39. Az goes to the guild

After the group was about a hundred meters away from the small town near the forest, Az put his two bony beasts out of their misery. A few seconds later, they fell to a pile of bones, and Az used a spell to incorporate them into his skeletal armor. "Time to get our stuff done here and wait for Satoshi after that," muttered Az, who by now was wearing a medallion made of bones. The rest of his three subjects, who all wore armor, only nodded in agreement.

The three wore black armor, each with an emblem on the right side of the chest. The emblem depicted only a bone hand holding a bitten blood-red apple. Unfortunately, Ogron didn't understand why such an emblem was chosen, but Az chose such an emblem, and it didn't look too bad. But it should have some mythological reasons, according to Az.

They were covered from their head to their toes in the armor so that no part of their body could be seen except their glowing eyes. Ogron had red burning flames, Otaz had green flames, and Simaev had blue flames instead of eyes.

Each of Az's subjects carried a bull on their shoulder, and the group walked along a small pebble path into the city. The view was funny as a small child, not even 160cm tall, was being followed by three soldiers, each of them carrying something on their shoulder that weighed at least three times as much as they did. One of the spectators had the stupid idea of touching one of Az's guards, and Az just swung his spear for a moment. The man cried out as Az delivered a blow to his hand with the blunt end of his spear.

"Hands off," a young voice was heard saying, and Az group headed for the guild house. Those working there immediately cleared space for Az's group to enter.

Within the guild, Az was known as "the cloaked prince." This is an exaggeration on purpose, but according to the guild members, Az had his own mercenaries who did everything for him. At the same time, he was called that because everyone believed that he let his three soldiers do all the missions, and he only took credit for the rewards.

The celebratory mood immediately died down in the hall, and only whispers and quiet drinking could be heard.

' It seems that guild members do have manners when they fear you. They seem to have memorized my face.'

Az strolled with Ogron to the counter and handed her body parts from the respective animals he had hunted to receive the rewards of the missions.

The guild employee just smiled and looked at the body parts briefly under the magnifying glass and nodded. Az subjects placed his hunted bulls on the ground next, and three guild members came to look at them briefly.

Unfortunately for Az, only one of his bulls was deemed acceptable for leatherworking.

"We would like to ask you anyway if you would be interested in selling the meat of these bulls to us. We would pay you in either guild credit points or coins, whichever you prefer. But we should do a test first to briefly check how strong you actually are, young master," the young guild employee stated to Az.

"I would like to know what the guild credits would be useful for, however, first, I would like to prove my strength so that even the last one here understands that I have not been fed with a golden spoon," Az replied.

"Please follow me then," replied the guild employee. But when Ogron tried to follow the two, the guild official just looked at him. "Please wait here," he said meekly as Organ's aura struck fear into him.

"I am his legal guardian," Ogron replied coldly with a hand on the handle of his spear. "Then, then... please follow us too," he stuttered, leading the way for the two.

"We will first have you fight someone who has the strength of a normal untrained mortal. This is roughly equivalent to Hunter Rank H. I hope you don't mind," the guild employee introduced, and Az just nodded.

Az reached for his bow, and in the small arena stood a muscular man waving nicely. The man stood calmly in the arena and glanced at Ogron. A shiver immediately ran down his spine. At first sight, he instantly realized that a skeleton soldier was standing on the sidelines who was far stronger than himself.

"Why the hell is such a monster here," he muttered and automatically bowed to Az, who took off his hood.

Under the hood, a child aged about 12 with black hair and eyes and pale skin could be seen.

"You are as young as my grandchild, and I have heard that you have hunted three bulls. If that's true, then you have my respect, young master," the man commented calmly. "But well then, let's begin. I will use as much strength as an untrained man. If you can force me to use more power than I am allowed, you will pass. I hope you won't disappoint me," he said with a smile.

Az just nodded and pulled out his bow. The man ran towards Az from the other side of the arena, and Az fired only three arrows. He dodged the first one. But for the other two, the man had to use more force than he was allowed to.

"You've passed, my dear. Do you also want to test if you are stronger than hunter rank G? That corresponds to a trained human," the man asked with a smile, and Az nodded. This time Az reached for his spear, and the man pulled out his sword and shield.

The dust under their feet was thrown into the air with each step they took. Az ran towards him, but before he could attack with his spear, he was thrown into the air by the warrior's shield.

'That bastard is definitely using more power compared to a regular trained warrior, or am I that light???'

Az flew two meters into the air and landed with his shoulder on the ground, but the warrior didn't seem to give in and leaped at him with a swung blade at Az. Not even a second later, Az rolled to the side and swung his spear on the ground.

The man just jumped up with a laugh and said, "Not bad for a kid." Az just smiled and muttered the spell, "[rot]."

But before the warrior could realize that Az was a mage's apprentice, Az swung his spear, which had a puff of black smoke on the blade, against the warrior's leg.