Book 1 Chapter 32.3 - Long Journey
When night first descended, Borriello got on his own old-fashioned double-wheeled lightweight chariot, and together with his two dogs that were over ten years old, he left Auburn Palace Manor. He wanted to catch some more fish before the southern river completely froze over and show them off to his old friends.
As for Auburn Palace Manor, the Arthur family only had O’Brien left. The light in his study room was lit late into the night.
Su obviously wouldn’t know about the dramatic scene that took place in Auburn Palace Manor, and even if he did know, he wouldn’t have cared much. For him, the entire world was full of violent undercurrents, but most of them were unrelated to him. Even if some of them intersected with his own life, as he quickly grew up, many of the dangerous undercurrents would turn into irrelevant creek water. Of course, with growth and an increase in ability, Su would also become like a growing fish, one that could not stay in the stream and must continuously press forward upstream to find his own sea.
Currently, for a little fish like Su, the Black Dragonriders was still a vast and boundless river. However, after seeing the world map left behind by the olden era, Su noticed that most of the world was still dominated by unknown regions.
Su already had all of his equipment on him and began to head towards Dragon City’s northwest boundary. Apart from the mandatory resupply of materials, Su still brought a special electronic tablet with him. Inside of it was information on everything Su could find out about prescription and nonstandard abilities with Su’s current authority. Su decided that he would spend some time while on this mission to carefully study these known abilities and then select a suitable ability and evolutionary path. After all, he had 18 evolution points right now and could select a level of ability that was on a larger scale. The 27 evolution points he originally had were automatically allocated during Helen’s examination. His body automatically allocated two levels into defense, a level into dexterity, and even some into a new second level ability in the Mysterious Fields: injury lightening.
This ability was extremely similar to the injury lightening recorded in the Black Dragonriders, but as a nonstandard ability, its uses were extremely unstable. From the dragonriders’ large collection of data, it seemed to vary from person to person. Those that possessed this ability would immediately produce a reaction, and as such change one’s body composition in response. Most of the time, this change would help lighten the injuries received, but the use was extremely limited and unstable. From an efficacy standpoint, it was far inferior to the defense strengthening of the Combat Domain. Of course, as a second level ability, injury lightening’s first level already required 2 or more evolutionary points, and the second level of strengthening exhausted the same amount as making a new third level ability, making it impossible to compare to defensive strengthening. What left Su feeling depressed was that after being overly stimulated, his body not only produced the injury lightening ability, it even strengthened it an additional time.
Su’s speed wasn’t fast, maintaining a uniform velocity of roughly ten kilometers per hour. At this speed, he needed half an hour to reach the center of Dragon City. However, Su was not lacking in patience.
The sounds of an engine sounded from the distance, and it quickly closed in. Su’s speed and route remained unchanged. He walked along the side of the road, not affecting the advance of the vehicle. In Dragon City, all those that could drive were important figures that Su wasn’t willing to provoke. Even though he didn’t like trouble, he didn’t fear it either. Instead, he would rather not aim the trouble at Persephone.
The vehicle sped over at a wild and crazy speed. Then, it quickly reduced speed before ultimately moving beside Su.
“Hey! Pretty and lucky youngster, hop on. I’ll bring you around.” The one driving was actually Ricardo Fabregas.
Ricardo’s vehicle was one with dark green camouflage, a cross country jeep that matched the way he presented himself. Su gave Ricardo a look, then looked at his car before saying, “I can walk on my own.”
“What’s the big deal? It’s not like I’m gonna make you pay!” Ricardo chatted noisily. Then, his face suddenly revealed shock, and his eyes went wide. The cigarette in his mouth almost fell off, creating a strand of white smoke in front of his well-fitted jacket that was made with excellent craftsmanship. However, he couldn’t care about that right now as he cried out, “Hey, youngster, what are you trying to do? Hurry and put that thing away! The Glock isn’t some toy to randomly play around with! Fuck, it’s even a strengthened model! I just wanted to give you a ride, why are you bringing that thing out?”
Su continued to proceed at a uniform speed, but he clearly didn’t have any intention of putting the Glock away. With his reflexes, and less than three meters between them, it could be said that Su already occupied the decisive advantage. Even if Ricardo was a lieutenant commander with unknown ability, it was quite likely for him to fall under Su’s gun. After all, even if he was a lieutenant commander with maximum defensive strengthening, he wouldn’t be able to block an explosive shot from the Glock to the face.
Su calmly said, “Based on my understanding, me and the Fabregas family are still in a state of war. This war is also far from ending.”
Ricardo tossed the cigarette that hadn’t been completely used up out the window. He shrugged and said, “It’s true that this war hasn’t ended. However, don’t forget that the reason for this war is that you killed our family’s Laiknar. He was our family’s fourth position inheritor. That’s not an insignificant figure.”
Su gave a simple response. “The reason I killed him was because he wanted to catch me and make me into a laboratory specimen.”
“Alright, alright. The grudge was originally quite simple, but it’ll only become more and more complicated. It’s not something the two of us can resolve or settle. However, regardless, just get in the car first. Be more like a man!” Ricardo urged.
Truthfully, Su didn’t feel too much malice towards Ricardo. He hadn’t come into contact with this man too often, and they were supposed to be formal enemies before they even met. However, after Sally’s matter, the two men felt a bit of mutual understanding. Su was quite clear that in the training base fight to the death, if Ricardo appeared among his opponents, then it would be tough for Su to escape death and nearly impossible for him to persevere until Persephone came. Even though the hatred between Su and the Fabregas family had reached a point where it was impossible to dissolve, there was a strange subtle turning point between him and Ricardo.
However, in the wilderness, Su had seen too many instances of betrayal or deception that were truly lifelike. The reason why it was difficult to distinguish was because at the start, none of them wanted to trick Su, but when enough benefit and temptations emerged, everything would change.
That was why Su wouldn’t get in Ricardo’s car.
“Below the dashboard of that car of yours seems to be a rather fascinating mechanism.” After experiencing the training base, Su understood more about machinery and electronics. Under his long-range perception, the gas hidden within that small mechanism put Su instinctively on alert.
“Ah, are you talking about this?” Ricardo seemed to have suddenly realized something. He scratched his head, and after laughing loudly for a bit, he pressed on a button below the steering wheel. Gas soundlessly emerged in the passenger seat. The smell of the gas was faint and there was practically no color. It was hard to detect.
Su wasn’t that far away, and when he smelled the gas that the wind blew over, he only felt his head go slightly dizzy, but then didn’t feel any other changes. It seemed like this was a type of anesthetic, but the efficacy was extremely small.
“This thing isn’t for me to deal with you, and instead for those women of mine. After drinking with them, I would sometimes use this small thing when bringing them back. If one smells this mist after becoming drunk, then they really will become completely drunk. They will only wake up afterwards,” said Ricardo.
Su truly didn’t understand how Ricardo did things even though he himself had experienced the passion of intoxication. However, after experiencing it once, Su felt like it wasn’t the type of relaxation he wished for, and was instead just emptiness and exhaustion. As such, he no longer tried to have anything to do with those women that hung around the pubs all day. When there was truly a need, for example after an intense battle, Su would select those women that collected money. They were more affectionate and considerate, clearly knowing what they were doing as they offered services equal to the amount of reward offered. Moreover, he would never wait until morning and would instead leave in the middle of the night, disappearing into the dangerous wilderness.
“Aren’t they willing to go back with you? Why do you have to use something like this?” Su asked. Of course, many people had their own interests, and even interests that were a bit excessive were only called strange hobbies. Perhaps Ricardo liked women that didn’t move.