Chương 138: Chapter 122. Eastern Swamp

" Take this!" Thrust! /CLUNK! / Scarlet's blade was lodged in a gator's eye and caused it to collapse without much of a hassle. Once the shaking from its body crashing on the floor passed, Edmon placed it in his Storage." Good job, Lord Matthew!"" I've collected the body, Lord Drake!"" Thank you both for your hard work." Wipe. I wiped my brow as I had begun to sweat a bit from that fight. Ruby and Edmon came and spoke to me after the fight ended.

Apparently, she and Skitz played rock paper scissors to see who would accompany me today and who would guide the new hunting parties, she won best 2 of 3 apparently. Speaking of Ruby. It's been 6 days since we first harvested the vegetables from the first field. So far, everything has proceeded smoothly. A new field is currently being developed. It's about a 20-minute walk from the first one.

I think it's good that they're close, so the Guards can communicate and escape to the other field if a situation requiring them to retreat happens. They're work is fully formed and important now, since a field is actually completed. I also started renovating the walls of Paradise. So far, I've only gotten around 2 miles worth of wall made. The thickness and height of the walls require a lot of mana since I'm not use to Gil's abilities yet.

In time, it will get easier, along with my own Tempering helping it of course. I work on renovating the walls when I get back from hunting now. Once I use up most of my mana, I stop renovating and head home and Temper my Mana a few times before dinner. I've made good results with this system so far. It's also nice that I'm getting better at Summoning my 2 different Spirit Sovereigns now, by Summoning Lily one day and Gil the next. It's already helping with both of their Spells and Mana Consumption.

And not just that, but on Lily's day, I try to train my Magic and my hunting trips are for my swordsmanship. So it's nice to work on entirely different things on different days, besides Tempering of course, which I do every day." Lord Drake, do you want to continue heading East? Or do you wish to turn back?" Edmon spoke to me after I finished wiping the sweat off my brow. Sarah and Anna decided to hunt together by themselves so I thought it might be better to make as much progress East as I could.

Since they've been heading West. I turned my head to make eye contact to answer his question." I plan on continuing, the day is still young. You still have space in your Storage, right, Edmon?"" Not for another Gator, I think?"" We'll look for squirrels now, I guess. Or who knows, maybe we'll find some undiscovered species that never leaves the deeper areas of the swamp. Or maybe a ghost!!! Booooo!" I wiggled my fingers and spoke in a deep voice to show I was joking around." Stop! You're giving me chills!"

I heard Ruby scream from my left side. I turned with a look of shock to see Ruby, who actually had a frightened expression on her face." Y... You're scared?" A Demon is scared of ghosts... I couldn't help but laugh at this scene. Ruby was beginning to shiver." Miss Ruby doesn't take night shifts for a reason, Lord Drake." Edmon filled me in on something I hadn't noticed. After catching my breath, I apologized to a now nearly crying Ruby." I'm sorry, Ruby. Don't worry, we'll only hunt squirrels and crabs for now.

But we will push further East. I haven't found a good place to make our headquarters yet. Besides, even if we were to run into something like a ghost. I'm a Paladin, remember? It's in my Job description to protect people from evil spirits."" You'll protect me?" She looked at me like a little kid. I nod my head as I answer her." Of course! I'm your Lord. It's my Duty to protect my Citizens." Ruby begins to calm down at my words." Cough, cough." Edmon broke up the silence with some forced coughing.

I turn to him and start to speak again. Love what you're reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on." I guess we can start going further. Let's be safe though, okay?" We began to walk as we looked for new prey to hunt. My swordsmanship has grown well with my Skill. Angel's Swordsmanship has begun to calm down. Though I think it might be due to the fact that I've begun to change the way I fight. I've tried copying the way my Skill dodges. It's worked for me.

My attacking patterns have also changed. Mostly because of what I've picked up from the Skill. The more I lean into killing blows, the Skill stays inactive. I suppose the entire point of the Skill wasn't survival, so much as "correction" for me. Its correcting my fighting style to allow me to kill the enemy in the most efficient and graceful way. Recently, because my swordplay has grown, I've felt the Skill's urge to make use of different Magic in tandem with my swordplay.

However, with all of this, I can't help but wonder what'll happen when I fight someone capable of blocking killing blows? I wonder what reaction my Skill will have to that?" Lord Drake, it's 2 squirrels. They're in the tree." Ruby pointed to where she spotted them. And I saw them as well. 2 squirrels eating what looked like a part of the crabs that roam around the swamp." That will do. Both of you sit back, I'll handle it."" Understood." Both of them followed my orders and I drew Scarlet.

