“Lena, are you sure you’re in any condition to travel, we can always send our felicitations next time after you give birth, you know?”

“Joban Faust, stop nagging I’ll be okay, and so is our child in my belly.”

 Lena Yeng giggles as she reassure his husband for the nth time who turned into a worrywart right after finding out she’s carrying their child.

“And it’s not good for you being the fourth son of the Faust Clan Patriarch to be absent in such a gathering. Plus it’s not just an ordinary gathering it’s the birthed of a Prince.” She added.

“What's the deal; it’s just another prince the kingdom doesn’t lack of them.” He shrugged.

“Joban!”

Lena Yeng hastily stop her husband as she looked around it will be bad if someone heard their conversation he might be accuse of treason for saying the things he just said.

“Haha, our son will outshine any Prince out there, am I right my beautiful wife?”

 Joban Faust laugh kissing her stomach and his hand caressing his wife’s face.

Lena Ying flushed red as she shook her head at her husband’s silliness.

“How can you be so sure that it will be a boy what if it’s a girl?”

“Either way it doesn't matter it will still be our beloved child. However, you also knew of our condition out of all my brothers only one managed to get two children. Also I just had a dream last night I heard a voice calling to me ‘Father’ my heart knew right then that you Lena Ying and I John Faust is having a son, the heaven is blessing us, haha!”

Two years ago, right after Joban’s coming of age ceremony he was send immediately by his father to Adventurer Hall to register and take the adventurer exam, twenty-one years of age is the limit for taking the exam, which requires a completion of an F-class mission.

Not all can apply to be an adventurer one has to reach the cultivation stage of at least bronze rank tenth stage. The mission needs to be done alone and upon success, the kingdom will then grant a piece of land and a choice of being an imperial knight. The nobility rank of an individual can also be raise by doing missions.

Failure in completing the adventurer exam passed the age of twenty-one means you are only fated to till lands and work as farmers that is if you got lucky and has not gotten yourself caught by the slave workers. Being an adventurer is the only way for common people to change their fate and have the chance to become nobility.

Actually, Joban could have already registered as an Adventurer at the age of seventeen when he promotes his cultivation level at bronze tenth stage. Reaching that stage at his age means Joban has a talent in cultivation but he chose not to and devoted his time helping his father handle the missions that were assigned to their clan.

The Faust is a seventh rate clan. Even though the Patriarch’s strength can be rank as tenth in the whole kingdom. It is still not enough to up the status of their clan.

The kingdom assigns each clan under his banner a set of missions annually. Failure in doing so will end in banishment. The clan with their numbers can barely managed so how can they get the time to take more missions to upgrade their clan status. This is the Faust clan’s dilemma for the last decades.

Without slackening his trot, he entered the Adventurer Hall.

 Joban Faust is a big robust young man nobody thinks he’s an amateur for he was carrying the air of a veteran not to mention that his body is also radiating the aura of a silver ranked added with his build fitting a true blue adventurer description when it truth it is his first time in entering Adventurer Hall.

 Joban had always accompanied his father and brothers on missions not that he had a choice the Faust are really lacking in manpower but F-class and above mission can only be taken in Adventurer Hall.

It took him a whole day flipping and reading through all the posted F-class mission scrolls before one caught his eyes just as he was raising his hand it was suddenly grab right after his fingertips have brushed the edges of the scroll.

Joban almost lose his temper then but as he faced the culprit who stole his scroll, he saw a woman, not just any woman but the most beautiful woman he had ever saw.

He cannot help but stare at her delicate face her hair a shining blonde halo. She seemed to shine in the gloom like a candle. Her robe and cape were of cloth of pinkish rose.

“Oh, I’m sorry are you taking this F class mission?” She asked in a soft voice. Her face breaking into a bewitching smile making Joban’s heart shift from calm to storm.

Joban is a hot blooded young man just moments ago he was about to reprimand the guy who had the guts to take the mission he was eyeing for but also like any young man will always have an emotional attraction to aesthetically appealing woman and his anger was instantly vanished.

