《Divine Bladesmith》 Chapter 1: The Unknown Smith In a dimly lit, and more than slightly run down bar, a loud and boisterous group of people sat at a long table, consuming copious amounts of alcohol and food. The owner of the bar and inn kept glancing over at them, wishing that he could throw the group out, due to the fact that they were disturbing the other customers, who were leaving one by one, driven away by the noise and behaviour of the group. The owner, though, knew that he had no good excuse to get them to leave¡ªAfter all, it¡¯s only a group of people celebrating after a day''s work, right? Part of the problem was that the building hadn¡¯t seen such a cheerful and loud atmosphere for decades. It had even gained a somewhat strong reputation as a prime place for seedy transactions and dubious dealings. Thus, this group was driving away his biggest customers, who preferred dark and quiet places, where they wouldn¡¯t be recognized, or asked complicated questions. However, were the owner to ask the group to leave, then he was sure things would get messy, quickly. If they went to the city guards, then it would bring their attention on his previously unremarkable building. Considering that he caters to people not wanting any attention, the owner couldn¡¯t afford any exposure. So he just had to leave the group alone, and bear the cost of the customers who had left. The group continued to make merry through the night, seemingly unaware of how many they drove away. At the head of their table, sat a gigantic and beefy man, with a beard worthy of a dwarf, and hands as big as his plate. If one looked closely enough, they would notice that his overly large hands plucked at his food nimbly and delicately, in a way that seemed impossible considering how large they are. Parts of his beard were singed, and his face somewhat sooty. When he laughed, it was with a deep booming sound, echoing through the building. His eyes, black though they might be, smoldered within their sockets, like flames dwelled within. The rest of the table was filled with similarly eccentric characters, in many different styles of clothing and personalities. While the large man seemed to be fire, across the table sat his opposite, with a clean shaven face, sharply made clothes, and eyes that could pierce through you with their coldness. His hands were pale, and he ate with great care. When the whole table laughed, he only smiled slightly, casting a sinister light over his icy features. One of the few women at the gathering sat in the middle, halfway down the table from those two polar opposites. She had deep black hair down to her back, and her thin and elegant hands worked quickly. You could see stains on those hands if you looked close enough, like a paint or ink of some sort. Her tired looking eyes took in the whole table, and seemed to see everything at once. At one point, she brushed back her hair, revealing long, pointed ears. She would laugh and smirk in equal measures. Across from her, there was only an empty chair. It was the only unoccupied chair at the whole table, in this large group of twenty or so, filled with so many different races and people. And while there was twenty people there, the focus of everyone seemed to be one those three, and the empty chair. It was obvious that the group was expecting one more, someone capable of demanding just as much attention as the other three, who were considered the leaders of the group, for many reasons. While waiting for the chair¡¯s occupant to arrive, conversation at the table continued. A variety of things were talked about. A common theme seemed to be economics, and trade. Odd things to speak about in such a run down bar. One even had to wonder why this out-of-place group had even chosen such a place to meet in the first place, given the atmosphere, and reputation owned by the building. In fact, that was another topic that the group talked about¡ªthe choice of location. It was first brought up by a middle-aged and slightly overweight man, posing the question to the whole group. He had been the second of the group to arrive at the building, and had nearly thought that he misheard the meeting location, until he spotted the large, bearded man sitting alone at one end of the then empty table. Even then, he couldn¡¯t not notice the grim atmosphere of the place, and how the large man seemingly rejected it, by drinking merrily, and loudly greeting the man as he entered. Others expressed a similar question, and the dark haired woman answered them. ¡°Well, it¡¯s simple really. We left the choice to Hogvir, and he gleefully chose this place.¡± Hogvir, the large man at one end of the table, smiled broadly. (Hogvir) ¡°I thought it would be interesting, and a good difference to those stupidly fancy places we always go. They always seem to want to throw me out.¡± Some of the people at the table grumbled at that. The cold refined man opposite Hogvir spoke. ¡°Just because you want to come here, does not mean this is the same for the rest of us, Hogvir. We often go to those ¡®stupidly fancy places¡¯ because most of us feel more comfortable there.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Ugh. Fine. You got me there, Jourmont.¡± Listening to their conversations, many things could be figured out. Hogvir, the large man, seemed to work with metal, forging armour, and providing rare ore to other blacksmiths in the city. Jourmont, the cold man, cooks food for a living, and runs several popular ¡®stupidly fancy¡¯ restaurants in the city. The black haired woman, named Ash, runs a tailor shop catering to both nobles and adventurers alike. Everyone at the table ran a business of their own. If anyone listening in knew the shops, parlors, and banks of the city well, they would be shocked to find that, at that table, sat many of the biggest names as far as business is concerned in the city. The night wound down, and the group at the table began to leave, one by one, claiming that they needed rest for the next day, or that they had to get home soon. Eventually, only three were left at the table, Ash, Hogvir, and Jourmont. (Ash) ¡°*sigh*. That makes it¡ªwhat, the third time, right?¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Correct. Maybe we should just leave him alone? Not invite him next time?¡± (Hogvir) ¡°No, we¡¯ll invite him. We¡¯d better. As a fellow blacksmith, I can tell just how much he¡¯s surpassed any of us. We have to get to know him, somehow.¡± (Ash) ¡°And how do you propose we do that? That guy is the most secretive person in the city at the moment. No one¡¯s even seen his face yet, nor meet with him for more than ten minutes at a time. We¡¯ve invited him to our meetings, but he¡¯s never shown up, and shows no intention of doing so.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°I have an idea, but I¡¯m not sure how you guys¡¯ll like it.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Oh? Pray tell.¡± ¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª¡ª At the other end of the city, while those three discussed various things, a small hut containing an equally small smithy cast a dim red glow out it¡¯s windows, and a persistent hammering came from within. This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. Even with how late the night was, no one came to bother the small figure hammering away at a glowing piece of metal. Though, the fact that the hut was situated near the red-light areas of the city might have contributed to that. After all, there was more than one type of banging going on during the night. Incredibly, the metal seemed almost alive under the hands of the small figure, and took shape quickly. The metal cooled as the figure worked it, though, and it was put back into a forge, glowing red hot, even though there wasn¡¯t any visible fuel source. As the night went on, the metal bar shaped itself into a gently curving dagger, without any ornate embellishments. While the shape of it was classically elegant, it was otherwise as plain as could be. The blade was beveled, and soon took on an edge. While the blade wasn¡¯t anything fancy, there were some barely noticeable color changes in places, with lighter areas near the cutting portions of the blade, and darker grey areas at the spine and flat sides. Some wood was affixed to the tang of the blade, where the handle would end up. The dark colored wood was trimmed down by the figure, until it put down the blade, seemingly satisfied. The blade was left unpolished, and could almost be mistaken for a second-rate blade, but for the fact that the shape of the blade was anything but simple, with a slight curve, one edge, and even width until the point, where it slimmed down, and joined up with the spine, which had also been gently tapered, forming a false edge near the point of the dagger. The figure wrapped the dagger in linen strips, and left it by the anvil. It didn¡¯t join any of the other finished blades in the small hut, which were resting against one wall. Those finished blades varied in size, shape, and impression. They all had one thing in common, though¡ªThese were some of the deadliest blades in the city at the moment. Even if some of them seemed unfinished at the moment. In fact, some of the unfinished ones were far and above the others. The figure put on a cloak, and hid its face within a featureless mask before grabbing the linen wrapped blade, and leaving the hut. It only walked outside, though, and simply waited, as the sun began to rise. It didn¡¯t take too long for someone to arrive. It was a man, wearing a nicely made suit, and carrying a dignified air, followed by two other, less refined men struggling to hold a chest between the two. They dropped the chest in front of the figure, who opened it, and exposed the glint of various non-precious metal bars within. Some of it was steel, some was iron, though there were other metals in there, with various shades of color ranging from the simple greys, to a couple of blue bars, and others that were black. There was even a pure white bar in there. The dignified man spoke, as the figure looked through the chest. ¡°As agreed, here¡¯s the payment for your latest work, and the three previous ones. Now, if you would please produce the finished work?¡± The figure, not looking up from the chest, simply held out the wrapped blade. The dignified man unwrapped it, and pretended to inspect the blade, even though it was obvious he had no idea what to look for. ¡°May we do business again, Bladesmith Kai.¡± The figure, Kai, nodded in the man¡¯s general direction, before shutting the chest, and picking it up easily, even when two grown men had struggled with it¡¯s weight. This would be a near super-human feat for a grown man, and Kai barely seemed to reach the shoulders of one average sized person. While Kai was busy with this, the dignified man smirked lightly, with a trace amount of disdain in his eyes, before leaving. Kai hauled the chest back to the hut, and simply dropped it on the floor near the forge, before going through a door leading deeper into the hut. Inside the other room, a bed was pushed into a corner, and another chest held personal effects like clothes, books, mementos, and a small iron knife, poorly made, but well cared for. Kai shut the door, and locked it. Not many would realize it, but the sound of metal clinking sounded from multiple points on the door as it was locked, securing it in an over-kill fashion. Confident of the safety, and privacy in this room and the hut in general, Kai took off the mask and cloak, and removed the blacksmith¡¯s apron. Kai spun around, and looked into a large mirror set into one of the walls. Sizing up the figure in the mirror, Kai simply stared for a few seconds, before sitting down on the bed, and meditating. The figure in the mirror had been that of a girl, looking to be around twelve years old, with long, bone white hair, golden eyes which darkened toward the center, and doll-like pale features. Were she to grow a little more mature, she would easily be a very beautiful woman. Though, the focus of most people would be on the delicate and small horns emerging from her head, and the fact that her eyes had reptilian slit pupils. She also had a long and thin tail hidden, wrapped around her waist. When she had looked in the mirror, some windows had popped up in front of her, titled Status. This was the reason she had looked into the mirror in the first place, before meditating.
Status:
Name: Katariah Silver
Race: Demon/ElfAge: 13Gender: Female
Main Class: MageSub Class(es): Smith; Swordsman
Level: 20
Health: 300Mana: 75000
Strength: 48Stamina: 32Dexterity: 60
Intelligence: 62Wisdom: 58Luck: 1
Skills:
Mana Manipulation: Medium LV9
Fire Manipulation: Medium LV7
Dark Manipulation: Basic LV9
Water Manipulation: Medium LV4
Earth Manipulation: Advanced LV3
Smithing: Expert LV2
Woodworking: Basic LV9
Sword Fighting: Advanced LV9
Tailoring: Medium LV3
Demonic Transformation: Basic LV2
Analyze: MAX
Farsight: Advanced LV8
Wiseman: Expert LV4
Chapter 2: The Mystery Deepens Kai, or rather, Katariah Silver, slept during the day. It was something she¡¯d done for years, And was equal parts nature and habit. It should also be noted that those of the demons kin typically only had to sleep four hours to every fifty or so spent awake. And elves, possessing a great vitality, could last almost as long. So, for Kai, sleeping is more of a treat than a necessity. She could go nearly a week without sleeping, and had multiple times before. Normally, it would be impossible to sleep during the day in a large and noisy trade city, but it was made possible by the fact that Kai had set up shop next to the buildings of the red-light district. It was typically somewhat quiet during the day, unlike many other parts of the city. Then, the sun started setting, and Kai started moving sluggishly within the thin sheets of the bed. She began making small mewling noises, and crying out while still sleeping, thrashing in the bed now. The sun set completely, and Kai bolted upright, covered in sweat, her eyes wide and frightened. Then, looking around and remembering where she was, she sighed. (Kai) ¡°That¡¯s right. I never made it in time¡­¡± She whispered to herself in a clear and bell like voice, reminding herself of reality again.
(POV Kai) Having that dream is never a good way to start the day. Or night. Whatever. I look in the mirror again after waking up, using my¡¼Analyze¡½skill on the reflection of me, and my Status shows up as a pop-up window which only I can see. I look through it, not really expecting any changes, though I was still a little surprised at the 13 in my age column¡ªI had only been twelve two days ago, and with my birthday yesterday, that had changed. Analyze was a useful skill in that regard. I might have completely forgotten about it, had I not noticed the change yesterday. Those without the skill had to rely on magic circles which revealed all the important information about a person, or a guild card. I myself have a guild card, for appearances sake, but prefer to not look at it. With¡¼Analyze¡½, I can at least filter out some of the information. The card shows all¡ªName, titles, occupation, stats. It is rare to see someone without the¡¼Analyze¡½skill, though. Normally, it can be taught easily, and the skill patches you to into the World System, allowing you to see everything you could possibly ever want to know about yourself. Only those completely without any magic talent are unable to learn it, and have to rely on the aforementioned magic circles and guild card. Everyone else only uses those to show the information on them to others. Otherwise, if you wanted to see someone else''s stats, your¡¼Analyze¡½skill level has to be very high. I go through the normal wake-up routine, quickly circulating my mana through my body, and weaving it in intricate patterns through the air in front of me. This helps improve my¡¼Mana Manipulation¡½skill, improving it much faster than just mindlessly casting spells. Smithing and working with metal also helps, due to the process involved. If¡¼Mana Manipulation¡½improved at the same rate as most of the other skills, then it would have long ago surpassed them. After an hour of this, I was feeling satisfied and hungry at the same time¡ªan odd combination. I threw on my day to day clothes, and put on a large cloak over that, hoping to hide my body shape and size a little. I put on the mask, and drew the hood of the cloak over my head, completely covering any recognizable features, particularly my horns and eyes. Though you could probably see my eyes ever so slightly if you looked hard enough. I just need to keep people from looking that closely. First, I want to do something about the hunger, so I start walking to a nearby restaurant. And by nearby, I mean that it¡¯s across the street. I go here so often that the staff knows my order, and my special requests by heart now. It¡¯s a bit depressing, really. I could go to another place, but now I feel like that would be a betrayal to them. Sure enough, as soon as I enter the restaurant, a bubbly and energetic looking girl pops up by me, smiling. She¡¯s the daughter of one of the chefs, named Dresia. (Dresia) ¡°Ah! Hello again, Kai! We have your seat prepared, and your food is nearly done!¡± The girl leads me to a small table facing towards the wall on the other side of the restaurant, one that only fit one person. (Kai) ¡°Are those knives I made for the chefs treating them well?¡± Instead of the voice I normally have, a distinctly lower, and more gravelly voice comes out¡ªone of the useful functions of the mask I always wore in public. (Dresia) ¡°Yeah! They can¡¯t stop praising them! In the month they¡¯ve had the knives, they haven¡¯t had to be sharpened even once!¡± (Kai) ¡°Good. I¡¯m happy to hear that.¡± (Dresia) ¡°Alright, here¡¯s your seat. The food should be done in a minute!¡± Dresia practically bounced away, ready to greet the next customer, and serve the tables already seated. Wow, just watching her be so energetic makes me tired. True to their word, the food was ready not even ten minutes later. I nearly always came to the restaurant at the same time, and always ordered the same thing. These last few weeks, the foods been ready within minutes of me entering the restaurant. The chefs are also eager to both please and repay me, since I gifted them a set of kitchen knives made by me during some free time. Apparently, they took a liking to them. The meal in front of me was the result of these feelings, and I could tell that the chefs put in all their effort to make it every time I came. It was a relatively simple dish¡ª What most would call a pasta. The noodles steamed slightly in the cooling night air, and were covered in a meat sauce containing ground beef, juice from a broth continuously cooking in the kitchen, various spices, and the kitchen¡¯s self proclaimed ¡®secret ingredient¡¯. I think it was just some cheese, though. Well, ingredients or not, the food was really good. It seemed a balm to me the first time I had tried it, and it still was. That initial bite, with the pasta covered in the beef sauce, simply explodes in the mouth in a complex rhythm of flavors, each one perfectly suited to one another. The texture of the noodle, and the impressions of heat on the tongue are not something to underestimate. And then, once you swallow, there¡¯s this cheesy aftertaste that lingers, filling you with good feelings and leaving you wanting more. The meal is quickly gone. I took off my mask for the meal, of course. It lays on the table, right next to me. The staff knows to not bother me while the mask is off, and they respect my privacy. I¡¯m sure they just think I¡¯m horribly disfigured or something, and feel self conscious about it. That¡¯s also the reason I sit at this table facing the wall, so none of the other customers could see my face. It¡¯s a little bothersome, but necessary. I don¡¯t want to draw too much attention, or have anyone remember what I look like. I can always change masks, but it¡¯s somewhat more difficult to swap out my face. After finishing the meal, I don the mask again, and plop down a few coins before rushing out the door, as a little game played between the restaurant staff and I. You see, because of the knives I gifted them as a thank you for all the meals, they said I no longer had to pay. However, I think that such good food should always be paid for, as it shows respect of the chefs, and the restaurant as a whole. And, I don¡¯t like feeling like I owe someone stuff. Thus, before they can refuse my payment, I leave. The genuine version of this novel can be found on another site. Support the author by reading it there. Smiling happily under the mask I wore, I made my way across the street, ducking through the light amounts of evening traffic before walking down the unoccupied street lot in front of my little house. (???) ¡°You¡¯re Kai, right?¡± I spun around, pointing my empty hand at the source of the voice which had somehow just appeared behind me without me realizing it. I would be lying if I said that it hadn¡¯t scared me a little. And then, seeing the voice¡¯s source, I was absolutely and completely flabbergasted. (???) ¡°Hasn¡¯t anyone ever taught you that it¡¯s rude to point at your elders, kid?¡± It was a massive man. No, it might have been a mountain, one that had somehow escaped my notice as I was walking. His voice was deep and kind sounding, though a bit exasperated at the moment. His beard stood out the most, after his size. It reached his chest is an explosion of fiery red hairs, and had a few spots where it had been braided. Then I saw his eyes, like two glowing embers able to burst into full and glorious flame at a moment''s notice, they displayed a deep intellect and curiosity, and seemed to almost drill into me in the brief moments he¡¯s looking at me. (Kai) ¡°Sorry. Do you have business with me?¡± I tried my best to recover from my surprise, and made my voice sound gruff and irritated. Subtly making it sound like I was annoyed often made those seeking one of my blades leave faster than they would have otherwise. (???) ¡°I do. In case you were wondering, my name¡¯s Hogvir, and I want to commission two things from you.¡± (Kai) ¡°Oh? Pray tell, and I¡¯ll get to work on them.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Alright then. First, I want to commission one greatsword.¡± (Kai) ¡°I need more than that.¡± (Hogvir) ¡° *Ehem* Sorry. The blade¡¯ll be a hand wide, and about three arm lengths long. Taper it ¡®bout four finger lengths from the point, and put a great big crossguard on it. Of course, the hilt¡¯ll be two hands, and have it be evenly balanced.¡± (Kai) ¡°And for the second blade?¡± Hogvir smiled broadly, and I got an uneasy feeling. It occurred to me that perhaps I shouldn¡¯t have asked about the second blade after all. Hagvir confirmed these bad feelings with his next words. (Hogvir) ¡°Oh, no. There will be no other blade. The other thing I want to commission is your time. I want to talk to you, get to know you.¡± (Kai) ¡°Not happening. I deal in blades only.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°And if I said I had a bit of Starsteel waiting? Just enough to smith a good sword?¡± I gasped slightly, and my disinterested demeanor fell within a heartbeat. (Kai) ¡°What! You have Starsteel?! How did you get enough for a sword?!¡± (Hogvir) ¡°It was a gift from an old friend.¡± (Kai) ¡°Then why use it on me? There are plenty of better uses for such a large piece of Starsteel.¡± I slowly fell back into the persona I normally used when doing business, disinterested and aloof. (Hogvir) ¡°Think of it as an investment for the future. While I don¡¯t want to lose it, I would feel better knowing that it¡¯s in a damn good blade, as I¡¯m sure you¡¯ll be able to make with it.¡± I pretended to think about the offer for a while. Normally, I would have every intention of refusing, but with Starsteel on the table, I can¡¯t afford to say no. (Kai) ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll make your blade, and...talk to you. When do you want to meet?¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Tomorrow. I assume you know about the restaurant across the street, right?¡± I laughed to myself a little at that. (Kai) ¡°Yeah. I know it.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°I¡¯ll meet you there after sunset, and I¡¯ll bring the Starsteel with me. Deal?¡± (Kai) ¡°Deal. See you then.¡± Hogvir left. For such a big man, he made very little noise when moving. I was somewhat surprised when he turned slightly, and waved a massive hand back at me. Annoyed and happy in equal measure, I entered the house and removed the cloak and mask. I felt slightly taken advantage of by Hogvir. He had known exactly what to offer to me to get me to cooperate, and hadn¡¯t hesitated to use it. Even more than that, I had to wonder what he wanted to talk about in the first place. Was it so important as to warrant the use of one of the rarest metals in the world, Starsteel? Sighing, I picked up my hammer, and grabbed some higher quality steel to begin forging Hogvir''s sword. I figured that I might as well get it out of the way as soon as I could.
Three people met in a back room of an extremely well renowned restaurant. One was a massive red haired man, who Kai would recognize as Hogvir. One was the graceful and beautiful elf Ash, and the last was the cold and well dressed man named Jourmont. In fact, the restaurant was one owned by Jourmont, though most in the public didn¡¯t know that. (Ash) ¡°How did it go?¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Well, I¡¯m not sure, to be honest.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°What do you mean?¡± (Hogvir) ¡°I couldn¡¯t figure anything out about Kai, other than the fact that he¡¯s a damn good bladesmith. All the people who¡¯ve bought from him know that, though. For gods sake, one of his swords can cut through a solid block of iron like it¡¯s not even there.¡± (Ash) ¡°Really, you could find nothing?¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Really. When I first saw him, I thought Kai was just a kid, on account of his size, but he has reactions no kid should have. When I snuck up on him, he automatically prepared magic, and there was even a bit of killing intent in his actions. I¡¯ll have to figure out more tomorrow night.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°I thought you were also going to snoop around his workshop, and check out his living spaces.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°I was, but I think that Ash should be the one to do that.¡± Ash¡¯s eyes widened a bit, since she knew that there would be only one occasion where she would be better suited for something than Hogvir. Jourmont simply looked a little confused. (Jourmont) ¡°Why would she be better¡­.Oh!¡± Hogvir nodded. (Hogvir) ¡°Right. The place was encased in wards against entry, and would have both alerted Kai to what I was doing, and likely trapped me in until he returned.¡± (Ash) ¡°I¡¯m getting more and more intrigued about this Kai character. He makes the best swords in the city, no one¡¯s seen his face, nor knows where he came from, and now he¡¯s an accomplished mage as well. I wonder just what else he¡¯s hiding.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Well, I did some digging, and as it turns out, he also enters the city labyrinth by himself from time to time, likely searching for raw materials.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Alone?! Damn, how strong is he?!¡± (Ash) ¡°Calm down, Hogvir. He could just be staying on the first floor. There is nothing to say that he goes any deeper.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Right. But, regardless, I¡¯m finding myself looking forward to tomorrow more and more.¡± The other two nodded in agreement.
Chapter 3: The Fine Print I put down a long bar of metal, one that had vaguely acquired a sword-like shape. If anyone had seen me working, they would have been astonished to find that I was able to quickly and easily move a piece of metal taller than me, and even though it had been considerably thinned out, it was still heavy enough to give the largest of adults problems. I thought that Hogvir, massive as he is, would be able to easily swing such a large sword around. It still needed some work, but the basic shape had been refined over the course of the night, and the day following. I opted to fold the metal a total of 4 times, and end with a layer count of just under one hundred and thirty. These layers alternate between hard and soft metals, to give the blade both sharpness, and flexibility. It¡¯s no good if you have the sharpest blade ever made, but it shatters on contact with other metal. The opposite is also true, that the sturdiest blade is only a bar of metal if it can¡¯t hold an edge. Bladesmithing is all about finding a balance, and maintaining it. While working the metal, I circulate my mana through it, improving the core strength of the materials used in the blade, as well as guiding the smaller structures in the metal to align in ways which bring out certain aspects of the blade. I also run my mana through the blade in patterns, creating small circuits in the blade which should keep it from rusting, keep it sharp, and improve the ability to manifest any mana passing through the blade itself. For instance, the greatsword I¡¯m making for Hogvir will have the ability to coat itself in flames, while not damaging the blades finish or structural integrity. However, like everything, there is a limit to how hot the flames can get before the sword can take no more. I was done for the day, though, as I had reached my goal. I¡¯ll be able to finish the sword within a few days, and then, after that, I could make something I¡¯d been meaning to for a while now. The Starsteel gives me a good chance to make it. I removed the thick apron hanging in front of me, and the clothes underneath, before throwing on a cleaner shirt and pants. Working as a smith tends to singe clothing, and coat everything in a layer of soot and metal fragments. Over these clothes, I put on a long coat with a hood. The coat¡¯s bottom fell to my knees, and covered almost all the skin not concealed by the clothing underneath. I tucked my long hair under the coat, and put my mask on before drawing the hood over my head. Pausing for a moment, I remembered the last time I went around in public unmasked, and the chaos which followed. Shaking myself of these memories while grinning wryly, I walked out of my little house, and made my way to the restaurant where Hogvir had said he would meet me. Just like every other time, as soon as I entered the restaurant, Dresia made her way over to me. (Dresia) ¡°Hey Kai! We have your normal table ready, and the food just finished cooking!¡± (Kai) ¡°Ah, sorry, but it looks like I¡¯ll be joined for company tonight, so could you prepare another table, one fit for two?¡± Dresia looked shocked for a moment, before regaining a bit of control. (Dresia) ¡°Oh. Well, sure. We have a good table over here, for you and your...company.¡± (Kai) ¡°Thanks, Dresia. This is probably a one time thing though, so it should be back to normal soon.¡± (Dresia) ¡°Oh? It¡¯s only once? Alright, well, here¡¯s your table!¡± The table was set into an alcove, with the two chairs facing each other. Unfortunately, it looked like I wasn¡¯t going to be able to eat, unless I want Hogvir to see my face. While sitting down, Dresia hopped away, humming happily. I wonder what that¡¯s about? I didn¡¯t have to wait long before a man nearly as tall as the ceiling, and as wide as the door, enters the restaurant. Dresia goes to great him, and I hear my name mentioned. A look of understanding appears on Dresia¡¯s face, before she leads him to my table. He sits in the chair opposite me, and makes it look like furniture for children, rather than the full sized pieces that they are. He puts down a bag that had been hanging from his back, setting it by his chair. When it hits the floor, it becomes apparent that there were some very heavy materials in the bag. (Kai) ¡°Is that the Starsteel?¡± Hogvir grins. (Hogvir) ¡°Yeah. So, this Starsteel is being spent on simply talking to you, any idea what you¡¯ll use it on?¡± (Kai) ¡°Yeah. I have a few ideas.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Are you going to tell me, or just leave me curious?¡± I frown slightly under the mask, though Hogvir wasn¡¯t able to see it. (Kai) ¡°Same as any other metal I come across. Make a blade.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Ha! True. I would have just made some armor with it, just because that¡¯s all I know how to do!¡± (Kai) ¡°You¡¯re an armorer?¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Yeah, one of the better in the city. But I can¡¯t make weapons, so I have to rely on other smiths for that. I¡¯ve heard of your reputation, and decided to get one of your swords. Then, I was curious about arguably the best swordsmith in the city, and wanted to know more.¡± (Kai) ¡°I¡¯m not complaining about getting the Starsteel, but don¡¯t you think it¡¯s a bit much to spend it on a single sword and a talk with me?¡± Hogvir stared at me like I was an idiot. (Hogvir) ¡°Wait, did you think this would be the only time we talked? No, there¡¯s more.¡± (Kai) ¡°What?! That¡¯s not what we agreed to!¡± (Hogvir) ¡°I never said it would be only one talk. Rather, I think you were the one assuming that. It¡¯s indeed a bit ¡®much¡¯ to spend such a precious material on a simple talk with you. Actually, don¡¯t you think it¡¯s a bit egocentric to think that listening to you speak is worth that much?¡± (Kai) ¡°.......¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Well, I do have some other things you could do, if you really don¡¯t want to talk with me. Afterall, with such a large amount of Starsteel, you would owe me some favors.¡± (Kai) ¡°Fine. What do you have in mind?¡± (Hogvir) ¡°In a week, some members of my shop and I, along with a good amount of adventurers, will be entering the labyrinth to search for materials. I want you to come with us. It¡¯s a win-win situation, where you can get metals and other things otherwise unacquirable, and we get one more master smith in our little convoy.¡± I think for a little while. I am very mad at Hogvir at the moment for pulling such a trick over me, but the Starsteel still outweighs any reluctances I have. And, he¡¯s right. Giving me Starsteel is too big a compensation for a single talk. If I had stopped to think about his offer before, then maybe I would have seen this coming. I definitely wouldn¡¯t have avoided it, though, simply because of how desirable the Starsteel is. The author''s narrative has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. I know my answer, mostly because there is no other answer, if I still wanted the Starsteel. (Kai) ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll go with you guys. But, I get the Starsteel now, and we meet in front of the labyrinth a week from now. I¡¯ll also bring the greatsword you commissioned.¡± Hogvir smiled broadly. (Hogvir) ¡°Good. We¡¯ll be glad to have you, Kai.¡± Hogvir got up and left, after extracting an oath from me to uphold my end of the bargain. He left the Starsteel, as advertized. I moved to my normal table, and Dresia brought my food, which I ate somewhat bitterly, due to the way Hogvir handled me. After eating, I hoisted the bag with the Starsteel in it up onto my shoulder, and walked out of the restaurant. I also paid for the food, of course. Once I got back to the forge, I opened the bag, and stared at the reason Hogvir had gotten me to agree to his labyrinth excursion in the first place. The Starsteel glimmered dully within the dark forging area, almost shining with an incandescent light from within. It seemed like solid quicksilver, but was in fact just steel. Well, it was originally iron, not steel, and definitely not the rare Starsteel. As to why iron becomes Starsteel, the hint is in the name. Starsteel falls from the sky, after having soaked in the boundless mana and various energies present beyond this world. The process of falling introduces carbon to the energy-filled iron, and converts it to Starsteel, which is many times stronger than normal steel, due to said energy. That¡¯s why Starsteel is so rare, since it only falls every so often. I pulled out the bars of Starsteel, and note with some amount of glee that I have just enough to forge the blade I was thinking of. The first thing I do to the bars is to heat them up, and weld them together through striking them with the hammer, until I have one large, homogenous billiet. Thankfully, there¡¯s no need to treat Starsteel like any other metal¡ªIt¡¯s base is still just steel. I had made sure that the hard steel went where the edge of the sword would end up, and that the soft steel formed what would be the backbone of the blade. The medium steel would form the sides of the blade. Then, I began the long process of drawing out the blade, slowly beveling in the edge, and sticking the blade into the forge every now and then to reheat it back to the temperature required to shape the metal. While this was going on, I was constantly sending my mana through the blade as it was shaped, creating many more mana circuits than I had put in Hogvir¡¯s sword. This was due, in part, to the nature of the Starsteel itself, and how it seemed to adapt itself to my needs very easily. In fact, at some point, it reached the mana density levels normally found in things like staffs and wands made of precious woods filled with pure mana. I could probably cast conventional magic through it at this point. However, what really astounded me was the way in which the micro-structures in the metal began arranging themselves into complicated patterns, vaguely reminiscent of the ones I had put into Hogvir¡¯s greatsword. I couldn¡¯t determine the exact properties of every one of the patterns, but I could tell that they should have something to do with strengthening the blade, and giving it some extra abilities. This was the true value of metals like Starsteel, that they could do things to a blade not otherwise possible. After the blade had taken its shape fully, I coated the sides of the blade with a clay substance, leaving the edge bare. Then, I stuck it into a brick structure which had been heated to a very precise temperature. Doing this makes the blade harder, but also more brittle. The clay on the sides of the blade keep the temperature from affecting them to the point that the micro-structures are changed. It¡¯s a different story for the edge, which takes on the properties allowing it to be as sharp as possible. This process also expands and contracts various points of the metal, curving the blade subtly away from the edge. The blade spends an hour or two in the oven, before it glows at the right color, and I pull it out and stick it in a tank of oil off to one side. It sends billows of steam into the air, and hardens the metal completely. However, now most of the metal is too brittle for combat, so I stick it back into the oven, at a lower heat, and allow the metal to relax and become a little more flexible. Once that¡¯s done, I do a minimal polish on the blade, and sharpen it. I punch some holes in the tang of the blade, where the handle will be put, and start working on the blade fixings¡ªlike the scabbard, handle, guard, and other things. A day and a half was spent finishing these details, and now I¡¯m admiring the finished product. A sword as tall as my shoulders, with a delicate curve and a cloth wrapped handle lay in front of me. The blade itself has only one edge, and there are small wave like patterns across said edge, left form when the clay had prevented the sides of the blade from becoming too brittle. The blade wasn¡¯t really polished, and was left with a matte metallic shine to it. The handle was meant for two hands, and seemed simple, though only I will know just how much work I put into the thing. The guard of the blade was a small circle separating the handle and blade, and there was a square of brass preventing the guard from sliding down the blade itself. The guard was carved with delicate vinery and scroll working. The scabbard was lacquered wood covered in leather, and there was a sling attached to allow me to carry the sword over my shoulder, as I was too short to have it on my hip. Those who know about these swords would recognize it as a slightly longer version of a katana. Those who don¡¯t would see it as an odd style of sword, but not one particularly notable. I was going to name it, but the sword apparently was either given a name by the World System, or unconsciously, I gave it a name while forging it. When I looked at it with¡¼Analyze¡½, a window popped up.
Twilight¡¯s Chime
A sword crafted by Katariah Silver
Properties:
Keen Edge Unbroken Mana Focus Ice Elemental Boost Growth
Chapter 4: The Break In The entrance to the labyrinth was literally a hole in the ground. It was outside of the city, and required a short walk. Around the hole, vendors and enterprising merchants had set up shaky looking buildings and stalls, selling anything from potions to weapons to clothing. It was like a small boom town, just outside the city proper. I waited near the labyrinth entrance, the agreed upon meeting point between Hogvir¡¯s smiths, the adventurers who will be doing the bulk of the fighting while in the labyrinth, and I. From where I waited, I could see most of the cleared area around the entrance, gaining a good vantage point over the whole place. This was apparently a popular meeting place for people entering the labyrinth, as I could see several adventurer parties gathering, before entering the hole. There was a ramp curling around the sides of the hole, and I think there¡¯s a doorway at the bottom, where the labyrinth truly started. I had decided to wear my long coat for this, as the cloak seemed a little impractical and easy to snag on any obstructions while in the labyrinth. A bag of various necessities was on my back, the strap crossing in front of me. Twilight was hanging from one of my shoulders, and I kept a hand on it to keep the sword from hitting anything. Of course, I also wore the mask. In the hand not occupied by Twilight, I held an absolutely massive greatsword like a staff, the end of the sheath propped up on the ground. The sword was taller than me by a good bit. I didn¡¯t have to wait long before Hogvir and his smiths arrived. It was a group of seven, counting Hogvir. He was easily the tallest there, even though two of the other smiths could be considered taller than average. All of them have fairly beefy arms, from swinging heavy hammers all day long, and working with heavy metals. Hogvir, knowing what I looked like, or rather what my mask did, spotted me as I walked over to them, carrying the greatsword. (Hogvir) ¡°Oh! Is that my sword?¡± (Kai) ¡°Yeah. Finished it a few days ago.¡± I held out the sword to Hogvir, and he picked it up with ease. For a moment, he held it, admiring the workmanship in the hilt and scabbard. Then he drew the sword, exposing the blade itself. It came out of the scabbard with a great ringing sound, drawing the attention of some nearby adventurers, who were stunned at the sight of such a massive man handling such a massive and beautiful sword. The sword¡¯s form was fairly simple, with two edges coming together to a dull point not meant for stabbing. This was a sword meant to cleave, using its sheer weight to break defences and overwhelm the target. It had mesmerizing patterns in the metal itself, with small lines of alternating light and dark, from the different steels used in the forging process. The hilt, as promised, was fairly large¡ªabout the length of a forearm. Hogvir cackled evilly after drawing the sword, admiring it. (Hogvir) ¡°Hahaha¡ªThat¡¯ll do it! I can hardly wait to test it out!¡± Almost lovingly, he put the sword back into the sheath, and held onto it, as there was currently no way to strap it to anything. He turned to the other smiths he had brought along, and introduced me. (Hogvir) ¡°Alright lads, this is Kai, who some consider to be the best bladesmith in the city at the moment, and who¡¯ll be coming with us on our material hunt.¡± All of them nodded approvingly. They were all blacksmiths, and could appreciate the weight behind the words ¡®best bladesmith¡¯. All we had to do now was wait for the adventurer escorts to show up. They would be the ones to kill most of the things in the labyrinth while we mined for rare ores, or collected various bits of monsters and magic beasts useful in forging. For instance there are some insect shells which can act as quality metals, and can be made into a good blade or armor. These types of materials also conduct mana better than some of their metal counterparts when forged. The escort group showed up around thirty minutes later. During those thirty minutes where we waited, I was able to find out a little bit more about the other smiths, and got to know them a little better. They all seemed like relatively decent people. The escort group, however, I wasn¡¯t too sure about. It consisted of ten adventurers, and I could tell that they were bitter about something¡ªlikely they felt that they were above escorting a group of civilians into a labyrinth, even if most of the smiths could crush a skull between their hands. With everybody ready, we walked down the ramp leading to the doorway entrance of the labyrinth, with some pack mules in tow with tents and emergency foods on them. Hogvir walked up to the door, and pushed it open, exposing a good-sized cavern with only the one opening into it. We entered the cavern. (Hogvir) ¡°Alright, everybody stand in the center of the room!¡± We moved to where he indicated. As soon as we were there, circular runes started glowing beneath our feet, and the door behind us disappeared. Opposite that, a gateway carved into the rock itself shimmered into existence. Grabbing our stuff, and performing some last checks, we walked into the first floor of the labyrinth.
(Veroth) ¡°Watch out! One of them¡¯s escaped the perimeter!¡± Veroth, one of the adventurers, yelled as a black wolf-like beast blew past the line of adventurers holding back a dozen yellowed skeletons wielding rusted swords and maces. (Hogvir) ¡°I got him!¡± Hogvir swung out with the sword I had made him, and it quickly found itself lodged into the flesh of the beast. Unfortunately, it wasn''t a fatal blow, and the beast was still alive. It lunged at Hogvir in anger, but before it could get too far, the greatsword burst into flame, roasting the beast form the inside, and spewing red flames from its wound. Hogvir grinned widely, obviously pleased at the greatsword¡¯s extra ability. When he found out about it during our first encounter with a few skeletons, he was surprised at first. So surprised that he dropped the blade, yelling bloody murder, until he realized that the blade hadn¡¯t hurt him in any way. Then, he started laughing maniacally while rushing into groups of enemies, and laying about him with the flaming greatsword. He¡¯s calmed down a bit since then. In total, it¡¯s been about ten hours since we entered the labyrinth, and we¡¯ve made it to the third floor. I haven¡¯t had the chance to test out Twilight yet, mostly because it would obliterate any of the enemies on these lower floors. Perhaps a floor guardian would be a good target, but we haven¡¯t encountered one yet. The adventurers cleaned up the skeletons they¡¯d been facing, and we decided that the area we¡¯re in would serve as a good camp for the night. I quietly cheered, with how sleepy I was getting. I had slept a total of two hours this week, since I was working on Twilight and Hogvir¡¯s greatsword, and was in dire need of a good night¡¯s rest. We pulled the tents off the backs of the mules, who had been trained to stay away from any fighting, and have fairly good survivability as a result, and set them up in a semi-circular fashion. I pitched mine near the edge of the camp, and set up some strong wards against entry, before sitting in front of a small campfire made by the smiths, and lit using Hogvir¡¯s greatsword. We cooked some beans and heated some meat over the fire, and had a simple labyrinth style meal, during which I told the others, Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on the original website. (Kai) ¡°Alright guys. Just thought I should warn you,but if you try and enter my tent, you will die.¡± Some food was propelled from people¡¯s mouths in surprise at that, but they all nodded understanding eventually. I was only slightly exaggerating¡ªthe wards would paralyze you for a day, maybe four. After eating, I went to my tent, and took off my mask and coat before laying down to sleep in my clothes. I could hear the conversations outside the tent, and knew that some of the adventurers and smiths were wondering about my origins, and why I wanted privacy. Some of the things they suggested were quite funny. My personal favorite was that I was a runaway prince, who was masquerading as a bladesmith. There were a few that come oddly close to the truth. Thankfully, we didn''t have to worry about getting attacked while sleeping¡ªthe monsters never spawned while people were in the room, and tended to stay in the same areas. We still posted a watch, just in case, though. I soon drifted into a dreamless sleep.
(Ash) ¡°Damn. This is going to be very difficult.¡± Ash, the graceful elf, was standing in front of a dilapidated looking building near the red-light district in the city. She had just probed the defences of the structure with her mana, before discovering that it would be very difficult to forcefully enter the small house, due to the invisible lattices of mana criss-crossing around the house. Yes, she was trying to break into Kai¡¯s home and smithy, mostly to find out more about the mysterious smith. Jourmont stood next to her, smirking slightly at her misfortune. (Jourmont) ¡°I could lend you a bit of my power, you know.¡± (Ash) *Sigh*. I know. I was just hoping that it wouldn¡¯t come to this, but it seems that Hogvir underestimated the wards Kai has.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Is it really that bad? I would have thought nothing would have given you trouble.¡± (Ash) ¡°Well, it¡¯s won¡¯t be impossible, just very hard. It¡¯s very rare that someone¡¯s mana is so pure as that which was put into these wards. And, as you know, the purer the mana, the more stable a spell is.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°So, you can do it?¡± Ash smiled brightly. (Ash) ¡°Of course, who do you think I am? Just lend me some of your mana, and it can finish in about an hour.¡± Jourmont nodded, and grabbed Ash¡¯s wrist. Immediately, Ash felt an influx of power, and began channeling it into the wards surrounding Kai¡¯s house, slowly and subtly changing their properties. It was delicate work, as one misstep would trigger the wards, and cause them to activate. From what Ash could see, there were some fairly nasty things that the wards would do to any would-be intruder. None of them would be lethal, but there were some which would come close. Eventually, the wards began changing, allowing two more people besides Kai to enter the house. Kai could change the properties of the wards within seconds, due to the fact that he had put them down in the first place, but it required a precise control of a very large amount of mana to change that from the outside. There were very few able to do this, and Ash was one of them. She stopped once the wards recognized her and Jourmont as being allowed into the house. At this point, Ash was covered in a thin veil of sweat. She noded at Jourmont (Ash) ¡°Done. Luckily, Kai seems a bit uncomfortable with mana control, so the wards weren''t as strong as they could have been.¡± They entered the house, seeing the smithy first. They were overwhelmed by the number of masterfully made swords lying about the room, propped up against the walls and scattered on work tables. They noticed that some of the swords were made in a style unfamiliar to them, with one gently curving edge. (Ash) ¡°Jourmont, I think these have all been forged with mana flow. All of them are mana swords.¡± Jourmont¡¯s eyes widened a little, an impressive amount of expression from someone who normally only shows what he wants others to see. (Jourmont) ¡°Then there¡¯s a veritable fortune just...sitting here. No wonder the wards are so strong.¡± (Ash) ¡°Come on, I think there¡¯s another room over there.¡± She pointed out a door, and they walked into Kai¡¯s living quarters. Ash spoke a quick incantation, and summoned a small flame to hover in her hand, and light up the dark room. In the room itself, there were paper diagrams hanging from the walls, displaying various forging techniques and the process of making any number of blades. Ash and Jourmont stood quietly, looking at the designs with some awe¡ªIf Kai had thought them all up, them he was instantly propelled to the status of genius in their eyes, due to the complexity present in some of the papers. Shaking themselves mentally, they began searching for clues about Kai, and who he is. Sifting through the papers, and checking in those places where a journal might be secreted, they came across a chest by the bed. In it they found some of Kai¡¯s clothing, as well as a crudely forged dagger resting on top. Ash pulled it out, curious about it. It wasn¡¯t well forged, nor did it have any special abilities, and it was just made from crude iron. There were the initials K.S. and a date around ten years ago on it though, so she figured that the dagger had sentimental value to Kai. Digging deeper into the chest, Ash pulled out some clothing near the bottom of it. She had felt that the quality of cloth had changed, and wanted to see what she felt was hidden there. However, once she saw what had been pulled out, she threw it down in disgust. (Ash) ¡°Egh. Is he a pervert?¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Did you say something?¡± (Ash) ¡°No!¡± She put the garment back at the bottom of the chest, and walked to where Jourmont was looking. (Ash) ¡°Have you found anything?¡± (Jourmont) ¡°No. Kai doesn¡¯t seem to keep much from his past. Nothing, actually.¡± (Ash) ¡°There was a knife back there with a date ten years ago on it, and what could be Kai¡¯s initials.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Oh? Where?¡± She lead Jourmont to the chest, and reopened it. Jourmont picked up the knife, and examined it. He came up with a conclusion very quickly. (Jourmont) ¡°I think that Kai is younger than we had assumed at first. Maybe he isn¡¯t short, but still growing.¡± (Ash) ¡°What, why?¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Because this was probably the first thing Kai forged, ten years ago. I can think of no other reason he¡¯d keep it, unless it was a gift. But from what we¡¯ve seen, Kai has only kept things made by him, and not others.¡± (Ash) ¡°That makes sense. We¡¯ll have to compare it to Hogvir¡¯s observations of Kai when he gets back, see if the theory matches.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Yeah. Was there anything else in the chest, which might give us some answers?¡± Ash¡¯s face grew a little red, and she hurriedly responded. (Ash) ¡°No! Nothing!¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Are you ok? You seem flustered.¡± (Ash) ¡°Yeah. No. I¡¯m ok.¡± Jourmont looked suspicious. (Jourmont) ¡°Alright. If you say so.¡±
Chapter 5: The Floor Guardian We finally came across a floor guardian after finding the entrance room to the sixth floor. The floor guardians are unique monsters who roam their particular level on the labyrinths, moving from room to room. Every time they¡¯re killed, they respawn within a month, just like the rest of the monsters spawning within an hour of dying. Right now, we¡¯re still on the fifth floor¡ªRather, we¡¯re in the last room on the fifth floor, and now, with the floor guardian appearing, we¡¯ll need to kill it before advancing. I briefly considered helping bringing the guardian down, but decided that it wouldn¡¯t be worth it. The floor guardian wasn¡¯t weak, but we had the escort adventurers after all, and Hogvir if things were to go bad. I could see that the adventurers knew what they were doing from how they approached the guardian, who was a human-sized knight wearing rusted armor and wielding a sword comparable in size to Hogvir¡¯s. They surrounded it on all sides, and slowly chipped away at the armor, aiming for the weak points, particularly the joints at the elbows, shoulders, knees, and hip. It took a while, and quite a bit of effort, as the adventurers had to also avoid the swings from the knight¡¯s sword. One of them was only just clipped due to carelessness, and went flying, breaking at least two ribs from the fall alone. I cringed to think about what a direct hit would do. After some time, the rust knight lost his left arm, exposing what was underneath the armor. Nothing. It was empty. I could barely see some faint glowing runes etched inside the metal, but other than that, the armor was filled with empty space. Unfortunately, that meant that the rust knight would never tire, while his opponents would gradually weaken through exhaustion. Realizing this, the adventurers made a final push using all their effort and abilities. The two mages expended all their remaining mana to cast powerful spells, and the warriors channelled all their energy into one more strike. The only archer in the group drew back one arrow, and filled it to the brim with explosive energy. The warrior who was hit earlier could only watch, injured as he was. The warriors struck first. Their strikes threw the rust knight off kilter, forcing it into a bad position, the weakened left side of the armor presenting a good target to the mages. A fire spell bombarded the armor, charring it badly, while an ice spell rapidly cooled the heated area, making the armor more prone to shattering. The archer struck the last blow, sending her arrow spinning into the armor, and by inside, I mean that it passed through the small opening where the arm had been, and exploded inside the armor, sending bits of metal flying all over the place. I shielded my masked face just moments before the remaining gauntlet struck my arm. Interested in it, I picked it up, and looked at the metal from its inside. Those glowing runes were there too. I wondered if that was what had been powering the empty armor, and making it move as if alive. I put it in my small knapsack for later study, before throwing the sack back over my shoulder. We all regrouped, and gave the wounded warrior some medicine that should have him back in top form tomorrow. Everyone was congratulating the archer, a human girl named Samith, for her earlier shot. Well, I say girl, but she¡¯s physically older than me by about five years. After making sure that everyone was okay, some of the smiths went and brought the mules back. They had fled to the opposite side of the room from where the fighting was happening, just as they had been trained to do, so it didn¡¯t take long before we were ready to advance to the sixth floor. This was done in much the same way as when we had entered the labyrinth in the first place. We entered the next room, and once we were in the center of the room, the door behind us faded, and one appeared in front of us. However, unlike that time, there was also a large glowing rune off to one side of the room, which would bring us back the the labyrinth entrance, so that we didn¡¯t have to make to climb back up, floor by floor. These teleportation runes were put in place by some mages a few hundred years ago, to reduce the number of casualties in the labyrinth. As we didn¡¯t want to return to the surface yet¡ªAll the semi-good smithing materials are located at least on the tenth floor¡ªWe continued on, into the room beyond the next door, and onto the sixth floor. Once we passed through, though, the adventurers immediately started spewing every single curse word they knew. In the center of the first room of the sixth floor, a large amount of black gas was rapidly condensing to form a somewhat large and fearsome figure. Slowly, one semi-gaseous leg reached out from the fog, followed by two more. These legs quickly became solid, displaying the razor sharp barbs running along them, and the chitin armored segments split only by the slim joints. The fog completely condensed into a large, nightmare inducing spider vaguely reminiscent of a really, really big tarantula. We knew what it meant that it had appeared from within black fog. We had just beat an enemy which had appeared in the same way¡ªThe rust knight. The adventurer¡¯s had exhausted themselves on one floor guardian, only to have another spawn in the very next room, this one being the much stronger, and scarier, floor guardian of the sixth floor. The adventurers were panicking, not ready to fight another floor guardian so soon. The smiths had an odd light in their eyes, almost like they were going to enjoy watching what was going to happen. They looked at Hogvir with anticipation, and excitement. Hogvir, in turn, grinned wildly, and unsheathed his greatsword, throwing the scabbard behind him. He turned to me and spoke, offering cooperation. (Hogvir) ¡°You going to join in? I know what that sword on your back is made of, and I know you¡¯ve wanted to test it.¡± I grinned back at him, even though he couldn¡¯t see it under the mask. (Kai) ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll take the left, you the right?¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Right, Go!¡± Hogvir shot off at a surprising speed, compared to his bulk. I dropped the sack on my back, leaving it where it fell, and shrugged Twilight¡¯s sheath off my shoulder. I drew the blade, and the sheath fell on top of the sack. Walking up to the black spider, which was currently trying to defend against Hogvir¡¯s brutal flaming greatsword, I held Twilight is a two handed grip, and brought it slightly back, keeping it at hip height to get the most power out of a single strike. I began channeling some of my mana into it, and the starsteel in the blade turned slightly translucent, like frosted over ice. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. The spider was now completely occupied with Hogvir, lashing out with its legs, and trying to hit him with its oversized fangs. It didn¡¯t even notice me approaching, and gave me time to fully prepare the one and only strike needed to end the oversized arachnid. Twisting my body, and dropping lower to the ground, I stored kinetic energy in Twilight before letting loose. There was a flash, and ice appeared in a disturbingly straight line on the other side of the room, following Twilight¡¯s arc. The spider jerked to a halt, and stood still for a solid few seconds, before it''s bisected legs gave out, and it fell to the ground, the top half of it¡¯s body sliding off the bottom, the wound coated in a shiny, frozen goo. Hogvir, who was standing in front of the spider¡¯s fangs, was staring at it as I struck and thus could see the split second of panic flash through its eight eyes before they darkened in death. I sighed in slight regret. The spider wasn¡¯t even strong enough to last against one blow of mine. Granted, I had put all of my strength into that one blow, but a part of me was hoping that it would survive to give me a good fight. The fire covering Hogvir¡¯s greatsword went out with an abrupt *whoosh*, and he stared at me, mouth slightly open. I looked around, and as it turns out, his reaction was the most tame. Everyone else¡¯s jaws had practically hit the floor. It was then that I realized that, perhaps, I had overdone it slightly. Formulating a quick plan to alleviate the shock somewhat, I pretend to faint form mana exhaustion, and directly stimulated it¡¯s signs and symptoms. I used my mana to trigger sleepiness, and dispersed my remaining mana into the environment in an undetectable way. Seeing me ¡®faint¡¯, Hogvir instantly snapped out of his thoughts, and yelled. (Hogvir) ¡°Pick up your jaws, and get over here! Check Kai, see what¡¯s wrong!¡± The adventurers and smiths rushed over to help, but before they could do anything, I ¡®woke up¡¯. (Kai) ¡°Ugh. Damn it, I still can¡¯t do that move yet.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Lad¡ª What happened to you?! Are you alright?¡± I groaned slightly to add some believability. (Kai) ¡°Yeah, I¡¯ll be fine with a night¡¯s rest. Just some mana exhaustion, I think.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Mana exhaustion? Hmm, well, I don¡¯t feel as much of a mana presence from you right now, so you¡¯re probably right. But what was that move, to use up all of your mana instantly?¡± (Kai) ¡°It was something taught to me by my teacher. I thought that having this sword would allow me to use it, but I was wrong.¡± I lied, motioning at Twilight, which had returned to looking like a sword made of normal steel now that I had stopped channeling mana into it. (Hogvir) ¡°So you¡¯re saying that the move which instantly cut the floor guardian in two wasn¡¯t fully used?!¡± (Kai) ¡°Well, That move was an all or nothing gambit. Either it was strong enough to cut the spider, or it doesn''t work at all. It looks like it was just strong enough.¡± Everybody nodded in comprehension, though there was still some awe in their eyes. I¡¯ll have to be careful next time. Maybe I shouldn¡¯t pull out the big moves on these low floors anymore. Hogvir, though, was still unsatisfied. (Hogvir) ¡°Kai, do you mind if I see your sword for a moment? I couldn¡¯t help but notice that it has an...unusual design to it.¡± (Kai) ¡°Sure, go ahead.¡± I wasn¡¯t too worried about Hogvir looking at Twilight with¡¼Analyze¡½, due to the fact that I likely had the highest level in that skill, and had hidden both my full name, and the¡¼Growth¡½property of the sword in it¡¯s item description. He would only be able to see it if his¡¼Analyze¡½level was higher than mine. And that wasn¡¯t very likely. It¡¯s sort of like, when I look at Twilight, I see this;
Twilight¡¯s Chime
A sword crafted by Katariah Silver
Properties:
Keen EdgeUnbrokenMana FocusIce Elemental BoostGrowth
But Hogvir would only see this;
Twilight¡¯s Chime
Properties:
Keen EdgeUnbrokenMana FocusIce Elemental Boost
He took the blade, and examined it. Every now and then, he would ask me questions about the forging process involved, and the reason for various features of the blade itself. Finally, he came to the big question. (Hogvir) ¡°So, Kai, how the hell did you learn how to forge such a blade? I¡¯ve never seen it¡¯s like from any of the countries I know of.¡± (Kai) ¡°Well, it was a family style, not something that was learned by a large group of people. I would have been very surprised if you had seen a blade like mine before.¡± Of course, this was a bald faced lie. My birth family hadn¡¯t involved themselves in smithing in the slightest. It was an interest I had cultivated and maintained myself. Everyone accepted my answer without any reservations, though, just because it made the most sense. They graciously set up my tent for me, as I had ¡®mana exhaustion¡¯, and could ¡®barely move¡¯. No, it¡¯s not that I was taking advantage of them, but it was common knowledge that someone who had overused their mana would be weak for at least a few hours, and barely able to stay conscious let alone move around and set stuff up. The best way to get rid of mana exhaustion was to simply sleep it off, and recharge your mana reserves over the night. That¡¯s why they set up my tent, to allow me some rest. I made it look like I spent a good portion of my remaining energy to drag myself to the tent, and I made sure to remind everyone to not enter while I was inside. They knew that all I would need was a good night¡¯s rest, and left me alone as I pulled off the mask and coat like usual, and was brought down by the very real sleepiness I felt, due to my actions, attempting to mimic the effects of mana exhaustion.
Chapter 6: The Backstory Begins I¡¯m woken form my pleasant slumber with a soft *Ding* sound inside my head. Groggily blinking my eyes, I look around me, and was greeted by the inside of the small tent I had collapsed in after voluntarily dispersing almost all the mana in my body. I quickly check my mana, and was pleased to see that it had mostly recovered with a good night¡¯s rest. Though, it¡¯s probably only been four or five hours since I annihilated the spider floor guardian. My next line of business was to check the tent. There were definably some faint lines of mana, from when I tried to set some wards before passing out in the bed, but they weren''t nearly strong enough to keep anything out. They haven¡¯t been disturbed, so I don¡¯t think anyone entered the tent while I was sleeping, luckily. I need to be more careful of that in the future.¡¼Analyze¡½might not work on me while I was awake, but anyone with the skill could see all my information while I¡¯m sleeping. Speaking of¡¼Analyze¡½, I think it updated as soon as I woke up. pulling a small mirror out of my bag, and use¡¼Analyze¡½on my reflection.
Status:
Name: Katariah Silver
Titles: (4 Hidden)
Race: Demon/ElfAge: 13Gender: Female
Main Class: MageSub Class(es): Smith; Swordsman
Level: 22
Health: 320Mana: 75200
Strength: 50Stamina: 34Dexterity: 64
Intelligence: 68Wisdom: 62Luck: 1
I had gained two levels from fighting the spider. Figures. I wasn¡¯t strong enough already, apparently. None of my skills were affected, because I hadn¡¯t fought enough to raise any of the ones related to combat or magic. My¡¼Smithing¡½skill had gone from Expert Level 2, to Level 3 when I was creating Hogvir¡¯s sword. The experience from making Twilight had probably pushed it to the boundary between the two levels, and Hogvir¡¯s greatsword gave it that extra little push it needed. I had a few hundred more mana to play around with, and most of my stats went up by three or four. Except luck. Bad luck seems to follow me wherever I am, and it looks like this will never change. Ah well. I¡¯ve given up on trying to comprehend it by now. I took down the flimsy wards on the tent, and put on my mask and coat. I peeked outside, and saw that most of the group had lain down to rest, taking the opportunity to recover from the double team floor guardian action we had experienced. Granted, while the physical strain of fighting them hadn¡¯t been very large, all things considered, the mental component would have worn down some of the most hardened warriors. Most floor guardians are at least ten or twenty times stronger than the normal monsters on the same floor, while the monsters between floors had a few times more power for every floor you went down. The rust knight had been a considerably powerful opponent, but one which was easily handled by the adventurers. It¡¯s normal for a group to use all their energy to beat a floor guardian. It is, however, very, very unlikely to face another floor guardian for a while afterwards. I think that the group may have been affected by my luck, to have faced one within minutes of the other being beat. And, on top of that, the spider was anywhere from twenty to fifty times stronger than the rust knight. Not unbeatable to the adventurers, but it would become a war of attrition, to see who would fall first. In fact, it¡¯s standard practice to use this method, seeking only prime opportunities to strike, and otherwise evading the enemy¡¯s blows with as little energy as possible. The adventurer¡¯s had done this a little while fighting the rust knight, but not to the greatest of their abilitys. They had gotten impatient, and used much more energy than they would have otherwise. And then, while they were congratulating themselves for beating a floor guardian relatively easily, reality came to smack them in the face while they were still too low on energy to do anything about it. If Hogvir and I hadn¡¯t been with them, they would have been wiped out, with no real fault of their own. Nobody can control where and when the floor guardians spawn. Off to one side of the room we were in, I could see the small glowing embers of another group of people. It¡¯s wasn¡¯t rare to come across others in the labyrinth¡ªQuite the opposite, really. The fact that we hadn¡¯t encountered anyone until now was the rare thing. I could see fifteen or so medium sized tents, denoting a fairly large group. Our party was actually on the smaller end of the scale, with typical sized groups ranging anywhere from thirty to forty people. A good number of this group sat around the dwindling campfire, likely discussing things like tactics and planning out their next day. Or as much as they could, due to the somewhat unpredictable nature of the labyrinth. I could smell cooked meat from where I was, and it reminded me that I had to eat after losing most of my mana. Exiting the tent, I made my way to the center of our camp, nodding at the watch which had been set¡ªthe young archer Samith. She kept her bow stung next to her, and arrows at the ready. I approve of this, for a few reasons. One, while enemies wouldn¡¯t spawn in an occupied room in labyrinths, they would in dungeons, and it wouldn¡¯t be good to set a habit which would hinder you elsewhere. Two, even though we didn¡¯t have to worry about monsters now, the same couldn¡¯t be said about other people. There have been many cases where a party drops their guard in company, only to be attacked during the night by their ¡®allies¡¯. Three, it gave everyone peace of mind, seeing that the watch would be prepared to fight, and allowed them a better and more relaxed rest. Near our campfire, which was still slightly burning with wood gathered from a room full of respawnable trees, were a few cold meals. A little bit of fire magic heated up a portion very well, and I ate it with a vengeance back in my tent. Samith had given me some odd looks for carrying it inside the stuffy space, but I prefered odd looks to outright hostility, thank you. People with demon heritage aren''t looked upon too kindly in this part of the world, and I can think of no better indication of my race than the two horns sprouting from my head. Granted, I am also half elf, but that¡¯s actually seen as being even worse than just a demon. Much more shameful. After finishing the somewhat plain meal, I meditated, recovering that last bit of missing mana as soon as I could. Meditation let you become closer to the mana of the world, and speed up the process of recovering, and growing your mana pool. If you meditated while thinking of a particular type of magic or spell, then your proficiency and understanding of the spell could grow. Most mages became more powerful through this method, which is why most mages are also unused to combat. They almost never have to fight to get stronger, like warriors have to, leading to them neglecting their physical bodies. Love what you''re reading? Discover and support the author on the platform they originally published on. There¡¯s a popular saying that I once heard, going along the lines of¡ª¡±If you want to beat a mage, break their wand.¡±. Once you take away the wands and staffs that most mages channeled magic through, then they would be helpless, and unable to fight back. It¡¯s very rare that a mage can manipulate mana without a conduit, though even those that can tend to use one, due to the amplifying effect normally built into the materials. Twilight can work as a conduit, and actually has a greater amplification effect than most other conduits I¡¯ve seen. Especially towards ice magics. I estimate that ice essence spells using Twilight are at least four times more powerful than they would have been without it. Well, at least that¡¯s what I think, from what had happened with the spider floor guardian. I¡¯ll have to kill more things to get a better handle on it¡¯s power, but I think that¡¯s something best left for when I¡¯m in the labyrinth alone. As I¡¯ve already seen, my full power tends to drew attention. The last thing I need is someone digging around my past. It took a while for the rest of the group to either wake up or get ready. Once we were set to go, we left the other party in the first room of the sixth floor, and continued on, deeper into the labyrinth.
(Ash) ¡°How¡¯s the investigation coming along?¡± Ash and Jourmont are meeting in another one of the small back rooms from one of Jourmont¡¯s restaurants¡ªSecretly of course. If some of the other fractions in the city knew why they were investigating what seemed to be an up and coming bladesmith, then things in the city could quickly degenerate. The key point was that they thought Kai was fully grown. Ash and Jourmont knew otherwise, though. And the more talented a youth was, the more potential they had. (Jourmont) ¡°The investigation is going fairly well.¡± (Ash) ¡°Oh? Have you found something?¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Kai was up in the north for a bit before coming here.¡± (Ash) ¡°Is that it? I thought that you had found something of value.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°No, I can¡¯t find much out about Kai. What I meant was that the investigation is going well, considering that we¡¯re trying to find out more about what seems to be someone with no past.¡± (Ash) ¡°Fine then. No need to get so fussy.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Hrm.¡± (Ash) ¡°Though, do you know what he was doing up in the north? There¡¯s not much up there.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Well, we don''t know for sure, but there was a marked decrease in bandit and slave trading activity in the north after Kai left.¡± (Ash) ¡°So, do you think that Kai had something to do with this?¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Absolutely. I have the feeling that Kai tends to change things wherever he goes, willing or not. We just have to find out why he was there in the first place.¡± (Ash) ¡°I take it you already have some leads?¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Obviously. I had one of the old bandit chefs from the north brought in, for information. He¡¯s already in the next room. I figured that you would be better at getting some...coherent information from him.¡± (Ash) ¡°What do you mean?¡± (Jourmont) ¡°You¡¯ll have to find that out yourself. I couldn¡¯t find out exactly what was scaring him into silence, and we both know that I¡¯m no good at calming people down, or comforting them.¡± (Ash) ¡°Alright. Lead the way.¡± Ash and Jourmont left the small private room, and walked down a less well known about hallway in the restaurant, until they reached a wooden door. Jourmont paused outside the door, and motioned for Ash to enter. (Jourmont) ¡°You go ahead. I¡¯ll wait out here.¡± Ash entered, and the first thing she saw was the man sitting at a table in the center of the room, in a way that made it clear that the man was under questioning. ¡®For gods sakes, Jourmont. If you wanted to make the man comfortable, then this isn¡¯t the way to do it!¡¯ thought Ash. She smiled at the man, who was instantly enamored with Ash¡¯s graceful countenance, and noble bearing. (Ash) ¡°Hello, sir. Please, you don¡¯t have to sit at that table if you don¡¯t want to. Make yourself at home.¡± Ash gestured around the small room, indicating that the man wasn¡¯t in danger at the moment. (Generic Bandit Boss) ¡°Ah, thank you, miss. I was getting awfully bored and uncomfortable in her¡¯. My name¡¯s Godfred. What¡¯s your¡¯s?¡± (Ash) ¡°Ah, it¡¯s nice to meet you, Godfred. You can call me Ashariah for now. Now, I have some questions for you, if you¡¯re willing to answer.¡± Godfred grinned widely, glad to have met a beauty like Ash, and was more than willing to answer whatever she asked. Unfortunately, Jourmont hadn¡¯t had nearly the same impact on the man. Though, if he had, then Jourmont would have asked Ash to question him anyway, due to the fact that Jourmont tends to avoid troublesome things. (Godfred) ¡°Go ¡®head and shoot. I¡¯ll tell ya whatever you want.¡± That night was very profitable for Ash and Jourmont, who gained quite a bit of information from the Ex-bandit chief Godfred, who was treated to a good meal after questioning. He had quite a bit to say about a particular short person wearing a white mask. Ash and Jourmont now knew some of what to look for when tracing Kai¡¯s past, and what might be motivating him. According to Godfred, Kai had entered his bandit¡¯s base without anyone noticing, and had approached the man in charge of all captured slaves, asking after a woman with raven black hair, and a brand burned on her cheek. After hearing that there hadn¡¯t been anyone like that in the camp for a while, Kai had left, but not before warning them of the cost of banditry, and burning all their food stores. Later, word came that a slaving company based in a nearby lot of land had been completely wiped out by someone in a white mask, using large and deadly magics. There were only a handful of survivors, and now Ash and Jourmont knew who to look for. They would find one of those survivors who had seen what had happened, and could tell them more about the woman with the brand on her cheek. It was the only way they had to find out more about Kai.
Chapter 7: The Hell Level The adventures and the smiths let out a small cheer. We¡¯ve made to to the tenth floor, after seven days. Though it¡¯s unlikely that we¡¯ll find good smithing materials immediately, the possibility existed, exciting everyone with how near our goal is. Hogvir¡¯s seemed troubled about something these past few days. Normally, it wouldn¡¯t be any of my business, but he also keeps giving me little looks, his brow furrowed in deep thought. I can¡¯t help but get the feeling that whatever¡¯s going on, involves me. I haven''t had to fight since the floor guardian incident. In fact, the leader of the adventurer party¡ªa rail thin man named Veroth, had suggested to me that I hang back, and if we come across another impossible to beat enemy, I would strike. Unless those circumstances came about again, I was to preserve my energy. I was their very own trump card. I wonder how they would feel if I told them that I wasn¡¯t just a glass cannon, only able to deal one deadly blow? I could easily use strikes of the same magnitude multiple times. If that spider had survived, I would have been able to hit it seven or eight more times, with equal or greater power then the one strike that it had actually needed. After passing into the tenth floor of the labyrinth, one of the more extreme examples of the differences between floor levels became apparent. Whereas the previous floors had mostly been cave-like passages and larger ¡®rooms¡¯, with the occasional crystal cave or miniature forest, the tenth floor was one gigantic swamp. Walking through the door, murky water immediately came to our shins. Well, considering how I¡¯m the shortest one in the group, the water came to my knees. Large trees twisted all over the place, their roots elevated above the ground slightly. I could see a brightly colored patch of flowers in the distance, through the fog lightly blanketing the floor. I heard frogs croaking, and the occasional shrill cry of some sort of bird. I couldn¡¯t see any enemies, but I knew from experience that most of the deadly things on this floor would kill you without even realizing it. The tenth floor was fondly known as ¡®The Hell Swamp¡¯ by most adventurers, due to its many pitfalls, traps, poisonous and venomous animals, plants, and insects. Most of the plant life was semi-sentient in the swamp, some of which were carnivorous in nature. Those brightly colored flowers? Likely growing out of the corpse of adventurer who had taken a wrong step somewhere. The water? Infested with amphibious creatures which love fresh, bloody meat. The trees? Well, I¡¯m not too sure about this one, but apparently they sometimes fall right onto a passing group, killing most of them. The fog? Some of it is extremely toxic, and paralytic in nature. Welcome to the tenth floor of the labyrinth, the only floor with a higher death count than the floors lower than it. We were all immediately on our toes, keeping an eye out for any of the myriad of ways we could die. This floor would have to be crossed in a single day, since we aren''t suicidal enough to consider camping in the swamp for a night. We assumed a diamond type formation, with our mules in the very center, then the smiths, and the adventurers on the outside edges. Hogvir and I walked at the rear, watching behind us, as there were some things in the swamp which would wait until you¡¯ve passed, then strike. The first thing that tried to kill us was a small arrow-shaped pitch black frog. It hopped down an overhanging branch, and was about to land on one of the adventurers heads when he noticed the frog, and quickly smacked it away with the back of his sword, mid-fall. We all breathed a sigh of relief. In this swamp, contrary to what held true in natural forests and swamps, the darker something was, the more deadly you could assume it to be. The brightly colored things in this swamp are actually mostly harmless. Unless you eat them. Then you¡¯re screwed. We were doing well, until one of the adventurer¡¯s up in the front of the formation missed a dark brown snake the size of a twig, and it bit one of the mules. The mule died within minutes, foaming at the mouth and twitching madly. There wasn¡¯t anything we could do to save it. The mule¡¯s death reinforced the need to prevent things like this in the first place, by spotting the dangers ahead of time. We¡¯re just lucky it was a mule that died, and not one of the stronger adventurers or any of the smiths. The tents and supplies that the mule had been carrying was divided between everybody, and I ended up with a bag of dried meat. I was somewhat concerned by the fact that I essentially now had what could be considered bait, hanging from my back. After this, we started walking faster, wanting to leave the swamp as soon as possible. There were a few instances where we came across small dark-colored animals, and killed them as soon as possible. There was a bad scare when one of the snakes grazed a smith with it¡¯s bite, causing him to weaken for an hour, before the small dose of venom ran it¡¯s course. We became even more cautious, though it did us no good in the end. Just as we had reached the exit to the nerve wracking swamp, and people began to let down their guards somewhat, a tiny, pitch black spider fell off a branch, and landed on Veroth¡¯s neck. He casually brushed it off by reflex, not realizing the full danger he was in. The spider fell, and nobody noticed, not even me. The two small welts growing on Veroth¡¯s neck also went unnoticed, though we would find out about them soon enough. After we crossed the door to the eleventh floor, everybody completely relaxed. We set up camp in the first room of the eleventh floor, which was nearly always empty of monsters due to adventurers exiting the tenth floor, and deciding to take a good, long rest. This has kept monsters from spawning in the room, as it was almost always occupying the room. Even now, there are two other groups here, their fires casting long shadows in the dimly lit space. Our camp was raised away from the other groups, though some of their members came over to greet us, and traded stories. There were a few exclamations of relief that they had gotten out of the tenth level without any casualties, something I thought was a little odd. I also noticed that some of them had slight swelling in their necks. Hogvir also noticed this, and asked them if there was something wrong. They looked astonished for a moment, and felt the area in question. They looked confused, and stated that nothing felt wrong, and that they were in no pain. We didn¡¯t inquire any further, and I wondered if there was some sort of allergen nearby causing these reactions. Dinner was dried meat¡ªthe same dried meat I had carried through the swamp. I was half expecting some sort of creepy crawly to jump out of the bag as I opened it, but nothing of the sort happened. There were also some beans. I can¡¯t really say much more about the food, other than the fact that I really miss the pasta from that restaurant. We all retreated to our tents, and I set up my wards. Normally, I set up three wards¡ªThe first layer being a alarm ward which notifies me of people approaching. It¡¯s set up so that I¡¯ll know once they come within two meters of my tent. The second ward is a simple physical ward, keeping anyone from coming within half a meter of the tent. The last ward is a trap ward, which would activate if someone breaks the physical ward. I think I¡¯ve said that it paralyzes the target in question before, for about a day. While that may seem a little harsh, I thinks it¡¯s one of those things you¡¯ll only ever do once. Speaking from experience, being paralyzed for long periods of time can be a little traumatizing, and it¡¯s not something you forget, either. Thankfully, nobody¡¯s activated that ward, or even found out about the physical ward around my tent. They¡¯ve been remarkably good at giving me my privacy. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Tired and mentally worn out, I decided to sleep instead of meditating, and soon started dreaming.
(POV Hogvir) I¡¯m starting to regret acting against Kai. He seems like a good person, if somewhat antisocial. Even though I know almost nothing about him, I feel like if I tried, he could be a lifelong friend. But that chance might be lost now, with what we¡¯re doing behind his back. Sitting hunched over in my tent, which was too damn small for me, I thought about what had led me to this position. Our group of merchants, crafters, mages, and other distinguished peoples from the city was first formed from a mutual dislike of how the city was run. Ash and Jourmont, as some of the most powerful people in the city not under the payroll of the governor or his staff, were almost unanimously elected as leaders of the group. I was elected/forced into a leadership role as well, even though I wanted nothing to do with the thing. I just wanted to make beautiful armors. I didn¡¯t want to participate in any sort of fledgling rebellion, even though I eventually accepted my role. It¡¯s been a few years since then, and we hadn¡¯t made any real progress until a few months ago. That was when some of the higher ranks in the city guard had gotten sick of extorting more taxes from people barely able to buy bread for themselves, and decided to join our efforts. Things started moving quickly from there, and we thought everything was going well, until we got word of him. Rumor was that a smith had appeared in the city, and had been selling swords to people in exchange for quality metals. The problem was that most of these swords ended up in the hands of the nobles we so desperately wanted out of the city. Actually, we didn¡¯t think much about these rumors at first, until one of the boys in my smithy happened to see a noble¡¯s son showing off one of these blades, by cutting the stone pillars supporting a shop he had taken a dislike to straight in half, like thin paper. The store collapsed because of this. We immediately started paying more attention to the new bladesmith, and saw the danger he represented, simply because most of his clients were nobles. Then something happened that made us think that, maybe, he could be won over to our side. A young orphan approached Kai, with a chunk of raw iron the size of a fist in his hands, and asked for a blade to protect his sister with. Kai took the iron, and forged a knife superior to the swords made for noble¡¯s sons, for the boy to keep. He told the boy to keep the deal quiet, because he didn¡¯t want the knife to be stolen from the boy. Unfortunately, the boy bragged about the knife to some of his friends, and they beat him and sold the knife for money. That¡¯s how we found out about the whole thing. I can¡¯t help but wonder if Kai¡¯s helped others like this before. Anyway, after that, we decided that we would try to win Kai over. Jourmont, however, was deeply suspicious of anyone whose background he doesn¡¯t know, and wanted to delay attempting the requirement of Kai until we had a better grasp of who he is. When they suggested that I bring Kai into the labyrinth somehow, I had an idea of what they were going to do, but didn¡¯t try to stop it. Even if I voiced my thoughts on the matter, they would find someway to bypass my notice. That doesn¡¯t however, stop me from regretting the whole thing. I want to find a way to make it up to Kai, but that would require telling him about it in the first place¡ªAnd I¡¯m sure that he would be furious that someone was digging in his past. He¡¯s the type that has too much to hide, and too much riding on keeping it hidden. Right now, though, I can only hope that Ash and Jourmont didn¡¯t find anything in Kai¡¯s home, else this whole thing will only continue. Sighing, I decided to make a decision about the whole mess after a night¡¯s sleep. Damn tenth floor made me really tired.
(Jourmont) ¡°Good news, Ash.¡± (Ash) ¡°What is it?¡± (Jourmont) ¡°I¡¯ve found out who the survivors from that slave camp Kai annihilated are. I haven¡¯t found out where they are at the moment, but it¡¯s only a matter of time now.¡± (Ash) ¡°Good. Maybe we¡¯ll get some answers about Kai now.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Exactly what I was thinking. We might also get some information from Hogvir after he comes back out of the labyrinth.¡± (Ash) ¡°Yeah. We¡¯ll see what he¡¯s found out from watching Kai. He could probably tell us how strong Kai is, which is information we¡¯ve been lacking from the start.¡±
Author''s Note: I thought that it might be useful to know some of the statuses of others so far, so I went ahead and put them in. Here you go¡ª;)
Status:
Name: Katariah Silver
Titles: (4 Hidden)
Race: Demon/ElfAge: 13Gender: Female
Main Class: MageSub Class(es): Smith; Swordsman
Level: 22
Health: 320Mana: 75200
Strength: 50Stamina: 34Dexterity: 64
Intelligence: 68Wisdom: 62Luck: 1
Status:
Name: Udon Hogvir
Titles:
The Fire GiantWarm Hearted
Race: Human/GiantAge: 47Gender: Male
Main Class: SmithSub Class(es): Berserker
Level: 36
Health: 460Mana: 130
Strength: 65Stamina: 48Dexterity: 36
Intelligence: 28Wisdom: 42Luck: 37
Status:
Name: Gregor Veroth
Titles:
LeaderLuckless LoveEx-Noble
Race: HumanAge: 24Gender: Male
Main Class: KnightSub Class(es): Cook, Oblivious Idiot
Level: 28
Health: 370Mana: 230
Strength: 38Stamina: 40Dexterity: 32
Intelligence: 34Wisdom: 24Luck: 4
¡ªRiver. Chapter 8: The Crystal Sword Hordes of soldiers, numbering in the millions, marched in straight lines, their metal helms reflecting the morning light every which way. Pikes were held high, forming a bristling forest of steel and wood, and men on horses had swords buckled to their saddles, keeping them at the ready, in case they lost their lances. Interspread through the lines were groups of men holding steel barrels mounted on wood. They were currently doing last minute maintenance on these contraptions. The whole army seemed restless, railing for the fight they would face shortly. I could see the opposing forces from where I stood, up high on a cliff overlooking the fields in knew would soon be soaked in blood. Hopefully most of it would be the enemy¡¯s, and we¡¯ll emerge victorious¡ªSlim through the chance might seem. The other army outnumber us three to one. While we had millions of brave men and women, they had inhuman beasts augmenting their ranks, and some of the most powerful mages ever seen on their side. All too soon though, they began their rolling charge, the whole mass of them shaking the ground, and raising a dust trail miles high. I relayed a command to the woman standing next to me, covered in bright, resplendent armor, and our men began to move¡­.
(Hogvir) ¡°Oi¡ª Kai, time to wake up, we¡¯re leaving!¡± I woke up, startled by Hogvir¡¯s shouting. I sat for a moment, banishing the remnants of the dream, before hurriedly pulling my silver hair back into a simple ponytail, and throwing on my coat and mask. I tidied up my bedroll, and stuck it into my knapsack. I took down the wards surrounding my tent, and packed that up as well. All the tents went on the one remaining mule, and I joined everyone else, as we cleaned up the campsite. The other two groups that had been here yesterday have already left, and we shortly followed them into the eleventh floor of the labyrinth. The very next room was filled with armored skeletons, wielding every sort of weapon conceivable, and with various styles of armor, ranging from full plate to basic leather armors. Hogvir was released on them, and they were quickly broken. He still looks a little troubled, but less then before. Something in me hopes that he found a resolution somehow. We journeyed deeper into the eleventh floor, and had the satisfying feeling of actual combat, rather than the constant vigilance required on the tenth floor. It had worn everybody a bit thin, and now we were getting some good stress relief. Eventually, the smiths noticed a small ore vein running through one of the rooms¡ªIt was a magikite iron vein, which could be mined to get mana rich iron. It made a good foundation for magic circle inscriptions. These inscriptions could be inlaid into armor to provide resistances to certain elements, or to boost a few stats. It was an essential ore for armors like Hogvir and his group, so they quickly mined out the vein, gathering a few handfuls of the ore¡ªenough to last a few months, with how little is needed to make the inscriptions. Another one of the rooms we entered was filled with bright light, emanating from a massive crystal in the center of the room. Embedded into the crystal was a simple looking longsword, slowly rusting away. I tapped the crystal, and was astounded by the degree of its rigidity and hardness. I looked at the sword again, gaining an appreciation for however had made the thing, that it was able to pierce the crystal, and for the one who had the strength to drive it in up to the hilt. Some of the smiths, taking the sword to be a challenge, attempted to pull the sword from the crystal, to no avail. It didn¡¯t move an centimeter, nor did it break, contrary to it¡¯s rusted and fragile appearance. The adventurer¡¯s laughed at the attempts¡ªapparently the sword was somewhat of a tourist attraction. No matter who was pulling it, it had never moved, and nobody could remember how it had ended up in the crystal in the first place. It was just another mystery to be found in a labyrinth. As everybody was leaving the room, I approached the sword, the bladesmith in me curious at how such a thing had been made. I touched the sword¡¯s hilt, and felt the powerful coursing of mana in it. It was easily equal the the power held within Twilight, which surprised me due to the sword¡¯s age¡ªpower would naturally leak out over time, unless the sword saw action, where it would take in some of the mana of monsters killed. And, from what I could tell, the sword was only made of steel, and not any more powerful metals. That it had such a degree of power still spoke volumes about it¡¯s creator, and his/her skill. Truly enamored with the sword, I tried pulling it out without thinking, only wanting to see the blade itself. Everybody else was now in the next room, and I don¡¯t think they noticed my absence, which was good, because it would be kind of hard to explain why the old sword had come free under a single light tug of mine. Honestly, I didn¡¯t know how it happened, and only remembered that the sword wasn¡¯t supposed to move after the blade was lying in my hands. It was blackened with age, and had rust spots running along its length. It wasn¡¯t very sharp, but gave the impression that there was nothing it couldn¡¯t cut. I looked at it awhile, mesmerized by the simplistic beauty in the blade. It wasn¡¯t decorated, but had a feeling of elegance about it, like the sword was one of the old, honorable nobles tasked with protecting the people instead of extorting them. Looking at it, I realized that it would be suspicious as all hell if I returned to the group with a new sword, after visiting a room with only one, supposedly impossible to remove sword in it. Wondering what I should do, suddenly the sword shrunk into a dagger, the metal reforming itself, though it still had those rust spots on it, and was lighter now. Now completely stunned, I rolled the dagger in my hand, wondering how it had done that. Working off intuition, I activated¡¼Analyze¡½on the dagger, and was met with a screen.
Ancient¡¯s Respite
A blade crafted long ago, with now forgotten techniques, by one of the greatest smiths ever.
Properties:
Mana BreakIdeal ShapeAwarenessForgotten KnowledgeGrowth
It had the same property as Twilight,¡¼Growth¡½. I still haven''t figured out what it does, but now that I have another blade to compare it to, I can¡¯t help but get the feeling that it¡¯s a big deal. I was right to hide it. And the other properties of the blade were more than a little overpowered. ¡¼Mana Break¡½dispels any mana constructs it touches, letting you cut through barriers and wards with incompatible ease. ¡¼Ideal Shape¡½lets it become any shape, just as you¡¯d assume. It could be anything you wanted it to be. ¡¼Forgotten Knowledge¡½is also fairly obvious¡ªNobody knows how to make things like this anymore. It implies that if I were to study Ancient''s Respite, I had a lot to potentially learn. ¡¼Awareness¡½, I don¡¯t know anything about. Can the sword think or something? Anyway, now that it was a convenient size, I just it at the bottom of my knapsack. I wondered what the next group to enter this room will think, seeing the sword gone, only having left a slot in the crystal where it had been. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.I ran to catch up the the group, who were worriedly waiting in the next room. Seeing me, they asked me what had happened, and I told them that I wanted a little more time to admire the crystal. They accepted this explanation easily. We continued down the labyrinth. There was one thing that concerned me as we made our way. Veroth was acting...twitchy. I didn¡¯t have a better way to describe it. He would jump at small noises, some of them normally much too quiet for normal people to hear. His eyes were darting about, and had turned slightly bloodshot. He also started fidgeting with his hands, his sword, his armor. Anything, really. It was like he couldn¡¯t get comfortable, or had too much restless energy. I kept an eye on him, hoping it was just me reading too much into things.
Eventually, we made it to the exit of the eleventh floor. We walked through the transit room and entered the first room of the twelfth floor. In it, thing had gone very wrong for the two groups that had left before us. There weren¡¯t any monster in the room, but there were bodies laying all over the place, most of them in multiple pieces. I could see one of the archers from the group lying crumpled against a wall, his broken bow impaling him through the chest. He wasn¡¯t quite dead yet though, as his lips were moving in what I presumed to be silent prayer. Hogvir ran to the man, and checked his wounds. The man didn¡¯t see Hogvir right in front of his, so far gone was he. Hogvir only looked back at us, and shook his head. The man¡¯s lips stopped moving a moment later. We cautiously approached the center of the room, where tents were half-set up, like the group had been attacked while building camp. Everyone gripped their weapons nervously. I took off my knapsack and put it down, and brought Twilight to my off hand, ready to draw at a moment¡¯s notice. The whole situation gave me a really bad feeling. That feeling was only amplified by the sounds which grew louder as the center of the camp grew closer. There was something¡ªno, multiple somethings shuffling around the place, just out of our sight range. Occasionally, the shuffling was broken by singular grunts, from more than one place. We passed a tent with two still bodys in it, and as we turned away from it, we saw what had caused all this. Or at least, we saw one of them. It was a man, but a person no longer. His eyes were red and blood filled, and his irises held no more semblance of humanity. His muscles were protruding sickeningly, with the veins showing pitch black against his too-pale skin. The monster, for that¡¯s what the man had become, saw us, and bared blood-soaked teeth. A low growl was heard before he abruptly flashed, and suddenly stood before our group. A hand grabbed out, and took hold of one of our frontline fighters. The monster punched his chest, and broke through armor and flesh alike, killing him instantly. A few cries were heard from the now-dead man¡¯s friends, before we all drew our weapons, prepared to defend ourselves. I looked at the monster through¡¼Analyze¡½, and found his inhuman stats reflected in my eyes.
Status: (Abnormal)
Name: Jorg Grent
Titles:
Lost HumanityCannibalMonster
Race: Human(Infected)Age: 28Gender: Male
Main Class: SwordsmanSub Class(es): Brawler
Level: 31
Health: 9000Mana: 0
Strength: 86Stamina: 95Dexterity: 59
Intelligence: 10Wisdom: 1Luck: 10
Something had changed him into a monster, and boosted his stats at the cost of his mana and humanity. Probably, several members of their groups was infected, and it went unnoticed until they started turning out their own teammates. The question now was, how were they infected? Was it something we had to worry about? I¡¯ll figure that out later. Right now we have to put this monster out of it¡¯s misery. Hogvir struck first, his flaming sword slamming into the side of the infected human, and propelling him over the tents. It¡¯s clothing had also caught on fire, serving as a beacon to the other infected people in the room. They came at us, all having those red eyes and bulging muscles. Some screamed inarticulate sounds of rage at us, unable to use words any longer. Hogvir laid about him like usual, but this time he had some pain in his eyes. He was well aware that these monsters were once innocent people, changed by misfortune. I followed him, dealing precision strikes separating heads from shoulders. I tried my best to avoid the claw like hands of the monsters, and was largely successful, even though their physical stats were larger than mine by a good margin. There were a few times when they grazed my clothing, though the coat protected me. They weren''t able to tear through it at all. I noticed that blow not killing them did almost nothing¡ªthey would shrug off the pain like they didn¡¯t feel it, and continued on even with blood pumping from gaping wounds, or missing limbs. Hogvir also noticed this, and began to aim his strike for the head, like I did, seeing that whenever I struck one, it stayed down. The fight ended only minutes after it started¡ªbut you know how it is. It lasted hours for us. I flicked the black blood off my blade, and resheathed it, tossing my knapsack back over my shoulder from where it had lain. I looked around, and saw that the adventurers were looking at the dead bodies of the monsters in horror. They probably hadn¡¯t ever killed a person before¡ªthough what we faced didn¡¯t count as human anymore. I squatted down, and used¡¼Analyze¡½on one of the monsters again, for more information.
This was once a person, but was bitten by a spider rarely found in swamps, causing them to lose their mind, and enter a rage filled state, where they attack anyone nearby. The spider¡¯s poison takes effect two days after initial exposure. There is no cure. Symptoms include sleeplessness, anxiety, short attention span, and increased sensory input.
Shit. I can think of one person in our group who has had all of those symptoms, since we made it out of the swamp in the tenth floor. This isn¡¯t going to end well.
Chapter 9: The Good Man I debated on how to inform the other¡¯s on what I had just found out. Especially because it¡¯s a essentially a death sentence for Veroth, who I think was bitten by one of the spiders which had created those monsters. No, first I would watch Veroth to see if, indeed he was being affected by something, and truly displayed the symptoms of a bite. So far, he had, but that¡¯s no reason to incite panic among the others. I might as well try talking to Veroth alone, and ask him about the whole thing¡ªand whether he has a small spider bite anywhere. We left the room, and waited for an hour before reentering. We had grabbed the symbols belonging to the two adventurer groups, and could turn them in, to the adventurer¡¯s guild who could inform any next of kin that they had died. We set up camp in the now spotlessly clean room, which had reset without people in it. We had to clear out labyrinth spawned monsters this time, but after a few minutes, they disintegrated into light, turning back into pure mana circulating through the labyrinth. We would have seen a similar thing happen to the two groups, as the labyrinth broke down the bodies and materials, and took the resulting mana for itself. It was somewhat of a tradition among adventurers to let the labyrinth claim dead comrades. There was a somber tone still in the air, though. It was rare to see entire groups of adventurers killed¡ªNormally, there would be at least one survivor. The camp was mostly quiet, with a few whispered conversation around the fire, and some people went to bed earlier than they would usually. I took a quick look around, and spotted Veroth. He was fidgeting again, and there were now dark bags under his eyes. I decided that now would be as good a time as any. I slipped around the fire, and tapped his shoulder. He jumped in his seat, and spun around, eyes wide and alert. I brought my finger to where my mouth would be on the mask, and motioned for him to follow me. He nodded, and got up. We entered the next room, and killed the monsters in there without talking. After the last one disappeared into motes of blue mana, Veroth sat on his heels, and looked at me, tired but all too aware. (Veroth) ¡°What do you want to talk to me about? It must be something pretty bad, if you don¡¯t want any of the other¡¯s to hear about it.¡± (Kai) ¡°Well, I want to talk about you.¡± (Veroth) ¡°Hm? Why would that matter?¡± (Kai) ¡°It does. Let me ask you this¡ªDo you have small amounts of swelling anywhere on your body, with two tiny puncture marks in the center of it?¡± (Veroth) ¡°Wait, how do you know about that?¡± I cursed under my breath, and it was faintly heard by Veroth. (Veroth) ¡°What? Should I be worried about it?¡± (Kai) ¡°Damn it!....Sorry. I¡¯ll try and put this to you softly.¡± I didn¡¯t notice that I was slipping into a slight accent, my word flowing more softly into one another, instead of the harsh tones I had always made sure to speak in. Veroth noticed my agitation, and was beginning to look a little fearful. (Kai) ¡°When we were going through the swamp on the tenth level, I think that you may have been bitten by a certain spider. Unfortunately, while the spider¡¯s venom isn¡¯t deadly to the body, or any of it¡¯s functions, it is deadly to the mind.¡± Veroth looked sicker the more I said. (Veroth) ¡°Deadly how? Is there anything I can do?¡± (Kai) ¡°I don¡¯t think there¡¯s a way to stop it. And, we¡¯ve already seen how the venom shuts down the mind today.¡± Veroth instantly knew what I was talking about, and his already pale skin lightened a shade. (Veroth) ¡°You, you mean that I¡¯m...going to become one of those...things?¡± (Kai) ¡°Call them what they were. Those were monsters. They were all bitten by a spider somehow, one found on the tenth floor, and exhibited the same symptoms you are showing.¡± (Veroth) ¡°Then, do you know how long I have?¡± (Kai) ¡°I would say about a day. From what I¡¯ve found, the infection completely takes over after two days, and we¡¯ve already gone through one of them.¡± I looked at him with pity in my eyes, even though he couldn¡¯t see it through the mask. Anyone could have been bitten by that spider, me included. Actually, now that I think about it, wouldn¡¯t it have been bad if I had been bitten? From what I saw, I think that all the mana in a person¡¯s body is transferred into physical stats. With my mana pool, I would have easily become something that couldn¡¯t be brought down by anyone. Though I don¡¯t think I would have made it to that stage in the infection, as I would rather die with my mind intact. (Veroth) ¡°So, I have a day.¡± (Kai) ¡°Yes.¡± (Veroth) ¡°Well then. Can you please not tell the others about this? I think I want to clear one last floor with them.¡± (Kai) ¡°Sure. But, if it looks like you are going to turn sooner than I thought, what are you going to do?¡± Veroth looked at what he could see of my eyes, through the mask, with sincerity, and a plead. I knew what he wanted, and nodded. I would do my part when the time came. We returned to the campfire without anyone having noticed that we had left. Veroth had a smile on his face. It was an honest smile, but one filled with sadness and slight unwillingness. It was more happy than anything, though, as he looked at his teammates around the campfire. I went to my tent, trying to banish the old memories which had come at seeing that smile, one so similar to someone else who was ultimately destined to die. When it came time to move again, only four hours had passed. The somber mood had been banished, as the group of adventurers had begun recalling old missions and incidences. There was much laughter, at the center of which was Veroth, who looked lively and smiled the widest out of everyone. We packed everything up, and distributed it like normal, before entering the next room. In the middle of the room were two earth golems, boosting a high defence and good offence, normally they would give groups of our size a bit of trouble. The adventurers, however, seemed more lively than ever, and charged the two towering figures, lead by Veroth. He demonstrated his excellent swordsmanship, and protected his teammates with the shield in his left hand, holding fast no matter what. The golems were quickly toppled, their cores extracted. Like this, Veroth and his group blazed through room after room, quashing the monsters they encountered with seemingly boundless fighting spirit. The smiths, Hogvir and I could only walk placidly behind them. Hogvir seemed somewhat puzzled by the change exhibited by the adventurers, and the rest of the smiths just seemed happy that they were getting loot at a faster pace. I was happy that Veroth decided to enjoy his time, instead of breaking down like so many others would. This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. The toughest fight they had was against a few flame salamanders, but even those were handly taken care of. One was killed by Veroth, while the other was ganged up upon by the rest of the group. Veroth came out of the fight slightly battered, but still grinning. The others asked if he was okay, he said to not worry about it, he¡¯ll be fine. I could still see the fight in his eyes¡ªHe wanted to fight a stronger opponent, and prove himself one last time. He got his wish. The last room on the twelfth floor. When we entered, a phenomenon we¡¯ve seen twice before while in the labyrinth occurred again. This time, the black fog signifying the entrance of a floor guardian materialized into a wyvern¡ªa distant cousin to the dragons, with only two legs, due to their wings acting as the forelegs. It screeched, nearly breaking our eardrums. Veroth ran to engage it, and the rest of the adventurers followed a second later. The wyvern blew a gout of fire at the bulk of the group, but everyone got out of the way in time. They reached the wyvern¡¯s body, and began hacking at its limbs and stomach. Thin lines of silver blood dribbled down, hitting the floor in small amounts. The wounds dealt to the wyvern weren¡¯t nearly enough to do anything except make it angry. They backed off as the wyvern trashed around with it¡¯s body, hoping to crush one of the adventurers with it¡¯s weight. When that didn¡¯t work, it spun, and the wyvern¡¯s tail snapped out like a whip, producing a shocking sound wave as it¡¯s tip neared the speed of sound. It slammed against two unprepared adventurers, throwing them out of the fight with multiple broken bones and torn muscles. Samith, the archer, fought the wyvern from a distance, lobbing arrow after arrow filled with mana at the beast, aiming for weak points such as the eyes and mouth. Occasionally, one would hit, eliciting shrieks from the wyvern. Every time it tried to go after her, Veroth stood in it¡¯s way, shield raised and sword spinning, silver blood glinting off its surface as he carved line after line into the wyvern¡¯s face, sides, and wings. The other frontline fighters fought as best they could, dealing damage when the opportunity presented itself, and retreating when their actions brought the wyvern¡¯s fury upon them. The mages cast restriction spells designed to rob the wyvern if it¡¯s mobility, and limit the actions it could take against the adventurer. Hogvir and I stood back, admiring the fight, and the ways in which the adventurers chose to fight. The blood pooling on the floor grew as more and more cuts appeared on the wyvern¡¯s skin. By this time, it had been severely weakened by the loss of so much blood, and was irritated by the fact that it couldn¡¯t do anything to the adventurers. Other than the two hit by it earlier, none of the others were injured. Things were going well for the adventurer, until¡ªas things are apt to do, they took a turn for the worse. The wyvern was well and truly enraged now, and begun to ignore the damage it had accumulated. If I could put it into human terms, I think it wanted to bring us down with it. Instead of the screeches it had made before, it let out a roar befitting a dragon, shaking the whole room, and causing dust to rain from the ceiling. For a split second, everyone¡¯s footing was off, and the wyvern took advantage of that to sweep with it¡¯s tail again, this time hitting all of the front line fighters except for Veroth, who had dodged the tail with inhumanly quick reflexes. He jumped at the wyvern''s head, and made a desperate stab at it¡¯s remaining eye, the other one having an arrow sticking out of it, courtesy of Samith. The sword sunk into the eye up to it¡¯s hilt, and Veroth began to jiggle it back and forth, hoping to do fatal damage to the beast. It¡¯s screeching reached a new height as the wyvern panicked, now facing death. It began twitching before finally laying still, killed by the sword still stuck in it¡¯s eye. Veroth sunk to his knees, and I could see small traces of black in his veins, the venom within him beginning to activate. (Veroth) ¡°*Cough* *Cough* Kai! It looks like I don¡¯t have much time left now.¡± I appeared next to him, using my speed to run as fast as I could to his side. (Kai) ¡°Yeah. You''re about done now. I would tell the others now, were I you.¡± The other adventurers gathered around him, or at least the ones still conscious. He began by telling them what I had told him, that the monster we had encountered were bitten by a type of spider. (Veroth) ¡°I didn¡¯t want you guys to worry, but it looks like I was also bitten by that same spider. I wanted to enjoy my time left, and make one last good memory. I¡¯m sorry that this couldn¡¯t have been prevented.¡± He was still smiling a heart-breakingly kind smile, but tears were now leaking from his eyes. He was on good company though¡ªthere wasn¡¯t a dry eye among the adventurers. They appreciated the fact that he had the time to say goodbye to them, as most deaths in the labyrinth were unexpected and sudden, taking away those you know without any warning. He turned to me, and asked me again, to give him peace. Everyone else left the room, entering the transit room between floors. I stayed behind, and held Twilight tightly in my hand. Veroth sat cross legged, conflicting emotions and desires reflected on his face. I could tell he was having trouble holding on as the venom took greater hold of him. I decided that he should at least see the face of the one to end his life, so I pulled off my hood, and took off the mask. His eyes widened, as he realized that I was a girl, and that I had the horns of a demon-kin. (Veroth) ¡°Ha! Who would have guessed, right?¡± I nodded. (Kai) ¡°It¡¯s the least I could do. If it makes you feel any better, I can tell that you are a good man. Good men live well after death. Hell, maybe we¡¯ll even met again.¡± My voice was back to it¡¯s original chime like quality. (Veroth) ¡°Good to know. Please...Hurry? Can¡¯t hold on much longer.¡± In response, I unsheathed Twilight, and raised it high, as a nod to a good man. A few minutes later, I rejoined the rest of the group, my mask back on. They decided that their labyrinth dive was done now that Veroth was gone, and wanted to return to the surface. Before I could follow them, Hogvir pulled me aside, to tell me some important things.
