Early in the morning, Len led the group leaving Kilia town. Mays followed behind them on his black horse. Even Len didn't know when Mays got back last night. He did stayed up late but Mays was still not back by then. Since Mays didn't plan to talk about it, he decided that he wouldn't pursue this matter either.
There was even paved road from Kilia to the next town, Jora. Thanks to the paved road, the time taken to travel were shorten considerably. Even though the distance from KIlia to Jora was about the same as the distance from Kokala to Kilia, the time taken for Mays and his companion to reach Jora was just one day.
Just when Mays and the others saw Jora quite a few kilometres away, they were dumbfounded when they saw another city just beside it. Prior to this, they never knew that Jora and Murica were located beside each other. Even in the map, the location of these city were not that close.
These two big city were actually just around one hundred meters away from each other. Since the two city were both surrounded by stone walls, there was a long, road in the middle of the two city. This big road had long ago turned into a shopping district because of its strategic location. Even from far away, Mays and his group could see people coming and going there.
"Okay guys, let's lodged in Jora and then we can go out to look for things."
"Yeah."
As always, Len gave out orders before they arrived at Jora's city. Nova who was now in charge of provision also added.
Their journey went smoothly since they arrived at Kilia city. There were no interference at all. Sometimes, things running too smoothly really did make one worried. Mays was carefree as always, never been bothered with anything. Len on the other hand was busy planning ahead.
As they arrived in front of Jora's city gate, they saw something which totally didn't suited their taste. The gate guards were beating someone in the open. Mays who had better eyesight saw everything around the gate clearly. Several other guards were laughing while the companion of the beaten merchant stood nearby their caravan with a pale, panic stricken face.
Mays was no saint nor messiah. He didn't live a righteous life either. But still, as a human, he had his limits. He could never tolerate wrongdoings when it was done right in front of him. Even back in his previous world, he always helped those in need which he came upon by chance.
"Hey you, stop beating on the weak. Why are you guys beating him anyways?"
Mays shouted from afar. He was still on top of his black horse. Behind him was Len and the others. Everyone presents immediately looked toward his direction after he shouted.
"Its none of your problem. Just keep your eyes shut if you don't want to get beaten."
With a dissatisfied look on his face, the guard replied to Mays. His cheerful mood from earlier when he was beating the merchant had disappeared after he got interrupted.
"I'm just a passer-by. What give you the right to beat him that bad?"
"Heh because I feel like it. So what?"
That answer alone made Mays's blood boiled. He smirked as he knew now who the bad guy was. He didn't want to jump into conclusion too early. It would make him lose face if he tried to justified the beaten merchant if he was the one in the wrong.
He leapt forward and kicked that guard right at his stomach. This action was done too fast that nobody presents had actually saw what just happened. They only saw how Mays miraculously disappeared from on top of his mount and suddenly appeared in front of the beaten merchant as he tried to get him up.
"Thank you for helping me."
The beaten merchant was a man who was in his mid forties. He brushed off the dust on his clothes as he tried to get up. His face was swollen all over.
"These guards were acting like this because I refused their demands. They were rotten to the core."
"Then it was a just cause for me to beat them up."
With a grin, Mays walked toward the other guards while stretching his arm. It had been quite a while since last he had some exercise. One of the city guards finally regained his sense when he saw Mays walked toward him.
"Stop… stop right there! We gate guards were parts of the City Alliance Army. If you really killed us here, you will be hunted down by the whole army!"
These gate guards were merely white ranked fighter. They couldn't even be compared to Len, let alone Mays. They could only act this domineering thanked to the fact that they had the City Alliance Army as their backer.
"Don't worry. I'll leave you guys half dead hehe."
With a casual reply, Mays sprint toward the next gate guards and sent him flying with just a punch. One after another, the city gate guards were sent flying by Mays.Maybe he thought that his action of being too benevolence last time brought disaster to the weak, he changed his approach.
This time, he didn't spare any effort to be more flashy just to instill fear toward everyone present. Mays never really cared about others opinion. If the whole world wanted to paint him as a bad guy who beat others senselessly then so be it.
"Wao, he goes on a rampage."
Len commented out loud. He never saw this side of Mays even after spending almost a month together. Miur, Nova and Aria were all stunned beyond words. They knew Mays were strong, but they never knew he was this daring. His current action was like a plain challenge toward the City Alliance Army.
Mays knocked out all those city guards in less than one minute. Not even one of them were left standing.
"Well then guys, let's get going. And you merchant, let's hear your story. I forgot to even ask something that basic hahahhaha."
"Oo… okay."
Both Mays's group and the merchant's group entered the city together. During that time, the merchant told Mays everything that happened which led to the event of him being beaten by those guards.
That merchant name was Gurapan. He was the leader of this merchant band. He was put in that predicament previously because he refused to pay the city guard an additional sum of money. These gate guards were corrupted. Just because they had the authority to preside over the city gate, they were blinded by greed and act thusly.
