Armour more valuable than a National Treasure

Ex-adventurers could mean a bad or good thing. For adventurers who were retired from the arduous life of sweat and blood, their resumes were often good and sometimes overqualified and so they often could get another job quite easily.

For adventurers who were excommunicated and banned, those adventurers broke the rules either for the good of others or for the worse. Some of them offer their services for jobs that aren't legal.

There's another label called Rogue Adventurers. These are bad adventurers who offer illegal services but they're worse because since no one knows the truth, they are still active adventurers who could take advantage of the adventurers guild network and resources as well as their statuses.

Such an example was right here in the grassland.

The rogue adventurer party waited as the knight walked over.

The way the knight walked didn't hold any bloodlust but the clanking of the heavy armour and sword reminded them of the danger.

Even if it was a rich kid, there's still a chance they trained him well until he was officially ranked, which is silver-ranked in adventurer's terms.

However, they weren't that worried since they all were official-ranked and it was 4vs1.

Still, it isn't fun having a broken wrist injury. Since they were all spoiled, if they got a broken bone, they'd rather just use a gradual recovery potion than use some herbs.

As the knight got closer, the brilliance of his armour didn't diminish. It was pure white and the intermittent glare that gleaned off his shoulders and helmet every time he walked was even brighter than the sun.

They couldn't see his face since it was a full-face helmet. There was only a slit opening for the eyes yet even in the bright sunlight, they couldn't see his eyes.

"Hold it right there!" the leader of the adventurer's party warned. "Who are you and state your business."

"My name is…"

The same word for the hero in Dutch, Frisian, German, Luxembourgish and Afrikaans language is-

"Held." The knight said.

"Held?"

The leader looked to see if his men had heard of the name but they all shook their heads.

"Last name?"

"... Just Held."

'Must be an alias but why would a rich kid be hiding his name if he was going to build his reputation?'

Igor didn't think for long as it's common for people to change their names when they sign up as an adventurer.

"May I humbly ask for the leader's name?"

"Hm? Heh, I'm Igor, leader of the Black Axe adventurer's party," Igor proudly announced with his chin up high.

"It's an honour to meet the renowned Black Axe party in person. If there was not such an emergency, I would love to chat."

"Hmm? What emergency?"

"That is why I'm here. I'm a travelling lone swordsman looking to make a name for myself. Passing through the River's End village, I found an old woman who was assaulted by thugs. Unfortunately, I don't have any healing items with me so when I heard of Amrans herbs growing here, I came here immediately. If you don't mind, I'm just here to collect the last herb over there."

Everyone looked at a dark green leafy herb with a yellow dandelion in the middle which sat next to the pharmacist's foot.

The pharmacist blushed and pulled the roots out.

"I knew you guys missed one! What do I pay you for! Hnnrgn, huh? You want this?"

The pharmacist dangled the herbs as he teased.

"Yes, please. I believe there's only an hour left until that old woman dies. I'd like to avoid that."

"Hmph, that'll be 10 gold."

"10 gold? Forgive me but you're asking too much. Such an unprocessed herb is just 5 silvers…"

"Huh? Didn't I hear that an old woman is dying?"

"... To be honest I would give you 10 gold but I haven't earnt that much so I can't pay you-"

"HAH? You with that armour? You can't afford 10 gold? You're trying to cheat us, aren't you? A new adventurer? Do you think you can just follow us and safely take the rewards without even fighting a single monster? You're lying!" Igor scorned.

"... I brought everything I had when I left to come here. This is everything I have. It is not a lie."

'This guy is really calm. Is he overconfident or just a rich idiot?' Igor thought.

"Give us that armour and we'll let you run off with that herb."

"I can't do that, it's my father's…"

The knight's tone became dreary at the end…

"Get on your knees and beg then we'll give it to yah for free."

The knight lowered his head for a moment in thought.

The Black Axe prepared for him to retaliate but what he did surprised them all.

The white knight chucked his sword away to the side and got on his knees and touched the dirt with his helmet.

His right-hand man, Malfas quickly ran and guarded the sword to Held's left side while Farkas circled so that he was behind Held.

'What's this? Is this guy for real?'

Valour and honour were just told in stories and they couldn't even imagine the most humble warrior in their Kingdom, no, in the entire world that would devote so much of themselves to an old lady he randomly met.

They couldn't help but feel a bit of respect and if it were any other circumstance, they would have just let the knight take the herb since it didn't bother them.

However, that was only if he wasn't wearing a boatload of gold…

"Sigh, this is why real good warriors like you don't exist…" Igor feigned an exasperated tone.

Farkas the rogue's footsteps was almost completely silent and so only if you were high level enough could you detect it without a skill. Even more so, Pindious had already cast a silent spell - [Invisibility].

The moment the knight exposed his back, he had already signed a death certificate.

"Because they're all dead."

Farkas leapt into the air with his poisoned dagger pointed at Held's neck.

'If you hadn't bent your head, there wouldn't be a small gap behind your neck and I would have to go for a gap in the joints and the poison would take longer to work. You made things a lot easier, you dumbass!' Farkas grinned with his full teeth.

'Now die!'

Farkas suddenly felt someone grab him by the stomach.

"Huh?"

The knight's long arm had reached out from behind himself to grab Farkas and threw him overhead.

"Ahhhh!"

Farkas screamed as he flew towards Igor.

Thanks to his warrior senses, Igor ducked but the mage he was defending behind him was now vulnerable.

Both the rogue and mage collided and rolled a few metres.

"What the hell! How could he know?"

"His helmet might be imbued with magical properties!"

"Magic items!"

"Why did you duck!"

"Shut up! It was your fault for being too slow!"

"He was invisible!"

Igor and Malfas rushed in on Held while he was still unarmed. They both swung their weapons from Held's left and right at the same time.

Pain blew up in their hands and their arms went numb from the shockwave that passed through and rattled their bones.

They couldn't believe it.

Hands.

Held had grabbed both of their weapons with his hands and there was not a dent or scratch on the gauntlet.

'It's so hard! It's stronger than Mythril! Orichalcum? Adamantite armour? With magical enhancements on top of that?'

Their evaluation of the armour had skyrocketed.

This was ridiculous, they never heard of any warrior catching weapons so casually! They would have to be extremely confident in the armour not getting damaged.

Even if the armour was one or two leagues harder than the weapon, because the armour is relatively thin, weapons can easily scratch, dent or cut through the armour.

The main purpose of armour isn't to be invulnerable but to reduce the force that gets through. Just repairing this sort of treasure would cost more than a regular full plate armour!

Such armour is a national treasure, probably one of the top three national treasures on the continent!

It should have cost ten of thousands of gold, no it was invaluable! No one would sell this!