Once he arrived at the edge of the forest, Hunter slowed down, walking up to the Eastern gate. The guards that were watching over the door stopped what they were doing, turning and looking at him suspiciously.
"Halt. You must show us your face before you can enter Adenville (Ah-den-vill)." The captain walked into the middle of the rode, blocking Hunter from entering. Looking closely at the little boy the guard first noticed that the boy had his eyes covered by a black cloth, leaving only a part of his nose and all of his smirking mouth to be seen, as long as you looked under the hood of course. He then noticed the dark red yarn that was wrapped around both of his arms. The captain shivered unconsciously as he felt a sense of danger come off the yarn. What ever the yarn was, he could tell it was not simple and that this person, in on it's self, was also not simple. He finally looked at all the weapons that were in good condition; as if they had just been recently purchased, or more accurately, recently cleaned and cared for.
Looking up at the guard, Hunter's smirk finally went away and turned into a grimace. "Would you believe me if I told you that I could slaughter this entire town before you can even raise your sword? Besides it was me that set that lord's manor on fire yesterday." Hearing this, the guard tensed as he looked at Hunter with a tiny bit of fear in his eyes. "Relax, I'm not here to kill the innocent, I'm just passing through and wanted to see about getting some more resources before I continue my journey." Hunter put his hands up in the air to show that he meant no harm.
"Y-you can p-pass." The guard shook with fright as he thought to himself, [Gods help me for letting this madman into the town!] Before heading into the town, Hunter turned to the captain. "Where can I find a good tavern?"
"Down the main road, past the fifth intersection, on the right. It's called the Hangman's Finger. Be careful, a lot of the riff raff in town like to frequent that place, but it still gives great food so you'll have to tough it out." He pointed farther down the road before returning to his post.
Hunter began walking down the main road, stopping every now and then to really enjoy the town's architecture, feel, and of course listen in on conversations. As he walked by, many of the residents stopped what they were doing to watch him, before continuing once they realized he was minding his own business.
An elderly man walked by shaking his head as he glanced at Hunter before mumbling to himself. "What bastard would force a child to become an assassin." Hunter smirked to himself as he continued walking down the road.
After a couple of minutes he finally arrived at the Hangman's Finger. Upon entering the tavern, Hunter was met with a horrid smell made from the mixing of body odor, alcohol, smoke, and the fragrant odors of the tavern's food. Hunter quickly used his ability to cut out all the disgusting smells before finding an empty table in the back to sit at. A couple of the more ruff characters in the tavern eyed him up as they gauged whether or not this little child was capable of fighting with the weapons he so blatantly carried with him.
Hunter leaned back, making his body posture appear to be going to sleep as he began sorting the garbled information he gained from eaves dropping on the way to the tavern. Finally a thug couldn't take it anymore and so he got up, pulling out a knife, as he began walking towards Hunter.
"Oi, stop if you wanna live." A man from a group of four sitting at a table on the opposite side of the room got up as he glared at the thug. The thug put his knife away as he smiled and turned to return to his seat. All of a sudden he froze mid-turn as shock appeared on his face before his body dropped and his head rolled under one of the nearby tables. Everyone in the room turned and looked at Hunter as he tapped his table, calling a waiter over, just to get a towel to wipe off one of his axes.
No one had seen the boy in black move, and yet not only was his axe now drawn, but the thug that was a little over 15 feet away had been beheaded. Everyone in the room took in a cold breathe as they looked at this unknown stranger.
"Young friend, are you an adventurer from the neighboring kingdom Siol?" The man said as he walked over to Hunter.
As the man approached, Hunter sniffed the air, catching the man's scent. The man smelt like he had traveled from high mountains to deep and luscious valleys, his scent had the tint of many different monsters' blood, however the most recent appeared to be a dragon kin called a wyrm, and he smelt a type of unknown natural power. Hunter nodded towards the empty seat across from him and the man sat down.
"Name's Alexi, I'm a level two shadow mage and am from the noble family of Asherton. I've been adventuring all around the Yechen Empire and I've never met someone who is so quick with a weapon being younger than twenty. Since you have such amazing skills already you must already have made a name for yourself and since I've never heard of you that must mean you're from Siol." Alexi gave a huge toothy grin as he looked at Hunter.