Chapter 10: The Nobles "Request" After everyone else had left, through the transportation runes in the transit room, Hogvir pulled me aside before I could also leave. An hour later, I exited the labyrinth. I was angry. Very, very angry. Angry at Hogvir, angry at his business associates, angry at the city and it¡¯s damn nobles, but mostly angry at myself. I can¡¯t believe I didn¡¯t see it before now. I shouldn¡¯t have given swords to the nobles. Sure, they gave me good ores and metals in return, but that wasn¡¯t the point. I only wanted to make swords, and didn¡¯t care who bought them. Of course they would be abused like that. So, sure. Hogvir¡¯s little rebellion group could be justified in their attempts to look up my past. However, if they¡¯ve figured anything out, then there¡¯s no saving them. I keep my damn past hidden for very good reasons, and there are things that could cost them their lives if they found out about them. I make my way to my house, and arrived in front of it quickly. Before anything else, I checked my wards. They have not been taken down. I know this by the lack of unconscious bodies near the house, inside the wards designed for that purpose. There is a little bit of evidence that they have been tampered with, though. And by a very subtle touch, as well. If I hadn¡¯t been told about the whole thing by Hagvir, then I likely wouldn¡¯t have noticed at all. I tear down the old, compromised wards, and throw up new ones, draining about half my mana in the process. I enter my home, and immediately notice things out of place, some of the swords not quite put back where they had been when I left. My sleeping quarters had been completely searched. I could faintly see the mana signature in the air, where a fire spell had illuminated the room, and everything was slightly out of place¡ªjust a few centimeters or so. Normal people wouldn¡¯t notice, or even remember details like this, but a memory like mine practically forces you to recall everything you¡¯ve ever known. It¡¯s a pain when you don¡¯t want to remember some things. The first thing I opened was the old chest near the bed. I was revealed that everything was still in there, but then furious at the fact that someone had obviously been through it. There are private things in there, you know! The most important thing I own, the little dagger, still lay on top of the pile in the chest, and I don¡¯t think they took anything. That didn¡¯t stop me from being pissed, though. I will need to ¡®talk¡¯ to them at some point. I wonder if they¡¯ll survive the talk with their mentality intact?
(POV Hogvir) Well, Kai looked angry. I hope he doesn''t do anything rash now. I know part of his anger is, justifiably, because of me. I¡¯m still glad I told him, though. Maybe now, instead of losing Kai¡¯s trust before we even gain it, he can decide whether we deserve it in the first place. Speaking of trust, I also need to make some tough calls. I track down Jourmont and Ash, who are predictably searching for more leads into Kai¡¯s past. One thing he told me, before leaving, is that people knowing where he came from tend to not live long. It wasn¡¯t a threat, but a warning. I need to stop those two from going too deep, before I can¡¯t drag them back up. Jourmont saw me enter our base first. He immediately came to greet me. (Jourmont) ¡°Ah, Hogvir. Good timing¡ªWhat can you tell us about Kai?¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Not now. Let¡¯s get Ash first. I have something that I need to tell you two.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Hm. Alright, Ash is in one of the interrogation rooms right now, pursuing a lead.¡± I look at the cold and calculating man square in the eyes, hoping that he can see my sincerity. (Hogvir) ¡°Get her out of there, right now. This is much more important.¡± A few minutes later, we were sitting in a private lounge, around a small table. (Ash) ¡°You said you have something to tell us? Did you learn something about Kai while in the labyrinth.¡± I chuckled a little at that. (Hogvir) ¡°Yeah. I learned some things about Kai.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Well? Out with it. Don¡¯t keep us in suspense, Hogvir.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Right. First, he¡¯s far stronger than we thought. He is also able to kill without remorse, and is likely going to be here soon, to ask you guys to stop looking into his past.¡± (Ash) ¡°Pfft. Why would he come here? Even if he finds out that someone''s investigation him, he doesn¡¯t know who we are.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Well, that¡¯s simple. It would be because I told him about it.¡± (Ash) ¡°What!? Why the hell would you do that, you idiot!¡± (Hogvir) ¡°I, for one, am glad that I did. Now, even if he won¡¯t be our ally, at least he won¡¯t be our enemy.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°She was asking why, Hogvir, not whether or not you think you did the right thing.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°You¡¯ll find out soon enough. I think Kai should be here soon, after all.¡± True enough, he arrived only a few minutes later, a terrifying aura around him. Looking into the slits in his mask for eyeholes, and seeing a cold golden gleam from within let me know that he was still feeling angry, but there was no murderous intent. Maybe he¡¯s going to be reasonable? Kai¡¯s deep voice contained a presence denying the fact that he was so short, one that completely overwhelmed us. (Kai) ¡°So I hear that you guys are the ones who broke into my home, looked through my stuff, and decided to check out my past. I am very glad to meet you.¡± Ash, while somewhat intimidated by Kai, decided to try talking with him. (Ash) ¡°Well, you know, when we have someone selling powerful swords to people misusing them, we normally keep an eye on them.¡± Kai grunts at that. I take it he knows that he had made a mistake selling swords to nobles, and allowing them to hurt others¡ªAnd from what I¡¯ve seen, Kai dislikes seeing people in pain. (Kai) ¡°You didn¡¯t just keep an eye on me. You violated my privacy, and are actively trying to dig up my past.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°It¡¯s a logical thing to do. After all, your past could give you a reason to act against us.¡± Kai laughed deeply, almost doubling over. (Kai) ¡°Ha! If you keep digging into my past, nothing will end well for you people!¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Is that a threat? When we could...help you with certain things?¡± (Kai) ¡°It is not a threat, but a statement of truth. And you cannot help me with anything.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Even if we say that we can help you find that black-haired woman with the burn on the side of her face? You could use our¡­¡± (Kai) ¡°Stop.¡± Kai¡¯s tone suddenly turned ice cold, and he spoke in a way that screamed authority. Nobody I¡¯ve ever heard had that much regality in their voice, not even the city lord. (Kai) ¡°If you continue searching for my past, you will die. I will not be the one to ultimately kill you, but I can assure you that it This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report itwould be slow and painful.¡± I could hear pain in his next few words. (Kai) ¡°Besides, that woman has already died.¡± He paused, thinking over what to say. (Kai) ¡°Even though you people have grossly overstepped your bounds, I do know that I was wrong in giving swords to the nobles. Therefore, I propose a deal of sorts. You guys leave my past alone, and I will supply you with swords every now and then.¡± Ash spoke up, scared of the presence Kai had had early, but still wanting to get something answered. (Ash) ¡°Um, could you also promise to stop supplying the nobles? It would be better to have your word on that.¡± (Kai) ¡°Fine. I swear on my bloodlines that I will not supply swords to nobles in this city anymore, whether directly or indirectly. I will also give your resistance one free blade a month. Do not bother me otherwise, or I will make you stop.¡± At Kai¡¯s words, an odd glow suffused the room, proof that the World System had heard the oath, and would hold him to it. He left after that, and the oppressive air went with him. Ash sighed in relief, and slumped down in her chair. (Ash) ¡°That was intense.¡± Jourmont nodded, and he also showed a tiny bit of relief through his icy exterior. (Ash) ¡°It makes sense, though.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°What does?¡± (Ash) ¡°Oh! Sorry, I didn¡¯t think I was speaking out loud. No, it just that Kai had said that he wouldn¡¯t kill us, and I think he was telling the truth there.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°Huh? What do you mean?¡± (Ash) ¡°Well, I was talking with the survivor from that slaver camp, and he tells a very different story from what the bandit camps had said. Apparently, while Kai had entered the camp, and asked about a woman that they had sold, he only left after burning their food stores, and releasing all the slaves. He didn¡¯t kill anyone.¡± (Jourmont) ¡°What!? But then, how was it that most of the camp was wiped out?¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Wait! Do you guys care to fill me in, up to this point?¡± (Ash) ¡°Well, Kai had apparently been looking for a black-haired woman with a burn scar on her face, and had visited most of the bandit camps looking for her, or a nearby slave camp. After getting his information, he would leave, and burn their food stores. Then, we thought that he had rampaged at a slave camp, and killed everyone in retaliation for some unknown thing.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s what happened. Then, I have the same question as Jourmont earlier. How did they die, if Kai didn¡¯t end up killin¡¯ them? (Ash) ¡°That¡¯s what the survivor told me, right before you guys pulled me away, and Kai came. Two days after Kai had left the camp, a group of elves entered the camp, and asked the same questions as Kai, except they¡ª¡ªdid¡ª¡ªkill everyone in the camp, save for a lone scout hiding in a tree.¡± (Hogvir & Jourmont) "Huh?"
I left the building serving as the hideout of their little rebellion, and made my way back to my house. I wanted to go ahead and get started on swords to mitigate the damage caused by selling to nobles. Well, and I felt the rather explainable need to bash some metal with a hammer, instead of certain people¡¯s heads. I didn¡¯t expect them to find out about her, specifically. I wasn¡¯t expecting someone to be waiting out front, though. It was a man with a refined look, wearing a gentleman''s suit and white gloves. He also had one of the most ridiculous handlebar mustaches I¡¯ve ever seen. (???) ¡°Hello, Bladesmith Kai. I have come with a business propositions for you.¡± Great. He also spoke in a haughty, holier than thou tone. I don¡¯t like him already. (Kai) ¡°What is it?¡± (???) ¡°My master, Lord Hovington Durstat would like to commission ten long swords from you, for the price of¡­¡± (Kai) ¡°Excuse me for a moment, is your master a noble by any chance?¡± (???) ¡°Why yes! He is the esteemed lord of¡­¡± (Kai) ¡°No. Go find another smith. Tell him that the only reason he¡¯ll get a blade from me, is if it¡¯s shoved up his ass.¡± The noble¡¯s retainer looked shocked, before his face reddened. (???) ¡°Sir, I urge you to think through this more carefully, the House of Durstat isn¡¯t an enemy you can afford to¡­¡± (Kai) ¡°I¡¯ve already thought about it. The answer¡¯s still no. In fact, you can go ahead and spread the news that I won¡¯t be selling to any more nobles. Tell them I¡¯m busy making farm implements or something.¡± (???) ¡°This won¡¯t be the end of it! My house will¡­¡± (Kai) ¡°Yeah, just get off my property before you actually see me angry.¡± I let loose some killing intent, and the man paled, and fell on his butt, his legs unable to support him with how much they were quivering. He pushed himself away from me, and I paid him no more mind, though I did note with some humor that there was a rapidly spreading wet spot between his legs. Leaving him there, I went into my forge, ready to beat the hell out of some metal.
The poor retainer, who Kai had left alone, got up, and quickly walked back to the estate of which he belonged to. He tried his best to cover the dark parts on his now wet pants, while avoiding all the main streets. After making it back to the large noble¡¯s manor, he entered the servants quarters, and changed into a new shirt and pair of pants. Having made himself somewhat presentable, he made his way to the study occupied by his master, the Lord Hovington Durstat, to tell him of Kai¡¯s answer. He knocked on the door respectfully, before hearing an aged voice behind the door speak the words ¡°You may enter.¡± The servant pushed open the door, and stood in front of the desk behind which sat the lord. Lord Hovington Durstat was still a fit man, even into his sixties, proof of his warrior upbringing and heritage. He had a perpetual scowl, and a disdain for all things ¡®common¡¯. (Servant) ¡°Lord Hovington, I approached the Bladesmith Kai with your request.¡± Said the servant nervously. (Lord Hovington) ¡°And? Did he say when it¡¯ll be done?¡± (Servant) ¡°Sir, Bladesmith Kai said that he is too busy to take your order at the moment.¡± Lord Hovington leveled a look at the servant for a moment. (Lord Hovington) ¡°Bullshit. Nobody would be too busy to take a noble¡¯s order. What did he really say?¡± (Servant) ¡°Sir¡­ He said that he will not take your order. Bladesmith Kai said to take your order to another smith.¡± (Lord Hovington) ¡°What! He said that! Bring this...bladesmith to me, and I¡¯ll tell him exactly why he shouldn¡¯t ignore my order!¡±
Chapter 11: The Whole Oath I finished the sword in what should be record time¡ªIt¡¯s only been three hours after I started, grabbing the biggest chunk of metal I could find, slowly drawing it out into a bar, setting the edges, heat treating it, refining the shape a little more, sharpening it, and putting the hilt and guard on it. The end result was even bigger than the earlier greatsword, and far more brutal looking. I think there was once a culture that called swords like this Zweihanders. I heard someone outside the forge calling out right after finishing the sword, and checked to see who it was. Recognizing the aura outside, I changed my wards a little, and called out after quickly grabbing my mask off a nearby workstation, and throwing on my coat. (Kai) ¡°Come in. The wards won¡¯t stop you.¡± Throught the doorway appeared that giant red-haired man, Hogvir. (Hogvir) ¡°Feeling better now that you¡¯ve smashed some metal?¡± (Kai) ¡°A little. I¡¯m still pissed at your little group, though.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Ah. Well, that¡¯s to be expected, I guess. Though, that bloodline oath was a little excessive, don¡¯t you think? A sword every month? That just ties you to our group, right?¡± I grin a little under the mask. (Kai) ¡°Think though it a little more, Hogvir.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°What do you mean?¡± (Kai) ¡°Well, first, It¡¯s only one sword a month. Look around. How many swords do I have just laying about right now? Far more than enough to last a few years, were I to give one away every month. Second, I said I would give the ¡ªrebellion¡ª the swords. If you guys accomplish your mission, then you aren''t a rebellion anymore. And, if you fail, the group will be destroyed. Both of these nullify my oath.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Smart. It had sounded like a very limiting oath, but in reality, it doesn¡¯t change too much, does it?¡± (Kai) ¡°Right.¡ªCan I ask why you¡¯re here, other than to ask about the oath?¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Well, I want to offer you some space at my smithy. I can¡¯t help but look around here, and feel bad about how little space and equipment you have available.¡± (Kai) ¡°Sorry, but I¡¯ll have to decline. I need privacy, and this place has that.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°It fine. I wasn''t expecting you to answer, but the offer will alway be their.¡± (Kai) ¡°Thanks Hogvir.¡± He left, after casting an appreciative glance at my swords lined up against the wall. I had left out one part about the oath, though. Part of it was that I would keep the nobles from getting my swords, both from me and indirectly. That meant that I needed to issue a recall. Well, by recall, I mean that I¡¯m going to track down my swords and take them back. It¡¯s relatively easy for me to find them again, due to the mana I had circulated through the blades while making them. This gave them unique signatures I can find by just thinking about the particular blade, and using my mana. And, even if a blade trades hands, and ends up in a noble¡¯s house, the World System knows that I¡¯m doing my best to take it, and others back. I shouldn¡¯t have any problems with it, unless I stop actively trying to take back the blades. Only then would I be labeled an oathbreaker, and given an appropriate curse. For my part in the pain given to the normal citizens of the city, I am willing to sacrifice a little time and effort. I began polishing the zweihander when something unexpected happened. I heard a thud, and a string of curses. Walking outside¡ªmy mask was still on from Hogvir¡¯s visit¡ªI saw the man who had come to purchase swords from me earlier on his knees holding his nose, which was spurting blood between his hands. He had tried to enter my forge without permission, and run face first into a physical ward. I laughed a little, amused at the man¡¯s predicament. He saw me, and angrily started speaking. I couldn¡¯t understand half of what he said, with his nose blocked up, making his already nasally voice even worse. I think he was asking for something to clean up with, so I tossed my polishing rag at him. He immediately brought it up over his nose, before realizing that the piece of cloth was covered in grease and oil, and also stank to high heaven. He threw it to the side with a disgusted face. It looks like his nose had stopped bleeding for a moment, though it looked a little broken from the impact. Finally, after calming down a bit, the man stood up, and faced me with a haughty expression on his face. (Servant) ¡°Hello again Bladesmith Kai, my master, Lord Hovington, would like to meet you at his manor.¡± I tiled my head incredulously. (Kai) ¡°No. I¡¯ve already said that I won¡¯t make any blades for him, or anyone else.¡± (Servant) ¡°Regardless, Lord Hovington would like to meet you, and try to convince you otherwise.¡± I sighed, knowing that if I didn¡¯t, there was no end to the ways these people would bother me. Also, it seemed like this lord wasn¡¯t willing to let go. I might as well see him, and ¡®persuade¡¯ them to leave me alone. (Kai) ¡°Fine then. Lead the way.¡± The servant nodded his head, smiling in a way that clearly looked down at me. It was a tad gruesome looking with the blood and all. I walked slightly behind the man, and he made his way through the streets, moving towards the upper class sections of the city, near the center. Eventually we made it to one of the largest mansions in the city, and the servant opened a smaller door off to the side of the main ones, one meant for the house staff and other commoners. This was their way of looking down on me, by making me walk through the smaller door. It¡¯s these sorts of petty slights that I grew to hate among nobility. Besides, there are more satisfying ways to let the other side know that your disdain is upon them. The servant led me up a few stairwells, until we stood in front of a large set of wooden doors, probably leading into a study of some sort. (Servant) ¡°Sir, I have brought the Bladesmith Kai.¡± (Lord Hovington) ¡°He may enter¡ªYou stay outside, Charles.¡± The servant¡ªCharles, waited outside as I walked through the doors. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.The noble behind a massive desk gave me the feeling that he looked down on anything not in the noble¡¯s court, and emphasised a strength approach to situations, where any opposition is beaten down ruthlessly, and anything that displeases him is quashed out of existence. (Lord Hovington) ¡°I hear from Charles that you are unwilling to make me any swords, is that right?¡± The noble glared at me, attempting to use his bearing to cow me into submission. However, he soon started frowning, after having seen that I wear a mask. (Lord Hovington) ¡°Why are you wearing that mask in my presence? Do you think that you have something to hide before me? I demand that you take it off.¡± (Kai) ¡°I am sorry, but due to an injury, it would be best if the mask was left on. It would be in poor taste to show you something as gruesome as what is left of my face.¡± I lied to the noble, slightly upset at his attitude, and his assumption of power. (Kai) ¡°Furthermore, I have no reason to comply with what you want. You have none of my respect, you see.¡± (Lord Hovington) ¡°Fine then. I will pay you a great deal of money to make me ten swor¡­¡± (Kai) ¡°You misunderstand. I will not make you a single sword, no matter how much you pay me¡ªthough I do appreciate donations. Besides, you should have heard from others that I only deal in steel and other metal ores. Not that that knowledge will help you. I still will not make a single thing for you.¡± The noble¡¯s face started turning a fascinating shade of red as he listened to what I was saying. He looked at me with faint rage in his eyes. (Lord Hovington) ¡°It would be in your best interest to comply with my demands, little smith. Otherwise, your life will have become significantly more difficult!¡± (Kai) ¡°Oh please. You can¡¯t do anything to me. Not money nor violence will move me, and any silly little threats will only make me angrier.¡± (Lord Hovington) ¡°Silly little threats? You insolent commoner¡ªI am an A-rank adventurer myself, and have others in my employ! I can do much more than simply ¡®threaten¡¯ you!¡± (Kai) ¡°And here I thought that nobles were above resorting to intimidation, and used words to resolve things, the civilized way. Or maybe I¡¯ve met a disappointment of a noble, who only pretends at civility, when in private he is a barbarian of the greatest magnitude?¡± I mimicked speaking to myself, shaking my head in disappointment while the noble grew ever more angry. At the end of that, he called for his guards to detain me. He likely wanted to teach me a few lessons in his private dungeon, but I wasn¡¯t having any of that. I dodged the sub-par guards employed by the lord, and vanished from the estate. I know that this would make some things rather¡ªannoying, but it felt too good to pass up on the opportunity. As for how things got more annoying, I can give you an example. The day after, I was walking in a market place, buying some ingredients for food, since I have times where I eat at the forge, instead of going to the restaurant. In the city, due to the fact that it¡¯s situated where two large trade route meet, and that there¡¯s a labyrinth nearby, many types of different people come. In the market, there¡¯s a variety of people wearing exotic styles of clothing, and with all sorts of different skin colors. There are no other species though, due to the prejudice towards the elves, beastkin, and especially the demonkin. While looking through a stall with fresh produce, I felt a few presences watching me. This was nothing new¡ªThere were always going to be curious people everywhere. It only became strange when the people watching me started following me, as I ventured deeper into the market. Eventually, I grew tired of these people following me, and ruining a perfectly good stroll through one of the city¡¯s famous markets. I ducked into a small and deserted side street or alleyway, and they kept following. Two of them broke off from the others, and took to the roof to cut me off. A scant minute later, I was surrounded by four people, all wearing dark clothing and holding short swords. They had malicious grins on their faces, and it would take a complete idiot to now realize that they mean me harm. (???) ¡°Don¡¯t resist, and you won¡¯t get ¡ªtoo¡ªhurt. We¡¯re just here to bring you to a certain someone.¡± I snorted. (Kai) ¡°Like hell I¡¯m not going to resist.¡± They lunged at me, starting the fight. A few moments later, I walked out of the deserted alley. There wasn¡¯t a single speck of blood on my clothing, though the walls behind me couldn¡¯t say the same. Four crumpled bodies lay in the alleyway, each one with a short sword shoved through their hearts. I whistled as I walked back to my house. Funny enough, when I got there, I found four more people just inside my wards. They had broken through my physical ward, to be stopped by the one that paralyzes those crossing it. (Kai) ¡°Oh my, there are more of you people? I¡¯m flattered that noble guy thinks so highly of me, as to send more idiots to greet me.¡± The men couldn¡¯t do anything but stare at me, wide eyed, as I set up a sound barrier, and brought out a few things from the forge.
Later that night, Lord Hovington was walking around his private garden when one of his aides ran up to him, out of breath. (Aide) ¡°Sir, something has happened.¡± (Lord Hovington) ¡°What is it, can¡¯t you see I¡¯m enjoying my stroll through the gardens?¡± (Aide) ¡°I think you will want to see this yourself, sir.¡± The aide lead Lord Hovington to the front of the mansion, where four men were tied up, and left in the lawn. The had a gaping hole in their shirts, exposing a burn mark on their bodies, an invitation for more chaos, and something to drive a message home in the hearts of the nobles, all of whom had gotten word that the popular bladesmith Kai wouldn¡¯t be making any more blades. The burn mark read ¡ªYour move, from Kai.
Chapter 12: The A-Ranked Party After dropping off that noble¡¯s men as a gift, I shut myself in my house. Why, you might ask? Well, Hovington had said that he has several A-rank adventurers working for him, and that he himself is also one. While I can deal with one A-rank, no matter if they are High A, or Low A rank, multiple could give me serious problems if they catch me unprepared. Thankfully, I have a place where some of the deadliest weapons in the city are gathered, and it¡¯s protected by several powerful wards, the like of which would normally keep out even the Low S-ranks. I still have no idea how those two managed to bypass the wards, given how difficult it should be. Oh well. Point is, as long as I can control the engagement, I won¡¯t worry too much about what the nobles send at me. And then, after they send what they will, I can give them a good example of why they should start leaving me alone. Of course, afterwards I¡¯ll start bothering them, taking away those nice and shiny weapons I made for them. A bit hypocritical, after telling them to stay away from me, but then again, I don¡¯t like playing fair. I went ahead and inspected some of the weapons I¡¯ve made, looking for those that would be useful against the people I presume Hovington is going to send after me. The first thing I found wasn¡¯t even a sword. It was an arrow, something that I had forged in a pique of curiosity, when I had wondered if I would be possible to create arrow that exploded on impact. As it turns out, the answer is yes. Yes, you can. And then I have the crossbow that fires the thing¡ªA weighty construction of pulleys and metal, designed to fling it¡¯s explosive payload at the speed of sound. I made this after finding out that the faster the arrow is flying, the bigger the boom for some odd reason. I¡¯m not complaining, but it sort of irks me that I can¡¯t figure out why it is that a faster traveling speed turns a projectile capable of making a small crater in softly packed dirt into something able to blow up houses. Yes, more than one. I have to be very careful with it. Though it¡¯s less destructive that another projectile weapon I made. I call this one the boomstick. Why? Why not. It uses the same principles as the crossbow, but on a smaller projectile that goes around seven to ten times faster. ¡ªBoom. And, it looks like a stick, or rather, a tube with a shoulder rest on it. There are very few people in this world who would be capable of realizing just how dangerous the thing is. The rest of the weapons I set to the side as useful were slightly more conventional. Well, I mean, Ancient''s Respite was one of them, as my so called ace-in-the-hole. If things got really bad, I could use it to at least escape. And since it was still in it¡¯s knife form, I¡¯m able to easily slip it into a sheath under my coat, for quick retrieval. The others were less powerful as far as effects go, but had the same utility levels. A while back, I made a spear that would lock the space around whoever it had stabbed, preventing them from moving. It was a great concept, but the product had it¡¯s limitations. I would only freeze the space for five seconds, and wouldn¡¯t work on anyone with an amount of mana above 500 or so. Most semi-competent mages have at least that much, so the spear won¡¯t work on them, though I could still use it to stab them to death. Against warriors, however, the spear works fine, since they rarely start using large amount of mana until the late A-rank areas, or early S-rank. Another fun toy I made will constantly drain mana at a slow pace, as long as it¡¯s touching the target. Since it¡¯s difficult to ensure constant contact with anyone while fighting, I shaped it into a conveniently hard-to-notice form. At the moment, I have several of these useful things, in a leather band meant to be strapped to my wrist. I could quickly grab them that way, and fling them at my opponents, and watch as the tiny silvery needles sink into any exposed skin. They don¡¯t have much in the way of penetrative abilities, and can be countered with clothing, though, so it''s more of a hidden weapon than anything. They are extremely useful against mages, due to the mana drain they inflict. I also have a set of four knives that set up a barrier between them, once they¡¯ve been sunk into the ground. This is useful for crowd control, and making sure that I only have to face a manageable number of opponents at a time, sealing off the others for a short time. It¡¯s a state where they can¡¯t hit me, and I can¡¯t do anything to them, once the barrier is up. Though, I have found ways around that. Of course, my go-to weapon will be Twilight. It¡¯s the purest form of offensive power that I have, save for the boomstick, which I save for special occasions. Lastly, I have what could be my magnum opus. It¡¯s not a weapon, but the absolute best utility item I have. I named it Shadow. Shadow is a dull looking metallic sphere, with tiny and intricate lines etched into it¡¯s surface, and complex magical formations built into it, just under that surface. The lines are actually meant to contain the dense mana emanating from those formations, bottling it up inside the sphere and slowly charging it naturally. It had taken me a week to charge it by pumping all of my considerable mana into it, readying it for one use, before it had to be charged again. So what does all this mana accomplish? Well, that¡¯s part of the genius of the design. The hint¡¯s in the name¡ªShadow. The sphere, upon activation, creates a shadow dimension of the area a kilometer around it, and can maintain said dimension for thirty minutes total. In the shadow dimension, nothing that happens will affect the real world, and the real world cannot affect the shadow dimension. I can pull others into the other dimension, as long as I go as well. Once inside, I can fight without having to worry about property damage or innocent bystanders getting hurt. In other words, I do not have to hold back while using Shadow. On the flip side, neither does any of my opponents. While I have my own devastating trump cards, so do any of my enemies. It should also be noted that in the shadow dimension, time is twice as slow, so the thirty minutes I can use it for is equal to one hour outside of it. While inside of it, it¡¯s could be very easy for people to set traps against me, for when I exit it. They could also call for reinforcements, surrounding me before I¡¯m aware of it. That makes it so that I have to be sure that I¡¯ve dragged all the enemies to at least within a kilometer of me, so that I can bring them into the shadow dimension when I activate it. It¡¯s also disorientating as all hell to be dragged to what could technically be another dimension without any prior warning, so I would have a few extra seconds to take advantage of, before they regain their bearings. I gathered all these useful items, and put them inside a large bag, making sure to properly portion of parts of it, to keep the weapons from banging together. Especially the arrows and the boomstick projectiles. I don¡¯t know it they¡¯d explode with careless handling, but I really don¡¯t want to find out. I prefer my limbs intact, thank you very much. I kept some of the things on my person, like Twilight, the needles, Ancient''s Respite, and Shadow, which I would deploy after making sure that the conditions were optimal. Then, I set myself to waiting for the inevitable counter-attack from Hovington and the A-ranks. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. I grinned, happy at the prospect of burning off some of my large amounts of anger on this completely willing to fight group.
(POV Lord Hovington) I¡¯ll show that little pheasant why us nobility are the superior people! I swear it! After punishing those four men who were returned by the short and infuriating blacksmith, I call a certain group of people into my study¡ªAn A-rank Adventurer party named Frost Fangs. While they do cost a good bit of money to maintain, it exactly for times like this, for when I have some...Plebeian disrespecting me and besmirching my honor and great dignity, that I keep them. The door opened and the seven adventurers entered, not even knocking or waiting for my permission. They were all wearing my house colors¡ªSilver and green, and they all were well kept, as I certainly didn¡¯t want anyone to have the impression that I was keeping a party of barbarians under my payroll. Their leader, Claus, was a short man wearing a long robe and carrying a staff. He is a mage specializing in fire magics, and capable of overwhelming my enemies with large and powerful spells. His second in command was known as Reaper, and preferred approaching unseen from the flanks, and using daggers to finish things off. He always had his face in shadow due to the half-mask he wore, coupled with his large hood. There was another mage in the party named Jural, specializing in healing magics, along with three heavily armored tall men providing some degree of protection to the others, and specializing in close combat. They had picked up an archer a few days ago, who didn¡¯t quite meet up to their standards, but I was assured she would soon reach them. I think her name was...Samantha or something? Oh well. I told them who to go bring back to me¡ªThat they would find their target near the pleasure district in a small building with a forge at the front. I told them about the wards, and they left, ready to bring back to me Kai, who I would teach better for disrespecting his betters.
I think the A-ranks are here. I could feel six strong presences outside my smithy, and one weaker one. The group split into several groups, with three heading to my wards, two standing back, and charging their mana, likely to try and break through my wards. One presence broke off from the others completely, and started circling around to the side of my house. The weaker presence stayed back with what I assumed to be the mages¡ªThe ones charging their mana. Just as they had finished charging, I grinned, and marked all seven of them with my mana signature. They were all well within a kilometer when I activated Shadow, dragging them in behind me. The world lost it¡¯s color, turning into shades of grey. Sounds could be heard faintly, distorted and broken. There was a spot in the sky emanating light, though it had a black circle in the center of it, almost like there was always a solar eclipse. No matter how much time was spent in the shadow dimension, that spot of light never moved, staying disturbingly constant. There was a faint bit of residual nausea welling up inside of me, but I quickly shoved it back down, and took the cross bow out of the bag, loading it up with an arrow. I walk outside the version of my house that exists in this space, and see those three people who had been approaching my wards on the ground retching. They really shouldn¡¯t feel bad about that¡ªI did it the first time I activated Shadow as well. Shouldering the crossbow, I took aim at the space between the three¡ªI had to act quickly since my wards only exist in the other world. Here, they¡¯re free to attack me as soon as they regain their bearings. I pulled the trigger bar on the crossbow, and the metal arrow shot off, a blur even to my enhanced dynamic vision. A deep ¡ªthud¡ª resounded as it impacted the ground, and a dome of purple flames expanded form the center, followed by large concussive forces that battered the three armored people. They were thrown in every direction, parts of their armor cracked and breaking off, the force having exceeded the magic protections embedded into the armor. I dropped the crossbow, and pulled out a few needles, tossing them at the hunched over figures of the mages and that one weaker person. The needles struck exposed flesh one one of the mages, and the weaker person. The other mage¡¯s long robe blocked the needle. The needles would now slowly leech their mana out of their bodies, cutting down their combat potential greatly. The first person to recover from the jarring shift between space was the one who had first broken off, to circle around the side of my house. He had on a hood and half-mask covering his mouth and jawline, and held a dagger in each hand. He was likely an agility type, who used speed to overwhelm his opponents before using a well-placed final blow to end them. I threw the four daggers I had also grabbed from my bag at him, and they landed two in front, and two behind him. He continued running forward, only to crash into the barrier which had been activated around him as soon as the last dagger hit the ground. He fell onto his back, and jumped right back up, prowling around inside the barrier, trying to find it¡¯s weak points. He wouldn¡¯t find any, and will just have to wait for the barrier to expire. I started walking toward the mages, and the unidentified third person, now that the would-be assassin person was taken care of. Four down, three to go, I guess. The mages were mostly recovered by now, but the other person was still on her knees, dry heaving what was left in her stomach. I was now close enough to tell that it was a women. The mages were both men. The one that I had hit with the needle attempted to cast a healing type spell on the three people I had taken out first, and his chant sounded fairly high level, so it would have likely succeeded, and left me outnumbered six to one again, if he hadn¡¯t run out of mana right in the middle of it. The backlash from a failed high-tier spell over-drafting on his mana caused his eyes to roll back, as he fainted from a very real case of mana exhaustion. The other mage saw that everyone but him was taken care of, and panicked, seeing me walk closer to him. He started chanting a fire aligned spell, one that was easily superior to the healing spell attempted by the other mage in both raw mana input and effect. (Mage) ¡°Oh spirits of fire, hear my plead and lend me the fury of the sun to rain down upon my foes¡ªInferno Realm!¡± I patiently waited for him to finish his nice little spell, and after the long and impractical chant was done the temperature of the surrounding air started rising rapidly. Little tufts of fire appeared on the ground, turning the loosely-packed dirt surface into a glassy substance. The man looked considerably drawn out from that spell, which I would safely assume was his most powerful. I smirked under the mask, and cast my own magic, using a quarter of my monstrous mana pool and Twilight as a conduit. I only spoke a fraction of the chant as well, omitting all but the key word. (Kai) ¡°Niflheim.¡± The shadow dimension froze over in a circle of one hundred meters, the extreme low temperatures causing even the flames from the mage''s spell to freeze over. Now that that''s done, let''s get on to serious business here. I grabbed the limp forms of the adventurer party, and brought us all back to our original space, including the assassin guy, who had wet himself a little. Oops.
Chapter 13: The Nobles Fall Lord Hovington was pacing around the inside of his office. Outside, sounds of revelry and enjoyment could be heard, as he had decided to host a party involving most of the cities elites. He had been planning to gain the support necessary to become the city''s representative to the capital at this party, and there was no real reason for him to be away from it, and in his office, anxious and troubled. The source of his anxiety lay on his desk, a letter that had been delivered mid-party, and brought to his attention almost immediately due to the senders, who he hadn¡¯t seen ever since sending them after that blacksmith three days ago. Lord Hovington, We wish to inform you that, effective immediately, we will no longer work under your contract. Over the years, you have employed us to ruin the lives of ordinary people, simply due to your own whims and fancies. Many of these occurrences involved women. We can no longer stand for your actions, and have posted a list of your misdeeds in the guild hall, and all of the things you have made us do. While most of our party will be imprisoned for our acts, so too will you, considering the sheer amount of evidence we have provided. Unfortunately, this won¡¯t be something you can pay your way out of. We have even told them about your private dungeon, and what¡¯s inside. The city lord''s will want you gone to clear the image of the nobility, and the common people have always detested nobility. Everyone will welcome the chance to see you brought to justice. ¡ªThe Frost Fangs. The first time Lord Hovington had read through that letter, he had broken into a cold sweat, and all the blood had left his face. He knew that The Frost Fangs had essentially ruined him with their confessions. As he read the letter a second and third time, however, he began to calm down. He began to wonder if the letter was a fake, sent to induce him into a panic¡ªbut no. He dismayed himself of that idea. Nobody could have known about what was within the dungeon besides the Frost Fangs, who had to go into it every now and then. They had always given him small disgusted looks when they thought he wasn¡¯t looking because of it. Now, pacing his office, he was deciding his next steps. Only a few people would know about what he had done at this point, so maybe if he left that same night, he would be able to leave the city and make for another, where he wasn¡¯t known and wouldn¡¯t meet any of his associates. He could also attempt to get some amities by dragging down other corrupt and immoral nobles, though that would be the plan if all else fails. He began gathering all the most important and incriminating documents and tossing them into the small fireplace, where they slowly burned, throwing embers up the chimney. He knew that there were some things he couldn¡¯t get rid of, like the dungeon, but he did his best to mitigate the damage for when the city¡¯s inquisition branch came for him. Though, he had made up his mind to not be in the same city when they did decide to come. He called his personal servant Charles and had him bring a small carriage to the back of the manor, where nobody would see him leaving during the party. He grabbed several bags of gold coins, and pulled on an enveloping black coat before leaving his office. Outside, a nondescript brown carriage was waiting, Charles acting as the driver. The carriage began moving, slowly creaking down the city streets. At one point, Lord Hovington was sure he heard a thud, and asked Charles about it. (Charles?) ¡°Oh, it was nothing, sir. Just a street orphan in the way.¡± (Lord Hovington) ¡°Ah. Carry on then.¡± He thought that Charles¡¯s voice sounded a bit odd, but pushed it from his mind at the thought of what would happen should the inquisition grab hold of him. He urged Charles to drive faster. The carriage sped up marginally, the clatter from it¡¯s wheels passage growing louder as the building came closer, the road thinning out. Absently, Lord Hovington wondered why the road would be thinning, when the main routes leading to the city gates stayed the same size. (Lord Hovington) ¡°Charles? Why are we not going straight to the city gates, like I told you to, you imbecile?!¡± (Charles?) ¡°My apologies, sir. I had thought that you would want some extra secrecy, with how clandestine everything has been.¡± (Lord Hovington) ¡°No, you idiot! Go straight to the city gates! I don¡¯t care about detours or ¡®secrecy¡¯!¡± (Charles?) ¡°Yes, my lord. I will bring the carriage back to the main roads as soon as I possibly can.¡± The next few tense minutes were filled with silence, besides the occasional horse whinny and the clatter of iron rimmed wheels on cobbled streets. Then, the carriage creaked to a stop, angering Lord Hovington. (Lord Hovington) ¡°Why the fuck have you stopped, you absolute idiot! Straight to the gate I said, and this isn¡¯t the fucking gate!¡± He hopped out of the carriage, and immediately stopped, his mouth hanging slightly open. In the driver''s bench, Charles was slumped over, a dark red line sliced through his neck, and dark liquid already drying on the seat underneath. Next to him sat a man in a dark cowl, holding the reins and gazing at Lord Hovington with a malevolent gaze. Situated around the carriage were seven other men, all wearing dark long coats, with steel breastplates shining underneath. They all had a particular badge on their coats, a circular piece of metal with a five pointed star on it, the legs of the star thin like a needle, or a knife. (Inquisition Member) ¡°Lord Hovington Durstat, you have hereby been stripped of your noble titles, and placed under the authority of the kingdom¡¯s Order of Inquisition, where you will be judged, and punished accordingly.¡± Lord no longer, Hovington¡¯s legs lost their strength, and he fell to his knees, a vacant look in his eyes. The worst outcome for him had come to pass, considering that the inquisition tended to judge nobles much harsher than ordinary citizens for the same crimes, and Hovington had done some things that warranted worse than a death sentence. His life would no longer be enviable, saving for those that had done worse than him. The men brought him away, and he didn¡¯t fight back. He couldn¡¯t¡ªnot when he was only an A-rank equivalent, and the inquisition had a minimum of S-rank. Before leaving, the leader of the inquisition''s men glanced up at a distant rooftop, and his surprisingly effeminate face twisted into a small smirk, before turning away to follow his men.
Hmm. I don¡¯t know how the inquisition leader had seen me from three blocks away. He must be really strong, though. I couldn''t resist watching that annoying noble¡¯s fall from grace, even if it was from a distance. I couldn¡¯t hear any of the words that had been exchanged from where I situated myself, but I could see everything just fine. Did you know this text is from a different site? Read the official version to support the creator. I suppose I should explain myself first, right? Well, starting from when I had faced the A-ranks sent by Hovington, there isn¡¯t much to tell. Basically, I had kept most of the group under my tender care for a day or two, allowing them the very generous chance to let a bunch of stuff off their chests. The only one not subjected to that treatment was the new addition to their party¡ªSamith, who I had previously met in the labyrinth. As it turns out, she had joined because her brother is the assassin in the party, who was stupidly named Reaper, of all things. Although, his real name is Gregarious, so it¡¯s a toss up as to which one¡¯s better. She hadn¡¯t know what the party had been doing for its employer, though, as her brother had intended to keep her away from all that. She had practically begged him to join, citing her want to stay near him as the reason¡ªthough I think there was an element of trauma left from Veroth¡¯s death that she wanted to recover from. I think it was somewhat unlucky of her to have run into me twice though, through pure happenstance. Anyway, I gave them some options. One, they would leave, and never bother me again. Two, they would post a list of wrongdoings encouraged by their employer, and turn themselves in. Or three, I could kill them. They ended up choosing option two, partly due to the bone-crushing, soul destroying, mind boggling guilt I made sure they felt, and partly because Samith begged them to. She has a very strong sense of justice, that one does. And a deadly pair of puppy-dog eyes. I think they¡¯ll be taken leniently though, due to the fact that they¡¯re the ones who exposed the whole thing. Otherwise, with how sly Hovington was, I¡¯m sure it would have been a good many more years before anyone realized what was happening. I also sent a small letter to the inquisition branch in this city, warning them about the whole thing, which is why they had been ready for Hovington to flee, and had so easily brought him under their fold. I could guess that not many would ever see the ex-Lord Hovington again, though there would be few who haven¡¯t heard the name in a few days, when news about the whole thing circulates around. I smiled to myself and got up, happy that one more rotten noble has disappeared from the world, unable to do others any harm. I made my way back to my house and smithy, wanting to plan out my next few moves. The past few days haven''t just been spent orchestrating Hovington¡¯s fall¡ªfar from it. Most of my time was spent tracking down a few of my swords, and checking to see who¡¯s in possession of it. If it¡¯s a noble, then I bring the noble down in a non-lethal way, and take the blade back. If it¡¯s not, then I leave them alone. All but one of the blades I¡¯ve found so far have belonged to nobles. All but one of the blades has been returned to my smithy. Now, I need to find ways to get the other blades back, especially the one¡¯s which have been stored in armories, or carried by high ranking members of houses.
In a massive and gloomy great-hall located in the countries capital, four men were meeting. One wore the crown of royalty, another the staff and white clothing of the church. The third clutched a thick book, well worn over the years and his robes in a similar state. Despite the age of his items, he didn¡¯t look over twenty-five. The last was a martial man, wearing the steel denoting his aptitude, and a face with several scars crossing it. His hair was turning the steel grey associated with growing age, but his eyes were openly displaying fire. The crowned man spoke first. (King Raleigh) ¡°Are you sure? This would be no laughing matter if it turns out the vision was false.¡± The religious man answered the King, his wrinkled face holding a faint smile, as if he was amused by his company. (Pope Nicholas) ¡°Yes, I¡¯m afraid our method of scrying the future is never wrong. What we have seen will come to pass. It¡¯s just a matter of readying ourselves for it at this point.¡± The armored man spoke next, confused as the the direction of the conversation. (High General Savant) ¡°Wait, hold on just a second. Why are we worrying so much? The vision only said that a new Demon Lord would rise¡ªAnd wasn¡¯t the last one sealed by the elves rather quickly?¡± (Pope Nicholas) ¡°That wasn¡¯t a Demon Lord, Savant.¡ªHe only had a possibility of becoming one, a very faint possibility at that. Even then, he was temporarily the most powerful demon in our small part of the world, and the elves only handled him so easily due to some outside circumstances. No, the vision we received this time indicates that a Demon Lord will rise. Ask yourself this, if a candidate was so powerful, then to what degree of power would an actual one reach?¡± The General nodded, catching the Pope¡¯s meaning. (High General Savant) ¡°Right then. You said something about preparations? Can I assume our resident Archmage is here for that?¡± The mage, who had been quite so far, nodded and spoke. (Archmage Raeson) ¡°Correct. I have something that could help us immensely. There exists a certain summoning ritual that bring beings with great power or potential to our realm¡­¡±
South from the capital, inside on of the many forests in the country¡ªthis one being within a hundred kilometers of the city Kai was staying in¡ªthere were a group of sixteen people setting up a camp. They didn¡¯t pitch any tents, or create any campfires, but started chanting. The tree roots grew out of the ground, surrounded by glowing embers of magic, and arched themselves over the small clearing occupied by the people. They laid their bedrolls directly on the forest floor, while the sky was covered by the tree roots. Two of these people sat near the center, and engaged in a discussion. One was a woman with long brown hair, reminiscent of the earth itself, while the other had short black hair deep as a moonless night. The woman spoke first, with a deep hatred in her voice. (???) ¡°Now that we know the whore is dead, do we find her offspring?¡± The short-haired man nodded. Curiously, he had no hatred in his voice when he spoke, but his words conveyed a sense of detachment from those around him. (???) ¡°Yes. We need to start looking for hints of her passage again. We can¡¯t have her disappearing from our eyes again, like last time.¡± (???) ¡°And when we find her this time?¡± (???) ¡°We take her captive, and bring her back to Almeria. While the mother was wholly guilty for...colluding with the demon nations, the child in innocent in the affair, and still impressionable. She can be swayed to our side.¡± (???) ¡°And if she isn¡¯t?¡± (???) ¡°Then she will be sealed away.¡±
Chapter 14: The Last Sword I crouched in the limited shadows available in a well-lit and furnished hallway. There were some heated discussions going on in a room some lengths away from me, between two noble men. I couldn''t see their faces, but one of them sounded like the one I had come for tonight¡ª A rising star among the court, Baronet Kyle Hohenfelder. He had bought one of my blades, and kept it on his person at all times. He has also been cooped up in his family manor lately, making it more difficult for me to reach him without being noticed. That didn¡¯t stop me from trying, though. I had snuck past the guardsman easily enough, and made my way to the center of Kyle¡¯s family manor, where I found him having a conversation with an unknown noble. (Kyle) ¡°Are you sure? I would rather be certain than go throwing stones in the dark.¡± (???) ¡°I am completely sure. My uncle had heard about it, when he had been brought in on the strategy meetings. I had overheard him talking to one of his associates about it, and decided to tell you.¡± (Kyle) ¡°Yes, I could see how knowing about it would be advantageous¡ªafter all, he produces weapons has the most money to make during a war. I¡¯ll tell my craftsmen to ramp up production, but store the goods away.¡± (???) ¡°Ah, to drive up prices? Good idea¡ªI might have to use it myself now.¡± The baronet laughed, happy that his friend approved of the idea. (???) ¡°Still, what a heartless thing to do, ramping up prices when the rise of a new Demon Lord is evident.¡± (Kyle) ¡°Heartless? It¡¯s simply what anyone else would do.¡± I startled at this. I hadn¡¯t heard anything about a new Demon Lord, so I wondered where these nobles had gotten their information. The baronet¡¯s friend had said something about his uncle, making me wonder what sort of nobles they are. I kept listening to their conversation, and they discussed the thing that I wanted to know the most. (Kyle) ¡°Did your uncle say anything about where this Demon Lord is right now? How much time do we have before it attacks?¡± (???) ¡°Oh, no. The Demon Lord doesn¡¯t exist yet, apparently.¡± (Kyle) ¡°Hm? How can that be? If it doesn¡¯t exist, then how did your uncle get information about it?¡± (???) ¡°Well, from what I heard, it sounded like the church was involved somehow, with them getting a vision or something.¡± (Kyle) ¡°And this vision told them that a Demon Lord was coming?¡± (???) ¡°Yeah.¡± (Kyle) ¡°Well that¡¯s a bit frustrating. It would be better to have a good timeline of when it¡¯s coming, so I know what my timing to inflate the weapon¡¯s market prices should be.¡± The two of them laughed, and I sat in the shadows, intrigued. I wondered who the new Demon Lord would be, and how they would affect the world. I had learned a while ago that Demon Lords, while not rare in this world, are seldom seen in the remote region this kingdom sat in. In fact, I had heard that the rest of the world was completely incomparable to where I was now¡ªThe people were much stronger as a whole, the technology more advanced, the lands bigger and more diverse. From what I¡¯ve heard, the rest of the world is a wonderland compared to where I am now. So why do people stay in this little backwater kingdom? Well, it¡¯s much more satisfying to be a big fish in a little pond, rather than the other way around. There are a few famous parties or individuals who would leave the kingdom every once in a while, to adventure in the rest of the world, but very few of them return. Those that do tell of dungeons and labyrinths that would challenge the gods should they enter, and the people that challenge them and survive. If our little kingdom is a place where strength determines status, then outside of it, strength is your reason for continued survival. Put simply, our kingdom is sheltered, and most people wouldn¡¯t survive outside of it. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation.It¡¯s not just this kingdom either¡ªNorth of us, past a sea cutting a path between us and them, in a boundless sea of forests and marshes lives another kingdom, this one comprised of a smattering of elven tribes who are isolationist in nature. While they are stronger than the humans here, they still aren¡¯t as strong as the elves outside our three continents. Yes, three. The last one houses the demon kingdoms to the south, who are fractious in nature and warlike as a species. Each demon could be said to be unique, with their own features not affected by birth parents or genetics. For instance, I once knew a demon who had been born to a pale, black haired demon with webbed feet, and fathered by a demon seven feet tall, with red hair supposedly like fire and black skin. For starters, this demon came out having small scales all over him, four large horns jutting from his head, and blue hair with red eyes. It¡¯s all completely random. The demons, as individuals, are easily equal to the elves, but are too engrossed in interspecies warfare to bother with anyone else. These three continents, the human one in the center, are tiny compared to many of the supercontinents existing in this world. In fact, when I had first found out about the size of this world, it had seemed impossible. I mean, the gravitational pull form such a planet would crush anything living on it into mush, and the solar system would have to be equally massive. That was before I remembered that this world has magic. The existence of mana serves to explain quite a few things. As I was thinking about all this, the two nobles finished their conversation, and I got a glimpse of both the baronet and his guest. The baronet had a wispy beard and moustache, the type that was meant to prove that you were old enough to grow one, even though it only makes you look stupid. He wore fine robes more than befitting his station as a noble, and had a belt with a simple looking longsword strapped to it. His guest looked significantly older, though that may have been the work of his truly full beard, black like his hair. His eyes were oddly blue, like crystals. He wore green clothing of fine make, though not as gaudy as the baronet''s robes. I had no idea who he might be¡ªI¡¯d never seen him before now. However, once he had left, the baronet was left alone, contemplating the conversation he¡¯d had with the unknown man. This was my perfect opportunity, and I slipped in through the door, not making any sounds through the use of some clever wind magic, creating a void around me. The baronet was facing the window looking out over the city, so he didn¡¯t notice me come up behind him and quickly hit his head. He slumped over unconscious. I grabbed the sword hanging at his waist, and made my way out of the manor, happily whistling to myself with the wind magic keeping any sound from escaping. I had just recovered the last sword held by a noble. In the time it had taken to track them all down and take them back, I had delivered three swords to the resistance, who had made major strides in the same time. Two of those swords had been from our monthly agreements, the third had been due to a little help I had gotten from them in retrieving it. Two more months have passed, leaving the city closer to rebellion and justice than ever. Though I wonder what the King will do to the rebellion once it succeeds. Except, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll be able to stay in the city long enough to find out. I¡¯ve gotten word that the elves have been looking for me, and I can¡¯t avoid them forever. Besides, they¡¯ve sealed away someone I want to meet again¡ªsomeone I haven¡¯t seen for twelve years. I¡¯m sure he¡¯ll be happy to see me alive and well.
Chapter 15: The Rebellion Moves It¡¯s done, apparently. The rebellion is ready to set it¡¯s stage in the city, and create a place where all are equal. Well, they¡¯ll try to, anyway. I don¡¯t think anyone can ever be truly equal when there are literally ¡ªlevels¡ª to power. The higher level is typically more powerful, that¡¯s how this world works. Don¡¯t get me wrong, they can try to change that, and they can affect things for the better. But there are some things that are fundamentally true, and unchangeable. The plan, from what I¡¯ve heard, was to use the city guard¡ªwho had defected to the rebellion''s side¡ª to simultaneously relinquish the noble¡¯s control over key buildings like the city hall, treasury, mage¡¯s tower, armory, and some estates held by the most powerful nobles in the city. It¡¯s a pretty simple plan, but one that eliminates most chances for things going wrong. Basically, taking buildings like these from the nobles cripples any chance they have of fighting back. And even if the rebellion fails to take them, with the city guard on their side, there¡¯s no way to lose. Unless Murphy¡¯s Law decides to screw things over, but I don¡¯t think that¡¯s very likely. It was set to start as soon as night fell, which suited me fine, considering that I feel most comfortable at that time. There¡¯s just something about the absence of any sun to illuminate the sky that leads people to more readily show their true nature. I slept the day before it, after having fortified my wards to the largest extent I could. I also made some basic changes to them, tweaking their nature a bit. When I woke up, I could vaguely hear screams in the distance, and I could faintly smell some smoke. Immediately, I knew what had happened. It looks like the rebels aren¡¯t going to have as easy a time of it as they should have. Walking outside of my house, my suspicions were confirmed, as I beheld a pillar of smoke rising from the northern portion of the city, about where the main armory is located. I could easily guess what had happened, and silently applauded the nobles for their tactical sense¡ªAs I would have done the same, in their situation. They had burned down the armory, rather than let it fall into the rebel¡¯s hands. While there are more around the city, they are all significantly smaller than the main one. I predict that there will be a mad scramble for these remaining armories, as each faction struggles to take one and hold it, gaining small advantages in the process. I watched as the smoke billowed up into the sky. Parts of it were colored green and blue from the magical energies being released, the enchantment imbued items going up in flames. Suddenly, a series of loud booms reverberated through the air, as some type of explosive device was set of by the flames, triggering a chain reaction. I could feel the ground shaking beneath my feet, and could only guess at the devastation caused by the explosions. I briefly wondered whether the fires would start spreading, when I spotted trouble heading my way. A group of fifty or so men were jogging down the street, wearing shiny armor reflecting off any lights that hit them, all of them wearing the insignia of a nearby noble house on their breasts. Apparently, my shop counts as a strategic target. Not that I¡¯m surprised at all. No¡ªAs soon as I sold blades to the nobles and they discovered their quality, my little home was put on their radar. The house that had sent this regiment of troops just happened to be the closest, and I knew that more from the other houses would be on their way soon after. They stopped in front of the empty space serving as my ¡®lawn¡¯, and formed up into rows, like tin soldiers waiting for a hand to move them. A man who I assumed to be their commander stepped forward, and pushed his visor up, revealing a youthful face, sprouting a wispy mustache. I recognized him¡ªAfter all, I had stolen a knife and sword from him about a month ago. He sported a vicious expression, like he felt like he was finally getting what was his by right. Lots of nobles had been upset at the fact that I wouldn¡¯t trade metals for swords anymore, and had stopped supplying them to a market that had suddenly found itself bereft of the blades. (Noble Douchebag) ¡°Bladesmith Kai, we have come to proposition your shop in response to the treachery present in the city at the moment, at the hands of the so-called and illegitimate ¡®rebellion¡¯. We strongly request that you exit the shop, and allow us to occupy it and it¡¯s contents.¡± Smiling to myself, I walk outside the range of the wards, and stop, my hands in my pockets and head held as high as I could, what with my short height and all. The smile was empty of humor, and held grim malice towards those wishing me harm, as this noble¡¯s kid obviously is. Of course, the idiot couldn¡¯t see my face, and my smile. If he had, he would have known just what sort of hell awaited him. And he would have run, just like so many others had after seeing that smile. (Kai) ¡°I think you need to leave, before you hurt yourself, kid.¡± The noble was taken aback at my dark tone, and his face immediately turned a shade of red visible in the limited light available during the night. (Noble Douchebag) ¡°Fine then, you stupid commoner! You brought this on yourself!¡± He turned to his men, and ordered them to march forward. I noticed that the noble himself stayed back. Even though he had some of the most expensive armor and weaponry (sans my own, of course.), he wasn¡¯t going to participate himself. I sighed. The character of this noble, and most others, is sorely lacking. Honestly, I didn¡¯t know how a rebellion hadn¡¯t already happened in this city. The troops began closing in, and I unhurriedly backed up, just inside range of the wards. Then I backed up some more, to avoid the bodies falling to the ground as soon as the ward¡¯s boundaries are violated. Some of the veteran fighters noticed what was happening to the men in front, and just barely stopped themselves from doing the same. ¡°Shit, he had wards up!¡± ¡°Was he always a mage?!¡± ¡°Get the mages up here to break the wards!¡± I calmly walked into my house, and grabbed the already loaded crossbow sitting on one of the workbenches. This book is hosted on another platform. Read the official version and support the author''s work.This time, instead of one of the explosive bolts, I had loaded it with a steel bolt faintly glowing an ominous red color. The trigger mechanism engaged with a mechanical click, readying the crossbow to fire. I walked back outside, and slowly took aim at one of the mages brought along as reinforcements before firing. The red glow of the bolt seemed to cut a trail through the night, as it struck the combat wards erected by the mage, and then passed right through them, lodging itself in his chest. His mouth made small gasping motions for a few seconds, before he toppled over due to his ruptured heart. The other three mages paled at the sight, and looked towards me, as I loaded another bolt into the crossbow. They did what any sane person would do¡ªThey turned tail and ran. It¡¯s fair that they grew scared¡ªAfter all, here I am, surrounded by the limp forms of most of the people sent to ¡®deal¡¯ with me, and I killed a mage as easy as swatting a fly. The noble had also blanched, before hiding behind the veterans still left from his troops. He pushed them forward, obviously intending to use them to get away, and return to safety. Surprisingly, the veterans allowed him to do this, and actively charged me, weapons raised as they yelled crude war crys. I wondered what had compelled them to such behaviour, especially when it should be obvious that there was no use¡ªThey would fall just like their comrades. I saw their eyes just before they crossed the wards. Many of them were crying, and their eyes filled with rage and hate, but the emotions weren''t aimed at me. Then they crossed, and fell to the ground, completely unresponsive. The noble looked even more scared for a second, before he took inspiration form the mages, and went to flee. A bolt through the knee solved that problem really quickly. Oh no¡ªNow he can¡¯t be an adventurer like me. I walked up to him as he was yelling incoherently. I slapped his face around a few times, before picking up his limp form and holding him at eye level. It irked me a little that his knees were still on the ground a little, while I was standing. (Kai) ¡°So, you mind telling me why those men were so willing to throw away their lives just now?¡± The man simply stared at me a moment, his eyes dazed and shot through with pain. I smacked him hard, knocking out a few teeth. (Kai) ¡°Do I need to repeat myself?¡± The man panicked, and his reason broke through the pain. (Noble Douchebag) ¡°No! ...I can tell you! We took their families hostage, saying that they¡¯ll die if they don¡¯t obey our commands!¡± I dropped the noble, afraid that I¡¯ll snap his neck if I had to look at him any longer. (Kai) ¡°And where are these families being kept?¡± (Noble Douchebag) ¡°Nowhere! It was all a lie, we don¡¯t have the manpower to do that!¡± I shoved him away, disgusted at him, and all other nobles in general. He had never said that they weren¡¯t going to do anything to the families, just that they lacked the manpower to do so. They have no morals, these nobles. I again wondered how the city had lasted so long. I turned back to my house, and activated a complex series of magic runes. It lifted the paralysis that all the nobles troops had been afflicted with. They groggily sat up, but now there was hope in their eyes. (Kai) ¡°You guys heard all that, right? Go ahead and spread the word to the other troops in your house.¡± They thanked me profusely, and left. There were a few who sported broken noses and bad scrapes from the fall after passing my wards, but otherwise, they would see their families again, unharmed. This scene presented itself again several times that night, as other house troops were directed by various nobles to take my shop. Most of them were compelled in the same ways as the first one, with some twists on the whole thing. Some attacked of their own will. Those ones actually did die after crossing my wards. If you strike at someone, aiming to kill, then it should only be fair that I can return the favor. And, with the sounds of furious battle in the city dying out as sunrise came closer, I noticed several more smoke plumes rising to the sky, accenting just what this night might have cost the city. The rebellion would have a tough time rebuilding, though it gave them a clearer foundation than they would have gotten. It¡¯s easier to build something on empty ground, than it is to tear down something already existing there. I was re-entering my house when I felt something familiar entering the city, my blood recognizing distant kin of mine. I stiffened, knowing what was coming, before running around the forge and grabbing all of my best works and shoving them into a bag I was gifted by Hogvir¡ªOne that could store three times as much as one of similar size, due to some space magic sorcery with runes. I packed the crossbow and a generous amount of ammo, both the explosive and armor piercing type, which I had developed after watching Ancient''s Respite cutting through steel blocks. I couldn''t use what I had learned on edged weapons yet, but I could use it on single point impact stuff, like an arrow. My Boomstick was also going, as well as Shadow. Twilight was a shoe-in, as well as the previously mentioned Respite. Not a moment too soon, I finished packing everything, clothing included. The chest that sat by my bed was now completely empty, it¡¯s contents inside the bag. At that moment, I felt my wards being shredded through, as someone used a large amount of power to strong-arm them open. I shouldered the bag and walked outside, immediately noticing the two elves standing amidst the bodies of those who had attacked me with no darker incentive. A man with deep black hair and eyes equally as dark and unfeeling, and a women with long brown hair, who was radiating disgust upon seeing me emerge form the house. They turned away, and I wordlessly followed them. It¡¯s not like I could be a proper match for them, after all.
Chapter 16: The Useful Teleport We walked through the city without speaking a word to each other. The black haired elf and I walked calmly, despite the fires raging through the city around us, the sight of blood and bodies on the ground, the sounds of distant battles still being wages layered over the moans and screams of dying men, and the smell of smoke and viscera in the air. The brown haired elven women was not calm, and barely seemed to be holding back strong amounts of bloodlust. She would glance over at me in disgust every now and then. There was no one guarding the city gates, as everyone was too embroiled in the conflict happening inside the city to pay any attention to the potential threats outside. We walked right through the city walls, and I exited the city I had spent around a year in. Outside the city walls, there was an area of cleared space, as to not let people approach the city unseen. Outside this cleared space, on the other side of a good sized river stood a forest filled with younger trees, after most of the old ones had been chopped down to aid in the construction of the city, and keep it going. Making our way down a packed dirt road leading across the river¡ªover a wooden bridge¡ªwe approached the forest. If found it a little odd that there were no people on the road, but in retrospect it made sense. The common people and merchants are normally the first ones to feel the ominous airs of an approaching fight, and tend to stay away from them. So we had the road to ourselves. The black haired elf was the first one to speak. He did so in an emotionless voice, like a machine. ¡°I would imagine that you know what we are, but I will state it here, clearly. My name is Archelaos, and this is my comrade Nifayr. We are here as a detachment sent to retrieve you, bringing you back to the Elven Empire, where you will be able to learn more about control and heritage.¡± (Kai) ¡°No need to make it sound like a sales pitch. I will go, if only to get you people off my back.¡± Archelaos turned to me, and kept speaking in his deadpan voice. (Archelaos) ¡°Take off that mask. We know what you look like, so it serves no use.¡± I complied, and threw the mask into my bag as I walked behind Archelaos, but in front of Nifayr. It felt a little odd exposing my face after I had spent so much time keeping it covered, and the feeling of the wind gently moving my hair was just as weird. The woman didn¡¯t talk the entire time, and only made her displeasure known through her expression and aura. I wanted to ask her about it, and figure out what had brought me such animosity, but I got the feeling that it was best left unsaid for now. She¡¯s too murdery at the moment. Walking into the forest, I was guided to a clearing just inside it¡¯s borders. Inside the clearing, a group of elves stood, their packs already put away¡ªAnd ready for travel. There were some who openly showed disgust when they saw my horns and eyes. Others only had a faint change in facial expression, but I could still the their true emotions reflected in their eyes. There were only two or three who truly did not care. To the elves, my existence is something of a taboo, due to my mixed blood. Most of the time, they would have killed me on the spot after seeing what I am. Right now, though, I¡¯m saved by that very same blood. We gathered into a circle, and it didn¡¯t escape my notice that most of them shied away from me, reluctant to come into close contact. Once everyone was in place, Archelaos began chanting, and glowing runes appeared beneath our feet, linking the space in the clearing to another location where another group of people had set a magical beacon of sorts to guide us there. Once the chant was finished, a bright flash of light obscured our surroundings as we warped to the other location. Slowly, my vision returned from the flash induced brightness, and the first thing I saw was trees. Not the trees from the forest near the city, no¡ªThese trees were ancient and tall. Their trunks were of varying width and age, but the smallest one I could see would still encompass a large house in it¡¯s base. They were fairly far apart, with quite a bit of room to walk between them, and there was every little in the way of undergrowth on the ground. I could see lights in the distance, from a city built in and among the trees. This is the capital city of the Elven Empire,whose reach encompassed all of the northern continent, and the three elven kingdoms within. It was nearly fifty kilometers wide, due to the elven propensity to built in a way that leaves a lot of space between buildings, giving everyone a generous amount of land and well-sized buildings. It helps that the elven lands don¡¯t have an overpopulation problem. In fact, I had heard that they were still slightly underpopulated from the last war they had gotten involved in. The elves have always been a long lived race, but one with a low birthrate in compensation. The city seemed loosely guarded, but I could vaguely make out the forms and auras of sentries hiding up in the treetops, monitoring those entering and leaving the city. As soon as we neared one, he jumped down form his perch and approached us. He glanced over our group, his gaze lingering slightly on me. Wordlessly, Archelaos handed the sentry an official looking piece of paper with the seal of the imperial family on it. The sentry bleached upon seeing the seal, and let us pass without any problems. Royal Road is the home of this novel. Visit there to read the original and support the author. Inside the city, the roads were quiet, with no merchants hawking their goods in the intersections, nor was there much traffic. This was because the elves are a solitary race, preferring to deal amongst themselve rather than associate with the other races. And, the capital city isn¡¯t intended to deal with trade in the first place, and instead houses the bureaucratic and education centers of the entire empire. The schools for all elven children are in the city, and all the decisions are made here. Besides, the average elven household is a hell of a lot better off then the ones in the human and demon continents, with a larger amount of income and saved money. They normally bought things in shops instead of temporary marketplaces. The elves go for permanence over an easy job. Thankfully, because there weren''t many people on the streets, not many people were out to stare at me. Demons are never seen in most places of the elvish empire, unless they were attempting an invasion. And because I take after my father¡¯s blood more than my mothers, I look almost completely demonic. Elves are able to recognize their own kind through a special sense that they have though, one that tells them that I am at least part elf. To those watching me, it quickly became apparent that I was the product of someone breaking one of the greatest elvish taboos. They were disgusted and curious in equal measure. Disgusted because of the obvious implications of my heritage, and curious because I was walking around the elven capital and somehow still alive. Even more, I was surrounded by elite looking soldiers, and not clasped in irons, showing that I was free and following my own will. Quite the crowd began following behind us as we made our way to the center of the city, and Archelaos once again showed that letter with the seal on it, dispersing the crowd quickly. All of them knew the power behind that seal, and how it was only given to those able to represent it well. I kept my calm the entire time, even when I could hear what the crowd was saying about me with my better-than-average hearing. Though, I did nearly lose it when they berated whichever parent of mine they thought was the elven one, calling them a traitor to the race, and wishing death upon them. I held back, and kept the death toll to zero. I didn''t even fight them. Soon, a larger than average building appeared, one created out of stone that looked like it was one single piece, so seamless were the joinings between the blocks. It was a white building, one where the rulers of the empire were situated. Not surprisingly, it was entitled the ¡®White Palace¡±. What is it with governments obsessing over the color white? Why couldn¡¯t they pick another color? Ah well. We entered the building through the massive front doors, as our group was showed a little respect. It sure beat having to enter through the servant¡¯s quarters. Though the looks almost didn¡¯t make it worth it. We walked straight down a large corridor through the middle of the building, and came across another set of large double doors. These ones were manned by guards in beautiful armor that was still practical. Off to one side, one man dressed in extravagant robes stood, and noted our presence. He went over to the doors, and opened a smaller door meant for the times when the large ones take too much effort to open. I heard some soft word being spoken, every faintly, before footsteps announced the return of the elf. He and Archelaos spoke, and then they both entered the room, followed by the rest of us. The first thing that stuck me about the room beyond the doors was it¡¯s size. For what I assumed was a throne room, it was very mediocre, with an emphasis placed upon style and form rather than sheer vastness. It made a stark contrast to many of the similar places I¡¯d seen, where they seeked to overawe you with rare materials, architectural wonders, and the magnificence of the room. This place was simple in comparison, but still had that presence of age and majesty that kept people aware that they were in the presence of someone above them, though still approachable. I felt like the one who had built the room really knew what he had been doing, and what he wanted for the realm. After all, anyone can design a massive and awe-inspiring building, but every few could give that same place character. The centerpiece of the room was a large seat, recognizable as a throne. In it sat a woman with dark hair and ivory skin. Not a few of the guards realized that I bore a passing resemblance to the woman, save for the horns, eyes, and coloration of my hair, of course. The man who had gone in earlier introduced everyone¡ªHe was the chamberlain, Sigiward, in charge of pointless ceremonies like that. (Sigiward) ¡°Might I introduce The members of the Black Guard, led jointly by Archelaos and Nifayr, both holding the rank of captain, and charged with retrieving the Lady Katariah Silver. Kneel before Her Imperial Majesty, Empress Aspasia Silver the first.¡± I simply looked at the woman before me, and didn¡¯t kneel like the elite soldiers around me. (Kai) ¡°Hello, Aunt Sia. Nice to finally meet you. Forgive me for not coming sooner, but I was busy trying to track down mother, who someone had allowed to be sold into slavery.¡±
Chapter 17: The Storys Beginning The Empress, my aunt, cleared the room after I spoke to her. Several of the guards in the room had nearly attacked me for my disrespect and heritage, but refrained when they noticed me referring to their respected and beloved empress as ¡®Aunt¡¯. It doesn¡¯t do to harm a potential imperial, after all. Once the room was completely clear, with nobody left to listen in on any conversations we would have, Empress Aspasia Silver ran down from her throne, and hugged me. I was taken slightly by surprise with this, but it wasn¡¯t unexpected. (Aspasia) ¡°It¡¯s been eleven years since I last saw you, little ¡®Riah.¡± She grabbed my shoulders, and held be back to get a better look at me. She was smiling the entire time, something that would astonish the guards waiting outside the room should they see it. My aunt had gotten the reputation of a cold woman, and showed very little emotion in front of others. They had never seen anyone elicit such a strong response from her. (Aspasia) ¡°You look so much like your mother now.¡± (Kai) ¡°You mean, aside from the horns?¡± She looked at me sharply, and spoke in a tone that scolded me gently. (Aspasia) ¡°Your demon blood is as much a part of you as anything else¡ªAnd I wouldn¡¯t have it any other way. It¡¯s proof that your father loved my sister, and she him.¡± (Kai) ¡°If you think that, then why did everything go so wrong after I was born?¡± The Empress sighed, and her eyes looked tired all the sudden. (Aspasia) ¡°You probably got quite a few looks on the way over, right? While I have no real problem with two people who love each other having a child, the rest of the elves see things differently. And while I am the Empress, and could make a decree banning that sort of discrimination, no one would take it seriously. Do you understand?¡± I knew this, simply based off of prior experience. Rulers truly have a hard time of it¡ªThey only have as much power as the people let them, and thus they must abide by their rules of moral conduct, else a rift appears between the people and the leaders. That was what had caused the rebellion back in the other city, where the nobility began grossly abusing the power they had, and the people had enough. I sighed, and knew that the Empress could tell that I understood. (Kai) ¡°Right then. Well, could you tell me how this whole thing started in the first place? Mom¡¯s not exactly around to inform me of the circumstances of my birth, and I wasn¡¯t able to find anything out before I learned of her death.¡± The Empress flinched at the mention of my mother, and I could see some guilt in her eyes. I had hoped that her explanation would prove to me that she hadn¡¯t had a hand in my mother¡¯s demise, but it seemed like that wasn¡¯t completely the case. Though, the fact that she showed that guilt in the first place says a whole lot more than anything else could. (Aspasia) ¡°Well, before telling you about the events directly leading to your mother¡¯s death, let me tell you about what she was like before you were born.¡± She took a deep breath, and began telling me about the mother I would never know now. (Aspasia) ¡°Your mother, Isabella, was the empress before me. She had been married off to a promising young noble in a loveless alliance to secure her position among the family, and had ascended the throne a few centuries later through her own merits. The man that she had married had died before then, so she gained the name ¡®The Widow Empress¡¯. Many of the largest families tried to pair her up with their scions, to gain an Emperor in the family through marriage. She denied all of these attempts, even though some thought that a woman wasn¡¯t fully suited to rule alone. She proved them wrong by leading our race during the greatest time of peace in the last few millennia, and through the devastating wars to defend our home forests and cities. In my mind, she was the strongest person I ever knew, but she had a fault.¡± The Empress paused a moment, and actually looked a little angry and annoyed for some reason. (Aspasia) ¡°She was absolutely and completely rotten when it came to romance. Not that she was bad at it¡ªNo, the problem was that she was too good. She would have a ¡®fling¡¯ every other week, and we would have another annoying little prick knocking on the palace doors, professing true love and total commitment to her. I¡¯ve never been so...Upset, as when I had to tell them that the feeling wasn¡¯t mutual. I would normally do it quite bluntly, and they would always take it the wrong way. Isabella wouldn¡¯t even try to deal with it, stating that she was ¡®busy running an empire¡¯, when I knew that most of what she did was intimidate the nobility and play around with magic all day.¡± She calmed down a little after that tirade, and continued speaking in a more level voice instead of the whine reminiscent of a teenage temper tantrum. (Aspasia) ¡°Well, she eventually met her match in your father, and you were conceived after a few decades of super-covert courtship. After you were born, and it became apparent what heritages you took after, the nobles somehow found out. They demanded that Isabella step down from the throne, and you be killed. They were out for blood because of the taboo broken by your mother.¡± I saw a single desolate tear go down her cheek, and her voice cracked a bit while speaking of the events that caused my mother to end up in slavery. (Aspasia) ¡°I was told to seal away her power, the magic that she had cultivated over her lifetime, and put her into a cell. I refused at first, but you mother insisted that it be carried out. By this time, you had already been taken away from elven lands, to save you from those who would have you dead.¡± The Empress stopped for an extended moment, somewhat reining in the grief and guilt now etched plainly onto her face for me to see. (Aspasia) ¡°I did it. I sealed her power, and put her in that cell. No one could have predicted that a vindictive noble would have someone break in, and take her away while she was at her most powerless, and sell her into slavery.¡± (Kai) ¡°Why did the noble do it?¡± (Aspasia) ¡°Jealousy¡ªHe had been one of the ¡®flings¡¯, and was deeply disgusted that she had fallen in love with a demon, when he felt that he was the only one right for her. Once he saw that there was a chance to humiliate her, just as he had felt humiliated, he took it. We only found out about what had caused her disappearance a year after the fact, after frantically searching for an answer of some kind. When we found out about it, he didn''t even apologize, claiming it had been his duty and honor. I was the one who personally killed him, and removed his family from the noble ranks for their part in the whole thing.¡± I felt relieved, glad that one of the few family members I have left hadn¡¯t had the proverbial ¡®finger in the pie¡¯. While it was clear that she felt guilt over what had happened, and her part in the events, it was something easily forgivable¡ªIf not by her, then by me. I pulled her back in for a hug, surprising the woman that is my aunt. Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. (Kai) ¡°Thank you for telling me all this. I finally get to know what happened.¡± She obviously heard no malice in my voice, and simply stared at me, flabbergasted. (Aspasia) ¡°What? Why aren''t you mad at me, or anything else? You should be yelling at me for¡­¡± (Kai) ¡°But you weren''t the one who killed Mom. The fault lies among those already dead and gone, so there¡¯s no point in pursuing a grudge, or vengeance any longer.¡± She looked at me, shocked. (Aspasia) ¡°Are you sure you¡¯re only twelve?¡± (Kai) ¡°I turned thirteen a few months ago.¡± (Aspasia) ¡°What¡¯s the difference? To us elves, you are only a fully-fledged adult after a hundred years.¡± After saying this, she bowed to me, and apologized. (Aspasia) ¡°Though, I have a good idea of what has given you such sage wisdom so young. For my part in forcing you to grow so fast, I am sorry. You may have forgiven me, but I will never be able to. I just hope that you¡¯ll stay around for a while.¡± I smiled. That had been a part of Archelaos¡¯s so-called ¡®Sale¡¯s pitch¡¯ earlier. I had a fair idea of what my aunt was going to ask of me. (Aspasia) ¡°One of your mother¡¯s late acts as the empress was to establish a school near the edge of the continent, with easy access to the human and demon continents. I think she had been intending to promote and foster relations between the races, and allow us to grow closer¡ªAnd the school was her solution. It¡¯s open to everyone on a merit base, and I think she would have liked for you to go there.¡± Curious, I asked for more information. (Kai) ¡°When does it start?¡± (Aspasia) ¡°The new semester started a few months ago, so you¡¯ll have to wait until the next one begins. Until then, you can stay here. I have a feeling there¡¯s someone you want to visit.¡± (Kai) ¡°Yeah. I was actually wondering whether I could go and see him now? I want to learn all I can about dad, after all.¡± My aunt smiled, slightly bemused with my eager attitude. (Aspasia) ¡°I would advise you wait until tomorrow. That way, you get a night¡¯s sleep, and can freshen up before going to see him.¡± Slightly unhappy, I agreed to this reluctantly. I had waited twelve years to meet my father, and I wanted that day to be as soon as possible¡ªAfter all, I knew all of what he had done for me, even that there were some things that I wouldn''t know about until I reached a certain age or level. The rest of the day was spent with Aspasia, as she showed me around the expansive grounds occupied by the Imperial palace. The gardens in particular were very impressive, as they were among the largest I¡¯ve ever seen, and didn¡¯t have a single decorative plant in them. All of the flowers, bushes, shrubs, trees, grass and such could be, and was used for medicinal and alchemical compounds, wasting not a bit of the space occupied by the also beautiful garden. As it turns out, the throne room I had been brought to was the ¡®secondary¡¯ throne room, with the main one being many times larger and with far more embellishments. It also moonlighted as a dining hall. We ate in the kitchen, and while the cooks edged away from me with any number of emotions, they enthusiastically greeted their Empress. I think she normally came down here to eat, as evidenced by the lack of surprise on the cook''s side. They sat her at a simple little table out of the way, and I sat across from her. We talked while eating, and then she showed me to where I would be staying while in the palace. It was a good sized room, but not one that could be called overly-large. It was well within my tastes, and I was glad to sleep somewhere cozy.
The next morning, I woke up, and sat in the bed thinking about what had happened the day before. Everything had gone much better than I could have ever imaged it, even in my wildest fantasies. When I had found out that my aunt had ascended to the throne after my Mom, I had immediately thought about foul play. I don¡¯t even know how many time¡¯s I¡¯ve heard about or seen family member stab each other in the back for power, and I was afraid that the same thing had happened here. And even if it had, there was no way for me to escape her reach at my level and stats. I¡¯m simply too weak at the moment compared to the soldiers brought up by the empire. I determined what I would be doing with my time while in the elvish empire. While it is true that everything had turned out well in the end, I truly didn¡¯t want to leave my fate on someone else¡¯s hands ever again. I wanted to become stronger, not just in my forging techniques, but also my body. Thankfully, every capital city¡ªand most major ones¡ªare build on top of strong dungeons and labyrinths. The elven capital is built upon a famed dungeon, one that has been explored to the two hundredth and fifty sixth level, around seventy years ago. I could use that to ¡®power level¡¯ while in residence here. Eventually, Aunt ¡®Sia came to get me, not trusting the maids to be impartial and servile after seeing my demonic features. We ate a quick breakfast, and then went to the heart of the palace, where a massive and power consuming runic sealing prison had been built. I approached the swirling energies comprising its border with some trepidation. After all, the man inside the sealing magic was there because of me, due to his protecting and running away with me after I was born. I would meet another member of my family today. In the middle of the seal, a young-looking man was sprawled out, though it was likely due to boredom, rather than anything worse. He had a few tables set up inside the seal, covered in books and papers written over in a messy, sprawling handwriting. His hands were covered with ink, and his blue hair was all mussed up. He had four horns, and small faint blue scales covering his body. Or at least his arms, as he was fully clothed with a fine shirt and pants. He opened his eyes after hearing us coming, and gazed at Aspasia and I with eyes that had red irises. When he saw the two horns coming out of my head, my slit-pupil golden eyes, and my silver hair, he made a small gasp of astonishment. (???) ¡°Is that you, little Katariah?¡± (Kai) ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s me.¡± (???) ¡°Ha! I knew it! I just knew you were alright!¡± (Kai) ¡°Please, Jasper. It¡¯s not that big a deal.¡± (Jasper) ¡°Not a big deal? You were left in the wilderness all alone at only one and a half years old. If that¡¯s not a big deal, then I don¡¯t know what is anymore. I figured that you would be able to survive that, but it''s still nice to know for sure. I suppose you came here for answers? I mean, I can¡¯t really think of any other reason to come here, to a place that hates our kind, and despises you with a burning passion.¡± (Kai) ¡°Yeah. I do have questions. The first one I want to ask is, what happened to our father after I was born? Where did he go?¡± (Jasper) ¡°Huh. You like picking the difficult questions, don¡¯t you, sister?¡±
Chapter 18: The Seal Room (Kai) "Aunt ''Sia, could you give Jasper and I some time to catch up?" (Aspasia) "Sure, go ahead. I have something that I have to do, and was planning on going anyway, so take all the time you need." My aunt left, and Jasper and I simply stared at each other for awhile. (Jasper) "Can your aunt really be trusted here? I mean, are you sure that she didn¡¯t have a hand in the death of your mother?¡± I sighed. (Kai) ¡°¡®You really like picking the difficult questions, don¡¯t you?¡¯¡± I smirked, returning what Jasper had said earlier. (Jasper) ¡°You know what I mean. Doesn''t it just seem a little too convenient, how you mother was taken only after being sealed by your aunt?¡± (Kai) ¡°Believe me, I¡¯ve considered it ever since I knew about the whole thing. And for the record, I don¡¯t trust my aunt. She hasn¡¯t done anything to prove that I can yet.¡± (Jasper) ¡°And if you find that you can¡¯t trust her at all? What then?¡± (Kai) ¡°I run. Right now, one of the reasons I¡¯m here are to see you, and to validate the character of my aunt, whether good or bad.¡± Jasper¡¯s face twisted in concern. (Jasper) ¡°You¡¯re going to run? How? The Elven Empire has too much power to just let you slip through the cracks again. The first time was lucky enough¡ªand you won¡¯t have me helping you next time.¡± (Kai) ¡°Easy. You know that I always have some hidden trump cards¡ªI¡¯ll just have to use those. Besides, who says that you won¡¯t be there?¡± (Jasper) ¡°Wait, what do you mean?¡± (Kai) ¡°I have a way to get you out of there. The problem is that it will completely destroy the seal, alerting the entire capital that you¡¯ve escaped. It¡¯s a last resort kind of thing.¡± Jasper looked excited, and animated. (Jasper) ¡°Why didn¡¯t you tell me earlier? Here I¡¯ve been waiting away in this damn seal, without any hope. Just the thought that I could get out is uplifting¡ªThough, how did you find something capable of breaking the seal in the first place? It would have to be at least a legendary class item.¡± (Kai) ¡°Mmh. I got lucky, and found it.¡± Jasper scratched his chin in bemusement. (Jasper) ¡°Pfft. Your luck is almost unreal. It¡¯s like the heavens themselves hate and love you in equal measure. I mean, you¡¯ve had some things happen to you that would be impossible in any other situation¡± (Kai) ¡°Hah! You¡¯re just bitter about what happened when you were carrying me out of the elven empire.¡± (Jasper) ¡°Damn right I am. Do you know how difficult it is to run through the forests here in the first place? And then, as it turns out, you¡¯re some kind of living monster magnet¡ªevery single day, more wolf packs attacking, birds practically falling from the sky to kill you, every time we were near the water, something would come out and I would have to kill it. It was downright exhausting to try and protect you.¡± (Kai) ¡°Look on the bright side, though¡ªBecause you protected me, I¡¯m alive and well today. I owe you my life.¡± (Jasper) ¡°Oh please. I¡¯m sure that if I hadn¡¯t found that grotto, you would have just use another one of those damnable ¡®trump cards¡¯ and escaped.¡± (Kai) ¡°you should know full well that they¡¯re trump cards for a reason. I can only surprise others with them once, before they develop countermeasures. Besides, with how I am at the moment, it would just be more productive to train my body, rather than rely on other things.¡± (Jasper) ¡°Train your body, huh. I take it that you¡¯ll be using the dungeon here?¡± (Kai) ¡°Yeah.¡± (Jasper) ¡°That¡¯s dangerous, you know. It¡¯s not a tier six dungeon for nothing.¡± (Kai) ¡°I can handle it. Besides, I¡¯m only sticking to the first few floors until my level gets high enough to tackle the lower ones.¡± (Jasper) ¡°What is your level right now? I¡¯ve tried to use my¡¼Analyze¡½on you, but it¡¯s never worked.¡± (Kai) ¡°Ah, sure.¡± In front of me, I created a construct out of mana showing my currents stats from memory. It hovered in front of me, displaying them to him. While I was at it, I went ahead and used¡¼Analyze¡½on Jasper, wondering what his stats were. One of those floating blue windows invisible to everyone else appeared in front of me, showing just how monstrous Jasper is.
Status:
Name: Jasper Nadine
Titles:
Forgotten LordGluttonous Knowledge
Race: DemonAge: 347Gender: Male
Main Class: Quasi Demon-LordSub Class(es): Librarian
Level: 277
Health: 7840Mana: 469000
Strength: 156Stamina: 20Dexterity: 12
Intelligence: 1989Wisdom: 1250Luck: 33
Holy shit. No wonder the elves had a hard time taking him down. And he¡¯s not even a Demon-Lord yet. Those guys supposedly gain massive bonuses to a whole slew of things, and can also get new skills to go with it. While his stats are a little...skewed, they are definitely strong. My stats are more balanced, and have a good growth rate, but when someone is specialized in one thing, and focuses all of their attention on it, the results can be frightening. While I stood, awestruck with Jasper¡¯s stats, he examined the ones that I showed him. (Jasper) ¡°Not bad. Your level is at the higher end of kids even older than you are, and the stats are higher than I would have thought. Look¡¯s like you have a diabolically high growth rate for having inherited demon and elf blood. It¡¯s actually a little higher than the average human¡¯s growth rate, if anything. Though, I half expected you to have titles by now, with how cheaty you are.¡± I wonder how he would react if I told him that I had titles already¡ªAnd no less than four. Though, I was born with those, so I¡¯m not sure if they would even count. And, about the growth rates and average levels, they go something like this: When a human child turns ten, the nobles would have around a twenty, and the rest a ten. Elves would also be about level ten, due to their slow growth and long lives. A twenty year old elf is typically directly comparable to a ten year old human child. Demons levels depend, with some having very quick growth, but short lives, and others being comparable to the elves. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. After this childhood period of growth, things slow down depending on the person¡¯s attitude and personality. For instance, there are some whose growth comes to a standstill¡ªMostly the common people, who have no reason for getting stronger. Others would experience a drop in their rate of growth, but continue to gain levels and higher stats. Rarely, some actually speed up after puberty hits, experiencing a meteoric rise in strength until they hit a certain point. Most of the humans who gain the hero class are like this, due to their typically unwavering desire to protect and grow stronger. Unfortunately, people who have become insane for one reason or another are also like this, for different reasons. While there are those who have had faster growth than I in this generation, I am certainly close to the top. I wonder what would have happened if I had actually focused on gaining levels, rather than smithing all this time. I have a feeling that the results would have been amusing. But then I wouldn¡¯t have been able to make all my fun toys, which will help me level up even faster in the future. I just hope that my childhood growth period lasts until I go to school, so I can get the most out of the dungeon experience. I shudder when thinking about puberty hitting me. Mostly due to the physical changes. Anyway, after Jasper appraised my stats, I ask him about the thing I had come for. (Kai) ¡°So, have you heard anything about our father?¡± Jasper sighed, obviously frustrated. (Jasper) ¡°No. Nobody¡¯s even seen him since you were born, though I have been doing some research. You know, since I¡¯m stuck in this seal.¡± I felt frustrated. Everyone says that he had truly loved my Mother, but he hasn¡¯t shown up, even after her death. Jasper continued speaking, through, adding onto the quagmire that is my father. It should also be noted that Jasper had only seen him for the second time when him and mom were courting. He had left a few years after Jasper was born. (Jasper) ¡°Though, I am finding out more about him as I read.¡± I look behind Jasper, at the towering stack of books placed precariously on the tables and floor. All of them looked to be more than a few centuries old. Jasper notices the look, and surmises it¡¯s meaning. (Jasper) ¡°Yeah. He¡¯s only showing up in the very oldest of books. And even then it¡¯s vague references. I¡¯ve found several ancient books mentioning a person titled ¡®The Red Death¡¯, a demon of frightening power who appeared every now and then, before leaving as abruptly as he came. Considering our father¡¯s looks, I¡¯d say that there¡¯s a good chance that he is this ¡®Red Death¡¯.¡± (Kai) ¡°That¡¯s kinda thin, as far as evidence goes.¡± (Jasper) ¡°There¡¯s more. In older books, a Demon-Lord is mentioned, who nearly took over all three of the continents. The combined elven and human forces were eventually able to push him back, but he was never killed. In books just after this time period, his name was used as a curse, along with the moniker ¡°The Crimson Devil¡±, due to his hair color, which was a bright red.¡± I wasn¡¯t convinced, and let Jasper know as much. (Kai) ¡°I think you¡¯re reaching a little too far for these answers, Jasper. I mean, how old are these stories in the first place? There¡¯s no telling how much was distorted by the passage of time.¡± Jasper looked thoughtful for a moment, before speaking. (Jasper) ¡°Well, I think they¡¯re around twenty thousand years old, give or take a few thousand or so.¡± (Kai) ¡°Not exactly helping your argument here.¡± (Jasper) ¡°Yeah, I know. I can¡¯t help it though¡ª I want it to be right.¡± I kinda understood Jasper¡¯s feelings. For the three-hundred or so years of his life, most of it was spent with vague memories of his father from when he was small. After than, he had disappeared, and Jasper had accepted that he had likely died, just like his mother had thought. Then, after those centuries, I¡¯m born, and he sees his father for a brief moment, before talking to him once. That was the spark that created a flame, consuming Jasper in his quest of solid answers. Truthfully, he just wants to know why he had left in the first place, and had been too timid to ask him face to face that one time. He was afraid that he had been the reason, and was now resorting to stalking our father through history. And I did have to admit that our father was unique looking¡ª maybe even enough to be noted throughout history for his appearance. The few times I had seen him had been all I needed to have his features burned into my memory. His skin was dark. Not the ebon-skin found in those humans living in the southern deserts, but the sort of color found in just-cooled magma. His veins further accentuated that feeling, since they glowed beneath the skin with a faint golden shine. His eyes stood out in his dark skin, with the whites, and the vivid green irises I¡¯ve always felt were so out of place on his body, like a flower blooming inside the caldera of a volcano. His hair was crimson red, which was why Jasper had made the ¡®Crimson Devil¡¯ and ¡®Red Death¡¯ connections in the first place. He had excluded such an aura of latent power and grace from his seven foot tall body, that there was no doubt to me that he was the most powerful man on the continents. It made me wonder why he had left us for ourselves. Anyway, I went ahead and passed Ancient''s Respite to Jasper through the seal, and as expected, it cut right through it. The seal reformed itself a moment after, preventing any leaks from occurring. What had happened was that things were allowed to enter the seal, but not return from inside it. However, Respite could shatter the very magic keeping it together, allowing Jasper to leave. I didn¡¯t want to take the risk of never being able to pass it off to him, and I didn¡¯t really have a use for it at the moment. He stared at it of a while, amazed at the abilities it has, thought he couldn¡¯t seem to make it change at all, and it stubbornly stayed in it¡¯s dagger form. Then, I exited the seal room, and went to go find my aunt, and gain her approval to enter the dungeon here in the capital.
Chapter 19: The Capitals Dungeon The conversation with my aunt hadn¡¯t gone as well as it could have. She¡¯s surprisingly overprotective towards me, even though today had been the first time we¡¯ve ever met. Basically, she would allow me to enter the dungeon. However, I would have to be back every three days, with no exception. That way she would know I¡¯m completely safe. I would also have to give her reports on my level progress, so she would know which class to enroll me in as a student, since the school has minimum requirements for each of them. I would have to negotiate for more days later on though, as I start moving further down the labyrinth. Until then, I¡¯ll do what Aunt Aspasia wants me to. I¡¯m not going to accomplish anything at the moment by fighting against her on the small things like this. So, that¡¯s how I was able to enter the elven capital¡¯s dungeon the very next day. Aunt Aspasia nearly made me bring along an escort group, but I talked her down, citing the fact that none of them would really protect a demon elf hybrid, and that I had done well on my own for a long time now as the reasons why it didn¡¯t matter. The entrance to the dungeon was through an ancient and broken building, through the basement. One of the basement walls had been partially knocked down, opening up into a dark tunnel. Inside the upper floors of the old house, adventurers, guild administrators, member of the royal guards, and others gathered, patiently waiting their turn to enter the dungeon. Thankfully, I was able to bypass the line due to my aunt¡¯s imperial permit. With it, I would be able to travel the entire empire mostly unopposed, though I still got those looks from the elves¡ªwho could tell my heritage, and the humans¡ªwho typically despised demons, due to their constant warfare. Inside, the tunnel was slightly sloped downwards, and went on for a while. When I looked back, even though the tunnel felt completely straight, I couldn''t see the light from the entrance any more. Eventually, I have to light a small fireball, and set it to hover a set distance from me, due to the depth held by the darkness here. Normally, I would be able to see perfectly fine in the dark, due to my demon heritage, but I can¡¯t seem to here. The rough tunnel ceiling was completely block, from the successive generations of elven adventurers diving in, touches in hand giving of small amounts of smoke. Oddly enough, you didn¡¯t have to worry about depleting the oxygen supplies in dungeons and labyrinths, no matter where you go. Some have forests set in certain levels, though even those without them have never seemed to have anyone die due to oxygen deprivation. I personally think it''s one of the unique quirks of the dungeons and labyrinths. There¡¯s no need to worry about asphyxiation when there are monsters about, and all that. Eventually, after a seemingly impossible length of time, the tunnel reached a few branches, turning into it¡¯s first floor. I could hear distant sounds of combat reverberating off the narrow dungeon corridors, and the shuffle of nearby monsters. I picked one of the branches randomly, and head further into the dungeon. The first room in the dungeon was considerably wider than the tunnel that led into it, and was occupied by four beetles, their armored shells reflected some of the light given off by my ball of fire, and their mandibles clicking at the scent of new prey having entered. My fireball quickly split in two, one portion continuing to float by my side, and the other rocketing into one of the beetles, right where the head joined the main body. The fireball seemed to take on mass for a split second as it burrowed into the beetle, and exploded. I cursed, and threw up a shield, blocking the vicious goo that had been a large beetle a second ago. I always seem to forget how much of a mess blowing things up can be, especially in close quarters like dungeons. Instead of using fire on the other three beetles, I conjured some thin ice needles from the ambient moisture in the air, and shot for the weak points of the beetles. While I could penetrate any part of them, getting through the armored shells takes more mana than doing otherwise, and it¡¯s not advisable to use up all your mana on the first few levels of dungeons and labyrinths. Even the little uses can quickly add up. Many of the rooms in the dungeon were like this, with various enemies, and sometimes little treasure chests with the current copper, silver and gold standards in them, and occasionally little vials full of liquids of indeterminate effects. There were healing vials, mana restoring vials, poison vials, paralysis vials, and the rare ¡®joke¡¯ vial. Of course, there¡¯s more money per chest the further down you go, and the effects of the vials become greater. It almost shouldn¡¯t have to be said that it¡¯s not a good idea to drink from the vials without having first brought them to someone who could tell with absolute certainty what¡¯s inside. There have been many cases where someone drinks what they think is a health restoring potion, only to find that they¡¯ve chugged down a potent poison instead. The enemies inside the first floor of the dungeon were comparable to those who had been found on the fifteenth floor of the labyrinth I had been to a few months prior, with about the same resilience, though their attacks were a fair bit weaker. This was due to this dungeon¡¯s classification as a tier six dungeon. Well, let me start by explaining the classifications in the first place. Basically, the strength of a dungeon or labyrinth are based off of the strength of the monsters found within, and scaled to the hardest labyrinth anybody¡¯s ever found, which was classified as a tier fifteen, by the way. Most dungeons are tier one or two, with a few threes and fours not being particularly rare. Most of these have had modest sized towns or cities built on top of them. Labyrinths are much the same, but considered to always be one full tier higher than their actual classification, due to their nature. A tier one labyrinth is comparable to a tier two dungeon, and so on. The labyrinth in the other city had been classified as a tier three, making it comparable to a tier four dungeon. The dungeon I¡¯m in right now is classified as a tier six, which while it may only be two tiers harder than the other labyrinth, the rate of difficulty increases exponentially. Which is to say that it should be much harder the further down I go. Perfect for me to power level in, then. I took my time on the first floor, getting myself comfortable with fighting again, after having spent a few months silently tracking down swords and working on my smithing skills. After I felt confident in my abilities to stay alive in the dungeon, I went down to the second floor, though the tunnel leading down that I had discovered long ago. On the way, I passed by a teleportation rune to take you back up to the surface, like had been inscribed in the labyrinth transit rooms. It¡¯s a common feature in dungeons and labyrinths tier three and higher, due to their size and depth. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. On the second floor, I could feel some pressure from the decidedly stronger monsters, with things like slimes, undead, and various animals added to the mix. And for those who may think that slimes are weak monsters, think again. Of course, all of them also had their own weaknesses, forcing me to use magic and swordplay I might not have otherwise. I stayed away from the option of using ice magic with Twilight to flash-freeze entire rooms quickly and efficiently. It just didn¡¯t feel very fair to me, and I wanted a challenge. Plus, people had long ago noted that the more you struggle against an opponent, the faster you gain levels. While I could probably mitigate that speed with the raw efficiency of freezing a room and moving on, the issue of mana consumption comes up again. So I would normally engage the opponents with Twilight, and let my steel do most of the work instead of expending mana unnecessarily. I think I was about half of the way to the third level when I encountered a small problem. A group of elven adventurers crowded in the center of a room, having set up a field camp. They first felt the tug of my strong elven bloodline, and then froze when seeing my demonic features. The biggest among them stood up, looming toward the ceiling in comparison to my short height. (Party Leader)¡°Who the hell let a damn half-blood like you live?¡± He said, open malice in his voice and a dangerous light in his eyes. One of the others in the group spoke up. (Party Member) ¡°Ah fuck. It¡¯s just another monster in the dungeon, right guys?¡± There were quite a few people nodding their heads at that. Before things could progress any further, I pulled out my aunt¡¯s Imperial Permit, which ostensibly gave me her authority. Their eyes went wide at that, as those holding the Imperial Throne were typically admired greatly, and feared just as much¡ªAs any accomplished ruler must have happen. I¡¯m actually a little too kind to hold a throne, or was. Though, after the initial shock of seeing the imperial seven-headed dragon seal wore off, I found myself in the same situation as before. (Party Member) ¡°Bullshit. As if a halfy could get the imperial seal.¡± (Party Member) ¡°It¡¯s probably forged. Even high ranking elves can¡¯t get it, so why would a twerp carry it ¡®round.¡± (Party Member) ¡°Hell, even were it true, wouldn¡¯t it be our duty to cleanse the imperial family of this stain?¡± They all chorused their approval of such an action, and I cringed internally, while keeping a straight faced exterior up. I grabbed Twilight, and partially unsheathed it, showing the party that I wouldn¡¯t be easy prey. I had hoped that they would back off at one point, but it became hopeless when I realized that they were now looking at me in the same way that I looked at the dungeon monsters¡ªInhuman, a beastial foe to be killed for levels. I completely unsheathed Twilight, and activated a skill I hadn¡¯t thought I would be using so soon. It was one of my weaker ¡®trump cards¡¯, but one that could be used as many times as I had to. I activated the skill¡¼Demonic Transformation¡½, and immediately changes occurred. Stats wise, my mana doubled it¡¯s already considerable size¡ªAt least, for my level, and it¡¯s purity grew greater. My strength, dexterity, and health skyrocketed, tripling within a few seconds. The attacking party froze in their tracks, stunned at what was happening. While they couldn¡¯t see the internal changes, they did see my horns growing in size, and gaining tips the color of dried blood, while it appeared that my hair began to glow softly within the cave like dungeon room, soft as moon-light. My eyes seemed to become liquid gold, burning within my sockets, while thick tribal looking tattoos appeared on the backs of my hands, and my neck. They couldn¡¯t see that the tattoo¡¯s also appeared on my arms, and down my back in simple and bold patterns. My aura hit them after a moment, filled with bloodlust and power, telling them to run, and get the hell away from me. A few tried to, though most chose instead to charge me, intent on overpowering what they thought of as a bonus floor-guardian. I did the simple and easy thing, and poured out all the mana in my current pool, drawing it through Twilight and performing a powerful and draining freeze spell. I spoke the spell¡¯s activation words, and everything stopped. (Kai) ¡°Niflheim¡± Instantly, the whole room was covered in a thick layer of ice, and as had happened with that noble¡¯s ¡®A-rank¡¯ mage only a few months ago, even the small fire froze, and everyone else was encased in ice as solid as steel. They were still alive, and I could see their wide eyed looks of terror and hopelessness. Unfortunately for them, frostbite tends to set in quickly while encased in a mana infused prison of ice, and death follows soon after. It would still take them an hour or so to reach that point, so if anyone comes along able to free them, they would live, minus a few toes and fingers. I crossed the room, and entered the next one, killing the monsters inside quickly. My mana was nearly depleted, and I needed to rest soon, so I forged onwards, dealing with everything in my way in the fastest possible time, before I finally reached a room I felt was safe, and deactivated¡¼Demonic Transformation¡½. I slumped against one of the walls as fatigue from using the skill hit me, as I wasn¡¯t used to it¡ªI had only used it once before, right after unlocking it in a fit of pure rage and despair. I hastily set up semi-complex wards with the sliver of my remaining mana pool, meant to shield me from eyes, harm, and detection skills. Then I slept for a day or two, before leaving the dungeon. On my way out, I heard about a tragic event experienced by one of the newer adventurer parties. Apparently they had all been found frozen in various combat stances, dead from the cold. I didn¡¯t feel guilty about it. It was me or them, and I damn well wanted to live. And while some are claiming that they way they died was cruel, it was that or slowly and laboriously engage each of them in armed combat, where their numbers would have overwhelmed me eventually, and I would have died. I¡¯m not invincible yet.
