Opening the double door of the Sleeping Lion Inn, a bustling crowd greeted Artreus. People, both men, and women, old and young are exchanging stories and gossips as they chew on their food. Everyone was so occupied in their business that only a few noticed his dirt-covered figure enter the building.

One of the people who noticed him was the ever so jovial barbarian, Drogo, who is uncharacteristically sitting alone at his table. "Hey look at what the cat brought in!" He greeted him. "Haven't seen you for a whole day, and from the looks of it. You've been busy. Come here and sit with us" He said, pointing to a chair beside him.

"Yeah. Been busy training. I haven't noticed the time." He replied and took a seat. "By the way, you're alone today. Where are the others?"

"You know. Doing this and that." He answered while biting on a turkey leg. "Claus' gone and check on his pet beasts. Little Mimi is doing girly stuff I guess, and Porsha is brewing something. Don't know what for, but before she vanished, she said something about making something for her eyes only." Taking another huge bite, he finished the turkey leg and grabbed the mug of beer, and drank it all in one go. "Ahhh! That hit the spot. By the way lad, I might've forgotten to tell you this, but if Porsha makes an advance on you, better turn her down. This is best for your health."

Grabbing a cup of water, Artreus replied. "Yeah. Both Mikaela and Claus warned me of her. But she doesn't look like a bad person to me. Obsessed maybe, but not an evil person who wishes to do other harm because she likes it."

"We didn't lack in warning others of her quirks. But people just don't listen. Well, if idiots want to raid a lair of a slumbering dragon, butt naked with a necklace of meat hanging on their neck, who's to stop them, right?" Drinking another mug of alcohol, he burped and spoke once more. "But yeah. She means well. It's just sometimes she forgets to hold back when something piques her interest. It is just in her nature." Looking towards the door upon hearing it open, Drogo's red face grinned. "Oh look! Little Mimi is here! Mimi come sit here!" He waved her over.

Mikaela looked at them and walked over. But when she was only a few steps away from them, her face scrunched up, and walked towards the seat a table away from them.

"Why are you sitting over there? Come here." Called Drogo.

"No way." She answered. "Not only the pervert looks like shit, but he also smells like shit too."

Oh, what sharp tongue you have. Artreus thought. He would've used Purify on himself to rid himself of the dirt and smell I got from training, but since Porsha warned him from using his spells in front of other people. So far, only the White Wolves and Estella saw him use spells. Maybe the surviving bandit, but whether he talks about his abilities or not is out of his power. There are already many who knew his abilities, he wouldn't want to unnecessarily increase it, and since he felt that someone is watching him while he was meditating, he decided against cleansing himself with a spell. Hearing more mockery from the red-headed rogue, Artreus stood up. "Sorry if my smell offends you. I'll go wash then. Good night."

He is going not because he is irked by Mikaela's foul mouth, there is something else he is aiming to do that night. If no one is watching him, he will meditate once more and this time, to increase his score, for both his Aura and Mana.

At the rate he is going, it would take a week before he could reach the second-tier magic circle and Aura level on par with his first few years in the Void Plane. It is slow, but while he doesn't have the means to hasten his accumulation of power, this will do.

+++

Now that the smelly pervert left, Mikaela went to sit beside old man Drogo. She then went to call over the waitress and order a plate of spiced chicken, a bowl of grapes, and a pitcher of beer.

As they wait for her order, Drogo started. "So, how did your day go?"

Grabbing his mug of beer and emptied it, Mikaela replied. "Awful. I wasn't able to get any useful information. Seems like no one knows anything about the bandits and slave trading."

Drogo chuckles as he took back the now empty mug and called for a refill. Emptying the just refilled mug, he asked for another and spoke with a grin on his face. "It's just been two days. Just give it some time. You'll get a lead soon."

Mikaela started to get annoyed when the old man is like this. "And what if there is nothing there? What if there is no one behind them and it is just a coincidence that they have all those supplies?"

Taking another drink and letting out a sigh, the infuriating man answered. "Bandits that are well supplied is rare by itself. But not only are they well supplied and have technology that bandits normally don't have, but they are also well organized for a group of lowlifes. A bandit group that largely don't work because they are prone to infighting. Someone is keeping them in line."

"And what if they don't? What if they are just a bunch of crooks who happens to be well behaved since they are working under Bone Crusher Gen?" She asked.

"Then we just wasted our time. No biggie." He then continued to eat and drink.

