Chapter 18: Different Elements

Tuly and Brolen discussed the Coral Bear before Brolen finally decided to leave. "Oh, right! You better find someone with Lightning Affinity. It's not that I doubt your group, but I find it quite hard for you to take it down with only Fire Element. If you don't want to run the risk of losing someone, that is..."

Tuly didn't seem to care. "You just need to wait. We'll do it our own way."

Brolen shrugged his shoulders in response. "Well, I gave you my piece of advice. If you wanna take it or not doesn't matter. Just make sure to not forget my 20% share."

After Brolen left, Tuly returned to their residence and began to split the spoils between their members. "Alright, it's eight silver coins for each of us. It isn't as much as an adult Lizak would give, but it's already more than we first expected. Truly a good outcome."

Lian's group obviously didn't get anything, nor did they ask. Other than Lian warning them about the attack, their group didn't do anything else. Since Tuly's group would pay for their expenses for a while, they were fine with it.

Duran was more interested in the talk Tuly had with Brolen. "So, what's this Coral Bear about?"

Tuly nodded, explaining, "There are many types of Star Energy Bears, and the Coral Bear offers parts that are highly suited for armors. In fact, they're great against Fire-based attacks. If you have an armor of Coral Bear shells, you can pretty much take any Level Two or even Level Three Fire Star Energy Creatures. That's why they're worth a lot."

"That's why Brolen told you to bring a Lightning Affinity Star Energy Warrior, right?" asked Carol in response. "After all, it means it's strong against your type of attacks."

Tuly confirmed. "That's correct. However, I don't intend to bring anyone else. I think that with our Fire Star Formation, we can cause enough damage to defeat the Coral Bear, albeit with some difficulty. First of all, I don't intend to sell all the Coral Shells of the Coral Bear. I will keep some to at least get a Coral Armor for our group to use later."

Tuly got up and then looked at Grisa, asking her, "Did you bring the Seal Ink?"

Grisa immediately took a small vial that had purple liquid inside. It also shone with a faint light, showing that it wasn't simple. "Here you go. However, it truly is the lowest level. It already cost five silver coins, which we took from our own pockets. More than that, and we simply wouldn't be able to afford it."

Tuly didn't mind. "It's fine." Right after, he looked at another member of his mercenary group. "Jaruo, you're the best at this drawing thing, so you draw the fake seals on their foreheads."

Jaruo immediately took the vial and headed in the direction of Lian's group. "Alright, who's first? Duran or Carol? Lian can already use Star Energy, so he doesn't need to pretend to be a slave."

Hearing that, Lian and Lugg paid very close attention. On their way to Tuly's house, they had passed by a few slaves, and Lugg noticed that the slave seal on their foreheads seemed to connect with their crowns somehow. If it was a fake slave seal, it wouldn't do anything to Carol or Duran's crown.

Carol was the first one. "Let's get over with it."

Jaruo nodded and immediately drew a similar seal to the ones Lian's group saw on other slaves. The ink itself did more than just become a painting. Instead, it seemed to enter the skin itself, which gave Carol a very weird sensation. Ultimately though, that was all. Lian and Lugg also couldn't see any differences in Carol's crown.

"That's done," said Jaruo. "Once you learn how to use Star Energy, just focus your Star Energy on this fake seal. Since you don't really have a master or anything, your Star Energy should be able to get rid of the seal, especially since it's one at the lowest level."

Duran went next, and the same thing happened, much to Lian's relief. With that, Tuly's group decided to get up as Tuly smiled. "Well, I'm pretty sure you guys should be hungry, so let's go out and eat."

"Don't you have food here?" Duran couldn't help but ask.

Grisa and the others laughed in response. "Hahaha! Did you forget? Other than the fact anyone won't try to take this residence from us, they will definitely try to rob it of anything of value. Food isn't exactly expensive, but there's no lack of starving people in this city. With that being said, we don't keep food here and usually eat in the restaurants around since they can keep their food from being robbed."

They all left the house and went to a cheap restaurant along the way. At the same time, Lian paid attention to the Star Energy that people used. Star Energy wasn't only used for fights. For example, some stalls used their Fire Star Energy to simply cook things. Others used their Water Star Energy to... well... create water to drink. Things like that.

'Lugg, I don't feel like those elements made out of Star Energy are too different from the fire one we tried from the manual,' Lian commented. 'The changes are very subtle.'

-Yeah. I can feel the same thing as we did when we looked at the abilities of Tuly's group.- Lugg agreed with Lian. -First of all, it's not like we have an elemental affinity, so why don't we give it a shot? Just focus on someone and pay attention to their element.-

'Alright.'

Lian knew that Tuly and the others would go after the Coral Bear, so he specifically selected someone who was using Lightning Element to create sparks to light up a lamp.

*Bzzzzzzzt...*

Suddenly, sparks of lightning appeared around Lian's hand, just like the wisp of fire he had created in the past.

Tuly's group heard that and immediately looked at Lian. Obviously, the shock written on their faces was obvious. "You've gotta be kidding me!"

However, Lian wasn't done yet. 'Hmm... it's just like when I created fire. It feels... wrong.'