Author''s Note: I made a map! Spoiler : Chapter 20: The New Teacher Right after leaving the dungeon, I went to my aunt. I wasn¡¯t too sure how much time had passed while I was recovering and sleeping, but I knew that I wouldn''t be able to make it far into the dungeon with only a day or so left. I found her in a private study, talking to an old bearded elf. When he turned around and saw me, I was surprised to find that he had patches of cloth over his eyes, showing that he couldn¡¯t see anything. He must have heard me coming in or something, because he smiled, and spoke in a kindly voice. (???) ¡°Ah. Is this the one you were talking about, little Aspasia?¡± (Aspasia) ¡°In fact, yes. She is.¡± (???) ¡°Good, good. Come closer child, I hold no ill intentions.¡± Curious at what was happening, I moved closer, and stopped about an arm''s length from the man, where an empty chair sat. I lowered myself into the chair, though I didn¡¯t lean back into it. The man, almost like he could see me, chuckled. (???) ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t bite. You can relax in here. Oh, I nearly forgot! My name is Caevern Niten, and as for why I¡¯m here, you can ask your aunt.¡± I was surprised that the man knew our relationship¡ªFrom what I had heard, the high-ups in government had covered up the reasons behind my mother¡¯s loss of the throne, and ordinary people shouldn¡¯t know anything about my own birth. That just shows that this old guy isn¡¯t anything to scoff at. I turned to Aunt Aspasia with a questioning look. (Aspasia) ¡°Niten is here to test you.¡± (Kai) ¡°Test me? Why?¡± (Aspasia) ¡°Well, only at first. He has to test you to find out what you know, before being able to teach you.¡± I was surprised, and dismayed. I didn¡¯t need to be taught anything¡ªI just needed to level up in the dungeon. Niten waved his hand in front of my face to catch my attention, almost as if he noticed the disappointment and unwillingness lurking beneath my carefully neutral expression. (Niten) ¡°Do not worry, little one. There is still some things this old elf can teach you, I promise.¡± (Aspasia) ¡°So you are willing to teach her? That¡¯s good new¡­¡± Niten interrupted her, which I thought took some serious balls, considering she¡¯s currently the empress of one of the biggest empires I know. Even more surprising to me was the way she shut up, and the respect in her eyes as she looked at the old elf. (Niten) ¡°No, it¡¯s not a question of my want to teach her, it¡¯s a question of her willingness to learn. I¡¯m afraid I¡¯m going to have to ask you to leave young Kai and I alone for a moment, while we talk.¡± Aunt Aspasia acquiesced to his request, and left the room, leaving me with Niten. As soon as she had left, I said the first thing that come to mind. (Kai) ¡°So, are you actually blind?¡± Niten chuckled, and shook his head. (Niten) ¡°While it is true that my eyes do not work, I have my ways of knowing the world around me.¡± I shook my hand in front of his covered eyes, testing his claim. To my amusement, he actually slapped away my hand right after I tried it. I had to check! He was being all mysterious! (Niten) ¡°I think that you also have a different question for me, though.¡± (Kai) ¡°I do. What are you going to test me on?¡± (Niten) ¡°A few things. I need to know what you know, to teach you better.¡± (Kai) ¡°And if I don¡¯t need to know anything?¡± Niten laughed loudly, holding on to his stomach. (Niten) ¡°Saying that there is always something to learn is a little cliche, but I think it works in this case. Just because you have knowledge that the others of this realm typically do not have does not make you omnipotent.¡± My mouth hung open in shock. No, wait, it¡¯s never good to jump to conclusions here¡­. (Kai) ¡°...What do you mean, with the knowledge thing¡­¡± (Niten) ¡°Do not worry Kai. I¡¯m only able to puzzle out what you are, due to frequent interactions with other reincarnated ones in the past.¡± Aw crap. How should I try and get myself out of this one? Wait. Other reincarnated ones? Damn it all, now he has me curious about that. Niten chuckled again. He seems like a very jovial type of person so far. I spoke in a very small and even voice. (Kai) ¡°There are others like me?¡± (Niten) ¡°Not for a while now. I outlived the last one by a few hundred years.¡± I sighed, suddenly disappointed. (Niten) ¡°You should not despair over that fact though. As it turns out, reincarnated people tend to be born in clusters, every twenty or so millenium. By the very fact that you¡¯re standing before me, I can assure you that others have already, or are going to show up. And that¡¯s not even counting those periodically summoned to this world, mind and body.¡± (Kai) ¡°Wait, so there are more like me right now?¡± (Niten) ¡°Not exactly. Before anything else, I must ask you one thing. How many lives do you remember?¡± Why does that matter, I wondered. I mean, I still told him. After all, ignoring the sage advice of a old wise blind man seems like it would go against the whole fantasy thing. (Kai) ¡°I can only remember five of them.¡± Now it was Niten¡¯s turn to look surprised. (Niten) ¡°Only five? Hah!¡± He laughed again, obviously thinking about something I don¡¯t know about. (Niten) ¡°Only? Do you know how rare it is for someone to remember even one? Let alone two? Tell me, how did those lives go? How did they end?¡± (Kai) ¡°I think that¡¯s none of your business.¡± I wasn¡¯t going to answer him. It would be telling him too much about me. Plus, some of those lives are damn painful to remember. (Niten) ¡°Fair enough. I won¡¯t ask again, until you are ready to tell me, then.¡± I sighed, feeling a headache coming on. (Kai) ¡°Earlier, you said that I¡¯m ¡®not exactly¡¯ like the other¡¯s who have reincarnated. What do you mean?¡± (Niten) ¡°Well, for one, your situation is far different that what would normally happen. I see you¡¯re confused. Let me put it this way¡ªNone of them are going to have the bloodline of an elven empress and an unknown demon coursing through their veins. Normally, to balance out karma, they are born to poor farmers or worse. They never have very good social status, and must climb to the top after many years of painstaking effort and practice, overcoming things like lack of ability or bad constitutions.¡± Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. (Kai) ¡°Oh? Then why was I born like this?¡± (Niten) ¡°That¡¯s why I wanted to know what your past lives had been like. If they¡¯re born in bad situations to balance out their karma, then what sort of karma did you gain to end up here?¡± I stayed silent. Well, at least I didn¡¯t talk. I did, however, use¡¼Analyze¡½in Niten, due to curiosity and a feeling of slight vengeance. If he knew so much about me, then why shouldn¡¯t I know about him? However, the blue window that popped up wasn¡¯t the one I was expecting.
Attempt to use skill¡¼Analyze¡½has failed.
Niten smiled a little as I got that message. (Niten) ¡°Oh? Quite the high level¡¼Analyze¡½you have.¡± He made a few motions in the air, and a glowing blue window popped up in front of me, just like it would normally appear. (Niten) ¡°I am perfectly willing to share this information with you. Next time, just ask me, and maybe I¡¯ll humor you again.¡±
Status:
Name: Caevern Niten
Titles:
StubbornWeeping Killer
Race: ElfAge: 24059Gender: Male
Main Class: MageSub Class(es): Teacher
Level: 809
Health: 24050Mana: 997800
Strength: 340Stamina: 490Dexterity: 50
Intelligence: 42400Wisdom: 33070Luck: 56
Wow. And here I thought that my brother¡¯s stats were scary. This man is a monster. Even worse, I couldn''t tell that he was that strong before now. Mh. I did have a question though. (Kai) ¡°What does that title mean, ¡®The Teacher¡¯?¡± (Niten) ¡°Ah! See, you have things you can learn from me.¡± I scowled at the elf, slightly miffed that he had proven right. (Niten) ¡°On our continents, there are a series of twenty special titles, awarded to those who fit the title¡¯s meaning the best. Included among them are ¡®The King¡¯, ¡®The Madman¡¯, ¡®The Tower¡¯, ¡®The Demon¡¯, and mine, ¡®The Teacher¡¯.¡± I understood. Basically, he¡¯s the best teacher on our continents. I¡¯m beginning to feel like I really should take him up on his offer to teach me. (Kai) ¡°Are people born with those titles, or do you have to do something to get them?¡± (Niten) ¡°I don¡¯t know of anyone ever being born with a Grand Title, as it¡¯s known. I only got mine after going through some rather difficult experiences. It was the same for your Aunt, I believe.¡± Huh. So my aunt has one of those titles as well. I had never tried using¡¼Analyze¡½on her, so I didn¡¯t know. (Kai) ¡°Which one does she have?¡± (Niten) ¡°She has the title of ¡®The Builder¡¯. It¡¯s one of the reasons she was made into the empress after your mother, since the throne is given on a merit system.¡± Hm. I didn¡¯t know titles like that had such significance. (Kai) ¡°Is it possible for someone to have more than one of those titles?¡± (Niten) ¡°What a curious question. As far as I know, I have never heard of it, though I suppose it is theoretically possible, since the true meaning of the titles can be left somewhat to interpretation. So, two of the titles could interlap, unlikely though it might seem.¡± Niten sat in silence for a moment, pondering before moving on. (Niten) ¡°Well, no use thinking about it now. I actually have a question for you, Kai.¡± I unconsciously sat up at his words, which had abruptly turned serious. (Niten) ¡°What do you want?¡± (Kai) ¡°Huh?¡± (Niten) ¡°What do you want? Why do you wish to get stronger? To what goal do you reach?¡± Emulating his seriousness, I replied. (Kai) ¡°I want to gain enough power to be left alone.¡± (Niten) ¡°Nothing more nor less?¡± (Kai) ¡°Yes.¡± (Niten) ¡°What an odd goal. Still, if you¡¯ll have me, I will work with you to achieve that goal.¡± I nodded, and Niten, blind or not, smiled, somehow noticing the motion. (Niten) ¡°Good. Let¡¯s bring your aunt back in, shall we? I think we now have some things to talk about, as far as next steps.¡±
In a city partially burned down, located near the northern mountains on the Human Continent, people were frantically running in the streets, weapons in hands and armor donned. Outside the large city walls, a small town had been leveled to the ground, and an army marched. They had banners depicting the local king¡¯s standards, and men mounted on tall beasts proudly walked before the host. One of them detached from the rest, and moved to near the walls, where a massive red-haired man stood, looking down upon the army. The man on the beast held a white flag, symbolizing an effort to negotiate. A very small effort, but one none-the-less. (Envoy) ¡°Surrender your people, and their lives will at least be spared! Resist our forces, and none shall live past this day!¡± (Hogvir) ¡°All ya bastards can go back to the damn capitol ya came from! Tell ¡®em I won¡¯t be selling my people to slavery, and they can shove the demands back up their noble asses, where they belong!¡± His voice thundered across the space dividing the walls and the army, amplified by a mage standing behind him. The general leading the kingdom¡¯s army smiled. He was famed for his cruelty towards rebellions, and had been sent for the express purpose of crushing the one that had popped up in the north. (General) ¡°Tell the men to charge.¡± (Captains) ¡°All troops forward!¡± ¡°Advance¡± ¡°Kill ¡®em all!¡± ¡°Leave none alive!¡± The day degenerated into a brutal clashing of steel and wills after that.
Chapter 21: The Time Skip On the twentieth floor of the elven empire¡¯s capital city dungeon, a large figure had materialized in the center of a large underground cavern. It materialized from the ground up, starting at the cloven hooves that it stood on. As the black smoke condensed, a nightmarish figure covered in armor from the waist up appeared, it¡¯s black armor bearing many small scratches and scars in the metal, and it¡¯s legs were similarly scared, though this time it was in the flesh. It pulled a massive greatsword from it¡¯s back¡ªone almost as tall as the figure itself, which stood at nearly three meters. The sword undulated along its length, making the blade look like rolling waves among the hovering balls of fire in the room. The armored foe growled, and the room seemed to shake slightly from its reverberations. Opposite the figure, near the cavern¡¯s entrance, stood a single short person, with silver hair and horns curling delicately from her head, starting right above where her ears were. Her eyes seemed to glow gold in the firelight, and she held a sheathed sword in her left hand. She wore a long coat suited for combat, and worn down from multiple encounters and victories. After the armored figure materialized, she seemed to undergo a change, the aura around her strengthening exponentially from a dramatic increase in mana and stats. Her horns doubled in length, growing darker nears their tips, and another set of horns could be seen faintly peeking out from under her hair, these ones sweeping back from her face, towards her back. Her hair seemed to glow faintly now, and her eyes shone brighter, making the slit pupils in the center of them all the more apparent, from the absence of light in them. Dark marks could be seen appearing on the skin of her neck, disappearing down her shoulders. They also coiled on the backs of her hands in simple and brutal, yet somehow also graceful lines. As the armored figure finished it¡¯s bellowing, she lightly tapped the ground with her foot, and seemingly disappeared. The figure was clearly able to track her movements, though, as It raised its sword to meet her charge. A vicious clash of steel resounded through the cavern, the figure having caught the now naked blade in the girl¡¯s hands. She snarled, and pushed with her sword, and the figure astonishingly took a step back, stumbling a little as it did so. The girl took that moment to disengage, and sweep back in with a low blow aimed at the figure¡¯s cloven feet, trying to limit its mobility somewhat. Things tend to not move without feet (or hooves), after all. The figure¡¯s sword slammed into the ground, tip first, as it barely blocked the blow. Now furious at the girl, the figure¡¯s eyes began to glow red beneath its steel-faced helm. It raised its sword, and lay into the girl devastatingly. The ground beneath her shook as she blocked every blow, one after another. She sighed, somewhat disappointedly, and disengaged whatever had allowed her to overwhelm the figure, the lines on her hand dispersing, her horns shrinking with the new pair disappearing completely, and that aura around her weakened again. Immediately, the figure began to challenge her, as she no longer had the power to take it¡¯s blows head on, and had to dodge them instead. The figure noticed the change, and took to the offensive even more, pounding the area around the girl as she displaced all of them, lightly redirecting it¡¯s sword away from her. Had a master swordsman seen this, he would have been astonished. While it takes less power to redirect a blow, it also takes more concentration and skill, which was being displayed by the girl in stunning amounts. Every time she redirected a blow, she would wait until the last possible second, and let the sword pass her by mere millimeters until it crashed into the ground. The figure¡¯s poor sword was now battered and covered in scratches from its frequent contacts with the ground, and on one strike, the ring of it hitting stone changed subtly from the earlier strikes. The girl¡¯s entire demeanor seemed to change at this moment, from someone simply dodging and deflecting blows meekly, to one who waged war with the world itself. An overwhelming aura surrounded her, one not derived from her mana or stats, but from her entire being. The one that she had earlier while using her power-up was actually a few times weaker than this one. The figure stumbled a little as the aura hit it, and the girl took advantage of this to dash in. The figure, panicking under the dual oppression of the aura and her sudden nearness, smashed it¡¯s sword into the ground harder than it ever had before. With a tinkling sound, the massive sword shattered, the strong blows against the ground having weakened its structural integrity greatly. And while the figure had been able to suppress the girl somewhat with it¡¯s sword, now things were different. It tried to attack with the hilt of the broken blade, or it¡¯s fists, but was attacked instead. Every time it¡¯s hands neared the girl, she would lash out with astonishing timing and accuracy to hit the exposed parts of its wrists and hands, slowly bringing the figure more and more pain, and closer to defeat. Eventually, its hands were dangling uselessly from its bleeding wrists, and the figure¡¯s movements had turned sluggish and weaker. It stopped fighting, and turned its angry red eyes at the girl, who was only covered in a light sheen of sweat from her exertions. Almost invitingly, it dropped to it¡¯s knees, and bared its throat under the armor gorget. The girl stepped closer, and raised her sword for the killing blow, cutting straight through the figure¡¯s blood vessels and windpipe. No blood shot out, though, as the figure directly collapsed back into dark shadows, but now before shooting the girl a rude gesture with it¡¯s barely useable hand. The girl sighed, and sheathed her blade, proceeding to the room beyond the cavern. She arrived at a glowing rune set into the floor, and stepped on it. Immediately, she was surrounded by a glowing nimbus of light, and disappeared from the dungeon.
Ugh. That floor boss was a disappointment. I had thought that maybe I could have unloaded on it, but that hadn¡¯t been the case. If I had used¡¼Demonic Transformation¡½to it¡¯s fullest extent, it wouldn¡¯t have been a fight, but a slaughter. It wouldn¡¯t have been any fun, and I wouldn¡¯t have gotten any good experience. Besides, Niten had told me that I needed to pursue greater challenges, saving my overpowering moves for when I felt death. It¡¯s been five months since I had taken him as a teacher, which had probably been the best decision I¡¯ve ever made, even if he made me memorize the names of all the major kingdoms, cities, dungeons and labyrinths. The help he provided in understanding the politics of our continents, and the history of it has been nothing but helpful, and he also doubled as a fantastic combat teacher. It actually came to be that he learned of most of my trump cards, and evaluated each for their weaknesses and strengths. I was able to combine a few of the complementary trump cards into stronger ones, boosting my survivability thanks to him. If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. Him telling me to fight the floor boss on the twentieth level was a little tame compared to some of the stuff he¡¯s had me do. Though, I have been feeling a little tired lately for no good reason, and my stomach''s been hurting for the past day or so. It was nice to vent some of the frustration from that on a willing opponent. Even if it might have been slightly overkill in the end. I mean, come on! The floor boss volunteered itself for death. Though I suppose it just wanted a way out from the pain I had inflicted, and it doesn¡¯t particularly matter if it dies, since it just respawns the next time someone enters the room. Ah, I suppose I should go ahead and explain the conclusive differences between dungeons and labyrinths. I didn¡¯t really know the differences until a few months ago, when Niten explained them to me. Before then, I just knew that some were referred to dungeons, and others labyrinths. Also that labyrinths were more dangerous that dungeons. First, dungeons are normally quite static. The floor layout¡¯s tend to not change much, unless the dungeon is experiencing a period of growth. When that happens, it expands rapidly, expending most of the energy it had collected over the years. Dungeons get their energy from the adventurers who enter it, leaching off some of their ambient mana, and absorbing the leftover mana from spells they use. It can use that mana to respawn the monsters inside of it, and set aside some for future expansion. Labyrinths however, are at a fixed size as soon as they¡¯re born. But while they cannot expand themselves, they can change the interior as much as they like, often switching around rooms, floors, monsters, and floor guardians. The reason a labyrinth is thought of as having a greater amount of danger as compared to dungeons, is that they are unpredictable. While you can make a map of the safest routes through a dungeon, it¡¯s impossible in a labyrinth. Labyrinths also, unlike dungeons, gather mana from nearby ley-lines, or so the theory goes. Unfortunately, it¡¯s hard to study labyrinths, while you can literally grow a dungeon to watch the whole process happen. And truth is, we still don¡¯t know a lot about them, like whether they have personalities, or cores, or if a labyrinth can die. We know that a dungeon can die, and that dungeons have cores and can gain sentience at a high enough ranking. Labyrinths though, are for the most part still a mystery. Upon exiting the dungeon, I got looks from the nearby elves. However, instead of the disdain and disgust that had been there five months ago, now there was equal parts fear and curiosity. The curiosity was because I was a taboo half-blood, and still walking around free and easy. Fear because a few of them had tried to deal with me. Whether by capturing me, killing me, or even attempting to sell me to some human nobles, they wanted me out of the capital. Unfortunately, none of the ones responsible could recover from their foolish encounter with me. They seem to always underestimate me, and pay the price for it. On a side note, decimating groups of people the way I had was all due to my dungeon dives, which left me considerably stronger. Especially because I could focus on just fighting, and didn¡¯t have to worry about attracting attention while I was on my own, or procuring rare smithing materials. My level and stats had increased greatly. In fact, I had just gained a level from fighting that floor boss.
Status:
Name: Katariah Silver
Titles: (4 Hidden)
Race: Demon/ElfAge: 13Gender: Female
Main Class: MageSub Class(es): Smith; Swordsman
Level: 73
Health: 1245Mana: 96360
Strength: 228Stamina: 127Dexterity: 249
Intelligence: 332Wisdom: 248Luck: 1
Yeah. I¡¯ve gotten a bit stronger in the past few months. I¡¯d say that part of the reason is Niten¡¯s tutelage, and the other part is the power leveling I did. It reminded me of a form of entertainment from one of my lives. Anyway, I walked down the main boulevard, towards the imperial palace. Also part of the reason some fear me, it due to the fact that I¡¯m frequently seen entering and exiting the palace, and stay there every so often. In fact, some have even begun to call me ¡®The Shadow Princess¡¯, a title surprisingly close to the truth of my relationship with the imperial family, and the royal lines. Though, the adventurers and common people began calling me that for different reasons¡­ I entered the palace through a side door, as I¡¯ve always hated the feeling of all those eyes on me as I go through the front. Besides, it¡¯s not shameful to walk though a servant''s entrance when you choose to do so. I went and found Niten, informing him that I had succeeded with the floor boss, and was okay. He reminded me that I left in a week to go to that school, which I had previously found out was named after my mother in her honor¡ªThe Silver Academy. Well, Aunt Aspasia wanted me to go as a student, but Niten and I had another, more effective plan in place for that, and he¡¯ll be traveling there with me to ensure that it was seen through with. After that, I excused myself, and went directly to my room. For some reason, I ¡ªreally¡ªwasn¡¯t feeling well at the moment. I sat on my bed, and was struck by a particularly bad stomach cramp. I briefly considered what was causing this, turning over ideas such as bad food, indigestion, or something else, when I remembered something terrifying. Didn¡¯t all of these symptoms fit something found in half the population? Tentatively, and somewhat frightened, I reached my hand between my legs, and then out again. Crap. There¡¯s blood there. As I was panicking over the implications of this bombshell, the ironically pleasant ding of a status announcement rang in my head. [tr] [tr]
New Title Gained
Title:¡¼Immortal¡½UnlockedThe holder of this title will age slowly until reaching adulthood, when all aging stops.
Chapter 22: The Heroes Arrive A week passed, and everything went back to normal. Well, mostly. I¡¯m now on a carriage to the nearest teleport hub, where Niten and I could easily reach Silver Academy, as there was another rune there connecting the two places. As for the whole menstruation thing, well, I went straight to Aunt Aspasia, and she calmed me down. It was kinda odd, knowing that she¡¯s the empress of the elves, but still willing to advise me on the ...finer points of the female body. Also part of the reason I calmed down so quickly was a fact that she told me¡ª Elves only have to go through this once a year, unlike humans, who deal with the pain every single month. I don¡¯t know what¡¯ll happen to me, with my mixed blood, but I think that I should lean more towards the elven side on this. Or, I hope I will. And then there¡¯s that title I gained. ¡¼Immortal¡½. It gives me an infinite lifespan, but only if I don¡¯t die from warfare, diseases, or stupid mistakes. It says I¡¯ll stop aging as soon as I reach adulthood, growing at a slower pace until then. However, there¡¯s a small problem with that. When¡¯s adulthood? Is the metric the age of the body? The mind? I¡¯ll be in serious trouble if it¡¯s maturity of the mind. I mean, I¡¯ve lived five lives before this, adding up to about seventy years of experience. To human standards, I¡¯m almost an elder. And my mindset is likely many years older than that, due to the many things I¡¯ve seen, lived through, and died from. But then, if it¡¯s the body, then how long will I have until reaching adulthood? How slowly will I age? This title just brings too many questions along with it. When I used¡¼Analyze¡½on it, I got some more information, though not as much as I wanted.
This title was gained through the intermingling of two powerful bloodlines, resulting in a more perfect being. Many of the other holders of this title gained it through the partial mastery of magic.
All it told me was why I had the title, and how others could get it. Not every useful for me, who was having a small crises over other things. In the end, it looked like I would just have to wait to see what happens. The teleport hub was filled with elves and merchandise moving all over the place, being shuttled from building to building. There were five such hubs in the empire, and most of them had capital city''s built up around them with the various royals deciding to take advantage of the wealth passing through these areas. There were teleport hubs in the other continents as well, with the whole system forming a complex web across the seas. Though, the teleport hubs leading into and out of the demon continent are strictly monitored, for obvious reasons. Our little carriage, with only Niten and I occupying it and the imperial insignia painted on it, was sent to the front of a line traveling to a town near the school. I stayed inside the carriage the entire time, keeping my head down to avoid any issues, while Niten handled the finicky things like verifying the number of people traveling and paying for the transport. When it was our turn, we were ushered into a warehouse style building, with a large stone arch standing in the center of it. The arch was made of a white quarried stone, and had runes carved into it, then filled back in with a special red clay. This connected it to another gate somewhere else, folding the space in between them through a type of advanced astrophysics. Well, I say this, but it¡¯s just a pet theory developed after hearing Niten¡¯s description of the gates. The truth is that no one knows how to make them anymore. There was once an attempt to study one of the gates but it ended in disaster, with a large amount of space around that gate and it¡¯s counterpart on the other side of the space fold having exploded, vaporizing two small cities. After that, people were completely content with not knowing how the gates worked. Going through the gate was somewhat disconcerting, not because of any odd sensation from being transported over a distance that would take the better part of a year to cross, but rather the lack thereof. You stepped through the gate, and boom, you were in a completely new place, with no other indication that anything had happened. This made something as profound as teleportation feel profoundly...ordinary. Like walking through a normal door. On the other side, we exited into another warehouse building, one every similar to the one we had just left. This added to the illusion that we hadn¡¯t actually gone anywhere, though on closer inspection you would notice things like how the warehouse was made of a darker wood, and had subtle differences in architecture. Outside the warehouse, the fact that we had just traveled thousands of kilometers in a single moment sunk in. The warehouse had a good sized village around it, with half the buildings in the village being inns, for those who had gone through the gate late at night. Off in the distance, I could see a large city though the carriage window. This was Offenheim, where the Silver Academy had been established. It would take the rest of the day to reach it, and then we would rent some inn rooms, and go to the academy the next morning to register me for my class. Until then, I get to sit in this carriage, and watch as the landscape rolls past. The rest of the day''s going to be rather boring.
In a remote and mostly undiscovered dungeon residing in the middle of the Grey Fang mountain range, found in the very northern reaches of the Human continent, an intense battle was unfolding. Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation. Three high level monsters from the dungeon squared off against a single figure, who was so tall that he might have been mistaken as a monster himself. The man was encased in crude looking armor, battered and scored deeply in places. If you looked closely though, you would notice that even though it was crude looking, and fashioned out of what looked to be iron, the workmanship in the armor had reached a fantastic level of practicality, allowing the man to move easily and attack as if the extra weight wasn¡¯t even present. The three monsters he faced certainly required a full range of motion. There was one hydra standing at a good two and a half meters tall, and two lesser wyrms, all clad in black scales capable of repelling all but the best of strikes the man threw. Every time they clashed, sparks would fly from the man¡¯s greatsword, which was equally as battered and battle-scarred as his armor. Every now and then, a low blue flame would appear on the sword, able to literally cut through the scales. Whenever he used it though, he would visibly tire, his movements just that much more sluggish and weak. On other end of the scale, the blood pool on the ground also grew larger with every successful strike. For nearly an hour, these four combatants played a deadly game of cat and mouse, where the man would dodge blows from three directions, and send retaliatory strikes every now and then. Eventually, one of the wyrms fell, it¡¯s tubular body pierced and it¡¯s massive heart cut in two. Before the second one fell, the hydra lost two of it¡¯s four heads, and then lost the other two soon after the remaining wyrm fell in a similar manner to the first. Exhausted, the man fell to the ground, removing his sweat soaked helm and exposing fiery red hair sheared short, and a well trimmed beard the same color. A ropy and relatively new looking scar stretched across his nose, and went all the way to his right ear, or the half that was still left. He grinned slightly, and murmured under his breath. (Hogvir) ¡°Finally reached hundred and fifty, eh. Took me long enough.¡±
In a hastily constructed structure, a certain group of powerful men were meeting, their attention focused on a massive rune drawn into the hard-packed ground. A separate group of powerful magicians were feeding their mana into the circular rune, which had begun to glow softly, gently lighting the interior of the one-roomed building. (King Raleigh) ¡°Are you sure this will work, Archmage?¡± (Archmage Raeson) ¡°Absolutely. I have records of it being used before.¡± (High General Savant) ¡°What can we even expect from the thing? You haven¡¯t told us anything beyond that ¡®it will bring being of power to our aid.¡¯¡± (Pope Nicholas) ¡°I agree. While I trust you completely, old friend, I feel that it¡¯s high time of all the mystery to be unveiled.¡± The archmage nodded, and with the circle itself glowing ever brighter in the background, he explained it¡¯s functions. (Archmage Raeson) ¡°Well, to put it simply, this ruin teleports people who have both great power, and willingness to help us to our realm. It chooses seven such individuals, and passes them through the world veils¡ªWhich should give them some unique abilities. If they''re lucky, then one or two of them might be blessed by a god on the way here.¡± As soon as he finished the explanation, the luminosity of the circle grew exponentially, and reached a peak. The whole room seemed to shake from the sheer amount of mana pumping through the circle at that moment. It reached a crescendo, and faded, leaving seven people standing in the middle of the circle.
(POV: ???) I¡¯d felt that tugging sensation once before. Like that other time, I hadn¡¯t been doing anything particularly important¡ªat least not on the cosmological scale. No, the first time I had felt it, I was only taking the SATs, and was brought to this world along with six of my classmates. And now, I¡¯m in the middle of my own execution, condemned by the five remaining classmates. I think it was divine intervention, you know, preventing me from dying by forcibly transferring me to another world. Though, this time, I¡¯ll make sure the entire party survives, if it¡¯s the whole ¡®summon the heroes!¡¯ thing again.
(POV ???) What!? Someone actually dares to summon the great and powerful me?! Ha! They¡¯ll learn that summoning a grand necromancer comes at a price! Should I have them pay me in sweets and chocolate? Or should I leave as soon as I arrive, to go wandering? I recall that interesting man once mentioning reading something where that happened¡ªHero is summoned, then refuses to help! Hehe. I think I¡¯ll have a little fun with my summoners¡­.
(POV ???) NO! I can¡¯t go yet! I still haven¡¯t avenged him! Don¡¯t take me from this world! Bastards! I was nearly there!
Watching those pitifully small people summoned into their vast and beautiful world, The gods decided to take a little action, and get a little more involved in affairs. They¡¯ve been so terribly bored in the past few thousand millennium... They brought the would-be heroes into their realm for a brief moment, to have a little chat with some of the more interesting ones.
Chapter 23: The Successful Summoning In a beautiful landscape, dotted with small gardens and rolling hills, four people suddenly materialized. They seemed to fade into existence, until they were left, still slightly transparent and mostly confused. The first thing that they did, collectively as a whole, was to look around and gain their bearings. The four of them had never met each other before, having been from different worlds. The first one to speak was a short girl with midnight black hair, wearing tattered robes that had once been expensive. Her eyes were a peculiar shade of violet, and she held a twisted looking staff in one hand. From the other dangled an orb wrapped around by a string. (???) ¡°What?! This isn¡¯t a primary world plain! Who¡¯s dared to interrupt the summoning of the great me!¡± One of the others in the group, another girl looking to be around seventeen years old with plain brown hair and a tall stature spoke up. Curiously, her hands were chained up behind her back, with small runes preventing her the use of any mana. (???) ¡°Have you never been summoned like this before? My guess is that this world¡¯s gods decided to have us pay them a visit.¡± The other two people stayed silent. One was a haggard looking man, his hair hanging in front of his eyes in a tangle, and wearing a dark cloak. If you were able to see his black eyes, you would see that they burned like live coals. The last one was a young boy, seemingly innocent and confused, his large blues eyes watching around him. As soon as the chained up girl stopped talking, figures began appearing around them, around twenty in all. (???) ¡°Correct, Sarah Durst. We, the resident gods of this world, have decided that you four are worthy to receive some blessings of ours.¡± (Sarah) ¡°Last time, I was blessed by a goddess of war. Do I get to keep that blessing?¡± (???) ¡°Yes. The blessings become a part of you, and so they will follow you to our world. AS for the blessing you get here, that has already been decided.¡± The indistinct figure pointed at the girl with the staff. (???) ¡°Selina Rochelle, you shall receive the blessing from the god of wisdom.¡± A line of light emanated from one of the figures, pouring into Selina. (???) ¡°Harving Strump, you shall receive the blessing of the goddess of vengeance.¡± Light reached out to the man with the tangled hair, this time in a red hue stinking of blood. (???) ¡°Sarah Durst, you shall receive the blessing from the god of death.¡± A black line traveled from one to another this time. (???) ¡°And finally, Rust Gelben, you shall receive my own blessing, the god of fate.¡± With that, their bodies began to fade again, the four of them leaving the realm of the gods. The gods, however, had a parting word with the new heroes. (God of Fate) ¡°One last thing to keep in mind¡ªPeople tend to reincarnate into our realm. Perhaps one that you miss could be found here?¡±
The heroes appeared in the center of the circle, slightly disorientated. Four of them appeared calm, however, while the other three were looking around them in a panic. There was a man in a resplendent suit of armor, carrying a plain looking sword marked with old looking runes. He was bleeding from several small cuts on his face and body, and his plain brown hair looked black from the blood caked into it. There was a young looking schoolgirl, with black hair. She looked to be around sixteen years old, and frightened out of her mind. The last was an old man, standing near the guy in the armor, like they had been pulled from the same place. He held a staff nearly as gnarled as the one held by Selina, and his white beard reached to his belly. The four, who had left the god¡¯s realm just a second ago, were relatively less fazed from the summoning. In fact, the first to recover was Selina, who laughed loudly, throwing her head back as she did so. (Selina) ¡°Ha! ¡®The one I miss¡¯, eh? This world might be more interesting than I thought, if there¡¯s a possibility of him existing here.¡± Sarah overheard Selina¡¯s comments, and smiled. (Sarah) ¡°I wouldn¡¯t get your hopes up. The possibility is there, but it¡¯s nearly non-existent.¡± Her words seemed to mostly be directed at herself. The people standing outside the circle recovered from the bright light that had indicated the arrival of the heroes, and the first to speak was naturally the king, who wrung his hands nervously for a second before reminding himself that he¡¯s the king, and must appear in control at all times. (King Rayleigh) ¡°Welcome heroes! We have summoned you to plead for help¡­.¡± At that moment, he was interrupted by Sarah, who had taken a look at the remaining three heroes who had been summoned. (Sarah) ¡°Gaby! Is that you?!¡± The schoolgirl, who was apparently named Gaby, looked at Sarah, eyes wide. She took in the tattered clothes worn by her, and the chains restraining her hands. She saw Sarah¡¯s face, and her face scrunched in pain. (Gaby) ¡°What the?!¡± Sarah immediately rushed to her side. (Sarah) ¡°Gaby! Are you okay?¡± (Gaby) ¡°Yeah, no. Not really. My god, are these memories real?¡± Sarah looked sad for a moment. (Sarah) ¡°I thought so. After we disappeared, something partially wiped our existence from those who knew us, right?¡± (Gaby) ¡°But, how could I forget... ? That makes no sense, I had a brother? What the hell happened?¡± Sarah told Gaby that she¡¯d explain everything later, since it looked like those outside the circle got a little mad at her interrupting their king. (King Rayleigh) ¡°Like I was saying¡­ We need your help. I¡¯ll tell you in greater detail later, but for now, could you all allow us to see your stats?¡± The man in the armor raised his hand. (???) ¡°Um, what are stats, and how am I supposed to show them?¡± The archmage stepped forward, and gave each of the heroes a plate of metal, telling them about the guild cards, and how they display the holder¡¯s strength. The heroes imprinted them, and showed their stats to the awe of everyone present.
Status:
Name: Selina Rochella
Titles:
Blessed by KnowledgeBreaking Tide
Race: LichAge: 1042Gender: Female
Main Class: Grand NecromancerSub Class(es): Priest
Level: 20
Health: 300Mana: 30000
Strength: 5Stamina: 5Dexterity: 5
Intelligence: 50Wisdom: 70Luck: 2
Status:
Name: Sarah Durst
Titles:
Blessed by DeathBlessed by War
Race: High HumanAge: 22Gender: Female
Main Class: KnightSub Class(es): Swordsman
Level: 20
Health: 900Mana: 300
Strength: 50Stamina: 50Dexterity: 45
Intelligence: 35Wisdom: 50Luck: 28
Status:
Name:Harving Strump
Titles:
Blessed by Vengence
Race: HumanAge: 20Gender: Male
Main Class:BerserkerSub Class(es): Blood Mage
Level: 20
Health: 500Mana: 1000
Strength: 40Stamina: 60Dexterity: 20
Intelligence: 25Wisdom: 5Luck: 69
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Status:
Name: Rust Gelben
Titles:
Blessed by FateInnocent
Race: BeastmanAge: 10Gender: Male
Main Class: ArcherSub Class(es): Cook, Forager
Level: 20
Health: 200Mana: 150
Strength: 15Stamina: 20Dexterity: 30
Intelligence: 50Wisdom: 40Luck: 99
Status:
Name: Gabrialla Nova
Titles:
LinchpinExam KillerStrongest President
Race: HumanAge: 16Gender: Female
Main Class: ScholarSub Class(es): Swordsman
Level: 20
Health: 600Mana: 300
Strength: 60Stamina: 55Dexterity: 20
Intelligence: 60Wisdom: 10Luck: 35
Status:
Name: Arthur Pendragon
Titles:
Once and Future KingLeaderDisplaced from History
Race: HumanAge: 32Gender: Male
Main Class: KnightSub Class(es): Administrator
Level: 20
Health: 400Mana: 1000
Strength: 50Stamina: 30Dexterity: 35
Intelligence: 40Wisdom: 30Luck: 78
Status:
Name: Merlin Ambrosius
Titles:
AdviserTerriformistDisplaced from History
Race: Human/FairyAge: 125Gender: Male
Main Class: OccultistSub Class(es): Illusionist
Level: 20
Health: 200Mana: 25000
Strength: 5Stamina: 10Dexterity: 5
Intelligence: 70Wisdom: 100Luck: 4
The school was massive, and new looking. It didn¡¯t have that worn in look that most prestigious schools tend to have¡ª After all, it had only been completely built thirty years ago. It hadn¡¯t had enough time to built a comprehensive character yet. It was still spectacular, though. The construction of the school had started some sixty years ago, and it was built out of granite and marble quarried on the other side of the continent, then shuttled here through the gates. Parts of the school had large towers spearing upwards, holding anything from residential quarters to practice rooms. There were a few large halls in the school, as well as some less-well-known hallways. We were walking down one such hallway, towards a set of double doors. It had been interesting walking into the school, and seeing humans, elves, and even the odd demon wishing to attend. The school held a diversity not found elsewhere in the continents. Reaching the double doors, Niten and I entered the study without knocking. There was an old human in the study¡ªalmost as old looking as Niten. (???) ¡°Who dares to barge into my, The Headmaster¡¯s, office?!¡± The school headmaster, Flavius Rent, yelled with composure and authority. He blanched upon seeing Niten¡¯s face, though. (Flavius) ¡°Oh¡ªMaster. I wasn¡¯t expecting you today. What can I do to help?¡± (Niten) ¡°Hello Flavius. I hope you¡¯ve been well lately. You see, I have a small matter I need you to help with. This is my newest student, Katariah Silver.¡± (Kai) ¡°Please, just call me Kai.¡± (Niten) ¡°Anyway, I think you can guess her heritage through her last name and features.¡± (Flavius) ¡°Indeed. Demon elf, right? And one born of the imperial family, no less. Quite a sticky political situation, I would think?¡± (Niten) ¡°Not so much as you would think. She has the full support of her aunt, Empress Aspasia Silver.¡± Flavius immediately looked shocked, realizing that my mother hadn''t just been another member of the Silver family. (Flavius) ¡°Then what do you need me for? With her aunt¡¯s support, she should have no problems getting into the school as a student. Though I can¡¯t promise that she won¡¯t be discriminated against. We both know that¡¯s an impossible promise to keep.¡± (Niten) ¡°Actually, I want her to teach.¡± If Flavius had been drinking anything, It would now be all over the walls from his spluttering. (Flavius) ¡°What?! She can¡¯t be older than fifteen, master! She¡¯s nowhere near experienced enough!¡± (Kai) ¡°What if I told you that this isn¡¯t my first life?¡± (Flavius) ¡°....You¡¯re reincarnated?¡± (Niten) ¡°Five times, apparently. She¡¯s more than experienced enough for a basic teacher¡¯s post. If you put her in as you would any other new-coming teacher, she should be able to prove her merits soon enough, right?¡± (Flavius) ¡°Hm. I just have to give her a position, right?¡± (Niten) ¡°Yes.¡± (Flavius) ¡°Fine then. I¡¯ll have her teaching the first years. If she can prove that she actually can teach, then I¡¯ll see what I can do.¡± (Niten) ¡°Thank you, Flavius.¡± (Flavius) ¡°Don¡¯t thank me yet. All the other new teachers have to take some...exams. Kai here should be no different.¡± (Niten) ¡°Ah! That¡¯s perfect! Yes, go ahead and have her go through that.¡± (Flavius) ¡°One last thing before you leave.¡± He looked at both Niten and I with a questioning face. (Flavius) ¡°What are you trying to accomplish with this? People don¡¯t do these things for the hell of it, you know.¡± (Kai) ¡°Well, I need to become recognized, and I don¡¯t like the idea of being hated on two of the three available continents here.¡± (Flavius) ¡°Ah. I understand. You want to get the students to see you in a better light, no?¡± (Kai) ¡°Right. There are many sons and daughters of powerful figures going to this school now, and if I can get into contact with them, when the time comes that I wish to visit new places I won¡¯t be totally unwelcome.¡± (Flavius) ¡°I feel like there¡¯s more you aren¡¯t saying... Ah, screw it. I wish you luck, Kai.¡± (Kai) ¡°Thank you, Headmaster.¡±
Author''s Note: So, there''s been those Great Titles that have been mentioned. Here''s a complete list. Spoiler : The Great Titles: 1.The King¡ª 2.The Queen¡ª 3.The Knight¡ª 4.The Tower¡ªSarah Durst 5.The Mage¡ª 6.The Swordsman¡ª 7.The Builder¡ªAspasia Silver 8.The Healer¡ª 9.The Archer¡ª 10.The Bishop¡ª 11.The Madman¡ª 12.The Shield¡ª 13.The Lost¡ª 14.The Bridge¡ªRust Gelben 15.The Demon¡ª 16.The Teacher¡ªCaevern Niten 17.The Hero¡ª 18.The Hermit¡ªHarving Strump 19.The Warden¡ªSelina Rochella 20.The Jester¡ª ¡ªRiver Chapter 24: The Teachers Exam I woke up early, on the day that I was supposed to take the academy¡¯s exam for hopeful teachers. I had a feeling that it wasn¡¯t just a simple ¡®sit down and take a test¡¯ type of exam, but one designed to explore our actual capabilities. That said, Headmaster Flavius had said to bring durable clothing and our weapons of choice. I ended up going in my ever trustworthy long-coat, and brought along my bag, which had the crossbow and my boomstick in it. I slung that over one shoulder, the strap crossing over to the other side of my body, and hung Twilight from the opposite shoulder. It was a short walk from the inn Niten and I had rented a room from, to the place the exam would begin. When I arrived at the practice room I had been directed to, there were five other people there. They were also here for the exam, to try and become teachers at the academy. I could understand why. My own reasons aside, the pay is among the best one could find in a school. Three of these people looked like warriors, with strong bodies and large weapons lying by their sides. Two of them were human, and the last one an elf. The other two people were either mages or scholars of some kind, though I leaned towards them being mages. One human and an elf. The two elves in the room could sense my elven blood, though it must have felt faint to them. As soon as they saw my demon features, their noses turned upwards in disgust. The humans seemed to just dislike me for the fact that I look demonic. Suffice to say, they didn¡¯t greet me. I wonder if they even registered my age before ignoring me. If they had, they would be wondering why a young girl was in the room meant for those taking the teachers exam. About ten minutes later, five others walked into the room¡ªOne of them being Headmaster Flavius. (Flavius) ¡°So, some of you should have figured out by now that this isn¡¯t going to be a normal sort of test. Basically, what we look for in teachers is leadership abilities, to be able to show students how things are done from the front, to be good examples. Unfortunately, if the teacher cannot gain the respect of their students, they fail. Our test involves you six demonstrating to us, the judges, that you can successfully lead, and take control of the students.¡± He pointed at a series of transportation runes chalked into the floor on the other side of the room, obviously newly drawn. (Flavius) ¡°Each one of you stand on a rune, and you¡¯ll be brought to the testing area. Once there, you have to show us, your judges, that you can take charge, and lead.¡± I stood on the rune to the far right, and everyone else calmly stood on their own. The judges stepped forward, and squatted down, placing a hand on the runes, which glowed with a blinding blue light, before the people standing on them disappeared to the testing area. However, there were six people needing transport, and only five judges. While the other five were transported out, I watched curiously. After the light from their transport faded, Headmaster Flavius walked over to me. (Flavius) ¡°I figured I would give you this last chance to back out of this¡ªeveryone else participating is at least three times your physical age.¡± I smiled at him, every slightly touched by his concern. (Kai) ¡°Thanks. I¡¯ll be fine, though I do have one question.¡± (Flavius) ¡°What is it?¡± (Kai) ¡°If I get into a difficult situation, am I allowed to kill?¡± He pondered this for a moment, his hand stroking the magnificent beard he had. (Flavius) ¡°Mh. Try not to. Of course, if you feel that your life is threatened, go for it, but otherwise, I¡¯d rather not lose anyone.¡± I nodded. I was fairly sure I would be able to subdue any of the would-be teachers that had shown up with me, but I had very little confidence in holding myself back in a truly deadly situation. The headmaster places his hand on the rune I stood upon, and the world disintegrated into bright light. Ah, there¡¯s the nausea I was missing from the gate travel¡­
(POV Headmaster Flavius) I wasn¡¯t expecting that. Though, I should have. Honestly, it seems like Kai is a little too strong for her age. No, much too strong. Let me explain. To activate translocational runes like the ones we have used to transport those hopeful teachers, a few things are required. For the rune to be able to move things in the first place, it needs to have a target to go to. That¡¯s no problem, since we had arranged for the targets to be set up nicely. To designate a target, all someone needs is an object keyed into the specific transport rune. In this case, it was a stick with some runes carved into it. That¡¯s not what had surprised me, though. You see, after the target is set up, there¡¯s another requirement to transport someone. The rune must contain at least as much mana in it as the person being transported. I was pleased by the other person I had transported before Kai, since he had an above average mana pool. I could judge this by how much mana I had to pour into the rune before it begun the transport. As it turns out, Kai¡¯s mana pool is absolutely monstrous for anyone under one hundred to have, and terrifying considering that she¡¯s only thirteen years old. Even considering that she¡¯d been reincarnated five times already, she already has nearly one hundred thousand units of mana. It should be nearly impossible to have such a high growth rate. No, it¡¯s nearly god-like. Unless her level is higher than I thought it was. Though, if it is, she really does deserve some recognition. I had thought that level fifty was the upper limit that someone her age could reach, and if she¡¯s gone beyond that, then I¡¯d like to see what she accomplishes in her lifetime. I¡¯ll ask her when she comes back, what her level is. I have no doubt that she¡¯ll do well in the exam, with that mana pool. And if her other stats are in any way comparable to her mana pool, I fear for the others at the exam site.
Immediately after the rune was activated, nausea hit me like that ever so infamous Truck-san. I felt disorientated, paralyzed and afraid all at the same time. I couldn''t move my body, mostly because it temporarily didn¡¯t exist during the transport. Due to the loss of control, I felt afraid¡ªand because the sensation of transporting in some ways resembled another terrible sensation I¡¯d felt a few times before. The story has been taken without consent; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. The transport could have taken a few seconds, or hours. Time didn¡¯t seem to hold the same meaning while it was happening. It did end, though. A small concussive blast emanated from the spot I had been taken to, and I immediately fell to my knees, vomiting my breakfast out. I resolved to never use transport runes again. After I regained my bearings somewhat, I picked up my head, and looked around me. Unfortunately, it seemed that there were quite a few witnesses to see my appearance as I materialized in what seemed to be an expansive forest. There was a group of people surrounding me, clad in forest green outfits and wearing black armbands. They all held blunted weapons or staffs, and seemed to be looking at me with different levels of disappointment. Curiously, they only seemed to be a few years older than me, with the youngest being around my age, and the oldest around twenty. The one who looked the oldest had a scraggly beard¡ªthe type that told the world that he wasn¡¯t ready to grow one in yet, and pale blue eyes. His hair was blond, and he had the extended ears of an elf. In fact, a quarter of the people around me seemed to me elves, judging from the bloodline response. The blond one seemed to have the strongest bloodline among them, though. (???) ¡°Are you supposed to be the backup? Shit, guys, looks like we¡¯re boned.¡± (Kai) ¡°Egh. Hold on a second. What do you mean, backup?¡± I was still fighting off a little residual nausea when the blond-haired elf spoke. (???) ¡°What, you mean to say that they transported you here without any information, damn half-breed kid?¡± (Kai) ¡°My name is Kai, not ¡®damn half-breed kid¡¯. And no, they told me very little about this.¡± I could hear others speaking in the background, cursing their luck, that they had gotten a small demon child. At least, that was what the humans were doing, until the elves oh-so-helpfully pointed out that I¡¯m mixed race. (???) ¡°Well, you should at least know how you¡¯ve just screwed us over. This is the fifth year combat training course. We have seven teams of twenty or so in these forests, with certain objectives to completely. We had been told that we would be getting a powerful ally at some point, not some half-demon little girl!¡± Wow. He was genuinely angry that his team seemed to get the short end of the stick. Not that they did¡ªI¡¯m almost overkill in this situation. Looks like this exam will be a walk in the park. Wait, didn¡¯t the headmaster say something about leadership skill? Ah, so that¡¯s the exam. I need to lead this group through whatever objectives they have. I need to get them to do well¡ª and I can¡¯t do it for them. That¡¯s the point of a teacher, and what they want to judge me on. First, I need a better idea of what¡¯s going on, then. Turning to look at the blondey, I stared straight into his eyes. (Kai) ¡°What¡¯s your name?¡± (???) ¡°Wait...What?¡± (Kai) ¡°Your name. What is it?¡± I put a little regal bearing into my voice, compelling him to answer me. (???) ¡°It¡¯s...Font Lechamp. Why does that matter?¡± Oh, a Lechamp. They¡¯re one of the elven royal families, explaining why his bloodline felt so pure. (Font) ¡°Never mind. I guess you should just follow us and try not to get hurt, kid.¡± How rude, still calling me kid when I had already told him my name. I guess that¡¯s the arrogance of the elven nobility for you. Actually, considering that I¡¯m the paradigm of what they should despise, he¡¯s being kinda nice to me. Must be chivalry or something. I was a little pissed at the weakness he thought he saw in me, though. Actually, that¡¯s an understatement. I cocked my head to the side in feigned confusion. (Kai) ¡°Why should I follow weak people like you?¡± Font froze, and everyone else seemed to hold their breaths for a second. Abruptly, someone started laughing. (???) ¡°Ha! She has a temper, no?¡± I looked toward where the voice was coming from, and saw a guy around three years older than me, with pale skin and a two horns arching up from his forehead in front of bright red hair. He walked over to me energetically, and looked closely at my face. (???) ¡°Oh! Give her a few years, and she¡¯ll be a top class beauty, no? My name is Azul Gelbonte, son of General Gelbonte. Most just call me Az, though.¡± (Kai) ¡°Could you not stand so close?¡± (Az) ¡°Why not? Most ladies would love to get this close to me.¡± (Kai) ¡°Sorry. Not interested.¡± (Az) ¡°You wound me, little lady! Never before has someone not been interested! What would it take for you to see my charm?¡± (Kai) ¡°I really don¡¯t want to see any part of you. However, if you must insist on continuing this idiodicy, then a good place to start would be to beat me in a spar.¡± I figured I would kill two birds with one stone¡ªBy sparing this idiot, he would stop bothering me, and I would be able to demonstrate that I am, indeed, the strongest one present. Az got a strange look in his eye when I mentioned sparing. Was it eagerness? A little trepidation? He simply nodded, and got into position ten feet from me, grabbing a blunted longsword. I dropped the bag still hanging on my shoulder, and held Twilight with the scabbard still on. (Az) ¡°What, aren¡¯t you going to unsheathe your sword?¡± I smiled cheerfully. (Kai) ¡°No. I¡¯d rather not deal with the clean up afterwards.¡± I charged him, crossing the distance between us in a single step, and angling Twilight downwards, sweeping up at his stomach. Surprisingly, he was able to get his sword in a guard position, attempting to block the blow. His eyes grew wide in the next moment, though, when my sheathed sword didn¡¯t stop like he was expecting, instead continuing on and flinging him away from me in a concussive blast. I slipped Twilight back over my shoulder, and turned to the students standing dumbstruck behind me. (Kai) ¡°Once again, my name is Katariah Nadine Silver, and I was sent here to complete the teacher''s exam by guiding you as best I can. Any questions?¡± There were none.
Author''s Note: For those confused, Nadine comes from Kai''s father. Jasper also has this name. Chapter 25: The Forest Encounter (POV Font Lechamp) Gods damn it! Had I known earlier that this¡­.girl who showed up had been the one that father had warned me about, then I would have been much more civil towards her, and known about her strength. I had gotten word that the Silver family had taken in a half-breed, and let her use their name and everything about two months ago. Similarly, about a month before I had heard about it, the elven royal houses had also found out about it, and complained greatly to the current Empress. However, instead of backing down, and killing the half-breed like the nobles wanted, she defended the thing, claiming it would be an asset to the empire as a whole. Apparently, the royals were gathered, and the half-breed met them, and demonstrated her abnormal strength. After that, they agreed to legitimize her under the Silver name, though they kept the whole situation from reaching the ears of the common people. Father had cautioned me to be wary of any half-breeds I might see, since the chance of it being her was quite high. I just hadn¡¯t expected to run into her in this type of situation. I mean, why the hell is she trying to become a teacher?!
(POV Kai) Well, I¡¯ve gotten a good grasp of the situation now. Those who are fifth years in the academy are required to take a two month long survival and combat exam. It can take place anywhere, with some of the worst places being plain-land, the site of an active volcano, or a desert. Apparently, this year¡¯s group had lucked out somewhat, since the exam was held in a forest rife with resources. The entire fifth year class had been split into seven teams of around twenty to twenty-five, and been given objectives to complete while they stayed in the forest. If they complete their objective then it counts as passing the exam. However, in the spirit of competition, you can raid nearby dungeons for points, and the team with the most points in the end wins the competition. The black team, which I had been transported to, had already finished their objective and now needed to start raiding dungeons. In fact, they had been just about to enter one, when the stick they had been given had started glowing and drawing mana from the surrounding area. When they had been given the stick, they had been told that at some point someone strong would be joining them, and that the other teams would get something similar. I outright told the black team that I wouldn''t be interfering in their fights, unless another person taking the teacher¡¯s exam shows up. I would be willing to teach them stuff, though, and guide them through difficult situations. I could tell just by looking at it that the dungeon they wanted to enter was simply a second tier. While this wasn¡¯t impressive to me, who had practically spent the last five months in a tier six dungeon, by using¡¼Analyze¡½I could see that the highest level among these students was twenty-five, from that Az kid. This was actually fairly good among people under twenty. Anyway, this dungeon was a good match for them at the moment. They didn¡¯t need much help in it though, since they had the basics of teamwork already down, and their tactics already set up. For the most part, I just hung around the back, keeping an eye out for any danger. I watched as the group made their way deeper into the dungeon, meeting several floor bosses along the way. They were handled almost entirely by the mage Font Lechamp, the second strongest in the group, and Az, who beat them to death with a vengeance. I think he¡¯s venting from what happened earlier. They went straight down to the dungeon core found on the twentieth floor, and removed it. It was placed into a leather bag, where all future cores would go. These would be fed to the academy¡¯s dungeon, in order to strengthen it. This was also the way the teachers judging the student¡¯s exam would know who won the contest. Since the dungeon didn¡¯t have any teleportation runes in it, we had to walk back through the dungeon. Thankfully, nothing spawned after being killed by the group and because the core had been removed, so there was nothing to slow us down on the way back up. The group set up camp right outside the entrance of what had been the dungeon. Their fire was banked low to not draw any attention to them, while I sat up in a tree, knowing that I wouldn¡¯t be able to sleep tonight due to my vitality. Well, I went up onto the tree branch after having confiscated a bottle of wine the students had smuggled into the exam. Why they had wanted to drink on an exam where people had died before, I didn¡¯t know. I mean, if it comes to it, I can cleanse my system of alcohol in a heartbeat. They don¡¯t have such skills, and would be vulnerable to attack afterwards. Suffice to say though, I put the bottle to good use. I had to drink the entire thing to get even a little tipsy, even with my current small constitution. The wine, like any good alcohol, let my mind drift a bit. I began recalling old memories while watching the night sky, and reminiscing about all the different stars I¡¯ve seen. I¡¯m still slightly nostalgic for the first one though, even while they were much less visible due to light pollution. I really thought that I had come far from that time though, but not nearly far enough. At first, I had fought to return to my first home. Then, I fought for those around me. Finally, I fought to survive. What should I fight for now, I wonder? Maybe I should just fight without a cause, seeking out adventures and fun as I go. But that doesn¡¯t seem to fit me. I had achieved so much while fighting for grand causes, even though most of that fighting had turned out to be worthless in the end. Am I even capable of fighting for something anymore? The last time I felt a strong emotion, it had been hate¡ªWhen I first unlocked¡¼Demonic Transformation¡½. Even while that had been only about two years ago, I hadn¡¯t felt anything for a while before that either. Ah damn it. I suppose I should just keep doing what I have been. I¡¯ll get this teaching job, and convince everyone that mixed race people are also strong. After that, who knows. I¡¯ll figure it out once I get there. Probably. Actually, as it turns out, it had been a good thing that I had set up in the tree, since it afforded me the best view of the forest surrounding the camp. Because of this, I was definitely the first person to see another group of students, these ones with red armbands, sneaking up on the black group I was in charge of. Quickly, I set up a barrier around the camp, and was greatly amused by the sight of several of their students running straight into the invisible ward with a dull bonk. (Kai) ¡°Everyone grab your weapons! You have company!¡± Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. Immediately, some of the group panicked, coming awake to someone yelling. The leaders quickly emerged though, as both Az and Font gathered together smaller groups of students, ready for combat. Not a moment too late either, as it looked like the green team had gotten someone taking the teacher¡¯s exam as well. Whoever it was, their energy bombarded my ward, weakening it significantly. I thought it was doing well for something with so little effort put into it. Finally, it shattered like a great glass dome, the shards raining down as little disintegrating bits of mana. When the green group entered the camp area, they were met with stiff resistance from my black group. I even saw a familiar face among them. It was the one who had broken my ward, who was taking the teacher''s exam. Somewhat angry, I called out to him. (Kai) ¡°Oi! What do you think you¡¯re doing, fighting students!?¡± The man turned, and saw me jumping out of the tree and landing with a slight stumble. Huh. That¡¯s odd. Normally, I shouldn¡¯t stumble from that height. He laughed when he saw me. (???) ¡°If it isn¡¯t the demon girl who thinks she can be a teacher! As for what I¡¯m doing, what does it look like, idiot? I¡¯m helping my group win!¡± (Kai) ¡°That¡¯s not right, as a future teach¡­.¡± (???) ¡°Shut it! Only the strong get to decide what is and isn¡¯t right, and after my group has won the little competition, the judges will recognize my strength and hire me as a teacher!¡± I sighed. This man must be delusional or something. Especially considering that the judges had said from the beginning that they would be testing our teaching skills and leadership abilities. Wait. Isn¡¯t leading from the front a type of leadership? So is this idiot also right? I shook my head, keeping myself from thinking about it further. The man however, saw me shaking my head as something different. (???) ¡°Ha! You¡¯re just angry that my group will beat yours tonight, preventing you from unfairly getting a teaching position at the academy!¡± Oh damn. I think Az heard the wold-be teacher¡¯s outburst, because he¡¯s shaking his head furiously at the man, even while fighting the green group¡¯s leader. His eyes were wide with fright and warning. (Kai) ¡°Oh? Are you implying that you¡¯re stronger than me?¡± (???) ¡°Implying? I am stronger than a little demon brat like you!¡± Grinning, I drop my bag on the ground, and unsheathe Twilight, similarly dropping the leather scabbard. (Kai) ¡°Why don¡¯t we test that?¡± (???) ¡°I won¡¯t go easy on you!¡± Immediately, the man began chanting a spell.
(POV Cait Vern) HA! Never would I have thought that I would luck out so greatly with the first group we attacked! I was expecting to have to put in a ton of effort disabling the person taking the teacher¡¯s exam in this group, but the one who jumps down from that tree is just that little demon brat! Though, oddly, she seems a little odd balance, and her face is redder than what I had seen in the waiting room earlier. It¡¯s like she has a fever, or is a little tipsy. This¡¯ll be even easier than than I first thought. I will admit I was impressed with the sword she puts out though. It¡¯s nearly as tall as she is, and casts a moonlight glow on the ground around her. It¡¯s beautifully crafted, equal parts practicality and grace. I want to meet the one who had forged such a blade. No. I want it. I know what I¡¯ll do. I¡¯ll knock her out quickly and easily, and take the sword while she¡¯s out. If she complains, I¡¯ll just call it a spoil of war. Even if she contests this, why would anyone stick up for a demon? I begin chanting for a relatively low powered water based spell, one that will seal her feet into one place and allow me to land one precise blow to knock her out. (Cait) ¡°Oh spirit of water, aid me. Ice Trap!¡± Water condensed around the girl¡¯s feet, and froze. She stood there, obviously dumbstruck at my magic mastery. Then she started laughing, obviously having accepted her fate and descended into madness. Or something like that. Admittedly, I was confused by the laughing. Shouldn¡¯t she be¡­ I don¡¯t know, struggling more? Slightly perturbed, I continued with the second spell. (Cait) ¡°Oh spirit of earth, form my arrow and smite my foes, Earth Bolt!¡± A solid chunk of rock appeared before me, formed by my mana before shooting off towards the girl, aimed at the side of her head. For all that I said about not going easy, I still don¡¯t want to kill anyone. So the spell¡¯s power was dialed down quite a bit. Maybe a little too much, since the girl was able to easily cut it apart with her sword while still held fast by the ice trap. Well, I couldn¡¯t really see her sword move, but since the rock split in two and flew past her, I assume she cut it. I may have underestimated her a little¡­ (Cait) ¡°Not good enough for you? Then try this on for size! Oh spirit of earth, hear my plea. Form a spear to pierce my target, Earthen Spear!¡± A larger chunk of jagged rock split from the soil in front of me, and molded itself into a large splinter that flew toward the girl at a greater speed than the earth bolt. The ice trap shattered as the girl took a single step forward. She met the spear head on again, and it split again. This time, her sword was held in front of her afterwards. (Kai) ¡°Is it my turn? How ¡®bout this?! Inferno Strike!¡± Oh shit! I felt a monstrous mana pouring through the thin blade, and forming a column of blue flames before the girl. I dove to the side as the fire raged towards me like a living being, scorching the ground in front of me. I got up, nervously clutching my staff, looked behind me. The forest wasn¡¯t on fire. No, instead, a hole two meters wide had been cut through it for a good fifty meters behind me. The edges of leaves were turned to ash form the extreme temperature, even though it had only lasted an instant, and smoke was rising from the ground. (Kai) ¡°Oh, did I miss? Crap. That bottle might¡¯ve been more potent that I thought¡­ Hold on, let me try again.¡± Before she could do something like that again, I threw up my hands. (Cait) ¡°I surrender!¡±
Author''s Note: Well. Never drink too much, guys. Be responsible and all that. In no way do I encourage drinking yourself silly, though I would laugh at you if it happens. Oh, and encourage doing stupid things. Of course, I would also still be sober, and have a camera to record everything. I''m that kind of person. ¡ªRiver. Chapter 26: The Dungeons Growth I felt like an idiot. It was only after cowing the would-be teacher into submission that I finally realized the alcohol had a greater kick than I had expected. Because of it, I didn¡¯t hold back nearly as much as I should have. After breaking his fighting spirit, I purified my blood with a spell meant to remove all foreign poisons from the body. Immediately, everything seemed to stabilize. The ground wasn¡¯t swaying anymore, and I felt more in control. Honestly, I should have done this right at the beginning of the fight, but had forgotten about it. I can¡¯t believe I made such a rookie mistake, after all these years. Ah, I¡¯ll kick myself over it later. For now, let¡¯s deal with the green team here. They had been counting on the support of the guy I had beaten to defeat my group, and since I have handily dealt with him, they were of course easily dealt with. Oh, and I found out that his name was Cait or something. He finally introduced himself after recovering from the shock of losing to me. Looks like he properly realized his mistake of underestimating someone. For the rest, we had them hand over the one dungeon core they had gotten¡ªanother rank two core. We let them go after that. What, did you think students are cruel enough to keep others prisoner, or kill them? No, they only had them leave all their valuables behind. And their weapons. Well, it effectively took one group out of the running, leaving us and five other teams. I did wonder about the one group that hadn¡¯t gotten a would-be teacher. How was it fair that all but that one got reinforcements as strong as Cait? I mean, he lost to me handedly, but he¡¯s still around twenty levels higher than the average students here. Well, then again, I¡¯m something like twenty level higher than him, so I probably shouldn''t be speaking of fairness here. After that, everyone went to sleep again, and didn¡¯t wake up until well into the morning, due the the exertions they went through during the night. As soon as everyone was awake and had been fed, the group moved on, searching for another dungeon to raid. I wondered what the likelihood of running into another group again would be. As it was, I needn''t have worried. We didn¡¯t come across another group until a few days later.
In the Human empire¡¯s capital, seven people sat around a circular table, eating what looked like breakfast. These people were, of course, the heroes who had been summoned a short while ago. The ones who ate with the most vigor were the man named Arthur, the one called Merlin, and the girl who had shown up chained, Sarah. (Selina) ¡°Ugh. Do you pigs have to show the great me such an uncivilized sight?¡± Both Arthur and Sarah mumbled something with their mouths full. Merlin managed to swallow his food before speaking. (Merlin) ¡°Excuse us for the manners then, Arthur and I just won a great victory for Camelot, and secured a foothold in the continent proper. Pardon us if we offended you, child. By the way, we need to get back as soon as possible, so could someone magic us back somehow?¡± While Selina sputtered in anger for being called a child, Sarah finished her food. (Sarah) ¡°Sorry, there¡¯s no way back. Besides, history now sees you two as fictional characters. Legends, if you will.¡± (Merlin) ¡°What?! How do you know this?¡± (Sarah) ¡°Are you kidding? Everyone in my time knows the legend of King Arthur and his knights of the round table.¡± (Merlin) ¡°In your time, you say?¡± (Sarah) ¡°Yes. I came from the same world as you did, but only after many years had passed, allowing things like technology to advance and grow. You can ask her all about it.¡± Sarah pointed at Gaby, who she had been acquainted with while still on earth. Gaby, for her part, was looking down at her plate and moving food around, still comprehending all her memories that had come back. The guy with unkempt hair, Harving, was clutching his fists, like he was despretly holding something in. (Sarah) ¡°Though, I would suggest for now that you find reasons to stay in this world, and help it. That way, you don¡¯t feel as cut adrift from your old lives.¡± (Arthur) ¡°Why does it seem like you know quite a bit about this?¡± (Sarah) ¡°Because I¡¯ve done it before. I was taken from my home world, Earth, and brought into a conflict that had nothing to do with me. I dealt with it then, and now I¡¯ll do it again.¡± She unconsciously rubbed her arms, where the chains had been placed earlier. Silence filled the room. Well, nearly. Selina continued pouting, and the boy named Rust was still eating. Gaby looked up suddenly, straight at Sarah. (Gaby) ¡°Can we talk?¡± Sarah nodded, and they left the table. Slowly, everyone else got up after that, walking to the quarters they had been shown to after first arriving. Sarah followed Gaby to her quarters, a large room with a parlor area and a separate room with a bed. There was a wardrobe in the bedroom, and a bathroom connected to it, complete with toilet and bath. They sat in the parlor, and Gaby was the first to speak. (Gaby) ¡°When you were summoned to another world, did my brother go with you?¡± Sarah took a deep breath, mentally preparing herself for a tough topic. (Sarah) ¡°Yeah. Actually, rather than him going with me, it was like we all had gone with him. He was the target for the summoning, after all. Since you¡¯re here, I assume it runs in the family or something.¡± (Gaby) ¡°What happened after you guys were summoned?¡± (Sarah) ¡°The typical thing, you know. ¡®The demon king had risen, we need heroes to defeat it.¡¯ For the first year, we just trained to fight against it and everything. Then, we began taking an active role in the fight. Your brother did most of the work, training the hardest and fighting the largest enemies. I think the rest of the group that was summoned was all too willing to let him deal with it. They were afraid of death, and for that I can forgive them. Most of the time, I was sent to missions separate from his, since I was almost as strong as he was. Eventually, the time came to face the demon lord itself, and we all gathered.¡± If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation. (Gaby) ¡°....What happened to my brother?¡± (Sarah) ¡°He was killed.¡± Gaby didn¡¯t cry, or show any other emotion besides a deep sorrow. (Gaby) ¡°I thought so. He would be here with you if it were otherwise.¡± (Sarah) ¡°He might still be here.¡± (Gaby) ¡°Please don¡¯t give me any of that ¡®he lives on in your heart¡¯ bullshit.¡± (Sarah) ¡°No, what I mean is that as I was summoned to this world, the gods pulled me and three others aside, blessing us. As we were leaving, they told us that people can reincarnate into this world, and that there¡¯s a chance the ones we miss are here.¡± Gaby seemed stunned at this knowledge. (Gaby) ¡°You mean that¡­¡± (Sarah) ¡°Yeah. As long as we keep our mind open, and have some hope, I get the feeling that we¡¯ll see Kylar again. He was always able to get out of those impossible situations, after all.¡± (Gaby) ¡°Mh.¡±
I was just walking along behind the black team as the delved deeper into a tier three dungeon. It was considerably more dangerous than the tier two they had conquered a few days ago. They handled it well, though. I went along as a safety net, making sure that if they were to come across something unbeatable, it wouldn¡¯t be able to do anything to them. It would be absolutely destroyed before it could. Everything was going well, right up until the twenty-fifth floor. It was at that point that I felt something odd. For one, there were other people in this dungeon. I could feel the mana being used by them, on one of the upper levels. They had only just entered though, so they were only on the third or so level. Nothing to worry about yet, since we would undoubtedly reach the core well before they would. We went all the way down to the thirtieth floor, and encountered a tough floor boss there, in the form of a giant serpent with white scales. It was a close fight, and nearly ended in defeat for the group that fought it. In the end, a sword through the eye and into the brain of the beast finished it off. Just as the fight ended however, things went wrong. You see, a dungeon needs energy to advance a tier, and gains it from the excess mana emitted by those delving into the dungeon and fighting the monsters within. It¡¯s a rare occurrence for a dungeon to advance to a higher tier, due to the amount of energy required. When growing naturally, a dungeon will take fifty years to first form, thirty years to advance to second tier, fifty to third tier after that, and one hundred to fourth. It looks like my luck precedes me, since right after the floor boss was killed, the whole dungeon started rumbling violently. The floor beneath our feet seemed to drop, and elongate as more levels were added onto the dungeon above us. We were being shoved deeper into the earth as the dungeon went through it¡¯s rank-up, becoming a tier four dungeon. Eventually, the shaking stopped, and the sounds fearful voices from the black group could be heard. It¡¯s lucky that we had all been brought down to the same place, and that the floor stayed intact. This way, I could reliably make sure that everyone was kept safe as we went back up through the dungeon. It would have been disastrous for them, had they not had me with them. They simply couldn¡¯t handle a tier four dungeon, especially since we had been thrown so far into it. I would estimate that we dropped to the fortieth floor range. Definitely something they couldn¡¯t handle. Well, first things first. I gathered up everybody, and told them what would happen. Essentially, they would follow behind, as I killed everything in the way. Yeah. It¡¯s simple, but very effective. None of them argued with this plan, having seen my strength and abilities. They followed along behind me like sheep, though I would occasionally hear murmuring behind me, faintly audible. (Az) ¡°...going to get stronger, I swear. Won¡¯t be protected again.¡± (Font) ¡°...damn it, protected by the half-breed.¡± It was in this way that I carved a bloody path through the lower-floor monsters of a tier four dungeon. Whenever a monster appeared in front of me, it would instantly be cut into smaller pieces. Most of them were comparable to someone with a level of forty or fifty, and unable to hold a candle to me, who was level seventy-three. Even more so considering that my stats were comparable to someone much higher than my level. The pace speed up the higher we went as well, since the levels got smaller the closer to the surface you got. The group that had entered the dungeon after us had disappeared as well. I surmised that they had left after the dungeon advanced a tier. They had, however, taken the camping gear that we left outside the dungeon after having set some basic wards on them. Among the wards, I placed a tracking spell in case this very situation occurred. Well, I¡¯m eager to find out just which group had the balls to take our stuff. Especially since my own tent was among the things taken.
Chapter 27: The Stolen Goods We found the group that had stolen our stuff only a kilometer or so from the dungeon entrance. They had pitched some of our tents as their own, and were eating from the food supplies the group had stocked up in the month before I arrived. They, like the black and green groups, had an strip of cloth tied around their arms, but this time it was blue. They had already set up a fire, and were gleefully feasting, like they had won a great victory, instead of simply stooping to steal our supplies. I could see the rage and violence contained within my group¡¯s eyes, as they itched to take action against those who had tried to take advantage of our absence. Though, Az and Font seemed more eager than angry. I think I knew why. After all, something similar had happened to me. There was someone I disliked who constantly protected me, shielding me from all the danger he could. I determined to get stronger in order to get away from him, and pursed any chance I could to prove myself, both to him and myself. It ended in disaster, but that¡¯s besides the point. Az and Font simply wanted to prove to themselves that they were worth something, and the best way for them to do that would be through combat. Unfortunately for the blue group, it looked like they would be the unwitting punching-bags for Az and Font. I doubted the rest of the group would even be able to fight for long. I gave them a reminder to not damage the goods that had been stolen while fighting though. It would be a shame to exert such effort to right this wrong, only to find that the root of the group¡¯s anger had been destroyed. I was planning on sitting back, and watching the chaos ensue. Well, until I found the blue group¡¯s teacher. The bitch had taken my tent! My tent! She was likely also the one who had broken through the weak wards I had placed on our stuff, though that thought was secondary. After all, that tent had been made out of some nostalgic materials, back from when I was only about ten years old in this body. Even if it does look nice, that doesn¡¯t excuse you stealing it! Well, she soon learned of the terror that is me. Before the fight could even begin, I cast a spell by murmuring a few word foreign to this world. Immediately, the woman shrieked and fell to the ground with a thud, the gravity around her increased by a few dozen times. The rest of the group took this as a signal to attack, and jumped out of the bushes surrounding the camp. The blue group startled badly, belatedly grabbing their weapons to defend. I also cast another spell on the blue group¡¯s teacher, in a childishly vindictive way. While she was under the influence of the gravity spell, she wasn¡¯t able to lift her arms, or really move at all. So what did I do? I made it so the nerves on her nose would constantly irritate her. Yeah. I made it so her nose was itching. However, take the worse itch you¡¯ve ever felt, and multiply it by five. Then consider that you can¡¯t scratch it, and that it won''t go away. Very quickly, her eyes began watering, and her nose flared in a failed attempt to rid herself of the itch. Low moaning sobs started coming from her. As it turns out, the simplest things are normally the most diabolically effective. If I were feeling even more vindictive, there were also other, more sensitive places I could have put the itch. She should count herself lucky that I didn¡¯t feel like it. The tent hadn¡¯t been damaged, so this was enough pay-back. Besides, who knows if she¡¯s going to be a future colleague of mine? I¡¯d rather not burn any bridges for the future. Unless someone manages to royally piss me off. In that case, all bets are off. I casually observed the rest of the fight, if it could be called that. The blue group, bereft of their teacher, and having not been prepared, was absolutely destroyed. As I thought, the most effective of our fighters had been Az and Font, who had caused devastation wherever they went. It¡¯s a shame though. Those two had gotten so caught up in proving themselves, that they had forgotten the ¡®don¡¯t break our own stuff¡¯ rule. I could see at least two tents that had caught on fire from their fights, and quite a few more that had been trampled in the ensuing sword duels. At one point, Az had gotten really carried away, and used a finishing move type attack to cleave the hastily put together enemy ranks in two, destroying a large swath of tented land. Looks like they¡¯ll need a good talking to after we collect all the stuff that had survived. Being all gung-ho is a good thing, but only when you also use your brain. Having made sure that everyone was alright, I released the gravity spell on the blue group¡¯s teacher, who immediately went to scratch her nose. I reactivated the spell before she could, though. Oops, sorry for the false hope. Shouldn¡¯t have stolen my tent. Speaking of my tent, I went to go pick it up. But there was a slight problem. Where my tent had been¡­. That was where Az had set off his finishing move. Gods damn it, Az. And I was even beginning to not mind your presence. He also got the gravity spell treatment, though this time the itch was all over his body, and a few times stronger than the one put on the lady who¡¯s crying off to the side. We set up camp right where the blue group had before. They had left after the devastating defeat, and the black group gave them the same going-away treatment they had the green group. Suffice to say, we now had tents to replace the ones we lost. Unfortunately, that included mine. A few hours after the other group had left, my mana finally got to a low enough point that I let both the other teacher and Az go free. The lady ran off, probably to both get as far away from me as possible, and to find her group. I don¡¯t blame her¡ªI had given both her and Az a good lecture about morals and behaviour while they were suffering under the gravity spell. Az¡ªwithout the option of running away¡ªsimply dragged himself to his own tent, which had somehow survived, and sulked for the rest of the evening. Serves him right. I think. I mean, I¡¯ve been told a few times that my morals are just a little twisted. I attribute it to my experiences. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I didn¡¯t sleep in my new tent. Partially because it didn¡¯t feel like mine and still smelled strongly of the precious inhabitant. Though, a quick spell took care of that. Also, I wanted to meditate. I had used quite a bit of mana with those gravity spell, and I was nearly empty at the moment. Meditating would recover it faster than sleeping would, since I consciously pulled the ambient mana around me into my body, purifying it and making it my own. Meditating also had the wonderful effect of calming my mind, and allowed me to abandon greater vengeance against Az, deserving of it though he is. Something curious happened while I was meditating though. The ding of a system notification sounded, and I was informed that I had advanced to level seventy four. It was odd. Normally, people would slow down as their level got higher, but mine seemed to increase at a constant rate, like it was building up to something. I can look forward to reaching level seventy-five, from a casual observation of what had happened when I had reached levels twenty-five, and fifty. I gained some good skills that I hadn¡¯t needed to use yet. When I reached level twenty-five, I had gained the racial skill¡¼Blink¡½, allowing me to teleport short distances. For some reason, this doesn¡¯t affect me in the same way transport runes seem to. It was an invaluable skill that I could see saving my life in the future. The problem with it is, that it takes nearly half my mana to activate once. So forgive me if it still seems impractical in normal combat at the moment. The skill I unlocked after reaching level fifty was just as impractically powerful.¡¼Storm¡¯s Eye¡½allows me to temporarily cause my body to turn to lightning, ignoring all physical attacks. Attacks using mana do double the damage, though. And it only lasts for ten seconds. The best part about the skill is that it makes my lightning spells many times stronger during this time. I could absolutely annihilate enemies while under the influence of both¡¼Demonic Transformation¡½and¡¼Storm¡¯s Eye¡½, since they both boost my combat potential. I could only use them both for ten seconds, though. And¡¼Storm¡¯s Eye¡½, like¡¼Blink¡½, drains my mana quite quickly. So, while both of these skills are quite powerful, they have situations they¡¯re best in. Like when I¡¯m about to die. Otherwise, I won''t use them. With the current trend, when I reach level seventy-five, I¡¯ll get an even more ridiculously powerful skill. And, after that, there¡¯s level one-hundred to think about. I¡¯m eager to see what¡¯ll happen then. I should reach that point in only a few more months as well, provided I¡¯m allowed access to the Academy¡¯s dungeon. I¡¯ve heard that it¡¯s a tier five, from all the other dungeon cores it¡¯s been given after the Academy was opened. So, it¡¯s mid to late levels are probably comparable to the early ones found in the tier six dungeon in the capital. I can also access the Academy¡¯s library, and learn more about the whole world¡ªNot just these three continents. It¡¯s odd, really, how little I can find out about the world beyond our land. Everything I¡¯ve found so far says the same thing¡ªThat our three continents are akin to very small islands when compared to the rest of the world. I can find nothing else though. There are no accounts of people leaving the continents and returning with more information. Or returning, period. I asked Jasper about it before leaving, and he said that strange things can be found the further away from land you go. I asked for an example, and he simply told me that it¡¯s something that I have to find out for my own, after I get strong enough. I hope to find some of the answers in the library. Somewhat on a side note, I felt good about my chances of finding something in this library, since it had collected a great number of books from all three continents. While it is still relatively new, both the elven and human royalty have donated a great deal to it, stocking it up completely. They¡¯ve even begun adding more wings to it. Of course, access to the library is restricted to students and teachers. Some of the areas are only accessible to teachers. That was also part of the reason I wanted to apply as a teacher and not a student, since I would have more freedom to pursue the information I desire. Speaking of teaching, I wonder what sort of stuff Headmaster Flavius would have me do. He had said that he would start me off at the bottom, teaching the first years. I think this is impractical though, since most first years are ten to twelve years old. They wouldn¡¯t hold much respect for a teacher only a few years older than them, no matter how powerful said teacher is. The older grade are mature enough to understand my capabilities, and would be willing to listen to me regardless of age. In fact, it might egg some of them on, seeing a thirteen year old teaching their class. Feelings of inferiority are normally a good motivator, provided you don¡¯t give up on it. I had a good idea of how my class would be taught as well, and it wouldn¡¯t be conducive to good childhood experience. For older students, it would be a good opportunity to grow stronger, and to become more mature. I¡¯ll just have to convince Flavius to let me teach an older group, then. Maybe he¡¯ll even give me the school troublemakers. That would be interesting, trying to reform them into more powerful and mature versions of themselves. Plus, I like people with personality. My ideal class would be full of main characters. I would have to keep it small if that were the case, though. Too much of a good thing and all that. For now, I should make sure that I am accepted as a teacher in this little exam. That¡¯s the first step here, easy though it might be. I am still a little worried about that one team without a teacher, but I suppose I¡¯ll find them sooner or later. Wait, couldn¡¯t I just ask someone here? With that very intention, I found Font, and asked him about the only team without a teacher. He answered me, with a little fear in his eyes. He had, after all, seen what had happened to Az and the blue group¡¯s teacher, and was well aware that Az hadn¡¯t been alone in causing damages to our stuff. (Font) ¡°Oh, you mean the student council¡¯s team, right?¡±
Chapter 28: The Student Council Who would have thought that in a school with eight years of education, The entire student council would be composed of fifth years. And, it¡¯s not because they¡¯re good at negotiating or come from rich families either. No, the six members of the student council are known as the ¡®Golden Generation¡¯, and are from various places on the continents. Two of them are royalty from the Elven and Human empires, two are from nobility, one¡¯s from a merchant family, and the last was born a commoner. They all share one feature though. They are all monsters. Apparently, the weakest member reached level forty last year, and the strongest is in the fifties. Given that most of them are only a few years older than me, they¡¯re well deserving of the council positions. Especially since they could outmatch most of the teachers that had been sent as ¡®reinforcements¡¯. I¡¯m kind of looking forward to meeting them, though, since I have a sneaking suspicion that at least one of them has reincarnated. Otherwise, they all just naturally had that talent¡ªWhich is very, very unlikely. Each one of them has the potential to become national heroes, standing at the apex of strength on the continents. Well, at least the apex that¡¯ll exist under me, after I get older. If I survive past twenty this time, that is. Well, other than the team comprised of the student council, there was also the other three teams with teachers. Since we had already encountered the two mage teachers, the other three teams would have the teachers using warrior arts. They¡¯ll be even easier for me to deal with, since I could just attack them from long range. It looked like the rest of this exam would be a piece of cake. Actually, looking back, it turned out to be disappointingly easy.
