Right... Been a long time since I posted a chapter and I am sorry for that. Not going to be making too much excuses as I technically could have kept writing but I really didn't feel like it anymore after I got home. Have spent the last weeks doing the work of three people in the time of one and that on a deadline. NOT fun. Even though I really like writing, writing wasn't exactly on my mind during the past few weeks.

Hopefully I don't get more projects like that, so I can keep posting (shitty) chapters.

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Not even an hour passed and Zaran already stood in front of the mayor's office, quietly waiting until he could enter. While he was waiting Zaran formed countless plans to convince the mayor to stop the pointless quest to annihilate the nayeran and hoped that one of them would be good enough to win the mayor over.

As long as the mayor of a city as big as Virul asked the mercenary guild to abandon the quest they would surely comply. After all they could not dare to offend a figure as mighty as the mayor of Virul.

After all, Virul was the tenth biggest city in Liberiu and thus the mayor of a city so big would not be lacking in connections. Even if the leader of the Virul branch of the mercenary guild was completely lacking a brain, he would definitely not be stupid enough to offend the mayor.

Still, Zaran had not yet been able to win over the mayor and he fully bet that the value the mayor placed on him was high enough to grant him this one significant favour. If the major granted him this favour Zaran would do everything within his power to repay him.

A few more minutes slipped away before the door to the mayor's office finally opened. The mayor wobbled out of his office and seemed very surprised to see Zaran standing there.

"Mister Zaran, why are you standing? You could've at least taken a seat! But it is good to see you! I heard you wished to urgently see me?" The mayor quickly said, grabbing Zaran's hands, giving him a firm handshake.

"Yes there's a matter of great importance to me that I wish to talk about. Actually it is more of a huge favour that I wish to ask of you. It concerns a quest of the mercenary guild." Honestly saying what he wanted to talk about, Zaran firmly shook the mayor's hand in return.

Opening the door and gesturing that Zaran should enter, the mayor nodded. "We'll discuss this inside."

Zaran quickly took seat and waited for the mayor to sit down. "So it is as follows: the mercenary guild previously had a quest that requested slaughtering the nayeran that habit mount Ergan. The guild under my leadership took up this quest and during the quest we figured out that the new nayeran king had killed the previous mercenary guild leader and taken his prized swords for himself. This turn of events caused the current mercenary guild leader to be outraged and as a result he posted the quest."

"While we were battling the nayeran after we figured out what happened, a revolt happened and six of the nayeran leaders revolted against their leader. In the ensueing fight, my guild and I were able to take down the leader alongside the revolting nayeran. The reason they revolted was that they were fed up with the senseless killing under command of their king. With the king gone and a new leader in place, my guild decided to set up a truce with the nayeran. After we set up the truce I went back to the leader of the mercenary guild and reported the status of the quest as complete and I recounted what happened."

"Figuring out that we had not killed the nayeran down to the very last one the guild leader was outraged at first but then decided that he'd give the nayeran a trial of three weeks. During these three weeks we had to take note of the nayeran's movements. We did so and nothing of note happened during the three weeks. The guild leader came over and considered the quest as complete and gave us a follow up quest. So at this point I thought all was well and that the nayeran could now live in their newfound peace without having to fear that they would be facing a genocide sooner or later."

"However... I was wrong. Just earlier today my guild and I fought of another guild that took up the quest we already completed. They were now the ones slaughtering the nayeran. Luckily I still had some troops in the area and they were able to hold the enemy guild back until the rest of us came and dealt with them."

The mayor frowned. "What is it you want me to do?"

"I wish for you to cancel the quest completely and prevent it from being ever executed in the future!"

Shaking his head, the mayor said. "I can't do that. I do not have the authorisation to cancel quests."

This time it was Zaran's turn to frown. "But can't you ask the mercenary guild leader to do so? Surely he won't refrain from cancelling the quest if you ask him to do so?"

"Technically I could, but then I would be owing the mercenary guild leader a favour and that would be a problem. Give that guy a hand and he'll take your whole arm."

"I see..." Zaran said a little dejectedly. "Is there any other way that we could force the quest to be cancelled? It is senseless slaughter after all..."

"Hmm... Let me see." The mayor pondered for a moment. A few moments later his eyes widened and he yelled. "Ah! How could I forget! There is also that way!"

Excited, Zaran yelled. "Quick, quick! What do I need to do?!?"

"I can force the quest to be cancelled! However I will require you to do two things in return! Because the way I can force the quest to be cancelled is to give you a personally signed mission by me that allows you to colonize the Ergan mountain! I am willing to do so, but you should understand that what I am giving you here is a huge opportunity and I can't just give it to you for free." The mayor slowed down and drank a few gulps of water before continueuing.

"Therefore I require the following two things of you. One, you will pay double taxes for the first year and two, you will teach my son how to really use the greatsword. Compared to your skills the teacher he currently has is an absolute beginner! Now, do you agree or not?"