Before Gurapan's and Mays's party parted ways, he tried to offer some money to Mays as compensation but Mays refused. After bidding their farewell, both parties took different route inside the city.
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City Alliance Army's headquarter.
This headquarter was located outside of Jora city and Murica city. At the end of the shopping district between the two city walls, there was a three storey building with a vast yard. This building was also surrounded with tough walls and guarded by hundreds of elite guards.
It was already night time when the headquarters finally received the report about what had happened in front of Jora's city gate. Inside the main hall were three people sitting on their designated seat, staring at each other. All three of them had the aura of a silver ranker.
"So, do we need to capture and punish them?"
A middle aged man spoke out of concern. He was the youngest of all three people present in the hall.
"We need to kill them for messing with us! It should serve as a lesson for the others!"
An old man shouted angrily as he smacked the round table. He was totally pissed by what just happened. His blood veins bulged out as he tried to control his anger.
"But the fault was from our side. Those city guards needs to be more considerate."
The last one among the three people was a woman. A granny to be precise. Her hair had long ago turned white while her face full of wrinkles. But still, she emitted an aura of a wiser.
"We need to come to a conclusion before we act."
"Then just send the army. Stomp on those people to show our might!"
"We must not resort to brute force."
The three of them debated for hours yet still couldn't come to a conclusion. One indecisive, one blinded by rage and another one was a good natured samaritan. As if fed up with the meeting, the old man was the first to leave the main hall without saying anything to the other two.
"So he left."
"Yeah he left."
"This is the same as previous meeting then."
"He will eliminate those people for sure. He should learn to control his anger."
"Can't be helped. He is always like that."
Even after the old man left the hall, these two continued their own meeting with indifferent tone. They never had any intention to move to begin with. As always, they let the old man do whatever he wanted.
Inside his own room within the headquarters, the old man was talking to his attendant. Two middle aged man and one woman on her late thirties. All three of them were silver ranked fighter.
"Bring me their head tomorrow. Failure is not an option!"
"Yes milord!"
Obviously, the old man ordered them to dispose those people who caused a ruckus earlier today at the city entrance. These three were Lord Cipan's trusted aide who always finished their task without fail. And of course, Lord Cipan was the old man in the meeting room from earlier.
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The night passed without any problem surfacing. Mays and his companions were eating breakfast when suddenly a group of fully armoured guards barged into the inn. Those guards formed a line and stood there motionless. Three people suddenly walked into the inn soon after and they walked directly toward Mays.
"All of you, follow me!"
One of the three people started pointing fingers at Mays and the rest before he asked them to come out. All the guards immediately walked out of the inn in an orderly manner. They waited outside until Mays and the rest walked out.
Mays knew that these people come for them because of what he did yesterday. He didn't feel any guilt since he did what he thought was right. He did felt bad for always dragging Len and the others with him though. These cliche was like cancers. They were neverending. Once he pissed off someone, their backer and their backer's backer will came out one after another.
"So, what do you guys wants?"
Mays asked nicely. Despite how savage he acted yesterday, deep inside he was still a decent man. At least, he was someone who could be reasoned with.
"Arara ain't you quite the gentleman. This big sis loves man with manner hehe."
The only woman among the three replied with a flirty tone. Mays only glanced at the three people once to know that they were silver ranked fighters. The other guards were just fodder who came only to make up the numbers.
"You did quite a number on our soldiers yesterday. We are here to arrest you."
"Yep. You better not resist if you don't want to hurt yourself."
Both middle aged man were adamant on capturing Mays. They even told him not to resist. There was no way for these people to figure out that Mays was actually way stronger than them. Even back in HeavensTale, there were no skills nor item to check others level.
Mays's only advantage was that his rings worked even on humans who lived here. Thanks to that, he knew the power level of people he encountered, even though only superficially.
"Sorry but I ain't going anywhere. It was those guys fault anyways, not mine."
"Then you left us no other choice. Attack!"
Almost all the guards present rushed toward Mays after they received the command. Len and the others readied their fighting stance while Mays stood in front of them without moving an inch. Just before the soldier slashed Mays using their sword, Mays shouted all of a sudden.
"Purgatory!"
[Purgatory] was a name of a skill. Mays just activated a special magic skill unique to his class, the magic swordsman. As he shouted the skill name, the very earth around him trembled with hundreds of drill's like cone protruded from beneath the earth.
"Arrrggghhh!!!"
"What... what happened?"
"Save me!!"
"Noooo!!!"
Cries of agony echoed as dozens of guards were injured heavily within seconds. The skill lasted no more than five seconds yet all thirty of those heavily armoured guards were rendered useless. Their injury was quite fatal which Mays himself was not sure if there were any casualties among them.
This kind of casualties was actually after Mays deliberately lowered the output damage of his skill. If he didn't do so, these people wouldn't even know how they died. Mays could freely control the location for the protruding drills leaving his companions out of harm ways. He also spared the only women out of the three leader because he had the need to interrogate her later.
