13 The Beginning of the Beginning 1 (1/2)
Chapter 13: The Beginning of the Beginning 1
Coming out of the ring satisfied, Garen removed his gloves and walked to Erwin's side.
”Looks like I'll be able to catch up to you very soon, Senior Brother Erwin.”
”You think you’re the only one improving?” Erwin threw him a look of feigned contempt. ”Alright, let’s put this topic aside. You have to go home for dinner later, right? It’s quite far from here to the city center, so head home then or else you won’t be able to find transportation later.”
”Okay, I'll be leaving first then.” Garen was aware of the situation too. He greeted two other people on his way out the door, walked past the courtyard and exited the main entrance of the Martial Colosseum with a few other students.
White Cloud Dojo was just a dojo in Huaishan City. It had two branches and a main Martial Colosseum. Both branches were within the city, and only the main Martial Colosseum was located in the outskirts, which was quite a distance from Bluetree Street where Garen lived.
After finally managing to hail a carriage, both Garen and another female student going the same way squeezed into it. The carriage started heading down the gray cobblestone road towards the city center.
Sitting on the right side of the carriage, Garen reclined on the leather seat, closed his eyes and rested with his head tilted slightly upwards. The crisp sound of hooves on cobblestone could be heard incessantly.
The girl beside him took out a book and started reading it page by page; the sound of pages turning came at regular intervals.
In a daze, Garen slowly fell into a half-asleep state.
Some time passed. There seemed to be a slight commotion going on nearby. He gradually woke up and looked out the carriage window.
The black-haired girl beside him also turned to her side to look out the left window. A group of colorfully dressed children were playing chase and ran past the side of the carriage. These children, seemingly from Zhejiang, each had an assortment of red, yellow, and green gift boxes in their hands.
”Ahh, it's Children's Day today.” Garen realized.
”It was yesterday, but some families choose to celebrate it a day later. That way, it's less crowded and probably safer for the kids.” The black-haired girl turned around to face the front of the carriage again. She took a glance at Garen and asked, ”Where are you getting off?”
”I'm getting off at Pennington.”
”It's already Blacktree Street here. We'll be at Pennington soon.”
It was then that Garen noticed the buildings passing by outside had become gray ones; the walls of each engraved with reliefs. Both sides of the road were each lined with a row of candlenut trees.
”Thanks for the reminder. The corner of Pennington is just up ahead. Sir, if you could just let me down here?”
”Of course.”
The black carriage slowed down to a stop at the corner of Pennington. Garen stepped off the carriage and paid the fare. Afterwards, he straightened his clothes and started walking towards Dolphin Antiques at the corner of the street.
A ray of scarlet sunlight shone in and lit the whole antique store a warm shade of red.
The old man was once again sitting in front of the bookshelf directly facing the entrance, and had dozed off at the desk.
Garen walked through the door without disturbing him, and directly headed towards the left side of the store with a sense of familiarity, to where the Bronze Cross Emblem was placed.
He picked up the emblem and examined it. There was a thin layer of glimmer on it, but that didn't matter. Holding the emblem, Garen's attention shifted to the Attribute Pane in the lower part of his field of vision.
Although 100% of the Potential Attribute had been used up, several days of continuous ”accumulation” had made Garen’s Potential rise to 47% once again.
”You again, kid?” Old Man Gregor spoke from behind him, ”You're here to see it everyday. If you like it so much, why not just buy it so you can look at it all you want?”
”Am I not already trying to save up? Do you think it's possible for me as an ordinary student to casually come up with such a large sum of money?” Garen refuted without turning around to face him.
”It's up to you. Your presence makes my shop seem livelier anyway. But rules are rules, it's 10 bucks an hour.”
”Yeah, yeah… You're really obsessed about money.” Garen was rendered speechless.
He dawdled for more than an hour holding the emblem, while the sky outside gradually darkened. Garen reluctantly put the emblem down after seeing his potential increase slightly at an infuriatingly slow pace.
”Remember to take good care of it. I'll be back!”
”Yeah! Scram kid, you're even more long-winded than me!” The old man impatiently waved his hand and continued, ”It's time for me to close up anyway.”
”No wonder you don't get any business here.” After multiple interactions, Garen was already familiar with the old man's temper. Initially, there was still a veil of civility between the two, but after growing more familiar, both just let it all go and spoke their minds.
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More than two weeks had passed.