Since the Lord of the town was permanently stationed in Border Town, it had been a long time since he felt excited about a battle.
Shiba was far weaker than him, but his battle prowess was so impressive that it seemed to disregard it.
As soon as the Lord of the town stepped into the battle, the enlightened Shiba also changed his way to battle.
At that moment, there was only one opponent and one far stronger than him, so it wasn't the same situation as those guards.
After all, the Lord of the town was more than ten times stronger than Shiba.
When the battle started, the guards were left speechless.
It wasn't usual for them to see their boss battle, but what was more surprising was that Shiba didn't seem to lose against him.
However, he wasn't winning either. He was using the advantage of being able to fly to avoid all the attacks, attacking only when there was no chance to be hurt, but his attacks were useless on someone that strong.
"Great! This is great! Despite being weaker than me, you can face me for so long!"
He swore to protect Border Town, so he didn't have the chance to travel and face people at his level. Thus, he was having a lot of fun at that moment.
Fifteen minutes after they started to battle, Shiba flew higher before a bow materialized on his hand.
That bow was created from pure earth element without having any kind of physical support.
That was a skill difficult to learn at Mortal Rank, Earth Bow.
After creating the Earth Bow, a greenish arrow appeared on the other hand of Shiba. That was a complementary skill to Earth Bow, Wind Arrow.
That combo was one that made famous that elder in his young days.
Flying in the sky, Shiba started to shot arrows at the Lord of the town, who needed to wield his sword to deflect them.
"Archery paired with flying abilities, fearsome. Moreover, the bow and the arrows are created from the elements, so they are easily replaceable. He didn't need to worry by the limit of arrows nor for the bow breaking."
The more they battled, the more excited the Lord of the town was.
After half an hour, they remained repeating the same movements.
Usually, Shiba would have been exhausted long ago, but that was the energy from the enlightenment, not his own, so he was able to endure without problems.
At that moment, a lot of people were interested in the sounds of battle and the crazy laugh of the Lord of the town, but no one was allowed to enter the residence of the Lord of the town to investigate.
Even Eini, who was shut-in in her house, ended up leaving to check what was happening. She feared that she had been discovered, and the town was under assault, but once she reached the residence of the Lord of the town and sneaked in, she couldn't believe what she saw.
The Lord of the town being strong was one thing, but she couldn't believe that the naive guy that almost got scammed some days ago was that strong. She was sure that he was merely at level 3 when she whispered to him, but at that moment, he was obviously already at level 6. Three levels in such a short time was something difficult to believe, given the thin energy on the air in that area.
However, what really shocked her was Shiba's battle prowess. To be able to face the Lord of the town, he needed to have a battle prowess far surpassing his level.
"No, it seems that he is enlightened. This guy is really lucky."
She didn't know why Shiba was fighting against the Lord of the town, but since the guards were admitting the battle, it seemed that it was something agreed beforehand and not that they had a conflict.
"It seems that I worried too much. Anyway, it seems that I need to improve my archery. If I pair it with my flying skill, it can really be awesome."
Eini was inspired after seeing a bit of that battle. She wasn't that skilled in using Earth and Wind, but she was very skilled with fire. She just needed to buy a bow resistant to fire and use Fire Arrow instead of Wind Arrow.
"Well, at least, Eini has been motivated by this."
Lina sighed in relief, seeing that her sister finally was going to take the training more seriously.
As for the battle, she wasn't surprised. Since she knew the origin of the enlightenment, it was just natural that Shiba was that skilled while being in the enlightenment.
The Lord of the town and Shiba were still in a stalemate. Shiba was only shooting arrows, and the Lord of the town deflecting them.
There was no way Shiba would let himself enter in the range of the Lord of the town, and the latter couldn't do anything if Shiba was outside his range.
He wasn't skilled in long-range attacks, so he was forced to remain stopping and avoiding the arrows.
"I need to do something to change this situation."
The Lord of the town frowned and gathered all his strength to jump towards Shiba when he saw a gap through the attacks.
Reaching Shiba with just a jump wasn't possible, but if he neared enough, some of his skills could reach Shiba.
At the moment, when he used all his strength to jump, he felt as if something had broken inside him, and his aura surged from his body.
"I advanced to Rank 2. After so much effort, I finally reached the Apprentice Rank."
He couldn't believe that the bottleneck that had been bothering him for years was broken so easily.
He knew that if it wasn't for that battle against Shiba, he wouldn't have been able to advance without several more years of effort.
Just training in seclusion wasn't enough, it was also good facing opponents, but due to his position, he couldn't leave the town, and there wasn't anyone that could be his opponent there.
While he was excited, several arrows hit him, sending him back to the ground.
He was distracted by his breakthrough, so he forgot that he was jumping, and he couldn't avoid the arrows there.
Fortunately, those arrows couldn't provoke a lot of harm to him due to the difference in level and that they weren't meant to kill since they were training, but if that had been a real battle, that distraction could have been the reason for his death.
"I lost."
He was too prideful to continue battling after that. It was shameful having lost against a mere Level 6 Mortal, but since that had helped him to reach Rank 2, he didn't mind if it was shameful.
Moreover, he could feel that Shiba's enlightenment was about to end.
Those last arrows seemed like the last attack to decide the result.
Soon after, the Lord of the town spoke. Shiba descended to the ground, and the enlightenment finished.
Shiba had learned all the skills he used in that state, although his proficiency using them would be far lower than it had been in his enlightened state.
Moreover, he also reached the apprentice stage in archery. Although he had never used a bow before, just that enlightenment was enough to make him reach that level. Of course, the level Shiba used while being enlightened was far higher.
However, once the enlightenment finished, his body had overexerted itself by much, so he fell unconscious.
"Quick, bring some medicine to recover energy. He helped me to make a breakthrough that I have been waiting for years, nothing must happen to him."
Shiba was only exhausted, but the Lord of the town still wanted to give him the best treatment so he could recover quickly. At that moment, he didn't care about Shiba's background, just the fact that Shiba helped him to reach Rank 2 was more than enough to make the Lord of the town willing to do anything for him.
No one dared to disobey the words of the Lord of the town. In fact, by helping to make the Lord of the town stronger, Shiba had contributed a lot to the whole town.
It didn't matter the number of guards. In the end, if an existence surpassing the Mortal Rank appeared, only the Lord of the town could face it.
Thus, the stronger the Lord of the town was, the better for all the people on Border Town.
Moreover, given how strong Shiba was while being enlightened, everyone who saw it knew that he could become another existence capable of surpassing the Mortal Rank, which also made him extremely valuable for them.
The Lord of the town didn't think that Shiba would remain all of his life in that town, but even in that case, as long as Shiba became strong someday, just the fact that he once became a member of their town would be more than enough to act as a deterrence.
There weren't powerful beasts in the surroundings. None of them could face someone at Rank 2.
However, they couldn't discard that thieves or bandits would someday attack the town.
The town wasn't too valuable, but it was in a border area, so it could be used to exploit taxes from people passing from the mainland to the arid zone.
Of course, Border Town was backed by the country, so it was difficult that they were attacked, but if someone was powerful enough, the country might just ignore a change of leadership in Border Town.
There were several towns called Border Town connected with the arid zone, but each of them belonged to a different country, so even if one had issues, the others wouldn't help at all.
Thus, the strength of the Lord of the town was critical to ensure safety, and everyone knew that their Border Town was the weakest due to their Lord of the town remaining at Rank 1. If someone wanted to obtain one of those towns, their own town would be the easiest choice.
However, after reaching Rank 2, their status would improve quite a bit. Although they weren't the strongest, there were other towns similar to them, so they weren't the weakest by far like before.