The man swung a fist at Alice's face and she gasped. "It's you!?" She lifted her arms, trying to protect her face.
Liam caught the man's wrist, glaring at him with two glowing eyes.
"Who are you bastard? You're with that woman?" The man growled.
Without caring to say a word, Liam swung a kick at the man's jewels, dropping him on his face. The man screamed and rolled on the ground, cursing as he tried to stand and face Liam. "A cheap shot you…"
Liam kicked him again, and again. The more the man screamed the angrier Liam got, and the more he kicked him until blood rushed from between his legs. "You come out of nowhere and swing at her? The hell you think you are?"
"Liam! Stop, he already passed out." Alice stopped him. "He'll bleed to death, let him go." She stared at his face.
Liam looked at her, "Why do you want to help this bastard? He tried to hit you."
"You already did enough. There is no need to kill him."
Looking at her eyes, "Fine, I'll let him off. But only his life."
Several guards came rushing in, "What happened?" One asked.
"Wait, it's sir Liam." The other gasped, "This man…Aw, that looks painful."
"He tried to hit Alice out of nowhere. Are people around here this insane? Even I don't go hitting people like that." Liam growled.
The guards looked at Alice. "Do you know him?"
Alice could remember the memories of her host. "He used to kick me out of the plaza when I was begging there for money in the past. Said I'm hurting his sales by being there." That man was the one who beat her host to death. "I crawled to that mansion after taking a beating from him."
"He's angry you've returned." One of the guards turned toward that man, only to see Liam pulling his scimitar out and about to behead him.
"STOP!" He barely managed to pull Liam away, "Calm down! Why are you going to kill him?"
"He dare lift his hand on my men. I'll rip him apart bone by bone."
Alice blinked as she stared at Liam. She remembered the days when they were fighting Asura. Every time they were close to finishing off one of his minions, he'd fall from the sky like a meteor and start rampaging. The reason the demon lords survived until the end was because he kept saving them each time, but they ended up betraying him. In fact, the whole plan for killing him relied on his coming in to save his demon lords, which he did, and ended up falling into her trap.
She giggled, "Liam… Let's go. Staying here will only enrage you further." She grabbed him by the hand and pulled him away. I don't want you to end up like that monster Asura. Rage would only lead to destruction.
Liam lifted Alice and put her on the horse. "Fine, let's go. I already bought you a dagger so we don't need to stay here." He smiled and turned toward the guards. "I can trust you to handle the rest?"
"What could we say? Leave him to us." They replied with tired faces.
When Liam and Alice returned to the house, the guards were already leaving after getting all the furniture into the garden. Alice went inside the mansion while he inspected everything and saw the lord and the knights out, Sara and Lilia seem to have left a while ago.
"Alice, we'll set the tent in the entrance and sleep there. We could just put the sleeping bags on the ground but I'm worried about rats and bugs around here. Did you see any while you were here?" He asked.
"Look," She slowed him her legs, all scratched. "There are a lot of them."
"That looks bad, we need to find you a healer tomorrow to heal those wounds and remove any toxins." He pulled the tents and laid them aside as he started building the tent. "For dinner, I'll just reheat what we ate earlier."
"I'll get that ready then." Alice smiled as she walked toward the adventurer's bag and opened it.
"We're running out of money, no I should say we're broke. Tomorrow I'll take some quests from the guild. You must rest for a week or two to recover first before joining me." He turned toward her.
"I want to help. I can't just stay and do nothing." She stared at him.
"I love that in you." Liam smiled, "To increase our efficiency, we'll divide the work between us. I'll take quests from the guild and slay monsters, and you stay here to cook, exercise a bit to regain some strength, and practice with your dagger."
"Got it, but I need you to buy a lot of things first." She looked at the adventurer's kit, "We have nothing to cook besides flour and some veggies."
"I'll be leaving all of our money with the guild as it'll be dangerous for me to take it to quests and your life would be at risk if I left it with you in this shabby house." He looked at her with a smile.
"And use the guild's payment." She smiled.
"Yeah, you buy things using a guild's card and put a tab on your name. The merchants would later draw the money from the guild. It's a safer way as the money can't be stolen." He showed her his guild card, "That means you'll be registering tomorrow and forming a party with me. Selena at the guild should handle everything nicely."
In the next morning, Liam and Alice headed to the guild and registered her.
*****
Name: Liam Leonard.
Race: Human.
Soul Record: Black.
Level: 2
Strength: 3
Speed: 2
Mana: 2
Special ability: [Hakai: Level 1]
[Dodge: Level 3]
[Sharpening: Level 3]
[Halberd Arts: Level 2]
[Scimitar Arts: Level 2]
[Horse Training: Level 3]
[Sneak: Level 3]
****
Liam had leveled up overnight as his body recovered a bit from his injuries; He has reached level 2 and had stacked several skills giving far more options when it comes to strategies and quests.
He looked at Alice… I want to ask about her skills, but I don't want her to ask about mine. My skill Hakai is a clear tell that I'm Asura, she might not recognize it, but it'll be bad if she talked about it to anyone else.
Liam approached her. "How are your stats? Did you have any negative effect or something that we should fix?" He tried to get a general idea without directly asking to look at her stats.
****
Name: Alva Ashborn.
Race: Human.
Soul Record: Clear.
Level: 1
Strength: 0
Speed: 0
Mana: 0
Special Ability: None
[Gamorin Resistance: 7]
[Flatroid Resistance: 5]
[Totat Resistance: 3]
[Dog Rage: Level 2]
[Bone Rot: Level 4]
[White Worms: Level 6]
[Breath Dew: Level 3]
****
"I think I might be dying…" She said with a tired face and showed her stats.
"Wow! Several addictions and diseases, not a single good stat." He gasped forgetting that he didn't want to look at her stats so she won't ask to see his.