|Gizel Godwin| |Level: 62|

Gizel Godwin is one of the main antagonists in the Suikoden 5. He is not that powerful by level alone, but I know not to underestimate him.

While I should underestimate him, the man next to him is the one I'm afraid of.

|Dolph| |Level: 99|

If my memory serves right, that man is the personal assassin of Gizel and the Godwin Family. I know he is powerful, but I never thought he would be this powerful. Even commander Ferid is weaker in terms of level compared to him.

Urgh. I still have a long way to go.

I shake my head and look at the captain of the barrack, who walks toward me.

"That was a good fight. Feitas Riverdance, aye?"

I smile at him and nod my head.

"Yes. I learned it from someone from Raftfleet."

"Haaaa… It's been a while since I saw that fighting style. The entire time you are the one controlling the rhythm of the fight. Impressive. Do you want to have a quick spar?"

"Sure!"

"Good! I must warn you that I'm a practitioner of the same fighting style."

We bow a little and walk ten steps away from each other before looking at each other once more. Unlike the other, the captain is using a dirk just like Raja and has the same stance as her. Well, he did not lie when he said he was the Feitas Riverdance practitioner.

I take my personal stance that lets me use a slightly longer blade.

After taking a deep breath, I dash forward with my sword in hand. I start the fight with a downward swing before changing it to the left. I smirk a little when I lock the captain's sword movement using mine.

"Let's dance."

Both of us move around the arena without hand, keep moving either to attack or to defend. After keeping him in a bind for a minute, I noticed something. He is weaker in both strength and agility, which means I can win this by being aggressive.

I push him forward and increase my pace.

I dash forward and thrust my sword. When he blocks it, I quickly twist my sword and attack the captain with a flurry of attacks. When he starts to notice my attack pattern, I change my movement.

"Fuck!"

I grin a little when my sword gets a solid hit on his arms. Then, seeing him lose his balance, I get even more aggressive. I hit on the specific side of his body, the part where my sword gets the clean hit.

After defending for another five minutes, the captain finally lost his momentum, and I grabbed that chance by twisting my sword and throwing his sword away. I put my sword next to his shoulder and said.

"I win."

"Yeah. Good fight."

I help the captain get up from the ground and say.

"That was a good fight, captain."

"Sadly, I lost. It looks like this year Sacred Games will get even more intense than last year."

"Anyway, thank you for sparring with me."

"Nah. You are also helping us, lad. It looks like my men need a little bit more training."

I ignore how the rest of the soldiers in the training ground whimper and walk back to my room.

I sit on my bed and start to think about what I need to do. The Sacred Games will start in two days, and I need to make some preparations. First, I need new armor; I don't mind if it is expensive, but I need something good.

As for the sword… I will still use this one, but I need to ensure my sword is in excellent condition and maybe buy some backup weapons.

So, I need to go to an Armor Shop and Blacksmith. I guess I should go to the Blacksmith first and let them take care of my weapon. Yea, let's do that.

=||=

As I get inside the blacksmith, I walk toward the counter and say.

"Greetings."

"What do you want?"

I put my sword on the counter and said.

"I want your best treatment for my partner over here."

He took out my sword from its sheath and looked at it for a few seconds before saying.

"This is a beautiful sword. Sharp, balanced, and very durable. It was well treated, I'm surprised."

"Well, the previous blacksmith in Sol-Falena was mad at me for not treating my previous sword well so I made sure it was properly treated after battle."

And I get punched in the gut after that blacksmith sees my sword after a challenging hunt. That man really talks with his fist instead of his mouth.

"And he is doing the right job as a blacksmith. You need to take care of your sword and even though we can repair it, we cannot repair it forever. There will be a time when a sword and other weapons will break forever if you do not treat them properly."

The man put back my sword into its sheath and said,

"Anyway, you want the exclusive treatment?"

"Yes."

"It will be twenty thousand Potch and you need to give the half first then the rest later."

I nod my head and put the right amount of money inside the basket. The blacksmith nodded his head and wrote something on a piece of paper for a few seconds before giving it to me.

"Here. Take this with you in…. Five hours. Your sword should be in the best condition by then."

"Thank you."

"It's my job, kid. Anyway, come back after five hours. Do whatever you want by then. Hell, the brothel should be open by now."

"Hahahahaha. Maybe tonight. I have something to do at the moment. Anyway, where can I find armor shops around here?"

"What kind of armor do you want? There are two shops that specialize in two different types of armor."

"Light armor. I want something that is light but very durable."

"I see. When you get out of this shop, you take left and keep walking until you meet the wall. After that, take another left. The store is the fifth building on your left. There should be a sign on the house."

"Thank you."

"Don't worry about it, kid."

I get out of the building and follow the path to the left, and after a few minutes of walking, I arrive at the wall and take a left, where I count the building to my left. I look at the fifth building and see the sign on the front.

"Vernant Leathery Shop. Does that mean the owner is Vernant?"

"Ah, it was my grandfather."

I look to the side and see a man holding a bag of groceries in his hand.

"Welcome to my shop, dear customer."

He unlocked the door and led me inside the shop. I can see a lot of leather armor on the shelf and even some accessories.

The young man put his bag on the table and then looked at me.

"What can I do for you?"

"I need armor."

"Of course. What kind of armor?"

I take out my armor from my inventory and put them on the table.

"Stronger than this."

The young man looked at my armor for a few seconds before saying.

"Thunder Salamander, huh? It is also coated using Thunder Slime's Core. It is very impressive work."

After examining it for another couple of seconds, he looks at me and says,

"So you want durable armor but not too heavy and restricting?"

"That's right. This armor is good but the armor is not flexible enough for my fighting style. It keeps poking me."

"I see. I have the material for the armor you want but I need to make it from scratch."

"How long will it take?"

"A day or maybe thirty hours."

"How much?"

He scratched his chin for a few seconds before saying.

"Seventy thousand potch."

"That is a lot."

"Yes. However, the material is coming from overseas. It was coming from the Island Nation Federation. The monster this material is coming from is called Whale-Lord.

Lord. It was a massive monster that had really hard skin. Not only is the skin hard, but it is also flexible and used by the Island Nation Federation as a coat for their ship and their high-ranking officer armor."

"I see. Very well. Half of it first and the rest later?"

"That should do. Wait a minute. I will bring the counting basket."

Counting baskets, huh? So that is the name of that damned basket. I always forgot to ask what that basket was called.

I pour the money into the basket and see the young man write something on a piece of paper.

"Please bring this paper with you when you come back."

"Of course."

Now, armor and weapons are done…. Should I check the rune shop? Yeah, let's do that.