Chapter 34: Emma and Ulfric
The battle was over as fast as it started. Eve, the Red Forest Wolf laid on the ground panting.
"I hope to see you in two days." Ben said cheerfully as he jumped up on Ava's back, "Let's go check on the hunting groups."
Ava took off into the sky and started flying towards the city. Ben enjoyed the wind in his face. He was proud that he had recruited a strong wolf pack to scout for the city but his plans didn't end there. He eventually wanted to make them into mounts for one of his divisions. Ben fully planned to use his skills to the limit. He had grand plans for a cavalry and even an air unit but what he needed to do was find beast that would listen to him. He lucked out on these wolves he thought but hopefully he was able to find some other beasts that would listen.
'Ben, there is a hunting group below us that seems to be killing goblins. There are no injuries and the rookies seem to be doing fine.' Ava reported to him.
"There are three hunting parties out today, let's check on them all. After we can continue to hunt." Ben said.
Ava gave a nod of agreement as she searched for the next hunting group.
*Ding!*
A soft ding sounded in Ben's head.
'Duke must be killing lots.' Ben knew that he got a portion of his soul beasts EXP and vice versa. Ben had dreams of Ava and Duke out killing monsters while he sat in his mansion, holding Cloey and eating delicious food and leveled up at the same time.
'If only.' Ben gave a small sigh.
'The next hunting party is fighting Ogres and they seem to be having trouble with them.' Ava said.
"Ogres? I killed a couple a while back. Tough opponents. Take us down." Ben said.
Ava dove straight down and Ben panicked as he felt he was slipping off her back. Ben grabbed a couple feathers and held on for dear life.
'That hurts Ben!' Ava cried into his mind.
"Yeah well I'd rather not fall to my death!" Ben yelled back at her.
Pulling out of the dive, Ava landed softly on the ground. Ben shot her a dirty look as he jumped down from her back. Ben saw around 40 people attacking 4 Ogres. The ogres were huge humanoid creatures that had green skin and a body with rippling muscles. They stood over 3m tall and used huge two handed axes for weapons.
The ogres were surrounded by 10 people each, in front of the ogre were men with large shields. A man behind them were barking orders.
"Shield Bearers keep the line! Archers and mages fire everything you have! Warrior's attack when you see an opening but be careful of the axe!" a man wielding a heavy broad sword shouted.
'Things aren't too bad actually. Let's watch for now and only act if they need help.' Ben decided to watch these hunters to gauge their strength.
Ava agreed as they both watched the hunters deal with the 4 ogres. The shield bearers blocked the ferocious attacks while the mages and archers bombarded it with long distant attacks. Ben watched as a tiny man with a short sword snuck behind an ogre and slashed it's ankle.
The ogre let out a painful roar and swung his axe at the tiny man. The tiny man had already retreated behind the shield bearers and escaped the attack. The ogre could no longer put any weight on the leg and it's mobility was severely impaired. Seeing this the warrior's got braver and their attacks got more frequent on the ogre finally killing it and bringing it down.
The small group cheered before quickly joining other groups to bring down the other 3 ogres. With the extra manpower , the ogres fell in quick succession. Cheers erupted and they quickly started heal the injured and store the bodies to sell later. Ben saw the same tiny man who crippled the first ogre come over to the guy who seemed like the leader of this hunting group. He whispered something in the laters ear before looking to where Ben was hiding.
"COME OUT! WE KNOW YOU'RE THERE!" the man leader yelled as he brandish his broad sword. The rest of the hunters quickly prepared themselves for an attack.
'They were able to sense us?' Ben's eyes narrowed at the tiny man, 'Must have been him.'
Ben and Ava slowly walked out of the trees. At first when they saw Ben they group slightly relaxed but when Ava came into view their vigilance became higher.
Ben smiled, trying to be non threatening, "Hi everyone I'm Ben. That was impressive I must admit. Keep up the good work." Ben felt like a tool saying these words but with swords, arrows and magic spells all pointing at you, you tend to say some stupid things.
"Who are you? And is this your bird?" the leader asked still pointing his sword at them.
"I have already told you. I'm Ben and this is my friend Ava. She doesn't like all these swords and arrows pointing at her so you might want to put them away." Ben warned as he placed his hand on Ava's side.
"Ben? Like the City Lord Bennett? That Ben?" the leader seemed to connect the dots.
"The very same." Ben smiled before jumping on Ava's back and taking off.
"That's the City Lord?" the tiny man asked the leader.
"Yes. When he called all of us to his mansion he defeat Shenelle and Colton in seconds. His strength is extremely deep." the leader spoke solemnly.
