Just when Adam is about to start moving, a growl comes from one of the girls. Adam looks back and finally realizes how poor their appearance is. Tattered clothes, a few bruise marks, light injuries, and probably hungry and tired too. Adam finally broke the silence and offered them.
"Would you like to rest first? You can find clothes and there are foods around here."
All the girls look at each other and finally look at Clara as they unanimously point Clara as their leader. Clara looks at them and finally responds.
"Thank you, sir. We would like to rest first very much."
After that, Adam nods, and all of them disperse in a group of 3. One group goes to find clothes, while the other goes to find some food. The woman returns a few minutes later with new clothes and some meat probably from the leftovers of the villages. Adam watches quietly as they roast and eat their meals. Adam didn't know if he could get hungry in the games since he sometimes felt thirsty.
While all the women are eating, Adam remembers that he has [Great Heal] which could be used to heal the women from their injuries. Adam approaches Clara as Clara looks at him curiously.
"Would you like me to heal all of you?" Adam asks.
"Ah, no thank you, sir. We are fine. Only some light injuries. No need to waste your potions on us."
"Who said I will use potions?'
Clara looks at Adam in confusion as she hears Adam's words. Adam leans closer to Clara and reaches out his hand towards Clara.
"[Great Heal]"
A green light shoots out of Adam's hand and touches Clara's body. Her body is then consumed by the green light and when the light subsides her condition is so much better than before. Although there is still dirt on her body and her clothes are still dirty, her complexion is much better.
Adam smiles contentful when he sees the result. He then turns his attention to the other 5 and proceeds to heal all of them. Adam then goes back to his seat and sits back down as he continues to observe the surroundings unless other monsters decide to ambush them.
While they are eating, Adam opens his status and sees that after hunting all day his free exp has finally reached his goal. He now has a total of 983,720 free exp. Looking at his skills Adam upgrades [Sword Aura] and [Mana Manipulation] to the max.
After evolving them, Adam now has 3 EX-rank skills.
[Mana Affinity]
Skill type: Passive
Rank: EX
Level 1(0/100000)
Desc: Magic damage x1000. Magic defences x 100. Can communicate with mana to a certain extent.
[Sword Intent]
Skill type: Passive
Rank: EX
Level 1(0/100000)
Desc: Physical Damage x1000 when holding swords. 10% of Physical Damage turns to True Damage.
After Adam finishes upgrading his skills, he suddenly feels a certain type of energy in his surroundings. It is very vague but he is sure he could feel them. When holds his sword, he also feels that the sword is no longer his sword but it is just an extension of his arms. The sword is like an additional limb to him now.
Swinging his swords around, although the skill description is no longer as long, he still could swing the sword like before. His movement now seems more fluid than anything else. When he finishes testing his skills, Adam returns to the camp of women and sees that all of them are ready to move.
Since he healed them of the injury, they are also no longer tired and now full of energy. Adam approaches Clara and asks her about the conditions of the women.
"So, how is everyone? Are you all ready?"
"Yes, sir. Thank you for waiting for us."
"No big deal. I was doing something else anyway."
With that Adam and the group walk back on a long journey back home. Along the way, some monsters tried to ambush them but were thwarted by either Adam's sword or a mana arrow that fell from the sky.
One thing to take note of is, that since Adam now has [Mana Affinity] the mana allows Adam to sense any disturbance in the surroundings. This also allows them to move through relatively fewer monster areas and arrive back at the village safe and sound.
When they arrive at the village, a commotion happens both to the villagers and the players. For the villagers, they finally reunited with their loved ones. The commotions wake up everyone in the villages including the village chiefs. Seeing the old man in probably his mid seventy coming his way, Adam prepares himself for a greeting.
"Good night, Chief. I'm sorry for disturbing all your sleep tonight."
"Hahahaha, don't worry son. Even if you disturb me while I'm having fun with my wife, I would still welcome your surprise happily."
Adam laughs as he hears the Chief's joke.
