I unsheathed my sword, Althea, to face several individuals who were about to attack me. Four people, all sword users, simultaneously and without coordination, launched their assault.

*Clang!

*Clang!

The sound of sword clashes reverberated throughout the guild hall. I directly parried the initial two sword strikes directed at me by positioning my sword diagonally. I took a moment to gauge the strength of their attacks, concluding that they were mere beginners and amateurs. Adding a slight push through my swords, I sent both of them staggering and falling. In the meantime, within a fraction of a second, the remaining two individuals attacked me with faces full of hatred. Just like before, I calmly responded to both attacks, swiftly parrying them and causing both of them to stumble.

Now, five people sat on the floor with faces seething with anger. It seemed they were all part of the same party, with the bulky man and the one wielding the largest sword as their leader—the same person who had caused trouble and attempted to deceive me from the beginning.

I glanced briefly at their statuses. It was an E-ranked party with a D-ranked leader, and all four subordinates were ranked E as well. It appeared to be a party consisting solely of sword users—a severely unbalanced party.

"Hey, you bastard... what did you do to me?" shouted the big man, still rigid on the ground.

My own sword had an electric shock effect when someone else touched it. It would cause the person to freeze and be unable to move for a while, but I didn't know the exact duration of the effect. Perhaps the duration varied for each person.

I almost forgot that I was currently inside the adventurer guild. Now, everyone in the guild was looking toward me, curious about what had transpired. I had become the center of attention on my first day as an adventurer.

"Aaaah... I'm going to kill you for daring to play with me," yelled the big man, seemingly recovering from the shock of my sword.

"Hey, Raleigh... don't cause trouble in the guild."

Suddenly, another adventurer intervened as Raleigh started raising his large sword toward me. He was a young man in his twenties, with black hair, and also a sword user.

"Stay out of this... it's none of your business," Raleigh replied to the man.

"This is the adventurer guild. Do you want your adventurer license revoked? You should know that fighting is prohibited within the guild," the man retorted, silencing Raleigh and preventing him from speaking or arguing further.

Even though I hadn't read all the rules of the adventurer guild, it seemed that fighting within the guild was indeed forbidden, with consequences for breaking that rule.

"That's right, Mr. Raleigh. You have received warnings from the guild several times already. Please watch your behavior while inside the guild," a receptionist reminded Raleigh, indicating that he had a history of such behavior—bullying and deceiving newcomers.

"Fine then, I challenge you to a fight in the guild's training area," Raleigh said, pointing his sword at me, and challenging me to another fight. But I couldn't understand. Wasn't fighting prohibited within the guild?

"I'll explain it to a foolish beginner like you. It's just the guild's training arena. I challenge you to fight there," Raleigh said with a sarcastic and emotional tone.

"Fine, I accept your challenge," I replied without hesitation.

"I'll crush you," Raleigh uttered with a hateful gaze.

It seemed that there were no restrictions for adventurers to fight in the guild's training arena. It was a place provided by the guild for adventurers to train and engage in simulated battles.

As I walked, I opened the guild's rule book to look up some regulations regarding adventurers. On page seventeen, it stated that adventurers were not allowed to cause disturbances within the adventurer guild. They were also prohibited from fighting fellow adventurers within the guild. In case of disputes between adventurers within the guild, they could continue their fight in the guild's training area with guild staff members acting as mediators, and the battle would end when one of the adventurers was defeated.

I finally reached the guild's training area, located at the back of the adventurer guild. It was an open training arena with a concrete floor.

I dared to accept Raleigh's challenge despite being a newly registered adventurer. The reason was that I knew the difference in power between him and me. Raleigh was a D-ranked adventurer, two ranks above my F-rank as per the guild's standard hierarchy. However, that couldn't be the sole basis for victory. As for my own strength, I estimated it to be at an early B-rank for now. I came to this conclusion based on my previous brief fight with Mr. Hector, where I could match his strength.

I also felt optimistic about victory being within my grasp. The reason was that I considered Raleigh to be a foolish adventurer, despite his D-rank. He was driven by emotions and desires, unable to see a person's true capacity. He regarded me as an ordinary beginner who could be underestimated, leading him to manipulate me with his deceitful demeanor and take valuable things from me.

When I activated my enhanced hearing perception, I heard many things about Raleigh's behavior from fellow adventurers, and none of it was positive. He and his group were said to frequently bully and deceive new adventurers, always causing trouble within the guild. However, the question remained as to why the guild seemed to allow it and only issued warnings. Regarding the rumors of Raleigh's deceit, the guild had yet to respond, perhaps because they were unaware or lacked evidence, considering it was still mere gossip among adventurers.