Hunter shook his head. "What's Siol? I've never heard of it. What's the Yechen Empire? My village is in a really secluded place and we haven't had any visitors in the last one hundred and fifty years. You said you're a noble? What's an old noble like you doing going around adventuring? Shouldn't you be sitting at home with your title and serving the king or whatever?"
"Hahaha. I do have a title, kid. I'm Alexi Asherton the great Dragon Slayer." Alexi smiled and winked at one of the barmaids as he announced to the entire tavern his glorious title, almost as if he was intentionally looking for acknowledgement.
Hunter grimaced as he watched the other people in the tavern look in awe towards Alexi. Some of them even began getting out of their seats to come over and shake his hand. Hunter rapped the table getting everyone's attention. "A lizard is a lizard and a worm is a worm. You should go back to the books and recheck your knowledge, oh great worm squisher."
Hunter smirked as he watched shock crawl across Alexi's face; than it turned to rage as his party members began laughing at him, causing some of the other customers to begin laughing as well. "Very well little brat, I challenge you to a duel after I finish answering your questions. I'll show you the true might of a respectful Dragon Slayer." Alexi raised his hand and a barmaid brought him a mug of ale.
"The Yechen Empire is the empire that Adenville is located in. It has roughly, a population of ten million people. Like all noble class we have a natural attribute that we have at birth. My family has the attribute of being able to turn into shadows by the age of three, hence me being a shadow mage. Natural attributes generally leap a wizard or mage to a higher level. While commoners need to train from level zero or one, we nobles are born at level ones or twos." Alexi paused as he took a deep swig of ale.
"The Kingdom of Siol is a neighboring kingdom to the Yechen Empire. It has roughly a population of three million people, though it's a fourth of the size of the Yechen Empire. As of right now the Yechen Empire and the Kingdom of Siol are in a peaceful state. However since Siol treats non-humans as citizens, tension has been rising between the two parties. Siol is also considered the businesses center of the world because they have such great craftsmen and produce the finest of trade. As to why I'm adventuring kid, it's because I was the second son back when my father was the head of the family. My older brother feared I might covet the title as head of the family so to put him to ease I went into adventuring so he didn't need to worry about me stealing the title. However, it turns out I became the head of the family anyways. He had come to Lord Zigan's manor for a party but he ended up dying in a fire." He smiled smugly while spinning the cup of ale in his hand as he looked deeply into the mug, lost in his thoughts.
"I see. May I ask what brings such adventurers to this border town?"
"Since this town doesn't have an adventurers guild, do to it being a border town, they sent requests to the guilds in the bigger towns and cities. They were paying a hefty price to slay a pack of Feniri, as for the supposed goblin horde that's sprout up. Well none of us adventurers could find traces of goblins and even if we did, they would have to call in the army to deal with the size of the goblin horde. Anymore questions or can we go for that duel?" Alexi set his mug down as he began stretching his shoulder blades before getting up.
"Ya, just one more. How many adventures and town guards are here?" Hunter got up from the table as well as he looked at Alexi.
"Why do you wanna know that lad? Not planning anything are ya?" Alexi gave him a suspicious stare as he checked out Hunter's equipment.
"No, nothing of the sorts. I was just curious since I've now ran into two goblin hunting parties before arriving here. One of which was made of thirty foot soldiers while the other was ten wolf riders." Hunter walked out of the Hangman's Finger before turning to look at Alexi and his party mates.
"Oh, so you killed them all, did ya? It isn't too hard to kill goblins, especially for adventurers and groups of soldiers; but you doing that all by yourself? Kid I'm really looking forward to our duel." Alexi grinned as he clapped his hands together, rubbing them in excitement. "About thirty adventurers have arrived in the town to hunt the Feniri. The town guard has about two hundred and seventy soldiers in total, so if the goblins do attack we should be fine if they number less than a thousand."
"Well than everything should be good. So where are we planning on having our duel?" Hunter looked around the crowded street. As he finished talking he noticed people stop, look at them, then began leaving quickly.
