《The Darkness In Your Mind》


 Volume One The Bright Darkness - Ch 1 Birth of a "dark" future

    I am at my last breath...my vision is fading...I guess he managed to take me down after all. A voice is heard "Whelp I told you I would kill you eventually Harold. You may be a skilled assassin, but your not immortal eventually every killer is caught. In the end the good guys always win."


    I respond to him "Well I guess this is where it ends huh even if I do live on anymore. I will only be hunted down by people looking for revenge. So I take it your going to kill me now and get it over with?" He says "Yeah, any last words?" This is my last chance to tell him the most important thing of all I open my mouth and speak .


    "Heh its to bad even though you''re going to kill me. None of those people that I killed will come back to life. If I had a second Chance at life I wouldn''t, well I probably wouldn''t be as evil who knows maybe I would actually be a nice guy." He says his final farewell to me "Goodbye Harold I guess your reign of terror is over." *BANG*The gun is fired and everything goes black.


    A few moments later I see a bright purple light. I''m being pulled towards it through a dark tunnel, my memories are fading. I eventually pass through the light and all of my memories are gone. A unknown voice is heard "Congratulations its a boy."Time passes by and new memories are made to fill in lost old ones. It seems that one journey has come to an end.


    As another one begins in the land of Satoos in a world of fantasy and magic. (22 YEARS LATER) My mother has tears of joy in her eyes and my father is standing next to her. They are proud that I am finally starting my journey to become a strong man. My father speaks up "Well Brine I guess you''re finally going to start your great life journey as an adventurer. I wish you the best of luck son."


    I say to him with a smile "Thanks father now I guess I should be off. The carriage driver might leave without me if I stay too long." Mother wipes her tears and says " Goodbye Brine I hope you have a safe trip and good luck with your adventuring."I give her and father a hug and then I get in the carriage. After a long boring and uneventful ride on the road.


    We finally arrive in the capital of Satoos where the adventurer guild is. I pay the driver and get out of the carriage. I decide its probably best to find a inn before I go to the adventurers guild. I start walking through the town. I eventually see a sign that says sleeping lion inn on it. I go inside and am greeted by the inn keeper at a desk.


    He says "Welcome young lad what can I help ya with?" I respond with "I would like a room please sir." He says "Ah alright then you came to the right place how long are you planning to stay?" I say "Only for a few months since I am planning to become an adventurer. Before long I might be able to afford my own place."


    He then tells me the price and I give him the money that mother and father gave me while I was packing a few days ago. I then go unpack in my room and shortly after head out for the adventurer guild. On my way I pass a few different markets and there is something that especially peaks my interest.


    It''s a weapon and armor shop I might come back here later I thought to myself. I arrive at the adventurer guild and head inside and walk up to the front desk. A lady greets me at the desk and says "Hello there what brings you here today?" I respond with "Ah hello I would like to become an adventurer could you tell me how to register?"


    The lady says "Alright here take this." She hands me a little needle and book. She says "This is what people use to register as a adventurer. All you need to do is open to a page with a blank space in the book. Then poke yourself on the finger with the needle and make sure one drop of blood hits the spot that is blank."


    I do as she says and words appear on the paper it reads (Name:Brine Dark Gender:Male Age:22 Class:darkness Skill:Shadow magic/magic of darkness.) The lady then says "That''s odd I have never heard of that magic before I wonder what it means." I have the same reaction but we shortly after brush it off like its not much to worry about. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    The lady then says "I will look into this later for you to see if I can find anything about it in the records. But for now allow me to say congratulations you are now an adventurer." I say "thanks." The lady says "Oh also you should probably find a party to join. Go ahead and head over to those tables hopefully you will find some people willing to let you join their party."


    I walk over to the tables and I am then greeted by a familiar voice. The voice says "Hey Brine come over here." I turn to see my three close freinds from highschool sitting at a table its John, Alicia, and Timmy. I then go over to them and sit down at their table. I say "Hey guys what a surprise seeing you here, are you adventurers now?"


    Alicia says "Yeah we all registered together about an hour ago. We have been waiting for a fourth person to come to us so we can form a party." John says "We heard that you are an adventurer now and are looking for a party. How about you join ours you can even be the leader since you were the leader of the magic club in high school. Your leadership skills are amazing!"


    I accept because I havent seen them for a while and want to spend time with them. Alicia says "So Brine where are you staying while you''re in the capital?" Brine "Ah i''m staying in the sleeping lion inn. It was the first inn I found and it seemed pretty good on the inside and the shop keeper is nice too so I decided to stay there."


    Alicia''s eyes widen with excitement as she says "Really that''s where we''re staying too this is perfect why don''t we walk back together then!" I agree because I had planned on going back to the inn after finding a party anyway. Once we get back it is pretty late and we are all pretty tired. Especially me after the long ride to the capital so we all eat dinner together and then head back to our rooms.


    As soon as I enter my room I flop on the bed and fall asleep instantly. At this moment something crazy happens, I find myself in a empty dark void and flying towards me are two floating knifes. I realize that they arent stoping and attempt to run away moving from left to right to attempt to lose them. But it doesnt work because they follow my every move.


    They then somehow get infront of me and stab me in both of my eyes. Then, I wake up to find nothing is wrong and decide it was probably just a nightmare. But seeing as I might not be able to fall back to sleep I decide to go to see if Alicia is awake. If she is I could have time to chat with her and explain how I cant sleep because of the nightmares.


    Maybe she knows a way to get rid of the nightmares. After all Alicia used to have some in high school when they came over to spend the night at my house sometimes. But she used dream suppresents to stop them when they started getting worst. We saw a wolf one day in the woods behind my house. It tried to attack us and it scared her enough to make it start happening.


    Luckily my father was with us at the time and he had his hunting rifle. I head out of my room and walk up to Alicia''s door. I then knock on the door to see if she is awake and she says come in. I go inside and explain to her about the nightmare. She says "Don''t worry im sure its just fear of being in the capital for the first time after all you havent been this far away from home before have you?"


    I start to say "Yeah maybe you''re right I''m sure that''s all it is." But I am cut off halfway through my sentence because my eyes begin to bleed and my speech begins to slur. Alicia starts screaming "BRINE ARE YOU OKAY" My hearing also fades and I pass out on the floor. I then appear in the void again but this time I see the silhouette of a man.


    He looks really familiar but I can''t quite find out why. The man speaks "The darkness will awaken eventually but until then we shall not see eye to eye. Be patient and when the time comes let it all in and succumb to it." After that it falls silent for a while and then all of the sudden I wake up from being unconscious.


    All of my friends are around me saying BRINE! When I sit up John speaks "Are you all right Brine Alicia here says you just passed out randomly." I notice he didn''t mention anything about my eyes bleeding, was that just a hallucination I wonder? I don''t bother to explain what happened while I was unconscious because it might frighten them a bit.


    I just shrug it off and say "I''m alright I don''t know what happened. But I''m feeling better now and I''m ready for my first quest." Alicia and the others aren''t on board with letting me go on a quest after what happened at first. But I keep insisting that I go, then they all give up and agree to let me come after some failed attempts to change my mind.


    I then say "Alright then lets get going I cant wait much longer!"

 V1 - Ch 2 The first spell of shadows

    We are walking through town and are on our way to the adventurers guild. Alicia speaks up all of the sudden and says, "Hey why don''t we go to that shop we could get some gear that fits our classes" I respond, "That''s a good idea,in fact I was going to check it out eventually but now is fine too." I think to myself about what I need, I can probably get a cloak with magic resistance enchanted on it.


    Since I am a magic type I might end up having to fight other magic users eventually. I might also get a staff with a blank magic orb on it after all every staff is unique for its owner once they enchant their magic into it. We all walk inside and everyone walks off to the sections of the shop where they see what they need. I however, immediately notice something after taking a glance around the shop.


    They don''t have any cloaks with magic resistance. I decide to walk up to the front desk and ask the store owner something. "Excuse me sir, do you take requests to make custom items?" He responds with "We sure do kid, what do ya need?" I tell him "I want a black cloak with a grey hood that has magic resistance on it how much would it cost for that?"


    He responds "Hmmm alright kid that would cost ya about 15 copper coins." I pay him the money and he tells me that if I come back in two days it should be ready for pick up by then. I also decided to go ahead and buy a staff with a blank magic orb while I am there, I can enchant It later. Once we are all done we leave for the adventurers guild to get our first quest.


    After five minutes of walking we arrive at the adventurers guild and go up to the quest board to find a quest for beginners like us. John says "Man there isn''t any good quests all I see are simple things like carrying a bunch of luggage for someone ." I then notice a quest to clear a cave of some weak undead monsters.


    I say "Hey guys why don''t we do this one the monsters are weak so it should be fine." They all agree and then we head out for the cave. As soon as we enter alicia is seen casting a spell that gives us all nightvision to see in the cave. As we  are walking down the tunnel in the cave we begin to hear the cries of the undead. John says "It seems like we are getting close."


    As soon as he says that we enter a huge open area in the cave. There are 20 undead monsters in the area. The undead dont notice us at first so this gives us time to come up with a plan. John speaks quietly and says "Alright so here is how its going to go." He takes a breath and begins to tell us the plan for taking down the undead monsters.


    He says "Alicia will stay at the back and heal since she is a support class. Brine you will stay back there with her and defend her." I ask him why and he responds with "This is only because we don''t know what your ability does yet so please wait until me and Timmy defeat all but 5 undead. At that point we will lead those five to you and you will try to use your ability."


    He then says "This seems like the best way for us to find out what your ability is." I say "Ah alright I understand, we can do that." He then takes a breath and starts talking again "Ok now to what we will do. Timmy you will take the ones on the right your goal is to get kill ten undead. He takes a moment to think and then speaks again "I will take half of the ones on the left thus leaving 5 for Brine."


    He finishes by asking  "Alright did you get all of that?" We all respond by saying "Yeah" and we get in formation to start the plan. After we are in formation John says "Alright on the count of three we begin One...two¡­THREE!" Once the countdown is finished they start attacking. John is a swordsman and runner class mix. This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    This gives him a good advantage because it means he has a lot of agility and is also great with swords. Timmy is a assassin and magic class mix which means he is good with stealth skills, small daggers/knives, and attack magic.  Once they finish and they have five undead monsters left they do as planned and lead the five remaining undead to me.


    I focus on trying to use magic just like how we were tought it works in school. I clear my mind and try to imagine my magic particles within me taking form to create magic. After a few try''s it finally works I see a few tiny pure black floating orbs form and fly at the remaining undead taking down all five. Everyone talks about how good that attack was.


    They then say that they are glad that we found out what my ability does. We all agree to head back to the inn and to get our reward tommorow. Once we got back to the inn, I collapse, my body feels like all of my energy was just taken from me. I can''t move and a few seconds later I pass out. I arrive in the void once again, then I see the silhouette of the man again.


    He speaks up and says "Oh my I wasn''t expecting to have to do this so soon but, it looks like I''m going to have to help you out a bit already." I respond with "Who are you and what do you mean by help me." He responds "I''m afraid I can''t tell you who I am just yet but as for what I mean by helping you allow me to explain."


    He starts to explain "So as you probably saw you were able to use your magic for the first time right?" I respond "Yeah what about it?" He continues "Allow me to get to the point, you are to weak currently to use your magic correctly. Well weak hearted actually, you need to have a heart that is ready for anything to happen, a heart that has experienced true sorrow."


    I respond "True sorrow?" He continues "Yes, true sorrow this is because your power requires your heart to be strong. You need true sorrow to have been experienced in order for that to take place. Even just a sliver of sorrow is enough for you to gain the ability to use your power. It may be painful to experience it but there is nothing you can really do about that."


    He continues "But let me warn you, if experience to much sorrow your power may grow so much that you won''t be able to control it anymore. You may end up doing terrible things, the worst that could happen is you may lose sight of yourself and become mentally unstable, and once that occurs there is no telling what could happen."


    He continues "But anyway without your heart having experienced true sorrow at least once or more times, you may die, because your body depends on your heart in order to use your power." "Your heart is what regenerates your magic particles. Luckily for you I know a way to make it so that you can regenerate your magic particles without having to rely on your heart for a while."


    He takes out a necklace that is has a tiny finger sized black dagger attached to it. He continues "This will keep you from running out of magic particals and also keep you from dieing for a while." "However, if it is destroyed by someone or is used to much for one period of time. You will not be able to get another one and will have to start relying on your heart."


    He continues "Which at that point could make you into something that rids you of humanity." He finishes by saying "So be careful of your actions from now on Brine, here take the necklace and remember to wear it everywhere you go."  I respond to him "Ah okay, thank you and also thanks for the warning I will be more careful now."


    After that, I wake up in the bed of my inn room and see Alicia siting in a chair next to the bed resting her head on it next to me. She mumbles something in her sleep and smiles "Brine." I look on the table next to me and notice that the necklace laying on it, I grab it and put it on. The moment I wear it around my neck I feel my energy return to me. I then look outside and notice that it''s morning.


    Someone knocks on the door and I say "Come on in." Once I say that John enters the room and says "Ah you''re awake, how are you feeling?" I respond to him "I''m alright, I think I was just really exausted from the quest but I''m fine now." He says "Well thats good anyway we are going to go get our reward so if you want to come with get dressed and meet us down stairs."


    After that John wakes up Alicia and they both leave the room while I get ready for another day as an adventurer. Everything that''s happened so far has been very interesting and fun and I hope it stays this way continuing to be nice and fun. However, I can''t help but have a bad feeling about something, for some odd reason something just doesn''t feel right I wonder why?

 V1 - Ch 3 A heart of sorrow

    We all went to the guild to collect our reward for completing the quest yesterday. Once we arrived the lady at the desk called me over the momment we got our reward. I walk up to the front desk and say "Hello why did you call me over here?" she responds with "Ah well Brine you see there wasn''t any records or anything here about your magic or class."


    I respond "Ah I see, well thanks is that all?" She responds "I also wanted to let you know that you should be extremely careful because this magic might be very dangerous since nothing is known about it yet." I respond "Alright thanks for letting me know I will be careful from now on." she responds "Okay bye then."


    Once I finish talking to her John says "Hey Brine are you alright with us doing another quest now?" I respond "Yeah that''s fine, did you have one in mind?" He says "Yeah actually I do, I found one that is to get rid of some Red Eye Wolves that are bothering a nearby village and killing the livestock." I respond "Alright that seems like a good quest lets do that one."


    We then make our way to the village where the wolves have been attacking lately. It''s a 30 minute walk to the village, this is because we don''t have any horses or a carriage and the walk there was uneventful. Once we arrived in the village we immediately notice how bad it is. All of the livestock pens have either been busted or knocked down and have claw marks on them.


    There are also a few dead sheep in some of the pens. But most of the sheep have been eaten completely so only a few are actually visible. We decide to ask the village chief if they know where the Red Eye Wolves nest is. He says "Ah yes, actually one of the farmers followed the wolves back to their nest. He managed to come back safely and told me where it is."


    I say "Alright could you tell us please so we can go take care of it for you?" He responds "Oh yes gladly, the farmer said that it was in the forest to the right of the village. If you keep going straight from there you should find an abandoned shack. That seems to be where they have made their nest." I say "Alright thanks for the information, come on guys lets go get rid of those wolves."


    We then go to the location that we were told the wolves are using as a nest. We see the abandoned shack and also the Red Eye Wolves which are everywhere. I count how many wolves are outside of the shack, I''m so surprised that I say out loud "THERE ARE 20 OF THEM?!" Everyone jumps in shock and says "Shhh" I realize what I did wrong and cover my mouth.


    Suprisingly it doesn''t seem like any of the wolves heard me. If they did then it doesn''t seem like they care. I tell them a plan that I came up with on the spot. The plan is that John and Timmy will rush in and fight as many as they can. Just like they did in the cave but this time I will follow behind them. I will be taking out the wolves with my Shadow Bullets that''s what I decided to call my first spell.


    As usual Alicia will stay back and use support spells to keep us healed and safe. Everyone agrees to this plan and we start on the count of three again. I say "One...Two...THREE!" Then everyone starts doing what they are supposed to. John manages to take out five wolves and Timmy manages to take out five as well. Using my Shadow Bullets I managed to take out the remaining ten.


    Or at least I thought I did, but I did a quick count and realized I only got nine! I then hear a growl and quickly notice the last wolf is behind Timmy. I shout "TIMMY LOOKOUT BEHIND YOU!" He manages to jump away in time just before the wolf clamps down its teeth, then John stabs the wolf in its back. Timmy says "Phew thanks Brine a second later and I would''ve been dog food."


    I respond "I''m just glad your okay anyway we should probably check what''s inside the hut, there might be loot in there." He says "Alright I''ll open it since it might be locked, I''m assassin and magic class mix so I''m able to get locks open in case I need to." Timmy checks the door and it actually turns out to be locked, he then pulls out a lockpick from his pocket and unlocks the door. Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    Then it happens the worst possible thing appears right before my very eyes. A pack of wolves burst through the door and jump on Timmy scratching away at him, then a big one comes out of the shack and howls. It appears to be the leader of the Red Eye Wolves, I know because a bunch of them come out of the woods and into the area we are at, then they start jumping on us one by one.


    First at Timmy, then John, then Alicia, and finally me. They started scratching us nonstop, everyone is screaming out in pain and fear. Then the wolf that was on me shattered the necklace I was wearing into peices, it was destroyed so easily, and the moment it was I looked over at my friends. They are all laying on the ground being attacked ruthlessly.


    They were all screaming out but Alicia was screaming the most, what she said brought tears to my eyes she said "BRINE BRINE HELP ME PLEASE PLEASE DON''T LET ME DIE TO THESE WOLVES, I STILL HAVE TO TELL SOMETHING, I HAVEN''T TOLD YOU MY FEELINGS FOR YOU YET BRINE DON''T LET ME DIE BEFORE TELLING YOU!"


    Then she slowly says with tears in her eyes and a forced smile on her face "Brine, I love you." One more swipe and her hand hits the ground as she falls silent. John says "Well, I guess this is it huh? It was great while it lasted." Timmy says "Brine you were a great freind it was fun going on adventures together even if it was short." They both stop moving and fall silent shortly after.


    I then begin crying uncontrolably and start screaming at the top of my lungs. I feel my emotions fading. Only two things remain, sorrow and a pain to my heart, it''s like a massive hole has been ripped into my heart. At that moment I look down at my hands and realize something, my skin is disappearing what''s happening to me?


    I shrug it off because nothing matters right now, nothing except getting rid of these damn wolves. I instinctivly get up pushing the wolf that''s on me away so hard that it crashes into a tree. I then feel something come to my mind, A NEW SPELL! I chant out the spell immediately  "Shadow engulfment awaken, take my enemy''s lives so they shall disappear never to be heard from again."


    Once the chant is finished something happens, a giant purple mist in the shape of a head with two grey horns, red eyes, and razor sharp teeth appears, it then eats the entire pack of wolves whole. With that I have avenged my freinds, the sorrow and the pain in my heart have disappeared. I examine my ''body'' and I appear to be a complete skeleton now, I''m gonna to have somehow hide how I look now.


    I then look in the shack and notice a ragged old brown cloak, I guess it''s better than nothing so I decide to put it on and luckily it covers me up enough. The only ways you would be able to tell I''m a skeleton is if I took the cloak off, or if I put the hood down or looked up to far. I then go back outside and decide I need to somehow give their bodys to their family''s.


    I go back to the village and when no one is looking I put them in front of the village cheif''s house. They each have a cloth over them and I put a note on the door of the building saying "My freinds died in battle to the wolves, and I can''t bear to face their family''s so please take them back to their homes for me, I am to sad to do it myself."


    I also left a note on each cloth giving the address for their home. I then decide that I probably can''t stay at the inn  no more than final night because I can''t risk exposing what I am. I will pack up and leave the inn tomorrow, I have got enough money from the reward of yesterday''s quest to afford the things to camp out until I can get my own place.


    I then go back to the inn and lay in my bed for the rest of that night, I was unable to get any sleep I guess that''s to be expected. After all I am literally a skeleton now and I don''t even have Eyelids anymore. Since I didn''t get sleep I didn''t appear in the void like I have been lately, but the silhouette of the man appeared in my inn room.


    He says "Ah well that is unfortunate you changed even though you were warned. But I guess there was no stopping it in that scenario. Hey at least your still mentally stable so that''s a good sign, oh, and let me give you some advice." I respond "Alright what''s the advice you have for me?" He says "Sometimes, doing something bad is required in order to start something good."


    He continues "So don''t feel afraid to do some bad whenever you feel it is necessary." He then disappears and the room falls silent, I start to think about what he said and then say to myself "So sometimes bad choices can lead to good outcomes huh?"

 V1 - Ch 4 Shadow grasp

    I couldn''t get a wink of rest throughout the entire night, but strangely enough, I don''t feel tired. It probably has something to do with the fact that I''m a skeleton now. Looks like I can''t get fatigued or hungry anymore. No matter how much I stare at my own body, I can''t get used to this skeletal body. I''m not human anymore, nor am I a monster.


    However, I must be cautious, if anyone sees me like this they will hunt me down. I pull the sheets from my bed and wrap them around my hands. I can''t always go around with my hands in my pockets and if I am to go get my cloak, I need to show at least that much. Determined to leave this town, I pack my things and bolt out of the inn without looking suspicious.


    A phantom pain strikes my heart as I glance at the dining room where I ate with my friends, alas, they are dead now. Clenching my boney fists until they create a small cracking sound, I resume my escape. Despair assaults my soul and the darkness in my nonexistent heart plagues my thoughts. No, I have to remain calm, I need to get away from this cursed place.


    Opening the door to the armor store, I was greeted with the sight of a black cloak hanging from behind the counter. I awe at the craftsmanship and hurry to the clerk. He looked me over and asked. "Hello sir, is there anything that I help you with?" His tone was curt, but I could feel the animosity in his voice. He can''t recognize me, not that I want him to.


    I answered grimly. "The cloak. I came to pick up the cloak I ordered." Surprise crossed his face, before he frowned darkly. He checked me over and pulled the cloak into the counter right in front of me. I felt a small trail of magic oozing from the dark cloth. "Is that you mister Brine?" A simply inquiry that unnerved me to the very core.


    Am I really Brine? I feel like that man died with his comrades. Nevertheless, I nodded sharply. I want to get out of this store as soon as possible. I hate this town. "We-I had a run in with some wolves." I muttered under my breath. Thankfully, my voice still sounded the same. Strange, I don''t even have vocal cords. Never mind, this must be magic doing its wonders.


    I pull the 16 copper from a pouch and take the cloak. I had no way of checking the size, so I trusted this man''s skill. "I see" is his only solemn response "You were a promising group." Bitter, I turn impolitely and rush out of the store and out of town. I feel like if I stayed there even a second more, I would turn everything around me into pincushions.


    Running, I cross the gate and stop where no one can see me. I ditch the dirty cloak and the torn sheet. This is a lot better. I can feel the magic circulating around my body like a barrier. Without a doubt, with this cloak I can tackle a pretty strong monster. Getting enough money for a home will take too long if I am this weak, I need to get stronger.


    As wolves howl deep in the woods, my blood boils. Enraged, I punch a nearby tree. I swear I will hunt every wolf in this damned place. Still, I am too frail to actually duke it out with the big packs of wolves. Power, I need to get more spells, stronger spells, until no one can compare to my power. Subduing my desires, I take out my staff and hurry further into the forest.


    Until I get enough money, I will have to camp out in Mother Nature. There is no need to be hasty, I''m a skeleton, in a sense, I''m already dead. Not even five minutes after going ahead, I find myself surrounded by possessed raccoons. Monsters with low attack power, but with a lot of agility.


    A beginner monster that won''t cause you much trouble even if you can''t kill it. However, this far into the woods, there are more than a dozen. Good thing I have my magical cloak or I would find myself overwhelmed by their sheer numbers. I start to focus to use Shadow Bullets, but two raccoons jump straight into my face interupting me. I click my non existant tounge in my thoughts, Tsk, oh yeah, there''s no one else here to protect or support me.


    I leap from my spot however they still manage to reach me. I protect myself from their claws with my cloak, luckily it didn''t get scratched up that much. I get away from them a bit and cast my Shadow Bullets as four other raccoons block my escape route. Six Shadow Bullets appear before me and dart toward my enemies with buzzling speed.


    As one of the Shadow Bullets pierces the hide of one of the raccoons killing it, I crash against a tree, but feel nothing. My bones creak, but I can''t feel anything painful or anything broken. The other six remaining growl warily. These raccoons don''t seem like they''re going to give up anytime soon and I can''t just stand here surrounded all day! I dash like a mad man toward the closest raccoon and kick it with all my strength.


    I feel something break and a gooey liquid dribbles down my right foot, I then glance over my feet without lowering my guard. The dead raccoon is stuck on the tips of my long skeleton toes. I shake it off and start to cast Shadow Bullets again and look where to aim. There are five more enemies. I got this. Another one leaps trying to bite my skull, but I swat at it with my staff. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator.


    However, I didn''t manage to kill it. The raccoons regroup and dash toward the forest, hiding through the bushes. I can feel their piercing glares from afar. I can tell they are waiting for me to show an opening. Too bad that''s not going to happen anytime soon. I run toward a tree and start to climb its branches as high as I could.


    Now there''s only one way to get to me. I can hear the claws scrapping against the bark of the tree. Unfortunately, for the raccoon, I still have the shadow bullets hovering overme. I then shoot the bullets at the remaining raccoons and they all hit their marks. Five final growls from the raccoons echo through the forest as the raccoons fall to the ground motionless


    I jump climb down the tree from branch to branch and finally land back the ground. I gather my spoils of war, but I realize that I made a mistake. Damn, I shouldn''t have shower them with so many attacks. Now their hides are busted. I can''t sell this. Sighing, I take a knife and skin them being careful not to damage the good parts.


    Of the twelve beasts, only three hides and seven tails are sellable. Reminding myself that I need to be careful I resume my hunting. I should probably try to make a binding spell or a blunt attack, but I don''t know how hard that is going to be. I throw my spoils into the bag and dive further inside the forest.


    After some minutes, I can feel more gazes boring into my skeletal back. It''s going to be a long day. After fighting with dozens of small animals ranking from weak to decently strong monsters, just as the sun is about to set, I find a cave suitable enough to be my home for now. its a nice and secluded place that I doubt that anyone else would come to unless they were looking for it specifically.


    Having a roof over my head is good enough for me, i just dont want to sleep outside in the open and get killed in my sleep by a passing adventurer. I haven''t felt hungry since I became like this, nor can I sleep or do any other things that  most normal people can. It''s convenient for my current situation, but I fear I might become a mindless monster. I won''t lower my guard until I know more about my powers and their side effects. At that moment something comes to my mind and I immediately realize what it is.


    I have acquired a new spell. I will try it out when I feel like it but for now I won''t use it. The cave is dark and damp, but with this body it doesn''t matter. Just as I was about to lay down my things, I hear the sound of flapping wings. My head turns toward the ceiling and I notice that it is crawling with dozens of vampire bats.


    Most of these are harmless to humans since they mostly feed on cattle''s blood. But their race is capable of evolving into demihuman vampires with enough time. The Vampires are sturdy enough to give a moderately strong adventure a run for their money and sometimes even a bit of trouble to a really strong adventurer. Thus, their heads fetch a good price at the adventurer''s guild.


    Also the leather of their wings is pricy on the merchant market. I stare at the ceiling counting every bat. Aside from the one that flew away, there are 34 regular bats, 5 great bats, and an elder bat; these ranking weak, kind of strong, and pretty damn strong accordingly. I weigh my options. I should be able to crawl into the back and kill the elder and great bats with a barrage of shadow bullets.


    But then the rest of the bats will flee and I will lose a lot of money. I don''t even know if they will accept this kind of monster from a beginner without me showing my face or some other kind of proof. On the other hand, if I spread my attack as much as possible, I could at least kill 20 of the regular bats and one or two of the great ones.


    I can sell those at the market without hassle. However, before I could decide. All the bats flapped their wings and flew down onto my body before I could react. A trap!  Realization dawned on me. There was no way a monster so close to becoming a demihuman vampire would be left alone by the humans.


    It has slowly hunted it''s food here in this cave. I am now Pinned to the floor by the sheer number of bats biting on my bones.The bats squeal every time they fail to extract blood from my body. If I had facial muscles, I would be grinning at their misery. However, I don''t have the luxury to stay like this; small grazes were appearing on my body.


    Not to mention that if the Elder bat decided to sweep down and snatch my skull, it was game over. the only thing that I could do is summon five Shadow Bullets and that might not be able to take down the Elder one. I''m like a cornered rat right now. However, I''m not going to allow some lowly bats to kill me!


    I''m the one who decides when I''ll kick the bucket and it sure as hell isn''t any time soon! I won''t let these measly monsters kill me. The very thought of being killed by these bats filled me with slight sorrow for some reason. The verses of my new spell resound in my hollow skull as I thought to myself, I will kill you flying bastards and there is no escaping it.


    My boney jaw crackles as I speak the chant "Shadow grasp awaken! Engulf the souls of thy enemies in eternal darkness. Feast on their lives and forsake their bodies to the void!!" I feel a small bit of pain in my non existent heart but it''s gone almost as soon as it appeared. Shadows darker than black flicker on the cave''s floor and form what appears to be a portal.


    Then a giant purple mist hand with sharp nails reaches out and grabs all of the bats. It then Drags them back down into the portal with it as they squeal in fear. My boney jaw is wide open as I''m suprised at what I just saw. I realize there aren''t any bat remains left behind because they were dragged into the portal with the hand.