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He stared at her for a long time before opening and closing his mouth a few times not knowing what to say. He had face goblins and gargoyles before but none of them made him nervous as now.

The woman's eye turned crescent moon looking at his reaction. “I’ll be taking this then I’m sure we’ll be seeing each other again. I’ll make sure of it.”  She said waving the scroll in her hand.

Joban gradually sobered up as she vanished from his sight. His mind went blank from the moment he saw her and finally remembered what he was here for he turned his gaze back to the mission board just as an attendant posted up new missions.

Quickly glancing at each of them, he found an F class mission at the same place as the previous one that the bewitching woman took away from him. Thinking about it, the woman seemed to say something but he was turn silly and cannot remember any.

Looking at the scroll in his hand it was almost identical they were to kill beast and take their cores. It was stone golem then now its forest hound at Ibis Forest.

With hastened steps, he reached Ibis Forest. He had been here before with his father but this is his first time to venture deep into the forest alone. Not to forget that this time he reached Ibis Forest with his record-breaking speed yet and it was obvious what motivated him, picturing the woman's face made his heartbeat rapid.

The Faust Clan is experts on swords, a long, long time ago they were unrivaled in the whole kingdom even in the bordering other kingdoms their clan is second to none even the imperial palace cannot govern over them but that tale is now ancient history.

Now they are almost in extinction up to the point of losing parts of their clan secret skills that was passed down from generation to generation, though it did not make their strength any lesser but their decline on number made them lose their fighting spirit and overly cautious became their middle name and low-key their second name.

“A humanoid hound about two meters in height and uses a scimitar…”

He read aloud the written description of forest hound in the mission scroll and it states that they possessed an invisibility skill that will activate for a short duration making them trickier.

After a careful search around the area, he finally found them. Choosing a lone forest hound, he readied himself a ferocious light flashing through his eyes and a blood-colored aura surged throughout his body.

Inches away from the beast, he took his blade in his hand and threw a straight killing stab at the beast’s neck the vulnerable and exposed part but it was easily parried by the forest hound with its scimitar lessening the damage by half.

“They’re harder to deal with compared to goblins. Heh, who am I kidding they won’t be commissioned as F class if they’re so easy to kill.”

Upon contemplating and deciding he closes his eyes and called forth a large amount of aura activating ‘Strike of Destruction’ a clan skill dealing damage to the target and have a chance to have their movement speed decrease.

A red glow emitted from the sword covering a small area around him.

Planting his feet on the ground his blade ready and shaking in his hand he focus his gaze at the beast’s neck as he threw his body straight to the beast delivering a killing a strike with a few more hits with his blade he finally managed to brought down one.

Panting he immediately dig the core out of the forest hound’s head.

“This skill is truly taxing to the body.”

He complained but did not tarry he directly lunge to the next forest hound nearby. He can activate the skill one more time before getting his aura empty and the mission requires him to hand-over ten forest hound cores for completion.

Not all forest hounds killing can be as easy as the last one, he got lucky and the beast did not manage to use its vanishing skill when it does, it will spell trouble for him.

The sun is almost setting by the time Joban gathered eight cores only missing two. The time limit for the exam was three days and for him to gather this much at such a short time is a proof of his strength.

“Be out of here by nightfall.”

 Joban said his voice quiet and hard. To postpone it till the morrow seemed undesirable although he express a strong desire to meet again with the beautiful woman he, Joban, is a man who prioritize the clan and family affairs more than women. To achieve it before nightfall was only possible at the cost of immediate effort.

After prolonged hunting and killing finally, Joban amass ten cores. At such moments something like a pride of sacrifice gathered in his soul with these he can help his clan expand their land.

Joban was about to leave when suddenly a distant shout aroused him. That familiar voice drew his attention and he started toward it. 

The shout was closer than he expected, it was coming from a woman.