(POV ???) I¡¯ve heard some interesting information from the spies I¡¯d placed in the Elven Empire. Though, I don¡¯t really know what it means yet. Apparently, the Empress had adopted a half-demon child into the imperial family. While she argued that the elves needed her power, I still don¡¯t see how the nobility had been able to set aside their hatred for the offsprings of demon and elf for long enough to accept this. There¡¯s more to this, I just know there is. Unfortunately, I only just received word of this development in the last two weeks, even though it took place so many months ago. The elven nobility were uncharacteristically tight-lipped over this matter, and the rest of the empire as a whole didn¡¯t know about it. No, there¡¯s definitely something I don¡¯t know about this. Hell, I¡¯m the Human Empire¡¯s spymaster, and information gatherer. Not knowing something pisses me off. I think the new imperial family member is named Katariah. Obviously she holds the name Silver as well, after being legitimized. Well, since I learned of her existence, I¡¯ve spent the past two weeks trying to track her movements. It¡¯s made easier due to her particular characteristics. Young-looking, with silver hair, golden slit-pupil eyes, and two horns, she¡¯s really easy to track. Especially inside the elven empire, where any demon-kin are closely watched by the populace. Of course, it made sense that she would go to the Silver Academy. Even geniuses needed to be nurtured, and putting her with other geniuses is the best way to do that. She¡¯s reportedly at the right age to start, as well. Luckily, with the others we¡¯re sending to that particular Academy, I can find out more about her through my spies. After all, those seven will be going with a group of other talented students to mask themselves, and one or two extras added onto that entourage won''t make a noticeable difference. I was still a little upset at the actions of my superiors, though. If we have the heroes in our castle, then why not teach them here, and keep their power localized? Why send them off to a foreign academy? I¡¯ll never understand politics¡­
(POV Kai) The end of the exam came much sooner than I expected. Only a week passed from when I had been transported in, when the signal indicating the end of the test came. A pulsating ball of blue fire arched up into the sky, and exploded with a roar. I hadn¡¯t known what it had meant until I got Az to explain it to me. Basically, all the groups had to gather at the forest entrance, where more transport runes would bring them back to the academy. I¡¯ll admit, I¡¯m more than a little disappointed. After those first action packed days, nothing of note occurred. We never met another group, though we did find one more dungeon¡ªJust another tier two, though. I wondered what had led the ones running the exams to end them a whole three weeks early. After all, they were supposed to go for two months total. Never-the-less, it took the group a day to reach the forest¡¯s entrance, set between a dip in the valley bowl encompassing the forest. Apparently, the groups had arrived in that same place, and were given a week to spread out before attempting their objectives in the forest. When we got there, a large transport rune greeted us, set into a perfectly flat stone floor. It easily held all of us in it, plus our supplies. After making sure that all the tents and personal belongings were touching at least one person, everyone began pouring mana into the rune. I really didn¡¯t want to do it. After all, look at what had happened the last time I had used one of these runes. Well, I could hope that a large scale one would be different. I ended up being so, so wrong. It was worse. After the transport happened, and I finished puking my guts out, and destroyed the unfortunate puddle afterwards, I regained my bearings somewhat. I was in an atrium with the rest of the black group, and there were official teachers in the room, helping the fifth year students after the transport. One took the objective pursued by the group, verifying that it was the real thing¡ªIn this case, the objective had been a large monster¡¯s egg. Another teacher took all the dungeon cores we had found so far, and counted them up. There was a total of five from us, due to the two we had conquered personally, and the others from the blue and green groups. All but one were from tier two dungeons. I spotted Headmaster Flavius standing off to the side, and he motioned for me to walk with him. We left the atrium, and I walked beside him as we went to his office on the other side of the campus. (Flavius) ¡°What did you think of the teacher¡¯s exam?¡± He suddenly asked me, while continuing to look forward. (Kai) ¡°It wasn¡¯t bad. It felt a little nonsensical, though.¡± (Flavius) ¡°Nonsensical?¡± (Kai) ¡°Yeah. I feel like there should be better ways to select teachers, instead of throwing them into a combat situation.¡± (Flavius) ¡°Ah, well, we don¡¯t really care how strong a teacher is. We do things this way to verify their personality.¡± (Kai) ¡°But why not just conduct an interview for that? Isn¡¯t that how other schools do it?¡± (Flavius) ¡°Think of it this way¡ªWhen is a teacher more likely to hide their true personality¡ªin front of a panel of judges, or when they''re thrown among those weaker than them?¡± (Kai) ¡°I still don¡¯t get it. Why not just keep an eye on new teachers for the first few months?¡± Flavius murmured something about me not understanding what¡¯s fun, and kept walking. Eventually, we reached his office. (Flavius) ¡°You¡¯ll be happy to know that most of the judges are willing to let you teach. There was one who was somewhat concerned by your ¡®sadistic tendencies¡¯? ¡ªBut in the end he agreed that you are capable of teaching.¡± (Kai) ¡°Ah, so you guys were watching the whole time.¡± (Flavius) ¡°Not the whole time, no. We did see all the important bits though.¡± (Kai) ¡°Speaking of important, why was the exam ended early?¡± The headmaster cringed a little, while sitting down behind his wooden desk. (Flavius) ¡°Ah, that was because there were only two groups still able to contend each other. There was your group, the black group, and there was the student council¡¯s team. They had come across the two groups you hadn¡¯t, and wiped out their fighting abilities and spirit¡ªteachers included.¡± (Kai) ¡°But wouldn¡¯t the normal course of action be to let the two dominant groups clash against each other?¡± (Flavius) ¡°Yes. But, in this case, not only did I know that you would annihilate them, I also think it wouldn¡¯t be good for relations between them and you, if you guys fight the first time you meet.¡± (Kai) ¡°So you ended the exam? That seems slightly unfair to the rest of the students.¡± (Flavius) ¡°Sending you there in the first place ended up being unfair.¡± I had to admit, this was true. I don¡¯t know what would have happened to the black group had I not gone. They likely would not have done as well with a normal teacher. (Flavius) ¡°Ah! I do have a question for you. Feel free to not answer, but I¡¯ve been curious about it for a while now. What level are you?¡± I looked at him incredulously. I had thought Niten had already informed him. (Kai) ¡°It¡¯s seventy-four now. I gained a level during the teacher¡¯s exam.¡± Oh. You look like a dead fish, with your mouth open that far, Headmaster Flavius. Stolen novel; please report. (Flavius) ¡°Sev..seventy-four!? How!?¡± (Kai) ¡°What do you mean, how? I¡¯ve lived five lives before, I have two powerful bloodlines running through my veins, and I worked hard.¡± (Flavius) ¡°But...Seventy-four!? The student council members are already regarded as absolute monsters, but this¡­ This potential is terrifying. I think I can now see why the elven nobility had no choice but to accept your existence.¡± I laughed a little. Even though I had told him my explanation on how I got to where I am, there are still some things about me that I don¡¯t understand. It¡¯s a little scary not knowing everything there is to know about your own body. Then again, it¡¯s even scarier to be weak, and die before doing anything notable. If it brings me strength, then I shouldn¡¯t fear it, right? (Kai) ¡°So, am I a teacher now, or what?¡± (Flavius) ¡°I¡¯d say so. Though, there¡¯s the question of what students to give you.¡± I nodded. That had been something I had been wondering as well. (Flavius) ¡°Well, what sort of things would you be teaching?¡± (Kai) ¡°Common sense.¡± He laughed. (Flavius) ¡°Ha! You, teaching common sense? That¡¯s like a wolf teaching a bird to fly.¡± I frowned a little, adding a little theatricality to the conversation. (Kai) ¡°My common sense exceeds the understandings of normal people!¡± Besides, most of my common sense consists of survival tactics and growing stronger. Wait. Wouldn¡¯t it just be a combat class, then? Eh. I can just teach the common sense of combat. (Flavius) ¡°Well, we¡¯ll try to set something up for you, then. But first, now that you¡¯re back, I think you have some people to meet.¡± Flavius, still sitting behind his desk, motioned to the side, where a wood door led to another room. There was a plaque on the door that read ¡®Student Council¡¯. I had been thinking about that door, actually. I hadn¡¯t known if the council was behind it presently, and was intending to ask the Headmaster about it. Apparently, they were in session at the moment. Good news for me then. Flavius got up from his chair, and walked over to the door. He knocked on it, and pushed it open a moment later. I followed him in. The room held an oval shaped table, with eight seats around it. Six of them were occupied. Flavius and I sat in the open seats. I looked around, and felt that I was meeting an interesting group. Two of the members were elves, one with golden hair and a face that could only belong to an ike-man, and the other being a cool looking beauty with dark purple hair. There was a rugged looking human with a long scar stretching across his face, his brown hair cropped short. Another human greatly resembles a toad, with a large and fleshy face. I think he served as a reminder that student council members in real life, unlike those found in so many stories, can and will be ugly. Though, he turned to me, and I saw his eyes. Those icy blue orbs held an intellect that shouldn¡¯t be underestimated, for any reason. The last human was a slight and petite person, with stunning features and long blonde hair. The last member of the council, however, was a short and stout demon, with green skin and two horns curving straight up from the sides of her head, like the remnants of a crown. (Flavius) ¡°Let me introduce you. Kai, this is the student council, student council, this is Kai.¡± After that, he introduced the individual members of the group, starting with the two elves¡ªthe ike-man being named Kris and the other elf Aslan. The human with the scar was named Hilman, while the ugly one was named Xavier. The remaining human was either a girl with the name Fred, or a very effeminate boy. I was leaning towards him being male. The demon¡¯s name was Nalefer. From a cursory glance of the room while using¡¼Analyze¡½, I could classify each of their strengths. Kris was the weakest in the room based on level, being level forty-eight at sixteen years old. The order then went Xavier, Hilman, Nalefer, and Aslan. Unexpectedly, the strongest was Fred, with a level of fifty-nine. Even more unexpected, his full name was Fredrik von Basel, a member of the Human Empire¡¯s imperial family. He holds the title of prince. This wasn¡¯t every significant, though, considering that there are something like twenty imperial princes from that family. He could truly be called a monster though, since he¡¯s only fifteen. Though, if they called him a monster, then what would I be? After they had all been introduced, the council began asking questions. (Kris) ¡°While I am happy to meet new students, why is this half-demon child important enough to meet us, and you, Headmaster?¡± (Xavier) ¡°Headmaster, I was wondering the same thing. Perhaps, are you wanting to give her a spot on the student council?¡± I smiled while Flavius laughed. (Flavius) ¡°No, no. Nothing of the sort. I just thought it would be a good idea for you guys to meet her. Kai, perhaps you should introduce yourself in greater detail to them.¡± I nodded, and told them all about myself. (Kai) ¡°My full name is Katariah Nadine Silver....¡± There were some shocked looks around the table. The elves obviously knew about the girl who had been brought into the imperial family, and Nalefer stood up abruptly. (Nalefer) ¡°Nadine!? You mean, like the demon lord candidate that had been sealed eleven years ago!?¡± Again, I nodded. (Kai) ¡°That was my brother. He had been sealed after ensuring my safety from the elven nobility. Though, after a decade of calming down, they allowed me to walk free with my name intact.¡± I said, speaking of how they had allowed me to use my mother¡¯s name¡ªSilver. (Xavier) ¡°That¡¯s quite the origin. But I still don¡¯t understand why you¡¯re here now, speaking to us.¡± (Kai) ¡°Ah, that¡¯s because I¡¯m not finished. You see, I won¡¯t be attending this school as a student when the new term officially starts.¡± I paused for dramatic flair, and the council members looked at me, confused and curious. (Kai) ¡°I¡¯ll be attending as a new teacher.¡± While there were some flabbergasted looks, a few of the members took this as a joke. (Hilman) ¡°Oi, oi. Will you be havin¡¯ our legs, old man? No way this shrimp¡¯ll be teaching. She has¡¯ta be younger than us. (Flavius) ¡°It¡¯s true.¡± I piped up, adding on to Headmaster''s verification. (Kai) ¡°In fact, I am younger than you. I¡¯m only thirteen, after all. However, I¡¯m much wiser than all of you, and stronger.¡± Fred spoke up for the first time, with a sleepy sounding voice. (Fred) ¡°I can accept the teaching bit, but the ¡®wiser¡¯ and stronger parts seem false.¡± (Flavius) ¡°No, she¡¯s right. Unfortunately, while you are all considered the greatest of a generation, and the current leaders of your generation, Kai would wipe the floor with all of you. If you are all considered monsters, than Kai is a natural calamity.¡± The council turned to me, shock evident in their eyes, and also a slight hunger. (Xavier) ¡°Headmaster, if she¡¯s that much better than us, then why haven¡¯t we ever heard of her?¡± (Kai) ¡°Hey! I¡¯m right here, you know. And if you must know, that¡¯s because up until six months ago, I was only level twenty.¡± (Flavius) ¡°What!? I hadn¡¯t heard about this! Hell, I thought that you had built your way to level seventy-four from birth, not over the course of a half a year!¡± I could see the council sink deeper into shock after hearing my level, and how long I took to reach it. (Kai) ¡°I just grow faster than...well, everyone. Besides, I leveled up in a tier six dungeon. It wasn¡¯t without great effort that I did it.¡± Judging by the reactions of the people around me, I think I¡¯ve broken their ability to cope. In fact, one seemed to refuse what I was saying. (Hilman) ¡°No. You ¡®ave ta be lyin¡¯. Dar¡¯s no way any¡¯un could ¡®evel up that quick.¡± Hilman¡¯s already thick accent great even more dense. I wonder where he came from, to have such an accent. He got up, pointing a finger at me, and began to say something. I decided they needed a demonstration of my power to be able to come to terms with it, and released the pressure I normally held back. Instantly, the room filled with an oppressive air due to the sheer amount of mana circulating through the air. The amount of mana was abnormal for even someone of my level, nearly twice as much as it should be. It was such that Hilman immediately fell back into his seat, and the others were able to focus again, after being thoroughly shocked by me. They looked at me, and saw a cute little girl with silver hair and gold tinged eyes with two white horns curling to the side of my face from above my pointed ears. They also felt the extremely heavy aura around me, contradicting what they saw. It was a contradiction they seemed to come to terms with, though. I pulled back the pressure, and they seemed to breath easy again. (Flavius) ¡°I trust you all understand now why I wanted you to meet her, and why she¡¯s allowed to become a teacher?¡± They all nodded emphatically. Good. It looks like they¡¯re ready for the question I¡¯ve been wanting to ask them. (Kai) ¡°Well, it¡¯s nice to meet everyone. Now, has anyone lived another life before this one?¡±
Chapter 29: The Reincarnated Members (Kai) ¡°Well, it¡¯s nice to meet everyone. Now, has anyone lived another life before this one?¡± As soon as I said that, three of the student council members looked confused, not knowing what I meant. The other three, well, they startled badly¡ªVery badly. They jumped up from the table, one of them even starting the process of casting a spell. Their faces had turned completely pale, and they had a frightened look in their eyes. (Kai) ¡°Ah. So it¡¯s you three.¡± I said, speaking of Xavier, Hilman and the elf girl, Aslan. I held up my hands in a non-threatening manner. (Kai) ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I won¡¯t hurt you guys. Besides, being reincarnated isn¡¯t as big a deal as you might think.¡± Headmaster Flavius snorted off to the side, not believing what I said in the slightest. I sighed, not bothering with his antics. (Kai) ¡°Well, what worlds were you guys on before dying?¡± (Kris) ¡°Wait¡ªHold on. You mean to say that reincarnation isn¡¯t a myth? People can live again after dying?!¡± (Kai) ¡°Pipe down kid. Of course they can, it¡¯s just that very few keep the memories of their last life.¡± (Kris) ¡°Kid?! I¡¯ll have you know that I¡¯m¡­¡± (Kai) ¡°Oh, shut it, would you? Didn¡¯t I just explain that people can reincarnate to you? Maybe if you stopped to think for a second, you would figure out why I know this, and why I¡¯m so powerful so young.¡± (Xavier) ¡°You mean¡ªYou¡¯ve reincarnated too?¡± (Kai) ¡°Yes, now, where did you guys come from?¡± The three of them looked at each other. Likely, they hadn¡¯t known before now that some of the others were also reincarnated people. It¡¯s the greatest folly of man, egocentrism. They each assumed that they were special cases, without equal. They had thought that they were the only reincarnated people in this world. Now that they knew otherwise, they felt a sense of solidarity with each other. The girl Aslan nodded, telling them that she would speak. (Aslan) ¡°I first lived in a small village on a world named Beorm.¡± (Hilman) ¡°I¡¯m from a place call¡¯d Earth.¡± (Xavier) ¡°Ah! I am too!¡± I exclaimed softly in surprise. I knew both of those worlds pretty well, after all. (Kai) ¡°What years did you guys come from, then?¡± (Hilman) ¡°I died in October of 1805, fighting ''gainst¡­¡± (Kai) ¡°Not interested. You¡ªXavier, what year are you from?¡± (Xavier) ¡°2398.¡± I whistled softly. I would have to ask him later how everything on earth turned out in the end. Did they ever fix global warming, for instance? I turned to Aslan. (Aslan) ¡°I died in the third imperial era, year fifty-eight.¡± I could dimly recall that the date she gave was something like ten-thousand years before I had gotten there. Wow. Maybe she knows some ancient-type magic? It would be interesting to compare notes. (Kai) ¡°Well, that¡¯s quite the variety. For the record, most people are reincarnated due to great amounts of positive karmic luck being present, showing that the one in question had committed a deed worthy of lauding them as heroes in their last life. So, it¡¯s safe to say that each of you made a great impact on the livelihoods of the people around you after death.¡± (Hilman) ¡°Well, where¡¯re you from, then? We¡¯ve tol¡¯ you all ¡®bout us. Tis only fair.¡± (Kai) ¡°Hm? Well, you could say that I¡¯m from Earth, though I died in Beorm that life. Then, I reincarnated in a world called Usfulheim, only to die and find myself in Geoteim. After that, I was born in Halving, then a world called Couse. Now I¡¯m here.¡± (Xavier) ¡°What? ¡­You¡¯ve reincarnated five times already?¡± (Kai) ¡°Well, this is my sixth reincarnation. But yes. I¡¯m a little more experienced in the matter than you are.¡± (Aslan) ¡°But, didn¡¯t you say that you needed to have a great deal of karmic merit to be reborn? How much is needed to be reborn six times?¡± (Kai) ¡°Mine¡¯s a special case, I¡¯m afraid.¡± Xavier was about to speak up, when I shook my head, telling him not to voice his obvious next question. Tactfully, he didn¡¯t ask it. (Kai) ¡°Ugh. It was nice meeting everybody. However, I¡¯ve had a long day so far, and find myself wishing for a place to sleep.¡± I said this while looking out the window opposite the door I had entered through. It had turned dark out, the sun long since having dropped beyond the horizon. In fact, I could see one of the moons just peaking around the windowpane¡¯s corner. It was slightly orange-tinged, telling me that it was the moon Statius. It was said that an ancient civilization had once been able to live on the moon, the evidence being some rather artificial looking structures that were present on its surface. They could be seen through a telescope. It was my own opinion that it was just a few really large crystal formations, though. Like salt, or quartz. Well, I bid the student council goodbye, and left through the door leading to the headmaster¡¯s office. I had been expecting at least one of them to be reincarnated, but felt lucky that three of them were. And two were from earth, no less¡ªEven though Hilman only half-counted, since he lived before the 1900¡¯s. I actually kind of wondered if fate was playing a joke on me, since they had all been from worlds I had either been born in, or died in. The odds of this were quite low, with all the worlds that supposedly existed. (Flavius) ¡°We¡¯ve already set up a room for you on campus, in the teacher¡¯s dorm. Can you find your way there?¡± (Kai) ¡°Yeah. It¡¯s the big building to the left of the academy¡¯s main entrance, right?¡± (Flavius) ¡°Good, that¡¯s correct. Just enter it, and ask the building manager about your room. He should be able to show you to it.¡± (Kai) ¡°Got it. Let me know when you¡¯ve figured out what I¡¯ll be teaching.¡± (Flavius) ¡°Definably. I¡¯ll send someone to inform you when that happens.¡± I left, walking to the three story marble building across the campus from the office areas I had just left. Entering through a front door with a circular top, the first thing I saw of the teacher¡¯s dorms was a drunk-looking man splayed out in what seemed to be the recreation area. He was on the floor, and the empty bottles next to him attested as to how he had ended up there. I walked past him, not paying any more attention to the matter. Across the room, there was a desk set into the wall, with a space behind it for someone to stand or sit. There was someone back there at the moment, and I guessed this was the building manager. I stood in front of the desk, and rang the bell sitting on it. Mostly for fun. The whip-thin man behind the desk had already seen me, though he hadn¡¯t seemed in any hurry to attend to my needs. A nametag on the desk proclaimed him to be one Mr. Gebrater. (Gebrater) ¡°How can I help you? Which teacher are you looking for?¡± Ah, he thinks I¡¯m a student, looking for my teacher¡ªsince there were probably quite a few students who came here for extra help, or clarification on a difficult subject. A case of literary theft: this tale is not rightfully on Amazon; if you see it, report the violation. (Kai) ¡°I¡¯m not a student. My name is Kai, and I¡¯m here to take up residency. You should have a room ready for me, right?¡± He looked very taken aback, not having known that the new teacher would be a child. Though, to his credit, he remained professional. (Gebrater) ¡°Ah¡­Yes, we have a room ready for you, Katariah Nadine Silver, right? Wait¡­Silver?¡± That last part was muttered under his breath, as he looked at some papers in front of him more closely. It must have been weird for him, to see someone so obviously having demon blood, also carrying the name of the elven imperial family. Anyway, he exited from behind the desk, and showed me to the room that had been prepared for me. It was on the second floor, at the end of a long hallway. It wasn¡¯t a large room by any stretch of the imagination, especially since I could lie down, and my body length would have spanned half the room. It could be described as cozy, though. I liked it. It was a room only meant for sleeping and meditating in, and it fulfilled those purposes adequately. I¡¯ve never liked large rooms anyway¡ªI had made a point of moving out of the suite given to me in the elven imperial estate, to a much smaller and well defended room. I never felt safe in those overly large and ostentatious rooms. I dropped my bag in the corner of the room, and felt the bed cushion. It was also nice, by the way. All in all, the room gave off a feeling of having been well constructed and tastefully decorated, without any extra fringes. Unfortunately, while most others would take this opportunity to sleep, I still felt wide-awake, due to my racial heritage. When I had told the student council earlier that I needed rest, that was a bold-faced lie. Really, they were the ones that looked tired and worn out. Mostly due to the stuff I had told them, and the things they had found out. They all needed some time amongst themselves to come to terms with these new revelations, after all. While it was true that being a reincarnated person isn¡¯t as special as people would assume, it¡¯s still something unusual. And those who are reincarnated typically keep quite about it, since it¡¯s weird for people that had known them from birth to reconcile that screaming little baby with what could be a thirty-seven year old man. And it¡¯s an awkward situation to speak about. I mean, imagine that you find out that your sweet and innocent little kid was never so innocent as you had rightly assumed before. There was one life that I had, where I came right out and told my birth parents that I was no child. Unfortunately, they had avoided me after that. However, it¡¯s just that those particular parents had been assholes of the greatest magnitude. Mostly due to the things that had happened later, rather than the part where they simply ignored me. I can handle being treated like air, but they did some unforgivable things. It¡¯s too bad I can¡¯t go back to that world and meet them again. I would have some¡­interesting things to say to them. Anyway, like I was saying before. I wouldn¡¯t be able to sleep tonight, even if I tried. Luckily, I had seen an area marked out on the campus map earlier, and was curious to see what it was all about. I left the dorm room, bringing along my bag, minus the weapons I normally carried in it. Instead, I had my most precious objects safely stowed away in it¡¯s large interior. Shouldering it, I walked to where I remembered this area being. Sure enough, once I got within fifty paces of the place, I could smell the charcoal burning, and hear the rhythmic pounding of metal on metal. There was a dim glow emanating through the windows of the large hut-like structure, flickering from the air being pumped into the fire to make it hotter. Embers rose up from a massive chimney set into the middle of the hut¡¯s roof, where the forge¡¯s fire was located. I walked into the academy¡¯s smithy, not needing a door since one of the walls was missing, to provide better ventilation for the blacksmiths working inside. There were three presently, all of them older than forty and likely being some of the most experienced people in the smithy. Well, I say that all of them were older than forty, but one was an elf, so there was no telling how old he was, except that he had enough age for it to show on his face, and especially in his eyes. The other two men where there to provide assistance to him, taking turns slamming massive hammers onto a glowing bar of metal, sparks flying with every hit. I observed them as the bar of metal quickly took shape, elongating and being beveled by the strikes. After a long moment, the elven man called for a stop, and stuck the metal back into the forge fire. It had been on the way to losing the heat required for shaping. The man looked up after having taken care of the half-done blade, and saw me standing off to the side, unobtrusively. (???) ¡°Can I help you?¡± He spoke in a dry and slightly annoyed sounding voice. It resembled two stones grinding together. (Kai) ¡°I was wondering if I could use your forge, sir.¡± One of the man¡¯s two helpers snorted off to the side. (???) ¡°My forge, mhh. Did you bring your own tools?¡± I nodded, holding up the bag containing the tools I had crafted by hand over the course of a few years. He motioned me over. (???) ¡°Show me your tools, kid.¡± I opened up the bag, and pulled out a set of three completely different hammers, some heavy-looking tongs, two metal sheers capable of cutting though solid bars of steel, and a series of cylinders with varying width. The old man took a look at the tools, his gaze lingering on one of my hammers. The one that caught his interest was my favorite hammer, actually. It was deliberately unbalanced a little, with the head of the hammer extending from the handle on only one side, and curving slightly. It resembled a short garden hoe with only one tine, which was extra thick and weighty. There were some crude looking images carved into the side of the hammer, from when I was younger and had less strength in this body. He picked it up, and seemed surprised at how it felt. At least, his bushy white eyebrows rose slightly. He handed the hammer back to me, and nodded. (???) ¡°Sure. You can use the forge. Just pick an empty workstation, and do whatever you want. Come back whenever.¡± The old elf turned back to the metal he had stuck into the forge. The two men helping him protested slightly. (???) ¡°Master Giden, why would you let such a small and inexperienced child use the forge? Isn¡¯t everyone supposed to meet your standards first?¡± (Giden) ¡°If you are concerned, than watch her. She has the skill needed.¡± With that, the two men turned their attention from the glowing piece of metal, to the station I had chosen to set up at.
Chapter 30: The Lost Art Lucky for me, there was some quality steel sitting by the workstation. I hadn¡¯t brought any of the metal from my old forge in that city with me¡ªIt would have weighed too much to take with me. Also, I will say that this smithy was much better stocked than the makeshift one I had set up before. It had a proper anvil, while the one I had been using before had just been a large clump of metal with a flat top. The forge could also burn at a hotter and more even temperature then the small one I had set up. Partially, this was because I never really used the old one. I normally just heated the metal with fire magic, though most smiths wouldn¡¯t be able to control the magic well enough to keep the heat at an even temperature. I decided that this time, I would be pulling out all the stops. Why? Well, those two guys helping the smith-master seem to be keeping an eye on me. Likely, they didn¡¯t think I was worthy of the metal I forged. I intended to prove them wrong. Grabbing a few bars of steel, I looked at the marks inscribed into them, denoting their type, weight, and melting temperature. I could tell that this was likely the work of the smithy apprentices, who were required in most cases to do these sorts of route jobs to familiarize themselves with the metals they¡¯ll be using in the future. I channeled my mana, using a fire magic to heat the metal. Quickly, it took on a red glow, and I stopped, not wanting to melt it. I held the glowing bar of metal in the heavy tongs I had made a while back, and placed it on the anvil. Using my favorite hammer, I drew out the metal slowly, pounding it into a long bar. I repeated this for the other metals I picked, until all of them were about the same length and width. In total, I now had seven bars of metal. Three of them were darker, and softer steel, while the other four were harder, and lighter colored. It was after these bars of metal had been prepared that the real smithing started.
The two senior blacksmiths Rob and Foule were the two most experienced in the academy¡¯s forge, and worked under the man who had earned the title ¡¼Divine Hand¡½ for his abilities as a craftsmen¡ªMaster Giden. Like everyone else, they had worked their way up from the bottom, starting as lowly apprentices at twelve years old. There was no jumping the line, and no such thing as immediately becoming a smith worthy of working the metal itself. You wouldn¡¯t even be allowed to touch a hammer until at least two years had passed. So, it was with a slight bitter feeling that they watched a young girl walk into the smithy, and gain permission to immediately start smithing. Of course, they would watch, and keep a close eye on this outsider who hadn¡¯t done any of the painstaking work that they had. They began criticizing the things she did, such as the steel she chose, the old and well used long-coat she wore, and the hammer she wielded. To them, the hammer was the greatest fault. It looked unwieldy, and too heavy for her small frame to lift. Even more, it wasn¡¯t designed like any other hammer they¡¯d ever seen. Unlike the hammers used by everyone in the smithy, which had two heads and formed a T shape with the handle, her hammer had a single head shaped like a J, where the top of the J was attached to a handle. Curious and disdainful, they watched as she held a single piece of steel in a pair of tongs, with the hammer in her other hand. However, she made no move to approach the forge fire, to heat the metal. Foule smirked at this moment, sure that the girl had no idea what to do next, and would prove herself a fool. He, like many other people, enjoyed seeing others come across misfortune, or dig themselves into ditches. Rob was more kind, and thought along the line of not wanting to see the small girl hurt herself. It¡¯s worth noting that all three of the men in the smithy had noticed that she at least had demon-blood, and Giden had felt her elven blood as well. However, being veteran smiths, they held an honest appreciation for all artistry, no matter the race it had come from. Instead of discrimination based on parentage, country of origin, or race, they only saw ability. That said, if you have none, they simply didn¡¯t care about you. And gods forbid you pretend to have ability, when you did not. No artisan would ever look upon you kindly for that. Anyway, these two men were waiting to see the girl demonstrate her lack of ability, and show that she¡¯s not capable of working in a smithy. They figured she must be the child of someone important, like a merchant or demonic nobility, who had thought she would try her hand at the craft, skipping past all the preliminary steps. Needless to say, they weren¡¯t expecting anything from her. That expectation was flipped on it¡¯s head only a moment later, as the metal she held in the tongs suddenly started glowing red hot, becoming malleable enough to hammer into shape. She proceeded to draw out the steel, into a longer bar of perfectly flat metal, long and thin. This left the two experienced smiths flabbergasted. It was rare that a smith was capable of using fire magic to heat and shape the metal, due to the mana control required. Most fire magic required the flames produced to continue to grow larger and hotter, until the spell is released. It¡¯s extremely difficult to maintain a constant heat. And that¡¯s not even mentioning the mana pool requirements. While it¡¯s true that a constant heat was required, that heat still had to be really hot, emptying most lesser mana pools in bare moments. The astonishment from the two men only grew when the girl proceeded to do the same to six other bits of steel, and hammered them all into unnaturally even and equal bars. By this point, they had realized exactly why Master Giden had let her use the smithy. She wielded that strange hammer with a grace and ease that contradicted both the shape of the hammer, and the size of her body. The skill was such that they could see it in every blow, her talent actively shaping the metal. It didn¡¯t end there. They had begun to find themselves more than a little curious as to what the girl would do with the seven pieces of metal¡ªNothing they had ever done needed anything like that. The girl took up another tool shaped like a wedge, and reheated the metal. She pressed the new tool onto the red-hot metal, and tapped it with her hammer. Even though the tap looked light, the metal indented in a straight line, diagonal to it¡¯s length. She repeated this down the length of the metal, until it looked bumpy¡ªA stark contrast to the scary straight and even sides it had had before. Rob and Foule had dropped all pretense of helping Giden with his own sword, and were watching the girl¡¯s every move now. To a smith, what she was doing looked like the most perfect and beautiful dance imaginable, as she put those indentations on all of the metal bars. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. After that was done, she gathered all those bumpy bar together, and pressed them into a pile. Both Foule and Rob were experienced enough to know that she had alternated the steel in layers, the order being hard steel, soft, hard, soft, hard soft, hard. There was a brief flash of light, centering on the stacked metal, and the smiths were fascinated to find that the stacked layers seemed to have¡­melded together somehow, just on the edges. It was now a somewhat solid block of metal. While it was still hot, the girl began to draw the block of metal out, slowly lengthening it into a bar about the same width and height as the individual one that had been incorporated into the block were. She had to stop and reheat the metal a few times during the process, but the whole process was still extremely quick compared to many of the smiths the men had seen before. Inexplicably, the girl then took the bar that she had shaped, and heated it again. She used the wedge-like tool to make another indentation right in the center of the bar. Though, this time the indentation was much deeper¡ªalmost all the way through the metal. She folded the metal in half, and there was another bright flash, where the edges once again melded together. She folded the metal once more after drawing it back out, and drew it out to a longer, and thinner length. Each strike of the hammer seemed to do two-fold the work, both drawing out the blade of what was obviously going to become a longer type of sword, and beveling the edges into said sword. She took this and heat-treated it, using her magic again for this. Then, she filed down the edges, and sharpened it until it would be able to barely cut something. Better sharpening would be left for when the blade was finished. Eventually, the sword had taken shape. The blade itself was longer than most long-swords were, but a good deal shorter than the great-swords. Its edges were parallel for most its length, until around ten centimeters from the tip, where it began tapering gracefully. The tang seemed abnormally long to the two smiths, not suited for a one-handed sword. It was still shorter than the hilt of a great-sword, though. To them, it seemed that the sword forged by the girl occupied a middle ground, between a long-sword and a great-sword. They had heard of some people attempting such a thing before, but it never caught on, due to people not knowing how to handle such a weapon. The girl left the blade in it¡¯s current state, and grabbed a solid slab of wood, and some leather. She shaped the wood into a good handle, and fitted to the tang. To get the best and most secure fit, she first cut a hole through the center of the handle-wood. The hole was too small to fit over the tang, so she heated the tang up, and stuck the wooden hole onto it. Smoke billowed up form the wooden handle, as the heat from the tang forced the hole to burn. Like this, the handle was burned onto the tang for a perfect fit. She took another odd tool from her bag, and stuck it on top of the tang, which was formed into a rod. Twisting the tool, lines appeared on the top of the tang, circling down the rounded section of it. If the men were impressed by her skill before, what she did next left them awestruck at her raw power. She grabbed a solid chunk of steel, and held it in her hands. A blue glow suffused her hands, and the chunk began glowing. It went straight past red hot, and turned white from the heat. She began shaping the metal with her bare hands, forming an orb shape with it. Before she was done, she took a metal rod, and stuck it into the metal, and pulled it out to form a hole in the center of the teardrop shaped orb. She set it down, and the blue glow went disappeared from her hands. Small beads of sweat could be seen on her forehead as the orb cooled. While waiting for it to completely cool, she cut some leather to shape, and wrapped it around the wooden handle. She then took some more leather and cut it into cords, tightly wrapping that over the other leather to provide a better grip. She used a liquid compound pulled from her bag to keep it down, before tying some thin leather strips at either end of the handle. She took the orb formed earlier, and stuck it on the end of the tang, forcing it down by spinning it along those lines. It made some horrible squeaking noises as it neared the handle, attesting to the fact that it was a very tight fit. With one final tug on the orb, or what was now the pommel of the sword, it was finished. Rob and Foule looked at the sky outside, and were stunned to see that the sun hadn¡¯t even begun to brighten the horizon yet. It had only taken the girl three or four hours to forge a sword, from start to finish. Though, while it seemed to the men that the sword was done, and only needed its final sharpening, the girl wasn¡¯t done. She reached into her bag once more, and pulled out a jar. Opening it, a thick and pungent smell drifted through the smithy. She rubbed the compound on the blade, completely covering it. Then, thin tendrils of electricity arced from her fingertips to the covered blade. She brought the blade to an up-right dunk tank, and dipped it into there, until just the handle was out of the briny water. When she pulled the blade back out, the mud like compound was gone, and there were patterns seemingly etched into its surface, like little waves undulating across the metal. The Rob and Foule were stunned to realize that these were patterns created by the metal itself, through the layering that the girl had done. They immediately decided that not only were the patterns beautiful, but that they wanted to learn how to do this as well. Even if it meant throwing away their pride, and learning the technique from such a small girl. However, a scant second later, they realized that there would be more techniques they could learn from her, as she swung the sword lightly towards the open-faced portion of the building, and a scythe-like blast of wind was propelled from the blade. This caught even Master Giden¡¯s attention, since no one had a way of making a blade capable of casting magic without a rune first being engraved onto the surface. She had never carved such a rune, and yet the blade channeled her mana. It was a lost art, only found in ancient weapons (Giden) ¡°You¡­How did you learn that?¡± Chapter 31: The Academys Dungeon (Giden) ¡°You¡­How did you learn that?¡± The old man working on his own blade looked at me with a vaguely astonished expression. (Kai) ¡°Mh? You mean my blade-smithing? I¡¯m mostly self-taught.¡± (Giden) ¡°No, no. Not that, but the mana channeling for the blade. How did you do that?¡± I looked at him, confused. (Kai) ¡°What? Is it rare or something to be able to this?¡± I gestured to the hand-and-a-half sword I had made. Sure, I was fairly certain that things like the hand-and-a-half or bastard swords hadn¡¯t been seen yet, but the sword itself shouldn¡¯t be anything special. (Giden) ¡°Girl, the art of making a blade able to channel its wielder¡¯s mana without any inscription runes has been lost for millennia.¡± Ah shit. Nobody had said anything about it before, so I thought it wasn¡¯t anything too special. Now, it looks like I¡¯ve broken common sense again. (Giden) ¡°How did you do it?¡± Great, now the old man and his two assistants are looking at me with expectation, like their lives had led up to this point. Ah, what to do, what to do? Oh, I know! (Kai) ¡°Well, do inscriptions have to be on the surface of the blade?¡± Their expressions turned to shock, like a thunderbolt from the heavens had leapt from the sky and struck them with inspiration. Truth be told, I integrate mana circuits into my blades during the forging process, which have nothing to do with inscriptions. I was once interested in computers, and used that knowledge to invent the mana circuits. I¡¯m mostly sure that I wasn¡¯t the first to have this idea¡ªas evidenced by that one blade I had found in the labyrinth, Ancient¡¯s Respite. It had unbelievably complex mana circuits integrated into it, far beyond anything I¡¯ve seen before. The only thing that even comes close is my own sword, Twilight. Maybe there was a way to internalize the inscriptions, but I had never tried it, since mana circuits were able to handle more mana, and had more diversity. I¡¯ll let them chew on this problem a while though. Capable craftsmen like them tended to have their own type of pride. They would attempt to solve the issue of internalizing inscriptions without involving me at first. If they couldn¡¯t manage to figure out how to do it, then I was hoping that they wouldn¡¯t come to me, due to that pride. But still, I hadn¡¯t expected for mana circuits to not exist in this place. It¡¯s lucky that no one noticed it before now. The three smiths immediately started work on another blade, this time trying to integrate the inscriptions in the blade. They assumed that my inscriptions were located in between the folds of the metal, so they attempted to utilize the folding techniques they had seen me use. I shouldn¡¯t have to say that it was a failure on the first try. I also expected it to be a failure on the second, third, fourth, or even tenth try. Well, until they decide to give up their attempts, they shouldn¡¯t come to me for help. They seem stubborn, so I should be fine for a while, at least. Unfortunately, I panicked a little after realizing that mana circuits were something too advanced for this world, and forgot to create a scabbard for my new bastard sword. I ended up just propping it up against the wall of my new room. I got some strange looks from the building manager, carrying in a new-looking sword, but I had nowhere else to put it. Really, I had just made the thing to waste some time, and to experiment a little. I had been curious as to how many different types of mana circuits I could include in a steel sword. I had been putting two or three into my other blades, while five went into Twilight. However, two of those circuits had somehow occurred naturally, the structures within the blade itself aligning into complex patterns. Also, the density of the mana circuit affected things greatly. A mana circuit with greater usability would occupy more of the space within the blade, and could conflict with other mana circuits. And then, there are some mana circuits I¡¯ve found that are straight up incompatible. Like trying to implement both fire and ice based mana circuits. Twilight was by far my most powerful blade due to the sheer density of the mana circuits, and their compatibility with each other. It didn¡¯t hold a candle to Ancient¡¯s Respite though, due to the fact that it has just as many mana circuits in it, and they have an even greater compatibility with each other. Also, the entire blade is filled with them. It¡¯s the difference between a desktop and a super-computer. That being said, Twilight holds the same gap between it and any other contemporary blade. Well, the sword I forged today had seven mana circuits in it. Here¡¯s what I saw when I used¡¼Analyze¡½on it.
Unnamed Blade
Propertys:
Wind Elemental BoostFire Elemental BoostMana StorageKeen EdgeSpeed BoostLightning BoostFrailness
All in all, it wasn¡¯t bad. Wind and fire worked well together, and I was also able to stick lightning in there. That in turn enabled me to add the speed boost, but also turned the blade somewhat more fragile. The mana storage was an idea that I¡¯d had a few weeks ago, and had been waiting to try out. However, it wasn¡¯t really a property of the blade. I had put those mana circuits into the pommel, where I could store a good deal of my mana pool. I think in the future, I¡¯ll forge something only meant to store mana, so that I didn¡¯t have to worry about running out in the middle of a fight. You can never be too prepared, after all. I think I¡¯ll hold onto this sword for now. I don¡¯t know what to do with it after having forged it, though I now know that selling it wouldn¡¯t be an option. Especially after seeing how my other blades had been misused by the nobility. It could make a good gift for Niten, though. When I next see him, I¡¯ll ask about it. Making that blade had wasted about five hours of time. Not really having anything else to do, I decided to check out the academy¡¯s dungeon. It was a tier five, from all the other dungeon cores that had been fed to it. I had already been granted access by Flavius, so I could enter whenever I wanted. The dungeon was in the center of the campus, amidst several monolithic marble buildings. At first glance, it seemed to just be a stone gazebo, meant for relaxing in. However, the gazebo had a spiral staircase right in its center. The staircase had a turnstile, or this world¡¯s equivalent, guarding the dungeon¡¯s entrance, preventing those unauthorized from entering. I pulled out a glass card, and waved it over the turnstile. Immediately, I heard a click, and pushed through its bars. Very quickly, the staircase descended into the dungeon, finally winding it¡¯s way down into a cavernous room with fluted marble pillars set around its walls. It felt grand, and regal¡ªA far cry from many of the other dungeons I¡¯d seen so far. It also felt neglected, and abandoned. The whole room was lit by a glowing moss that had carpeted the floor, and crept up the pillars with vine-like tendrils. Those same pillars had accumulated little cracks up their length, giving the vines a place to hold onto. What little I could see of the floor indicated that it was composed of black and white tiles, thoroughly shattered. Little motes of glowing dust floated, suspended in midair. There was a stillness, like I had disturbed the atmosphere of the room, and it was waiting to see what I¡¯d do. Oddly enough, I felt a sense of unease, and unslung Twilight form my shoulder, readying it for a draw if need be. It was unlikely that I would encounter anything capable of threatening me until at least the thirtieth level, but I was still on edge. True to my word, every time I encountered a monster, they were easily cut apart. The first time badly scared me, though. Wary and cautious, when the hound had jumped out from some underbrush, I immediately drew Twilight and let loose a slash that killed everything in the room. I chided myself for such foolishness, and moved on. I managed to restrain myself the second time, if only just barely. If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.As I ventured deeper into the dungeon, that wariness only seemed to grow, as did the architecture and grandeur of the buildings around me. It had gone from rooms like that at the entrance, with classical styles of carved stone and arches, to what looked like entire city blocks. On the fifteenth level, I was astonished to find that the entire floor was a single, massive room. It looked like there were streets laid out, and badly damaged stone buildings covered the place. Many of the buildings were only partially intact, their innards exposed after a few walls had collapsed. The omnipresent moss and vines found their way here as well, the glowing green lights providing an eerie tableau to the disgraced architecture. In the center of the floor, and single building rose above the others, it¡¯s domed roof actually scraping against the floor¡¯s ceiling. There were windows all around the dome¡¯s base, and the dome itself rested on a rectangular building with two wings extending out in front of it. Marble pillars lined the building¡¯s sides, and what had once been large glass windows had long ago broken, the vines creeping out of there as well. That building was definably the largest on the floor, and I decided to go check it out, interested to see what was inside. Well, besides an easily beaten floor boss shaped like a giant crow, there were large, partially damaged murals all over the inner wall, depicting several races waging war, making peace, and defending against greater foes. There were a few races that I recognized, but I didn¡¯t think existed on the continents. I was half tempted to just dismiss it as the dungeon adding it¡¯s own flair, or that broken buildings were just a part if it¡¯s personality. Unfortunately, I knew from past experience that this dungeon was much too young to be capable of demonstrating these things. It would take quite a bit of time before it could gain true consciousness, and until then, it would do what all young dungeons did¡ªDraw from it¡¯s surroundings. Sort of like how a dungeon in the mountains might look like a mine, or how a dungeon in an old cemetery would be chock full of undead-type enemies and creepy things, or a dungeon in the middle of a forest would be full of greenery and various animal-type monsters. But then why would this one have these buildings, and the murals holding races that no one here should know about? They might be remnants of an ancient civilization, buried under the assault of time and other things. Judging by the murals, they had been gravely threatened at more than one point, and forced to cooperate to survive. The dungeon might have found these buildings, and incorporated them into its floors. It¡¯s the likeliest scenario, and one that would explain a few things. I mean, I had always wondered why a mana rich world like this one would only have three sentient humanoid races¡ªThe elves, humans and demons. Normally, you would find upwards of two dozen, and a great diversity of other races. Even more, nobody knew what a dragon was here. Well, they did, but dismissed them as myths. No indication as too whether or not they were ever real. To put this in perspective, let me say this. Every world I¡¯ve ever been to had dragons occupying it, in one form or another. Whether or not the world had mana didn¡¯t matter. Dragons were called the beasts of creation for a reason. The fact that they don¡¯t exist here, in a world where they should be able to thrive, indicates a few things to me. One, they could have died off during a great cataclysm or been hunted to extinction. Two, there might be things in this world capable of killing all the dragons. Three, this world is much, much older than I first thought. And, I know that they had existed at one point. After all, they were one of the races depicted in the murals, defending against a shadowy mass of¡­something. Intrigued by the implications of these murals and the buildings, I ventured deeper into the dungeon, banishing that wary and disturbed feeling to the back of my mind. Eventually, I past the fiftieth floor of the dungeon, blasting past all the monsters that had appeared. The floors were getting larger, and the buildings bigger. None of them so far were as big as that one on the fifteenth level, but there were some at least half the size. Not satisfied, I continued deeper, now having forgotten that urgent feeling of wrongness, like something dangerous was happening. Then, past the seventieth floor, things began to change dramatically. The floor size had shrunk again, with the seventy-first floor only holding what seemed to be an ancient and badly damaged market place. Interestingly, the stalls had either been built out of stone designed to look like wood, or the wood had somehow turned into stone itself. Most of them were broken, with the stone looking like it had splintered from some violent impacts. There were buildings jutting out from the floor¡¯s walls, half in and half out of them. Unexpectedly, there were no monsters on that floor, so I walked down the market street, and descended a level, where the first bodies appeared. It reminded me of something I learned while studying another world¡¯s history, when a volcano erupted and buried an entire city under ash. Centuries after that had happened, archeologists found the city, and it¡¯s residents preserved under the packed ash. While the bodies had silently decayed, it had left cavities under the ash perfectly outlining their forms. It kind of felt like that¡ªthere were no actual bodies, just kneeling stone figures, like someone had poured plaster into the cavities, and taken away the ash. I might have thought they were just statues, except they all had expressions of sheer terror on their faces as they looked to some distant, now non-existent point. Something big must have happened to this place, to make it like this. Even more, some of the figures weren¡¯t of elves, humans or demons¡ªProving that the murals I had seen earlier were no fakes. I continued down the dungeon, and promptly lost count of the floor level, due to my astonishment and wonder, looking at the vestiges of a civilization destroyed untold ages ago. I might have found it odd that there were no more monsters attacking me, but like the fear and wariness, it got shoved to the back of my mind.
(POV Flavius) Something¡¯s gone very wrong. I don¡¯t know how it had happened, but Kai has disappeared. The staff-card I had given her shows her entering the academy¡¯s dungeon five days ago, but never leaving. I can¡¯t see her falling to monsters inside the dungeon, given her strength¡ªand true enough, she¡¯s still alive. I knew this because of the staff-card, which monitors its holder and reports their position and wellbeing to me. So I know she¡¯s doing fine, but it won¡¯t display her coordinates. Thankfully, it also records such information, so I could see that she had made it to the bottom floor of the academy¡¯s dungeon two days ago. I would have been astounded by this, since she had set a new record for reaching the bottom, were it not of the information displayed next. Somehow, after reaching to bottom of the dungeon, she disappeared, her coordinates unknown. Unfortunately, this isn¡¯t the first time this has happened. A few teachers have reached the bottom of the dungeon, and also disappeared. After a few weeks, their desiccated corpse appears in the dungeon¡¯s core room, and nobody knows what¡¯s happened to them. I really hope she¡¯s fine, since she¡¯s Master Niten¡¯s disciple, and because I was once good friends with her mother. Actually, I felt quite a bit guilty as well, since nobody had realized she was gone until I found students suited to learning from her. I tried to find her, but couldn''t. I ran around, trying to find her, before checking the system that monitors the staff-cards. After we found out about her being missing yesterday, I shut myself in my office, trying to figure out ways of reaching her. I could think of none in the end, and had to resign myself to a hellish fate¡ªLetting Niten know that I¡¯ve lost his newest disciple. I hope he finds her. I was really looking forward to knowing her better, and seeing her teach those seven new students from the human empire.
Chapter 32: The Precipice (POV Niten) It looks like that girl is in some serious trouble now. Flavius wouldn¡¯t contact me otherwise. Luckily, I was still in the area, waiting to see how little Kai handles teaching. So, it was a short order for me to visit Flavius at the academy. To put a little of the fear he had of me back into his system, I didn¡¯t knock on his office door. I kicked it open, shattering the lock and handle, and strode into the room as if I owned it. Technically, I did, but that¡¯s beside the point. Flavius, contrary to my expectations, didn¡¯t look afraid as he saw me. No, he looked relived¡ªwhich was worse. It meant that he wasn¡¯t confident in handling whatever Kai had gotten herself into without me. (Niten) ¡°Spit it out. What¡¯s happened to Kai?¡± Flavius spoke, and explained the whole thing. (Flavius) ¡°We have records of her entering the dungeon five days ago, and reaching the bottom two days ago. However, since then, she¡¯s disappeared. She reached the bottom, and her coordinates somehow became useless after that.¡± I scratched my head. (Niten) ¡°Has this happened before?¡± Flavius nodded. (Flavius) ¡°A few other teachers have reached the bottom, and disappeared for months, before their bodies reappear.¡± (Niten) ¡°How do the bodies look?¡± (Flavius) ¡°Dried up. Desiccated. They all had a single wound slashed across their throats, cutting their jugular and windpipes. We could never figure anything else out about them.¡± I grunted, and planned a course of action. (Niten) ¡°Well, first, check her coordinates again.¡± Flavius did so. They still didn¡¯t exist. (Niten) ¡°Check that every hour or so. Let me know if there¡¯s a change in it. Meanwhile, we¡¯re going to visit the bottom level of the academy dungeon.¡± It should only take a day for Flavius and I. And then, I can get to seeing about what has happened to Kai. Actually, it had only taken us three quarters of a day to reach the bottom. And, once we reached it, I found out where Kai had gone. (Niten) ¡°So, Flavius. How long do you think this labyrinth has been underneath your dungeon?¡± There was a well-concealed hole, leading to a labyrinth entrance. I didn¡¯t think it was possible for a labyrinth to hide under a growing dungeon. But, it¡¯s the only way Kai could have gone. We set about following her. ¡­And immediately ran into trouble. I wonder how she had gotten past monsters this powerful¡­
(POV Kai) I still hadn¡¯t seen any monsters, even as far down as I had gone. I found myself wondering if I was still inside the dungeon, but then dismissed the notion. The buildings were the same type, with the broken and ancient look to them, and the grace that still remained after an unknown period of years. I found myself wondering what would be waiting for me at the bottom of the dungeon, wherever that was. It felt like everything I had seen so far was building up to that point, where I would find out what had caused the cataclysm, which destroyed this broken underground city. I was close, too. The bottom felt close¡ªvery close. I thought that it was perhaps within ten floors of where I am. Though, now that I¡¯m thinking of it, which floor am I even on, in the first place? That¡¯s odd. It¡¯s not like me to forget something like that, though I suppose I just got caught up in the excitement of discovering more about this world¡¯s past. Partially because it all felt like one big enigma. I mean, supposedly, our continents occupy only a small potion of the world, but no one ever seems to leave and adventurer elsewhere. Also, there¡¯s not nearly as much diversity as other, similar worlds, and now I¡¯ve found out about this ancient, fractured city laying underground, incorporated into a small dungeon¡ªA city demonstrating that the diversity that was now missing had once existed. I wanted to get to the bottom of this mystery, and I felt like the answer lay at the bottom of this dungeon. Even more than that, I wanted to leave a mark on the world for once I felt envy for those who had become legendary historical figures. I felt anger, for not being able to yet join their ranks in any world. I had never really accomplished much in my other lives, instead enabling others to reach their desires. I wanted that to change, for me to be remembered in a positive light. I got the strong feeling that if I just continued downwards, I would find that which I have been seeking. So I continued. Actually, reaching the bottom was exhilarating. There was a floor, where a spiral staircase stood in the center of it, leading ever more downwards. Walking down the stone stairway, what felt like hours and minutes at the same time passed, before the space around me opened up. While all the floors thus far had been large, and encompassed a few city-blocks within, this last one was massive. I knew it was the last, as well. I felt it in my bones¡ªWhat I was looking for was here. On the other end of the space, past at least five blocks of the most intact buildings I¡¯d seen so far, a cathedral stood. Just calling it a building didn¡¯t do it any justice. Even from so far away, I could see the carvings engraved into the side of its stones and spires with masterful skill. The ever-present moss and vines didn¡¯t even touch it, so their green light didn¡¯t light it up. However, the plants illumination was wholly unnecessary, since the cathedral seemed to glow with an inner light, emanating form the stones themselves. This was certainly a holy-place, dedicated to one of the gods of this realm, or maybe more. Hm. I don¡¯t know why, but I felt a little uneasy seeing it. Like something was out of place, though I didn¡¯t know what. I made sure that Twilight was in a good position to draw it quickly and easily, and walked all the way down the staircase, finally making it to the streets below. The street the staircase terminated on led straight to the cathedral, and I could see heavy wood-carved doors set into an alcove in the cathedral¡¯s front. For some reason, the silence of the streets and buildings were bothering me. And something felt off in the back of my mind. The whole thing was beginning to feel weird. The sensation of wrongness and incongruity mounted, until something snapped. All the sudden, it felt like I could see in color again. Nothing around me changed physically, but my perception of everything did. A crushing sense of danger overwhelmed me, no matter where I looked, whether it be the road, some rocks off to the side, or the buildings on either side of me. The greatest feeling of danger came from the cathedral in front of me, whose light I now saw differently. While it¡¯s stones still seemed to glow, the light felt¡­corrupted somehow. Also, I now felt all my emotions again. Most prominently, I felt fear. I knew what had happened, why I had gone this far down, even though my common sense should have stopped me long ago due to the feeling of danger all around. Long story short, my mind has been subtly messed with. More specifically, someone inhibited my sense of fear and caution, making me more carefree and completely wiping out my feelings of danger. Something wanted me to come all the way down here, and now I¡¯m very reluctant to meet it. It has to be powerful, to be able to mess with my head like that though. The last time something similar had happened to me, was when I got summoned from that one world, Earth. When a summoning ceremony is carried out, restrictions like the ones I had just broken were placed on the heroes minds, keeping them from thinking too much about the past, and making them more sympathetic towards the plight of the country doing the summoning. It¡¯s a complex process that seems to backfire half the time, creating men with the minds of monsters. It can be broken by sheer will power, though. Which is how I broke it this time. Or rather, how my subconscious did. My waking self didn¡¯t even realize it was being controlled, which scared me. Who the hell had such power, and such a delicate touch? Not someone I¡¯d want to meet, that¡¯s for sure. I turned around, looking to run out of this place as soon as I could. Before I could even start moving though, two shadows rose out of the ground, blocking the road to the staircase. A fine layer of sweat broke out all over my body when I saw them. While I was confident in my strength at the moment, the auras exuded by those two shades far and above exceeded anything I was capable of fighting at the moment. They also sent a potent message. Whoever went to the lengths of getting me to come down here of my own will¡ªalbeit a limited one¡ªwanted me to stay. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings. No, they wanted me to go to them. Only one place this¡­entity could be hiding, then. Looks like I get to view the cathedral up close, after all. Sure enough, as soon as I started walking to the cathedral, the shades disappeared, seemingly fading out of existence. I walked straight to the church, certain that if I deviated even a little off course, the shades would return. I looked at the towering spires of the church, shivering a little. It whatever was behind this had to use mind-control techniques to get me here, then it was all but assured that nothing pleasant was going to happen. I could try fighting the shades, and running, but to beat them, I felt like I would have to use my trump cards. And there were likely many other things waiting for me on the way up. I didn¡¯t feel like that would be the way to survive this. I need to meet the one who brought me here, and try to fight my way out from there. After all, it¡¯s always easier to fight one on one, rather than against larger numbers. Getting closer to the cathedral, I could now make out the images carved into its marble fa?ade. None of the carvings looked fun, depicting scenes of those who betrayed the gods bring punished, or others carrying out brutal quests for one reason or another. As soon as I stood in front of the massive wooden doors, they slowly creaked open, swinging inwards. I knew that as soon as I stepped inside, the doors would crash shut, blocking my way out. Sure enough, as soon as they had clearance, the doors closed with an echoing thud. Inside the church, imposing pillars lined the center section, all the way down the massive corridor. Off to either side, small vestibules lined the walls, little recessed alcoves with cold stone benches inside them. I could faintly see the alter ahead of me, it¡¯s stone faces covered in gilded bass-relief carvings depicting the creation of this world. It was what stood behind the alter that left my knees shivering, though. I could see the bare skull; it¡¯s eyeless face grinning at me under the heavy black cloak it wore, and wisps of black fog curling around it. It seemed to be staring straight at me, its malevolent gaze also holding an unmatched intelligence and thirst for power. Shit, I¡¯m in trouble again. (Lich) ¡°I would have you serve me, little immortal.¡± I gritted my teeth, all too aware what a lich meant when it said ¡®to serve¡¯. Unlike a necromancer, liches will only take their servants already dead. It was with a tremendous amount of will, that I spoke. (Kai) ¡°You¡­will not have me.¡± The pressure that crashed down on me in the next moment, reminded me that one wrong move here¡ªNo, any move might kill me. Even not moving. (Lich) ¡°That is not your decision. You amuse me, so I will attempt to keep intact your thought pattern. Your soul will still die, however.¡± I tried to fight back against that pressure, which had brought me to my knees all too easily. Only with great effort was I able to stand again, and still my knees threatened to buckle under me. It was a reminder that came too late. I had gotten caught up in my power, the level of my ability compared to my peers. I had forgotten. Truly powerful beings do not care if you are stronger than others your age. They will squash you like a bug all the same. So what if I¡¯m a teacher at thirteen? So what if I¡¯m a monster as far as training speed is concerned? I¡¯m still missing one thing all of the strongest beings have on their side. Time. I haven¡¯t had nearly enough time. And now, if I don¡¯t do something, I will never get that time. Instead, my undead corpse would. (Kai) ¡°I refuse¡­to die here!¡± All at once, I activated¡¼Demonic Transformation¡½and¡¼Storm¡¯s Eye¡½, boosting my combat potential by several times. This would be enough to let me curb-stomp any of the monsters I¡¯ve beaten so far. It wasn¡¯t enough. Not nearly. The lich seemed to smirk, even though it¡¯s face had no flesh, it was conveying a sense of amusement. I hoarsely yelled out a battle cry I¡¯d once used many times, and prepared Twilight for one of my strongest strikes. I took the basic concept behind my best ice based magic, Niflheim, and my best fire magic, Muspelheim, and combined them. A wave of pure cold erupted from Twilight, speeding towards the lich. Closely behind it followed a wave of heat, to violently expand that which was contracted by the cold. I saw the lich get hit with them, it¡¯s old and brittle bones cracking, and as it gave off a scream of anger and despair, I walked away from the short battle unscathed¡­Not. I wish. Unfortunately, things never seem to work out the way I want. It only set up a little barrier, thin as a sheet of paper, and both the waves were blocked. I gathered most my remaining mana, and shoved it into a lightning spell, which would be greatly boosted by¡¼Storm¡¯s Eye¡½. A crack resounded within the cathedral as a bolt of pure energy hit the lich¡¯s barrier, seeming to warp the space around it as it past, due to the heat of the strike. Smoke obscured the lich for a moment. It cleared after a second, and I was stunned by the sight of¡­Nothing. The lich wasn¡¯t there anymore. (Lich) ¡°You do not use those spell correctly. As you are now, you do not meet my expectations.¡± I spun around, the lich¡¯s voice appearing from behind me. I panicked when it wasn¡¯t there either, and spun about, frantically attempting to locate it before¡¼Storm¡¯s Eye¡½wore off. (Lich) ¡°You think yourself my match still? I shall demonstrate our differences.¡± Without any chants, or any other indications, what felt like a wave of pure mana suddenly struck me from above. A crescent moon shaped piece of pure ice hit Twilight, and sheered straight through it, and my hand underneath. Both fell to the floor, the sword with two different chiming sounds, as half of its blade and the rest plus the hilt hit the stone floor, and my hand seemingly without a sound, lightly twitching. For a moment, I simply stared at the stump where my right hand had been, my mind refusing to recognize what was now an empty space. Then, wave after wave of pain wracked my senses. I picked up the hilt portion of Twilight, refusing to believe a few crucial things. One, Twilight was broken, the mana circuits sheered off in the middle. Two, I¡¯m not left handed, though I suppose I was now. Three, I was likely in shock, and some part of my brain recognized it, though the rest refused to, focused as it was on panicking. Four, I was panicking. Five, I really need to stop making lists in deadly situations, though that might be the shock setting in. I was shaking badly at this point, and blood started to drip from my arm. (Lich) ¡°If you would submit, I can ensure a painless demise.¡± Demise. Death. Do I want to die again? Go through the pain of being born once more? Or will I even be reborn after this life? How unfair this life is, I thought to myself. No, how unfair all of my lives have been. Living in fear, in agony, in paranoia, in delusions. Living in the squallier of the poor, and with the scheming of the rich. Living as a sacrifice, and as a tool. I¡¯ve lived, yes. But never for myself. I want to live. I want to survive. To never be threatened again, to have to worry about death. I don¡¯t want to...no, I won¡¯t die here. I can''t die here. NOT AGAIN! So I snapped, and I felt true agony course through my soul. [tr] [tr]
System Notification:Overlay Sequence Begun
Error¡ªBody Incompatable
Partial Overlay Sequence Begun
10% 20% 30% 45% 60% 70% 95% 100%
Overlay Complete
Huh. What? And that was the last thing I remembered form the cathedral, except for a glowing blue circle of mana, ancient and miraculously intact, and the nausea that followed after I dragged myself onto it, bleeding from pretty much everywhere.
Credit to LadyLaurel for the chapter name. Very fitting, so I went with it. ¡ªRiver. Chapter 33: The Aftermath ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Ugh. ¡­ ¡­ Why the hell am I in so much pain? Nothing should have happened today at school though¡­Wait, no. Was I beaten by my master again? No, no. I already died there. Wait, which person am I now? Kai, Kai, or Kai? I tried standing up, propping myself up by my hands. A tremendous amount of pain shot up my right arm as it hit the ground, as the hand I expected to be there wasn¡¯t. That¡¯s odd. When did I lose that? Wait, no. I remember, I think? A skull¡ªNo, a lich. There was a lich. Ugh, I hate liches. Ever since I died that one time. But I didn¡¯t this time¡ªDid I somehow kill it? No no no. I remember running. Combat? I think I stopped it, or wounded it somehow. It¡¯s not dead though. I¡¯m fairly certain. Now, why was there a lich in the first place? I tried to think back, the only thing I got was that there was a lich at some point. It¡¯s hard to think over all this pain. Well, at least it looks like anything that could bleed has stopped. And my stumpy right hand was covered in a thick cloth, keeping the blood in, and the dirt out. I tried to get up again, but this time, my left leg stopped me. It was thoroughly broken. I should have realized that just by looking at it, since it¡¯s bending in a place no leg should. There was a trail of dried blood leading off to the distance, where I could see a crater, still smoking from something. Around me, there were trees growing between stones obviously shaped by the hand of man. Or Dwarves. Maybe Demi-humans. Let¡¯s not jump to conclusions here, Kai. If I still go by that name. Wait, isn¡¯t there an easy way to find out which person¡­no, not person. That would imply that I¡¯m always a person. Anyway. I looked around for a reflective surface, and found one. It was the broken hilt of a sword, along with a good fifteen centimeters of blade. Well, it certainly looked familiar. Is it from Earth? Right, reflection. I grabbed onto the hilt of the sword with my left hand, since my right was slightly out of action at the moment. I might need a hand with this. Tee-he. I giggled at that little joke, though it reminded me that I needed some water. My throat was dry as a bone. Oh well. Not like I needed to speak for this next part. Or, the part I had been intending to do after seeing my reflection. Wow, I¡¯m in worse shape than I thought. Well, at least my face looked familiar. I think I¡¯m regaining my bearings somewhat now. Anyway, my face was full of scratches, like it had been dragged across the ground violently. I also seemed to be missing a horn. Reaching up with my left hand, I found the base from where it had been sheared off somehow. Luckily, it felt like a clean cut. Or unluckily, that it had been lost in the first place. Ah! Not lost! It was in my pocket. Hastily, I placed the displaced horn against the base, and cast a more advanced healing spell. It fused with the base, and stayed. I¡¯ll have to be careful in the near future, to make sure it doesn¡¯t fall off again during the mending process. It also looks like there¡¯s a rather big gash on my chest, right above where my heart is. Any deeper, and hello again, reincarnation cycle. Though, speaking of chest...It seems this body is female. Huh. Second time¡¯s the charm, I guess. Seeing how I didn¡¯t last too long the first time, well maybe this time¡¯ll be better. No wait. I¡¯ve been in this body a while now. I think¡­.Katariah? Quickly, I used that one skill that all worlds have,¡¼Analyze¡½, while looking at my reflection.
Status:
Name: Katariah Nadine Silver
Titles: (5 Hidden)
Race: Demon/ElfAge: 13Gender: Female
Main Class: MageSub Class(es): Smith; Swordsman
Level: 74
Health: 1260Mana: 96480
Strength: 231Stamina: 129Dexterity: 252
Intelligence: 337Wisdom: 251Luck: 1
Abnormal Status: Cursed
The holder of this status will not be able to advance in level for the period of time equal to one year. Alternatively, killing that which had given the status will release the curse.
Cursed By: Grand Lich Toledo
I must have done something really annoying to that lich to make him give me such a petty curse. Other than that, I think I¡¯m beginning to remember some basic things about my current life. Only dimly though. Like, I can remember spending quite a bit of time in a grove of some sorts, but I can¡¯t remember what put me there in the first place. I also remember a city, and...swords? Ah, right. I was interested in them that one time, and must have decided to pursue that interest. Then I guess the broken sword I¡¯m using as a mirror was made by me? It¡¯s not bad, actually, for a broken thing. The edge is still razor sharp, and has some usability. Like cutting bark off the tree I¡¯m lying against, and strips off the old-looking coat I¡¯m wearing. This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. I tied a crude splint around my broken leg, but only after going through the agony of resetting the bone. Looks like studying to be a doctor came in handy for once, right Sarah? Ugh. She¡¯s probably dead by now, though. Looks like I lucked out again, since I also had the scabbard for the broken sword. I placed what remained of the sword in there, and used it as a crutch for now. It took a few minutes to properly stand after ignoring the throbbing sensations of both the broken leg, and the missing hand. You might be wondering why I had used heal on the horn, but left the leg, right? Actually, I did use heal on the leg, after resetting it. However, that only acts as a patch for now, keeping it in place. I would have to use a better healing spell to completely fix it, but I had already used my best one. I¡¯ve never been very good at healing spells, for whatever reason. Guess even I have to have something I¡¯m bad at. As far as the hand goes, I¡¯ll just have to keep missing it for now. I¡¯d have to find the original to heal it myself, and no way am I going back to where that lich was. I have heard tell that a talented enough healer could regrow limbs, so I¡¯ll just have to keep hoping to come across someone like that. Slightly depressing, but it¡¯s the truth. I decided that the first place I should check is that smoking crater. Especially since I left a blood-trail from there. Disappointingly, it was exactly what it looked like. A smoking crater. Hmm. It looked like there might have been remnants of a rune or inscription at the bottom of the crater, but I might just be seeing things that aren¡¯t there. The area had evidently been hit with quite the large explosion, since the crater was fairly wide, and had little glass particles at the bottom of it, the dirt having melted briefly by the heat. Actually, there was a rune here before. I must have arrived on it, teleporting in though the other end, where the lich was. Now then. The big question, where the hell am I? Ostensibly, in a forest. I could see the tops of mountains all around me, so I¡¯m in a valley, and a fairly large one at that. Also, it seems like there was once a civilization of some sort here. As evidenced by the stone walls of varying height all around me. There was nothing standing intact, though. It looked like these stones have been out here awhile, what with how beaten up and weather-worn they are. Even more, the stones could be seen everywhere, forming geometrically straight lines and boxes. Sometimes the boxes and rectangles were close together, clumped in odd ways. Then, there were long, wide stretches were no stones stood. I¡¯m thinking that these were roads, and that all these boxes and lines were once buildings, long, long ago. It¡¯s sad to think of how things, even things as large as the city that had once stood here, decay and are forgotten. Normally, I would go about trying to find my way out of the valley, and reconnect with society, but my leg¡¯s going to prevent me from moving too far at the moment. And, I think I need to get used to the whole ¡®no-hand¡¯ thing. It¡¯s the first time something like that¡¯s happened. Or, well, the first time the missing limb hasn¡¯t been reattached. So, I guess I¡¯m left-handed now. I really shouldn¡¯t laugh at that, but oh well. Gallows humor seems fitting at the moment. After all, this is a pretty shitty situation. I have no food nor water, and likely haven¡¯t for a while now, if the gnawing hunger and urgent thirst is any indication. I have no idea where I am, nor where to find food and water...Wait. Deer. Well, now I have food. How about water? Huh? What¡¯s that noise? ...And there was a stream nearby. Has my luck turned around for once? Now that I¡¯m somewhat satiated, I can continue. I have no idea where I am. I¡¯m in a valley, but there are many valleys on these continents, if memory serves me properly. And I don¡¯t recall hearing about the site of an old city in a valley. Though, since I seem to be having memory problems with this life, I might just not remember it at the moment. I also can¡¯t raise my level for a year. I mean, the alternative is that I face the lich again, but the first time had already turned out so badly. I¡¯m no masochist. I have no idea, or I can¡¯t remember if anyone would be looking for me, so I have to find my own way out. To do that, I first have to wait for me to heal. Which would likely take months. Also, I kind of want to explore this place, see if I can find out more about the city that had been here. I couldn¡¯t remember why yet, but there was definitely a great sense of caution when I considered exploring an abandoned city¡ªor what was left of it. I would attribute it to bad memories, except I can¡¯t remember anything yet. That was another problem. Why couldn¡¯t I remember anything? Well, most of anything. It disturbed me to have black spots in my memories, especially since it wasn¡¯t voluntary. There are some things I¡¯m perfectly willing to forget, and have¡ªmostly. I try not to think about it. Well, I guess I can look at this as being a year of rest and relaxation. And to start it, I¡¯m going to the center of the forest, to see what I can find. I tried to not expect too much, since I seem to be in the middle of nowhere, even though it had once been somewhere. I was right to do that, since it made it all the more sweet when I had finally hobbled my way to the center, and found some thing...unexpected.
Chapter 34: The Reappearance I say that I found something interesting in the center of the forest, but that¡¯s not strictly true. You see, to find out what¡¯s at the center of the forest, I would first have to get there. That was already a tall order, what with my leg having been broken. At the moment, I couldn¡¯t put any weight on it, and just had to be patient, letting it heal. No, the thing preventing me from reaching the center of the forest was pressure. As I reached the halfway point, it began to become harder to breath, like the air was getting thinner, and everything felt heavier. It looks like whatever¡¯s in the center of the valley, there¡¯s also a high-mana zone around it. To those not familiar with mana and magic, an area with a gross over-abundance of mana would sound like a gods-send, where spells could draw in that thick and potent mana and utilize it to devastating effect. Those same people, who try it without prior preparation or thought tend to explode, the wild mana expanding within their energy channels, and destroying the core of their being. There are some things that people are not meant to touch upon naturally. That¡¯s not to say they can¡¯t¡ªIt just takes patience and laborious work. Well, no physical work, that is. Anyway, the pressure got to be too much for me only a little past the halfway mark, and I slumped onto the ground, gasping for breath and muscles twitching like I had just run a marathon. I figured that this was a good place to start, since I was obviously right at the edge of my limits. Leaning against another of those stone walls, I began breathing rhythmically, timing the inhale and exhale in very specific ways. While I was doing that, I started slowly releasing what was left of my mana after the fight with the lich. It felt like the thinnest and most delicate tendrils of energy were extending away from me in little bursts coinciding with my breaths. After an indeterminate amount of time, my mana pool was nearly empty. This was as nearly perfect as it was going to get, I guess. I began drawing in the crushing mana around me, carefully and slowly. There was a definitive difference between the mana I had just released, and the stuff I was bringing in now. Whereas my own mana pool, when released, had felt like the smallest cotton fibers being let go of, the stuff coming back in feel like the world''s most delicate lead chain being force feed through my mana channels. It was nearly too heavy for me, and I could feel the channels straining under the density from even the tiny amount I had drawn in. A drop of sweat rolled down my face, as I strained to prevent the mana from going berserk in my channels. I circulated the wild mana all the way through my body, finally depositing it in my mana pool, where it violently expanded. It did no harm though, since my mana pool was nearly empty anyway. It encountered no resistance. I continued to repeat the action of drawing in bits of the wild mana one by one, and circulate it through my body. I was so concentrated on the task that I didn¡¯t notice the sun sink behind the mountains circling the valley, nor it rising opposite to where it had fallen. I had to be¡ªafter all, one wrong move, and bad things could happen. That¡¯s why most sane people wouldn¡¯t dare meditate in a high-mana area¡ªToo many risks involved. It¡¯s basically gambling with your ability, and your level of control. If it falls short, then you¡¯re turned inside out. If all goes well, then almost miraculous things happen to your stats. I won¡¯t lie, when I came across the high-mana area, I nearly fell to my knees, and thanked whichever god/goddess is in charge of luck in this realm. It¡¯s exactly what I need at the moment, considering that I can¡¯t raise my level. Now, I can just train my stats directly, with a huge pay-off in the end. Even better, through this type of training, I can gain a resistance to the high-mana area¡¯s density levels, allowing me to creep closer to the center of the valley. Well, It¡¯ll take some time, but that¡¯s something I have an abundance of at the moment, due to my leg. And, I want to get used to using my left hand for now. While I¡¯m not abandoning hope of finding someone capable of regrowing it, that seems like a distant possibility at the moment. I¡¯m taking up the ¡®hope for the best, but prepare for the worst¡¯ mentality. Anyway, since it somewhat of a rarity for me to have a peaceful moment, I¡¯ll just enjoy this, looking at the whole thing as a vacation. One where if I breathe in the air too forcibly, I¡¯ll be scattered amongst the tree-tops. Oh well. I started seeing results from this training only a few days later, when I looked at my status. Due to the strain put on the whole body by the pressure of the mana, both inside and out, all physical stats are raised. Due to the concentration required to keep yourself from exploding, your wisdom and intelligence are raised. And, due to the circulation of high-density mana through the body, your mana increases explosively, especially since the mana within your body begins to match the density levels of the surrounding area. Mana¡¯s an odd thing. You can increase the size of your mana pool relatively easily, through mediation and level gains, but normally, the density stays the same, since it¡¯s rare to find areas of high mana density. Most of the mana existing is spread out evenly, with all places getting the same amount. When someone powerful drains the mana from an area, it replenishes itself after a day. Areas of high-mana are unexplained, though they tend to be drawn to ancient magic, or god relics. And even then, you would be hard-pressed to find an area so pure as this one. Whatever¡¯s at the center of this valley must be huge, power wise. Anyway, when you increase the density of the mana in your body, you can¡¯t go back. It¡¯s a one-way road, one that has its inherent advantages and disadvantages. On one hand, the spells you cast are more powerful. On the other, it takes much longer for you to replenish the mana spent powering that spell, since you have to compress the naturally occurring mana to match that which is within your body. I really lucked out this time, finding this place. All in all, my mana had increased by fifty in four days, though that was secondary to the density increase. All my other stats increased by anywhere from two to twenty during the same time. Another unexpected benefit of the meditation was that I began to remember things from my current life. I now recalled that my brother had chucked me into a special grove to save my life, and that my mother was nothing like what I had expected, though I didn¡¯t get to see much of her. It¡¯s a shame¡ªShe was the most interesting person I¡¯ve ever seen. Unfortunately, the most recent memories I had, besides those involving that damn lich, were from a human city, where I sold blades. At first, I had gone there to find some peace and quiet, though that ended up not happening. I wonder what happened to the city after I left. If you stumble upon this tale on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. Nothing good I¡¯d suppose. They would have been viewed as a rebel fraction, and dealt with accordingly. I know nothing I could have done would have saved it, since my only real authority lay in the Elven Empire. Authority I had only gotten after leaving that city, wishing for a way to protect it. I think I found out what had happened to it, but I just can¡¯t recall it at this point. I could hope that nobody died, but that¡¯s always a false hope for me. Still though¡­
On the academy grounds, as Kai began her somewhat lengthy and world-changing training regimen, a single cloaked figure walked through the entrance gates. The clothing he wore were in tatters, the cloak looking like a massively oversized rag. Because there was nobody around to see the figure enter, there was no astonishment upon seeing how his hooded head reached the top of the gate, over two meters tall. Curly locks of fiery red hair peaked out from under the hood, which was actually a tad small for the big man. On his back, a beaten and battered greatsword hung from a special sheath, designed for an easy draw. He looked around for a moment, before spotting something across the well-lit campus grounds. It was the administrative offices, where people would go to see about jobs, or money owed to the academy. He walked into the building, squinting slightly at the well-lit and clean interior, which seemed to only accent the poor condition of his clothes. There was a row of desks set up, with only one being occupied that late at night. The white-haired old man behind the desk looked up as the big man entered, and smiled, as if saying ¡®Can I help you? Now, please don¡¯t dirty my nice lobby.'' (Hogvir) ¡°¡¯Ello. I¡¯m here to see about a position as a smithy¡¯s apprentice?¡± The old man looked Hogvir up and down, evaluating him. There was a name tag on the desk identifying him as Dowsy. (Dowsy) ¡°Bit old for that, aren¡¯t you? You¡¯re what, twenty, thirty?¡± (Hogvir) ¡°Thirty-five. Just means I have more experience. I¡¯ve run a forge before, and decided to give this place a look¡­¡± (Dowsy) ¡°No, you¡¯ve heard that Master Giden is working here, and wanted to work with a legend, right?¡± Hogvir looked at him sheepishly. (Hogvir) ¡°That¡¯s right. Do you get many others like that?¡± (Dowsy) ¡°*Sigh*. You have no idea. Luckily, Master Giden has said that anyone who comes should be given a chance. He should still be at the school¡¯s forge. If you hurry, you could make it.¡± Hogvir thanked the old man, and left hastily. Dowsy shook his head. It was true that all those who had shown up, asking for a job working with Master Giden had been given a chance, but only that. All but one had been shown the door after about a week, their ability¡¯s not up to par. Hogvir found the forge easily, from the directions given to him by Dowsy before he left. Sure enough, there were three people in the forge¡ªOne old elf, and two assistants. They seemed to be concentrating on forging a blade from multiple pieces of steel. They were inscribing runes on the steel before heat welding them together, working carefully to avoid deforming the runes. Off to the side, a gleaming blade sat, likely an earlier product of this technique. Hogvir stood silently, watching the delicate dance of the smiths working to birth a new blade. There was a beauty in it, plain to see, and Hogvir didn¡¯t move at all, hardly daring to breathe, afraid that he would ruin the harmony before him. Unfortunately, a chiming sound was heard as the blade was dipped into a tank of water, and it split down the middle. The men groaned at this failure, the similarly broken blades scattering the workplace attesting to repeated results. The elf noticed Hogvir at this point, and beckoned him over. (Giden) ¡°You, are you here for a job?¡± Hogvir nodded. (Giden) ¡°Good. Can you clean up all these broken blades?¡± Again, Hogvir nodded. He bent down to pick one up, when he heard a gasp behind him. It was Master Giden, looking at the greatsword on his back. The blade was mostly visible due to the special sheath, and something the elf had seen astonished him greatly. (Giden) ¡°Your sword, was it made by that bladesmith, Kai?¡± Hogvir shook his head this time. (Hogvir) ¡°No. Well, yes, it was indeed given to me by a bladesmith named Kai, but he didn¡¯t make it. It channels mana¡ªnobody can make those anymore, right? It was a gift.¡± The elf had a gleam in his eyes now. (Giden) ¡°He? No, the bladesmith I know as Kai is a girl, a little thing. She¡¯s somehow figured out how to make mana-channeling blades again.¡± Hogvir, predictably, looked flabbergasted. (Hogvir) ¡°Kai, a girl? No, no. We must know different Kai¡¯s.¡± (Giden) ¡°Well then, why don¡¯t we compare notes? See if there are truly two different Kai¡¯s, both having mana-channeling blades. Tell me, did you ever see your Kai¡¯s face?¡± Hogvir shook his head. The Kai he knew had always worn that mask, concealing his face¡­ But had Hogvir ever asked him why his face was covered? He didn¡¯t think so. The fact remained though, that he had never seen Kai¡¯s face. (Giden) ¡°Then how do you know they¡¯re different? Kai likely hid her face to avoid persecution, and other troubles. Now then, could I see the blade on your back, young man?¡± Hogvir let Master Giden take the blade, and didn¡¯t watch as he examined it closely, occasionally sending out a little probe of mana, testing the blade¡¯s functions. Hogvir was preoccupied. He was pondering all of Kai¡¯s actions, and little personality quirks. He was actually beginning to realize that Giden¡¯s suggestion made more than a little sense. (Giden) ¡°As I thought. It was made with the same techniques as that other one. Furthermore, it¡¯s not an ancient blade. While it is considerably damaged, it isn¡¯t aged. This was made recently.¡± (Hogvir) ¡°So they are the same person?¡± Suddenly, an idea occurred to Hogvir. (Hogvir) ¡°Wait, since you know Kai, then he..no, she must have been through here before, right? Do you know where Kai went?¡± Giden shook his head sadly. (Giden) ¡°Kai disappeared only recently. The Headmaster is out looking for her, off at some island. More than that, I can¡¯t tell you. Hopefully, she''ll be back.¡± Hogvir sighed. There were some questions he had for Kai, things he had wanted to ask since they found her house empty, the wards gone. He decided that the academy was as good a place as any to wait. And so, it came about that Hogvir apprenticed himself to the legendary elven smith, Giden. Chapter 35: The Implications (POV Flavius) I¡¯m beginning to wonder if the tracking function on Kai¡¯s staff-card is broken. Simply because, there¡¯s no way she could be on that island. Situated between the human and demon continents, mountain peaks seem to rise from the ocean. There are no beaches on this island¡ªjust water, then cliffs giving way to mountains. It¡¯s a fairly large island, and would certainly be capable of supporting sentient life. In fact, it''s been documented that there was once a thriving civilization on the island, full of things now unimaginable, and impossible. While no one knows of those documents were true, there is one thing certain about the island. It¡¯s surrounded by the strongest ward we know of. It¡¯s just a simple physical ward, preventing people from passing. However, it¡¯s also a physical ward that even the strongest the empires had to offer couldn¡¯t breach. Actually, forget about breaching¡ªthey didn¡¯t even scratch it. A level eight-hundred powerhouse could only stare at the ward, confused and perturbed. And, for some reason, the tracker showing where Kai is, it points to the interior of that same ward, the one that nobody has gotten past, ever. Niten and I had been overjoyed when we were in that damnable labyrinth, having fought our way to the tenth floor, when Kai¡¯s position had changed abruptly. The card didn¡¯t display any good coordinates one second, and the next, she was very, very far away. Glad that we no longer had to attempt the labyrinth, which Niten thought was a tier eleven monstrosity, we fought our way back out. Promptly afterwards, we went through one gate after another, getting closer to her coordinates. Finally, we ended up on the lowest point of the human continent, but still, her coordinates were lower. We went to the demon continent, before discovering that her coordinates were now above us. Once we discovered that the coordinates centered around that infamous island, we made a few theories, as to how she had gotten there. She could have been caught by a nether rift, and spontaneously transported to the island. Or, she could have happened upon a transport rune, maybe even a gate, which brought her directly inside the ward. The chances of that would normally be astronomically thin, since the two gates, or the transport rune and it¡¯s target location would have had to exist from before the ward was erected. And, the ward¡¯s been up for longer than Niten¡¯s been alive. Longer than anyone¡¯s been alive. Well, anyone that I know of. There¡¯s probably a hermit living somewhere, with an absolutely monstrous age. There have always been stories like that, where a hero happens across a hermit, and the hermit passes along sage advice, based on his life experiences. I remember reading one as a kid, where the hermit happened across the hero of the story, who was badly wounded. The hermit healed the hero, and taught him magic. I never really liked that story¡ªThe hero¡¯s journey was too easy, and everything was handed to him. Real life is never so clean. Oh, sorry. I got a little off track. Anyway, the last option is that Kai had somehow made it back out of the labyrinth, gotten to the island within an hour, and bypassed it¡¯s ward. Yes, it¡¯s a little unlikely. I don¡¯t know what to think of it, but Niten is convinced that Kai found a gate or a transport rune deep within the labyrinth¡ªfarther down than we would be able to go. That¡¯s still a mystery. How did Kai get so far down? While the latitude and longitude measurements on the tracker were completely nonsensical, the height was clearly working, since every time I checked it, she was farther down. Much farther than we could safely go. Well, now Niten and I are sitting on a well-stocked fishing boat, waiting outside the island¡¯s wards. While the ward prevented anything from entering, there was nothing to say that you couldn¡¯t exit. Hopefully, Kai will be able to find her way out soon, and we¡¯ll be waiting for her when she does. I had left the affairs of the academy to my second in command, the so-called vice headmaster, Colden Hawfield. He¡¯s a pretty eager guy, always saying that he¡¯ll catch all the failing students, and make sure they do their best. He also loves rye bread. He eats it with everything, all the time. With him in charge at the academy, I can afford to wait outside Ascension Island for as long as need be.
I¡¯ve advanced another quarter of the way to the center. The mana density has increased exponentially as I neared whatever¡¯s causing this, a good thing, since my resistance to it has also increased exponentially. I think it¡¯s been a month or so? I might have lost track, given the lengthy nature of the meditations, and the temporal disorientation that happens during them. My progress is getting faster as well, with my stats increasing ever faster, and my leg mostly mended now. I can actually do simple exercises now, as long as I don¡¯t strain myself too much¡ªWhich is all too easy to do, now that I¡¯m getting closer. Gravity also tends to behave oddly in high-mana areas, especially ones where the density is very high. What I mean is, the gravity around me had been increasing, along with the density of the mana as I move towards the center of the valley. This is why my physical stats have seen explosive increases lately, as my body strains itself to resist the pull of the earth. It¡¯s also why, even though I can do simple exercises with my leg, I won¡¯t. I don¡¯t want to accidentally make it worse, you see. On a very happy side note, I¡¯ve recovered almost all of this life¡¯s memories. There¡¯s just one period of time that I can¡¯t remember at the moment¡ªthat of the actual fight with the lich. I can remember losing my hand, and the system message that popped up after that, but no farther. I somehow know that I did something to the lich, preventing him from following me, and that we fought for quite a while before that. But the details, like how I was able to fight it for so long without a hand, or how I found a transport rune, those escape me. It¡¯s like, I know the end results, but not how I got there. If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it. It¡¯s more than a little frustrating for me. There¡¯s been another change around me as I move deeper into the valley¡¯s forest, besides the mana density levels increasing. Where at the edge of the forest, there were only large flat stones left of what should have been a massive city, now there are walls still standing semi-intact, with thick and stout trees weaving around them. There haven¡¯t been any intact walls yet, but I get the feeling it¡¯s only a matter of time, given the trend of things being more complete closer to the center. Maybe there are whole buildings somewhere. Well, given that I¡¯m already three-fourths of the way to the center, I should see them soon, if they exist. In fact, I saw the center sooner than I thought. As it turns out, there¡¯s a limit to how much a tree can withstand, unless they¡¯re certain special types of trees. There were none of those here, though. As a result of the mana density and pressure, they aren¡¯t able to take root past a certain point. That meant that the center of the valley was in a clearing, devoid of trees and other shrubbery obscuring my vision. When I crossed from the forest to the clearing, I was afforded a clear view towards the center. I will say this¡ªIt was beautiful in it¡¯s own way. There weren¡¯t any complete buildings, like I had hoped. Instead, the clearing was occupied by bright green grass and flowers. There were partially intact stones in the clearing, though none were from small buildings. There had only been one building here, before the city was abandoned, or lost, or destroyed. A church. There were two walls still standing, if barely. Ivy had clung to the thick stones, and climbed part of the way to the crumbling top of the walls. A smattering of stone pillars still stood, looking like replacements for the trees that couldn¡¯t, due to the pressure. A single bell tower was completely intact, incongruously standing tall. Little motes of light floated around the ruined church, evidence that the mana density around it had reached incredible levels, since it had turned into a physical phenomenon. I couldn¡¯t see anything that would cause the mana density levels to reach such levels, though. It might be obscured by one of the still-standing walls, or it might be in that bell tower. Though, now that I¡¯ve reached this clearing, I¡¯ve had to slow down a little. Even while my resistance to the density levels rises exponentially, it would appear that it¡¯s still a smaller exponent when compared to that of the increase in density. In other words, I need to slow down, and take more time to adjust myself to the new, higher density levels. It looks like it should only take me another two or so weeks to reach the ruined church, though. ¡­Is what I thought, but it only took a week and a half. What can I say? Things began moving quicker than I expected. I¡¯d made it past one of the crumbing walls of the church, and immediately noticed a few things. The thing causing the high-mana zone must be in the bell tower, since the density hasn¡¯t stopped increasing, even after stepping foot into the old church grounds. Also, the only things past the walls are more stones, lying where they had fallen. Nothing that felt like it would cause mana to gather. As expected, my stats continued to see increases. Even though I¡¯m still level seventy-four, I now have the stats found at level one hundred and fifty. If that¡¯s a scary thought, then consider what would happen when I really do reach that level. My stats would still increase, going far beyond my level. I look forward to it with eagerness¡­ I might also mention that moving has gotten really difficult lately, due to the gravitational field around me. I¡¯ve had to get up, walk a few steps with sweat pouring off me, and plop back down to meditate some more, since the mana density is now increasing dramatically every few steps. It was like this that I slowly crawled my way to the bell tower. As for food and water, well I could just take some of the moisture from the ground, and boil it clean with magic. I also have some deer jerky, and berries. If I run out, I just backtrack, until I get far enough away from the clearing that animals are able to roam. Then, I quickly walk back to where I was, due to the fact that my resistance letting me bypass all the hard work I had put in earlier. Anyway, it¡¯s been increasingly harder to move forward. It took me a week to get from the walls, to the bell tower entrance. Another two weeks brought me halfway up the bell tower. Three weeks after that, I was nearing the top of the stone stairs winding their way up the bell tower¡¯s insides. Finally, I could see into the top of the bell tower a week later. That was when I found out what had caused the mana to gather in such a large amount. It wasn¡¯t a godly artifact, or a treasure of any sort. In fact, I didn¡¯t think there was anything I could do with it. You see, at the top of the bell tower, there was a single skeleton, sitting up against the wall. Unlike the lich, this one was very dead, and had been for a very long time. The skeleton had flowing robes on, and a simple, but elegant mage¡¯s staff next to it. Of course, as soon as I could, I was going to take those. They looked nice, and would be a good replacement for the clothes I was wearing at the moment, which had been tore, stained, dirtied, and made nearly unusable. However, the skeleton wasn¡¯t the focus of the mana. That honor went to the most complex mana rune I¡¯ve ever seen, sitting in the middle of the room and glowing resplendently. Huh. I wasn''t expecting that.
Author''s Note: I kinda based the ruined church off of Elgin Cathedral, so if you guys want to see what I was imagining, then go ahead and look it up. Also, the book I had read once in english class was referenced quite directly in here. Let me make this clear¡ªI referenced it out of spite. Nothing else. ¡ªRiver. Chapter 36: The Fall The rune actually seemed simple at first¡ªor, at least it seemed complex to my level of understanding, as far as runes go. What I mean is, it seemed comparatively simpler than it actually was. But then, as I looked closer, I realized that the rune was more complex than I thought possible. Its basic shape is that of a sealing rune, but it has much more complexity than even the one that holds my brother. Each of the lines that make up the rune, on closer inspection, were composed of a tiny and sprawling script so small as to be unreadable. The words seemed to move along the circular rune¡¯s lines, adding to the complexity, and mystery of it. And then, the biggest shock came when I realized that it wasn¡¯t just one rune. Sure, physically, it was one large circle; encompassing complex designs like clockwork, but each of the ¡®gears¡¯ within it were their own stand-alone runes, to complete different jobs. I could see the shape of a transport rune, a concealment rune, a ward rune, and a replenishing rune all inside the sealing rune. And those were the ones I could recognize. There were three times as many that I couldn¡¯t, interwoven into the surprisingly small sealing rune. No, seriously¡ªThis rune smacks the whole ¡®bigger is better¡¯ thing in the face, since it was only as wide as I am tall. Most powerful runes take up ten times as much room, but this one simply makes the best of the little space it occupies. I couldn¡¯t see the floor under the rune, is what I mean. The big question, though, is that of the rune¡¯s function. If it¡¯s a complex sealing rune, then what is it sealing? Normally, a sealing rune would hold that which it seals within it, but that can¡¯t be the case here, since the only thing within the seal are more runes. Maybe the other runes hold hints as to what, exactly, needs this rune. The transport rune has to do with space, and position in space, so maybe it¡¯s brought the item being sealed to another location? That¡¯s no good though¡ªEven while the transport rune looks like one, like everything else in the rune, it¡¯s complex beyond belief. What if it had been another type of rune, that¡¯s been changed so much that it looks like a transport rune? Well, luckily, there is one rune that I can identify with absolute certainty. It¡¯s the rune that creates a ward. It¡¯s the simplest one I could find, as well as the most frightening. Why is it frightening? Well, it the simplest rune, but the power it holds terrifies me. The function of this ward rune is to place a simple physical barrier around a massive area of land, equal to 700000 square kilometers.1 Just the energy¡¯s involved¡­ I shudder to think about the functions of the rune¡¯s I can¡¯t understand, given that this was the simplest. But more than that, doesn¡¯t it mean that I won¡¯t be able to leave this place, unless I disable the rune? Ugh. I¡¯ll need time to think about all this. Anyway, I spent a day accustoming myself to the mana density levels at the top of the clock tower. Since the density here was the highest, I won¡¯t need to do this anymore. I¡¯ve already matched the density outside, inside my mana pool. The first thing I did after that, was to steal the nice clothing from that skeleton. Oddly enough, the robe seemed to fit me perfectly, and there was a long tunic made of leather strips under that, layered over each other to form a V shaped collar. Also, there were some loose pants made of the same type of leather. The leather must have come from some rare animal, since it felt just like fabric, and not at all thick, or stiff. Unfortunately, the skeleton itself turned to dust as soon as the clothes were off, like they had been all that was still preserving it. The staff that had been leaning against it fell to the ground, where I picked it up. Warmth seemed to spread from the staff to my hand, and the room brightened up just a little. For just a moment, just a blink of an eye, the whole staff seemed to crawl with runes. While the rune on the ground was certainly complex beyond belief, the runes seen for a split second on the staff seemed simple, but unfathomable at the same time. They blinked out just as soon as they appeared, though, so I couldn¡¯t make out much more than that. I used¡¼Analyze¡½on the staff, and got some interesting answers. [tr] [tr][tr]
Step of TimeAs one of the primordial staffs, crafted form a branch of the creation tree, Step of Time holds no power of it¡¯s own, but amplifies it¡¯s wielder¡¯s greatly.
Not too bad. It doesn¡¯t actually tell me how the amplification is done, though. I¡¯ll have to be careful with this, since I don¡¯t know the degree to which it amplifies my magic. I mean, it would be bad if it amplifies it too much, and then I can¡¯t handle the magic. It¡¯s a case of knowing your limits, I guess. A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation. I¡¯ll definitely still hold onto it, though. As for the rune, I¡¯m going to try and find a way to just break the part creating the ward, leaving the rest alone. I don¡¯t want to find out through experience what the rune does. Unfortunately for me, and everyone else occupying the three continents, there was no way to only deactivate only one part of it. It was all or nothing. It¡¯s a pretty bad dilemma, you know. Really, there are two choices for me to take. I can disable the whole rune, unsealing whatever it¡¯s target is, and leave wherever this is. Or I can live forever here, restrained within the massive physical ward. I enjoy the company of good people, who haven¡¯t fallen morally yet. Hell, even those who can be a little depraved at times are fun to be around. I haven¡¯t met another person here, in the months it¡¯s taken to approach the rune. The closest I¡¯ve gotten is that skeleton, which didn¡¯t exactly represent the most ideal conversation partner. I¡¯m not built for isolation, nor for being restrained. So, really, there¡¯s only one choice. I have to break the rune. And, it felt all too easy when I did. (1700000 Km2 is about the size of Texas, for a good comparison. Or two Germanys.)
Everyone in the three continents felt it, when Kai broke the rune at the center of Ascension Island. It was a very physical sensation. Well, to put it simply, an earthquake ripped through the continents, causing everybody to drop whatever they had been holding, and seek cover. It wasn¡¯t an earthquake, though. No buildings toppled over, and nothing changed, since not only the landmasses were shaking. Everything was. Niten and Flavius, who had been waiting patiently outside the island¡¯s wards, were the only ones that observed a beam of golden light burst out from the center of the island, and strike for the sky. They watched, Flavius in awe, and Niten with growing horror, as the beam of light hit something in the sky, far, far above them. Spreading from that impact, the sky seemed to dissolve, like a piece of paper being slowly consumed by fire from it¡¯s center. It was like something had always covered the sky, like some inconceivably massive dome had been draped over the continents. And now it was collapsing, slowly burning away. The sky beyond its clear expanse was the same, but now seemed different somehow, like something fundamental had changed unwittingly. All over the lands, people watched as the sky burned away, and some screamed that the heavens were falling, were abandoning them for some conceived misdeed. The oldest and most powerful of the land knew exactly what was happening, and, like Niten, were now deeply concerned and frightened. They knew they were akin to frogs in a well. However, that same well had been sealed tight, so the frogs couldn¡¯t leave, and the hawks couldn¡¯t enter. However, now those living near the coasts of the three continents saw something, far out into the distance, as absolutely gigantic landmasses blurred into existence. Rather, it was the three continents which appeared in this world, for the first time since ages long ago. The Grand World Seal had been broken.
Author''s Note: For those that have wanted to see Kai''s new status, this is it: [tr]
Status:
Name: Katariah Nadine Silver
Titles: (5 Hidden)
Race: Demon/ElfAge: 13Gender: Female
Main Class: MageSub Class(es): Smith; Swordsman
Level: 74
Health: 3045Mana: 102400*
Strength: 542Stamina: 498Dexterity: 576
Intelligence: 784Wisdom: 624Luck: 1
*Combat value~300000
Abnormal Status: Cursed
The holder of this status will not be able to advance in level for the period of time equal to one year. Alternatively, killing that which had given the status will release the curse.
Cursed By: Grand Lich Toledo
¡ªRiver. Chapter 37: The Reunion The rune had broken so easily. No, seriously. I had wanted to get a little closer to inspect it, while using the staff as a walking stick of sorts. However, as soon as the staff touched upon the edge of the rune, it shattered into tiny fragments. I don¡¯t know whether it was a property of the staff, or if the rune was just that fragile. Well, the end result was still the same. I had wanted to find a way to disable the rune, and this was as good a way as any. The ground shook a bit after the rune was destroyed, but I didn¡¯t think too much of it. When something with as power pumped into it as the rune was destroyed, it would feel anticlimactic for nothing to happen. The high-density mana seemed to disappear within minutes, the only thing holding it here gone. I could feel myself breathing easier, and I felt stronger than I have in a while, since the increased gravity had also gone away. Oh¡ªalso, as soon as the rune had been broken, a golden light had flooded the bell tower room. I checked, but it hadn¡¯t done anything to me, good or bad. It looks like the only thing I¡¯ll get out of destroying this rune is the ability to leave this deserted place. Well, I¡¯m assuming it¡¯s deserted, since I haven¡¯t seen anything other than this valley. I got out of the bell tower fast, as soon as I noticed that there were now little cracks running along the walls, and that the floor had begun to groan alarmingly. Looks like it had also been kept in one piece by the rune, since as soon as I had left it, running full tilt, the whole thing had collapsed into a pile of masonry. A bit sad, considering that it had stood for only-the-gods-know-how-many years. Well, if the flip side is that I can leave, then I have no problem with it. Besides, my leg was healed ages ago. Since I have no idea where I was, nor of where to go, I simply chose a direction, and started walking. By nightfall, I had made it to the base of a mountain, due to the quick pace I had set. Let me say this¡ªThose mountains looked a hell of a lot more imposing up close. Eh. Without stuff like a tent, others to keep me company, and a good trail to follow, this was going to be difficult anyway. Thankfully, it looked like the clothes I had taken from the skeleton were nice and warm, as well as durable. I accidentally got the robe caught on a tree limb, and kept walking. Where other clothes would have simply torn, in this case, the limb broke off of the tree. The robe looked exactly the same as when I had gotten it, even though it had just withstood a tree branch the width of my legs. I¡¯d seriously like to know what these clothes were made out of, but when I looked at them with¡¼Analyze¡½, it only told me that a mage named Islea had crafted them. That should be who the skeleton had been. Maybe? I feel like I should set up a grave for him or her somewhere, especially after realizing a few things. This Islea person had probably crafted that rune. Just that fact was impressive, but then there was the fact that it had likely killed him or her to do so. I felt a little bad for breaking the rune after realizing this, but I¡¯d rather live life for the living, rather than dwell on the specters of the past. Damn, that was kinda poetic of me, no? Anyway, something surprising happened after walking trough the mountains for a few days, using the staff as a glorified walking stick. I found people! Well, it¡¯s not like there were originally residents of the island, so it was still deserted in my heart. They scared the shit out of me, though. It had seemed like two shadows just appeared before me all of the sudden, both of them screaming war cries at me. Seemed like, until I realized that the war cries were just two people yelling stuff at me, one over the other, and that I recognized these two people. Once they calmed down, I could understand what they were saying. (Flavius) ¡°Kai! We¡¯ve been waiting for you just outside the¡­¡± Niten looked at Flavius, conveying something to him. Flavius stayed quiet. (Niten) ¡°What happened to you Kai? You went through that labyrinth, no?¡± I nodded, and spoke for what seemed like the first time in ages. (Kai) ¡°Yeah. I wouldn¡¯t recommend it to anyone else. There¡¯s some nasty things at the bottom.¡± (Flavius) ¡°You got to the bottom? How?!¡± (Kai) ¡°The thing at the bottom wanted me there. I managed to get away through a transport rune nearby, and ended up here, heavy wounded. You wouldn¡¯t happen to know anyone capable of regrowing limbs, would you?¡± I held up my right arm, and the two of them realized for the first time that my hand was gone. Flavius looked oddly happy about something, and was about to speak, when Niten ran him over. (Niten) ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but we have more pressing matters than your hand at the moment. While you were here, did you happen to see a rune of some sort?¡± I nodded, feeling confused. How did he know about that? (Niten) ¡°Then, I assume you broke that rune?¡± (Kai) ¡°Yeah. It had a part that generated a massive physical ward, which would prevent me from leaving. Can I assume something happened?¡± Niten nodded. (Niten) ¡°I think you¡¯ll want to keep quiet the fact that you broke the rune for now. It was much more important than you may realize.¡± (Kai) ¡°Why? What did it do?¡± (Niten) ¡°That rune was something that very few know about. It was called the World Seal. As the name would suggest, it sealed our three little continents from the rest of the world, to save us. It protected us from those on the main continents that would have done us harm, and shielded us from the view of the gods. They had no influence while the seal was still active, besides the random blessings given to souls entering this plane.¡± (Kai) ¡°Hm. So you¡¯re saying that I¡¯ve changed the very nature of our lives in the future?¡± Niten nodded. Then I shouldn¡¯t have changed too much. I mean, if the main continents invade or something, then I¡¯ll just go there, or explore other places. As for the thing about the gods, well, gods tend to ignore me. I¡¯ve never understood why, but I unnerve them. Not so much that they would actively try and kill me, but enough that they don¡¯t care what happens to me, and leave me alone. It¡¯s a nice balance, and one I think should apply here, as well. I mean, gods are fundamentally the same, no matter where you go, so nothing should be different in this world. I do agree with Niten though. If this seal was so important, and people find out that the half-demon bastard child of the old elven empress broke it, I can be assured of strong opponents coming for my life in the near future. I shouldn¡¯t flaunt this about anytime soon. While we sat in silence for a few moments, Flavius raise his voice. (Flavius) ¡°While I¡¯ve never heard about this ¡®World Seal¡¯, I do happen to know of one person who is able to fix your hand, Kai.¡± I perked up, and Niten looked on approvingly, knowing that the matter weighed on my heart more than I let show. If you discover this tale on Amazon, be aware that it has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road. Please report it. You can¡¯t smith, or properly wield a katana with only one hand, after all. If Flavius has a solution, then I¡¯ll gladly take it, no matter the cost. He continued, and I grew more interested. (Flavius) ¡°Basically, the person able to fix your hand, she comes from the human empire, and has a great deal of potential. In fact, I had wanted for her and six others to become your first students, given their unique situation, and personalities. For now, I¡¯ve given them a well known and respected teacher during your unexpected absence.¡± I looked at him warily. The whole situation of seven people with unique experiences sounds a little too familiar to me. I asked for verification. (Kai) ¡°These seven people¡­.were they summoned as heroes by any chance?¡± Flavius looked shocked. (Flavius) ¡°Actually, yes, they were. How did you know that?¡± I groaned, suddenly much less interested in the whole thing. But still¡­my hand¡­ (Kai) ¡°Ugh. Fine. I¡¯ll talk to the one you say is able to regrow my hand, but I¡¯m not teaching any heroes.¡± I spoke in a tone that gave Flavius no room to argue, that said that I¡¯m only doing this much for my own gain. And really, I¡¯ve had some horrific dealings with heroes before, during my first life. To anyone else, it would have broken them of all trust in humanity. Thankfully, I both understood human nature quite well, and knew someone else that made up for my mistreatment. I still preferred to have as little contact with them as possible, though. In this case, since I have something extremely important to restore, I just have to suck it up, and meet with the one able to heal my hand. Besides, it¡¯s normally the prim and proper ones that get the healing powers, so she should be easy to deal with. Those kind of people always are. (Flavius) ¡°I don¡¯t know about that¡­. I think you are actually quite similar to them. Just give them a chance, no?¡± I gave Flavius a look, telling him to stop talking. Given that I¡¯ve perfected this particular look over my life times, and that it even worked while I was still a baby, Flavius shut up. (Niten) ¡°I¡¯ve been wondering¡ªWhere did you get that staff, and those robes, Kai? You did not have them before.¡± I looked down at the robes, and spoke the truth. (Kai) ¡°Ah, I got them from a skeleton near the rune¡ªI mean the World Seal. There were made by someone named Islea?¡± Niten¡¯s jaw dropped. Apparently, he recognized the name. (Niten) ¡°Those are the robes made by the Mage of Beginnings?! But then, would that staff be the Step of Time? Then, that skeleton was the fabled Sorceress of the Void, Gwendolyn?¡± I shrugged. None of that made any sense to me, besides the fact that these people were apparently big deals. Niten sighed, annoyed at my non-interest. These robes to me, are just durable bits of clothing, and the staff is a powerful stick of special wood. Also, the name of the skeleton was Gwendolyn, and not Islea, and it was a she. Unless Gwendolyn''s parents had a sadistic naming sense. I know most mages would have purple faces from anger at my attitude towards these items, but all that matters to me, is whether or not they¡¯re practical. That¡¯s why I like swords so much more¡ªsince it¡¯s hard to make a completely impractical sword. Though, I have seen some that made me want to revise that opinion. Anyway. We began the long process of journeying back to the academy. Niten and Flavius were stunned at the growth of my stats, in such a short amount of time. They hadn¡¯t known that areas of high-mana density could be used to train like I did, but the knowledge would probably help them in the future. Though, I¡¯ve likely trained in what was the largest concentration of mana ever found on this world, so they can only have lesser effects from any other areas. The mana density inside my body has reached shocking heights, after all. It felt like I could have frozen that island solid if I wanted to. Ascension Island, it¡¯s apparently called. I hope it¡¯s an omen, of my future. To get back to the academy, we took a boat waiting offshore of the island, and sailed to the southernmost tip of the Human Continent, which held a city called Rampart. From there, we simply hoped gates until reaching the sleepy little town near the city encompassing Silver Academy. We walked through the gates, and I felt safe for the first time since walking into the dungeon¡­ Just kidding. I didn¡¯t feel anything. Besides, I¡¯ve felt inexplicably at peace since meditating in the high-mana zone. Like nothing small could bring a rise to my emotions. Flavius brought me directly to his office, and went to fetch the person he claimed could fix my arm. I waited with Niten, while sitting on Flavius¡¯s chair. Simply because it was the most comfortable in the office. Niten had to sit in a couch off to the side, set up against one of the walls. I was previewing the items atop Flavius¡¯s desk, noting how old they looked, and wondering what sort of value they had to him, when I heard voices down the hall. One was Flavius¡¯s, and the other was of a young sounding girl, whose voice I almost seemed to remember. (Flavius) ¡°¡­Found the person who was to teach you originally, but there¡¯s been a problem. The teacher quite literally needs a hand. I was hoping that¡­¡± I heard some haughty sounding laughter form the hallway. (???) ¡°Ha! Of course I¡¯ll help, if this teacher of yours is willing to owe me a favor! As far as teaching us, well, I¡¯ll be the judge to see if he¡¯s worthy of that position!¡± (Flavius) ¡°No, The one I wanted to teach you is a¡­¡± At that moment, the door to the office opened, and I looked to see who entered. Flavius came in first, along with someone I¡¯ve seen before. But not in this life. (Selina) ¡°Oh, is this the one? He certainly looks distinguished, and has a powerful aura. But I see no missing limbs¡ªUnless it''s the one down¡­¡± Selina Rochella, grand necromancer, immediately turned towards Niten, completely ignoring my existence in favor of the stronger one off to the side. Niten shook his head at her, interrupting her mid sentence, and pointed at me. As she saw me, Flavius introduced us. (Flavius) ¡°Selina, meet Katariah Silver, the one who was to become your teacher, before her sudden disappearance. Now, she needs her hand back.¡± I smiled slyly, in a way that would instantly strike Selina as familiar. (Kai) ¡°Hello Selina. Just call me Kai. After all, it¡¯s a name you should remember.¡± She looked confused for a split second, before shock etched itself across her futures. (Selina) "Kai!? You mean?! Hold on! You were this Kai?!" Ah. She pulled out a reanimated corpse. That''s kinda disgusting, you know.