Recently, she's been quite angry with me. Since I've only used her for hunting. But it's not like I don't take care of her. I polish and treat her blade every time I come back from a hunt. I've tried my best to placate her and it's gone well so far, I hope I can finish this whole Skill fiasco and then allow her to relax. It seems she finds it an insult to be used to hunt animals, but she doesn't want me to use another sword. I don't know what she wants from me sometimes. Swing! / Shing! Thoop! Thoop!

/ Regardless, I walk forward and throw a White Slash towards the branch both squirrels are sitting on. The slash hit the branch and caused both squirrels to fall into the water below them. They look for where that attack came from. I wave at them, and they begin to rush themselves at me." Good, come at me."" Crah!"" Raah!" Step! Swing! They both continue to dash at me and begin to swipe their claws at me. At the last moment, I stepped between them and dodged their swipes.

At the same moment I was out of danger, I swung Scarlet through their necks and end the fight in that moment. /SPASH! / The fight ended with the sound of their heads falling into the swamp water. I sent Scarlet back to the bracelet and turned around to call for Ruby and Edmon. They approached me quite quickly. As they saw, my training sessions have become smaller and smaller.

Quite simply, with the changing of my fighting style towards killing blows, I can't train against the smaller creatures as I take them out in a few seconds. When they're in packs, its better, since I can use my dodging to elongate the fight and take out single targets." Lord Matthew! Your style of fighting is amazing as usual! How you can do that all so quickly? Even against something as tough as those squirrels. It's amazing to watch! Our hunters still struggle with taking down one squirrel.

Even with multiple hunters!"" It comes from fighting them so much over the past few weeks. That and my Skill. I hope my Skill finally settles soon."" I'm sure it will! You've worked so hard after all!" I smile at Ruby's encouragement." Thank you, Ruby. That makes me feel better about it all." While Ruby and I were talking, Edmon again, placed the squirrels in his Mana Storage. I'm glad that all of these animals will go to good use and not be wasted and rot around these parts of the swamp.

I still need to push forward in order to find a decent spot to set up a place to use as a base of operations though. I guess that means we should continue to push farther in. There has to be a decent piece of land around here somewhere..." Lord Drake, I've collected their bodies and heads. It still impresses me how much you've improved in such a short amount of time. I'm starting to really understand what King Warrick saw in you.

I'm also beginning to understand how much of a monster King Warrick is to be able to beat you every time you fought."" Well, from my Job Evolving, my abilities have increased. However, just my gut feeling tells me that I can't beat Warrick by myself yet."" It sounds like you want to fight and defeat King Warrick, Lord Matthew." Ruby said that in a joking matter, but that is my goal, so I figured I'd let them know." That is my goal though?" They were both shocked by my words. I think...

They think I want to start a rebellion or something?" I'll just say this now, but I have no desire to ever harm King Warrick or his Family. I'm Married to his Daughter for crying out loud. I also view them as my Friends and Family... Well, every member of the Family I've met so far, I guess? I just want to stand on even footing with him. Since he's the strongest guy I've run into, I thought he should be my goal. Is that bad?"

To my words, Ruby and Edmon seemed to gain an understanding of where I'm coming from and breathed a sigh of relief. Ruby answered my question." No, I don't think it's bad, it was just the way you answered me so nonchalantly. You had me worried for a second, Lord Matthew."" Well, I guess I can say this to you guys, since it might matter in the future. I'm fully Loyal to King Warrick and Queen Aqua. No matter what, even if Diablos turns on them, I'll fight beside them, to the end.

I took the job of being the Lord of Paradise, partially because he has an expectation of me to make this place better. I want to prove his thoughts about this place and myself right."" What do you mean "Might matter in the future", Lord Matthew?" Edmon asked me a question." Well, when my plans here come to fruition, I assume Nobles will begin to spread rumors about me soon after. Granted, King Warrick will throw anything related to me betraying him out the window."" He trusts you greatly."" And I, him.

He says the word, and I'll do it. Not because he's a King, but because he's my Friend." To Ruby's statement, I only had a few more words to add. As I spoke however, I noticed Ruby's expression change as I looked at her as I spoke." What was that?" Ruby whispered to me." What was it?"" I don't know, it was small. It ran behind that tree."" Both of you don't move, Ruby don't freak out. I'll check it out right now." They both nodded to me.

I activated Holy Mana Body and quickly ran to the tree that Ruby saw the figure run to. I quickly pulled myself around with Scarlet in my hand. The small figure I saw shocked me.

"!"" It's a... Human girl?"