Chapter 13 — Five Times Stronger
Time continued to pass.
During those years, Ren occasionally kept an eye on the families of the three bullies.
At first, Kael, Daren, and Milo remained in comas.
Their parents had already lost their jobs and most of their income, yet they still had to spend what little money they had left on healing potions to keep their children alive.
It quickly became a tremendous financial burden.
Eventually, they could barely afford two meals a day.
As their money continued to run out, their children's treatment became increasingly delayed.
In the end, all three boys died.
Their parents tried to move on afterward.
But their own situation wasn't much better.
Most ordinary people made a living through ordinary occupations.
Receptionists.
Waiters.
Chefs.
Workers.
And countless other jobs that didn't require magical ability.
There was plenty of demand for such workers since ordinary humans made up the majority of the population.
The three families should have been able to find ordinary jobs eventually.
Their reputations had certainly been damaged, but that alone shouldn't have made them completely unemployable.
Yet something strange happened.
Whenever they found a potential employer, the opportunity would somehow disappear.
Sometimes they would be rejected without explanation.
Other times, a job they had already been accepted for would suddenly fall through.
It happened again and again.
At first, Ren thought it was simply bad luck.
But after watching the situation for some time, he came to a different conclusion.
'Someone is interfering.'
Ren couldn't know exactly who was behind it.
But considering the circumstances, it wasn't difficult to guess what had happened.
The incident involving Kael, Daren, and Milo had caused a huge commotion.
It had spread across the magic net, involved the police, and even dragged their families into the public eye.
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Perhaps some mage had heard about the incident and become dissatisfied with the three families for one reason or another.
And if that mage had enough influence, they wouldn't need to personally do anything.
A few words here.
A few favors there.
That would be enough to make finding a job extremely difficult.
Ren didn't have any evidence.
But he considered it the most likely explanation.
'In this world, power really does make things convenient.'
Eventually, the three families ran out of savings.
With no other means of supporting themselves, they had little choice but to accept whatever work they could find.
Some of the jobs available to desperate people were extremely dangerous.
Cleaning magical facilities.
Testing medicines.
Feeding magical beasts.
Working around harmful magical substances.
There were magical puppets and other constructs specifically designed to handle dangerous tasks.
Yet some places still hired ordinary humans.
Usually, they were the people desperate enough to accept the risks.
Such workers would often sign contracts acknowledging that their deaths were not the responsibility of the employer.
There was a darker reason why some of these jobs remained available.
Powerful mages could use them to indirectly eliminate ordinary people who had offended them.
They didn't necessarily need to kill someone themselves.
They could ruin that person's life first.
Once someone lost their job and savings, desperation would eventually force them into taking risks they normally wouldn't consider.
A mage could then arrange for such a person to be hired for hazardous work without ever directly involving themselves.
The desperate worker would willingly accept the job because they had no other way to survive.
If they eventually died from exposure to harmful magical substances or some workplace accident, it could simply be recorded as an unfortunate incident.
The mage never had to dirty their own hands.
There would be no obvious connection to them.
Unfortunately for the three families, they had already been pushed into exactly this situation.
Their bodies were gradually exposed to harmful magical substances.
The effects accumulated over time.
Eventually, their bodies could no longer withstand it.
One after another, they died.
After confirming that all three families were dead, Ren finally felt at ease.
'It's over.'
The matter was finally finished.
As for his own parents, they continued living their lives normally.
They even had several more children.
Ren didn't pay much attention to them.
Their lives had already gone in completely different directions.
---
At eleven years old, Ren stood at the bottom of a towering cliff inside the Aethergrove Training Center.
After six years of relentless training, his physical strength had reached five times that of an ordinary human.
Ren looked up at the cliff.
'Let's see.'
He reached out and hooked the fingers of his right hand into a narrow crack in the rock.
Then he pulled.
His body exploded upward.
Using only one arm, Ren performed an explosive muscle-up, launching himself several meters higher.
Before he began falling, his left hand shot out.
His fingers caught another crack in the cliff.
He immediately pulled himself upward again.
One arm.
Launch.
Catch.
Pull.
Launch.
Ren repeated the movement over and over.
His small body steadily climbed the sheer cliff face.
To an ordinary person, the sight would have been unbelievable.
A child was essentially jumping up a vertical cliff using nothing but his own strength and the cracks in the rock.
Eventually—
Swoosh!
Ren's body flew over the edge.
He landed smoothly on the top.
"Screech!"
An eagle-like beast suddenly cried out.
Ren looked up.
A massive eagle-like creature swooped down toward him.
Ren smiled.
"How are you doing, my friend?"
He launched himself forward.
Bang!
His clawed gauntlet smashed into the creature's skull, knocking its head sideways.
Before it could recover, Ren grabbed its neck and landed firmly on its back.
"Screech!"
The eagle-like beast violently shook its body.
It twisted from side to side, trying to throw Ren off.
Ren simply tightened his grip.
The creature couldn't dislodge him.
It screeched again before suddenly rushing toward the edge of the cliff.
Then it jumped.
The two plunged downward.
The ground rapidly approached.
At the last moment, the eagle-like beast spread its wings.
Woosh!
A powerful gust of wind erupted beneath them.
The creature caught the air and soared back toward the sky.
Ren remained firmly wrapped around its neck.
The eagle climbed higher.
Then, without warning, it dove again.
Its body began rotating as it plunged toward the ground, spinning like a drill.
Ren grinned.
He wasn't afraid.
In fact, he was enjoying himself.
For the past few months, Ren had repeatedly bothered this particular eagle-like beast.
Part of the reason was training.
Experiencing sudden drops, rapid changes in direction, and violent movements helped him become accustomed to heights while reducing the dizziness and nausea such movements could cause.
But another reason was much simpler.
He found it fun.
Swoosh!
Just before hitting the ground, the eagle spread its wings.
A powerful gust of wind flattened the grass beneath them.
The creature immediately took off again.
"Screech!"
It climbed back into the sky.
Ren continued holding onto its neck.
Twenty minutes passed.
The eagle performed another dive.
It accelerated toward the ground before spreading its wings and suddenly slowing itself, cancelling its momentum just above the ground.
Ren remained firmly attached to its back.
'Alright, that's enough.'
Ren tightened his arms around its neck.
Then he exerted his strength.
With five times the strength of an ordinary human, he easily overpowered the beast.
Crack!
Its neck broke.
The eagle-like beast stopped moving.
Ren loosened his grip.
"Let's meet again tomorrow, my friend."
The beast would respawn at midnight.
So Ren could meet it again tomorrow.
The eagle-like beast's body began dissolving.
Countless motes of light drifted away from it until nothing remained.
The beast had disappeared.
At that moment, Ren and the eagle had been only slightly above the ground.
With the beast gone, Ren simply dropped the remaining distance.
His feet touched the ground.
He stood there without a scratch.
Then Ren turned around and continued with his training.