After leaving Victoria's chambers, Ethan walked out of the city and crossed the bridge that connected the south bank to the north bank of the Nilia River before heading towards Stormerga.
He tried to keep his profile as low as possible and, as soon as he realized there was no one else around, he entered the dense forest that surrounded both sides of the road, following the many trails that tangled through the sea of green.
"I know you're there... come out. I'd rather kill you like men than rats."
Ethan stopped his steps and turned back, his eyes gleaming with murderous intent as he drew his sword.
Long seconds passed without an answer.
Ethan was even led to believe that his senses were playing tricks on him, but soon he heard whispers as two men burst through the bushes.
One of them was at the peak of the awakening stage, almost two meters tall, with a powerful warrior's body that easily exceeded 190 kilos and a large two-handed sword in his hands.
The other appeared to be physically weaker, having an extremely thin and short body, but was in the early stages of the foundation stage, a difference that caused a glint of concern to appear in Ethan's eyes.
The awakening stage didn't guarantee great leaps in power, since it only increased the mana reserves in the body, not improved them.
The foundation realm, on the other hand, went beyond that; it also improved how much mana someone could move through their body, something that made all the difference.
"Take it easy, take it easy..." The foundation-stage warrior smiled as he made a calming movement with his hands.
"If you want me to take it easy and not cut your heads off right here, state your intentions. I no longer have any responsibility to Stuart." Ethan threatened, taking an aggressive stance.
"Cut off heads? No heads need roll and no one needs to die, friend." The warrior laughed, clearly contemptuous of Ethan's threats.
"You know... Stuart's a piece of shit, you know that as much as I do, but his money is money like everyone else's... why don't we make a deal?"
"Spit it out." Ethan demanded, not fooled by the seemingly friendly faces of the two men.
"Why don't you give us the gold Stuart gave you as payment? You don't die and we don't get our hands dirty... we can even think of different things if you think these terms aren't good, hehehe..."
The warrior smiled greedily as he spoke the last part of his demands.
"If you don't have huge tits and a fat ass, I have little interest in your 'different things'." Ethan cut off the man's laughter with a cold voice.
"No, it's not what I-... ah, fuck you! You're going to die right here!" The warrior flinched at Ethan's words and his face turned red with rage as he shouted and drew the short sword he carried at his waist.
With a roar, he advanced towards Ethan, raising his sword over his head and circulating his mana through his body and weapon, strengthening the edge of his blade and the muscles in his arms as he dropped it on his opponent.
"Strong..." Ethan gritted his teeth as he raised his sword in a defensive position.
The air around him was swept away and a metallic clang broke out, followed by metalic sparks.
The ground gave way under the pressure and Ethan's feet sank as the foundation-stage warrior pushed him even harder.
His muscles burned as he overloaded them with mana, and his shoulders trembled at the man's power.
Unfortunately, Ethan's problems had only just begun.
The warrior wielding the great two-handed sword advanced, swinging his weapon towards Ethan's ribs.
"Shit!" Ethan kicked the ground, throwing his body backwards and moving away for many steps until he finally stopped.
He watched the two men coldly as his mind spun at top speed, calculating how he could escape the situation.
"Give it up, kid! I promise I'll think about sparing you if you just hand over the gold!" The bald warrior at the foundation stage roared and advanced with a face full of hatred.
His actions contradicted his words as he brandished his sword, launching dozens of mana slashes towards Ethan.
"Mana slash?" Ethan's eyes widened as he struggled to dodge the masses of mana in the shape of an extremely sharp blade, which hit the trees and the ground around him, raising a cloud of dust that took over the battlefield.
That was the skill he had bought from the system and, although it was quite common among middle-class warriors, he really hadn't expected to see it there.
Hiding inside the clouds of dust, Ethan stopped his steps and extended his senses, scanning the entire area for his opponents while maintaining a defensive stance.
'Right!' Ethan's senses screamed as he heard light footsteps approaching.
Swinging his sword with a smile, he released his mana, completely sweeping away the cloud of dust with the confidence that it was the skinny warrior who was attacking him.
But unfortunately, what his sword met was the blade of a brute of almost 2 meters and 130 kilos of pure muscle mass.
A metallic clang broke through the air and Ethan's body was thrown like a cannonball, bouncing off the ground and stopping only after hitting a tree, the trunk of which shook and almost fell on his body.
"Argh!" Ethan struggled to get up and, just as he managed, he heard a metallic hiss break through the air followed by a sharp pain in his shoulder and a hand on his neck.
Without even being able to resist, he let the sword slip from his hands and found himself completely overwhelmed.
"Gotcha!" The skinny warrior laughed arrogantly.
His sword was firmly embedded in Ethan as mana rich crimson blood flowed down the blade.
Ethan grabbed the man's wrists as he felt the oxygen in his brain running out and his consciousness slowly fading.