Clovis smiled for a moment, most might detest someone who so obviously wanted a reward but Clovis instead loved Lowen's honesty. To him, it was much better than the pretentious folk who acted as though they wanted nothing with a fake smile. Those types were the least trustworthy and the moment you turned your back on them you wouldn't know whether they were gonna help you or stab you to death in betrayal. With Lowen being upfront about it Clovis knew where he stood and that was much more reliable to him.

"This is a simple mission but there is a clear danger so the reward should be fitting."

Clovis rubbed his black beard for a moment in thought.

"Hmm, how much do you want?"

Lowen was a bit taken aback. When he had asked what the reward was he thought Clovis already had something in mind and Lowen would either agree to it or not. Now though, Clovis was asking him how much he wanted and truth be told Lowen had no idea how much to actually ask for. Lowen had been in this world for around 8 months and his worldly knowledge was very limited, so when it came to money he had no clue. Roland had told him of the values of copper, silver, and gold but Lowen had nothing to compare it to. Roland had said 10 copper coins equal a silver coin and 10 silver coins equal 1 gold coin but this village was so poor no one really used any money. Everyone mostly used trade to obtain the goods they want or needed so Lowen couldn't tell you what a single potato was worth let alone what a mission from the kingdom was worth.

Lowen hesitated for a moment and glanced over at Roland, Roland could tell with just a look what Lowen was thinking and sneakily signaled with 2 fingers, however, Lowen misinterpreted and blurted out.

"Two."

Clovis looked at Lowen and then at his uncle Bren with confusion before he replied.

"You only want 2 silver for this type of mission, are you sure?"

A slap was heard and everyone looked toward Roland, it was obvious he had just hit his own forehead but the reason why only he and Lowen knew.

(Shit I asked for too little, they'll probably think I'm an idiot now.)

Lowen quickly thought for a moment before he suddenly thought of something. Shaking his head at Clovis he said.

"No no no, you said this was not only an investigation but a subjugation as well. I want 2 silver coins for every head I take."

Everyone suddenly realized he was trying to make some profit, especially out here where the coins flowed very little. With his abilities and the potential action they could face, it left ample room to make a good chunk of change. Clovis started to chuckle a bit.

"Ah, so that's what you meant. When you first said 2 silver I thought I might have misheard you. If you were to come across this mission at a Guild, it would probably net you 10 or so silver, so when I heard you wanted 5 times less I thought you might be crazy. Hehe, but now I see you just have the mind of a shrewd merchant. If you were to come along with us and we found nothing and we then rewarded you with 10, 15 or even 20 silver, then many might be disgruntled and might cause problems. I see you were actually thinking ahead though. With you asking for such a small sum then if we find nothing you'd be paid nothing and everyone could accept that but if we do find something and you take care of it each head will only get you 2 silver. In that way, you can only really gain a big reward if you take plenty of heads, in doing so the men will see that you have real ability and won't complain no matter how much you make. So your not only strong but have a tactical mind as well, nice I like the way your mind works."

Lowen chuckled nervously before saying.

"Yea haha, that's right, so you agree?"

Clovis gave a simple nod and ended the conversation there, turning around he went outside and issued a few orders before going to the defensive perimeter for an inspection. Meanwhile, Lowen let out a small breath of relief. After showing his strength off earlier and impressing Clovis, he could tell he almost made himself look like a fool when talking about money. If he didn't come up with something on the spot like that, he would have looked like a complete idiot.

( God I'm a fucking idiot, I should really not make any deals involving money in the future until I actually know what the fuck I'm talking about.)

Lowen looked at Roland and Roland had a teasing smirk on his face, he couldn't help but think.

(What a stupid smirk, maybe he hasn't changed much.)

Lowen shook his head and walked away silently before he accidentally said something stupid.

Outside in the village square, a few soldiers were shouting out with intent to recruit. In doing so they would have more manpower for whatever may come. Unfortunately, there were very few people in this village and when it came to men, most were old. It seems that when men come of age, most opt for adventuring or city life, to spend their youths in a tiny village near the Huafen mountain range farming and raising a family, to them was no dream they wished to have fulfilled.