    I decide it''s probably best that I don''t use that spell for creatures that I actually need to keep so I can sell them.

 V1 - Ch 5 Family comes and goes

    I am walking down the road to take another look at the surroundings of the cave. A few moments after walking down the road I comes across someone really injured. It appears to be a little girl who looks like she is around 10 years old. She has a stab wound on her stomach it''s pretty deep but luckily hasn''t hit any vital organs.


    The girl is unconscious so I decide to take her back to the cave and treat her wounds. But before I pick the girl up I notice two other people a bit further up the road. It appears to be a man and a woman they are both already dead and have stab wounds just like the girl did. After I am done investigating I pick up the girl and take her to the cave.


    Once I get to the cave I bandage up the girl''s wounds with some of the cloth I have, then I decide I have to go get some medicine from a town otherwise the girl might not live. I make my way to a town and buy some medicine. On my way back to the cave I notice that some bandits are harassing an adventurer.


    I beat up the bandits and they go running away, the adventurer thanks me and gives me 5 silver coins in return for saving him. He also asks for my name, I tell the adventurer my name and he says his name as well which is "Will". We then go our separate ways and I return to the cave. I enter the cave and sit down next to the girl but I make sure to cover my face first just in case.


    The girl is still asleep but then she wakes up the moment I sit down. She tries to stand up but says "Ow, that hurts!" I tell her "You shouldn''t move right now because your wounds are pretty bad." I then give the girl a small healing potion since that''s all I could afford in terms of medicine. I then say "I know it''s not much but it should be enough to stop the bleeding."


    The girl says "Thank you." Then she has a moment of realization, she then says with worry "Where are my mommy and daddy?" I then remember that there was a man and woman that had died near her on the road. I know that I have to tell the girl what happened to them otherwise she may be upset at me later for not telling the truth.


    I ask her "What do they look like?" Just to make sure that the people I saw were her parents. Sadly the description matched what I saw and I have to tell the girl about her parents. I say "I''m sorry to say this but, I found them dead on the road a few steps away from you." The girl''s face looks like she had just seen a ghost.


    Seconds later she breaks out into tears and I say to her "Whats your name?" She says "M-my name is Lucy." I respond "Lucy, that''s a good name my name is Brine I''m sorry about what happened to your parents." I then say "But you shouldn''t keep crying because they would probably want you to stay tough and move on in a situation like this."


    Lucy wipes her tears and then I say "We should bury your parents once your able to move because it shouldn''t take long thanks to the effects of the potion, although you might feel a little pain when you move." Lucy agrees with a forced smile and we wait 10 minutes before trying to go outside to bury her parents.


    After ten minutes Lucy is able to move but it does hurt a little just like I thought it would. So I help her a little, being careful not to touch her too much, after all my skeleton hands might feel odd and expose what I am. Once we get outside we head to where Lucy''s parents are and bury them, then we pay our respects and head back to the cave.


    I ask her "Where do you live Lucy? That way I can take you home." Lucy frowns and says "I don''t have a home, mine burned down recently." She then says "We were on our way to a town in hopes of finding a job and somewhere to stay, but then the bandits attacked." I respond with "Do you have a relative you could stay with?"


    Lucy shakes her head and says "Mom and dad were the only family I had." I know I can''t just leave Lucy all alone so I decide that I should probably take her in. But I know that means I may eventually have to reveal what I really am, I decide I will figure out what to do when that time comes. I say "I am willing to let you stay with me at my home if you want."


    Lucy looks up with tears still in her eyes and says "Really?" I then say "Yeah I wouldn''t mind having somebody else with me, I might get lonely anyway." She says "Thanks, when can we go? I realize that she doesn''t know that we are already there, it''s probably because it doesn''t look like much of a home.


    I say "Well, we are already here, this cave is where I am living right now." I then say "I don''t have anywhere else to go right now due to a certain reason are you okay with living here?" She responds "You live here?" To my surprise she then says "Okay I''m fine with living here." I say "Are you sure?" She says "Yeah, it''s not like I have anywhere else to go." Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website.


    I respond "Alright then if that''s what you want then it''s fine with me." I look at her clothes and notice that she has several cuts on them. I say "Alright we should get you some new clothes because those seem like they have seen better days." Lucy says "Thanks Mr.Brine." I then say "Just call me Brine." She corrects herself "Thanks Brine."


    I look into my pocket and see that the only money I have left are the 5 silver coins that I got from Will. I take some of the cloth that I used to run out of the inn and put it over her for the time being. I then ask Lucy if she is feeling alright enough to go into town with me. She responds "It still hurts a little to move but I should be fine."


    I then say "Okay but if it starts to hurt too much let me know and I will carry you on my back." We make it into town alright without me having to carry her on my back sadly. I thought that would be a perfect moment to make my bond with her stronger. We look around for a shop that sells clothes in her size and eventually find one.


    I end up buying her a purple dress she says "Thank you Brine I love it." We start making our way back to the cave after we exit the store. As we are walking down the town road we end up being spotted by the bandits once again, but this time they have more people. There are 7 bandits and they walk up to me and Lucy casually and ask us to come into the alley around the corner.


    I agree and we follow them into the alley. I am worried about what they might do if I don''t listen since they may try to hurt Lucy. Once we are at the end of the alley one of the bandits say "I thought we killed this young lady, we can''t have anyone selling us out ain''t that right boys." The bandits all laugh and then say "Yeah".


    The bandit that was talking then takes out a knife and puts it infront of my "neck". He then says "give me everything valuable that you got on ya." I respond "Alright but let Lucy go." The bandit says "Nah pal, she ain''t getting away we''re going to kill here right here infront of you." He then says "After we''re done with her we''re going to kill you."


    He then says "You gave us a beating earlier and saw what we''re doing here we can''t let you leave alive." I say "Trust me you don''t want to do this" I then say "Your better off walking away now while you still can." The bandits aren''t very happy with that and the one holding the knife to my neck says "Bastard what did you just say to me."


    He also says "Alright guys that''s it, grab the girl and kill her in front of this bastard." I then say "Well I gave you a chance to walk away in one piece, but I guess you don''t want too." I then grab the bandit''s arm and twist it so hard that I hear a crack. The bandit falls backwards and screams out in pain while clutching his arm "AHHH OH FUCK MY ARM, YOU BROKE MY ARM!"


    One of the other bandits say "You Bastard!" All the bandits then take out weapons and run at me one by one. They all take a swing but to no avail since I end up dodging them. I then cast Shadow Bullets at the enemies running toward me. They hit each of them except for one since I could only cast 5 bullets.


    I manage to take out the last enemy with one of the weapons on the ground. I then turn around to Lucy and start to say "Are you okay?" But before I could finish my sentence, *slice*, the bandit with the arm that I twisted managed to get back up behind me. He slashed the back of my head with a knife in his other arm.


    The cloth that I was using to cover my face then falls to the ground as I slowly turn around and say "YOU SHOULDN''T HAVE DONE THAT!" I then start to chant because now I definitely can''t let the bandit get away, now he has seen my face and not only that, but the bandit also caused Lucy to see my face as well.


    I cast shadow engulfment because the alley is too big for the giant hand of the third spell that I have. The bandit then tries to run away in fear but his attempt was futile. The giant head catches up to him and devours him whole. I then turn around and look at Lucy, her eyes are widened in surprise and a bit of fear.


    I then take a step toward her and say "It''s alright I''m not going to hurt you, I promise I won''t do that." I then say "I only hurt people who do bad things like those bandits." Lucy calms down and then says "Those were the people who hurt my parents weren''t they?" I nod and say "Most likely, I saw them on the road earlier not long after I left to get medicine for you."


    Lucy then bursts into Tears and I walk up to her, I then hug her and say "It''s alright they can''t hurt people anymore and your parents have been avenged." I then take Lucy back to the cave but first I get a hood off one of the bandits, then I put it on my skull to hide my appearance once again. When we arive at the cave Lucy asks me why a skeleton like me is being nice to her.


    I say "I actually used to be human but then something happened and I became a skeleton." I pause for a moment then continue "I don''t know if I can become human again because my flesh and organs literally disintegrated/disappeared." Lucy says "Oh is that why you have to stay in this cave?" She than says "Is it because you are no longer human and don''t want to scare everybody?"


    I say "Yeah that''s right, that''s why I hide my face but it''s hard to do that with cloth since it falls off so easily and can be cut easily too." Lucy then says "I know to make masks because my father taught me how, I can make you one if you want me to, but I''m going to need some wood." I respond "That would be great, I will go get some wood tomorrow."


    I then say "For now though you should go to sleep, your body needs to get some rest now otherwise it won''t heal fast." Lucy says "Alright I''ll go to sleep then." She then drifts off to sleep on a little bed I made out of some cloth and leaves. I then go and sit on a rock to monitor the cave for the rest of the night and make sure nothing bad happens.


    After all, this is the only place I can stay right now, I can''t risk living in a town since it might expose


    what I am so I have decided that I should protect the cave, and as long as Lucy is with me, then I shall protect her as well.

 V1 - Ch 6 Archery for a sister

    As I patiently guard the cave, the darkness envelops the forest. I look ahead to the closest tree where shadows gather and see the man that has been helping me until now through my dreams. The shadow man says "Long time no see friend, not sleeping anymore? That''s not good for your body."


    I respond to him.


    "Stop with your dry jokes, undead don''t sleep. So? Here just to say goodnight? Or do you have some other business with me? because I want to be alone for a while" I don''t really want to drag these occurrences since only trouble and skills come out with this guy. Plus I don''t know anything about his identity or why he is helping me.


    But he has been generous enough to grant more strength then I ever could have imagined. He says "How harsh, but you are right. I don''t have the leisure to make idle chit chat in the middle of the street. So let''s get straight to the point that time is tight. I came here to unlock another of your skills. You will need this one more than anyone else."


    My ears perk at the mention of a new skill. He continues "This is not something you can simply learn on your own, but you have aptitude to absorb my understanding so you won''t need to practice it or level it up. Its already at its maximum efficiency. You will understand in a second." Just as his words ended a strong, headache hits me.


    I writhe and claw at my bones as boundless information penetrates my memory. After many minutes that seemed hours, the pain fades and my new ability clearly shows on my head. Monster language. The ability to understand and communicate with any creature/monster as long it possess some degree of intelligence.


    It sounds amazing forthright, but its not really a very useful skill in most cases. Yeah, you can talk with monster, but that doesn''t mean that they will listen to you. Most monster follow the law of the law, and do the talk with their claws and teeth so merely talking does jack shit. He says "By your expression you don''t truly understand the true worth of this skill."


    He pauses for a moment then continues "It''s not surprising that you wouldn''t, the monster language was lost thousands of years ago. With this skill, you will be able to create mystic Runes that are the foundation and core of magic spells. Monsters don''t learn spells, they learn runes to use their inherit skills. This is the reason why most monsters cast faster and stronger spells than humans."


    If I had eyes they would be wide as hell right now with surprise. He says "Of course, you will need to be much stronger to create new spells and many magical resources, time, and monsters willing to teach you their skills will be required. Right now, your strength is like a drop in the pond of casting runes. So you need to train harder and travel a lot to gather more knowledge."


    He continues "At least, your body is capable of using monster language. So you can freely talk with any species you wish, also another thing to note is that you could become something insanely powerful in the future if you so wished." I stare down at my boney hands and clench them into a fist. I lost many things the day I became like this.


    But at the same time, fate gave me a new path to further my strength. I say "Can I teach this to anyone else?" Curiosity getting the best of me. My goal was to become stronger, at any cost so that no one would trample over those around me ever again, with the strength I gain there are so many things I could do.


    He responds "Indeed but be careful who you teach it to. If you learn low to harness the true power of runes, you will be capable of creating spells on your own. Cutting the moon in half, summoning the scorching sun or reviving the dead are not just fantasies! As long as you wish it and pay the price, there is nothing absurd. Well, I shall take my leave now. Do train hard."


    After he leaves, I return to my post and reflect on what he said. Restless, I went to check the perimeter until morning came. About an hour after sunrise, I went ahead and woke up Lucy. I''m not sure if her injuries are completely healed, but I do need to get the mask she promised me. Also, I need to start training her to protect herself.


    If what the shadow man said is right, I need to head out and seek the wonders of this world. During that journey, I will face danger and I won''t be able to always guard her. What''s better, I would have someone to protect my back. Lucy is too young to know if she has any aptitude for magic, since I am pretty strong now now, I think rear support would be the best and safest position for her.


    Thus I need to head out and search for a skilled marksmanship master and probably a short sword master. I have some basic dagger skills that Timmy taught be when we were younger, but that won''t work against strong adversaries. She needs proper training if I want to take her with me. The woods have been calm for the past days.


    So I will have her collect her own materials while I go out to scout a professional teacher. I say to her "Lucy, a little change of plans. I have errands to run right now. Do you think you can search for the ash wood and the other herbs by yourself?" Lucy nodded and started to ready herself to go out. I also say "If you encounter danger, run to the cave as fast as you can"


    After that I told her roughly the place I saw ash wood and left for the middle district in town. I walked aimlessly around the military streets and all the big schools I could find. None of the teachers looked convincing for the kind of skills I seek. Dejected I went to the commercial district and bought some groceries for Lucy.


    Just as I was about to enter a store to buy some dried meat, a leather gloved hand is placed on my shoulder. My bones creaked quietly but I don''t get scared very easily anymore so I don''t jump or anything. He says"Long time no see, Savior". I turn and see Will with his slanted smile. My skeleton body relaxed. I respond "My names Brine, not Savior, Will. It''s embarrassing if you call me that."


    He snickers mischievously and slaps my back jokingly. He says "Don''t mind it! You did save my life. So I must address you properly! Or would you rather have me call you ''Master'', eh Brine?" He seems like a strange man but friendly at the same time, but that''s fine. I respond "Suit yourself, next time I save someone I will ask them if they are annoyingly friendly before helping them."If you encounter this story on Amazon, note that it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.


    He laughs heartily and takes my spot in the store. Later he buys a lot of meat and pushes it into my arms. He then says to me jokingly "This is a little present for my friend. So, Brine, what brings you here?" I look around, but I can''t find a reason to lie about my true intention. Instead I decide to ask him for advice, he could help me find someone.


    I say "Well, I''m looking for an Archer and a Swordsman to teach my, daugh-, my little sister. She is going to stay with me for a while so I want to teach her the bare minimum skills to survive and how to help me before we start traveling the continent. Do you perhaps know someone trustworthy?"


    He responds "Indeed, I know someone. Actually you are seeing him in the flesh right now." I gaze around, but I don''t see anyone who fits the criteria for ''master marksmanship''. He says "Hey, you hurt my feelings, I''m talking about myself. I am an Advanced adventurer despite my looks, the bandits were only capable of taking me on because a bow is a long ranged weapon."


    He continues "There was no way I could beat so many with a simple dagger either. So here is your oh so great archery teacher, ready to teach without asking bothersome questions." I nod my head in response. Having Will teach Lucy would probably be the best option. I then say "Compared to a normal adventurer how are your dagger skills?"


    He responds "Well, I''d say around the peak of the most basic level. I don''t have many offense boosting skills so I can''t really say I could beat an Experienced dagger using adventurer in a straight fight with only daggers." I nod in response again. He doesn''t seem to be bluffing so he must have real skills to assess his own strengths and weaknesses.


    I say "Okay, how much do you want for the full course?" He told me that he will do it for free since he feels he hasn''t paid me back enough yet for saving him,. we then head to the cave while chatting idly. However, when we are about to reach the cave, I see many Red Eyed Wolves surrounding the entrance.


    The wolves look wary of entering the cave due to my undead scent that lingers in it, but that won''t last forever. Before, I can react, Will fires two arrows at the wolves closest to the entrance. However, the instincts of the wolves are sharp and they manage to dodge them without much effort. However, now their attention is on us and not on Lucy thankfully.


    Will notches another pair of arrows, but I stop him. These monster are far too agile and intelligent for us to beat unless I reveal my trump cards. Nevertheless, it''s my perfect chance to try my new skill. I say "Will, I''m going to try something, be ready if the plan fails, but don''t interfere unless I say it failed." Will nods and lowers his bow with the arrows still in place.


    I yell at the wolves "Hey wolves, I would stop right there if I were you!" The wolf leader howls in contempt and then takes a step closer to me. He says "Shut up human, we are about to dine on a female human, you look and smell weird so we aren''t bothering with you right now. Get lost before we eat you first, take it as a token of our benevolence."


    This wolf is mocking me, I will show him who the boss here is. If Will wasn''t here all these wolves would be dead in a matter of seconds, however I can''t expose my strong powers in front of him so I just talk back. I say "Don''t you dare act like that before me, benevolence? Letting you live this long is what I would call mercy."


    I pause for a minute then continue "I have killed an entire pack of wolves just like yours, and many of the wolves in it were bigger and stronger than you. Pack leader come closer and take a good sniff, you will feel the regret wash over you for bothering me once you smell others soaked into my scent. Do you think you have the strength to mess with me? You should be swearing loyalty to me."


    The wolf leader was taken aback, the wolf thought I was merely trying to attract their attention while Will fired his arrows, but now he understood that the ''creature'' before him understood him. The pack leader inched closer to me and smelled not only the other Red Eyed Wolves but also my aura of death emitted naturally by my undead nature.


    The leader growls and decides that it''s in their best interest to leave us alone, but he still wanted to confirm something before leaving. He says"Do you understand us?" I simply nod back at him in response. Satisfied, the leader backed up and readied himself. He was scared of me, but still he couldn''t simply back down as the responsible one of his pack.


    He says "We can''t go back empty handed, our women and children await." I Understand so I nod to the wolf and tell him to wait a minute while I grab something. I then go and grab the dried meat Will bought for me, then I pass it to him and say "Take it as a token of friendship between neighbors, also, I will take care of not killing Red Eyed Wolves in this forest, as long they don''t attack us that is."


    There were at best ten pounds of meat in the sack, so it wasn''t a great loss for me. He thanks me and says "Your quite a strange skeleton, feel free to visit us someday." The wolf leader then turns around and leaves with the rest of the wolves. He howls that if I need assistance someday, I should look for him in the eastern part of the forest, a walk straight left from the cave.


    Will stares at me surprised after the miraculous encounter with the wolves, if it was anyone else but me, the so called little sister would be wolf food by now. Will looks at my direction for an explanation, I shrug him off and say "It''s just a secret art passed down in my family for some hundreds of years."


    I pause for a minute and then continue "I have been training since I can remember as it isn''t something easy to learn, I think I have been practicing for more than 15 years. I can teach you, give it two and a half decades and you will be speaking monster fluently." Satisfied with that answer, Will shakes his head and tells me that we should go check on my sister.


    Will and I then go inside the cave and check on Lucy who is coating my mask with some dye as if nothing happened outside, I then say to her "Hey, Lucy, you seem awfully calm, weren''t you scared?" She responds with a smile "Hmm, not really, I know you will protect me so I don''t really have anything to fear." She then comes up and gives the mask to me that she worked so hard to make.


    The mask appears to be black with what looks like drawings of purple mist around it and around the eyeholes I thank her and introduce her to Will, her new teacher. Lucy stares at me for a bit and then greets Will politely, they then sit down and eat some food together, Will asked me if I was going to eat but I simply said that I wasn''t hungry.


    After he finished eating Will comes up to me and says "Why are you guys living in this cave so far away from town?" I think of something, then I say "Think of it as a training camp for Lucy, it''s easier to understand monster language where there are abundant monsters without awfully high strength, well, she takes it more like camping than training though."


    I pause for a minute then continue "I hope she takes your lessons seriously, she''s had it rough after our parents died, so I''m doing my best to look out for her." Will nods and says. "Sounds complicated, I''ll do my best." After that, Will and Lucy go to sleep while I check around the cave, tomorrow Will is going to start training Lucy in archery.

 V1 - Ch 7 A den of a freind

    Morning arrives and the night is now over, I didn''t get a visit from the shadow man last night I guess he told me all he needed too. To be honest I don''t really want to talk to him again if I can help it, although he has helped me alot I just don''t want to be indebt to him to much. After all who knows what he would even ask for, that is if he asks me for something in return eventually.


    I shake my skull and stop thinking about it, I hear a yawn and turn to see Will standing up. I say "Morning Will, when are you going to start training Lucy?" He looks over to me and says " Ah good morning Brine, I already decided last night that I would starting her training a few minutes after I wake up."


    He pauses for a moment then says "What are you going to do today while I''m training her?" I had alot of time to think that over during the night while they were sleeping and already know what I''m going to do today. I decided that I should try to make some money, and the way I am going to do that is dungeons. Dungeons are these abandoned ruins that can scale from many things.


    I have heard that different contrys have types of dungeons that cant be found here. In Satoos there are 3 different types of dungeons: underground dungeons that can have many unpridictable things in them , hero dungeons that usually hold relics of heroes and stuff like that, and royal dungeons that have items that were passed down in a royal family and these items usually have great value.


    I don''t know of any dungeons nearby however, although the Red Eyed Wolves that were here yesterday might be able to direct me to one, so I can ask them for help finding one. I say "I''m going to go out and explore, protect Lucy while im gone and tell her that I will be back before long." He responds "Alright Brine, be careful out there."


    I then exit the cave and start heading to the left like the wolf leader told me to, I eventually end up at a cave that isn''t as big as mine and appears to be a wolf den. As I enter the den I accidently hit a rock with my foot, and almost instantly I hear a growl come from within the den. After that wolves start to walk out towards me slowly from deeper in the den.


    A wolf with blood on its front paws walks up front and says says "What are you doing in our den, LEAVE BEFORE WE BITE YOU TO BITS!" I respond "What, wow dare you greet me with such words?!" The bloody wolf is furious at my response and says "WHAT DID YOU SAY TO ME YOU DAMN HUMAN!?"


    I respond with a slightly louder voice "Are you sure you want to be treating me this way?" Before a fight can break out a voice is heard in the distance "Hold brother, I know that voice!" The wolf leader steps forward and kneels down, he then says "Welcome to our den, I am sorry if my brother has angered you, please forgive him."


    I respond "It''s alright but I will say, it''s a good thing you arrived, for a minute I thought I got the wrong den and was about to, well lets just say it wouldn''t end well." The wolf leader''s eyes widen a bit in slight fear and he says "Ah, again I am sorry for any inconveinince that has happend here." The bloody wolf, angered and confused says in a loud voice,


    "Brother, what is the meaning of this why do you kneel before a meer human and apologize?" The wolf leader then says in a fearful and angry voice "BROTHER, YOU WILL DO WELL NOT TO DISPLEASE HIM BECAUSE HE COULD WIPE US ALL OUT IF HE WANTED TOO!" The bloody wolf is taken aback by the leader''s words and says with no more anger but only confusion and slight fear,


    "W-What do you mean by that brother?" The wolf leader then says "Sniff him and find out for yourself." The bloody wolf walks up to me and sniffs, he backs away quickly and asks in a very fearful and confused voice "W-Why do you smell so much like a skeleton yet are able to speak?!" I respond "That doesn''t really matter, but will you allow me to come inside I wish to ask something"


    The wolf leader agrees and I follow them deeper into the den, the den appears to be slightly bigger than I thought it was. We come to a cave wall and the bloody wolf sits down on a rock. I pull down my hood and take off my mask showing the wolves my face. The wolf leader sits down on a rock across from me and says "Alright, now what did you want to ask?"


    I respond, "I would like to know if there are any dungeons nearby here as I need to make a profit." He responds "Ah, actually there is one close to here but it''s the only one I know of." He pauses for a minute then continues "In fact I don''t think it has been discovered or explored by adventurers yet." I say "That''s perfect can you lead me to it?"


    The wolf leader frowns and says "I''m sorry, but I can''t afford to leave the den right now as I have to stay here to protect the cubs, since the others are out hunting right now there are only four of us here to protect Including me and my brother." He pauses for a moment then says "But my brother isn''t as strong as me so it wouldn''t be a big deal if he left the den rather than protecting it with us."


    He pauses for a moment then continues  "Besides he has a better sense of direction than me so he can lead you to it much easier than me." The bloody wolf says "Brother you can''t be serious, I have to lead this skeleton to a dungeon alone?" The wolf leader responds "Don''t worry, it''ll be fine I''m sure he''s a nice person, if you don''t provoke him that is."If you come across this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I say "Don''t worry I won''t hurt ya I promise, just lead me to the dungeon and I will be out of your hair, heck I will even bring back something if I find anything that could be useful to you wolves." The bloody wolf sighs and says "Alright I will take you there, oh by the way, what is your name skeleton you haven''t told us it yet."


    Oh yeah I completely forgot to tell them my name, I respond but for some reason I bow when I do it "Ah my bad, my name is Brine Dark It''s nice to meet you." The bloody wolf says "Okay Brine let''s get going, goodbye brother I will be back soon" The wolf leader responds "Alright brother, return safely."  We then exit the den and start walking through the woods.


    While we are on our way there after a long silence the bloody wolf speaks up "Do you mind if I ask how you are able to speak and have such intelligence?" I respond, "Actually I used to be human, the thing is I didn''t die to get this way, my skin kind of just disappeared all of a sudden and now I''m really powerful as well."


    The bloody wolf responds slightly shocked "Huh, well that''s the first I''ve heard of anything like that, may I ask how powerful you are exactly?" I respond seriously "I''m able to kill 5 humans at once right now." The bloody wolf is taken aback and says "I sure hope I don''t get on your bad side." We go silent once again and about 10 minutes later we arrive at the dungeon.


    It appears to be an underground dungeon that had the building destroyed so it''s just the staircase, I''m not going to complain though because I should be happy that there was even one near me at all. The bloody wolf says "Here we are, I shall wait for you outside so I can show you the way back, it can be really easy to get lost in these woods if your not careful."


    I respond "Alright thanks, I will be back soon." I then enter the staircase and descend into the underground dungeon. When I reach the bottom of the staircase I am in a large dark empty room with two corridors. Before I could decide which way to go, skeletons start rise up and emerge from the dark corners of the room.


    They look confused though because the intruder they see appears to be a skeleton. The skeletons ask in a ghastly voice "Where is intruder?" I respond "Do not worry it is only me, another skeleton here go back to sleep everything is okay." The skeletons respond in a calm ghastly voice "Oh, Okay back to sleep."


    The skeletons each go back to the dark corners and sit/lay down with their spines against the walls. I let out a sigh of relief, it looks like I might be able to reason with most monsters to avoid fighting. I don''t want to do meaning less fighting if I can avoid it. I then take a look at the two corridors, the one on the left has a rusty metal sign above it saying laboratory.


    The one on the right has a sign that says something but some of it is covered by rust it says tomb of. I am most interested in the one that says laboratory so I guess I''m going to go there first. The moment I entered the corridor A wall slams down behind me blocking my path, though it doesn''t seem like it was accidental. It appears it was set up to fall down after someone enters the corridor.


    There might be a way to open it back if there is then could be able to find it while I''m exploring this place. As I am walking down the corridor I notice there isn''t any accessible doors ahead except for the one room at the end. All the other rooms have either caved in or have a giant hole in the middle of them making it impossible to enter.


    Once I enter the room at the end of the hall I take a quick glance around at all the stuff in it. There is a desk against the back wall of the room with a book of some sort on it, there are glass flasks and things in the room as well that were probably used for some sort of alchemy, and there are two book shelfs on each side of the room with quite a few books on them.


    I decide to go up to the desk first, as I am about to pick up the book to see what it is a note appears next to the book. I pick up the note and read it, the note says, ''The answer is nigh, the answer to help you. I will give it to you I shall tell thou the way to attain power, but in return you must promise me that you wont use this power to kill innocent people.''


    ''The answer to gaining power is closer than thou may think, thus it is simply to obtain. Just follow my instructions and thou shall gain thy power, however before thou can even do that thou must gain at least 4 skills from different monsters once you do that you can complete my instructions as I say. First thou must write exactly what I am about to show you on the front of a blank book. ''


    ''The book''s thickness doesn''t matter, thou must write what is seen in the back of this on the front of the blank book. The next thing thou must do is go over every page and number them one through however many pages there are but you must draw a line in the middle of each page and number them top half to bottom half.''


    ''Thus the first page will have numbers 1 and 2 and the next page will have 3 and four and so on. the last thing thou must do is to repeat after me once you have completed the first two steps, you need to say a chant that will bring the power to use the language and share it with others as you please. The chant goes as I say below.''


    "Awaken spellious creation, answer my calls and become one with the world, the time has come for your power to be released and to help magic creation be started up once again, give me the ability to create new spells, give me the ability to allow others of thy choice to create new spells, and finally give me the power to understand all that is foul, awaken spellious creation."


    ''Once this is done you have succeeded in something that I failed at as I am going to be killed before I can succeed. But you however, you have just created the ability to become something great, use it wisely and live my legacy that I failed to live myself. Those are my last wishes, I hope you respect them.'' After I''m done I realize that the book is pretty thick but also blank both on the cover and the inside.


    I also notice that there is a button underneath the book, I press the button and the wall opens back up allowing me to leave the corridor. I put the book in the pocket of my cloak and prepare to enter the next corridor that I assume to be the tomb of someone who was very important here.

 V1 - Ch 8 Demihumans arrive

    I walk into the corridor, this time no wall falls down behind me blocking my exit. This corridor isnt as big as the other one and has no doorways in it. The only thing in it is a staircase leading deeper underground at the end of the corridor. I walk down the stairs and once I reach the end I come to a small room with an old black casket in the middle of it.


