Chapter 227: Khrom

[TL: DR - Ning bought a map of the tunnels with all of his energy and is making his way to room 34 where Khrom is at.]

Ning found a few kidnapped people in the rooms between 30 and 33, as well as a few more people he had to kill. After saving the kidnapped people, he let them know which direction to go towards and he went towards room 34.

Room 34 was situated at the center of the tunnel system and had easy access in all directions. So, Ning had to be extremely careful to not let the bandits know he was there.

The lanterns along the walls flickered as Ning finally opened the door to room 34.

The man inside reacted swiftly and looked up. He was an old man with a rough beard and a very well-built body. He was quite dirty and looked like he hadn't taken a bath for days.

When he saw Ning with the bloody cloth, he quickly reacted and swiftly stored away all the money and other items he had in front of him.

"Who are you? Where are my henchmen?" he asked.

Ning looked at the man with a hint of surprise on his face. The man behind the terror in the town, the tragedy in the village, and all those other problems that this corner of Thorman Empire had to suffer... was actually an old man in his 50s.

It was a little hard to believe that such an old man would be capable of such horror.

"Are you Khrom?" he asked.

Khrom was apprehensive. In all of his life as a bandit, he had seen many people die in front of his eyes; some that were killed by others, and some that he killed himself.

During all those deaths, he could remember seeing the fear in the eyes of the one dying. The same fear was now starting to bud inside of him.

He didn't immediately answer Ning's question and instead asked once more, "Who are you?"

"I see. So you indeed are Khrom," Ning said. Khrom's unwillingness to answer the question was an answer in and of itself.

Khrom was startled a little. 'Sh*t,' he thought as he realized his mistake.

"So, what if I am? Who are you?" he asked again.

Ning walked into the room. "I am the vengeance you invited by sending your people after the village. I am the reason you are going to die today."

"F*ck. MEN! An intruder is here," Khrom shouted, yet nobody made a peep.

"All your people who can hear you are already dead. Once I kill you, I will go deal with the rest," Ning said.

Khrom now knew that nobody was coming for him, so he decided to take matters into his own hand. He put his hands up and suddenly some sort of liquid dropped all over Ning.

Ning was a little surprised and looked at what was dropped on him. "Water?" he thought and checked. It wasn't water; it was too slippery to be water.

His eyes widened a little when he realized. "Oil."

Ning burst into flames all of a sudden as the oil caught fire. "Die, Idiot!" Khrom started laughing after seeing Ning fall for such an obvious attack.

Oil and Fire was one of the most well-known combo attacks that could take care of any unprepared opponent.

"You think you can waltz in here and expect to leave alive, boy? I am Khrom. The Khrom that has been reigning this side of the empire for decades. A kid that is still wet behind the ears cannot do anything to me," Khrom said.

"Is that so?" Ning spoke. The fire still raged on him, but he was unaffected. Not only did he have a really strong body that didn't take damage easily, but he also had the heat ignorance skill that made it so that 15% of the heat-based damage ignored his body in general.

Then, he walked forward.

"Ho-How are you still standing? Yo-You... are you an Enchanter?" Khrom asked. He was finally starting to get a little scared. He stumbled on the chair he was sitting in and fell backward.

Ning was now standing right in front of him. He squatted down to get up to Khrom's level and asked, "Do you know what happens when you mix water with burning oil?"

Khrom shuddered.

Ning smiled through the burning flames and said, "boom!"

BOOM

A loud explosion occurred as massive flames left Ning's body. The items in the room caught fire and so did Khrom. He was now starting to burn along with everything in the room.

Khrom quickly created water to douse himself and put out the fire. His clothes were torn in places, his skin was red from the burns, and had lost almost all of the hair on his body.

Ning was also no longer burning now. He took out a different grayish robe and wore it before walking up to Khrom.

"So you are an Invoker, huh? Oil and fire, that was quite neat. Shame you had to fight me. Do you have any more tricks up your sleeve? Try it," Ning said.

Khrom suddenly swung his hand towards Ning. As he did that, a light flashed in his hand and it turned to a big sword.

CLANG

However, it did no damage to Ning. Khrom's eyes shook in fear as he now understood the magnitude of danger he was in. His final sneak attack was fruitless and he didn't have enough Aether to use any other attacks.

Ning grabbed the sword and snatched it off of his hand. "Hmm... this looks quite intricate. Did you really create this yourself?" he asked.

"Or..." Ning thought of another possibility and suddenly grabbed Khrom's clothes before ripping it off.

Around Khrom's neck was a necklace with a large jewel in the middle. The jewel was dark blue in color and gave off faint undulations of Aether.

"A storage item, I see. So this is where you kept all the riches just moments prior. I will be taking this now."

Ning ripped the necklace off of his neck and took it.