Looking into the mirror, it certainly does show how much I have age even after 6 days of residing here. My stub have grown, the shaved clean face during the time I have arrived was now long gone. In front of the mirror was only a man with a disgruntled face. If I have known this I should have brought a few spare shavers, it would certainly come in handy. Leaving that aside, I guess I should prepare myself for the training with Bra then.

Packing a few things like clothes and foods, he then prepared himself before embarking to the training location. Walking through the corridor, he met a few maids here and there but still their attitude was the same as before. Only the King’s attendant who was really interested and concern about him nevertheless it must be due to the King’s order. Trying not to really care about it, he occupied himself by starting his spamming skill training. Mumbling the spell to himself, he then arrives at the front courtyard. There he saw a group of people gathering around in a circle, it was mostly consist of soldiers and knights. Approaching toward the group, Red could hear the sound of metal clashing as he getting nearer.

In front of him was a spectacle that was truly aspiring, with razor sharp movement and fully concentrated attack, it was a bout between Aaron and an old looking man that clearly resemble the Royal Guard captain. He never really knew the captain but from Bra opinion he was a man of valor and has a high battle prowess, his name was Sir Harkron. Astonished by the highly intense fight, he cast away his deep grudge to Aaron and appreciate the high quality sword sparring. Among the spectators, shout of encouragement toward the Hero and the captain could be heard.

With Red’s keen eye, he could see a few of them tossing money around toward certain people; he can clearly smell the betting scene that was ingrained to these people mindset. Discerning if it’s wise to join in the fun, a scenario in which Aaron losing came to his mind. The sight of the arrogant Aaron drop to his knee would totally elevate his mood for today. But contrary to his wishful thoughts, Aaron was fighting on par with the Royal Guard captain. Both of them are neither showing signs of retreating. The captain was wielding a sword and shield while Aaron true to his class was wielding a large claymore. The size of it was unusually larger than the normal size claymore, Red guess that Aaron probably favors brute strength rather than magic power. Again he was wrong all over.

As Aaron’s claymore clash with captain’s shield, a halt between them took place. At the center they were competing through pure strength, Aaron with his high STR status easily overpowered the captain, but then the captain retaliates. Falling back due to the strength of Aaron, he redirected the power of the strike to the ground using his shield as a medium. Striking the ground a hole was made due to the immense power of the strike; with the sword stuck to the ground the captain make his move. With a glow from his shield, he shouted

‘Shield Bash!’

The shield strike to Aaron’s face, thou it wasn’t strong enough it manages to stagger Aaron. With the unmovable Aaron, the captain releases another attack. The sword glows in yellow hue, it was a sign for another skill to be unleashed.

‘Sword strike’

With the strike intended to kill, it was close to shaving off Aaron’s neck. Red wonder if this was really a sparring match to begin with. In that mere second before the sword hit, Aaron block it with his right arm while shouting;

‘Earth’s skin’

A loud clang can be heard after the arm clash with the sword. After debris of earth scattered around, Red saw the sword was lodged into Aaron’s arm but more precisely to be a layer of earth that was made to act as a shield. With his left arm expose, he quickly raised it and directed it toward the captain. The captain sensing a dire situation, release the sword and brace himself from the incoming attack from Aaron. Spell rings manifest around his left arm as he mumbles the incantation, with a grin he shout;

‘let him burn, fireball!!’

A large fireball was released from his left arm, the speed of the fireball was so fast that the captain could only managed to avoid it a little while receiving spell damaged at his body left side. His armor was blackish due to the damage of the fireball. His expose left hand was quite burn, Red doesn’t really care about the captain but this match was certainly a true death fight situation. With the captain dropping to his knee while huffing heavy breathing, only one word release from his mouth

‘I concede’

The crowd cheers for Aaron winning while some of the spectators rush to captain’s side to aid him. The captain pushes the helps from other as he desperately tries to stand and walk towards Aaron. The cheers then turn silent, on the spectators mind it was probably how the captain have a grudge of losing to the Hero. But opposite to their expectation, the captain raised Aaron’s arm and declare

‘Cheers to our hero, Aaron the one who will save us all the hero of claymore!!!’