    There are a few torches leading toward the casket like a pathway. As I start to walk up to the casket the torches light up with purple flames one by one as I pass by them. Once I am at the casket, I get the feeling that I must open it. It feels as if i''m not even disturbing the dead, its like I''m meant to open it and that whomever rests in this casket wants/wanted me to open it for some reason.


    I begin to slowly open the casket lid trying not to break it. Once the casket is open, I find what appears to be the skeleton of a man, but the skeleton is half corroded with something black. That''s not the only strange thing about this skeleton though. I feel as if whomever this was their soul neither went to heaven nor hell, its as if it was forced out of the body upon death by something.


    Theres no way to find out how it happened though so I guess I shouldn''t dwell on it anymore than I have. This skeleton seems familar to me somehow yet I can''t quite wrap my head around why. I decide I have looked at the casket long enough and begin to put the lid back on it. However as I am about to close it completely the casket begins to shake and I instinctively back away from it. A black skeletal hand is then seen reaching out and opening the lid of the casket.


    The corroded skeleton then looks at the wall behind the casket and lifts its boney arm to point at the wall. It then turns it''s head to me and mouths something to me without speaking "Treasure for you behind the wall, take what you want." The skeleton then lays back down and recloses the casket most of the way but leaves a slight opening for some reason.


    That was an odd experience, I decide to go see whats behind the wall the skeleton pointed at. I walk up to the stone wall and knock on it first to see if its hollow, and sure enough it sounded like there was a room behind the wall. The wall seems pretty weak so I can probably knock it down with just a bit of force. I then raise my boney leg and kick the wall a few times.


    The wall falls backwards after a few kicks which creates an opening for me to enter the room. The moment I enter the room I look around and see quite a bit of things. There are two small bags of gold coins, there is a pair of odd shaped dark grey gloves, there is also a scroll that is giving off some magic particles.


    I decided to look at the scroll first since it seems most important. I pick up the scroll but don''t read it out loud since that might activate it''s spell, instead I read it in my mind. "This spell is meant for the next person to enter this place, use it on a non human race and it will make them into a demihuman of that race thus enhancing their physical abilities slightly, and their intelligence some as well.


    The spell goes as follows, thou has been chosen by me to become more than beast''s, thou has an opportunity to be better and live easier, now change and enjoy your new forms that"  I think this spell will definitely be wanted by the wolves, so I put it in one of my cloak pockets. I then go up to the dark grey gloves and upon closer inspection immediately notice what their shape is for.


    So I decided to try something, I attempt to put the gloves on, and just as I thought their shape fits my boney hands perfectly. It''s as if the gloves were made for a skeleton, or maybe even just for me. I don''t think about it much longer and I take the gloves back off and put them in one of my cloak pockets since I don''t need them right now.


    Finally I go up to the bags of small bags of gold coins and put them in my last cloak pocket. I guess it''s time for me to leave this dungeon now, I have what I came here for, and there isn''t anywhere else here I can explore. I walk out of the room and the corridor, I then manage leave the dungeon without any trouble.


    Upon exiting the dungeon I see the bloody wolf sitting down watching the forest, it appears he kept his word and waited for me. I walk up to him and say "I''m back, I found what I needed in there." The bloody wolf jumps at the sound of my voice. He then turns around and says "Oh it''s just you, you scared me a bit." I say "Are you alright you seem paranoid?"


    He responds "Yeah I''m fine I just thought I saw something moving in the shadows a while ago and it made me cautious, I guess it was just my imagination though." I respond "Alright, lets head back I found somethingthat you guys might want as well in there." The walk back to the den was uneventful.


    It appears that if there was something moving in the shadows watching the bloody wolf, it''s not there anymore. When we arrive at the den we see the wolf leader who is pacing back and forth looking very worried. It takes a few seconds for him to notice us walking up to him. He says with fear "Brother, Brine, homething horrible happened while you were gone!" The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    The bloody wolf says "Calm down brother, tell us, what has happened?" The wolf leader takes a deep breath and then he says in a slightly calmer voice "Adventurers came to the den and attacked us, they captured our cubs and injured some of us guarding them." I say "What about the wolves that were out hunting for food, do you know if they''re okay?"


    The wolf leader says "We haven''t heard from them yet, they should have been back by now but they''re not I fear what may have happened to them." The bloody wolf says "Brother, we have to do something or our cubs may be in danger too, we have to go save them." The wolf leader says "You''re right, I can pick up the adventurer''s scent to find them."


    He pauses then continues "But it''s too dangerous there were at least 4 adventurers, we don''t stand a chance." I speak up "I could help you, after all I can speak to humans as well, I may be able to talk them into letting your cubs go." The wolf leader responds "You would do that for us?" I say "Sure, I don''t see why not, after all I am already here and you helped me find that dungeon."


    The bloody wolf says "Thanks Brine, Alright brother lead us to the adventuers with your nose." The wolf leader sniffs the ground and then says "Okay, follow me and I shall lead the way." After a few minutes we come across a path in the woods and notice a carriage being pulled across it. The wolf leader says,


    "That''s them I can smell our cubs in that carraige,along with the other adventurers!" I respond "Alright follow me but dont make any threating actions, they will attack to defend themselves most likely if you do, some humans get scared easily." I walk up to the carraige and ask the person driving it to stop, they hear me and the horses come to a halt as the driver pulls back on the strings.


    The driver says slightly confused "May I help you?" he notices the wolves behind me and puts his hand on the sword at the side of his hip and says "Look out behind you!" I respond "Whoa there, don''t worry they''re freindly, I have a skill that is passed down in my family that allows me to communicate with most monsters, these wolves are my friends."


    I pause and continue "Watch this, Come here and sit down." Both of the wolves look at each other and then come sit down next to me. The driver of the carraige then takes his hand away from his sword and says, "Alright I believe you, so what do you want?" I respond calmly "Well you see, earlier you took some cubs from the wolves den."


    I pause for a moment then continue "We would like you to return them and if you can please tell us why you took them." The driver responds "Oh, well we took a quest to clear out a den of wolves that were killing the local deer and stuff preventing hunters from getting food,the requirement was to take the cubs so that they don''t grow up and kill the local animals as well."


    I say "I''m sorry about the animals, I will find some way to feed the wolves so that they don'' have to kill the deer and others, as long as you release the cubs that is." I pause and then say "Is that fine with you?" The driver says "Alright let me discuss it with my pals in the back" he then enters the carraige and comes back out after a minute and says,


    "Alright, but we wont get paid for this job since we can''t take the cubs back, so would you be able to compensate instead?" I respond "How much would you have been paid?" The driver says "Four gold coins." That''s not much compared to how much I have now since there is quite a bit in each of my small bags I got from the dungeon.


    I give him the four gold coins and say "Alright here you go, please try not to bother these wolves again." The driver of the carraige releases the wolf cubs and they walk go up to the bloody wolf and the wolf leader and cuddle them. I say "Oh by the way did you happen to harm some wolves that were out hunting?"


    The driver simple shakes his head and says "We left those ones alone since they weren''t at the den we were required to go to, it''s a pain to do extra work." I thank the driver and then the carraige pulls away into the distance. The wolf leader says "Thanks Brine, without you here our cubs would probably be long gone by now."


    I say "don''t mention it, lets head back to the den, maybe the wolves that went hunting are back by now." We then head back to the den and find the wolves that were out hunting all back in the den as I thought they might be. I say "Oh wolf leader, I almost forgot that I found something I can use for your pack in the dungeon."


    The wolf leader says curiously "Oh, and what might that be?" I pull the scroll out of my cloak pocket and say, "This will make you guys into demihumans, enhancing your physical abilitys and giving you better intellegence as well, it will probably allow you to gather normal foods easily as well, such as berrys and stuff."


    The wolf leader is suprised and says "How long will the spell last?" I respond "I''m not sure, it may last forever so talk it over with your pack on rather or not you want me to cast the spell." The wolf leader nods and gathers every wolf in the den together, he then discusses the matter with them and 2 minutes later all of the wolves walk up to me.


    The wolf leader says "Alright, we all agreed that we want you to cast the spell because we all trust you, so please do so now." I respond  "Okay I will say the spell now."  I say " Thou has been chosen by me to become more than beasts, thou has an opportunity to be better and live easier, Now change and enjoy your new forms!"


    The wolves get engolfed in a black smoke and a few seconds later, I see a bunch of demihumans in front of me, the woman wolves are naked but, I feel no embarasment or anything so I brush it aside and say, "Alright I will bring you some clothes later, I should be getting back to my cave for now, I will see you later."


    The wolf leader thanks me and says "If you ever need anything that we can help with, feel free to ask, we will be loyal to you no matter what." I then go to the cave and return to them with some clothes, and after that I head back to the cave for good.

 V1 - Ch 9 Heir to the throne pt 1

    A man is sitting in a throne leaning his head on his left hand, he seems to be relaxing at the momment as if waiting for something. This man is non other than the demon lord Rein Strevus. In this world it is possible for a demon lord to be born from two humans but it is neigh impossible due to the sheer strength of the current ones exsisting now.


    It makes it so that no other demon lords can be born naturally from two humans. This is due to the overpowering malicus intent from the demon lords residing in different locations around the world right now. Which is so powerful that it would reverse the process of a demon lord being born thus making it result in a normal human being born.


    This is because their original power is outdone and consumed by the power of the currently living ones. The only way a new demon lord could come to be born is if a currently living one engaged in intercourse with another demon. Thus making the born one become a next of kin that would inhearit the current ones powers once they die.


    If the current demon lord is sealed away by magic, the next of kin can perform a ritual that allows them to communicate with their parent telepathically. Then they request that they pass on their powers to them, Rein Strevus was the next of kin from the demon lord Trinus Strevus. Trinus was slain by an adventurer whom didnt know of the existence of Rein.


    This was luickily due to the demons under his father''s command keeping his exsistance concelled from the outside world as much as possible. Trinus knew his time of death was neigh and would be unavoidable given the circumstances, so he wanted his son to inherit the thrown. Trinus Strevus was a natural born demon lord of blood magic.


    Blood magic can a very deadly magic considering that most things its used for could result in the death of someone. Thus Rein is a very strong demon lord and knew that many possible new demon lords would have been born in Satoos if he wasn''t in it. But due to him being in the land, it has always prevented this and made them be born as normal humans.


    This is why what Rein felt next, almost made him fall out of his throne in fear. An enormous evil power, that equal to a very strong demon lord, appeared for a few seconds then dissapeared as if it was never there. Rein knew what this meant, a natural demon lord has been born. Since it was in the land of Satoos he could sense it, this also meant that they were more powerful than Rein.


    When a natural demon lord is born they dont get their powers right away. It takes quite a few years, but after a while they will be able to start using a fraction of their powers. Their powers will grow with time, and they would awaken more things within them slowly. This scared Rein because he knew that if he wasnt careful then he could possibly be defeated by this demon lord in the future.


    But it was too risky to take any actions against him because he could even be strong enough to take out his entire army now for all Rein knew. So for now all Rein decided to do was wait for a little while and hope the worst doesnt come to happen. Maybe the demon lord will come to ally with Rein. This was what he hoped for, that way he is a bit safer knowing that he may not betray his close allies.


    After thinking about all this Rein stands up and walks out of his throne room. He then walks down the hall and comes to a door that has a sign reading (demon lord communication crystal). This room was the way he communicated with the demon lords in the land of the kingdom''s surrounding Satoos.


    There were 4 that currently exsisted and two of these four he was on good terms with. His father had gone to war with the other two which resulted in mixed feelings against him. This was because Once he took the thrown they didnt know if he would act the same way his father had. But either way, this concerns them too so he walked into the room, and started to contact all 4 demon lords.


    Regardless of the lingering hatred from the past events he must warn them about the possible threat. A few seconds later, illusions of the four demon lords are seen around the crystal. The two that hold bad feelings toward him give him a cold stare. Its as if they''re telling him that he better watch what he says otherwise things wont end very well.


    One of the two that are on good terms with him then spoke up "What did you call us for rein?" Rein took a deep breath before speaking, then said "A potential problem has appeared that may concern all of us." All 4 of the demon lords show a expression of interest and curiosity once Rein says that. One of the demon lord''s on bad terms with Rein says with a serious faceIf you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    "What seems to be the problem Rein Strevus?" The other one then says "If you have called us here as well and said it concerns us all then it must be something serious." Rein takes another deep breath and says "A new demon lord has awoken in Satoos, which means he is stronger than me. The power I felt, it may be stronger than you all as well, maybe even stronger than my father was."


    All four demon lords show expressions of surprise, but more than that, they show fear. They all know Rein is an honest man that doesn''t like to lie or con people. Unlike his father whom was all about that kind of life, Rein doesn''t like to lie since it can bring upon ruin to him if he isn''t careful what he says.


    The second demon lord that is on good terms with him speaks up "What do you suggest we do about this matter Rein?" Rein let''s out a sigh and says "For now all we can do is wait and hope that he trys to ally with us, we could try to get on good terms with him by sending a gift or something but let''s wait a little bit before doing that."


    The two demon lords on good terms with Rein agree. However the ones on bad terms look at each other and then nod, the first one then says "We arent making any promises that we wont act soon, and we certainly wont tell you what course of action we will take. But we will be catious for now and wont do anything that could lead to something horrible for us all."


    The second one says then says "Anyway we will be on our way now, good bye." Once the two demon lords say that they disappear. One of the demon lords on good terms with Rein then says "We are going to go now as well, we have to prepare incase he comes to us first for some reason, goodbye Rein."


    With that the other two demon lords disappear as well and Rein is left standing in the room by himself. Rein slams his fist against the wall and shouts out "DAMN IT, WHAT AM I GOING TO DO...IF HE COMES TO ME WITH ILL INTENT THEN I AM SURELY GOING TO PERISH EASILY!" Rein then remembers something that he brought up during the conversation with the four demon lords.


    He then says "A gift, thats it I will send him something very valuable that will appease him and show that I mean no harm." He pauses for a moment then says "But what should I send him, Ah I know what to do. I shall get someone to watch him for a little while to gain info on what he would need or want most, yeah that seems like the best option."


    Rein then claps his hands and a few seconds a demon demihuman walks in the room and says "What do you need my lord?" Rein then tells him what to do and the demon says "As you wish my lord, I shall return soon with the information you want." The demon then leaves the room and Rein lets out of a sigh of relef and says


    "I hope things go well, I don''t want to end up causing a war like my father used to do all the time." Rein then goes back to his throne room and sits down trying to process everything that just happened in that short amount of time. Rein thinks to himself "I wonder what kind of person this new demon lord will be."


    Rein takes a deep breath then thinks "I know it''s not very possible but maybe he will wipe us all out or the humans in this kingdom." Rein shivers at the thought of that and then thinks "No, I must not think like that, I should stay positive and hope that it doesn''t come to that. Rein lets out a big sigh and shakes his head, he then thinks


    "I actually quite like the humans, despite what happened to my father not all humans are bad and I have seen alot of good ones." Rein sighs and thinks "I hope he doesn''t harm the humans too much, I think of them almost as family." A black figure is in a dark corner of the throne room blending in with the shadows, it seems that Rein hasn''t noticed it yet.


    The black figure finally speaks up and Rein almost falls out of his throne once again with fear, the black figure says "Hehehe, why hello there lord Rein Strevus I have come to chat with you about some things due to urgent matters." Rein shouts out with slight fear in his voice "W-WHO''S THERE, SHOW YOURSELF!?"


    Once that is said the black figure speaks once more "Ah, alright then I shall reveal myself to you, of course, I will have to take on a different form so I will look different than I usually do since the form I am in right now might cause you to go insane at the sight of me." This made Rein feel elated between confusion,intrege,and worry.


    He was confused because he doesnt understand how the sight of someone can make one go insane. But he didn''t question it since he felt that he wouldnt get anywhere by asking. However now he was worried that he would go insane while at the same time he was intrigued about what the person could look like that could cause this.


    Rein then says in a calm voice "Alright then do so and show yourself." The black figure then says "As you wish lord Rein Strevus, I shall now take on the form of something that would be easier for you to view." Once the black figure says that a black mist is seen creeping its way out of the dark corner of the throne room and Rein focuses his attention on that mist.


    A few seconds latter the mist starts to build up and eventually forms in the shape of a person. However it appears its not done yet, because at that momment an arm with a long black sleeve and a white skinned hand reaches out of the mist. Then a leg steps our of the mist and before long an entire man whom appears to be a butler steps out of the mist and bows to Rein before saying,


    "Nice to meet you lord Rein Strevus, I come on behalf of a certain someone whom I belive you are aware that he has just awoken the begining of his powers not long ago, do not worry as I mean you no harm and am here of my own will and was not asked to come here by that person." The butler pauses for a momment and then says " Now, allow me to explain why I have come here to see you alone."

 V1 - Ch 10 Heir to the throne pt 2

    The butler stops bowing and stands straight, but keeps his hand on his chest as if its courtesy and says "I have no name as of now so just address me as Shadow, It may be odd but tis true until he gives me a permanent form." Rein is confused he thinks "Permanent form, then the form that he is in now is only temporary?"


    Shadow says " I cannot reveal anything about myself, as I am forbidden from doing so, I''m sorry if you were wanting to ask questions about me but I''m going to have to ask you not to pry any further on that matter." Rein nods to Shadow and Shadow lets out a small smile and says "Alright, now as for the reason I am here, I think its about time I told you what that is."


    Rein puts on a more serious expression and listens closely, Shadow then says "I am here to tell you some things, the first few things I must tell you is of high importance as they are warnings to you."  Rein nods and says "Alright, tell me what it is." Shadow then says with a bigger grin on his face "The demon lord that has just awoken, has only awoken to about 5% of his powers."


    Rein shows an expression of fear and shouts out "THAT POWER I FELT WAS ONLY 5% OF WHAT IT CAN BE?!" Shadow laughs and says "Indeed it is quite insane how strong he is now, but don''t worry he wont harm you as long as you don''t provoke him." Rein wipes the sweat off his forehead and says "Alright, that makes me feel a little more at ease knowing that I can avoid conflict with him."


    Shadow then says "I should also warn you that you don''t want to harm anyone he gets close too. He just lost some very close friends, which was what triggered him to awaken his powers in the first place. Now he is mentally unstable and would probably kill anyone who hurts those he thinks of as friends and family now, and from the looks of it he wont show mercy."


    Rein understands this as the new demon lord has probably grown up with humans and would feel as if those friends were family depending on how much time he spent with them. Rein then says "Alright, I understand I will be careful regarding that."  Shadow then says "Alright now that I am done warning you I guess I should get on to the main topic."


    Shadow pauses for a moment as if thinking about something then says "Lord Rein Strevus, as you may know the demon lord that has awoken could pose a threat to many people in this land and others, but do not fear as there is a way to stay safe." Rein leans in close to listen better and Shadow continues


    "All you need to do is grow a strong relationship with the demon lord, he doesn''t wish to harm anyone personally but if he has to then he will. But these feelings wont remain forever, Thus you need to help him as much as you can. Grow close to him become like family to him, this is the only way you can guarantee that you wont be harmed by him."


    Rein figured as much already but now that it has been confirmed by Shadow, he desires to grow closer to the new demon lord even more. Its not just for his own safety at this point, now it is because Rein actually wants to feel like family with the new demon lord. Since Rein doesn''t have any family left it would be nice to have someone to think of as a brother.


    Rein then says "Alright I shall do that then, thank you for the wonderful advice Shadow it was very helpful." Shadow then says "Oh and one more thing before I go, take this it is a key to a room within your castle here, it should be behind your throne. There will be an item on a pedastool in there, after about 1 and a half years you should give that item to the demon lord, but still get him a gift to help."


    Rein is shocked and thinks "How could Shadow have a key to a room within his own castle" He decides to speak up and ask Shadow, Rein says "Shadow, how do you have this key and I never heard about a room being behind my throne, whats going on here?" Shadow chuckles and says "Rein, I knew your father and we built that room together."


    Shadow pauses for a moment and then sighs "He was a good man, in fact he was my best friend, we built that room together on the day you were born. We knew a time like this would come where this urgent matter arises quite some time after you take up the throne, thus we built it back then to make preparations for the day this new demon lord would awaken."


    Shadow then says "Anyway just don''t open that room until it has been 1 and a half years, because the item isn''t needed at the moment and if you give it to him now. Well I don''t want to explain what would happen but lets just say you would regret it till the day you die." Shadow then disappears and Rein looks down at the key and thinks This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it.


    "So he was friends with my father, well that explains why he felt so familiar. He almost felt like an uncle in some ways, ah I do hope I see him again I kind of enjoyed chatting with him a bit." Rein then gets up from his throne and exits the room, he makes his way down the hallway once more but this time stopping at a different door.


    The door has a sign that says "Lord Strevus''s bedroom"  Rein enters his bedroom and flops on the bed, he then lets out a sigh of relief and says, "There is a lot going on, I think I deserve some rest now." Rein yawns and drifts off to sleep. Meanwhile somewhere in a void of darkness Shadow is thinking to himself.


    "Things could get very bad real fast, but as long as Rein does his part everything should go smooth." He takes a deep breath and then thinks "Yet why do I feel like something is going to go wrong, I usually am right about most things but now I have a bad feeling about this. could it be that something huge is going to happen that could potentionally ruin everything?"


    Shadow remembers the times when he was with Trinus,he then thinks out loud and says "Ah, those were good times, I miss him. We were as close as brothers back then, perhaps Brine and Rein will turn out to grow as close as me and Trinus, maybe even closer than us." Meanwhile in the castle of one of the two demon lords that are on good terms with Rein someone is shouting at demons he is saying


    "Alright everyone listen up, a new demon lord has awoken in Satoos and this means that he could be a potential threat, but fear not as long as we can side with him and prove we mean no harm then we should be safe, so we need to decide on a gift that would make the new demon lord know this." The demon lord then says "Anyone got any good ideas?"


    Everyone starts shouting and giving out suggestions but too many people are shouting at once making it hard to understand. The demon lord shouts "ONE AT A TIME PLEASE, RAISE YOUR HANDS AND I WILL CALL ON YOU ONE BY ONE UNTIL I FIND SOMETHING I THINK SEEMS GOOD!" Everyone quiets down and start raising their hands instead of shouting.


    The demon lord picks a random demon and the demon says "Why don''t we give him food,surely it would be hard to come across now that he is a demon lord right?"  The demon lord says "No, he should still be able to obtain food on his own. After all his immense power is hidden right now so he wont emit signs of evil to the humans, which allows him to blend in with them."


    The demon lord picks another demon and the demon says "How about we give him women, surely he would be very grateful to have women." The demon lord says "No, he might not be into women. Though I hope he is because other wise he is going to be one weird demon lord with possibly no next of kin."


    The demon lord picks yet another demon and the demon says "Why don''t we give him the spell that allows him to create demons from the afterlife?" The demon lord shouts "THAT''S IT THAT''S EXACTLY WHAT WE SHOULD GIVE HIM, AFTER ALL EVERY DEMON LORD REQUIRES IT IN ORDER TO GET DEMONS TO SERVE THEM!"


    With that, the demon lord tells the demons to wait to send the spell chant on a letter after a few months, just to let the new demon lord get used to his new life first. Meanwhile in the castle of one of the demon lords on bad terms with Rein, the demon lord is discussing something with an adult male elf who has blonde hair.


    The demon lord says "So what do you suggest the best course of action we take about the new demon lord is?" The elf says "I think we should wait and see what happens for now, Rein might be right and the new demon lord might be stronger than us too right now. So it''s best to wait and watch from afar for now."


    The demon lord says "Hmmm, alright but could you send some people to Satoos just to keep an eye on things from a closer distance. I feel that would make this a lot easier for us since we will be able to keep track of things much easier this way and possibly listen to see if he has any intent of attacking any of us."


    The elf says "It will take a few days for them to arrive there, but yes I could send some people. My lord what should we do if the people we send get taken out by lord Rein Strevus. If the new demon lord happens to be in his territory then we would risk a lot just by trying to follow him in there." The demon lord thinks for a moment and then says


    "Tell them that if they happen to run into any demons under Rein''s command then they are to retreat, and if the new demon lord is in Rein''s territory then they are not to follow him in. We cant risk losing to many people now, we need as much as we can in case the new demon lord or Rein Strevus decide to attack us."


    The elf says "I understand my lord, I will give commands to some people as soon as possible and the mission will be underway."  The demon lord says "Alright, that is all I wished to discuss with you for now, you may take your leave and give the commands." The elf nods at the demon lord and then leaves the room.


    The demon lord then thinks out loud and says "I hope that this new demon lord wont pose too much of a problem for us, I was planning on attacking Rein Strevus soon. What a bad time for a new demon lord to be born, and one stronger than Rein at that, just how bad is my luck today? Well I should probably head off to bed, I am extremely tired after today, I''m sure everyone else is too."


    After that the demon lord goes to his bedroom and drifts off to sleep as well, all the demon lords are paranoid at what may happen regarding this new demon lord that has awoken. Every demon lord has a nightmare tonight, everyone except for Rein Strevus who dreams about the new demon lord being his brother and spending time with him.

 V1 - Ch 11 Heir to the throne pt 3

    Meanwhile back in the present, Morning has just dawned for me once again, It''s another day in this cave for us. I have to say, I''m actually kind of getting used to it being so dark. Although I still don''t like the cave itself because it is too small. At first I thought it was pretty big, but now that I think about it, it actually has a lot of downsides.


    We don''t have much privacy, there isn''t much safety here in terms of home security. For example, people can just look inside and see all the stuff we have if they wanted too, or watch Lucy change clothes if they wanted to. That makes me uncomfortable, I''m going to have to find someway to get a better home soon.


    I get up off the rock I''m sitting on after I''m done thinking about all of this, I then say "Alright I''m going to go train a bit myself, I will be back sooner than I was yesterday so don''t worry." Lucy and Will are already awake, so I told them that because I don''t want them to worry about me too much. Not telling them why I''m leaving could make them worry if I don''t come back soon.


    So it''s better to be safe than sorry, Lucy says "Okay, be careful out there." I respond "Don''t worry, I''m pretty strong after all." I give a small wave to Will and then leave the cave. I decided last night after I got back to the cave when I was done helping the wolves, that I would start to train my swordsmanship and agility a bit.


    I need to be able to run fast and dodge things after all, I may end up fighting someone who can use magic eventually. After five minutes I decide I''m far enough away from the cave and get out a sword that will gave me. My father was an adventurer back in his old days and was quite skilled with swords, so he taught me how to train in swordsmanship.


    I never really utilized what he taught me, but it seems like now is the time to do that. I picture a enemy in front of me, and start to train, with every step of the way I feel as if I''m getting stronger. After a while I put the sword away and climb up a tree. It''s time to train my agility, so I stretch my boney arms, and jump from tree to tree.


    Sometimes I swing from the bottom of the branch like a monkey, and others I just land on the branch. After about an hour of swapping between training with the sword and my agility I decide to go back to the cave. As I am walking back to the cave I begin to think about the luxury of having my own home would be like, I ended up thinking out loud and say.


    "Ah, it would be wonderful to have my own home with a training room and other basic needs for me and Lucy."I pause for a moment and then say "Ah, and maybe some extra empty rooms in case I ever need them, after all who knows what may happen in the future." I then sigh somehow and say "But I have nowhere near enough money, nor the skill to build a home, I guess all I can do is dream."


    I shrug and continue walking back in silence, I hear a rustle in some bushes near me on the way back to the cave. But I ignore it thinking it may just be some hunters or an animal. Meanwhile somewhere in the bushes, The demon thinks to himself "Ah, it seems I have already found the info that my lord requested."


    He pauses for a moment then thinks "Whelp, I guess it''s time to head back to the castle then and tell my lord what I have discovered." A few hours later in the castle of Rein Strevus, the demon sent to gather info on the new demon lord is kneeling before Rein. Rein speaks up and says "Are you sure this is what you heard him say?"


    The demon then says "Yes my lord, it seems he also cares about the young human girl he has with him quite a bit." Rein strokes his chin and then says "I see, alright then we shall find some land for him to own and also build him a home in that land." He pauses for a moment then says "Do you know what kind of home he would like?"


    The demon says "He seems to want it to be similar to a human''s home in terms of flooring and stuff, but it also appears he may like to have some rooms that are meant to be dark in the home." Rein perks up and says "Oh? Then in that case we shall make his bedroom dark, and the rest of the home well lit, how about that?"


    The demon then says "Very good idea my lord." Rein then says "For now send some people to meet with him and inform him of this, give me a moment to write a letter I want you to deliver to him." A few minutes later Rein is seen sealing a letter and giving it to the demon, Rein then says "You may go now, be sure to leave a good impression because we don''t want him to get the wrong idea from us."Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author.


    The demon says "Yes my lord." The demon then leaves the throne room and Rein let''s out a sigh and says "A human girl huh, I guess everyone has something they want to protect." I wonder what this new demon lord is like, I can''t wait for the day I meet him myself, well I guess I just got to wait and find out.


    Meanwhile in the castle of one of the demon lords on bad terms with Rein, The demon lord is shouting"WHAT, HE IS ALREADY WITHIN REIN''S LAND AND BEING GUARDED?!" The male elf is sitting across from him, now shaking in fear. The elf says in a fearful voice "Y-Yes my lord that is correct."


    He pauses then continues "We almost got spotted by the guard who was a high level demon that we wouldn''t be able to defeat so we retreated." The demon lord says calmly "What did you just say you did after you almost got spotted?" The elf takes a deep breath and says quietly "W-We retreated." The demon lord says still calm "I''m sorry could you speak up I didn''t quite hear you."


