บท 12: Meeting Sally and going to the Forest Part III.

This day they hunted Tiger magic beast which was quite deep in the forest. It was quite a hassle to kill it as this tiger magic basic could use the light magic itself every time it got injured. It was John who dealt the main finishing blow by piercing both the head and heart via Multiple Fire Arrows.

As they traveled the forest they moved east and so they got near the East sea city. They first hunted the animals they needed but John still didn't get the Three-legged black crow. What was unusual this time was that there were quite a lot of beasts in the forest this time around. This was noted by Josephine, Eva, and Sally. John didn't know about the flow of animals in the forest. He thought it might be the normal number of animals. There were quite a lot of dangerous beasts this time around when they entered the forest. Eva and her Team even thought that it was good that John was with them this time or there might be quite a few injuries this time around. Because of the long journey of 5 days, they decided that should just rest in East sea city while they were near it.

East Sea city,

They neared the City and got into the city after paying and showing their ID proofs. John got his ID proof of North-Frontier town by Sam.

After entering the City,

"H...aah I am so tired my body is aching. I seriously need a Bath and a place to rest." Eva said stretching after they entered the City.

"Well, lets first Check in to the Inn and later we can check the Markets for any new things they might have this time around," Sally said in an easy going tone.

So they headed towards the inn to first rest and Bath then later check out the market and sell their catch and just keep the important stuff that they need for the village. After checking they first rested and did their own things.

John then came inside his room, took a bath and then decided to check the system.

John checked his notifications bar where saw that he got a medium sized gift box and a place where he saw that authority level had risen and brain activity increased.

He then opened his gift box to look for the rewards.

[Ding...! Congratulations on getting the blueprints of Steam engine]

Then he decided to buy 16 small gift boxes worth 16000 exp points from the system.

He opened the first gift box,

[Sorry this gift box didn't contain anything.try your luck next time around] came the voice of Sarah inside his head.

For the next ten gift boxes, he got the same answer which irritated him a lot. he thought he should have rather exchanged the Exp points for WDS points previously.

After everyone was ready they then headed to the Market. After heading to the market they first decided to sell their catch. John didn't take the money as head taken the other body parts of the animals he needed. While they were in the market Eva slightly furrowed her brows as she saw a person at some distance away from them.

This person was none other than the second son of Baron Mendez. His name was Antonio Mendez. He was a normal aristocratic silk-pant who lived in the imperial capital from his childhood where he studied most of his knight knowledge and mingled in aristocratic circles from a young age to increase his political and business connections.

Like any other aristocrat, he had his fair share of women who he dumped them later on because of interests and their status. Although Polygamy was normal in this world but aristocrats still minded that the people they married should either be a noble or at least their family owned a big business. It was all about interests when it came to aristocratic circles. Antonio was interested in Eva because of two things, one was her beauty and other was her family connections and her grandma who could even make potions which could increase the longevity of people. Eva knew about her situation since a young age and hence always hated the aristocratic circles. She only stayed in imperial capital to complete her Magic training and then live with her grandma in the countryside. She didn't like her main family as well as they always tried to use her as a chip to improve their family interests and hence she escaped from capital as soon as possible.

Antonio approached the group and greeted Eva first,

"My my miss Eva is as beautiful as ever, you are here again in East sea city in a matter of 10 days. I guess you are having good hunts nowadays. so what brings you here today?"

"It is none your business of what I do and where I do, Hmpfh " Eva didn't give him any face because of his inquiry and fake smile. She knew what his intentions were anyways.

To this Antonio didn't mind anything as he knew what her social standing was anyways and then later he greeted the other team members to which Josephine only nodded with a fake smile while Sally ignored him.

At last, then he later came to John.

He was quite surprised that there was a man in this team as he knew the temper of these women. Plus he also saw that this man had quite a good relationship with Eva and her team from the way they conversed. To this, he was quite infuriated in a sense what did Eva saw in him and not him. However, he didn't show his thoughts outside and thought about how to make this man understand his position. Plus he also noted that this guy didn't even have a high-quality sword so his position might not be too good anyway. He was at least not a noble or high knight from the imperial city.

So To retain a bit of superiority in front of these women he thought maybe he should embarrass this fragile good looking man in a duel where he can shame him fairly without anyone questioning him and make him show his position.

"Friend from your attire you look like a swordsman.How about we have a duel in the city to exchange pointers? How do you feel?" Antonio asked John in a friendly manner so he doesn't find his malicious intentions.

From the start, John watched everything from the sidelines and thought he should go along this play and accepted the duel. From the start, he watched the ruthlessness in the eyes of Antonio so in this fight he decided that he won't show him mercy.

The women didn't show any expression but Eva and Josephine were still worried that he might get injured as he had only shown his knife skills and not sword skills when they were hunting previously. As for Sally she was convinced that John won't lose after watching him fight for a few days. She knew how terrifying John's senses were unlike the other women, they thought his senses came from his instinct of fighting but Sally knew better as she saw him over the days.

They then headed to the Duel grounds.