Replying to the captain’s declaration, the crowds cheer together. Amidst of the cheering, Aaron kindly said to the captain;

‘sorry for being too rough on you captain’

‘hey don’t be sorry, didn’t I say we should fight seriously’

‘yes but..’

‘no buts since you came here my fighting spirit is increasing high these days, I think my skill is improving too alongside your training, in other words you acts as a motivation for me’

‘thank you captain it was all thanks to your teaching that I can fight like that’

‘heh put a cork on that mouth of yours, I only teach you a little these days im gonna make a new technique to defeat you hehe’

‘I will be looking forward for it captain, but first shouldn’t you be heading to the infirmary first and treating that burn’

‘Don’t worry about it, I will go later. Since the spar is over I will see you this evening for our last part of training don’t be late’

‘Yes captain’

As the captain leaves to the infirmary, the crowds flock around Aaron hoping for some teachings from their hero. Annoy by the scene in front of him, Red was really not feeling good seeing their close bond camaraderie. Before he starts cursing, he left the front yard heading to the stable.

Galloping through the plains of Loredon, his mind wander as he thought about how powerful Aaron has become just by using sword and a wide range of magic that consist offense and defense, for one thing his arrogance wasn’t baseless. Backup by his high status and skill, it certainly makes up for it for his bad attitude. Determine by the size and power of Aaron’s fireball he deduced that it was probably intermediate level. It was certainly preposterous how much of a cheat he is. Red could only curse himself for not being able to use the main elemental magic, despite that even during riding the horse, he still continue his skill spamming training. For sometimes now, a blue box is blinking at the corner of his eyes; it must be alerting him to changes of status or skill. But he just ignore it, it would be hassle if he was excited about a mere level up. Right now what he needed was fighting experience to make up for his lacks of status and skills.

Riding through the wind, a four way junction was up in front. Beside the road was an open caravan, thought it was interesting Red took a stop for a while. Pulling the rein, the horse slowly halts its movement. Eyeing the inside of the caravan, he could see different type of glass jars with different type of liquids in it, some of them even have herbs and small animal in it. Red expresses a grotesque face after seeing those things in the container. On the back wall of the caravan hung multiple type of bow and arrows, it seems that this is caravan exclusively caters for those bow wielders. Rubbing his chin he then glances inside of the caravan looking for the owner of this establishment. Sadly for him there was no one there, it was certainly weird leaving a caravan full of goods like this.

As he loiters around the caravan, something flew through the wind. Noticing something from the glassware’s reflection, he nearly dodged it by a hair breadth. Falling his body sideway, the arrow managed to graze his left cheek. Dropping to the ground, he then frantically search for the source of the attack. Taking cover behind the caravan, he then takes time catching his breath from the surprised attack. Unsheathing his sword, he prepares himself for another attack.

After 10 minutes of silence, an arrow was lodged into the wall of the caravan right next to his head. It seems the archer has changed his location. No wonder there was a moment of silence, with no time to lose, he then move again back to the other side of the caravan. But to his dismay, an arrow easily flew from the same direction from before. With his paranoid like reflex he instantly blocks it by using the sword blade as a shield for his head. A hard sound of metal clashing can be heard between the arrow and the sword. The aim just now was Red’s head, the accuracy was spot on it was really meant to kill. His mind was now in disarray, the block just now was only a fluke he doesn’t know if he could block the next arrow. Rapidly thinking the next course of action, he hastily run away from the caravan heading to the forest.

Red’s monologue;

Fuck this situation; I only want to take a glance. Huh~ (taking a deep breath) let’s think this through, one on the other side and another one on the other side, there’s a slight chance there were more than two of them. Let’s see what should I do—

With his back against a tree, another arrow was shot up hitting the tree in front of him. Taking too much time he prepares himself. Chanting the incantation one by one, he cast his support spell;

‘extensus velocitas’

‘Hawk Eye’

Going out to the plain across the caravan, his eyes search through the forest looking for the enemy. With an increased in distance for his eye sight, he found the perpetrator that can only be seen as shadow from the far distance. The shadow quietly pulls its bow string to release another arrow. Rushing to the enemy, the arrow then flew straight to Red’s direction. With a slight boost in his speed, he managed to avoid it unscathed. The shadow was now flustered seeing the ability of the man that was heading to it. Arrow after arrow was now released in a rapid speed but he successfully dodged it. With the distanced between them shorten, Red dash forward preparing to strike the enemy down.