    The elf gulps and takes another deep breath before saying quite louder as if shouting "WE RETREATED MY LORD!" The demon lord sighs and says "That''s what I thought you said." He pauses for a moment and then says "Just to make sure, how many guards were there?" The elf says "O-Only one my lord, But he seemed to be really st-"


    The demon lord shouts at the top of his lungs "SILENCE!" The elf immediately shuts up and scoots his chair slightly further away from the demon lord. The demon lord then says "YOU FOOL, YOU RETREATED, BECAUSE YOU SAW ONE GUARD?!" The demon lord pauses for a minute and then sighs and says,


    "Well if he is being guarded then he is probably already an ally of Rein, this could potentially pose a huge threat." The demon lord sighs again and says "I will give you a chance to make up for this mistake, bring me the new demon lord." The elf says "B-But my lord there''s no guarantee he will come willingly and may fight back, and not to mention that guard is really strong as well."


    The demon lord says in a more serious voice "Then take my three strongest demons with you, they should be able to handle the situation." The elf says "Yes my lord, I shall do that right away." The demon lord says "Okay, now begone from my sight." The elf the gets up from the chair and hurries out of the room. Meanwhile back in the cave, I say "Alright, are you guys ready to head into town?"


    Will and Lucy both nod and say "Yeah." We then begin walking to town, but after about two minutes on the road we are greeted by the wolf leader and his brother that I made into demi-humans yesterday. The brother washed off the blood from his hands so humans don''t get the wrong idea and think he killed someone.


    The wolf leader''s name is Falmer and the brother is Sater. Falmer speaks up "Hey Brine, are you going into town?" I respond "Yeah, we needed to get some things." Will says "Brine, who are these guys?" I say "Oh yeah, this is Falmer and Sater, I met them yesterday while I was exploring and we became friends."


    Will says "Alright, its nice to meet you both." Lucy walks up to Sater and says "Your so fluffy and cute!" Sater starts to say something "W-What I am not cu-" Before he could finish Lucy starts to fluff his tail and he falls over on his back. Falmer is trying to hold in his laughter as he watches his brother being played with like a little puppy.


    Lucy is now petting Sater''s head, but then I say "Alright Lucy that''s enough of that, we can''t waste too much time here." Lucy says "Aw, okay I''ll stop now." she then stops playing with Sater. Sater gets up and pats Lucy on the head then smiles and says "Your an energetic little one aren''t ya." Lucy gives him a big smile and then all four of us begin walking to the town together.


    On our way there I hear a rustling in a bush nearby, and as I''m about to just think of it as an wild animal Falmer whispers something to me "Someone is watching us from the bushes over there." I nod to him and then shout "WHOEVER IS HIDING IN THE BUSHES WE KNOW YOUR THERE, JUST COME OUT WE WON''T HARM YOU!"


    Once that is said a man in a cloak comes out from the bushes and says "Hello sir, I have been ordered by my lord to deliver this letter to you, I''m sorry for worrying you if I did at all by hiding in the bushes suspiciously." The man gives me an envelope and then says "A few people will come to meet you soon to inform you of something, but for now I bid you farewell."


    The man then leaves quickly, I then decide to look down at the envelope and read what it says on the front "Please wait to open this until my servants arrive to meet you." I decide to do as the letter says because who knows what could happen. I have seen plenty of weird stuff so far so I wouldn''t be surprised if the letter tried to kill me if I open it too early.


    I put the envelope in one of my pockets and then say "Well that was an odd encounter." Will says "Why didn''t you open it?" I respond to him "It says not to open it until the other people come to see me, it might be dangerous to open it before they arrive for all we know." Will responds "Ah, okay it''s a smart choice not to open that."


    He pauses for a moment then continues "I have heard that there have been some things that do kill someone if they do something too early or too late." I nod my head and we all resume walking to town once more. Falmer and Sater stop all of a sudden after three minutes of walking and Sater says "I smell fire."


    I say "Huh, what do you mean?" Lucy speaks up and shouts "LOOK, THERES SMOKE COMING FROM THE TOWN!" We all are shocked I shout "LETS HURRY OVER THERE AND SEE WHAT''S GOING ON!"  We all start to run towards the town and after about a minute we arrive in front of the town, and the entire town is engulfed in flames...

 V1 - Ch 12 Heir to the throne pt 4

    We are all standing there dumbfounded for a few seconds before I speak up shouting to give everyone orders "ALRIGHT, WE NEED TO SAVE AS MUCH PEOPLE AS WE CAN AND TRY TO PUT OUT THIS FIRE!" I pause for a moment then continue "ME AND WILL ARE GOING TO TRY TO HELP THE VILLAGERS ON THE OTHER SIDE OF THE VILLAGE AND THEN PUT OUT THE FIRE!"


    I pause again this time taking a deep breath and then continuing "LUCY, FALMER, AND SATER YOU GUYS HELP THIS SIDE OF THE VILLAGE, DOES EVERYONE AGREE WITH THIS PLAN?!" Everyone nods and says "YEAH!" I then say "ALRIGHT LETS GO THEN!" Once that is said, Me and Will run to the other side of the village while the other three run to aid the villagers on the side we started at.


    There are screams coming from both sides of the village, and as we were getting closer to where we were going they got louder and louder. After about two minutes we arrive at the side of the village we said we would help. Me and Will split off and he runs to one section while I run to the other. Gradually, over time we succeed in saving the villagers.


    Some of them have major burns but nothing fatal, so in the end everyone is alive and that''s what is most important right now. We also managed to put out the fires, but alas we couldn''t save everything and most of the buildings were already completely demolished. We then went back to the other side of the village to meet up with the other three.


    Once we meet up with them Falmer says "How did everything go on your side?" I respond "We managed to put out the fires and save all of the villagers but, most of the buildings were destroyed." Sater says "Yeah that''s exactly what happened on this side as well, we managed to save everyone and put out the fires but most of the buildings were already burnt practically to the ground."


    Will rubs his head and says "What could have caused a fire this big, it almost feels like it may have been started intentionally?" I respond "Yeah, it does seem odd that a fire like this could have spread without anyone realizing until it was too late, after all it covered the entire village." Sater''s eyes widen in fear and he suddenly yells out "SHIT, EVERYONE GET DOWN!"


    With that we all drop to the ground as quick as we can and just barely avoid what seems to be a fire ball that would have flown right into us if Sater didn''t warn us in time. The fire ball lands into the dirt road just outside the village and explodes on impact, leaving a huge fire on the road. The fire dies down quickly since it didn''t have anything to spread to because there wasn''t much grass.


    We all are in shock and staring at the ash left in the road, then a voice speaks up "Tch, I guess missed them." We all turn around and see that four people were standing behind us. Three of the people have horns on their forheads while one has blade like ears, three demons and an elf I can already tell that this might not end well.


    The elf is shaking in fear and says "W-What are you doing, our lord said to take him he didn''t tell us to kill him." The first demon says "Well he didn''t say we couldn''t kill anybody with him right?" The elf sighs and then says "No, he didn''t say anything like that." The first demon grins and then says "Well then I guess now that we have lured him out we just got to take him back with us right."


    The first demon turns to look at me and then says "You there, your coming with us to our lord''s castle rather you like it or not, now move out of the way so I can kill those people and we will be on our way." Will, Lucy, Falmer, and Sater are all shaking in fear and sweating bullets. I speak up "Who are you guys and what do you want with me?"


    The first demon responds "Our lord has asked us to take you back to his castle no matter what, even if we have to do it by force, I am going to kill the four behind you for fun and so they can''t follow us." Lucy starts crying and screams out in fear "NO, I DONT WANT TO DIE BRINE, PLEASE PROTECT ME!" The moment that I saw Lucy crying and heard what the first demon said, I got furious.


    I shout "WHAT DID YOU SAY, I WONT LET YOU LAY A FINGER ON THEM AND I''M NOT COMING WITH YOU SO YOU MAY AS WELL LEAVE NOW!" The first demon laughs and then shouts "THEN IN THAT CASE I SHALL KILL THEM AND THIS ENTIRE VILLAGE RIGHT IN FRONT OF YOU AND THEN TAKE YOU BY FORCE!"


    The first demon then turns around and points an open hand toward the village. A few seconds later a giant fire ball many times bigger than the one that was shot at us forms in front of his open hand. I instantly know that it could wipe out the entire village. It was at this moment, yes at the very second that I saw the fire ball form, that it happened.If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it.


    I SNAPPED, THERE IS NO WAY FOR ME TO DESCRIBE MY FURY TOWARDS THEM! A BLACK FLAME IGNITED IN MY EYE SOCKETS AND BURNED AWAY MY HOOD, MY BONEY JAW WAS VISIBLY SHAKING AND RATTLING FROM MY GRINDING TEETH, AND MY BONE HANDS WERE CLENCHED EXTREAMELY TIGHTLY AND SHAKING IMENSLY!


    I INSTANTLY RUSH TOWARDS THE FIRST DEMON AND TRY SLASH HIM WITH THE SWORD WILL GOT ME, BUT IT BREAKS ON IMPACT DUE TO IT NOT BEING MEANT FOR ACTUAL COMBAT. LUCKILY IT DISTRACTED THE FIRST DEMON AND HE STOPED CASTING THE SPELL TO TURN TOWARD ME AND LAUGH.


    The first demon says "Ha, you expected a flimsy training sword like that to wound me, how humerous." THIS MAKES ME MORE ANGRY AND I START TO SCREAM THE CHANT FOR MY SHADOW GRASP SPELL "SHADOW GRASP AWAKEN! ENGULF THE SOULS OF THY ENEMIES IN ETERNAL DARKNESS! FEAST ON THEIR LIVES AND FORSAKE THEIR BODIES TO THE VOID!!"


    THE PORTAL THEN FORMS AND THE GIANT PURPLE MIST HAND EMERGES FROM IT AND GRABS THE FIRST DEMON! The first demon shouts out "WHAT THE HELL IS THIS THING!?" THE HAND STARTS SLOWLY DRAGGING THE FIRST DEMON TOWARD THE PORTAL, IT''S AS IF IT''S HAVING A BIT OF TROUBLE DRAGGING HIM!


    The first demon begins to panic and shouts to the other demons "SHIT SHIT SHIT, QUICK GET THIS THING OFF OF ME ITS GOING TO PULL ME INTO THAT PORTAL!" THE OTHER TWO DEMONS PULL OUT THEIR SWORDS AND SLASH AT THE HAND, THE HAND THEN LOSES GRASP ON THE FIRST DEMON AND TURNS TOWARDS ME.


    THE HAND SHAKES LEFT AND RIGHT SLOWLY AS IF IT''S SOMEONE SAYING NO WITH THEIR HEAD, AND THEN IT GOES BACK INTO THE PORTAL. The first demon is clutching his chest and lets out a sigh of relief before saying "Thanks, who knows where that portal could have led or what would have happened to me once I got pulled in."


    ALL THREE OF THE DEMONS TURN TOWARD ME AND THEN LOOK AT EACH OTHER AND NOD. THEY THEN ALL THREE RUSH AT ME, SO I CAST SHADOW BULLET BUT I ONLY MANAGE TO WOUND THEM SLIGHTLY BEFORE THE CONTINUED TO COME AT ME! I THINK ABOUT USING SHADOW ENGULFMENT BUT DECIDE THAT THEY WOULD PROBABLY FIND AWAY TO AVOID IT TOO.


    THEN, UNFORTUNALY FOR THEM SOMETHING POPS UP IN MY MIND. THE CHANT FOR YET ANOTHER NEW SPELL HAS APPEARED IN MY MIND! I DESPERATELY SCREAM THE CHANT "SHADOW CURRUPTION AWAKEN! CHANGE THE VERY BEING OF ONE OF THY ENEMIES AND BEND THEM TO MY WILL! MAKE THEM LOSE THEIR PAST SENSE OF SELF AND FALL INTO THE PALM OF MY HAND!"


    ONCE I AM FINISHED WITH THE CHANT A PORTAL OPENS ONCE AGAIN ON THE GROUND. HOWEVER, THIS TIME A DIFFERENT GIANT HAND EMERGES FROM THE PORTAL. THIS GIANT HAND IS MADE OF A BLACK MIST AND HAS NO SHARP CLAWS LIKE THE OTHER ONE DID. THE HAND GRABS THE SECOND DEMON THAT WAS RUNNING TOWARDS ME CLUTCHING ONTO HIM TIGHTLY.


    THE HAND THEN STARTS TO SQUEEZE THE SECOND DEMON! THE SECOND DEMON SCREAMS OUT IN PAIN "AHHHHH DEMONIC SHIT, NO NO NO, IT HURTS SO FUCKING MUCH, IT HURRRRTS!" AFTER A FEW SECONDS THE GIANT HAND PUTS THE SECOND DEMON DOWN AND DISAPPEARS BACK INTO THE PORTAL!


    The other two demons rush up to the second demon and ask him if he is alright, but then they back away after something starts to happen to the second demon. THE SECOND DEMON''S BODY BEGINS TO GET COVERED IN A BLACK MIST AND A FEW SECONDS LATER AFTER THE MIST COMPLETELY COVERS THE SECOND DEMON THE MIST DISPERSES AND DISSAPEARS.


    ONCE THE MIST IS GONE THE SECOND DEMON IS REVEALED, HIS SKIN IS NOW PURE BLACK, HE HAS DEEP PURPLE EYES, AND HE LOOKS PISSED. I KNOW WHAT THE SPELL DOES BASED ON THE CHANT, SO ONCE I SEE THE SECOND DEMON LIKE THIS I SHOUT AT HIM "KILL THOSE TWO DEMONS, AND DON''T SHOW ANY MERCY!"


    THE SECOND DEMON GRINS AT ME AND NODS HIS HEAD BEFORE SAYING IN A GHOULISH VOICE "As you wish master, I shall dispose of these issues immedietly as you have commanded." THEN THE OTHER TWO DEMONS BACK UP AND GET READY TO FIGHT, THE SECOND DEMON RUSHES AT THEM BOTH AND REACHES OUT HIS HANDS.


    A BLACK MIST THEN COVERS THE SECOND DEMONS HANDS AND HE PUSHES THEM FORWARD TOWARD THE OTHER TWO DEMON''S CHESTS. THEN THE SECOND DEMON''S HANDS PEIRCE THROUGH THEIR CHESTS AND OUT THEIR BACKS! THEY BOTH COUGH UP BLOOD AND FALL BACKWARDS.


    THEY ARE STILL AFTER THEY HIT THE GROUND SO THE SECOND DEMON PULLS HIS HANDS OUT OF THEIR CHESTS AND THEN STABS INTO THEIR CHESTS AGAIN THIS TIME PEIRCING RIGHT THROUGH THE HEARTS OF THE OTHER TWO DEMONS. THIS ATTACK KILLS THEM INSTANTLY AND THE SECOND DEMON GETS UP AND TURNS BACK AROUND TO LOOK AT ME.


    The second demon then says "What would you like me to do next master?" I am now a bit calmer knowing that the demons are now dead. I respond to him "That is all I needed from you, thank you for the help." The second demon then says "As you wish master, I bid you farewell." After the second demon says that, he turns into black mist and dissapears as if he was never there.


    I then look at the elf and say "Now then, would you mind explaining why you guys came here and pissed me off?" The elfs face becomes pale with fear and then he says "I-I am truly sorry, it wasn''t my intention to anger you, but this was all my lords order, he said to bring you to him and to use force if we have to."


    I then say "Oh, and was it you guys who set this village on fire almost killing the villagers?" The elf responds "Y-Yes, but it wasnt my idea, in fact I was against it but those three said that it was the best way to lure you out and they went and set the village on fire." I shake my boney fist with slight anger, "Alright, Take me to this lord of yours, I''m going to have a loooong nice chat with him."


    I then turn toward my four freinds and say "I''ll be back after I''m done with the man who ordered this, Lucy please explain to Will why I''m a skeleton."

 V1 - Ch 13 Heir to the throne pt 5, Final (End of Volume 1)

    After about two hours of walking we end up at a castle in the country of elves. The elf speaks up "H-Here we are, allow me to take you to the discussion room." I respond "Alright, lead the way." After walking through a few hallways we arrive at a room with a sign next to it that says "Discussion room" There are also two guards standing on each side of the doors.


    The elf says "H-Here we are, my lord should be in this room waiting for you." The elf looks at me and sees that I am quite a bit pissed, and just barely controlling my anger. His face goes pale and then he looks at the guards and says "I-I recommend you back away from this room a bit, because it may get dangerous after he walks in there."


    The elf pauses for a moment and then says "T-Trust me, you don''t want to be standing near those doors once he enters that room, this guy managed to take out the three strongest demon fighters under our lord!" The faces of the two guards turn pale with fear and they back away from the entrance to the room a bit.


    I then say "Thank you for bringing me here." The elf nods and then opens the doors for me to enter the room. After I enter the room the elf closes the doors behind me and backs away quickly. In the room I just entered is a large dark wood table with a man sitting at the other side of it. The man is wearing a yellow crown and an orange robe that has symbols of lightning bolts on it.


    He also has pointed ears and two dark yellow horns on his forehead. He can''t see my face because I asked the elf to give me a new hood to replace the one that burned up due to my fight with the three demons. The man sitting at the table says "Ah, welcome go ahead and sit down I wish to discuss some things with you."


    I am managing to keep my cool and I sit down as he told me to. The man then says "Hello, I am the demon lord Zemor Aret, I have called you here for a very important reason." I say with a slightly angry tone "What exactly is that reason, depending on your answer you may get yourself hurt." He laughs and then says


    "As if you could harm me, you were brought here by my three strongest demons were you not, then that is proof that you couldn''t even harm them, and if you couldn''t harm them you don''t stand a chance against me." I smile and decide to go along with his false thought for a bit "Indeed I guess you''re correct, anyway please explain why you have brought me here."


    He then says "Alright, the reason you are here is because I would like to request your help." I am slightly interested once he says this so I respond with "Oh, and what exactly do you want me to help you with?" He gets a grin on his face and then says "I would like your help in destroying the humans in the land of Satoos."


    I say to him just to be sure I heard him right "I''m sorry could you repeat that, I want to make sure that I heard you correctly, did you just say, destroy the humans in the land of Satoos?" He responds "Indeed that is what I said, don''t worry you didn''t hear me wrong." I clentch my boney fists under the table and then say "And why exactly do you want to do this?"


    This guy is digging his own grave, he then says "I want to make my enemy suffer, my enemy is the demon lord Rein Strevus, he likes humans and seeing them get destroyed will surely make him suffer greatly." ANNNNND THERE IT IS, KILLING EVERY HUMAN IN A COuNTRY JUST TO MAKE HIS RIVAL SUFFER, THIS IS JUST PURE STUPIDITY AND EVIL.


    AT THIS MOMMENT MY EYE SOCKETS START TO BURN WITH A BLACK FLAME ONCE AGAIN AND MY NEW HOOD BURNS AWAY, EVERY ONE OF MY BONES ARE RATTLING WITH ANGER, I THEN SAY SLIGHTLY QUEITLY, "For, such a reason..." ZEMOR THEN STANDS UP, HIS FACE NOW SLIGHTLY PALE AND SAYS "W-WAIT WHY DO YOU LOOK LIKE THAT!?"


    I DON''T ANSWER HIM I JUST SCREAM OUT "FOR SUCH A REASON YOU WOULD KILL AN ENTIRE COUNTRY OF HUMANS OFF!?" I THEN STAND UP, AND THROW MYSELF ACROSS THE TABLE, LANDING A PUNCH STRAIGHT IN HIS CHEST STRONG ENOUGH TO SEND HIM FLYING TOWARD THE WALL BEHIND HIM!


    HE ENDS UP SLAMING AGAINST THE WALL AND COUGHING OUT A LITTLE BIT OF BLOOD ON IMPACT. IT SEEMS IT DIDN''T HURT HIM TOO MUCH THOUGH, ONLY A BIT SINCE HE IS STILL STANDING AND WIPES AWAY THE BLOOD ON HIS MOUTH. HE THEN SHOUTS "Y-YOU DARE TO HIT ME, EVEN THOUGH YOU KNOW I''M STRONGER THAN THE THREE DEMONS WHO BROUGHT YOU?!"


    I LAUGH AND SAY "HA, THOSE THREE DEMONS, THEY WERN''T THE ONES WHO BROUGHT ME HERE, THEY ARE ALREADY DEAD BECAUSE THEY THREATENED TO KILL MY FREINDS AND AN ENTIRE VILLAGE, THAT ELF THAT YOU SENT WITH THEM IS THE ONE WHO BROUGHT ME HERE!" ZEMOR''S FACE IS NOW MORE PALE THAN BEFORE AND WITH A GREAT AMOUNT OF FEAR SHOWN ON IT.Reading on this site? This novel is published elsewhere. Support the author by seeking out the original.


    HE THEN SAYS "W-WHAT, BUT THOSE WERE THE STRONGEST DEMONS I HAD, HOW COULD THIS BE!?" I THEN SAY "IF YOU WANT TO LIVE THEN I SUGGEST NOT ATTACKING THE HUMANS IN SATOOS AT ALL, YOU GOT THAT!" HE RESPONDS SHAKING IN FEAR "I-I SHALL NOT STOP, YOU MAY HAVE BEEN ABLE TO BEAT THOSE THREE DEMONS BUT THAT DOESN''T MEAN YOU CAN BEAT ME!"


    ZEMOR TRYS TO CAST A LIGHTING SPELL TO ATTACK ME BUT I SEE WHAT HE IS DOING AND RUSH AT HIM, I GRAB HIM BY HIS NECK AND THROW HIM AS HARD AS I CAN THROUGH THE DOORS OF THE DISCUSSION ROOM! THE DOORS BREAK ON IMPACT AND HE ALSO FLYS THROUGH THE WALL OF ANOTHER ROOM IN THE HALL AND LANDS ON THE FLOOR NEXT TO A BED!


    I WALK OUT OF THE DISCUSSION ROOM AND NOTICE THAT THE TWO GUARDS AND THE ELF ARE STARING AT ME WITH THEIR JAWS DROPPED AS IF THEY JUST SAW SOMEONE DO SOMETHING THAT NO MAN COULD EVER DO, NOR DARE TO EVEN TRY TO DO. I look at them casually while calming my voice a bit and ask "Are you guys okay?" They nod at me without saying a word.


    I then turn to look at the now extreamly injured demon lord and say "Alright, now where was I, oh yeah thats right I was kicking Zemor''s ass." I walk through the hole in the wall and stand infront of the downed demon lord who is somehow still conscious, I then say "NOW, WOULD YOU LIKE TO KEEP TESTING ME YOU SON OF A BITCH, I WILL KILL YOU IF I HAVE TO!"


    He then shouts in a very fearful voice "N-NO, I WON''T HARM THE HUMANS OF SATOOS I SWEAR JUST PLEASE DON''T KILL ME, I SHALL LEAVE YOU AND THE HUMANS ALONE!" I calm down a bit and smile before saying "Good, now there is also something I wish to for you to do." I pause for a moment and then say,


    "I would like you to help me if I ever come to you with a request or something that I need your assistance with, can you do that for me?" He responds with a ghoulish voice as if he is about to lose conciousness, "Y-Yes I can do that, I shall do whatever you ask of me, I wouldn''t dare to defy you after the strength you just displayed."


    After he answers me I nod my head and then say "Alright, then I shall take my leave now, goodbye Zemor Aret." I then say goodbye to the elf and the two guards before leaving the castle to head back to the cave in Satoos. It''s another two hour walk back and by the time I get back to the cave I see Will and Lucy waiting at the entrance for me along with two other people in cloaks.


    I walk up to them and say "Hey guys I''m back from my freindly chat with that guy if you know what I mean, who are these two people?" Before Lucy or Will could speak one of the two cloaked people says "Hello, we have been ordered my our lord to inform you of a gift that he has prepared for you to show that he would like to be your ally."


    I respond "Ah your the people that the man in the cloak told me about, so what is this so called gift you wanted to inform me about?" The other cloaked person says "Open the envelope you were given and we shall show you." I respond "Hm, alright then I shall trust you since you seem nice unlike the other people that I just recently encountered."


    I then take out the envelope that I was given to me earlyer and open it, as soon as I open it a blinding bright red light flashes out from it and makes my vision fade for a few seconds. After a few more seconds my vision returns and we are all now in an open field surrounded by forest standing in front of a small manor. I shout out in suprise "HOLY SHIT, WHAT JUST HAPPENED?!"


    One of the two cloaked people say "Read the paper in the envelope you just opened." I look down at my hands and notice the envelope is still open and has a paper folded up in it. I take out the paper and unfold it and read what it says outloud to make sure that Lucy and Will hear what it is as well since it is probably very important.


    "This contract writen by The Demon Lord Rein Strevus, hereby gives the rights to a manor built just for the new demon lord that has been awakened and the land surrounding it including the forest but nothing beyond that, this contract is permanate and gives the new demon lord right to do whatever he wishes with the land, the new demon lord is to sign here to claim these things _________________"


    We all yell out at once "NEW DEMON LORD!?" After a minute I cough and say to the two people in cloaks "Ahem, W-What does it mean by new demon lord?" One of the two people in cloaks say "It''s exactly as it sounds, our lord sensed that you have awoken to the powers of a demon lord and have sent us to give you this as an gift hoping to ally with you since you may be stronger than him."


    Me, Lucy and Will are all stunned and look at each other, I then say to them "Well, I guess that explains why I''m so powerful, should we accept this place, after all it seems to be better than living in a cave." They both laugh a bit and then Will says "Heh, I knew there was something odd about ya, but hey even if your a demon lord I know that you''re not a bad person, I say you should accept it."


    Lucy says "Brine, I think you should accept it because I don''t want to have to sleep on a hard rock floor anymore, I don''t care if you''re a demon lord, I still want to stay with you." I laugh and turn to the two cloaked people and then say "Whelp, I guess that settles it, do one of you have a pen that I can use?" One of the two cloaked people hand me a pen and I sign the contract and then give it to them.


    The two cloaked people then open the doors to the manor and we all walk inside. We are greeted with a couple people infront of us who speak up as soon as we enter the manor "Welcome home my lord!"

 Volume Two "Kurai" - Ch 1 A manor for the new demon lord

    The two cloaked people then open the doors to the manor and we all walk inside. We are greeted with a couple people in front of us who speak up as soon as we enter the manor "Welcome home my lord!" The room we entered is pretty big with some stairs in the middle of the room that lead to a second floor as well as a hallway to the left and a door directly at the top of the stair case.


    I also notice two hallways on this floor as well, one to the left and one to the right. The people who greeted us are standing in front of us side by side. One is a man with light orange hair and a goatee wearing what seems to be some basic armor with short sleeves, the other is a man who has light green hair and a pair of glasses and he is wearing a suit with a grey tie.


    One of the cloaked people nod at the man with orange hair and he nods back, then the cloaked person who nodded said "Well, we shall take our leave now, enjoy your new home." After the cloaked person said that, they both leave the manor and close the doors behind them. The man with green hair then says "Hello my lord, allow us to introduce ourselves."


    The man with orange hair speaks first "I am Kevik Masel, I am a great spear-man and have a lot of strength and combat experience, I will protect you with my spear my lord." I nod and say "Nice to meet you, I will count on you to protect these two as well since they aren''t as strong as us and I hold them dear to me since we are close."


    He responds with a smile and a thumbs up "Very well my lord, I will do my best to protect them as well when they need it." I nod and then say "Thank you." After that, the man with green hair speaks "I am Lano Conver, I am a great merchant and I''m also great at finance, I will manage and keep track of things related to money my lord."


    I nod my head and smile and then say "Ah, nice to meet you, I am glad to have you here, we will definitely need your help quite a bit, we don''t have much money right now so we have to find a stable source of income, though I have an idea in mind, there is no guarantee it will work so I will ask you for advice later."


    He says "Alright, I will think of some suggestions later just in case it doesn''t work, thank you for telling me ahead of time my lord." I respond "No need to thank me for that, I just thought you should know since its going to be a problem if we don''t find a way to make money eventually." He then says "Now then, let us start to show you all around so you know where everything is."


    Lano pushes his glasses up stylishly with two fingers and then says "Alright we shall show you around this floor first, follow us." He nods at Kevik and then they walk to the left hall way and me, Lucy, and Will follow close behind them. After a minute we arrive at the first door in the hall that has a sign next to it saying (demon lord communication crystal)


    Lano then says "Here you can contact any of the 5 demon lords that you wish to talk with, though there isn''t a guaranteed chance that they will answer you because they can just ignore it, however Rein Strevus told us to say to you that he would answer anytime he is called by you, lets move on to the next room."


    We all nod and then walk for another minute before coming across another door, Lano then says "This is the kitchen, we don''t have a chef yet because Rein Strevus felt that you might want to find one yourself that would cook things that fit your tastes best, so for now we will have to cook ourselves until we find a chef." This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    I fake laugh a little and then say, "Well, I don''t have a sense of taste but I''m sure these two would like to have some good food so we will look for a chef eventually, lets head to the next room now." After yet another minute we arrive at some double doors with a sign next to them saying (training room) Kevik speaks up and says


    "This is the training room, here you can practice whatever you want rather it be swordsmanship or magic, the room has a spell on it so that it can withstand even extremely strong magic without being destroyed, and the dummies in there magically rebuild themselves a few minutes after being destroyed."