Chapter 38: The Reforging You know, to most people, they are the ugliest person they know. Simply because, after looking in the mirror for so long, dissecting your own appearance, you can spot the flaws, the tiniest details that make you ¡®less desirable¡¯. I had no such mental problems with my image. Especially when I had still occupied the body pulled out of a spacial pocket by Selina. You see, I knew very well that I was not very good looking when in that body. Some even mistook me for a better-looking than usual orc, or even a goblin. And now, dying hadn¡¯t done any favors to what had been my face. Especially since that life ended rather¡­violently. I was actually very impressed with how well Selina had reconstructed the face and everything, especially since getting sat on by an undead giant isn¡¯t exactly conducive to leaving nice corpses. The body she had pulled out stood at around 1.8 meters tall, and had a normal body mass. The face had a definite under-bite, and thick bushy brows partially obscured the milky white orbs underneath. Long and messy brown hair came down to the shoulders, and covered the wide forehead a little. It¡¯s too bad. Many had said that my one redeeming quality in that life had been my eyes, but they seem to have lost their light¡­ Then again, my body is now being used as an undead puppet. I should feel offended by this, but I really don¡¯t care anymore. After reincarnating a few times, you tend to not care about what¡¯s holding your soul, your memories and experiences, your personality. Whatever you call that which makes you, you. Ah well. Knowing Selina, she¡¯s put my body to better use than I ever had while still alive. Luckily, a soul isn¡¯t needed for a vessel to grow stronger. That¡¯s to say, undead can grow. I¡¯m sure that my old body could give me a run for my money at the moment. (Kai) ¡°Yes, that was my body. I see you¡¯ve taken good care of it.¡± Selina put the corpse back into her spacial pocket. I was slightly envious. Spacial magic like that was never my forte, and as such, convenient things like spacial pockets were only for others. I had to haul my equipment the old-fashioned way. (Selina) ¡°I can¡¯t believe it, you¡¯ve reincarnated again¡­. And here I thought that four times would surely have been your limit.¡± I shook my head. (Kai) ¡°It wasn¡¯t. I¡¯m on my sixth reincarnation now.¡± She stood, mouth agape for a moment before recovering the only way she knew how. She ignored it. (Selina) ¡°Well, anyway¡ªIt looks like you lucked out this time, with your body. And here I had thought at some point, ¡®Wow, Kai¡¯s such a manly man¡­¡¯.¡± She snickered a little, obviously poking fun at my current body. (Kai) ¡°Well, at least my body looks like this naturally, unlike someone who intentionally looks like a twelve year old all the time.¡± (Selina) ¡°Ugh. Low blow, Kai. Low blow. I¡¯ll still fix your hand though. As long as you agree to owe me a favor in the future.¡± I nodded. While owing Selina a favor in the future is something horrifying in it¡¯s own right, it sure beats not having a hand. She pulled out a thin wand, crafted from bone and covered in intricate carvings. Chanting lightly under her breath, she waved the wand over my stumpy right hand. Immediately, a searing pain ran through my body as something began growing from the end of my arm. I sat still, watching as bones formed before my very eyes, and muscle soon after. Skin covered it, and then the nerves came last, activated at the end to save some pain. Selina looked at me while the whole process happened, somewhat disappointed. (Selina) ¡°You¡¯re no fun. Normally, people would at least roll on the floor, screaming and pissing themselves from the pain.¡± I shrugged while flexing the new hand. Die a few times in various horrible ways, and you tend to learn how to ignore something like pain. The new hand felt¡­new. Duh. What I mean is that it didn¡¯t have any of the callouses built up form over the years, as I handled hammers and swords, and it was clearly a shade lighter than the rest of my skin. I would have to carefully build it back up to my standards¡ªthough it shouldn¡¯t take too long. The new hand felt like it had proportional strength to the rest of my body. It wasn¡¯t weak, nor overly strong. Instead, it was about at the level of my left hand. This was good. I had worried that the new hand would be as strong as the one I had lost. Since I had lost that hand before training in the high-mana area, it would have been pitifully weak and unbalanced when compared to the rest of me. Say what you will of Selina, but she does good work when healing. In fact, most necromancers are originally healers who desired more power. And, as such, most of them are absolute geniuses when it comes to taking care of the human body. Though, it looks like this took a toll on her, since I could see little drops of sweat rolling down her forehead. It looks like she lost most of her power during the summoning, though I have no doubt she¡¯ll soon gain it back, with interest. She hastily dismissed herself, and left. Probably to take a nap. But not before reminding me that I now owed her a favor. That left Niten, Flavius and I in the office, Niten still on the couch, Flavius standing, and I still occupied his nice chair. Noticing this, Flavius shooed me out of his seat, and sat behind the desk. (Flavius) ¡°I didn¡¯t know you two were already¡­acquainted. Was that really your body?¡± I nodded, while sitting in one of the chairs opposite his desk. (Kai) ¡°She¡¯s an interesting person. It doesn¡¯t surprise me that she kept my body. In fact, she likely has a few thousand more in that spacial pocket.¡± His face turned ashen. He hadn¡¯t thought about the possibility until now, that Selina would have a small private army stashed away. I have a feeling he¡¯s going to talk to her about it soon. Niten smiled mysteriously at me. (Niten) ¡°So you were male in that life, no? How many times have you been a male?¡± (Kai) ¡°If you must know, this is my second time in a female body.¡± I shot a look at Niten, telling him to not ask any more questions. I had a feeling that I knew where that line of inquisition would lead, and I really didn¡¯t want to answer such personal questions. He got the hint, and threw his hands up in surrender, a mocking smile thrown across his face in good nature. (Flavius) ¡°I know you¡¯ve made it very clear that you don¡¯t want to meet the heroes, but why not just give them a chance, no? See them during dinner or something.¡± I sighed deeply. It looked like Flavius was dead set on having me instruct these heroes. To be honest, after meeting Selina again, I was a little curious as to whom the other heroes were. Selina, being a very shrewd person, would have run away at the soonest indication of them being bad comrades, or potentially dangerous to her health. And, that whole thing where the heroes are subtly controlled via the use of magic changing the disposition of their minds likely never worked on her. She simply has too much willpower for it to. Unauthorized use: this story is on Amazon without permission from the author. Report any sightings. Also, Flavius had said that this time around, all the heroes seemed to have¡­eccentric personalities. Finally, I get the feeling that Flavius would keep hounding me until I at least meet them once. (Kai) ¡°Fine. I¡¯ll meet them, then.¡± Flavius beamed a smile, like I had just told him I would be teaching them as well. I won¡¯t, though. I would teach someone like Selina, but in reality, there are many things she could teach me. I¡¯ll meet them once, then tell Flavius that I won¡¯t teach them. And, if he asks why not, I can always just tell him the story of what happened with the other heroes I knew. We agreed to set up a meeting tomorrow, before I went to the room given to me by the academy all those months ago. Everything was untouched, exactly how I had left it. I propped the staff and what was left of Twilight¡ªstill in the scabbard¡ªup against the wall. At some point, I¡¯m planning on going back into the dungeon, after I¡¯ve gotten much stronger, and picking up the part of Twilight that had been sheared off. It isn¡¯t necessary to have both pieces to be able to re-forge it, since I could just melt down that which I have, and make a smaller blade. However, I liked the length of Twilight. Though, in the meantime, I might have to reforge that which I have left, just to have a good weapon handy. Given that the sword had been longer than normal, I should have enough metal left for a normal katana, if just barely. I would be hard pressed to forge all those mana circuits back into it, though. Thankfully, since most of them were still largely intact, I might be able to salvage at least three of them. I¡¯ll have to check out that possibility later, though. For now, I just wanted to sleep in a bed.
I slept in a little, glad to release some of the extra stress I¡¯d been carrying around. Of course, I properly ate breakfast after that, in a special cafeteria set aside for the staff of the academy. Then, since I was to meet the summoned heroes at dinnertime, I went to the forge, to fashion the remains of Twilight into a new katana. Nobody was in the forge when I got there, so I happily set up at a good workstation, and set up my tools, which I had brought in my bag. Thankfully, I hadn¡¯t brought the bag with me while entering the academy¡¯s dungeon, since I had thought I would only be in there for a few hours, at most. Well, since I¡¯m going to be reforging Twilight, I first needed to break it into small chunks. I know, it seems slightly counterintuitive, but it¡¯s the only way I know how to made a whole, good katana from recycled metal. I took the little pieces of starsteel, and stacked them on top of one another. I wrapped the whole thing in cloth, and immediately started heating it using my magic, which had become super effective after turning so dense inside my body. I actually had to be carful, to not reduce the starsteel to a molten pile of slag. After it had been heated to a great enough degree, I took it to the anvil, and began the process of reforging it into a single bar of metal. After I felt that it had become solid enough, I used my wedge tool to cut a groove at the halfway mark, where I folded the metal. Again, I beat it into a single bar again, and folded two more times. I didn¡¯t want to fold too many times, since that tends to diminish the carbon content of the blade, undermining it¡¯s structural integrity. Sure that the bar of starsteel was now completely whole, I drew it out into a straight blade, not bothering with anything fancy. Though, I did bevel in the edge, so it would be markedly easier to sharpen later. After the blade had cooled down, I set some clay on it¡¯s spine, so that it would stay flexible after the heat treat, while the edge became brittle, but able to hold a keen edge. Of course, as the whole process happened, I worked hard to ensure that as many of the mana circuits were preserved as was possible. As it was, I only lost one circuit, mostly due to the fact that it had predominantly been in the part of the sword lost in the labyrinth. With the clay applied, I stuck the blade into the heat treatment¡ªor tempering, and watched it the entire time, taking note of what color the exposed part of the blade was. As soon as it turned the right shade, I pulled the sword out, and took care when dunking it into an oil bath by the tempering oven. During the tempering, and the oil bath, the blade had curved elegantly, as the metal by the edge expanded, and the back of the blade contracted. This had given the katana that ever-so-recognizable look, that had made it famous along with it¡¯s cutting abilities when wielded right. Again, I waited for it to cool again, and began the process of sharpening it, and fashioning a hilt and sheath for the sword. I had to get creative with a few materials, since I didn¡¯t have the ¡®traditional¡¯ ones with me. Other than that, the sword was finished well. Only five hours after I had started, I had a very nice, and complete sword. It was a good length for a proper katana, unlike the original Twilight, which had been more of a bastardized nodachi than anything else. I checked the sword with¡¼Analyze¡½, and wasn¡¯t too surprised to find that it already had a name, just like Twilight once had. [tr][tr] [tr][tr] [tr][tr] [tr][tr]
Nightfall¡¯s SongA sword crafted by Katariah SilverProperties:Keen EdgeUnbrokenMana FocusGrowth
Though, after I set the sword down to admire it, I finally noticed that there were others in the forge with me, as they started clapping. Ah, it''s that old man and his three assistants... Wait, wasn''t there only two before? And why does this new one look like... No, it is Hogvir. I wonder what he''s doing here?
Author''s Note: For those who are interested, I thought I would explain the ''Unbroken'' property that Twilight, and now Nightfall have. Unlike the name, blades with this property can still be broken, if they encounter a force greater than a certain point. Essentially, since the blade is filled with it''s wielder''s mana¡ªwhich strengthens it further than would be possible with simple physics, when the blade encounters a force that completely overwhelms it''s wielder''s strength, the blade will break. That''s what happened with Twilight, when the lich had cast a spell shearing it in two. Kai didn''t have nearly the strength required to block the spell, nor keep Twilight intact. That''s basically what happened. Also, as far as reforging a blade, it wasn''t done often, since it would normally be cheaper to simple commission a new sword, instead of having the old one reforged in the way I wrote. Alternatively, western sword could have been reforged a different way, but I think I''ll get into that later. ¡ªRiver. Chapter 39: The Meeting It¡¯d been a few months since I started working under Master Giden, and he¡¯s already wholeheartedly accepted me as an armorer for the smithy. He sometimes gives me pointers on how to better apply my strength to the steel, and improve the armor designs. I¡¯ve also showed him some of the things I¡¯d thought up, with designs, and rune placements. I¡¯ve also learned more about what him and the two senior smiths are trying to do. I can¡¯t understand it very well, since I¡¯m always working with armor, and not swords, but the want to create inscription runes inside the blade, by folding it a few times. From what I¡¯ve seen, it¡¯s a hard thing to do. They¡¯ve only ever half succeeded, by giving a blade a single enchantment on two separate occasions. The blades were much weaker though. They kept cursing the fact that Kai had disappeared, since she had been the only one with a good working knowledge about the whole thing. I still had a little trouble connecting the Kai I knew, and the Kai Giden knows. Hearing that she was part demon had made me a little wary of her, but then I remembered that she wasn¡¯t a bad person. It looked like her non-demon blood canceled out her demon blood somewhat. I think I would be able to trust her. I was able to put that to the test only a little while later, as I went to the forge during the afternoon, and ran into Master Giden, Foule, and Rob. Laughing at a story told by Rob, we walked to the forge. It seemed that someone was already there, even though it was the end of the week. We walked into the forge, and I grew a little upset when the three other¡¯s stopped all of the sudden, without any words. They seemed to be watching whoever was working at an anvil, the ringing of a hammer lightly striking steel bouncing around the forge. I stepped to the side, and froze as well. A young girl, short and slender, held a newly forged blade that curved slightly along it¡¯s length, and was using a hammer that seemed many times too large for her. Smoke was still coming from an oil quench tank, so she must have just tempered the blade, and was now making it as straight as possible, making small changes to a blade that looked like it had no flaws to me. I couldn¡¯t see her face, since she was turned away from us, but she had silver hair, and I could see two white horns coming from her head. Immediately, I knew who the girl should be, even though she had always covered her face when I saw her. Giden had described her to me before. We watched, silent for an hour, as she skillfully sharpened the blade, and made a handle and sheath for it. Oddly, the blade was left unpolished, and the metal didn¡¯t reflect light. The edge was shiny from her sharpening, though. She seemed satisfied, and sheathed the new sword. Giden, Rob, and Foule started clapping, a tradition in this smithy for when a smith finishes a blade that seems beautifully made. She jumped at the sudden noise. She hadn¡¯t noticed us before that, but now she spun around and faced us, the sword suddenly in her hands, ready to draw. She relaxed, seeing Giden first. My eyes went straight to her face, and I realized again why she would¡¯ve worn a mask. My first thought was ¡®cute¡¯, until I noticed her eyes, which seemed to smolder in the low light. There was a clear black line running down their center, in place of the black circle everyone else has. And, when they looked straight at me, they seemed older and fiercer than Kai¡¯s body would suggest. I felt fear, seeing another clear example of her demon blood. I had thought the horns were the only thing showing that.
Well, I was going to talk to Hogvir, until I saw fear in his eyes, as they darted between my horns and my eyes. I had thought that he would be one of those that wouldn¡¯t have cared, but that seems not to be the case. In a huff, I turned around, finished cleaning my workstation, and walked out with my new sword and my tools. I could hear Giden calling after me, but suddenly, I¡¯m not in the mood to talk with them. Though, I had noticed that Hogvir looked a little ashamed as I left. At least he has the good grace to. I went straight back to the staff dorms, and changed into the clothes I had picked up on the island. Before this, I had put on some clothes that I had left in the room before going into that dungeon, since I could afford to dirty them. I had found out that the robe had an interesting function while on the way back to the academy¡ªIt could change its clothing type. Instead of the floor-length robe it had been, it was now a dark grey long-coat, much like the one that had slowly fallen apart while I was on the island. The loose trousers and the tunic had no such function, though they seemed to fit my body perfectly. The trousers were brown, while the tunic was white. I also wore a good pair of boots, the trousers tucked into them. Since most of the day had already been used to forge the new sword, I decided to just seek out Flavius and Niten, who was likely with him. Since Flavius would be bringing me to dinner with the heroes anyway, I might as well talk with them for a little bit. And, apparently I needn¡¯t go and find them, since Niten and Flavius were down in the lobby of the building, asking the manager a question. I just caught the end of the conversation, and immediately knew that I was involved. (Manager) ¡°¡­Came by about ten-fifteen minutes ago. She should still be here.¡± (Flavius) ¡°Ah, no, she¡¯s right there. Thanks anyway.¡± (Kai) ¡°You guys were looking for me? Did something happen?¡± (Niten) ¡°A letter came, from your aunt.¡± We went to Flavius¡¯s office, and Niten handed me a thick envelope with the seven-headed dragon seal on it. It had already been opened, so it was easy enough to reach into the envelope and pull out the comparatively small letter. Little ¡®Riah, I¡¯m hoping that by the time this letter arrives, you will have returned to the academy. If not, then you will like already know some of what is written here. Stolen from its rightful author, this tale is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.In a month¡¯s time, a summit will be held with the leaders of the three continents to discuss some new threats that might have shown up after the sky fell inwards. As all of the continents are now open to the rest of the world, and we have decided that separately, the nations have no chance of fending off any unwanted advances. It is unlikely that you will be called to attend such a summit, but be prepared for the possibility. After all, your brother was once a well-known and respected figure among the demonic nobility, and you hold ties to the elven imperial family. Speaking of your brother, you¡¯ll be somewhat happy to know that he escaped from the seal during the tremors that preceded the phenomena in the sky. None of the imperial mages can figure out how he got out. ¡ªAspasia It looks like she doesn¡¯t know about me having a direct part in the world seal being broken, though I was glad the summit was happening. If it could bring the nations into closer cooperation, than maybe demons wouldn¡¯t be discriminated against as much, and some of the pointless bloodshed would stop. I mean, I¡¯m all for bloodshed with a point, and within reason, but anything the demons have done to the other races lately was out of a need for protection. And even if the demons had first done harm to the other races, that doesn¡¯t mean it will happen again. Treating them as if it would just creates more conflict, and makes war inevitable. I¡¯m also glad that Jasper finally decided to escape the seal. I had given him Ancient¡¯s Ascent for that very reason, but he wanted to get things in order, and wait for a time when his absence wouldn¡¯t be missed for a while. I¡¯d imagine that while everyone was panicking over that earthquake, and watching the seal breaking, he was leaving another type of seal without anyone realizing it. Knowing him though, he¡¯s probably in a library right now¡­ I thanked Niten for giving me the letter, and we talked for a while, about little inconsequential things that come up when you want to waste time. I showed them the new sword, Nightfall, and they were impressed with its workmanship. Having learned from my past mistakes, I didn¡¯t reveal to them that it could channel mana. While they might know that I have knowledge that the continents don¡¯t, I still would prefer to not let them know about that. Dinnertime came all to soon for me, and while I was looking forward to seeing Selina again, I was wary of the other heroes. Flavius and I were the first ones to arrive, Niten leaving to go drinking. As the first ones there, I sat at the seat affording the best view of the room, including all of its entrances and exits. Flavius sat next to me, at the head of the oval shaped table. We nibbled on some bread and drank some water while waiting for the heroes to arrive. I didn¡¯t ask Flavius for more information about them, afraid that I would be completely discouraged from actually attending the dinner. In fact, the first to arrive was Selina, who sat on my other side, and began happy chattering away. I think most of it was just her recalling funny things she¡¯s done to enemies though¡­ The next two people seemed to follow the typical hero template, with one thirty year old man, seeming really fit, and looking like he would be at home in a suit of armor, and a wizened old man using a staff as a walking stick. (Flavius) ¡°Kai, seeing as you have never met these two yet, this is Arthur Pendragon, and Merlin Ambrosius, two of the heroes.¡± My eyes widened involuntarily from surprise. I hadn¡¯t thought the two of them had actually existed, though I suppose there was as slight possibility that they had been pulled from a world other than Earth, and that they had those name through sheer dumb luck. But no, they were the real things. I soon figured this out after talking to them for a bare second. As soon as Arthur bitterly mentioned a country called France, I knew they were real. Some more time past, before the rest of the heroes came in, all at once. They were talking amongst themselves, and there were two that were turned away from me, though I could tell they were both girls. They both looked a little familiar, though most people do, when you can only see their hair as it occurred their faces. The other two consisted of a boy around ten or eleven years old, with a somewhat blank stare, and a man with a greasy curtain of hair. The sat down near Arthur and Merlin, not speaking. I turned my attention back to my empty plate, while everyone was introduced to me. (Flavius) ¡°This is Rust, Harving, Sarah and Gabriella, heroes, this is who was originally going to be your teacher, Kai¡± Flavius introduced them, pointing them out as the heroes bowed slightly. However, my attention had shot to the two girls as soon as I had seen there faces, and then, my minor shock increased when Flavius confirmed that indeed, somehow, Sarah and Gaby had been summoned. My mouth hung agape, I knew, and I could tell that the others were growing puzzled as I stared at Sarah and Gaby, who, for their parts, stared back at me with more than a little confusion. (Flavius) ¡°Is something wrong, Kai?¡± I nodded slightly. (Kai) ¡°Yeah. I just found more people I know.¡± Selina, next to me, gasped. (Selina) ¡°You mean from your past lives?¡± I nodded. She turned to the two girls. (Selina) ¡°Sarah, Gaby, do you recognize this man?!¡± Gods damn it, she pulled out my corpse again. Can you stop doing that!?
Chapter 40: The Visit Of course, Sarah and Gaby didn¡¯t recognize the body that Selina pulled out. How would they? The Kai that Selina knew, and the one known by Sarah and Gaby had two different bodies. After I got Selina to put away her¡­no, my corpse, the table sat in silence for a few moments, as everybody was bewildered to varying degrees. Frustrated, Selina pouted while muttering something about how she was only trying to lighten the mood. I sighed, and was about to speak, and tell Sarah and Gaby who I was, when Gaby beat me to the punch. (Gaby) ¡°Your name is Kai? And you¡¯ve reincarnated? Does that mean¡­?¡± I nodded, and motioned to a side door, leading out of the dinning hall, to a private room. Sarah and Gaby got up, understanding my intentions. We went into the room, which had a few couches arranged around a coffee table. I sat on one side, and the two girls sat across from me. With that, I took a deep breath, and begun explaining my circumstances to the girls, who had been looking at me this whole time with a mixture of confusion, anticipation, and joy. (Kai) ¡°Well, as you¡¯ve already learned, I am a reincarnated being. More specifically, I am one who you have encountered before, while I was still on my first life. Back then, I was also known as Kai, but my full name was Kylar. Here, it¡¯s Katariah. I guess, what I¡¯m trying to say is, even though I am the same person, I have changed since that time.¡± Silence reigned in the sitting room for a few awkward seconds. (Gaby) ¡°So¡­I guess you¡¯re not my brother anymore?¡± I shook my head. While it pains me, this is the best way. Essentially, with all I¡¯ve lived through, and died from, I have become a completely different person than they had known. They need to see that, to accept the current me. (Gaby) ¡°Then, It¡¯s nice to see you again, sister.¡± Wait, what? I stared at Gaby intently, while she smiled innocently. There was a sly look in her eyes. Sarah laughed. (Sarah) ¡°Did you really think it was going to be that easy, Kai? We¡¯ve wanted to meet you again, and now that it¡¯s happened, you can¡¯t just brush us off like that.¡± I sat, slightly stunned at this sequence of events. (Sarah) ¡°Besides, we know you¡¯ve changed. I certainly wasn¡¯t expecting you to be a cute little girl when we met again.¡± (Gaby) ¡°And change is universal, right? Everybody changes, and while it might not always be to the degree that you have, who¡¯s to say that we can¡¯t keep up with how you¡¯ve changed?¡± (Kai) ¡°No, but¡­I¡¯m not the good person you once knew. I lie, I steal, I cheat, and I kill. Even knowing that, would you still say that I¡¯m the same person? I''m not the Kai you knew anymore.¡± (Sarah) ¡°So? I¡¯ve killed as well, and had bad things happen to me. I¡¯m still Sarah though, just like you are still Kai. Just, a slightly older and more experienced Kai.¡± I snorted. Slightly? (Gaby) ¡°If you weren¡¯t the same person, they why do you continue to go by Kai? It¡¯s no coincidence that that¡¯s your nickname, after all, there are others that would make more sense for Katariah.¡± I sat, deep in thought. It was true that I continued to go by Kai, to keep that connection to my earlier lives. No, I am the same person, even if my personality has changed. I guess, I just don¡¯t want to feel the guilt I have when looking at Sarah and Gaby. I felt like I had abandoned them, for a few reasons. But, it doesn¡¯t look like they hold me responsible¡ªSarah for my death, and Gaby for me failing to return, and leaving her alone. Maybe this could work out. (Kai) ¡°Ugh. Fine. Lets see where this goes, no?¡± I turned my head to the side so they wouldn¡¯t see the tears gathering in my eyes, and blinked a few times to get rid of them. Gaby smiled and laughed, and she got up to return to the dinning table. I went to follow her, but Sarah grabbed my arm. (Gaby) ¡°Is something wrong, Sarah?¡± (Sarah) ¡°No, you go on ahead. I just have something to discuss with Kai.¡± Gaby looked confused, but still went. I turned around, and faced Sarah, who had crossed her arms and was glaring at me. Ah shit, there¡¯s that guilt. And the anger I was expecting. (Sarah) ¡°Now then, Kai. Care to explain what had happened when you faced the demon king?¡± Crap, she knows! I frantically searched for something- anything that would allow me to leave this place intact. (Kai) ¡°Ah, er¡­Well, we fought?¡± Oh no. Now she¡¯s smiling viciously, like she always had when we played chess. I was never able to win. (Sarah) ¡°Really? Considering that the demon king was verified to have died of poison, I think it¡¯s unlikely that you fought him.¡± (Kai) ¡°Uh, well, we fought, yes, but I never said I killed him¡­¡± (Sarah) ¡°Then you died fighting him?¡± (Kai) ¡°What? No. I was killed later. Wait, no¡ªWhat did you hear? From your side of things, what happened?¡± Something wasn¡¯t right here. I mean, I thought she knew about it¡­ Sarah looked just as confused, also knowing that our views of these events aren¡¯t lining up at all. (Sarah) ¡°Right. Well, first, you went with the other heroes to battle the demon king while I fought off his army. Then, you went in alone, and challenged the demon king to a duel, where he killed you. However, he also died of poison a little later, as the other heroes showed up too late to save you and fought against him as well. Unfortunately, the human army lost against the demon one, and I was captured. Shorty afterwards, I got summoned here.¡± I had been shaking my head for a while now. (Kai) ¡°No, that¡¯s not what happened. It is true that I went in alone, and fought against the demon king without the other heroes, but I didn¡¯t die.¡± I mockingly smiled, thinking back to the real sequence of events. (Kai) ¡°I was alone because the other heroes had run away, not willing to risk their lives against the demon king.¡± Sarah looked shocked at this. She had been good friends with the other heroes, but still had never seen this side of them. (Kai) ¡°When I fought against the demon king, I found out that the king who had summoned us had started the whole war, looking to make slaves of the entire demon race. The demon king was only defending his land, and his people. He died of poison, yes, but the poison had been something in his blood since he was a child, and the source of his power. He died from that, and I heard his last words. When I left, I was cornered by the other heroes, and fell to my death, pushed off a cliff.¡± This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. Sarah looked sad and angry after hearing my story. Luckily for the other heroes, she couldn¡¯t get to them anymore, or they would suffer at her hands. (Sarah) ¡°Damn it all. I had counted them as friends. I had no idea, Kai.¡± She didn¡¯t apologize for accusing me of dying a pointlessly stupid death earlier, and I didn¡¯t expect her to. In a way, my death that time had still been stupid. I should have noticed the avarice and malice in the eyes of the other heroes as they looked at me, and envied me my strength and good will. I had been too trusting of others, and never stopped to question the things around me. My death at their hands cured me of that trust though, and I¡¯ve had to work hard to even begin trusting people again. Though I will say, that if we ever do meet again, Sarah isn¡¯t the only one that can hold a grudge. Sarah hugged me, letting me know that she was fine now, and we returned to the dinning room. Or I did. Sarah froze by the doorway, her expression showing signs of turning to sheer fright. Everyone else at the table had stopped, with utensils half way to their mouths, and panic fixed upon their faces. The reason for all this sat at the other end of the table, directly across from Flavius, who was at least frozen with an expression of faint dignity. It was a man with pale white skin, and pure black hair running to his collarbones. A loose robe covered his shoulders, but left his chest bare. The robe was also black, and he was also wearing red pants. His feet were bare. And even though he looked nothing like he had when I first met him, I recognize the aura surrounding him. Immediately, I crouched low, and began to draw the new sword, Nightfall. However, he just stared at me, and I abandoned all thought of doing so. I had gotten lucky fighting him the first time, but there wouldn¡¯t be a second. (Lich Toledo) ¡°We meet again, little immortal. You may relax. I am not here to add you to my collection yet.¡± His reassurance did me no good; in fact, it only made me more uneasy. I growled out my response. (Kai) ¡°What do you want, then?¡± I eyed the others in the room. They were still conscious, evidenced by the way their eyes were darting around, or watering slightly. (Toledo) ¡°I am only here to see your progress. And frankly, I am here to give you my apologies.¡± (Kai) ¡°Why?¡± (Toledo) ¡°Because my task was to guard the only entrance to the World Seal. Originally, I had wanted to make you my subordinate, but I had no idea it would go so badly.¡± The lich, who had now assumed the from of a human, paused for a moment. (Toledo) ¡°I had underestimated you, little immortal, and paid the price. The thing I had determined to die guarding was broken, and by someone under level one hundred no less.¡± He cast a quick spell, and I felt a weight lift from me somehow. (Toledo) ¡°I had hoped that my curse would prevent you from reaching the seal, but that had not been the case. You grew too quickly. Know that your life is safe from me, since you have greater responsibilities now. Take care of these lands, little immortal, with your wings of thunder, and scales of the heavens. Fare-thee well.¡± He had lifted the curse cast on me, and left. I hope to never see him again¡ªhe¡¯s too unpredictable. As soon as he had disappeared, everybody collapsed downward, the pressure that had kept them upright having disappeared. Flavius was the first to be able to speak. (Flavius) ¡°Wa¡­What the hell was that man? What did he mean, little immortal, and with the wings and scales?¡± I waited for everyone to settle down again, and noticed that nobody was touching the food anymore, their appetites gone. (Kai) ¡°That was¡­unexpected.¡± For the sake of those who didn¡¯t know the story yet, I explained how I had been lured to the bottom of a labyrinth, and nearly died to a lich. (Selina) ¡°Lich!? Lich my ass, that wasn¡¯t a lich, it was a grand lich! How the fuck are you still alive?!¡± I shook my head. (Kai) ¡°I don¡¯t really know. I think it has something to do with what he said at the end, with the wings of thunder and stuff, but only because that¡¯s the only bit I can¡¯t figure out. As for the immortal thing, well, it¡¯s because I¡¯m immortal in this body. I think it¡¯s from my father¡¯s side of the family. I can still die, of course. Just not from age.¡± It took a few minutes for the conversation to start up again, after that revelation. As it turns out, Selina had also become immortal, through sufficient mastery of magic. She basically told everyone it wasn¡¯t as big a deal as it was made out to be¡ªYou only needed the right conditions. Flavius decided that everyone had experienced too much excitement during the dinner, and called it a night. I sighed, tired and worn out, but still full of energy. I was the first to leave, and went straight back to the staff dorms. Of course, I wasn¡¯t able to sleep, so I meditated. I thought back on what the lich had told me, that I was now responsible for the continents. I understood what he had been telling me, that since I had been the one to break the seal, I was now the one who had the duty of seeing that nothing bad happened because of it. I¡¯m really becoming curious as to what had happened during the time I can¡¯t remember, when I had somehow gotten away from the lich that first time. I have a bad feeling though, that I was beginning to figure out exactly was occurred. The scales, I have a good idea as to how they came about, due to the system message that had shown up right before I blacked out. The one informing me that an Overlay Sequence was starting. If that meant what I¡¯m beginning to think it meant, then the bit about wings of thunder is a bad sign. I never wanted to think about that life again. No, Kai. Just push it from your mind. It never happened. After calming down, I settled into the rhythm of meditation. After a few seconds, or minutes, or hours, a ding sounded. A level up so quickly? No, it wasn''t just a level up.
System Notification:
Level Up
Threshold Reached: Level 75
Class Change Initiated
Class has changed to: Quasi-Demon Lord
Chapter 41: The Changes Immediately after the notification popped up, pain wracked my whole body. It felt like an unbearable itch had seeped all over my skin, and my nerves had been set on fire. I could faintly hear disturbing cracking sounds, as something unpleasant happened to my bones. I don¡¯t know how long it went on, especially since I might have blacked out at some point. No, I definitely blacked out. When I came to, the sun was only just peaking over the bottom of the single window in my room. I sat up, feeling no discomfort after sleeping on the hardwood floor. In fact, I felt comfortable, a sharp contrast to the events of last night. Frowning, I opened my status, and took a look at what had happened. Specifically, I wanted to see what the class ¡®Quasi-Demon Lord¡¯ did to me.
Quasi-Demon Lord:
This individual has stepped upon the path towards becoming a Demon Lord, but is only halfway there at the moment. Body has been partially restructured.
Primary Effects:
All Stats x1.5Demon Lord¡¯s Aura (Weak)
Huh. If getting to level seventy-five made me a Quasi-Demon Lord, then I think I just found out what happens when I reach level one-hundred. This whole thing must be a result from my father¡¯s blood though. It must run in me a lot stronger than it does Jasper, considering that he¡¯s been stuck at this stage for about fifty years now. I got up from the floor, and checked my stats.
Status:
Name: Katariah Nadine Silver
Titles: (5 Hidden)
Race: Demon/ElfAge: 13Gender: Female
Main Class: Quasi-Demon LordSub Class(es): Spell-Sword Saint
Level: 75
Health: 4568Mana: 153600
Strength: 813Stamina: 747Dexterity: 864
Intelligence: 1176Wisdom: 936Luck: 1
I think I¡¯m officially the strongest teenager on the continents. Hell, I now have a stat of over one thousand¡ªmy intelligence. Though, I think my luck is broken. It¡¯s never done anything. While most people¡¯s luck is normally fixed, it can still increase due to fortuitous events. Even now, due to the increase in all of my stats, luck should have also increased. I¡¯m beginning to think that it only displays a one, due to the fact that it can¡¯t go any lower. Maybe the actual value approaches zero or something? Also, in addition to my main class changing, my sub class has also changed, becoming a ¡®Spell-Sword Saint¡¯. From the description, it sounded like a combination between all three of my earlier classes¡ªmage, swordsman, and smith. It gives active boosts to my abilities when making or using swords, and allows my magic to better flow in combat with a sword. I can probably channel mana through swords a whole lot better, then. I noticed a few other things, as well. For one, I seem to have gained quite a bit of weight. Not in fat or anything, but my whole body feels many times more dense than it had been. I guess when the system says that my body was reconstructed, it means from the ground up, which would explain why it had been so painful. I would also guess that my body is now many times more resilient towards any number of things. And, when looking in the mirror, I found that the changes weren¡¯t just under the skin. My skin seemed much clearer than it had been, like it had rid itself of imperfections. That also meant that the bags under my eyes, even after having been there for at least a year now, were gone. I never really did get enough sleep, preferring to work on new blades and ideas. My hair was also longer now, reaching to the small of my back instead of my shoulders. It also seemed to have turned white at the roots, the silver fading gradually. It wasn¡¯t a sickly white though, instead seeming to be like snow, in a way. My horns had adopted a darker hue near their tips, sort of like when I go into¡¼Demonic Transformation¡½, except the horns had turned red near the tips then, while now it¡¯s more black than anything. My eyes had also had a slight color change, as I could now see little flecks of green suspended inside the fiery gold colors. Other than that, I just felt revitalized and fresh. Well, until I grabbed a plate for breakfast, and accidentally broke the wooden construct, underestimating my new strength. Somewhat abashed, I ate silently, before going to one of the many places to spar on the campus. I decided that before doing anything else, I needed to get a handle on my power, and make sure that I don¡¯t accidentally hurt someone. Running around the outside of the training grounds in the same clothes I had used to smith Nightfall yesterday, I got a good idea of my top speed without using any fancy movements or mana. When I did use a tiny bit of my mana, I instantly crossed the entire training ground. I think I may have created a small sonic boom though, so I decided to not do that in the school. Luckily, it was still early in the morning, so nobody really had the energy to come and see what had caused such a large sound. After that, I began testing the limits of my body. ...Which left me physically exhausted, as several five hundred kilogram rocks lay around me. Yeah, I had been able to pick them up. Other than the fact that it was difficult to find a grip on such a large object, it had been easier than I had expected. It felt like I was beginning to be able to limit my strength, as well. Just to be safe, I went through some old sword forms that acted a lot like Tai-Chi, and was designed to help its practitioners to concentrate and built control. Perfect for what I needed right now, since I definably need more control over my new strength. Once the sun was about a fourth of the way though the sky, I stopped. Other people had begun to arrive at the training ground, and I had begun to feel a little self-conscious in front of them. I even saw one of the teachers I¡¯d curb-stomped during the exam. It was the one that stole my tent, and I felt gratified when I smiled wolfishly at her, and she paled. Thought, that might also be due to the horns, and the fact that I so obviously have demon blood. Then, I don¡¯t know if I should feel good or bad about her reaction? Oh well. I¡¯ll just ignore it. Pondering what I should do for the rest of the day, I went to visit Flavius in his office. He was buried neck deep under paperwork, so I asked him where the heroes were, not wanting to be dragged into helping him with the papers. The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation. For a second, he looked extremely happy, and vindicated, before telling me where they were. As soon as the word had left his mouth, I left. I could hear him calling for help behind me, but I had to save myself¡­ The heroes were in a classroom, looking supremely bored as another familiar face taught them. I think his name was¡­Cat? Cait? Anyway, he had been the one who had taken the teacher¡¯s exam with me, and had decided that winning is justice, no matter how his team won. I had given that dream an early death by proving to him that no, winning isn¡¯t justice. Absolute power is. That is to say, I crushed him in one move. The bottle of wine I had drunk before-hand hadn¡¯t helped matters. I mean, I had wanted to hold back a little, but forgot. The result of this is that I now absolutely terrify the man. As soon as I walked in, the same scene from the training field with the other teacher repeated itself. He saw me, and cut off mid lecture, his face draining of blood. He crouched down low, and held out his hands wardingly, like he was trying to calm down a large and hungry animal before running away as fast as his weak legs could take him. So, not very fast. The heroes noticed when his lecture about common warfare tactics puttered out, and started paying their full attention to the drama unfolding before them. I put up my own hands, indicating to him that I meant no harm. (Kai) ¡°Hi again. Sorry about what happened during the exam¡ªI had a little to drink, and forgot that people are fragile. Friends?¡± I held out a hand, but he just squealed and ran around me, grabbing his teaching stuff as he went. Huh, that was actually kinda fast. Sorry for underestimating you, Cait. I huffed, and leaned against the podium he had set up for the lecture. I have a bad feeling that I¡¯ve got to keep people from fearing me, whether for my demon blood, or for my power. Though, I have a feeling that the two are connected. After all, who would be fearful of a weak demon? Sure, they might disdain it, and not care about it, but it¡¯s not feared. I¡¯m not willing to live the rest of my potentially short life with everyone afraid of me. I like being liked, if it¡¯s for the right reasons. If they just like me for the organs they could sell on the black market, then I should probably run. Or kill them. Either works. The problem with this whole thing, is that it¡¯s a product of countless centuries of warfare, religious zeal, and political maneuvering. All with a healthy dose of fearful superstition thrown in. Right now, I don¡¯t even know what could reverse all this, except maybe the need for cooperation. If everyone could come in close contact with demons, over an extended period of time, then maybe some of that fear would disappear. That¡¯s why I view the summit that''s going to happen soon as such a good thing, since that contact could be forced, if the threat from outside is big enough. Also, maybe if the continent¡¯s leaders become more afraid of the unknown outside factors than the demons near them. Mh. It¡¯s not my problem anyway¡­ In fact, since I had broken the world seal, I may have driven this place towards greater cooperation, and the redemption of the demons. Now, if only the outside world would be so kind as to not break our little continents, then everything will have been fine. As I was contemplating these issues, the heroes just stared at me as I spaced out. I realized that I had been staring at empty space for the past minute or so, and tried to play it off. (Kai) ¡°Ah, yes. I just tested your patience, and as a group, I am pleased with the results. Whoever taught you the art of waiting did a fine job of it.¡± There were a few confused looks around the small classroom, though Sarah just laughed. (Sarah) ¡°Please. I was taught patience by the best, and continue to learn more and more. Especially lately.¡± Selina was the next to talk, and the first to voice what some of the others had been thinking. (Selina) ¡°Did something else happen after dinner last night? You seem¡­different somehow. Did your horns change color a little?¡± Like most other things, I decided to mix in a healthy amount of truth, along with a good lie. (Kai) ¡°Mh? Yeah. I reached level seventy five, and my demon blood evolved a little. I got a small power up from that.¡± Selina nodded, though I noticed that she seemed a little wary still. I knew it would be likely that she wouldn¡¯t buy too much into my lie, but I wasn¡¯t trying to fool her, as much as the heroes I didn¡¯t know so well. While Sarah and Gaby might understand that I wasn¡¯t an enemy needing immediate killing, the others might not buy into that idea so much. And, I knew with absolute certainty that Selina knew that people were hellishly complex, and not bound by restrictions such as race, age, sex or nationality. Also, she would simply think that me becoming a Demon Lord in the near future would simply be ¡®interesting¡¯, and fun to watch. She wouldn¡¯t try to kill me over it. Though, she may make me fight my old corpse, for entertainment. She¡¯s an odd one like that. Besides, she likes irony. What¡¯s more ironic than a growing Quasi-Demon Lord teaching heroes to fight? Well, a few things, I¡¯d imagine. It¡¯s still near the top of the list though. I would like to point out that Cait had been doing the heroes a grand disservice by trying to teach them the basics of military tactics. They¡¯re heroes for the gods sake! Most of them already know this, and those who don¡¯t could easily learn from the other heroes. So, the first thing I did as their new teacher was to have them introduce themselves, to me, and to each other. While they had interacted with each other quite a few times before now, I figured that there were always things avoided in polite talk. Like war. And so it was that we learned all about the whole, complete, and extended version of the legend of King Arthur for our first semi-official lesson. As it turns out, he likes to talk about himself quite a bit. He wouldn''t shut up. No, he couldn''t. Never meet your heroes, kids. You¡¯ll only be disappointed.
Author''s Note: Posting this right after a seven hour long red-eye flight. I''m actually in another airport terminal at the moment, waiting for my next flight to Berlin. It''s a four hour wait, so thank the internet gods for free wifi. ¡ªRiver. Chapter 42: The Second Lesson After the disastrous first day of teaching, which had both began with and ended with Arthur narrating his life, and the many things that make him a great king, I decided to never, ever ask him for even the smallest part of his life story. Also, he proved that my idea of having them introduce themselves and what-not wouldn¡¯t work. For one, it¡¯s boring, and the heroes lost focus pretty quickly. None did it more quickly than Selina, though. She spent most of the time flicking small bits of paper into Merlin¡¯s hair and beard, showing her displeasure with how things had been going. So, for the second class, I decided to continue with a more¡­practical lesson plan. Oh, and Flavius had made me the heroes¡¯ official teacher, instead of that Cait guy. So now I actually had the authority to teach them. Or help them grow. I don¡¯t think I can teach some of them, due to the sheer amount of knowledge they¡¯ve already accumulated. So I think it¡¯ll be more of an exchange of ideas, then me just teaching them. Naturally, I brought them out to the training field this time, and asked them to spar each other. I wanted to see what sort of strength each of them held. I had to set some ground rules though. Such as; No harming your opponent. No forbidden magic. The weapons will be blunted. No summoning hordes of undead. Yeah, two of those were for Selina. It would be problematic if she were able to just let others fight for her, or use an unknown magic to win. As for the others, as long as nobody is hurt in a malicious way, anything goes. I provided the training weapons. They were just simple steel weapons, and I had made sure to bring a good variety of them, even adding in some made by me, instead of the generic steel rods made by smithy apprentices. The first match up was one made in retaliation for what had happened yesterday. No, I didn¡¯t make the match-up. Sarah was the one who challenged Arthur first. Unfortunately for Arthur, who claimed himself to be the son of creation itself or something, and the only one capable of bringing change to a withering world, Sarah was diabolically strong. I mean, physically, I¡¯d guess she¡¯s middle of the pack as far as the heroes are concerned. That didn¡¯t stop her from picking up the biggest sword she could lay her hands on, and facing off against Arthur. I knew what her picking a gods-damned oversized claymore meant though, even if nobody else did. It was her handicap. As it was, she managed to corner Arthur slowly and inexorably, even with the slow speed of the sword, and it¡¯s inability to block quickly. She left him sweating bullets in the middle of the field, the claymore laying against his throat, while she hadn¡¯t seemed to even broken a single drop of sweat. I know that most of the other heroes just passed it off as her being really good at using massive swords. That was disproven when she challenged that man, Harving. He grabbed a set of blunted daggers, and sunk into a low crouch before the spar began. Sarah had chosen a light and nimble rapier this time, stumping many of those who had thought she was only good at larger swords. This time though, instead of the extended back and forth that had happened between her and Arthur, she went straight for the jugular. Three strikes, and both of his daggers had gone flying, and his chest was left wide open from the strikes. She struck for his heart, pausing just before hitting him. Arthur looked like he was turning purple off to the side. Strictly speaking, she had dishonored him twice. Once by not using the weapon she was best with, and again by striking at his throat. This indicated that no mercy would be given, and that you were willing to disfigure a visible place. Truth be told, even the rapier isn¡¯t her preferred weapon. Unfortunately, I couldn¡¯t set hers up though¡ªSimply because she causes the most effective damage helming an army. There¡¯s a reason she was left alone to deal with a massive demon army, while I went to kill the king. Not looking satisfied with her easy win, she turned to me. I shook my head. No, Sarah. You can¡¯t challenge me. She cocked her head to the side, as if saying ¡®why not?¡¯. To demonstrate this, I simply picked up a standard training longsword, and pointed it straight down at the ground. Then, without a hint of exertion, I slammed it into the dirt surface of the training area, where it sank up to it¡¯s hilt. I knew that if I pulled it out, the tip would be badly deformed from the strength required to preform this feat. Sarah huffed, obviously knowing what I was conveying with this, but not happy about it. Arthur looked at the sword in the ground, and walked over to it. Ah, he couldn¡¯t pull it out. Such a shame. After that, Sarah fought against Gaby, who had been my sister on Earth. It was unexpectedly even, as both of them used their heads to tease out strategies capable of defeating the opponent in front of them. It was like watching a high-speed chess match, where Sarah might have been holding back quite a bit. Gaby had taken several years of fencing lessons though, so Sarah might not have been holding back as much as she may have intended at first. If you discover this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the violation. I could also see the light in her eyes. She was glad to fight against Gaby, and to see her potential. By the way, I¡¯d asked them if they had every spared with each other before, and all of them kind of scratched their heads, and said that the idea never occurred to them. They don¡¯t seem to be very¡­cohesive as a group. I guess that¡¯s the price of bringing strong willed individuals from different worlds and time streams together. They have almost too much individuality. On another note, the mages had also duked it out, with the likes of Merlin, Selina and Rust, who was a sort of magic archer, competing against each other. Needless to say, Selina came out on top. By far, she knew the most magic, and was used to applying them in creative and interesting ways. Merlin held his own for a while though. He¡¯s an illusion mage, with the potential to be one of the best I¡¯ve ever seen. Exactly what his class name would suggest, he can create illusions, limited only be his creativity and his mana pool. At higher levels, you can begin to make certain parts of illusions into reality, or completely sink opponents into an illusory world. It¡¯s a rare and somewhat frightening class, and definably one of the trickiest to deal with. As for Merlin himself, well, the class suited such a crafty old man perfectly. Unfortunately for him, Selina was still several tiers higher than him. For one, she was a Grand Necromancer. That¡¯s not a class you can just get¡ªIt¡¯s one you must work up to after uncountable years of toil and experimentation. Plus, anytime she took damage, it just auto-regenerated. A bit unfair, considering that none of the others could do this, but I¡¯d already restricted her strength as much as I¡¯m willing to. Of course, she also tried to fight me after that, but I gave another demonstration that discouraged something like that. I¡¯m still unsure if my strength is completely contained, and wouldn¡¯t want to hurt anyone. I can just wait a year or so, and with the rate at which the heroes seem to be growing, they might be able to take me on. That is, if everyone but Selina attacks me at once. Were Selina to actually attack me, she would only need to pull out a pet I know she keeps in her spacial pocket to win against me. She¡¯s totally a cheat character for her level. And, she¡¯s only going to get stronger in the future, as her original powers return. As for the others, they are certainly going to become strong in the future. Sarah¡¯s already proven to me multiple times that she grows at a reliable rate, and is extremely trustworthy, while Gaby might be the same, as far as how she grows. Merlin could be terrifying given time, and Rust has good potential as well, since his magically enhanced arrows are already able to break thick plate armor¡ªSomething he had demonstrated earlier at my behest. Even more than that, he¡¯s still young and has plenty of room to grow in the next few years. Harving seems to be a paragon assassin, capable of completely erasing his presence and landing devastating blows, though he doesn¡¯t fair too well in a fair fight. The only one I¡¯m worried about would be Arthur, the egotistic idiot. While he is strong, and might actually be a good leader, his personality would drive any potential allies away. That is, if he doesn¡¯t die before then. He also seems to suffer from the ever cruel and deadly ¡®Protagonist¡¯s Disease¡¯. But enough on that. This days¡¯ training had ended, and I pondered my next moves. Ah, it just occurred to me that some might question the sanity of me teaching the heroes in the first place, since I am ¡®on the path towards becoming a Demon Lord¡¯. Well, aren¡¯t there some things that are better solved by facing them head on, rather than running? If I ran from the heroes now, it wouldn¡¯t do me any good. In fact, it would probably do me a great deal of harm. However, if I stayed by them, guiding them towards strength, who¡¯s to say that my fate is set in stone? I could change how they view demons as a whole, and teach those needing it the idea of equality. Besides, even if this whole thing goes south, I¡¯m still stronger than them at the moment, and I can learn their weak points during my teachings. There¡¯s practically no downsides. Plus, I can watch Sarah and Gaby grow even more, and interact with Selina. I know I¡¯ve said it before, but it bears being said again. I like having friends I can trust. It¡¯s a weight off my shoulders. And besides all that, I know what I¡¯m going to have them do whenever I teach them. Fight. They might as well learn how to work well together, and the only way I can think of getting them to do that¡ªwell, ways, would be to either fight them myself, or toss them into the academy dungeon. I think the dungeon should be safer now that the lich didn¡¯t have to build it¡¯s strength and guard it, so the heroes should be fine. I¡¯ll go with them the first time, and observe their individual fighting style more closely. Why? Well, I have a little project in mind for later.
Chapter 43: The Train-Wreck It was a mess. Yeah, yeah, I know I¡¯m diving straight for the crux of the matter, but I really can¡¯t say anything else about it. Ah, right. I¡¯m talking about the heroes¡¯ first dungeon dive as a group. They had gone into lower ranked dungeons before, but as individuals. I tried to get them to work together, but it just didn¡¯t work. Sure, individually, they are strong. But they seem incapable of supporting each other, for a few reasons. Also, I know very well that some of the heroes are able to work with other people. Like Sarah. However, we also have people like Harving, who works best alone, Rust, who doesn¡¯t know how to work with others in the first place, and Arthur, who¡¯s just an idiot. Essentially, the heroes group, while it¡¯s members are theoretically very balanced, and should work really well together, their personalities prevent it, or their lack of experience, as is Rust¡¯s case. I mean, the heroes have a healer/overpowered mage, a tank, an assassin, an archer, a strategist/swordswoman, another powerful mage, and Gaby, who could really end up filling any role at this point, given how she hasn¡¯t yet committed to one single class like the rest of them have. Again, in theory, this group shouldn¡¯t have any problems so early in the dungeon. Especially not in the first ten floors. Once more, it was a mess. Selina was restricted to only healing, since I wanted to give the rest of the group a chance to actually fight, and constantly complained about it. Merlin hasn¡¯t figured out how to use his ability effectively in combat, though he constantly has an illusion around him making him look twenty years old, instead of the geezer he really is. Harving doesn¡¯t communicate, often getting in the way of other heroes fighting, just to hit the enemy, and Rust sits off to the side, not wanting to interfere, thinking he¡¯ll mess things up. Sarah tries to run things, but most of the men feel somewhat insulted by a woman giving orders, especially since most of them come from strictly patriarchal societies, where woman only tend to their families. Gaby doesn¡¯t know what to do yet, especially because she needs some time still¡ªto adjust to this world. After all, she¡¯s come from Earth, which is definably the most peaceful world I¡¯ve ever been to. It has a good society, unlike so many other places where crime, slavery, and wars run rampant. And then there¡¯s Arthur. I don¡¯t think he¡¯s redeemable at this point, since he has the most problems, by far. He interrupts other¡¯s fights right at the end, claiming the kill as he strikes the last, and his only, blow. He runs off on his own, not caring about the consequences it has for everyone else, and he doesn¡¯t contribute with the cleanup. When he makes a mistake, he blames it on everything other than himself, and takes no responsibility. At least he knows how to fight fairly well¡ªbetter than most, in fact. But only that. He isn¡¯t very special, unless you count his talent of pissing me off in the least amount of time possible. He¡¯s also more misogynistic than the other men, by a long shot. Unfortunately, in this instance, I¡¯m also a woman. So he assumes that he¡¯s better than me, somehow. Actually, no. He is better than me at something. He¡¯s by far more annoying than I am. How that man became one of the most legendary kings to exist on Earth, is beyond me. In fact, I asked Merlin about it, and learned quite a bit about the unknown history of earth. And, learned how Arthur basically became the only person able to become king, even with how unsavory that prospect was. Yes, even Merlin can¡¯t stand Arthur. While I¡¯m unsure of how to solve the problem with Arthur, I know a very good method of getting everyone to work together as a team. Sarah also knows of it, since it was how we trained, with the other summoned heroes. Plus, I should have a good enough grasp of my strength now. I shouldn¡¯t hurt them too badly. The day after the disastrous dungeon run, I brought the heroes outside the city. While I could have used one of the academy training grounds, I¡¯m still afraid of either damaging them, or the large crowd that would be drawn by such a large-scale fight. Yeah, I¡¯m going to have the heroes fight me. In a seven against one brawl, they might actually be able to touch me, especially since I¡¯ll be limiting myself to close combat only. No spells. That would just destroy their confidence, and make Selina even more eager to ¡®compare notes¡¯. Which would be a bad idea. I¡¯ve already fought against her once, and was completely destroyed. Though, that had been while she was at the peak of her power, so I would win against her now. At what cost, is what I wonder. And, I now have a slight trauma against her, due to that single engagement we had. It hadn¡¯t been fun, though we became something like friends afterwards. I could hear some people grumbling behind me, as we walked to a large and flat wooded area about ten kilometers from the city. The most notable voices of protest belonged to Arthur and Selina, though she stayed quiet after Arthur agreed with her sentiments about walking so far. Looks like she doesn¡¯t like him either. Finally, we reached a space devoid of trees in the center of the small woods, and I stopped in the middle of said clearing. (Kai) ¡°Alright. Now, all of you, come at me. Wait! Not you Selina. You can only heal.¡± Selina slunk back to where she had been, after dashing at me with a wild grin on her face. That was a close one¡­ Though, she immediately cast reinforcement magics on the heroes, improving their strength, speed, and vitality. I think she¡¯s a little bitter. After I had told them what this was all about, combat began. I want them to see that they won¡¯t be able to prevail against stronger foes without relying on each other. The dungeon hadn¡¯t had given them a good feeling of fear, forcing them to cooperate and plan together. It had been ironically safe, considering how I had nearly died in the labyrinth under said dungeon all those months ago. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. I needed to put the fear of the gods in them, or the fear of me. I simply stood in the middle of the clearing, while the heroes began their attack. And, to be honest, I¡¯ve seen sharks and sardines work together more than they did. Sarah was the first to reach me, mostly because all the men were hanging back for some reason. Merlin hadn¡¯t moved, while Arthur simply looked disinterested. Harving looked contemplative, but didn¡¯t move into a good position to attack. Rust, in a commendable effort, shot some arrows towards me haphazardly. They reached me before Sarah did, and I simply swayed to one side, letting them shoot on past me. I could hear the impacts behind me as the arrows hit the ground, or some trees. Sarah, as an opening move, lunged at my face. She was using a rapier again, this time a sharpened one, since I had told them to bring normal weapons. In response, I took a step forward while tilting my head to the side, letting the sword slide past my face. Sarah panicked, since people normally back up from such strikes, instead of coming closer. I struck at her abdomen with my bare fist, and she shot off to the side. Thankfully, she has a good grasp on body enhancement magics, so the punch did little damage besides knocking the wind out of her. I could see her looking frustrated and bewildered as she flew back, and I briefly contemplated why. Ah, she thought she knew how I would react to her strike. When we had spared together as two heroes, I would always step back and disengage when she struck out like that, looking for an opening to take advantage of later, while hesitating to take the one right in front of me. Unfortunately for her, I¡¯m not that kind anymore. If I see something, I will strike, instead of deliberating over whether or not I should like I used to. By stepping inside her strike, I threw her off balance, since it wasn¡¯t what she had been expecting from me, from Kai. The result was, that she was temporarily out of action, as she tried to recover from my hit. Rust shot off a few more arrows, and I could see the panic in his eyes as they missed again. Gaby rushed in next, with this world¡¯s equivalent to a fencing foil, though more lethal than the ones found in those fencing tournaments. I took it a little easier on her, since she isn¡¯t able to use body enhancement magics as well as Sarah can. I simply disarmed her after a bit of back and forth, and went to engage the men who were still standing around. I really didn¡¯t know why they hadn¡¯t moved before, but as soon as I moved, Harving dashed behind me, and waited. Nice. Like I don¡¯t know what you¡¯re trying to do now. Idiot. Arthur lazily propped his longsword up, like he found it a pain to fight against me. Oh trust me, there will be pain. Merlin still hasn¡¯t moved. What the hell is he thinking, just standing still¡­No, wait. Oh, that¡¯s actually kinda clever. Props off to you, Merlin. Maybe you aren¡¯t so bad after all. Selina¡¯s been casting reinforcement magic this whole time, and I noticed she used more power on those she doesn¡¯t find annoying. So, Arthur didn¡¯t get much of anything. Rust also shot a few more arrows. His quiver looks mostly empty now, and he looks extremely frustrated due to not being able to hit me. I squared off opposite Arthur. (Kai) ¡°Come on. You can look more motivated than that, right? Fight me!¡± I yelled at him, trying to get him to take this a little more seriously. He looked at me with a well-hidden trace of distain, and cocked his head to the side a little. (Arthur) ¡°I thought I would leave the women to fight the girl? It just doesn¡¯t seem too fair if I fought you.¡± Oh gods damn it, he pisses me off so much. I might have made a mistake after he made that comment. You see, it made me angry, and I might have accidentally released a little bit of my aura, including the new addition, my¡¼Demon Lord¡¯s Aura (Weak)¡½. While the word weak might be in there, that doesn¡¯t mean that it wasn¡¯t frightening. To the heroes, the sky seemed to darken instantly, like night had fallen in the middle of the day, and the air became stiflingly quiet, even though a breeze had ruffled the tree branches just a second earlier. Pressure, like that which had been found on Ascension Island, fell, as my mana manifested itself outside my body a little. I realized my slip in control instantly, and retracted my aura as soon as it hit, leaving the heroes staggering but still standing. Staring at Arthur, I made a simple move, my eyes filled with astonishment toward the depths of his stupidity and egotistic nature. I punched out at him, infusing a little mana into the strike. Just the wind pressure sent him to his knees, and his sword and shield were blasted out of his hands. I walked up to him, paying no note to Harving, who had been halfway to me when I accidently released my aura, and Merlin, who had seemingly materialized off to my side as the illusion of himself he had placed as soon as combat began disappeared like a soap bubble under the instant of high pressure I let off. I kneeled in front of him, still on my feet as my legs folded, like a baseball catcher. (Kai) ¡°You, sir, are a human failure. I don¡¯t even know what to say, since you¡¯ll probably ignore it. Ugh. I¡¯m done. Let¡¯s go back to the academy for punishment, no?¡± I looked around the clearing, making eye contact with everyone, one at a time. Yeah, some have potential, real potential. Just not ability. I guess that takes time. More time than they¡¯ve had. Well, after berating them, and telling them exactly what had gone wrong, I blew off steam in the smithy. I stayed in there until the next lesson, where we went back out into the clearing. Rinse and repeat, I guess.
Chapter 44: The Improvements Thankfully, after telling the heroes what they had done wrong in exquisite detail, most of them had the grace to at least look abashed. They should start to slowly improve as we continue to do these spars. And, to make sure that they won¡¯t start using their energy to create strategies that would only work against me, I¡¯m going to change my combat style every time we spar. This will force them to become more adaptable, and will keep them from only knowing how to deal with one type of enemy. Of course, I needn¡¯t mention that Arthur was the only one that still looked arrogant and righteous after my careful dissection. Mostly because the only advice I gave him was to pull his head out of his ass. For everyone else, I told them what had gone wrong, and gave them advise on how to improve themselves. Some, like Sarah and Selina, didn¡¯t need the advise, since they were experienced enough to know how to get better. The one who needed the advice the most was Rust, who couldn¡¯t help but seem lost during the sparing match. He had shot a quiver full of arrows at me, missing all of them narrowly. This made him frustrated, and angry at himself. I commended him on the fact that he had engaged me in the first place, and that the arrows had gotten so close already. (Rust) ¡°But I never hit you!¡± (Kai) ¡°Look, nobody is expected to hit their target so soon after picking up the bow. You didn¡¯t hit me this time. You probably won¡¯t next time either, but you can certainly get closer to that goal. Just keep trying, that¡¯s all I¡¯m asking.¡± He seemed to get this, and calmed down. I went on to tell him strategies, on how to hit an enemy in the middle of combat. Like, wait for a moment when the enemy stands still, and isn¡¯t focused on incoming arrows. Rust hadn¡¯t shot any arrows while I was fighting others, which should have been the best opportunity to catch me off guard. He should also wait for a point when I am unable to avoid the arrows, like when I¡¯m blocked in on multiple sides, and unable to dodge. He simply doesn¡¯t have the experience needed yet, and the best way to get it would be to continue fighting me. It¡¯s the same story for most of the others. Merlin seems to be the quickest to adapt, mostly because he¡¯s already so experienced, and only needed time to adjust to his new illusionist powers. He¡¯s already shown a potential application of them¡ªHe had placed an illusionary version of himself down at the start of the combat, and rendered himself mostly invisible. As long as the target doesn¡¯t catch on, he could very well sneak about and take them unawares. I had noticed it, and seen the discolored patch of air giving away his real position, but otherwise, he did well. And, as he gains a greater grasp of his abilities, he could start doing so much more with it. Harving¡¯s pretty much an enigma to me. He¡¯s always quiet, but when he acts, he acts violently. All his attacks strike to kill, and he does so viciously. It¡¯s a bit scary, really. But, like Merlin, he should adapt to the situation quickly. I was a bit concerned when he stood around for the first part of the spar, but he took action afterwards, even if it had been stopped when I had released my aura. Oh well. As long as he can take action, then everything should be fine. I¡¯m not even going to mention Arthur again. It feels like he wins when I do. I¡¯ve convinced Gaby to begin looking for a way to use her class that suits her. She¡¯s been unsure about how to use her class, but the only thing people have told her is that a way to use it will come naturally to her. Well, it hasn¡¯t. she doesn¡¯t know how to fully utilize her main class, though her secondary was easily figured out. Scholar, and Swordsman, it was. It can¡¯t really be helped, since she used to be a student and everything, but I don¡¯t think anyone expected for her to not understand her classes yet. Swordsman is fine and all, but it¡¯s her secondary class, while Scholar is her primary. So, it looks like we have to find a good use for her Scholar class, one that¡¯ll support the group in the best possible way. So, yeah. I threw her into the academy library, and told her to start reading. What? Her class is Scholar, right? I figured that the library would be a good place to start, after all. The next day, she looked happy and joyful, but exhausted. And, in no shape to spar, so I sent her back. Hopefully, she¡¯s now sleeping. If not, then she¡¯s back in the library. I may have just awakened a monster of sorts. Oops. Since it¡¯s unlikely that she would be needed during the spar in any way, since the rest were still just as bad as her, I continued to the clearing with the rest of the heroes. This time, instead of going barehanded, I brought along a single shield. It wasn¡¯t large or anything, but it still proved formidable as I blocked every blow thrown at me, from the arrows, to the daggers, to the swords. Just as they started getting frustrated with the whole thing, since they clearly weren¡¯t able to touch me, I began bashing them with the shield. I found it extraordinarily funny how they would go flying every time. From another point of view, it must have been odd to see a small girl only just over five feet tall flinging larger people around, as she lay about her with a stout oak shield. Well, I had fun with it. The heroes were less enthused. Especially when I smacked Arthur straight in the face with the shield, leaving him on the ground with blood steaming out of his nose, and his eyes watering. Hopefully, this¡¯ll get him to value women more, and be less of an ass-hat. Once again, after the spar ended, I had dinner with the heroes, and told them what had gone wrong, and what they could improve. There were some repeated mistakes, but not as many as I would have thought. They seem to learn quickly, as a whole. Even Arthur had learned¡ªHe hadn¡¯t stood about waiting for me to come to him this time. No, this time it had been Harving who had the biggest issues. The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident. He did the same thing again, where he half-heartedly committed himself to combat. He simply didn¡¯t have the same feeling around him, that ruthless and cold feeling. I don¡¯t know what was wrong with him, but I suspected he has something holding him back from being able to fight me with his full power. Maybe a trauma, or a bad memory. I¡¯ll ask him about it sooner or later, when I¡¯m able to talk to him alone. Gaby showed up for the dinner as well, and spent the entire time talking to Sarah about all the fascinating books she¡¯d found in the library. I reminded her that she still has to find a use for the knowledge she gains, one that would help the others in some way. I was beginning to get an idea of how she could do this, but I also know that it would be best to let her come to those conclusions on her own, given time. Speaking of time, it seems that my reaching level one hundred is closer than I had originally thought. I leveled up twice while meditating after the second sparring lesson with the heroes. I don¡¯t know how it¡¯s possible to advance so quickly, but I¡¯m guessing it¡¯s due to my bloodlines. After all, one side is that of powerful elven nobility, and the other from an unknowably powerful man. And, it seems that now I¡¯m closer to becoming a demon lord than I had been, the process of leveling up to get there has been accelerated greatly. I¡¯d say it¡¯s only a matter of weeks now. And, I¡¯m planning on taking a trip outside of the academy when the time comes for me to fully become a demon lord. I don¡¯t know what¡¯ll happen, or if it¡¯s noticeable, but I don¡¯t want to take the risk of alerting everyone that there¡¯s a demon lord in the academy. At least this way, if there is some sign that I¡¯ve advanced, it¡¯ll show up in the middle of the wilderness. And, the next day, after another sparing session, this time with me using a massive greatsword to bat away all opposition, I went to visit Flavius. Luckily, Niten was also there for some reason or another. It would save me the trouble of tracking him down, at least. Without much preamble, I sat in one of the chairs in front of Flavius¡¯s desk. Both of them looked confused about the whole thing, especially since I had just burst into the room, carefully closed the door behind me, and sat down without a word. (Flavius) ¡°Is something wrong, Kai?¡± (Kai) ¡°Well, not really, but I thought I would let you guys know about something.¡± I saw a sly look cross Niten¡¯s eyes, and he carefully examined me. (Niten) ¡°Does it have something to do with those changes I can see? You¡¯ve gotten more powerful, haven¡¯t you?¡± Flavius¡¯s head whipped around to look at Niten. (Flavius) ¡°Really?! How is that possible¡ªI mean, I noticed how your horns are now blackened at the tips, but I thought that was just fashion or something. Your strength also changed?¡± I nodded. (Kai) ¡°Right. Those changes do have something to do with what I¡¯m about to tell you, and what¡¯s going to happen to me in the future.¡± They both looked concerned. While I¡¯m flattered that they care about me, if they show concern for me now, then what¡¯s going to happen when I drop my news on them? (Kai) ¡°Basically, it looks like my demon blood is evolving.¡± They looked confused now, trying to puzzle out the implications of what I just said. (Flavius) ¡°Uh...What does that mean?¡± (Kai) ¡°It means that I¡¯ll likely become a Demon Lord in a few weeks.¡± Ah, if they had been drinking something, it would be all over the walls right now. Flavius sat stunned, and I could see a riot of emotions flit across his face, one after the other. Niten took the news calmly though. (Niten) ¡°So, are you going to leave the academy?¡± (Kai) ¡°For a while, yes. I can¡¯t be sure that the process of becoming a demon lord won¡¯t attract unwanted attention, so I¡¯ll be going away in a few weeks. If nobody notices, then I¡¯ll come back.¡± Niten nodded thoughtfully. (Niten) ¡°It might be that, even were someone to notice this, you would be able to return to the academy.¡± Now it was my turn to be confused. (Kai) ¡°What do you mean? Wouldn¡¯t it be bad for the academy¡¯s image if it came out that a demon lord was in residence?¡± (Niten) ¡°No, on the contrary, I would think that this news getting out would help the academy greatly. It has always lacked a good number of demon blood students¡ªin fact, at the moment there are only fifteen demons students enrolled, and they face discrimination on a daily basis. Also, do not forget that the leaders off all three continents are meeting on equal footing soon. The demons do not have a single, strong leader. Though, since your brother has now escaped, he might suffice.¡± I snorted. Jasper, leading a nation? He would first have to leave his books alone. Flavius was still sitting, stunned. Well, I can imagine why. After all, I¡¯m still only thirteen, though I should turn fourteen soon. A teenage Demon Lord? That¡¯s never been heard of in the continents so far. (Kai) ¡°So? What are you getting at, mentioning the summit?¡± (Niten) ¡°What I mean to say, is that strength should be viewed with the greatest importance in the coming years. Having a Demon Lord on their sides should be a good incentive to accept the demons once and for all.¡±
Author''s Note: So, the internet went down for something like three hours today. Apparently, all of Germany''s servers are experiencing problems of varying size. I''ll be on a plane for most of the day tomorrow, so it''s a toss up as to if a chapter comes out. Again, I''ll be depending on the availability of internet to post it. I mean, it will be written on the plane. I have nothing better to do, so yay? ¡ªRiver. Also, a side note, I''ve erased most of the author''s notes on pervious chapters, leaving only those with significance to the story, Chapter 45: Level 100 Niten explained what he meant when he said that even if people found out about me, I wouldn¡¯t be hunted down.... he thinks. The crux of the matter is, that we really don¡¯t know what¡¯s coming in the future, especially now that it¡¯s become apparent that there are bigger dangers waiting outside the old bounds of our world. Those occupying places of power in the continents are being forced to ignore internal problems, and look outwards to the unknown threats now before us. In this situation, my rise as an additional bastion of strength would be welcome, since we need all the strength we have, just in case. Though, Niten also voiced that even the addition of a Demon Lord amongst the continents might not be enough strength. While it is true that little is know about the new world waiting beyond the borders of our land, all the old books and legends agree. Our nations are but little children before the might of whatever waits out there. Our armies are made of tiny tin soldiers, and our powerhouses know the basics, but no more. The summit of nations is to gather our strength, and know all the cards we have available. After all, most of the nations have strong forces pulled into reserves, to continue giving them the element of surprise. And, most of those who have gained the greatest strength tend to retreat from the world, leaving affairs of state to whatever descendants or vassals they have. There really is no way to know how many of such people have hidden themselves from the world, unless they were all summoned to a summit like this, where their presence might be the difference between the continents falling or weathering whatever comes. If they found out that a new Demon Lord has been born, then they would accept it. Sure, they certainly wouldn¡¯t be happy about it, but again¡ªI would represent more strength for the continents. Not only that, but the existence of a Demon Lord would help gather demonic strength, since that continent tends to always be chaotic, ruled mostly by warlords and local tyrants. Only overwhelming strength is able to tame them, and create a fighting force so formidable that none but people summoned from outside this realm could stand against them. That¡¯s what the coming of a Demon Lord represents. It¡¯s not only personal strength, but also the strength of the entire demon continent, ready to bear down on whatever lay in it¡¯s path. Though, I would still prefer to lay low. I mean, if Jasper were to find out that I was already advancing to Demon Lord status, he would simply dump any work he¡¯s done on me, instead of finishing it himself. Right now, I¡¯m sure he feels responsible for the demon continent, since he counts among it¡¯s most powerful members, and the one closest to becoming a Demon Lord. As soon as he finds out about it, he¡¯s just going to become lazy again. I already know that he only broke out of the seal imprisoning him due to that feeling of responsibility, and even then he had delayed it as much as he could, so he might be able to live freely for a while longer. Ironic that he felt the best way to continue doing whatever he wants lay in a prison of sorts. Still, regardless of what Niten thinks about the whole situation, or my fear of Jasper finding out about my class changes, I¡¯m going to be leaving the academy in about a week, when I would still have time to reach a place to level up safely. I like attention sure, but having so many eyes on me in the academy while I become a Demon Lord is a bit much. Something like this is better done in private. Plus, I have no idea what becoming a Demon Lord entails. Well, I at least know that I would become even more powerful, and gain some special abilities to go along with the power-up. But, I don¡¯t know how it happens. Will I be in as much pain as I was when becoming a Quasi-Demon Lord? More? Will there be physical phenomena involved? Will my body change even more that it had before? What sort of complications can I expect? All of these questions are swimming around my mind as I contemplated what¡¯s to come. And, I can¡¯t answer any of them. I even looked in the academy library, sneaking books about past Demon Lords by Gaby, who had made the building her second, de-facto home. All the books said, is that Demon Lords come into being in unique ways, and tend to gain unpredictable abilities along with the raw power shared by most of them. So, I have no way to prepare for it either. I found it even less reassuring when I found out about the mortality rate among Demon Lords. It¡¯s very rare for them to live long, since they tend to be targeted by the elves and the humans. Let¡¯s hope Niten is right, and that I don¡¯t have to worry about that particular problem, no? Other than worrying incessantly about my coming change, I kept training the heroes. If you could call it training. To me, and undoubtedly to an outside observer, it simply looks like I smack them around quite a bit, dealing ever more heavy blows to them, while they desperately attempt to counter. It¡¯s working though. They¡¯ve been able to last just a little longer each time, and their combat potential only grows as the days go by. And, Arthur has changed. Not a whole lot, but he¡¯s no longer so haughty. I could consider it a small miracle, but I know it¡¯s mainly due to him being smacked around by a little girl every day. Plus, I make sure to deal him a little more hurt that the others. I call it character building, instead of the obvious beat-down it really is. And, after one particular dinner, I confronted Harving about his lack of commitment when fighting me. As it turns out, he¡¯s more of a softy than he would appear. Or, just more human. The story he told me, voiced in surprisingly few words, went something like this: Harving, as a growing boy, was given a little sister by his parents. She was unusual, with overly curious eyes of differing colors, and silver hair. It was clear though, that she would grow up to be a beauty, so the parents took care to pamper her, as to improve their standing through marriage. None of that mattered to Harving, though. He simply enjoyed the company of his new little sister. And, as the years past, she proved to be a good friend and co-conspirator to Harving, along with being his sister. He said that she was too smart, and often taught him more than he did she. However, the inevitable happened. Stolen from Royal Road, this story should be reported if encountered on Amazon. After she turned twelve, she caught the eye of a wandering noble, who carted her off with him. The parents raise no complaints, since the noble paid money before leaving. Harving, on the other hand, was extremely distraught, having lost his sister and closest friend. He was even more distraught when her body was shipped back to the family, a bare month later. The state it was in had been unspeakable. Naturally, that sent him down the path of revenge. The point of all this, is that I remind him of his sister in more ways than one. I have silver hair, a face generally like hers, and a mind that doesn¡¯t match the age of my body at all. This is why he¡¯s unable to use his full strength against me, since the trauma of losing his sister in such a way hasn¡¯t yet gone away, and likely never will, especially since my face practically forces him to remember it. That was why, after that night, I would always go to the sparring lessons with my mask on¡ªthe same one I had used while in the human continent. Harving didn¡¯t have a problem after that, and the other heroes started having nightmares about that mask. I¡¯ve seen Hogvir a few times since walking way from him. Of course, I could see in his eyes that he wanted to talk to me, and find out what he had done wrong. Unfortunately for him, I¡¯m still not ready to see that fear in his eyes again, as he looks upon me. It just makes me feel sick, to know that the prejudice against the demon races has run so deeply, and that the superstitions about them has infected people so badly. Perhaps later, Hogvir. Now, back to the heroes. I¡¯ve asked Niten to take care of them for however long I¡¯m gone, to see that they are able to continue having quality lessons at the academy. I don¡¯t want them to encounter another teacher like Cait, after all. They would be completely out of their depth, and experience zone. And, while I have ways to improve them, most of them were learned from experience with Niten. In fact, my style of teaching thus far could be considered soft, compared to how Niten handled me. Gods above, I still remember that damn cave in my bad dreams. And the bugs. That was probably the worst part. No, wait. There were also the baby snakes. Those were worse, so much worse than the bugs. Well, his teachings would probably build the heroes strength even faster than the astonishing rate that they already grow at. It was a little troublesome to convince him to teach them, though once I threw his own words back at him¡ªthat ¡®strength will be greatly appreciated in the coming years¡¯, he folded, acknowledging my arguments, and the heroes¡¯ potential. Just wait heroes¡­if you thought I was a tough opponent, just wait until you meet the monster that is Niten. The worst is that he keeps you coming back to his ¡®lessons¡¯, turning you into some kind of training masochist. The distance between the kindly old grandfather that he normally seems to be, and the¡­thing he becomes during training is impossibly large. I wish I could see the looks on everybody faces as his true self emerges. But, of course, by then I¡¯ll be on my way to become a Demon Lord. Oh well, I¡¯ll have Niten recount the whole story sometime later.
It happened. The time came for me to leave. I could defiantly tell that I was reaching a fundamental change soon, since I felt full of restless energy, and the rate at which I gained levels increased. Now, I¡¯m at level ninety-eight, and only have two or three days left before I reach one hundred. There hadn¡¯t been any fanfare while leaving the academy, and nor did I tell the heroes about the whole thing, though I definably suspect that some are close to sussing out the truth. I did see some suspicious faces after accidentally releasing my aura, with the energy of a Quasi-Demon Lord mixed into it. It would be too much to hope that no one noticed it. Niten will also probably fill them in on it, leaving out some small details, like how I¡¯m going to become a Demon Lord, or how I¡¯m basically the person they were summoned to kill. Oh well. Small details, right? Oddly enough, those thick black lines that appear on my skin when using¡¼Demonic Transformation¡½started showing up on me with increasing darkness. I took that as a sign that it had been a good idea to leave when I had, since this was just blatantly obvious. I had to cover up my skin, to prevent anybody I met from asking questions about it. Plus, they seemed to begin giving off a malevolent feeling after I had passed the last gate before reaching the place where I had decided to undergo the process of becoming a Demon Lord. It was a desolate mountain range. Why there was a gate nearby eluded me, though it perfectly suited my purposes. With no cities or villages nearby, the chance that my change would be noticed is reduced. Also, the place was heavily wooded. Gods, it¡¯s like it was built for me or something. On top of all that, there was an air of peace and tranquility all around me. It helped me to immediate fall into meditation, and I watched as I leveled up only once within three days. I barely noticed the time passing, though. And then, the big one finally came. Level one hundred. It seemed a little anti-climatic at first, actually. Then it was just plain painful.
Chapter 46: The Demon Lords
System Notification:
Level Up
Class Unlocked:
Demon Lord
For an eternal moment, time seemed to stand still, and I broke my meditation. Everything seemed peaceful, and I felt¡­normal. Like nothing had changed. Well, I was right. Nothing had changed yet. No, I had only begun the first part of becoming a Demon Lord. A light trace of wind broke the feeling of timelessness that I had felt, stirring the leaves in the wooded mountain terrain slightly. That seemed to be the trigger, as the wind began to pick up speed, faster and faster still, and within moments, it was whipping my hair about, and I struggled to stand on solid ground. And, soon, I had no solid ground to stand upon, as a cocoon of wind had encased me within its embrace, lightly lifting me off the ground. I hung in midair, suspended in this transparent barrier. The warbling shriek of the high-speed winds cut out all other sounds, though I would have to be blind to not notice what was happening above me. The wind seemed to be gathering, tunneling into one place, far over my position. A storm was brewing, and I seemed to be the cause, and epicenter of it. The clouds grew thicker and darker, until they seemed to be a solid mass of seething darkness spinning in the air, slowly changing into something that I remembered. It was a natural phenomena normally, just the product of warm and cold air fronts colliding, and forming a spinning funnel of high-speed winds and devastating rain. Whatever was above me now, was similar, but surely not natural. The dark and malevolent clouds reached down for me, still entombed within the sphere of wind. Closer they came, unstoppable while their approach continued on. Knowing that I had no way to dodge them, since the wind barrier proved to be impenetrable with my current magic, I could do nothing but brace myself as they hit¡ªpassing straight through the clear winds buffeting me off the ground, and striking me directly. Cold. The dark clouds felt ice cold as they passed through my skin as well, entering my body. Immediately spreading, occupying the entire span of the mana channels within me, and my mana pool, the wind seemed to stretch them to the limit. I felt like I would break, my body shattering from the inside out as the cold dark clouds froze me and my soul clean to the core. My thoughts ran through my head at the moment, trying to figure out what was happening, find a solution, and hang on for all I¡¯ve got. It was the last one that did me the most good, as my stubbornness exceeded the punishment given by these first dark clouds, and the pain subsided somewhat. At least, until the rest of the twister spinning about wildly above me started descending, gradually forcing more and more of the chill into my body, as I was able to handle more. It was like my body was adapting itself to the clouds, the mana channels growing in width and durability, and my mana pool growing and growing without limits. I seemed to come close to losing the struggle of holding myself together many times, always teetering on the edge of disaster, and presumably death. And the clouds seemed to go on forever, more and more cold despair entering my body, my bones, my veins. Then, it was done, much later. The last of the cloud entered me, and it was gone. The chill dispersed through the my entire body, and I slumped down to the ground, covered in sweat and tears. I no longer had the energy to move, and simply lay there, powerless. I sucked in deep breaths, and the mountain air that had seemed cold before was now blissfully warm and inviting. I laughed weakly. Of course, there is no strength without equal adversity. After some time, I propped myself up by my hands, and sighed painfully. I was happy that it was over with¡­ Wait. The clouds are still there. It had only been the twister that had disappeared. Just as I thought that, a low rumbling overtook the ground, and it began to buckle chaotically. I looked up at the dark clouds hanging above me, and saw as traceries of blinding blue light arced through them, seemingly gathering at one point. Oh shi¡­ ¡ªBoom¡ª!
I saw lightning. It arced all over the place, the violet bolts setting fire to wooded cottages nearby, and people ran about briefly, before falling to the lightning. Someone stood in the center of the lighting. Their figure was indistinct, but somehow sorrowful. Then, the world warped, and instead of that forgotten scene of destruction, I saw scales. A small dragon, only about five feet long, lay on top of a crude altar. Its inky black scales were dripping an equally dark liquid, as it struggled feebly against a massive lance piercing its midsection, and pinning it to the stone table. There were men around the dragon, gleefully taking gilded cups, and using the streams of blood as their fount. Once again, the world shuttered, and I found myself in a different place. This time, I felt powerlessness as my hands were chained up above me head. And, then I felt pain as a fat, middle-aged man took carefully sharpened knives and carved away my flesh, taking care to prolong my agony. Again and again and again, I flipped through various scenes, my mind blank and pained. I saw so many things I wanted to forget, from my second life to the one that never should have existed. Eventually, I relived a scene that re-awoke my mind. I won¡¯t say what it was, except for the fact that it was harrowing to the extreme. After it, my mind came back awake with a roar, and the memories I¡¯d been going through vanished, the real world once more appearing before me. I blinked. The sky was clear, and I felt good. And, not dead. What had just happened? Well, I think I was hit by a lighting bolt. No, I was definably hit. So why did I start recalling old memories? Even while I wasn¡¯t injured. No, seriously. There isn¡¯t a single scratch on me. I feel like this whole thing has more significance than I had originally thought. I¡¯ve heard that everybody reaching level one hundred changes, since there seems to be a qualitative difference between those at level ninety nine, and one hundred. That¡¯s definitely the case with me, given that I became a Demon Lord at level one hundred. I just hadn¡¯t expected the transition to be like this, with the clouds and the lightning. When Jasper becomes a Demon Lord as well, maybe I¡¯ll find out more about the process of turning into one, or even watch him go through it. This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version. I got up, brushing the dirt from my clothes, and noticed I was currently inside a large crater, still smoking from the lightning¡¯s impact. Interesting. I wonder if the lightning simply didn¡¯t touch me. Though, the memories I had suggested otherwise. It might have affected me in another way, non-physically. I walked out of the crater, and marveled at my body now. Simply put, I¡¯ve gotten stronger again. Except, this time, it felt natural, like I am able to perfectly control it from the very beginning. I felt normal, even while being stronger than before. Out of the corner of my eyes, I saw that my horns had now turned completely black, and seemed sharper. I wasn¡¯t any taller, judging by my height when compared to the trees around me, and I didn¡¯t have the feeling that I had become denser, like last time. I opened my status.
Status:
Name: Katariah Nadine Silver
Titles: (5 Hidden)
Race: Demon/ElfAge: 13Gender: Female
Main Class: Demon LordSub Class(es): Spell-Sword Saint
Level: 150
Health: 9136Mana: 507200
Strength: 1626Stamina: 1494Dexterity: 1728
Intelligence: 2352Wisdom: 1872Luck: 1
Yeah, this time, my stats jumped by quite a bit. And, strangely enough, my level as well. I don¡¯t know why. Maybe it had something to do with the dark clouds. After all, they didn¡¯t feel, or act anything like a normal could would. Well, now the question is, how fast can I get away from this place? It looks like I was correct in my decision to do this away from the academy, since it had certainly gathered some attention, for a few reasons. I¡¯ll talk about them later, if need be. But, at the moment, I just wanted to get away from the epicenter of my transformation as soon as possible. So, I started speeding away from the crater left from the lightning, putting as much distance between us as I could. As it was, I needn¡¯t have bothered. I was found only a few minute later, by a familiar face. Actually, no. Never mind. Since he didn¡¯t have a face and all the first time I met him. The space off to my side had warped; it¡¯s surroundings being distorted as light was bent due to the teleportation. A figure stepped out of the distorted space, and immediately locked eyes with me. ¡°Never would I have expected that two of the siblings would become Demon Lords at the same time.¡± (Lich Toledo) I froze for a moment. Didn¡¯t the dead guy just say something really important? No, there were several important things he just mentioned, casually as all hell. ¡°You mean Jasper just became a Demon Lord?¡± (Kai) ¡°Yes. Though, his process was much shorter than yours, I would guess.¡± (Toledo) I thought for a moment. Yeah. No way am I letting Jasper know that I¡¯ve also become a Demon Lord. I shook my head ruefully. ¡°You mentioned something about siblings? Does that mean that Jasper and I have other relatives?¡± (Kai) ¡°I am sorry. That answer is not mine to give, though I would be willing to assist you with some other matters.¡± (Toledo) ¡°I don¡¯t suppose you could help me with this one thing, then? You see, the rest of my old sword¡ªWould it be possible¡­¡± (Kai) He held up a hand, forestalling my question. ¡°No. You would have to venture into my labyrinth on your own, and retrieve it. For, it is still down there, and I have lost control of my old domain, due to the seal being broken.¡± (Toledo) I clicked my tongue, annoyed at this new turn of events. Well, at least this tells me that I likely have other family, besides Jasper and my ever-absent father. And, it looks like I would have to wait upon the complete reforging of Twilight until I become strong enough to venture to the bottom of the labyrinth. While it is true that I¡¯ve gotten quite a bit stronger now, I¡¯m still nowhere near strong enough to do that. Even Niten was all but forced to give up, as soon as the tenth floor. I just need more time, before being able to challenge it. As soon as Toledo left, teleporting out in the same way he had arrived, by the use of a powerful spell I can¡¯t even begin to understand, I continued running from where I had turned into a Demon Lord. Speaking of which, I pulled up the information pertaining to the class, and came across some surprising information.
Demon Lord:
This individual has stepped upon the path of Demonic Power. This is a path as wide and deep as the heavens above, and as narrow and high as the hells below. Take care to not fall.
Demon Lord¡¯s Aura (Weak) has been replaced with Demon Lord¡¯s Aura (Normal)
Skill:¡¼Demonic Transformation¡½ has evolved into Skill:¡¼Demon Lord¡¯s Transformation¡½
Huh. I¡¯ll have to check that out later. For now, I¡¯m just going to make my way back to the academy as quickly as I can. Luckily, any of the pursuit I might have had, was preoccupied with chasing the new Demon Lord Jasper. Otherwise, I would have had a much harder time getting back to the academy without anyone finding out about it. As it was, at the moment, they were all shitting their pants, having found out that not one Demon Lord had ascended, but two had, and they had no idea about who the second one might be, other than the fact that the new one was somewhat more powerful than the first. But, I had no way of knowing this at the time, and would only find out about it during the summit in a month.
Author''s Note: Sorry it''s late¡ªWhen my family goes on vacation, there''s rarely time to breathe between everything else we do. While I enjoy this and everything, it doesn''t leave a whole lot of time for writing. Anyway, to the Americans, happy fourth and all that. To everyone else, hope this eased the brutal cliff I had left last chapter. Even I felt a little bad putting that in there. Sorry. ¡ªRiver. (P.s¡ª I''m not really sorry. I took great joy in it. The comments made it worthwhile.) Chapter 47: The Return The trip back to the academy was uneventful. Sure, I ran into a few bandit dens, but those were quickly dealt with. For the most part. I left alone the ones that followed the rules of the so-called honorable thieves. They were the ones only trying to survive, and only taking what was needed. I had no problem with those types, but the ones that crossed that line and started downright raping and pillaging, those are the ones I take umbrage to. And, with my new strength, I was able to easily wipe them out. I was even able to test my new¡¼Demon Lord¡¯s Transformation¡½on them. My gods, it ended up being far more effective than I would have thought. Opposition practically melted before me in that form. It looked sufficiently domineering as well. Actually, there were a few things that changed after my ascension as a Demon Lord. For one, those little flecks of green that had been in my golden eyes had turned into little motes of electric blue. My hair also seems to have completely turned a healthy looking white. Not like a shade of light blonde, but white. It didn¡¯t look too different from the silvery hair I¡¯d had earlier, but under certain light, my hair seems to glow like a freshly fallen coat of snow. It was in stack contrast to my horns, which had turned completely black. They didn¡¯t grow or anything, though they did seem to become sharper, and harder. They did, however, grow when under the influence of¡¼Demon Lord¡¯s Transformation¡½. In fact, there are a few things that change when I activate that skill. Unfortunately for me, no¡ªI don¡¯t grow any taller. I do grow much stronger though, so it sort of balances out. As was mentioned before, my horns grow. More than one pair, too. The ones that I have now double in length, hooking around to the front of my face like a pair of goat horns, while a second pair appears, and grow swept to the back, like antlers. My hair gains a red hue, like it¡¯s being viewed through a red mist, and it grows in length a little. Those tribal like markings that had appeared before now had some changes to them. For one, they were much more intricate, with the large black thick lines being composed of smaller, thinner patterns that drew the eye. They were still only on my arms and down my back, but seemed vaguely reminiscent of scales. Particularly, there was an open space on my back. Well, two open spaces, right by my shoulder blades. Like it was leaving space for two good-sized wings. On a side note, all my stats triple while in that form. Yeah. It¡¯s a little overkill. My mana stays the same though, mostly because the amount I have is already completely ridiculous. Normally, the amount of mana I have would only be found among those mages who have reached levels four hundred to five hundred. But the other stat increases were just monstrous. I flicked a bandit once, and he just liquefied. Terribly messy, but what with the thing I had caught him doing, he deserved it. Besides, since the clothes were from Ascension Island, of course they came with an auto-clean function. It was like nothing even happened afterwards. When I finally made it back to the academy, I went straight to Flavius¡¯s office. Then, I went to my bed after finding out he wasn¡¯t at the school for the moment, and neither was Niten. I asked about it, and all anyone would say is that they had been called to find someone, by both their respective Kingdoms. So, they were probably tied up searching for Jasper at the moment. After a good sleep, which erased the rest of any tension caused by becoming a Demon Lord, and going through some of my worst memories, I went to the forge. There were a few things I wanted to go ahead and finish, though I only brought them halfway to completion this time. I might be able to finish this little project the next time I visit the forge. Then, I just spent quite a bit of time lazing about. I did ask, but apparently the heroes had also left, Niten having given them permission to enter the academy dungeon before he had gone. By my guess, they would be in there for at least another week or so. That left me with nothing to do. I did spend some time in the library, but quickly got bored. I¡¯m not really a book person. I mean, I can learn what I have to, but the little random tidbits of knowledge that most bookworms love to seek out annoy me. I¡¯ll read a book to get the general gist of it, and delve no further into it¡¯s narrative. I prefer more straightforward methods of learning, and simple subjects, like how to fight. And, some of the things that people would need to read about to learn, like math, I already know. In fact, when I was back on Earth, math was my best subject, simply because I understood the number better than even the teachers. It wasn¡¯t something I learned, though, but rather something I simply had. Similarly, physics was a walk in the park. That was it though. Other things that actually required hard-core memorization or large amounts of effort eluded me. I¡¯m just an instinctive learner, I guess. Of course, some worlds had books meant for shallow entertainment, and I greatly enjoyed such books, but they are somewhat uncommon here, especially in a place meant for learning. Supremely bored, I decided to go to the training grounds, and just work on my forms. It was something to waste time, since I couldn¡¯t really improve them anymore without a better teacher than I had, or unless I comprehend something as of yet vastly outside of my realm of knowledge. And, that seems a little unlikely at the moment. I chose one of the less frequented training areas, and spent a few hours simply going through the forms, letting all my thoughts go. It was rather therapeutic, actually. But, like all things, it had to end. I could see that students were beginning to gather around the field, likely for a practical lesson. I went ahead and stopped, savoring the warm burn in my muscles as I walked away. Is there anything else for me to do? I¡¯m soooo bored. Ah well. I¡¯ll find something.
I found something. And now I have a small hangover from it. Ugh. Never trust seedy taverns to have good drinks. As a rule, they try and get the cheapest and most powerful stuff. And this stuff tends to mess you up. The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. Though, with the amount I can remember drinking, I suppose a normal human, or even elf, would be dead ten times over due to the alcohol poisoning. While, I only have a slight hangover attesting to the deed, and an empty coin-purse. I wasn¡¯t even drunk though. Just a little tipsy. I somehow felt a little sad about this, since it now meant that I would have to spend ludicrous amounts of money before the alcohol even began to kick in. At least I can now drink just about anyone under the table. Maybe not dragons, though. Oh well. It elevated my boredom somewhat, especially after I started that bar fight. Of course, nobody knew that it had been my doing, but that was the point. I just wanted to watch an all out brawl where people do their best to brain others with a less than stable chair. They figured it out the second time, though. What can I say? I just enjoy watching chaos happen. On some level as well, I enjoy causing it. Maybe it has something to do with the lack of control I¡¯d always had across all my lives, but to actively change things around me like that just let me feel like I was truly living for once. It also brought me great pleasure to think about the results of chaos like the bar fights. I mean, on a lesser level, I at least messed up the night of a group of people, and if I¡¯m thinking extremely optimistically, the grand plan of some god might have just been derailed. How, you might wonder? I have no idea myself, but there¡¯s always the possibility. I¡¯ve messed up a vengeful god¡¯s plans by accident once before. Well, I paid the price for it that time, but that had mainly happened due to my own stupidity, and insistence on meddling with things I still don¡¯t understand. If the plan¡¯s of a god are broken just by me starting a little bar-room brawl, then the god has no reason to complain. I still want to think optimistically, though. Oh well. Lucky, I was saved from further boredom by the arrival of Niten and Flavius. They had come back the very night I was visiting those taverns, and I only found out about it after happening upon Niten on my way to check and see if Flavius was back. They both seemed tired, and I could understand why. Jasper had apparently gone through his ascension a few days before me, and the larger kingdoms and empires in the continents had way to identify when and where a Demon Lord rises, so that they might be able to send people to contain, or outright destroy the threat. Flavius and Niten were called to help with this, and they both went to try and make sure that Jasper wouldn¡¯t be hurt, or so that they could convince the others on this mission that Jasper was more a merit than a detriment. They actually convinced quite a few people to see things this way, but there are always those who would deny the reality staring them in the face, and continue on in the old ways. So, while the majority of those on the Demon Lord subjugation mission were convinced of Jasper¡¯s necessity, the others wanted to take him down anyway, either by killing or capturing him, and making him their loyal puppet. Or, that had been the plan. What had ended up happening was mostly my fault. They had actually managed to corner Jasper, and were about to put the finishing touches on a spell that would be powerful enough to render him unconscious, when they became distracted. They had discovered at that moment that another Demon Lord had ascended, across the continents. And, that the new one had given what ever system used to suss out those who become Demon Lords a much stronger response than Jasper had. That little moment of distraction had been enough to let Jasper escape. While Flavius and Niten were happy about him getting away, of course some of the others would be rather¡­angry. There¡¯s still more to the story, but that¡¯s the general gist of it. Though, it meant that I wasn¡¯t able to surprise Niten with the news of my ascension. Since it was obvious to him who the second Demon Lord would be. He brought me to Flavius¡¯s office. I waited there while he went to go fetch Flavius, who had likely gone to bed. When they got back, Niten towing behind him a school headmaster who had obviously just been pulled out of bed, I had seated myself in Flavius¡¯s chair again. He looked shocked to see me, then a wry grin appeared on his face. ¡°Ah¡ª you¡¯re back already. It didn¡¯t take too long for you to find my chair again.¡± (Flavius) I smiled. ¡°Well, what can I say? It¡¯s the best chair in the school.¡± (Kai) ¡°And don¡¯t I know it. Go on, shoo, shoo.¡± (Flavius) He got me out of the chair, and I sat opposite him. The atmosphere of the room had turned serious in the time it took for me to move. ¡°So, what do you plan to do now, since you could be one of the most powerful players on the continents in the future?¡± (Niten) ¡°I¡¯m planning on lying fairly low. I want to continue as I have been, though I¡¯m increasingly getting the feeling that this won¡¯t be possible.¡± (Kai) Niten nodded. ¡°You would be right. People would find out about you sooner or later, and draw you into whatever conflict they wish to. It would be better for you to simply accept that things have now changed, and dictate how you want to be treated in the future.¡± (Niten) I sighed. There was much wisdom in Niten¡¯s words. I¡¯ve had the same thought¡¯s myself, and arrived at much the same conclusion. I need to appear into the political scene of my own volition, and establish my image before others found me, and made their own judgments. I need to present myself before all the powerful players on the continents, and give them the best impression I can. Basically, I need to go to the summit. Preferably with my Aunt, who would be able to smooth over any difficult details, and introduce me in a way that wouldn¡¯t have everybody drawing their weapons on me as soon as I enter.
