Chapter 3

" That's right Moonie sir. We have been hearing loud dull sounds from the forest since more than two months ago now. The people fear reemergence of some powerful beast so we can do nothing but request help from strong people like you. Please help us!" village chief kneeled on the ground as requested to Moonie with sincerity.

Moonie was a powerful bounty hunter in first parts of Grand Line and his fame was quite spread. He was currently hired by chiefs of black market for protection of auction house until the auction eneds.

The villagers here had been sending requests for help for a while now irritating the manager of the auction house. After all he could not complete ignore them as this village along with several surrounding small islands were supposed to be under his protection. Thus he sent Moonie to deal with the supposed beast of the forest once for all.

Moonie did not say anything and just started moving towards the forest with ferocious grin on his face. The long horizontal scar on his face made him look very intimidating as the villagers made way hardly for him.

....

Inside the forest , I was just going to head inside the same old small cave when I heard sounds of human footsteps coming from the left entrance which faced the shore.

I was feeling quite tired and feeling pain after another hard training session using rock which should weigh more than seven hundred kilograms. So I immediately wanted to use my panel and eliminate hidden injuries of my body but I could not ignore this guest either who was the first one since I came inside this forest.

So I just wiped my sweat with my tattered shirt which was used as a rag now and just walked towards the entrance showcasing my upper body full of packed muscles.

These months of insane amount of training had provided me with great strength and toned body which I was very proud of. Though I was severely lacking in combat experience department.

There I saw a tall lean guy wearing long black coat and had a horizontal scar on his face. He was grinning like an idiot and sometimes licking his lips while his hand was fixed on hilt of his longsword which was strapped on his back.

Honestly I was weird out by his maniac behaviour but I had to be serious now as this maniac guest was sending quite dense amount of bloodlust towards me.

My willpower completely ignored it but I was honestly confused as why this guy wanted to kill me. My first guess was that he had recognized me as a former slave of auction house but I denied this thought as I did not remember seeing such a guy there.

" Ahem! So, why are you leaking all this bloodlust directed at me? I don't seen to know you much less have any grudges.." I decided to ask before getting rid of this guy as he was dead in my eyes ever since he started leaking murderous intentions towards me.

" Jajajaja.. as I thought, you're not affected by my murderous intent. I dont not expect the beast talked by those wimpy villagers was a strong human like you instead. "

Beast? What was this guy talking about?

He was still in the middle of talking so I decided to listen as maybe my question will be answered.

" I am here to kill that beast but you will do too..Jajaja.."

Well my question was not answered. Instead he started licking his sword like an idiot after unshesthing it.

I just started shaking my head as I did not know from where this guy got his confidence from. I'm sure that this guy was not hiding his aura at all but I did not feel any threat from him which meant that I was stronger than him. Could it be that he did not feel this?

I dont know that but I know that he had managed to anger me a little now. So I just showed him a middle finger and gestured him to attack as he wished.

.....

The maniac kicked the ground hard and crossed the distance of six meters or so in an instant. At least he had some power and skill but this much was nothing for me either.

His sword was pointed towards me and he immediately thrusted it forward next moment after landing.

If it was the old me then my body would have immediately flinched with fear seeing the pointy sword but now after all that insane training, my mind and willpower had been forged again and again so this little threat was easy to ignore.

Still this guy's actions were easy to follow for me so I just ducked my head a little while taking one step forward and hitting the maniac's gut with a simple punch.

" Gah.."

He was sent flying few meters away but managed to regain his balance after coughing and landed on two feet. Still he slides back few more meters which caused me to nod with a smile. After all the power of my normal punch satisfied me a lot.

On the other hand this maniac seemed to have seen a ghost as he was he pale now and looking at me with fear in his eyes.

I was honestly disappointed by his lack of courage. His confidence seemed to be gone just after talking my one casual punch.

" You .. who are you? What have I not heard about such a strong guy like you? Cough.. " he asked while coughing but I was honestly in no mood to answer because my body was still feeling tired due to having fishies my training session right before he came.

So I just frowned and decided to end this battle as soon as possible.

I gathered some force in my right leg and kicked the ground crossing more than ten meters in an instant.

Then I swung my left arm and hit the top of his head with all my strength. He did not even have the time to react before falling down unconscious and bleeding from his nose.

" Tch.."

I could not help but click my tongue in annoyance as this maniac was still alive somewhat after talking my full power blow. It looks like it's a good plan to choose a weapon to specialize in as soon as possible.

.....

I just searched his body in Hope of gaining some money but instead found some information.

It was a contract paper and it wrote about his contract with Moon Dip auction house which was the one that I had escaped from.

Naturally I thought that this location was now not safe for me to live. It was a pity, I was enjoying the quiet lifestyle here even though the food was just some grilled fish or berries.

I had planned to train here for few more months before setting sail but it's best to leave as soon as possible now. Even if I was thinking too much and I was not discoverd by the auction house, it was still a fact that this guy was related to them and they may search for him if he was missing for long.

I honestly did not like this feeling of fleeing from my enemies but I also knew that I was still not strong enough to completely ignore the vast amount of people and weapons of those guys.

Thankfully this guy had few thousand berries with him which were more than enough to board a passenger ship for a while. Now I had to prepare some clothes and hood or scarf to hide my face.

First things first, I separated his head from his body using his own sword completely ending his life then went inside the cave to get rid of my hidden injuries as soon as possible.

I wanted to sleep after that but decided against it as now that I had decided to leave anyway so it was best to do so as soon as I can.

Thus to regain my stamina, I ate all the berries in my stock as there was no need to leave them behind. Then, I put the looted berries inside pocket of my tattered short pants and left the forest without wearing any shirt to cover my upper body.

I was not ashamed to show my muscles but it still felt awakrd setting foot inside a civilization after so long without wearing proper clothes. As expected only a few ladies had red faces while looking at me while other people were clearly wary of me.

I decided to suppress my awkwardness and put an indifferent expresion on my face while insuring about the Moonie guy from before. His name was written on the contract.

Well honestly I had completely ignored this possibility for some reason. It was about the loud sounds and short tremors felt by these villagers. Those should be clearly caused by me tossing those heavy stones after finishing my training sessions. I did not consider this issue at all.

I felt really embarrassed at my lack of thought but did not show it on my face. Instead I focused on drinking some good rum and eating fried food along with it. The delicious food caused me to loose my composure as I could not help but shed some tears remembering the taste of poorly grilled fish and sour or even poisonous berries.

People gave me weird looks but honestly I did not care about these strangers and even held a little grudge with them. After all they basically sent that bastard maniac Moonie at my place and forced me to leave earlier than planned.

I had erased the traces of our battle and threw Moonie's corpse into the sea so these villagers should be fine if people from the auction house came to scratch for him. I wanted to becau them a little but did not want to kill them either as they did not know anything anyway.

Having money was great as I easily spent it to rent most expensive room in the the inn of this village. Well it was no different from a four storey house though as this village was not focused on welcoming guests anyway.

All in all this day was memorable for me as I had killed for the first time today and Iate good cooked food too for first time after arriving in this world.