“I don’t like the fact that you are avoiding my question, but that idea seems interesting…”

It was a lot of work, but the farming business was profitable when it was big enough. The old man probably had a lot of expenses monthly, which is why he didn’t live a better life. Perhaps he was fine with just making the money pile up or something.

“I can probably buy five of them right now.”

“That is perfect, then. You can receive the money produced by the cows daily when they become big enough to be milked. Each one of them grants me one green coin daily. That didn’t seem that much, but considering that it was essentially money that Zelos would gain by doing nothing, it was fine.

Zelos made up his mind and then decided to buy the next calves that were born. Although he would need to wait from one up to three years for them to start producing milk and give him that sweet, sweet passive income, Zelos was fine with that since their value would grow with the passage of time, anyway.

In the end, Zelos’s daily routine returned to normal and aside from the things that he did before, he had to transport some things for the expansion of the farm from the town to the shed. That worked like physical training too, so he was fine with that.

While he was working on that, Irlan, Heirina, Edea, and Kaitrine came to visit him to kill time a few times, but they were forced to leave since he didn’t have time to even take a break for over two weeks. In the end, watching him for a few minutes made them feel eager to spar on the training grounds.

“Hmm… I didn’t think about this a lot, but buying the calves makes me kind of forced to stay here for a few years. I also have to try harder to defend this territory. I would lose all of this investment if we lose the next battle… I can always lose everything by dying, too.”

That was another motivator for Zelos to work even harder. Still, that was one more or less problem solved about his future. By using his savings to invest like that, he only needed to keep focus on training. Once the farm gets loaded with animals, he can always start his own or something. Or he could invest in some other business, but he knew that it was always better to focus on a single one that truly was working.

Health: 810/810

Magic: 100/170

Stamina: 700/700

Strength: 43

Vigor: 38

Precision: 32

Wisdom: 10

Willpower: 17

Traits:

Regeneration Lv 55

“This is good enough progress, but I guess it is about time for Hei to call us for another mission. I am starting to think that he is going too easy on us. I don’t know if he is busy with other things or if he is protecting Heirina, but I need more money for the next calf.”

While Zelos was thinking about that, he realized that it was time for lunch, so he cleaned himself and then went to the town. While he was eating, he heard some noise outside and then he eventually saw a large group of riders leaving the place… they had two hundred riders in the town, and it looked like all of them were moving heading west.

“I guess it is about time… Hei said that we would have six months, but the enemies aren’t planning to give us that much.”

After digging out for a bit, Zelos came to learn that Hei gave the order for the cavalry to guard the border… Some attacks had happened on the territory in the south, so they had to raise their guard.

Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.

“I guess we will be deployed soon… My strength isn’t high enough to use the club with decent speed, so I guess I will have to use another weapon.”

The iron marbles were only secondary weapons, but they served for mid and long ranged purposes. So, he had to choose another one for short range. One that could be used well with one hand would be a good idea, but it wouldn’t be fun if it were another club.

Another problem was the fact that Zelos just invested all his money, so he didn’t have much to invest in a weapon, he also didn’t want to spend much either and that was quite the dangerous idea since that was for his own safety.

For a moment, Zelos considered asking the other members of Heirina squad or even Hei, but he imagined that they were quite busy since they didn’t show up to watch him work.

In the end, Zelos decided to skip one of his training sessions to check the blacksmith shops in the town. Zelos needed something durable and cheap. Finding crappy weapons was easy, but they couldn’t have any rust on them.

After a couple of visits, Zelos confirmed that everyone in that place liked swords and spears too much. The least popular weapons were hammers and clubs. Thanks to that, he felt like choosing a hammer as well, but those were pretty expensive, at least the battle hammers were. They would be useful for training too, though.

While Zelos was thinking about that, he found a dark one handed sword in the pile of crappy weapons that was something all the shops had… it was almost inside a trash can since all the other weapons around were either covered in dust or were rusty. When Zelos tried to grab it, he found that it was pretty heavy, it was a bit curved too, and was a one edged sword.

“That isn’t a toy, boy.”

From the back of the shop, a tall and muscular man with a large belly showed up. The man was wearing an apron dirty with charcoal and his head was red thanks to the heat. At the same time, he had shaved his head, but he had a massive dark beard.

“I am a member of the clan, and I am looking for a weapon. This one is strangely heavy, why?”

“I heard that one of the former slaves began to work for the young miss… I guess you aren’t lying. As for the weapon, I heard that it is a cursed weapon that was the last creation of a famous blacksmith. It has been passing from hand to hand since then. I bought it to study how it was made.”

“Cursed, huh?”

Zelos tried to swing the weapon a few times, and he could tell that the weapon was perfectly balanced. It could be worth the hassle getting broke again to buy that.

“How much do you want for this?”

“I bought it for ten ruby coins, but I can sell you for half if you make sure that you will protect the young miss. If you fail, you can bring the other five next time.”

“If she dies, I doubt that I would be able to return, anyway.”

“Who was talking about dying? I meant to say if she suffers any scratches.”

“... Might as well pay the ten ruby coins already, but I will wait and see if she can actually be protected against herself.”

Zelos put the coins on the balcony and then the blacksmith passed a sheath for the sword. It would be easier to carry that on his back now, even though it occupied around five times less space than the club but it was more than half of its weight.

After he returned to the farm, Zelos trained a bit with the sword and as expected, it felt comfortable and heavy enough for him to push his limits. He wanted to test how a cursed sword would actually be hard and sharp, but it seemed too dangerous to test something that expensive.

“I am broke again… I will have to perform well in the next battle to earn some money.”

It was hard to imagine that Hei would send them to a mission in a distant place when another conflict was about to start. Now that he thought about it, Zelos couldn’t help but wonder about other parts of the country. Considering the map that he saw before, the country had actually four other countries surrounding them and they were all hostile territories. If anything, that meant that the group wouldn’t have any reinforcements no matter what happened.

Over the course of the next few days, Zelos got used to the weapon pretty fast since the types of moves that he tried were always simple. There was no need to be flashy in wars or battles, after all. It wasn’t like Zelos would duel skilled adversaries… he will face foot soldiers like him when the time comes.

Around five days after Zelos got the dark sword, he received a message that Hei was calling for him and the others. He imagined that they all would be called when the battle starts and everyone was ready to head to the border, but it looked like his guess was wrong. Once again, he found the whole group waiting for him in the living room… even though he picked up the pace coming this time.

“Sorry for the delay,”

“We just all arrived here, don’t worry. Anyway, I called you all because it is time for your next mission. This morning, I received raven informing me that a large group of enemies is coming from the West and they are being led by Elmer and his older brother. So, the clans of this part of the country received the order to move out and protect the borders. As usual, the leaders of the clans are to work together and repel the enemies.”

That didn’t seem like a specific order, but more like something they would hear every single time. Zelos wondered if the emperor didn’t care about this war or if they’re busy with the other sides of the country as well.