Earth elemental begins to elbow strike wildly.

Chapter 23 The Tragic John

The two people and Tu entered the room at the end of the second floor and locked the door behind them.

Du Luo immediately began to chat with Yue Feng, gesturing wildly.

"When are we going to hand John over to the Mansa Merchant Guild? The bounty for the Earth Dragon Gang seems pretty high!"

John, who was bound hand and foot with rope, stared wide-eyed at these words!

"Hey! I'm still here!"

He twisted and turned his body desperately, scrambling and screaming angrily on the ground:

"Isn't there even the slightest bit of bond between us?! Without me, you would all just die in this cave!"

Du Luo gave him a cold glare, feeling speechless.

"Without you, we wouldn't have been attacked by bandits at all!"

"Oh right...right? No, that's not right!"

John remained silent for a moment.

"Oh! Yes, yes."

John once boasted that he was a core member of the Earth Dragon Gang.

This is by no means an exaggeration.

He was the only one in the entire gang of robbers who knew the escape routes by heart.

The room fell silent for a moment.

Suddenly, a thought struck Duro. He looked at John and asked, "How long can the earth elemental you summon stay in the material plane?"

All elemental beings summoned to the material plane will be bound by the laws of the plane.

Normally, there is a strict limit to the time they can exist, and they cannot stay for a long time.

John counted on his fingers and said, "About seven days?"

"Alright, in five days we'll take you to the Mansa Chamber of Commerce."

As soon as Du Luo finished speaking, he blew out the flickering candlelight in one breath and then went to bed.

John was furious but dared not speak out.

He knew perfectly well that Duro had only refrained from killing him because of the agreement he had made with the earth elementalist.

In a sense, he was already dead the moment he stepped out of the cave.

............

In the latter half of the night, the Ruby Hotel had very poor soundproofing.

John lay on the cold floor, his mind churning, unable to fall asleep.

Hearing the faint panting coming from next door, I felt even more suffocated.

He rolled over and his gaze met Yue Feng's gleaming gem.

"Damn it, this brainless earth elemental is still staring at me."

"Sigh~"

John sighed heavily, his gaze fixed on the earth elemental.

This is the only magic he can be proud of in his life.

"When exactly did life begin to become such a mess?"

The long-forgotten, gray memories slowly surfaced in my mind.

When John was seventeen, he unexpectedly awakened his talent for magic.

Although he awakened at a late age and missed the golden period of cultivation, his parents spared no expense, even selling their possessions, to send him onto the path of magic.

Later, he married the woman he loved, had a stable and warm little family, and also had a lively, mischievous little daughter who always liked to get into trouble.

The whole village looked up to him, and everyone said that John would surely become a respected magistrate in the future.

But that day... I ran away!

As soon as she finished speaking, tears could no longer be held back and streamed down her cheeks, each drop landing on the cold floor.

That was the beginning of all the nightmares.

John still remembers it vividly: it was a deathly quiet night when a horde of goblins attacked the village without warning...

Perhaps it was divine mercy in the dark.

The earth elemental summoned that night was the largest it had ever been in its life.

But he still managed to escape in the end.

Protected by the earth element, he abandoned everything and fled the village alone like a madman.

From then on, John began to numb his senses with cigarettes, alcohol, and women, spending half his life deceiving himself.

When you run out of money, go to the Adventurers' Guild to do commissions.

Perhaps it was divine retribution against John, for he fell seriously ill.

It is a strange disease that cannot be cured even with expensive treatments by professional healers and precious healing potions.

In order to get a drink, he decided to throw caution to the wind and joined the Earth Dragon Gang.

............

The next day at noon, a cool breeze carrying the earthy smell blew into the house through the cracks in the windows.

John shivered as he woke from his nightmare on the cold floor.

Duro had long since disappeared.

The earth elemental in front of me is still fiddling with that damned spider tarsus.

"Bang!"

The door was pushed open roughly; it was Duro who had returned.

"Here, have a salted bread pancake."

He tossed a rock-hard biscuit to John and said to himself:

"I just went to the Mansa Chamber of Commerce and paid the penalty for breach of contract."

Since Duro failed to complete the shipping commission he received from the Mansa Chamber of Commerce, he naturally had to pay a penalty for breach of contract.

This is completely different from an adventurer failing a mission.

Even if the person tasked with completing a task for the Adventurers' Guild dies, someone else can take over and finish the task.

However, the chamber of commerce's cargo delivery commission is different. Once the goods are lost, the commission is completely void, and the merchant must pay the penalty for breach of contract.

However, during their business journeys, they inevitably encountered crises such as bandits, monster attacks, and natural disasters.

Therefore, the accident insurance that Duro had purchased in advance from the Mansa Chamber of Commerce came in handy.

Anyone who purchases insurance will receive exclusive shipping rights from the Mansa Chamber of Commerce.

When goods are lost or severely damaged, merchants can enjoy the benefit of reduced penalties simply by providing valid evidence to the Mansa Chamber of Commerce.

For ordinary merchants, securing an order from the Mansa Chamber of Commerce was equivalent to having a guarantee.

Rumor has it that the Mansa Merchant Guild is backed by royalty and nobility, and not only does it cooperate with branches of various adventurer guilds, but it also occasionally receives orders from the capital.

Duro quickly finished his salt water biscuit and said:

"Mr. Earth Elemental, we can go outside the city now and find an open space to learn martial arts."

Yue Feng nodded, grabbed John with his right hand as if he were a chick, and was about to leave.

"Damn it, I can walk!"

The three followed the route they took into the city and arrived at an open space outside the cliff town.

Duro put the backpack on the ground and took out a small round shield and a paper book from it.

"Apprentice-level martial arts technique: Charge, which is divided into two styles: shield wall style and blade style."

"What I learned is the Shield Wall Charge, which means raising your shield and then charging."

"As everyone knows, apprentice-level martial arts techniques can be used directly without needing to activate a stance."

"However, the Shield Wall Charge requires the user to be in a shield-holding stance to execute it."

Having said that, Duro tucked his right forearm into the shield grip, raised the small round shield to his chest, and shouted:

"Martial Arts: Charge!"

Du Luo suddenly unleashed a powerful force with both feet, causing the ground beneath his feet to tremble slightly, and he shot forward several meters like an arrow.

"Wow!"

Strangely, Yue Feng heard a strange sound amidst the running sounds.

"That's the sound of a shield rubbing against the air when a martial art is performed."

Duro turned around, as if he already knew what the earth elemental was going to ask, and answered first.

"One more thing, the person who taught me this martial art said that charging can be advanced to a beginner level through continuous practice."

After he finished speaking, he removed the small round shield from his right forearm and handed it to the earth elemental.

Yue Feng seemed to understand something, but he just nodded and didn't reach out to take it.

"Change your body shape!"

The next second, a thick slab of rock slowly solidified and took shape on Yue Feng's forearm.

"I want to try this out and see if it can trigger a martial arts technique."

Duro was stunned by the earth elemental's actions.

"I think...that probably won't work."