Tom heard all of the advice of his unlikely advisor. Yet, instead of heeding them, he headed directly for the back entrance of the building. 

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"Boss, that's the worker's entrance!" the vampire protested, clearly misunderstanding Tom's intentions. "If you go through there, nothing good will come out of it!" he continued his attempts to persuade the young man all the way to the point where Tom stepped into the open area of the street, right at the building's entrance. 

'I guess he has nowhere to hide out in the open,' Tom thought when the voice of the vampire ceased to bother him. 'Well, I guess that's good for now,' he thought, looking down at the magical spear in his hand. 

For a moment, Tom simply stood in place, one step away from the metal slabs of the doorway. He closed his eyes and slowed down his breath, readying himself for what was about to come. 

Tom's eyes opened up. He finally made the step forward before kicking against the metal door. Yet, rather than resisting his force, the door pried open with ease proved just how perfectly well was it weighted on its hinges. 

Crack!

The metal of the doors slammed into the bricked wall inside, cracking the building material all over. Yet, despite causing quite a lot of noise and even making the building shake a little, no one seemed to be any wiser about Tom's intrusion. Most likely, because Tom stood at the door instead of going inside. 

A mere moment later, a powerful gust of hot air rushed outside. 'Feels just like checking a damned over,' Tom thought, recalling all those moments where he would check on his food only to be caught in the heat previously trapped within the kitchen's tool. 

For a moment, Tom felt as if he had entered hell. To say that the rushing air was hot would be a gross underestimation. Yet, instead of avoiding the scalding temperature, Tom stood his ground, waiting for his body to get used to it instead. 

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"Who opened the door?! Close it, you little fuck!" A voice somehow made it out of the building, cutting through a plethora of noises that resembled a modern industrial building rather than a medievalesque smithy. 

Finally, Tom stepped in. This small moment he took between opening and entering the place allowed him to avoid getting stunned and confused by the extremely peculiar situation inside the building. 

"Hey, who the fuck are you?!" Soon, someone took notice of his invasion. Yet, instead of calling for others to help, a burly man instantly headed Tom's way with his hands tightening into fists. "Now you are going to pay for our losses!" he screamed out, not to scare Tom, but most likely to make his voice actually break free from the ever-present noise inside. 

Tom didn't reply. He continued to walk forward, right on the confrontation course towards the man. Yet, this wasn't his intention at all. The corridor was simply too small for him to hide or give way. 

"Get the fuck off!" The man shouted, sending his fist flying towards Tom's face. 

Tom relaxed his right hand, allowing his spear to fall out of it. He then twisted his hand around. 'Recall,' he thought, bringing the spear back only to use its blunt end to strike at the side of the man's arm. 

There was no need to fight with everyone on his path. By redirecting the attack slightly to the side, Tom's made the man's fist miss by quite a huge margin. 

The burly's man's hand struck directly into the bricked wall, causing even more cracks than appeared when Tom slammed the metal door into it. 

'That's quite showy,' he thought, calmly passing by the man who suddenly found the bones in his hand shattered. 'Anyway, that's what you get for being too hasty with your judgment,' he thought, moving ahead. 

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"Here he is!" Tom heard a shout after making just a few steps. It was clear that the earlier shouts somehow managed to reach the rest of the people inside the spacious building. 

'I thought their hearing would be dulled.' Tom thought, gently biting his lip. The constant noise of metal hitting metal, water exploding into vapor, and all kinds of other sounds that one could expect from the insides of a smithy was quite annoying for him. But just like listening to loud music for an extensive period of time, this wasn't the environment where one could keep his hearing intact. 

The corridor quickly became crowded when a group of people emerged from its steamy side. They were all rushing forward, clearly unwilling to let Tom.

'Eh,' the young man sighed. 'Haste,' he thought, activating one of his main abilities. 

The corridor was cramped. Most likely, it was a measure for preventing excessive heat loss whenever any of the outer doors would get opened. With five or more people all rushing at Tom, there wasn't a single inch of free space that Tom could use to slip through. 

But Tom had no intention to fight with those people whatsoever. He stretched his leading arm to the back only to pull it forward in one, fluid motion. Still keeping the blunt end of his spear at the front, Tom threw the spear... above the crowd rushing at him. 

'Swap,' he thought, less than a second after his weapon flew over the group. 

Tom's vision changed, only for a sudden burst of pain to overwhelm his mind for a short moment. 'I guess I was too slow,' he thought with dissatisfaction, pulling himself away from the wall he slammed right into. 'Still, I need to take some time to figure out how the momentum is preserved during swaps,' Tom realized, turning his head around to take stock of the situation. 

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Given how he threw his spear along the line of the corridor, having it strike a wall meant that he was either at the turning point or at the split of ways. 

A quick look to the right revealed an entry to what looked like a warehouse with weapons, tools, and broken parts stacked all over the metal shelves. 

"THIEF!" A shout resounded within the building. "We have a thief in the warehouse!" the voice changed its narration a bit once its owner noticed where Tom was looking. 

'Are you for real?' Tom thought as he turned his head towards the source where the voice came from. For a moment, he just stood in place, gracing the alarmist with a look of disbelief on his face. 

And then, just like that, Tom turned his back to the warehouse and moved forward. 

He couldn't see where the other path led to. The dense fog of steam made it impossible to see any further than a few meters, effectively hiding the insides of the building from Tom's eyes. Yet, he could still feel the auras of several beings hidden deeper into the fog. 

Step by step, Tom made his way through the fog to the place where more people were. Even though he initially avoided the confrontation, butting heads with the smiths was still his ultimate aim. 

"A murderer!" A shout this time entered a new narration. "Kill the invader!" it quickly changed to yet something else. 

"Who are you?" Tom heard the first reasonable question when he finally escaped from the corridor and entered some sort of a massive room. 

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Judging from the flow of the steam, the source of all the fog was somewhere nearby. Given how the young man had never been in a real smithy before, he couldn't judge the distances or outline of the place from the intensity of the sounds alone. 

"A challenger," Tom replied, pushing his perception to its limits. 

He didn't come here to hurt anyone. While he was willing to do so if necessary, it wasn't his aim at all. Yet, the people in the smithy had no way of knowing that fact, making their reactions possibly over the top. 

"That tremble in the guild... Was it you?" the same voice asked. Yet, before Tom could answer, the sounds of the chase that the people from the corridor gave made him realize that his time was running out. 

"Yes. And as you can guess, I came here to ensure that you won't try to meddle with stuff once this entire town falls under my command," Tom said openly before turning around to face the way he came from. 

Just as expected, it didn't take long for his pursuers to catch up. They knew which way he went, meaning, as soon as their confusion died off, they quickly rushed after him. 

Before long, Tom was surrounded by a huge group of burly, sweaty monsters that could barely be called human. Just a single look at their ripped muscles would put most of the bodybuilders from Tom's world to shame. 

'I guess that's what you get when you actually use your body rather than artificially training it,' he thought before raising his spear-wielding hand... and dropping the spear to the ground. 

"I came here to challenge the strongest of you. Who is willing to take me on?"

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