Mikaela just sighed. The old man has always been like this. Poking his nose to stuff he has no business with and acting like a hero while expecting nothing in return, just stories that he can tell to others. She doesn't know what he's been up to before he became an adventurer, he is always been so secretive of that, which is contradictory to what he usually is. But the man is full of contradictions that he seemed to be a completely different person sometimes. Although she doesn't know if he is aware of it. "By the way. What did the pervert do today that he got so dirty? I reckon you had Claus shadow him?"

"Yeah. Just received a messenger eagle earlier, seems the lad is training is running around town and practicing his sword swing all day." He then looked disappointed.

"Why the sad face? Are you disappointed that he is training as a normal person and is not just sparring day and night like you?" Although she also expected for the man to spend his time in the sparring area, after all, from what she saw so far and the stories about his bout against that bastard elite, Esteban, both he and the old man is cut from the same cloth, both skilled and eager to show their superior skills.

"Yeah." So transparent. "Don't worry. You will get your chance. Didn't he say that he wants to spar with that B-rank man that you trashed when you got here? Maybe once they are done, you could fight both of them." Hearing those words made the old man's ear perk up. "At the same time." At that he was back to his old self again, smiling to himself as he imagined himself sparring against both men.

To be honest, she is kind of jealous of them. She and the old man also spar together but never had she seen him excited for it. Indeed, the two of them are skilled beyond their years, but she too is considered as a talented individual even without being able to use Aura or Mana to empower herself, and when she learns how to harness her Aura, she will surely overtake those two and finally earn the respect she deserves.

Because of that, it made it more frustrating to know that she is still unable to access either even with two prominent users of both energy systems, not that they are of any help since both are so talented that they were able to manipulate their energies as easy as breathing and couldn't explain how they were able to awaken their latent powers to someone who can't. Porsha suggests that she participate in one of her experiments aiming to make the use of Mana available to the masses, which is a big no due to her experiment subjects winding up dead or in a vegetative state once she's done with them. Meanwhile, the old man believes that undergoing endless life and death battles is the key to unlocking her potential, and while that may hold some merit, she is not likely to survive such a daunting challenge since she lacks the freakish strength and endurance that made the old man overcome such ordeal that forged him to becoming the formidable man that he is now.

Which leaves her with Artreus. True, the self-proclaimed paladin seemed to be able to use both Aura and Mana, as he had demonstrated in his fight against the old man and also with the Bone Crusher and his lot. But she will sooner eat her hands first before she asks the pervert for help.

Which leaves her back to zero once more.

Able to sense her predicament, the old man disturbed her train of thoughts. "I know that look." He then drunk one more mug of ale, leaving his face flush red. "As I said before lass, it is no good to hurry. The more you try to chase after strength, the more it will escape your grasp. Instead, take your time. Each day, take a steady step in climbing the mountain, and one day you will come to find out that you are already at the top."

She knows that the old man is trying to help, but it irks her when he tries to be so cryptic with his advice. "Just get to the point old man. You try to sound like a wise sage but your gorilla-like the body, you look anything but."

"There's my little girl. A pout doesn't suit your pretty face. What man would come to court you if you get wrinkles from frowning so much?" She was about to lose her calm as she watched the old man tease her. Seeing this, he coughed and act all proper like. "Okay. No more teasing. How about we spar? Maybe you will gain insight while we fight?"

This old man. Always thinking that a fight could solve anything. But if he is not the way he is, then he would be no longer the old man who raised her, an orphan girl with no survival skills whatsoever, into a strong adventurer in her own right. "You're right. Maybe I will indeed find some insight. While I am smacking you right at the back of your head." She smiled as she answered.

The old man training her, made her remember the old times.

Drogo then stood up and started to head towards the sparring area, his gait wobbly from all the drinks that he had. She also stood up and followed him.

Who knows, with the old man drunk, she might even score a win for the very first time. That will surely send the tongues of the rumormongers wagging, telling stories about the red-haired beauty overcoming the man who raised her in a one on one fight.

She will be an instant sensation, for a day, before the old man challenges her again and beat her soundly.

+++

Heading towards his room after taking a hot bath, Artreus slowly closed the door and sat on his bed, and try to act normal. For even within the four walls of his rented room, he could sense that he is being watched.

From the moment he entered the inn, he had the feeling that he was being followed, and after he went inside the bathroom, he became sure of it.

