“Requip: Heaven’s Wheel Armor!” “Heaven’s Wheel: Blumenblatt!” Dozens of glowing swords materialized in the air around Erza, launching toward Caelan like a torrential downpour of steel.
The blade rain instantly swallowed the entire area where he stood, kicking up a massive cloud of dirt and debris.
Erza landed softly, her eyes locked onto the rising dust with dead-serious intensity.
The surrounding guild members snapped their mouths shut.
They knew exactly how dangerous this move was.
It wasn’t her absolute strongest attack, but anyone caught in it was going to be in a world of pain.
And right in front of their eyes, the new kid hadn’t taken a single step out of the blast radius.
As the smoke slowly cleared, a faint silhouette finally appeared in the crater.
Erza’s intense glare fractured into pure shock.
Caelan was standing there without a single scratch on him.
He hadn’t even shifted his feet.
‘Dammit!
How did he do that?!’ Before she could even wrap her head around it, Caelan dissolved into a streak of golden light, instantly rematerializing right beside her.
He stroked his chin thoughtfully.
“So scary~” he drawled.
“Spacing out in the middle of a fight isn’t a great habit, you know.” Erza snapped back to reality, but it was too late.
A blinding golden light had already gathered around Caelan’s leg as he swept it directly toward her.
With no time to dodge, Erza was forced to take the devastating blow head-on.
Bam!
The impact sent her rocketing backward.
Thankfully, Caelan had held back; Erza managed to plunge her broadsword into the dirt, carving a deep trench through the ground for dozens of meters before she finally ground to a halt.
But the second she stabilized her footing, a glowing finger was already pressed gently against her forehead.
“You lose~” With the fight decided, Caelan instantly dropped the cool guy act.
He marched straight over to Macao and held out an open palm.
“Pay up!” Sweating profusely, Macao quickly counted out 600,000 Jewel and handed it over.
Caelan licked his thumb and meticulously counted the bills one by one right there in the middle of the street.
Only after verifying the amount a few times did he look satisfied, silently storing the cash away in his System inventory before strolling back toward the guildhall.
Macao stared at his severely depleted wallet, his good mood completely ruined.
“Gildarts, where the hell did you find this monster?
Great, now I’m gonna have to eat scraps for months.” The surrounding mages nodded in solemn agreement.
This wasn’t just ordinary strength.
For someone to take down Erza that effortlessly…
the kid was an absolute powerhouse.
“Hahaha, don’t worry about it!” Gildarts boomed, throwing a heavy arm around Macao’s shoulder.
“I put fifty grand on the kid!
Pay up!” Macao groaned, begrudgingly pulling another 150,000 Jewel from his meager life savings.
“I’m ruined.
Back to square one…” Erza pushed herself up from the dirt, staring at Caelan’s retreating back.
It was the first time someone her own age had defeated her so easily.
‘Next time…
I will win.’ It didn’t take long for the crowd to filter back into the guildhall, returning to their usual routine of drinking, bragging, and loudly dissecting the duel they had just witnessed.
Meanwhile, Caelan was standing in front of the Request Board, carefully scanning the available jobs.
“Hmm…
this one looks good.
Bandit subjugation?
Man, I could do that in my sleep.” He rubbed his hands together.
“I really hope we get more of these, this is my absolute favorite kind of work.” He eyed the reward listed at the bottom of the flyer: a solid 300,000 Jewel.
“Master!
I’m taking this request!” Sitting at the bar, Makarov looked up from his drink, eyeing Caelan and the paper in his hand.
“You little brat, are you really in that much of a hurry to make money?” “Obviously!
I’m broke!” Caelan declared, puffing out his chest with absolute pride.
“Besides, I have a dream to fund!” A thick vein instantly popped on Makarov’s forehead as he remembered the boy’s ridiculous ‘landlord’ ambition.
“Alright, alright, just go already!” “You got it!
I’ll be back as soon as I can.
