Emperor

A middle-aged man and a child remained floating tens of meters above the ground. The middle-aged man had black hair and a slightly wrinkled face, this same man also wore a white tunic with some red accents and a phoenix-shaped crest on his chest. The child had blond hair that looked like a bowl and, unlike the man, this one wore a thick white shirt and brown pants. The only similarity between them was the phoenix-shaped symbols stamped on their clothes.

The pair had long been watching Nicolas fight the Stone Man. Despite several twists, none of them showed any reaction during the fight, a few seconds later the child broke the silence.

"This is the fifth strongest general of the Stone Men… why don't we kill him? "

"We'll let these two deplete each other's strength, obviously it wouldn't be a problem for me to end the race of these bastards, but it will be good training for you to kill a weakened Stone Man. The middle-aged man said calmly.

"Oh… looks like the fight will end! "Said the child when he saw Nicolas being hit by sword beams.

However, both could not keep their faces calm as they watched the scene unfolding next, the apparently dead young man stood up and threw a javelin sword towards the Stone Men general, but what really surprised them was the fact of young stone man turning into human after becoming unconscious.

"Gael… Looks like your training will have to be postponed. "

"I understand master. "

In the blink of an eye, the middle-aged man disappeared from his position and reappeared in front of the sword-bar, and with a casual flick of his fingers, he sent the sword-bar back.

The Stone Men general was ecstatic. If he took the corpse of this human who apparently had two abilities to his king, the general would likely be promoted to a higher rank and receive generous rewards. The General of the Stonemen felt that in that moment he really had hit the gold.

However, before he could finally end Nicolas's life, his smile froze as a huge bolt of scarlet energy struck his back opening a huge wound that stretched from his left shoulder to his right thigh, he didn't even have time to curse your own luck or even thinking about what happened. The sword beam instantly took his life.

"Such a powerful sword beam? The middle-aged man smiled.

He clearly felt that by the time he hit the sword beam, the sword beam had already lost much of its full strength, but was still powerful enough to kill a Stone Men general instantly.

Gael did not stand still, seeing that the General had died, he advanced with enormous speed and was in front of Nicolas instantly. When he flicked his wrist, a glowing green pill appeared in his hand, that pill seemed to have immense energy inside it. When Gael placed the pill in Nicolas's mouth, the pill instantly dissolved into a green liquid, and at the same time, Nicolas's entire body was surrounded by an intense greenish glow.

"You gave him one of your only advanced level healing pills…why are you so generous? The middle-aged man said after suddenly appearing beside Gael.

"I wouldn't have died at Doman's hands…but since he saved me, I don't want to feel like I owe him anything. "

"Hehehe was that boy then? at least it helped you complete your mission more easily, after all you had to do a lot of theater to lure Doman away. "

"It doesn't matter anymore. What are we going to do now?"

"Let's leave him there…it's impossible for this kid to have reached that level at this age without a strong specialist backing him up, he should show up here soon, so let's leave for now. "

"What? But why don't we try to make them our allies?" Gael asked.

"We don't need this kind of boring discussion. I've already saved this kid, so even if they don't help us, they won't get in our way either, and as things are, that's all we need for now. "

[Mission complete! ]

[Rewards: 700 exp, Scarlet Energy]

[The host evolved to level 7]

[All stats increase by 1, +5 points]

[The host evolved to level 8]

[All stats increase by 1, +5 points]

[Host killed a Stone Man in Energy Control Step 1]

[+1000 exp]

[The host evolved to level 9]

[All stats increase by 1, +5 points]

[The host came in contact with a rare treasure! ]

[Similar properties...1%...40%...75%...100%]

[From the treasure's properties, the system has developed a new ability for the host. ]

[New Skill Acquired: Regeneration]

[Regeneration: A passive ability that increases the host's recovery rate by 10%. For this ability to evolve, the host needs to consume more treasures with healing properties]

Nicolas woke up hours later with these notifications filling his mind. Seeing his winnings this time, Nicolas felt a little less bad that he had nearly lost his life at the hands of a Stone Man.

'Filth... '

Although Nicolas no longer felt any physical pain, he still felt very exhausted mentally, and the questions that constantly plagued his mind did not let him calm down.

