Mike looked at the shortsword in the display case as he felt its intense thirst for blood for sometime until he gave a sigh
'What am I thinking? I already have the knife so why should I buy another weapon..? Well I guess having a reserve isn't too bad…'
Mike inspected the shortsword, it was about 80 centimeters long in total with a blade that measured about 60 centimeters, so the blade was about double the length of the blade on the knife, it looked like it was made of one part steel that went from the blade all the way down the handle with two pieces of wood that was filed down on the sides of the handle with the steel core that went all the way down to a blunt tip
"Can I help you with something young man?"
Mike gave a nod without turning around and asked
"Do you mind if I hold this one? I would like to check how the grip feels"
"Sure, one moment I'll go get the key for the display case"
Mike heard the footsteps walk away from him as he went back to observing the shortsword and feeling it's intense thirst for blood but soon he was interrupted by the same footsteps that returned, Mike took a step back from the display case as a middle aged man unlocked it with a key and picked up the shortsword before he faced Mike and looked him over once
"What?"
"Nothing just remembering what you look like in case you run off as soon as I hand you this shortsword"
"I see…"
Mike received the shortsword from the middle aged man, when he gripped it he felt a weird sensation, as if the thirst for blood was being drained into him. Suddenly Mike begun spinning the shortsword around like he usually did with the knife before he grabbed it by the hilt in a reverse grip before he gave a nod and asked the middle aged man
"How much?"
"Hmm… 400"
"How about 350?"
"Deal"
Mike gave a nod, he could feel the thirst for blood from the shortsword slowly drain into him, which he assumed to be a good thing, but he also knew that according to how long it was taking he would need about a day to absorb it fully and there was no way he could stand around in the shop holding the shortsword for a whole day was there?
"You right, do you have any whetstones?"
"Sure, 50 for one"
"Here you go… 400 in total"
"Thanks for your purchase"
Mike walked out of the blacksmith and over to a nearby leatherworking shop and brought a sheath for the shortsword for 50, so all in all he had spent 450 on the shortsword
"I sure hope this is worth it…"
Mike gave a sigh and decided to go goblin hunting again to make a dent in that 100.000 experience he need to reach level 3 and become a rather big fish in the pound known as Morkove…
"Should be around here…"
In a forest, a group of temple knights were on an escort mission, the person they were escorting was an old man in his 60's but despite his age he was full of vigor, he was after all a [Mage] a genuine level 3, the old man was holding a crystal that glowed softly as they moved through the forest. After they had walked for a few hours the crystal suddenly began shining brightly followed by the old [Mage]'s creepy laugh
"Kekekekeke! I knew it was around here!"
The old [Mage] was ecstatic when he first had observed the spatial tear from his mage tower he was in half doubt if it was really true, but now that he stood here he was sure, space had really been tron
"Bring my stuff, I need to perform some experiments!"
"Yes at once lord Casper"
The temple knights quickly and carefully unloaded the delicate equipment from the beast that were carrying it and brought it over to stand on the forest floor where the [Mage] commanded it and after half an hour of work the temple knights were done with setting up the equipment and the [Mage] began his experiments, working for a few hours the day gradually grew dark.
Just as the knights were finished making camp the [Mage] suddenly let out a creepy laugh again before he began chanting an incarnation in a foreign language while he held out a crystal of pure mana while the research equipment lit up as the [Mage] commanded it with his spell, gradually the center crystal began lighting up and projected an image that seemed to the area of the forest they were standing while rewinding backwards at a fast pace until it began to slow down until it stopped as a red light shone out from the crystal for a moment and a youth appeared on the projection, the youth seemed confused and looked around before he walked out of the image and the [Mage] mumbled
"This is worse than I thought…"
The [Paladin] that led the expedition stood besides the [Mage] and asked
"Was the experiment a success lord Casper?"
The old [Mage] gave a nod
"It was a spatial tear like I suspected, but something, no someone came through… It's most likely a demon of some kind…"
The [Paladin] widened his eyes as his gaze turned serious
"...How long ago was it that it came through?"
"Hmm… I can't really be sure but about a week, there about anyway"
"Understood, I'll inform the tem---"
"Wait just a moment… Say could you do me favour?"
"...What is it?"
"Could you wait with reporting to the temple?"
"And why would I do that?"
"Because a demon is just the type of ingredient I have been looking for… It might even help me reaching level 4"
"I understand… Well in that case we can only use what we got with us in terms of troops, what should we do next lord Casper?"
"Hmm… Is there any cities around here there had been vampire sightings?"
"And that's it for today… Let's head back"
Mike had just finished his goblin hunt, 24 green skins had left the mortal plane and been returned to the wheel under Mike's knife, he had also tried out the shortsword a bit but it didn't really feel right to use it instead of the knife, as Mike walked back towards Morkove he was suddenly stopped by a group of four adventures that wore unpleasant expressions as they looked at Mike like he was prey, there were three men and one woman
"What do you guys want?"
"Well it's simple, give us half your harvest and we'll let you pass"
Mike gave a sigh, to think the security in this world was so bad, but even though there were four of them the pressure he felt from them was less than the pressure he had felt from the two men last time, most likely they were all level 1 so Mike gave a smile and dropped his backpack before he spoke
"You guys really should pick your targets better, oh well this works out for me too… Its tired of goblin blood you see"
Mike drew out the knife and kicked off the ground, this made the four adventures panic slightly
"Wait hold o---"
"The first one"
Mike moved with a speed they were unable to follow as he slashed the next of the first adventure
"He killed Kevlin, get hi---"
"Second one"
Mike's shortsword flew through the air and hit one of the three remaining adventures right in the middle of the forehead and since Mike had sharpened it the shortsword was instantly buried to the hilt before the guard knocked against the head of the adventure and carved in his skull slightly
"Shit he's level 2!"
"Run!"
Mike saw the two remaining adventures that fled in opposite directions and gave a sigh before he threw the knife after the woman hitting her in the back of the head before he ran after and quickly caught up with the man and knocked him down, sitting on his back Mike opened his hand as he hummed a tune and the knife came flying over before he stabbed it right into the pleading adventure making him go limp before Mike pulled out the knife again and while he hummed he drained the blood of the four adventures and lit their corpses on fire with a piece of igniter paper and watched them burn for a bit
"Now let's see here…"
Mike looked through their luggage taking the valuables before he threw the rest on the fire and left while humming the same tune he had been when he murdered them in cold blood…
As Mike passed the gates of Morkove he suddenly had a bad feeling and looked around but failed to spot anything amiss so he just gave a shrug and kept walking, unbeknownst to Mike a guard held up a poster and compared it to him as he passed the gate and gave a nod before he spoke to another guard
"It's him, send word"