Chapter 246 Terence’s Thoughts
A few people watching held hopes that this kid could somehow work a miracle and defeat Terence but they were in the minority. Some tried to tell Evan to stop his actions while some others jeered him on, however, the young hero ignored them all the same.
When the third set of goons showed up, this time with two thralls, Evan attacked them faster than they had expected, even going as far as to use limit break for almost half a minute.
'This one was very close to gaining a strength stat of 'B-'. I had to take him out before he could get there.'
Kayla and Kuro helped out, creating a show of black lightning and shadows flying around, right before the fifteen men and women were beaten to the ground.
Like the first two times, he sent back one of them with a message to get Terence over, before going back to his seat.
He did nearly kill the people who came over him under the guise of trying to 'warn' him but in reality, were trying to steal from the bag of coins on the ground but that's a matter not worth elaborating on.
The young hero glanced at the crowd watching him from a distance, while thinking about how their mere presence was empowering the thralls that Terence had sent, after all, said thralls were absorbing strength from the people in the crowd and using that strength against Evan.
However, he put that issue at the back of his mind as he pulled out a juice pack from his inventory and started sipping it casually.
To those watching, it was as if he was suddenly feeling thirsty and had pulled a juice pack out of something that was very obviously a spatial storage skill.
They did not know that the content of the juice pack was actually a magic potion that he was taking to recover the energy spent on Limit break.
Defeating lower levelled existences was easy for the current Evan, however, doing so to more than a dozen beings over level 150 with just his fists and no skills or magic was not exactly 'easy'.
Even more so, when two of them were thralls of Greed who drew upon strength from the watching crowd. Although their range was lower since they were just thralls, there were a few adventurers mixed in into the crowd and were closer to the street so one of them was able to get a huge power-up.
'That was a gamble. There was a chance I'd end up in a similar state to how I was after fighting Xakon but when I think about it properly, the chances of that happening were quite low.
Unlike then, when I was in an exhausted but demonic-possessed state, my current condition is optimal and I'm far stronger than I was then.
Naturally, the power boost from the limit break is higher and I'm not ending up as exhausted as I was.'
Those were his thoughts as he slowly sipped the magic potion juice pack in his hands while waiting for the next set of goons to arrive.
◇ ◇ ◇
While Evan carrying out his plans, in a building in another district of Osto a certain man was seated on a luxurious couch that could almost be mistaken for a throne because of how decorated it was.
In the man's hand was a wineglass of pure silver, adorned with gems and diamonds of various kinds and lined with gold at the rims.
He sat in a relaxed position, with his feet stretched out and rested atop not a stool, but a pile of gold bars stacked together with a purple silk cushion on top.
His other hand held a bronze jar that was filled with more gold coins than some people have ever and would ever see in their entire lives.
On another makeshift gold bar stool beside him, was an empty bottle of branded wine, with a few more similarly shaped bottles lying around on the floor.
He slowly sipped the wine in his silver glass, eventually downing the entire glass and placing it beside the bottle.
Despite having finished multiple bottles of wine, the man was not even the slightest bit drunk.
He was a man with a slightly muscular build, dressed in clothes that looked quite plain but were actually made of extravagant materials.
Running a hand through his short messy red hair, he heaved a sigh of exasperation before narrowing his dark eyes in displeasure.
'This is very annoying.
Didn't I kill the last guy who challenged me? Why didn't that serve to deter this idiot who just popped up now?'
From his thoughts, one could already make a guess as to who he was.
The red crest of a great sword inscribed in a circle on the back of his palm served as a confirmation of his identity.
He was naturally the man who was responsible for terrorizing Osto in the past few months, the one with the title of 'Greedy Red'; Terence Stickels.
As for the reason for his current state f displeasure, it was naturally because of Evan's actions of blatantly challenging him in public.
Terence had become a symbol of awe and fear for the people of Osto in the past few months, with a lot of its citizens submitting to him so as to ensure their continued livelihood.
He always made sure to display his power occasionally, allowing them to see that he was still just as powerful as ever, and was even growing stronger, so as to quell thoughts of opposition against him.
Yet, just barely a week after he turned the last party of adventurers who challenged him into bloody mists, Evan appeared and told him to 'get his ass out'.
'The mercenaries the merchants are hiring, whoever the viscount wants to call and the adventurer's guild's reinforcements.
I'd be able to deal with them all at once, so I can start preparing for the real threat here.'
From the start, Terence had never regarded the Viscount and the other nobles, or the merchant's, mages, and adventurer's guilds as his opponents.
He only saw one individual who was truly in his way and could easily prevent him from conquering Osto.
'Heck, he can destroy all I've built up in a single day.'
That person was naturally the guild master of the Osto adventurer guild branch.
A level 300 existence.
Terence was sure that even with all of Greed's current power, he wouldn't stand a chance against the guild master when he eventually returned.
He was thinking about how he could acquire enough power to deal with the guild master when a subordinate reported something to him.
Upon hearing the report, his expression darkened greatly, causing the subordinate to shrink back in fear.
'Rumours that I'm scared of this kid called 'Evan' have already begun spreading? This makes no sense.
I only sent out one thrall squad to deal with him, how the hell did such rumours come about.'
Terence had eyes and ears all over Osto, so he was able to stay updated on whatever rumours were currently going around in the city.
However, the current situation was weird, because the rumours were spreading of Evan's actions and Terence 'being scared' were spreading to parts of Osto that didn't even know about Evan's earlier stunt.
Dungeon city Osto was a city that was about 350–400 kilometre squares in area, and the scope of all of Evan's actions honestly didn't exceed one of the districts of the city that were barely about one or two kilometres in area.
'Yet people on the other side of the city already know about this matter? It's obvious that someone is spreading it on purpose.
But who is it?
𝑓r𝘦𝘦𝘄eb𝒏𝙤vel.c𝙤𝙢
The Viscount? The adventurer and merchant guilds?
The mages? That part of the city is their territory after all. But they've been silent since, why would they suddenly take action now?
I don't think it's them.
The kid called himself an adventurer so is he with the adventurers guild?'
Terence sat upright on his couch as he began thinking about the matter a bit more seriously.
'What's the point of spreading these rumours? To bait me into taking action?
Whoever planned this must have figured out that I was not going to move in person so they're using this tactic.
The fact that they are trying to bait me into moving personally means that this might be some sort of trap.
Did the Viscount succeed in getting help from outside?'
Right after asking himself this, Terence shot down the idea immediately.