Ben and Ava continued to hunt throughout the day, checking in on the hunting parties periodically. Ava was leveling up like crazy and Ben even gained a level. Duke was still hunting with Grayson and Allana.
Ben flew back to the city and landed outside the giant gate. He touched Ava's head as she returned to his soul. The guards were wide eye and jaw dropped as Ben passed them.
Ben walked onto the main street looking for a shop to sell the beast parts he acquired today. Ben pulled over a random person and asked for the best tailor shop in the city, after getting directions Ben walked and found a large store with leather armour and beautiful clothes in the window.
Ben saw many people entering and exiting the store, he entered himself.
Entering the store, a flowery fragrance entered his nose. The store was displayed in a beautiful organized matter. Leather armour was displayed on one side of the store and luxury clothes on the other.
Ben walked up the counter and asked the young lady, "May I speak to the owner please?"
The young lady looked at Ben and asked, "May I ask who wants to speak to her?"
"The City Lord." Ben simply said. He saw she was looking down on him so he decided to flaunt his title to speed things up a little.
As expected, the young lady's eyes went wide and her mouth made a perfect circle. She quickly ran off leaving the other customers staring at Ben. He gave them a small smile and a quick nod before he continued to look through the leather armour.
A few minutes later a beautiful lady came out. Her hair was black and pulled back into a ponytail, she was wearing a simple t shirt that showed off her large chest splendidly and jeans that were so tight if he put a quarter in her back pocket he would be able to tell if it was heads or tails. She seemed to be around 25 years old with deep hazel eyes.
"Hello I'm Emma, the owner of this store. How can I help you?" her voice was pleasant.
"Nice to meet you Emma, I'm Ben. I have lots of leather and hide for you. I'd like you to make me some armour for me if that's alright." Ben said. He needed some armour for awhile now but never got around to it. He was going to buy some from the system but he didn't want to be a hypocrite.
Emma's eyes shined, "What kind of hide do you have?"
Ben waved his hand and a large black lizard appeared on the ground. The customers gasped in shock as the backed away from the body. Emma's eyes narrowed as she started to inspect the hide. Poking it and running her hands around it she mumbled to herself.
"... extremely tough leather… make excellent armour." she stopped looking at the corpse and her eyes returned to Ben. "What armour do you want?"
"Bracers and breastplate. You can keep the rest of leather as payment and if it's not enough I have another lizard." Ben and Ava found these lizards today near some mountains. They were called Ironhide Lizards and their hide was extremely tough to cut through.
"One lizard is plenty but I would like to buy the rest of the lizards if that would be alright." Emma saw the value in this hide and knew she could create some good leather armour from it.
"You sure? I have over 20 lizards." Ben said scratching his head.
"Tw-twenty?" Emma stuttered, shocked at the sheer number of lizards.
"You can have the hides of all the lizards if you make a 5 set of armour. Is that alright?" Ben made her an offer. He wanted armour for his family and Cloey.
"Deal." Emma quickly agreed to the proposition, knowing that there was much more than five sets of materials. "Come back in a week and they should be done."
"Sounds good." Ben thanked her and left the store. He had one more stop to make before he went back to the mansion. Ben had asked his dad the day before who was the best blacksmith was in the city. Joe gave him one name- Ulfric.
Ulfric was from a Scandinavian country that moved here when he was young. Even before the system came into play he was a blacksmith. Rumors had it that his Blacksmith skill was at master level.
Ulfric's shop wasn't on the main street but was a couple of streets off. It was located on a dingy street with hardly any stores on it. Ben found a building that had faint writing on the side that read 'Ulfric's', opening the door Ben entered the store.
No one greeted him and the store was kind of empty with only a couple of swords and shields in the corner.
"Hello?" Ben called out.
"Be right there." a gruff voice came from the back of the store.
A man who was almost as wide as he was tall walked out. He had a messy beard and a bald head. His arms reminded Ben of tree trunks because of their size. He looked up to Ben and asked, "What do you want?"
Ben summoned his two swords and placed them in front of Ulfric, "I want these upgraded please."
"Upgraded? You bought these from the system?" his expression darkened.
"No. I killed a couple of zombies and these dropped from them. The description says they can be upgraded." Ben explained, he knew that tradespeople were pissed off at the hunters for buying from the system.
"Drops? Those are extremely rare. I've only heard them." Ulfric roughly said. It was true. Ben had killed countless beasts, zombies and monsters and he only got 2 drops.
Ulfric continued to examine the blades, he abruptly turned around and headed back towards the back of his shop. "Come back in 5 days." he grunted as he disappeared.
Shaking his head in exasperation, Ben headed back to the mansion.
Weekly Power Status
-- Power
Ranking 
-- Power
stone