Yeni is the twin with more affinity for combat. Jon chose him at random but took the chance to talk to the boy.
"Who's your family?"
"I traveled around the region with my father, my uncles, and my brothers. The company belonged to my uncle Ajusshi, but dad wanted to be in control. He tried to poison my uncle. Things didn't go so well, uncle killed Dad and some of my brothers. He thought we were too young to deserve to be punished. So...
Honnetis caravans is the name of the company. And my surname."
"Do you want revenge?" The boy is silent, Jon looks at him a few times, but decides to continue the journey in silence.
.
.
During the night, Jon is stoking a small fire. Yeni is sleeping and so are the oxen. Jon feels the hairs on his neck rise. Sneakily he takes the shield and nudges the boy with his foot. "I'm going to take a piss, don't let the fire go out"
He walks away from the camp, everything in his senses is telling him to run. Jon stands and waits. An arrow flies in his chest, but Jon's senses are heightened, and he manages to raise his shield to defend himself. It was much stronger than he expected, going through his whole body. Jon would be dead if he was not prepared to be hit, he throws himself on the floor, pretending to be dead. "Get the boy" "The fucker is fast!" "The guy is dead" "Go on, look at the amount of meat!"
Jon can hear Yeni screaming and resisting, but a few kicks later the boy is quiet and starts to cry. Jon's mind is racing. What is better to do now? Continue to pretend to be dead and attack when they are not ready? The left lung is filling with blood. I do not have much time. Will I be able to fight this way? Fuck!
I'm almost leveling. I can kill one of them quickly. Jon gets up without making a sound, the chest pain is immense, but he is used to it. Like a panther, Jon goes to his first prey, he does not raise the ax because his movement is restricted due to the injury. Very precisely he cuts the man's neck. He's still alive, but he's going to die as soon as all the blood has flowed. Jon needs to resist for 1 or 2 minutes.
The men choke on his blood, alerting others. Jon is not at his best, but he is still very fast. He makes a side attack, trying to hit the bandit in the head. For the first time, someone can dodge Jon attack.
Dodged for a price, Jon managed to break/cut the man's nose.
He changes targets, with the first one disabled and the second confused. Jon attacks another of the bandits but before that he hears a shout from the wind.
"AAAArgh" Jon screams in pain and misses the attack. An arrow penetrated his spleen.
He feels the urge to crouch and groan in pain, but even with eyes full of tears Jon doesn't give up. He attacks the third thug from above, increasing the bleeding in his chest. The opponent also has an ax, but he is not as experienced as Jon, the knight broke all his rival's fingers.
Jon, tries to finish using the tomahawk hammer, but he is slammed on the floor by the other guy. With restricted movements and bleeding, Jon struggles to protect his vitals, but he is beaten by the other 3 men who are still standing.
Jon is kicked and one of the men even uses a stick to hit him. His lips are torn, the cheekbone sinks, the ribs are broken, the tibia is an open fracture, but Jon didn't make a sound.
"Fuck you, you son of a bitch! You took my fingers off, damn it!" "If you die, I'm going to rip off your son's skin and then sell his ass to the goblins!" Yeni is pale for a second, but he stops crying and his face darkens. He picks up a small copper knife and nudges the back of one of the men several times.
The bandit screams, but Jon smiles. The notification he was waiting for finally appears.
--
Combat log:
1X Big Humanoid wiped out.
100% Class progress.
Lvl 2 Dragon Knight
Second Wind (Knight-Magic)- Permanently consumes 1 Body point to completely restore your health.
Razor Claw (Dragon-Magic)- Passive. Like a dragon, your mana naturally circulates in your blade, making it stronger and sharper.
+1 body
+2 soul
27% class progress
--
Second wind is a double blade skill, it heals but permanently weakens the user. But Jon doesn't hesitate to use it.
Jon doesn't see what happens. But his body mends, the bones reform, the skin joins, leaving only the scars to show the moment that Jon almost died.
One of the men sees Jon reemerging with disbelief on his face. But the warrior does not explain. A well placed kick in the scrotum brings the bandit's head at a comfortable distance to be hit by the tomahawk. Jon gets up and hits the thug with no finger in the throat, in a superior attack, the hatchet lodges in the bum's head. Jon turns to the archer being stabbed by Yeni, Jon throws a Superman punch, knocking the archer down.
Yeni with tears and blood in his eyes looks at Jon. His mouth is open in disbelief, his lips are broken, from the spanking he took. But at least he hasn't lost a tooth.
"End his suffering!" Jon commands.
Yeni looks at the unconscious archer. His hands are shaking, he kneels and places the blade close to the bandit's neck.
"No. He is already unconscious, put the blade on the side of the skull and put all your weight on the knife. It will end him instantly."
"Shouldn't we question them?" For Yeni this whole situation is frightening, is anyone watching them? Maybe these guys are planning to do something worse. On the other hand for Jon, this is a side mission. Besides, he already recognized these men. The hunters from his first day here.
"If you wait for this guy to wake up and he answers your questions. What are you going to do next? What do you HAVE to do next?"
Yeni is thoughtful, his hands are shaking. But he doesn't say anything. After a few moments of thinking he puts the knife against the skull and presses until the brain pudding starts to leak.
His eyes are bored, reading something. "I unlocked the will of the spirits" Jon smiles, but he doesn't say anything, the boy just killed someone and clearly he is not well. Looking at his bloody hands. Sometimes he looks horrified, sometimes he looks depressed. This is a violent world in which people are used to witnessing death, but a child ending a life is something out of the ordinary here too.
