The constable pushed himself off the ground, grinding his teeth together so intensely that Ashton could almost hear it.

  "Dude, why are you angry at me right now? I didn't even do anything to you," Ashton said while rolling his eyes and crossed his arms. "I saved your ass from the hobgoblin and helped you set up this cute little settlement in the first place. And what, just because you're a bit jealous, you're trying to attack me?"

  Placing a hand over his face, the constable hid something that filled in a gap for Ashton. He was blushing, and embarrassed. And clearly not because he was just shoved to the ground. No, his eyes were focused on something in the air, invisible to everyone else.

  With a loud groan, Ashton scratched the back of his head. "Fine, I guess we'll figure that out later." He leaned in, whispering to the constable. "I'll hope that you didn't agree to a sponsorship yet. Wait for me after this meeting is over, and we'll talk about it."

  Confused, the constable stared at Ashton. "How did you..?"

  Frankly, how couldn't Ashton know? This was absolutely stupid behaviour. And sure, while he seemed annoyed at Ashton the last time he was here, considering the world that they now lived in, nobody could really blame others for struggling to reign in their emotions. That didn't mean that he seemed like the sort to just attack Ashton without hesitation, just to then seem embarrassed about it.

  In situations like that, it was fair to assume that a constellation was somehow involved. And if it was a constellation that made the constable do something like this, it probably wasn't the sort that could be trusted.

  Either way, for the time being, Ashton had to change the topic. With a loud groan, he sighed. "I told you that you should wait until we've found a good spot to spar, didn't I? Why'd you go and just attack me here when there's so many people that could get hurt?"

  "Hm?" the constable let out, more than just startled. He wasn't the only one, either. The sergeant, Albert, and plenty of the folk in the crowd seemed confused by what he was saying. Well, even if Ashton wanted to fix things, that didn't mean that he was working with a good scenario to try and fix in the first place. It was hard to justify attacking someone else, and it got real weird when the victim was defending the attacker.

  So, maybe, Ashton had to go a step further, as annoying as it was. But he wanted to avoid an annoying constellation coming here and messing up this place from the inside as much as he possibly could.

  And so, he turned toward the crowd. "Listen, this guy's just a bit of a weirdo. Got a bad case of 'potty mouth', or whatever the hell you'd call it. We've got our differences, so he got annoyed, but we're not on bad terms. Isn't that right, Percy?"

  "... It's 'Perry'."

  "Sure. We'll go out and spar later, and anyone else that's interested in seeing how strong I actually am is free to join," Ashton said, waving his hand around slightly, and the lesser wisp gleefully followed behind. "And at that point, you'll realise that you should probably fucking trust when the guy using literal magic is telling you that you're absolutely batshit insane for trying to take down the wyvern with the strength you have right now. What's the highest level anyone in this place got?"

  Albert cleared his throat, pointing over toward the constable. "That would be constable Flynn, he has reached level... six?"

  Ashton sighed. "Right, so, the minimum level requirement for a raid with two dozen people, against that thing would be level ten. Preferably, level fifteen, and in a perfect world, twenty." He clicked his finger and called on the Backpacker, who promptly gave Ashton his staff. "That's not a regular monster we're dealing with, okay? That's a 'Regional Boss'. It is literally the apex predator of this entire place. Hell, it's probably the strongest monster in the entire fucking country right now. That's not something that beginners can take down, alright? It was literally put here by the fuckers that made this all happen, just to destroy Drakewood."

  The room grew silent. Albert nervously looked at Ashton. "But why would they do such a thing? I thought they were trying to help us grow stronger."

  Ashton dropped his head backward and groaned. "Seriously? I thought we're in England. We've been trained to hate the damned council our entire lives."

  Holding his staff forward to make people step aside, Ashton walked back out of the building. "Anyway, anyone with the guts to try and prove me wrong, come the hell outside and fight me so that I can show you that you're too weak to even die in battle. The way things are going, you'll be dead before you can even see a single scale on that fucker."

  Without further ado, Ashton walked back outside and looked around. There had to be a good place for a few rounds of combat around here. This was getting annoying.

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  If it had been just up to someone like Albert, things would have worked out. He seemed smart enough to realise that it was absolute suicide for this entire settlement if they just had their entire combat force wiped out by the wyvern. But if constellations were involved and somehow riling people up in the background, then that changed things.

  Ashton glared at the messages in the air. "I thought there are restrictions on how much constellations can intervene. How the fuck is something like this allowed?"