Chapter 48: The Weapons True to my expectations, the heroes came back up from the dungeon a week and a half after I returned. Luckily, by this time, I have finished the items I was working on in the forge. And, as the first weapons crafted by me after becoming a Demon Lord, I learned a few things. For one, I really need to remake my katana again. Let me explain what happened, right? Basically, I wanted to make a weapon for each of the heroes, based upon what I could see of their personalities and fighting styles. While they were doing fine with the weapons they¡¯d found here, a personalized weapon can do wonders for someone¡¯s combat prowess. So, I went to make them weapons. For Sarah, I made a long spear, knowing it to be her absolute favorite weapon, and the type of which she had used to lead armies to war. That one was the easiest to made, since I fashioned it from wood and metal. It¡¯s tip took up about fifty centimeters of the spear¡¯s length, overlapping slightly with the long wooden handle. This was the first thing I had made for the heroes, and the one that taught me the most. First, I found out that when considering a weapon using large amounts of wood in it¡¯s construction, the density and power of any mana circuits I place in it will be just as powerful as something made completely out of metal. It¡¯s like the weapon knows what it should be when it¡¯s finished, and compensates accordingly. So, even though there was little metal in the spear, I was able to put a good number of circuits into it. Two of the standard ones, sharpness and durability, and then flexibility, and an additional circuit I¡¯d mostly stumbled upon a while back, while amplifies the spear wielder¡¯s voice to a terrifying volume. This would be a very useful ability in the hands of Sarah, since it would allow her to give commands more effectively on the battlefield, and it could be used as a potent weapon in and of itself, since it¡¯s definitely capable of breaking eardrums. A weapon worthy of a hero. I think. I really don¡¯t have a good handle on the value of things around me, nor whatever I make. So, I tend to undersell my blades somewhat. Who knows¡ªmaybe these are a little overpowered for the heroes at the moment. I certainly can¡¯t tell. Right, the other weapons. Harving got a set of daggers, due to his role as more of an assassin type fighter, than anything else. They had a mana circuit that allowed them to return to their sheaths through a difficult bit of spacial magic, making them a handy set of throwing weapons. Arthur got a shield. I don¡¯t trust him with anything more at this point, thought I put a few good features into it, so that he would at least not feel left out. I made Gaby a foil, with a circuit that would allow it to vibrate intensely, dealing more damage inside wounds. She¡¯s the only one I¡¯m somewhat unsure of, as far as what her preferred combat style is, since she tends to use so many. Rust¡¯s weapon was a little more difficult, since he uses a bow. In the end, I gave a piece of steel the same flexibility property found in Sarah¡¯s spear, and was able to use some metal wire as the bowstring. It¡¯s a bow that¡¯s devastatingly powerful, but noticeably slow on the draw. I think Rust is going to have to grow into this bow, since it¡¯s half again as tall as he is, and takes considerable strength to draw. The last two weapons I made were definitely more difficult to decide on. For Merlin and Selina, who are both mages, a blade wouldn¡¯t be very suitable. And, since I can only make blades, and the occasional shitty shield, I didn¡¯t know what to do for them. Then I remembered a particular type of blade, popular in a few different worlds in places were swords might be banned, or otherwise frowned upon. So, what I ended up with was two different staffs, personalized to each of them. One was a deceptively twisted looking and gnarled staff, with a polished knob at the top, and a barely noticeable seam near it, about fifteen centimeters from the top. This is where a longsword type blade had been secreted away, and the source of all the staff¡¯s enchantments. I designed it so that the wielder¡ªin this case being Merlin¡ªwould be able to use the blade easily, and channel spells through it. As for Selina, her staff was more elegant, with little carved bits in it, and nearly straight, up until the top. It¡¯s entire grey length was slender, and seemed to shimmer in the proper light. The top of it was lightly curved, and acted as a handle to the slender short sword inside. Both the staffs have mana circuits allowing them the use of any type of magic, along with enhancing the power of their chosen affinities. Additionally, these were very powerful mana circuits, and would greatly enhance their combat potential. However, it was after making the staffs that I realized something, when testing them to see by how much it boosts their magic. That was when I had found out that my mana circuits had changed since ascending to becoming a Demon Lord. While they were the same size, and cosmetically no different¡ªat least to me, the only one who can see them, as it were¡ªThey were now able to hold far more power, and had become much more efficient. This, of course, meant that the mana circuits I had put on the heroes¡¯ weapons were nearly comparable in power to my current katana. And their weapons were made of normal, if good quality steel, compared to the starsteel I had made Twilight and Nightfall out of. It was a scary thought, considering that if I were to reforge Nightfall, it would now be so much more powerful. But I wouldn¡¯t do that just yet. While it is true that a powerful weapon can help your strength reach new heights, weapons at the level of the one¡¯s I¡¯ll be giving the heroes seem to be very rare in this world. Weapons at the level of a reforged Twilight would be the stuff of legends. Stolen story; please report. That is, after I get back that one piece of it still within the labyrinth. I¡¯ll reforge it after gaining back that portion of it, since I really liked the length of Twilight. Anyway, my point is that I don¡¯t need a stronger weapon at the moment. Nightfall nicely supplements my strength, and will work fine for the foreseeable future. I had another reason for making custom weapons for the heroes, besides the fact that it¡¯ll boost their combat potential, and make them stronger. You see, before I had left for the whole Demon Lord thing, and was still teaching them, they had been beaten up by me each time we spared. I had even begun allowing Selina the use of her elemental magic, letting her attempt to bombard me with her spells in support of the other heroes¡ªsince it was clear that even adding her direct combat strength to the sparing sessions wouldn¡¯t make them any different. Given that they would suffer such a devastating defeat each time they fought me, it should be a given that their confidence and mentalities would suffer as a result. They began to despair of ever being able to beat me, and I had a feeling that they suffered against other opponents as a result. I mean, there¡¯s no way in hell they would be able to beat me now, but the weapons, piled atop the dungeon dive they had just done, would go a long way to repairing their confidence. In fact, them going into the dungeon had done them more good that I would have thought possible. I saw them again a day after they had come back up, during our normal lesson time. Immediately, I knew they had grown quite a bit stronger in the dungeon, leveling up from the experience of battling enemies, and growing closer as a team. Most astonishing, was that I could actually see a little kernel of humility within Arthur¡¯s eyes. Or, I was astonished until he opened his mouth again. ¡°I¡¯m sure than now, we are much stronger than miss Kai! I can¡¯t wait to trounce her in a sparing match!¡± He didn¡¯t realize that I could hear him from so far away. He also didn¡¯t realize that they have never really had a chance of beating me, ever. Especially with my growth rate. As soon as they would reach a level of power comparable to mine right now, I would already have greatly surpassed them. It¡¯s a little sad, considering that they should be the heroes summoned to kill Demon Lords like me, or even for the express purpose of fighting me. Well, after Arthur said his piece, I made sure that he knew I had heard him, by glaring intensely. He smiled back at me, toothily. Oh boy. I¡¯m even more glad that I decided to just make him a shield now, and no sword. Both Merlin and Selina looked at me curiously, noticing that there was more about me that was different this time. Selina didn¡¯t say anything about it, likely drawing her own conclusions based on what she had observed over the past few weeks, while Merlin was more direct. ¡°Something¡¯s different about you again¡ªWherever did you go, Lady Kai, when you were not here?¡± I smiled mysteriously, not giving away anything. I had my bag slung over my shoulder, with all the weapons inside it. I motioned for them to follow me to a set of stone tables, and opened the bag. ¡°So, I have some things for you guys. Think of them as gifts, for not giving up on the training so far.¡± Of course, by telling them this, they would hopefully assume that more weapons would be forthcoming should they continue doing well with the training. I wouldn¡¯t care to tell them otherwise should they assume wrongly. I pulled out the weapons one by one, distributing them amongst the heroes. As they ogled their new high-class armaments, or armor, in the case of Arthur¡¯s shield, I stood off to the side, observing their reactions. Say what you will about anything else I do, but when I work with metal, I do my best works. Even that shield for Arthur¡ªwell, it¡¯s likely one of the best shields on the continents at the moment. It was easy after I thought of it as simply being a very wide blade. Selina figured out how to work her staff before Merlin, and marveled at the deadly sword that popped out of the smooth wood. Merlin saw this, and copied her. The others were busy testing out the various functions of their new weapons, with Rust being a little disappointed that he was yet unable to draw the bow I had made. He would have to continue using his old bow, until he had gotten enough strength to use the one I had made, but I don¡¯t think that¡¯s a bad thing. Bows rely heavily on its wielder¡¯s sense of accuracy and distance, rather that straight up skill. And, to get those senses, relentless practice is required. Giving him a powerful bow wouldn¡¯t help the matter¡­well, I was going to say much, but I suppose it wouldn¡¯t help it at all, since power doesn¡¯t matter when you can¡¯t hit your target. The others were happy with what they got though, even Arthur. But, after Sarah figured out the volume feature on her spear and nearly blasted everybody¡¯s eardrums, and shattered a few nearby windows, I hastily brought them to the forest clearing so that they could test out their new toys.
Author''s Note: Sorry it''s been awhile. I''ve had no time to write, since I''ve been visiting family, and my days have been completely filled. Things should settle down for a few days, but I''m not sure about after that, since I''ll be back on the road. I guess we''ll just have to see how things play out. ¡ªRiver. Chapter 49: The Last Week They had certainly gotten stronger in the time I was gone, and they had been under the tender instructions of Niten during that time. So, it was kinda a given that they would have become stronger. There¡¯s nothing else you can do, when being taught by him. I mean, they also seemed a little traumatized when I mentioned his name, but who wouldn¡¯t be? When we got to the forest clearing, I was astounded to see that the earth had been shattered here, the residue of great impacts spider-webbing all throughout the grass field, and large swaths of land having been upturned, the dark earth underneath exposed. ¡°What did you guys do to the poor clearing? It¡¯s completely broken.¡± They shifted around, before Selina spoke up. ¡°Ah¡­well¡ªIt wasn¡¯t us. Niten just takes his teaching seriously, apparently.¡± I sighed. We wouldn¡¯t be able to do much with the ground like this, since I was just looking for a basic sparring match, and didn¡¯t want to add in the difficulty of navigating such precarious terrain. Well, at least I have a way to fix it. I spread my arms wide, and cast a bit of my mana pool into the ground itself. It wove through the dirt, and the earth began to visibly re-knit itself back together, my mana directing the repairs. And, due to my high-density mana, I used very little of my mana pool to accomplish this. In fact, if I wanted, I could probably make a mountain or two with the amount of power I have. Of course, I would probably be completely drained for a month or so afterwards, since my mana would recover much slower due to the same thing that makes me so powerful, the high-density levels of my mana pool. After I was done, the ground was perfectly flat once more, though there were bare patches where the scars had been. I can¡¯t grow grass back over those spots, and could only wait for them to recover naturally. There were a few open mouths among the heroes, after seeing me casually use magic that would leave almost everybody drained and tired. Selina nodded though, like she had determined something to be true. I clapped my hands together. ¡°Right then. No better way to get familiar with a new weapon, than combat. Come at me.¡± I balled my fists, having decided to take them on bare-handed. I grinned widely, excited at the prospect of combat, and unexpectedly, Sarah, Selina and Gaby were doing the same. Immediately, I was encased by a dome of what seemed to be black air, courtesy of Selina. She used a control type spell from the onset, intended to keep me in place until the others could get into position for a powerful combined attack. My grin grew wider, and I knew I looked positively demonic as I simply walked through the bubble of darkness, and it shattered behind me. I had removed the critical components of the spell, and let it collapse onto itself. It was made easier by the fact that the bubble was aligned with darkness, and with my demonic nature, I have a high natural affinity with the element. This move took the heroes by surprise, since they were expecting at least a little bit of time to prepare before I was freed. Sarah charged me, intending to do some damage control so that they others would still get a chance to prepare. Her spear flicked at me like a tongue of fire, and I was a little hard pressed to avoid her strikes. Especially once she began using the ability I had included into the spear, and a constant high pitched squeal filled the air around us, distracting me from the spear itself. Eventually, the spear began licking against my arms, leaving little scratches on my skin. This ended up effecting Sarah¡¯s moral, since she knew that her strikes were not missing¡ªno, they were hitting my skin solidly, and should have torn through skin, muscle and bone. Instead, it was as if my skin had become steel, and deflected each strike easily. I noticed that the others were nearly in position, and quickly deflected Sarah¡¯s spear to one side, as I spun inwards, revealing one of the main weaknesses of a spear¡ªif you got within it¡¯s strike distance, it became nearly useless. At least, it should have been a weakness. Instead, Sarah spun the spear around like a quarter-staff, and began to use both ends of it to smack me. To counter this, I struck the center of the spear, as it was in a horizontal position in front of her, and she flew off, one of my strike finally having connected solidly. I looked around me, and made the mistake of stopping for a split second. An arrow whizzed out from the trees, and struck me right between the eyes. Damn, what did Niten teach them, that had caused them to become so ruthless? The arrow bounced off, to the consternation of everyone present. I laughed. ¡°Is that all you guys can do? I was expecting more from¡­¡± Ah. A pair of daggers bonked off my back, as someone seemingly appeared behind me. This time, the weapons were blocked by my clothing, rather than my skin. I turned around, and found myself staring at an astonished Harving, who was now trying to downplay his attack, and slowly creep away. Like I wouldn¡¯t go after him if he were to look less threatening, and continue moving slowly. Ha. Yeah right. He went flying just like Sarah had earlier. I had a bit of trouble taking down the rest of the heroes after this, especially Merlin and, surprisingly, Arthur. Stolen content alert: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.I suppose it should have been a given that the guy with a shield would have the best defense, but with it being Arthur and everything, it slipped my mind. And Merlin¡­ He¡¯s definitely the slyest and most diabolical old man I¡¯ve met so far. Put illusion magic on top of that, and he¡¯s the trickiest hero to deal with. It¡¯s a bit unfair, really. Like giving a tiger wings. After everybody had been subdued by me, they lay in the center of the clearing, exhausted and slightly dispirited. Gaby voiced what many of them were thinking. ¡°How did you get stronger again, Kai? Most of our attacks won¡¯t even break your skin anymore!¡± I shook my head. I could tell that Selina most likely knew about it already, and Sarah probably knew some of it. I didn¡¯t really see any reason to hold it back, especially since I trusted most of the people present, and knew that their word would likely be their bond. ¡°Well, I can tell you, though it won¡¯t do you guys much good. Just promise that what I say stays here?¡± There was a chorus of yes¡¯s, and pledges to keep whatever secret I was about to impart. I took a deep breath. While it was true that I had no reason to withhold this information from the heroes, it was still slightly nerve-wracking, getting ready to tell them. ¡°Right. Well, I became a Demon Lord a little while ago.¡± Their reactions were hilarious to watch, at least. Arthur jumped up from his sitting position, immediately hopping into a combat ready position. I think I scared him a little. Sarah and Selina, however, had a gleam in their eyes, and Selina had also jumped up, and looked like she had won something. ¡°Ha! I knew it! I totally called that! See, Sarah, I told you so!¡± Ah, she did figure it out. Well, I¡¯m happy that they likely won¡¯t treat me any differently. Merlin, Harving, and Rust simply shrugged, taking it in stride. As Merlin said, ¡°It¡¯s not like you are a different person, no? Besides, who was the one which had decided Demons were evil? Evil is simply a product of perspective.¡± That sage advise also represented the views of Rust and Harving, and they nodded along with his words. Gaby was the least affected. ¡°You¡¯re the same person. That¡¯s all that matters to me.¡± She smiled brilliantly at me, and I smiled back. Unfortunately, I knew that I wouldn¡¯t be able to expect the same from almost everyone else. Especially, I knew that if I were forced to advertise this fact at the summit, I wouldn¡¯t be treated well. Speaking of the summit, I got confirmation from my aunt, telling me that I had a spot among the group she would be bringing to it. She also didn¡¯t know about the changes I¡¯d gone through, and I really don¡¯t trust her enough to tell her about them. I can trust the heroes, since they all have their own circumstances, and understand that nothing is ever black and white, for the most part. My aunt though, I just can''t come to trust her like them. Partially, it¡¯s because of the history she had with my mother. Even though she had told me about the events, and her part in them, I still got the feeling she was withholding something from me. I also have the feeling that she wouldn¡¯t hurt me, though. So, I should be fine, as long as nothing unexpected happens. I¡¯ll be leaving for the summit in a week, meeting up with the Elven group, and following them to the summit location. I¡¯ll meet up with Jasper at the summit, since I can be assured of being able to meet him there, after his ascension as a Demon Lord. As for which side I¡¯ll be on, I think I¡¯ll be taking a neutral stance to many of the issues that will be presented during the summit. Well, as long as it doesn¡¯t involve the discrimination against demonkind. I am vehemently opposed to stuff like that, especially since I am part demon myself. It¡¯s the very reason I¡¯m going to the summit in the first place, to ease that hatred everybody seems to have for demons. Niten will be coming with me, since he knows where the Empress¡¯s delegation will be at that time, and since he¡¯s one of the hidden strengths among their Empire. All the big players will be at the summit, and Niten is no exception. On a side note, the rest of the week was peaceful. Most of it was spent in the company of the heroes, who had taken the revelation of what I am, well. Sure, they appreciated the irony in the fact that I am a Demon Lord, and was actively teaching them how to fight. Now, they¡¯re thinking that they are in the continents for another reason, though they have yet to find out what it might be. I think I know, though. It wouldn¡¯t surprise me if they are to play a large role in warding off any advances made by forces outside the continents. It also wouldn¡¯t surprise me should they become the strongest existences in the continents, sans me. And, wouldn¡¯t it be fun to know that they are being supported by my own weapons? Anyway, not much happened during the remaining week. The heroes and I continued sparring, and I talked with Niten and Flavius quite a bit. I couldn¡¯t explain it, but I got the distinct feeling that I wouldn¡¯t see the heroes, nor Flavius for quite a while after I would leave. Well, it might happen, so I decided to spend as much time as possible with them, this last week. Chapter 50: The Summit Niten and I left the academy during the morning. It was a little emotional, since the heroes and Flavius were all in attendance, and wished us a good time during the summit. I had told the heroes about it a few days ago, and what little I know about the world outside the continents. They were shocked to find out that our empires amount to nothing but a tiny portion of the whole world. I didn¡¯t tell them the whole bit about me breaking the seal separating us from the rest of the world, though I did tell them that something had broken. After spending a little time with them, we went on our way. I¡¯m not one to fear leaving places or people. In fact, I feel like I need to move around every so often, else I start getting restless. I won¡¯t be able to simply settle in one place, since I would feel as if I were missing out on things somewhere else. Basically, I didn¡¯t feel too cut up about having to leave the academy, even if I were to never return. Unlikely though it might be. Thankfully, with the gates, travel is made extremely easy. The only annoying portions were when we exited a gate, and had to transfer to another. The people managing the gates charged money for their use, and stopped everyone to check papers and ask questions about things like destination, reason for travel, family, and job. We were able to get through those portions relatively quickly, since I still had my aunt¡¯s seal, giving me the authority to bypass many of the processes involved. It was still annoying though, even with the seal. In the end, a single day of travel was sufficient to bring us to the elven capital. Once there, I drew up my hood, throwing my face into shadow, and hiding my horns. I really didn¡¯t feel like having anything happen simply because I look like a demon. I¡¯d rather just get to the palace, and continue on to the summit from there. I know that I¡¯ll have my fair share¡ªand then some¡ªof trouble and opposition there. The guards at the palace recognized Niten, and let us in. We went straight to the throne room most commonly used by my aunt, encountering more guards outside the door to it. Though, also outside the door, I encountered aunt¡¯s chamberlain¡ªSigiward. I¡¯ve never really liked the man. He knows that though, after he had subtly insulted a slighted me while I was here, learning under Niten. I made sure to retaliate later. Anyway, he saw Niten, and nodded to him. ¡°Might I suppose that you have arrived to accompany Her Eminence to the summit, Master Niten?¡± ¡°Right. Both Kai and I are here for that. Would you mind opening the door for us?¡± ¡°Ah! Lady Katariah! Forgive me for not noticing you earlier! Niten¡¯s presence must have overshadowed your own.¡± Ugh. Such petty nonsense. This is why I don¡¯t like politics. ¡°Just open the door. Announce us, or whatever you¡¯re supposed to do.¡± He lightly sneered at me, and opened a small door, inside the bigger one. Slipping inside it, I could faintly hear voices on the other side of it. Then, the chamberlain returned, and allowed us inside the throne room. Aunt was sitting up on the throne, just as she had been when I had first come to the elven capital, though this time it had been my choice, while I had been brought amidst a group of soldiers that first time. ¡°Niten, Kai. It good to see you again.¡± Aunt Aspasia smiled at us, a crown like a wreath of flowers resting across her brow. Niten bowed to her, and I lightly inclined my head after taking off the hood. We were the only ones in the whole room, and as such, I didn¡¯t need to worry about the whole horns thing. ¡°I¡¯m glad you two could make it for the summit. I was beginning to worry that you wouldn¡¯t show up.¡± ¡°Really? When are you planning on leaving, then?¡± ¡°We are leaving at midnight, in about an hour or two. You both cut it a little bit too close for my comfort.¡± Niten bowed again, seeking forgiveness. ¡°My apologies, Lady. I was of the thought we were leaving at noon tomorrow, instead of at midnight.¡± Aunt Aspasia made a sound of surprise, and explained. ¡°Ah! So you didn¡¯t get the letter in time. A few things happened, and we had to change the time of departure last minute.¡± Huh. I definitely feel like there¡¯s more to that then she¡¯s telling us. She caught the look of confusion and distrust on my face, and interpreted it masterfully. ¡°Oh¡ªno! Don¡¯t worry about it! There was a small security issue with some of the delegations coming to the summit, and we needed to push forward the start of it, for them.¡± ¡°Alright. So, what should we consider bringing to the summit?¡± I asked. Aunt Aspasia smiled, and put me on edge. There was nothing good waiting for me in that smile. ¡°Well, you are allowed to bring anything you want. There will be rooms provided for everybody at the summit. However, you will have to change your clothes.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± I tilted my head, confused. ¡°It¡¯s simple, really. I can¡¯t have you going to the summit dressed like a vagabond. So, I worked with the maids in preparing some nice dresses for you to wear.¡± I recoiled slightly in horror. ¡°No. No way will I¡­¡± ¡°It would make you look more legitimate, and likely force others to take you more seriously. If you were to go in that coat and simple trousers, then they would simply dismiss you as another bodyguard, or something similar.¡± Aunt Aspasia shot down my argument before it could even begin. However, Niten was the one who struck the finishing blow. ¡°It is not like you have a reason to say no. After all, you are a young lady. Besides, I think you would look fine, and maybe even enjoy it.¡± That was how, when I met my aunt and Niten two hours later to leave for the summit, I had been put into a frilly dress that came down to my shins. Aunt Aspasia clapped appreciatively when I walked out, and Niten smirked a little. I had the chance to look in a mirror before leaving, so I could appreciate how the dress looked on me. It was a dark grey dress, covering me from my shins to my shoulders. Well, nearly my shoulders. They were left bare, with a few thin straps keeping the dress from falling off me. Not only that, but I had some flats on my feet, instead of the combat ready boots normally wore. It was disconcerting, wearing these things that I wasn¡¯t used to. Even more because I knew I looked really good, after seeing myself in the mirror. Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Niten had been right, though I looked a little better than fine. Unfortunately, all this finery meant that I wasn¡¯t able to carry my bag, nor any weapons. So, the maids brought them to the area we were leaving from, and they would be brought to the summit area by some trusted servants who were allowed to come along. Unfortunately, the way to the summit area was through a transport rune, drawn on the floor of the main hall. It had been set up a few days ago, and was a one-way use type of thing. When midnight hit, and the rune was activated by all of use pouring our own mana into it, I immediately felt sick to my stomach. The transport itself was instantaneous, but the nausea the occurred after it took a good few minutes to clamp down on, and even then, I felt like excessive movement would have me ruining the dress the maids had spent two hours putting on me. Once I felt marginally better, I raised my head, and looked around, curious. You see, I didn¡¯t actually know where the summit was being held. There was a good deal of secrecy surrounding the event, since so many of the most influential and power people on the continents would be there. From what I could see, though, we landed in the middle of a good-sized clearing, and I could see large buildings off to one side. There were people over there, and I could see that a few of them were coming over here. I saw that Aunt Aspasia and Niten were standing off to the side, waiting for the people to come all the way over here. Quickly, I decided to ask my aunt something. ¡°So, where are we?¡± ¡°Right¡ªYou were never told, right? Well, I think you will be able to find out in a second, so just be a little patient.¡± I got an annoying non-answer from her, and resigned myself to simply waiting. I think the people nearing us were sent as a welcoming committee or something. As they got closer, I saw that there were two men with black armor, and wicked looking scimitars belted to the side of their segmented armor. Between them walked a man wearing rags. He had worn sandals on his feet, and his skin was grimy and covered in dirt. However, I could tell that he was toned under the dirt, and had a powerful body, even while it was clear that he hadn¡¯t paid any attention to his hygiene in quite a while. His face was mostly obscured by long and matted black hair, though I could see exactly one of his eyes¡ªit was a deep blue color, and seemed to have great depth to it. He was the one that spoke when they got closer to us¡ªclose enough that we could now smell him. He spoke with a voice like rocks grinding together, with extra bass. ¡°Hello Empress, everyone else. Your helpers can go ahead and bring bags and other things to your rooms, and we can immediately start the summit.¡± He directed the people with out bags to one of the four buildings, while we started moving to another, this one being the largest among them, and the closest. As we trailed behind the dirty and smelly man, I turned to Niten. ¡°Do you know who that is, or where we are?¡± Niten, who had looked at the man with a shocked expression earlier, nodded. ¡°Yes, I know him. Rather, I think I know of him. If he is who I think he is, they he might be the most powerful existence in the continents. The holder of Great Title, Amadeus Jor.¡± I stopped walked for a spilt moment, stunned. That beggar guy might be the most powerful person here?! Niten stopped with me. ¡°I might be wrong, but that man¡ª¡° he pointed to the beggar ¡°¡ªSeems to fit everything I have heard about Amadeus.¡± Well, I¡¯ll keep in mind that he could be a very powerful person, every time I talk to him. As we got closer to the large building, I realized that it was even larger than I had thought. Made completely out of some sort of stone, it seemed like a big square block dropped in the middle of the clearing for some reason or another. A big square block with tasteful carvings winding their way around it¡¯s exterior, and massive fluted columns occupying an indented space around it. But, for all it¡¯s angles and obviously man made features, it seemed strangely natural. I realized what it was when we got right up under the structure. The pillars, they seemed to just have grown from the ground, and attached themselves to the building proper. I began to get the sneaking suspicion that the entire building had been made through the use of magic. This thought left me astounded. After all, while I could make myself a mountain fairly quickly and with a bit of pain, it was much harder to shape that stone into something like a building, and even more difficult to create the little decorative patterns and carvings that I had seen on the exterior of the structure. To make something with so many little details on it¡­this is far beyond me. And, there are three other buildings nearby¡­ I was even more astounded when we entered the building, and beheld the interior. There were four sections of semi-circular seating surrounding a central table, with room for a few hundred people to sit. The table itself was circular, and had a bench running around it, instead of individual chairs. There was enough room their for a dozen people. However, there was a hole in the center of the table, like a doughnut. There was a single stand there, likely for whoever would be speaking. At the table, I could see a few men with crowns already sitting. All of them were human, so I would assume they were the kings on that continent. Two demons sat at the table. One was Jasper, and the other was an unknown woman, looking to be around twenty years old. Most of the people who had come with us pealed off, walking towards one of the semi-circular seating areas. I hesitated briefly, trying to decide on where I would go. From what I could understand, those four sections of seating were divided into continent, with Demons, Humans, and Elves occupying one each. The last one had a mixing pot of these races, likely representing those who don¡¯t really care about the agenda¡¯s of their races. Niten made for this area, while most of the other elves went to the elven seating area. Aunt Aspasia made for the stone table, and after a moment¡¯s consideration, I followed her. I would sit at the stone table reserved for the most important people present. I think I qualify.
Chapter 51: The First Debate Up close, I could see that the stone table had inlays placed into its surface, depicting scenes of all the races working together to beat back¡­something. It was carved as an amorphous blob, but the meaning was clear. Cooperation was most important at this table. I sat at a space behind the podium, which was slightly less noticeable that the other seats, since I would be behind the speaker. As I sat down, both Aunt Aspasia and Jasper noticed me. Aunt Aspasia frantically motioned for me to get away from the table, seemly afraid that I would get in trouble for doing this. Jasper, though, simply took one long look at me, and smiled evilly. Tsk. He noticed. Other than that, nobody really took note of me. Well, they did, but it was more in the way that somebody notices a fly, or a cockroach. In total, there are eleven people at the table, including me. Five Human kings, two members of Elven royalty plus the Empress, The new Demon Lord and his¡­Aide? Friend? Wife? I have no idea who she is. And then there¡¯s me. I reclined as much as I could while sitting on the stone bench, and briefly considered creating a backrest using earth magic. I decided against it, and opted to instead seat myself cross-legged on top of the bench, my dress flared out to cover my knees. While I was having this internal crisis, the man who wore beggar¡¯s rags walked up to the stone table, and sat himself directly to my right. I straightened my back, aware that since he was sitting up here, there was a very high possibility that Niten was right, and that this man is Amadeus Jor. I glanced over at him, only to find that he was already looking at me, smiling as if he had just heard a private joke. ¡°Is something wrong?¡± I asked quietly. He shook his head lightly. ¡°No, no. I¡¯m just slightly surprised that you decided to sit up here.¡± I tilted my head to the side, questioningly. ¡°Why? Do you think I shouldn¡¯t be sitting here?¡± ¡°No, you rightfully deserve to sit with us, especially with those titles.¡± ¡°¡­You can see my titles?¡± ¡°Yes. And quite a bit more. Do not worry. I will not disclose them, unless you wanted me to.¡± I sighed in relief. Wait. How can he see those? He would have to have a higher level of [Analyze] then I do. And mine is maxed out. I turned to him again. ¡°Hold on. Why can you see my status?¡± He grinned toothily. ¡°There¡¯s a skill higher than [Analyze]. However, it takes special circumstances to get.¡± I want it. ¡°How did you get¡­¡± ¡°Shh.¡± Ah. He shushed me. Right after that, he stood up, and mounted the podium, and spoke in a booming voice, which echoed throughout the large room. ¡°Welcome to the first tri-continental summit. For those not yet aware, my name is Amadeus Jor, and I will be overseeing this meeting. You all, however, should know about the recent crisis that had occurred, and the possible tribulations it will bring in the future. It is for this reason that this meeting has been called into being, and why we are all gathered here today. Now, would anyone wish to suggest the first topic of discussion?¡± I didn¡¯t know he would be officiating the whole summit. It makes sense though, to have the man with the Great Title of leading it. There was some murmuring from the stands, and the Human Kings started whispering to each other. I think the elven side knew what they wanted to discuss beforehand, and the demons had only two people at the ¡°important¡± table. They were able to easily figure out what they wanted to bring up. I planned on just staying quite until something that I wanted to discuss would inevitably come up. It didn¡¯t work out that way, though. One of the Human Kings stood up. He was a fairly tall man, but was also as wide as he was tall. His jowls quivered as he spoke to everybody. ¡°Well, first, I am of the opinion that everyone at this table should have to introduce themselves, as so that we might ascertain whether or not they are¡­qualified to be sitting here, with us royalty.¡± Ah. He¡¯s looking straight at me now. Damn, this is going to be annoying, isn¡¯t it? He continued. ¡°By my generosity, I will be the first to make the proper introductions. I am King Beoth, of the G¨¹nter Royal line, spanning back over a period of fifteen thousand years. I am a level four-hundred mage, at age one-hundred and twelve.¡± Each one of the Human Kings went after him, attempting to overwhelm the rest of us at the summit with their ¡®power¡¯, and ¡®prestige¡¯. It went to the Elves after the Human Kings had finished. The two royals introduced themselves first, already displaying that the Elven royal lines stretched back in time measured in tens of thousands of years. As for personal power, they were about equal to each of the Human Kings. Aunt Aspasia introduced herself, and she proved to be the weakest one at the table so far, with a level of nearly three hundred. She had gained the throne by virtue of her Grand Title¡ª, and her leadership qualities, not through her power. Jasper introduced himself, naming himself as a Demon Lord, and causing many of the Human and Elven people in the room to bristle. The woman by his side turned out to be his daughter. I never knew I had a niece. It made me feel a little bad, since I thought I knew Jasper fairly well, even with the limited interactions we¡¯d had. Finally, it was my turn. Everybody seemed to turn towards me, curious as to why I would be sitting at the table, when I looked no older than fifteen. Jasper held a knowing smile for me, while Amadeus to my right started humming to himself. Odd guy. ¡°Hello everyone.¡± I started, ¡°My name is Katariah Nadine Silver, daughter of the late Empress Isabella Silver, and a powerful demon named Hasan Nadine. I am level one-hundred and fifty at the moment, and am thirteen years old.¡± There was a stunned silence for a moment, as everyone took in this information. I suppose they were also wondering what level they had been at thirteen years old. The fat King spoke up, grinning maliciously while he did so. ¡°If that¡¯s all, then you are not eligible to even be at this summit. Even more so as a bastard child of an elf and a demon. In fact, you should be dead, no? I vote that we expel this¡­creature from our noble assembly.¡± I sighed. I really hadn¡¯t wanted to give any other bits of information away, but now that I have to in order to beat back the intentions of the Human Kings, I think I¡¯m going to adopt a ¡®go big or go home¡¯ approach to this. This novel is published on a different platform. Support the original author by finding the official source. Besides, from the looks on the faces of the Human Kings, they have no kind intentions towards me. A few were even watching me lustfully. ¡°I wasn¡¯t finished, ¡®King¡¯ Beoth. In addition to my¡­abnormal level and my lineage, I am the holder of the Great Title, , as well as the second Demon Lord in this assembly. I am the biggest ¡®wild card¡¯ here. Do you still vote to expel me?¡± Okay, so I still withheld some of the more shocking facts. But, judging by the dead silence, and the blank stares, this much was sufficient. Aunt Aspasia was looking at me like I had grown a third horn, while the Human Kings were now watching me, shocked. Jasper was nodding to himself. ¡°So, does this mean that I can leave the Demon continent in your hands, sister?¡± ¡°No. Screw off. You still have responsibilities there.¡± He wilted somewhat, while his daughter snickered to the side a little. It looks like I might have a comrade in arms. There were no questions as to whether or not I was qualified after this, though I still saw some of the members at the table eyeing me in ways that left me feeling wary. Needless to say, the ill attempt to kick me out of the summit failed. Especially after Jasper had demonstrated his closeness to me through his comments. The next issue was brought up by Jasper¡¯s daughter, surprisingly. Her name was Dana, likely short for something else. Oh, and she¡¯s over a hundred years old. ¡°The purpose of this summit is to foster relations between the three continents, right? Then, for the first discussion, we need to find a better way of handling the gates into and out of the Demon continent. The Elves and the Humans have practically cut us off from the rest of the lands. If we are to come together to repel any outside forces, then we need supply and communication lines. And, that¡¯s just not possible with the gates closed off, like they are now.¡± This spawned a huge debate lasting the rest of the day, where everybody argued about the necessity of guarding the so-called Demon-gates. In was clear that the Human delegation desired to shut down those gates altogether, since they were still extremely wary of attacks from the Demons. They didn¡¯t seem to care about the Demons joining in on any sort of alliance, even if it was in order to preserve the entirety of the continents. Unfortunately, it seemed that the majority of the Elves were of the same opinion. Nobody seemed to want to deal with the Demons, preferring to keep them all bottled up on the Demon continent. The Demons, of course, wanted to establish trade with everybody else. They had found that there was a gross over-abundance of precious materials like diamonds and gold in their continent. They, however, had no use for them, since they had no practical survival value. The Demons would much rather have food, and steel, than useless sparkly things. In fact, Demons in general disdained upon the act of wearing fine clothing and jewelry. They were a very martial society. Jasper was a bit of an odd one out, what with his all-encompassing love for books. Anyway, the Demons kept suggesting that a trade line was opened up, so that precious materials could come out of their continent, and things they have always badly needed could come in. Things like wood, grains, and seeds. Of course, after this was voiced, the rest of the delegations present wanted to debate which gate would be opened, their greed for sparkly things having outweighed their caution. Only a little though, since they only wanted one gate to be opened. This would never be enough to let in the amount of materials needed by the Demons. Not even close. It finally ended when Amadeus got up from his seat next to me, and stood up on the podium again. ¡°Enough¡­I said enough!¡± everybody quieted down from the bickering match the discussion had devolved into. ¡°We are not going to get anything done if everybody continues distrusting the Demons. I say that the past should be left behind. Especially since this past was over three hundred years ago, and is only serving to harm the Demons further.¡± He looked around the table, meeting everybody¡¯s eyes one after another. ¡°Four of the Demons gates will be opened. However, this will only be temporary, since I fully expect for all of the restrictions to be lifted in the future.¡± A few of the Kings started to complain about his decision, but Amadeus gave them a sharp look, and they wilted. It helped that he used a little of his aura on them, which gave off a feeling like the earth was swallowing you. The Demons happily accepted Amadeus¡¯s compromise, knowing that there would be time later to convince the Humans to open more gates, after they had proved themselves to be trustworthy. It also helped that they knew the Humans wouldn¡¯t go back on this decision, since it was backed by Amadeus. Dinner was served after this, when everybody went back to their respective buildings. These buildings were where everybody would sleep and eat. Basically, anytime not spent in the big building where the debating happens, would be spent here. I decided to stay with the Elven delegation, instead of going over to the Demon one, for a few reasons. Anyway, the food was good, and afterwards, I spent my time meditating. I really didn¡¯t need to sleep, so it seemed like a good use of my time. It meant that I wasn¡¯t asleep when someone broke into my room. Well, multiple someone¡¯s.
Author''s Note: Again, I thought I would put up a list of the Great Titles, for reference. Along with the title holder revealed so far. Spoiler : The Great Titles: 1.The King¡ªAmadeus Jor 2.The Queen¡ª 3.The Knight¡ª 4.The Tower¡ªSarah Durst 5.The Mage¡ª 6.The Swordsman¡ª 7.The Builder¡ªAspasia Silver 8.The Healer¡ª 9.The Archer¡ª 10.The Bishop¡ª 11.The Madman¡ª 12.The Shield¡ª 13.The Lost¡ª 14.The Bridge¡ªRust Gleben 15.The Demon¡ª 16.The Teacher¡ªCaevern Niten 17.The Hero¡ª 18.The Hermit¡ªHarving Strump 19.The Warden¡ªSelina Rochella 20.The Joker¡ªKatariah Nadine Silver Chapter 52: The Hostility I was sitting cross-legged on my bed, meditating, when I first heard them. I could hear metal scraping against the lock on my door, as well as feel someone burrowing into the ward I had set up, his or her spells gradually passing through my own, in order to bring down my ward. Truthfully, I had kind of expected for something like this to happen, though certainly not on the first night. I mean, I had walked into the summit, and become a very visible member without any strength to back me up, in the eyes of everyone else there. After all, I had declared myself level one hundred and fifty back there. My level was nowhere near the amount of authority I held, and some had resented me for that. And, among people who are used to getting what they want, sending people after someone they perceived as both weak, and threatening, was no big deal. I just wonder if these people were given orders to bring me back alive or not. Anyway, their mage finally broke down my ward, and a second later, I could hear a click from the lock on my door. Taking this as a cue, I¡ªof course¡ªjumped out my window. What? Did you expect me to fight them in the close confines of my room? No, I needed more space for this, and I didn¡¯t want to get blood all over the furniture. Jumping out the window was made easy by the fact that I was wearing the clothes from Ascension Island again, in the form of my typical long-coat ensemble. Nightfall was in my left hand, ready for the draw, while I held an old favorite in my right. Very quickly, I ran to the center of the massive clearing, breaking the sound barrier as I applied a little mana to myself. There were ways to make it so that the ¡®boom¡¯ didn¡¯t happen when the sound barrier was broken, but in this case, I didn¡¯t stop it. Reaching the center, I slid to a stop, and turned around. Behind me, four people dressed in dark clothing were racing after me, just as fast as I had gone. They, however, were silent as they pursued me. One mage, two swordsmen, and one marksman, judging by the bow and quiver he had. Oh man, this is going to be fun, after all. Seeing that I had stopped in the middle of the clearing, and hadn¡¯t continued running like they had thought I would, the four of them also slid to a stop, the ground buckling a little in their wake, and the grass being torn out by their feet. From amongst their midst, a sinister sounding voice came. ¡°¡¯Least you know what¡¯s good for you. If you come quietly, we won¡¯t be forced to hurt you, little girl.¡± ... ... Ah gods¡ª they¡¯re so¡­clich¨¦! At least I know that they are trying to kidnap me, not kill me. Though, arguably, getting kidnapped by a noble who¡¯s probably sadistic and power-hungry might be worse than death. I wonder how many others these people have kidnapped? Luckily, they were all standing clustered in a group. I grinned a little to myself, and raised the weapon in my right hand towards them. I haven¡¯t tested it against actual targets yet, but that matters not. I know the Boomstick will do it¡¯s job well. As I raised it, pointing the muzzle towards the four would-be-kidnappers, they figured out that it was a weapon. Unfortunately for me, the mage and the marksman peeled away from the two swordsmen, who dropped into a ready position. Taking aim between them, I pulled the trigger on the Boomstick. Instantly, the hefty projectile, enchanted with explosive circuits, sped out from the barrel of the gun. Well, I say gun, but it was basically a tube with a trigger. Anyway, there was a small flash, as I used stored mana to shoot the projectile, which impacted right between the two swordsmen almost as soon as it had left the barrel. For just an instant, time seemed to stand still, the projectile having been buried into the ground. Then, a burst of white heat happened, and the two swordsmen were devoured by the following explosion. I threw up a quick shield, and was glad for it as charred body parts started raining down around the crater now in the middle of the clearing. The mage and the marksman were staring at me, and I could nearly see their horrified expressions underneath their cloth masks, which covered their mouths. I grinned at them as I activated [Demon Lord Transformation], and completely let loose my aura. It visibly affected the air around me, manifesting itself in hues of red and gold, and a smell like charged ozone filled the air. With most of my stats now tripled, I could easily catch the mage, who immediately went to flee, and immobilize him. The marksman stood his ground though. I wasn¡¯t expecting that at all, since the people who engaged enemies at long range typically were the first to fall back. He, of course, shoot arrows at me. And the arrows, of course, didn¡¯t reach me. Why? Well, they fell right in front of me, each of them split right down the middle. I had unsheathed Nightfall to hamstring the mage earlier, and now used it to cut down the arrows before they reached me. This guy was only at Rust¡¯s level, despite likely having trained his whole life for this. In fact, I feel a little insulted that whichever noble had sent these guys had so badly underestimated me. They all seemed to be around my level, if not a little higher. However, my level is nothing compared to my stats, which are pretty much blown out of proportion. So, I¡¯m able to completely curb-stomp those at my own level. I mean, I didn¡¯t even have to use any mana to subdue any of these guys. Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon. By the time it was all over, people began coming out to see what the commotion was. After all, there had been several loud explosions in close sequence, one being the sonic boom I had caused before, and then the other was from the Boomstick. The first to arrive was Jasper. I guess he also got some speed bonus or something after becoming a Demon Lord, since he got here right after combat had ended. ¡°Are you okay?¡±, was the first thing he asked. I nodded my head, and pointed to the mage and the marksman, who were confined within an earthen cage. ¡°Yeah. Someone just got it into their heads to send these after me, to try and kidnap me.¡± ¡°Ah. Any idea who might have done it?¡± ¡°No, but please, feel free to interrogate these two however you wish. I¡¯m going back to my room.¡± I really didn¡¯t want to deal with the clean up for this stuff, so I made some flimsy excuses; like I was tired, or that there was something I needed to do. I also wanted to avoid any questions coming from more people arriving. I could already see a few figures exiting the buildings, and heading this way. Skirting around the edge of the clearing, I made my way back to the Elven building. Inside, my room was in disarray, since the four kidnappers had followed me out the window, but only after quickly tossing everything around to make sure that I hadn¡¯t tricked them, and was still hiding in the room. It meant that I had to spend and hour or so cleaning everything up, and putting it all back into their proper places. After that, I continued meditating. The next day, there were a few black faces at the summit. Several people had been greatly angered by the events of last night, the violence that happened during what should be a peaceful summit. Amadeus started off the summit today with a speech. ¡°This summit was called in order to stop hostilities between the various nations and races governing our three continents. It was not, however, called to let anyone pursue greater power, violence, or their own personal agendas. Last night, someone decided to make one of the dignitaries ¡®disappear¡¯. Unfortunately, the ones who were to carry out this task committed suicide before we could find the mastermind.¡± He gave a pointed look around the table, and swept his eyes around the stands around, making it clear that this was a serious issue. ¡°When this culprit is found, I will personally deal with them. That is all I will say on this subject. Now, please start the discussions.¡± He sat down again, and someone suggested they debate about something pointless, and whether or not it should be more, or less pointless. I turned to Amadeus. ¡°You know, I¡¯m perfectly capable of dealing with the culprit myself? There¡¯s no need for you to step in.¡± ¡°Actually, I have to deal with this myself. It shows that I have control over the summit.¡± Eh. That¡¯s a pretty good reason. Well, for most of the summit, I pretty much just spaced out. Discussions on stupidly minute details apparently bore me. Who would have guessed? Anyway, the time spent in the summit hall felt like a blur to me, with every second dragging on into the next, and the minutes taking hours to pass. When it was finally over, it was time for dinner. We were able to snack on foods brought in during the discussions, which served as a lunch, and let the discussions continue for the whole day. In other words, it extended the torture. Gods, why did I ever think participating in this was a good idea? Dinner, thankfully, was fairly good. It seems that many of the people present for the summit brought their own cooks. Since these cooks worked for some of the most powerful people on the continents, it a given that their food would be incredible. Now, imagine all these fantastic cooks gathered in one place for once; learning and improving from each other. Yeah, the food coming from that kitchen is amazing. I think that given another few weeks, all these cooks will be able to create nearly miraculous dishes. Well, after demolishing whatever came out of that kitchen, I decided to check out the Demon¡¯s building, and talk to Jasper, and the niece I hadn¡¯t known existed before yesterday. While the building looked almost exactly the same as the Elven one, there were little subtlety¡¯s that separated them. For one, the Demon¡¯s building seemed much more¡­lively. I could hear the sound of laughter and merry-going even from outside, while the Elves tended to eat silently, lost in their own thoughts. It made for a warm and friendly atmosphere, which surrounded the Demon building. I walked up to the entrance, and found that I was smiling despite myself, getting caught up in the feeling around the building. I shook my head, and pushed open the door. Just inside, the banquet tables were filled completely, and demons of all shapes and sizes sat at them, drinking beer and eating good food. I walked between two of the banquet halls, looking for Jasper. But, when I passed the tables, I noticed that the conversations behind me seemed to just¡­die out. I stopped in the middle of the hall, and spun around, trying to spot Jasper anywhere. I didn¡¯t find him. There were, however, a few dozen hostile stares drilling holes into me. Crap. This is exactly why I didn¡¯t go to the Demon continent.
Chapter 53: The Misunderstanding The Demon continent is a strange place. It¡¯s pretty much dominated by Thur Hurman, a volcanic mountain settled in on it¡¯s eastern tip, named after an old legend, and the fact that the damn thing spews ash everywhere, and acts as a very large, open air labyrinth. It¡¯s made most of the eastern end of the continent completely inhospitable, though there are random wandering tribes, which could be found etching by on whatever they can find. To the west, the land is seemingly shattered, and filled with jagged edges and uncrossable chasms. Life is barely possible there, though few crops are grown in the rocky soil, and their diet consists mostly of meat from various monsters frequenting the place. Such a harsh lifestyle has led the demons to adopt a more martial type of life, with the stronger ruling over those weaker than them. It is their belief that those who are strong actually have a divine duty to protect the weaker demons, and to lead them. Unfortunately, it is also their belief that strength must make an example for the other continents, by forcibly leading them as well. Why? Well, the demons tend to believe that they are the strongest race on the continents, and in a way, they are. At least, on the basis of personal strength. They look down on the other races, convinced that they are less worthy then the demons. Or, at least, they used to, long ago. A few badly mangled attempts at invasion have mostly convinced them otherwise. Though, they still don¡¯t like the other races much. And this is mostly the fault of the other races, who were always seeking for a way to marginalize the demons. Well, the end result of all this is that I was now staring up at the tallest demon I¡¯ve ever seen, who had pale red skin, furry cloven hooves, and curling goats horns erupting from the sides of his face. He towered at over three meters tall, and I felt pity for the poor demoness who would have had to give birth to such a giant. ¡°Elf-kin, you have not yet proven your worth to the beings in this hall, and as such, are not welcome here. Please leave, before something regrettable happens.¡± I could feel the eyes of all the other demons in the hall on me, and they certainly didn¡¯t feel kind. ¡°And what happened last night was not proof enough?¡± I said, even-keeled while resisting fidgeting with all those eyes on me. The tall goat demon man looked taken aback. ¡°No, it was not. That was not a demonstration of strength, but rather of weakness, due to your need of protection.¡± I cocked my head to the side, in the same way a predator would after seeing its prey. ¡°Protection? Whenever did I need protection?¡± I asked in a sickly sweet voice. The tall demons continued talking, taking on an imperious tone, like he had seen what had happened. ¡°When you were attacked by kidnappers yesterday, of course. Your brother, our great Demon Lord, had to come to your rescue.¡± ¡­What the hell have you been telling your subordinates, brother? In fact, right as I was about to ask the tall demon goat man that, I heard a voice behind me. ¡°Ah, Kai! What are you doing here?¡± I turned around, and finally found Jasper, walking out from the sleeping quarters. ¡°Well, I had decided to pay you a visit, and catch up a little. And now, I¡¯m finding out that I also have to thank you for saving my life, apparently.¡± I said, while grinning toothily at Jasper. ¡°Huh? When did I save your life?¡± ¡°Ask him.¡± I pointed at the man-goat demon giant¡­thing. Jasper stared at him, and he began recounting the events from last night. ¡°Lord, we all saw you leave the building after hearing a few explosions, to go save your sister, who was under attack by what had ended up being kidnappers. As soon as you had left, everything went quiet. You came back with two of the kidnappers, and we just knew that you had dealt with the situation swiftly and easily.¡± ¡°Bullshit.¡± I muttered under my breath. Jasper heard me, and nodded in agreement. ¡°That¡¯s completely wrong. By the time I had arrived, it was already all over. Kai gave those two kidnappers to me, for information.¡± ¡°No, I just didn¡¯t want to deal with them, and I know how much you love responsibility, Jasper.¡± ¡°Responsibility? I absolutely love it.¡± Jasper earnestly replied to my sarcastic tone, sweeping his eyes over all the demons in the hall. I knew what he was trying to communicate. He didn¡¯t want to deal with a coup from any demons who happened to think he didn¡¯t want to lead. Too much work, probably. The goat demon guy watched our exchange with incredulous eyes, seeming slightly shocked. ¡°But, if our Lord didn¡¯t help her, than who did?¡± He finally said. I threw up my hands, exasperated. ¡°Right, because if he didn¡¯t help me, then someone else must have! I obviously can¡¯t handle some small-time kidnappers myself, can I!?¡± ¡°No? You¡¯re too tiny to.¡± ¡°Oh? Well you¡¯re just a¡­¡± ¡°Can the two of you just be quiet? We can talk through this like¡­¡± ¡°Stay out of this, Jasper. Goat-boy over here obviously has a problem understanding me. I guess there¡¯s only one way to solve it.¡± ¡°What are you going to do, little elf-kin? Get help again?¡± ... I released my aura, and the air filled with a charged coppery scent. Goat-boy snorted disdainfully. I raised an eyebrow, and used [Demon Lord¡¯s Transformation]. Instantly, the aura around me swept through the entire room, and also seemed to solidify, growing two or three times denser. The distain and mockery in Goat-boy¡¯s face fell away, and he stood stock still, here at my auric epicenter. If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. He was experiencing it up close, and could see that the space around me had warped, and created eddies like little transparent tendrils waving around me. My aura also became strong enough to manifest as colors, in dark golds and reds. I wasn¡¯t done though. There was one skill I hadn¡¯t yet tested out, and I knew it had evolved alongside my [Demon Lord¡¯s Transformation]. I was just about to engage the skill, and watch the ensuing chaos, when I felt a hand on my shoulder. ¡°I think he gets the point, Kai¡± Jasper said, not unkindly. Indeed, I looked around me, and at Goat-boy. There was respect in his eyes now, and a little fear. This was mirrored in most of the other demons here. It wasn¡¯t that I was strong compared to them. I¡¯m not. There are a few demons here who could kill me before I even blink. It was that they could feel my aura in the air. And, while almost all of them can do this, none of them could until they were level three to four hundred. They could feel the impossible strength radiating from me, even at level one hundred and fifty, even while I¡¯m only thirteen. At thirteen, I was nearing their base level of power, which had taken many years to reach. It was a terrifying, and sobering thought to them. I smirked a little, knowing some of the conclusions the demons in the room had come to. Jasper just shook his head, and motioned for me to follow him. We walked out of the dining hall, and as we passed the doors into the sleeping quarters, I could hear the hearty conversations starting up again as I left. Jasper¡¯s room was as the far end of the building, and was just like every other room in any of the buildings. It was large, but still cozy, and furnished with a nice bed and a cabinet, with a closet off to one side. A few chairs were set up around a wood table, and Jasper directed me to sit in one of the chairs. ¡°So, why did you come here?¡± ¡°I had some questions to ask you.¡± I said, sitting down in the chair, cross-legged on top of it. ¡°About what? I haven¡¯t found out anything more about our father, if that¡¯s what you¡¯re here for.¡± I shook my head. ¡°No, I just wanted to compare our experiences of ascending to Demon Lord status.¡± ¡°Ah, that¡¯s all? Easy. I secluded myself away from civilization in preparation for the change. When it actually happened, I was surrounded by glowing runes, and the writing on them was indecipherable. They slowly began encroaching on me, leaving me with less and less space to stand. I tried in vain to escape them, only to find myself floating in the air a moment later. Once there, the air seemed to ripple and contort, and I felt an inflow of raw energy, which was fairly easy to deal with. I was let down after that, and soon found by those seeking to seal me away again, for fear of what I might cause in the future.¡± I sat silently, considering what he had just said for a while. ¡°How odd. I had a different experience, though it had some similarities to yours. For one, mine seems like it had been a whole lot more painful than yours had been. And, my ascension seems to have involved a few more steps.¡± I went on, and told Jasper what had happened when I became a Demon Lord in great detail. He listened, enraptured by my accounts, thought I left out the scenes I had relived after being hit by that bolt of thunder. I mean, I did tell him that they happened, just not what I had seen. That¡¯s a little too personal, even for me. Jasper sighed, and rubbed the bridge of his nose after I had finished recounting my tale to him. ¡°I don¡¯t get it. We both became Demon Lords, so why did the way you did it involve¡­so much more than mine had. Why were there differences in how the power of nature was relayed to us, and how we were held? Maybe it involves our elemental affinities or something, but beyond that, I can¡¯t explain it.¡± I shrugged. ¡°I really didn¡¯t expect you to have the answers for this, Jasper. I was just curious if you had gone through the same ordeal I had. Now that I know? Meh. It doesn¡¯t really matter all that much in my mind.¡± I paused. ¡°Don¡¯t get me wrong, if you figure it out, I would love to hear about it.¡± ¡°And you will. This intrigues me too much to be left alone, and bears a closer look, all things considered.¡± I left after that. Jasper had gotten that look in his eyes, a look I¡¯ve seen in a few people before. His thoughts were completely on his future research now, and he was incapable of making any more conversation with me. That being said, I really didn¡¯t need to sleep at the moment, but returning to my room, and it¡¯s bed, felt nice. I reached level one hundred and fifty two that night, breaking through those two levels consecutively, within a few hours of each other. It looks like whatever monstrous rate of growth I had gotten before becoming a Demon Lord hasn¡¯t yet stopped. I briefly considered for a moment, what exactly, I was growing towards. Is there something greater and higher than a Demon Lord? I shook the though from my mind, and readied myself for the day''s summit meeting. Well, I had to employ the help of a maid to put on another dress. Aunt Aspasia would kill me if I went without one.
Author''s Note: Sorry for missing yesterday. I was in a car for about ten hours of the day, and had dinner with someone who really needed the company. It didn''t really give me time to concentrate on my writing. ¡ªRiver. Chapter 54: The Summary I¡¯m really getting tired of these summit meetings. I guess it just shows that I¡¯m not meant for bureaucracy, nor for listening to the petty squabbling of the Humans. I think this is a sentiment shared with all the other Demons and Elves. Some would think it odd, when looking at the stances taken by the different races. The long-lived races, the Demons and Elves, wanted quick change to happen now, and to not push it off for the future. Those not familiar with them would have assumed they would be fine with waiting for change to happen, since a few decades would seem a short time to them. They would be completely wrong. Those races want change now. Immediately. They know that if it¡¯s deferred, and put off, it will either happen further into the future then would be healthy, or not at all. People who are, for all intents and purposes, unaging, know that when you want something to get done, you need to put in the drive and initiative as soon as possible. So, during the summit, the demons and elves pushed for immediate and jarring change. They also knew that the change would be painful at first, but when given enough time, would be nothing but beneficial. The humans took the opposite stance. They wanted the change to happen so gradually that nothing would be felt, so that everything might remain the same while they were still alive, and in charge of their various kingdoms and estates. And, some of the changes suggested in the summit would harm their current lifestyles. For instance, there was a movement to have the human populations spread out, so that they aren¡¯t just living on the Human continent. This meant that the power these human kings have would lessen, since many of their subjects had left their realm of rule. It also meant that these people would not be able to pay taxes to them. There were other changes suggested too, and the human kings vehemently opposed most of them. The Elves and Demons knew change was now necessary, but the Humans desperately wanted to cling to their traditional bases of power. It was an annoying quandary, since the Humans were one of the essential bastions of power on the continents. Their individual strength might not be up to much, and they might be badly divided most of the time, but they also outnumber the elves and the demons one hundred to one. They are a fearful fighting force when riled. Unfortunately, that meant that we needed them to agree with the changes¡ªand they didn¡¯t want to. The summit had become a bargaining session, and was now focused on finding a compromise everybody hates, instead of just the humans. That way, the humans wouldn¡¯t feel left out. For my part, whenever they suggested that even more be taken from the demons; I would join in on the violent refutation. Surprisingly, a good portion of the elves would join in. Oddly, they were all a part of the oldest generation of elves, with the younger ones still biased against demons in general. Actually, it isn¡¯t odd, and I shouldn¡¯t really be surprised. I¡¯ve seen a whole lot of the elder elves heading over to the demon building, and having dinner with them. I imagine they share old war stories or something, or reminisce on the past together. I guess they¡¯ve become tolerant to just about anything over their long lives, due to sheer boredom. The demons seemed to readily accept the company, and let them join in on their hearty dinners. I could see the beginning of a good union between the old folks of these two races. On another note, I¡¯ve been able to talk with my niece a few times since first seeing her. She¡¯s a very serious person, and seems to not have a sense of humor. I asked about her mother, but it seemed to be a very touchy subject. Jasper wouldn¡¯t touch upon it as well. I wonder who she was? She¡¯s a very competent worker though, and handles most of the logistics and communications for Jasper. She¡¯s the heart and the head behind his power, and his leadership. Which means that she really has all the power. All the demons present for the summit listen to her, and follow her orders. They all trust her enough to do so, gladly. And, my meteoric rate of growth has indeed not slowed down in the slightest. It might have even sped up a little from what it had been before I had become a full Demon Lord. It had stopped for a while there, with my growth completely halting. I asked Jasper about what he was experiencing now that he was also a Demon Lord, and he told me that his growth even before becoming a Demon Lord had been slow, especially at the levels he had made it to. So, he couldn¡¯t yet judge his rate of growth at the moment. I also asked him about entities above the Demon Lord level, and he dismissed the notion. Demon Lord is the end of the evolution available for Demons. It should be considered that it is a true evolution for most demons. I had gone from normal classes, to Quasi-Demon Lord, to full Demon Lord, but for all other demons, the path to power was much longer, and more convoluted. There were so many prerequisite classes before Quasi-Demon Lord, that very few managed to get past that particular stage. The one¡¯s that did normally hid themselves away for a few thousand years attempting to break through the threshold of Demon Lord. The story has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation. I felt a little bit of pity for those people, and a fair bit of bashfulness knowing the fact that I had somehow skipped those prerequisite classes completely, immediately becoming a Quasi-Demon Lord at level seventy five. Actually, it was also strange that I had become a full Demon Lord at level one hundred exactly. It was like something pushed my evolution to happen at man-made points, as if someone had programmed it into me somehow. After all, I didn¡¯t follow the ¡®natural¡¯ evolution paths, and just jumped directly to the destination. There was definitely something strange about my strength, and how I get it. It was like an equation that stared me in the face, but one without a single answer. In other words, it was frustrating. And, like I said before, Jasper hasn¡¯t heard of anything like it before, so I was all alone in finding a solution to this. Not that I needed to. It¡¯s a case of my curiosity killing me a little. I mean, I¡¯m fine with whatever it is, as long as it gives me more strength. In other news, a member of the Elven delegation disappeared a few days ago. He wasn¡¯t a main member of the party in any way, and was not all that powerful, but the very fact that he couldn¡¯t be found, even by the likes of Amadeus, was concerning. This was his land, and he was connected to it in ways unfathomable. He should be able to locate anyone on it within a few heartbeats, but that¡¯s not the case here. It¡¯s as if the man had never existed. He was just gone. And, it¡¯s not like he had just escaped beyond the range of Amadeus¡¯s control. For one, that range was terrifyingly large. He had given an estimate as to how far his power reached, and a few members of the summit fainted on the spot. But, apparently we are deep within the forests at the heart of the Elven continent. There¡¯s nothing beyond this little slice of civilization for weeks. And, there are powerful monsters, and even Mana Beasts beyond Amadeus¡¯s shielding. There¡¯s no way anyone would leave his protection voluntarily, unless they were insane, or stupid, or both. This man was not either. He was known for being a levelheaded tactician in charge of a few key elven regiments. Even his quarters gave no sign as to what had happened to him. All we knew was that he simply didn¡¯t show up to a summit meeting, and was gone when his absence was followed up on. It was a little concerning, to say the least. Most people suspect foul play as the cause, especially after reminding themselves of the kidnapping attempt that had happened with me early into the summit. Though, after I had proven to the demons that I had beaten the kidnappers with my own strength, they warmed up to me considerably. It also helped that I was a Demon Lord. They tended to instinctively band around the holders of that illustrious class. It was the fact that they thought I had relied completely on the strength of another that pushed them away, and alienated me from them. Once they knew that I had power of my own, and handled my own mess, they welcomed me into their dinning hall. Well, most of them. Like I had said, the older demons are far more accepting when compared to the younger generation. I go to their eating hall as much as I can, splitting my time between the elven building and the demon one. I knew this would likely be the only time in history that so much of the strength here on the continents would be gathered in one place, and that the demon¡¯s and elves¡¯ strongest beings would be out and about. Most of them typically prefer to seclude themselves, unless there was a great national emergency that required them to fight. And, I could feel that they summit had passed the mid-point, and was quickly approaching the time when everything would be settled, and all imaginable eventualities would have been planned for. Until then, I guess I¡¯ll just continue being bored out of my mind, listening to the bickering between the humans and everyone else. Maybe I¡¯ll even present some ideas on how things could be done. Or not. I really have none. Everyone else at the summit has a very solid idea on how to improve things. Or make them stay the same. This whole thing has given me an appreciation on how small I really am, in the whole grand scope of things. And, the only way I can be bigger, is to get more power and experience. Knowledge will come naturally after having these things. And, after this summit ends, I need to work on those things. After all, Toledo had told me straight out that I was now responsible for the well-being of the continents, and I really don¡¯t want him coming after me, or giving him a reason to in the first place. After all, I have a feeling that guy is more powerful than even Amadeus. Besides, I do feel responsible. I''ve met some good people here, and had some worthwhile experiances.
Author''s Note: I had forgotten how much coffee messes with me. Let''s just say that I was a little hyperactive when writing a good portion of this chapter, and had the attention span of a squirrel on crack. Never again, River¡ªnever again. Though, I suppose I told myself that last time as well. Oops. ¡ªRiver. Chapter 55: The Encounter Another one of the delegates disappeared. Again, it was an elven man. This time, he was more powerful than the last, and commanded one of the elite elven armies. There¡¯s no doubt in anyone¡¯s mind that these disappearances are accidental anymore. That being said¡ªThere really is no way to keep them from happening. We don¡¯t know why or how they are vanishing, nor do we have the slightest inkling as to who might benefit from this. Well, the higher-ups among the elven delegation are toiling away to prevent the next one, should it happen. Meanwhile, the other two delegations are on tenterhooks, and have become a little testier. Who wouldn¡¯t be? I, for one, have made sure to set up the most powerful wards I can bring to bear around my room. It wasn¡¯t lost on me that those two men had disappeared from inside the elven building, within days of each other. Other than these concerning vanishings, the end of the summit brought some hope to me. It had been boring as all hell, but some good things might be accomplished here. Least of all, unity. It was paramount that all the nations existing within the continents act together, else an outside threat bring all of us down. After a few months of wheedling out deals and compromises, the human kings are nearly willing to accept what we have been working towards. Though, I could tell there were a few weeks yet left for me to enjoy. They were still dragging their feet to the bitter end, I guess. I¡¯ve gotten into a routine though, so it should pass by quickly. Hopefully.
(POV Selina) You know, it¡¯s really not fun to have to hold back ALL THE TIME. Why should I be restricted to simple spells and healing magics when I can just have my undead hoards deal with things? It¡¯s so much easier, and quicker as well. Well, I think that, but I do understand the necessity for me to hold back. After all, I wouldn¡¯t want the others to feel completely incompetent. Especially after we had finally made it to the twenty-something floor of this school¡¯s dungeon. It would somewhat reduce the joy of them having made it down this far, if I revealed that I could make it much farther with my ¡®friends¡¯, as Kai always called them. It¡¯s sort of like; ¡°Ah, we have made it down here after much effort! Now, let us continue down¡ªAGH! Undead Dragon!¡± No, wait. I just remembered. The dragon is too big for these dungeon levels. Damn it, I guess I would just have to use the trolls. Or not. Stick to spells, she said. Well, she¡¯s not the one who has to deal with ¡®King¡¯ Arthur. I¡¯ll stick my spells right up his¡­ ¡°Selina! Can¡¯t you just help us with the tents for once?¡± yelled Merlin. I sighed, throwing my hands up into the air with an expression of exasperation. ¡°Can¡¯t you just put up the tents without me?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not the point! Teamwork is important, even when grappling with a tent frame!¡± chimes in Rust. The poor kid. He¡¯s been brainwashed by those common morals. And he had such potential as well¡­ I stubbornly refused to help with the tents, though I relented when they needed someone to light the fire. A simple spell took care of that, and I slowly began warming up by the flickering flames. These heroes were an interesting group. Well, besides Arthur, though he¡¯s getting marginally less annoying. Some of the people here would almost never be considered heroes. Harving for example. He¡¯s killed quite a few people. I know that the others know how much he has killed, but I don¡¯t think they can even begin to guess at the sheer volume of bodies he¡¯s left behind. He¡¯s a little comparable to Kai in that regard. Though, Kai¡¯s definitely a special case. She¡¯s on her sixth reincarnation, you say? Bullshit, I call. Though I only know this after accidently peaking into her memories once, when I first met her. When she was a he, and in another world. When I had power enough to worry about accidently peering into the mind of another. That¡¯s not a problem anymore. All my power must have been exchanged for something to come here, though I know not what I might have gained from such a deal. Eh. I got to see Kai again, and that alone makes the whole thing worthwhile. And, she¡¯s so cute here! Never would I have thought that the great leader of man, Kai, would be reborn an adorable little girl in any life. This content has been misappropriated from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.I¡¯m glad to see her here though, and know that she is marginally happy as well. When I had known her before, she had been such a serious person, and always so unforgiving. It does her good to be able to smile for once. ¡°Come on, Selina! We only wanted you to check out this inscription, not break the entire wall!¡± ¡°Well, my way also worked, so I see this as a win-win situation.¡± We were standing in front of a broken down wall, which had been battered down by some earth spells. Formerly, this wall had held some sort of hieroglyphs on it, and the rest of the heroes had thought it might have been a clue telling us how to leave this floor. Well, they did, but in the form of a tunnel running behind the wall. After breaking down said wall, the others got angry at me for not consulting with them first. It worked, didn¡¯t it?! ¡°But, what if that wall held some clues as to the next floors or something? We won¡¯t know now, since you¡¯ve destroyed it.¡± I sighed. These people really don¡¯t understand how awesome and talented I am. ¡°It doesn¡¯t matter if that wall still existed or not. I remember what was on it.¡± Arthur scoffed at this. ¡°Please save your placating words for those who would believe them.¡± I scoffed straight back at him. ¡°Please save your insulting words for those who would care about them.¡± He sputtered about, and Merlin chuckled a little at his expense. Merlin was interesting to me. As an illusionist, the first thing he did was make himself look young again. In his current form, Merlin looked like a young man with long, straight brown hair, and piercing grey eyes. He was also fairly short, but had an enviable amount of spirit. From what I could glean, this was how he had looked when he was young, with no changes besides the removal of his true age. Most other people would then go on to make themselves a more attractive version of themselves, but Merlin refrained from this. He looked fairly plain, actually. Meh. I guess it¡¯s his choice as to what he would do. I would end up making myself completely irresistible, though. Well, more than I already am. Oh well. Hmm. I wonder what Kai¡¯s doing right now?
(POV Kai) Well, I found out something about myself today. It¡¯s been a few days since the last disappearance, and with two elven men missing; all the elves are losing more and more of their focus. As for me, I had something else to focus on. Unfortunately, I discovered the hard way that it¡¯s a six-month cycle, and not the year that I had been expecting, and hoping for. So, I was in bed for now, and tried every now and then to get up and walk around a little, before deciding that staying in bed was a good idea. I think I¡¯ll try to go to the summit though, since that¡¯s just a bunch of sitting around. I won¡¯t have to do anything, really, and I¡¯ll be able to hear how the whole summit progresses. I think the worst part of this is that healing spells won¡¯t do anything to ease the cramping or the slight nausea I feel, since they¡¯re completely natural processes. I can do nothing but bear through the pain. It also helps that I know it¡¯ll be gone in a week, and will return in half a year. Well, unlike that first time, I didn¡¯t get any new titles or skills to marginally dull the pain this time. I felt a little relived about that though. I already seem to have more that I can keep track of, and adding more on top of that at the moment seems to simply ask for more trouble. Ah crap. It seems like I¡¯m in for trouble anyway. My wards just went down in an instant. Someone¡¯s coming.
Author''s Note: Shortest chapter that will happen in this story! I apologize for it, but I lost the energy required to do a full one about ten minutes ago. It worked anyway, since the length of this chapter works for it, instead of against it. I mean, now we have another cliff, where someone is entering Kai''s room. I wonder who it will be? ¡ªRiver. Ah, and, yes, I know I''m evil for doing this. I really just couldn''t write any more. Chapter 56: The New World The wards were simply there one second, then gone the next. It was as if they had never existed in the first place, or had been turned to nothing. Feeling the severance of my protective barrier, I bolted upright from bed, immediately grabbing for Nightfall, which was leaning on the nightstand. I ignored the cramp that tore through my midsection, and sent Nightfall¡¯s scabbard flying across the room with the force of my draw. I waited for a few tense seconds, while watching to see if anyone would enter my room. Nothing. There was no noise, and the door didn¡¯t open. I checked, and there were no presences beyond that door, no scheming shadows seeking to spirit me away from this summit. It was dead silent. I relaxed marginally, and sent out feeler of power, to see what had happened to my wards. Those things don¡¯t go down for nothing, you know. Unless someone uses a void-attuned attack on them¡ªBecause, those are almost literarily comprised of nothing. But that¡¯s just semantics, I guess. ... Huh. That¡¯s odd. There¡¯s nothing from beyond that door that might have broken the wards I had painstakingly set up. No, but then that would mean that it had come from someplace else. I searched around quickly, desperately trying to find traces of whatever had broken my wards. I knew where it had come from a fraction of a second later, though, when I heard a tinkling sound behind me, as my window broke when a small object flew through it, and landed on my floor. Bare seconds had passed between the point where my wards had fallen, and when this object sailed into my room. And only a second more passed when a blinding and silent light filled the room, and winked out as quickly as it had come. I hadn¡¯t the time to be able to take cover, futile though it surely would have been. The light obliterated all my thoughts, leading me to darkness. My last thought before unconsciousness took over was that at least I¡¯ll be able to find out what had happened to those two elves now.
I jerked upright as soon as I had woken up, throwing myself into a ready position with Nightfall held before me. Again ignoring the cramps, I listened intently, and watched the scenery around me intensely. Nothing. Only the wind whispering through young looking trees, and the soft sway of grass underneath me. There were no people around me, judging from the lack of presences. And, if there were people here, but I simply couldn¡¯t feel their presence, then I was in for far more trouble than I could escape. Gathering myself mentally, I decided that waiting around an unknown area, after having found myself here through unknown circumstances, isn¡¯t a very good idea. So, I picked a direction and started walking while ignoring the pain at the pit of my stomach. Along the way, I spotted no people, nor any animals, just smooth rolling hills, and young trees, whose width did not exceed the size of my leg. And, while it was full of plant life and vivacious greenery, it seemed a desolate place without even the chitterling of small animals, and nor was there any underbrush anywhere. The whole thing seemed fake, manufactured somehow. I can¡¯t remember something like this existing in the continents. And, when I had gingerly climbed one of the trees to get a better vantage-point, I only saw a rolling field of green canopies as far as my eyes could see. This odd forest continued on for miles upon miles, with all the trees occupying the same sort of height and uniformity. It was more than uncanny with its creepy sort of perfection. Even worse than that, was that all the trees I had come across so far seemed to be of a fruitless variety, and I hadn¡¯t seen a source of water even after walking for a day or so. I really needed to find food soon. And, while I had some stocked up inside my bag, along with other essentials, I hadn¡¯t been holding my bag when that bright flash of light occurred. Speaking of which, now that I¡¯ve had some time to think, and ponder my situation, I think I know what had happened. I didn¡¯t think it would have been possible, but someone must have developed a teleportation grenade, or something that acts the same. That bright flash must have been it activating, and my unconsciousness must have been a natural response to the violent ripping of space that had happened. I can¡¯t even begin to understand how someone might have been able to weaponize teleportation like that, nor fine-tune it so that only I had been caught in its field. I do wonder of the other two elves had been caught like this, and whether or not they had woken up in the same place as me, and walk much as I have been. It seemed unlikely, since I hadn¡¯t seen any trails in the forest, even from that bit that I had woken up in. Maybe we all got teleported to random places? I decided it didn¡¯t matter at the moment. My biggest concern was food. While I could go without it for a while longer as of yet, it would be absolute hell with my current condition. The cramps were already bad enough, and I didn¡¯t want to see what starvation would add to them. Thankfully, through my magic, I had a limitless supply of water. I just pulled the moisture from the trees and the air, and voila, I had drinkable water. It was bland and tasteless though, since it had none of the minerals commonly found in ground water. Oh well. It would keep me from dehydrating for now.
It¡¯s been a week since I was teleported into this forest, and even though I continue to walk in a straight line, I seem to not make any progress. It might be the fact that all the trees look almost exactly the same. Even worse, when I slashed a few of the trees with Nightfall, which I had been carrying this whole time, they returned to normal after an hour or so. I could very well be going in circles, and never notice it. I¡¯ve been judging my direction by the position of the sun, so I¡¯m fairly confident in being able to move forward properly. But, there¡¯s no reason to trust this sun. I could be lost in an illusion forest of some sort after all. I hope that¡¯s not the case. I have no idea how I¡¯d even begin to break out of an illusion that would be as big as this forest. So, I¡¯m going to continue walking, and perhaps I¡¯ll find my way out of this forest. And, this will have to happen soon. I¡¯m beginning to get very hungry. Well, on the plus side, at least the cramps and bleeding have stopped now. I¡¯m able to move around much easier now. I¡¯ve also diligently kept my eyes open for anything edible, like fruit or animals. So far, there¡¯s nothing here. Not even insects. If this continues, I might have to resort to chewing bark from the trees, even with how little it¡¯ll help. This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.
It¡¯s been two weeks now. I¡¯ve finally resorted to chewing bark. The bark is very bitter, it seems, and really didn¡¯t do anything to fill my empty stomach. It acted like chewing gum, falsely convincing myself that it could stave off my hunger. I knew though, that it wouldn¡¯t. I still needed to eat like a normal person, even with my abilities and power. Everyone needs to eat, or they die. Did you think the most powerful people could just forgo one of their bodies¡¯ most important functions? They can¡¯t just sustain themselves on raw energy, since they still need the vitamins and minerals necessary to live. As such, the most powerful beings also still need to expel waste. If you ever feel intimidated by a powerful figure, just remember, this person shits just like you do. But first, they have to eat. Which I haven¡¯t been able to. I really need to soon, since I really don¡¯t want to die in some unknown place, without anyone realizing what had happened. Especially since starving to death absolutely sucks. *Shutters* Never again. Not if I can help it this time.
¡°Princess Anhara! The hunting party is ready to move!¡± I searched for the source of the yelling and hoarse voice, and nodded back at the castle-city¡¯s resident huntsman, and he signaled for the group to begin moving into the royal woods. The sound of thundering hooves assaulted my eardrums, as we set off into the royal hunting grounds. I despised the fact that I was the one who had to lead this party. It was my royal duty, I¡¯ve been told. No! I wanted to scream back at them. My duty is not to entertain those vapid and vain nobles, whose greatest accomplishments are depriving their land of money through feasts and other needless pursuits. But, is there anything I can say without having a voice? The hunting party moves farther into the expansive woods, while I stay near the tail end of the pack. Not only do I not believe in killing animals for sport, but all the worst nobles tend to run forward, in anticipation of the hunt. These are the one¡¯s I wish to avoid the most, the most violent and idiotic of the nobility. At least when I am in the back of the group, I am surrounded by people smart enough to not talk to me. They, at least, know that I won¡¯t reply. Or, at least, they should. ¡°Oi oi oi, are you still ignoring the rest of us little nobles, Princess?¡± I try to ignore the noble who brings his white war-horse astride my own. ¡°You know, I sent your father a formal request for your hand?¡± I jolted a little, and turned to look at the gaudily dressed nobleman riding next to me. His name is Hoffery Von Wervenn, and he¡¯s one of those who would normally be found riding at the front of the hunting group. I tilt my head to one side, and this man three times my age interprets the motion. ¡°Of course I failed. The King believes in you making your own choice, for some idiotic reason. So, it looks like I have to convince you personally.¡± I felt hivers up and down my spine as I gazed upon this man who I knew to have a rotten heart, and to treat others with cruelty. I shook my head at him, displaying my unwillingness to listen to him any longer. I stay at the back to avoid conversations like this, where one or more seek my hand, and the power it would bring. My guards, observing my movements and reacting to my un-spoken wishes, move to escort Hoffery away from me. He scoffs at this. ¡°What, do you think these second-rate guards will keep you away from harm forever, little Princess? The only thing they are good for is to sacrifice their own lives for yours. You, of all people, should know this.¡± I turn away from him, mostly so that he can¡¯t see the pained expression that crosses my face at his words. He leaves without saying another word. Frustrated with what he had said, I lost myself while thinking about various things. While thinking, my little group consisting of myself and four guards wandered away from the main hunting party. This was nothing unusual, since smaller group broke away from the main one all the time, spreading out to catch more of the prey released into the woods yesterday. What was unusual, was the distance we had gone. Before I had realized it, our little group had lost sight of the main group, and the sun was reaching for the ground. I turned to the guards, but none of them would look me in the eyes. Right. I forgot for a moment. Royalty was always correct. They didn¡¯t want to point out the distance we had gone, for fear of punishment. I spun my horse around, deciding to backtrack to where the main group had been when we had left. From there, it would be an easy feat to track the group to whatever campsite they had surely built by now. It was then that the smell of blood hit my nose. It was coming from the right, and I wouldn¡¯t have noticed it, other than the fact that the wind had shifted towards me at that moment. Curious, and wondering what had caused the smell, I led my horse toward the smell. My guards had also caught the smell, and were warily grabbing their weapons, just in case whatever had spilt that blood was dangerous. As we approached, the smell grew thicker, and I could make out a lump of fur laying on the ground, and some chewing noises. The dying light made it hard to make out any details, but I would recognize that coarse brown and gold fur anywhere. It belonged to a Goliath-Bear, one of the more challenging beasts that had been released into the royal-hunting grounds, with an average level that went upwards of four-hundred. I was ready to run away¡ªsomething like this would require a more experienced hunter than I, though my guards could certainly deal with it¡ªwhen I noticed that the lump of fur wasn¡¯t moving. On the contrary, something else was. A small figure sat by the side of the fallen bear, with long hair matted and colored red by blood, and wearing simple clothes that were impossibly clean despite the carnage around her. Then, this person turned around, and I saw a beautiful, if slightly immature face, and eyes like that of a phoenix serpent lighting up in the little light available now. And horns. She had horns as dark as the night sticking from the side of her head.
Author''s Note: Well, I''m not dead. Sorry for missing out on so many days consecutively, but RL called me back with headaches and pain. Anyway, hope you enjoyed. I should have another chapter for tomorrow as well. ¡ªRiver. Chapter 57: The Campfire Meeting After three weeks, I found two things I had been missing. First, I came across a rather large and angry bear, the first animal I had found while in the forest. Well, normally I would recognize it as an animal, but at the time, I only saw a walking and breathing hunk of meat. And, you know, meat isn¡¯t supposed to be walking or breathing. I corrected this situation after a hunger-induced bout of combat. You would think that me being mostly starved would have made my blows weaker. Looking back, they had become far more terrifying; with most of the mental blocks I normally put on my power having been removed due to the hunger. In short, for a brief moment, I pretty much became a wild beast, and completely lost all control of myself. I gave into an instinct I wasn¡¯t even aware had remained from that life. I only regained my faculties after eating quite a bit of the bear. I didn¡¯t miss that its neck had been snapped, and that I had pulled out its spine while it still breathed. Nasty business, that was. Even nastier once you consider that I had eaten the bear raw, and didn¡¯t even stop to cook the meat. Man, I was really hungry, wasn¡¯t I? I was considering making a small fire while munching down on some more of that bear meat, when I heard horse hooves behind me, and saw the second thing I had been missing. There were five horses, and four of them were occupied by rather hostile looking people with unsheathed swords in the style of my own katana, but larger and thicker, like a thickened Odachi. Then, the rider of the fifth horse bore no weapons besides that of a small bow, and wore elegantly crafted riding leathers. Moreover, she had a delicate circlet adorning her brow. However, what drew most of my attention was the fact that they weren¡¯t Human. Nor Elven. Or Demonic. They were something that hadn¡¯t existed on the continents, whether it was due to the World Seal, or something else. These people were Beastmen. I guessed that four of them were guards of some sort, for the lady. They were all distinct, with one having bright red hair, two with brown, and the last with grey. The grey-haired one had triangular ears sticking out of his hair, and had a distinctly wolfish cast to his face. One of the guys with brown hair had rounded ears sticking from his head, and the other had floppy ears. The last one had cat ears. Ah, and most of them had tails. Including the noble looking lady. Though, she had two tails, and pure white hair¡ªor fur? And while everyone else has a distinctly animalistic cast to their faces, she looks completely human, besides the tails and ears. Which, by the way, were the longest among the group, and looked precisely like fox ears. If I could go so far as to venture a guess, I would say that she was a member of one of the rarest sub-casts among Beastmen¡ªa nine-tail. I got up from my kneeling position on the ground, and it didn¡¯t escape my notice that the four guards leveled their weapons at me, and subtle made to intercept me, should I make a move for the lady. I hold out my hands in a non-threatening manner. Nightfall was somewhere behind me, still stuck inside the bear. I had used it to cut it open, though, even with my hunger-induced bout of craziness, I still had enough sense to avoid cutting open the bear¡¯s stomach and digestive tract. That would have been bad, and possibly gotten me very sick. The fact that I was unarmed seemed to do me no favors in the eyes of the guards, though. They still bristled at the sight of my hands going up. ¡°I¡¯m not going to hurt you. In fact, I have no idea where I am.¡± The five people opposite me tilted their heads in confusion. Oh no¡­ I should have considered this. One of the guards replied to me, and confirmed my thoughts. ¡°#$^$& #@% # @#$% ^^$&*@ #%$!¡± Crap. We don¡¯t speak the same language. I¡¯ll have to resort to more¡­primitive means of communication. Still holding my hands up, I went up to one of the trees nearby, and broke off some of its lower branches. I gathered a quick armful of them, and placed them next to the bear. After lighting them up with a simple fire spell, I take Nightfall and carve out strips of bear meat, and skewer them on some of the thinner branches. Of course, I begin to cook the meat by holding these skewers over the fire. A mouth-watering scent came from the meat, combining with the smoke from the fire. Those five beastmen stayed where they were while this was happening, curious about what I was doing. Then, once they realized that there were far more skewers then I would be able to eat single-handedly, they understood my intentions. The skewers reached a point where I felt them to be at their peak, and I pulled them off the fire. The beastmen were watching me intently. I knew that they typically had heightened senses, among which was smell. So, these strips of meat, which were releasing heavenly smells for me, would smell very appealing to them. Ah, I can see a bit of drool from one of the guards. I¡¯m guessing they haven¡¯t had dinner yet. Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings. Sitting down, I leave a good portion of the meat on the other side of the fire, where the beastmen could easily grab them. I took quite a few of the meat strips for myself, and began chowing down on the cooked strips of deliciousness. I hadn¡¯t put any sort of sauce or spices on it, but when you¡¯ve starved for the last three weeks, anything would taste amazing. The beastmen were shifting uncomfortably in their saddles, and I could hear stomachs growling from where I was. Gesturing at the meat, I made it clear to the beastmen that they could eat the skewers I¡¯d left to the side. After a moment¡¯s hesitation and a few short words, one of the guards hopped off his horse, and approached the meat. He tenderly took a bite, and when it was clear that there was nothing added to the meat that would be harmful to them, the others also hopped off their horses. We all ate together, in relative silence. However, they now knew that I wasn¡¯t a threat, and meant no harm to them. If two people can¡¯t understand each other, then the only way to communicate is through actions and intentions. I needed to show these people that I wasn¡¯t going to hurt them somehow, especially since they came upon me feasting on the raw remains of a massive bear. Not exactly a peaceful first impression. I felt that I was fairly successful, too. When first they saw me, all five of them were wary to different extents, from slight curiosity to open hostility. Now, they were all concentrated on the food, and will be able to revise their opinions on me. I finished my skewers well before they did, even while consuming twice as much as one of them. Near starvation is a scary thing. After finishing, I reached up to rearrange my hair, and was slightly horrified to find that it was sticky and damp with nearly dried blood. No wonder they had felt so threatened, when my hair was covered in blood. I quickly cast the same spell that had kept me from dehydrating all this time, and summoned a globe of water which combed through my hair, removing the blood, while keeping the rest of me dry. Then, it was a simple matter to remove the residual water through a similar spell, drying my hair completely. A few of the guards were looking my way as I was doing this, along with the lady. I turned back towards them with an inquisitive look, and a few of them actually started blushing. Huh. I sat back down, and stared at the lady, who I felt to be the one in charge here. I pointed at myself, and spoke slowly and simply. ¡°Kai.¡± The lady looked confused for a moment, before realizing what I was saying. I expected her to reply back with her own name, but on the contrary, she looked a little panicked, and gestured to the nearest guard. He seemed to understand something, because this guard pointed at the lady, and replied for her. ¡°@#$^&## Anhara.¡± The first word, I think was a title, while the second was her name. The guard had uttered the first word with a reverence only given to people of high standing, so I expect it to be something like ¡®Countess¡¯, or ¡®Duchess¡¯. That would explain why she has guards with her, though not why she¡¯s refusing to talk to me. Maybe it¡¯s a status thing? Well, thought that for a brief second, before noticing that the lady, Anhara, seemed a little nervous, and slightly sad. I don¡¯t think she¡¯s staying silent for some petty reason like her being nobility of some sort, and me being some person she¡¯s just met in this odd forest. I wonder what could be causing her to stay silent? Beyond introducing ourselves, not much else was said. Nobody would be able to understand me, and I certainly didn¡¯t understand their language yet. There was no point. After a few minutes of sullen silence, the lady stood up from her crouching position near the fire, and the guards followed suit. I was planning on discreetly following them out of this damnable forest, when Anhara turned back towards me slightly, and gestured for me to follow. I shrugged mentally, and walked behind them, as they led their horses by the reins. It looks like they don¡¯t want to outpace me. A touching thought, but wholly unnecessary, since I could outrun those same horses. I could tell that they were following their old tracks to where they had come from. I hoped they had come from a town or something. I really need a bed right about now, and a bath would also be nice. However, they didn¡¯t go to a town. No. We reached an area where a great number of horse tracks and wagon wheels had passed by sometime earlier, and one of the guards broke away from the group after a long discussion amongst themselves. It was the youngest guard, the one with the floppy dog-like ears, that went. As far as I could tell, he began traveling in the direction that the tracks had headed. As for the rest of us, we went the opposite way.
Author''s Note: Ugh. I''m feeling very listless at the moment, so I''ll keep this short. No chapter tomorrow. Chapter 58: The Big Question Riding with this Lady Anhara was predictably dull. Any conversations that would help to pass the time would only be confusing for all sides involved, since we can¡¯t exactly communicate what we mean effectively. Besides, even if we could understand each other, I don¡¯t think this group of people would be¡­talkative, per say. For one, this Anhara person seems to be mute, and her guards were well on their way to following in her footsteps. Luckily, since that other guard from before had departed, I had a horse to ride. I think that guard had gone to inform the rest of whatever group these guys had come from that they had left. From what I can gather, Anhara seems like a fairly important person, and I imagine that a few people would be very concerned and distraught, were she to leave without any notice. On that same line of thought, I wonder what¡¯s going on at the summit right now? I mean, technically, I am fairly important. My disappearance probably caused some waves among the summit leaders, and I wouldn¡¯t be surprised if the summit were to be suspended until either I were found, or the perpetrator caught. In my opinion, though, the summit should continue. I don¡¯t even care if I¡¯m there or not, but the very act of gathering all the most powerful people on the continents is essential as a bulwark against any future incursions we might face. It¡¯s too important a task to stop, just because a few people went missing. They can mount an investigation off to the side, quietly taking care of the problem, but any more that is simply folly. Hopefully, they''ll be able to find me without much of a fuss. As some would say, the show must go on. Well, it¡¯s been a few weeks for them since I disappeared, so they should have taken any actions already. All my conjecture and theorizing is already in the past, as far as actual events are concerned. As for what is happening right now, we seem to be exiting the forest. It somewhat pissed me off, actually. It was a feeling of¡ªthe exit was so close? We just traveled a few kilometers, and boom, the tree line had ended, and we were now traveling on a paved road, rather than the deer trails that were prevalent in those woods. Interestingly, the woods have a fortified entrance and exit, with what looks like a toll booth manned by a few dozen soldiers wearing suits of armor. There was also a stone wall stretching a-ways away, encompassing the forest. I had a minor feeling of disbelief when I saw the wall, and the trees poking overhead. That wall was much too small to contain a forest in which I had wandered for nearly three weeks. I mean, I can¡¯t see the entire thing, but I can see the ends. It doesn¡¯t stretch on for nearly as long as I would have imagined it. How the hell did I ever get lost in there? And then, the road before us¡­ It led to a city. Though, simply calling it a city would be a gross injustice. If the beastmen themselves hadn¡¯t already clued me in, then seeing this would absolutely bring me to the conclusion that I was no longer on the continents. For one, such a sprawling metropolis couldn¡¯t exist there. The whole thing seemed to be built on a hill, so that the center of the city, and the majestic buildings placed upon it overlooked the entire city, and could be seen from outside of it as well. I could see the barest hints of a wide street winding its way around the city, before finally ending at the top of that hill. Even from here, I could see the brightly colored clothes all around the city, and hear the sounds of laughter and merrymaking. Interposed among the colorful buildings stood the occasional weathered wall or pillar, showing that this city holds a deep history underneath it¡¯s youthful vibrancy. In addition, a few of those buildings at the top of the hill look archaic, in a way. Much like those other buildings I had found at the bottom of that labyrinth with the lich. It was odd, really. This city gives me such conflicting feelings¡ªit feels old and new, joyful and somber, or bright and dingy all at the same time. It¡¯s a feeling only the oldest and most established of cities can pull off. I turned to the most experienced looking guard, and pointed at the city. That, along with a few hand gestures resembling a round of makeshift charades, got him to understand what it was I wanted to ask. That was how I figured out the city was named Calcatan. After that, though, the ride was spent in the same silence as before. It would have been completely boring, if it weren¡¯t for the fact that there was a massive city to watch as we drew closer. From what I could see, there were quite a few different marketplaces inside the city. I made a mental note to check them out sometime in the future. You can learn a lot about a country from how it¡¯s people interact in a market. Even more than that, was the fact that I enjoyed the feeling of walking in places like that, where the crush of people can hide anything remarkable about yourself, and you feel almost¡­normal for once. Don¡¯t get me wrong, I¡¯m not resenting the fact that I¡¯m exceptional, or that I get to live, even after dying. Nor do I dislike how I look, or act. I just think that everybody needs a break from themselves every once and a while. And, I would certainly need such a break in the near future, with what I¡¯ve gone through lately, and what I¡¯ll be going through soon. I¡¯m not an idiot. I don¡¯t know who this Lady Anhara is, or what sort of position she holds, but I do know that she has some influence. Anybody with influence has strings attached to them, in some way. I foresee trouble in my future¡­ Actually, the first hint of it came when we reached the city gates. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road. If you spot it on Amazon, please report it. Unlike the people standing guard outside of that forest, the guards posted at the city gates wore simple and stark uniforms, with the occasional steel breastplate. I was surprised to see the steel, though. On the continents, iron was normally used for armor construction, since steel was too expensive, and used primarily in swords. And, lowly city guards would normally wear leather armor, which had been cobbled together through that guard¡¯s own efforts. The guards here were treated much better, if the uniforms and steel were any indication. Or rather, this place might be over-endowed, resource wise. One or the other, this only served to prove again, that I certainly wasn¡¯t on the continents anymore. Though, the most notable thing I got from these guards wasn¡¯t that their city was well off, but how they acted. Let me put it this way¡ªI knew there would be trouble heading my way when they bowed down at the sight of our group. Or, at the sight of Anhara. A few words were murmured from the lips of every guard present¡ªthe same words from each of them. It looks like Anhara was more important than I had reckoned for, if gate guards were able to identify her based on sight alone, and treated her with such courtesy. They didn¡¯t even look at the rest of our little group, simply letting us pass. If they had noticed anything odd about me, then they didn¡¯t say anything, or act particularly alarmed. That might be a happy bonus, though. Traveling with a high ranked person let me enter the city, no questions asked. My demonic heritage would have kept me out, answering questions for some time, before I would have been able to enter Calcatan. The horns aren¡¯t exactly subtle. And Demons aren¡¯t exactly loved. It¡¯s a bit of a sad trend really, where the demonic races are the most vilified. I¡¯ve yet to see a world where they are treated well by the other races. Which leads me to another thought¡ªWhy haven¡¯t I been attacked yet? Nope, never mind. I¡¯m just going to be happy it hasn¡¯t happened so far. I¡¯m not going to jinx this situation through depressive thinking. I¡¯m sure I¡¯ll find out soon enough. Unexpectedly, we began following that wide street that snaked it¡¯s way to the very height of the city. It was clear of any stalls that would hamper the flow of traffic, and seemed oddly empty for it¡¯s size. It was well paved, too, with drains every dozen meters or so. However, there was virtually no foot traffic on this street, as it was mainly populated by carriages and horses like our own. Posh shops lined the street, selling anything from gemstones to finely tailored clothing. Sometimes both in one shop. I¡¯m guessing that this street is strictly for the nobility, just as the hill must be for them as well, with all the manors sitting upon it¡¯s land. Well, everything we passed was impressive, and elegant in every way, but there was one glaring flaw I could see. This wasn¡¯t Calcatan. What I was traveling through was a fa?ade, made to cater to the sensibilities of the resident nobility. This wasn¡¯t the essence of the actual city, nor were these other nobles I could see around me truly living in Calcatan. I doubted they ever saw the actual people they ruled over here. That was one of the reasons I had set up shop in the slums so long ago¡ªSo that pampered little noble brats would have to slog through the muck of the city, and see what it was they were truly lording over. I didn¡¯t really expect any of them to change anything, but it was satisfying to know that they could no longer claim ignorance about the conditions in the city. Also, it might influence their decisions in the future, even if that influence were to be minimal. Thus, I saw the beautiful shops around me with a jaded eye, and didn¡¯t take them at face value. Like I said, the true character of a city can only be found with the people living in it. Though, I will admit it was pleasant to travel through the heart of the city without having to worry about foot traffic. To me, it felt like we made it to the hill, and the majestic and stately manors atop it in record time. I was a little disappointed that I hadn¡¯t been able to ask any questions about the city, or what to expect soon. I might end up needing to learn the language spoken here, after all. I¡¯ll hold off on it for a little while, since it¡¯s not my first priority. No, I think my first priority would be to feel out my current situation in greater depth, as well as find out just what sort of status Anhara holds. I¡¯m really starting to think that she holds more than just a minor noble title. After all, we¡¯ve passed the small manors, and the medium ones. The only ones left are the truly gargantuan ones. And, the building at the very apex of this hill. Then, we passed those last manors. And, new to this city I might be, but I still recognize a palace when I see one. Especially when it takes pains to appear as grand and imposing as possible, like this one had. Truly, this is a building fit for kings and emperors. Which leaves the question; What and who are you, Anhara, to be able to enter this place? I mean, I already know she''s someone special from the looks she''s gotten, and how she''s been treated. But I didn''t dare to think she would be this important. But, even more than that, I''d like to know why she''s helping me, someone she just met after finding me covered in blood, and gorging on a bear.
