The Witcher: Elemental Lords

"Son of a bitch, that mutt runs pretty fast." Audo came quickly and left quickly. He slammed the door shut, not even looking back as he left. He felt incredibly frustrated, and the more he thought about it, the angrier he became. The twisted expression made the wound on his face throb. He lowered his head, concealing his true emotions.

The group extinguished their torches and slunk away from the slum.

At this moment, the surrounding people began to discuss what had happened, speculating about who Dorlay had offended to have people come knocking at his door in the middle of the night.

Voices of discussion echoed in the darkness.

Dorlay and Audo remained hidden under the window, not emerging until the surrounding voices had faded away. Only then did they cautiously make their way around to the front door.

The door was completely shattered and unusable. Even if it were repaired, it would likely attract Audo's prying eyes in the future. This place was no longer habitable.

Dorlay looked at Audo at his feet, sighed, and said, "I have to find another place."

Audo, at this moment, didn't know what to say. He opened his mouth, let out a soft whine, and then fell silent.

The slums were scarce in everything except empty houses. There were many empty houses around Dorlay, belonging to deceased vagrants or neighbors who had moved elsewhere. Although it was night, Dorlay, having lived here since childhood, found it easy to find a new place to live. Occupied and unoccupied houses were distinguishable, making it easy to tell them apart.

After gathering his bedding and books—Dorlay didn't have much furniture—he left without hesitation and quickly found a new place to live.

As for the place he had just abandoned, even though he had lived there for seven or eight years, Dorlay didn't hesitate for a moment when he moved.

After moving, he couldn't stop thinking that Audo hated him so much that the Bianchi Mine job was probably completely off the table. He couldn't go there anymore.

Without the mine job, he had no source of income. Dorlay felt like he had fallen into hell. He only had three copper coins left, and even if he made it through tomorrow, he would starve to death the day after.

"Audo, you're going to die by my hands sooner or later," Dorlay thought fiercely. He now valued the book "The Legendary Journey of Narye the Magic Warrior" even more. As long as he could become a warrior, the first thing he would do was kill Audo.

The new place was almost identical to the old one, except it was filled with dust. With mines surrounding Domon County, dust was normal. It was late at night, and Dorlay wasn't too particular. He simply spread his bedding on the dilapidated wooden planks and prepared Audo's doghouse before getting ready to practice his sitting posture.

Although the techniques from hundreds of years ago were outdated, they were the only martial arts knowledge he could currently learn, so he had to practice diligently. Dorlay thought to himself.

Soon, the night passed.

The next morning, Dorlay woke up from his sleep and found that his legs were sore and numb, as if his blood wasn't flowing properly. Last night, he had stubbornly maintained the posture all night, and now he felt like his legs didn't belong to him.

He groaned in pain and then straightened his legs, vigorously pounding them with his hands. It took a long time to get rid of the soreness and numbness.

Feeling like he was okay again, Dorlay looked at where Audo was supposed to be and was immediately shocked. Audo was gone.

Just then, the door opened, and Audo's sneaky head peeked in from outside. Seeing that Dorlay was awake, he immediately trotted over, wagging his tail, and licked his face.

Feeling Audo's enthusiasm, Dorlay breathed a sigh of relief. As long as he didn't run around, it would be fine.

He patted the dog's head and said, "Be good and stay home. Don't run around, or you'll end up as dog meat on someone's table."

He had to go to another mine today and apply in advance.

Domon County was surrounded by mines, and there were many workers. Every morning, people who worked in the mines would leave through the city gate, flooding into the various mines like a tide. The mines only worried about having too few people, not too many. Although Domon County was poor, it had a large population, all people from various places trying to make a living. Moreover, the mine salaries were stable, and the miners' lives were generally secure.

Of course, this didn't apply to pitiful children like Dorlay, who had no parents and were easily bullied.

Dorlay arrived at the city gate, looked at the recruitment notices around, randomly chose one, and ran to the recruitment location to apply.

With his years of experience at the Bianchi Mine, the supervisor easily approved his application. Just like that, Dorlay found a job again and happily went to work.

This mine was called Chrysalis. The person leading Dorlay was a seemingly refined supervisor who assigned him a partner and then left.

The new partner was a middle-aged man with a rather weathered face. The muscles on his exposed arms were bulging, making him look strong.

After the supervisor assigned the tasks, he left.

And so, a new day began.

The new partner didn't like to talk, only liked to work. Dorlay had no choice but to keep up. Fortunately, although he hadn't slept properly all night, he was energetic. By the end of the day, he was keeping up with the energetic middle-aged man, Aub, which impressed Aub.

However, the Chrysalis Mine didn't provide food. Dorlay was hungry all day and almost fainted when he got off work. Although there was no food, the wages at Chrysalis were three copper coins higher than at Bianchi. Since his original salary was six copper coins a day, he could earn nine copper coins a day, four more than at the Bianchi Mine. Overall, it was still worth it, but he had to bring his own lunch and dinner.

Returning to the market, he had a hearty meal and felt a bit stuffed. Not daring to linger outside for fear of being found by Audo, he bought food for the dog Audo and quickly returned to his small nest.

"The Legendary Journey of Narye" only covered the first two postures. Next was basic fist techniques.

Basic fist techniques had been standardized thousands of years ago. Dorlay had learned them long ago, so there was nothing to learn. After flipping through the contents, he found nothing new or informative, so he skipped it and looked at the next section.

Legendary magic warrior Narye practiced both magic and martial arts. Dorlay opened the following pages and immediately saw three large characters: Meditation Technique.

He was immediately excited. This was something only wizards could learn. He carefully looked down, but then felt somewhat deflated. He didn't recognize many of the characters. How could he learn it?

Sighing, Dorlay skipped this section, thinking that he should quickly save up money to buy a book. Now that he earned nine copper coins a day, he could probably save two copper coins a day. A dictionary cost about 50 copper coins, so he could save enough in about a month.

Thinking of this, he felt somewhat helpless.

However, after turning the page, it was about martial arts again. This time, it was a true fist technique, and Dorlay's spirits immediately lifted.

Cross Fist, low-level fist technique.

He first skimmed through it. This fist technique had a total of twelve moves. Most of the moves were extended versions of basic fist techniques. The fist technique was mostly focused on defense, with only one or two purely offensive moves. The core principle of this fist technique was the cross block: hand cross block, elbow cross block, shoulder-elbow cross block, elbow-back cross block, leg cross block, foot cross block. It seemed to maximize defense, while the two offensive fist techniques were the Cross Thrust Punch and the Cross Cannon Punch, which looked quite powerful.