Stroking his chin while he was deep in thought, Zaran carefully considered whether he should agree to this proposal. While teaching the mayor's son was not an issue, he would still need to come up with a way to deal with the taxes. He knew that the taxes for cities near the Virul area were neither high nor low, but they would still be quite significant if they were doubled.

A minute or two passed before Zaran came to the realization that there really was no other way. He sighed "I agree!"

A pleased smile appeared on the mayor's face. "Very good! Very good! We both get something we want now, no? My son gets to learn how to use a heavy sword by someone actually focused and skilled in using them, while you get to keep the nayeran safe."

"So, what is next?" Zaran said, impatient to get this show on the road. Time was truly ticking for the nayeran and he had no time to waste with any more pleasantries.

The mayor loudly clapped and hollered "I need someone to attend to me!"

A maid rushed into the office mere seconds later. "Sandy! Tell my son to visit my office PRONTO and that he will be extremely sorry if he's not here before I am done with my guest!"

The maid mumbled a quiet "Yes sir!" before running out of the office and off to the mayor's son's chambers.

Pleased with the speed at which the maid left, the mayor opened one of the various drawers on his desk and started rummaging through it. After a good minute he finally muttered an "AHA!" as he drew out a few documents from the drawer.

"Territory release form, owner rights, resource release form, resource rights, city building rights, guild branch establishing rights, ... that should be all yes? Yes that should be all." The mayor muttered to himself as he flipped through the documents and picked up his quill. Dipping it into the jar of ink, the mayor quickly started to fill in the required parts of the documents.

Ten minutes later, the mayor was finally done with filling in the documents and handed the quill to Zaran. "Please sign, here, here, here, here, here and here!" He said as he pointed to rectangles on the six different documents.

Zaran quickly signed the documents with his name and with each signed document a little notification appeared in Zaran's field of view, notifying him that he had gained territory, rights to resources, rights to establish guild branches and finally rights to establish a city within a five kilometer radius around the Ergan mountain.

"Good, very good! Now you are the proud owner of the territory in a five kilometer radius around the Ergan mountain! That should be plenty to both establish a tribe for the nayeran as well as allow your future city to have plenty of room for improvement. Now besides the territory release form and the resource release form that are for me, the other four documents now belong to you. Now I still need to draw up two more documents. One document to inform the mercenary guild leader that you now command that territory and that he is requested to open up a branch there ASAP and that any quests concerning the extermination of the nayeran should be cancelled as they are now citizens under the Virul banner. Another document we still need to draft up is the contract between you and me which stipulates that you will pay double taxes for the first year following the establishment of your city." Having said all that, the mayor took back the two documents that were his and started drafting the final two documents.

Another ten minutes passed and after having signed the two documents, the mayor and Zaran were left waiting for the mayor's son. A good minute passed before finally the door to the mayor's office slammed open, revealing an utterly exhausted crocodile man.

"Sorry for being late dad! I was out training with the knights, when suddenly the maid came over and told me I had to be here! I rushed here as fast as I could! Am I still on time?"

The mayor sighed. "You are too late but you ask if you are still on time? Ugh... I don't even... Anyway, Mubar, this man in front of you will be your heavy sword teacher. I expect you to follow him around and learn from him everything you can! I spared no small expense to have him teach you, so if I learn that you have been slacking you will be EXTREMELY sorry!"

Mubar looked at Zaran and sized him up. Seeing the Zuno in front of him, Mubar said with some disdain. "This guy is going to be my teacher? He doesn't look like he knows much about heavy swords!"

Zaran scoffed and looked at Mubar. Using his inspect skill he noticed that Mubar's level was relatively high as he was already over level 100. Besides that Mubar was also a three meter tall and extremely muscular crocodile man, so Zaran was sure he had the necessary strength to wield a heavy sword. However with Mubar's response to how he looked, Zaran already knew that behind those muscles was not too good of a brain. "As your new master let me give you one piece of advice. If you size up your enemies by how they look you will meet an untimely demise. You can't be THAT stupid right? On top of that you do know that we Zuno are absolute specialists in combat, yes?"

Mubar scratched his head. "Ofcourse I know that! But ..." He wanted to say 'But look at you!' and then realized that he could not use that line as that would prove that, yes, he was THAT stupid.

"Haha... Seems like your new master has already outsmarted you!" The mayor loudly laughed, before his face turned ugly and he barked. "BUT SON! HOW DARE YOU QUESTION MY DECISION ON YOUR TEACHER! If you know what is good for you, you will apologize immediately to your master!"

Mubar immediately dropped on his knees after his father's bout of anger. "I am sorry master! Please teach me the ways of the heavy sword!"

Zaran smiled, stood up and helped Mubar up. "Please don't kneel in front of me. If you are interested in the way of the heavy sword I will do all I can to teach you. Just don't show disdain towards me because I am a Zuno and I will teach you with all my heart."

"Th-thanks." Mubar said, trying his best to hide his disdain towards the Zuno.

"Shall I take my leave now, mayor?" Zaran asked, eager to go towards the mercenary guild and get the ridiculous quest stopped.