The viking men walked passed and stared at him. They brandished their axes while huffing their nose.
Aldred frowned. "I don't seem to have any problem with you gentlemen."
The vikings puffed their chest and walked past him. A viking bumped his shoulder, but Aldred stood his ground like a statue.
The viking that bumped him growled as if he was a beast. He pointed at Aldred's face. "You…"
After saying that, the viking stopped and walked away.
"What is their problem?" Ivette said, sheathing back her sword. If that viking dared to touch Aldred, she would have cut his arms to pieces.
"They're weird people for sure. I don't think they are from this continent," Aldred said.
Stella nodded. "They probably don't. I don't see a particular region where they would wear a horned helmet. They are human but acted like an orc: brutal and vicious. Did you notice that they have no wizard or bowman?"
"They loved to be close and personal," Aldred said.
"Yeah, look at their bodies. Those people spend their entire lives training. They are forged to be warriors."
"Forged to be a warrior… Bartrem, do you think you can beat them?"
Bartrem looked at the vikings in the distance. "Not by pure strength, that's for sure. But, I believe I am more skilled than them."
They all kept on climbing the mountain for a few days before they decided to stop and rest.
Some people were shocked when they saw Aldred's group setting up tents and even grills. They laid out their mats and had a nice picnic as they ate all kinds of delicious food.
Some people who had seen Aldred before were not surprised, but for those who saw this for the first time was shocking, to say the least.
"Is that a kebab?"
"Oh, you know kebab?"
"Yeah, I bought it from this store called Aldred's Tasty Food."
"Oh, they're everywhere. I heard they are owned by a war trader."
"War trader?"
"Merchants that profited off wars. They mostly sell weapons, but there is a company that's called Aldred's Golem Mercenary."
"Ugh, I hate that company. They promised some reliability, secrecy, and money-back guarantee bullshit. The adventurers in my region are all out of jobs because of these golems."
"If I could meet the owner of that company, I would kill him myself."
Rachel giggled as she wiped the stain on Aldred's mouth. "Did you hear that? Someone is planning to kill you."
Aldred chomped onto his kebab. "I don't know why they are complaining. My company policy dictates that at least five adventurers are to accompany ten golems. This means that for every ten golems rented, a group of adventurers must be hired. They should not be losing a job, in fact, they should be getting more jobs than before."
"Aren't you making a loss that way?" Stella asked.
"People can hire worker golems individually, and some people have special deals. Besides, I want my mercenary golems to only accept the high-paying mission."
"They are Gold Rank golems after all, so they are supposed to do high-paying tasks." Rachel nodded in agreement.
A rock flew at Aldred, and he caught it with two fingers.
Glaring to the side, he saw the vikings pointing and laughing at him. "Is this a declaration of war?"
"Calm down, Aldred. They are just playing. Let them live. We don't know what's ahead of us." Stella tried to calm him down.
"Hello," a man greeted Aldred.
Aldred turned his head to look at the person and saw a tall blonde man. He was a handsome man with powerful leather armor crafted from a deceased Platinum Rank monster.
"My name is Baendjbi." The man smiled as he tapped the handle of his sword strapped to his waist.
Aldred looked at the group and noticed that everyone was a swordsman.
"I noticed that you are a swordsman yourself," Baendjbi said. He pointed at Aldred's Phantom Doomblade that was laying on the ground beside him.
"What an interesting dark aura it has. Where do you find it?"
"None of your business."
Baendjbi laughed. "We're here to make friends. Please, we mean no harm."
"Last time someone tried to make friends with us, I had to kill them a few hours later."
Baendjbi showed a troubled expression before he smiled and laughed. "You're a funny man. No wonder these fair ladies are falling over heels for you."
He grabbed something from his pouch. Baendjbi tossed it.
Aldred caught the object. It was a token. Written on the token was: 'The Buzzing Blade'.
"The Buzzing Blade?"
"We are a swordsman guild. We approach you because you seem to be a good sword master. If you want, you can join us as a member. Don't worry, our guild recruits everyone and anyone without caring about where they are from and what comes out of their body. It means we accept you whatever your race is. Hahaha!"
"What is the benefit of joining a swordsman guild?"
"Well, one thing for sure is that you will get a sword technique, and even meet some Diamond Rank sword masters as long as they are willing. But the Diamond Ranks in the guild are very passionate about sword arts, and they will always spare their time to talk about it."
"Interesting."
Baendjbi's eyes lit up. "I knew you would be interested. So will you join?"
"Maybe not now. I don't want to be bound by anything."
Baendjbi laughed. "You won't be bound by anything. As long as you are a swordsman you can join and do whatever you want. If you want to obtain sword skills or be taught personally by one of our masters then you have to pay with merit points. Otherwise, there is no obligation at all."
"So I can do whatever I want?"
"You can do whatever you want. Of course, if you kill one of us without any reasonable cause, then we have to kick you out."
"That's all?"
"That is all."
"I will think about it."
"That's fantastic! Uhh, may we sit down?"
"Yeah, sure," Aldred replied.
Baendjbi and his friends sat down, they nodded and smiled at Bartrem and the other soldiers with respect.
Most of the soldiers used a sword, so they had a lot to talk about.
Aldred and his wives asked Baendjbi some questions to get to know him. Unsurprisingly, Baendjbi was the leader of this group.
"I have passed the first and the second phase. We lost some brothers along the way, but we arrived here with most of our members."
Baendjbi and his friends closed their eyes and prayed for their dead comrades. "I hope they never regret participating in this treasure hunt."
His friend put a shoulder on his hand to calm him down. "No one regretted anything. We know the risk."
Baendjbi nodded. "On the bright side, we emerge even stronger than before. If we return to the guild, we can exchange the treasure we got for a lot of merit points."
"Seems like the merit points are very valuable," Aldred commented.
"They are valuable. Don't you think getting a Diamond Rank as your private tutor is valuable? Their time is worth much more than any gold coins or treasure. We are lucky to even have the opportunity to meet them."
If they knew that Aldred even taught Diamond Ranks how to improve their skill… how would they react?
