Finally in the next two or three chapters mc will leave his hometown... I really stretched the begining stage far too long.

Chapter 34. As time goes by. Part 5.

*Gulp*

*Gulp*

I drink a few gulps of beer from my mug, while sitting on an empty barrel in a corner of a town plaza.

Songs, music, laughter and delicious aroma of grilled meat fills the air intoxicating everyone around with a festive mood.

*Gulp*

I take another sip of beer, as my eyes scan the platform on the other side of the square, where musicians are playing some songs.

And yes lately I got used to drinking beer. At first it was somewhat bitter, but after my father made me drink it on every little occasion, I kind of got used to it.

Anyway the drinks menu here, in North, is pretty small. It’s either beer or water and on a few rare occasions you can taste some tea or wine. There is no cola, no cappuccino and you can’t even get a frigging juice. So yeah… For that one delicious bottle of cola I would literally kill a man without a second thought.

‘Haa… I would have rather stayed at home and trained.’ I think looking leisurely around me.

“So do you think there will be any exceptional kids this year?” I hear Anna's voice, as she asks me a question.

“It depends on what you think is exceptional. If it’s someone like me or a white witch, then my answer is: no.” I say shaking my head and after a moment I add: “But if it’s someone who reached level 100 or a bit above, then I think there will be one or two.”

“Ha, ha, ha… Someone like you… Ha, ha, ha… That’s impossible… Ha, ha, ha” Suddenly Skur burst into a laughter and the mug, full of beer, start splashing around from all the shaking.

“Yeah… Level 136… It’s even hard for me to imagine how you have to train to reach it.” Agrees Tola, while nodding her head slightly. Well at least I think Tola is her name.

“Well…” I pause for a moment, as I look inside my mug. Noticing that maybe two full mouthful is left, with a small frown I continue speaking: “In my opinion level 136 is quite reachable. One just simply needs to start training at a very young age. I say this because, if I didn’t spent a lot of time on magic and instead only focused on physical training, I think I could have reached even up to even level 150… *Gulp**Gulp*” After saying what I wanted I finish all the beer that was left in a single go.

“150…” I heard a few of them whisper.

Finally I lift my eyes up and notice that a number of them are having quite shocked expressions, while some are even frowning a bit, most likely trying to determine if what I said is truth.

‘Haaaa…’ I make a sigh deep inside my heart as I think: ‘Even thought I picked up this spot, which is covered in shadows and somewhat away from the main mass of people, they still found me.’

My eyes run around nine bulky figures, that are standing in front of me or sitting on other barrels by my side.

Well Anna, Skur and Estrid are from my class. Tola and Inga I remember from the last summer festival, they both were in the third group of kids to go on stage. But the rest… I honestly have no idea who they are, but judging by their looks they should be at least a few years older.

I turn my head to the right and thrusting my hand with an empty mug, I say: “Please refill.”

After all this miracle liquid is the only thing that helps me to be calm in this situation where I’m completely surrounded with my back to the wall.

And I can clearly say that these few older women didn’t just come to simply say ‘hi’ because they have even brought a fucking barrel full of beer. In other words they do not intend to let me go that easily.

‘Haaa… What an irony… In my past life I always wanted to be popular with women. Who knew that dreams sometimes come true…’ I chuckled a bit in my heart, as I think this.

“Here.” I hear a rough voice from my right.

“Uh.. Thanks” I say taking a full, to the brim, mug with beer.

“Ha, ha, ha…Well I think being able to use magic is equally amazing as reaching a level 150 before the testing.” Says a bulky woman sitting on my left, as she looks straight at my eyes.

*Gulp*

*Gulp*

‘Ugh…’ Noticing that somewhat flirtatious look I drink a few mouthfuls of beer and for some reason remember my mother's advice to be careful.

Apparently females at my age are very, very competitive. To the point that they might even start fighting between each other, especially to get position of a first wife. This is quite understandable since male and female ratio is 1 to 2 and sometimes even 1 to 3.

“Maybe.” I answer her with an indifferent attitude.

“Asger for some time I was quite interested in that title: ‘Shadow killer’. What does it mean?” Anna asks me.

*Gulp*

*Burrpp!*

“Ugh.. Sorry! Anyway it means that a huge war is coming with a fate of this world on the line.” I answer her honestly. Clearly I’m getting more talkative.

As I look around I can notice a glint of excitement in each of their eyes.

‘God damn these barbaric women. Nooo… Scratch that. These barbaric men with some women parts, clearly love only three things in this world: a cold and strong beer, a fight to remember and of course a passionate sex.’ I think while looking at those fierce and massive figures surrounding me.

‘The problem is they are very open minded about sex, so they go at it like rabbits in a heat. Even now every darker alley will be filled with sounds of moaning.’ As I think this, a few shivers from disgust run through my body.

*Gulp*

I drink once more from my mug.

‘Seriously just because it’s impossible to have kids before the marriage and you have an option to be infertile whenever you want after, doesn’t mean one should go sleeping with everybody around…’ I slightly shake my head thinking this.

‘Well at least once married they settle down a bit, but those who are unmarried…Haaa… May God spare their souls… If my vigor has been activated by now I could literally point a finger at any of them and say: ‘You, let’s go.’ That’s all it takes to find someone to sleep with… Nahh… I guess it wouldn’t even come to it. They would have dragged me somewhere away from the prying eyes long ago…’ I’m starting to seriously worry about the next few years a bit.

“War? How can a title be connected with a war?” Asks Skur in a curious voice.

“Well then does anyone remember what the title description said?” I ask them back.

“Huh? I believe it was something about armies… And some kind of darkness…” Says the hulk sitting on my left.

“It said this: ‘armies will march, battles will be fought and innocents will die. For darkness is coming. So pick your weapons and fight for all that’s good.’ And I got this title after killing a wolf, which was possessed by some kind of shadow. Anyway I told about this to the Chief . Apparently his wife Gerd knew something about this, so long story short something big is going down in a near future.” I answer.

‘Boy, this really gets me talking.’ I think looking at the half empty mug again.

“Mmm…” After a moment of pause I continue speaking: “But don’t tell this to anybody else, since chief kept this to himself I guess he didn’t want to start a panic or something like that.”

“Don’t worry we won’t spread any rumors! You can trust us.” Says Anna and everyone around nods their heads in an agreement.

‘Ha, ha, ha… They even talk like men: ‘You can trust us’. So dependable… Ha, ha, ha…’ I laugh inside from this situation, as I take another sip from my mug…

About a week later I found out that pretty much all the people in town knew what’s coming. And everything I said during the festival became a public secret.

Yeah… Trust us… My ass…

In the end the whole town entered the state of a great excitement as if little children the last day before the Christmas. They started going around buying new weapons, armors and shields. What’s more after a town meeting it was even decided to build a new wall…

Well at least they kept things wrapped up, so that this knowledge wouldn’t reach the ears of the merchants or travelers from the Southern lands.

At first I fought that they don’t want to worry them or something, but it appears that they simply think that all the honor of fighting in this battle should belong to the North. Plus the weak humans would just get in the way.

Yeah.. Now I understand why Chief didn’t say a word about this before… It’s because these people have a too many screws loose in their heads!!!

I even heard some say: “Great Ancestors, I hope I won’t die from boredom before the fighting will start…”

“Seriously, I had to open my big mouth…”

== End of chapter 34 ==