I stood in the middle of the adventurer guild's training arena, while not far from me, Raleigh stood as my opponent. We would fight one-on-one with guild staff members acting as mediators.

Meanwhile, on each side of the training arena, numerous adventurers watched the match. I felt like a gladiator in a colosseum, but I remained calm as I had experienced similar situations when playing a virtual game that brought together players from various servers and countries. Even then, the number of spectators couldn't be compared to the audience of my current match. I recalled that, at that time, a single colosseum, with a capacity of ninety thousand people, was filled with players from various countries.

"Hey, what's your name?" Raleigh shouted, asking for my name.

"Vans," I replied briefly.

"Alright, Vans, I'll defeat you quickly," he said with a face full of arrogance.

A male guild staff member was already in the middle of the arena, ready to give the signal to start the match.

Raleigh was holding a large sword in his hand, larger than mine. Instead of calling it a sword, I would say it resembled a large knife.

The guild staff member gave the signal to start, and instantly Raleigh swiftly dashed towards me. I prepared myself, unsheathing my sword, Althea. This time, I only used one of my swords.

*Clang!

Our swords collided forcefully, locking in a diagonal position. Raleigh exerted all his strength, trying to push me with all his might. I admit he had a great source of power, evident from his large physique and muscles. But it was in vain because I could match him with the strong body bestowed upon me by the god, despite being slightly smaller than Raleigh.

I eventually took a step back, leaping backward to break free from the stagnant position of our locked swords. I didn't want to give Raleigh a chance to counterattack, not because I couldn't, but because I didn't want to.

"Why did you retreat? Are you scared?" Raleigh said with a mocking face, but I paid no attention to him.

Raleigh claimed he wanted to defeat me quickly, but I had a different plan. The current fight was being watched by many adventurers. It wouldn't be exciting if it ended quickly and unbalanced. I adjusted my strength and speed to match Raleigh's, and let's make it appear as if victory was within Raleigh's grasp. Unfortunately, there was no bookie in this match. If there was, I could have made a lot of money by betting on myself.

*Swoosh!

*Slash!

Raleigh quickly attacked me again, unleashing a centrifugal strike aimed at me, clearly with the intention to kill. I instinctively ducked to evade it, then swiftly stood up and retaliated with a strike to his exposed and defenseless side. But reflexively, he managed to block my attack with his large sword.

"Fool, you won't be able to strike me that easily," he said with arrogance.

We continued the fight, intensifying the pace of our sword attacks, and captivating the audience who watched our battle. Some spectators were amazed by our fight.

"He's impressive for a beginner," someone's voice could be heard.

"Being able to match Raleigh, an impressive beginner," a voice of an adventurer exclaimed.

"Was he already that skilled before becoming an adventurer?" a fellow adventurer asked.

"Why is he only using one sword? Doesn't he have two swords on his back?" another adventurer questioned.

An exciting and thrilling fight would receive more praise from the audience than a one-sided battle.

Now it's just a matter of ending this fight beautifully in the eyes of the spectators. Raleigh continued to increase the power of his sword strikes toward me, and occasionally, I dodged, blocked, and retaliated. Besides being a battle of techniques, it also became a battle of energy. Sweat could be seen dripping from Raleigh's face.

"Damn... bastard," he muttered.

I increased the speed of my attacks and heightened my visual perception, slashing and thrusting with greater intensity, pushing him back. I took advantage of the moment when he started to tire and launched a counterattack.

*Clang!

Our swords collided once again. Looking at his sword, it seemed to have started cracking in several places. My sword clearly had stronger durability, and the longer the fight went on, the more likely his sword would shatter.

*Slash!

He kept trying to slash and thrust his sword from various angles, but the short fight he boasted about was not materializing, making him more frustrated.

As the fight prolonged, he grew more fatigued. He sent another vertical strike, and I evaded it by slightly shifting my body position. I then rotated my body to strike back at his exposed back. I firmly gripped my sword and swung it forcefully towards the vital point I aimed for.

*Clang!

The sound of the impact reverberated loudly. The collision of the back of my sword with the back of his head instantly rendered him unconscious, blood flowing.

*Thud!

He fell unconscious, lying face down.

"Huff... quite exhausting," I sighed, feeling a bit fatigued.

All the adventurers who were watching stood in stunned silence, witnessing an unexpected ending.

I hope Raleigh doesn't forget this fight, even though he will likely experience a concussion from the impact of my sword against his head.