  [[Observer in the Veil] shrugs and is just as perplexed as you are]

  [[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] points out they had not been aware of any restrictions]

  [[Executor of the End] rolls their eyes and points at the rule book]

  [[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] laughs at the Executor]

  [[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] stops suddenly]

  [[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] realises that the Executor was serious]

  [[Executor of the End] looks at you to point out the complexities of this region]

  Ashton stopped walking for a moment.

  "Excuse me? Are you saying this is my fault?"

  [[Observer in the Veil] adds that it is is quite plausible]

  [[Executor of the End] reminds you that all things require a fair balance]

  [[Daughter of the Scarlet Heart] searches for the rule book]

  "Oh..." Ashton stared at the messages. So that was it? He threw away the predetermined balance of this place? But if 'all things require a fair balance', then why the hell was this town set up for all this bullshit anyway?

  It wasn't like Ashton was powerful enough to be the singular reason why there were such powerful boss monsters even in the fucking tutorial, or why something as ridiculous as the 'Crimson Wyvern' would pop up here. He would be flattered, but no; Ashton wasn't the reason. At least, he wasn't the sole reason.

  Maybe the fact that Ashton killed those early, strong boss monsters helped things escalate a bit too fast, but there was something else. Was it possible that Ashton misunderstood the 'ruined regions' in Lumia all along?

  Maybe it wasn't just to set up a larger challenge for other people to conquer, but because the region these ruinous events occurred in had a potential equal to the danger, and simply lost the roll of the die.

  Certainly, there were places in Lumia that seemed to gather a lot of particularly powerful individuals, so maybe those places actually survived their hellish difficulty.

  If that was how things worked, then... did Drakewood have a sort of potential, or a hidden truth behind it that justified that monstrosity?

  "Well, that's definitely something..." Ashton said to himself, walking around the streets, until he found a relatively empty area near one of the blockades. Turning around, he noticed that he had been followed all the way here, like he was leading some kind of caravan. Almost everyone that was in that meeting room before came here, and some more folk had been picked up on the way. Of course, not all of them were here to actively fight Ashton, but he was pretty certain that they were all curious about what he could do.

  "Alright, let's start. Percy, you come first," Ashton said, pointing his staff at the constable.

  "It's Perry..." he groaned, stepping forward with both his swords in hand while glancing at the wisp floating in the air. "You're not going to use that thing again, are you?"

  "First of all, that's not a 'thing', but an elemental called a 'Lesser Wisp', and they have feelings. And if you hurt those feelings, I'm going to hurt you, alright?"

  "Uh... alright?"

  "Okay, good. Anyway, I'll be using just my staff. And don't worry, I'll go easy on you."

  The constable glared at Ashton as he said that, and Perry's eyes momentarily glanced to the side. He flinched slightly.

  "Let's... let's start already," he cleared his throat, holding onto both of his swords tightly. Ashton was curious about the way he would fight, but he was also a bit concerned about the kind of message he must have gotten just now.

  "Yup. Come at me, then," Ashton said, starting to spin his staff around a bit. Not with any particular intention, just because he was bored.

  Frankly... people were easy opponents, especially ones with as little combat experience as these guys. Sure, Perry was a policeman, but that didn't exactly mean all that much for his ability to fight.

  And that didn't mean that Ashton was just that much physically stronger than other people were, but well, most single opponents were never a huge issue for Ashton anyway, even amongst boss monsters with physical superiority, beside that fucking wyvern of course.

  For someone that likely, at best, had the same physical stats as Ashton? He was confident that he would win every single time. That was just the sheer level of experience he had.

  Before the Interdimensional Council invaded Lumia, Ashton's main opponents were beasts and people, though the latter was probably the most common. The people of Lumia, while definitely not human, were largely similar in stature and physicality, with some minor differences. But the way they moved and fought was almost identical, so Ashton was essentially an expert at fighting other people. So, something like this was... well, boring.

  The constable ran forward, swiping one of his swords at Ashton. But he just kept standing in place and swatted the blade with his staff mid-spin, and simply kept going. The startled constable pulled back slightly, and tried hitting Ashton at a different angle, but once again, he couldn't even get close.

  No matter from what direction, at which speed, with what timing, or with what tactic the constable tried, he wasn't even able to get close to Ashton.

  Sure, Ashton wasn't able to swat the blade away every single time, but even if the constable got through that single step, Ashton would just plant the staff solidly on his chest and then push him back.

  Only ten minutes later did the constable give up. He kept staring at messages in the air that clearly made him nervous. Probably the constellation getting upset that Perry didn't even have the opportunity to do whatever trick they told him to try.

  But the constable just grumbled to himself and sat down somewhere at the side of the road, in a place where he was still able to watch the rest of the 'spars'.

  Ashton smiled and looked around. "So, who's next? If you want, you can try to team up with each other, too."