Chapter 437 - Slum (1)

"Okay, let's stop it right now. I am hungry. Let's go have lunch." Alice interrupted and stopped Auron.

Auron, who wanted to ask another question, held his word. It was not lunchtime yet, but Alice had stopped the question session. It had only been two hours since Alice allowed him to ask the questions.

Actually, during these two hours, Auron asked a lot of questions and didn't give any break for Alice. She was more exhausted during these two hours than all of his time teaching at the academy combined.

Auron's questions were sharp and not simple at all. Although Alice could answer everything, she had to rack her brain. Auron even did some demonstration to provide an example. 

Alice was exhausted, and that was why she stopped the questions session and pretended to be hungry.

Auron could not do anything except comply with what Alice had said. So, Auron nodded his head and prepared to go out.

Although it was short, this question's session was proofed to be useful for Auron. His elemental understanding increased by quite a lot of margin. His fire elemental understanding increased by a whopping 5%. Meanwhile, the rest of the elemental understanding increased by 2%.

Auron's understanding of Alice's self-created spell, [Fire Combination], also increased. He felt that he finally went forward after all of this time stuck in one place.

Alice went out of their room first and went downstairs while Auron hurriedly locked the door to their room. Outside of their room, both of them had to keep up their act. Auron acted like an obeyed and afraid husband, while Alice acted like a tyranny wife.

Both of them went to the Paradise Restaurant. It was the most famous restaurant in this town, and it was only located beside their inn.

The restaurant was packed with people even though it was not lunchtime yet. Auron and Alice chose a table at the center of the restaurant. They hoped that they could find the news about the missing person by eavesdropping, especially about the group of merchants who were still missing.

Sadly, everything didn't happen as expected. There was no one at all that was talking of the missing person case. Auron and Alice even had stayed for 2 more hours after they ate their food, but still, it was futile.

Seeing there was no progress, Alice decided to actively search the news around the area. Both of them went out of the restaurant and split. They agreed to meet back before dinner time at the same restaurant.

Auron walked around the area like a shopper. He looked to his right and left like a kid who came to a town for the first time. 

Despite there was a mysterious case where a group of merchants missing around their area, this town didn't seem impacted by the news at all. People still like walking around the town, and no one seemed felt afraid or nervous at all.

Auron went deeper into the town. The deeper he went into the town, the area slowly change. At first, it was a luxurious area. As he went further away from the town's gate, the grand level went down.

At some point, Auron arrived in front of an ordinary shop. That shop was a potion shop. However, it didn't only sell potion, the potion shop also sold potion's ingredients for an alchemist.

Auron could not hold himself not to visit the shop. He went inside the store.

"Welcome!" Inside, Auron was greeted enthusiastically by a young man who was the shop's clerk.

The young man approached Auron and asked, "What do you want to buy? Potions or the ingredients?"

The young man recognized Auron as a mage. Usually, the one who became an alchemist was a mage, so the young man asked that question to Auron.

"Let me see first. Do you have..." Auron mentioned several ingredients' names of potions.

It turned out, the shop had all of the ingredients mentioned by Auron, which shocked him. "How about these ingredients..." Auron said several sets of ingredients' names.

What surprised the young man said that they had all of them. It was a surprising fact that an ordinary potion shop in a small, almost remote town had the ingredients Auron had mentioned. Even a small potion shop in the capital didn't have all of the ingredients Auron said.

Auron, who was excited, began to ask the price of these ingredients. The price was relatively higher than the one in the other shop. However, it was still considered made sense because there should be a transportation expense.

Auron bought a set of potion's ingredients as his money was not enough to buy too much. Then, Auron bade the young man farewell. Outside the shop, Auron had printed the potion shop's name in his mind.

Auron continued to search for a clue. A block after the potion shop, Auron saw a small path led to a shady alley.

Curious, Auron followed the path. It was a long path. Although it was still at noon, the alley was almost completely dark.

Auron followed the path carefully. 5 minutes after he entered the alley, Auron finally saw the end of the path. At the end of the road, Auron could hear the cheerful sound of kids playing around.

Several broken and the dilapidated building was at his sight. Shabby clothes were hanging on a thread in front of each of the houses.

Kids who wore shabby clothes were running around playfully. When Auron arrived at the area, the parents of the kids immediately grabbed their own child and went to their house.

The parents hid their kids inside the house while they glared at Auron like a vicious predator waiting to pounce at Auron.

The cheerful sound was changed with a completely silent. The tense atmosphere could be felt. The people around the area looked at Auron without saying anything.

Auron knew these people were wary of him. And, he also knew where he was. It was the town's slum.