"May I ask you a question, young man?"
"Err, sure."
"May I know what happens to the Goblins Village?"
"I destroy them, sir. Will that be a problem?"
"Hahahahaha, problem? Of course not. You have just gotten rid of our most concerning problems for a while now. Oh, how can this day be so much better?"
"Well, I did get rid of most monster nests in the area."
"You what?!"
"Errr, is that a problem, sir?"
"Hahahahahaha, no. No, it isn't. It has been so long since I am this happy. Please, young man. Let's return to my house first so I can reward you."
Hearing the word reward, Adam immediately follows the village chief's steps towards his house. The village chief's house wasn't much of a difference compared to others. The only difference is that his house has a flag on top of its roof.
"Kayla, I'm home. I bringing in a guest."
Stepping inside the house, Adam was greeted by a very homely scene. An old woman is sitting in a chair with a cup of tea and a cat on her lap.
"Harold, what is happening outside? And who is this young man you suddenly bring home?"
The old lady who is probably Kayla asks the village chief.
"This fine young man is a warrior who has managed to destroy the Goblins Village and saves all the women who are captured by them."
When Kayla heard Harold's words, she immediately looked at Adam in a judging way. She looks at Adam up and down and finally, harumph as is satisfied.
'What a weird old lady' Adam thought.
"So, young man. Are you still single? We just happen to have an excellent daughter that I think you are going to get along with."
Hearing Kayla's offers, Adam immediately flinches since that is the exact same words that his mother's friend gave him last holiday.
"Kayla, don't try to sell your daughter like that. If she knows you set up another blind date for her, she will probably send us a longer letter next time. Last time, it already took us 30 minutes to finish reading her complaints."
"It's fine, I'm sure this time will work."
"How about you ask the young man first what is his opinion on this?'
As they finally return their gazes to him, he also looks at them awkwardly. He honestly doesn't care who his partner is as long as she doesn't act like a bitch. But he also doesn't believe that arranged dating like this will work.
"Umm, how about you ask her opinion?"
After successfully directing their attention back to the daughter, suddenly Adam's stomach growls.
'I guess I can get hungry after all.'
"Oh my, I have been a bad host haven't I? Wait a moment darling. I will bring out some food for you."
As Kayla goes to the kitchen to find some food, Harold finally returns his attention to him.
"So, Adam. May I know what is your plan after this?"
"I'm thinking of going to the town next sir."
"Hmm, I thought so. Then, please wait a moment here. I will bring out something for you."
As Harold leaves the room, Adam is left there alone unsupervised. Adam looks around the room and sees a few family pictures hanging on the wall. On one of them is a picture of Harold, Kayla, and one more woman that he assumes is their daughter. She was wearing knight armor and holding a sword in one hand.
Adam must say, although she isn't the most beautiful woman out there but the knight armor sure adds a charm to her. Adam finally looks at himself. Average face with worn out clothes and almost broken shoes. He sure doesn't look like a typical knight in shining armor.
Does he take this being a game into account and nothing matters? Not really. He has been interacting with a few villagers and realizes that they don't act like normal NPC. Rather they are more humanlike than he has ever seen. That's why he can't help but see them as also another alive human.
Not long after Adam falls into his own thoughts, Harold comes out of a room holding a piece of paper and a small pouch.
"Here Adam. If you hand this letter to my daughter when you go to town, it will significantly smoothen out any of your problems later. While this is a thank you for bringing back our villagers."
Taking the letter and putting it inside his inventory, Adam holds the pouch and realizes it is quite heavy. Inside the pouch are 20 gold coins and 50 silver coins. Adam is shocked by the content of the pouch. He has never held this much money in his life. This is literally 20 grand. The most money he has ever had in his bank account is 10 grand.
"Thank you sir for your gift."
"It is nothing much, son. Also here is a map heading towards the town. You will need this."
Taking the map from Harold, Adam looks at the map and realizes it is an item.
[Cannot view! Reach level 10 to unlock map function]