Chapter 7

Einar looked over to the big black cat, that was lying on the ground, lifeless. He was surprised at how easily he killed the monster, compared to the one he was up against a few months ago.

The reason for this was, that his power had risen exponentially since he met Rayes. He had been training his body every day since he met Rayes. It was bound to get stronger.

He had also trained the newly acquired skill on the journey here, which was the biggest reason he could kill this monster. He did not expect it to be so effortless though. To him, the world seemed to slow down for a few seconds, and all he needed, was to strike the monster.

"U-Uhm, excuse me, mister, thank you for saving us!" As Einar was thinking back on the fight, he heard a small voice coming from behind him.

As he turned around, he saw the remaining people in the village, all bowing their bodies to him. He was taken aback by this since he didn't really expect this to happen.

"What are you all doing?" Einar took an indifferent expression.

"We want to show our respect to our savior!" An old man in the middle of the bunch stood up and said. You could see that he was old, as his back had started to bend forward through his years.

"Don't worry about it, I just happened to be visiting the village!" Einar did not want to take théir respect, as he did not do much. He only swung his blade once. This one swing just happened to save the lives of some villagers.

"On behalf of this village, I thank you once more!" The old man once again bowed his head to Einar.

-Sigh-

Einar could not help but sigh, he didn't want their gratitude, he just wanted some food. This monster was in the way, and killing innocent people, so he killed it. He didn't do it for glory.

"Don't worry about it, old man! I only came through here, to see if you had any food to spare?" Einar got to the point, as he wanted to be out of this situation. He liked talking to people, but not when they looked at him as some kind of savior.

"We do have some food we can spare, but it will not be too much!" The old man answered straight away, he would not want to disappoint their benefactor. "Follow me, I will show you where the food is!" The old man said as he started walking to the outskirts of the village.

Einar followed the old man there. "Hey, old man, where did that monster come from?" Einar wanted some information, this might also help him find the reason the monster got to his village.

"I have no idea, it just suddenly ... appeared!" The old man had a frightened face. Just the thought of how the monster just appeared and killed the villagers frightened him.

"It seems like the same happened here ..." Einar could not help but mutter. It was said so low though, that the old man had no idea he said anything.

"Do you know what the monster is then?" Einar asked curiously.

"These are demonic creatures, the one you just killed is called a demonic cat! It is one of the weaker demonic creatures!" The old man explained. He had lived many years, so he did gather some sort of knowledge.

"Oh! Thank you, for the information!" Einar thanked him, before being quiet.

They did not utter a word to each other, before they arrived in front of a small shed, in the outskirts of the village.

"We are here," The old man said, as he opened the door into the shed.

Einar took a look inside the shed, as he saw big piles of corn, meat, and other food-related things. He was impressed by the stash they had in this small village, there was enough for the village a few times over, now that most of them are dead.

"I know what you are thinking, this is not a big amount!" The old man looked at Einar with a smile. "We need a big stash, as the yield of our crops wary a lot in the desert!"

"I see!" Einar had no way of arguing there.

The old man started looking through the food and found a few things Einar could have. There were a few different kinds of fruits, some fish and a single chicken. It was quite a lot of food, and it could last Einar for the rest of his journey if he could preserve it well enough.

"When you said I couldn't get a lot of food, I did not expect to get this much!" Einar did not know what to say, this was a lot of food for him, and it would save him a lot of time on his journey. "Thank you!" He thanked him as he left the shed.

As he went out of the shed, he looked back to the old man. He didn't want to say goodbye to the whole village, as that would take too much time out of his journey.

"This will be goodbye!" Einar said.

The old man looked like he knew why Einar said goodbye here "I see, thank you again, for saving our lives!" The old man bowed for the third time to Einar.

-Sigh-

"Goodbye, old man!" Einar turned around and left the old man with a bend back.

As Einar had gone quite a bit away, the old man turned around and went to join the rest of the villagers. On the way there though, he remembered that he forgot to ask the boy's name.

All of the villagers looked at the old man's return, and they were all waiting to hear the name of the wanderer who had saved their lives. To everyone's surprise, the old man had not gotten the name of their savior either. So, from that day on, the village had dubbed him 'The Wandering Swordsman!'