"Hahaha. Don't worry, we aren't having our duel here. It'll take place at the arena, all those people leaving are probably running to tell their friends and family before they rush to the arena to spectate." Alexi and his friends began walking towards the tallest building in the town. The building stood over 5 times taller than the town walls, but was moderately sized. The building beside it was shorter but much wider and seemed to be built much like a colosseum.
As they neared the arena, a few priests came rushing over to talk to them. "Are you the two adventurers that are wishing to duel today?" The head priest looked at Alexi, then he looked at Hunter as his eyes widened before shaking his head; as if dispelling a thought. Alexi nodded his head towards the priest, motioning for him to hurry up.
"Okay, well than the rules are simple. No killing, poking out the eyes, or maiming. Everything else is fair as we can heal broken bones, impalement, cuts, and bruises. Duals are only allowed to last for five minutes so if neither of you yields, gets forced out of the ring, or can no longer fight, then it will be considered a tie. If you want a tie breaker right after the match than it will have to be an arm wrestle so as to not increase the amount of injuries any further. It's been a while since this town has seen an adventurer's duel so if you two are willing to wait we can start the match in twenty minutes. The two of you will each get thirty percent of the profit, we the church will also get thirty percent, and the last ten percent goes to the town as the taxes for the event. We have decided to charge this event twenty five bronze per person and the bishop believes we will gather about one thousand people in the next twenty minutes." The priest looked at Alexi who nodded before turning to Hunter who then shook his head.
"Make the price for anyone older than eighteen as twenty seven bronze while anyone under eighteen but older than seven has to pay thirteen bronze. Ya it seems like we'll be making a loss, but there's actually a higher chance that families will now consider bringing their kids which means we will increase the predicted number of people coming to watch." Hunter stated towards the head priest who showed shock on his face.
"What about children seven and under?" An apostle taking notes asked as he looked towards Hunter in bewilderment.
"Children under seven come in for free, however if it's found that a family is trying to have a child older than seven pretend to be younger than they will be forced to pay three silver to watch. Also quickly send a message to all the food vendors nearby if they want to quickly set up shop and start selling food. They keep seventy percent of the profit and the remaining thirty percent should be split. Ten goes to the church, ten goes to the town, and the remaining ten percent goes to the victor of the match. Gotta have incentive right, oh glorious dragon slayer?" Hunter looked at Alexi who had a glint in his eye as he thought of all the money he could gain from winning this duel. Hunter than looked at the sun which was beginning to set. "Well then, Alexi, I have some things that I need to take care of. Can we have this match tomorrow at noon? This should also give ample time for the food vendors to prepare, for the church to get everything set up, and for the word to spread so that we can increase the number of people who show up."
Everyone looked at Hunter in awe. "Are you sure you're not from Siol? You seem a lot like a master mind trying to wring this town of as much gold as possible." Alexi smiled as he nodded and clapped his hands together in excitement. He turned to the head priests, nodded his head; then he and his partners left, heading out to find an inn to rest the night.
Hunter turned towards the head priest. "One thing I want to mention. If I catch wind that the church or any of it's members are trying to scam or extort more than what the arranged pricing is, I'll kill every last one of you before the sun sets tomorrow." Hunter turned and left as the head priest shivered in cold sweat.
The head priest turned to return to the church and it's tower, and saw his apostles had dropped to the grown in fear. His assistant priests were rooted to the spot as terror ran through their bodies. [He's an absolute demon. The sayings true. You can never be a genius without having a bit of madness. But that boy is a complete madman!]
"Spread the word, what ever you do, do not get on that boy's bad side. Hurry and get everything set up, also post an announcement so that people can see it. Put the prices, the time, and also put that if any of the apostles try to force people to pay more then the price, they can come to the entrance of the church where I will be till five minutes before the event. If anyone comes to find me during that time, I will go with them and punish the apostle. Also put on there that the doors close at exactly six minutes before the duel takes place." The head priest looked at the group before walking off towards the church to find the town bishop, shaking his head as he became lost in thought.