Back in the Heaven Domain, Aeron's body fades back into existence. It's the morning and he felt ready for the day.
Acting in front of the nurses and doctors at the hospital was exhausting but worth it. He was able to be left alone after only four hours of check-ups, exercise and attempted counselling.
Now, he had the chance to roam free, likely until the evening. It was 7 AM in the real world. Only 7 hours after the crystals fell from the sky, but it had almost been a day in the Heaven Domain.
Aeron chose to remain in the village as the new villagers would be spawned at midday and he wanted to be there to receive them.
He went to look for Edmund and found him practicing his swordsmanship.
"May I join you?"
He asked.
"Of course, Your Majesty."
Edmund replied, the system enforced loyalty making him regard Aeron as his King.
They practised together for a while before sparring.
Their swords clashed together as they fought.
Edmund had a stronger body before, but it was even further enhanced by them being in a duel, and his sword technique was mikes better than Aeron's.
However, Aeron's battle sense and footwork were superb. He dodged in and out of Edmund's guard, forcing the knight to overextend himself or reveal an opening. It's just that his sword technique wasn't enough for him to capitalise on those moments against a veteran swordsman.
It was unknown when, but a crowd had formed around the two. Lance continued his patrol of the walls whilst the other residents of the village gathered round and watched the spar in awe.
Aeron's improvement was visible to even the untrained eye. At first, he could only passively defend but as time went on, he began to fight on equal footing with Edmund.
If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.
It finally ended when Aeron made Edmund take half a step too far, leaving an opening which Aeron used to disarm his opponent with a blow to the wrist.
The crowd burst into applause and Edmund bowed towards his liege.
"Very well done Your Majesty."
"You're just not used to fighting with this equipment, that's all. If you had your knight's armour who knows what the outcome would've been?"
What Aeron said was true. As a knight, Edmund was used to heavy armour which he could use instead if defending himself.
His swordsmanship was based more towards the offensive for this reason. Why block when you can come out unscathed and deliver a fatal blow to your enemy?
He wasn't used to defending his body with just his sword and was therefore put at a disadvantage in trying to adapt his style to accommodate for his body's exposure to the enemy.
This still didn't make Aeron's feat any less noteworthy. He who was completely new to the sword yesterday managed to defeat a veteran knight in a fair duel. It was a feat matching up to Aeron's evaluation of being 'exceptional'.
The crowd congratulated him on his victory and began to disperse, but upon noticing the position of the sun instead bid them to follow him.
They arrived at the [Origin] and Aeron waved his hand towards it. Eight villagers slowly appeared on it. They were young or old, male or female, but they were all newly created beings.
They bowed towards him. Their average loyalty dragged the popular opinion stat to just under 80 so Aeron would need to raise that if he wanted more villagers tomorrow.
He greeted each one of them in turn, noticing their loyalty going up by one or two whenever he did so, and left hunting with Lance this time as it was Edmund's duty to patrol.
They brought along the piglet and the new E grade villager who changed profession into a [Knight] to the place where the boars were killed yesterday.
Aeron took the piglet and released it. It looked around, lost for a moment before realising where it was. It began to run away furiously from its human captors and the trio followed behind.
After almost losing the piglet several times and breaking through many bushes and brambles, they finally reached the piglet's destination. A den in the forest.
The piglet ran into the cave squealing and Aeron and his followers waited in ambush outside the den entrance.
The first boar to exit the cave was swiftly dispatched by Aeron, and the second in the same manner.
The next two came at once so Aeron could only leave one of the boars to his followers.
The three of them stood at the den entrance, making use of the narrow opening as a bottleneck to slay the boars one by one.
Maybe they heard the death throes of their comrades, or maybe it was just about time they returned, but two lots of three boars came rushing back through the forest towards the group from opposite directions.
Surrounded, the situation looked bad.
"You two continue blocking the entrance, I'll deal with these boars."
Aeron said before taking a step back.
The pressure on his companions instantly doubled as they had to deal with one boar each. Lance could easily hold his own still but the [Knight] was having a hard time.
Aeron would have to end this quick.
He roared out in challenge towards the approaching boars. In their fury, they focused their sole attention on him as they charged forwards.
Aeron ran to meet the first group half way, his blade rising and falling to take a life.
It's companions completely lost their selves in rage and leapt at him. He sides stepped one and brought his sword up to meet the other one.
The impact sent him backwards as a now dead body slammed into him.
He used the momentum of the impact to spin around, his blade reaping the life of a boar from the second group which had caught up to him.
All of a sudden, Aeron heard a pained yell from his followers.
A larger boar, big enough to take up the whole den entrance by itself, charged out of the cave, knocking aside the two humans in its path.
The Boar King had arrived.