Chapter 39: Power

"What? Boy, how dare you do that."

All three of them widened their eyes when they heard he had destroyed all the eggs.

What did that mean?

It meant their plan could no longer proceed, and worse, they had suffered a massive loss—buying those eggs had cost them nearly all their wealth.

They needed to harvest large numbers of souls to make back their investment and gain profit.

"Wait, his name is Richard. Could he be the boy everyone’s been talking about lately?"

"Looks like it. He could only have broken free of the boss’s Aether bind if he was at least an Aether Will Magus."

The two subordinates spoke while Damon stared at Richard with greater interest, lowering the sword he had pointed at him.

He stepped forward with a smile.

"Boy, this is truly unexpected. But tell me, why did you do this? Did you follow me here just to tell me?" Damon asked with a curious expression—but if one looked closely, it was clear he was suppressing great anger.

He wasn’t speaking to waste time, but rather thinking about how best to make this boy suffer before extracting value from him.

"Besides telling you, I’ll also kill you—take your brain and your eyes. I’ve heard you’re famous in Night Valley City. I’ll make sure the people there know of your gruesome death," Richard replied.

"Boy, how dare you..." Damon’s two subordinates, who had been restraining their anger all along, glared fiercely at Richard’s words.

But when they moved to attack him, Damon raised his hand to stop them.

The man nodded toward Richard.

"I like brave boys like you. It’s been a long time since anyone had the guts to threaten me. And here you are—a seven-year-old—actually doing it," he said with a cold chuckle.

"You probably think I’m just some ignorant child, thinking I can do anything just because I became a Magus at this age. You think I’m only lucky, that there’s no way I could threaten you," Richard answered, making Damon’s mouth fall open in surprise.

His two men were even more shocked, never expecting a child to speak like that to an adult.

"It seems you’re quite clever, boy," Damon said.

Though his thoughts had been guessed, Damon refused to let himself look rattled in front of a child.

"Even smarter than you, because I understand you while you don’t understand me. And of course, I’m also stronger," Richard replied.

"Hahaha, you really are a magic prodigy." Damon couldn’t help but laugh when Richard claimed to be stronger.

"Boy, how much do you even know about magic? At most, you’ve trained with a Codex that absorbs Tier 1 Aether—you must have gotten it by sheer luck. That’s why you’ve advanced so fast here in this backwater village. You’re still amazing, of course—other geniuses couldn’t reach this level even with a Codex like yours under a master’s guidance. But that only means your magical foundation is weak. Even I trained with a Codex that absorbs Tier 2 Aether..."

Before Damon could finish, Richard gave him a look as if staring at an idiot, making him stop mid-sentence with a scowl.

Richard then said, "Why are you talking about such basics?"

"Is this Tier 1 Aether?" he asked, showing several strands of his own Aether—deep purple in color. Damon and his men froze in shock.

"Purple... Tier 3... he actually has Tier 3 Aether!"

"All Codices that absorb Tier 3 Aether are hoarded by powerful clans. How could a village boy like him obtain one?"

"It doesn’t matter how he got it—what matters is how he advanced so quickly. This... this is a level of genius never before seen in history."

"..."

At that moment, Damon’s face darkened, realizing that during all his talking, he had made himself look like a fool.

But of course, the real problem was Richard’s strength.

If he had Tier 3 Aether, that meant he was overwhelmingly powerful.

Even if he had only just entered the Aether Will Realm, he had already fused with the head portion of the Aether Skeleton. His Aether accumulation was far higher than a mere beginner in that realm.

What made Tier 3 Aether wielders so powerful wasn’t just the quality of their Aether. Those who possessed it usually also had at least one elemental affinity above 80%.

BOOM!

A wave exploded outward with Richard at the center.

Knowing his opponents were Magi, Richard held nothing back.

He poured a great amount of Aether into the blast, sharpening it to the utmost, striking both their bodies and their cores.

Damon was flung away, blood spraying from his mouth. But to Richard’s shock, Damon’s two subordinates instantly exploded, their bodies bursting apart into countless shards of blood and flesh.

Their eyes were completely annihilated.

Damon’s own eyes trembled at the sight.

Even though his men only had Tier 1 Aether and very low accumulations, they were still Aether Will Magi.

Yet they hadn’t merely died—they had been utterly obliterated.

"Damn you, boy..."

Damon slashed his sword at Richard, unleashing a massive, lightning-fast blade of wind.

Richard narrowed his eyes, then stomped his foot on the ground.

Thud!

The earth in front of him rose up, forming a hardened wall of stone.

The wind blade cut a third of the way through before dissipating.

"Impossible," Damon muttered in disbelief.

Then the wall suddenly lurched forward, slamming into him and sending him flying back into a massive tree.

"So this is the difference in quality," Richard murmured, astonished by his own power—he had thought their strengths were nearly equal.

But it was like comparing a sharp blade to a rusted one.

Whoosh!

He waved his hand, and four massive shadow lions materialized in front of Damon. Each one bit down on his limbs, immobilizing him.

Damon struggled, unleashing razor-sharp winds from his body, but they passed right through—the lions shifted into pure shadow.

Physical attacks had no effect.

Of course, this meant they couldn’t deal damage either—but they could still bite him again the moment he tried to move.

Damon barely had time to stand before he was bitten down once more.