God Class Awakening: Ascension of the Demon Hunter-Chapter 35: Sweet Haven

"How did you know they were bluffing?" Vale asked between heavy gasps as he tried to keep his shaky legs steady.

Even though it had seemed like light work, his body hadn’t relaxed from the intense events of the previous day. Further straining his body had now caused severe fatigue to set into all his muscles.

Roxy was silent for some time when faced with Vale’s question. Now that there was no one here, Vale felt it was the right time to inquire.

"Unlike their leader’s weapon, which had a little bit of mana, theirs didn’t." She pointed at the stout’s gun holstered on his waist.

Mana? Vale had never heard of guns having mana, not even back on Earth. And although it could also be a result of his lack of knowledge on the subject, he doubted it.

He planned on rummaging through the dead people’s clothes for any form of loot, but Roxy was still on his back.

"Aren’t you...gonna come down?"

There was a small awkward silence after he said that, before Roxy then replied.

"My legs aren’t working."

Vale’s eye twitched; moving around with the war goddess was becoming more burdensome than it should be. Nevertheless, he could only hope that she recovered fast enough. After all, she was his ticket out of here.

He then proceeded to search each of the bandits thoroughly and sure enough, he found multiple pockets full of the same green crystals the old couple had given them.

Without wasting an extra second he put everything in his pockets. There were a few daggers and knives, but none of them were as good as his weapon so he didn’t bother with them.

Also hidden within the clothes of the short man was a small pocket journal and two maps.

The first one was an incomplete map of the first floor. It was very detailed, highlighting numerous places, but Vale didn’t have any information to know what any of the marked places meant.

The other map was crudely drawn, and the details were so disjointed that Vale began to wonder if it was even a map and not just some scribbled nonsense.

Even after looking at it for more than a minute, he still wasn’t able to get any worthwhile information from it.

The journal was perhaps the most interesting item. Its cover was made from strong leather and it was bound together with needles and threads. There weren’t many details on it other than a few scratch and burn marks.

Turning to the first page, it read: "Property of Don Crix" and beneath that were the words, "Iron body."

The remaining pages of the journal were a detailed explanation of what Vale inferred to be a body or qi technique. It contained numerous diagrams and lecture notes.

The explanations were so intricate that Vale’s eyes couldn’t help but widen. He had clearly struck a jackpot with this one.

Although what stood out as strange was that the short gang leader, Don, hadn’t been able to even fight back against him. The only plausible explanation was that he had zero success with the technique, which would mean that the skill had very high requirements.

After a minute of thinking, Vale put all the items in his pockets and decided to let the dead men be.

He also didn’t forget to check their guns, and as expected, all the guns, apart from Don’s, were empty. The bullets in Don’s gun weren’t normal: they had a light blue glow to them.

He took the handgun before walking away. With zero marksmanship skill it was hardly of any use to him, but it shouldn’t be too hard to learn.

Going further into the town, most houses were either run down or completely closed off from the outside world. But there were still a few well-kept ones with inhabitants. And most of these people immediately locked their doors when they saw Vale coming.

This didn’t bother him though as he continued threading the dry and lonely plains.

Roxy on the other hand had slept off once again. When she woke up, she’d be able to answer his question, hopefully.

When Vale got to the middle of the town, he found a large building that looked like a guild house. The signboard, swaying back and forth with the wind, had two words on it: Sweet Haven.

The doors were opened and Vale strode in, observing the few people in the area.

There were several tables and a few of them were surrounded by people in crude armour. The chattering among them stopped when they saw Vale.

News of him had spread very fast and the people here were well aware that he killed Don, the self-proclaimed head of the town. Most people here were grateful for that as Don was an asshole of the worst measure. But what they truly feared was whether Vale would decide to be a tyrant himself.

What they didn’t know was that Vale just wanted to gather info.

Vale looked around and his eyes fell on the man behind the bar counter. He was sitting on a chair and reading through what looked like a book. From time to time he would adjust his glasses and nod his head as if agreeing with the book’s contents.

He was a middle-aged man with a modest build and jet-black hair. His clothes were plain and unassuming, but something told Vale that he was interesting.

He walked towards the counter and ordered a drink. The man dropped his book, which turned out to be blank, and gazed at Vale. His fingers were interlocked and on his lips was a small smile, that would’ve been condescending if it were a little larger.

"That’s not what you really want, is it?"

Vale smacked his lips and before he could reply, the man continued. "The girl on your back is suffering from severe mana deficiency. If she doesn’t feed on a mana stone soon, her condition will only get worse."

The words had come out fast, but Vale was soon able to understand.

A wave of realisation wafted over him and he felt stupid for not realising the problem until a stranger pointed it out.

He reached for his pocket and pulled out one of the green mana stones. But before he could give it to Roxy the man spoke.

"You don’t plan on feeding her that, right?"

Vale gave him a confused look as the man behind the counter stood up and moved closer to them.

With a single sweep of his hand, he stole the green stone from between Vale’s fingers. This surprised Vale as he hadn’t even been able to react in time.

This made the man more intriguing than before in Vale’s eyes.

"This is a devil stone," the man said, showcasing the green stone he had snatched.

His hand then reached beneath the counter where he pulled out something.

It was a small well-ardoned box that had numerous stylistic designs.

With a small click, the box opened and pale blue light leaked out from within. Immediately Roxy’s eyes snapped open and she stared greedily at the box.

Its contents were slowly exposed, revealing a small blue gem.

"This is a mana stone. And the purest one in all of this wilderness." 𝐟𝗿𝐞𝚎𝚠𝐞𝚋𝕟𝐨𝚟𝐞𝕝.𝕔𝕠𝚖

There was a pride behind the man’s voice, and looking at the gem, that pride was well earned.

"Give me," Roxy muttered weakly.

Seeing that she wanted it so badly, Vale made up his mind to acquire the piece. It would most definitely help her recover faster.

He took out all the devil stones he had and placed them on the counter. "This should be enough to buy it?"

The barman gave Vale a satisfied smile and dutifully kept all the devil stones in a cash box. And when he was done Vale reached for the mana stone but a strong palm smacked his hands away.

"What do you think you’re doing? A few devil stones will never be able to buy a real mana stone like this. Get lost before I throw you out of my shop."

Vale was disoriented for a good minute, before he realised what happened.

Am I getting... extorted?