Chapter 71

The fight was, underwhelming, to say the least. The only creature that could survive more than a minute of hunter toying with them was the one that came in second place, some sort of giant hell hog that sprayed acid out it’s rear end. The fight was mildly interesting, the smell however was awful.

After the fight I receive 25920 jaers, as there were one hundred and eight participants, in addition to many offers to purchase him, all such offers I declined.

Hunter offered his gratitude for the feast that had been laid out, which doesn’t surprise me as he had managed to consume the souls of every creature that died. He didn’t grow in strength much but every little bit counts. With that thought I tried offering him a soul stone but he rejected it with the image of rotten meat and watched with a look of disgust as I absorbed it.

With a brief exchange with Mathew and cath I retired to my room for the night, I wanted to spend more time absorbing soul stones, and hunter needs sleep. The night went by rather quickly for me, very little of note happened. for one i have absorbed roughly half of the soul stones I had purchased, and I feel like I am on the verge of some form of breakthrough, like I only need a small push in order achive something, I don’t know what.

Unfortunently morning came too soon, and I have duties to attend too today, Namely chosing the one hundred people that will undergo training on the mountain. I head to the dinning room at the request of a maid and eat breakfast quickly as, according to Mathew, cath has everything prepared for me already.

It doesn’t take long to find the location Mathew described, mostly because I had been there before many times, it was a makeshift training center that used to be a public gym. Apon entry I saw cath drilling some three hundred people. The moment that he saw me he ordered the men and women to stand at attention.

“so these are the ones you have chosen, I’m impressed by their disiplin. But that is not nearly enough.” Jack

“of course not, that’s why we train.” Cath

Smiling, I proced to walk down the rows of people, with hunter at my tail. I carfully look over them and anyone who particularly caught my eye I would instruct them to stand behind cath. By the end one hundred people were standing behind cath, and two hundred were standing in front of cath.

Gestering towards the two hundred I speak.

“you lot can leave, take the day off.” Jack

This is met with a combination of relief and disappointment from them. As well as a rising sense of anxiety from the one hundred people I chose.

“as for you, you are all coming with me. Pack your bags and be back here in three hours or you will be demoted.” Jack

They scurry off in a hurry, within half a minute cath and I are alone.

“so about how many people volunteered?” jack

“fifty percent, give or take a few.” Cath

“not bad, fancy a spar while we wait, I promise not to use any magic.” Jack

Without a word he unsheaths his rapier, which is obviously enchanted, and not naturally either. I take out a similar rapier, this one naturally enchanted.

He lunges at me without giving me a moment to ready myself, with a deft flick of the wrist deflect and swing my left fist straight into his face.

“fighting dirty already, jack?” cath

“fighting clean is no fun” jack

“I completely agree” cath

At that he throws a handful of sand at my face and lunges again. I turn my head, causeing the sand to miss my eyes, which leaves me open for attack. I grab the oncoming blade with my left hand, causing it to start bleeding, and thrust my rapier straight to the heart, only to have it hit something much more solid. Cath smirks and pulls a medal out of his breast pocket, with a fresh dent in it.

“first blood too me.” Cath

I disengage and whip my now bloodied palm off, the wound already starting to heal.

“I guess it is time to get serious.” Jack

This time I take the initiative and blink behind him, followed by a short thrust to the back, stopping just after piercing the skin

“you said no magic.” Cath

“that wasn’t magic, it’s an inherent racial ability, doesn’t even use up mana.” Jack

We continued to spar like that for around one and a half hours, which is how long it took for the slowest person to get back. He managed to win one in every three matches, from sparing with him I can tell that he is a hardened war veteran, obviously more accustomed to large fights with many participants, as opposed to smaller one on one fights. I can honestly say that I was impressed by his skill with a blade. After healing our small injuries I say my farewells to both cath and Mathew, who had shown up earlier.

I begin my trek towards my home, followed by one hundred individuals. We make excellent time as we spend twelve hours a day in a march, too tired to even complain by the end. As there is no cook and I don’t want to cook everyone eats standard rations.

While normally a trip on foot could take as long as a week, we make it there in less than 4, during this time I have tried to absorb soul stones, but I found it getting increasingly difficult, so much so that I only manage to absorb ten percent of the original amount more during this time.

Everything stayed clear of us as we marched, and hunter managed to do a lot of hunting as a result. Something about creatures running away instead of hiding makes it easier to find them, and he is definitely faster than most of the creatures around here.

I am greeted by the usual sprites and nymphs when we approach the mountain. To my surprise jacobe is with them, accompanied by a particular sprite. He has evolved into a high human, and is significantly stronger than when I left.

“hey, it’s been a while.” Jacobe

“damn boy, I don’t think I’ve ever seen her like someone so much.” Jack

When I say this the sprite sticks her toung out at me and giggles.

“I took your advice, and it worked. I won jasmine over alright.” Jacobe

“I’ll say” jasmine

After that brief exchange I decide to leave the two to their flirting and take new trainees up the mountain. It isn’t long before we arrive at the gates.

“well, here we are. Welcome to my home.” Jack

end chapter 71