Two years had passed after Reiji separated from Stella…

With his Sword Kinesis and Stealth ability, he managed to roam around in various places… He flew up to reach the peak of a mountain, entered caves or lairs of various beasts, tried to dive deep into a lake and see what's in the bottom, tried to get wielded by other beasts like apes, and he even tried fighting against beast hordes as one of his training…

​​

It was such an incredible experience for Reiji as he truly felt that he was free and alive in this world. Although he no longer has a human body, he still managed to enjoy his life and live the way he wants…

He accumulated Skills Points and strengthened himself in many ways... Right now, he only has 3 missions to complete, and his Rank Up quest for advancing to a Unique Rank would appear.

Aside from that, whenever he saw other humans traveling, he would always make himself invisible and flew away except on a couple of occasions where he had to save two abandoned children from being eaten alive by a Forest Troll…

He was still a bit weak when it comes to kids since they always remind him of his young students in his previous life.

In the end, he stayed together with them for a couple of weeks before he sent the two to the nearest village as he continued his journey.

The young boy and girl were only ten years old, so even though Reiji decided to teach them a bit of Kendo, he doubts that they would learn a lot from it unless he dedicated a lot of time for them…

At the very least, he thought them a little so they can at least start learning how to defend themselves in the future.

Anyway, he was still unsure how the other adult humans would react if they saw a sentient Sword traveling alone, so he has to be careful… He felt that only young and innocent children like them wouldn't sell him out...

After being together with the two, he no longer had plans to be bounded with another person at the moment since he discovered that there is always a mission slot for him that can be completed without needing the help of another individual.

Of course, it means that he still has stuck three missions that he needs to complete to get the next mission.

Crunch~ Crunch~

The sound of twigs being stepped on can be heard as several people were on their way to the only port city in the Kingdom, the Lodia City…

There are carriages along the road but many people were still walking on the pavement.

Even just by being outside, one can see how busy this city is…

'It's taking so long.'

Reiji decided to follow a group of loggers whom he saw at the Sierre Mountain Range…

He heard from them that they were about to visit this port city so he decided to sneak into the logs that they've collected from the mountain. Apparently, he heard that the city has something similar to Excalibur so it caught his interest...

Unfortunately, he was still a bit worried about entering the city since he heard about the Fortification Array that was protecting the perimeter of the whole city… The Array seems to be capable of detecting external threats unless they've used the permitted doors.

It means that he can't just fly over the walls.

It may be difficult for him to enter through the gates with his current situation as he heard that inspection was also quite strict...

Of course, he's confident that he can force his entry to the city with his several powerful skills but that would just attract unnecessary attention. It would contradict his plans to appear weak and humble in front of other sentient Arcana living here...

Nevertheless, he decided on sneaking in while he's in his stealth mode and together with the bunch of logs…

As a matter of fact, he even upgraded the Stealth to Level 10 for this situation… It now has a full minute of invisibility.

He also has a new skill called Traceless which he bought for 100 Skills Points. It would allow him to become untraceable for a long period.

As Reiji was waiting to get in, he heard the group of five loggers talking.

"Hey… Have you heard about the Guardian of the Sierre Mountain Range?" One of the bald middle-aged men said as he guided his horse forward.

"Yes… Is that about the same mysterious being that has killed a large number Forest Rats long ago? Ahh… Why did that happen again?" A lady in her twenties tried to recall the incident related to Forest Rats more than a year ago… The only thing that she remembers was that it was handled by this guardian for the mountain.

"That's right, it seems that the balance of beasts within the mountain range was disrupted after the Hunters from the north captured an excessive number of Crypt Crawlers from different regions… It resulted in the imbalance of their ecosystem…"

"Ahh… I heard about that, it seems that the silk from their species has become quite a popular material among the nobles and many Hunters started capturing them… Sigh~ They're not thinking about the others as long as they can profit... Tsk." One of the youngest loggers added as he joined their conversation.

"That's right, I remember now… There are many types of Crypt Crawlers within the kingdom, but they were now being seen as a good source of money… Anyway, what happened to this mysterious being?" The lady asked the bald middle-aged man.

"Well, I heard that this creature started to leave its presence just around the mountain range this time… Patches of explosions and marks similar to sword strikes can be seen on the sturdy ground of walls of the mountain."

"Sword strike? Maybe claw marks?"

"Well... It doesn't look like a claw but I can't tell much..."

"Is it safe to continue our work here?"

"Of course, as matter of fact, we can treat that creature not only as a Guardian for the beasts but for us as well…"

"Huh? Our guardian too?"

"Yes… It seems that it saved a lot of people from being killed... This occurred when you guys have joined the caravan going to the west region... There should've been a couple of beast waves that were being led by dangerous Evil Beasts, but all of them were killed by this invisible creature..."

"Whoa! I wish I could see it… It must be an intelligent beast."

"Why would it stop the beast wave? Is that guardian not a beast but a human instead? No, is it perhaps a Draconic creature?"

"Who knows? No one had seen it before and only felt its chilling presence."

The starting area that they mentioned is a place where most campsites for people who were trying to make a living from the mountain ranges were staying at.

Loggers like them, herb collectors, and others like painters or just people hanging out would also treat that place as a resting area…

That place was normally a safe area unless the beasts were truly angered and decided to go out of their mountains.

Nevertheless, the dangerous Evil Beasts that were leading the beast waves can only be found in the inner area of the mountain range... For them to suddenly appear and disturb the peaceful site, there must be a reason...

As the bald middle-aged man continued to explain what happened, Reiji who was listening was similarly stunned. These feats sounded familiar to him...

"Right, do you know the characteristics of this creature? Although no one had seen it, they should've felt its Spiritual Energy..."

"Well, we only know that it can control the wind-- No, it seems like the creature was the wind itself… I can't explain it clearly."

As they continued their chat, they arrived at the last line of people queuing to enter the port city. The line was quite long and they are expecting that they will have to wait for about half an hour before they can have their turn.

Reiji, who was stealthily included in the logs, was just listening and obtaining as much information about this port city.

He realized that he already became a guardian in their eyes after he decided to stop or kill all the beasts in those two waves. In truth, he just wanted to try all his crowd control skills during that time and collect some beast's blood.

Anyway, what he wanted to hear was the location of the "Excalibur" in this city... After all, he only knows that it was in a sacred building and nothing more...

'Well... I should worry about my entrance first...' Reiji thought as he recalled his preparations just to enter this city.

Only after he managed to have a good grasp of all his abilities did he think of visiting this place...

After all, aside from the "Excalibur" here... The presence of Sentient Arcana or Blessed Arcana were abundant here...

If he wasn't confident with his skills, he wouldn't dare visit this city...