Elemental Cats

Stitches was in obvious distress due to the Bunglehoppers' absence. Toz placed a hand on his shoulder.

"Let's go look for them. Stitches and I will go look for the Bunglehoppers. The five of you can do what you want as long as you stay out of trouble and stick together."

Toz didn't see a reason why they should all stay together when the cats were itching to go explore the city. Not to mention how it would be easier to gather information if they spread out.

Stitches started leading Toz around the narrow and convoluted streets built on top of the roofs of buildings beneath their feet. There was surprisingly little trash and littered garbage around, but Toz's attention was more focused on the hostile glances the inhabitants gave him and Stitches. Few people walked around in the streets, and most of the looks came from gaps between shutters and behind corners.

Toz pretty quickly realized that he stood out like a bloody knife in a kitchen with his sparklingly clean, white coat. Stitches looked more appropriate since he wore the clothes he had with him during the raid on the island, but he received the same hostility as Toz since it was obvious they were together.

Most of the glances were ones of wariness and hostility that pirates and thugs had against foreigners, but no one looked at Toz with outright malice, so Toz kept his guard up but didn't actually expect anyone to approach them.

However, his expectations were bound to be subverted.

Since Stitches was leading Toz through a more densely populated area on the way to one of the marketplaces, the two encountered more people on the streets. Everyone looked at Toz with eyes revealing their distaste for the obvious outsider. Toz compared the clothes of the city's inhabitants with his own. He also compared his clean and admittedly above-average face with their dirty and around-average faces. Toz decided that it was at least equal amounts of jealousy and wariness that caused people to look at him the way they did.

It happened when Toz was about to ask Stitches what he thought about his impressive reasoning.

One of the bandit-looking residents decided to reach for Toz's pocket when passing by.

The bandit wanted to accidentally bump shoulders with Toz, and while Toz was startled, slip a hand or two into his pockets and pick them clean. However, the pickpocket failed at the first step of his plan. Despite being at the fourth level, his target didn't budge or even flinch, and instead, it was the pickpocket that suffered. But it was far from something as simple as a stumble. Toz sent the attempted thief crashing into the ground when he met the thief's shoulder bump with a move of his own that he called superior strength.

The thief ended up passing out due to the crash that etched him into the ground.

Stitches looked back at the commotion, but since Toz had already dealt with it, he continued moving. Toz was almost getting concerned since it looked like Stitches was a little too anxious to meet an old pirate crew that he shouldn't have been that close to, according to what he told the others.

Toz wanted to ask Stitches about it, but he was once again interrupted.

"Hey! Where do you think you're going, you bastard?!"

The shout came from a burly man crouched on the ground next to the half-buried bandit. It was obvious he was shouting after Toz, so Toz didn't even bother pretending not to notice the man. Instead, he turned around and faced the burly guy.

"We're looking for a pirate crew. The Bunglehoppers. Why? Do you wanna come with us?"

A chill ran down the muscular guy's spine at Toz's chilly smile, but he wasn't smart enough to listen to his instincts, and he opened his mouth again.

"What bullshit are you spouting now?! Take responsibility for injuring my brother!"

When Toz looked closer at the bandit lying in the ground, he noticed that their noses were slightly similar.

The burly man noticed Toz's relaxed attitude and flared up. He stood up and prepared to charge at Toz with fury blinding his eyes.

However, even if he wasn't affected by rage, he would have still missed Toz's movements.

Even just Toz's base physical prowess was extraordinary due to having refined his mana six times. Although it strengthened his mana more than his body, his body was still improved to a point where it could withstand the incredible amounts of mana that Toz played around with.

But the burly man was at the sixth level, and with his body enhanced by aura, he would have been able to notice and almost follow Toz's movements.

However, when Toz reinforced his body with magic made by mixing lightning and space mana, the only one who could rival his speed was Scrael.

Toz hadn't even disappeared from the burly man's vision before he reappeared behind him in the process of landing a strike on the man's head.

Toz wasn't interested in killing anyone in case it stirred up too much trouble, but he sent the guy halfway through the ground. If they had still been in the residential area where houses were stacked on top of each other, the guy's feet would have been poking through the ceiling of some innocent fellow.

However, since they were almost at the market, the guy only ended up sticking into solid ground made from ship debris.

The marketplace was one of several built on large protruding platforms located around the pile of structured wreckage. Without the platforms, the pirates would have had to squeeze the markets into the damp and narrow insides of the city or tried to spread it out over the sloping outsides of the city.

Since Toz had caused such a commotion, Stitches wanted to disappear into the crowds of the marketplace and look for clues about where the Bunglehoppers had gone.

Toz and Stitches got a lot of looks as Stitches pulled Toz with him past all the ogling spectators who were still stunned by the burly man's quick defeat.