"Is something bothering you Lopt?" Josh asked Arvin who rapidly devoured the roasted chicken on his plate. Both of them were sitting at the dinner table at Josh's home. Arvin had just arrived completing his tasks and was hungry as hell. So all that he was concentrating on was the roasted chicken on his plate.

"Huh? Something bothering me? From where did you get that idea?" Arvin said while still devouring the chicken. ​​

"Don't play games with me boy. Don't you think I have noticed it? For the last two weeks, you sneak out of the house before anyone in the village wakes up. Then after the sun rises you come back and cut one whole log by yourself.

I am not an idiot Lopt. I know what you are doing. You are training." Josh said with a serious face,

"So what? It isn't like training is a bad thing." Arvin said in an annoyed face. He was annoyed as he thought that he was being careful in sneaking around. But as he heard Josh talk about his morning workout session he understood that maybe he was not being careful enough…

"Training is not a bad thing. It is just I thought you didn't want to be an HTC." Josh said as he changed his tone. He changed his tone from being serious to being embarrassed...

"I don't want to be an HTC. That is right." Arvin said.

"Then the training?"

"Investment for the future."

"What do you mean?" Josh asked, confused.

"I am tired, Josh. Tired of being weak. I have been weak since my childhood. Since then everyone has trampled over me like I am an ant. Even after becoming an HTC, I became strong compared to others. But there were still people that treated like an ant. I don't want to feel weak anymore. That is why I have started training." Arvin said.

"I didn't know that… I am sorry. I shouldn't have brought this up." Josh said.

"It's ok old man. Your intentions were not wrong. Don't beat yourself up for this." Arvin said.

"Well… I am feeling bad." Josh said.

"If you feel sorry, then answer a question of mine."

"Sure ask away."

"If this isn't a secret or anything could you tell me what are you?" Arvin asked curiously.

"What do you mean?"

"Old men don't take as a fool. Your body… It is well toned. Even as a woodcutter, your body shouldn't be in this type of shape. According to me, it looked like you are a soldier of some sort…" Arvin asked.

He had noticed this on the first day that he met Josh outside the Arcane city. His well-toned body and his scar made him look like he was a veteran soldier or something. But he thought that he shouldn't judge a person on his appearance. But the black war ax on the wall in Josh's room, made him believe that he may be right after all.

"Oh that… You noticed it huh?" Josh asked in a surprised manner.

"Yeah. If this was supposed to be a secret that next time hide your weapons under your bed or something. Don't hang them on your wall." Arvin said with a smirk on his face.

"This isn't supposed to be a secret. But I have been training to become a soldier."

"You have?"

"Yeah by my father. I told you about my ancestors right?"

"Yeah, a great warrior during the apocalypse period… right?"

"Yeah. Since then my family was obsessed with getting another warrior of such caliber in our family. But since him, no one was able to fill those shoes."

"That rough."

"Yeah. My family used to live in the city. There they used to train me and my brothers to become a soldier. He trained us to become soldiers. But while my brothers woke up their magical power, I was not able to do so. So he kicked me out of the family." Josh said sadly.

"I am so sorry…" Arvin said feeling guilty that he may have asked something devastating…

"It's ok. It was a long time ago. Well long story short, they all died in a beast tide. After their death I was able to procure some family weapons…" Josh said.

"Died of a beast tide… That is a terrible way to die…" Arvin said. While he said this he was inwardly thinking… 'WHAT THE F**K is a BEAST TIDE?'

"How would you know. There hasn't been a beast tide in 15 years. You wouldn't even remember the last beat tide."

"But I heard about it. It is supposed to be bad…" Arvin said awkwardly.

"You don't know anything boy. The beast tide is a very dangerous thing. You were an HTC, right? What was your rank?"

"I… I had the lowest rank."

"Rank-f huh? Still, did you ever take part in any subjugation?"

"No…. No, I didn't."

"It doesn't matter. Think of this like this, seven of Rank-f people if teams up would be able to kill a Rank-f monster. You see 7 guys and one monster. But when a beast tide s comes, it brings with itself hundreds of Rank-f monsters. Most of the veteran Ranker's legs would become jelly if they ever heard the name of beast tide…

I think now you understood the significance of the beast tide."

"Yeah… Yeah, I understood."

"Good," Josh said. After that, they both resumed their dinner. But after some time, Arvin had an idea in his mind…

"Hey, Josh. Do you know anything about combat training?"

"Yeah."

"Could you give me combat training?"

"Sure. But I will do it only if you buy me a bottle of booze now and then…"

"You got yourself a deal.." Arvin said while smiling…

.......

After that every morning, Arvin would go and complete his exercises. Then he would return and cut his portion of the log. While this was happening, Arvin was surprised by his performance. He felt like every day he was getting faster and faster. His progress could be seen from the fact that after two weeks, the speed at which he cut down that log had tripled. Because of that, he had a lot of free time.

During his free time, Josh started giving him hand-to-hand training. He taught him the basics of hand-to-hand combat. Josh also started giving Arvin weapons training as well.

For this Arvin had to choose his main weapon of choice. And without wasting any second he chose that his main weapon of choice would be an ax. After all, getting familiar with any other type of weapon would be just a waste of time. And Josh was also proficient in using an ax as a weapon. So it worked out pretty well for him.

Like this 2 months went by….

..........

2 months later…

A deer could be running away from fear around the outskirts of the forest. That deer had fear in his eyes. Two horses were running behind the deer, with two armored men on their back. Both of these men had very low-quality armor. It could be seen that armor was rusting from the sides of those men.

Both of them were very low-ranking mercenaries. They were in the forest with some noble kid. That Nobel kid wanted to brag about a game that he caught in the forest to his friends. But as he came here, he chickened out. So, these men were chasing that deer for that young master.

But little did they know that this hunt of theirs will cause an uproar on the whole 1st floor…

#😘😘