Just running about 500 meters away from the Meru Forest, Axel Blaze started noticing some strange things. There are deep footprints of a large horde of monsters leading towards the Meri Town. There is blood splattered here and there which are signs of corpses being present before disappearing.

Axel Blaze knows what these signs mean. It's Monster Stampede.

Axel Blaze has an ominous feeling about this. He picked up his pace.

It was about 7:30 pm when Axel Blaze reached the town. Surprisingly there are no gatekeepers at the town's gate. He had also noticed the town wall broken at some places. There seems to be people fixing the walls.

Axel Blaze took off his armor set and put it away in the inventory.

He entered the town looking here and there. As expected, the town has been attacked by monsters. The houses have been severely damaged and some even collapsed.

Axel Blaze saw a man carrying timber so he rushed to him and held the other end of the timber to help the man. This chance he inquired about the situation.

"You are lucky you weren't in the town. It was a disaster." The man spoke with fear.

"There were thousands of monsters, hundreds of them even crossed the walls and attacked the houses. About 10 people died and hundreds were injured." The man spoke with worry.

Axel Blaze nodded slightly. "What level were the monsters?"

The man shivered. "All kinds of monsters, from level 1 to level 14 lead by a level 15 Wolf King." The man wiped his forehead.

"What? Wolf King? No way!" Axel Blaze yelped. "This is insane".

"I am speaking the truth. You can ask anyone." The man pointed at other people with his nose.

"Let alone a Wolf King, the monsters above level 10 have never attacked the town before. Even in the past when the Meri Town used to be Meri Village and had way less defense, the highest level monster we faced was the level 10 Goblin King— What is going on this time?" Axel Blaze frowned.

"True. But that's not the weirdest thing— You see the monsters this time were all stronger than they should be. It was like they received some buff or something. That is why the town's guards were having an even harder time dealing with the monsters." The man sighed.

"But it's still amazing that they stopped such an abnormal Monster Stampede and managed to keep the damage to the minimum. I didn't know we had such capable warriors in our town." Axel Blaze praised.

The man stopped walking. He adjusted the timber to get close to Axel Blaze. He whispered. "It's thanks to those blacksmiths. But..."

Axel Blaze whispered back, "Blacksmiths?" He looked puzzled.

"Yes. According to the Lord, those blacksmiths are not some old human men but are actually dwarves with high levels. This time attack was because of them— You may have heard that the Dwarf Kingdom is at war with the OneEye Cyclops for years right? The minions of the cyclops must have found out that those dwarves are hiding here and launched that attack." The man clicked his tongue and started walking again.

Even though Axel Blaze was somewhat taken aback by the identity of the blacksmiths, he still kept his calm. "Even if they are dwarves, there's no way they will bring harm to the town. Did you forget how they always fend off the monsters which attack our town? How can the Lord talk such nonsense?" Axel Blaze refuted in an audible voice.

"Shhh... What will you do if the Lord's personal guards hear you? It won't be over with just getting your ass pummeled." The man warned.

The man nodded slightly. "I agree with you that those old men were good people. I myself have received quite some favor from them. Also, if it wasn't for the Old Man Oberon to kill the Wolf King, the whole town would have been razed by the monsters." The man whispered.

The man turned his head and nodded in asking. "But the Lord's words are absolute, we can't disobey her can we?" "Also, this time not only the blacksmiths' strength was revealed but also of the Lord's personal guards. Those men can be on par with those blacksmiths." The man spoke with amazement.

While talking the two have reached near the broken wall. Axel Blaze left the man and rushed towards the smithy.

The smithy is no longer there with only rubbles left. The smithy was located adjacent to the north-western wall which has completely fallen. A crowd of people is gathered in and outside the wall collecting materials and items while doing repairs. It seems like whoever fought the monsters didn't forget to dismantle the corpses on time.

Also this place seems to have received the most damage in the town.

Maybe the reason why those blacksmiths had to fight with all their strength and in process have revealed their identity.

