10.

The Wolf King and I had a stare down before we both rushed at each other. The wolf king's speed is incredible but with my reaction time and experience, I managed to go head to head against the wolf king. I tried knocking on it but the impact of my strikes doesn't reach the target very well.

Its like the Wolf King's tough body would spread the impact evenly to its body to lessen the damage. We fought for 10 minutes straight just attacking and dodging each other.

We are in a stalemate as the Wolf King had knocking applied to some of its body parts and was struggling while I had claw marks all over the body with blood dripping on them. We were about to continue fighting when a lion with a face of a human, wings, and a scorpion tail jumped into the fray.

Seeing the new challenger, I wonder why I'm still calm in the face of danger. I stared at the wolf king for a brief moment and saw that it was looking at me as well. I know what it was thinking.

The challenger was a manticore, the rumored strongest after the Wolf King. Seems like it wanted the title for the top of the food chain huh. Unfortunately for him...

The Wolf King and I formed a truce and attacked the Manticore, when I got near the wolf king, I undid its knocking and drew my sword to attack the Manticore. Why didn't I use sword against the Wolf King? I didn't sense some malicious intent on his attacks, to me it seems like he was teaching the pack, as for what it was. How should I know?

My sword, although a standard sword, was actually a failed product of the blacksmith in rosemary village. It was heavy as hell that normal people can't use it. Since my predecessor is a heavy sword user, I tried using it and I was surprised that I could lift it with just one hand. I then practiced using it according to my memories.

I smashed the heavy sword to the manticore's belly while the Wolf King tore its wings and the Manticore screamed in pain and retaliated by trying to pierce me with its tail but I pushrd it to the right side and sent a downward chop as my arm bulged and gripped the sword tightly.

The tail went flying when I chopped it and Immediately rolled to find a safe ground. I then looked towards the manticore roaring in pain and rage. Deciding to finish it, I dashed towards the roaring manticore and sent a full powered slash to its neck.

The sword easily cut through the neck as if its butter and a large crevice formed on the ground when my sword hit the ground. Seeing the Manticore lying in the ground. I then tensed my body and prepared for the next fight, since the truce was over. I was a little bit surprised to see the Wolf King just staring at me.

Since it is not attacking, I sat down and rested. I don't know how to dismantle a manticore as it is the first time I've killed one. I don't know which part would pay high and which part would be dirt cheap. Also if I gave the manticore's tail towards the adventurer's tower, it would only gain me unneeded fame. What I need is to stay low-key and just build my tavern.

After resting for 15 minutes, the wound have already stopped bleeding. I stood up before looking at the wolf king resting and spoke.

"I know that you can understand me, those downed kins of yours are only paralyzed, they will start moving after 5 minutes." I said my piece as I left the place and tracrd back where I left my horse.

I saw the tied horse and I fed it some water since the place was surrounded by grass. The only thing the horse needs is water. After making sure that the horse had its fill. I rode back to Fiore just barely before the northern gates close. I brought the horse back to the stables and went to the inn we're staying. I entered the room and saw Kagura sleeping while Erza... she seemed to fall asleep waiting for me. She was sleeping while sitting on the bed.

I laid her down and covered them with a quilt as I head down and took a bath. When I went back inside, I saw the grandma who is the owner of the inn on her rocking chair and watching the street in front of her. She saw me entered and greeted me.

"Its really hard to be a father and an adventurer at the same time. Isn't it?" She said as I answered.

"Indeed, but if I didn't do so, my daughters would starve to death." I replied, If I built the tavern then all is good. I don't need to separate with my daughters.

I waved goodbye to the old grandma and went to our room. I then looked at a mirror and saw that the claw marks in my body didn't leave any scars except for the one on my right arm. I can tell that it was really deep.

The next day, I commissioned the adventurer's tower to build a simple tavern in the wasteland of death and paid 2 million jewels for the first payment as I want it ASAP and would pay another 1 million jewel if the project was completed.

The reward money I got from the bandit king is 3 mil jewels and we split the money between me and Jura as we were the one who caught the bandit king. Jura was also supposed to share the reward money for telling the tower valuable information about the beast tide but I vehemently declined on this one.

I used the money I earned to hire a band of mercenary to protect the hired workers and was surprised that it was Jura's team that accepted it. They were surprised as well, the description of the job was to guard a bunch of workers building in the wasteland of death. Since they were weeks early from escorting the caravan, they accepted it because of the high pay and rushed order meaning they won't stay in the wasteland of death for very long time.

We set out with carriages of materials and bunch of workers alongside the mercenaries with horses which I paid for as well to reach the place quickly and start work immediately. We entered the wasteland of death and fought with low level beasts as we made our way to the site. We were lucky that no one from the top of the foodchain stopped us or there will be casualties.

After showing them the place, the workers immediately started building the foundation of the tavern and we returned when the night was setting down.