Yale

Somewhere else on Wildergreene's eastern borders...

--- Yellowleaf City ---

This was the city that King Xavier was ruling over. The city had a population count of around 500,000 people. The establishments were all made from wooden materials and looked pretty normal. The reason why the city was called Yellowleaf was because of the yellow-leafed trees that was seen all around the city.

...

Yale was currently passing through the city since the place Jay mentioned was a few kilometers away from Yellowleaf City. Yale was currently selling some of the useless junk he forged at a random weapon shop.

"Old man, how much would this sword cost if I sell it to you?" Yale asked the old man tending the weapon shop.

"An iron sword that has an Iron/Common rating... I can give you 400 copper coins for it." The old man said as he took out a small bag that contained the coins.

"Alright then. Here you go, and another 500 pieces of the same sword." Yale said as he grinned and took out the iron swords he had with him. There were just too many that Yale had to use a blacksmith skill called 'Item Shrink,' a low-tiered skill that allowed blacksmiths to make the items they own smaller. Of course, they can make these items go back to their original size anytime.

The moment the old man saw hundreds of iron swords that were shrunk down in front of him, his jaw dropped and looked at Yale as if he was some kind of monster and thought, "If he sells all of these... this is just daylight robbery!"

"Well, pay up. I still have some other matters to attend to." Yale said and gestured the old man to pay up.

The old man hesitated for a bit with a bitter look on his face before handing over a bag of coins that contained around 200 Silver coins.

"Have a nice day!" Yale shouted happily as he left the shop.

...

"I wonder if I should sell some more items since I only freed up space for one of my storage rings... I still have 4 storage rings that is full of stuff I've forged the past month, or rather, the junk items that I forged since I stored my best works back at the guild..." Yale thought to himself as he looked at his right hand, where each of his fingers had a storage ring on it.

"Screw it. I do not have enough time right now. I should probably go to this 'Ancient Whisperer's Graveyard' Jay was talking about." After this line of thought, Yale used a skill called 'Light Steps,' a tier 2 skill that rangers use to move around at a fast pace.

...

-- Ancient Whisperer's Graveyard --

After an hour of traveling, Yale reached the place Jay called as the Ancient Whisperer's Graveyard.

"Strange. Jay said that this place is supposed to be very dark, and abnormally quiet. What's with those tents and campfires?" Yale asked himself since instead of a normal looking graveyard with some undead creatures loitering around, he saw a small group of people camping near the graveyard.

Yale decided to scout them out first since it was a bit weird, so he used 'Eagle Eye' and 'Keen Senses.'

These were two low-tiered skills that rangers frequently use to stalk their prey or scout out an area.

...

"My queen, when are we going to strike? My men and I are getting restless and wants to see some blood you know?" A large knight wearing a jet-black iron armor set spoke to a bluish crystal orb he was holding.

"Soon. Just stay hidden for now." A woman's voice spoke through the crystal orb. After this, the large knight stored the crystal orb away and looked at his men just frolicking around the camp.

"General, when are we going to leave this place? It's so boring, and quiet." A normal looking knight with an identical armor set approached the large knight.

"Just deal with it for now."

...

Of course, all of these was heard by Yale and he also finished scouting out the area and found out that there were around 100 of these black knights that were camped around the graveyard. He also saw that a red-colored 'H' was imprinted on their necks.

"My guess is that those guys are from Holtheim... but what are they doing here?" Yale thought to himself. The problem he faced now was if he should reveal himself and just enter the graveyard or stealthily enter. The reason why he was facing this problem was because Jay told everyone to do their best to be discreet with their treasure hunting operations.

"Screw it. I can just kill them. If they are going to be our enemies since we are starting our own kingdom, might as well reduce their numbers." Yale thought to himself and took out an Elvish Shortbow. This bow was one of the many other things Jay looted from Fisnar's Great Forest.

'Wind Arrows'

'Ranger's Blessing'

'Lock On'

'Quick Draw'

Yale immediately activated these four ranger skills. Wind Arrows allowed him to create arrows made out of wind that can pierce through any kind of armor. Ranger's Blessing increased his reflexes and movement speed. Lock On allowed him to make the arrows he fires to directly seek his targets. As for Quick Draw, it allowed him to quickly draw arrows from his quiver. But since he was using Wind Arrows, he did not have a quiver at the moment and he only needed to pull the bowstring to create the arrows he will fire.

Yale first took a deep breath before firing his bow. His first target was the large knight.

...

~Whoosh...

Even though the arrow Yale fired made some noise, due to the place being a bit windy, the knights did not give a crap about it and thought it was just a breeze of air. But they were wrong, very, very wrong.

Before any of them can even react properly, they suddenly saw the large knight whom they called as 'general' get shot between his eyes.

"General!"

"We're under attack!"

The knights panicked and grabbed their shields attempting to save themselves from this unknown enemy.

~Whoosh, whoosh, whoosh...

Yale fired arrow after arrow. Some of his arrows hit the knights directly at their heads, some managed to block with their shields, and some taunted him to come out and face them like a real man.

"COME OUT COWARD!"

"YOU AFRAID OF ME B*TCH!?"

...

After a few minutes of hearing those taunts and curses, Yale managed to kill all of them but he first let one of them live by shooting that poor knight in his balls instead of his head.

Yale approached this pitiful knight and asked, "Greetings friend. Tell you what, I will let you live and give you a healing potion if you answer some questions of mine."

The pitiful knight was crying deep within himself refrained from shouting even though his balls had a weird-looking whitish arrow stuck on it. He looked at Yale and begged for his life.

"Please. I'll tell you anything. I was only forced to join the army. Please, don't kill me!"

Yale knew that the knight did not really meant what he said and was used to these kind of shameless people, who will do anything and even renounce their kingdom just so that they can live. Not wanting to waste any more time with this guy, he asked, "Who ordered you to set camp here? What's your business in Wildergreene territory?"

The knight did not even hesitate and told Yale that their general was ordered by Queen Aela to hide somewhere near Yellowleaf City and set up camp somewhere. The knight also told Yale that after a few days, when Queen Aela gives the signal, they will strike Yellowleaf. The last thing he told Yale was that there they still had 3 other encampments near Yellowleaf City that had around 500 other knights.

"I see. Thank you for your time." Yale said as he created a Wind Arrow on his right hand and jammed it directly on the knight's head.

...

"I should tell Jay about this information I got." Yale thought to himself and activated his guild emblem. He then told Jay about his encounter with this knights from Holtheim and everything else.

"If that's the case... I am afraid you will have to deal with those 500 other knights..." Jay said with a helpless tone.

"Why? Are we going to ally ourselves with Wildergreene for now?" Yale asked.

"No. But remember the treasure spots I told you about near Yellowleaf? If my guess is right, the three other camps are also on those three other treasure spots. And I think you can already guess this much since you already slaughtered one of their camps hiding in the graveyard you are in."

...

Yale knew that he did not have any more time to waste if that was the case since he still might have to deal with some monsters, and now, he also had to deal with some knights.

Since this was the case, he immediately roamed around the graveyard until he stumbled upon a large gravestone that was triangular in shape.

"This must be it." Yale told himself and pushed the gravestone. For some reason, he did not even used a bit of his strength and the gravestone just slid freely on the ground, as if it was some kind of mechanism.

The moment Yale pushed it away, a stairway leading to whoever knows where was revealed.

Yale immediately went down the stairs since the place where it led was probably where the loot in this place was located.