Chapter 24 - Life Is A Catch

Even after entering the house and hearing another explosion due to Mckenzie's research, Ango was still dazed.

'Others can't get stronger? Their powers are fixed but mine and Hawkwood's are not?'

'What's the catch? I refuse to believe that something so good can happen to me out of nowhere, there must be a catch' life had left Ango too suspicious to believe in free meals.

…

Minutes later, Piere joined them, he had decided to continue his experiments tomorrow and sat down beside the trio and Hawkwood brought him up to speed.

"Ah you told the lad about what happened to you, that's why he looks so dumbstruck hehe"

"Huh?" Ango had just managed to register the gnome's presence and words

"Don't worry lad, I looked the same when I found out he could get stronger while the rest of us can't, though don't let it get to your head, there is a catch"

"Agh"

'Of course there is, how could there not be any catch'

"You can get stronger but you start from the bottom, while you will be trying to do the most basic things, infants that have hundreds of times more mana than you will be born, some Tier 3, some tier 4 and some even tier 5 while you are barely tier 1. Even Hawkwood here after nearly two years of training and trying to absorb lightning magic, which I throw around to help speed him up, has barely reached tier 1 rank 4, slightly stronger than the most basic of soldiers"

Ango could understand what he meant but he had no clue of what he was saying or the significance of the tier and ranks he was mentioning.

"Um..Mckenzie, no, it seems awkward to call you that, how should I call you"

"Just call me professor Mckenzie, it's what my students used to call me in the academy"

Ango didn't know the meaning of the word but he thought it meant teacher or something like that so nodded and said "Professor Mckenzie, what are the tiers and ranks you mentioned?"

Piere was surprised and exclaimed "Lad, you don't even know that? Which cave did you crawl out of?"

"Ah.."

"I'll tell you but afterward you better tell us about you, so I'll know which city to never visit in my life. Anyway it's like this, what I meant by tier is the quality of mana inside a person, it's concentration and the rank is the amount. As far as I'm aware there are 5 tiers, and each of them has 5 ranks; A higher rank means the body can accommodate more mana"

"Imagine it like this, if someone is tier 1 rank 1 they can stretch their mana outside of their body up to 1 meter around them, tier 1 rank 2 around 2 meters, and so on and so forth till rank 5, see? But if it's a tier 2 rank 1 person they can stretch it for 10 meters and a tier 2 rank 5 can do 50 meters. A tier 3 rank 5 can do 500 meters and a tier 4 rank 5 can do 5 kilometers!"

"You see? The difference in strength between tiers is too wide and it's even more abysmal for higher tiers. Now I only mentioned stretching magic for better visualization, you can't stretch magic, it's not like rubber"

The numbers made Ango dizzy, the difference between strength was frightening. As if she could feel his foul mood, Little Snow came over to him and placed her head on his lap, trying to console him by letting him pat her head. But Ango was not in the mood.

'Does this mean even if can reach tier 2 or 3, then a newborn baby can have ten times my power? But why? This is so unfair' Ango was crying inside, he had finally found a way to grow stronger only to realize others didn't even need to do anything to surpass him, they just needed to be born.

"The world is not fair, I understood that long ago but … this is too .. too unfair" Ango muttered

Hawkwood also looked crestfallen but not as much as Ango. Piere stroked his beard and responded

"True, the world is unfair but you can also look at it this way, imagine if you were a dwarf and you were born with tier 2 rank 1 magic. You could work hard all your life and improve your control over magic to the highest degree but you won't be able to increase your magic. There is a limit that we can not surpass but you have unlimited potential in that aspect, at least hypothetically. You might even have more talent than Hawkwood, afterall you are only the second human I've seen who can use magic so nothing's certain"

Ango was surprised and delighted 'That's right, I can get stronger, I can become stronger than those who are born with their power. I finally have a chance and I'm whining about it' he finally stretched his hand and started patting the restless wolf whose sad eyes were digging a hole through his heart.

