825 Joe Lifang

Dawn came, and his crying family went to sleep. Mirani never told them he would leave tonight because he knew they would bombard him with questions. So instead, he left the shelter and walked the lonely street toward his shop.

Mirani Tate gave a soft hum in the dim street, which resonated through the sleeping city. There were no tourists, and most residents moved away rather than seeking to rebuild a destroyed city. However, those who remained were the core of Kera.

His shop was on Agiler Street, one of the few streets famous for beginner-level dungeon equipment. Unfortunately, it was struck by one of the mana beams from one end to the other, vaporizing the shops from the face of the earth.

As he walked among the rubble toward his shop, Mirani reminisced about opening this shop with his father. At that time, he hated every second of it, as his father wanted him to continue the family line, but Mirani refused to become a dungeon explorer.

The sign was one he painted himself under his father’s curious gaze. At that time, his stats started to soar, making his precision admirable in his father’s eyes. It made the old man happy once the family’s emblem was painted on his sign and filled him with pride.

“We are nothing but immigrants here, Mirani,” said his father while staring at their shop. “However, if we work hard and long enough, we can make a name for ourselves. Even more, we can make a home of this place.”

His father died two years ago after falling from a ladder. It baffled Mirani at the time how fragile his father was, unlike his robust body. At that time, he was alone in the shop early morning. A simple healing potion would have saved his father if Mirani had been there.

During that time, Mirani spent every waking second in Avarice Dungeon, hoping to find his friend, Seref Silvera. The image of his young children haunted him enough that he blamed himself for that failure.

“You took a lot of things from many people, Seref,” muttered Mirani as he gazed at the destroyed street. “Even if everyone forgave you, what does it matter if your son loathed you?”

As he reached his shop, Mirani found the sign pinned to a pole. His son took care of it after Mirani went to meet Kino. It made him smile that his children cared more about the shop than he did.

“It might be because their grandfather raised them more than I did,” said Mirani before going toward the bas.e.m.e.nt again, reopening it. Although he promised his son he wouldn’t use the art, he had no choice.

The scroll unfolded, and Mirani started reading the Art of Giving. If one were not a Tate descendant, he would think these words are gibberish. However, as he read through the art, it imprinted into his sea of consciousness like a giant fortress.

p-a- n-d-a-n-0-v-e-l、(c)om In an hour, Mirani Tate has sealed his fate. The Art of Giving was as warned, and art is not meant to conquer but to defend. It gave up the life of the user to protect the many and, in the end, would kill him.

Mirani Tate was going to die a year from today.

Despite the death sentence he received, Mirani was filled with relief. His death was not his worst nightmare. The most dreadful one would be being unable to protect his family and values. It was time for him to use his miserable life to make things right with the Silvera family.

As he was leaving his shop for the last time, Mirani ran into someone. It was a skinny man covered in robes, seeming lost. He was wandering Agiler Street looking for something.

“Is there something I can help you with?” called Mirani, as one final kind gesture before he left earth. The stranger turned around and stared at him before he turned to stare at Mirani’s deformed hand.

“That hand… and that face,” said the man as he pulled down his cloak. It was a face that Mirani didn’t recognize, but the man seemed to recognize him. “Are you the owner of Shielders Shop?”

“Are you a customer?” asked Mirani with confusion, but the man shook his head. “Can I help you with something?”

“…I came here looking for you but heard you died. So, I thought I would run into your son, not you. My name is Joe Lifang, and I own a pub on the outskirts of the mountain range Rovero.”

“I’m afraid I don’t remember how we know each other, sir,” said Mirani with confusion. Joe nodded, took out a Union Merchant ID, and gave it to Mirani. “This number is….”

7940.

It was a unique number for Mirani because, for some time, their business boomed thanks to this merchant. He gave them artifacts near perfect for their grade, and they sold like hotcakes.

“You are our benefactor,” muttered Mirani with surprise. “My shop was struggling at the time, but you saved us. How could we ever repay you?” panda-n( 0 ve)l.com

Mirani understood that this was kindness, not business. After all, this man sold them the artifact for a negligent price, while they sold for quite the money at the time.

“I claim to be no such thing,” said Joe Lifang while waving his arms. “I only did as the real benefactor instructed, and he is one you would never expect. I… I thought his name was Arlo,” said Joe while fumbling through his bag. “However, after seeing his face in every newspaper, I learned his real name was Arthur Silvera.”

“…what are you talking about?”

“The man who gave me the artifacts to sell while keeping ten percent of the profit is no other than the genius Arthur Silvera. I was amazed when the whole kingdom talked about him and screamed my heart out when he won the Runes Apprentices Cup.”

“…he told you to sell them to my shop?” muttered Mirani with shock. Joe Lifang nodded and left the man to process the matter. “I… always wondered who it was, but never believed it could be him.”

“He asked me never to reveal this fact, but I had to come here and seek you out because I have no method of contacting him,” said Joe. “I thought he was dead, so when the incident happened, I tried solving it on my own.”

“What incident is that?”

“…a dream I had,” coughed Joe with embarra.s.sment. “I read about it online, and people call them epiphanies. Most gained knowledge beyond their understanding, but I only had a dream.”

“There is no need to be shy. I had such dreams myself,” admitted Mirani, since he remembers confusing his facts more than once with things that never happened

“It was about a wolf that Arthur Silvera raised ever since the first time he appeared on my doorsteps, and then it disappeared under mysterious circ.u.mstances.”

“Does Arthur know about this?”

“I wouldn’t know, but a certain man kept visiting me after he pa.s.sed away. He wore an Explorer’s Badge and claimed to be from Jerano College. Later on, I learned that his name was Alexie Linan.”

Mirani was quiet. He was aware of this information because he spent a lot of time with Julia and Maryam, who confirmed to him Arthur’s alternate ident.i.ty as Alexie Linan.

“Where is the wolf?” asked Mirani because he started growing confused about what this man wanted. Joe hesitated and tried to gather his thoughts.

“The Explorer was quite kind, and he paid me a hefty sum to report any unusual activities happening in the mountain range. I sent letters to Jerano College and received money for every report.”

“A lucrative business,” said Mirani. “So, what changed? You no longer receive money for your reports?”

“Please don’t misunderstand me, sir,” said Joe. “The money stopped months ago, but I kept reporting. I thought that maybe he was too busy, but the money he already gave me was enough to last me a lifetime. The thing is… it changed.”

“What changed?”

“As the Explorer predicted, it changed. I tried seeking him out but realized that he had left Jerano and opened a guild, the same one Arthur Silvera revealed after his re-emergence. Therefore, I came here seeking the only person Arthur Silvera told me about, you.”

“I haven’t met Arthur Silvera, and your best bet was to seek Ascent if you want to meet him,” said Mirani while pondering. “Regardless, tell me what change occurred.”

“At first, I started having the same dream about a howling wolf. It was, without a doubt, the wolf that Arthur Silvera raised. The howling grew closer by the day, and it became a reality at one point. I followed the howling shortly before the calamity struck Kera… and found a crack.”

“A crack in your room?”

“No, sir. I found a giant crack in s.p.a.ce, right in the middle of Rovero Mountain Range. It was the exact thing that Alexie Linan described. I came rushing to the city, but it was then that calamity struck it.”