Now the enemy was just in front of him, the enemy’s bow was drawn fully ready to bring down Red to the ground. Just before the arrow was released, Red swings his sword and cut the bow into half immobilizing the enemy attempt to attack him. Preparing his next move, Red quickly swings his sword aiming at the shadow’s body. But then his nerve struck him down, in front of him was a girl with her eyes tearing. His attempt to attack came to a fault; his fear of murdering someone took upon his body causing him to freeze on the spot. Then a loud voice could be heard from afar;

‘Don’t you dare touch my sister!!’

Running from the other side of the forest was a young boy holding a bow toward Red location. With a scream, he jumps toward Red who was frozen in front of his little sister. Red still unable to move due to his nervous breakdown was left unguarded. Moment before being hit by the bow wielding young boy, his mind snap out and thanks to the speed buff he managed to avoid it. As the boy attempt fail, he then clumsily crash to the ground exposing his back to Red. Taking no chances, Red kick him from the back making him scream in pain. Poor little boy, afterwards Red grab the young boy and bound him with a rope cuffing him at both hands and feet. The same thing happens to his sister except for the kicking part, due to her willingness she was much easier to handle.

Setting them aside together side by side, Red was in front of them displaying a stern face. Since they are both kids he should show a certain degree of harshness for them not to trifles with adults such as Red. Staring at both of them, he walks slowly toward them. The kids were now trembling in fear afraid of the things that will happen by the man that capture them. Unconsciously the boy cursed at Red due to the overwhelming fear engulfing him;

‘Fuck off you bandit!!! Give me back my master!!’

Annoy by the brat loud screaming, Red slowly give a hard flick at his forehead. The sequence repeated for God knows how many times it is. The brat screaming about bandit and master and he flick his forehead, he screams again about the unfair treatment he flick him again and at one time even before the brat could scream his forehead was already being flicked. After a while the brat stop producing any sound, not a hint of his voiced could be heard anymore. Red was already exhausting him with the countless forehead flickering torture. With the situation calming down, he then start to talk to the more composed sibling, the girl.

‘hey you girl, since im irritated right now answer my question honestly you got it?’

The girl only nod slowly, the boy on the other hand was just looking at Red with a dead tired eyes.

‘first why the hell do you attack me?’

With a silence pause for a while, the girl took her time before answering him

‘Umm brother said that if the bandit comes back we should take revenge on master'

The boy try to retort back to her statement but Red with his godly speed flickering technique managed to shut him up again

‘I see, I guess that’s a reasonable reason for attacking me but still it wasn’t really polite to attack a stranger, what if im not the bandit wouldn’t it be you are the one at fault’

She could only agree with a slight nod, the brother at her side also express a complex face. Both of them are probably repenting for the rash decision that they have made.

Making a sigh because of the reaction of both of them, he then proceeds with another question;

‘Okay so what happen to this master of yours?’

Hesitating to tell Red, after a few exchanges of glances between the siblings, she then told him regarding their circumstances. The details of their explanation was as such, they both went for an errand task by their master to a nearby villages but when getting back to the caravan they then see a horrific scene. Hiding by the bushes they witness their master being hit and kick all over his body by a group of men that wore the insignia of a notorious mountain bandit gang, The Gala Crushers. Not being able to move during their master being attack, they regret their action of not even trying to help him. They were telling the story while crying their tears out.

The story continues with their master being dragged away into a wagon heading to the Mountain of Ysmir. The odd thing was none of his goods was taken during the supposedly bandit raid. Seeing the two kids bawling in front of him, he wonders if it’s okay to do a side quest first before going to training. Contemplating over it, he then decided that maybe saving their master would prove to be a good step on how to measure his capability and overcoming his weakness of death. With a grin on his face, he releases both of them from their restraint and said to them;

‘come on, we need to save your master right’