Seeing his smile made Piere feel better but he also felt guilty; he had concealed something very important to not dispirit Ango. While lightning magic, natural magic, fire magic, and others were all around them, as far as he knew pure magic did not, so Ango not being able to grow stronger here was quite possible.

Ango was grateful to the gnome so he said "Thank you professor" then after contemplating for a few seconds he added "then as promised I should tell you about myself"

He took a deep breath, prepared himself mentally and began

"I was born in Elvenheim, in a border city neighboring the land of the dwarves and the great forest"

"I grew up…

…

"They taught us ..."

…

"But were late so the guard.."

..

"My brother died and .."

..

"Then the whip hit me and I .."

..

..

"I remember that I couldn't even lose consciousness because of the pain then some bird-type beast grabbed me but it was attacked on the way by a Roc and I was thrown into a river and I don't remember what happened then. But when I woke up I was near the river, completely fine without a single scratch, I found my way to the mountain range and found little snow abandoned in a cave. We had been living there for a month before I found you"

For about a dozen seconds no one spoke. The gnome's aura had seeped out of his body on multiple occasions when Ango was describing what had happened to him, so Ango had decided to not mention most of the things Vallis and the torturer did to him. Hawkwood had the face of someone who wanted to say 'You've had it worse than me' but didn't want to look like he was pitying him. Amidst the silence, Mckenzie opened his trembling mouth and said

"Lad, … how old did you say you are?"

"Um.. I should be eighteen I think"

Suddenly Piere's aura exploded and green lightning started to crackle around the house.

"THOSE BASTARDS, THEY HAVE TREATED A CHILD LIKE THIS, THOSE FUCKING SHIT FOR BRAIN DONKEY EARED SAVAGES"

"WHO IN THEIR RIGHT MIND TORTURES A CHILD LIKE THIS. THEY DESERVE EVERYTHING THAT …"

The sudden outburst surprised Ango, it was unexpected. Why was the gnome angry? Why did he care?

The aura he was emitting was frightening, the green colored lightning assaulting him made his heart skip beats and his hair to stand in its end. The light, the sound and the raw energy he could feel made Ango feel like an ant in the middle of a thunderstorm.

'If anger was an element it would have been lightning' Ango thought while trying to resist the onslaught of Mckenzie's aura.

"Piere…that's enough, you'll hurt Ango"

The gnome paused, suddenly realizing what he was doing. He hurriedly retracted his aura, making Ango breathe a sigh of relief.

"I'm sorry lad, I lost my cool for a second. The things they have done to you … are unforgivable" he said the last part through gritted teeth

'Not telling them the full story was a good call … he would have destroyed the house' Ango thought while looking around the furthered messed up house.

It wasn't that Ango wasn't angry about what he had gone through, he was; he was broken again and again and again, countless times just for someone to have fun. He remembered that the first day he woke up in the cave and it was dark, he had started shivering, thinking that he had dreamed about escaping or that it was another mind game of Vallis. He had the right to be angry but why was the gnome angry?

"My hands aren't clean Ango" Piere said "I have killed many in my nearly sixty years of life and I have experimented on many test subjects which caused them pain or resulted in their death" his hands were intertwined together and he was looking at the floor, digging the wooden planks with his eyes.

"I can understand torturing others for information, sometimes you don't have any other choice but... torturing someone just to feel good? That's beyond the scope of my understanding and I can't tolerate it"

'I get it now ... it's not that he cares about me specifically, he has issues with those acts.'

As he was thinking, Hawkwood inched closer to Piere, he put his hand on his neck and with another grabbed his hand. He tilted his head onto his shoulder and began caressing his back to calm him down.

Seeing this, Ango knew that there was nothing more to talk about tonight and he should get some sleep. To give the due some privacy, he grabbed his stuff and exited the house; Hawkwood saw him but didn't stop him and just continued caressing the small emotional man by his side. Ango chose a cave close to the house to sleep and arranged his stuff inside it.

After that he lay down on his bed and Little snow found her way to his embrace. He wasn't really thinking, his mind was focused on only one thing, that tomorrow training would begin and he could finally start getting stronger.