There appeared to be some sort of commotion within the outpost that day as the receptionists were stifly dealing with the mercenaries. At the entrance, there were two men standing next to the entrance posing as bouncers and armed with excellent gear compared to the usual. The two men wore silver chainmail armor which in the front had a shield crest with a sword at the center. One of them had a two-handed broadsword across his back whilst the other had a sword in one hand and the outline of a shield could be seen on his back. The two men were staring straight ahead and not really paying attention to the people inside the outpost but noticed when one of the receptionists on duty went over to Derus in a hurry and ushered the humanoid towards Farris's office and knocked on the door.

"Who is it?" came a woman's voice from inside of which Derus could guess was Farris

"It's Sera Ms. Farris, I have Derus here with me." responded Sera

"...Come in."

Entering the room, Derus could see Farris sitting ar her desk glaring at the middle-aged man in front of her like a predator. Behind the middle-aged man stood another guard in a similar attire to the ones at the outpost entrance with the exception of not being equiped with a visible weapon. This guard was the only one to turn towards the door when it opened. Seeing that the guard was just staring without saying anything, Derus just left the guy to his own business and waited until Farris turned towards the humanoid.

"Hello Derus, this man here is Duke Protus Castle. He-"

"Came to hear the situation from the supposed lone mercenary who took down the berserker cyclops alone. You are this Derus correct?" said Protus, bluntly cutting in on Farris's introduction.

"Yes." responded Derus maintaining a neutral face whilst at the same time thought that it was rude of the man to cut off Farris like that.

'I guess dukes have that right...' thought Derus.

"You're rather small aren't you? How did someone like you manage to take down that monster?"

"Don't you think you're a bit rude to inquire into Derus ability like that considering the life of your daughter was saved by such person?"

"Can you really expect me to look at this Derus and say with confidence that I can accept such a thing? Naturally I would require some proof, yes?

Farris and the duke began their debate once more whilst the receptionist had long since excused herself after noticing the tension between the outpost chief and the duke. After several minutes, Derus got tired of their cyclic argument and asked in an annoyed tone

"When can I pick up my reward for the subjugation?"

The two stopped their back and forth arguing and turned towards Derus with Farris being the first one to respond.

"As soon as this man here learns to appreciate what the life of his daughter is."

"Of course I appreciate who ever saved my daughter's life, I just don't believe that it was the result of a tiny man looking thing with no trace of mana what-so-ever." replied Protus, dropping in a tinge of a snide tone.

"What do you want me to do to prove it then?" asked Derus now using a neutral tone not giving the duke any ideas about the humanoid's ulterior motives.

"It's simple really, all you have to do is spar against my trusted guard here." replied Protus in a somewhat belittling manner.

"And if I win?"

"Then I agree with Ms. Farris's notion to give you the reward of 50 gold coins.

Derus glanced at Farris and could see the fox like smile before she quickly reverted back to her usual business expression.

'Not bad Farris.' thought Derus before looking towards the duke and voicing an agreement.

At the back entrance of the village, near the entrance to the forest, Derus and the guard stood apart from each other. The guard, who was named as Hamilton, still apparently unequiped, stood some distance away from Derus whose arms were folded as the humanoid awaited the start of the signal to fight. The guard, Hamilton, placed his two hands in front of himself as if holding something cylindrical prompting Derus to scan both him and the duke.

STATUS - Hamilton Target Human Type Organic Body Status Normal E.U.R (Wh) 100+ E.C (W) 2,550/3,000 STATUS - Protus Target Human Type Organic Body Status Normal E.U.R (Wh) 100 E.C (W) 4,458/4,500

Seeing as Derus locked onto himself for a second, the duke slightly narrowed his eyes and observed the humanoid more intensely.

'100+ and increasing, this Hamilton is stronger than he seems. I am curious as to what he plans on doing with his hands like that.' absently thought Derus who became lost in thought afterwards, paying attention to listen only for the signal.

With a shout, Hamilton materialized a two-handed sword whilst at the same time, a strange inscription appeared at the back of his hands. The sword appeared to be a translucent red, matching the highlight colour on his brown hair, and at the same time weightless. Derus was unsure if the sword was truly real until Hamilton took a few test swings with it.

"Not going to use your weapon?" asked Hamilton with some amusement.

"It is unecessary." replied Derus.

"... your overconfidence shall be your downfall." said Hamilton before taking a battle stance.

"Are you two ready?" asked Farris.

"Yes." said Derus.

"Yes." grunted Hamilton.

"Then... begin!"

Kicking off the floor at a speed that would be difficult to react to for normal humans, Hamilton closed the gap between the two of them and swing his sword in a wide horizontal at the humanoid. Derus had already predicted this and quickly activated and deactivated the overdrive state to take several steps backwards, making it appear as if Hamilton had swung his sword through the air for no reason when Derus was truly a few steps away. To both Farris and Protus, it looked like teleportation but the true reason was that the rapid change in velocity could not be detected so easily by normal human eyes. With Hamilton now wide open, Derus moved towards him quickly, flashing the [Overdrive] state and punched him just hard and fast enough for him to lose two of his front teeth and pass out on the floor signaling the end of the battle.

'I hope that blacksmith has some free time today.' thought Derus who had begun walking towards Farris and the duke.