Listening to the soldiers, the price they'd pay for the job was below what Clovis said they would get from a Guild. 8 Silver and maybe a bonus for outstanding achievement. With the reward being money, it fell on quite a few deaf ears. To these simple villagers, not much could be bought with money. In this village, the people needed tangible items such as food or tools. Sure they could travel to Jizhen and buy what they needed there but to make that trip was already dangerous in calm times but now that the nearby forest had uncertainties with wolf packs seemingly roaming about everywhere, it now became especially dangerous. People would rather fish or eat the little bit of poultry they had and now that this group of soldiers arrived and delivered a bit of food, the people were in a wait and see mentality.

For Lowen though, he decided that gaining money would bring him opportunities and options later on and besides he wasn't going to stay in this little village forever. Once he was gone he'd need money for better inscribing materials and books on magic. With Roland's recovery speeding up at an incredible rate, Lowen figured he'd be leaving soon anyway. Although Roland seemed to have changed, Lowen felt he had gotten everything he needed from this place and he still thought it'd be better to get away from Roland, who knows if this change in attitude would last or suddenly flip.

After going back home, Lowen explained the situation and told Nia and Ben not to enter the forest while he was away. After he returned he would need to discuss his plans with them, as well as theirs for the future.

--------------------------------------------------

As the sun slowly fell, the moon in the night sky arrived peacefully, following with it, a gentle spring breeze constantly swayed the leaves in the trees to and fro. Around the outside of the village, soldiers stood tall as torch after torch became lit with flames. As the village rested only a few remained awake, soldiers standing guard, Roland healing his injuries and Lowen, Nia, and Ben all sitting with legs crossed in deep meditation. With the two siblings focusing solely on ki circulation Lowen was examining himself in his entirety. He wondered about his body and it's improvements. His strength had begun to slow down recently, the main factor being his body had reached its physical limitations. He now had two options, option A, focus on entering the Aura Body Stage, with it his powers would increase by nearly a fold whilst gaining an Aura ability. The other option, option B, allow himself to grow physically with age. In that way, his body would naturally become stronger as his bones and muscles grew. The only problem was time. With option A he could increase his strength almost immediately but with it, his Body Refining Stage would be interrupted and his body would not be as strong as it could possibly be. With the other option though, it could take him nearly two decades for his body to become completely mature. Lowen thought about his body's improvements and the rate at which they grew. He could perceive that if he allowed his body to fully mature then his strength could reach the tens of thousands.

(Instantly double my strength now or wait and gain titanic strength later on.)

*Sigh*

Lowen continued to bounce these thoughts in his head.

(If I enter the Aura Body Stage now then I could speed up my ki stages, I could potentially be where I was in my last life within 7-8 years. On the other hand, if I continue to consolidate my foundation and allow my self to mature fully, then although it will take 3-4 times longer, my potential when I enter the other stages, I... I can't even predict.)

Lowen was truly dumbfounded on what to do. This was a situation he had never come upon in his previous life. He could forge ahead with the higher ki stages and become as strong as he was previously in less than half the time it took him the first time to master it. Or he could wait patiently and mature, potentially having monstrous strength. In the end, though, Lowen simply didn't know which path was right and which was wrong. One thing he was certain of though, was his simple lack of knowledge. Lowen decided he needed more knowledge, otherwise, he couldn't come to a proper decision. Once he got his reward for this mission Lowen thought about traveling, maybe he could find a correct path while traveling an actual path.

The sun had just begun to rise and the soldiers had already eaten breakfast as well as trained for an hour. After washing in the nearby river, the soldiers as well as the few recruits all gathered in the village square. Clovis gave a simple announcement of sorts and then ordered his men forward. With all of the wagons that had previously brought food in now being empty, there was now plenty of room for all the new recruits. Unfortunately, there was only a handful who actually joined for the mission, in fact, there was only 6 in total. 3 of them were young men from the village with another being middle-aged all 4 were hunters from Sento village. The other two people going along for this mission was, of course, Lowen but surprisingly the last man joining in was actually Roland. He had told Lowen it was for practice but when questioning further Roland honestly said that something didn't feel right and after that, he refused to speak further on it.