    If I had eyes and happiness the eyes would be wide with joy because I got just what I needed, it seems Rein might have had someone eavesdropping on me to see what I wanted, I will have to thank him eventually. Kevik is visibly smiling and appears to be full of joy, it seems he wanted something like this just as much as I did.


    Lano coughs and then says "Alright, lets move on to the next room." After again another minute we come across another set of double doors, these ones without a sign them. Lano then says "This room is the treasury room, it is for storing valuables and large amounts of money you want to stay safe and secure, it has a magic spell on it that prevents anyone with intention of stealing from entering."


    The rest of the rooms we come across down stairs are a few guest rooms and some bedrooms for other servants like Kevik and Lano that I may gain, there is also a back door leading into a beautiful garden outside with a bunch of flowers and stuff. There was also a bathing room in the hall that can be used by anyone, rather they be male or female or other humanoids with no gender.


    We arrived back at the entrance to the manor because it turns out that the hall ways were actually connected and looped around to the entrance. Lano says "Alright Kevik you can go rest now, I shall show them around upstairs since it isn''t too big." Kevik then nods and walks toward the direction of the hallway where his bedroom is.


    Lano then says "Alright now follow me and I shall show you around real quick since it''s getting late." We then walk upstairs and stop at the door at the top of the stairs. Lano then says "This is your throne room, if you ever have guests over for important business you need to discuss, or you just want to be in silence to think, you can come in this room and relax on your throne."


    Lano pauses for a moment before saying "Alright now lets move on to the hallway and show you to your bedrooms and a few other things as well." We all nod and then begin to walk down the hall way, it takes only a few seconds for us to reach the first door which has a sign next to it that says (strategy room)


    Lano then says "This room is just in case you need to plan strategies for huge dire situations such as wars and what not, anyway lets move on to the next room." The rest of the hallway has a few empty bedrooms and it also had two specific bedrooms decorated and furnished just for Lucy and Will. They both went into their rooms once we arrived at them and go to bed because they were tired.


    The last room in the hall way is at the end of the hall and has a pair of double doors with a sign next to them saying (Lord Dark''s bedroom) Lano then says "This is your bedroom my lord, here you can relax and rest whenever you want, it is darkened to fit your ideal thought of how your bedroom should be based on how comfortable you looked in the darkness of that cave."


    I smile and say "Thank you for showing me around, you may go now, I''m going to lay down for a bit since I can''t sleep, I would like to rest though anyway." Lano nods and then pushes up his glasses stylishly again before saying "As you wish my lord, I shall take my leave now." He then walks away and I walk into my room.


    I then lay down carefully on my huge new bed, If I flopped on it too hard I might either break it or go flying through it. I then somehow let out a huge sigh and say "It''s been a long day, I just want to lay down now and think over all that has happened, I will talk to Lano about my idea for gaining money later, for now, it''s time to rest."

 V2 - Ch 2 An odd source of income

    After I am done processing everything that has happened to me thus far,which took about 10 minutes, I decide to go downstairs and discuss my idea to start making money and also to hear any suggestions he may have that could be helpful as well. Once I arrive down stairs I am greeted by Lano at the bottom and then I say


    "Alright, now I think it''s time we talk about how we are going to get money." Lano nods and says "Very well my lord, please tell me what your plan is first before I give my suggestions." I nod and then respond "Then, allow me to explain my idea." I cough somehow and then begin to explain my plan that I have thought of.


    "Put simply, we shall gain the money from monsters." Lano''s eyes widen a bit and then he pushes up his glasses stylishly before saying "Oh, that sounds interesting, how will you do that?" I continue my explanation once Lano finishes his sentence "I have the ability to communicate with monsters, which means, I can negotiate deals with monsters living on our land and get them to pay small taxes."


    I pause for a moment before continuing "Also, since I can communicate with them I will also be able to befriend them and MAKE them submit to us if they aren''t willing to even give us a chance, I am interested in learning some skills of monsters as well so I might gain some in the process, so it would basically be a double win for us."


    I remembered what the note on that blank book in the dungeon said, it seems like I am already getting closer and closer to being able to do create new spells supposedly, as I only need 4 skills, though they have the be from different monsters, that might not be a big issue. Lano speaks up and says "Alright my lord, by the way I have been meaning to ask you something for a while now."


    I say "Alright, what is it you wanted to ask me?" He then gives me an Ahem and pushes up his glasses stylishly before saying "Why do you look like that, you are very intelligent and don''t seem to act how a skeleton would, plus since you are a natural demon lord, that means you should have been looking exactly like a human?"


    I can see why he is a bit confused and curious as to why I look like this, and skeletons are never able to be this intelligent for some reason so that probably arouse some curiosity as well. I respond "Ah, sadly not even I know the entire reason as to why I look like this although I do remember when it happened and what may have caused it."


    I pause for a moment before continuing "You see, I actually did look like a human, but one day when I was out adventuring with my three friends, I saw them die brutally right before my eyes, and at that moment I cried a shit ton and screamed as loud as I could, then my emotions began to fade leaving only that extreme sorrow and a pain in my heart."


    I pause yet again before continuing my explanation "I then looked down and noticed that my skin was all of a sudden disappearing from my body slowly, once I avenged my friend''s deaths the sorrow and pain disappeared and it was then that I realized I was now a full skeleton, I later also found out that I have improved in strength quite a bit."


    Ah, I remember the moment I literally twisted that bandits arm so hard that it broke, if I kept twisting it may have even came clean off, good times, now there is one less scumbag who would even kill a child in the world. Lano speaks up "Ah it seems you have been through quite a rough time, but anyway, it seems you have a pretty good idea for income."


    He pauses for a moment then continues "Although my suggestion is that eventually you find another source of income since that won''t last us forever, but I think for now it should be fine so I won''t say anything else about it." I respond "well I guess I''m going to go practice with a sword, you can go rest now if you want, I''m probably going to be in there all night as I have nothing else to do."


    After I say goodbye to Lano I head to the training room, where I end up training all night just as I had said, it seems that the accuracy of my magic has improved,along with my strength just a bit. Once morning comes I am greeted by Kevik "Hello my lord, Lano told me that you are wanting to go communicate with the monsters that are living on this land am I correct?"


    I say "Yeah that''s right, I want to talk to them about them paying taxes to us and I also want to talk to some of them about something else as well that I cant really tell you about just yet." He then says "Alright then allow me to tell you which monsters currently reside in this land." I nod and say "Okay, go ahead and tell me."


    He nods and then says "Alright, first allow me to tell you about the vampire tribe that lives on this land." He pauses for a moment then continues "There has been a vampire tribe that has lived here for quite some time within a cave system they modified to make it seem like a small village on the inside."This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.


    He pauses yet again then continues "The name of their tribe is the (Sunhailers) because their founder was a human man who was bit by a vampire and became one himself, eventually finding that cave system and making it their home, a few generations have passed and they''re bloodline is pretty strong and near close to being on par with natural vampire''s strength."


    Ah, if I''m not mistaken the natural skill that all vampires have is the power of Blood Pact. Blood Pact is the ability to form a contract that is bound by the blood of the caster and the person who is agreeing on it via vampire blood magic. This makes the contract unbreakable and the caster can also put certain consequences that will occur if the person who agreed does attempt to break it.


    I nod and then say "Alright, what are the next monsters that live on this land?" He says "The next monsters that live in this land is a small tribe of Specter Imps, they have been here for a few years and live in small shacks that they built just slightly into the forest to the north, they are relatively shy but will attack if they need to such as in situations they are in danger."


    Spector Imps have the ability to see in the dark a bit and their vision in the light is also a bit better than normal creatures, they also have the ability to pass this skill down like most intelligent monsters do, but most monsters don''t just go passing down their skills to complete strangers because they may use it against them.


    There are also spells and skills similar to some of the things monsters do but they aren''t exactly the same, some are even stronger than the skill that the monster has. I nod and say "Okay, tell me what the next group of monsters are." He then says "The last group of monsters that live in this land is a small tribe of Magiogres."


    He pauses for a moment then continues "They have lived on this land for a few years, only a bit longer than the Spector Imps, and they live in a small walled off village that they have built themselves over the years, the name of their tribe is the (Huvourers) it stands for human devours because they were outcasted from their original village spot by humans and grew a grudge."


    Magiogres have the ability to use strength enhancement magic that only they know how to pass down. Humans have potions that have a similar effect to this but no magic or skills that relate to it and potions can only get a person so far before the effects disappear. Magiogres are also as smart as humans and that''s why they are able to speak their language so easily and act a lot them often.


    I say "Is that all the monsters in this area?" He nods and then says "Yes my lord, we don''t know of any other monsters that live in this area at the moment." I sigh because I was hoping for there to be at least one more group so I can gain a forth skill, but then I remembered something that I should have thought of in the first place.


    Red Eyed Wolves have a skill that allows them to smell things more descriptively and notice how far away that smell is at will. I guess I will have to ask either visit the wolf brothers later, oh wait, now that I think about it they need a new place to live don''t they. That cave isn''t really a good home for them now since they are demihumans now and can get cold more easily and such.


    Perhaps I can get someone to build some homes for them in my land so that they don''t have to live in that cold cave any longer, but they can probably wait a little while longer I''m sure. For now, I need to go to the place which seems most important for me right now, I don''t even have to think it over, because it is clear which monster tribe I need to see first.


    That tribe is the vampires, their blood pact skill will be extremely handy in the future, with it I can probably gain many advantages over people or even enemies if I''m smart enough to force them into signing a contract for something. I say "Alright, We will go to visit the Sunhailers first because they seem like the most important people to talk to right now."


    He then says "Alright, I shall prepare my equipment to leave right now my lord." Just as Kevik starts to walk away I stop him and say "No, you should stay here and protect Lucy and Will, I shall go with Lano, don''t worry, I''m confident the vampires will be of no trouble, after all I have no blood, and they are pretty intelligent monsters so I should be able to work something out with them."


    He then says "A-Are you sure my lord, they might be pretty strong in number." I say "Don''t worry about it, everything is going to be fine, I just need you to stay here and protect Will and Lucy for now just in case." He sighs and then says "Very well my lord, I shall remain here and protect those two as you wish."


    I say "Thank you, now I shall go tell Lano what I have decided on." After that I go to Lano''s bedroom and knock on the door, a few seconds later he opens the door and says "Ah, hello my lord, what is it that you need?" I say "I need you to come with me to go see the Vampire tribe since you are pretty good at money with your help I should be able to settle on a fair tax that they agree on."


    He then says "Ah, alright I shall accompany you, by the way my lord, what is the other reason you wish to speak to the monsters that live in this land?" I say "Ah, I suppose I should tell you since I probably cant keep it a secret from you for very long before you discover what it is anyway, alright I shall tell you what I planned on doing."


    I pause for a moment and then continue "I plan on learning a skill from each of them in order to grow my strength even further, I have a feeling that I need to get stronger, even if I may seem pretty strong now, for some reason I feel that it''s not enough and that I need more, I don''t mean to be greedy, it''s just something I have to do no matter what."


    Lano nods as if he understands and then says "Alright then, that''s a good enough explanation for me, now shall we head for the vampire tribe''s cave system my lord?" Without hesitating I nod and say "Yeah, lets head out."

 V2 - Ch 3 Awakening spell creation

    It takes us about half an hour to get to the cave that the Vampires live in, the cave has a pair of big double doors at the entrance that are closed. Lano walks up to the doors first and I follow behind him, he then knocks on them and a few seconds later both of the doors open and we are greeted by two people both dressed in what appears to be dark red armor and light red helmets.


    The helmets cover their face pretty well except for their eyes which are crimson red in color. One of them speaks up and says "Who are you and what is your reason for being here?" I say "We have come here for important business, who is the leader here at this village?" The guard looks at us confused and a bit cautiously then says


    "What exactly is the business that you have come here for?" I look at Lano and he nods , I then say "I  am a new demon lord who owns the land this village resides in, thus I have come to discuss important matters with the leader of this village." The guard''s face probably would have gone paler if it could because once he heard me say that he showed a bit of fear and surprise.


    Lano coughs and then says "So will you allow us entry now?" The other guard says with a slight stutter "O-Of course right this way, I shall take you to the village chief." After he is done speaking we walk into the doors and the other guard closes them behind us and returns to his position, he is obviously still slightly afraid.


    The village itself is actually not that big but it still has quite a bit of small houses and stuff in it and a few people roaming around, they all look at us confused as we walk by them but shortly after return to what they were doing. after about a few minutes we arrive in front of a house that seems pretty bigger than the rest of the buildings in the cave.


    We then walk up to the building and the guard opens the door for us and we walk in along with the guard. Once we enter the room, we see a man sitting on a chair in the back and the guard walks up to him and bows before saying "V-Village chief, these two men have come here to discuss financial matters with you, the man in the cloak says he is a new demon lord."


    The village chief''s eyes widen for a few seconds before they return to normal and he says "Is that so, well then welcome to our village my name is Fang Crimson, what have you come here to discuss with me about?" The village chief manages to keep a straight face and doesn''t show as much fear as the guards did, perhaps he just doesn''t want to look weak in front of me.


    I say "Alright, allow me to tell you the two reasons I have come here." I pause for a moment then continue. "The first reason is that I wish to have you pay a small tax for living on my land, we shall discuss details later, and do not worry, I don''t not wish to make you pay a huge amount of money or anything like that, and this tax will not go unrewarded, I will use it for various helpful things."


    He nods as if understanding and then I say "The second reason I have come here is to ask you to give the blood pact skill to me."  His eyes widen once again before saying "Y-You want to have the ability to use the blood pact skill, why do you want it?" I somehow sigh and then say "I shall tell you, in fact I haven''t even told Lano the entire reason why I want to gain skills from monsters yet."


    I pause for a moment and then continue " Alright, Lano you should listen closely to what I''m about to say as well as you haven''t heard it yet either and it is quite important that I accomplish this task." I was thinking for a while on the walk to the village that, if I can create spells somehow, doesn''t that mean I should be able to gain a human form again?


    Once that thought crossed my mind I became more determined to get the four skills I need in order to see if I really can do that. I pull down my hood and the guard''s and even a little bit of fang''s face show some fear and surprise. I then say "As you can see, I appear to be a skeleton right now and there is a reason behind this."


    Fang''s face returns back to normal slightly but the guard''s remains as it was when I pulled down my hood. I cough and then continue, "Not even I know the true reason, but if I am correct I believe it had something to do with what happened to me in the past." I tell them the same story I told Lano and both of their faces seem to have gone completely back to normal.


    I then say "Now, as for the reason why I am trying to learn the skills of monsters is because I believe I may have a way to return to a human form once I collect a certain amount, I cant tell you how I will be able to return to a human form, because I wish to keep it a secret since it would be dangerous if word about what I am going to do spread, but I hope you will pass on the skill anyway."


    After I am done talking Fang closes eyes for a few moments before speaking up "Very well, I shall give you the Ability to use the blood pact skill, you seem like a good man and I respect you quite a bit now, therefore I shall trust you and pass on the skill, come here and hold out your right hand for me so I can give you the skill."


    After he says that he stands up and I walk over to him and hold out my right hand like he told me to do. Once I do that he starts to chant something "By thy power and blood I pass down thy skill to someone I deem worthy, O great ancestors I call Upon thy power granted by you so that I may allow this man to bind promises by blood, I hereby grant thou in front of me the power of the blood pact."


    Once he is finished with the chant a drop of blood that seems to have bright red tiny magic circles all over it drops out of His hand and splashes onto mine, it then seems to seep into my bones disappearing completely. A few seconds later a large bright red magic circle appears on my hand for a few seconds and then disappears just like the blood did.


    He then sits back down and says "Alright, it is done, now lets discuss that tax that you told me about." After quite a bit of talking Lano managed to get us to an agreeable tax that they would have to pay and in return for them paying that monthly we will eventually give them better housing once we have a way to do so.


    After we were done in the vampire village we made our way through the other villages, it went pretty much the same way in each village and in the end I managed to get the skill of each monster as well as us agreeing on fair tax prices. I gained the vision skill from the specter imps and the strength enhancement magic skill from the magiogres.


    Now all that''s left is to go ask the wolf brothers for their skill and tell them that I will go get them again once I get a builder that is capable of making good homes for them in my land. I tell Lano where we need to go and he knows the way since he passed by there on the way to the manor in the first place, since I don''t know how to get back there since we teleported to the manor, he leads me.


    It takes about an hour but eventually arrive at the den, once we do the wolf brothers come out of the cave knowing that we are there, probably because they have memorized what I smell like. Once they exit the den Falmer says "Ah, Brine where have you been?" I tell them about me being a demon lord and they aren''t very surprised because I am so strong that they expected something like that.Support the creativity of authors by visiting the original site for this novel and more.


    Sater then says "Well, now that you have explained to us why you have been gone, why are you here?" Falmer says "Yeah, why would you need to come back here to see us, it must be something important right?" I nod and then say "Yeah, the reason I came back here is to ask you for something and also to tell you something that will help you out a lot."


    Falmer says "Ah, alright then go ahead and tell us." I say "First of all allow me to tell you what I have planned that will help you and your pack out." I pause for a moment then continue "I plan to find a builder or a few that could build some homes for you in my land that way you don''t have to live in this cave for any longer since it will eventually put a strain on your bodies being in the cold."


    They both smile and then Falmer says "Alright, thanks for letting us know, tell us as soon as you have some homes ready for us." I nod and then say "Now the second thing I came here to do is ask you for something." I tell them about how I think gaining skills from monsters will allow me to gain a human form again and they look like they understand completely once I''m done explaining.


    Falmer says "So the reason your here must be to ask for the skill to have a better sense of smell am I correct?" I nod and then say "Yeah, would you be willing to give it to me?" Falmer nods and then says "Sure, you have helped us quite a bit and are also going to give us a better home so of course I will give you it, come over here and hold out your right hand."


    I do what he said and then he holds his hand over mine and begins to chant " By thy power and blood I pass down thy skill to someone I deem worthy O great ancestors I call Upon thy power granted by you so that I may allow this man to enhance his sense of smell, I hereby grant thou in front of me the power of the nose of a Red Eyed Wolf."


    Once he does the magical drop of blood falls from his hand and into mine and disappears, a few seconds later a red magic circle appears and then disappears again. I have now gained four skills each from a different monster just as the note had said to do, now all that''s left is to follow the rest of the instructions that were on the note.


    I decide that I should head back to the manor first because we have been gone for quite a while, also, I left the book in my room before we left to get the skills from monsters. We say goodbye to the wolf brothers and then head back to the manor. The walk back to the manor was uneventful just like the others, it seems that Zemor might have been the only one with the balls to attack me.


    I decide that I should still be cautious just in case, after all I''m sure that he isn''t the only one who doesn''t feel threatened by me allying with Rein. Once we get back to the manor I tell Lano to go let the others know that we have returned but not to bother me for a little while as I am going to see if my idea was correct.


    He seems to understand what I mean by that because he nods and then smiles saying "Yes my lord, I shall make sure they don''t interrupt you while you are attempting to regain a humanoid body." He then walks off to find everyone and do as I said, after that I head upstairs and into my bedroom. I then grab the book off of my bed side table.


    I also pick up the note that I placed next to it and read the instructions one more time. After confirming what I must do I turn over the note and see what must be wrote on the front of the book, it says ''Spellious creation''. After I write that on the front of the blank book I draw a line in the middle of each page and number them top half to bottom half. Then, I say the chant written on the note.


    "Awaken Spellious creation, answer my calls and become one with the world, the time has come for your power to be released and to help magic creation be started up once again, give me the ability to create new spells, give me the ability to allow others of thy choice to create new spells, and finally give me the power to understand all that is foul, awaken Spellious creation!"


    Once I say that I feel the book begin to shake and then a few seconds later an odd purple magic circle appears on the book, what''s odd about it, is that it doesn''t have any runes on it like normal magic circles do instead it''s just a blank magic circle. Then after a few seconds multiple magic circles shoot out from the first one and proceed to land on my body.


    Shortly after every part of me is covered with these blank magic runes they start to disappear, then once they all disappear a voice echoes in my head "You must think of a runic language, this language can be altered in color for different kinds of spells that such but for now the main founding language''s color will be dark purple."


    I know that voice, it''s the shadow man, I look around the room and notice that he is standing against a wall with his arms folded as if he''s waiting for me to do something. I nod at him and then begin to think, a few minutes later and I have thought up a runic language and decided on the look for each letter in the alphabet, the name of this runic language will be Void Talk.


    The shadow man nods at me before walking up to me and standing there for a moment. I say slightly confused "W-What is it?" He then puts his black silhouette hands on my shoulders and says "Good job, now you have done something great, I shall take my leave for quite a long time, when I am ready I shall return to you, but before I go let me tell you something."


    He pauses for a moment before continuing, "Some times things that are dragged down into a dark abyss may come back eventually if it is needed by someone who has the ability to fully explore said abyss." The shadow man then disappears into thin air and as soon as he''s gone I understand what he meant and so I pick up my quill and begin to write once again, this time on the first spell page.


    Once I am done writing, the spell I just wrote emits a dark purple light for moment and a few seconds later the light fades away and what I just wrote down that was black only seconds ago, is now a dark purple color. I don''t waste any time hesitating and immediately start the chant for the spell I just created.


    "Thy has sinned before, thy has committed acts that may not be forgiven by most gods, thy has suffered greatly, and thy has overcome true sorrows just to get to this point, thy has even lost thy former being as a result of that suffering, but thy has gained companions over time, thy has also gained enormous power over time as well,"


    I continue chanting but start to shout for the second verse without stopping for a single moment "THY SHALL NOW CALL UPON THY POWER TO OPEN THE GATES OF THY VOID AND RECEIVE WHAT THY HAS LONGED FOR FOR QUITE SOME TIME, HEAD THY CALLS AND BESTOW UPON THY A BODY, BRING UPON THY MY FORM THAT THY DEEMS FIT JUST FOR ME,"


    I yell out as loud as I can for the final words of the chant "ALLOW ME TO BLEND IN WITH SOCIETY ONCE AGAIN, I CALL UPON THE VOID WHERE THE SHADOWS RESIDES TO ANSWER MY REQUEST, NOW OPEN GATE OF THE VOID AND LET MY THIRST TO FEEL AGAIN BE QUENCHED." Once I have finished the chant it feels like the manor itself begins to shake.


    Then a few seconds after that beneath me what seems to be a portal opens up and I fall into it instantly. Once I fall into the portal, I''m in complete darkness, nothing to be seen anywhere, the only thing I can see is the entrance which came from and even that disappears after a few seconds for some reason.


    Then as soon as the entrance disappears I see a giant pair of glowing purple mist eyes appear in front of me along with a mouth, the giant misty face smiles at me and then disappears. Not long after that a mist that is a combination of purple and black starts to engulf me. Then, once it has covered my entire skeleton, the process begins.


    My leg bones seem to begin to change making me feel a bit shorter than I was before but not to bad and my bony arms and the rest of me experienced a bit of this change too, but again not to badly, then once that seemed to stop happening, muscles and organs begin to form on me slowly, followed by skin.


    Then great looking dark purple hair started to grow on my head, it stopped when it was about down to where my eyes would be at the back of my head and on the front of my head it stopped just above my eyebrows. Then my ears and nose began to appear, and finally, my eyes appeared, I cant see what color they are because I don''t really have a mirror with me, I''ll check when I''m out of here.


    Once everything finished forming I was sent back out of the void gently and landed on my bed sitting, I then walked up to the mirror in my room and looked over myself fully, my eyes are a beautiful light grey color and I have a great looking slightly pale skin. Once I looked at myself in the mirror I got a massive grin on my face and then laughed and shouted at the top of my new lungs


    "HELL YEAH, I HAVE A HUMANOID BODY AGAIN!"

 V2 - Ch 4 Human once again

    After I shout I realize that I''m completely naked, it seems that my cloak has fallen onto the ground since it doesn''t fit me anymore. I appear to look younger, from what I can see in the mirror I would say that my appearance is about that of a 16 or 18 year old boy. But I know that my age hasn''t been affected, it''s just my looks.


    I decide I should probably call Lano in here and see if he can go get me some clothes since my wardrobe is empty. At first I was thinking of telling him to get me a cloak but then I decided not to because I don''t have to hide my appearance anymore as I don''t look like a skeleton now. It was at this moment that I came up with a great idea.


    I speak up shouting slightly "Lano, are you out there?" I get a response almost immediately after I said that "Yes my lord, what is it?" I say "Fetch me just a basic shirt and some pants, it''s time for me to do something that I have been awaiting for quite some time." He says "Right away my lord, I shall return with them at once."


    A few minutes later I hear a knock on one of my bedroom doors followed by Lano''s voice "My lord, I have brought the clothes you requested." I say "Alright bring them in and hand them to me, oh and shut the door behind you, I don''t want Lucy to see me like this." After I say that the door opens and Lano walks in closing the door behind him before turning around to get a look at me.


    His eyes widen a bit and then he says "M-My lord is that you?" I say "Yeah, it is, it appears as though my looks and height have reverted to that of a teen even though I''m 22 years old." He then says "Oh my, so the thing you did worked and made you a humanoid?" I say "Yeah it did, I have all of my senses back, though one thing remains missing, my emotions."


    I can tell that my emotions are still gone, or at least they aren''t functioning yet, it''s as if they are in a dormant state currently, but I''m sure they will probably return to me over time. He says "If you don''t mind me asking now my lord, how did you gain that form?" I think for a moment before saying "Alright I trust you enough, so I shall tell you and then tell the others later."


    I then say "I have the ability to create spells, for now all I can do is create spells utilizing darkness but I believe that now I am humanoid I will be able to make other types of spells later on as well, don''t talk to anyone other than those that already know it about this." Lano is clearly shocked and is visibly shaking in excitement a little as well.


    He then says "Yes my lord, I shall not tell anyone you don''t wish to know about this." I nod and then say "Alright, now hand me the clothes, I have a plan that shall be put into place as soon as possible, go gather the other three in front of the entrance to the manor, I have something we must discuss." Once I say that he goes off to do as I said and I put on the clothes he has given me.


    Once I arrive in front of where the others are standing Will is the first one to speak up "Holy shit, you look great brine, congratulations on getting a body again." Lucy is the second one to speak up, she runs up to me and hugs me before saying "Now people won''t be scared of your appearance when you are walking around in public."


    Kevik is the last to speak "Wow, your looks would probably put even a prince to shame." Once everyone is done speaking I tell them everything that I just told Lano, and after we are done talking about it I say "Alright, now it''s time for me to tell you what that plan I thought of is." I knew what I should do instantly once I realized I wouldn''t have to hide how I look anymore.


    I say "Me and Lucy shall go to a well known school in the capital of Satoos, this is due to Lucy needing to gain an education, and me having to learn a lot more about swordsmanship and other things, since I look like a teen again I should be able to pass myself off as one, but the hard part is going to be getting into a school."


    Everyone is shocked but they all seem to understand, after a few seconds of silence Lano says "My lord, why don''t you contact Rein Strevus and see if he can arrange something. We will also need a carriage so ask him about that while you''re at it, but please at least take someone with you that can protect you, after all, right now, I know its not my place to say it, but you seem kind of weak."


    He isn''t wrong, I have realized that everything about me is slightly weaker for some reason, also my Nuaz doesn''t feel like it has very much magic particles flowing through it at the moment. (The name of magic veins from now on is Nuaz, its what stores the magic particles that allow humanoids and some monsters that have them to use magic)


    I nod and then say "Alright, I have an idea, I shall ask around to see if I can get anyone who is willing to go with me, in fact I already have someone in mind, didn''t that vampire village leader Fang Crimson have a son who is in his teens but still pretty powerful?" Lano thinks for a moment and then says "Ah, now that you mention it he did introduce us to him when he brought in some tea for us."Find this and other great novels on the author''s preferred platform. Support original creators!


    During the talk about taxes with Fang, a young boy with long black hair, and who looked to be about 17 years old walked into the room to serve us tea as per Fang''s request since he told the guard to go inform the boy to bring us some. The boy was apparently Fang''s son named Layson Crimson, He is supposedly very good at martial arts and can even take on at least 5 people at once if he needed to.


    My plan is to make another spell, this one will allow for a vampire to walk in daylight at ease due to an invisible shadow that wraps around their body preventing their skin from burning. I then say "Alright then, Lano you return to the vampire village and ask Fang if I can bring Layson to school with me for protection, tell him I have a way to prevent his skin from burning so he''ll be alright."


    I pause for a moment and then say "Oh, and how do I use that communication crystal upstairs?" Lano thinks for a moment and then says "Ah, all you need to do is tell it which demon lord you wish to contact and it shall do it for you my lord." I nod and then say "Alright thanks, you may go see Fang now."


    Lano nods and then leaves and I say "Alright, the rest of you can go back to what you were doing, I''m going to go contact Rein Strevus to arrange that we can get into a school at least by tomorrow." Everyone goes off to do their things and then I walk back upstairs and enter the demon lord communication crystal room.


    Once I get in there I say "Contact the demon lord Rein Strevus." Then the crystal glows a bit off and on a few times before an illusion of a man shows up next to it. The man is wearing a dark red robe and he has good looking blood red shaggy hair, he appears to be well built as well having muscles in all the right spots making him look not to buff but not to scrawny either.


    This man is Rein Strevus, a few seconds after he appears he says "It''s a pleasure to finally meet you, demon lord Brine Dark, what is the reason you have contacted me for?" I say "It''s nice to meet you too Rein Strevus, the reason I have contacted you is a bit complicated, allow me to explain." I take a few moments to explain everything that has happened to me since becoming a skeleton to Rein.


