Lucy sat down beside Adam as the others continued to butcher the beasts, while Dunes and his Aswadian friend were set to cooking for the group.

“Did you have fun?” Adam asked.

“Yes.”

Adam nodded his head slowly. “You know, I forgot that you looked just like a kid when we first met.”

“Are you hitting on me?”

Adam gagged. “Excuse me.” He continued to gag, turning to the side, as though he were going to vomit.

Health: 51 -> 50

He rubbed his arm and smiled at her. “I’m just saying. It’s kind of wild. Magic is so… crazy.” She was tall, and though she was quite the bombshell, her body was far more muscular now than it had been when he had fed her his Mana.

“Don’t think I won’t beat you.”

“Don’t think I won’t tell my darling Cousins,” Adam replied.

Lucy narrowed her eyes. She was sure he’d mention the ability to bathe, but he had gone much further. “You wouldn’t.”

Adam raised his brows, as though daring her. “You’re lucky I need you alive to tell my future wife how much of a great guy I am.”

Lucy almost clenched her fist again, but she let Adam’s joke slide. She hoped it was a joke. ‘I’ll never give my Mara to the likes of you.’

Adam narrowed his eyes at her. “Did you think of something terrible?”

“No.”

‘Should I tell Taygak she was bullying me?’ Adam thought.

“Did you think of something terrible?” Lucy asked.

“No.” Adam smiled.

Jurot tore a kurabara’s shell, and placed it down to the side, between himself and Jonn. Butchering was like meditation for Jurot, and the same with Kitool. Jonn assisted in butchering too, allowing Nobby and Brittany to take watch with a handful of others, while Adam and Lucy rested near the fire.

“I can’t believe we have to split our loot with the likes of them,” the punk grumbled from nearby. “To think he’d try and claim he cast those Fireballs.”

Mikayla, the Wizard of the harem party, threw a look elsewhere. She had seen Adam cast a Fireball right before her eyes as casually as one would swing a blade. However, could he cast three Fireballs? Plus the ability to cast Tower of Magic?

‘Four Third Gate spells?’

Other than the greatest Priests within the land, there were so few who could cast so many Third Gate spells. Once an adventurer was able to cast such spells, they would usually retire, but Adam seemed to be still adventuring.

‘Is he trying to gain the knowledge of Fourth Gate spells?’ Mikayla thought. ‘I will need to inform the Wizards.’

“A damn leaf ear and a bunch of savages,” the punk grumbled, trying his best to butcher the kurabara.

“Hey,” his female companion called. “Say what you want about the Elf, but be careful of the Iyrmen.”

“Or what?” the punk snapped at her. “What are they going to do? Kill me? Like how those damn leaf ears massacred my family?”

“If you want to die, do it by yourself, but don’t involve us!”

‘Damn,’ Adam thought. ‘This guys needs to be more original in his hatred.’ He sighed.

“What are you sighing about you bastard?” the punk growled towards Adam, who sat only a few metres away.

Adam remained silent, ignoring the punk, staring at the fire nearby. The punk had called for a bastard, and not a decent young man like Adam.

“Hey! Wha-,” the punk snarled, before he was cut off.

“You should be quiet,” Jonn interrupted. “We are trying to butcher the kurabaras.”

The punk pulled away from his own kurabara, his hand covered in blood. He wiped his hands on his cloth. “Who gave you the right to talk?”

“I’m stronger than you,” Jonn stated, simply. He wasn’t going to let some petulant child try and talk down to him.

“So you think you can do whatever you like because you’re stronger than me?” The punk glared at Jonn.

“I-,” Jonn began, only to be interrupted himself.

“Jonn, don’t bully the kid,” Adam called, leaning back casually. “Leave him alone.”

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Jonn turned to look at Adam, confused. Why was Adam trying to help the brat who was starting nonsense with them due to their race?

Lucy furrowed her brows. If the punk had dared to bother her because she was a Demon, she would have had so much fun in beating him up. ‘What are you up to?’

The punk’s eyes tossed between Adam and Jonn. There was something wrong with the situation. ‘An Elf? Helping me?’ This was making him stick tot he stomach.

“I don’t care one bit about you bastards!” the punk brat growled. “If you dare to drag us down during the quest…”

Adam laughed, unable to take the brat’s warning seriously. “Whatever, kid. I can’t believe you’ve forgotten how hard I beat you back then. If you like, we can fight again and I can bury you in the ground with an arm tied behind my back.” Adam grinned wide, his eyes passing along the punk’s party. “Hell, I’ll take all you little shits on.”

“Who are you calling a little shit?” the punk snarled, standing upright, only for the young woman near him to straighten.

“You, obviously,” Adam said. “What? Can’t you speak Aldish?”

Jonn’s nose twitched. ‘Didn’t you tell me not to bully him?’

“John,” the young woman called, placing a hand on the punk’s shoulder. “Let him go.”

“John?” Adam looked to Jonn. “You hear that? You’ve the same name. I can’t believe you have the same name as him!” Adam began to howl with laughter.

‘That feels disgusting,’ Jonn thought. Adam laughing at their name was one thing, but to think he shared a name with the petulant brat, it drove him to shudder.

“At least your whore mother did something right,” the brat called John said.

There was a moment of silence, broken only by the spilling of blood, and the crackle of fire.

A sword was drawn.