Author''s Note: Sorry for going MIA for that long. There''ll be another chapter tomorrow, after which things will be back to normal, holding to my mostly daily postings. ¡ªRiver. Chapter 59: The Demons Nature I don¡¯t think I¡¯m capable of being stunned again. This palace is just¡­too much. If it was built with the intentions to shock and awe it¡¯s guests, then consider me properly shocked and awed. For one, the palace is gargantuan. It¡¯s at least as big as two or three of the biggest manors combined, and certainly many times more extravagant. I kinda wanted to run off from this little group, and see what there would be to explore in the seemingly infinite nooks and crannies available here. Of course, I didn¡¯t do this. That would simply be asking for trouble, no? The guards here were equally scary. I can¡¯t even tell what metal was used to create their armor and weapons. It had a sort of golden shiny quality though, and had obviously been created for each individual guard, since I saw so many nuances in the armor to accommodate things like beastmen ears, tails, and even antlers. Also, while I couldn¡¯t tell what sort of power level these guys were at, I did get the heavy feeling that pissing them off would be unwise. As we ventured further into the palace, the guards that had been escorting Anhara peeled off towards another direction. Likely, their protection isn¡¯t needed within these walls, especially with so much aggregate power gathered in one place. And, I couldn¡¯t help but to notice that this entire building is heavily fortified. It¡¯s more like a really fancy and functional castle, rather than a palace. And as we walked further, I noticed that paintings began appearing on the walls, and statues adorned archways set into the sides of the hallway. Particularly, I noticed that many of the statues depicted one person¡ªA woman with long ears sticking above her head, and a beautiful face. Whoever had carved the statues and busts had done an upstanding job, and stuck true to the original. Most of them were the spitting image of Anhara. Because of this, and everything else I¡¯ve seen, and all the hints I¡¯ve gotten thus far, I¡¯ve given up on the thought process that Anhara might only be lower nobility or something. To paraphrase the conclusions I¡¯d come to¡ªshe¡¯s got a really high status. Up in the damn clouds high. So why was she in that forest, protected by only four guards? That seems a little reckless for someone of supposedly high standing, like Anhara. And then taking home someone who you just found in said forest, without even knowing them? That¡¯s practically begging for an assassination attempt to happen, or at least a kidnapping. Oh well. It is her life, after all. Eventually, we reached a set of double doors, indicative of a throne room. Those places always have the biggest and heaviest doors, and it doesn¡¯t get much heavier or bigger than engraved metal doors topping out at over five meters tall. Holy cow, are those things imposing as all hell. And, I¡¯d bet that there are several powerful enchantments and wards placed inside these doors, and in the room itself. The doors were closed, though, so I couldn¡¯t verify that for myself. Actually, as soon as we had come within sight of the doors, a well-dressed man standing before them ran off, into a fancier looking section of hallways. He had taken one look at Anhara, and bolted. I wonder what that had been about? Anyway, Anhara didn¡¯t look at all perturbed by the man¡¯s reaction, and even seemed to expect it. She stopped in front of the big double doors, and waited. I stood besides her, not knowing what was going on for the most part. It was especially bad since I couldn¡¯t talk to Anhara. Even if I had somehow learned the language, I likely wouldn¡¯t be able to converse with her. Maybe she¡¯s physically incapable or something? We ended up waiting a solid fifteen minutes with an awkward silence, before something changed. From down the hallway in which that man had run down, someone else came walking towards us. However, the appearance of this woman was shocking, to say the least. She was beautiful, and had tall ears standing straight above her head, along with numerous tails fanning out behind her. The tails, along with her hair, and ears, were a stark white, not unlike the color of my own hair. Her eyes were an icy blue that would give most people a feeling of coldness, and distance, but were filled by warmth at the moment. And, she looked almost exactly like Anhara. Are they twins or something? The only real differences between them exists in the number of tails, and the color of their eyes. While this woman¡¯s are blue, Anhara¡¯s eyes are a yellowish golden color. The woman walked towards us calmly, her very bearing exuding regality and power. Once she reached us, she spoke a few clipped words to Anhara, and pushed open the large doors, revealing the room beyond them. Anhara immediately followed her, and I trailed close behind. Apparently, the room wasn¡¯t a throne room like I had been expecting. Nope, just an office. An absolutely massive office, with floor to ceiling bookshelves and chairs scattered about, along with a large desk in the center of the place, covered in papers and thick books. The woman led us to a particular spot, where a few chairs formed a semi-circle. She was speaking the whole time, focusing on Anhara. The tone of her voice sounded angry, but I was unable to understand what was being said, of course. She sat down, while handing Anhara a square panel, covered in a black material, along with some chalk. Anhara sat across from her, the square in her lap. Not knowing what to do, I sat in an empty chair off to the side. I sighed internally. I really feel out of place here, especially since I still have no clear idea of what¡¯s going on, or why Anhara brought me with her. There was a moment of silence, while the woman seemingly collected her thoughts. I was spacing out when she turned to me, and spoke in a questioning tone. I shrug my shoulders, while raising my hands to indicate confusion. ¡°I¡¯m sorry, but I have no idea how to speak or understand your language.¡± I apologize for this, hoping that the woman understands the apologetic tone in my voice. She looks surprised and somewhat puzzled upon hearing me speak in an entirely different language. She turns to Anhara, and asks her the question instead of me. Anhara took hold of that black square, and the chalk, and wrote down an answer. So, I guess she can¡¯t talk, but can communicate? There¡¯s a tragic backstory there, I just know it. Anyway, the woman took a look at the answer, and read it carefully. Once she was done, she glanced up at me, with well-hidden emotion in the depths of her eyes. She again turned to Anhara, and continued asking questions, the answers to which she dutifully wrote on the small blackboard. Ugh, I really hate not knowing what the people around me are saying. I¡¯ve actually been in this situation a few times, right after being born. Different worlds will speak different languages, and since I¡¯ve never yet been born in a world I¡¯d already inhabited, it should be taken for granted that I would have to learn the local languages from said birth. I¡¯ve never experienced any of that storybook bullshit where the main character just instinctively understands the locals from another world from the get-go. I¡¯ve had to learn it all myself, no cheats. This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. Because of all this, I know something like two dozen different languages now, most of them useless, since they¡¯re only used in their own worlds. On the plus side though, I¡¯ve gotten really good at understanding languages from scratch due to all that practice. If I had stayed in the company of Anhara¡¯s guards for a few weeks, I would have been able to get a conversational grasp of the language here. Unfortunately, it¡¯s not even been a full day since I had met Anhara and gotten out of the forest¡ªNot nearly enough time to began understanding the language. Compound that onto the fact that they never really spoke to me, and I¡¯ve only really heard this new language be spoken on a handful of occasions. My attention was brought back to the woman and Anhara, when I heard my name. ¡°Kai? #$^$%& @#%^ #$&&^* . !@$# @^$^& $# Joan.¡± Ah, she pointed to herself with that last word, and clearly emphasized it. Joan must be her name. She said some other things, the meaning of which passed clear over my head. She must have understood that I didn¡¯t understand anything other than the name, and cursed softly. I jolted upright, staring at the woman, Joan, with surprise. She caught my look, and seeing my reaction, seemed a little shocked. You see, she had softly murmured a string of extremely creative dirty words, the type which would set the ears of normal people aflame. However, Anhara seemed to not notice, nor care. That was because she wouldn¡¯t have understood the words that Joan had spoken. I understood them though. They were in English. ¡°You¡ªdo you understand this language?¡± She asked, some level of curiosity buried under her voice. ¡°Yeah, I do. Are you from Earth or something?¡± Joan nodded, and I chuckled a little to myself. Finally, someone to talk to in this place. Maybe now I could find out a little more about where I am, and what¡¯s going on. ¡°This will certainly make things a little easier.¡± Joan said, ¡°You see, I have some questions regarding your origins, and how you got into the royal woods without anyone noticing.¡± ¡°Ah, okay then. I¡¯ll answer as much as I¡¯m able to.¡± ¡°Simply judging by the fact that you can speak English, and the fact that nobody from Earth naturally has such horns, or pigmentation, can I suppose that you are a reincarnation who kept all it¡¯s memories?¡± ¡°Yes, you can. Would I be right in assuming the same about you?¡± Joan nodded. ¡°You would be. Ah, wait. My daughter looks confused. Give me a moment to translate for her.¡± Holy hells, Anhara is her daughter? How old is Joan? She doesn¡¯t look a day over twenty, and Anhara looks at least seventeen. I mean, I know that the more powerful you are, the less you tend to age, but this is just ridiculous. It would imply that she became very powerful at a fairly young age, and kept her youthful appearance because of it. Then, all those sculptures and busts in this place are of her, and not Anhara? It would make more sense, though now I wonder what sort of position Joan occupies, what sort of status she holds. Luckily, due to the fact that we share a language in common, I can directly ask her, instead of using context clues to suss out an answer after much effort and pantomiming. ¡°Now, I would like to know how you found your way inside the royal hunting grounds. Normally, the only way in or out would be through the gate, and nobody should have been let inside.¡± I scratched my cheek, not knowing how to phrase my answer. ¡°Well, I¡¯m not entirely sure. I know I was attacked with some sort of teleportation device, and ended up there. As far as how the device worked, or how it chose it¡¯s destination, I have no idea. The only thing I am absolutely sure of, is that I nearly starved to death in those damn woods.¡± I looked at Joan accusingly. If she were so concerned with people getting into the hunting grounds, as she calls them, then why isn¡¯t there an alarm to tell of when someone is inside of it? After all, it would be fairly easy to set up a magical means of doing so. ¡°I personally apologize for the pain you underwent. It wasn¡¯t anyone¡¯s intention to let you starve, but we had no way of knowing that you were inside the hunting grounds. The space-time magics within prevent any sort of enchantments or spells from lasting very long.¡± ¡°Space-time magic?¡± ¡°I¡¯m sure that you noticed how each of the trees seem fairly young, and that the inside of the forest is significantly larger than the outer perimeter? This is due to a divine enchantment placed into the very earth at that spot, which halts the advance of time among the natural things in the forest, and repairs any damage dealt to it by reversing said time. It has the added effect of creating a series of small folds in space, making the area of the hunting ground inhabit several planes of existence at once.¡± ... ¡°¡­¡­Isn¡¯t that a little overkill, for just a hunting grounds?¡± ¡°The man who placed the enchantment did it for fun, and it only took him ten seconds.¡± ¡°Oh.¡± ¡°Moving on, do you know what manner of being you are? What sort of blood flows in your veins?¡± Ah, she isn¡¯t dwelling on the hunting grounds. That place breaks common sense in a few different ways, doesn¡¯t it? Well, I think it¡¯s safe to tell Joan what I am, if she¡¯s a reincarnate from Earth. People from there tend to be fairly progressive, and uncaring as to the issues between races. Well, at least, the ones not mired in prejudice are. ¡°Well, I am a demon. More specifically, I am a Demon Lord.¡± There was no gasp of horror, nor any sort of recognition. Instead, some confusion, and excitement lingered within Joan¡¯s eyes. ¡°Demons? I thought those were just a fable, like the banishing of the elves and such. Are you having my leg, or do they truly exist?¡± ¡°I¡¯m standing here, am I not?¡± ¡°No, forgive me. I just never believed the stories they tell here. But faced with someone of the same race as the saviors of our world, I guess the stories have a little validity.¡± Huh? Saviors? The Demons? ¡°There are stories where Demons are the good guys? How did that happen?¡± She looked at me, again confused. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t Demons be good? As the decedents of the dragons, they were supposedly tasked with keeping order in this world. However, there¡¯s no real proof of this, so it¡¯s just an old legend at the moment. If it weren¡¯t for the occasional sightings of a few different Demons, nobody would believe it anymore.¡± Chapter 60: The History Lesson I can feel a headache coming on. This all ran contrary to what I had learned in every other world I had ever been in. It was always the demons being portrayed as the evil beings coming to devour your souls. I didn¡¯t like this portrayal, but even I had to admit that there were times when the demons deserved to be portrayed like this. They were, after all, a warmongering species determined to gain power. This would inevitably lead to them stepping on toes, and facing retaliation. However, are humans not the same? Even elves are not immune from this, as there are cases where they seek more power than they can gain lawfully. Most of the time though, ¡°It¡¯s in the name of magic research, and the betterment of all peoples.¡± I always felt that excuse to be bullshit. Misuse of power is still misuse, and telling yourself that some people have to suffer in order to help the majority doesn¡¯t help. The minority still suffers unjustly, and dies with their lives unfulfilled. They never wanted to be a part of this ¡®betterment.¡¯ In short, I guess all the races are equally bad. They each still have their redeeming qualities, though. But for all the goodness in the demons, they still always get the short end of the stick. So then, why is it here that demons are revered as saviors, and heroes? I asked Joan this, and I came to learn some astonishing things, when she began narrating one of the myths they have here. ¡°Well, this all started long ago, according to the legends we still have left. It was right after the creation of this world, and of the races that walked upon it¡ªThe elves eldest among them, and followed by the humans, the beastmen, the dwarves, and every other manner of being that came to be. The elves were the undisputed overlords of this world, and enslaved all other races in the name of peace and harmony. They had thought that the only way of preventing war and strife would be to eliminate the freedoms and borders that cause it.¡± ¡°Unfortunately, some of those freedoms included things like luxury, love, and adventure. And, while the elven peoples first tried to put the same restrictions upon themselves, in order to approximate a modicum of balance and fairness, these restrictions were gradually lifted as the generations past, and the most powerful elves grew greedy, and tired of the lifestyle they had placed upon themselves.¡± ¡°Then, came the time when the restrictions were completely lifted, and the elves lived like overlords and rulers. For, even the lowest among the elves was placed above all else. There were likely revolts during this time, as the other races rebelled against the cruelty forced on them, but no word of any has ever been passed down. It is assumed that they were crushed before they gained enough momentum for any sort of success.¡± ¡°This sort of lifestyle persisted for quite some time, with the other races having been completely subjugated, and freed from their own wills. They worked for the betterment of the elves, for thousands of years. No pride of theirs was left by the end of this time, nor any thoughts besides those having to do with the elves, and how they could better serve them. Like all things though, this system of the elves came to an end. Even more, it was a quick end. Within one hundred years, the elven super-empire was broken, and the other races free. This happened because, amazingly and bafflingly, another race appearing on this world at that time.¡± ¡°They appeared suddenly, likely crossing over from another world to our own. At first, the elves were able to fight against these new arrivals equally. Though, it took thousands of warriors, comprised of elven men, and drafted slaves, to fight even one of the Dragons, as they called themselves. They were great scaled lizards of magic, capable of decimating entire armies and flattening whole cities in their true form.¡± ¡°Eventually, these dragons, after realizing the state of affairs in this world, decided to topple the elven empire, and put their full power and effort towards doing so. Within a century, the empire had been completely destroyed, and the elves hunted to near extinction by both the dragons, and the newly freed races, who had fully realized their hatred for them. The surviving elves fled for the remote corners of the globe, seeking safety in the desolate and nearly uninhabitable spots. It was like this that they survived.¡± ¡°The dragons disappeared soon after this, but not before passing on their genetic inheritance. Apparently, dragons are quite fond of parties, and spending nights in the company of others while in their humanoid forms. The beings born of these temporary unions were named as demons, and were appointed as the peacekeepers of this world. As highly individualistic beings, the demons would roam the world, seeking battle, and putting down injustice wherever it might be found.¡± ¡°So, they were just a peacekeeping force? That hardly seems like enough to call them the saviors of the world.¡± ¡°Well, like I said, most of this is just myth and legend at this point, passed down through so many generations by word of mouth. It would be odd if the whole thing hasn¡¯t been changed, or over-exaggerated as the years have gone by. It¡¯s likely that the legends we have today in no way represent what had actually happened. However, the reason we call them our saviors, is something else entirely.¡± ¡°What, there¡¯s more to this story?¡± ¡°Not much more. Though, this last bit is something that is backed by historical fact, since it happened after much time had passed from the fall of the Elven Empire.¡± ¡°Then what was it? Don¡¯t just leave me in suspense here, I want to hear the end of this.¡± ¡°Ah, well, it¡¯s simple really. The elves got some of their power back, and made an attempt to retake what they felt was rightfully theirs. Their attempt to regain the world failed, but ended in the mutual destruction of both the elves, and the demons.¡± ¡°¡­That¡¯s¡­somewhat dark.¡± Joan nodded, agreeing with my sentiments. However, I realized something. ¡°But wait, if all the demons were killed, then how is it that there are sightings here? And, how do you even know the sightings are of demons?¡± This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. ¡°Well, I mentioned how the demons were independent of each other as a race, right? I think it¡¯s very possible that a few demons were secluded in various places, unaware of what was happening in the world at large, while the majority of them fought with the elves.¡± ¡°As for the sightings, there have been a few demons which have consistently been seen all over the world, and are now famous as some of the strongest beings around, and the last of the demonic peace-keeping corps. We know that they are demons, because their physical characteristics do not match any other known species.¡± ¡°Is that really the only reason you guys think they¡¯re demons? Because they aren¡¯t any other race?¡± ¡°Well, we have other ways of determining this, but that¡¯s somewhat a secret of my country. I would be happy to tell you, but only after you agree to a little contract.¡± ¡°Contract? Of what sort?¡± ¡°Just a minor oath-binding contract, involving things like a non-violence agreement, one that extends both ways.¡± ¡°Would this contract only be between me and you, or the nation at large?¡± ¡°It would be just you and my family.¡± ¡°Alright then. Tell me everything that would be in this contract.¡±
The contract ended up sounding fairly simple, and practical. To start with, I wouldn¡¯t be allowed to harm the members of Joan¡¯s family, and the trade-off was that they weren¡¯t allowed to do me any harm. A simple enough thing, and since I¡¯ve already met both Joan and Anhara, I can judge that they likely won¡¯t harm me intentionally. Then, the contract mentions a few things that I would have to keep a secret. I¡¯ve never heard of the things listed, but it should be fine. They were called things like the ¡®Eye of Intentions¡¯, and ¡®Mist Orb¡¯. I wouldn¡¯t know what they were until I¡¯ve seen them myself, and to do that, I needed to sign the contract. Additionally, I would be allowed to live here, in the palace. It was a generous condition, one that I will fully appreciate. I did have one question, though. ¡°So, who are you, to be able to dish out contracts like this?¡± I asked. I had an idea about who Joan is, but I don¡¯t want to jump to assumptions without hearing it from herself first. ¡°Shouldn¡¯t that be obvious? I¡¯m this nation¡¯s Overseer.¡± ¡°Huh? ...What¡¯s an Overseer? I thought you would have been the queen or something like that.¡± Joan looked surprised to hear that I had no idea what an Overseer was. Is it common knowledge here or something? ¡°Exactly from how far away did you come? I thought everybody would know what an Overseer is, and the role they play.¡± I raised my hands in defeat. ¡°I just must not be familiar with the way things are run around here. Maybe I know what an Overseer is, but call it by a different name. I won¡¯t know what it is, though, unless someone tells me.¡± Joan, getting the hint, began speaking. ¡°Well, to put it in simpler terms, an Overseer protects a settlement or kingdom, depending on their power. As for what they are protecting from, it can be things like enemy armies, corruption from within, overbearing mana density, and mana corruption.¡± ¡°So, you crush any physical threats, while also taking care of mana related ones? So, are you just a glorified guardian or something?¡± Joan smiled. ¡°Take it as you will, but at least I¡¯m not burdened with running a country. You see, they had offered me that position, but I declined, and decided to become the Overseer here. It has much more freedom, since there is no one stupid enough to attack us anymore. And, I have others to take care of the mana density and corruption.¡± Hm, I could see the appeal of such a life-style, where you could live virtually free of all responsibilities, but still have the perks of living in a palace and holding a good amount of influence. ¡°Back onto our main topic, let me bring you the contract itself, so that you might be able to assess it with your own eyes.¡± Joan left the room, leaving me with Anhara, who had barely followed along during our conversation. We had been speaking in English the whole time, after all. In fact, she was only able to understand where the conversation was going due to her mother translating a little, every now and then. It felt a little awkward, waiting in silence for Joan to come back. Luckily though, she returned pretty quickly. And, judging by the fact that her tails were waving in the air behind her playfully, she probably ran, or used some sort of acceleration magic to do it. Who knows how far away that contract had been in the first place. Though, I had a little shock upon seeing her tails like that. Mostly because, with them waving about, I was able to count them. I hadn¡¯t been able to before, since they had been clumped together behind her back, like one big, extra fluffy tail. She has a set of ten tails. In the stories I¡¯d read about nine-tailed foxes, they would ascend to divinity after growing only nine tails. I wonder if that¡¯s any different here? Joan noticed me watching her tails, and grinned. ¡°Ah, they are beautiful, aren¡¯t they?¡± I nodded. ¡°I have a tail myself, but don¡¯t really have a use for it. Mostly, I just keep it wrapped around my waist for conveniences sake.¡± ¡°Ah, yeah.¡± Sighed Joan. ¡°I didn¡¯t know what to do with mine at first either. They would always get in the way, and it was so difficult at first to find clothing that would accommodate it. It was difficult to adjust to, after coming from Earth.¡± "Is there a purpose for your tails though? I just don''t think mine''s very practical." "Well, for my race, the number of tails we have can approximate our power levels. Anyway, here¡¯s the contract. Once you sign it, the palace will be open to you, and you will be assigned the same degree of respect as one of this realm¡¯s royalty. Also, I can show you some of the better bits of technology we¡¯ve managed to create.¡±
Chapter 61: The Royal Baths Nothing special happened when I signed the contract. I had been expecting blinding rays or light, or a heavy sense of responsibility towards the upkeep of the contract, but there wasn¡¯t anything like that. The only extraordinary thing I felt was a sharp tingle in my finger, since I had to seal the contract in blood, through a fingerprint. I could see the magical constructs shining beneath the surface of the contract engaging as soon as I pressed my blooded finger onto the paper though, so I know it¡¯s a legitimate contract. Apparently, I would suffer soul-grinding pain, were I to go back on my word with it, and from what I could see of it, I didn¡¯t doubt Joan¡¯s word on that. It would be fairly easy to uphold my word though, since most of the conditions are simple things, like to not cause harm intentionally, or harm the reputation of the palace. Additionally, I would have to keep a series of inventions secret. Truthfully, my curiosity had been peaked after hearing about the inventions. I¡¯ve always enjoyed creating new things, though I mostly just do it for fun, or to add just a little more of a combat edge to myself. I¡¯d like to see the fruits of someone else¡¯s ingenuity, whether for admiration, or imitation¡¯s purposes. Immediately after signing the contract however, the first thing Joan wanted to do was not to purview these secret inventions, but to get a room arranged for my use. I suppose it made sense. I hadn¡¯t even noticed that I was rocking on my feet with exhaustion until Joan pointed it out. A warm bed and nice bath would do wonders as far as my metal state is concerned. I think I¡¯ll take the bath first though. While it is true that my clothes were in pristine condition, even after spending three weeks in that forest, I reek fairly badly. I suppose it¡¯s a little bit too much to expect the creators of my wondrous set of clothing from Ascension Island to have added in an air freshener of sorts. It¡¯s already fantastic that they were able to change shape s completely. Hell¡ªI had been using them as nightclothes when that teleportation grenade had been thrown in my window. They were super comfortable too. Anyway, Joan took me to a section of rooms off to the side of the palace. I swear, we must have walked for at least fifteen minutes, before reaching it. ¡°And if you need anything, just talk to this woman, alright? Her name is Bea, and she¡¯ll be looking after you for however long you stay here.¡± Said Joan, after having called over a willowy young woman, with dark brown hair and large cats ears wearing a classic maid¡¯s outfit. There was also a tail gracefully swishing around in the air behind her. Really, she was cute. It was a tad unfortunate then, that I wouldn¡¯t be able to talk to her, though. What with the language barrier and all. Bea bowed towards me while smiling. I noticed that she didn¡¯t take her eyes off me, maintaining a constant vigilance. I smiled back awkwardly. Joan, off to the side, smirked. ¡°You are worried about the language barrier, aren¡¯t you?¡± I nodded. ¡°The thought occurred to me. How is a maid supposed to help me, if she can¡¯t understand me?¡± ¡°There is no need to worry over it. Though, I wouldn¡¯t call Bea a maid¡ªHow about I let her explain?¡± Bea nodded, and saluted Joan. ¡°Yes, Madam Overseer.¡± Said Bea in perfect English. ¡°My full name is Samantha K. Usinger, a member of the palace¡¯s elite blackguard forces. However, most people just call me Bea.¡± I turned back to Joan, flabbergasted. ¡°Is she¡ªI mean, Are you reincarnated or something?¡± I addressed Bea at the last moment, instead of Joan, well aware that it was rude to talk of someone as if they weren¡¯t there. Bea cocked her head to the side, a curious look on her face. ¡°Re-carated? What does that word mean?¡± ¡°Reincarnated. It¡¯s when a soul¡¯s body dies, and passes through the great cycle. However, what Kai is asking, is if you have retained the memories from one of those earlier lives.¡± Explained Joan, in English. Bea still looked a little confused after hearing Joan¡¯s explanation though. Great. Joan probably just introduced a few principles which would drastically alter Bea¡¯s outlook on life. It¡¯s hard to look at things the same way, knowing that life doesn¡¯t end after death. Joan kept talking, though. ¡°And, if I might answer some of the questions that you are surely thinking, Kai¡ªNo, Bea is not a reincarnated being. I simply had all the more important support staff, and combat members, learn English. Mostly, it¡¯s to provide that little bit of extra security to any orders they get, and to our communications. It¡¯s been frustrating this kingdom¡¯s enemies for centuries, since the scant amount of information they are able to intercept from us is in a language completely and totally incomprehensible to them.¡± I nodded appreciatively. Teaching your most loyal and important retainers another language is certainly a good idea. Even more, I was sure that anyone who happened upon a blurb of text in English would be utterly incapable of translating it. The reason for this lie in the fact that the roots of English are unfathomably far away from those of any other languages found around the universe. I mean, think about it. Every language starts whenever a society of sentient beings become smart enough to convey basic emotions through vocal patterns. From there, each language is constantly adapted to suit the needs of the people, and it evolves along with them, becoming more and more complex the older it gets, until a certain point. That point is when the language is able to convey everything the people have to talk about. Unauthorized usage: this tale is on Amazon without the author''s consent. Report any sightings. Surprisingly, the languages on Earth are among the most complex I¡¯ve ever learned, even though the societies found there were much, much younger than the ones you can find here. This is due to the fact that everyone on earth seemed to have a surplus of imagination. There was no magic there, nor any species other than humans. This led them to innovate ways to make powerful tools, rather than rely on personal strength, as is the custom in almost every other world. One thing led another, and the humans of Earth became the most technologically advanced world I¡¯ve yet seen, and the languages match that. Furthermore, the technology on Earth advances at a scary fast rate, compared to everywhere else. I¡¯ve been to worlds that have used bronze and iron weapons for the past thousands of years, their technology stagnated due to the presence of magic. Anyway, back to the original subject. English evolved in ways totally different from that of all other worlds, and became hopelessly complicated when compared to other languages. It would be nigh on impossible for someone who has never had assistance in learning English, to translate it to a more understandable language. To speak a little more on the subject of languages, I will admit that I had trouble learning the first few ¡®other world¡¯ languages after dying that first time, and reincarnating in a strange place. To learn the language of my new world, I had to first un-learn everything I had ever known about grammar and speech patterns. After that, things got easier, but it still took me seven years to reach a decent speaking level. My parents had been convinced that I was developmentally challenged, due to the amount of time it had taken me to finally start speaking. I then found that it had become drastically easier to learn new languages, after that experience, though. This was why I was confident of learning the language of this place in a short amount of time. So, it turned out that Bea and I could converse with ease, all thanks to Joan. The first thing I asked about after Joan left for some other business, was a bath As it turns out, I was in luck. I had been expecting a little wooden tub filled with lukewarm water for a bath, but that wasn¡¯t the case here. I had forgotten to account for the presence of Joan, a past inhabitant of Earth. She knew the values and satisfaction of regular bathing, and as such, had installed a large heated bath in the middle of the palace. I left the only belonging I had with me in the room I had been given, and followed Bea to the bath area. Of course, with the palace being so mind-bogglingly massive, it took even longer to get from my new room to the bath, then it had to get from Joan¡¯s office to the room. This whole place seems a little wasteful to me. I doubt they¡¯re making proper use of more than half the palace, with how big it is, and how empty it seems. When we reached the bathing area, I could hear gentle and steady splashes of water from inside. It also immediately felt warmer inside, and there were little curls of steam rising from the tiled surface. From the entrance, the bathing area was split into two sections. There will be no mixed-sex bathing here, I suppose. I don¡¯t particularly mind, either way. One of the side effects of reincarnation multiple times, is a strange sense of detachment from the body. At some point, you just realize that it doesn¡¯t matter. I might have a problem with non-humanoid creatures, but only because they tend to be less versatile. There were alcoves in the sides of the walls, allowing me to place my clothing there. I then placed some wards on top of the pile of clothing, since I didn¡¯t want anything to happen to them. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ll ever be able to find a better set of clothing, after all. Interestingly, Bea decided to join me in the bath, which could easily accommodate a few dozen people. And, to think that this is only the female side of it. Curiously, the sides of the bath itself were a mountainous type of rock, and there were a few trees growing in the area just above the bath. If it weren¡¯t for the tiles on one side of the room, I would think we had found a reclusive and completely natural hot spring up in the mountains. There were also little streams cascading down from where the trees were, tumbling down the rocks like a natural waterfall. The whole place had a peaceful feeling to it, one that invited you to just soak in the bath, and relax. I wonder if Joan had personally designed the bath? If so, she had done a very good job. I sat in the water, unwinding for the most part. At one point, Bea came over and offered to wash my back. I accepted, and we talked a bit before swapping places. For some reason, she had a slight aversion to me washing her back, but that was solved by my stubbornness. I think it was a problem with our respective status¡¯s, rather than any dislike on her part. I felt much better as I put my clothes back on after toweling off. The past three weeks must have taken a larger toll on me than I had originally thought. Bea showed me back to my room, and I went straight to sleep after changing the form of my clothes into a comfortable nightgown. I have a lot to look forward to tomorrow, and I¡¯ll probably need a good nights worth of sleep to understand as much as I can about the inventions I¡¯ll be seeing. Chapter 62: The Learning Begins There is nothing quite like a good breakfast after a night¡¯s rest. And, my gods, the food here is fantastic. After waking up, I reconfigured my clothes into my day-to-day affair, with the long coat, shirt, trousers and sturdy boots. I didn¡¯t wear any weapons on me, since the only one I currently had was Nightfall, and it didn¡¯t have a sheath. I didn¡¯t feel comfortable walking around with a naked blade either, so I just left it in the room. Bea came to pick me up almost as soon as my feet had hit the floor, and brought me to breakfast. When she said that I would be eating in the main hall, though, I had imagined a large number of people crammed into one massive space, with maids bustling to and fro, delivering platters of food and getting rid of used ones. Instead, I was met with a cozy room, with one table occupied by only a dozen or so people. Joan and Anhara were there, with Joan seated at the head of the table, and Anhara next to her. The fact that the only two seats left open were next to them was very telling. I sat down next to Joan, across from Anhara, while Bea sat to my other side. Everybody seemed to have been engaged in pleasant conversation while we had entered, but now the room was silent, and I was cast under the scrutinizing gazes of most the people at the table. And, the silence was broken by a pompous and weedy looking man near the end of the table, who started saying some things in a very aggressive tone. I might not know the language yet, but it would take a fool to not realize that he didn¡¯t want me here, for one reason or another. However, his outburst seemed to not be received well by the rest of the table. There were a few disdainful snorts, and annoyed looks cast at him. He must not be a very popular member of this little gathering. Despite the looks he was getting, the man continued talking until catching a glimpse Joan¡¯s smiling face. Wow¡ªI think her smile is even more threatening than mine. Anyway, he properly shut up after that. A few of the other members of the table asked a question, to which Joan gave a long answer. I can make a very educated guess, and say that the question was about me, and why I was here. A few of the people here nodded their heads at Joan¡¯s answer, smiling. Finally, Joan turned to me. ¡°I trust you enjoyed the bath here?¡± she asked in English. I nodded. ¡°It was great. I haven¡¯t felt so at ease in quite some time.¡± ¡°I¡¯m glad to hear that. It took a while to get the baths to just how I envisioned them. Most nobles here don¡¯t seem to care for them.¡± I was curious as to why none of the nobles liked the baths, but before I could ask, Joan moved on. ¡°I¡¯m happy to let you know that most the people at this table are capable of speaking English, to varying degrees of success. In fact, the only one who doesn¡¯t know English at all, is that man over there.¡± She said, pointing out the man who had spoken out earlier, with that aggressive and uppity tone. Oh, so he would be the only one left out? I think that would be very fun for everyone at the table, excepting him of course. Introductions were made for me¡ªIn English of course. As it turns out, most of the people at this table were members of the military, or the heads of various organizations overseen by Joan. Many of them were involved in the more discreet side of politics, managing covert and highly trained divisions. A few of them were generals of the armies protecting the city, and the nation though. As for the man who couldn¡¯t speak English, they just told me to ignore him, as he wasn¡¯t important. ¡°Why wouldn¡¯t he be important? I mean, he is sitting at this table in a capacity, is he not?¡± I asked. ¡°Not by our choice.¡± Replied a hulking bear of a beastmen, General Ygver. ¡°His addition to our¡­table only happened due to pressure from other young, foolish nobles.¡± ¡°They wanted to gain more control over the military sectors in the kingdom, and to marginalize our own power.¡± Added in Claus, who was the leader of this kingdom¡¯s scouting regiment. Ah, it seems to be a classic case of the bureaucrats and nobles fearing the power of the military, and wishing to gain a modicum of control over them, mostly for their own agendas. Politics, how I hate you. I will admit that it was fun watching the man get more and more angry, since the whole table was basically ignoring him. He didn¡¯t even know what we were saying, since it was in another language. After a while, he just got up and left. Some of the people at the table started laughing openly at him after he was gone, but the beastman in charge of the kingdom¡¯s largest intelligence organization¡ªthe same Blackwatch that Bea is a member of¡ªpointed out the other side of the proverbial coin. ¡°As happy as you people are that the prick is gone, you should also know that there will be hell to pay later. Those young nobles don¡¯t like it when they are ignored, or taken lightly.¡± ¡°Yes, but with this, those nobles should now know that they are unable to participate in our discussions, if we do not wish for them to.¡± Said Jaihed, a lithe and lean looking beastman who was the face of the castle guards. They never had a leader, preferring to have an elected council of guards that decided the rotation schedules for the rest of them. This tale has been unlawfully obtained from Royal Road. If you discover it on Amazon, kindly report it. ¡°Ah, I wouldn¡¯t worry about it too much. They underestimate you guys greatly, and think that their words have a place among us.¡± Said Joan. Everybody more or less agreed with her. The morning after this was pleasant. I got to listen in on some of the underpinning elements of this kingdom, and get a better feeling for this place I had ended up in. Of course, I got some questions about my origins, which was to be expected. I didn¡¯t give away much about myself, but I got the distinct feeling that the rest of the people at the table understood and respected my reluctance to share personal information. After breakfast ended, everybody went their separate ways. Joan, Anhara, Bea and I all left together. It was time for me to see those inventions Joan had included in the contract.
We walked away from the breakfast room, and down several winding corridors. As we went, the walls and decorations displayed more signs of their age. It would seem that we were venturing into one of the oldest parts of the palace. It was still immaculately clean though, proof that this place must employ a veritable army of cleaners and helpers. Eventually, we reached the end of the winding corridors and were met with a guarded metal door. Oh boy. If these inventions are being kept under lock and key, behind such a thick and heavy looking iron door, then they must be worth my while, right? The guards obviously recognized both Joan and Anhara, but stopped our group anyway. A few words were exchanged, and one of the guards pointed at Bea and I. Ah, we must be one of those security concerns, right? Joan however, waved away any objections the guards had brought up, and we gained entrance. The door was opened through a set of keys placed on either side of it, after which a series of serious sounding thuds and metallic rasping noises could be heard. My gods, how many bolts does that door have? The door swung open silently, without so much as a single squeal from it¡¯s thick hinges. Behind it, a staircase wound into the darkness, descending to a space below the palace grounds. We shuffled into the narrow staircase one at a time, led by Joan. I decided to go in last, and heard the bolts of the iron door scraping closed behind me. As soon as the door closed, a series of lights bloomed above us, lighting the stairway somewhat. At the bottom of the stairs, a tunnel stretched into the gloom, the lights fading far off into the distance. ¡°What sort of inventions have you guys made, that they would be required to be placed so far from the palace, and underground?¡± Joan chuckled. ¡°Well, there are a few rather¡­volatile things there that we would prefer were left well enough alone. Also, like I said, some of these inventions are state secrets, and would get this country into quite a bit of trouble, should others find out about them.¡± Oddly enough, the walls of the tunnel were perfectly straight, like someone had simply cut away a precise portion of the earth four times, and taken out the earth between those cuts. Or, someone developed the worlds most perfect bore. The tunnel itself angled downwards ever-so-slightly, a fact I only knew due to the feeling I got from my inner sense of balance. Really, I think the tunnel by itself would be enough to make that contract worthwhile, since I¡¯ve never seen it¡¯s like before. I was tempted to ask Joan how it had been done, but something told me I would find out at the end of the tunnel. And, indeed I did. It took a good hour or so to reach that end, though. I didn¡¯t even realize we had arrived until the space around me opened up, as the tunnel widened into a massive underground cavern. Off to one side, a metal cube about the size of the tunnel rested, obviously having been unused since after that tunnel had been finished. I started approaching it, curious as to how it would have been able to make a tunnel with such perfect walls. However, Joan had other ideas. ¡°Come on, Kai, you can see that later. Most of the truly fascinating items are over here.¡± At the other end of the cavern, there was another set of thick iron doors, which were currently opening after Joan had produced a key. Hurriedly, I followed Joan and the others. Beyond these doors, another long hallway greeted us. Expect, this one had more of those iron doors set into its walls, leading to other rooms. Joan walked up to the first one, and placed a key into it. Immediately, it swung open, revealing a dimly lit room with a single pedestal in the center. On the pedestal rested a metallic orb with infinitesimally small lines etched into its surface. ¡°Well, this is the first, and arguably most important invention I will show to you today.¡± I walked over to the sphere, and saw the bafflingly complex patterns on it, each of them glowing with the light of mana circuits. Huh. I didn¡¯t even know it was possible for mana circuits to be made like this.
Author''s Note: Sorry I spent so long getting such a short chapter out. I''ve had to spend time getting ready to move for college, and pack my stuff. Chapter 63: The Advanced Status One of the greatest benefits I¡¯ve ever gotten from my multiple reincarnations, is the ability to perceive mana in the air, and in objects. This ability has been given many names in many different worlds, such as the All-seeing Eye, the Paragon¡¯s Sight, or the Devil¡¯s mark. It¡¯s a rare and troublesome ability though, so those worlds normally only know of the sight through vague legends that make it out to be more than it actually is. Yes, the sight allows for you to see mana in all it¡¯s forms, but you have to go through hell to obtain it. The sight is gained naturally¡ªIn the same way that the weak are naturally pulled apart and eaten by the stronger predators can be considered to be natural, as well as brutal. To gain it, you have to experience an event where you pull too much mana into your body, and nearly explode from the pressure. Then, that mana has to be focused into your eyes, forcing them to evolve. This change also affects you at a spiritual level, not just a physical one. In other words, no matter what you do, it hurts really, really badly. I just happened to have it happen to me before dying once, and since it changed my spirit, all my physical incarnations were affected from then on. It was mostly by sheer coincidence that I gained the sight. Anyway, it does have some drawbacks. It¡¯s not all-powerful, nor is it anywhere near invincible. In fact, in most of the cases where such an ability would be welcome, it¡¯s completely useless. Like, there¡¯s the fact that it can¡¯t be used to judge a person¡¯s level of power, or any weaknesses they might have, if that person is even a little bit stronger than me. Nor can I use it to analyze the composition of a spell in order to replicate it on sight. That¡¯s a little too inhuman. I mean, I can see the underlying structure of said spell, but that almost never does me any good. I have to understand it as well. Just like how a middle-school student will never understand calculus just by looking at an isolated equation, I won¡¯t know how the spell works, because I never studied it¡¯s theory. This is especially true of huge and complex spells, since those involve so many moving parts, in terms of what you are doing with your mana pool¡¯s power. In fact, it¡¯s much easier to use the sight on inanimate objects which contain mana. I can access the basic features such an object would have, and how much power that object holds. I use it all the time while smithing, in order to optimize the placement of my mana circuits. In my opinion, the sight is actually most useful in the hands of a craftsman, rather than a warrior. However, if I use it for too long, I get a bad headache from mental fatigue. Similarly, the headache comes faster if an object holds a lot of power, and it becomes harder to make out it¡¯s composition. So, where am I going with all this? To put it simply, as soon as I saw the orb sitting on it¡¯s pedestal, I activated my sight. I was curious as to it¡¯s function, and how much power it would hold, to be deemed the ¡®most important invention¡¯ that Joan would show me today. What I saw, only baffled me more. Those lines woven into the orb like so many infinitesimally small spider webs, those were all mana circuits, weren¡¯t they? But, I¡¯ve never seen mana circuits so thin, and so densely packed. As soon as I try to get my mana circuits thinner, they break, unable to handle the power of my mana pool squeezing through them. And, if I put them closer together, they tend to interfere with each other. I gazed upon this seemingly impossible orb, knowing that I was only in disbelief since I didn¡¯t have the knowledge of how it was made. ¡°What is it?¡± I asked. ¡°I call it Iris. We only ever built one, since even the fact that it¡¯s the only of its type in existence is a scary and sobering thought. As for what it does, let me ask you a question.¡± Said Joan. ¡°In your opinion, what is the most vital thing for a kingdom to have?¡± The most vital, huh? I can¡¯t claim to know much about statesmanship, but given my education on Earth, and all that I¡¯ve experienced, I should be able to take a good crack at the question. ¡°Would it be people? Capable people, able to support the kingdom, and allow it to prosper?¡± It was the best answer I could give. Fundamentally, I knew I was right, but I also got the feeling that it wasn¡¯t what Joan was thinking. ¡°Mhh¡ªIt¡¯s not a bad guess. In fact, I think that most of the people in charge here would agree with you. And, good people are certainly needed for a country to exist. However, there is something even more important. Do you remember the people who we had had breakfast with? What most of them did for their career?¡± ¡°Ah. Most of them were involved in intelligence, right? They headed the divisions in charge of scouting, spying, or observing.¡± ¡°Right. The most powerful tools a country can have, involve information. A folder full of incriminating data will do more harm to an enemy than an army, most times.¡± ¡°So, what does Iris have to do with information?¡± My curiosity had been well and truly peaked at this point, and I dearly wanted to learn what sort of abilities that orb held. ¡°It¡¯s simple, really. Iris acts like a status plate, for anyone.¡± ¡°Huh?¡± Joan smiled, anticipating my confusion. ¡°Here, let¡¯s do a little demonstration, shall we?¡± Joan walked over to the orb, Iris, and placed her hand on it. Instantly, mana poured from her, into Iris. Then, that mana went¡­elsewhere? It seemingly disappeared, there one moment, then it collected at the center of the orb, and gave off a quick and intense burst of power. It was gone after that. I took my eyes off the orb, and looked at Joan, confused. Is it broken or something? Joan, however, was still watching the orb intently. I was about to ask her what the orb was supposed to do, when I felt her mana reappear inside the orb. The mana flowed through those impossibly thin circuits, and materialized outside of the orb in the form of a glowing blue window full of familiar information.
Advanced Status:
Name: Katariah Nadine Silver
Titles:
PenitentCalamity of Thunder~Error~ Title not FoundImmortal
Race: High Demon / Royal ElfAge: 14Gender: Female
Main Class: Demon LordSub Class(es): Spell-Sword Saint
Level: 179
Health: 10086Mana: 509708
Strength: 1696Stamina: 1534Dexterity: 1788
Intelligence: 2478Wisdom: 2026Luck: ~Error~
Total Reincarnations: 8
Reincarnations Remembered: 7
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Mental Age: 309 years (True Spiritual Age: 1453 Years)
Likes:Dislikes:
CheeseHeat
SwordsStudying
If you come across this story on Amazon, it''s taken without permission from the author. Report it.
True Name: ~Error~
Subject had a basic sense of morality, and prefers to do that which would further it¡¯s own goals. Occasionally helps others, based on karmic cycle. Has never had a significant other. ~Error~. Remaining relevant information locked. Seek out Overgod of Knowledge to assess higher information plane.
I glanced over the blue window, and immediately paled. I turned to the others sharply, and yelled. ¡°No, don¡¯t look, shut that thing down!¡± Joan chuckled. ¡°It¡¯s just a little demonstration.¡± She said The other two people in the room, Anhara and Bea, looked confused. ¡°What demonstration? I cannot see anything, Madam Overseer.¡± Said Bea, in a questioning but respectful tone. ¡°Oh, it¡¯s something that only Kai can see. I wanted to demonstrate the potential Iris has, and I could think of no better way then to show Kai her own status.¡± ¡°But¡­How?¡± I asked. And, even with this vague question, Joan understood what I wanted. ¡°Well, Iris is my greatest achievement. It reaches into the spirit realm, and gains access to the World System that houses all people¡¯s statuses. Then, it displays that status to Iris¡¯s operator, or someone of the operator¡¯s choosing. Since I transferred the status display over to you, nobody else can see it. That way, your true name stays safe, as well as any...sensitive information.¡± I sighed a breath of relief. Now armed with the knowledge that only I could see the floating blue window, I read the whole thing more carefully, and quickly noticed a few things. Firstly, this wasn¡¯t a simple status plate, but a so-called ¡®Advanced Status¡¯. I have no idea what that might entail, besides the fact that there seems to be more information here, then on a normal status plate. For instance, my regular status plate only states that I am a Demon and Elf hybrid, but here, it says that I am a Greater Demon and Royal Elf one. What the difference? Then, oddly enough, there were a few things missing from this status window, that I can see on my status plate, like my last title, or the value of my luck. There was one thing which was bugging me, though. ¡°Uh, Joan?¡± ¡°Yes? Is there something that you don¡¯t understand?¡± ¡°Yeah. What¡¯s a ¡®True Name¡¯?¡± I asked. ¡°You mentioned it earlier, and it¡¯s on the status¡ª¡± Sort of. ¡°¡ªso I was wondering what it might be.¡± Joan cast an inquisitive gaze upon me. ¡°How old are you, girl? I thought for sure that you would have heard about true names by now.¡± ¡°I¡¯m fourteen now. Totaling all my lives together, I should be around one hundred or so, maybe closer to one hundred and fifty.¡± Joan looked at me with astonishment. ¡°Wow. You¡¯re a hell of a lot younger than I would have thought you to be.¡± She said. I shrugged. I didn¡¯t know what to think anymore, when it came to my age. The status floating in front of me has some interesting information pertaining to that. I mean, my spiritual age is 1453 years old? Where does that come from? ¡°Well, a true name is basically the root of a person. It¡¯s the thing that houses the core of your being, and reflects your heart. If you learn the true name of another person, you would understand their personality on a very deep level, and know how they might act in different situations.¡± ¡°So, it¡¯s a big deal?¡± ¡°Yes, it is. And, with Iris, I can find out anyone¡¯s true name fairly quickly. This is what has led our nation to prosper so much, since I can intuit the moves and motives of others through their true names.¡± Huh. I would have thought that you would be able to take control of someone else through his or her true name. Though, just the fact that you can plan ahead while having a reasonable certainty that everyone would move in the way that you expect is a powerful tool in it¡¯s own right. Though, I wonder what it means, that my true name doesn¡¯t show up on Iris¡¯s display. Joan noticed my pondering look, but misinterpreted it. ¡°There¡¯s no need to worry. I won¡¯t look up your true name, nor will I open you status without explicit permission.¡± I looked up, while Joan continued. ¡°Besides, there was that clause in the contract, that I wouldn¡¯t pursue any information about you. I would much rather learn about what sort of person you are, from yourself.¡± ¡°Wow. That¡¯s awfully nice of you.¡± ¡°It¡¯s no big deal. I just happen to enjoy cute things, and you¡­Hehe.¡± Uh oh. What was that grin, Joan? Don¡¯t tell me¡­ ¡°Eh-hem. Anyway. Feel free to ask anything. I¡¯m sure you have other questions about Iris, right?¡± No¡ªthat smile happened, right? Holy gods, she regained her composure fast. I also caught the barest look of disappointment from her daughter, Anhara. It was directed toward Joan, not me. What have I gotten myself into now? Ugh. Never mind. I¡¯ll deal with it when it comes. For now, I¡¯ll take up Joan¡¯s offer as far as questions are concerned. ¡°How did you make it? Why does it work?¡± ¡°Well, that¡¯s a complicated question. To be specific, I didn¡¯t make it. I grew it.¡± Apparently, Iris isn¡¯t metal, it¡¯s a crystal that was artificially grown by Joan when she placed her mana into it. She was able to shape it to her specifications, and control the flow of power through it. Unlike me, who has to shape mana circuits into metal, she had been able to make them naturally. Unfortunately, this sort of work wouldn¡¯t work for a sword, since the crystal wouldn¡¯t be able to hold a good cutting edge, and it would break at the first sign of contact. I was slightly mollified later, when we left the room with Iris in it, and began looking at the rest of the inventions housed so deep below the earth here. Chapter 64: The Flower Garden I didn¡¯t sleep easily that night, due to the thoughts swirling around my head. For one, I had seen so many innovations beneath the palace today, and they had given me a few ideas as to how I could improve my own smithing. However, the other contributing factor to my sleeplessness could be attributed to the age-old adage, that too much knowledge can be a bad thing. It¡¯s kinda hard to sleep easily, knowing that there are a few thermo-nuclear devices under the palace. I really could have gone without knowing about those. But no, Joan just had to show them off. Well, since I couldn¡¯t sleep, I decided that my time would be better spent meditating. I could work on my mana pool, as well as think about what I would be able do with all the new things I had learned today. Most of what I had seen underground was made using principles from Earth, and combining them with magic. I¡¯ve been doing something similar so far, with the mana circuits. However, what I saw down there went beyond what I thought possible. It made my attempts at blacksmithing look like a child tinkering with a tower of uneven blocks. I remembered Iris the most vividly though; if only because of the panic it brought when I thought that everyone could see my status. But, even more than that, I thought about the implications something Like Iris has, as well as the Advanced Status it had shown me. The mere fact that someone had even been able to hack into the World System, left me reeling with the implications of it all. The System wasn¡¯t perfect, nor impenetrable. I had thought that the only way to see someone else¡¯s status was to use a skill. And, even that wasn¡¯t ideal. For instance, my [Analyze] was maxed out a far as it¡¯s abilities were concerned. However, I¡¯ve had to give up on using it, since so many of the people I¡¯ve encountered lately would know that I had tried to use it on them. I had learned from Niten that when there was a great disparity in levels, or if the person you tried to use it on had a higher ranked skill, [Analyze] would actually do more harm than good. So, I¡¯ve had to stop using it, for fear that I would encounter someone who didn¡¯t take kindly to the intrusion. The flip side of this, though, is that I¡¯ve gotten very good at approximating a person¡¯s level of power from the aura they leak. Anyway, my point is that Iris is a completely unfair, and stunning invention. For the sakes of the gods, it can pull a person¡¯s true name seemingly out of it¡¯s ass! It also somewhat confirmed a thought that I¡¯d had a while back. It had been a simple question I had, one that had stuck with me a little, just like a little thorn in my heart. ¡®What if everything around us is artificial?¡¯ Of course, I¡¯m not talking about cities, or things shaped by the hands of sentient beings. I¡¯m talking about the planets themselves. The flow of mana. The World System. I¡¯d be willing to bet that some powerful but lazy gods decided to simply create a workable ecosystem on a previously desolate rock, and made the most basic of lifeforms, before simply letting them evolve into what we are today. Actually, no. All they would have to do would be to drag an appropriately sized rock within that golden belt of life, and watch as things moved on. I don¡¯t doubt that that¡¯s how most inhabitable planets start out. In fact, I¡¯m sure that¡¯s what happens. No, what always baffled me was the World System. The people native to these worlds seem to not question it, since it¡¯s always been there. They completely take it for granted, and can¡¯t comprehend a world without one. And, as someone who had lived in one of those System-less planets, I know that it¡¯s more than a little unnatural. And, I can¡¯t help but look to those same meddlesome gods as it¡¯s origins. Or so I thought, but would they really create a hack-able system? You would think that they would patch up an oversight like that. But, maybe it was intentional? Ugh. I¡¯ll never understand these things, unless I have the good grace to come within spitting distance of a powerful god, who may know about the underpinnings of the universe. Well, until that incredibly lucky set of circumstances happens, I¡¯ll just push all this to the back of my mind again. Besides, I had other things to think about.
In the morning, Bea came by to check on me, and to take me around the palace so that I would gain a greater understanding of how it is laid out. ¡°Is there anything in particular you would like to see today, Kai?¡± ¡°Not really¡ªNo, wait. Do you guys have a forge nearby? I¡¯ve been wanting to see the place that¡¯s able to produce such high-level steel.¡± Bea laughed. ¡°Indeed we do.¡± She paused for a second, ¡°Wait, is that your hobby or something? Smithing?¡± I nodded my head somewhat hesitantly. ¡°Huh. Who would have thought it?¡± ¡°Hey! What do you mean by that?¡± Bea smirked, and made a motion like ¡®look at yourself¡¯. ¡°You don¡¯t exactly fit the image of a typical blacksmith, since you look like a cute prepubescent girl.¡± I gasped. ¡°How rude! I¡¯ll have you know that¡­¡± I trailed off, suddenly aware of the profound embarrassment that awaited me at the end of that sentence. ¡°What would you have me know, Kai? Please continue¡ªI have a feeling that it would have been entertaining.¡± I grumbled a little under my breath, muttering rather foul words in at least eight different languages. Bea must have heard me, since she started snickering. Though, I¡¯m sure she didn¡¯t know what I had been saying, since there was the whole language barrier thing in the way again. Even with all the unjustified harassment, I was glad Bea could take me to a smithy. I¡¯ve been dying to figure out how advanced the metallurgy here is, as well as what sorts of weapons I could make with all that I would learn. We ventured along several winding corridors, before emerging from inside the palace to a outside garden filled with pretty flowers and well trimmed bushes. ¡°Uh¡ªforgive me for pointing this out, but I asked about a smithy, not a flower garden.¡± I said jokingly. She responded in kind, though. ¡°Oh, but I felt that a cranky little maiden like you would have their countenance greatly improved with the addition of a flower or two.¡± She said, grinning widely, with malevolent undertones. Stolen story; please report. Before I could even register movement, there was a blur of wind, and I felt something settle into my hair. Disbelievingly, I reached up and felt the crown of flowers that had been intertwined into my hair without me even seeing it happen. Bea was standing in the same place, that same grin on her face. I gaped at her, stunned. ¡°What? Is the little maiden surprised at the generosity displayed by the great me? Or has your countenance so improved with the flowers, that you would be quiet and meek like a little mouse?¡± ¡°No¡­I was just thinking that you would be a good sparring partner for later.¡± I said curtly. I also decided to refrain from commenting on the ¡®little maiden¡¯ stuff. That would just give Bea more cannon fodder. ¡°Sparring partner? I think it would be better if you looked for someone of your own strength.¡± She said. ¡°It¡¯s my personal opinion that the best sparring partners are usually stronger than me, since I can gradually reach their strength through practice.¡± Bea didn¡¯t look convinced, and I sighed. ¡°Fine then. How about you gather a group of people about my level, and I show you what I mean later.¡± Bea looked at me critically. ¡°All right then. What level are you, so that I might be able to look for others with your degree of strength?¡± ¡°About one-eighty. Though, I would look for people around level two-hundred.¡± ¡°Okay then, if you say so.¡± ¡°Now then, where¡¯s that smithy?¡± ¡°Ah, right. Follow me, it¡¯s this way.¡± She said, pointing to an area past the flower garden. Ah, so there was a reason to go through the garden. I¡¯d been half convinced that Bea had brought me here just to get a kick from it. We followed a small pathway which ambled it¡¯s way through the garden, before spitting us out near a set of buildings. One of them seemed like a large and heavily fortified warehouse, without any windows, and with guards set outside of it. Bea pointed to it. ¡°That¡¯s the palace armory. If you need a good set of armor, or some weapons, I¡¯d recommend you visit it. Just drop Lady Joan¡¯s name, and the guards should let you in.¡± Then, she pointed to a large amphitheater-like place, with a large expanse of sand covering the bottom of it, and a few tiers of seating spread around it. It was large enough to hold a dozen divisions from the military all at once, and there were currently a bunch of guards training there. ¡°That¡¯s the palace¡¯s sparring grounds, where most of the guards are trained, as well as any person in the palace, if they are so inclined.¡± She didn¡¯t even have to point at the last building, for I knew what it was even without an introduction. ¡°And the last building is the palace¡¯s forge. I think I¡¯ll save an explanation for the blacksmiths.¡± We walked to said building, which had smoke pouring from several chimneys set into its roof, and the scarlet glimmer of fire between the posts holding up the roof. I could hear the tinny sound of metal hitting metal, and smell the wood and charcoal burning. I didn¡¯t really realize that I missed smithing, until seeing this forge. I hadn¡¯t had the time, nor the space to do it during the summit, and the ordeal I went through in the woods forced it from my mind. Now though, the need to hammer out my emotions, to shape metal, hit me viscerally. It was something that I had gotten used to using as a stress relief method for a while now. Sort of like how some people needed to read, write, paint, train, or even just meditate, creating blades calmed frayed nerves or even just helped me to think. We entered the smithy, and my eyes were immediately drawn to the Beastmen working the billows, and the skinny looking lad handling the hammer and metal. I thought it a bit odd that he didn¡¯t fit the typical blacksmith image, but then again, neither did I. And, I called him lad, because he looked young, no older than eighteen. Maybe he¡¯s one of those mana users that simply don¡¯t age? There are a few like that, who inhabit the bodies of young people, even after a millennia had passed for them. Then, there are those that just seem to become old, and stay that way far, far past the point they should have died. Anyway he handled the hammer with delicate skill, hitting the glowing bar of metal set atop the anvil with quick and precise strokes. The two other men would then bring the metal back under the coals, to reheat it while pumping the billows and sending a cascade of sparks into the air. They were all so absorbed in their work, that they didn¡¯t even notice me walk right up to them, until the metal had gone back into the fire. Looking up, the boy startled, nearly dropping the hammer. He started speaking angrily, but not in a language I could understand. Bea stepped forward, and started speaking to the boy, attempting to calm him down, while I side-stepped him, to look at the hunk of metal they had just placed into the forge fire. It was glowing a dull red, but growing brighter the longer it was in there. I couldn¡¯t really tell what sort of metal it was, while it was glowing. I began looking around the shop, checking out some of the halfway finished blades laying around everywhere. They were well crafted, that much was immediately evident. I still couldn¡¯t figure out what metal was being used to make them, though. It had a sheen like silver, but gave off a ringing note when I tapped the blade. I could see little ripples in the blade, evidently where the metal had been folded several times. I turned to Bea, who was still arguing with the boy about something. ¡°Hey Bea, do you know what metal these blades are made of? It¡¯s like nothing I¡¯ve yet seen.¡± Bea came over to where I was, and the boy followed her, still speaking angrily. ¡°Ah, that¡¯s a special type of metal only used by the palace, called Tunnel Iron.¡± Curious, I picked up one of the unfinished blades, and lightly slashed it through the air. I was shocked, when it seemed to cut the space in front of me, with the blade leaving a clean black void in it¡¯s wake. The cut in the air faded after a few moments, but my astonishment didn¡¯t.
Author''s Note: The flight just about killed me, but I''m mostly moved into my dorm room now. I''ll see how things work out tomorrow, and maybe put another chapter out. Chapter 65: The Unfinished Sword ¡°What the hell was that?¡± I asked after recovering enough to ask about the black line that seemed to follow behind the sword I had casually picked up. It had looked like the sword was cutting through space, but that was impossible, right? But then, what was that void which followed in it¡¯s wake? However, after I asked that question, Bea only looked confused. ¡°What are you talking about? You swung the sword.¡± ¡°No, the black thing that trailed after the sword.¡± ¡°Black thing? Oh, wait¡ªAre you one of those people who are extremely sensitive to mana?¡± Not knowing where this was going, I nodded. ¡°Yeah, I am¡ªBut what does that have to do with the¡­¡± Bea held up a finger, forestalling my next words. ¡°I said that the metals name is Tunnel Iron, right?¡± Again, I nodded. ¡°Well, Tunnel Iron has a few unique properties. The first of which, is that it repels mana in all forms. It¡¯s used to break through mage wards, and can also be used to cut through spells themselves.¡± I pondered that for a moment. Ah, so that¡¯s what it was. I was so curious about the sword, and the metal it had been made of, that I had activated my sight when looking at it. That black line was the result of the blade pushing away mana from its edge, which registered to my sight as a void, since there wasn¡¯t any mana in that space. Bea continued explaining the metal to me, and I listened with rapt attention. ¡°On top of its ability to repel mana, it can also be used as a devastating poison, since the person would be unable to use mana after it¡¯s ingested. The only problem is, that Tunnel Iron is fairly rare, and also isn¡¯t the best material to make swords out of.¡± She said, shooting a glance towards the young blacksmith, who was still simmering angrily behind Bea. What did they say to each other, to get this riled up? ¡°What do you mean, it isn¡¯t the best material?¡± ¡°Even though this iron has the ability to repel mana, a half-way decent suit of armor would be able to stop it. And, it¡¯s still iron, after all. It doesn¡¯t have the strength or flexibility of steel.¡± ¡°But, what if you use Tunnel iron to make steel? Wouldn¡¯t that solve the issue?¡± Bea seemed at a loss for words with my comment, and turned to the boy, presumably asking him the same question. He looked at me, surprised. He forgot his anger towards Bea and I for a moment, and rattled of a quick answer. ¡°He says that the process of turning the iron to steel negates the special properties of the metal.¡± Bea translated. ¡°Can you ask him why the metal was folded together? Was there a reason to do this, beyond style?¡± Bea nodded, and again translated my question to the boy. He nodded after she had finished, and Bea translated his response. ¡°Tunnel iron is normally found in extremely small ore veins, and tends to flake when mined. To smith the Tunnel iron into a sword, it needs to be consolidated into a billet first, and then it¡¯s folded a few times to cement the various bits of iron together.¡± I nodded, understanding why he had done that. I walked around the shop, with Bea and the boy following me. I didn¡¯t see any other blades made of Tunnel iron, but that didn¡¯t mean that they didn¡¯t exist. There were, however, quite a few swords made from high quality steel. These were spread around the room, in various states of completion. I picked one up, and was happy to see the quality it held. While the forging techniques used to make the swords were nothing special, the quality of the steel they were made of was impeccable. Seeing this made me a very happy person, since I had been using lots of lower quality steel on the continents. They hadn¡¯t had a sufficient level of technology, to support the making of higher quality metals. Their steel had been but a single step above that of normal iron. Here though, I could tell that the steel was approaching the quality of that which had been on Earth¡ªThe most developed world I¡¯d been to so far. It was a little terrifying, thinking about the blades I could make using such good steel. And this was before even considering the special metals that must be here, like the Tunnel iron. I didn¡¯t think for one second that the Tunnel iron had been the full extent of their rare metals. There were more, with various abilities and strengths, I just knew it. And, the thought of a blade made from these materials nearly had me laughing madly¡ªNearly. I didn¡¯t laugh, but I did accidently let out an evil sounding chuckle that had both the boy and Bea looking at me oddly. ¡°Is something wrong?¡± asked Bea. I shook my head. ¡°No. I¡¯m just looking forward to something. By the way, who¡¯s the boy that keeps following us around angrily? I¡¯ve been wondering that for a while now.¡± ¡°Ah, Freid? He¡¯s the forgemaster.¡± ¡°Oh, he¡¯s one of those that don¡¯t age? Interesting.¡± ¡°Not exactly. Apparently, when he was young, he had an encounter that got him immortality, and halted his aging process. Since then, he¡¯s never changed.¡± ¡°How long ago was this?¡± ¡°Dunno¡ªmaybe a few hundred years ago? Anyway, he was the son of a blacksmith, and determined to spend his eternity crafting weapons of the highest quality. Of course, he¡¯s nowhere near the level of craftsmanship he wishes to obtain. Oh, and in case you hadn¡¯t yet figured it out, he¡¯s a little angry that we had ¡®barged in on him, interrupting his work.¡± ¡°I thought that had been what had happened. Then, can you tell him that he¡¯ll have to put up with me intruding for a while longer? I would like to use some of his steel.¡± ¡°Oh boy, he¡¯s not going to be happy about that.¡± Said Bea, while smiling. She translated, and Freid got even angrier, as expected. However, he made no move to block me. His was the sort of anger that seemed habitual, like that of a cranky old man¡¯s. In other word, he wouldn¡¯t stop me, but he ¡ªwould¡ª glare at me the entire time that I stayed here, letting me and everyone else know of his displeasure. Not harmful, but annoying. This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere. I picked up a few nice looking bars of steel, and set them side by side, comparing the inherent qualities of them all. Generally speaking, the darker steels were softer and more flexible than the ones with the lighter tones, which were more brittle, but better at holding an edge. The key to making a good blade was to find a balance between the two, a steel which would hold a good edge, but still be flexible enough to withstand heavy impacts as well as the wear and tear of use. There were a few good-sized bars of steel like that, which would make my visit here quicker and easier. You see, while it is possible to make a blade more or less brittle after it had been forged by a process of tempering, this would take more time than simply forging out a blade from already ideal steel. Even better, one of the ideal bars of steel was just big enough to allow me to forge a decently sized sword. I wouldn¡¯t have to weld together several different bars, which would also take time. I smiled, and not caring to explain what I was doing, I walked over to the forge, sticking the bar of iron into it. I was in a good mood, and decided to refrain from heating the metal via my mana. I would do this without magic. Well, mostly. As the steel started to glow lightly, brightening to a sharp orange color, I pulled it out of the forge, and delicately dropped it onto a nearby anvil. Grabbing the nearest hammer, I started hitting the metal, and watched as little sparks flew from the impact area. They were like little comets flying from the crude bar of metal, providing brief illumination of the surrounding area. As I worked, the world around me faded, until all that was left were the sparks, the metal resting on the anvil, and the hammer ringing out it¡¯s merry tune. With the strength that is mine, the metal bar quickly gave up it¡¯s crude form, flattening out, and lengthening into what looked more and more like a sword. I began laying delicate little mana circuits into the blade, trying to make them as thin and durable as possible, seeking to emulate Iris¡¯s impossible circuitry. While it was easy to forge out this sword, the mental component quickly wore me out, what with all the precise circuitry I was putting into it. In fact, my mind went on some kind of auto-pilot when doing things like beveling the blade, drawing out the tang, and working the point into the tip of the sword. Before I could even realize what had happened, I had a nearly finished sword in my hands. It would only need a handle, hilt, and some sharpening, and it would be fit for battle. I noticed that Bea and Freid were both looking at me, Bea with astonishment, and Fried with appreciation. I selectively ignored them then, deciding instead to inspect the finished product in front of me. The blade at least looked fairly normal on the surface, like a standard longsword. The only thing that seemed to stand out, was the material it had been made of. There was so much lurking beneath the surface of it, though. I inspected the mana circuits inside the sword, wondering if they would really do what I wanted them to. Even with how complex these one¡¯s were, the sword was only intended to have a single function. Sure, that function should make the sword completely overpowered, but only if it worked. Well then, moment of truth here. I channeled a bit of mana through the sword, observing it¡¯s reaction. Knowing that the sword¡¯s function was activated through movement, I swung it lightly. ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Huh. Well. Something went wrong there. I turned back towards the others, and noticed that Bea now seemed confused, and Freid looked astonished. ¡°Ah, Kai? Was the sword meant to do that?¡± Asked Bea while looking at the slender, sword shaped hole in the ground. Yep, a failure. I must have forgotten a few circuits, which caused the sword to continue it¡¯s downward swing, even without me. Deep below us, I felt a muffled boom, and the ground shook slightly. Ah well. At least nobody got hurt, right? Wait. Isn¡¯t there a large bunker full of questionable materials and inventions under the¡­. Crap. Paling slightly, I looked Bea straight in her eyes. ¡°Not a word about this, to anyone, understand?¡± Bea nodded quickly, while Freid started speaking excitably. I, of course, still had no idea what he was saying, so Bea forgot her confusion for a moment in order to translate for me. ¡°Uh, he¡¯s wondering where you had learned the skills of a master craftsman? Something about cur-cuit-ry?¡± Oh? So the people here are at least marginally aware of mana circuits? I knew that Joan could make them¡ªIris was a masterpiece after all, but I didn¡¯t think that others would have the knowledge to. ¡°Can you ask him what he means by circuitry? I want to see if it¡¯s what I¡¯m thinking of.¡± Bea and Freid talked for a few minutes, with Freid imparting what seemed to be some fairly heavy information. Finally, Bea translated it all for me in one big info dump. ¡°All the top craftsman are able to use something called a circuit to impart abilities to their creations. The abilities are limited by only the imagination and knowledge of the craftsman. Apparently, the technique to use them is only passed down from the most skilled craftsman in a certain discipline, like the most skilled carpenter, or the most competent blacksmith. In this generation, Freid is the best blacksmith, so he¡¯s the one that would be passing down the technique. However, he doesn¡¯t know you. Never even heard of you before, in fact. I think he wants to know why you are able to use the circuits, and where you came from.¡± I thought for a moment, before answering. ¡°Tell Freid that I¡¯m from a place far away, and came here due to a magical accident. And, I found out about the mana circuits through my own efforts.¡± Hey, it¡¯s not even a lie!
Author''s Note: Never underestimate Murphy''s Law. Never. It will find you, and screw with your week. Chapter 66: The Random Encounter Admittedly, It¡¯s fairly hard to have a good conversation with someone through an intermediary, like a translator. However, Freid was trying his hardest to talk with me, mostly due to his own curiosity towards my smithing skills. After the third or fourth round of questioning, though, I had resolved to learn the local language. It was much too cumbersome to rely on Bea, and have her translate every question Freid had¡ªAnd there were a lot of them. In addition, I could see Bea becoming more and more annoyed with his seemly endless range of questions, from things like my birthplace, my parents, and my race, to other things like my level, the food I ate the most of, and the infrastructure of the Continents. I easily spent a few hours answering his questions, but it felt like a period of time three times as long had passed. And, even worse, there was no indication that he would be slowing down any time soon. Eventually, Bea and I had to conspire together, and make a valid excuse in order to escape. And thus, we ended up in the palace¡¯s library, just a little late for my slightly less than real tutoring session. ¡°How many books are here?¡± I asked, slightly in awe of the library. Coming from Earth originally, a simple library wouldn¡¯t normally be enough to impress me. In fact, I could go to one of the libraries located in a big city, and find three times as many books there. However, it wouldn¡¯t necessarily have the same charm this library does, with it¡¯s long stacks of finely carved wooden shelves, and leather bound books discolored by age and use. It wouldn¡¯t have the soft light streaming in through dusty windows and sputtering mana lights set in key locations, or that musty old-book smell. Besides, I remember that books were going out of fashion on Earth, with the advent of portable handheld devices able to hold entire genres in their memories. Though, most weren¡¯t reading books anyway, preferring to watch TV, or use the internet. However, there was no such thing here. People could only rely on books for research, unless they wanted to learn via word of mouth. Thus, a library would be a haven for anyone thus inclined. This one seems curiously empty of people, though. There weren¡¯t any signs that there was another person in the library besides Bea and I, an odd thing for a library so well kept, and in the middle of the palace. I had imagined that there would at least be some scholars frequenting the tables set up inside, but there was nobody, and I couldn¡¯t see any signs that there was a librarian either. ¡°It¡¯s so empty here¡­¡± I said aloud. Bea heard me, and shook her head sadly. ¡°It¡¯s the royal library. Those who want to come here are not allowed to, and the ones that are, do not hold any love for books.¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked, somewhat confused by what Bea had said. ¡°Simply, that you need a seal of approval from the royal family to enter this place. However, because of some of the books here, the royal family scarcely hands them out.¡± ¡°Then, why am I here? I don¡¯t have a seal of approval.¡± ¡°No¡ªyou have something better. After all, Joan let you stay in the palace.¡± ¡°Oh¡ªHer authority supersedes that of the royal family¡¯s? How does that work?¡± Bea smiled conspiratorially, and spoke in a soft whisper almost mockingly. ¡°It¡¯s well known that if Joan wanted to rule, she would be. But no¡ªdue to laziness, she placed another family on the throne, and let them manage the day to day business.¡± ¡°So, as long as I stay with Joan, I can do whatever I want?¡± ¡°Technically, yes. Though, I¡¯d advise that you keep from upsetting the nobles or the royal family, since things could get a little troublesome.¡± ¡°But, entering the library is fine?¡± ¡°Yeah. Nobody should care enough to do anything about it.¡± ¡°Then, I guess I should start studying. It would be a shame if I couldn¡¯t converse with people by myself.¡± Bea nodded. ¡°Are you sure that you don¡¯t need any lessons from me? It¡¯s much easier to learn a language with someone guiding you, after all.¡± I shook my head, reaffirming that I wouldn¡¯t need her help in this. I got a feeling for the spoken aspect of the language from Freid, and his endless questions. To most, just hearing a language for a few hours, then having gotten a grasp of it¡¯s basic sounds and structure seems completely impossible. I¡¯m sure that most have realized that I¡¯m not normal by now, and as such, shouldn¡¯t try to apply such paltry common sense to me. It should only take me a few weeks to master speaking, and even less time to understand writing. After all, anything needed to learn how to read is here, in this library full of books. So, I picked one of the thinnest books I could find, immediately recognizing it as one intended for children. Inside it, crude drawings of various animals and objects were sketched out, with graceful looking words written underneath. It kind of reminded me of Arabic, a language spoken back on Earth, but greatly simplified. All the letters were connected in a flowing script that was easy to understand once you knew what you were looking at. For instance, there was a word set before the subject of the picture, which I recognized as this language¡¯s equivalent for ¡®the¡¯. And, going by what I had heard from Freid, I knew how the word should sound. It was through cross-referencing like this, that I gained a basic knowledge of the language¡¯s alphabet, and what sorts of sounds the letters are able to make as well as when they are made. In other words, I now have the fundamental basics for the language¡¯s grammar. Now, I just need to practice in order to learn more vocabulary, and grammar rules. And to do that, I need to read more, and listen to others speak. Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences. All in all, I spent around five hours in the library, coming out just in time for dinner. In fact, I ran straight into Bea, who had left halfway through my little study session, complaining about how boring it was. She was returning to tell me about the dinner when I turned the corner outside the library, nearly knocking her over as she did the same. ¡°Ah, are you hungry, Kai? If you want, there¡¯s a dinner set up at the same place we had breakfast with Joan and the War Council.¡± ¡°Yeah, that would be great. Though, am I able to take books out from the library?¡± ¡°Of course. Just, try to put them back, would you?¡± ¡°Sure. Now then, you said something about dinner?¡±
The food was good, and I got to listen to some more of the native language here. Like Bea had said, the people at the dinner were the same ones that had been at the breakfast¡ªThe War Council, she called them. Considering that all of them held significant positions in the military, it made sense. I learned that there was a second War Council, though. However, that one was the royal family¡¯s War Council, and was mostly filled with those generals and nobles who didn¡¯t had the ability to join Joan¡¯s Council¡ªWhere all the real power was. In fact, I learned that the whole palace was nearly divided in half, not metaphorically, but literally. Half the palace grounds were dominated by Joan, and whoever she enjoyed having near her, like me, and her War Council. The other half were for the Royal family, and they used it for audiences, feasts, and living quarters. It explained why the palace felt so empty to me, since this half was largely uninhabited and unused. Apparently, I would know if I had accidently wandered into the Royal half of the palace, since there were people and guards everywhere, while Joan¡¯s half was fairly barren and empty. I asked at one point why there weren¡¯t any guards in this half of the palace, even though there were on the other. I mean, wouldn¡¯t it be easy for an intruder to enter the palace on our side, and go from there to the other half? Joan just laughed at that. ¡°Well, first, they would have to escape detection from all of us here at this table¡ªand even in the extremely unlikely event that they pull that off, the Royal guards are no fools. They would catch someone suspicious fairly quickly, no matter where they had come from.¡± After understanding this, I found it silly to have even considered my question in the first place. Though, most of the people at the table seemed pleased and proud when Joan had stated that it would be difficult to get by them. It gave me the impression of a bunch of children becoming happy that they had been praised by their parent. After the dinner, I went with Bea to the bath again, and came out feeling relaxed and fresh. The large bath felt very empty with only the two of us in it, but was still satisfying. After leaving the bath, I changed into a simple one-piece dress. It seemed like the curse that had befallen my during the Summit followed me here, keeping me from my comfortable pants and shirts. That is to say, the only things that the maids here claimed to have in my size were dresses. I could always wear the clothing I had found on Ascension Island, but those were currently in my room. Except the boots. Those were now taking the guise of shoes matching the dress. After all, they were the most comfortable shoes I¡¯ve ever had. As we left the bathing room, Bea asked if I would be able to find my way back to my room. Of course, I said yes. We went our separate ways, and I forgot about something rather fundamental. That is, was I supposed to turn right or left from the bathing room? Ah. I¡¯m completely lost, aren¡¯t I? Well, I¡¯ll find my room eventually. I hope. Though, these corridors look a little familiar now. Maybe I¡¯m getting closer? No, I must have taken a wrong turn somewhere back there, since everything now looks totally foreign. I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve been to this part of the palace yet. In fact, I was furiously thinking about how I would get back to my room, when I seemed to collide with another person. Wait, I say collide, but that would imply that both sides took damage. No, I stayed were I was, like I was hit by a small breeze, while the unfortunate kid that ran into me fell backwards, arms wind-milling through the air in a poorly conceived attempt to regain balance. It became clear that it hadn¡¯t worked when the boy fell on his bottom, and glared at me angrily from the floor. ¡°How dare you!¡±
Author''s Note: Sorry it''s short, but I''ve been busy with a few things now that my life has settled down. Firstly and foremost, I would like to speak about the nature of this story. That is, I''ve made it up as I went. I never really planned beyond the point where Kai gets forcibly transported outside the continents. I knew that it would happen, but not how I would get there, nor what would go on afterwards. That''s part of the reason I''ve slowed down a little, since I need to get a grasp of where I''m going with all this. I don''t want to disappoint anyone with a subpar story, after all. So, for those who might have been fearing it a little, no. I am not dropping this story anytime soon. It will reach an ending, though, sometime in the distant future. Before that, though, the other reason the releases have slowed down, is that I''m working on a second story. Yeah, that''s right. And, it will be much, much better quality than this one is. With a better storyline, as well. Just think of Divine Bladesmith as my warm-up. I''ll let you guys know once I start releasing chapters for it. Chapter 67: The Grand Invitation ¡°How dare you!¡± Yelled the kid I had inadvertently run into. He didn¡¯t look like anything special, with his muddy brown hair, and average features. In fact, the only thing that stood out were his eyes, which shone in a brilliant and piercing emerald green. He was dressed practically, with leather training armor over his clothes. He looked about fifteen or sixteen years old, but seemed to only be a little taller than me¡ªhe was short for his age. He hastily stood up again, and looked down at me imperiously. He opened his mouth, ready to deliver some sort of demeaning statement, I¡¯m sure. I never found out what he was going to say in that moment though, since I simply shrugged to myself, and started walking away from him. I didn¡¯t want to bother myself with anything troublesome, and this kid just screamed ¡®inconvenience¡¯. I could hear him sputtering in rage behind me before he called out a hurried ¡°Wait!¡±, so I picked up my walking tempo a little, disappearing around the myriad of corners in the palace. After walking around for a while, I decided that I had lost the kid somewhere back there, and avoided a potentially annoying situation from happening. And coincidentally, I recognized the hallway I had ended up in. That was my room there, at the end of it, right? Looks like walking away had been the right decision in this case.
For the most part, my time in the palace was easily spent, with most of my mornings devoted to working at the forge. I had been right to assume that there were other rare metals in there, other than the Tunnel iron that had given me such a strong first impression. There were so many different effects that these rare metals could give, that I was at somewhat of a creative loss when contemplating the ways they would influence a sword forged out of them. Though, I had to be sure to take precautions when smithing, and testing the finished product. Rumors had gone around the palace that a small earthquake had nearly set off some of the dangerous weapons stored underneath the building, almost blowing it sky-high. Of course, I have no idea how such a thing had come about¡­. Anyways, my mornings were spent making dangerous weapons, each of which pushed the envelope as to how powerful and unique I could make them. Then, my evenings were spent studying both this country¡¯s language, and it¡¯s history. I made titanic strides in regards to the language, but struggled with the history. It¡¯s not that I didn¡¯t understand it or anything, but rather that it simply didn¡¯t go back far enough to address that which I want to know. The oldest history book they had in the library dated back by seven-hundred years, when this city was first founded. I wasn¡¯t the least bit surprised to learn that Joan was present during that time, and had basically founded this whole kingdom by her own power. But, nothing any further back was addressed¡ªespecially the things I wanted to know. Things like information about demons, dragons, and the wars against the elves. Those events were likely too far back in the past to have been placed in a history book here. I did find something that helped me tremendously though. It was a map of the world. The map itself was massive, fully occupying a large table near the back of the library. On the map, numerous lines delineated the borders of various countries ranging from minuscule to unfathomably large. I searched the map for a good while, seeking out the country I was currently in, before eventually finding it¡¯s name¡ªThe Kingdom of Dour. It occupied a tiny corner of the landmass, huddled against a towering mountain range. The fact that I¡¯ve not seen such a chain of mountains anywhere on the horizon, speaks to the size of this kingdom. But it was an infant when compared to the other nations on the map. Hell, I suspected that this singular kingdom dwarfed that of the one¡¯s found on the Continents. So, the thought that this world might be so terrifyingly large was hard to wrap my head around at first. And then, there was the realization that this kingdom must be considered a backwater place, as it was on the very fringes of the land, mostly surrounded by wilderness. Dour only had one neighbor, in the form of a slightly larger country to the west. Everything else seemed wild, and unclaimed. It seemed to be the trend, where the close to the middle of the land you got, the large the countries became, with great empires vying for power in the very center. Also from the amp, I knew that this large landmass wasn¡¯t the only one on this world¡ªThere was another one over the massive mountain chain to the east, though not much was known about it. It was much too difficult to traverse the mountains, apparently, and thus, few reports had ever been relayed back about the land to the east. Other than history, and that map, there were many other things I learned from my time in the library. Stuff like the basis of the economy in Dour, the general level of knowledge held by the people here, and the jobs they typically have. In short, I learned about the state of the kingdom, and a little bit about the world outside of it. And, on top of all that, I had a great set of discussion partners in the form of Joan and her War Council. You would expect them to all be a bunch of meatheads at first glance, but everyone is surprisingly well versed in things outside of warfare. Hell, some of them would make better philosophers than they would warriors. And they were damn good warriors, too. Any questions I had that were unanswered by the books in the library, I could bring before them. Sometimes, they would have a good answer for me, while other time, they would have no idea. Most of the questions I had that went unanswered by them were about the rest of the world, the land to the east, or how big the world was in it¡¯s entirety. I guess, I just have to find the answers to some questions myself. Well, at least I was now confident in my ability to speak the language here. While there were still a few things I was having trouble with, I could convey my intentions fairly easily. And, it was lucky that I could speak the language so well, seeing as what happened during one of the dinners with Joan. At first, everything was going as it normally would. The dinner had started with platters of food arriving at the table, and we all enjoyed a fair bit of conversation before an unexpected guest arrived. Practically everyone at the table seemed to reach for weapons not currently with them as a pale and sweaty looking squire entered the room, looking nervously around the place. Upon seeing Joan, with her multiple tails waving in the air behind her, the squire bowed low, speaking with a squeaky voice. ¡°L-L-Lady Joan, My king would like to extend an invitation to his annual ball tomorrow night. He requests that your n-n-new ward attends as well.¡± This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience. With that, he scurried from the room as fast as he could. Joan looked annoyed by this announcement, like she had been planning on doing other, better things, and had no choice but to go. ¡°Ah¡ªby ward, does he mean me?¡± I asked, since that had never really been made clear. ¡°Yes, it does. Though, you should honestly be considered my equal.¡± ¡°What? Why?¡± Joan sighed. ¡°Well, even of we just take into account your age, and the level of power you hold, you would already be considered as the very cutting edge of talent in this generation. I doubt that you would find someone your age able to match you, even in the large central empires.¡± ¡°Then, if we consider your heritage, and your potential, there is a very real chance that you will surpass me in strength sooner or later.¡± ¡°And, there¡¯s the fact that you are a reincarnated being, which shows that the strength of your soul is a cut above the rest, and your will-power immense. And, though you haven¡¯t explicitly told me, or anyone else, I get the feeling that you¡¯ve reincarnated more than once. Don¡¯t you know that each subsequent reincarnation requires an exponentially stronger soul?¡± I shook my head. That was news to me, after all, I hadn¡¯t felt any sort of strain when reincarnating. It just sort of¡­happened. Though, I get the feeling that there¡¯s more to it, now. After all, I have a reincarnation that I try not to remember, and another that I have no idea about. ¡°So, I have a strong soul. What does that mean?¡± Joan smirked, apparently happy to demonstrate her vast repertoire of knowledge. ¡°It mean¡¯s that you have a stronger mind, a better control over yourself and the energy of mana around you, and a ¡®higher ceiling¡¯, if you would. Oh, and soul attacks will likely just bounce off of you.¡± Oh? How interesting. ¡°For instance, the pressure exerted by someone stronger than you? Did you know that that¡¯s a form of soul attack?¡± ¡°Huh? What pressure?¡± ¡°Exactly. There was a reason that poor squire looked ready to shit himself.¡± ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ Wow. So much stuff makes sense now. Though, there¡¯s still the original question I had. ¡°Um¡ªIf I should be your equal, then does that mean I can skip out on this ball thing?¡± Joan chuckled evilly, making the hair on the back of my neck rise. ¡°If I have to go¡­.¡±, she started. She didn¡¯t even have to finish the sentence for me to know that it was a futile endeavor.
I discovered a little conspiracy between the maids on this side of the palace and Joan the next day. Apparently, everybody wants to see me in frilly little dresses. Well, at least it suited me. Though, I didn¡¯t really know how to feel about the gothic-lolita style of it. It rankled my pride a little, even though I knew it could be worse. At least I didn¡¯t have to wear a hat. Anyway, I had been tracked down by the maids about an hour before the ball was to begin, and¡­¡¯coerced¡¯ into the dress. A little after that, I was walking down the hallways to meet Joan. Luckily, I remembered where her chambers were. On the way, I ran into Anhara, who was dressed in casual clothes. ¡°You aren¡¯t going to the ball?¡± I asked her. She shook her head, not looking sad in the slightest. ¡°The people there¡ªare they the annoying type of nobility?¡± This time she nodded, and I understood why she wasn¡¯t sad to not be going to the ball. I watched as she walked away, curious. I had talked to her a few time now, of course¡ªwell, if you could call it talking. She seemed a kind enough person, the immediate evidence of this being the fact that she brought me¡ªa bloodied and unknown element, home with her. I even learned later that she had abandoned a rather important group of people to do that, as well. Wait. Couldn¡¯t she have used me as a way to get out of that commitment? Ugh. I don¡¯t even know with her. And, I can¡¯t exactly ask her if that had been the case. Not that I would hold it against her if that was indeed the case. After all, I would definitely do the same. Regardless, I wanted to get to know her a little better. I get the feeling that it would be interesting. I kept walking, deep in thought, when Joan appeared from a doorway in front of me. I stopped. Not out of shock, or anything. I did feel a profound sense of annoyance, though. ¡°Oi, why is it you get to wear a simple dress, and I got this lace and ribbon monstrosity?¡± Joan grinned. Indeed, she was wearing a white and blue dress without any ornamentation, though it did have an interesting shape, one that resembled that thing on earth¡ªa kimono. ¡°Because, this suits me, just as that suits you. Though, the sight of you in a cute kimono would be good as well.¡± I rubbed the bridge of my nose with my fingers, knowing that any further talk would likely make my situation even worse than it already is. ¡°Ugh. Nevermind. Let¡¯s just go to this ball.¡± ¡°One would think from your tone that you weren¡¯t looking forward to it, Kai.¡± ¡°Oh, no. I am so sorry that you have gotten that impression from my inflection. I look forward to this ball with great eagerness.¡± ¡°Wow. One would nearly presume that that was sarcasm.¡± ¡°It was. Take a hint, woman.¡± Joan laughed heartily as we approached the ballroom. I had never been to it before¡ªafter all, it was placed on the Royal side of the palace, and I avoided that like a plague. I could hear the sounds of music and chatter from inside, though. It sounded like the ball was already in full swing. As we approached the door, a man entered before us, and I heard him announcing our names, even though mine would mean nothing to these people. ¡°I present to the Royal Court, the ladies Joan Fire-born, and Katariah Silver.¡± A few eyes turned toward us at the mention of our names, mostly from the older gentlemen and ladies present. They looked at Joan with fear and respect in their eyes. The members of the younger generation who saw us simply looked at us imperiously, and in a few cases, with lust. Oh? So only the more experienced and well-versed members of the nobility know who Joan is? I got the distinct feeling that the younger nobles had no idea what sort of being they were risking the wrath of. As I was pondering this, though, a not-so-friendly face caught my vision. It was the boy I had accidentally run into in that hallway a few weeks ago. Yeah, apparently, he turnned out to be troublesome anyway. Chapter 68: The Grand Ball ¡°What sort of training do you partake in, Sir Joseph, in order to get so strong?¡± asked one of the girls huddled around me. Smirking a tad bit, I indulged her a little. ¡°Well, it¡¯s not what kind of training you do, but how you approach it, and how dedicated you are. Anyone can become strong enough, as long as they have the willpower to do it.¡± ¡°Oh! Such words of wisdom! As should be expected of Sir Joseph!¡± I smile at the girl who said that, and she practically swoons before me. As it should be. After all, I am the most excellent member of my generation, never mind that I hadn¡¯t been born nobility. I was here, at this ball, due to my own efforts, and hard earned title. I have made friends among the Royalty, and the princess herself greatly valued my talent. I could feel the envious glares from a few of the noble scions around the room, displeased that I was able to talk with so many beautiful girls at once. It¡¯s their fault that the girls prefer me to them, due to their boorish attitudes, and bad dispositions. Even I have a hard time pretending to like them, you know. Though, there were a few guys that weren¡¯t bad. One of them was walking over right now. ¡°Eh? The ball¡¯s only just started, Joseph, and you¡¯ve already drawn such a crowd?¡± Said Gabriel, one of my best friends. His shoulder length hair and effeminate features had many mistaking him as a girl, only to find that he also has a mean right hook afterwards. I shrugged at his comment, not sure what he had been expecting. ¡°You know that I can¡¯t help it. I must have one of those magnetic personalities or something.¡± Gabriel laughed. ¡°Right. I will admit that you tend to draw trouble to yourself, but I hesitate to call that ¡®magnetism¡¯. It¡¯s more like this little thing called bad luck.¡± ¡°Please, I have the absolute best of luck. Especially when it comes to women. In fact, a few weeks ago¡­¡± ¡°We¡¯ve all heard this story, Joseph. I still don¡¯t believe it.¡± ¡°I swear, it happened!¡± ¡°Then, have you seen the girl you ran into since then? Even if it did happen, didn¡¯t she get away from you as fast as possible?¡± ¡°¡­¡­¡± ¡°Just face it, Joseph. You likely are not going to see that girl again. She¡¯s probably left the palace by now. I mean, didn¡¯t you say that you accidentally yelled at her?¡± ¡°Ugh. Fine. Maybe I will never see her again. However, just that one time struck me dumb. And I may have yelled at her, but that wouldn¡¯t be enough to drive someone from the palace, right?¡± Gabriel looked at me dubiously. ¡°Right. I think you are forgetting the pressure you tend to put out when angry. What do you call it again? Killing intent? That probably scared her off more than the yelling did.¡± I paled slightly, panicking a little inside. Gods, what if Gabriel¡¯s right, and I accidentally released some killing intent? I¡¯ve used it to scare of seasoned warriors before, never mind a small and sheltered looking girl. She might have felt like she was about to die. ¡°Never mind about that though.¡± Said Gabriel. ¡°You have so many other girls around you, and I¡¯m sure you will find a way to push that incident to the back of your mind.¡± I sighed, and nodded. Perhaps that was the best thing to do, to immerse myself in the distractions around me, and forget about the whole thing. In fact, I was just about to ask one of the noble girls around me to dance, when I caught a bit of movement by the ballroom doors. I don¡¯t really know why I had noticed it at first. Maybe it was because the ball had already begun, and the only latecomers now were the nobles who either didn¡¯t care about their image, or were powerful enough for it to not matter. The Chamberlain, who was in charge of announcing to the court the names of each and every noble attending the ball, walked in through the door, and announced two immediately forgotten names. I noticed that there were very few who were paying attention to the door at this point, for whatever reason. Though, a few of the older and more powerful nobles stiffened after hearing one of the names, for some reason. I was about to return my attention to the people around me, when the two women walked into the ballroom. And, in that instant, all words and thoughts left me. It¡¯s her. And, my gods, she¡¯s looking at me with those golden eyes. I could see a little frown appear on her face, and I recalled what Gabriel had said about my killing intent. Thousands of thoughts flitted through my mind, with me wondering if the girl is afraid of me, who she might be, why she might be here, why she¡¯s with the woman next to her, what sort of impressions she might have of me, what does her little frown mean, how old is she, and above all, who is she? Gabriel noticed that I seemed a little absentminded, and stunned, and nudged me hard with his elbow. ¡°Are you okay? You look like your whole world has shattered, then rebuilt, only to be shattered again.¡± ¡°It¡¯s her, Gabriel. The girl I ran into in the palace hallways, she¡¯s here.¡± ¡°Oh, really? Where?¡± ¡°Door.¡± I couldn¡¯t detail her location to him with any greater eloquence, since I was too busy staring at the girl unabashedly. I heard Gabriel whisper next to me, and it took a moment for me to register what he had said. ¡°Oh damn. She¡¯s cute.¡± Then, he added onto that. ¡°But, she looks a little young, no? Though, she is shorter than you, so there¡¯s that.¡± Damn him, adding in that complex. I can¡¯t help it that squirrel beastkin don¡¯t grow to be very tall, though I can still be annoyed by the height of all my peers. ¡°You should go talk to her, apologize or something. You know, instead of ogling at her from across the room like a creep.¡± Ah crap, he¡¯s right. I broke my line of vision to her, abruptly looking away. Wait, how do I approach her now?! Agh! I¡¯m so nervous about all this! What if she hates me or something? What should I do?! No, calm down Joseph. You are the paragon of this generation. You can talk to a girl. After reaching a point where I felt like I wouldn¡¯t make a fool out of myself, I turned back to where the girl had entered with the other woman, intending to go talk to her. However, there wasn¡¯t anyone there. Gabriel, noticing the direction I was facing, and the loss in my face, simply chuckled. ¡°While you were wallowing about with indication, your little dream girl vanished into the crowd. I wish you luck in finding her again.¡± I groaned, and made to join the large group of nobles spread out through the ball room. It¡¯s a pity I missed her name, otherwise I could find out more about her before offering a proper apology, and maybe even my hand in courtship. Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.
¡°So, why did you drag me to the center of the ballroom so quickly? Is there someone who you would rather not meet, Kai?¡± ¡°Yeah. There was someone who looked rather troublesome back there.¡± Joan snickered at me a little, but it wasn¡¯t anything particularly annoying to me. That kid looked like too much trouble, with all those rabid teenage girls around him. Apparently, he¡¯s popular. Anyway, after having successfully disappeared, Joan made the brilliant suggestion that we go to where the food was set up, and get busy appearing to be too busy eating to dance with any hopefuls. After all, she was only here because of some business the Royal family apparently had with her, and I was here because of her sadistic personality. We didn¡¯t want to dance. Thankfully, we were spared the indignity of having a bunch of young nobles sit with us at the table. No, it was to oldest and likely the most influential nobles who came over, and sat down. Most of them probably know exactly who Joan is, and how much power she holds. For this reason, they had decided that the best way to rise to greater power themselves, was to get to know Joan better. As for me, I was mostly ignored. It was a bit of a curious thing, actually. My horns, eyes, and coloring are in full view, and nobody seems to be curious about it. Hell, they barely even glanced my way, after introductions at the table were made. Oh well. At least that means I¡¯m able to eat in peace, while Joan is being bombarded by conversation and questions. How unlucky for her. Eventually, the moment that most the nobles were waiting for came. The chamberlain walked to the center of the hall, and all talk died down in his wake, until the entire ballroom was silent. ¡°I am pleased to announce the presence of his Royal Majesty, King Zao, and the Royal family¡ªQueen Amelia, the First Prince Ulysses Zao, the Second Prince Idarus Zao, and Princess Jasmine Zao.¡± Off to one side of a large table overlooking the whole ballroom, a door opened, and a small group of people streamed out, headed by a man with grey hair and wolf ears. By his side walked a beautiful woman with feline ears of some kind, and luminous emerald eyes. The first prince shared in his father¡¯s sub-race and coloring, with the same grey wolf ears and strong face. The second prince took after his mother, and the princess her father, like the first prince. While they looked dignified, I also got the feeling that the King would be more than willing to take a joke, and might even make some himself. More than that, he looked happy, if a little tired and worn down. But, sovereignty tends to do that to people. His wife and kids looked bright and intelligent too, adding to the overall feeling I got from him¡ªthat of a capable, and good king. He reached the center seat at their table, and stayed standing. ¡°Welcome friends, nobles, possible business partners, to this annual ball of mine, thrown in celebration of First Prince Ulysses Zao¡¯s day of birth, and the passing of another year. Now, I am not one suited for speech-craft, so, I will simply ask you to enjoy the evening, and have a good time.¡± With that, the king sat down, and some waiters brought him and the rest of his family food and wine, baring the young princess, who only got water with her food. The ball seemed to come into full swing at that point, now that the VIP¡¯s had arrived. In fact, after they had finished their food, the princes and princess descended onto the ballroom floor itself, and were almost immediately roped into dancing with near strangers. The King and Queen stayed where they were, apparently satisfied to simply watch the proceedings. Or, at least until the king scanned the crowd, and alighted his gaze upon Joan, who stared right back at him with a characteristic smirk on her face. ¡°Right then. That¡¯s my signal, now. Thank you all for keeping me company, but I have someone else to see.¡± She said to the table we sat at, before standing up. ¡°Come on Kai, I want you to meet Greg.¡± ¡°Greg?¡± ¡°The King, Greg Zao.¡± ¡°Huh? His first name is just Greg?¡± ¡°No, that¡¯s the nickname for another name ten-thousand time more embarrassing. Honestly, the old king had such a terrible naming sense.¡± Wow. The more you know, I guess¡­ As we walked up to the Royal¡¯s table, there were a few furtive glances thrown our way, but nobody bothered us in an overt way. Two seats were ready for us, right next to the King and Queen, who smiled at Joan in a warm way. They glanced my way briefly, before turning their attention back to Joan. I guess her presence was enough to let me stay somewhat inconspicuous here. ¡°It¡¯s good to see you, Joan. You so rarely come to our side of the palace, though I do not blame you for that. If I could stay away from the politics, I would.¡± Joan laughed. ¡°Then, just give the throne to your eldest. He looks ready enough.¡± The king shook his head slightly. ¡°No, he¡¯s not nearly ready enough yet. Though, nobody ever truly is, I guess.¡± At this moment, the Queen chimed in, looking at me this time. I was a little surprised that someone was actually paying attention to me this time, instead of Joan. ¡°Pardon me, but would you be willing to introduce your little friend, Joan? I¡¯m curious as to why you¡¯ve dragged her to this event of ours.¡± ¡°Right, I was just about to get to that. Greg, Amelia, might I introduce to you Katariah Silver, whom I have taken into my ward?¡± ¡°How unlike you, Joan. Normally, people do not interest you. Is there something special about Lady Katariah?¡± ¡°Why don¡¯t you ask her yourself, seeing as she is sitting at this table with you?¡± said Joan, redirecting their attention to me, since they had been dictating their questions to her. The King had the grace to look abashed, while the Queen seemed to shake herself mentally. ¡°Sorry.¡± Said the King, ¡°Joan¡¯s normally the one we ask any questions, since she knows so much. I apologize for the discourtesy.¡± ¡°It is no problem. Joan¡¯s presence is at fault here, I think.¡± There was a tinkling laugher from the Queen, who was amused at my statement. ¡°Well then, what can you tell us about yourself, young lady? I will admit I am a little curious now, rather than simply doing this on courtesy alone.¡± I smiled, and replied. ¡°Again, My name is Katariah, but I prefer to be called Kai. I am a Demon who was saved from near starvation by Joan¡¯s daughter Anhara, and brought to the palace afterwards.¡± Ah. The King and Queen seem a little shocked. I think Joan downplayed the significance of me being a Demon slightly, when we first met. Chapter 69: The Grand Annoyance ¡°A Demon?! You mean that those horns aren¡¯t from a beastkin clan?¡± ¡°Ho, and here I had been thinking that you were part reptile beastkin of some kind.¡± After they calmed down, the King and Queen took the news of what race I am fairly well. For now, I¡¯m withholding the information about my Elven half, given the outlook on history here, and the legends they have of them. ¡°No, I haven¡¯t the slightest of beastkin blood in me, though, I would appreciate it if the fact of my race was not spread around. I would like to spend my time here without drawing any attention.¡± The King laughed at that. ¡°You don¡¯t want to draw any attention? That is going to be difficult, Lady Kai, since you sat up here with us, and Joan. Most of the people in this ballroom are now wondering who you are, and why you have the status required to sit here.¡± Oh. I forgot about that. I sighed deeply, annoyed at myself for not realizing something like that. The Queen was the next to speak up, voicing one of her questions. ¡°Pardon me, Lady Kai, but how did it get to the point where you had nearly starved to death? I would have thought that one such as yourself could easily find food, or would at least have a stockpile in folded space.¡± ¡°Well, I was forcibly transported into the Royal Hunting Grounds, where no food is present. And, as much as I would love to have a folded space to put things into, I am not strong enough for that yet.¡± ¡°Not strong enough? What do you mean? You would at least be more powerful than Lady Joan, no?¡± I looked at the King, who seemed confused. ¡°What gave you that impression?¡± ¡°Well, you¡¯re a Demon, right? You¡¯ve lived for countless years, since the supposed cataclysm¡­¡± I cocked my head to the side, sending a questioning gaze towards the King. ¡°You do know that more Demons have been born since then, right? Our species is not infertile or anything.¡± ¡°Wait, but then, how old are you?¡± ¡°I recently turned fourteen years old.¡± ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ The King sighed. ¡°Forgive me for presuming again, Lady Kai. You are much younger than I had expected, even after learning that you weren¡¯t an ancient Demon. My daughter, Princess Jasmine, is of a comparable age to you, but you seem¡­older somehow.¡± ¡°There¡¯s no harm done. I¡¯m a bit of an abnormality anyway, so it¡¯s all easily forgiven.¡± With that, my introductions to the King and Queen were finished. The table descended into pleasant and polite conversation between them and Joan, and I got to be the fly on the wall, learning more about the current state of this nation. They talked about things like recent military reports from the borders¡ªmore specifically, the border to the west, where a rival nation was located, and the northern, southern, and western borders, which had always had a problem with monster attacks, due to the wild nature of the land outside of them. Another topic of note was the romantic lives of the King and Queen¡¯s children, with things like the latest girl left heartbroken by the Second Prince, who made a good candidate for the First Prince¡¯s wife, or who had last asked for the Princess¡¯s hand in marriage. It was a bit like watching one of those gossip shows from Earth, except these relationships would likely have great political implications, since they concerned the Royal family, and it¡¯s future. Other than this, there was no indication that they were going to talk about anything of particularly great importance, even though that had been the reason Joan came here, and dragged me with her. I supposed that they would likely go into a side room to talk about anything extremely important¡ªnot that it was a better place to discuss sensitive things, but because it gave the illusion of it. That¡¯s one of the things I¡¯ve never really understood. If you don¡¯t want something to be heard by others, then say it in a crowded space, where words get lost in the air fairly quickly. However, when sensitive secrets are talked about in an empty room, that¡¯s practically just inviting someone to listen in. That¡¯s why I wasn¡¯t concerned with anyone overhearing my race, and age. There was nobody close enough to make out individual words, and the King and Queen wouldn¡¯t go around telling everybody. So, I don¡¯t have to worry about an uproar among the nobility after learning that a Demon had taken up residence in the other half of the palace. No, I would only have to avoid those who became curious after seeing the changes in facial expressions from the King and Queen. Eh¡ªthis whole ball has turned into something troublesome, hasn¡¯t it? Anyway, I sat at the table, listening to their conversation. I didn¡¯t really have anything to contribute to it. I mean, yes, I did learn quite a lot about this nation through the books in the library, but that paltry amount of knowledge can in no way stand up to the amount gathered after a lifetime of living in said nation. I just had to keep my ears open, and absorb as much of their conversation as possible. Or, at least until they inevitably got up, desiring to move to a private room¡ªas I had anticipated. Joan gave me a sad smile, and told me that there were some things that she simply couldn¡¯t let me know, and that I wouldn¡¯t be able to join in on this little chat. Yup. She left me to the wolves. Damn it, Joan.
