He went in with three more rat vessels. The candle lighting was decent in the interior. There was little artistry to the chalk white walls.
The bank branch was not huge. It was a two story building that had a basement where the vault was.
Altering his sight, Hadrian looked into the indescribably vast essence seas of the first two guards he'd found inside.
One had two spheres of fog with translucent glass-like lining, while the other had one. Soul cores.
A rank two and rank one mage.
Hadrian noted.
Do they sleep in here?
There were three other guards, though these were regular humans.
He did his best to avoid being seen by them. It wasn't hard as they were lost in conversation between each other. Laughing every now and then.
Hadrian made his way to the vault while his two other rat vessels inside watched for anyone coming.
The vault's door was a thick metal rod gate. There were two of them. Hadrian, as a rat, naturally squeezed himself through.
The bank was new, it had been here for only five months, as such there weren't a lot of assets inside. There was still a considerable amount.
The copper and bronze coins were the most. Palateer was a richer district than Calos but still part of the lower class.
Seeing this, Hadrian sent in more of his rat vessels.
They each fit one or two silver coins in their rat mouths squeezing in and out.
The rats went in a couple of rounds and in the end Hadrian had taken two gold coins, four silver coins. Thirteen bronze coins and twenty two copper coins.
One bronze coin was worth a hundred copper coins, that would be more than enough to cover the chicken man.
Hadrian would keep for himself two gold coins and two silver coins. The rest he will leave to the woman.
As he made his way back, Hadrian rewrote the life state of Alia and Baby Hadrian so that they switched roles.
This time, he let Alia be a two year old girl while he looked like a thirteen year old boy.
He wrapped the coins in a cloth and used his dog vessel to bring it to their makeshift house.
Knocking with the dog's hind legs, Hadrian dropped the cloth of coins and ran some distance away.
Alia's mother pushed open their door and Hadrian could see she had been crying. Of course she was, her daughter and grandson were nowhere to be seen at this hour.
Sorry.
Hadrian's heart tightened with a great deal of guilt.
Seeing the woman pick up the cloth, Dog Hadrian ran out of the area.
Taking Alia's gown and wrapping her in the clothes, Hadrian made his way through the moonlit streets.
None of the people, drunk or not, minded a young teen walking around with a baby.
I need pants.
Hadrian thought.
And human vessels.
While his heart was bitter for revenge on the mages, it did not make him heartless to the point of turning any random stranger into a vessel.
Earlier, he'd been filled with the rage of seeing his corpse being treated in that manner.
He had no clue where the inn owner lived, that would have been an easy start now that he had human vessels.
Worse, I have no clue where to find the two Mages. But first things first, I have to get stronger to even think about facing a mage.
"Hey there little girl." Someone called out to him, you could feel the grin in the words.
Hadrian gave the long faced man a moment's glance and went on his way.
"Don't ignore me, bitch."
A few seconds later his left arm was violently grabbed.
Hadrian's almond shaped brown eyes showed no sign of fear, neither did he struggle against the man.
The man dragged Hadrian and baby Alia to an alley, stumbling over his words.
With great force he pushed Hadrian in front of him. Once alone, the loud noises of the night life in the background, Hadrian turned to the man.
The long faced man's brows pinched. "Why are you smiling?" He asked.
Hadrian altered his sight and called at the drunkard's soul essence. Time seemed to stretch, the cool night breeze blowing Hadrian's hair about.
The man's eyes constricted and his gaze fixed on the ominously standing child. He sensed something wrong, a hollow filling making his stomach sink.
His mind and body told him the child in front of him was the cause. His soul yearned to get rid of the child or get away from them.
Hadrian's grin widened and in the moonlight his face twisted to a distressing look.
The man frowned and smacked Hadrian's right cheek with the back of his right arm.
Hadrian staggered but looked back up with that same look.
Seeing this, the man chuckled. "I'll make this quick."
His hands went to rip Hadrian's gown but Hadrian fought back for the first time, smacking the man's arms away with great ease.
The man's anger flared and his hands went up to choke Hadrian. Hadrian let him.
"You demon bitch."
Slush!
The man's eyes went wide and his grip around Hadrian's throat loosened. His gaze went down to his abdomen where Hadrian's arm was piercing through his stomach.
A wet gurgle escaped the man as veins bulged on his straining face. He staggered back as his arms went to his stomach where blood flowed out.
"H - how…. "
Hadrian frowned. He had let go control of his emotions. With the well of power he felt he had, it was easy to.
That didn't feel like me.
Still it seemed to work in his favor.
As the man bled out, getting weaker, the resistance of his essence tendrils also weakened.
That's one way, I suppose.
The man fell to his knees and looked up to the child with a bloody right hand. His eyes were wet with tears.
"Y - you…. "
He fell to his side, his legs drawing circles on the ground.
Hadrian's own heart raced. He had to turn the man to his vessel before he completely bled out.
A group of four young adults had been walking home, having left the tavern, when they came across the sight.
Their eyes narrowed and widened.
"Over there." One of them shouted, "what's going on?"
They noticed the pool of blood on the ground and their faces went pale. The strange child with a baby around their back only gave them a sharp stare.
The body on the ground shifted and stood up.
"Nothing's wrong." It waved them off as it took steps turning around.
The young adults' faces were struck with horror. The man had blood flowing out of his mouth and guts like red paint.
Tapping and pulling at each other's shoulders, they ran away without looking back.
Looking at them, Hadrian shook his head.
He made the tall man, who'd become his vessel, turn back around and face him. He then substituted some of his rat vessels to heal the man's sliced abdomen.
Putting baby Alia on the ground, he rewrote the man's flesh and life state to baby Alia so that she aged in seconds to her previous look.
The man, who had previously looked to be in his early thirties now looked to be eighteen or seventeen.
Hadrian then substituted more life state to his main body Hadrian and he looked to now be about his old age, fifteen or sixteen.
In that alley under the moonlight, three teenagers stood, two of them like statues. One in clothes that seemed two sizes bigger than they should wear.
Weakening a target makes the soul potency weaker.
Hadrian thought back.
If I can find enough vessels to overwhelm the mages, then I can drain them of their soul essence and they won't be able to use their abilities to fight back.
Hadrian didn't dare to underestimate the mages.
Dogs and rats will only take me so far.
Thinking this, Hawk Hadrian circled the air and looked to the direction of the southern city walls.
If I can follow a cohort of hunters, I can take advantage of them to weaken those wildlings or beasts for me. Then all I would have to do is turn the beasts into my vessels at the last moment.
Hadrian had heard tales of the beasts and wildlings.
Either out of necessity or greed, some people went to hunt the beasts. The wildlings' body parts would sell for a great deal of money.
That, however, wasn't where the real value lay. If he were to believe it, hunting these beasts could make a path for regular humans to awaken as Mages.
Hadrian never learnt how, and had never planned to participate, since more died than came back. If a cohort was lucky, they would have a mage or mages with them. Of course Mages would rather form their own cohorts.
Thinking this, Hadrian rewrote back the man's life state from Alia and made him carry baby Alia.
Earlier, he had wanted to see if there was a limit. The pain was there, but to reduce it, all he had to do was turn to mechanical control of the vessels.
He left Baby Hadrian, now teenage boy Hadrian, as was. For his plan he needed to.
Well, let's see about a magic beast.