As the small army moved away from the village, they actually moved further and further away from the mountains. When Roland and Lowen noticed this they immediately questioned Clovis, causing him to chuckle a bit.

"Haha is that all you want to know. I have 50 more men in Jizhen, they have already recruited men from there and are coming to meet us halfway. Once we meet, we'll then head directly into the forest and back toward the mountains, this way they won't have to travel as far to reach us. The reason we traveled all the way to your Sento village was mainly to deliver food, I never expected wed gain 2 Mages, one can use 3rd circle magic and the other's a young genius. Haha, I hit the jackpot."

Both Lowen and Roland scoffed at those words but Clovis didn't seem to care, instead, they all continued on their journey. After a long day of traveling, they all came upon a clearing and decided to set up camp for the night. As people sat around fires for warmth a few men were patrolling and guarding the perimeter, all was calm and Lowen had just fallen asleep when suddenly.

"AHHHHHH!"

A terrifying scream awoke Lowen and many others. Lowen jumped out of bed and vanished from where he slept, racing off to that horrendous scream. On his way, he had grabbed a torch, it took him not even 2 seconds to reach the location from whence the noise was made yet surprisingly old uncle Bren was already there. Looking at each other the eyes of the two met for a moment and a gleam of respect could be seen for each other's speed. Only a second later Clovis arrived and yelled.

"What is it, what happened?"

Lowen himself had just gotten there and had no clue either but looking around a soldier was standing to one side while trying to help his friend up. With a solid salute over the chest, the young soldier quickly gave a short report.

"Sir, it's a simple misunderstanding, me and Lewis were patrolling the outside perimeter as you ordered and Lewis tripped over an object in the dark causing him to scream out in pain, after that you all had just arrived. Sir that is the end of my report Sir."

Clovis wasn't buying it though, soon Roland and the other soldiers who weren't at a post arrived to see what was happening. They arrived just in time to hear Clovis barking loudly.

"What! you screamed because you tripped over something, how dainty can you possibly be?"

Clovis and the others all looked over at the injury on the man and immediately went quiet. Looking at the man's foot they could all see that it was completely twisted to one side. The man had tripped and fallen awkwardly and took a misstep, in doing so his ankle was completely broken. Seeing the bad break Clovis asked.

"What in the world did you trip over?"

Everyone looked at the spot near where the man fell, there was something protruding from the ground covered in vines and leaves. A soldier seeing this spoke up.

"Are those tree roots?'

Another soldier chimed in.

"Nah, tree roots don't bind up like that. Those are some vines, they look like they grew around something though."

Roland walked over and examined it for a moment. When it came to worldly knowledge Roland's covered many fields. Looking it up and down as well Clovis asked curiously.

"Roland, what is it?"

Roland stared intently before he stood up and took a step back, pointing his cane at the pile of twisted vines and other debris, a fireball the size of a fist gathered in front of it and with a thought it shot forward at a great speed.

*Psssh*

With a quick burn and some sizzling, these vines burned away in only a few seconds. As they did, an item was revealed underneath, surprising everyone gathered, Roland, in particular, was absolutely shocked. Looking at the item, commander Clovis walked over and grasped the handle and with a bit of force tried to pull the item from the dirt but he couldn't. Failing in front of his men was embarrassing and he couldn't allow his image to fall. This time a small tattoo on his forearm began to glow and Clovis's strength began to rise at a rapid rate. With strength flowing through his body, Clovis once more pulled the object up, this time it was freed from its earthly prison and held high above Clovis's head. To everyone's surprise, this object buried and covered turned out to be a hammer, not just any hammer though. As Roland stared at this hammer and the details it held, he was sure and without a doubt. Roland began to mumble in a low voice that only he could hear, well only he and Lowen with his sharp senses could hear.

"Long battle hammer, silver in color, heavy beyond compare with an image of a wolf on the head of the hammer. No way, this, this is Benjamin's Battle Hammer."