"W-why not? I'm willing to pay you for it"
It's not about the money. It's just that you won't be safe here.
"What do you mean?"
"I believe you saw the damage our fields had on your way here."
I nodded.
"This damage was caused by none other than a Krial."
This didn't come as a shock to me. But I was surprised that this village could still be standing after such a disaster.
"Sir, how tall was this Krial."
"15 meters"
This Krial was definitely a young adult. It most probably had the power of a middle-class B annihilator.
"This may be pushing it but can I trouble you to tell me how you fended it off?"
He looked down and then sighed heavily. He stood up. He was even more gigantic than I imagined.
"This village used to flourish for centuries. But now it has reduced to this state because of that monster. It appeared 2 years ago. It seemed to have intelligence. It had the power to break mountains and cut rivers."
I forgot to mention, only annihilators have a ranking system. Other than the other dominating races, small races like Verix have no such thing to determine their strength.
"We tried to fend it off with all our strength. But it was too powerful. It then killed several dozens of our villagers. It went away after this. I have been coming like this once every month. Due to the battles, the fields have taken a lot of damage and now every day someone dies of hunger."
The old man's eyes were flooded with tears at this point. I was moved by how he cared so much for his underlings. I wanted to help them but could I stop a beast at the middle stage of B rank? It could even be a higher stage B rank as it was 15 meters.
"Sir, would you mind if I help you?"
He looked at me with doubt. Of course, he probably thought that I was some teenager from the human race who was overconfident in finding the portal and now has gotten lost.
"Do you realize what you are saying? Even I couldn't touch a hair of the beast and you think you can help us by throwing your life away?"
"Sir, with all due respect, I may not look it but I can fight pretty well."
He nodded.
"Fine, you can help only if you pass my test."
"Thank you, sir!"
"Follow me"
He went through the hallway and opened the door and went outside. Just as everyone in the vicinity saw him, all of them bowed down. The two guards seemed to have gone back to their posts.
"Bring me Voldov!" ordered the old man.
After a few minutes, an extremely muscular Verix came toward the old man. He explained the situation to Voldov. Voldov looked at me in disdain.
"Master, do you really want me, the strongest warrior in the village to test a little brat like this?"
"Enough just give him a chance, Voldov."
With clear reluctance, Voldov came towards me.
"Listen, kid. If you manage to survive ten attacks from me then you can be deemed qualified to fight the Krial."
Several villagers came to see this fight. The female Verix seemed very fond of Voldov. When Voldov dove towards me, everyone cheered. It almost seemed as if they were convinced that I would be beaten up by him.
It was pretty annoying but this was a foreign place I couldn't afford to act complacent here. Voldov was pretty slow compared to me. I assumed that he was at best a middle-stage C rank. if this was true then the guards should have been about Middle stage D rank. it seemed as though I had overestimated them.
I simply stood there and waited for him to deliver his punch. Convinced that I was fear bound he immediately took the chance to punch my face. When his fist was a hair's breadth away, I immediately caught it.