The bet

-A few minutes ago-

Banggggg

The huge tremors caused by the loud sounds were felt by everyone within a radius of eight hundred metres. The ground shook vigorously with every subsequent minute.

The strong winds brushed past the cheeks of the two, who were sprinting towards the source of the tremors. Despite being a mage, the red-haired man wasn't lagging behind the other man.

The faint green light enveloping his body was because of the wind attribute magic he had cast on himself. His voice was clear, thanks to that spell when he spoke.

"I have a bad feeling about this."

Tink tink

The melancholy of windchimes followed his words as if saying what he said was correct. The earring in his right ear had two functions.

The first was to enhance wind attribute magic to increase its firepower by four times. Basically, a damage multiplier equipment.

The second function was that it could pick up disturbances occurring within a radius of ninety metres. It would then make some sounds if something odd was going on.

A grim look surfaced on his face, along with a nervous frown. His sprint came to a stop gradually. He pulled out a staff from the storage ring on his finger.

"My bad..."

The white stick, barely half his height, spun around him as he braced himself in his spot. The blue crystal on it glowed faintly for a moment.

A light smile occurred on his lips when he pointed the staff towards the dark path where he had detected something.

It would've been fine if there were a number of disturbances that could've been counted on fingers. But this was an entirely different case.

"I think I just jinxed it."

Roaarr

The whimper of a beast pounced at another man who had his guard down, unlike the one with the staff. He instinctively threw his body backwards in an attempt to dodge it.

Snap

Without wasting a split second, Jaden pulled out the blue blade he hadn't used for a while. The red rose on its hilt sparkled as something went past him.

The orange glow flickered multiple times while cutting through the flesh of the monster. Those flames dried up the black blood while still mid-air.

The arrows made up of fire poured down on the monster that had popped out from the shadows of the forest. More of the monsters that followed were blown to smithereens.

Despite Blaise's efforts, it wasn't enough at all. The monsters outnumbered the fire arrows by a huge margin. Why did they rush as if they were running away from something?

Jaden backed off while pulling Blaise by his robe with him. His voice trembled at the sight of numerous beasts.

"What the hell...? You think we can defeat those?"

Slimes, Goblins, Blood Wolf, Serpent, Wyvern, and whatnot flocked together at the two. Blaise grinned lightly at himself while pouring out his mana.

A cold sensation ran down Jaden's spine due to the winds gathering around Blaise's staff. He realised that he might get caught up in that spell if he kept on holding onto Blaise.

"Why? Scared, are we?"

Blaise threw himself outwards, further from Jaden, as soon as the grip on his robe got loosened up. The red and green light broke into sparkling dust around the blue crystal.

Swooosh

A huge red light flashed for a moment, blinding Jaden's vision. The monsters rushing towards them fell to the ground, being cut into pieces before turning into ashes.

"Let's place a bet."

"A bet?"

Jaden replied unconsciously when he heard those words while gently rubbing his eyes. The bewildering scene that lay ahead had him at a loss for words.

The back of the one who cut apart the monsters with the blade of scorching wind visible, Jaden's eyes trembled. Blaise had a cunning smile as he spoke.

"A bet. The one who hunts the fewest monsters will owe the winner a favour."

He walked past Jaden while pointing his thumb behind himself. Blaise was making some distance between himself and the monsters that were approaching them.

Jaden flinched as he realised what was about to happen. Pulling his sword aside, Jaden smiled at himself nervously. The red petals of roses began raining when he swung the blade.

"Sounds good to me."

He mumbled in a low voice while walking calmly towards the 'blood wolf' that jumped at him. The very next second, the wind blew along with the sound of something splattering around.

Thud

The body of the beast fell down, bleeding, with a lot of huge cuts on it. The black liquid trickled down Jaden's sword. A lousy smile appeared on his lips as he witnessed more monsters running at him.

"Bring it on."

Swish

He swiftly moved past the beasts while cutting them apart with no hesitation. He didn't even stop to catch his breath and continued swinging the sword.

Blaise had a faint smile while observing Jaden's actions. It was obvious to him that Jaden was trying his best at the moment. Yet, it wasn't enough.

A few of the monsters managed to get past him. There wasn't any reason to worry, though. Blaise didn't waste a moment and burned them to ashes.

The number of monsters Blaise had slayed reached eighteen within a few minutes. And it was still skyrocketing. On the other hand, Jaden had only killed nine monsters.

'I need to be quick...'

Jaden didn't want to lose the chance of getting a favour owed by the Magic Tower Master. There was no telling when it might actually prove to be helpful.

Was it even possible to win in front of a veteran like Blaise Edinburgh? It was definitely tough for Jaden, who hasn't been holding a sword for more than five weeks.

Ever heard of the saying that sometimes luck is in favour of those who don't give up?

That was literally the case when Jaden, who was swinging his sword non-stop, had his gaze attracted towards an odd flower growing under a peculiar tree.

His lips curled up at the sight of it, making him force his way towards it. He muttered to himself while chopping the heads of the 'goblins'.

"Jackpot..."

----------------------

A white, bell-shaped flower with a yellow stigma sticking out of its bell. The honey-suckle-like smell would please anyone standing near it. Euiphium—the unrivalled magnet.