Jon will have to train the boy in other ways- Yeni voice interrupts Jon's thoughts.
"I don't want to take revenge on my uncle, he did what he needed. My father betrayed him. And he did what he needed to do. I hate my uncle. I hate what my dad did. But I hate my uncle even more."
"Very mature of you, this is a good way of thinking. You have the head to be a great warrior. I will train you differently from the others. But for now, let's clean up. That archer was much stronger than I expected. He gave me a nice beating."
Jon helps the boy to stand up and looks impressed at Jon "You managed to defeat several hunters, this is amazing! How did you manage to heal?"
"New skill"
.
.
Jon and Yeni start the day earlier, neither of them managed to go back to sleep, and were talking about "the will of the spirits", everyone believes in spirits, not as gods, but as timeless humanized beings (with defects and wills) that they may or may not be friends with humans. One of these spirits allows man to see the "will" The system. Another thing is that not everyone sees the combat log. Yeni doesn't see. And Jon suspects that the hunters didn't see it either.
Another thing, Jon received xp from the fight, but he decided not to look at the logs anymore unless he is upping.
In addition, Yeni can choose a class already. He only has a punching bag as an option, but he has up to 6 years to choose. More options will appear, no worries. Jon and Yeni go down to the village (Jon calls it a town, but Yeni insists it is a village). Passing through the farms, many of the children recognize Jon and they come to ask for sweets, Jon says he has nothing and some of them threaten to throw shit on him. But there were only threats and eventually they went to work on the farm. it is harvest time.
Since the city has no walls it is a gradual change of farms, small communities and manufacturing communities and a shopping avenue in front of the castle gate. The castle has its gates open, but there are 5 men holding spears and no one tries to enter or talk to them.
Jon and Yeni stop on the avenue and start shouting "Top quality meats! We have smoked Porko! Sausages! Black sausages with chives! Dried and fresh chives! Come on! Leg! Cheek! Bacon! Loin!
Some peasants approach "Ohaa, that ham is huge! And there are so many!" "What is chive, can I try a leaf?" "can you make tea?" "It has a herbal onion taste!" "Really? It should be great with chicken soup then!"
"I want a packet of fresh chive! Do you want to exchange for a hand of rice?" "Sir, save some of that black sausage, I'll let my boss's wife know."
Jon begins to negotiate with the peasants, most of whom are interested in sausages and herbs. It deeply irritates him that most do not use coins. Almost everyone is offering rice, since that is what they have in great quantity at this time. But jon still accepts, since it is much easier to store rice than meat. Contrary to what Jon expected, fresh chives are also worth a lot less than he thought. Most peasants think it is some bush plant that they did not know, but it should be easy to find.
He doesn't correct people now, but next time he'll use sweet words about his products from another distant land to increase the value.
"Young carter! My employee told me that you bring a lot of smoked meat!" A very well-dressed woman, around 30 or 40 years old. She is a little fat, but she seems to be friendly. The surrounding people do a little courtesy with their heads, Jon concluded that she must be a respected and fair person in the city, and repeat the action.
"For a lady of value like you, only the best meats!"
She smiles and begins to inspect the meat and herbs. "An animal of this size was certainly hunted, huh? From your strong arms and posture I see that you are a great hunter!"
People look at me in surprise. "Yes, I had a chance encounter with a herd of swine monsters. The herd is in the car now"
Some seem even more surprised. The lady smiles "It was certainly an act of courage and ability! But stranger, if any beast that was hunted in these lands you must pay the Lord's sum. Come with me, I will have a good word with him, and buy what is left of yours cargo."
Jon's smile freezes on his face, but he hears people whispering. "Lucky man! He met Lady Amelia, if were someone else, he would already be taken to the gallows!"
Jon sees that she is accompanied only by an employee, holding a dunkey. With no way out of this situation without looking like a criminal, he smiles, "Of course! I'm going to straighten up and tighten things up and I'll follow you."
Jon and Yeni pack and secure the cargo and follow the woman, that is sitting on the dunkey. Jon asks "lady, how can I thank you for reminding me to pay what I owe"
"Oh, don't come and sweeten me, I know merchants always want to get rid of taxes. The hunters even more." she turns down to talk to Jon "What's your name? I know a lot of the hunters in this region but your face is so foreign."
"i live a few days away, this is the second time i visit the city."
"City? - she laughs - you really live in an isolated place, this is just the black tower village. The lord lives in the tower, err, castle now, right."
Jon looks back at the castle, it really looks like it's just been built, but it's not black.
They walk in silence, to the gate. Amelia says a few words to the guards but they let her in and do a quick check on Jon's car.
Amelia guides him to the castle gate and asks the guard to call the castellan.
An old man in a black sleeveless dress comes out of the castle and greets Amelia and Jon. "Hello, young hunter! I see that you have brought quite a lot. The lord will be glad to hear your hunting story at the celebrations supper tonight. What do you think of coming?" At the same time that he speaks, two other men in simpler clothes start to pick up the meat, they take 4 legs, 3 cheeks, 4 necks and 2 pieces of bacon. Less than Jon expected.
"Unfortunately, I will not be able to participate in the celebrations. I left many children alone on the farm. I want to unload the meat and pick up some goods and leave." Jon speaks the truth.
"Well, this is very unfortunate. But can we expect more game from you?"
"Maybe, I'm trying to settle down in the forest, even if I don't look for monsters, I end up bumping into them."
"Very well, I hope to see you again, hunter!"
Castellan goes up the stairs into the castle.
"Well, now that everything is resolved, I can buy the meat you have left."