The arrival of the morning didn't wait for anyone. With still a strand of reluctance, the man buried his hoe and held tightly onto the sword by his waist. It was still a few hours until the duel began. With this in mind, there was still a lot to do. If they had been given him a week, perhaps even more, he would have been confident. But his attempt to scare Clung had left him with nothing but a day to practice, and it hadn't gone as well as he had expected.

Thom quickly unsheathed and swung his sword. A small gust of wind moved the leaves on the plants beside him. He lowered the scimitar and sighed lowly, admiring its curved blade and the sun shining on the broad side of it. He could barely see himself reflecting off of it. There was still jittering on his palm when he thought of the day he was humiliated by Miel. He had learned his lesson— of that he was sure. However, of what he wanted to do at that duel, he wasn't as sure. His thoughts would clear up at the scene of the fight, or so he thought.

He hadn't practiced in months. His last proper battle had been a defeat. If it wasn't because skills granted by Skill Master couldn't decay with time, Thom's body would have become useless by now. But his muscles still remembered the movements, and his hands still felt the iron grip as proper. He was only missing the weight of a titite weapon, but it was not something he had the right to crave. He had lost it in a miserable way.

[Swordsman Expert], that was his current level of skill. It hadn't gone up by a single grade in several months, unlike his farming skills. Although he had been stuck at [Farmer Expert III] for some time now, it wasn't any less useful. He wondered if he truly wanted his skill with the sword to surpass his lifelong job.

Two swings, three of them. Different to a longsword, the power of the scimitar laid on its cuts. Thom could have relied in the past on the dark blade's weight to deal powerful cleaves, but he was aware that his situation changed as soon as a regular weapon entered his hands. If he had a longsword, he couldn't slash. If he had a scimitar, he couldn't block with its edge.

He sighed as he thought about just how much it would take him to accustom to such a thing. Still, he decided not to let it become a disadvantage. He also thought that a lighter weapon would mean that his strikes, which were strong because of their speed, would be much more impressive now. If he added the power of [Golem's Strength III], he could see the fight being slightly favorable towards him.

Indeed. It was only thanks to Skill Master's world-breaking power that he could have the upper hand even when outnumbered.

"And to think I still don't know anything about you..." Thom's hands caressed his chest, where he felt his thumping heart. The thought of that word made it skip.

Pulling himself together, he shrugged and sheathed his blade. He smacked the side of his cheeks and began walking towards the beginning of the fields, where the harvesters were just arriving. "Pack it up. It would be fun if you were there to see the spectacle too." Thom smiled at them. They simply nodded nervously and rushed towards the field, beginning to bag the foodstuffs with perilous enthusiasm.

The black-haired man arrived at the treehouse, where he only felt Valta's presence. Erina and Suu's search for privacy had already led them out of the hobgoblin's village, and they were currently living in a small hut at the orc settlement. It was to guarantee their comfortability, but also to ensure that a good bond was formed between the two girls and the orcs. If everything went well, they would be the ones in charge to deal with their affairs.

He knocked on the door. There was a sweet-sour aroma coming from the inside, but nothing like coffee. It smelled more like Serizal herb than anything else. Frowning, he opened the door, and found Valta in front of the cooking spot, half-asleep as she made her best effort not to fall inside the fire. There was a kettle floating above, and it undoubtedly contained ungodly amounts of Serizal herb.

"Hey, you can't drink that." Thom rushed to her side and picked the kettle up from the fire.

"You'll burn yourself..." Valta stretched out her hand.

"I'm alright." Thom sighed and put the pot inside a barrel with water, producing a sizzling sound that accompanied the small trail of steam. "This thing tastes like dirt. Worse than dirt. It's awful. And it's spicy like you don't have an idea. I tried making fire resistance potions with this thing because Erina told me about them, but damn, I'd rather burn."

"I see you're in high spirits." Valta stood up and rubbed her hawk-like eyes. After a short succession of blinks, she began to look like someone who had woken up from bed at least a few minutes ago.

"You really can't do without coffee..."

"Were you practicing for the duel? Last night you told me something."

"You don't remember?" Thom smiled and placed his hand on the grip. He put down the kettle. "Ahh, well, it's better if you get surprised by it then. It's something I should have done a long time ago, really. I was just... Walking around it because I was too afraid to actually do it."

Valta nodded. "That's good."

"Sure is. I don't see myself doing any of this, but..." He dipped his hand in the barrel and cleaned his face with some water. "Huff. I guess I'll just have to roll with it."

As the sun climbed up a little higher in the distance, the plaza began to fill up. The rumor of the fight had spread and there was no hob that wanted to lose such an event, and even some orcs had traveled from their village to observe the duel go down. When there was no more space around the plaza, the monsters began to climb the wobbly huts and the sturdy trees. A multicolored array of over a thousand monsters were surrounding a single point in space, which for any other human would have meant that suicide was a preferable option. For Suu and Erina, however, it was exciting.

They positioned themselves at the front, the crystal girl standing between the two of them as if she was their child. Nobody would tell them otherwise if they wanted to take the best watching spot. They wanted to get a good view of how Thom beat to a pulp a pair of cocky hobgoblins, but more than that, they wanted to see the public react to it. There was some deeply-ingrained desire in their hearts to see Thom win, not only because he was close to them, but because he represented humanity in a sea of monstrosities.

