32 Reduced Kingdom (2/2)

”Very well then, give me a dwarven sword and I will pardon you”, Guren finally said after a momentary pause. Of course, he would not heed the warning. The monster had a chance of being able to compete with him when it came to strength but definitely not tactics. Judging from the trail left behind, it was also quite likely that the monster had followed the people when they relocated the Kingdom of Smiths.

The nymph then suddenly gave a stiffened smile and admitted, ”....I don't have a dwarven sword”

She then felt a s.h.i.+ver crawl up her spine and quickly blurted, ”She took the sword I left here” and pointed at Nanling.

As the two had conversed, Nanling stared blankly. She had never seen a nymph but it was quite obvious that the beautiful woman had an affinity with nature. If one disregarded her unique aura, then the clothing seemingly made of tree bark and shrubbery would affirm it. She also reexamined Guren but could not recognize him. Not only was this due to the Concealment Mask but was also because she had never seen Guren groomed or acting devious.

When the nymph drew attention to Nanling, she also felt a s.h.i.+ver crawl up her spine.

She then looked towards Guren only to discover that he moved next to her in less than a second and without making a sound.

He then extended his hand and said, ”I will be accompanying you to the Kingdom of Smiths”

_______

Hearing of Guren's exploits, Tianli swelled with pride. While worldly experts were expected to stay out of struggles between the ma.s.ses, many actually stayed out of conflicts due to the fear of dying after achieving so much. Those aware of their limits know that every battle is a gamble and that their strength only mitigated the chances of being killed.

Those willing to face an entire army alone were numbered in the single-digits and Guren charged armies so often that people began to believe that it was a form of recreation for him.

Once again inspired, Tianli trained even harder. Guren had given him a special weapon that had an adjustable weight. The weight ranged from 50 kg to 3 tons. It was to build his strength through the most brutal method and he had only mastered up to 80 kg which was minimal compared to Guren's 2 tons.

Another advantage of being inducted was that he now had a small pocket dimension that was only accessible to him. It wasn't as big as Guren's but was still large enough that he did not need to carry anything. It had been amusing when he pulled a sword out of nowhere on unsuspecting bandits.

Many times he had encountered dubious individuals roaming near raiders in a war zone. It had happened so often that he became curious. They were not bodyguards of the raiders as he doubted raiders could afford it and they wouldn't even intervene when the raiders were being slaughtered by other groups of raiders without their kind. Ambus.h.i.+ng one of them, he had actually discovered they had a similar symbol to the one in the insignia but of inferior quality and without color.

_____

Once the two left, the nymph did not return to the tree where Guren originally found her. Instead, she lamented the loss of the forest and the once great Nation which had been reduced to merely the Kingdom of Smiths. The worst part was that the calamity which ravaged the Nation still remained and continued to grow stronger. Luckily due to the Founding Sword Saint's intervention, the other 6 calamities were unable to traverse to this side.

One calamity already caused this much damage so how would the other 6 monstrous beings compare? There was a chance that scaly monstrosity was not even the strongest out of the 7 which terrified her as she truly felt powerless when confronted with that thing which devoured everything with a soul.

She had already lost hope since the ruin of the Nation happened 1500 years ago but for some reason, she felt that Guren could compare to the calamity. That same feeling of complete helplessness when confronted with a peerless foe could be felt just from being near him.

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