Unable to sense any form of surveillance skills that uses Mana, he stretched his Sense to encompass the entirety of his room in search of anything that the spies must've planted here to spy on him while he was gone, which is not impossible for just this morning he saw a few tools which may be able to do just that.

Upon checking with Sense that there is no surveillance device in his room, he made a mental note to check the whole room personally tomorrow for devices that couldn't be discovered by sensing Mana. After that, he plopped to his bed to relax.

Why is he still able to relax even with people watching him? It is simple. These men sent to watch over him are amateurs. True, he could just go out there and bust their heads in. But what good would that do? The ones who have sent them would just send even better ones to watch him. Better to know who and where he is being watched than not knowing at all. At least this way, he could feed these spies false information about him while he tries to figure out who sent them.

He has two suspects.

First was the guard and that lowlife scammer who Mikaela drove off. Although it was the redhead who beat them up and took a hand from the corrupt guard, it wouldn't be strange for people who felt wronged to also harm the people who are close to their target.

The second suspect was the group of nobles who insulted Mikaela and got their ass handed to them by her and Claus.

By the gods, Artreus is surrounded by hotheaded people who punch first ask question later.

Back to the topic at hand, nobles are known to be a prideful bunch, always badmouthing each other behind their backs, and are only united to push down anyone who tries to get ahead of them. They hold grudges and if their pride was hurt, they will stop at nothing to return every insult they take, even how underhanded it may be or even if it takes a long time. They always get their revenge.

With the suspects noted in his mind, the only thing that is left is to find out which of the two placed these men to tail him, and what they seek to achieve by doing so. There is also the one who is observing him earlier this morning while he is training. Compared to the ones spying on him now, the one earlier is leagues better whose presence he was only able to notice while his senses were heightened by meditation, and even after that, the presence quickly vanished after he noticed that he was found out.

Artreus let out a sigh and started meditating while lying in bed. While this is not the best posture to meditate, he needs to make it look like he is sleeping so that the spies will not know what he is doing. In their eyes, he is just sleeping and is not circulating his Aura and expending his Mana by continually using Sense to improve his core and Mana capacity. He will continue this for a few hours and once he is sure that the spies won't attack while he is pretending to sleep, then it would be safe to rest.

After two hours or so of meditating and maintaining Sense, his watchers finally left, leaving him alone in his room, finally he felt safe enough to truly rest and sleep and it didn't take long till the sweet embrace of slumber embraced him and he finds himself dreaming of the good old times.

He didn't know how many hours he's been sleeping, but when he heard the chirping of birds from outside his window, he quickly scrambled to grab his sword and sighed as he realized that he acted on reflex again. He went to repeat his morning ritual and went out to grab something to eat. But before he could exit the inn, someone entered. It was Esteban.

The young man is visibly startled after they almost bumped into each other. Coughing to hide his embarrassment, Esteban spoke. "Hello, Mr. Artreus. Good weather we're having."

He is formal, just like the guild master said. "Yeah. Fine day. How may I help you?" Artreus asked.

Esteban seems unsure what to say, but finally, he inhaled deeply and spoke. "Ummm… I ah… I mean, you promised to help me overcome my lack of confidence by sparring with me. Could we spar today?"

Artreus wanted to train more before facing this young man again, for even if they were equally matched when they fought last time, it's not because they are matched in strength and speed, instead, it was because Esteban is second-guessing his every action, slowing down his reaction time and damping his attack power. Thus Artreus wanted to improve his speed and strength before sparring with him again, and while he did improve yesterday, he feels it is not enough to overcome the fighting capabilities of the man before him.

As he was about to make an excuse to delay their sparring for at least a week, Drogo and Mikaela walked down the stairs. Seeing both he and Esteban facing each other, Drogo smiled and chimed in. "I smell a fight brewing." He started. Patting the shoulder of Mikaela, who grimaced at the force of his gesture, he continued. "How about we do a two against two sparring matches? Mimi and I will be teammates, while the two of you team up and fight the two of us?" From the looks on the face of Esteban, he is not looking forward to fighting Drogo. He looks like he was about to refuse but Drogo cut him off. "Oh, come on now. It would be fun!" He stated.

Listening to the gigantic barbarian boisterously laugh, Artreus was forced to accept the fact that he wouldn't be able to train his way today as the large man dragged both Esteban and him towards the Guild House sparring area.

Oh well, I guess I would be able to temper my body after this. Artreus thought to himself as he already anticipates that he would get beaten up today. Might as well try the skills and techniques he accumulated against someone who will be able to take it.