The Lacyan ship arrived in the port of Ulsen the next morning. It had been a pain to wake Jecht up (he had drank a little too much last night) but the trio was now safely back on steady ground. Ulsen was a small village, maybe as big as Besaid, equipped with a pub, general store, weapons store, an inn and some private houses. Compared to Besaid or Kilika it looked quite different since all the houses were made of wood and there were wooden sidewalks on both sides of the main street, just like in a Wild West movie. Didn't need a genius to understand the meaning of the sidewalks; the road itself was so muddy that it would've been impossible to walk on it. You could tell on the first glance that it rained a lot in there, and the weather didn't look too good now, either. Then our trio faced their first problem.

"Auron, give me some gil. I need to buy a few ethers," Braska said with his last coins on his hand.

"I've only got five gil," Auron said, looking at Jecht.

"Don't look at me. I'm broke," he said.

It was quite obvious what they needed, but Auron still said it out loud: "We need more money."

Braska agreed with him. "Let's go see if there's some work for us in this village. I'm gonna go ask in the general store."

Auron decided to follow Braska as Jecht said he had something else in his mind, so the trio split up. Auron and Braska found work immediately.

"Summoner, you could first put all the products to the shelf," the old, fragile-looking man behind the counter said. "Then you could watch over the store for a few hours because I need to go to my daughter's birthday party. Thank Yevon you are here!"

"How much will you pay for the job?" Braska asked, definately interested.

"150 gil, and if do your job well, I might add a 50 gil bonus. What do you say?"

There was no need to think twice about the offer, that generous it was.

"It's a deal. What about my friend?"

The old timer looked at Auron for a few seconds, making him feel quite awkward. Then he said: "Follow me."

They left the shop and headed to the weapons store.

"Glerch, what a pleasure to see you," the thin, short man - the owner of the store - said. "What can I do for you?"

"Well, I met this boy and he says he wants to earn some money. As he seems to have such a massive sword, I thought he might just have what it takes to get rid of those fiends that've been lurking around here for some time."

"Hmm... what's your name?" the store owner asked from Auron.

"I'm Auron. Nice to meet you."

"I'm Flen. Listen, we've had a lot of trouble lately because of some particularly nasty monsters. I'll give you 100 gil from each one that you kill. Are you up for the job?"

Auron wasn't too sure about it but he said yes.

He saw Jecht coming out of the pub as he exited the store.

"Drinking again?"

"Haha, no. Not really. I just earned us 500 gil with cards."

Before Auron could say anything about Jecht's card playing skills, someone shouted: "That fucker cheated!"

It was better to disappear. They walked to the forest where the "particularly nasty fiends" were supposed to be. Auron didn't really care if he was cheating by bringing Jecht with him; they'd just kill more monsters and earn more money, and after all, it all went for a better purpose: defeating Sin.

"Listen!" Jecht said and drew out his new sword which was bought from Kilika. Something was moving around them... and that something attacked! Jecht ducked and the furious bird missed him. Then, as the bird turned around, Auron lost that little bit of self-confidence he had. He threw his Murasame away as he jumped to avoid the bird's wrath, tripping on a branch while landing. Jecht was so surprised of Auron's behaviour that he was barely able to dodge the bird's next attack. He struck it once and it fell to the ground, dead.

"What the heck is the matter with you!"

Auron rose up slowly and picked up his sword, still trembling a bit. What a disgrace. "I'm sorry... I - I just can't handle these situations too well."

Jecht felt pity for the young man, regretting that he had shout at him. He tapped him on the back encouragingly and said: "It's okay. But if you really wanna guard someone, you need to know how to fight. You just need more training, that's all."

"...you think so?"

"Yeah! You'll never be able to beat your enemy if you don't know that you can beat it. And when you've got skills... well, it gets easier. Hey, try hitting that tree. I wanna see what you've got."

Auron took a deep breath and hit the tree with all the strenght he had. It was a good attempt but the weight of the sword made him lose balance and he almost fell down.

"No, no, no," Jecht said and shook his head. "Look, don't hit it so hard. That sword is so big that you only need to hit the enemy to do some major damage. Try again with more accuracy."

Auron looked at the tree as if it was a real enemy. Then he slashed it with a slower, more controlled movement. He stumbled a bit but at least it looked much better now.

"Good. Next... uh oh, we've got company."

A big reptile with a hard shield covering its back crawled from the bushes. Jecht didn't even try to attack it.

"That one is perfect for you," he said. "It's slow enough that you can hit it. Try it out."

Auron, filled with newly-found confidence, looked at his enemy, preparing to strike. He took his time before swinging his sword and hit the reptile's shield, impaling it. It wasn't dead yet, so he slashed again, finishing it for good.

"That's the spirit," Jecht praised him. "You've just gotta support yourself more with your feet and train harder. But hey, you will learn! Now, shall we kill some more of them...?"