ryuma looked at the guy, he felt a shiver and cold as he looked at him in the eye, which happened every time.

"Umm... I wanna thank you for the ring. It really did help me a lot." The ring that negated the debuff magic. It appears that this bizarre and mysterious guy was the one who was the source behind it.

"Oooh, don't mind it. It's just a small payment for you who had saved me once."

Ryuma then had a flashback when he helped the guy who was beaten up by some thugs. 

…

"Ohh thank you so much young man."

("He calls me a young man but he's definitely younger than me. It's like he's 10 to 12 years old.") That's what Ryuma is thinking about him at the moment.

"Hohohoh, you might be thinking I'm a kid, but I'm older than you think."

(He can read my mind?!)

"Ohoho, worry not I'm just a humble merchant. But you can call me Om." As he introduced himself, Om then went to his carriage and searched something in it.

"Hmm... where is it..." After a few minutes, Om finally found what he was searching for and handed it over to Ryuma. It was a small silver ring.

"You, what's your name?" Ryuma is still confused by Om's behaviour the moment Om asked his name.

"Ryuma, Ryuma Ochirou."

"Then Ryuma, do you know about the Debuff magic?"

"Debuff magic? No? I've never heard there's a magic called Debuff magic."

"Make sense. Most of the people didn't know of these magic's existence. To be honest, most people have known of this magic in the last few centuries. But now, only a small number of people had known about these. Meanwhile, the society only blinded itself to so called attributes which only make them strong on the specific element."

"So... what is Debuff magic?"

"Ohh, basically the debuff magic is the magic that makes the opponent disadvantage in their fights. Basically, like this." Ryuma can feel his leg is getting weaker until he finally falls down on his knees.

("Wh-what is this? I can barely feel any energy in my body. It feels like I didn't eat for three days.")

"Wear the ring, it'll nullify all sorts of debuff magic cast on its wearer." Ryuma then wears the ring on his middle finger.

("M-my energy is coming back!") Ryuma managed to stand on his feet again but his feet were still trembling. It appears the ring doesn't completely nullify all of the debuff magic that was cast on him.

"You'll know when someone casts a debuff magic on you. But be careful, even if you have the ring, you'll still can't see the enemy's trick within the curtain. Now then... I'll pray for you a good luck."

When the merchant was about to leave, Ryuma asked him a question.

"Wait! Why give me this ring?"

"Ohh It's not a big deal. The market value of these rings was only about 13 Gold Coins anyway. Right now, it hasn't been worth much." As Om answered Ryuma's question, he then departed from the place.

To present.

"Now then Mr. Om, how much for these?" Ryuma showed the golem's core.

"Oooh~ the core of the golems. It is indeed a valuable thing." The merchant then took coins from his pocket." 

Fifty gold coins... how does that sound?" Ryuma's eyes widened.

"Fi-Fifty gold coins?!"

"That's the least I can offer you." The moment he heard it, Ryuma immediately accepted the price and got a total of fifty gold coins from the merchant.

"Oh! one more thing…" Merchant Om gave a piece of paper to Ryuma.

"What's this?"

"Oh! It's a discount voucher for a certain popular family restaurant! I'll tell you they had the best food in this whole country! I'll tell you all about their popular food!" Ryuma spent about 1 hour listening to the merchant.

…

"And that's why you gotta go try their food!"

"Ok-ok fine, I'll go later! Give me a space, will you?" Ryuma looked tired after spending 1 hour listening to Om about how good the restaurant is.

"Hohoho! Now then, I'll gotta go too."

"Hmm? go where?"

"It appears that Herreson is not a good selling spot. So it appears that I will have to move someplace elsewhere."

"Where to?"

"Hohoho! Maybe it's nearby. Maybe it's someplace far away. Who knows?" Merchant Om then pushed his carriage. Trying to leave.

"Mr. Om! Will I meet you again?"

"Hohoho! perhaps? If the destiny allows us to." Ryuma blinked. Realizing the merchant Om was disappearing right before his eyes. Not long after that, Ryuma too walked away from the place.

Ryuma looks at the money he just got from merchant Om.

"Pops paid about a hundred gold coins every month... Oh that's right! How about I buy a gift for him? While I go search for the gift, I might as well look around the Herreson. I can't even enter here anymore."

While Ryuma searched for the gift for his father, he visited the popular tourist spot using the money he got from the merchant. After a few hours, he finally bought a gift for his father and stumbled upon a restaurant that Om told him about. He then took a seat outside of the restaurant.

"Welcome, customer. May I take your order?"

"Hmm... then give me this."

"Okay! give us a minute!" After 15 minutes later, his order arrives. A Rice with Fried Chicken and a hot chocolate. Once he ate a spoon of rice, he felt that an electric flow through him.

("Hm! This food is good! Like really good! A shame I can't come here again thought.") Ryuma then took a sip of his hot chocolate.

("!!!, This is the most tasty hot chocolate I've ever drunk!!! How the hell are they making these delicious food!?")

"Delicious Isn't it?" Ryuma heard a voice and immediately looked behind him. There are 2 girls who are sitting behind him. One girl has a pretty face. Along a pink hair with twintail. The other girl has long hair with a dark blue color. Wearing a hairband, she took a sip of her coffee.

The girl with a twintail smiled at him. At that moment, Ryuma immediately senses a deja vu.

"Have we met somewhere before?" The twintail girl answered.

"No? probably just your imagination." But deep down Ryuma can feel that the girls weren't gonna be friendly with him.