Axel Blaze searched here and there for the grandpas but couldn't find any one of them.

"The old men are no longer here." Suddenly a woman spoke with vigor from a high platform.

Axel Blaze turned his head to see a woman in her 30s, dressed in silk, adorned with jewelry, standing between two bodyguards in silver armor. It's the Lord of the town. Luna's mother, Greta.

"Aunt Greta?" Axel Blaze looked at her with a questioning gaze.

"Insolent." The guard on the right shouted and unsheathed his sword.

Greta raised her hand to stop the guard and he put back his sword, silently standing back in his position.

"Old habits die hard." Greta smiled softly. "But you see, your aunt is now the Lord of the town, so I would prefer if you address me as the Lord or the Lady just like others."

Axel Blaze didn't pay any heed to her suggestions. After what happened in the past, he has zero respect left for this woman. "What happened to the blacksmith grandpas?"

This act was quite rude towards a high ranking person and given Greta's character she didn't take it well. She snorted. "As you heard I kicked those Demihumans out. Those filthy dwarves hiding among humans, just what were they planning? Dirty immigrants, huh!" She twisted her mouth.

Axel Blaze sneered. "And those dirty immigrants took care of you and your daughter when you guys were starving to death."

Woosh... Thump! The bodyguard on her right instantly jumped off the high platform, rushed to Axel Blaze and kicked his stomach hard.

Axel Blaze held his stomach in pain, squatting down looking like a curled prawn.

"How dare you? You filthy low life. How dare you dishonor the Lord?" The guard started raining kicks furiously. No one amongst the crowd came forward to stop him while Greta smiled with satisfaction with her arms across her chest.

The guard stepped back after giving Axel Blaze a good beating.

"Cough! Cough!" Axel Blaze started coughing vigorously. Blood could be seen splattering out of his mouth with each cough. Unfortunately Axel Blaze had put away his armor set before entering the town else it may have mitigated some of the damage.

Well one cannot blame Axel Blaze, he was just being careful towards the greedy town's gatekeepers who were ogling his armor set when he went hunting in the morning.

Grandpa Dike may have said that he will fuck those gatekeepers if they develop any thoughts about the armor set but he didn't knew about Axel Blaze's trauma. In his childhood, Axel Blaze had been bullied by those gatekeeper boys many times because of his relationship with Luna. He hid it from the grandpas to avoid worrying them. He thought the bullying would go away with time. But unfortunate for him it only became worse after he got jilted by Luna.

Nowadays he avoided those bullies by paying them protection fees.

From the carefree nature and lecherous behavior of Axel Blaze, no one could tell what he was going through behind his fake smile.

The guard who was beating him right now is also part of those bullies. This particular guy seems to have been bribed by Luna's suitor. Axel Blaze remembers seeing him accompany that Knight boyfriend of Luna. This guy never lets go of the chance to ridicule Axel Blaze whenever he sees him.

Axel Blaze gritted his teeth glaring at the guard. He slowly stood up staggering.

Ptui! He spat. "You may beat me as much as you want but you cannot change the truth."

He pointed at Greta. "This woman is nothing more than an ungrateful bitch!" He cursed.

Bam! The guard hit Axel Blaze's shoulder with the scabbard of the sword. Axel Blaze instantly fell on his knees from the force.

There seems to be a huge difference in the levels between the two. This blow from the guard fractured Axel Blaze's left collar bone.

"I will kill you, you bastard!" The guard kicked his chest and started raining kicks again.

"Hahaha, hahaha... Go on, go on. It just proves my words more. She is just a bitch! The Lord of Meri Town is nothing but an ungrateful bitch who sold her daughter for fame. Hahaha..." Axel Blaze kept mocking and taunting while receiving the kicks.

Greata's face turned ghastly. She ground her teeth with hatred.

After observing for a few minutes she shouted. "Stop!— It will be bad if you kill him and get a Wanted tag. It's not worth it." Greta puckered her brows, "I allowed this mongrel to live in the town because he has no family. But it seems he does not appreciate it and has taken my kindness for granted." She snorted, "Oh well. Good then. Just throw him out of the town like those dirty dwarves and let the monsters eat him." She ordered and turned back to leave.