    I also tell him about how I need a carriage with a driver and to get me, Lucy and Layson into a school. He says "I see, alright, in fact one of my friends is the principal of a very well known school, it''s actually the best school in the capital of Satoos, I can get you enrolled today and you should be able to start tomorrow, but Lucy will probably be on the other side of school because of her age."


    I say "That''s fine, as long as she gets a good education everything is fine for me, I doubt anyone will target her there anyway." He says "Alright everything is settled then, be ready a bit early in the morning so the carriage can take you to school, also I shall send the uniforms with the driver, goodbye for now."


    I nod and say "Alright thanks, goodbye Rein." Once all that is done I head into my room, create the spell to protect vampires from sunlight, and then do something I have been waiting to do for a long long time, I go to sleep. The next morning, I get up after a well deserved rest and head downstairs where Lucy, Layson and the driver are all waiting.


    Layson and Lucy are already in their uniforms, once I get downstairs Layson says "Good morning Lord Brine, thank you for choosing me to go to school with you." I nod and say "No problem, hold still I''m going to place a spell on you that will allow you to walk in the daylight without having to wear heavy clothing or use an umbrella to shield you from the light."


    I place the spell on him, which should last forever, and then I change into my uniform and get into the carriage, we then begin heading to our first day of school. Meanwhile somewhere in the capital of Satoos a girl in her teens is walking to school, the girl says "Ah, it''s another great day, I love it when the weather is this nice."


    This girl''s name is Sarah, she is 16 years old and is currently going to the most well known school in the capital of Satoos, she is also an adventurer and her class is Swordsman. Her adventurer rank is peasant but she is on the brink of becoming a soldier ranked swordsman adventurer due to her training for many years.


    Adventurers can improve their rank for a class they have, and if they have two then they can improve both if they wanted to, improving their rank comes with a great benefit. Once an adventurer trains hard and improves themselves at using one of their classes, then they may rank up. Many adventurers spend most of their life trying to rank up but don''t succeed.


    Ranking up usually gives the adventurer a new skill that everyone with that class gets upon reaching a certain rank. For example, a mage that has an affinity for fire would get a fire spell that all fire mages get once they reach that rank, they may also get a better magic particle capacity in their Nuaz due to their body becoming used to using magic most of the time.


    There are currently seven adventurer ranks Peasant, Soldier, Jack, Noble, Prince, King, and Champion. The ranks noble, prince, and king usually only are giving to people of noble or royal blood as they rise in the ranks of adventurer power since they are usually the only ones able to hold enough power and strength to rise up to that due to their blood, but sometimes commoners get there to.


    After about 10 minutes of walking she arrives at school and enters her homeroom class. Once she sits down her teacher Mr. Hita walks in and says "Alright everyone, listen up this is very important." Everyone else in the room, who were all talking, stop once he says that. Mr. Hita then speaks up and says,


    "Starting today we have two new students who are transferring into the school, they may take a bit of time to get here because they live kinda far away, but once they do I shall let them introduce themselves." Sarah is a bit confused, after all why would someone transfer in now, it''s already almost the end of first term, she thinks about this for quite some time.


    While she''s thinking everyone else begins to talk about what the transfer students will be like. It seems she may be the only person who thinks it''s pretty odd so she brushes her suspicion aside and doesn''t think too much about it anymore. After about 15 minutes the door to the class room opens and two people are standing behind the open door.

 V2 - Ch 5 Rin Krads school life begins

    Mr. Hita then says "Alright you two why don''t you come in here and introduce yourselves to the class." A few seconds later the two people walk into the room and to the front of the class. It was at this moment that the faces on all the girls went slightly red and some of them started talking about the two boys, one even shouted "They''re so hot!"


    They are both handsome as hell so of course the girls would get interested in them. I don''t really care for them that much but the one with the purple hair is quite cute, however I know that I will probably never stand a chance if I tried asking him out, with his looks he may already have a girlfriend, the other guys in the class are clearly a bit jealous and giving slight death glares to them.


    Mr. Hita says "Settle down class, let''s allow them to introduce themselves, you may never learn their names if all you focus on is talking about their looks and don''t listen to them." Mr. Hita chuckles a bit at what he said and then the boy with purple hair coughs before saying "Hello, my name is Rin Krad and I''m 16 years old, It''s a pleasure to meet you all and I hope to have a good time here."


    After that it seems that the girls fall a bit more for him, his voice sounded so good. Once he''s done with his introduction the other boy speaks up, "Hello everyone, I am Layson Crimson and I''m 16 years old as well, It''s nice to meet you all." His voice was great too and the girls liked him even more as well, just like with Rin when he spoke up.


    Mr. Hita then says "Alright then, you two can go find your seats now." It was at this moment that all the girls started offering up their seats, but the boys ignored them and kept walking. The only one who didn''t act like this, was me, I don''t ask them to come sit next to me because I could tell at a glance that all the people asking them was annoying to them.


    To my surprise, Rin and Layson walk up next to my desk and then Rin says "Do you mind if we sit next to you?" I say "N-No not at all go ahead." I stuttered a little because I wasn''t expecting them to want to sit next to me. The other girls all look a little disappointed and then return to talking among themselves after seeing that Rin and Layson sat in the two empty desks next to me.


    Layson says "It''s nice to meet you, whats your name?" I say "Ah, my name is Sarah Conas it''s nice to meet you too." Rin then says "Thank''s for not asking for us to sit next to you, it was getting quite bothersome when everyone started to do that, you probably read the situation and knew that right?" I say "Yeah that''s right, I''m used to paying attention to the expressions of others."


    That said, something feels...off about Rin, it''s as if he isn''t feeling anything right now, or I guess it feels more like he can''t feel anything right now, I brush it aside because it''s probably nothing serious. Rin says "I was an adventurer for a little while but then I realized that it wasn''t really cut out for me, what do you want to do as a job or profession?"


    I say "Ah, actually I''m an adventurer right now, I''m a swordsman, though I only go for the easier monsters right now such as slimes and things like that." Rin says "Ah, I see, well I used to be a mage when I was an adventurer." I say "Wow, I wanted to be a mage but my class ended up being swordsman."


    Rin says "Trust me, being a mage is tough, even if you became one it may take a long time for your body to actually grow used to using your magic particles." I nod and say "Yeah, you''re probably right." I then say "So where are you from?" Rin sighs and then says "Ah, actually I don''t wish to talk about that in front of all these people, who knows what would happen if they heard where I live."


    I think understand what he means, the girls might try to bother him a bunch by going to his house and asking him on dates and stuff, meanwhile the guys will probably just try to beat him up or something outside his house. I then say "Alright then, that''s fine." After I say that the bell rings and it''s time for my first class of the day I say goodbye to Rin and Layson and head to my next class.


    Meanwhile in the opposite direction of where Sarah went, Me and Layson are about to begin our first class. The first class we have is about monsters, it''s supposed to teach us about different types of monsters and their nature, as well as some other things. Once we get in the room and to our seats Me and Layson talk for about 5 minutes and then the bell rings and the teacher speaks up.


    The teacher''s name is Mrs. Yuna and she researches monsters quite a bit, apparently she used to be an adventurer back in her younger days. Mrs. Yuna speaks up and says "Alright, today we will be learning about the intelligence level of monsters, ranging from a slime, to a vampire." I look at Layson for a moment and we both grin, laughing quietly a bit so no one hears us.


    It''s funny because he''s going to learn about his own intelligence, even though he already knows of it. Mrs. Yuna takes the whole class period explaining each monster''s intelligence for the ones that live in the basic areas of the land of Satoos. I''m glad I have this class, because the knowledge from it may help me in the future for communicating with monsters. If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    Once the first class is over it''s time for us to go to our next one, one that I am actually looking forward too quite a bit. Swordsmanship class, this is one of the things I needed really badly since I need to get the hang of using a sword. Once we get there we train in the basics of swordsman ship for the entirety of the class, though I already knew most of that stuff, so it was pretty easy.


    Tomorrow we will probably train in something else instead of the basics. That class flies by pretty fast and before we know it, it''s lunch time. We head to the cafeteria and Layson grabs some food while I just go sit at one of the tables without grabbing anything. Layson comes over to the table with his food and says "Lor-, I mean Rin, Aren''t you going to get something to eat?"


    I say in a low voice "I can''t eat nor taste anything anyway so what''s the point?" Layson then smiles and says "But you have a humanoid body now, doesn''t that mean that you should be able to?" We just sit there at our table staring at each other in silence for a few moments, then I turn my head slowly towards the counter where the lunch lady is serving everyone their food.


    Then I look back at Layson, then back at the counter, and back at Layson again, I do this a few times before standing up slowly, with my hands still on the table, and my eyes closed. I then open my eyes slowly, and grin acting as though I am happy, even though I''m not since I''m unable to be, I then turn my head slowly back at the lunch lady behind the counter again.


    Then I say to Layson, "Ahem, I''ll be right back." It''s at this moment, that I dash as fast as I could to the lunch counter all whilst screaming "FOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOD!" Everyone turns around and looks at me surprised, some even laugh a bit at what''s happening. Once I arrive at the counter the lunch lady says slightly startled,


    "W-What is it that you would like young man?" I take a moment to catch my breath after how fast I ran and then I say calmly and politely "Please give me one of everything." The lunch lady says "Alright, give me a moment." A minute later I am walking back with a tray full of food and sit down at the table with Layson once again.


    I then eat my food savoring every bite, and once I''m done I say to Layson quietly "Ah, it''s so good to be a humanoid again." Once lunch is over it''s time for another class that I''m looking forward to quite a bit, that class is magic class. It''s a class that will go over mostly everything involving magic to students so that they know how to handle it if it''s used against them or how to use it themselves.


    The teacher of this class used to be an adventurer as well, just like Mrs. Yuna, except this teacher used to be a mage, his name is Mr. Truma, once class begins he says "Today we shall be learning about Nuazs, otherwise known as magic veins, so everyone please open your text books to page 240 and follow along as I read to you."


    We do as he says and he begins to read "Nuaz is a vain that exists in most creatures making them able to use magic, Nuaz can grow stronger and able to hold more magic particles as long as the creature trains enough or uses magic often, however if the creature uses a spell that their Nuaz can''t handle, it will place a great strain on their body and if they don''t stop, then it may burst their Nuaz."


    He pauses for a moment then continues "If the Nuaz on a creature bursts, then their magic particles will flow around rapidly within their body and will end up turning them to ash about 30 seconds after the Nuaz has burst depending on the size of the creature, the larger the creature then the longer it will take for them to turn to ash and die."


    He pauses for a moment then continues "Most humans turn to ash about 20 seconds after their Nuaz has burst and there is currently no way to prevent a creature from turning to ash once their magic particles begin to flow throughout their body due to their Nuaz bursting." He sighs and then says,


    "However many people have theorized that if one can somehow extract the magic from the creature that''s Nuaz burst then it might save them, although it would mean it wouldn''t be able to use magic again if the extraction succeeded due to them not having any Nuaz to generate or store magic particles anymore."


    After 30 minutes the class ends and it is finally time to go home, I then go get Lucy and we get back in the carriage and begin the ride back to the manor. Meanwhile somewhere in a dark void what appears to be a demon made entirely out of purple mist except for a few features on its body like the claws, horns, and teeth, is sitting in a bedroom at a table with someone.


    The mist demon says "Hmm, so how have you been lately Darkious?" The person who the mist demon is speaking to is none other than the shadow man himself, what the mist demon just called him is actually his name, Darkious. Darkious says "Ah, I''ve been doing great, other than the fact that I can''t really interact with the outside world for long periods of time."


    The mist demon lets out a booming laughter a bit and then says "Well you got lucky, I''m the one who hasn''t even seen the light of day at all, the only time I could see into the world was when that small portal opened when I gave that man a humanoid body as per his request." Darkious then says "Anyway, so how have you been lately Shadow Beast?"


    The Shadow Beast then says "Ah, actually I''ve been getting quite excited lately knowing that eventually I''ll be able to enter into the world." Darkious rubs the back of his head and then says "Yeah, I know what you mean, anyway, I''m here to ask you about something regarding his spells utilizing darkness and also ones using this place since you know more about this place than I do."


    The Shadow Beast puts on a more serious expression and then says "What would you like to know?" Darkious then says "I''ve seen that he is very, VERY, slowly dying from something that seems to be connected to this place ever since he got his first spell, do you know anything about it?"

 V2 - Ch 6 A bamboozled builders son

    The shadow beast sighs and then says "I''m not sure what it is either, but what I do know is that it doesn''t only involve this void and the world out there but it also feels as though it may be linked to another place as well, but I don''t know for sure yet." Darkious then says "Hm, well it''s alright we will figure out what it is eventually."


    Darkious pauses for a moment then continues "As far as I can tell, It doesn''t seem life threatening yet, it''s spreading very slowly and will probably take a few years before it''s spread throughout his entire body and can kill him."  The shadow beast nods and then says "Well I guess we can''t really do much about it now, all we can do is wait and observe for the moment."


    Darkious says "Indeed, anyway do you want to play some cards for a while or something?" The shadow beast grins and then says "How about a friendly game of Shogi?" Darkious grins as well and then says "Oh it''s on!" Darkious pulls a Shogi board out from under the table and the two beings in the void then begin to play very intensely.


    Meanwhile about an hour and a half later, back in the manor Brine is talking to Lano about something, I say "How much do you think it would cost to hire a builder?" Lano then says "My lord, It depends on who it is but I think that we would probably need more than one if we want to get the homes built more efficiently don''t you agree?"


    I say "Hm, yes we should probably do that, but now the question is where and how are we going to get the builders and convince them to actually build for us, won''t they be scared of me being a demon lord?" He then says "It depends on how you act to them my lord, just make a great first impression and be friendly and I''m sure it will work out just fine."


    He pauses for a moment then continues "As for where we are going to get them, perhaps after school tomorrow go around town and try to find a construction company that has good reputation, maybe ask some of the kids at school or teachers if they know of any." I say "Ah, that''s a great idea anyway I''m going to sleep now, so you may take your leave."


    Lano nods and then leaves my bedroom, after that I lay down on my bed and fall asleep looking forward to tomorrow. The next day at school the first class was not very interesting and passed by quickly and now it is time for swordsmanship class. We head outside to the area the class trains in and line up with the rest of the kids.


    Once we get there the teacher who used to be a knight and his name is Mr. Parum says "Alright, now that everyone is here allow me to explain what we are doing today." He pauses for a moment then continues "Since it looks like everyone learned the basics pretty quickly yesterday, today we will be training in your agility and also each of you will be sparing with me separately to test your skills."


    He pauses for a moment then says "Alright so from now on every day you will run 2 laps around this field go ahead and do that now and then line back up here and I will call your name one by one and spar with you to determine your skill level." Once he is done talking we all run around the field twice and then line back up, I was one of the 5 that were the fastest and Layson was as well.


    Everyone starts to get their name called by Mr. Parum one by one and they spar with him for a bit before he dismisses them and writes something down each time. After a while me and Layson are the only ones who haven''t been called yet, Mr. Parum then says "Alright, Rin come on over here and pick up this wooden sword it''s your turn."


    I nod and do as he told me to and then he picks up a wooden sword as well but his is a bit longer and he says "Alright, now come at me with everything you got." I was a little hesitant at first but then I remembered that I have been really weakened so I probably couldn''t hurt him much even if I wanted to.


    I say "Yes sir." and then dash at him and bring the sword down, He blocks it with his and pushes me back a bit. (View change, what this means is that the view is changing to someone else temporarily that isn''t a main character like Brine or Sarah, although some view changes will be for characters that may be needed for something later in the future,most of them are just for better looks at fights, ect.)


    He is pretty good, but I shouldn''t judge him now, it isn''t over yet. I say "Is that all you got?" Then I dash at him like he did and we begin to exchange swings, each time he blocks me though I do manage to get a few scrapes on him eventually and I say "Do you wish to stop?" He says "No, not yet I refuse to stop now!"


    I sigh and say "Okay then, keep coming at me." He then goes towards me once again and his movements seem to have sped up slightly. The other students are looking at us amazed and some are praising Rin and saying stuff like "You got this Rin, come on land a hit on him Rin, don''t back down Rin!"


    He then brings down his sword at a pretty fast pace quite a bit faster than his previous strikes and I move my sword up to block it. However, when our swords are about to touch he grins and moves his away and hits at my legs with it causing me to fall backwards. Everyone cheers for him as he stands there grinning at me.


    I get up and say "You have a lot of potential Rin, you would make for a fine knight." This kid seems pretty damn good, if he trains long enough he may be able to become an adventurer of the Jack or Noble rank. "Hey Rin, perhaps you should try being an adventurer I''m sure your class would turn out to be swordsman with how good you are."


    He says "Ah, unfortunately I can''t, I already have the mage class but I no longer do quests because being a adventurer just wasn''t really cut out for me, though I still like to study magic quite a bit sometimes." I say "Ah that''s a shame, but in that case why are you training in swordsmanship?" He then says,


    "I just want to be able to protect the things precious to me, everything has its limits and so I decided to train in swordsmanship too in case I may not be able to protect them with magic at times and instead have to use something else." I understand what he means so I nod and then say "Well then keep training and I''m sure you will be able to protect whatever or whomever it may be with ease."


    After I say that I spar with Layson who is pretty good but not as good as Rin but he has some potential, after I am done sparing with Layson the bell rings and it is time for lunch. (View change, Back to Brine) Once we go sit down at the table with our lunch someone starts to walk over to us and says "Do you mind if I sit here?"Unauthorized duplication: this tale has been taken without consent. Report sightings.


    I turn my head to look at the person who asked that, it appears to be one of the boys who is in our swordsmanship class, he has short bright red hair and orange eyes that can only be described as good looking regardless of what anyone says. I say "Sure go ahead, we don''t mind right?" I look at Layson and he nods at me in agreement.


    The boy sits down next to me and then reaches out his arm and says "My name is Keno Savon, its nice to meet ya both." I say "I''m Rin Krad and this is Layson Crimson." We both shake his hand and then he says "That was pretty cool back there in swordsmanship class." I say "Thanks, we tried our best after all." Layson uses martial arts so he isn''t used to using a sword but he still did pretty good.


    I then notice that people are sneaking glances at our table and talking about something, I listen a bit and just barley hear what they are saying "Isn''t that Keno Savon, Yeah I think it is, What''s he doing over there he usually keeps to himself and doesn''t talk to anyone, Doesn''t his father own that one construction company, Yeah the one that got bamboozled and lost their license, that''s the one!"


    Some of them start to laugh a bit and at this point Keno seems to be getting frustrated, at this point I am very interested in him after what I heard from them talking so I whisper to him and say "Let''s be friends Keno, I have a feeling that we would get along well." Keno who was getting a bit upset seems to have calmed down a bit after I said that.


    He then says to me quietly, "Sure your the first person who has said that after hearing what has happened to me, I will gladly be your friend." I then grin and say "Can I go see your father and his company after school, I have an idea that will help both you and your father if he is willing to go along with it."


    Curiosity fills his face and he says "An idea that could help us, what is it?" I say "After school meet me by the entrance and I will tell you then, but for now there are too many people listening." he says "Alright, I''ll trust you and wait by the entrance like you said." The bell rings and we finish our food before he goes to his class and me and Layson head to magic class.


    Once class starts Mr. Truma says "Alright class today we will be learning about how to cast magic spells and how to replenish magic particles." He then tells us what page to open our books to and begins to read "The way we cast our spells is quite easy since all you have to do is clear your mind and imagine your magic particles taking the form of the magic spell you want to use."


    He then goes on to explain about how the only way to replenish magic particles is to wait for them to generate by themselves which takes a while usually a day or more, or to get a particle potion from a store or alchemist. Once he''s done explaining everything he shows some examples of how particle potions are made and tells us that if we don''t have a lot of magic particles we cant make one.


    A few minutes later the bell rings and it''s time to go home, well at least for most people, but I have somethings I need to do while I''m in the capital today, and the first involves Keno and his father. When we arrive at the entrance to the school I notice Keno is waiting by the gate, we walk up to him and I''m about to say something when Lucy runs up to me and hugs me almost knocking me down.


    She then looks up at my face and smiles before saying "Big bro, will you take me to go see Sater today, I miss him a bit, he was so nice and fun." It''s at this moment,that something deep within me that has been switched off for quite some time starts to turn back on slowly. I smile genuinely and say "I will tomorrow Lucy, I promise, but today I have something else that I need to take care of."


    I notice the change but decide that it''s best not to make a big scene, I then notice that the carriage driver has arrived and I say "Take Lucy home and then go wait for us back at the city gate as soon as you get back." He says "Very well, come along now milady." Lucy gets in the carriage and then it drives away from the school.


    Keno is looking at me a bit curious and then he says "Who was that?" I say "Ah, that was my little sister Lucy." He then says "Alright, anyway what is this idea you had." I say "I have some work that your father and his company may be interested in, hell it may even make them happy since if they agree to it I may be able to get them their license back."


    Keno''s eyes widen in shock and a glimmer of hope is seen within them. He then says "R-Really, what are you going to do?" I say "I would rather not explain it twice so just take us to your father''s company and I shall explain there." He nods and then we walk to his father''s company, it wasn''t far from the school so we arrived there after 5 minutes of walking.


    We enter the company''s building which isn''t that big and Keno says "Hey dad, I brought someone who might be able to help us." There are 14 men in the room and each one is working on something, it looks like they are making swords and stuff(I''m not gonna name them, there are too much and they are just random characters that don''t get talked about much only the dad is named)


    One of the really buff/well built looking men turns his head towards us stopping what he''s doing and walks over to us after saying "Truly?" The man has thick dark red hair and a big dark red beard he isn''t wearing a shirt thus allowing his awesome muscles to show. The man looks at me and Layson before saying with a hopeful expression "Who are you and how can you help us?"


    I look at Layson and he understands what I am asking with my eyes and so he nods at me saying he''s prepared in case something goes wrong, I then look back at the man and cough before saying "I am the demon lord Brine Dark, I have come here to request you to come build homes and things for my land, of course you will be payed in return and I may even be able to get you a license again."


    I continue "However, if you''re willing, I would rather you move your company base to my land instead of keeping it here, you suddenly getting your license again may cause whomever tried to get it taken away to either go after your or my life, please think about your decision wisely before answering, please know I don''t wish to harm you and I won''t do anything to you if you refuse."


    Everyone''s eyes widen in shock and some fear when I am done talking and Keno backed away from me and Layson a bit. However despite all that, everyone soon calms down a bit and then the man turns around looking at the other 13 men and says "What do you guys think, should we accept it and also move our company there as well?"


    They all take a moment to decide and then they all say "SURE, WHY THE HELL NOT!" The man laughs and then turns back around before saying "Well there''s your answer, my name is Garal, it''s nice to meet ya Lord Brine Dark I look forward to working for ya, and don''t worry about the payment, after all if we''re going to be leaving the city and building homes for people that need them then."


    He pauses for a moment before saying "We don''t need payment, as long as we''re allowed to help out then we''re happy, ever since we lost our license we''ve had to do plain old blacksmith work which got boring overtime so we''ll gladly take you up on your offer, plus we don''t wanna get killed by some bozo who''s throwing a temper tantrum just because we got our license back."


    I laugh genuinely at his last sentence and then say "Alright then, when do you want me to lead you all over to my land?" He thinks for a moment before he says "Why not right now?" I burst out laughing and say "Alright, then I hope some of you are all right with walking because I only have one carriage." He says "Ha, I think they can keep up after all have you seen how ripped they are?"


    We all laugh at the same time and then I smile, before telling them to follow me to the city gate. I managed to complete two things I have been waiting to do, get some builders to start working on a village, and the other thing I accomplished is, I GOT MY HAPPINESS BACK!

 V2 - Ch 7 Three demon lords and their plans

    We got in the carriage and began the ride home, it was a hilarious sight what I saw, it was actually kind of beautiful due to how amazingly funny it was. On the way to the manor I look out the window and see 13 insanely buff men racing after us because we''re going pretty fast, and damn it feels so good to laugh at it, oh I''ve missed my happiness so much.


    We arrive at the manor after a 20 minute ride and everyone follows me inside after I say goodbye to Layson. once I enter the manor I am greeted by Lano waiting in front of the stairs, he says "Welcome home my lord, if you don''t mind me asking who are these men?" I say with a genuine smile "This is Garal Savon and his company, they are going to be the ones to build for us from now on."


    Lano nods and begins to say "Very good my lord, you should probably contact Rein Strevus to get some building ma-" He pauses for a moment before saying "M-My lord, did you just smile?" It seems he noticed that smile wasn''t faked, I chuckle a bit and then say "Yeah, it seems that my happiness has returned already, anyway continue what you were saying."


    Lano''s eyes widen but go back to normal shortly after and then he smiles and says "Ahem, as I was saying you should probably contact Rein Strevus so you can get some building materials for them, such as stone and other things since we don''t have anything to build homes quite yet." I say "Indeed, alright you all stay here for a few minutes while I go contact Rein."


    I pause for a moment then continue "I''m sure he can get us materials as soon as tomorrow morning, Lano will set you guys up some rooms for now, some of you will have to share bedrooms until tomorrow." They nod and then I go upstairs and enter the demon lord communication crystal room and begin to contact Rein once again. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    The illusion of him appears a few seconds later and he says "Hello Brine, I''m surprised your contacting me so soon after the first time, what is it that you wanted to talk about?" I say "I need enough building materials to make a village I have already found some builders, could you send me the materials?"


    He then says "Alright, I shall arrange for the materials to be at your manor by tomorrow morning." I nod and then say "That is all I needed, sorry to bother you for such a small thing." He shakes his head and then says "No, you aren''t bothering me so no need to apologize, well then I shall take my leave now."


    After he says that the illusion disappears and then I go tell the others to start making some buildings tomorrow. Meanwhile in the castle of the second demon lord on bad terms with Rein Strevus, Baphen Kisom, the demon lord of illusions, is talking with someone and seems to be plotting something.


    Baphen says "So have you discovered some information that could be useful to us yet?" The person who he is talking to appears to just be some random demon "Yes my lord." Baphen says "Alright then, tell me what you''ve learned." The demon nods and then says "We have managed to discover the location of Brine Dark''s parents."


    Baphen grins evilly and then says "Good, we shall head out in a few months after sending a letter, let''s give him a surprise shall we?" Meanwhile in the castle of one of the demon lords on good terms with Rein Strevus, the demon lord of craft, Goatus Craftum, is standing in front of a forge of sorts while holding some black cloth in his hands as well as light grey fur and a clear see through stone.


    Goatus says "Alright, this demon lord is accustomed to cloaks, so I shall make him the finest cloak that he will ever set his eyes on, I will even put a empty magic stone in the middle so that he can utilize magic to protect him along with any other type of magic he may want to imbue it with, now then I suppose it''s time I start huh?"


    Once that is said, Goatus starts forging some type of clothing in the odd colored lava of his forge. Everyone has started working on their plans they have, and days pass, which turn into weeks and before long two months have passed.

 V2 - Ch 8 A village for the new lord

    Two months have passed since the start of my plans to build a village for some of the people living on my land. Time flew by pretty quickly and nothing noteworthy happened over this time. Now finally, the last part that''s needed to be built should be done today. I just woke up and am getting dressed to go outside and see what it looks like, in fact I haven''t even entered the village yet.


    I felt that I should wait until everything was done before I went in, this is because I don''t want to be bummed out by seeing the unfinished project. I would rather see it in all its glory instead of just see like a single house or two, also it was the request of Garal and his company. He said he wanted to see the look on my face when I see it all for the first time.


    I put on my shirt and pants and then head down stairs and enter the kitchen, I grab a piece of bread, put some butter on it and then head outside. I yawn and stretch a bit once I exit out into the sunlight before taking a bite of my bread and saying "Ah, yep, I will never get tired of having a humanoid body again, the warmness of the sun and the taste of food, not to mention fresh air, it''s all just too good."


    I smile and then begin to walk down the new dirt road that was created leading to the village. I didn''t want to have the village built behind the manor because I felt it would look weird having the back facing it rather than the front. I shake my head and stop worrying about the small details because I don''t want to go crazy and be obsessed with perfection.


    I return to smiling and continue walking. As soon as I exited the manor I could see the village, which is why for the past two months I left through the back door of the manor so I don''t spoil the surprise. And now that I see it I''m glad I did that, because it truly is a sight to behold. I arrive at the entrance to the village and take a minute to observe it from the outside before I enter.


    The village is quite big, about 30 or more buildings, but it''s not too big as to not draw attention. There are houses, and some empty buildings for businesses if anyone wishes to set one up. I decided to let Lano handle the stuff with businesses that people wish to set up, I also told him that if there is a business matter that he thinks I should look into personally then he should let me know.


    I walk into the village with a bigger smile than before, I''m proud, my pride has returned, it seems it didn''t take much to regain that feeling and I''m glad I got it back. I never was all that prideful, even before I lost my emotions, so I''m not the kind of person who would just attack someone because they won something and I lost.


    Nor will I hesitate to throw my pride to the side if I have to abandon it in order to get something I need done, or to protect something I hold dear. The village is pretty satisfying to walk into, it changes from a dirt road to a stone one and it feels great on the feet. There is a fountain in the middle of the village with some benches around it.


    Yeah, I''m definitely not gonna let any harm come to this place no matter what, it''s too good looking! In front of the fountain and notice Garal there napping on one of the benches. I grin evilly and chuckle quietly a bit so I don''t wake him up, I then whisper "Hehe, this is gonna be great!" I then go over to the bench he is sleeping on and start to slowly roll him.


