Shiba didn't expect that the Lord of the town would suddenly offer to help him with anything he needed.
However, he wasn't stupid. It was obvious that the Lord of the town was scared by the power of his master and wanted to be on his good side. His master was reincarnating, so he couldn't pose any immediate threat, but Shiba believed that it was just a matter of time that Master Liye reincarnated and recovered his power, so it was still intelligent trying to be on the good side of his disciple.
Seeing how wise the Lord of the town was, Shiba decided to speak about his problem.
"The truth is that I was looking for a spatial artifact. When hunting beasts, it is a problem having to carry them back when they are big."
Shiba didn't feel that the Lord of the town would gift him the spatial ring he had, but Shiba would be alright with just borrowing it when going to hunt.
After all, the Lord of the town usually didn't leave the town, so Shiba believed that he didn't use it too much.
"Spatial artifact?"
The face of the man turned ugly. He didn't expect that Shiba would ask something like that.
He felt that probably things like spatial artifacts were common from the place Shiba came, so he didn't know how rare they were in Border Town.
However, the other party had a powerful being behind him, and the Lord of the town could barely guess Shiba's situation.
He felt that Shiba was in a kind of trial where his seniors couldn't help him directly.
Thus, it was logical that Shiba didn't own powerful artifacts and didn't even have a spatial artifact. It also aligned with having that powerful being speaking to him.
He felt that it was obvious that the Law God was ordering him to aid Shiba.
Based on his guess, if Shiba was really about to die, that powerful existence would appear and help. However, in that case, he feared that the whole town would disappear in the process.
Although the Lord of the town confused Shiba with Eini, he got the point Lina wanted to transmit. She really was capable of destroying the town if she was forced to act to save Eini's life.
"I have another spatial ring. I can gift it to you. However, you need to take care of it."
The man walked to his desktop and picked a worn ring from it.
By the looks, it was extremely old, and obviously, it wasn't preserved in good conditions.
When Shiba saw it, he felt that it was just an old ring that the Lord of the town replaced but didn't want to throw away.
However, the Lord of the town had never dared to use that ring.
He had dug out that ring from the arid zone when he was young, but once seeing the space it had, he didn't dare to wear it and even less use it.
Although that spatial ring was damaged, its quality was still far superior to the one the Lord of the town had.
With his power and background, exposing something like that was suicidal. Of course, it wasn't easy that someone recognized the value of the ring at first sight, but the Lord of the town never dared to test his luck. Having a treasure without enough power was just asking for problems. Anyway, he already had the other one, so he wasn't in desperate need of one to take the risk.
However, since Shiba had a powerful expert behind him, even in the worst situation, the Lord of the town was confident that he wouldn't be in danger of dying.
Moreover, since he was gifting the ancient ring to Shiba, he felt that the powerful being wouldn't harm Border Town as long as Border Town wasn't the reason for Shiba being harmed.
"I can't accept such a valuable gift. Give me the price, and I will work hard to buy it."
Hearing Shiba's words, the Lord of the town felt that his guess that Shiba believed that spatial rings were common was true.
There was no way Shiba got enough money to buy one just by hunting beasts. In Border Town, a single spatial ring was already priceless, but that ancient ring was even more valuable.
"There is no need for money. Do you think I need any money? I am the Lord of the town and the guild master of the Beast Hunter Guild, so I have lots of money. If you want to pay me, just show me how did you kill those two beasts. I don't need anything else."
He needed to insist on Shiba accepting the gift. If he were to really ask for money or refuse to give Shiba that ancient ring, he feared the reaction of the Law God.
In fact, he felt that maybe the Law God was aiming at Shiba getting that ancient ring. It wasn't something that the Lord of the town was qualified to have from the beginning, so he didn't mind giving it to someone with a strong background.
Asking for how he defeated the beasts was just to make Shiba feel that he was giving something in exchange, so he was buying the ancient spatial ring.
"That works? Is really that valuable how I did it?"
Shiba really had a hard time beating the two beasts, but he didn't think that the method was as valuable as a spatial ring, even if it was an old one.
"Of course! Knowing your method will help other beast hunters in the same situation. The combination of those two beasts is fearsome for even people stronger than you, so the information is very valuable."
Despite what he said, the truth was that he believed that information was worthless. He was curious about it, but he didn't believe that someone else would be able to replicate the method.
He knew that Shiba reached the expert stage in swordsmanship in the battle, but just that was already almost impossible for those at Shiba's level.
Those in Border Town that had reached the expert stage in swordsmanship were usually Level 9 Mortals that focused on swordsmanship due to not being able to advance more due to being too old for it. For people like them, beating those two beasts wasn't a problem at all, so they didn't need to know how Shiba did it.
Hearing the words of the Lord of the town, Shiba was convinced.
He wielded his two swords and executed Wind Blade in one sword and Earth Blade on the other.
Then, he tried to replicate his moves imagining that the beasts were attacking him. He had battled them for so many hours, that he could do it with quite a high precision.
"Impressive. To be able to use two different styles simultaneously when your life was at risk, no wonder you advanced to the expert stage at the end. This level of concentration is difficult to achieve even for people older than you."
That wasn't just a matter of swordsmanship anymore. One needed a resolute mind to be able to endure in a concentrated state so much time. The concentration needed to use two different styles simultaneously was enormous, and even more so when a single mistake was certain death.
"Thank you."
Shiba felt that the Lord of the town was just being polite, but he thanked him anyway.
"Take this ring. I hope it can help you."
The Lord of the town threw the ancient spatial ring to Shiba.
He didn't dare to go near Shiba for fear that the Law God would think that he had bad intentions toward Shiba.
After all, with their difference of strength, killing Shiba was too easy for him. Thus, he feared that the law God would decide to kill him just for precaution if he seemed to put Shiba in danger.
However, he was underestimating Lina, she could kill him before he could kill Shiba even if both were close to each other. Moreover, there was no way she didn't notice that someone had intentions to kill Shiba.
With Lina around, even if someone were to destroy the town in one hit, Shiba and Eini would still remain unharmed.
"Thank you very much. I will make good use of it."
Putting the ancient ring in his hand, he was about to ask how to use it when the system displayed the instructions.
With the system's direction, it was easy for Shiba to put his backpack inside the storage ring.
The swords remained at his waist since he wasn't confident in taking them out quickly if there was an emergency. However, the backpack was limiting him in battle, so it was far better to have it stored on the spatial ring.
Anyway, he saw that the spatial ring had so much space inside that he couldn't estimate its total size, so he didn't mind about the backpack using a bit of the space.
Seeing how Shiba quickly operated the spatial ring without issues, the Lord of the town felt that Shiba had obviously used a spatial artifact before.
"To think that he would even get that ancient spatial ring. It isn't that valuable for someone like me, but it is probably the best available on the planet despite being damaged. The one Eini stole from that young master is garbage compared to this one."
Far before going to Border Town, Eini got in a conflict with a young master of a powerful family of the planet. She was so angry that she infiltrated that young master's room and stole the spatial ring that his grandfather had just given to him.
Lina sighed when thinking about her sister's temper. She didn't like to be noticed by others, but she still liked to stir trouble everywhere.