Before The Duel

"This place is closed for a special event, please provide your reason for why you wish to enter or else go away!"

At the entrance of the dojo, a group of high-level city guards stood and blocked the way for Nex and his group.

"Oh, well, I am the one who challenged the Sword Saint," Nex introduced himself casually and then pointed toward his group who stood behind him, "And those are my witnesses for the duel, I think that old man has told you about us?"

It seemed that the guards had already heard about Nex, as aside from their twitching lips, they acted formally as they bowed and cleared the way for him.

"Please enter, Challenger!"

"Thank you," Nex smiled and entered the dojo, followed by his companions who realized that Nex had made himself quite famous among the natives of the game for quite some time.

Upon entering they met another guard who bowed and started to lead them inside the dojo until they arrived at the back of the dojo where a gigantic arena with a circumference of 200 meters was and a group of people stood next to it. Two middle-aged men in their 40-50's and one in his 30's along with a group of priests with a priestess in her 40's in the lead.

"Haha! So you're the one who wanted to fight that old man out of nowhere huh? Not bad! Not bad!"

The man in his 30's laughed upon seeing Nex and started to pat his back strongly, which could have thrown any other guy away considering that the man was over 2.2 meters tall and was filled with muscles like a bodybuilder.

"I am Bast!" the man's eyes shone in delight that Nex managed to endure his pats and he extended his hand to the latter, "You could say I am the Guild Master of this city's Warriors Guild."

"Nexus," Nex smiled and shook his hand when he felt Bast starting to exert strength with his palm, cleary testing him.

'Well, I guess I need to show them a little,' Nex smiled inwardly as he felt that Bast was using Second Awakening power and returned some strength of his own.

'[Martial Secret: Giants Grip]'

And to Bast's surprise, when he thought that Nex' hand was about to break, it was instead filled with an amazing strength and instantly broke his hold such that now Nex was the one who put pressure on him, right before letting go of his hand and releasing it.

"Well, I don't like holding men's hands that much," Nex retracted his hand with a smile, "I prefer it to be a cute girl."

"Haha! Well said!" Bast smiled widely and turned to the other two men, "He's the real deal."

Hearing that the two middle-aged men sighed and stared at each other bitterly, the thing they feared for happened, after shaking their head one of them gave his hand to Nex with a smile.

"Sorry about what Bast did," he apologized, "I just had to make sure it really was you. We don't get cases like you… often."

"It's fine," Nex shook his hand as he managed to guess the man's identity judging from the special badge he wore, "I guess it's not very fun for the Adventurers' Guild to deal with someone who appeared out of nowhere like me."

"As long as you understand," the man sighed in relief and then introduced himself, "I am Frank and as you managed to guess, I am the Adventurers' Guild's guild master."

"Nice to meet you," Nex nodded without showing any shock, he then turned to the other middle-aged man and bowed slightly.

"You must be Mayor Joseph," Nex spoke in a slightly serious manner, Seeing the rank of the people that old man brought and all of the guards around here, it was very clear who that man was, "It is an honor to meet you."

"Hello to you, too," the mayor smiled amiably and nodded in return, "Since Mister Louis will arrive at the appointed time, you can get ready in the meantime over there."

"Thank you," Nex smiled and led his group to the area next to the arena where Joseph indicated, and upon arriving he turned around and smiled at his companions who were still in shock, "First time meeting high ranking people?"

"Yes," they nodded blankly and then stared at Nex in wonder.

"Teacher! How could you stay calm! They are all at least level one hundred and have immense status in the kingdom! Any player would kill in order to meet anyone of them!"

"They're just people," Nex shrugged in indifference, "However great they are there is no need to get too excited when you meet them."

"I get it, but you are acting too casually with them! What if they get displeased?"

"You just need to know how to act in front of each one of them," Nex smiled as he explained, "If you know how to judge their character good enough, then you could give each of them the response that would be considered appropriate to them."

"I see," Elise nodded in understanding, and when she was about to ask another question, Nex suddenly lifted his hand and signaled them to stop while he stared at the center of the arena with a smile.

"He arrived."

♦♦♦

"So you didn't run away huh?"

Louis lazily stared at Nex, who arrived at the center of the arena and stood in front of him with a smile.

"You sure are a funny boy, to bet all of your tiny power on a lost fight. I don't think I ever saw such a hilarious thing."

"Thank you for the compliment," Nex smiled as he removed his gear leaving only training clothes and shoes, which he got beforehand, "Nice to know I can even make seniles laugh."

"Ha!" Louis smiled as a vein popped on his head, "If I am senile, then you should go find some scholars to invent a word for you because your mental capabilities are too low for those that already exists!"

