85 C84 Choices Made

Nees started at the man who came to her rescue, the thin stature with a cloak that did nothing to hide the frame to everyone else. It was clear the man poorly ate himself: it was not until the bow appeared from nothing that the tension rocketed up a many notches.

The woman sat on her knees, mud, sand and dirt stuck to her pale legs as her tattered robes showed the bare life she had lived to this point, scrapping past everything day by day. Nees height roughly came to 5'02 with greasy thin brown hair that stuck to her face due to the tears and mud.

Freckled with mud as her deep blue eyes looked over the man again as the bow gave off a feeling of dread to the men standing around her while she never felt a sense of this, including of the death coming from the bow, all she felt was hope and a bright future ahead by going to the man.

"Well, if you are going to offer up something in return. It's rather a large sum of gold. Nees here owes us roughly six thousand gold for over a month now."

The bandits regained some composure as they held onto the rusting swords, one staying close to Nees to imply for Nathan not to do something so rash.

"I do not have six thousand gold: I may have something else."

As Nathan spoke those words, four more figures came down into the alley, backing up Nathan as the three bandits felt like running just at the amount of backup this man had. It was clear the group behind him had experience and wisdom in combat and had spent time in life and death situations.

The attention of everyone came back down to his hand as he pulled out a stone so bright that the sun stood caught in its beauty. The rock a bright blue with what looked like crashing waves of water rocking inside, it was the size of an entire fist.

"Mana Stone..."

Azo spoke in a tone that was full of surprise. The main expense of an adventurer group was the Mana stones for the mages. Magic could no longer form naturally inside the Vortex which caused a power vacuum and allowed tradition sword and shield types to rain supreme on the battlefield.

The most common Mana stone to find was a Death Mana stone that happened to stand filled with unlife. These stones naturally surrounded and were sold in Senoa as the adventurer's dove into the dungeon to mine these resources.

It clicked after Azo found the Goddess of Death in the dungeon, her body producing the death magic that filled the many stones and loose rocks, forming the Mana Stones. It was clear that the Gods presence had a direct tie to the magical forces.

The stone in Nathan's hand looked roughly ten times the size of the small shard in Azo's staff. Each crystal could cast some spells depending on the level. Higher level spells required more stones and eventually a level seven spell could waste entire shards with a single cast.

"Hey, brother. That is an Aqua mana stone. Those are extremely rare. It can be used to create water as well."

One of the Orcs spoke in a hushed voice to the human who still stared with intensity at his hand, trying to rack his brain around Nathan's decision.

"It's so much large then the death mana stones. Each one has gone up in price to around five hundred and twenty coins. This item must be worth at least twenty thousand gold, maybe even more!"

Both orcs stared at the human leading them, apparently not understanding something was wrong with this situation. Why should a random strange come and pay off this women's debt, he had back up loud enough to dispatch them all.

Something did not add up.

"Are you taking this, or should I just begin to dispatch you."

Nathan responded coldly as his eyes glared at them, the flames of his power flickering in his eyes.

"What is the catch?"

The human spoke, his tone neutral as he dared not give offence to this man, who had power and connections to get such a crystal.

"That crystal is worth over two times the amount needed to pay her debt."

Nathan took a few minutes, he was somewhat confused by the first statement and then the second statement made his smile come back again. He had done it this way for them to accept the fastest so he could question the woman and use the debt to gain an insider's help.

"It's for one reason. I may call upon you to pay the extra money back to me in the form of work. I will still pay though, and this is the proof that you will remain paid in full."

Nathan tossed the stone to them with a light toss, the rock rolling in the sand before stopping at before them.

Each bandit was shuddering as this was to the same effect as tossing a considerable stack of gold over the edge of a cliff with no hope of getting it back unless he could really keep his word and find them again at a later date.

"We thank you for the generosity. We will leave this woman's debt to you then. Good luck!"

With but a few movements from the human, the blue mana stone vanished from sight, the three bandits moving away and out of the alley from the other end. Leaving only Nathan, the adventurers and the woman Nees sitting in confusion as she stared at Nathan.

Moving forward step by step, Nathan let his bow dissolve into ash and fade away, his knee pressing into the dirt next to Nees as she stared up at him in wonder and worry.

Who had she met, was he a person or closer to an angel?

"Come with me, Nees. It's time to help those around you and not just yourself."