Erina couldn't admit she would enjoy it greatly if he even killed them. Her complicated emotions towards Thom and her resentment when it came to demihumans had made her even more deeply confused. However, taking Thom out of the equation and simplifying it as humans against monsters made it clear who she was rooting for.

On the other side of the crowd-made circle, the leader hobgoblins began to appear. Their pompous clothes compared to the savage crowd made them stand out to a disgusting degree, and their attitudes did not help them much either. Something must have rubbed off on them from their human master, Suu couldn't help but think.

Two red hobgoblins stepped to the front and stepped in the middle of the circle. Their vicious grins and unworried expressions made it look like they were the ones that would fight Thom, and they were confident of their victory. The girls couldn't help but think it was a bit unfair how two of them would face against a single man, but thinking about what kind of man he was, it became unfair for the hobs instead.

Regardless, they didn't seem unprepared. The bigger one held a curved greatsword with a metallic red edge, which occasionally showed a faint glow. His chest was covered with wooden armor and his crotch, legs and arms were too. The rest was leathered and wrapped in fur, probably to conserve his heat in the cold of winter. His skin was a dark, violent red with lighter spots across his body in the pattern of distorted waves.

The other one was shorter and his skin was a pale red. But his metallic-red longsword was just as menacing as the other's. His body was covered in wood and in fur, although his armor seemed lighter. For an experienced fighter like Erina, it was already clear what kind of strategy they would use against Thom in a two-on-one fight. She was hoping could see through it.

"Whoever gave deep steel to a handful of brainless monsters was either very rich and bored, or very stupid." Erina couldn't help but cross her arms and sigh. It was a sight to behold when monsters were holding weapons that would only be awarded to officials of high rank in the Royal Knights of Kulkus. To a point, it was even disgusting.

"It can be the three of them." Suu smiled. "A bored, rich dumbass. I've seen plenty of those and I haven't seen much of anything."

The crimson-skinned monsters pranced around the circle with their eyes open as they received the praise from their subordinates, fueling their already inflated ego. It didn't take long for them to finish, and then sit in the middle as if waiting for the black-haired man. After a few minutes, people began to become impatient.

Words of concern were raised in the hobs' mouths, and the leaders were visibly frustrated. They were probably thinking that Thom Arburson had made a fool out of their decision and had decided to insubordinate by taking longer to arrive, which was worthy of a good scolding. Hlung had begun tapping his fingers on the armrest of the chair he had been given. Hulung was gritting his teeth, thinking that such a man did not deserve a second chance like this.

It was already half an hour after the red arena had been set, that the crowd at a side began to shift and bustle. All heads were turned that way to see a black-haired man slowly walk up to the front of the crowd, surrounded by terrified gazes and panicked looks from the hobgoblins. The leaders couldn't help but frown and twist in their spot, disgusted at his arrogance that could be seen from afar.

They watched him yawn as he approached the center of the arena where the red hobs were sitting, who threw him a vicious look. He didn't seem to mind, however, as he simply put his sword on the ground and sniffed slightly to enter more in comfort. His gaze was set on the golden-bodied monster sitting between the multicolored arrange of hobs, and he was ignoring anything else. Hlung couldn't help but speak out loud.

"Thom Arburson, we are greatly aware of your value as a part of the horde." He said. "But you have cost us the life of six people, and have defended the one who killed Plung. I know you recognize the graveness of your offenses, so why dare you make us wait even further than what we should?"

"Hmm?" Thom frowned with contempt and raised his chin to look down at the group of hobs. "What are you saying, Hlung?"

"Don't you understand this?" Hlung stood up and clenched his fists. "In this precious community of ours, we allowed three humans who do not have a spot in its huts! We treated you like honor guests and accommodated you, yet you repay us like this?! I'll let you know, Thom Arburson, that the horde has grown tired of your gimmicks. This is the last stand to prove your value, and this will decide whether you fervently serve us, or you detach yourself from our society. However, as of now, you're still my subordinate! I was the one who let you live! I was the one who gave you a purpose to stay!" He signaled at Thom with passionate anger. "A subordinate can't make their superior wait. If anything, you should have waited for us!"

There was an uproar in the crowd as several remarks of disdain were thrown around, although not all of them directed towards Thom. The black-haired man looked around and saw the three girls standing in the crowd, their hands at the pommel of their blades as if ready to unsheathe at any moment. He smiled, however, and shrugged. His words were directed towards everyone present.

"It seems like we both agree on something, Hlung!" He shouted at the top of his lungs as his frown became slanted downwards. "A subordinate shouldn't make their superior stand and wait for them! Exactly for that reason, you all have waited here for me!"

"What?!"

The leaders cried out loud, showing anger on their faces. Thom smirked as his heart accelerated, knowing that his risky plan had been put into work. He choked down his nervousness and put the scimitar on his shoulder, then pointed at the group of hobgoblins with a fiery, decided gaze.

"Hlung, I didn't come here today to face these two pathetic clowns!" He yelled and shifted his body. "I came here to show you all how superior I am, I came here to beat you all in battle, and claim this horde as mine!"

The arena fell silent for a second— and then it burst into excited shouts. The leaders, who appeared dumbfounded after those words had reached their ears, all took a step back after feeling the vines that wrapped around them and constricted their breath. They were shaken out of it soon, and their faces became of various colors as their hearts lit with pure rage.

"Thom Arburson!" Hlung stepped forward and drew a glowing straight sword from his waist. "You dare mock what our master has left behind?!"

"Hmph." Thom scoffed. "Show me that you're worthy of keeping it."