    He''s heavy, but that won''t stop me from accomplishing this! After a few seconds of painful pushing, Garal falls into the fountain with a splash and then jolts awake and sits up quickly before spitting out water, he then says "Who the hell did that?!" He then turns towards me and I laugh before saying "Morning Garal, you were napping on the bench and I couldn''t help myself."


    Garal laughs a bit too and then says "Oh, it''s alright my lord, I guess it''s my fault for sleeping there anyway." He pauses for a minute and then gets out of the fountain and says "So, what do you think of your new village, it''s pretty good isn''t it?" I smile and then say "Yeah, it''s beautiful, I could look at it all day, but for now I have to go let everyone know their homes are done."


    He nods at me and then says "Okay then, I shall return to my company''s building for now my lord." I nod back to him and then walk off over to the carriage where the driver is waiting for me. It''s a weekend so we don''t have school, but the carriage driver is here anyway because I told him yesterday that I would need him so I don''t have to walk all the way to each area, it''s quite tiring after all. Stolen story; please report.


    Despite everything, my body is still pretty weak, I haven''t improved at all for some odd reason, I''m still as weak as when I got it back. Although I''m pretty sure something is changing, I''m just not sure what it is, but I doubt it''s anything bad it''s probably just me still adjusting to this new body. It goes without saying that it''ll take quite some time to strengthen myself.


    Both my physical strength and my magic are kind of weak right now, so all I can do is hope that I improve eventually other wise I''m screwed if I get attacked or someone I hold dear does again. I shake my head and then get in the carriage. I tell the driver the location of the Wolf den and then we drive off to the den, which is a 25 minute drive with the carriage since it''s faster than walking.


    Once we arrive there I tell the carriage driver to wait here and then I go inside the den. I am immediately greeted by the wolf brothers and Falmer says "Welcome back Brine, what is it that you''re here fo-?"  I smile and they go on guard "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU BRINE DOESN''T HAVE EMOTIONS NOR IS HE A HUMAN!"


    I laugh at this and then say "Calm down, I''m Brine, I gained a humanoid body that''s all, however I am terribly weak now due to this but I''m sure my power will recover with due time." The wolf brothers sniff and then calm down and Sater says "Well congratulations on getting a new body, anyway why are you here?"


    I smile and say "Your homes are ready, I''m here to help guide you back to the village since you don''t know where it is." Falmer smiles and his tail starts to wag, he then says "Great, hold on let me go get everyone." I nod and then Falmer goes into the den and comes back out a few seconds later with 8 people, not including the 4 kids.


    I smile and then say "Alright, how about this, the kids can ride in the carriage with me and the adults can follow on foot, since your pretty fast due to your nature it should be pretty simple for you all to follow including the kids. But I don''t want to risk them being attacked out in the open."  Falmer and Sater nod and the kids get in the carriage and I close the door behind them for now.


    I cough and then say "Alright everyone, we are about to go to a village in my land, but before I do so let me warn you about something." I pause for a moment and Everyone starts to listen intensely with serious expressions and I continue "The village we are going to will not only be occupied by you, but also people from three other different monster tribes."


    They all show a face of worry and begin discussing about something, clearly rethinking rather or not they should actually go to the village now, I cough and then continue "However, do not worry, these people will not bring you harm nor bother you unless you do so to them or get on bad terms, please try your best to get along with them, I know it''s impossible to be perfect but try your best to do well."


    They calm down and then I explain the types of monsters that will be staying in the village with them. They seem to be alright with going to the village now which makes me feel at ease a bit now, for a moment I thought they would change their mind but they didn''t. I then tell them that it''s about time we go and get in the carriage which starts driving off after I tell the driver to head back.


    The Red Eyed Wolves are following closely behind the carriage and after about two minutes, one of the kids in the carriage breaks the silence. The kid is a 4 year old boy, he says "Hey mister Brine, where are we going?" I chuckle a bit and then rub his head and say "We are going to your new home, it''s in my land and you will be much safer and comfortable there, I''ll protect you all too."


    The kid smiled and then the rest of the trip was just me and the kids talking back and forth about casual things. Time flew by fast once again and we were back in the village before we knew it, once there I sent everyone to Lano so he can show them around and they can pick out what houses they want to live in.


    It didn''t take long for me to go get the people from each tribe, there were quite a bit in all of them, so I only took four people from each tribe. I told them that eventually I will expand the village or do something else depending on how everyone feels about it after staying in it for a while, if they feel that it needs to be bigger because they like living in this village I will expand it.


    If they feel that there should be another village or more for each tribe or some other reason, then I will do that probably, that is if there is somewhere I can and they all agree it should be done. I put the sun protection spell on the ''vampires'' that are living in the village so they are fine being outside, they''re quite happy now.


    I made a spell that shrunk the bodies of the Magiogres but still lets them keep their strength. They now are the height of normal people instead of giant terrifying ogres. One Magiogre was given an empty building because he said he is planning on making a blacksmith shop that sells weapons and armor, Garal doesn''t like doing blacksmith work and was forced to do it to keep making money.


    But now that he''s here, he doesn''t want to do that anymore and he doesn''t have to, he happily gave some tips to the Magiogre that was going to do blacksmith work. One of the Spector Imps started a shop that sells glasses that also have the ability to make the user able to see in the dark if they focus their magic particle flow up to their eyes.


    Once I am done dealing with getting everyone settled in the village I take a seat on a bench in front of the fountain. However, as soon as I sit down, Lano runs up to me and says "My lord, we have received a letter from the demon lord Phonexus Spirum."

 V2 - Ch 9 Humans vary, but most are weak pt 1

    I say "A letter, who is this demon lord?" Lano says "The demon lord Phonexus Spirum is one of the two demon lords on good terms with Rein Strevus. His innate demon lord ability is the power to control flames themselves without magic chants, he can also imbue weapons and items with his flame magic."


    He pauses for a moment before continuing "He is very powerful but a good guy in many ways according to Rein Strevus, so he''s trustworthy. The demon lord Goatus Craftum is good in many ways and trust worthy just like Phonexus Spirum and is also the second demon lord on good terms with Rein."


    I say "I see, alright then give me the letter, I shall see what it''s about." Lano then gives me the letter and I open it, there are two things in it, I take out the first thing and read it.


    "Dear Demon Lord Brine Dark,


    I am writing you to say a few things and to introduce myself since I can''t do so in person right now as I am quite busy at the moment handling affairs in the kingdom I reside in. Anyway, as you probably already know I am the demon lord Phonexus Spirum, I wish to be on good terms with you and mean you no harm. I want to help you grow to be a good demon lord and not a shitty one like the two who are on bad terms with Rein and don''t care about others or their own people and only care about themselves. I will write to you occasionally and eventually if I ever have time I would love to come meet you in person. But for now since I can''t help you very much due to all the business I am handling in this kingdom, I can only do one thing to help you for now.


    The second paper in this letter is a spell chant that summons a demon that will serve you if you so wish. However there are some things that you must know about this spell. First of all is that currently, with how your magic particle flow is right now due to you gaining your new humanoid form you won''t be able to summon a demon at all. Next I should tell you is that even if you do summon one, there is no guarantee they will listen to you, you must gain the demon''s favor, make them like you, if you don''t then they can just defy you and run away. Summoned demons aren''t mindless slaves that will follow your every order, they are intelligent creatures that are free to do what they want just like us, and sometimes summoned demons are extremely powerful and could kill the summoner. Wait until your magic particle flow is strong enough to summon a demon, but also work on improving your swordsmanship and stuff like that too so you can protect yourself against the demon if it decides to go against you.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site.


    Sincerely,


    Phonexus Spirum"


    I look at the other thing in the letter and it''s the spell so I don''t read it and just put it in one of my pant pockets instead, I then turn to Lano and say "Alright, was there anything else Lano?" He nods and then says "Yes actually there were two other things, one of them is actually a letter from your parents and the other is a package from the demon lord Goatus Craftum."


    I say "A letter from my parents, how did they find out where I am?" Lano says "It was actually sent to the adventurer guild since they didn''t know where you live, Rein Strevus has a friend at the guild so he sent us the letter from there after he got it." I say "Ah, alright I''ll read this first and then open the package that Goatus sent."


    I then read the letter, all it was is them asking me to visit them on Monday since I have been gone for a while now. I decide I''ll visit them on Monday since I want to see them anyway, I also want to introduce them to Lucy because they would probably love her. Today is Saturday so I have another day to prepare if I need to.


    I then open the package that Goatus sent me and take out the letter that is inside it first and begin to read.


    "Hello Brine, I''m going to skip formalities of a letter like ''Dear Brine Dark'' and stuff like that because it''s not my style. Anyway I''m giving you a cloak that has a empty magic stone so you can focus some magic into it when you get a particle flow again, then you can control what it does. Rather it protects you, or improves your speed or something like that, it doesn''t matter as long as it''s magic, your welcome.


    From,


    Goatus Craftum"


    I pick up the cloak and take a long look at it, it has a grey hood and black cloth for the rest of the cloak just like my old one except this one is made of really great material, there is also a magic stone in the middle of it just below where the neck is and right on the chest. It''s truly an amazing looking cloak.


    I put on the cloak and smile before saying "Now I have something in case I have to hide myself again for some reason or sneak around for some reason. Can''t say I miss wearing a cloak everywhere because I don''t, but they do look pretty damn cool I gotta admit. Plus it''s pretty warm too because of the material and it fits perfectly."


    Lano says "Alright that is all that there was my lord, I will take my leave now." I nod and say "Alright, I''m going to start preparing to go to my parents house, first of all I want to tell Lucy what they''re like and get her some cute clothes for them to see."

 V2 - Ch 10 Humans vary, but most are weak pt 2

    I went to tell Lucy that we are going to go see my parents on Monday and she was really excited, it seems she really wants to meet them. I tell her about my father who is a farmer now but used to be an adventurer though he was never a really strong one. I also tell her about my mother who''s just a farmer and a really kind woman.


    We then went into the village and asked one of the vampires skilled in tailoring to make her something. She got a cute dress kind of like the one I first bought her but more sparkly and bright blue this time. After that we just killed time while waiting for Monday to come since we had nothing else to do.


    Before we knew it the rest of Saturday and also Sunday had passed and it was time to head to my parent''s house. We let Layson and Keno head to school first before us about 30 minutes ago so now we don''t have to drop them off on the way. I also told them to explain that I am not at school today because I am visiting family.


    I''m pretty sure the teachers will be alright with it because they like me, though I doubt they would accept this kind of thing all the time. I get in the carriage with Lucy and we begin heading to my parents house which is a about an hour or so drive so its a good thing I let Layson and Keno go first otherwise we would have had an hour and 30 mins plus the extra time of exiting it out of the capital.


    Meanwhile at a farmhouse somewhere, Baphen grins at the man and woman he is staring at, along with the baby that the woman is holding, it appears to be a boy. The woman looks frightened a bit but the man looks unfazed, in fact he just looks serious as if he knows that there is nothing he can do but he would still fight if he had to, even if it would cost him his life.


    Baphen says "Don''t worry I''m not going to do anything to you, I''m just here to meet your son that''s all, I just want to have a friendly conversation with him to discuss business." The man nods instead of speaking because he knows that whatever he may say could very well be the last. He knows that Baphen could get offended really easily and is a demon lord known to kill people who offend him.


    The man just hopes that nothing happens to his son or his now second son either. About an hour later we arrive at my parents farmhouse and begin to walk up to the house with Lucy holding my hand. As I enter I get a bad feeling, So I tell Lucy to keep her shoes on for now, then I go to the dinning room.


    Then I see it, my mother holding a baby boy which I smile at because I knew that she was pregnant when I left, but I didn''t know when they would have the baby or what the gender would be. However my expression changes immediately when I see''s my dad''s expression, I have only ever seen my father looking like that once in my whole life.Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on.


    It was when my three friends, now dead friends, and I were in danger of losing our life to a wolf in the forest as little kids. My father saved us that day and when he did, that same exact expression he has now was staring at the wolf the entire time from when he first laid eyes on it, till the moment he killed it.


    I then look over to where my fathers gaze shifts after he gives me a small nod and turns back around. I stop dead in my tracks, before my parents is undoubtedly a demon lord. He is wearing such rich looking clothes, a black crown on his head, and he has two almost see through horns on his forehead as well.


    I go on guard immediately and say "WHO THE HELL ARE YOU AND WHY ARE YOU HERE!" The demon lord just chuckles and says "I know you''re going to get in my way so I figured I would nip this in the bud real fast, after all there is no way you''re stronger than me and I also can''t risk this little one becoming a demon lord as well can I?"


    I immediately know what he means, but before I can do anything, he gets up and pulls his right hand out of his robe pocket. The hand has extremely sharp and girlishly long finger nails that are light silver in color. He takes that hand and stabs right into the baby''s head killing it instantly without any remorse.


    My teeth grit a bit, I don''t know why, but they do, however that stops after a few seconds. My mother then screams out "Noooooo!" My father gets up and says "You bastard, I don''t care how strong you are, I''m sure you can''t dodge an arrow at this range." Baphen sighs and then says "Oh shut up, I don''t need you two anymore you''ve already fulfilled your use to me."


    My eyes widen for some reason at what he says and I shout out instinctively "NO DON''T DO IT, STOP!" But it''s too late, Baphen cuts the heads of my mother and father clean off their shoulders and they fall to the floor lifeless. After that Baphen just turns to me and giggles before saying "Alright now it''s your turn I guess, hmm or I could give you a chance to live by letting you join my ranks?"


    My fist are clenched extremely tight, so tight that they''re bleeding, I slam my fist on the wall with my head facing down at the floor and say very, very, quietly and still calm "Lucy sweetie, go outside, all the way back to the carriage." Lucy says "What did you say big bro I didn''t hear what you said."


    I then bring my head up and shout at the top of my lungs "LUCY GO OUTSIDE AND WAIT BY THE CARRIAGE I''M GOING TO RIP THIS DAMN GUY TO SHREDS LEAVING BEHIND NOTHING BUT GOD DAMN BONES AND I SWEAR BY THE TIME I''M DONE THERE''S A CHANCE NOT EVEN THOSE WILL BE LEFT!"


    Lucy is frightened very much and runs outside back to the carriage, meanwhile I''m still in the house and something is very, VERY, different about me. My magic particle flow is much, much, stronger but for some reason, I feel as if something''s missing, something that I have yet to stumble across that I desperately need, I brush it aside and just laugh crazily while tilting my head from left to right.


    My neck pops both times and then I say before grinning "Alright, let the fun begin."

 V2 - Ch 11 Humans vary, but most are weak pt 3

    I say "Alright, let the fun begin." I then dash extremely fast up to Baphen and hit him with my fist, sending him flying at one of the walls and he crashes through it and keeps flying until he hits a tree behind the house. I then walk outside and up to Baphen who gets up and then wipes his lips with one hand because they had some blood on them.


    He then says "Wow, you sure do pack a punch, alright then I guess now its time to get this fight really started." Baphen raises his hand and then starts to chant, I am intrigued and let him continue to see what he is doing "Let the clouds change all, let the vision blur and the sight be forsaken, I, Baphen Kisom call upon the powers of illusion by my right as the demon lord of illusions!"


    The clouds start to turn dark and then some sort of white mist shoots out of them and enters into Baphen''s body he then looks at me and grins before clutching his hand into a fist and the whole ground begins to shake, then what I see next makes my heart ache, the scene changes before my very eyes.


    It changes into a dark foggy area, and after a few seconds the fog clears up. In front of me, is Alicia, John, and Timmy all chatting and having a happy time, but then they are brutally killed in different ways. Again, and again, and again, it would swap to them having fun together and then something random would kill them and ruin it all.


    One time it was bandits, another it was wolves, and various other monsters as well. I clench my fists and scream for it to stop, but it doesn''t, it continues, and gets even worst, making them be ripped to shreds so nothing is left. Then, one particular time shoved me over the edge, this time, they were killed by just some scumbag drunks who got mad at them for some reason.


    They killed Timmy and John, but not Alicia, those scumbags violated her time and time again until it was so much that she died, and they just tossed her body aside and burned it with fire magic. This was the final straw, this is what made me, so, damn, ENRAGED!


    (View change, Lucy, I''m sure you all know this means shit is about to get real.)


    Lucy is watching what''s happening from afar, a huge cloud of white mist surrounded Brine and Baphen is just hovering above it smiling, it has been 10 minutes since the mist surrounded him and Lucy is getting a bit worried. But she knows he''s okay, and even if she wanted to do something she wouldn''t be able to, as she would get destroyed in an instant by Baphen.The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    After a few more seconds, Lucy sees the mist be blasted away in all directions and then disappear, what she sees next makes her shiver in fear. Brine is standing there, his eyes are glowing bright purple, and he looks like a monster, she can see him physically shaking with anger and his teeth are grinding. Lucy can''t help but say out loud silently,


    "Well, He''s fucked, yep it seems like Brine is gonna absolutely obliterate him, I better back up a bit more, actually maybe A LOT more." Lucy then backs up 30 more steps, because of how pissed Brine is, there''s no telling what he may do, also it seems he got his power back so that''s even more reason to take extreme caution due to possible aftershock from an attack he may make.


    (View change, Back to Brine, thus it begins hehehe.)


    Baphen chuckles a bit and then says "Oh I''m sorry, did I upset you by showing you all that, hehe." I laugh like an insane person and then say "OH YOU ARE SO FUCKING DEAD YOU PIECE OF SHIT! YA DON''T FUCK WITH MY PAST LIKE THAT, I AM GOING TO END YOU, AND TRUST ME WHEN I SAY THIS, YOU, WILL, NOT, ESCAPE ME."


    I PAUSE FOR A MOMENT AND THEN CONTINUE "AND EVEN IF BY SOME FUCKING MIRACLE YOU DO ESCAPE SOMEHOW, THEN YOU AND EVERY GOD DAMN SERVANT OF YOURS AND EVERYTHING OR EVERYONE YOU LOVE WILL BE DESTROYED AS A RESULT AND I WILL MAKE SURE YOU ARE FORCED TO WATCH ME DO IT AND THEN KILL YOU AFTERWARDS WITH A SLOW PAINFUL DEATH!"


    THEN A NEW SPELL APPEARS IN MY MY MIND AND I SMILE CRAZILY BEFORE SAYING THE CHANT "SHADOW ABDOMEN AWAKEN, STAB WITH YOUR DARKNESS, CUT AND SLASH SO THAT I MAY FEEL SATISFIED AS THE BLOOD OF MY ENEMIES WASHES OVER ME, SHADOW ABDOMEN AWAKEN AND SHOW NO MERCY!"


    A PURPLE AND BLACK MIST COMES OUT OF A PORTAL ON THE GROUND AND THEN SPIKES COME OUT OF THE MIST AND STAB THROUGH THE AIR COMPLETELY MISSING BAPHEN, OR SO I THOUGH BUT THEY ACTUALLY HIT HIM AND THE ONE I WAS LOOKING AT DISAPPEARED AND TURNED INTO WHITE MIST AND ANOTHER ONE APPEARS AND HAS BEEN IMPALED THROUGH THE CHEST!


    Baphen smiles at me and then says "Well played, I didn''t expect you to see through that illusion and attack where I actually was, I see that you''re too strong for me, I fucked up real bad, you''ve probably already beat the shit out of Zemor haven''t you? Heh, well I guess I deserve this, at least my son will carry on the legacy, please don''t go after him, he''s a good kid, although a lot like you and Rein."


    Then Baphen coughs up blood and breaths his final breath and the life fades out of his eyes. I leave his body there for his servants to come get him eventually but also leave a note explaining the situation because why the hell not. With that I return to the carriage with Lucy after burying my family and head back home to our manor.


    My heart still aches a bit and I also feel slightly empty.

 V2 - Ch 12 Humans vary, but most are weak pt 4

    (View change, Sarah)


    Sarah is chanting something in a cave "Holy light come forth at once, rid the world of this foul evil and cleanse its soul from this realm, HOLY LIGHT!" Sarah is currently in a cave on a quest to defeat all the undead in here so that people can begin mining for resources in it. She has two other people with her that she found randomly her first day becoming an adventurer.


    Sarah is a duel mage along with her first class, swordsman. Meaning she can use two types of magics, she can use holy magic, and water magic. Her special class''s name is heavenly water mage, it''s not that common but that doesn''t mean she isn''t the only one who has gotten it in the world. The second person in the party is Reggy, he has a pretty good class too.


    Reggy''s class is talented swordsman mage, what this means is that he is innately talented at swordsman ship and his progress with it will increase really fast. But not only that, he also has a special magic that is quite rare, sword enchantment magic. What that means is that he can alter swords with magic, making them able to be stronger, or shoot fire spells, etc.


    The third person in the party is Clara, she has a pretty good class though not as good as the other two, its still pretty good. Clara''s class is the huntress class, meaning she is extremely good at using bows and small knifes, and she is also extremely good at cooking due to her getting used to hunting and her class improving her cooking skills a bit too.


    The four undead Sarah just chanted at all fall to the ground and turn to ash after a white light flows over them. Then Reggy is seen killing some undead as well, he chants "Oh great fires of endless volcanoes, heed my call and enhance my sword''s capabilities, DAMAGING FLAME!" (Author note, Damn that was a cringy chant I''m not gonna lie I''m sorry for killing everyone''s brain cells with that.)


    Reggy''s sword lights on fire and the metal glows red and he seems to be doing a lot more damage now that his sword is like that. Reggy kills six undead and then looks towards Clara who is a bit further ahead from Reggy and Sarah. Clara shoots 5 arrows with her bow and they all hit their marks, the heads of five undead.


    Everyone celebrates once the undead are, well, dead. I say "Alright, now we just gotta go collect our reward, let''s head on back and get it and then we can go get something to eat before we each head our separate ways." They both nod in agreement and then we start to walk back to the adventurers guild, but on our way back someone comes running up to us shouting,


    "EMERGENCY, MISS SARAH AND HER PARTY, THERE''S AN EMERGENCY, HEAD BACK TO THE GUILD IMMEDIATELY AND GO TO THE GUILD MASTER''S ROOM RIGHT AWAY." I look at the two others and say "Alright, let''s hurry then." Then we begin to run instead of walk like we were a minute ago, it seems something very bad is about to happen. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    We arrive at the adventurer''s guild in a few minutes and then head straight to the guild master''s room. I think to myself about why we were called here but I just cant seem to figure out why. The guild master''s name is Yaosi Quantum. Yaosi speaks up as soon as we enter the room "Ah, good you three are here, please sit down I have something extremely important to talk to you about."


    We sit down just like Yaosi asked and lean in and listen closely to what he is going to say. Yaosi coughs and then begins "Ahem, as you are aware of, the land of Satoos has no demon lord right?" I say "Yes that is correct, if I remember correctly the last demon lord was killed a few years ago and we haven''t had one since."


    The guild master sighs and says "If only they taught you kids the truth in that damned school instead of a bunch of bullshit lies. Then we would have been able to prepare for something like this and hell you might have trained harder than you do now at that school." Reggy says "What do you mean by taught us the truth?"


    Yaosi sighs again and then says "We actually do have a demon lord, his name is Rein Strevus, he is the late Triton Strevus''s son." We all gasp at this information and then I say "But wait, if this is true then why didn''t he come after anyone for revenge or even attack anyone at all or do anything bad?" Yaosi nods and then says,


    "Actually, Rein doesn''t mean us any harm quite the contrary in fact, he likes humans and doesn''t hold any resentment towards us and also wishes to protect us." Yaosi pauses for a moment and then continues, it seems that he loves to explain this "Rein is actually friends with quite a bit of people in Satoos believe it or not."


    Clara says "So he is like an angel and less of a demon lord?" Yaosi nods and then says "Indeed, actually the few people who know about his existence here have taken to calling him the angelic demon lord of protection." Yaosi coughs and then says "But enough talk about Rein, its time we talk about why you''re here."


    Yaosi pauses for a moment before swallowing some spit and continuing "A new demon lord has awoken in Satoos, and since a new one has awoken he is even stronger then Rein, and that''s not all, when we tried to gauge the strength of the new demon lord with a power appraising crystal, the crystal turned pure black and then released a dark purple and black mist for a few seconds."


    Yaosi swallows again and then says "T-Then, the crystal shattered, we could have sworn that we saw a glowing purple face in the mist before it dispersed, and not only that but the man holding the crystal, h-he died for some odd reason, we don''t know the cause of death, he just died, his eyes rolled to the back of his head showing white pupils and then he died."


    I speak up "So I''m assuming you want us to go fight the demon lord since we are the strongest here, and kill him if we think he is a danger to everyone?" Yaosi nods and then says "That mist, it was evil, pure evil, I-I don''t know how to describe it, but I want you to go and kill him, no matter what because even if he isn''t going to do anything to us yet, he will surely do something later."


    I say "Alright, where is this demon lord located, we will go after him right guys?" They both nod at me and then Yaosi tells us the location of the demon lord and we start to walk out of the room. before we completely exit he says "Oh and one more thing, for some reason Rein isn''t wanting to help us get rid of this demon lord, he''s probably cautious due to him being stronger than him."


    He pauses for a moment and then continues "So you won''t be getting any help here, so be very careful and do your best, there''s no telling what may happen, go tomorrow, it would be best if you waited until then, after all you will have to prepare."

 V2 - Ch 13 Humans vary, but most are weak pt 5

    (Veiw change, back to Brine)


    We are now back at the manor, we enter the manor and as soon as I walk in, I collapse to the ground and clutch my head hard with both hands and start to scream "AHHHHHHHHHHHHHH, FUCK FUCK FUCK DAMN WHAT IS THIS, IT HURTS SO MUCH, BY THE GODS MAKE IT STOOOP!" I now have an enormous headache that came out of nowhere.


    It feels as if something is trying to claw its way out of my head or as if my head is trying to explode. Kevik, Lano, Lucy, and Will all come running up to me and asking me what''s wrong and if I''m okay. I try to speak but it doesn''t come out well "I-I d-don''t k..ow...wh...t... is...happ...ing...to....m...help.....me, ma..e...i....stop."


    Lano looks at Kevik as if asking something who nods at him in response "My lord, I am going to put you to sleep using a spell, this should ease the pain, just rest for now and we will try to find out what is wrong while you sleep, hopefully you will be better by tomorrow. I say "O-Ok, g..a...ead....a...do...it, I-I trust you."


    Lano then begins to chant "By the power of the Sandman, god of dreams and bringer of peace, I call upon thy to give me, a mere mortal, the blessing of your power, to put thou before me into a slumber, ENFORCED SLEEP!" I then fall to the ground completely but Lano catches me and gives me a smile as if telling me everything will be alright.


    Then my eyes shut and the darkness arrives as I fall to sleep.


    Meanwhile somewhere in a dark void in a bedroom, Shadow Beast and Darkious are playing Shogi when all of the sudden Darkious shouts "FUCK, I LOST AGAIN, YOUR TOO DAMN GOOD AT THIS!" The Shadow Beast lets out a booming laughter and then says "Yes bow before the master hahaha, you shall never beat me at Shogi!"


    Darkious clicks his tongue and then begins to say "Mark my word, I will beat you eventually, let''s see you have that smug expression when that time co-" They both then get up from the table so fast that the board falls to the ground and makes a small mess in the room. Darkious says "Do you feel that too?"


    The Shadow Beast nods and then says "It appears we have an unexpected visitor." Darkious nods and is about to say something but the Shadow Beast stops him and then says "Wanna see if I can scare him hehe." Darkious says "I doubt it, he doesn''t even have the feeling of fear." The Shadow Beast grins and then says,If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.


    "But he has been getting emotions back lately, who knows maybe fear is back, alright how about this, who ever is wrong has to cook dinner today, do you agree to that bet?" Darkious grins and says "Alright I accept that bet." The Shadow Beast is now full on smiling and says "Well then lets just see who''s wrong about this."


    The Shadow Beast then seeps into the floor of the bedroom, disappearing from the sight of Darkious. Meanwhile, back to Brine, who is in a dark void now.  I say "Ah, this place again, I guess I know who I''m going to meet here then." I pause for a moment as I just noticed something "Wait, is that a house in the distance?"


    I see a house in the distance, I decide to go to it and head inside since I don''t see the Shadow Man anywhere, I can only assume that he is going to be in that house waiting for me. I enter the house as soon as I get up to it and I notice a piece of paper attached to the wall next to the door I entered. The paper says "Please take off any shoes you may be wearing before coming any further inside."


    I take off my shoes like the paper said as I don''t want to be rude. I then walk a bit further into the house and as soon as I take two more steps, a giant mist creature comes our of the ground and enlarges its head and shows its pointy teeth roars at me, "ARRRRRRRRRRRRRRGH." The mist creature''s body returns to normal and then it says "So did I scare ya at all?"


    I say nonchalantly "Nope, I don''t feel fear." The mist creature sighs and says "Damn it." A chuckle is heard from behind the mist creature and then a voice says "Whelp, it looks like your making dinner Shadow Beast." The Shadow Beast sighs again and says "Alright, a bet is a bet, I''ll make dinner, tell me what you want later."


    The person speaking comes out from behind the hallway behind the Shadow Beast and says "Now then, what are you doing here Brine?" It is the Shadow Man who said that and came out from behind the Shadow Beast, I stand there confused for a moment before saying "Wait, I thought you knew, after all I don''t even know how to get here except that you used to bring me here in my sleep."


