Lightning Is the Only Way

The man grew excited when he heard Gravis ask about natural treasures for tempering the bones. "Do you have any?" he asked.

Gravis felt a little confused. "No, I am looking to buy," he explained.

The middle-aged man deflated and sighed. "Sorry, out of stock," he confessed.

"Out of stock?" Gravis asked in surprise.

The man sighed again. "Yeah. About a week ago, a fire broke out in one of our storage rooms and ruined all the natural bone tempering treasures. The other treasures were fine, luckily. No one knew how the fire started, but when we noticed, it was already too late. On top of that, we normally get like three of those treasures per week, but for some reason, we have not received any since the fire. This is really some bad luck."

'Bad luck, eh?' Gravis thought. About a week ago, Gravis had killed the centipede. It seemed like Heaven's plan fell flat with the centipede's death, and it immediately used its contingency plan and destroyed all easy ways for him to temper his bones.

Heaven saw everything, and it knew that Gravis would go to Body City for the entrance exams of the Elemental Guilds. Of course, it also knew that Gravis would want to temper his bones. Heaven was really showing its ruthless side by destroying all easy ways to temper one's bones for an entire city.

Gravis clenched his fist again when he thought about Heaven's actions. He could probably also forget about finding any of those treasures anywhere else in the city. Heaven would not allow for such an oversight. He had to take the hard path, yet again.

"Okay, do you, at least, have pills for tempering bones?" Gravis asked.

course! Even if they burn down, we can just make more. You

much for a pill?" Gravis

Bone-Pill is ten gold," the man said, his smile back

that he would need just as many Bone-Pills as he needed Skin-Pills. "If I buy more than ten, could you reduce

gold if you buy more than 10," he offered. The supply of Bone-Pills was endless, so it was no issue to give such a big spender a discount. They wouldn't run

math and realized that he could buy 14 now and still have around two gold left. Though he also wanted to look into Martial Arts, so he decided to buy

the man said with a delighted grin. He knocked on the counter

the remaining 50 silver, but couldn't find

the price to just 123 as a thank you," the man declared magnanimously. He took the gold, just as the assistant came running back with a wooden case. The assistant opened it, and Gravis saw 13 pills inside the case. The assistant closed it again and placed the case on the counter. Gravis took it and stuffed it awkwardly under one arm since his broken shoulder had

Gravis nodded. "Thank you!"

man just smiled.

around but stopped. "Do you know where I can buy Martial Arts?"

the plaza is a big dark-blue building with lots of ornamental

left the Medicinal Pavilion. When he came outside, he could already see the Martial Hall even through the crowded central plaza. The building was just as big as the Medicinal Pavilion, and it was surrounded by many stone and metal ornaments in the form of different weapons. A big

see a man trying to pull on the wooden case from under Gravis' arm. Obviously, the

a guard bodied the thief and held him down. 'Huh, maybe that's why the city is called Body City,' Gravis snickered to himself. The poor thief was on the floor and tried to take out a dagger.