Azar held his staff in front of Jonn’s blade, putting it between the young punk and the Half Elf Guardian.

Dunes remained at the stew, his eyes falling to Adam. Lucy, too, looked to Adam for guidance. Her nostrils flared, and her eyes stated she was ready to lay a beat down.

Adam’s brows were raised in alarm, and even he needed a moment to understand what was going on, and what should happen.

There was a tension which spilled across the group, and quickly, the various parties all gathered, having noted that weapons had been drawn.

“What is the meaning of this?” Oliver asked, swiftly marching onto the scene.

“Just a minor issue,” Azar said. “Nothing which needs to escalate.” He stared into Jonn’s eyes. The pair understood that they were of a rough match to one another, but Azar was certain he’d be able to hold Jonn back from the young punk.

“It’s a little late for that,” Adam said, chuckling. “A blade has been drawn, and I know how that ends.”

“Control your man,” Oliver called.

“If that little shit can’t control his mouth, then I don’t need to control my man,” Adam replied, simply.

“What happened?”

“Just the usual. He was bad mouthing us for being Elves.”

“So your man drew his blade?”

“No,” Adam said. “My man asked the boy to keep his mouth shut.”

“Who are you calling a boy?” John replied.

“Hush now, the adults are talking.” Adam smiled. “See? Can’t control that little mouth of his. Your whore mother never taught you no manners?”

John’s brow pulsed, and he drew his own blade, and the rest of his party joined him. “What did you say to me?”

“You’ve gone too far,” Oliver said, raising a hand towards both sides, trying to keep them away from one another.

“I’m just treating him the same way he treated us.”

“You can’t call another man’s mother a whore and expect things to remain calm,” Oliver said.

“Absolutely,” Adam replied. “You hear that, Jonn? Since the boy called your mother a whore, we can’t expect things to remain calm.” Adam nodded his head to his Half Elf companion. “Seems like we’re all in agreement.”

Oliver was still trying to figure out what happened. “So the boy, John, called the Guardian’s mother a whore?”

“Yes.”

Oliver inhaled deeply.

“You’re both no good, starting fights with each other,” Azar said, sighing.

“When?” Adam asked.

“What?”

“When did we start a fight with them?”

“You keep goading the young Aldishman,” Azar said.

“I asked when we started the fight, not how we react when they start the fight,” Adam said.

“I hear that the Aldishmen from the south do not like Elves because of what they did,” Azar said. “You cannot take it to heart.”

“Alright. Are you Aldish, Oliver?”

“Yes.”

“Great,” Adam replied.

Jurot had stopped butchering, and paused to hear what Adam’s mind had concocted.

“So because other Aldishmen treat me poorly, that means that I can now start trouble with you. If you react poorly, then you must remember, you cannot to take it to heart.” Adam smiled slowly.

Oliver sighed. ‘Gods take me.’

“Matter of fact, I heard that the Aswadians have an issue with the Awakened Forest which the Iyrmen have claimed. Quite a lot of Aswadian blood was spilled because of it.”

“A minor issue,” Azar said. “We claimed it, but what the Iyrmen took it by blood.”

Adam laughed. “Jurot! You hear that? They claimed it and the Iyrmen took it by blood!” Adam slapped his knee, trying not to try.

Jurot nodded.

“What?”

“Damn, that’s so funny. Who told you such a load of auroch shit?” Adam smiled wide.

“It is well known.”

“You hear that, Jurot? It’s well known that Aswadia claimed it and the Iyrmen took it by blood. Well known, he says.”

Jonn remained standing opposite Azar awkwardly.

“What is so funny?”

“Jurot, you want to tell him?”

“It was we who claimed the forest,” Jurot said.

“Of course you’d say that, you’re an Iyrman,” Azar said.

“No,” Adam said. “He means that it was us. Jurot and I. We were there, along with a handful of other Iyrmen, when the forest emerged. We claimed the forest, and the Aldish, and the Aswadians, tried to claim it. Anyway, that’s beside the point.”

Adam stood, stretching out his back, leaning backwards and he looked down towards Oliver. “So. John called my man’s mother a whore. You said that we shouldn’t expect to remain calm after that. One of your men is spouting a bunch of auroch shit about an Awakened Forest, and he’s telling me that I can start random nonsense with you and that you shouldn’t take it to heart because you’re Aldish. He’s also telling me that the Iyrmen here can start trouble with him freely, and that he shouldn’t take it to heart because Aswadian soldiers tortured our companions when we were trying to find a cure for Jurot’s mother.”

Azar looked to Jurot, wondering if what Adam was saying was the truth. As far as he was aware, the Iyr had taken the forest by blood, and had stationed at least a thousand Iyrmen there.

“How are we going to resolve it?” Adam asked, politely.

Oliver looked at the Iyrmen, who had stood, cleaning their hands on some rags, ready and waiting for a fight. Whatever Adam was saying, regardless of how much he was twisting words, as expected of an Elf, there was an obvious intent in starting trouble.

The farmers glanced between the groups, unsure of what they should do. They had watched the entire scene silently.

“We are currently in the middle of a request to deal with an Outbreak,” Oliver said, sighing. “If you attack him, then he may not be able to perform properly during the request. I will ask that all of you should put aside your differences until the end of the request. Then, you may go for each other’s throat as you please.”

“He does not need a tongue to swing a sword,” Jurot said, finally.