Oh, and I’m leaving Finn and Rook in your care, Master!” “I don’t need you to remind me, you little punk.
I know what I’m doing.” Watching Caelan enthusiastically march out the door, Makarov couldn’t help but mutter under his breath.
“Brat.” The next day.
Caelan arrived at the foot of Mount Bullhead, located near a neighboring town.
“Tsk, tsk, tsk.
So this is the big, bad bandit mountain?” he muttered, looking up the winding dirt path.
“These guys have zero situational awareness.
They don’t even have a lookout posted at the bottom.
I absolutely deserve this easy money.” He stretched his arms over his head.
“Since this is my first official quest, I guess I’ll just take the scenic route up.” With that, Caelan started casually strolling up the mountain trail.
What he didn’t know was that the moment he stepped foot on the mountain, a small hamster perched high in a nearby tree had locked its eyes onto him.
As he wandered further up the path, a weird, unsettling feeling began to creep over him.
‘Why do I feel like I’m being watched?
I haven’t sensed a single person anywhere near me,’ he thought.
‘Could it be some kind of Magic?
There’s nothing around here except for some woodland animals…’ He paused, his eyes narrowing.
‘Wait.
The animals?’ Caelan casually glanced at the nearby critters.
Sure enough, none of them were acting naturally.
They were all completely still, their unblinking eyes tracking his every move with eerie precision.
Right at that moment, the sharp shriek of a projectile tearing through the air echoed from the distance.
A heavy ballista bolt instantly slammed right through Caelan’s chest.
Meanwhile, deep inside the mountain stronghold’s main hall, a massive, heavily scarred man lounged in the boss’s chair, casually rolling two iron Baoding balls in his palm.
Beside him stood a scrawny, sinister-looking man.
A faint Magic Circle hovered directly over his eyes.
“Brother, the Mage who came to subjugate us has been killed by the ballista,” the scrawny man sneered.
The bandit boss scoffed, a contemptuous smirk spreading across his ugly face.
“Hmph.
Every random dog and cat thinks they can come take me down these days.
These official guilds are getting weaker by the year.” He waved a thick hand.
“Send a few boys down to strip his corpse of anything valuable.
Then, offer the body as a sacrifice to Him.” “Hehehe…
understood, Brother.” But when the scrawny man shifted his vision back through the woodland animals’ eyes to check on Caelan, he froze.
The corpse that was supposed to be bleeding out in the dirt was completely gone.
There wasn’t even a single drop of blood left behind.
“Impossible!
I literally watched the bolt pierce straight through his body!” he stammered, panic rising in his chest.
“How is this possible?!
How?!” Noticing his brother’s sudden freak-out, the boss frowned.
“What’s wrong?” The scrawny man turned a pale, terrified face toward his brother.
“The…
the Mage’s body.
It’s gone.” The bandit boss’s expression instantly darkened into a serious scowl.
“What the hell is going on?!” “I—” Before the scrawny man could even form a sentence, the heavy doors of the main hall violently exploded inward, closely followed by the airborne bodies of their two lookouts.
The boss shot up out of his chair, his murderous gaze locking onto the destroyed entrance.
“Who the hell dares break into my stronghold?!” A lazy, entirely unbothered voice drifted through the settling dust.
“Man, being a bandit really is a high-risk occupation.
Thank god I decided to retire early.” A moment later, Caelan stepped casually through the ruined doorway, coming face-to-face with the two bandit leaders.
The moment the scrawny second-in-command saw Caelan’s face, his eyes nearly bulged out of his skull.
“Y-you…
you…!” “Yeah, yeah, quit your stuttering,” Caelan sighed, waving him off.
“I’m the guy you just shot with that ballista bolt.” He brushed some imaginary dust off his pristine shoulder, flashing them a brilliantly polite smile.
“You know, I’m a big believer in reasoning things out peacefully.
So I just came up here to collect my medical compensation fees.”