"Do you still remember what words are?" Nex whistled with a similar gaze, "I see that your brain isn't totally ruined from all that drinking yet!"

"Hmph! At least I can take in real alcohol and not just milk and cookies like you!"

"At least I am allowed to eat those on my own and don't need an assistant to feed me with a spoon!"

"I don't want to hear that from a Man-Child!"

"I can at least be called a man!"

"By who? All you can do is bark like a dog!"

"Demented!"

"Baby!"

♦♦♦

'Are you two kids!?'

All of the people watching this scene shouted inwardly as they saw the two grown men exchanging insults that kept degrading in age level.

"Frank," Joseph's lips twitched as he stared at one of his most admired people calling a young man an "undeveloped kid" and the other returning him with "old dog", "Please tell me it was another man who killed the devil."

"I wish I could," Frank sighed bitterly, "All we can hope for, is that he will lose this fight, it would give us a bit of time to prepare if he would need to cultivate his power back."

"I was afraid of you saying that," Joseph shook his head, "Why the hell did I come here of all places? We didn't do anything bad!"

"Dafne," seeing the state of his friend, Frank turned to his wife, the head of the priests who came, and requested from her sincerely, "Could you start the fight, please? You can see the look on Joseph's face."

"Hehe, Okay," the middle-aged lady giggled and covered her mouth, she was actually enjoying this scene quite a lot and wanted to watch it a bit longer, but after considering the fact that her husband asked from her so nicely and that the Mayor looked like he wanted to bury himself, she reluctantly agreed and went to the stage.

"Shriveled squid!"

"Degraded mind!"

"Now, now, boys," Dafne arrived between them and tried to calm them down like they were little kids while trying her hardest not to laugh, "We came here for a reason, didn't we?"

"He started it!" Nex pointed with an indignant face and mind on moronic mode.

"Hmph!"

"Boys!" a smile started to escape from her lips as she stopped them from acting up again, "People are waiting for you to start the fight! Let's not make them wait any longer, okay?"

"Okay," the two men sighed and reluctantly agreed with the lady.

"Good," she nodded with a smile and took out a crystal ball, "Let me go over the rules, you touch this ball at the same time and stream mana into it, it will change your power to be at the same level, the peak of First Awakening, do notice that you may have different ranks, though considering the fact that Nexus is a Traveler and can't receive rank yet, he will receive an increase in stats. When the fight starts, the following rules are to be followed, don't cripple, don't kill, and don't harm the soul. It is considered a loss when one has lost consciousness or given up. Is that clear?"

"Yes," they both nodded.

"Great," she clapped her hands and handed each of them a contract, "Please sign this in order to prove that you will stand by your bet in whatever result that may happen, and after you did that, you can touch the crystal ball."

The two signed their contract without giving it a second glance and then put their hands on the crystal ball. Then a flash of light appeared and Nex felt his body filled with power and checked his stats to find out that they all reached 300 aside from mana, which reached 550!

He then stared at the old man and smirked.

[Sword Saint Louis(???(Current:Imperial Boss)) Level:???(Current:25)]

[The "The Impossible Man" title is in effect! All Stats rose by 50%!]

"Make sure not to break a hip, it would be lame if the fight ended like that."

"Ha! I am going to enjoy teaching you a lesson."

"Wait a moment, boys," Dafne smiled and stopped them before they clashed, "You are each allowed to choose a weapon, what would be your choice?"

"Give me a simple sword!" Louis snorted, "I don't need more to deal with this brat!"

"We will see about that," Nex smiled and pulled out his wooden sword and turned to the priestess, "Can I use this?"

"A wooden sword?" Dafne's face changed as she examined the wooden sword, "Is that really what you want to use?"

"Yes, in opposition to a normal sword, it will not break when fighting."

"Hmph! Don't try to make a fool out of me! I will take a wooden sword like that one as well!"

"I thought you would say that," Nex smiled and threw him another wooden sword he borrowed from Eddie earlier, "It's not fun if we don't use the same weapon."

"Hmph!"

"Well," seeing that, Dafne smiled and walked back, "Now that everything is ready, I will announce that the fight is starting in 10 seconds!"

10!

Nex and Louis each went to a side of the arena such that a distance of 20 meters was between them.

8!

"It's been a long time since I fought against someone so much weaker than me. You should be honored."

6!

"Yeah, yeah. I will bother listening to you when you don't repeat things."

4!

"Brat."

"Old fool."

3!

Nex and Louis stared into each other's eyes as a smile started to creep on their faces.

2!

"Don't die too soon."

"I can say the same thing."

1!

"Start!"