    The Shadow Man says "Hmm, no I didn''t pull you in here this time, do you remember what happened before you arrived here and fell asleep?" I say "Yeah, I went through a shit ton of pain out of nowhere in my head, it was extremely bad." The Shadow Beast says "Wait, could it be a symptom of ''that''?"


    The Shadow Man says "It''s a possibility but what could it mean, after all the question is how did ''that'' even come to exist in the first place?" I am getting confused so I say "Can someone please just tell me what exactly ''that'' is?" Then they both seem to get worried and flustered and the Shadow Man says "N-Nothing, don''t worry about it, it''s not that important."


    I finally decide to ask the question that I should have asked from the beginning "ALSO WHO OR WHAT THE HELL IS THIS GIANT PURPLE MIST!" The Shadow Beast grins very creepily before saying "Oh I''m gonna love explaining this to ya, hehehe and with how you are now you might love listening to it as well."

 V2 - Ch 14 Humans vary, but most are weak pt 6

    I say "Oh, I might love to listen to it you say? Alright then go ahead and tell me, you have gotten me intrigued now." The Shadow Beast then begins to explain "I am the creature that rules over this void, I am part of this void and it is a part of me, I am nothing yet I am everything at the same time, just as this Void is."


    The Shadow Beast pauses for a moment then continues with an even wider grin "I am a part of the darkness magic, and also a part of what is needed to create any magic at all, without me you would have never been able to bring magic back into that world, I am per say, the medium required for you to make and use magic at all due to my connection to the Void and you''re darkness magic uses it."


    The Shadow Beast pauses and then continues again "Not all of the darkness magic utilizes the Void, some could utilize the shadows that are caused by light, in fact that could be thought of as a different magic all together if it didn''t use magic particles in the same way that darkness magic uses them." I say "Wow, that''s a lot to take in."


    I pause for a moment after thinking of something and then say "Wait, if you are part of the Void and nothing yet everything and the Void is the same, then doesn''t that mean when I create magic, shouldn''t I be able to create a magic that lets me enter it and leave as I wish or even create separate spaces like mini voids to put people in or items in and even use it to alter reality itself to my liking?"


    The Shadow Beast then says "Sadly even the Void has its limits on what it can do, but once you gain more control over the Void you will gain more uses from it, however, the Void is mysterious in many ways, its as if it has a mind of its own some times, it will either let you get stronger and better uses from it, or it will let you get completely random and odd uses, its unpredictable what it will allow."


    The Shadow Beast sighs and then says "It pretty much determines how you progress and since it determines what strengths you get from it that also means it could determine your fate by giving you a spell that could kill you as a cost of casting it without you knowing what it does, it''s pretty much a suicide game you''re playing with the Void but the way you''re playing it, it seems you''re fine."The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    I say "Huh, well alright, then I guess there''s nothing I can really do about that for now, anyway I guess I''m just gonna have to stay in here until I wake up huh." The Shadow Man says "Yeah, I guess so, hey want to play some Shogi?" I say "Sure, why not I have nothing be-" before I could finish my sentence a bunch of darkness starts to slowly engulf my body.


    The Shadow Man then says "Oh, well it looks like you''re already waking up, time seems to go faster in here than in that world sometimes ha, it''s really random what pace time will go, sometimes its slow other times its fast. Anyway, I guess it''s goodbye for now, we will see you again sometime. Though I don''t know if it will just be me next time or if it will be both me and him."


    They both say goodbye to me and then the darkness fully engulfs my body. A few seconds later my eyes start to open and I notice that I am lying on the bed in my room. It seems someone carried me here after Lano cast the sleep spell on me, the pain in my head is also gone now. I get up and put on some new clothes and then head downstairs.


    I am immediately greeted by Lucy at the bottom of the stairs who runs up to me and gives me a hug. Lucy then bombards me with a crap ton of questions about me being okay and my health. I just tell her I''m fine now and ask her where Lano is, she tells me that he is in the strategy room and once I hear that, I walk back up the stairs and enter the strategy room.


    As soon as I enter I see Lano and Kevik sitting across from each other at the rectangular table in the middle of the room. I say "Hey Lano whats wrong, why are you both in this room?" Lano coughs and then says "W-Well my lord, we just got word from Rein Strevus about a ''danger'' that is heading this way."


    I say "A ''danger'', and what exactly is this ''danger'' that is heading towards us?" Lano swallows some spit before saying "M-My lord, it appears that the three strongest adventurers from the adventurer''s guild in the capital of Satoos are heading this way t-to try to d-defeat you my lord." I say "WHAT THE HELL, WHY THE FUCK DIDN''T HE TRY TO STOP THEM?"


    Lano then says "Well my lord, he said he wants to see how you will handle this situation on your own, he didn''t give any more details." I calm down a bit and say "Alright, when do you think they will arrive?" Lano says "About an hour or two my lord, they are on foot but they apparently were going to leave early this morning so it should be about an hour or two until they arrive, the sun just rose."


    I say "Alright, come with me we must prepare, Kevik go get Lucy and Will and meet us by the fountain in the middle of the village." I am actually worried, I have gotten back yet another feeling, the feeling of worry, I did not miss this one very much.

 V2 - Ch 15 Humans vary, but most are weak pt 7

    I walk outside and after waiting for Lucy and Will to arrive I get the attention of everyone in the village and begin to speak "Everyone, I have an urgent announcement to make that concerns all of us." They all stop what they are doing and look at me with curiosity. Once I see that everyone is listening I cough before continuing


    "Alright, I have something to tell you all, but before that let me just say, do not panic and remain calm, listen to what I tell you to do, do you all understand that?" They all agree that they understand what I mean and then I continue once again this time with a smile on my face so that they can see that I''m sure everything will be okay,


    "Okay then, now allow me to explain what is going on here." I then explain the situation to them and they express a bit of fear but remain calm just like I had asked them to do. I say "So everyone, please remain inside your buildings until I come out and say it''s safe, after all they will more than likely attack you because your races aren''t known for being friendly towards humans."


    They then go to their homes like I asked them to then I turn around and look at Lucy and Will, I can see that they are a bit worried just by looking at them, I then say "Don''t worry, everything will be fine, I will do my best to make sure that everything turns out alright." I pat Lucy on the head and then walk back to the manor after telling them to stay with Keno and his father while I handle this.


    I go up to my throne room, sit on my throne, and then sigh before saying "Lano, Kevik, come in here and wait by my side just in case, but you are not to act against them unless I give the order." Both of them then enter the throne room and they set up a small table next to the throne and sit there drinking tea while we wait for our ''guests'' to arrive.


    After an hour of waiting, the doors to the throne room finally squeaks open, and in walk three people as I open my eyes slowly to see who it is. (View change, Sarah about 2 minutes before entering the manor.) We have stumbled upon a village but it seems deserted, either that or everyone is hiding, they must have heard that we were coming ahead of time.


    We won''t bother them, we don''t mean to, we have nothing against the villagers and it''s not our job to get rid of them even if they are demons or something. We weren''t paid to get kill everyone here, and the villagers might not be evil for all we know so we will leave them alone because slaughtering innocent people would make us no better than evil demons and I would feel very guilty. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    We walk up to a manor that is not too big but yet not to small, it seems pretty cozy, this has to be where the demon lord is, I almost feel jealous of his or her home.  We then enter the manor after reading a note on one of the entrance doors. The note says "I await in the throne room just up the stairs."


    After we enter we walk up the stairs and I begin to slowly open the doors to the throne room. (view change, back to Brine.) I recognize the first one immediately, it''s Sarah, the adventurer girl I met at school, damn this could be bad. I notice Lano and Kevik are on guard but I motion of them to calm down a bit and they do but not a lot.


    I am currently wearing my normal clothes instead of my cloak as I haven''t infused my magic in it yet so it wouldn''t be much use and it takes a lot of time to infuse magic anyway. Sarah and the other two people appear to be attracted to the beauty of the room and haven''t noticed me yet. I decide to be the first to speak, I say "Welcome to my manor Sarah, what brings you here on this fine day?"


    She and her two party members snap out of their daze and look at me, Sarah''s jaw drops as she sees me and she quickly says "R-Rin, what are you doing here?!" I look at her and smile before saying "This is my home and my manor, I believe I should be the one asking you that question Sarah."


    She has a look of disbelief on her face as she says "B-But if this is your manor then that means, YOUR THE NEW DEMON LORD?!"  I chuckle a bit and then say "Indeed, I am the new demon lord, Demon Lord Kurai it''s nice to meet you." I thought of the name Kurai because it means dark, its pretty good and its a great demon lord name for me since I use darkness.


    She makes a gulp sound and then says "W-We have been sent here to kill you Rin, But I don''t want to do that, so tell me something, why don''t you strike a deal with the guild master or make a treaty that states you wont attack us or anyone in Satoos." I think about for a moment before sighing and  then saying "Alright, however I have conditions."


    I pause for a moment before continuing "I will not tolerate anyone harming anyone I think of as a friend or family or anyone I like, if someone does, I will do what I deem necessary to take care of the problem I won''t kill them unless they do something extreme or continue to be a problem over and over again after I already punished or took care of them the first time."


    Sarah lets out a sigh of relief and then says "Alright, that will probably be alright, will you please come with us to the adventurers guild to meet the guild master and settle this?" I nod my head and say "Alright but I''m bringing Lano with me because he might be of help, he is my business guy after all." I point to Lano and Sarah nods in agreement.


    I say "Then lets get going right now, I want to get this over with as soon as I can."

 V2 - Ch 16 Humans vary, but most are weak pt 8 (End of arc)

    We arrive at the guild after about an hour or so and we walk inside, we are stopped by someone for a moment but he lets us pass after Sarah tells him something and he nods at her and goes behind the front desk and sits down. We continue on and eventually come across a door that has a sign next to it saying "guild master".


    She knocks on the door and a voice responds saying "Who is it?" Sarah then says "It''s Sarah, we have returned." The voice says "Ah Sarah, come in and tell me how it went." We both look at each other and smile because he is so unsuspecting and it seems we cant help but think its a bit funny. Sarah then opens the door, and she walks in first while I wait a few seconds before I walk in.


    The voice says "Welcome back Sarah, how did it go I''m assuming you got the job done, and who is this man?" Sarah just laughs a bit and then looks at me and says "Well, go ahead and introduce yourself to the guild master." I grin and think to myself ''Oh hell yeah, his reaction is gonna be amazing to witness.''


    Sarah and the other two party members have grins on their faces as well but they are hiding theirs a bit, it appears that they are looking forward to his reaction too. I cough and then do a slight bow before saying "Greetings sir, I have many names, Brine Dark, Rin Krad, but you can call me the demon lord Kurai, it''s nice to meet you."


    The guild master''s face becomes extremely pale and then he says "D-D-DEMON LORD?!" He then turns to Sarah and says "Sarah, what is the meaning of this why is he here, I thought you were going to defeat him." Sarah looks at the guild master and shrugs before saying "Turns out he''s one of my classmates and I get along with him pretty well so I didn''t want to kill him."


    She pauses for a moment then continues "Plus he''s a pretty chill guy, anyway he''s come here to make a deal with you." The guild master then turns to me and says "W-What is the deal?" I laugh a bit and then say "No need to be so afraid, I''m not going to hurt you, anyway as for what, allow me to explain."This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    I pause for a moment then continue "The deal is simple, I will not harm anyone unless they harm me, anyone who I think of as my friends or family, or someone I am protecting and I will only give them punishment based on how bad what they did is, if it was something that was extremely bad and I think it''s reason enough for it, I WILL KILL THEM."


    I said the last part with a bit of a deeper more serious voice. After I finish saying that I say "Now, I also want to be able to request things from you should I ever need help with anything." The guild master lets out a sigh of relief before saying "Alright, we can do that, it seems your not as bad as I thought you were, however there is one thing I want to ask you."


    I say "What is it?" The guild master says "What is your innate demon lord ability or power that you use?" I decide its no point in hiding this from him and say "I have the power of darkness, the magic of darkness is quite powerful and has helped me out in a lot of situations." The guild master doesn''t seem surprised and he says


    "That must be a new innate power because I have never heard of it, but I''m not that surprised because usually when a new natural demon lord is born a new innate power is given to them that would fit them most." The guild master laughs a bit and then says "Alright, I accept your deal." I say "Thanks, well let''s sign the contract because I need to get going, I have something I need to do right now."


    We then sign a contract to make the deal official then I left and proceeded to go back to the manor. I have something very very important to do. I just remembered something, and I can''t wait to do it. After all, returning to that void whenever I need to might just come in handy especially because if I can learn more about the void then I may be able to get way stronger.


    When I get back to the manor I get another head ache but it''s not as strong as the last one and am okay enough that I don''t need to be put to sleep, however I do collapse and end up having to ask Lano and Kevik to help bring me to my bed. It appears I actually have to wait a bit longer before I can make a spell to return to the void.


    Then, as I am falling asleep on my own, maybe its just my imagination, but, I swear, I heard a slight whisper saying something "W-Why did you stab me H-"


    It stopped before it could say the last word and then I fell asleep.

 V2 - Ch 17 A dream of a murderous boy named ?????? pt 1 (Beginning of origin arc)

    There was once a boy, a nice boy, the boy was friendly to everyone, and he lived in a small town where everyone knew each other. He had a happy family of 4, him, his brother, his mother, and his father. His father was in a bad and dangerous business, he was in the mafia, he was close to the don and was practically his right hand man.


    One day a bunch of people barged into their house, they were in a rival mafia, they came in, shot his dad, who locked the two boys and their mother in a bedroom and said to go through the window quietly. As they were leaving, a bunch of gunshots were heard, they didn''t stop running, they kept going, the mother knew where to go to seek protection. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    They arrived at the father''s don''s home, it was in flames, screams everywhere, and nowhere to run, men came after the boys and the mother after noticing them, and they ran again, and didn''t stop running, eventually they got on a train to Chicago where the mother was able to contact a friend who let them stay in her apartment with her for a while, then a year passed.


    Both boys were now 10 years old, they were twins, and a few loud knocks/bangs on the apartment entrance door was heard just as they both blew out their birthday candles.

 V2 - Ch 18 A dream of a murderous boy named ?????? pt 2

    The door was kicked in not long after the knocks started just as the woman that the family is staying with was about to answer it. In came five people at first then a voice was heard saying "Move outta the way, let me get a good look at em." A sixth person arrives and pushes the other five aside out of his way as he walks forward and then stops after he can see everyone.


    He nods his head and lights a cigar before saying, "Yeah, that''s them, alright now I guess we should get this over with, I may as well tell you why we''re here although you probably already know." The man blows smoke into the face of the woman who was going to answer the door. A large grin then forms on his face as he begins to speak again.


    He says, "Your husband was part of the Sinred mafia, which we took out about a year ago but failed to take you out as well." He takes another huff of the cigar and then continues "And you all saw us that day, we can''t have any witnesses or survivors, we were going to just let you live at first but recently we saw that you have been trying to contact some people and are communicating with the police."


    He sighs before saying "It''s such a shame, you were such a wonderful woman and these boys probably would have grown up to be fine men. However, you went and fucked up your chances for living out a good rest of your lives." He laughs a bit and then raises his hand to his forehead and rubs it before speaking once again,This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    "Well, I guess it should have been known that you wouldn''t stay quiet though, after all, who would stay quiet after learning that we were about to kill half of the town, anyway, times up for you, it''s time for you to disappear Myleacia." He pulls a gun and points it at the mother of the boys and then the woman who was going to answer the door pulls a gun as well and points it at him.


    He grins and says "You didn''t think I knew that you were actually a detective?" A gunshot is heard and he is seen with a second gun in his other free hand that just fired, She coughs up blood and then falls to the floor clutching her chest. She then mouths something to the mother of the two boys before doing something and falling to the ground dead.


    She passed the gun to the mother of the boys who in response fires at the six guys until it runs out of ammo, she ends up hitting four of them in the head killing all four, then the gun clicks and she drops it out of fear. The man who was aiming a gun at her says "Hehe, a final struggle eh, well its too bad it''s in vain, you didn''t manage to take us all out, see ya."


    Another gunshot is heard but it wasn''t any of the mafia men who fired.

 V2 - Ch 19 A dream of a murderous boy named ?????? pt 3

    One of the boys shot the man who was about to shoot their mother, it was a direct shot in the leg it seems that he is going to be crippled for a long time if not for the rest of his life. Everyone stared at the boy in disbelief and shock, that is, everyone but the man who was shot. The man who was shot just looks at the boy and grins before saying, "Nice try boy, but that''s not gonna stop me."


    Another shot is fired, the mother falls to the ground, before she takes her final breath she looks at her boys and says "Run, ?????? protect your brother, your a strong boy I believe in you."  The boy that shot whose name is ?????? grabs his brother''s hand and runs past all of the men and through the door.


    Their only hope now is the private detective agency that the woman they were staying with worked at. The boy is holding tightly onto his brother''s hand as they are running down the street, the Light detective agency is in sight now, they might just make it.


    The sound of tires screeching are heard followed by a thud as if a car just hit something as it came to a stop. The boy that was holding his brothers hand has his jaw wide open as he slowly turns around, his brother has been hit by a car he was just holding onto his now. He drops the arm and screams in fear, his brother is still alive somehow, but barely. Support creative writers by reading their stories on Royal Road, not stolen versions.


    His brother slowly raises his remaining arm while crying and says "??????, it hurts, please help me brother, make the pain stop." The man who the boy shot in the leg gets out of the backseat and slowly limps his way over to the brother of ?????? that was just hit by the car. He then points a gun at him and says, "You''re not going anywhere boy, I guess that''s another one down."


    The gun the man was holding is fired and he laughs a bit before turning towards ?????? and saying, "Now then, it''s finally your turn." the boy is crying a lot, his eyes filled with sorrow and rage. He pulls out a knife from his pocket that has a beautiful sheath, the sheath has light purple chains and aqua blue vines engraved all over it and the rest of the sheath is a nice mixture of light grey and white.


    He unsheathed the knife, the blade is black on one side and white on the other, and the handle is a deep blue it truly is a beautiful work of art. The knife has been passed down for generations in his father''s family, it was a heirloom, it was apparently created by his great great great great great grandfather for an unknown purpose and it was so beautiful that they kept it as a heirloom.


    But don''t let it fool you, this knife isn''t just about looks, it is extremely sharp, it''s even rumored to be able to cut through iron if someone was strong enough, but no one has ever used it in fear of dulling the blade and ruining the family''s pride. This will be the first time it has ever been used, it''s a good thing that ?????? grabbed it otherwise he would be defenseless right now.


    ?????? rushes at the man with emotionless eyes as if he is dead inside and grins.

 V2 - Ch 20 A dream of a murderous boy named ?????? pt 4

    ?????? is rushing towards the man, who is surprised by this action, and points his gun at ?????? and attempts to fire before he can get to close. However, to his dismay, the gun makes a clicking sound and that''s when he realizes that he is out of bullets. The man say''s "Alright, I guess I''m doing this the old fashion way then."


    The man puts up his fists and prepares to fight ?????? who has a knife, with his bare hands. ?????? swings wildly at the man and gets a few good slashes on his chest and arms. The man throws some punches at ?????? and manages to knock him down after hitting him pretty hard in the stomach. It seems that ?????? passed out since the man hit him there hard enough.


    The man turns around and goes to the car to grab some more bullets so he doesn''t have to beat ?????? to death and can instead just shoot him while he is unconscious. Slowly, step, step, step.


    He arrives at the car, and begins to open the door but seems to have some trouble doing so, he then begins to pull a bit harder and says "Stupid thing, why are you always so hard to open?"


    The door makes a sound and then it opens a bit then he sighs and says "Finally." He then starts to open the door the rest of the way, however when it is halfway open...


    *Sound of flesh being pierced and ripping, along with the sound of blood splattering*


    The man slowly turns his head as much as he could to see what just happened. ?????? is standing there grinning creepily with the knife he is holding shoved into the man''s back, only the handle is still visible, there is blood all over ??????''s face but none of it is his own it''s all the man''s. The man''s face is one of disgust, anger, and surprise. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    The man says "Y-You were awake, ah I see, you were waiting for me to drop my guard the most, you''re a clever kid." The man then coughs up blood as ?????? pulls the knife out of his back still grinning. The man turns around and slides down to the bottom of the car with his back against it smearing blood as he does so.


    The man coughs once again and then says "Kid, listen to me carefully, in my pocket is a ticket for a train to the other side of the country, take it and get out of here." ?????? shows a face of confusion and as if knowing what it means the man says "There is nowhere for you to return to right? I have an old plot of land out there that I owned, in the car the deed to said land is in the glove box."


    The man takes a deep breath then continues "You''re just a kid, but if I''m going to die then I thought I might as well let you have it. Just sign your name onto it, you will be the inheritor of the land, it was my backup plan in case somehow one of you managed to take me down which I was hoping you would."


    He continues "I was sick of this life and all the horrible things I''ve had to do, but I couldn''t run away because then it would haunt me forever and also a fate worse than death would come for me, as that is the punishment for abandonment. Anyway enough about my suffering, I have a bit more to tell you that''s really important."


    He coughs up blood once again and his breathing gets more heavy as he says "There''s a lot of cash buried in that land right smack dab in the center, *cough* take whatever you want, there might be some other things in there, it was so long ago that i don''t remember anymore. But kid, I can almost guarantee that it is the only place you will be able to call that place home one day."


    He seems to be struggling to breath at this point "Please, take care of that land kid, I wish I could be there to see ya grow up, I feel like it would be quite entertaining, but it seems this is where I come to an end, good luck out there kid, though for some reason I have a feeling your not gonna need it."


    The man''s eyes then lose the life within them and his head drops as he falls silent, dead.

 V2 - Ch 21 A dream of a murderous boy named ?????? pt 5, End of origin arc

    ?????? took the car and left, the man in the car knew this was going to happen and was ordered not to do anything, he wasn''t involved with any of this and was just the driver for his friend whom he just saw die. He gladly took ?????? to the train station where he got on and left for the place where he will find the land.


    ?????? lived in the land, growing, he paid people anonymously to build a small two floor wooden house for him in that place and started to wear a black hoodie and dark grey pants wherever he went, he never showed his face. The house was empty in most rooms, except for some that held basic things that most houses have.


    He lived there, alone, his mind half insane. Overtime, he became more and more crazy, started hearing voices in his head, the voices weren''t of someone else, they all sounded exactly like him, albeit some of them were slightly different but no huge differences.  ?????? kept to himself over the years, made a daily routine, and tried to get a normal rest of his life, however it was all futile.


    One day after he got home from his grocery shopping at the end of the week, the moment he closed his front door he fell to his knee''s clutching his head tightly. The voices are louder then ever, and they are all screaming the same thing at him, "KILL, KILL, KILL, KILL, IT''S FUN TO KILL SO COME ON, START TO KILL!"


    He knew they were right, he remembers that feeling he had when his first killed that man all those years ago, but he doesn''t want to ruin his wonderful life, if he gets caught then its all over. The voices continue but say something different now "COME ON ITS ALRIGHT, YOU WON''T GET CAUGHT, JUST KILL AS LONG AS YOUR SMART ABOUT IT YOU WON''T GET CAUGHT!"


    Then, it went deathly silent, after a few seconds something like the sound of a large glass pane shattering is heard except it wasn''t a real sound, ??????''s mind, has finally, shattered completely, and thus marked the beginning of the murderer who was known as the dark reaper for only killing in darkness, he did assassin jobs as well, it helped him pay for things he needed.This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Over the years ?????? got better, and better, he made lots of enemies, was seen in the act quite a bit, and eventually his fate caught up to him, his house was burned due to a angry mob finding out where he lived and burning it to the ground, luckily he escaped with his life, but shortly after a private detective noticed him escaping and started to follow him trying to catch him.


    The detective took some shots with his gun but only hit him once in the chest and it didn''t bring him down, after he was hit, ?????? entered an abandoned warehouse at the edge of the town he lived next to and as he is running he is shot in the leg by the detective and crawls over to a wall and sits with his back against it.


    He coughs out some blood and his breathing gets heavy, the detective then walks up to ?????? and points the gun directly at his forehead. ?????? is at his last breath... his vision seems to be fading in and out...he supposes that the man in front of him was serious and didn''t lie when he told him a while ago that he would end him.


    The detective speaks up, "Whelp, I told you I would kill you eventually Harold. You may be a skilled assassin, but your not immortal eventually every killer is caught, in the end the good guys always win."


    Harold responds to him "Well I guess this is where it ends huh even if I do live on anymore, I will only be hunted down by people looking for revenge. So I take it your going to kill me now and get it over with?" The detective says "Yeah, any last words?" This is Harold''s last chance to tell him the most important thing of all, so he opens his mouth and speaks.


    "Heh it''s to bad, even though you''re going to kill me, none of those people that I killed will come back to life. If I had a second Chance at life, I wouldn''t, well I probably wouldn''t be as evil, who knows maybe I would actually be a nice guy." The detective then speaks up and says his final farewell to Harold "Goodbye Harold I guess your reign of terror is over."


    *BANG*


    The gun is fired and everything goes black for Harold Dark, the man who was rumored to be a immortal and uncatchable killer and was deemed a reaper of darkness and struck fear into the hearts of many.


    The Dark Reaper has met his end and proved his mortality.

 V2 - Ch 22 Kurai, The Demon Lord of Darkness (End of volume 2)

    I awaken in a cold sweat, I feel satisfied and I don''t understand why. However, at least now I know that the emotion of satisfaction has returned. That dream I had, I don''t remember much of it, its all foggy now, the only things that I cam remember is a name that is strangely familiar, Harold Dark, and one other name that seems familiar as well, Davis Light.


    I brush it off as it was ju- I begin to scream at the top of my lungs, "AHHHHHHHHHHHHH, HOLY SHIT, THAT HURTS, WHAT IS THIS PAIN, ITS AS IF ITS ATTACKING MY VERY SOUL!"


    (view change, Lano, Shit is going down now, welcome to the end game boys and girls.)


    We all are sitting together when we hear the scream, lord Kurai is in pain, we all rush to his bedroom and I am the first to get there so I swing the door open only to be terrified at what I see. Black goop is oozing out of cracks in the ground and the air and making its way towards lord Kurai, I shout out to him "MY LORD, WHAT''S GOING ON ARE YOU ALRIGHT?!"


    He notices me and says with a tear falling down his left eye due to the immense pain he is clearly going through, "H-help me Lano, I don''t know whats happening to me, s-something is changing me and also trying to destroy me at the same time." I nod at the others and we try to get closer but are stopped by the black goop that tries to attack us each time we do so.


    Then words are formed by the black goop in the air in front of us after a few more attempts to get past it, the words say, ''You cant always change fate or destiny, in fact, even if you do manage to change it, your only delaying the inevitable, but in this case you cant change a thing, back off, you will never succeeded at changing fate or destiny this time this time. It. Has. Already. Been. Written.''


    We all back away and listen to the words as we know they are the truth, then the goop starts to enter and change lord Kurai. His purple hair gets black highlights in it at some places, his fingernails turn pure black, his teeth get a bit sharper but not too noticeable, and then he begins to float in the air.


    We are all very worried about lord Kurai and what happens next doesn''t help one bit, it makes it worse. The goop begins to enter his eyes and mouth and then when its all gone his eyes glow a black light with no pupils at all just all black. He roars and flies out through the ceiling and into the sky where a portal opens after he says in a deep voice "VOIDIOUS" and then he flies into it.The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.


    (View change, Shadow Beast, getting closer and closer.)


    I hear a large rumble and go to check out whats going on, Darkious isn''t with me today, he is with the demon lord Rein Strevus so I''m alone in the void for now, or so I thought. I exit my house and notice Brine floating in the void and his eyes glowing black, I also realize that, the disease has already spread to his soul.


    I say, "Oh shit, well nothing I can do about it now, might as well just sit here and see what he does, after all, he''s not dead yet so something strange is afoot." He then starts to chant something,


    "All the beings in their heavens and hells head my calls, I will arise one day but that day may not be today, I am the true darkness and the true unknown, so I call upon my power to begin growing my true potentials,"


    "Begone first limiters, bring me prosper and allow me to grow, allow me to traverse, and allow me to collect, for I have awoken, awoken indeed and now it begins,"


    "THE AREA OF DARKNESS AND UNKNOWN HAS BEGUN FEAR IT OR REVERE IT, DO AS YOU WISH WITH THAT KNOWLEDGE, LIMIT BREAKER FIRST STAGE!"


    He starts to glow in a mixture of white and black light and then a shattering noise is heard and tons of laughing voices as well, like the damned laughing at his success, it was terrifying even for me. After he does that he looks at me, grins, and opens a portal back to the world and falls unconscious through it.


    Meanwhile, while Brine is falling through the sky and Lano and the others are running outside to catch him, his spell book has opened by itself and went through a change, it now has a new spell in it that he didn''t write, a spell known as, world traverse. A spell that can be used to travel through reality itself and enter an alternate world.


    But only one world can be chosen to be used anytime the spell activates after that world is chosen you cant change it, you can only go back and forth between the world you choose and the world you first used the spell on to go to said world.


    It also seems that brine or I guess we should call him Kurai now, is dying pretty fast and it seems to be linked to the world traverse somehow, if he can go to the world he needs to and find out whatever is killing him while he is in this world, then he will live, but that means, he has to leave all his friends here behind and enter a new, strange, unknown, world without any knowledge of it and save himself.


    Will he be able to do it, who know, find out in the next volume of The Darkness in Your Mind.