Reunion after a long while

Around 2 weeks had passed since our talk with Mielle.

These two weeks went by pretty much as planned, completing requests for money, and by now, once again we had saved up quite a lot of funds.

And from today, we entered another 2 weeks of free time but, as you’d expect, I was no dying to go back to the Roza great forest again.

Due to my [Anti Magic] Training last time, I was unable to make a trip to the forest and now it had been almost a month since my last visit.

I was curious to see how my base had been doing, and I wanted to go check on the Orc King Ongneer as well.

I also wanted to investigate the info I got from Henjak, and even while I was completing requests, my heart was still longing for the great forest of Roza again.

With my decision already made, I quickly finished my preps, and headed to the forest——-is what I’d like to say but, I had an appointment for today.

Esta had gone to [Magic Cave], Ralf was in the Dungeon, and now I had made my way to the plains outside the city.

By the way, I never got a call back from Mielle and I hadn’t heard of them leaving for the capital either so I assumed the Princess and her party were challenging the dungeon again as well.

As you may have guessed, if it’s not Mielle I’m meeting, it could only be one other person…………

“Yo! Long time no see Chris!”

“Yeah, it’s been a while Bors.”

Yep, he’s the person we made a temp party with, the shaggy haired Bors himself.

Originally I had planned to meet him around the time I was practicing [Anti Magic] but learning that magic ended up taking a lot longer than I expected so I had to cancel our little appointment then and postpone it for later.

“How’s it been going for you guys these days? All good?”

“So-So. But thanks to all the places you introduced us to Bors, we feel quite settled in Edestor now.”

“That’s good to hear! Speaking of, I heard that the old lady from [Gaddfoura]was looking for you it seems? You haven’t shown up there either eh?”

[Gaddfoura]’s old lady……..

Oh right, I did ask her to make my potions, and had completely left it for a long time now.

Well, I was originally planning to gather more Jinpi leaves on my next trip to Roza forest, which was also supposed to be earlier, and then receive the potions when I went to deliver the next batch of leaves but, because of the 2 week delay, I ended up making her wait longer than planned.

But it will be a waste of a trip so I don’t have to go so soon already do I?

I have already paid her in advance anyway, so I think I’ll take the stuff after I come back from Roza after all.

“I think she must have completed the potions I ordered. It’s been some time since I went there after all.”

“ohh, so you’ve been already using the place eh! You sure you don’t need to go soon?”

“There’s too much on my plate already. I’ll head there once I’m done with my main work as planned.”

“I see. Well, not that it matters to me! I did do my part of reminding you as asked though right? Alright then, enough talk……..and let’s begin shall we?”

Of course, I didn’t come all this way just to gossip with Bors, it’s to have our little mock battle as we promised before.

With our chat over, we decided to begin soon.

Honestly, I am confident that I am overwhelmingly stronger than Bors.

But the reason I still asked this of him was because I instinctively felt that I could still learn something from him.

……….well, I reiterate once again that he really does look like a random old man so, there’s always a chance that my instincts were wrong.

“Do we need to set any rules? Or should we just go at it, no holds barred?”

“Let’s see……..let’s at least make some simple rules! Just to make sure that Chris accepts his defeat graciously of course!”

“Sure, you can make the rules………….also, there’s absolutely no way I’ll lose.”

“There are no absolutes in this world my boy! The rules are simple. First one to get three clean hits or deliver or knockout wins. Clear and concise, no?”

“Sounds good to me. Let’s go with that.”

“Alright, just keep an eye on the monsters around us, and then let’s begin. Take whichever wooden sword suits you best.”

I randomly picked up a wooden sword from the bunch that Bors had brought.

…………man, it’s nostalgic to hold a wooden sword again. Unfortunately, it also reminded me of my horrible days of strict teaching under my father.

I took a deep breath to calm myself, and face Bors who also took a stance with a wooden sword.

His stance was the same as what I saw before, an orthodox sword stance.

His fighting style was also very honest and straightforward but somehow, he was really strong. That was my impression from seeing him fight.

In today’s fight, rather than win or lose, I want to figure where this odd strength of his came from but……..at the same time, I really don’t want to lose to Bors either.

If I lost even once, he’ll never shut up about it.

“I’m ready whenever you are.”

“Okay then, let’s start? Prepare yourself!”

With those words, Bors began to slowly approach towards me.

Unlike his usual flippant expression, he was serious now and I could even feel a little bit of killing intent leaking from him.

Even this sudden switch in mood is also something I feel is unique to Bors.

I only activated my [Perception Enhancement] skill, and decided to fight raw without using any other battle skill.

These days, I had been getting very used to using them and was using skills even against weak monsters but, this time I actively chose not to do so.

That said, my physical ability was still around Mithril rank thanks to my poisonous plant consumption, and I could easily overwhelm Bors who was only platinum rank.

In terms of technique as well, while Bors does have the years of experience on me, I had been trained in the art of the sword since I was a child.

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not underestimating him by any means, but even speaking with no bias, it’s obvious that I’m stronger than him.

I was sure that I could confidently state that as fact but………

The moment the battle began, I realized that I was still being too naive.