The two town's gatekeepers who always bully Axel Blaze seem to be present in the vicinity. They rushed out of the crowd and picked Axel Blaze, holding him from both sides.

Hanging between the two, covered in blood and sweat, Axel Blaze shouted. "I also want to ask all the people of this town. What sins did those old blacksmiths commit to be kicked out of the town? I heard they contributed the most in today's battle."

He snorted. "Leave today's matter aside. Those old men had been living with us for years. They think of his place as their home. They never got into arguments with anyone and always helped the people of the town. Don't you guys feel any guilt after kicking them out of their homes?— Even if they were not humans they lived like humans!"

Axel Blaze's questions made some people in the crowd bow their heads in shame, while some started snorting with contempt.

Greta stopped on her track and turned around. "Not being humans and living among humans is their sin. Who knows if they weren't spies sent by the Dwarf Kingdom? They never showed their Status Window to anyone. Even when the Kingdom sent people to issue Identity Cards to the residents of the Meri Town, those dwarves refused to register their identity. There is no doubt they had ulterior motives."

"Didn't they not register because they knew how you people will act if you found out they are dwarves? Look at you guys now, I have never seen such ungrateful and selfish people like you." Axel Blaze jeered.

"Huh, what does it have to do with us? We never asked those dwarves to live among humans. We never asked them to do us favors. It was their duty as a townsmen to help with the development of the town. And it's not like we received free equipment from them. We paid for what we bought. What are you blaming us for?" Someone from the crowd refuted.

"Yes. And their crafts are not that good too compared to the capital craftsmen. They were swindling us of our hard earned money." Someone took the change to throw dirt at their names.

"Yes and..." More people started to throw negative remarks one after another.

"They are demihumans, they are similar to monsters and demons. There's no way they can get along with the humans. It is only a matter of time when they have shown their true colors." Someone remarked.

Axel Blaze is amazed to see the people's behavior towards those honest old men. He has spent most of his lifetime with those old men. From what he saw, those old men only cared about their crafts. Dwarves are known for their love for metals and having a jolly nature. But these people make them look like thugs.

What the fuck?

"You guys really have some prejudice against other races." Axel Blaze spoke with surprise.

He shouted. "Humans, demihumans, monsters, demons. At the end of the day we are all living beings born from the same Mother Nature. What differentiates us is not our race but our culture and ethics."

"But looking at you people..." He snorted. "If you call yourselves human than-"

Ptui! He spat. "I am ashamed to be called a human like you. I would rather become a demon! Heck, even becoming a Goblin is better than becoming a narrow-minded person like you guys." Axel Blaze jeered with contempt.

"Then go on and become a demon. But from today onwards, this town has no place for someone like you." "Let's go." Greta gestured to her guards and went on her way.

The people around also got back to their work as if nothing happened. No one spoke a single word to Axel Blaze as he was dragged out of the town by the two gatekeepers.

Throwing Axel Blaze on the ground, the two gatekeepers didn't forget to give two hard kicks on his butt. "Off you go sandbag, hahaha..." Both the gatekeepers laughed in unison.

Axel Blaze tried to get up with the support of his left hand but he instantly fell down due the piercing pain in his collar bone. This made the two gatekeepers laugh even harder.

Axel Blaze didn't mind them and used his other hand to get up. Weakly dusting his clothes he started walking away from the town.

After walking about 200 meters he turned around to see the town one last time.

He reminisced about the good old memories of the past which always seem to tag along with bad events. He realized he has never lived a good life in this town. It was a life full of struggles.

He slowly turned back, shaking his head. "I have had enough of this suffering life." He murmured and started walking towards the south where the closest town is supposed to be.

Maybe I will find the grandpas there.

That's all he thought. He completely forgot that he is in the wild at night with no roof over his head and with a body covered in bruises and injuries.