Chapter 1615: Ruffians

<Ding!>

<You have received a Quest!>

The hologram before Ning opened up on its own as he focused on it.

[

Quest: Protect Shara and her coins from the ruffians

The 5 ruffians want to steal Shara's treasure. Protect her and get her away from the situation. Reward: 2 Points

]

Ning's eyes widened slightly when he saw that this quest gave him more points than the one before it.

'Points are based on difficulty?' Ning thought. And he was also taken aback to see that he could get quests when no Spirits were involved. He had fully assumed that only things related to Spirits could be quests, which was why he thought he had come to Grotia in the first place.

But it seems he was mistaken.

Anyway, now was not the time to think about this. He needed to protect Shara from these men in front of them.

"Careful, boss. I hear these detectives have power," one of the men in the back said softly.

"I know," the man at the front said. "That is why I brought you people here. Distract him while I get the coins from the girl.

The room was not large enough for Ning to fight all of these men at once, which was probably a good thing considering he probably couldn't fight all 5 at once.

Just four of them could grab each of his limbs and stop him from moving. His current body was in no way stronger than these men. Not even if he drank that potion.

"Shara, get up the ladder," Ning said.

Shara was scared and could barely get her feet to move, but she made her way to the ladder and began climbing up.

"Don't let that girl getaway. She might run away from the windows."

Two men charged for Ning at the same time, attempting to pile upon him to stop him.

Ning dodged the first man and struck the other one in the ribs with his elbow. He spun, driving a kick into that man's stomach with the heel of his feet.

'Fuck!' he thought as the pain from his elbow hurt so damn much. 'Why the hell do I have pain receptors? This shit sucks.'

The man fell to the ground, grunting in pain. The other one was surprised, but not for long. He didn't just run for Ning but still tried to grapple him.

Ning pushed the arms away but couldn't retaliate as another man came for him.

He dodged backward moving up to the stairs when he tried to use his powers. Now that he had helped the old woman, the energy that was keeping her here would go into him.

Only, he didn't know what his new power was. He tried to do something with his hands, see if the new power was a sort of projectile, but it didn't work.

One of the men at the back pulled away the man on the ground as he was making it hard for them to move up.

"Just grab him. All 3 of you, go," the boss shouted.

Two more men came for Ning. Ning punched the first in the jaw but was struck by the other one. A bolt of pain came from his right shoulder which he tried to not focus on.

A weapon would've been so much more helpful here, but he simply didn't have any. He ducked a punch and drove his leg into that man's stomach.

The man turned at the last moment, his feet only grazing his side. Then he grabbed Ning's outstretched legs and pulled on it.

Ning grabbed the man before he could be pulled even further, but he was already in an imbalanced state. He fell to the ground and barely managed to lift his legs as another one tried to stomp on it.

Ning was against a wall to the right, which he used to quickly get his body upside down by walking on it, with his hands balancing him on the ground.

He kicked down on the man next to him, who blocked with his arms.

Ning felt a cold sensation for a moment and then hot liquid began flowing down his legs. He quickly stepped on the ground and felt pain flaring through his calf.

One of the men had a knife and he had just cut him with it.

'Bastard!' Ning thought. He had been contemplating on using the physical enhancing potion given how poorly the fight was going, but he could no longer do so.

Just in case he failed the quest, he needed that 1 point to buy himself a healing potion.

Ning saw the boss move forward, past the group of men, making his way up the stairs.

'Shit!' Ning thought.

He used his powers on himself, seeing if the power he now had was something that augmented his own body. Alas, it wasn't at all.

The man with the knife tried to stab him, but Ning managed to move to the side-grimacing from the leg pain while he did so- and hit the man in the elbow.

The man's elbow went limp and the knife fell into Ning's hand. It was a small knife, with a blade as long as his fingers, but that was more weapon than anything Ning had at the

moment.

"Shara! Run, he's coming for you!" Ning shouted. He didn't know if there was a place to run to up the stairs, but he could only hope so.

He put his powers into the knife he had, hoping that this was the sort of power he had received. That was not it either.

With his knife at hand, the men were not so willing to jump at him. Ning was more than happy to use this opportunity.

He feinted a stab and instead punched with his other hand, striking the same man in the jaw again. The man lost consciousness with a single attack and fell.

One man had fainted, and the other one was gasping for air far outside. And now only 2 men remained. Ning needed to take care of them and go save Shara.