"Uh, I didn't even use a quarter of this skill's power yet I still overdid this."
Mays sighed as he pinched his forehead as if he was thinking of something hard. He also noticed that he didn't feel anything repulsive as he dispatched all those soldiers.He thought that he might sympathize over them but he didn't.
It was as though his action were normal. He stopped thinking about it right away because it was in no way beneficial to the current him. Maybe from the very moment he stepped into this world, he instinctively considered normal human as lesser beings compared to himself.
"What just happened? Turap? Darara?"
The only survivor out of the group of army was now dumbfounded. She tried calling her two companion but of course there would be no reply. They already fainted after being injured that badly. There was even body parts scattered all over and the ground which had been dyed red with bloods.
"They're all going to be dead soon. If you don't want to join them, you need to start talking about things I want to know."
Usually, Mays was a cheerful and easy going man. That was what Len, Miur and the other thought. This illusion of theirs were shattered to pieces yesterday when Mays beat the city guards as if he was stepping on ants.
And today, Mays once again bared his fang. This time, he even mercilessly injured dozens of people without batting an eye.
"Is... is that really Mays?"
Miur who couldn't accept the reality in front of her stuttered as she tried to ask Len. She suddenly remembered their first encounter when Mays displayed his might which instilled deep fear inside her for quite some time.
"I don't know either."
Len already gave up on thinking about it. The only fact he realized was that Mays was truly godlike. Everything else were just dust in front of his eyes.
From that alone, Len was sure that Mays was totally a gold ranked fighter. Never would he had guessed that Mays was actually at the top of gold tier being in the whole world.
"Now speak. Who sent you here?"
Mays was now seated in front of the sole survivor. His stare made the woman froze in fear.
"The city lord! Lord Cipan sent us to take you out. He... He want to make an example out of you. He hated newcomer who show off like a hero the most."
That woman told Mays who the mastermind was. She valued her life the most. Rewards meant nothing if she was dead.
"Good, good. At least your brain ain't just empty socket. One last question, tell me where I can find that guy."
"Even though Lord Cipan was the city lord, he never stayed in the city lord mansion. Most of the time he was within his clan territory, the Ci Clan which was located at the southern east of Jora City."
"Ah okay. You may go and never enter my sight again."
"Yes. Yes. Thank you for your mercy!"
After getting permission from Mays, that woman scram as fast as she could. In her mind, she didn't even planned to go back to the city lord. She would pack up her belonging as fast as possible and move away from this city right away. She didn't even glance at the group of injured people who came together with her earlier.
"Ugh and my mood already ruined early in the morning."
Mays nonchalantly commented. His breakfast was disturbed which fouled his mood tremendously. Without saying anything more, he walked toward his black horse and moved away alone. Len and the others were not trying to ask him anything either.
"Should we follow him?"
Miur asked. She knew that Mays was probably going to look for the city lord to settle the score.
"Err yeah. But first we need to pack our belonging so we can move to out right away."
Len gave a definite answer soon after. Both Nova and Aria immediately moved into the inn and packed their stuff with haste. They wouldn't be spending more time in this city for sure.
Jora city was a big city. In fact, it was actually bigger than Kilia city. There were currently three large faction that was in charge of this big city. The City Alliance Army, Ci Clan and also the Mercenary Guild.
Currently, the City Alliance Army and the Ci Clan had formed an alliance. The main reason was because one of the three vice leader of City Alliance Army was a proud son of Ci Clan, the second son of Ci Clan current patriarch.
The Mercenary Guild was an independent organization which never indulge themselves with the city administration or anything territory related inside the city. They were actually just a branch faction of Mercenary Guild.
As for the other two large faction, they were more or less the one pulling the string for everything that happened in the city. Obviously, the Mercenary Guild were on bad term with the other two organization mainly because of their conduct.
Mercenary Guild top members were already informed about the event which happened yesterday. The whole squad of gate guards were beaten without mercy by some unknown force. This kind of event which never happened before totally picked their interest. They didn't know that early this morning, another batch of guards were beaten heavily by the same guy again.
"Dad, I'm going to look into this. Let's go Sera, Molo!"
"Just don't cause trouble Merle."
"Heh I know that. Later dad!"
Merle was the only son of the leader of this Mercenary Guild branch. He was an exceptional genius in the term of martial arts. Currently, he was already in the middle of the silver rank at the age of twenty four.
He was a handsome green haired young man who wore a scholar attire. At first glance everyone would expect this guy to be the intellectual type but in reality he was not just brain but also brawn. Truly deserving the title genius.
"Where should we go young master?"
Sera asked while Molo followed behind her without saying anything. Sera was a tall girl which was quite muscular. She was a female warrior after all. As for Molo, he was a meek, scholar looking man with a wise look on his face. The both of them were also silver ranked fighter.
"I have a feeling that something awesome gonna happen soon. Just follow me hehehe."
As if he knew where he was headed, Merle walked toward the south on a whim. Both his guardian followed him at his pace.