_ Who saved me? Was I really saved or was I really lucky? Even because the system identified this fight as me having killed the Stone Man. Why did the system say I consumed a rare treasure? '

After a few minutes, Nicolas decided to forget about these matters and, with slow steps, walked towards the corpse of the General of the Stone Men. Obviously Nicolas intended to plunder the General's body to see if he could find something good, after all Nicolas didn't care about things like morals or honor if he could find something that would help him survive in the General's body.

This fight showed Nicolas that he wasn't facing a bunch of street ruffians, for all his caution, Nicolas had been underestimating the Stone Men ever since the day he easily killed Doman. Fortunately this defeat helped him wake up and realize the danger he was facing.

While looting the General's body, Nicolas found a badge, a huge amount of money, a cell phone, and a blue ring. The first thing Nicolas took was obviously the blue ring, although he was an ordinary human, he was still aware of how valuable that ring was. That was a storage ring, it was like there was an independent space inside the ring where its owner could store anything, it was similar to the system inventory with the small difference that compared to the system inventory space that storage ring was like a doll house. Without hesitating, Nicolas placed the ring on his middle finger in honor of that Stone Man.

[The host came in contact with a shoddy treasure. ]

[Assimiling treasure properties... 20%... 50%... 100%]

[The mental load of inventory on the user's mind has decreased, now the host can store slightly larger items without suffering any consequences]

[Does the host want to send the contents of this ring to inventory? ]

"Yea!" Nicolas said without hesitation.

He was already worried about not being able to use the storage ring, but the system ended up totally eliminating that worry. At that moment Nicolas felt extremely happy, after all that was a very powerful Stone Man, so he probably should have a relevant position in the city and therefore should keep many items with him.

[Mastery in Stealing +1]

'Shit system, who are you called a thief?! You are a thief! Your father is a thief! Your grandfather is a thief! 'Nicolas was exasperated. _ Damn, I defeated this guy I don't deserve a war prize? Nicolas thought, ignoring his own poker face.

**

"Emperor Gordon … to what do we owe your noble visit to our city? All traces of arrogance, anger and authority present all the time on Brutus' face at that moment were totally absent.

On the top floor of the huge building in the Stone Men area, Brutus stared at the emperor seated across from him and kept a smarmy expression on his face. The Emperor, despite having the rough skin typical of the Stone Men, was handsome, with long blond hair and a tall, athletic body that fit well in his extravagant tunic. Even sitting calmly sipping tea, he still retained an imposing, dignified aura that almost made Brutus choke.

"So you are the 'King' of this city, right?" The emperor spoke each word calmly.

At that moment, a drop of cold sweat formed on Brutus's forehead and fear began to take hold of his heart. He was not legitimately a king, in fact, Brutus was just a marquis who became the ruler of a city due to his feats of war.

As Scarlet Flowers City is a small town, the mainland emperor didn't even know of its existence, so Brutus never imagined that the emperor would suddenly visit his city.

"That's...that's..." Even using his mind to its fullest, Brutus couldn't find a convincing excuse.

"Well…I don't really care how self-absorbed you are, in the end you're just a goldfish who wants to be a dragon. "The Emperor spoke this so calmly that it didn't even seem like he was offending Brutus, but rather telling an immutable truth.

"Thank you for your mercy, Your Majesty!" Brutus dared not show indignation at the emperor's words.

"I hear there will be a public execution in a few days... How many will be executed?" The emperor took another sip of tea.

"A total of 79 people, Your Majesty. 40 men, 27 women and 12 children. "Bros responded promptly.

"Hmm, that's not bad… so I'll stay to watch. Have someone prepare my rooms. "

"Yes your Majesty!" Without hesitating, Brutus left his own office after greeting the emperor with respect.

Entering the corridor that led to the elevator, Brutus slowed his pace as his mind worked its best to absorb this whole series of events. 'Is the emperor interested in such a small execution? I heard that in the Capital of the Empire at least 500 humans are executed every 3 months. '

Brutos continued walking and entered the elevator.

'There must probably be an ulterior motive for your visit... but what'"

As soon as the elevator doors closed, Brutus finally came to a conclusion, his body began to shiver and a cold sweat broke out on his forehead, any Stone Man would be surprised to see the terrified expression on Brutus's face.

'He knows?! '