Noel pointed the sword forward while closing his eyes. He followed the knowledge in his mind and started pouring the Spiritual Energy into his sword.
Normally, the aura would be leaving the sword, but he got the technique to make the Spiritual Energy stay and even clad the sword.
When Noel opened his eyes, he saw the sword was covered in blue light.
“So, this is Sword Aura…” Noel muttered and remembered the Ancient Spirit Technique he learned in the fort. “It’s similar to Spirit Aura Breathing. The difference is in the target. The Spirit Aura Breathing is maintaining a thin layer of Spiritual Energy to protect our body while Sword Aura is used to strengthen our weapon.
“If it’s a normal branch, I can use it like a real sword when I envelop it with my Sword Aura. Meanwhile, if I’m using Ardagan, it’ll become sharper.” Noel smirked, feeling excited with this power. The ability truly amplified his power even further.
“Then…” Noel took a deep breath as he circulated the energy around the sword and pushed it to the tip of the blade. He then threw the Spiritual Energy into the air.
The ball of Spiritual Energy flew into the air for a moment before transforming into a giant sword.
“!!!” He abruptly stopped as the giant sword fell right before him.
*Bam!*
The power contained in the sword was too powerful that it pierced the ground.
“For real?” Noel sucked a cold breath as his heart skipped a beat because it almost hit him. “I need to practice my throw since the range depends on my Spiritual Energy and my way of throwing. But this big sword…”
Noel examined the sword and felt satisfied that it didn’t resemble Ardagan. Instead of a black sword, this one was white. However, he could still see some red patterns, but no one would think it was Ardagan.
“The length is three times of my height and the wide is two times of my body. I see. If only I have this power, killing the Ancient Demon Tree would have been easy.” Noel sighed, thinking that the Sword Fall could easily penetrate the top of the tree and pierced through the crystal.
“Anyway, I’ve got two powerful moves. With Sword Aura and Spirit Aura Breathing, I have an additional weapon and armor. And with this Sword Fall, I doubt anyone can stop it… I mean, someone at my current level.
“Let’s practice while moving then.” Noel smiled as he continued running.
…
A few days later.
In a long windy grass plain, a few caravans were lining up right in the middle of the road. More than twenty people were sitting down on the grass, eating their lunch.
Unbeknownst to them, they were observed from afar, not by trouble, but Noel.
After running for a few days, he was only two days away from his destination, so he was already quite close to Astary City, the city that governed the village that were requesting his assistance as well as the one where the Master Blacksmith resided.
So, encountering a merchant group this close to the city wasn’t that rare.
‘Oh. There’s a group of people ahead. I don’t think I’ll get into trouble since I’m just passing them. And even if they want to ask my identity, I can simply show my identity as the Demon Banner Army’s Apprentice Knight. It should solve the problem,’ thought Noel as he was preparing to pass them.
As expected from the guards, they were still vigilance despite taking a rest. Before Noel could even reach their position, they already stopped talking and took out their sword, trying to figure out who he was.
Noel remembered when he was traveling with his parents, the people would often go to the side and passed them from a safe distance so as to not provoke them.
Hence, he gradually moved to the right, entering the grass field. He just ran there with a poker face as if he didn’t want to have any trouble.
It seemed that the merchant group was aware of his intention as they slowly dropped their weapons, letting him pass as long as he didn’t come closer. ｂｏ𝚟𝚕.
‘It’s quite annoying to move to the side, but I guess those with status have the priority to use the road. From the royal family, noble family, merchant, and finally commoners.’ Noel muttered while glancing at the group.
However, not everything went according to his plan.
*Fwoosh!*
Noel suddenly felt a killing intent from the side as he instinctively ducked. He heard a stabbing noise on the side and when he glanced to the ground, he saw an arrow.
“Huh?!” Noel was annoyed. He never meant any harm, but to think they would be the one to shoot him. He glared at them while taking out his sword. “What do you—”
Noel fell silent immediately for two reasons. First, the group didn’t have any archer among them, considering all of them were holding a melee weapon. Second, the arrow came from the other side.
Noel turned around and saw tens of people wearing a rag, staring at them menacingly.
But to his surprise, he could see a few demons in a cage as the people were carrying them.
“Give us all your money or we will kill you all!” A huge fat man moved forward proudly while shouting.
“How unlucky I am… To think I would meet another bandit group on my way. And the bandit seems to know about it as well… No, should I say I’m pretty lucky because I can extract some information from them?’ Noel suddenly remembered another mission. He had confirmed this when he was on the village, so he couldn’t help but smile. ‘Ah, yes. I’m pretty lucky.’
The mission in his mind was none other than helping the citizens. All people, whether they were commoners or nobles would be counted as citizens, so there was no need to hesitate anymore.
Medal: Extraordinary Citizen Merit
Requirement: Help 200 Townspeople (131/200)
Reward: Excellent Citizen Medal and 8 Honor Points