That was the title given to it due to its unique characteristics, which simply made people wary of it. The people rarely had anything to do with those flowers.

It was highly recommended that they not keep it on when they are facing monsters. The reason behind it was basically because its roots gave off a weird smell that would attract more monsters.

And in the situation where one was supposed to hunt more monsters, it was the perfect thing Jaden could ask for. Holding Euiphium in one hand and 'Frozen Rose' in another, Jaden ran towards Blaise.

"Hey! What the heck are you trying to do?"

Blaise yelled as his gaze fell upon the flowers Jaden held in his left hand. He should've at least cut off the roots if he liked those flowers that much.

Surely, there was no way that Jaden knew about it and did that on purpose. Or so, at least, Blaise thought. To his misfortune, he was incorrect about that.

Jaden recognised that flower right at the moment he came across it. It was he who described the following flower in his novel.

-Claire plucked up a beautiful bell-shaped flower from the ground below an odd-looking tree. Little did she know that it was full of thorns.

That's when the flower first appeared in the original story. After that, Claire got into a lot of trouble being chased by the monsters. Of course, Lenon stole the limelight by saving the heroine in distress.

Pfft-

A laugh emitted from Jaden's mouth, seeing the look on Blaise's face. It seemed like he had caught him by surprise.

"Tower Master! I hope you enjoy this!"

He shouted while increasing his speed to leave Blaise behind him. What Jaden aimed to do was just let Blaise handle the strong looking monsters.

Also, this was Jaden's way of repaying Blaise for letting the 'blood wolf' jump at him. But he had overlooked one major fact.

Blaise's lips curled up lightly as the monsters ran past him. He didn't bat an eye at them while throwing arrows of fire and blades of wind simultaneously at the stronger monsters.

He had understood Jaden's intentions very well. A light sigh followed his actions. His unwavering green eyes adjusted to match his cunning smile.

"Eh, I hope you enjoy it too."

The monsters completely ignored Blaise and solely focused on chasing Jaden. That's when Jaden understood the mistake he had just made.

No matter what, the monsters would be following the scent of the flower's roots. Blaise wasn't the one holding it, but Jaden was.

Despite that, why was it that Jaden's lips had a faint grin visible on them? He was completely sane. The reason behind his grin was that the monsters chasing him worked quite well in his favour.

The expression of amusement on Blaise's face vanished upon seeing Jaden stop his run. The distance between them was a bit too much for Blaise to cast his spell.

The rain of the red rose petals got intense as he pulled back his sword. The tip of the blade pointed towards the horde of monsters.

It seemed like the time around him slowed down for a few minutes. He slowly closed his eyes, pouring his mana into the sword.

The time he pierced through Adrienne's attack a few days ago repeatedly played in his mind. That time, actually, he suffered minor internal bleeding due to the backlash of his own attack too.

"I hope so too."

The words poured out of his mouth when he opened his sparkly, dark blue eyes. The left hand that he had kept behind his back didn't bulge even a bit.

SWISH

The loud sound echoed throughout the serene yet chaotic atmosphere. His right hand gripped tightly onto the sword, using which he pierced through the countless monsters.

THUDDD

Unlike before, the sloppy movements he possessed were nowhere to be seen. The pierce sword skill he displayed at the moment was perfect more than ever.

He didn't waste a single moment while the corpses piled up one after another. A moutain began to form as he continued to swing his blade at the beasts jumping at him.

The score of Blaise vs. Jaden was now twenty-five to fifty-nine. Within a blink of an eye, Jaden had jumped over more than twice Blaise's score.

Jaden had noticed that he had surpassed Blaise's kill count by a huge margin, yet he was still swinging his blade. The sword skills Aliana had shown him a bunch of weeks ago were being put to good use.

'The first was 'Flash'. Followed by 'Pierce'. And lastly, 'Flow'.'

That was the order in which Aliana had demonstrated those skills. A question rose on his mind—was there really a need to stick to that order?

He steadied himself with a peculiarly calm look in his eyes. His hand lifted the sword up in the air slowly, just to make a 'S' movement with it.

'Flow...'

Blaise couldn't see a single opening in the complex sword trajectory Jaden was displaying. The sword moved smoothly through the path; even his magic couldn't see beyond.

SHINKK

Following those movements, the blade cut horizontally at the numerous monsters within a flash. Jaden had found a way to link the sword skills together to deal more damage.

Thnk

The small rock golem that threw a punch at him turned into dust when the slash landed on the red core on its head.

'And then...'

He tightened his grip on the hilt of the sword before jumping forward. The tip of the sword, whenever it touched the monsters, blew up their bodies into tiny pieces.

Along with the red rose petals, the black liquid was raining all over the open field. The trees had toppled down because of all the magic and sword skills the two displayed.

In the end, after slaying almost all of the monsters, Jaden sat down on the soft surface while looking down at the man standing near the mountain of monster corpses. He laughed dryly before speaking.

"Tower Master... I suppose it's my win."

Adrienne considered Jaden to be a Novice-rank sword user when he was training him. But if he had seen him displaying all those skills, that evaluation he had made would've been rendered invalid.

Jaden had rose to the ranks of a 'veteran' sword user. One more step, and he would become a 'swordmaster'.