"Indeed, the battle that our town will face seems difficult. However, it is better to not speak of the details here. Returning to the main topic, how many swords can you carry with you? I understand that having spare ones is necessary since a failure could harm the whole town, but after gauging your strength and body, at most, you can carry a couple of spare ones, and that is if they aren't too big."
Although the matter of the Soul-eating eagles was suppressed, the Lord of the town obtained them from someone who came from outside, so it wasn't difficult for the boss of the shop to have discovered the truth. He had sent people to investigate the matter thoroughly, and he had already obtained the news.
"I have a spatial ring, so I can carry as many as I want."
If Shiba didn't have the spatial ring, he would really be restricted by the number of swords he could carry, but since he had it, he wanted as many as possible.
After all, the enemies were superior in number and three levels higher than him. In that situation, he could believe that his swords would fall quite frequently.
If the Soul-eating eagles increased their level before appearing, it would be even easier to lose his weapons.
Thus, although he knew that his demands would make the Lord of the town use a lot of money, he was really thinking about the well-being of the town by being cautious.
A couple of beasts a level higher than him were already incredibly difficult when he was assaulted by them when he was still a level 3 Mortal. However, that time, the numbers were higher than two, and they were three levels higher, so Shiba didn't dare to underestimate them.
"A spatial ring? I see, to think that there will be three spatial rings in the town. All my life, I thought that only the Lord of the town had one, and in less than a month, two more appeared. You don't know how jealous I am of you."
He had yet to receive the notice about Shiba having one since he had yet to hear the report about the Beast Hunter Guild of the previous day, but he already knew that the Lord of the town and Eini had one spatial ring each.
Of course, he had met the Lord of the town before, and he was sure that Shiba's ring wasn't the same. Moreover, based on descriptions, Eini's ring was also different from the other two, so they were three different spatial rings.
Usually, he would have heard all the information recollected by his subordinates the previous morning, but with the sudden alarm generated by the Lord of the town, he had them focus on the news about the emergency and forgot completely about the reports of the previous day.
As a merchant, he liked to be properly informed of the last news regarding the Beast Hunter Guild because usually, his customers were all famous beast hunters of the town.
As for the matter of the spatial ring, he was really jealous. If he had one when he was young, he would have been able to hunt with far more ease. However, he knew that even if he obtained more money back then, he would have failed anyway.
There weren't resources he couldn't buy, so it had been a problem with his talent not being enough. of course, if he had been in an area with better resources and more energy on the air, he would have succeeded.
However, going from their town to the nearest town with better resources was far too dangerous given the beast that lived there, so people seldom tried to go.
Any town that they could reach easily wasn't better than Border Town. Even if the energy of the air was a bit richer, the danger was also far greater, so it wasn't considered a great choice.
Of course, it was only dangerous for an ordinary person at the Mortal Rank. Although there was a hazardous area with Rank 1 and Rank 2 beasts, none of them could fly, so as long as one was strong enough or had a flying skill, it wasn't a problem crossing it.
There were also people that braved through those areas betting their luck, and some succeeded, but the number was quite low, and living there, it was also quite difficult since there were far more people having reached Rank 1.
Level 9 Mortals were considered the pinnacle on border town since only the Lord of the tows surpassed that level, but in other areas, they were just too weak.
"Boss, I brought several types of sword. They are all of the best quality."
The people working in that shop knew what to do without their boss asking them to do it, so once Shiba asked about different types of swords, they rushed to pick one of each type for Shiba to try.
"Young friend, feel free to try them."
Usually, he wouldn't let the customers try the weapons freely before paying for them, but when the one buying was someone with fame, he allowed them to do it.
He just didn't want inexperienced people to be playing with weapons there, but as someone recognized by the Lord of the town, the boss believed that Shiba should be quite proficient.
"So many types, although some are quite similar to each other."
Even though some differences were small, for swordsmen, those small differences could make a difference, so they have brought literally one of each type they had.
Shiba started to pick and tried using them.
"Expert stage. No wonder the Lord of the town is impressed with you."
He didn't expect that a boy who should barely be thirteen years old could have reached that level of expertise. Although there were rumors about it, there were rumors about many things, including that Shiba was the illegitimate son of the Lord of the town, so there was no way he could believe them all.
The boss himself never managed to reach that stage before retiring despite having been quite proficient with the sword.
"This one is quite heavy."
Wielding a sword that was bigger than the rest, Shiba couldn't avoid commenting about it.
"Can I execute a skill to test the compatibility?"
He felt that the sword would complement well with Earth Blade since it was a skill focused on pure strength. On the other hand, that sword didn't look suited for Wind Blade.
"Execute a skill?"
The boss didn't know what Shiba was thinking of wanting to use a skill there. Skills were usually offensive, so he could destroy the shop if he were to lose control.
"If he breaks something, we will pay for it. Let him test the skill."
Knowing the worries of the boss of the shop, the leader of the guards spoke.
"Alright."
Since even the leader of the guards was asking for it, the boss of the shop felt that there should be a good reason, and even if something broke, he believed that the Lord of the town would pay for it later.
"Thank you very much. Don't worry, I won't break anything."
Although skills were usually offensive like a set of strikes, Shiba's skills were all different, so unless Shiba attacked, there was no risk in using them.
At the next moment, Shiba had already activated Earth Blade covering the sword.
"Perfect! Give me this one, and fifty more of this type."
The boss of the shop was shocked by the exceptional element control of Shiba and knew why he wanted to test the skill. Although the boss knew about the skills of that type, they were far rarer, so he didn't think that Shiba had one of those.
However, he was even more shocked by the number Shiba asked. Even with a discount, each sword was still worthy of a gold coin.
Of course, those swords could easily harm even a Level 9 Beast, so the price was deserved.
Although Shiba's request was somewhat crazy, given the situation, the town was facing, wanting so many swords of that category didn't seem that strange.
Moreover, the guard leader hadn't spoken about it, so it seemed that there was no problem paying for those swords.
Of course, Shiba didn't know the prices of the swords, so he just asked to estimate a safe number to not be lacking on sword even in the worst situation.
After finishing to try that sword, he picked up one that was far different.
It wasn't too big, but the blade was slightly curved, and it looked extremely sharp.
"Young friend, this one is very sharp, but it is too light, it wouldn't work well with your skill."
As a weapon made to be sharp and fast, it didn't suit a skill that seemed to be based on pure power and heaviness.
"Oh, this is for a different skill."
While speaking, Shiba activates Wind Blade.
"As expected, this kind of sword suits this skill better. Please the same as with the other one."
Earth Blade and Wind Blade were his two skills for battling with swords, so he wanted to have swords for each of them.
The boss was utterly shocked by Shiba's words, but also for the skill. After all, the nature of that skill was opposed to the other one. Usually, people tended to focus on one style, so it was strange seeing someone with two styles.
Training two styles instead of focus on one seemed a waste of time from the point of view of the boss.
"I know what you are thinking, but it is just by how narrow-minded you are that you never reached the expert stage. Anyone who reached it could use more than one style."
The guard leader knew perfectly that most people devoted too much to their own style, provoking that they wouldn't reach the expert stage.
It didn't matter if it was through one's training, because helping others to train, or some other reason, without a mind open to new types of swordsmanship, there was no way to reach the expert stage in swordsmanship.