It had been about an hour since I had lost sight of that girl. An hour of frantically searching the ballroom floor had left me mentally tired, and frustrated at my inability to find her. You would think that someone as beautiful looking as her would have attracted attention no matter where she went, but it was like she had completely disappeared from the ballroom floors. I was on the verge of giving up, and assuming that she had simply left, when the chamberlain announced the arrival of the Royal family. Being friends with both the Second Prince and the Princess, I was very glad that they had arrived when they did. It gave me a reason to not go gallivanting around the palace, trying to find that elusive girl. So, I talked with the people around me until the Royal children had finished their dinners, and joined everyone else on the ballroom floor. The Second Prince and the Princess spotted me almost instantly¡ªan ability of theirs I¡¯ve never understood. How do you spot someone like me in the middle of a large crowd anyway? I¡¯m nearly invisible among them. I knew that they had found me due to the crowd parting towards my direction, evidence that they were walking my way. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.The Second Prince reached me first, and went to clasp my hand. ¡°Ah, it¡¯s good to see you here, Joseph. I was worried that I would have to pass the time with those idiotic nobles.¡± The Second Prince was somewhat notorious for his impatience regarding the nobility of his country. He felt stifled by all their customs and restrictive rules of conduct, and tended to avoid them. When I first met him, he had considerably opened up to me after learning I wasn¡¯t a noble. Or, as he said, ¡°One of those stupid-ass noble brat-lords.¡± He¡¯s not to good at being polite¡ªhe¡¯s too blunt for that. In fact, out of the three Royal siblings, he¡¯s the best warrior, despite his thin build. That¡¯s how we became friends¡ªhe would always spar with me, since I would never hold back on him. Of course, that led to him being viciously beaten in combat against me a few times, but at least his swordplay has greatly improved in the time that I¡¯ve known him. Then, the Princess tends to follow her brother around, so we met during one of the little sparring matches. Since then, we¡¯ve become somewhat close friends. It¡¯s to the degree that I can walk around the palace unhindered, or request to see them whenever. ¡°Well, I am certainly glad that you¡¯ve chosen to spend your time with me, rather than the noble scions.¡± I said, in response to Idarus¡¯s greeting towards me. He laughs, and thumps my shoulder. ¡°Please, no need to be so formal, Joseph. We know each other too well for that. Hell, you even know my favorite type!¡± ¡°Please Brother, anyone can figure out your type just by looking at all the women left in your wake. Big breasts, and brown hair, is it?¡± I laughed at Princess Jasmine¡¯s comment. ¡°That¡¯s exactly right! He confided the very fact to me after we had visited a local marketplace together.¡± ¡°Oi! Have some decency, and at least keep my secrets, would you? Ugh¡ªHad I known it would turn out this way, I would have at least said I liked thin girls.¡± Jasmine and I both laughed at his wounded expression, not feeling any pity for him at all. We chatted the time away, talking about inane things like what the First Prince had gotten for his birthday, and discussing some of the unknown people present at this ball. I thought it had been as good a time as any to bring it up, so I asked Idarus about the girl I had run into a few times. He tended to keep a weathered eye on the women, after all. ¡°A girl? My gods Joseph, are you finally interested in someone else?!¡± Blurted out Idarus. ¡°Shh!¡± I hissed at him, ¡°Keep it down, will you?¡± I sighed. ¡°Look, I don¡¯t know anything about her, but I just can¡¯t forget her face. I thought that perhaps you might know to whom I am referring.¡± ¡°Alright, alright. Describe this mystery woman of yours to me.¡± ¡°Sure. She¡¯s short¡ªshorter than me, with long white hair and black horns on the sides of her head. Her eyes are also golden, and slit pupil.¡± ¡°Huh. Sound unique¡ªI wonder if she¡¯s a mutation of a few different types of beastkin. Though, what sorts would need to combine to get something like that?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t care,¡± I said, surprising even myself by the urgency in my voice, and the hope I felt. ¡°Just tell me if you know her.¡± ¡°Sorry, Joseph. I can¡¯t say that I do.¡± My heart sank, even though I knew it had been a very faint hope in the first place. But then, Idarus continued speaking, looking towards the back of the room, where the Royal family had entered. He had an odd expression on his face, almost like he was slightly stunned. ¡°However, there seems to be a very beautiful girl fitting your description sitting with my parents.¡± ¡°What?!¡± I yelled, craning my neck to look in that same direction. However, unlike Idarus who could just barely see through the crowd, I couldn¡¯t make anything out. ¡°Damn it! Can we get closer to the table?¡± ¡°Sure, sure. Easily. Oh? ¡ªIt looks like Mom and Dad are leaving the ball, and there¡¯s another woman there, going with them. They¡¯ve left your girl alone at the table! Come on; let¡¯s get there quickly! Now I¡¯m curious as to who this girl is, as well.¡± Idarus lead the way, and I followed closely behind. Jasmine also came, though her mood seemed sour, for some reason. Finally, after pushing through the crowd, I could see the Royal table, with exactly one person still seated there. I could tell that some of the people around me were talking about her, wondering who she might be, and what qualifies her to sit there, when they can¡¯t. There were even some people who were hesitating, caught between wanting to talk to her, and not wanting to be the first one. How odd¡ªthe normally arrogant nobles seemed unsure, and caught off-guard somehow. Idarus, the glorious and ignoble bastard, just hopped up onto the pedestal where the table sat, and spoke to her as if it were the most natural thing in the world. ¡°Ah, pardon me, my lady, but you cut such a lonely figure that I thought it would be noble of me to invite you to my little group of friends.¡± Said Idarus in a smooth voice which would normally have the ladies swooning left and right. This girl, however, simply looked at his as if he were annoying her. ¡°No thanks, Second Prince. I would rather not spend time listening to noblemen speak.¡± ¡°Well, you must be a woman after my own heart, then, since you won¡¯t have to listen to a single little noble cock-fucker in my group. There are others that can¡¯t stand them, you know. Also, and I don¡¯t mean this as a threat, but a warning¡ªthose noblemen will come up here, and ask you to dance and all that, as soon as I leave. I would highly recommend that you vacate this table before that happens.¡± The girl glared at him angrily, but all I could think was ¡®How cuuute!¡¯. Never-the-less, she sighed deeply, as if conceding defeat, and rose from her seat. ¡°Fine then. Introduce me to your little group.¡± Her eyes fanned the three of us, and rested on mine a brief moment longer than the others. When she looked at me, I felt a deep resignation in her, as if she had been consigned to something terrible. The Prince bowed elegantly, and fanned his hand toward Jasmine and I. ¡°You should likely know who I and my sister am, but in case it bears repeating, I am Idarus Zao, the kingdom¡¯s Second Prince and a budding warrior. Jasmine Zao, Princess and mage. And, Joseph Hill, currently this generation¡¯s Paragon. Who might you be, my lady?¡± ¡°Katariah Silver. If you must, call me Kai.¡± Chapter 70: The Grand Douchebag. I almost can¡¯t believe it. Idarus found the girl, and successfully invited her to talk with us. I even learned her name¡ªKatariah Silver. Such a pretty name for her. We found a small table near the back of the ballroom to sit at, away from others. Katariah immediately sat at the far end of the table, which faced the rest of the ballroom. I sat down to her right, and Idarus took her other side. Jasmine took the only seat left, facing Katariah. Idarus, knowing that it was best to shape glass while it was still hot, immediately started a conversation in the hopes that Katariah would feel more at ease. ¡°So, what sorts of things do you like doing, Lady Katariah? I, for one, am a war buff. I enjoy learning about past battles, and what strategies worked best in certain situations.¡± She sat in silence for a moment, then gave a small shrug. ¡°I enjoy making things.¡± ¡°What sort of things? Is it embroidery? Maybe something like making dresses?¡± ¡°No.¡± ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡°O-oh. I see.¡± Huh, Idarus seems flustered. Is it because she doesn¡¯t seem to be reacting to his charm, like every other lady would? She¡¯s given such curt answers, as well. ¡°Well, I mentioned that Joseph here is the Paragon for this generation, right? He was able to break through level one-hundred at only twelve years old, and set a new record in the kingdom.¡± Is it just me, or does Katariah look less than impressed? I don¡¯t think she finds this topic very interesting. I try to divert the conversation in another direction, one that seems less like us just trumpeting our strength to her. ¡°Please, Idarus. Anyone can become strong through hard work. To become good at something, only require diligence. Sort of like how you became very good at chasing skirts, due to the amount of girls you¡¯ve pursued.¡± Well, that one got a snicker from Jasmine, but Katariah still seemed as expressionless as ever. This is bad¡ªshe seems to be getting bored very quickly. I decided to ask the obvious question, in order liven up the conversation. ¡°What brought you to this ball, Katariah? I¡¯ve never seen you outside the palace before now, so I assume you just recently came here, right?¡± For a moment, I was afraid that she wouldn¡¯t answer my question, or answer like she had been¡ªwith a short and clipped sounding response. But, to my relief, she properly answered, even if her voice sounded a little bitter. ¡°I was dragged here by the person who had taken me in. She¡¯s been taking care of me since I arrived here a few weeks ago.¡± ¡°Where were you before that?¡± ¡°Somewhere far from here. There was a little accident involving a teleport.¡± Jasmine gave a little gasp of surprise, due to what Kai said. ¡°Really? You must be lucky then¡ªmost don¡¯t survive a botched teleport, since they can end up anywhere.¡± Katariah nodded. ¡°I am indeed. Though, not lucky enough to end up back home, it seems.¡± ¡°You can¡¯t be that far from your home¡ª¡± I said, ¡°¡ªI mean, your accent is very similar to ours. It stands to reason that wherever you came from cannot be that far away. You could be home before you know it!¡± For some reason, she smiled slightly at that, and spoke a soft, but non-committal thank-you. I was so entranced by her smile, that I didn¡¯t ponder the meaning of her words. The conversation continued on, and I got more and more anxious, since it seemed like only Idarus and I were speaking. Kai just seemed disinterested, while Jasmine looked like she was¡­sulking? I wonder what¡¯s wrong with her? While I was frantically thinking up more conversation topics, things just seemed to be getting worse. I had forgotten to account for the stubbornness of the various noble scions here, at the ball. I had also forgotten the effect a beautiful woman will have on them, whether or not she¡¯s in the company of a Prince and the Paragon. I only remembered these things too late, when a shadow loomed over the table. I looked up, and the conversation paused. Everybody else turned to the person who was disturbing this awkward atmosphere. I groaned inwardly, due to who had come. ¡°Oh? I can¡¯t help but see that a beautiful flower has been planted in a field of manure. Why don¡¯t you ditch those that would drag you down, and join me?¡± Said Carlton Gibraltar, first in line for the Gibraltar Duchy. ¡°Carlton, if she wanted to leave, then no one here would stop here. However, we also wouldn¡¯t force her to bed any of us.¡± I said, referring to some incidences pushed under the rug by him and his father. I had been disgusted to learn of them, and even more disgusted to learn that this was something normal for some noble families. Carlton sneered in my general direction, not even looking at me. ¡°Shut it, peasant boy. A conversation between people of equal standing is nothing for you to butt in on. Now, what do you say, young lady? Why don¡¯t you join the future Duke of Gibraltar, for a little fun?¡± I stood up, fuming from anger, and I registered Idarus doing the same. ¡°Oh? I thought that only ''people of equal standing'' could talk to each other. I do not recall ever saying that we were of the same social class, future Duke.¡± Said Katariah in the same indifferent and bored voice. ¡°Well, that makes things easier then. I command you to come with me, girl.¡± he said, his attitude towards her taking a 180 degree flip. Ah. She made things worse, didn''t she? However, you wouldn¡¯t know that by looking at her. She had actually smiled slightly. Under normal circumstances, that smile would look absolutely lovely. Now, however, I distinctly felt a small part of me grow cold upon seeing that smile. I suddenly got the feeling that now, Katariah was no longer quite so bored. ¡°Didn¡¯t you hear me, stupid girl? Let¡¯s go somewhere more¡­private, and away from these idiots. Who knows, I may even make you a mistress of mine.¡± He said, a lecherous smile on his face. I looked around, trying to find some possible allies. Idarus looked like he would become violent anytime now, and we needed someone on our side to avoid this looking like us hurting Carlton. He may be a detestable guy, but he still has way more influence than he should, and is fully capable of causing us no end of trouble. This narrative has been purloined without the author''s approval. Report any appearances on Amazon. I could see many people covertly watching this end of the ballroom, and I realized why this was happening. The nobles wanted to test Katariah. There were curious, envious, and threatened by the unknown short girl who sat at the same table as the Royals, and wanted to see who she was, and why she was here. More than that, how much power she wielded. I found it interesting that they all seemed to either dismiss, or forget about the woman who had disappeared into a backroom with the nobles. Well, except for the oldest, and best, nobles¡ªThe ones who still followed the nobleman¡¯s laws to the letter. They looked at Katariah with wary eyes. And, even more importantly, they looked at Carlton with pity. It was this that convinced me that no matter what happened, there would be no big reprisals. So, I followed my instincts, and my bloodlust. I punched Carlton right in the face, sending him sprawling to the floor with a broken nose. Immediately, gasps of horror resounded from the nearby tables, and someone screamed ¡°You killed him!¡± Please. I used less than a quarter of my strength. He¡¯s what, level fifty or so? Not bad for his age, but I would only need half my strength to obliterate him. I sighed, and sat back down. Jasmine was looking at me with sparkles in her eyes for some reason, while Idarus was looking at me, aghast. I typically keep a level head in tense situations, so me punching someone in the face without warning was atypical for me. Normally, he was the one to do stuff like that. Katariah didn¡¯t even seem to react to me, though. Her smile had disappeared, and she had leaned back in her chair in an unlady-like fashion. She didn¡¯t look the least bit relieved, nor did she hop up and hug me, thanking me profusely while she did so, like in the fantasy that I had played out just before the punch. Eh, I guess I have to take things slowly with her. Meanwhile, various people rushed over, some of them literally dropping plates of food on the ground in order to check on Carlton. One of them took out a handkerchief, and tried to use it in order to stem the flow of blood coming from his nose. The thin lace immediately turned crimson red, rendering the thing useless. Seeing this, the noble flung it to the side, and looked at me in disgust. ¡°How like an uncouth peasant-boy to lash out at your betters. Guards! Can someone arrest this idiot?¡± The man in charge of security walked over, having long since seen the commotion. ¡°Yes, how might I be of service, Count Hopal?¡± The man¡¯s lips twisted in a grim semblance of a grin, making the long and ropy scar running down the side of his face stand out even more. I had heard that the Captain of the Royal Guards was a fair man, who would listen to both sides of an argument before making an arrest. This noble was sorely mistaken, thinking that the Captain would do anything to us. After all, Carlton was clearly in the wrong in this case. His eyes swept over all of us in an instant, before falling on one person in particular. ¡°Ah, Lady Kai. I should have realized you would be involved with this. Are you attracting too much attention for your liking in that dress? It suits you well.¡± Huh? The Captain is speaking to Katariah as if they were close friends, not even calling her by her full name. Do they know each other somehow? And, he complimented her dress?? ¡°Thank you, Djorn. I didn¡¯t have a choice in the matter¡ªgot cornered by the maids.¡± She replied, with what seemed to be a genuine smile on her face. I could see the expressions of people around us loosening at the sight of it, struck by her beauty and cuteness. The Captain winced in sympathy. ¡°Know what you mean, there. Those girls can be vicious when it comes to clothes. Now, you mind telling me what happened here? I¡¯m afraid that the inheritor to a Duchy, knocked unconscious and bleeding, is kinda a big deal to some people.¡± Is he thinking that it isn¡¯t to others? And why do I get the feeling that Katariah is included in that ¡®other people¡¯ category? ¡°Oh, this idiot? He tried to coerce me into ¡®having fun¡¯ with him. Joseph here took exception to that, and knocked him once in the face.¡± The Captain turned to me, and ran me over with his eyes appraisingly. ¡°Joseph Connolly¡ªThe twenty-fifth Paragon? You train with my lieutenant, right?¡± I nodded, slightly overwhelmed by his attention and presence. ¡°He has nothing but praise for you, boy. No need to be so tense¡ªit seems like this one instigated the whole thing anyway.¡± He said, nudging Carlton with his boot. And then, I swear I heard him whisper under his breath after that. ¡°Sides, it¡¯s Kai we¡¯re talking ¡®bout. ¡®S lucky she didn¡¯t get pissed off.¡± She? Is he talking about the woman Katariah had walked into the ball with? ¡°Anyway, I¡¯m sure that this will be no big deal. You kids just go back to eating and talking, okay?¡± He waved over another guard, and told him to take Carlton to the infirmary, which I think was letting him get off lightly. Then again, Idarus is always telling me that my sense of justice is slightly warped. I wanted to see him suffering for a bit, since he had been an annoyance to Katariah. Nobody treats a girl badly! Especially not one that I¡¯m attracted to! I sighed, and tried to not look at Katariah while the Captain cleared all the nobles away, making them go back to their usual activities. I half succeeded too. I mean, at least I didn¡¯t look at her face¡­. ... ... ... Agh, that¡¯s worse, isn¡¯t it? Jasmine¡¯s kicked my shin under the table for some reason. I look up at her, and try to not make my face bust out into flames. I see a disapproving look in her eyes, letting me know I was caught. I feel like a lecture was coming after this was done¡­ Chapter 71: The Searchs Start ¡°I can¡¯t believe you two! Hitting on a girl so young. Honestly, no amount of punishment would be right.¡± Right now, I¡¯m facing the wrath of Jasmine¡¯s lecture, along with Idarus. She had snagged us right after the ball, ready to vent any of her latent anger. I was content to simply roll over and play dead, but Idarus¡¯s hot-headedness got the better of him, and attracted more of Jasmine¡¯s fury. ¡°But, it¡¯s normal to see girls that age already engaged to someone three times as old!¡± Jasmine flicked his forehead. ¡°You idiot! Those are for political marriages! No girl wants to bed a noble like that! Honestly, had I known you two had those sorts of preferences¡­¡± ¡°Ah, but Sis¡ªIt¡¯s not like I normally go for those types, you know. Joseph seemed interested, so I wanted to lend him a helping hand.¡± Jasmine turned her disappointment filled face towards me, and I could see multiple emotions flitting through her eyes¡ªI couldn¡¯t tell what they were, though. ¡°Wait, no!¡± I cried out, forestalling Jasmine¡¯s punishment. She looked at me dubiously, and I saw an opportunity to continue. ¡°We don¡¯t actually know her age, right? She never told us. It would be wrong to simply assume that she was as old as she looked, especially considering that she didn¡¯t act anywhere near her supposed age.¡± If anything, Jasmine looked more annoyed with my explanation. ¡°It¡¯s not her age that¡¯s the problem, you idiots¡ªIt¡¯s how old she looks. Besides, I think you should just forget about her. It¡¯s obvious that she¡¯s trouble, with how the Captain of the Royal Guard treated her. And, there¡¯s the fact that she had sat at the same table as Mom and Dad, without having been introduced to court beforehand.¡± ¡°Yeah, but¡­¡± ¡°No. She¡¯s trouble, and you need to avoid her.¡± ¡°Oh, come off it, Sis. You know you¡¯re just¡ªUeagh!¡± Ah, a magnificent right hook from Jasmine. ¡°Was that really necessary, Jasmine?¡± I asked, while Idarus was writhing on the ground in pain. For a mage, she¡¯s always been surprisingly strong. Jasmine glared at me. ¡°Of course it was. I wouldn¡¯t have done that were it not.¡± I shook my head, not wanting to delve too deeply into her logic, which tended to be confusing at the very best of times. I swear, I barely understand her sometimes. Idarus recovered from the punch, and stood back up. There was now a slight swelling to the right side of his face, which would likely bloom into a brilliant bruise in a while. ¡°Might I suggest a compromise?¡± He said. Jasmine looked at his crossly. ¡°What? I will punch you again, if you try saying something stupid.¡± ¡°How about this? What if we try and research Lady Katariah first, finding out all we can, before you go deciding that she¡¯s bad news? That way, we can determine what sort of person she is, as well as what she¡¯s doing here.¡± I nodded, adding on to his plan, well aware that this would be our last chance, as far as Jasmine is concerned. ¡°Yeah, and then, once we know more about her, we can approach her with the intention of being friends, safe in the knowledge that she is as harmless as we first thought.¡± Jasmine stood still for a few moments, and I was afraid that we hadn¡¯t gotten through to her. However, after an extended silence, she nodded her head. ¡°Fine. We¡¯ll do things your way. Just don¡¯t blame me when she turns out to not be nearly as cutesy and ¡®harmless¡¯ as you think. That girl has secrets.¡± She said melodramatically, in an obvious attempt to scare us off. It didn¡¯t work, of course.
¡°So that¡¯s what all that fuss had been about! I had been wondering why Djorn had burst in on our meeting, chuckling to himself.¡± Laughed Joan. She seemed to think that what had happened after abandoning me to the nobles had been funny. I was of another opinion. ¡°Oh yes, it was due to the great time I had been having out in the ballroom! Why the hell couldn¡¯t I have just slipped in with you in the Royals to listen in? Gods above know that you don¡¯t really have anything more to hide. I¡¯ve seen the nukes, after all.¡± Joan patiently listened to my mini-rant before replying in a calm and collected manner. It almost made be feel bad for getting upset at her. Almost. ¡°Would you have liked for even more people to take notice of you, and bother you later?¡± I looked at her questioningly, unsure of what she meant. ¡°Look, it was a mistake on my part to sit you up one the same table as the Royalty. Because of that, I pretty much eliminated any chances you might have had of laying low. I realized that while talking to the King and Queen, when the King mentioned that you wouldn¡¯t be unknown any longer.¡± ¡°Because of this, I decided that it would be better to leave you outside, rather than bringing you with us. It made it so that you were just the girl who was able to sit with the Royalty, instead of the one that had been privy to their secrets.¡± Ah, damn it all, but Joan has a point. I sighed. ¡°Fine, fine¡ªI may have jumped to some conclusions on my own here. Next time though, leave me out of this stuff. I hate balls, with all the simpering nobles and arrogant idiots like the one that had accosted me.¡± Joan nodded her head emphatically. A second later, a sly smile appeared on her face though, so I don¡¯t know how sincere the nodding had been. ¡°I think you did have fun though. It sounded like you enjoyed the drama.¡± ¡°Certainly, I enjoy drama¡ªfrom a distance though. Being a part of it is troublesome, after all.¡± Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! ¡°Eh, whatever you say. Though, just know, your true personality will come through sooner or later.¡± I shook my head, dismissing Joan¡¯s last statement. My personality is to be indifferent¡ªwhy would it change? After that, we went out separate ways. I returned to my room, and took a quick bath after stripping off the fancy dress I had been wearing. The bath relaxed me, and gave me time to consider all that had happened during the ball. In retrospect, I should have known that the boy¡ªJoseph, I think he called himself, wouldn¡¯t be angry about the hallway collision thing. No, instead, he seemed to be rather interested in me. I wonder why he would be¡ªHe shouldn¡¯t have been able to ascertain my level of strength, nor should he know about my blacksmithing skills. Why else would he be interested in me? But, the truth still remained that he was almost constantly looking at me while I was with him and the Royal children. Hm, maybe there had been something on my face? But then, he should have told me about it instead of constantly looking at it. It¡¯s rude to do that, you know. On the other hand, the Prince seemed to be eager to please me. I assume he had seen me talking with his parents, and wanted to know what sort of status I held, to be able to do that. Princes are nearly always political creatures, with the exception of the ones that had gone rotten. The Princess seemed to hold some sort of enmity towards me. This was the first time I had met her though, so I have no idea what may have caused it. All in all, a troublesome bunch. I just hope that I won¡¯t see them again. I spent the rest of the night meditating, and my level rose again, breaking through into two hundred and twenty. It doesn¡¯t feel like it¡¯s slowing down anytime soon.
I need to see her again. It¡¯s only been a day since the ball, but the sight of her face is burned into the back of my mind. In fact, I woke up this morning determined to find her, and become close to her in all senses of the word. Jasmine¡¯s warning stuck with me though, making me feel like I had to be cautious about this, if only because Jasmine would likely resort to magical violence were she to find out that I had started searching for Katariah only a day after the ball. Well, she would have until I ran into a little problem. How the hell do I start looking for her? I ran into her in an old hallway once, before she walked off, and then again at the ball. However, she had never told me where she lived, or how I could find her again. I spent the whole morning agonizing over a solution to this, until I remembered the woman that Katariah had come to the ball, and left with. Those older nobles seemed to know who she was. And, the King should also know who she was, since they had gone into a separate room to talk away from the other nobles. Right¡ªsince the King would know for certain who she was, I think I¡¯ll ask Idarus to talk to him about this. And hopefully, after finding out who that woman had been, I can find out more about Katariah. My little planning session was interrupted when Gabriel knocked on my door, leading me to realize that I had promised to go to the city with him a few days before the ball. ¡°I¡¯m so sorry, Gabriel. It had completely slipped my mind.¡± ¡°I already told you, stop apologizing. I know that you had an¡­eventful evening last night at the ball, after I left. Besides, I didn¡¯t wait long before coming to get you¡ªI¡¯m too impatient for that, remember?¡± said Gabriel as we walked out of the palace. ¡°Though, I only heard a little about the ball. Is it true that you had punched Carlton Gibraltar in the face for insulting Princess Jasmine?¡± ¡°What? No. That¡¯s not what happened.¡± ¡°Ah, good. I was afraid that you really had hit that guy. He doesn¡¯t need even more of a reason to dislike you.¡± I scratched my cheek, while giving Gabriel a strained smile. ¡°No, I still punched him, just not for Jasmine. There was another girl there.¡± Gabriel gaped at me. ¡°What?! My gods Joseph, what did you do?!¡± ¡°Well, do you remember that girl that I had run into in a hallway?¡± ¡°Yeah, the one you¡¯ve been pinning after, right? What about her¡­No¡ªYou found her, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Yep. Right after you left. She¡¯s every bit as beautiful as I had first thought. You really missed out.¡± Gabriel shook his head, apparently unable to come to terms with this. ¡°I even found out her name¡ªIt¡¯s Katariah Silver. Though, I have no idea how to see her again. I was going to ask Idarus about her, and see if his father knows where she is.¡± ¡°Katariah? That sounds familiar for some reason¡­¡± ¡°Really? Have you heard about her from somewhere?¡± ¡°I¡¯m not¡­Wait. I think my sister mentioned something about a Katariah person, a while back.¡± ¡°Really? Well, talk to Bea about it. You guy¡¯s are siblings, right? Besides, she knows me fairly well. I¡¯m sure that if the situation gets explained, she would help us. And, even if she doesn¡¯t know anybody named Katariah, she can still use the Black Guard¡¯s information network to look for her.¡± Gabriel nodded. "Sure. Damn it all, but you''ve gotten me curious about that girl as well, with how much you''ve moaned about her lately."
Author''s Note: My head feels like it was slow roasted in a microwave, so the chapter was short this time. Don''t know how I''ll feel tomorrow. Chapter 72: The Working Family Author''s Note: There was a small mistake in the previous chapter, where I stated Kai''s level to be 180 or something. That''s wrong. It''s 220 now. Sorry. It''s been changed in the original chapter.
I stopped my mediation bright and early, intending to grab some food before heading out the forge while it was still empty. I was looking forward to getting lost in my own thoughts, and continuing my relaxation after the ball. I really dislike being around large groups of people, and the ball was taxing for me in several different ways. Alas, it was not to be. Bea was waiting right outside my door, even though the sun hadn¡¯t yet risen. ¡°How in the holy hells did you know I would be up? Were you waiting here the entire night?¡± I asked, perplexed as to how she had known when I would wake up. She smiled broadly at me. ¡°Please, I¡¯m a member of the Black guard, specializing in intelligence. I probably know your habits better than you yourself do.¡± ¡°I sincerely doubt that you know that much about me. How long were you waiting here?¡± She wilted, knowing that I could see past her brave front. ¡°Only an hour or so. Geez. If you knew I was bluffing, then why couldn¡¯t you just let it be?¡± ¡°It would give you false confidence.¡± I said, ruthlessly cutting her down. I let her walk with me to the kitchen to make up for this a little, though. As expected, the ovens were on, and the cooks already hard at work making enough food to feed this half of the palace. There was a pile of rolls set off to the side, gently steaming in the morning air. I grabbed a plate from a nearby rack, and a few of the rolls. Then, dodging all the people working, I nicked what I could from the baker¡¯s pans and cutting boards. The servants recognized me, due to the frequency in which I was down here for an early breakfast. They smiled upon seeing me, greeting and wishing me a good day. They also knew Bea, since she normally came down here with me. We set down our plates at a small table off to one corner of the kitchen, and started eating. While I was spreading butter on one of my rolls, Bea started a conversation. ¡°So, I heard you had a good time at the ball yesterday?¡± ¡°No. I¡¯m going to stop you right there¡ªbecause that is one subject you really don¡¯t want to touch right now. I¡¯m still bitter, so try again in a week or so. Or, ask you informants in the Black guard about it. I¡¯m sure they know exactly what happened.¡± Bea sulked. ¡°Aw, but I wanted to hear it from you. All Joan would tell me was that you are liable to be fairly angry today.¡± ¡°I am.¡± ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡°Aw, but, can¡¯t you just¡­¡± ¡°No.¡± Bea sulked even more, due to the fact that I wouldn¡¯t tell her what had happened at the ball. I decided to derail her direction of conversation, by throwing in another topic. ¡°Say, everyone calls you Bea, but I remember that your full name was something different, right?¡± Bea looked confused, but still went along with the question. ¡°Yeah. My name is Samantha Usinger, why?¡± ¡°I was just wondering where you got Bea, from Samantha. Sam, I would understand, but your nickname is Bea instead. Why?¡± ¡°Ah, it was something my little sister called me, and it just stuck in the end.¡± ¡°Your sister was just calling you Bea? That doesn¡¯t make much sense.¡± ¡°Well, she was young, and couldn¡¯t pronounce the letters she wanted to.¡± ¡°Then, what was she trying to call you?¡± ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡°Now, what happened at the ball, Kai?¡± Ah, she dodged the question. And, now we¡¯re back to the original subject. I resolved myself to eating in silence for the rest of the meal, unwilling to answer Bea¡¯s question. Joan¡¯s willingness to laugh at my misfortune was bad enough, and I just wanted to spend this morning in relative peace. Besides, it¡¯s doubtless that Bea would be able to figure out what happened sooner or later, and have a good laugh at my expense. After finishing breakfast, we went down to the forge. Bea had also made a habit of watching me smith weapons, saying that it had a much-needed calming effect on her in the mornings. I will admit, it was equally¡ªif not more¡ªcalming to be the one doing the smithing. Something about watching stuff shape itself into the thing you had envisioned was deeply satisfying on a spiritual level. This is why most people pick up a hobby of some kind, I guess. And I was no different. Smithing was deeper than meditation to me, more powerful in a way. In fact, I felt like gathering mana while smithing happened quicker than simple meditation, speeding up the leveling process somewhat. Maybe it had something to do with the rate in which I was pumping mana into the blades I made? A normal person would have likely collapsed from mana exhaustion long ago, and I was only able to smith the way I had been lately due to the depth and compression of my mana pool. Still, that power is not endless, and required that I take in more mana while smithing. I think it¡¯s this endless ebb and flow that allowed me to deepen my mana pool, and carve my way towards the next level so quickly. And, truth be told, the weapon¡¯s I created, were definitely worthy of all that mana I had pumped into them. I had nearly come close to perfecting the mana circuit that I had tested a while back¡ªthe one that had nearly blown the underground nukes. And, there were others in development, with various stages of completion. I had figured out one that would make a sword softly glow in certain situations, providing a convenient lamp in the darkness. If I managed to affix a lightning circuit to it as well, then I would have a lamp to decrease the local bug population. Yeah, it¡¯s not very impressive when considering battle applications, but there would be no pesky mosquito bites during the night. I would just need to figure out a way to power the thing without having to rely on the wielder¡¯s own mana, because nobody wanted to be constantly holding a glowing sword that attracted, and killed insects. Just the smell alone would be awful. I was holding off on using the various rare metals in the smithy for now, only creating full-sized swords from the high quality steel they have. Every now and then, I would forge out a small knife from a particular rare metal, or form using a fusion of several different metals, but that had been the limit so far. I hadn¡¯t even tested my mana circuits with those daggers, since all the good ones would require a full-sized weapon. So, as a result, there were quite a few powerful steel weapons lying around the smithy, waiting to be given a guard and handle. Most of them were somewhat incomplete, due to the fact that I was only testing various mana circuits on them. The complete ones were more danger¡­.No. Never mind. The incomplete ones were worse. I feared even touching some of them, and had since melted them into slag, not wanting some poor apprentice smith to jolt them the wrong way. This is why I missed my private forges; since I could have just left things were they were¡ªpartially as an antitheft measure. Can you just image some poor thief picking up a fine looking weapon, only to have half his body disappear? Something like that happening to an apprentice would be bad, though, so I made sure to clean up the worst blades. If you encounter this narrative on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it. I felt like I was quickly approaching the level where I could start using the rare metals here, and forging them into blades with embedded mana circuits. I had made a good weapon with Starsteel, but since half of it had been hacked off by that damn lich, it hadn¡¯t been the same weapon. I would need the other half before making it fully usable again. That is, if it was still worth it to fix such a weapon. Who knows, I could make a blade that completely surpassed it soon. But, until I was totally confident in the mana circuits I¡¯m developing, I wasn¡¯t going to mess around with the other metals. So, for now, I¡¯ll keep experimenting with in steel, and continue making scary blades.
When I left Kai, she was bending a bar of steel in half with a scary expression. I think she looked the same as Overseer Joan, when she got really involved in a new project. You could tell that she was pouring her entire being into her work, even if that smile told you that the work wasn¡¯t exactly a good thing for the world. Really, it was fun to just watch Kai make weapons. She looked so carefree and happy while doing that¡ªA sharp difference to her usual self. She wouldn¡¯t even tell me about the ball! Neither would Joan, who simply dangled tidbits of information in front of me! Gods, they should have never met. Horrible, the two of them are. Anyway, I had gotten my fill of Kai¡¯s smithing for today, and had other things to do, besides. One of which was to find out what had happened to Kai during the ball. All Joan would tell me, was that it involved a boy, and that Kai needed to cool off for a while. It was infuriating, not knowing in what context to take this. So, the first thing I did, was go to the Commander of the Black guard, and my direct superior¡ªColonel Usinger. Except, as soon as I stepped foot into his office, I saw a shameful display. ¡°Ah! Bea, my Beautiful daughter! Please, help me!¡± I shut the door, and walked away, aware that gaining knowledge from him this time would come at a price I wasn¡¯t willing to pay. I ignored the pleading cries coming from behind me. Your sacrifice will be remembered, Father. Next, I checked with a woman named Nadene. She was just an account in the palace, but seemed to have a scary grasp on everything going on here. I blame the servant¡¯s gossip network. ¡°Hey, Nadene. I have a small favor to ask, if that¡¯s all right with you?¡± ¡°Sure, go ahead.¡± She said, barely looking up from the ledgers she was in the middle of balancing. ¡°Right. I just want to know if you¡¯ve heard anything about the ball last night? Particularly involving a girl named Katariah?¡± Nadine looked up briefly in surprise, and I noticed her face paling ever so slightly. ¡°Sorry, but I don¡¯t know anything about that. I think anything that¡¯s happened hasn¡¯t had the time yet to get around.¡± I thanked her and left, knowing that something was wrong. After all, gossip travels faster than anything else. Everything that had happened during that ball had likely already circled the palace a few dozen times. I went to a reliable informant on the happenings among the nobles, and got much of the same answer, but with a little warning. ¡°Ya might want to stay out of this one, lass. There¡¯s been a gag order put on that bit of news.¡± ¡°What? Who put out a gag order?¡± ¡°Can¡¯t say. It¡¯s a gag order, after all.¡± I groaned, and thanked the man for what little information he had given me. I went to the library for a little while, to check up on Kai. She normally finished her smithing around this time, and went to study there. She was certainly a diligent creature, immersing herself in those subjects that normal children avoided like the plague, like history, or math. After making sure that she was alright and didn¡¯t need anything (As well as plying her again for answers about the ball), I went to the big event I planned for that day. It was a dinner with my family¡ªa rare chance to be taken while Mom was still in the capital, while Dad wasn¡¯t too busy, and when my little sister not training hard. We had decided to rent a table in a famous restaurant near the capital. I was the first to arrive, and sit at the table we had reserved in a quiet corner of the restaurant¡¯s loft. Soon after, Dad came¡ªlikely running from the pile of paper work I had seen him buried under earlier today. ¡°Are you sure that you can afford to leave that alone for the night, Dad?¡± ¡°Yes, yes. It¡¯ll be there tomorrow, and most of it is just papers approving pay raises or various promotions.¡± ¡°Hey! One of those might be mine, you idiot of a father!¡± Thankfully, he escaped a brutal tongue-lashing by the arrival of Mom, who had gotten back the night before¡ªshe had been off inspecting the quality of the farming fields near the border. ¡°Ah, are you two getting along?¡± ¡°Honey, Bea¡¯s bullying me!¡± ¡°Eh? You¡¯re the one slacking off. The only reason you have to do so much paperwork is because you¡¯ve neglected it for a few months again, right? Ooh, critical damage. Only with the support of his loving wife does Dad escape death by my berating him. Finally, Gabriel showed up, still wearing leather-training gear, and sweating slightly. For some reason, people were always mistaking her for a man, even though she¡¯s so pretty. I really don¡¯t get it. Are all boy¡¯s now-a-days idiots or something? ¡°Did you run here right after training, Gaby?¡± Asked Mom, who was well aware of Gabriel¡¯s habits. ¡°Sorry. I forgot the time, and ended up cutting it really close.¡± ¡°Were you training with Joseph again? You¡¯ve been sparring him for a while now.¡± ¡°Yeah, along with the Second Prince. It¡¯s really helped me improve, having a strong opponent.¡± ¡°Ah, that sounds great.¡± Said Dad, who approved of Gaby¡¯s fierce training methods. ¡°And, what have you been doing lately, Bea?¡± He added. ¡°Same thing I have been for the past few weeks. Watching over Kai, and helping her out.¡± ¡°Kai?¡± Asked Gabe. ¡°Yeah. She¡¯s a new ward in the other half of the palace. She arrived due to unforeseen circumstances, and was taken under the Overseer¡¯s wing.¡± ¡°What¡¯s her full name, and what does she look like. I think I might know who you¡¯re talking about, but I want to be sure.¡± Said Gabe, looking curious, and eager for some reason. ¡°Uh, right. Her full name is Katariah Silver, and she¡¯s short, with white hair, golden eyes, and black horns. She also happens to be ridiculously cute, but don¡¯t let her know that.¡± Gabriel gaped at me. ¡°Wait, so she was the one at the ball last night?¡± My attention snapped back onto Gabriel, and I practically shouted back at her. ¡°What happened at that ball?! You know, don¡¯t you?!¡±
2nd Author''s Note: Yes, I realize it''s been slow going lately. Trust me, it''s necessary at this point, but not for much longer. At most, only three or four chapters remain until this new arc really gets kicked off. Chapter 73: Scary New Weapons Taking a bath at the end of a long day felt absolutely wonderful. Especially so with the knowledge of what I was going to try tomorrow. It was high time I tried making a full blown sword with the rare metals in the smithy. All the things I had made with them so far¡ªthe daggers, knives and small, sharp implements¡ªhad turned out well. Just today, I had managed to successful incorporate a few of my better mana circuits into a long hunting knife made of a fusion of several metals. It was high time I made something that broke the current boundaries of my talent. After spending all of the morning smithing (As well as a good chunk of the afternoon), I studied in the library. Unfortunately, it had been a while since I had come across any new information. The library here was simply too far removed from the center of things, and as such, had little knowledge about the world as a whole. There was plenty about local things, like this kingdom¡¯s history, or what sort of monsters tended to pop-up. It simply didn¡¯t have the things I needed. Anyway, like I was saying. The baths here at the palace are definitely first rate. Even after a day full of work, I felt relaxed and invigorated while soaking in its steamy water. Not only that, but the soaps they kept here allowed me to take good care of my skin and hair. While it was true that I didn¡¯t particularly care how I looked, I still wanted to take good care of myself. Besides, some others seemed to care a great deal about my looks. I could certainly use that fact to my advantage, and already have a few times. If there was one bad thing I could say about the baths, it was that they weren¡¯t private. And, unfortunately, that meant that while I was taking a long bath, there would inevitably be¡­ ¡°Ah! Kai, there you are! I¡¯ve been looking for you everywhere! Say, is it true that you met the royal family during the ball, and got hit on by the future Duke of Gibraltar?¡± I sank down into the soapy water, wanting to avoid the troublesome person who had just showed up after somehow finding out what had happened during the ball. When I surfaced, Bea had thankfully gone¡ªor so I hoped with all my heart. It wasn¡¯t to be though, since she rounded the corner a scant second later, completely naked. She didn¡¯t hesitate to jump into the bath water, and make her way over to where I was with a pouty face. ¡°Hey, don¡¯t just ignore me¡ªespecially after I went to such great lengths to find out what exactly you didn¡¯t want me to hear about the ball.¡± ¡°Ugh. Fine. What do you want with me?¡± ¡°Not much, I just wanted to hear a detailed and in-depth recounting of what happened during the ball, from your own perspective.¡± ¡°I went, got annoyed, and left.¡± ¡°Oh, come on¡ªtell me more! I know what had happened, but what did ¡ªyou¡ª think of the events?¡± ¡°Annoying. Go away.¡± Bea adopted a face like I had shot her, and moved closer to me in the bath. ¡°If you won¡¯t tells me, then I¡¯m afraid I might have to use more¡­forceful means to get you to talk.¡± ¡°Hey, what are you doing? Wait, no, don¡¯t do that! No¡ªget away from me!!!¡±
Needless to say, Bea managed to get me to spill some of the details she hadn¡¯t heard before, at the cost of my pride and dignity. What exactly she did, I¡¯ll leave to the imagination. Later, I had managed to drag myself out of the bath, and flee back to my room. Meditation helped me to relax again, though I resolved to keep my guard up around Bea from now on. Like this, the night quickly passed. And, like yesterday, I rose at the crack of dawn. Bea however, wasn¡¯t in front of my door like she so often was. I wasn¡¯t concerned by this, since the very same thing had happened a few times before, when she had other things to do. Besides, I wasn¡¯t ready to forgive her for yesterday¡¯s bath incident. Today was the day, no? In fact, it was slightly lucky that Bea wasn¡¯t going to be coming with me, since I would be making something capable of very, very dangerous things. It was time I made use of the rare metals in the smithy to make something spectacular. I already had plans drafted for how the sword would turn out. Since I prefer longer, single-edged swords, I would make another nodachi. It would be slightly scaled down in order to compensate for my short build, and had several circuits imbued into it that will be helpful to me. As for the metals I would use, I had found that a combination of Manachalite, Boresteel, and Coralium worked exceedingly well together. I would compliment the nodachi with a wakizashi forged with a Tunnel-iron core, and Manachalite sides. As soon as I got to the forge, I pulled aside all the materials I would need, setting them up near the anvil and hammer I had gotten used to using here. Unfortunately, my normal equipment, like my hammer, tongs, grips and such, were left behind when the summit started. Doubtless, they¡¯re still in the room I had been given as a teacher at the academy. Now then, first things first. I decided to start with the wakizashi, since there would be less waste material should I fail part-way through. However, the wakizashiwas far more difficult in terms of the technique and power required. Essentially, Tunnel-iron was a mana repulsing material, while Manachalite was a mana attractor. While fooling around a bit, I found out that there is a way to fuse the two metals together, by temporarily neutralizing the repulsive properties of Tunnel-iron. The only way to do that, was to apply heat to the Tunnel-iron, and fuse the Manachalite to it while it was in that heated state. The difficult part of this was that I had to maintain a temperature capable of nullifying the Tunnel-iron, while keeping a barrier intact so that the rocks under my feet didn¡¯t melt into pure magma. I also had to keep three more barriers active, ones that would hold the metals in a sword shape, while still letting heat in. All in all, to fuse these two metals together required intense levels of concentration and power. Never-the-less, it was possible for me. I quickly shaped the metals slabs into near identical bars about the right length for a wakizashi. When the three bars were as close to perfect as I could bring them, I placed the first three barriers around them, leaving them somewhat separate, but perfectly aligned. The Tunnel-iron in the center was thicker than the two bars of Manachalite¡ªhowever, I had taken care that there was a near equal amount of the two metals. Balance was important for this. Then, I placed the fourth barrier down, the one that would protect the palace from the heat I was about to introduce. ¡°I summon upon the flames that would end this world¡ªMuspelhiem.¡± I chanted. While I had shortened the original chant significantly, I only wanted the fire to be powerful enough to null the metal, not to burn straight through my barrier, and cause everything around me to turn to plasma. Immediately after applying a bit of mana to the spell, the inside of the barrier started glowing a brilliant white color. I switched over to my other sight, so that I could perceive the inside of this miniature sun. I also began pouring more and more mana into the spell and the barriers, brings things up a notch. Slowly, I could see that the mana inside the barrier was no longer being rejected by the tunnel-iron, and instead was flowing through it like normal. Judging this to be the best time, I forcefully brought the three bars of metal together, with the Manachalite sandwiching the Tunnel-iron. In their current molten state, it was easy to weld them together, leaving two parts inside the blade that would be both Tunnel-iron and Manachalite. With the weld looking successful, I deactivated my fire spell, and the glowing mass of white faded, leaving a super-bright node of pure white metal. I left it in the air to cool off slowly, with all the barriers still intact. If I subjected the metals to too much of a temperature change right now, they would either snap, or deform. Instead, I began work on the nodachi. It was much easier to create it, since it wasn¡¯t going to have a Tunnel-iron in it. Instead, I selected the three metals for it due to the fact that they mutually supported each other. As I mentioned, Manachalite draws in mana exceedingly well, so I decided to place it on the outer sides of the nodachi, just like with the wakizashi. Boresteel would be used as the edge, due to it¡¯s innate strength and rigidity. I had found out that it made the finest cutting edge, due to another frightening quality it had. It naturally formed miniscule tubes and wires in it, making the already frightfully strong and sharp metal even stronger, and keener. Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there. Back on Earth, I remember people finding out that some swords had been forged in such a way that these nanotubes and wires formed, making legendary Damascus Steel blades. Boresteel was like this, but hundreds of times better. It¡¯s a little frightening what a world with mana can form completely naturally. Lastly, Coralium would be used to create the core, and the heart of the blade. Coralium¡¯s like a sponge with mana, and has a few other useful features in it. For one, since it has such a good affinity with mana, and holds it so readily, it acts superbly well as a circuit board. It¡¯s also nigh on indestructible, so there¡¯s that. It was much easier this time, to bring these metals up to a temperature that would allow them to weld together. After I confirmed that they had bonded fast to each other, I carefully hammered it into a better shape, while threading mana circuits through the whole thing. Like I had surmised with my test blades, the mana circuits I was able to incorporate into this nodachi were a level or two above the ones I had done previously. When using the rare metals to craft daggers and knives, I could put one, maybe two serious mana circuits into the blades. I could do more with a full sized blade. After I got the blade close to my ideal, I dunked it into a nearby quench tank. Steam filled the shop, and I could nearly feel the blade becoming sharper, stronger. When I pulled it out, the blade had adopted a subtitle curve, one that would be further accented during the tempering process. I put the traditional clay along the edge of the blade, and placed it into an oven to bake for a few hours. ''Strength is nothing without flexibility¡¯, as some one once said to me. This would make it so that the blade wouldn¡¯t snap due to rigidity. While the nodachi was undergoing the tempering process, I dismissed the barriers around the wakizashi, and shaped it as well, hammering a rudimentary edge into it, and correcting any of the minor warping that had occurred when it had so rapidly cooled. I also added a few mana circuits to it, carefully threading them into the Manachalite on the sides of the Tunnel-iron. Then, I also quenched it before slotting it into a smaller oven in the same process that I had used for the nodachi, which had now been in it¡¯s oven for a few hours. I pulled it out of the oven, and quenched it once more. And, even though I had just dunked it in an oil bath, the blade was still hot enough to be malleable, so the was the best time to bend out those last few kinks that had happened along the way. Sharpening started after I had cleaned the blade. Because this blade had now become so strong, I had to use a special whetstone to sharpen it, otherwise the stone would be slowly rubbed away by the metal. The constant rasp of metal filled the smithy. Luckily, there was no one else here for today, else I might have drawn some undue attention with my smithing. Another few hours passed, and I began the whole process with the wakizaki this time. Oddly enough, the nodachi had taken on a dull white sheen, like bleached bone, or paper. The wakizashi, however, had turned a dark and turbid black, with faint swirling patterns along its sides. As soon as the sharpening process was done, the blades were basically finished. I would only need to make the hilts, handles, and sheaths for them. In their current forms though, they were fairly functional. So, I was able to determine what sort of quality they had become. I nearly fainted after realizing what, exactly, I had just created. As a result, I made the blade¡¯s fixings in a sort of fugue state, completely guided by instinct. And, as a result, the two blades gained utterly plain looking handles and sheaths in dull white and black. I had cast the guards a while ago, and only needed to make a few adjustments to get them to fit the blades. In the end, I gained something as soon as I placed the finishing touch on the blades. I heard a soft ding, and a system notification popped up. Really, why shouldn''t this happen now?
New Title Gained:
Title: {The Timeless Smith} Unlocked
The holder of this title will have their smithing ability raised significantly, and will be more powerful when wielding a weapon of their own creation
As for the blades themselves;
Sunlight¡¯s Glare
A Nodachi crafted by Katariah Silver
Properties:
Karmic Edge Titanic Resiliency Mana Eater Kinetic Drive Amplification
This blade has broken past national treasure levels, and is purely meant for combat. One half of an intended set.
Moonlight''s Gaze
A Wakizashi crafted by Katariah Silver
Properties:
Mana Nullification Titantic Resiliency Swift End
This blade has broken past national treasure levels, and is purely meant for combat. One half of an intended set.
Well, it looks like they came out well. Though, I may have overdone it a little with their abilities. Karmic Edge will allow you to cut anything you wish to cut, provided to supply enough mana. Titanic Resiliency makes the blades durable beyond any belief. Mana Eater makes the Nodachi a massive battery which almost always sucks in ambient mana while unsheathed. Amplification obviously amplifies any spell that I put through the blade. Duh. For the Wakizashi, mana nullification lets me cut through magic armor, barriers, and spells with ease¡ªA direct result of using Tunnel-iron in the blade. However, Swift End is scarier by far. When I stab someone with this blade, it ends up being used as a conduit of sorts, venting their mana from their mana pool. If the blade is left in long enough, or I hit the target a few times, they run out of mana. And die. That¡¯s not the scariest ability these blades have though. Not even close. That particular honor goes to the Nodachi¡¯s Kinetic Drive circuit. Do you remember how I nearly set off the nukes kept under the palace, through a blade with a failed mana circuit? Yeah, that was a failed Kinetic Drive circuit. Basically, as long as the blade has power, it will move forward. I had some trouble making it so that the blade wasn¡¯t limited to straight lines, though. Basically, with this ability, I could be swinging the blade extremely slowly, and it would cut a boulder-sized chunk of steel in two. Along with Karmic Edge, this circuit makes the blade literally unstoppable. I think I¡¯m a little scared of myself at the moment, actually. Oh well. At least I have some new weapons, right? I decided to go back to my room to put the blades away, and get to dinner. Forging them had taken longer than I had expected. Rather, that¡¯s what I had been intending to do, until I ran into Bea. And, she had unwelcome company.
Author''s Note: Sorry for the wait! So, this arc is quickly coming to a close, now that Kai has done all she can in this country. The next one will bring back the Continents, in quite a convenient way. In other news, I was somehow persuaded into writing a book. (I still have no idea how, but it left me feeling fired up.) As a result, the second series for RR has been put on the back-burner. Don''t worry, this series still takes priority. I promise to get at least three chapters a weeks out¡ªthough there mightbe more than that in actuality. Lastly, how would you guys feel about voluntary donations? I''m still not sure if this story is at the level where I can feel proud about getting donations from it. (However, I am alsonow a college student, and find that money for snacks and other things can be very, very good.) Chapter 74: Its nice to be appreciated. Troublesome people are troublesome, after all. I couldn¡¯t even run away this time, because they also somehow got around behind me. In front of me, down the corridor, Bea and another girl awaited me. They shared a faint resemblance to each other, leading me to believe that this was Bea¡¯s sister, who she had talked to me about several times before. And, as soon as I turned around, I noticed that there were three people further down the hall from where I had come¡ªit was the Second Prince, Princess, and that boy Joseph. This is all Bea¡¯s fault, isn¡¯t it? ¡°Kai! I brought some people with me this time¡ªlet¡¯s go to dinner together!¡± I glanced from side to side, trying to find a door, window, something to enable a clean getaway. Of course, there was nothing. They had thought this through. I looked at Bea warily, while frantically trying to think of a way out of this. ¡°Bea, I just had a long day. Can¡¯t I just have some peace and quiet?¡± Bea shook her head. ¡°No¡ªyou¡¯ve been cooped up in the palace since you got here. I think it¡¯s time you got out and saw the city itself. Joan also agreed with me on this, and even suggested that we bring along a few people your age.¡± ¡°But¡­¡± ¡°We can visit some of the cities¡¯ weapon shops, after eating dinner.¡± ¡°Fine¡± I begrudgingly replied. She knows my weak points all too well. ¡°Just let me get changed first.¡± I grumbled, looking down at my stained and worn work clothes. Bea agreed, but still followed my all the way back to my room¡ªprobably to make sure that I didn¡¯t run away or something. Please, I¡¯d already said I was going, didn¡¯t I? Back in my room, I changed into the Sage¡¯s clothing, as I¡¯d come to call the clothing I had gotten from Ascension Island. They were currently in a nondescript style, with dark trousers, a white-layered shirt, and my typical long-coat over that. I grabbed a long rectangle of cloth, and tied it around my waist multiple times to use as a belt. I slid the Wakizaki into my new belt, and slung the Nodachi across my back. I had debated leaving my new weapons behind, but ultimately decided against it, for a few reasons. They would afford me a good amount of security against the others going to dinner with me, as well as deterring any unwelcome advances towards me from strangers. Also, I felt a somewhat unreasonable attachment towards them, since I had lost my last nodachi in such a traumatizing way. At least I had been able to reattach my arm, though there¡¯s a small scar encircling the spot where it had been lost in the first place. The sword had not been so lucky, and I had ended up having to reforge it into a smaller weapon. Couldn¡¯t that damned lich have gone easy on me? Anyway, I swept out of my room, nearly running headlong into Bea, who was waiting outside my door. ¡°Oh! Ready this so¡­What are you wearing, Kai?¡± ¡°What, these?¡± I said, flashing a smile. ¡°My normal clothes, why?¡± ¡°Normal clothes? ¡­But, don¡¯t you normally wear dresses and the like?¡± ¡°No. Normally, I am forced to wear dresses by the maids. When I have a choice, this is what I wear.¡± It seemed Bea was not happy with my choice of clothing. I could hear her mumbling something under her breath, of which I caught snatches of her words. ¡°¡­no dresses¡­.not cute enough¡­.get maids to¡­.¡± Yeah, I think I¡¯ll be avoiding all contact with people after this. I don¡¯t even know what her issue is. After all, isn¡¯t her little sister wearing something quite similar to me? Not to mention that Bea¡¯s own clothes consisted of a loose blouse and long trousers. The only one wearing something dress-like was the Princess, who had donned a simple¡ªif well made, green dress. And, I wasn¡¯t the only one that was going out armed. Bea, Joseph, and the Prince all had swords belted onto them, and while the Prince¡¯s was a cut finer than the others, they all looked within the realms of practicality. Bea¡¯s, in particular, looked brutally simple. Both the Prince and Joseph were staring at me oddly, while the two girls had an emotion remarkably similar to hostility in their eyes. They were also watching me like a hawk does a little mouse¡ªthoroughly convincing me that this whole dinner thing will turn into something superbly annoying for me. Bea seemed to be the only one oblivious to the atmosphere in the hallway, either due to her typically blunt character, or from an intentional disregard towards it. And, as the only one seemly unaffected by the tenseness and silence, she was the one that spoke first, as if dispelling the atmosphere. ¡°So, where do you guys want to eat? There¡¯s a good mercenary bar near the half-way markets, or there¡¯s a more upscale tavern closer to the palace.¡± I, in a fit of amusement, suggested that we go to the mercenary bar. Why? Well, for one, bars full of warriors usually lead to all kinds of fun situations, and I like to watch chaos happen. I could also imagine the discomfort that these privileged children would go through, surrounded by so many scarred and battle hardened bodies. Thinking about that quickly turned this dinner from something annoying into something that I might even find amusing. Bea looked at me closely. ¡°Are you sure you want to go there? I just mentioned it casually¡ªthat doesn¡¯t mean that you have to go there.¡± I nodded. ¡°Yeah. I¡¯m sure. Let¡¯s go to this mercenary bar of yours, Bea.¡± ¡°Right. Just don¡¯t complain to me later, ok?¡± Bea lead the way, since she was the only one who knew where the bar was located. The guards saluted the Royals as we left, and doffed their decorative caps to Bea as well. They looked at Joseph with respect as well, likely due to that Paragon thingy. When they looked at me, they¡­blushed? Or, they did until they caught my glare, and looked away shyly. It¡¯s like they¡¯ve never seen a cute girl before or something. Past the palace gates, the stately manors of important nobles dominated the skyline, their walled estates leaving a distinct impression of isolation and loftiness. A few of them had their lights on, and there were faint sounds of laughter and music coming from within. The majority of them were dark and silent, however. Past the noble¡¯s manors, another wall rose, in order to separate the nobles from the common sectors of the city, most likely. A few more city guards were stationed at the gate leading out of this gate, but they let us through with no trouble at all. They probably had orders to simply let everyone from the noble sectors of the city through¡ªsince they guarded that gate against those that would enter the noble sectors illegally. As soon as we past outside the wall, the city brightened considerably. Many of the streets were still lit up, the night just beginning. As we walked down the main city through-fares, I saw many people walk into their local taverns in order to unwind at the end of a long work day. There were also many shops that were open and accepting customers. Many of them would still be open in a few hours, after we had finished our dinner. We continued walking almost to the outer city walls, where the houses had lessened in quality quite visibly, and where everyone seemed to be carrying a weapon of some kind around. ¡°Is the public order here particularly bad or something?¡± I asked. ¡°Hm. Not really¡ªhow do I explain this? Most of the cities mercenaries and adventurers live around this area, so weapons are a normal sight? They tend to get into a lot of fights, but they also clean up after themselves, so everything¡¯s alright here.¡± This story has been taken without authorization. Report any sightings. I nodded. I could see what Bea meant, since everybody seemed to be going about his or her business with a life-filled vibrancy. If anything, fights probably occurred for fun¡ªor for the so-called ¡®comparing techniques¡¯. We made our way into the thick of things, diving straight into one of the larger crowds here. Somehow, we managed to emerge on the other side more or less intact, with the whole group still together. Though, there were a few members who were beginning to look a little intimidated by the people here. No matter what, being physically dwarfed by other people is never a good feeling, especially when you¡¯re in the middle of a large crowd filled with tall, burly men with scars crisscrossing their skin. There were other body types, of course¡ªas well as a few women. However, they simply didn¡¯t stand out as much as the walking mountains of muscle. We finally reached the mercenary bar a little later. A weathered sign hung out front, with a sailboat carved into it and the words ¡®Aft-end Bar¡¯ below that. The bar itself looked like it was leaning to one side precariously, and would have fallen over long ago, had it not been for the fact that it nestled up against the main city wall. Inside, the sounds of laughter and loud voices dominated the auditory landscape, while the long booths set up held good-sized groups of beastkin. Many of them seemed to recognize Bea, and called out good-naturedly to her. The rest of us went largely unnoticed, though I felt a few keen-eyed looks directed towards me, and the weapons I had. Bea quickly directed us to a largely empty and quieter booth, were we sat down. Soon, a young and pretty waiter came over to us, to take our orders. I got some beef stew and a loaf of bread, along with a tankard of water. Everybody else got more or less the same thing; though Bea, her sister, the Prince, and Joseph got some beer with their meals. The Princess did the same thing as I, and got water. There was some conversation between the four beer drinkers, while the Princess mostly just listened with a faint smile on her face. My attention was elsewhere, planning my next steps. This, however, was interrupted by someone stopping right in front of me. It was a male lion beastkin, built in the typical mercenary way. He seemed courteous enough though, something that seemed quite odd to me at the time, since mercenary¡¯s in general tended to have¡­difficult personalities. I would later realize that he was being courteous because I was in Bea¡¯s company. Anyway, he stopped in front of me. ¡°Excuse me, young lady¡ªI¡¯d like to know where you had picked up your weapons?¡± He spoke in a gruff, but kindly manner, making me feel inclined to actually answer him with the truth. ¡°They were made in the palace smithy.¡± ¡°Oh. Never mind then. You have quite the luck then, little lady, to get weapons from the palace.¡± He said, visibly deflated. Likely, he had been hoping that I had gotten my weapons from a more accessible place. Now, some of you might be chastising me for misleading him. However, it would have been much too troublesome to let him know that I was the smith who had made them. And, I didn¡¯t lie to him, exactly. All throughout dinner, I was approached several times in the same manner¡ªto inquire about my weapons. Everybody else at the table seemed slightly confused about the whole thing, except for Bea, who might understand why all the better mercenaries were so enamored with my exotic, but plain looking weapons. You see, all the best weapons have a sort of feeling about them, and a beauty that even the ugliest sheath could do nothing to hide. The best mercenaries picked up on this, and understood that the weapons I carried were of the best possible quality. They wanted to know how to get such weapons, and I didn¡¯t fault them for that. We finished dinner, and hit up the shopping district, which was still doing a flourishing trade even after the sun had gone down. Everybody got to look at what they wanted to see. In other words, the Princess got to look at dresses for a brief moment, before everyone else converged the nearby weapons and armor shops. I took a quick look at what some of them had to offer, ruling out those that only sold decorative goods meant for fat nobles, or inferior products. A few of them took their weapons seriously, and approached them from a practical standpoint¡ªand these were the types of stores I was interested in. Even though I knew that none of them were likely to have anything like what I could make, I could still draw inspiration from the smallest details, or designs. One of the shops even ended up pleasantly surprising me with the quality of its goods. It was a small shop, but sold what would easily be the best weapons in the city, were it not for the palace smithy. And, there was practically no one in there, besides a middle-aged beastman sitting lazily behind a counter. Eventually, while browsing the few goods displayed, he looked up and finally noticed me. ¡°Sorry kid, but if you want a weapon from here, you¡¯ll have to pay for an appointment in order to discuss¡­Wait. What in the seven hells is that on your back?!¡± He said, flipping from a listless type guy into an energetic one with fire in his eyes and stomach. Yeah, he must be a fairly good blacksmith to have that sort of reaction towards my nodachi. ¡°Hm, this?¡± I asked, pulling the still sheathed blade off my back, and holding it in my hands. ¡°Yes, that! Quick, tell me who forged that blade!¡± I smiled at the man sweetly, and shook my head. ¡°No, don¡¯t want to.¡± ¡°Please! If not that, then can I at least hold it? I¡¯ll pay you for the privilege!¡± I shrugged. ¡°Fine, but only for a moment.¡± The smith gleefully took the nodachi, and unsheathed it. He marveled at it¡¯s white blade, and the craftsmanship in it. I felt quite proud in that moment, like a cook when their food is complimented. The man handed the sword back to me, and bowed down low. ¡°Thank you for this opportunity. How much do you want?¡± ¡°I don¡¯t need money. Just having someone appreciate my work is enough.¡± I said over my shoulder, while walking out the door. I felt that the smith should know that I had made the blade, even though I had said I wouldn¡¯t tell him earlier. I had thought him a kindred soul as soon as I had seen the expression of pure wonder on his face as he held the nodachi. to let him know who smithed it, was only right in my books. Besides, he didn''t try to chase after me, which was a huge plus for him in the end. I met up with everyone else again in the middle of a square, and we headed back to the palace. The guards let us in with no troubles, and I made it back to my room having made a resolution. I had been wondering what I should do next, since I had learned everything the library had to offer, and made some nice new weapons in the process. I think it was about time I moved on, and continued to try and find a way back to the Continents.
Author''s Note: Kai may find lots of things ''annoying'', but she''s really just a big pushover, isn''t she? I think that part of her personality comes from her distinct lack of feelings towards most things. Nest chapter should end this arc. Chapter 75: Looming Annoyances Today, the schedule that I had kept to for these past weeks was broken. Normally, I would head down to the smithy right before dawn, and forge out weapons in order to hone my own skill. Now that I had succeeded in making not one, but two powerful weapons, I no longer felt the need to go. Though, I still exited my room at the same time as normal. And, as expected; Bea was waiting outside my door. ¡°You know, I was also curious about those weapons last night. You made them yourself, didn¡¯t you?¡± She asked, pointing at the nodachi slung over my shoulder, and the wakizashi tucked into the same makeshift belt I¡¯d used last night. I nodded in confirmation. ¡°Yeah, I did.¡± ¡°So then, what are you going to do now?¡± ¡°What do you mean?¡± I asked. ¡°Well, it was fairly obvious that you were only really here for the library, and the forge. You¡¯ve probably read through all the most important books in the library by now, right? And now, you¡¯ve made those two weapons. As I see it, you¡¯ve got no reason to stay any longer. I know you want to get back to your home.¡± I sighed. ¡°You¡¯re right. I¡¯ve been considering what to do next for a while now. I think I know where I should go, but I need to talk with Joan first.¡± ¡°Then, do you want to go meet her?¡± ¡°Right now?¡± I asked. Bea nodded. ¡°Sure. Take me to your leader.¡± I replied, laughing on the inside. We traveled through the winding corridors and hallways, eventually ending up in front of Joan¡¯s office. It was the same place I had been brought to when I first arrived here, brought by Anhara. Joan was seated on one of the couches, reading reports of some kind when we pushed open the door and entered. She looked up, and nodded a greeting. ¡°Hello girls. What can I help you with today?¡± Bea stepped aside, letting me walk into the room first. Joan smiled slightly when I walked in, and she gestured to the couch across from her, as if saying that I should sit. However, before she could complete the gesture, she laid eyes on the nodachi hanging from one of my shoulders. ¡°Oh my. You made that, didn¡¯t you?¡± ¡°Yeah, but that¡¯s not why I wanted to talk to you today.¡± ¡°What do you want to discuss, then?¡± ¡°I wanted to thank you for your hospitality thus far, and inform you that I will soon be leaving for the Central Empires.¡± I said, mentioning the massive states in the middle of this landmass, where all the most recent information was held. I would have a much better chance there in finding out where the Continents are in relation to here. Joan didn¡¯t look shocked, or even the slightest bit surprised to hear this. ¡°That¡¯s fine then. When are your planning on leaving?¡± ¡°Two, maybe three days. I don¡¯t really have anything more to do here.¡± Joan¡¯s gaze once again alighted on my weapons, and she smiled slightly. ¡°I can see that. I had thought that you only smithed as a hobby¡ªnot that you might be one of the most pre-eminent smiths I¡¯ve ever seen. You would be hard-pressed to find blades comparable to the one on your back, even in the most prosperous of Empires.¡± ¡°Thank you.¡± I said, accepting her compliment. ¡°Now, if it¡¯s completely fine with you, I¡¯ll be going now.¡± ¡°Go ahead. In fact, why don¡¯t you head to the storerooms, and pick up some provisions for later, when you¡¯re on the road? Also, please feel free to take any other materials you might need with you¡ªwithin reason, that is.¡± I nodded, and left. I did end up going to one of the palace¡¯s storerooms, to see what sort of things they had stocked there. There was quite a lot of food, clothes, armor and the like. I suppose these were here in case the palace encountered a situation where resupply from outside was impossible. But still, it took me a good few hours to thoroughly explore the whole storeroom. The deeper I went, the more interesting and unique the items inside it became. There was even a complete ballista near the back wall, with crates full of its ammo next to it. It was also obvious that some people used this place as a dumping room of sorts, since there were a few¡­questionable goods hidden away in various locations. By the time I emerged from the storeroom, lunch had come around. I joined the main table for this meal, eating with Joan, Bea, and all those high-ranking military personal. However, it was also during this meal that my troubles really began, though I didn''t know that at the time. It was Joan who first brought it up, though Bea might have had a hand in the planning. It all started when Joan opened up a conversation with me, halfway through lunch. ¡°I¡¯m sorry to ask this of you, Kai, but could you delay your leaving for about a week?¡± I tilted my head in confusion. ¡°Why? Weren¡¯t you saying earlier that you had no problem with letting me leave in a few days?¡± ¡°Well, It¡¯s come to our attention that there will be a group of people leaving in a little over a week, in order to travel to the same Empires that you wish to go to.¡± ¡°Oh? And why should I wait, when I could leave sooner, and arrive quicker?¡± ¡°Because, there¡¯s added security in traveling with a group, and less hassle. This way, you would also have things like wagons to carry food and equipment, horses to keep you from having to walk, and guides to take you through the best routes. Not to mention that you could even take certain metals with you this way, since you wouldn¡¯t have to carry them all the way.¡± I considered her offer for only a brief moment. In truth, I would have said yes, even with only the possibility of bringing along some of the metals from the palace. ¡°Okay. You¡¯ve convinced me.¡± I said. ¡°About how many people would be going?¡± The tale has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.Joan thought for a second before answering. ¡°I¡¯d say around twenty or so. However, most of those will be guards, horsemen, and retainers to take care of the small details. There¡¯ll be two large wagons, and two carriages going as well.¡± I nodded. ¡°Sound¡¯s good. I guess I¡¯ll be exploring the city until the departure time, then.¡± ¡°Go ahead. Feel free to come and go as much as you want. And, again, take anything you want from the storerooms, or the smithy.¡± ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll be troubling you, then.¡±
After lunch, I amused myself outside of the palace, just as I had said I would. The only reason I hadn¡¯t yet been exploring in the city, was the fact that I had better things to do at the time. Now that my goals have been met for now, I could afford to venture outside, and experience what life in the city must be like. I am no fool, though, so I wore my long-coat with the hood up, which threw my face into shadows. And, with my unfortunate height, there was no way anyone would be able to peer up into the hood, and see my face¡ªunless I wanted them to. I didn¡¯t want to draw undue attention to myself, after all. I just wanted to observe things from a distance. I left the palace grounds, and walked past the gate guards no problem. The noble¡¯s district seemed just as quiet and still as it had before. I think that the nobles here all have other manors outside the capital, in their own land. That¡¯s probably why it seems like there are so few people here. Outside the walls separating the noble sector from the rest of the city, though, things got plenty lively. It looked like it was market day, since there were so many stalls set up in each and every available nook and cranny, and so many voices crying out their wares in catchy little rhythms. Whole families looked to be outside, perusing the goods displayed in the open, and haggling for the best deals. Or, well, the women were haggling, while their poor husbands were stuck with carrying all the goods brought. Shopping will be the same, no matter the world, it seems. I slipped through the crowds quickly, and without drawing much attention from the people around me. Given that I had spent one youth as an accomplished pickpocket, it took an effort of will to suppress whatever natural inclination was having my hand inch toward those exposed coin-purses. I guess the people here felt reasonably safe. They also seemed genuinely happy¡ªsomething that was too rarely found in any world. This was proof to me that most the people ruling this kingdom truly cared about the wellbeing of its citizens. Whether the ones at the top were the Royal family, or Joan, truly didn¡¯t matter. They all worked towards the same thing. So, I grabbed a plate of food, and settled down in a good position among the rooftops to watch the crowds steam on by. I paid for the food, of course. However, the meandering crowds still couldn¡¯t take away form the eagerness I felt at the chance to journey inward¡ªto visit the great empires standing tall in the center of this landmass, rife with power. And, more importantly, with knowledge.
¡°Do you think she¡¯ll be angry when she finds out?¡± ¡°No¡ªher indifference would keep her from getting too mad at us. Besides, I think that she¡¯ll appreciate the company after a few months have passed.¡± ¡°Right. I trust your judgment in this, Bea. I hope you know that you¡¯ll be the one bearing the brunt of this. I certainly won¡¯t be accused of plotting this.¡± ¡°It¡¯s not even a plot, though. We had known that those people would have to leave for the schools in the empire sooner or later. Throwing Kai in among them is only the smart thing to do, no matter how annoyed she would get.¡± ¡°Still¡­¡± ¡°Ah! Have you decided yet?¡± ¡°On what?¡± ¡°On whether or not you¡¯ll let me go with them, when the group leaves. I know you¡¯ll be sending Anhara along as well, to give her some real world experience.¡± ¡°Let me think about it a while longer. I¡¯m only sending Anhara because she needs to go. I¡¯ve coddled her for far too long¡ªeven though I had ample reason to after that incident.¡± ¡°Anyone would do the same, Joan. Who could have know, after all?¡± ¡°You know about it? How did you find out¡ªyour father?¡± ¡°No, I put the pieces together myself. The late King was a real piece of work, wasn¡¯t he?¡± ¡°Yes. It made me wonder how I hadn¡¯t ever seen that side of him, even after bearing his child. While I don''t regret having Anhara, I do wish that she hadn''t had to experience what she did." Joan shook herself mentally, and changed the topic. "So, when will the group be ready? I want it to leave in a little under a week." "But, didn''t you tell Kai that it would be over a week?" "Yes, however, I would rather surprise her. You know, throw her more off balance so that she won''t refuse to go with the group. Plus, it would give her less time to find out who all is going with her." Bea grinned evilly. "I''m also going, right? Come on¡ªyou have to let me go! I can handle Kai the best, and prevent any...messy things from happening." Joan sighed. "Fine, fine. You can go. Though, you also have to explain to your father why his best subordinate has to leave the country for an extended period of time." "Ugh. Suddenly, convincing you to let me go feels like it had been a bad idea..."
Author''s Note: My computer must hate me or something. The chapter was somehow lost no less then three times during software updates and bugs. I''m happy it''s finally done¡ªalong with this arc. Next chapter, join Kai as she departs from the city, toward the center of civilization! Chapter 76: One More Step A week goes by quickly when you don¡¯t have anything to do. I spent most of this time outside of the palace, only returning to sleep or meditate during the nights. I came to know the city reasonably well, and even went back to that mercenary bar shown to me by Bea a few times. Their food was just a little bit better than that found in the other taverns, but it was the atmosphere that kept drawing me back. Rather, it was the fact that I could watch bar fights almost every time I went. That gave me a bit of a standard for strength here, and needless to say, I was slightly alarmed. It seemed like most, if not all the mercenaries in the bar were at least as strong as me, with quite a few being stronger. Of course, I had various methods to cope with the difference, and make myself stronger for a time. However, what occurred to me, was that these were only the mercenaries. How strong were the truly excellent individuals in this kingdom? I had already reached a level of strength that had given me the bare minimum requirements to attend a summit with all the strongest people on the Continents. But here, everyone¡¯s base level of strength was overwhelmingly higher than what was found on the continents. Putting it into numbers, and levels, the average level for a mercenary in the Continents must have been around one hundred, maybe with an upper limit of one seventy or so. Here, it¡¯s something like level three hundred. I don¡¯t know what exactly caused such a disparity between these two locations, since humans and beastkin were exceedingly similar, aptitude wise. I¡¯m convinced that this is the same world that the Continents inhabit, so the environment should also be the same. The only thing I can think of that would be causing this difference would be the World Seal that I broke by accident. There¡¯s also a case to be made about the general lack of knowledge and materials in the Continents, which could also attribute towards this phenomenon. Anyways, it was entertaining as all hell to watch the bedlam that ensued from a group of trained mercenaries getting dead drunk, and starting a brawl over some small remembered slight. Though, somehow they were always sober enough to keep from going too far¡ªthey would stop at minor injuries. Seeing these fights made me realize that I needed to continue training, though. Strength, especially the type that comes from combat experience, isn¡¯t something anybody has intrinsically. It has to be built from the ground up, and nurtured over time. I¡¯ve neglected my training lately, in order to make better and more powerful weapons with my skill in blacksmithing. Now that I have weapons more than good enough for my strength, I can begin training again¡ªespecially since it would give me something to do while on the road. I didn¡¯t want to sit in a cushy wagon the whole time, bored enough to blow out my brains. I figured that I could walk or run next to the caravan, and constantly be tempering myself. The wagons would take care of the goods I would be bringing with me, and the people would be able to cook dinners for when I returned. Then, I would be able to maintain a semblance of peace while sleeping or meditating, since others would be on guard duty. All in all, not a bad deal. Or so I thought. As it turns out, things were slightly different, compared to what I had imagined.
The sun had barely breached the horizon, when I heard a knocking at the door to my room. ¡°Be there in a second!¡± I called out, quickly changing the Sage¡¯s clothing into it¡¯s long-coat configuration. I would have been rather embarrassed should anybody see the form it takes while I¡¯m sleeping or meditating. I briefly wondered why anyone would be knocking on the door, but figured that it was likely someone wanting to pass a message or something. But when I opened the door, it was Bea who stood there, waiting. ¡°Mmh? Is something wrong, Bea?¡± She shook her head, and answered me brightly. ¡°No, not at all. I was just sent to inform you that the departure of the caravan was moved up.¡± ¡°Oh? When will it leave, then?¡± ¡°Today.¡± ¡°¡­.What?¡± ¡°The caravan will be leaving today¡ªin fact, it should be leaving in only a few hours.¡± I bolted out the door, barreling past Bea. I could hear her calling after me, but I didn¡¯t slow down for her. About half an hour later, I arrived back at my room, carrying a massive steel reinforced sack on my back. There were uncomfortable bulges in the bag, which dug into my back rather annoyingly. Then, there was the fact that the bag was about twice as big as I was, and much, much heavier.Help support creative writers by finding and reading their stories on the original site. Bea, who was still waiting outside my room for some reason, stared at the bag incredulously. ¡°What the hell did you put in there? Bricks?¡± ¡°Well, you¡¯re not far off.¡± I smirked. ¡°Where is the caravan gathering? I¡¯d like to drop off a few things.¡± Bea continued eyeing the bag. ¡°A few? Ugh, never mind. The caravan¡¯s meeting by the south gate¡ªI¡¯ll take you there.¡± ¡°Sure. Lead the way.¡± I followed Bea as she started walking down the palace corridors. We exited the palace from one of it¡¯s numerous side doors, and made our way through the noble district, passing by a few guards on the way. Like Bea, they couldn¡¯t seem to comprehend my bag. After passing through that gate, Bea finally figured it out. ¡°In the bag¡­is that all metal?¡± I smiled at her. ¡°Of course it is. What else would it be?¡± She looked absolutely astounded. ¡°Isn¡¯t that heavy? Why not just get a cart or something?¡± ¡°I was afraid the cart would break. Besides, the smithy already had such a sturdy bag ready, so I used it instead.¡± ¡°Holy gods¡ªhow disproportionally strong are you?!¡± ¡°Huh? I don¡¯t think I¡¯m that strong, though.¡± Bea looked at me frankly. ¡°Says the little girl totting around multiple times her own body weight¡­¡± I considered telling Bea that I weighed much more then it would first look like¡ªI had about the same body weight as a larger than average adult male, after all. This was achieved through the sheer density of my body, and was also what gave me such pure physical strength. I didn¡¯t though, since I had a feeling she would just start teasing me about my weight. And then, I might end up doing some violent, and ill-advised things. The caravan soon came into sight. There were people working around the well-made wagons and carriages, loading them with all sorts of goods and materials. A few mercenaries lounged about nearby, likely on the lookout for any would-be thieves that might try to snatch a few items while others have their hands full. I was immediately seen, mostly due to the large bag on my back. A few of the workers saw my load, and started walking over briskly¡ªlikely to help me carry it or something. I waved them off, dropping the bag to the ground, where it slightly fractured the cobblestones making up the streets. The beastkin who had come over to help paled slightly at the sight of that. They looked to each other, as if wondering if they were both seeing something real, since the fact that I had carried that bag seemed impossible to them. I cleared my throat, grabbing their attention. ¡°Right¡ªcould a get a few people to load this stuff into a wagon or two? No need to be delicate about it; however, know that you might be handling some of the most valuable goods to join this caravan.¡± The two beastmen nodded vigorously, not even questioning me. They called over a few more people, and began reaching into the large bag, and hauling out thick metal bars of all colors and hues. The majority of them were simple grey steel though. Bea shook her head while watching the proceedings. ¡°Did you have to bring along the smithy¡¯s entire stockpile of metal?¡± ¡°No, this is only about half of it. Maybe a little more, but calling it the entire stockpile is a little bit too much.¡± ¡°It¡¯s still half!¡± I waved off her concerns, instead looking over the caravan. While most of the vehicles present were simple wagons with the express purpose of holding stuff, there were a few carriages decked out with little rooms for sitting and sleeping in. I was a little curious about this, since I had thought this would be a normal caravan for merchants. From the looks of it, a few VIP¡¯s are also coming along, which is why there were so many of those enclosed carriages. Certainly, I wasn¡¯t enough to necessitate such accommodations for the road. I turned to Bea. ¡°Oi¡ªis there something you people aren¡¯t telling me about this?¡± Bea looked completely nonchalant as she shook her head. ¡°No. I only know as much as you do.¡± I nodded my head sagely. ¡°Right. So, you aren¡¯t going to tell me why there are other passengers going to the Empire¡¯s at the center of this place?¡± ¡°Other passengers?¡± ¡°Yeah¡ªthe one¡¯s those carriages are for.¡± ¡°Oh! Well, you see, the thing is, that¡­.¡± Bea was cut off by a voice behind me, greeting the both of us enthusiastically. ¡°Lady Katariah, and Lady Samantha¡ªHow fortuitous to meet the two of you here!¡± I turned around, and saw two people approaching. One was the Second Prince, while the other was his sister, the Princess. I turned to Bea, reminding myself that Samantha was her real name. I gave her a look that might just flay lesser people alive¡ªif they had a sense of shame, that is. She, apparently, didn¡¯t. I gave them a strained smile, while thinking back to that night we had spent at the bar, where I stopped listening to their conversation due to how dull it was. ¡°And why are you two here?¡± I asked him. His smiled dropped a little at my tone, but he still responded to the question. ¡°Why, we¡¯re traveling with this caravan, to attend school in one of the Central Empires. Isn¡¯t that why you are here as well?¡± ¡°No.¡± I replied simply, before dragging Bea off for questioning. Once we had reached a place out of their earshot, I stopped. ¡°What the hell are those two doing here? I thought this caravan was for me.¡± ¡°It is, it is. However, Joan and the Royal family decided that in order to maximize the security for both your caravan toward the Central Empires, and another one leaving around the same time, they could be combined. And, since the two of them were going to practically the same place, there wouldn¡¯t be any issues.¡± ¡°Issues? You don¡¯t count spoiled little brats as issues? I do. Is there some way to take another caravan?¡± ¡°Yes. However, that would require waiting for a good one with enough space to fit all your metal. Besides, I never said that you had to interact with the others. Both Joan and I have agreed that you can do whatever you want¡ªyou always could. That includes simply ignoring them, or outright telling them to piss off.¡± I won¡¯t lie, I thought this through for a few solid minutes. I sighed in the end. ¡°Who else is supposed to come along?¡± Bea knew what I meant immediately. ¡°In addition to the Prince and Princess, Joseph, Anhara, and I, there will be a few other members of high nobility. They are all coming along in order to attend one of the largest schools on the planet, so that they might learn more magic, or gain greater mastery over their chosen pursuit. I might also mention that the city they are going to is known for having the largest repository of knowledge known to us.¡± ¡°Oh really? That sounds slightly worthwhile. Just, keep in mind that if any of the others bothers me excessively, it is very likely things will end with bloodshed. I held back here in respect for Joan and Anhara. That¡¯s the only reason I¡¯ve tolerated some of these things.¡± Bea nodded. ¡°Sure. I¡¯ll advise them to simply leave you alone. Anything else?¡± ¡°Yeah. You owe me a spar after we¡¯ve hit the road.¡± ¡°Sure thing.¡± Chapter 77: Threat of Torture I was excited, of course¡ªAnd eager for the chances this part of my life would bring. I¡¯m called the Paragon of my generation here, but I want to face off against people who are stronger than I, and I want to fight to get even stronger. Even if I am unbeatable in my own age group here, at the edge of civilization, I hold no delusions as to my level of ability when compared to the truly god-like youths in the Central Empires. Besides, when you¡¯ve looked forward to a journey like this for as long as I have, it¡¯s unbearable to know it was so close to happening. Even better, I knew that Idarus and Jasmine were going as well, which would make the trip itself less unbearable, what with all the sons and daughters of high nobility that were also taking the same caravan. I left the inn that had been my home for the past few years with a smile on my face, and tears in my eyes. I knew it would likely be decades before I would be back, after having finished schooling. The inn-keeper, a kindly matron named Ms. Corova, hugged me good-bye with the fair twinkle of tears in her eyes as well. She fussed over me a bit¡ªmaking sure that I had everything I needed like clothes, emergency food, and my sword. Well, it had been my fathers sword, but he had given it to me shortly before passing on, entrusting my younger self to protect my family with it. I had seen to it that they were risen from abject poverty, and given all the space and comfort they would ever need. All this through my own strength, and despite all that had stood in my way. I swear, I might have had a jaunty hop in my step as I made for the area the caravan was setting up. And, my grin might have gotten even broader upon seeing Jasmine and Idarus already standing near the back end of the caravan proper, having just arrived, it looked like. I waved at them, and called out. ¡°Aren¡¯t you guys here a little early?¡± Idarus laughed in a strained way, while Jasmine just looked at me blankly. ¡°Huh? What¡¯s wrong guys? You look like something bad happened.¡± Idarus replied to my question in a low tone, as if he was sharing a fairly large secret. ¡°Well, you see, it¡¯s about that Lady Katariah.¡± He started off, and my face may have fallen a little. That was the one regret I would have, leaving her behind here. I wished I could have slowly started courting her, even through long distance mail. However, with how she had acted, and dressed that night we went to that bar, that possibility had fled. The whole time we were making conversation, she had simply ignored the group, even if we had made overtures to grab her attention. I even called out to her, only to get an empty eyed glance in response, or a non-committal answer at best. I felt slightly heartbroken thinking back on that night. And, I was still confused about her choice of wardrobe. Did she wear that dingy old coat just because we were going to that bar? I much preferred her in those pretty dresses, when she simply looked unbearably cute. Not that she didn¡¯t with the coat¡ªbut that brought a different vibe to her continence. I was brought back to the conversation at hand by Idarus snapping a finger under my nose. ¡°Seriously? Can you please wait until I¡¯m done before going off into heart-broken lover mode?¡± ¡°Sorry. Please continue¡ªWhat were you saying about Lady Katariah?¡± ¡°What my brother wants to say, Joseph, is that you may have made a mistake falling for her so quickly.¡± Says Jasmine with a little grin. ¡°What do you mean?¡± Idarus sighed. ¡°As it turns out, Lady Katariah is the ward of Overseer Joan, and isn¡¯t even a beastkin!¡± I pondered this for awhile. ¡°So?¡± I asked, not understanding what the big deal was. Idarus face-palmed, and groaned out a response. ¡°You¡­don¡¯t even know who the Overseer is, do you?¡± I shook my head, eliciting a larger sigh from the siblings. ¡°Overseer Joan is possibly the one person more powerful than the royal family in this kingdom. There has long been rumors among some of the high nobility that she means to take the throne one day.¡± ¡°And?¡± I said, thinking about this tactically. ¡°If she¡¯s more powerful, then why hasn¡¯t she taken the throne? I think that your rumors are just that¡ªrumors.¡± ¡°But the threat still exists, no? Beside, the very fact that Lady Katariah is the ward of such a powerful woman begs the question of, who is Katariah?¡± I rubbed the bridge of my nose, thinking. ¡°Who told you these things in the first place? You act like it¡¯s breaking news or something.¡± ¡°But it is! Mom and Dad had us meet them before coming here, and told us to be on our best behavior around Lady Katariah, and to assist her as much as possible. When we asked them why, they told us about her being a ward to the Overseer, and the fact that she¡¯s not even a Beastkin!¡± ¡°I have a few questions? Like, why do you guys seem so hung up on the fact that she¡¯s not Beastkin? There are plenty of other species in the world, and Beastkin are only one of very, very many. Then, why are you guy¡¯s talking as if you¡¯ll be seeing a lot of Lady Katariah in the future? We¡¯re leaving for the Central Empires today.¡±This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. ¡°That¡¯s the thing, Joseph. She¡¯s coming with us.¡± Ah, I think I might have blacked out for a few seconds there. Not good, I need to take this calmly. ¡°Did I hear you guys right? It sounded like you said that¡­¡± ¡°Yeah, that Lady Katariah is going to the Central Empires as well, on this very caravan.¡± Well, that certainly changes things. Commence operation woo Lady Katariah!!! No, wait Joseph. You¡¯re getting ahead of yourself right now. I need to get more information first. ¡°You still haven¡¯t answered my question about Lady Katariah¡¯s race. What¡¯s so significant about it?¡± ¡°We don¡¯t know. All Mom and Dad would tell us, what that her heritage is very important¡ªthat it alone could make her the guest of any imperial family, never mind the royal ones.¡± I leveled a measured look towards the royal siblings. ¡°Is all this supposed to make me hesitate over her or something? I¡¯m going to pursue her no matter what. Especially now that I know she¡¯s coming with us.¡± ¡°Please, Joseph. Just think about it for a while. She¡¯s too unpredictable a variable now¡ªwe need to move cautiously.¡± ¡°Caution? She¡¯s at most a few years younger than us, Idarus. Just a girl.¡± ¡°You know full well that there are some who retain the appearance of a child well past the time most people would have died.¡± ¡°Yeah¡ªpowerful experts. She¡¯s doesn¡¯t have that feeling of power, or arrogance yet. She¡¯s still young, trust me.¡± Idarus simply sighed, like he was suffering my opinion. Jasmine, however, stated her thoughts on the matter rather plainly. ¡°Just stop pining after her, Joseph. You already saw that she has no interest towards you. There are now more cons than prosin going after her, when we add in the fact that she could be really dangerous.¡± I smiled at Jasmine. ¡°You can¡¯t chose who you want so easily, Jasmine. I like Lady Katariah for whatever reason, and I want to see this through.¡± Jasmine looked like I had struck her, and turned away from me. ¡°Fine then, idiot. Do whatever you want.¡± Idarus simply shook his head at me, somehow conveying all his feeling towards me in that one motion. I took this as a sign, and moved to one of the luxurious carriages lined up, and ready to go. I was about to dump my meager possessions into it and claim it as my own, when I heard a heavenly voice on the other side of the carriage. I immediately knew who it belonged to, and stopped where I was, listening into the conversation completely by accident. ¡°Yeah. You owe me a spar after we¡¯ve hit the road.¡± Said the person with the voice. I recognized the other member of the conversation as well¡ªGabriel¡¯s older sister Samantha. Gabriel¡¯s always called her Bea though, due to a nickname she got among the armed forces. ¡°Sure.¡± Replied Bea, promising Lady Katariah a sparring match. I gasped aloud, nearly ran around the side of the carriage in order to warn Lady Katariah, but was stopped by an obnoxious voice off to my side. ¡°Oh? If it isn¡¯t the little commoner monkey that had so viciously assaulted me. I would have thought that the Nobles had strung you up, like the little criminal you are.¡± I groaned. ¡°Not now, Carlton. I have to go do something. I¡¯ll have time to kick you ass later. Come see me then.¡± Carlton, who still had a pair of black eyes from when I had punched him during the ball, turned red with anger. ¡°You impudent weasel! You think you¡¯re hot shit, do you not?! My household guards would trample you into oblivion!¡± I sighed. ¡°No, no, no. You just can¡¯t do that. Don¡¯t say something like ¡®You think you¡¯re hot shit¡¯, and follow it with ¡®do you not¡¯!¡± Said Lady Katariah, who had come around to the other side of the carriage, followed by Bea. ¡°Ha! A commoner bitch joins the violent little squirrel beastkin! I won¡¯t let you get away so easily this time, my new concubine.¡± Lady Katariah smiled, and I felt my back go cold. She was wearing the old coat again, and had those weapons on her¡ªone slung on a shoulder, and another pushed through a scarf-like belt. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that you would have to do better than that to convince me into your bed.¡± Carlton, apparently, saw this as a challenge, especially as Lady Katariah started walking towards him. She was slowly closing the distance between the two of them, and Carlton simply stood there, speaking viciously back to her. ¡°Convince you? I am the son of a Duke! Just my status alone should have you jumping at the chance to jump me! Not to mention my¡­prowess.¡± Lady Katariah¡¯s grin broadened, and she stepped within embracing distance to Carlton. He was taller than me, and of course Lady Katariah as well. However, she motioned with a finger for him to bend over, and he obliged, smirking towards me as he did so. ¡°Are you shy or something? Want to accept without that pathetic little squirrel knowing? Is he your lover or something?¡± Lady Katariah simply whispered in his ear in response. His broad grin faded from his face with each whispered word, and the arrogance seemingly melted from him. His face paled quickly, and by the time Lady Katariah had finished, he looked sick and wan, and frantically tripped backwards. As soon as he was gone, I looked at Lady Katariah in wonder, trying to figure out what had gotten Carlton to scurry off so quickly. I caught an annoyed look passing across her face, before she turned away, calling to Bea as she did so. She didn¡¯t even so much as look my way.
¡°Just out of curiosity, Kai? What did you say to that boy? He looked like he was going to vomit right then and there.¡± I laughed a little, thinking back on what had just happened. ¡°Not much. I simply informed him of some of the interesting things that would happen to his body, should he bring me to bed with him.¡± Bea pondered this for a second. ¡°You know what, I¡¯d rather not know.¡± I smiled. ¡°Good girl. There are some things that shouldn¡¯t be know, for the sake of keeping yourself sane.¡± ¡°Though, I am still curious about Joseph. Have you even talked to him yet?¡± ¡°Hhm? Why would I?¡± Bea looked at me, amazed. ¡°My gods, are you really that clueless? I thought you were just playing hard to get or something!¡± ¡°I still have no idea what you¡¯re talking about, Bea.¡± ¡°I¡¯m talking about you attitude towards Joseph, who is obviously interested in you romantically!¡± ¡°Is that what that was? I thought he simply had a nervous tick or something. Always glancing towards me¡­¡± Bea sighed. ¡°Never mind. You just have no common sense, do you?¡± ¡°Now you get it! Got rid of that some time ago. You should too, since common sense makes life so much more annoying and boring.¡±
Meanwhile, a boy was squatting near a caravan ready to depart, muttering to himself about having been ignored, and wondering what she didn''t see in him. Of course, he determined to grow ever stronger, and make her notice him through his power. He rehearsed the words ¡®I will get stronger!¡¯ in his heart over and over again, as the caravan began moving out of the city, and towards the Central Empires. He would train non-stop until they reached Tinefil, the city by the holy seas. And, he decided that he would crush all in his effort to gain the love of Lady Katariah, even if it meant entering the holy seas themselves, and visiting the hell that remained after the Elfen Wars. Chapter 78: Training is Rarely Interesting I was pleasantly surprised at how little time it took for the caravan to go from getting ready, to moving. I was in a relatively good mood, as well. Though, this was mostly due to the reaction I had gotten from that repulsive little noble kid, who was so convince that I would enter his bed. It was nice to know that I could frighten an inexperienced little kid so badly. I would do the same to that Joseph hanger-on, but he hasn¡¯t actually done anything to merit such an extreme reaction from me. At worst, he¡¯s just a little annoying. Joan must have known what my mood would be like with her little deception on the caravan, and didn¡¯t show up to say goodbye. A good thing, since I don¡¯t even know the depths of the lecture I would have given her. Her daughter Anhara, however, did show up. She had her own swanky little carriage as well, with a contingent of guards all her own. I was a little curious to find out why she was also going, but that could wait. We were facing months on the road together¡ªplenty of time to ask around about it. In addition to Anhara, Bea¡¯s little sister Gabriel showed up, also in order to attend the schools in the Central Empires. She went straight for the Royal siblings and that Joseph kid, and was greeted enthusiastically. They all walked over to a carriage obtained by Joseph earlier, just before that other noble kid had started yelling at him. I found a nice carriage near the back of the caravan. It was one that had seen better days, but had a nice interior, and looked completely ordinary. I wouldn¡¯t stick out in it, while the bandits would likely attack the nicer looking carriages before this one. I might not even need to fight before any bandits are eradicated, this way. I settled into the carriage, intending to spend this first day of travel simply relaxing. I don¡¯t know where Bea got off to, but I knew she would also be traveling with us. She would be somewhere within the caravan. I¡¯m just glad that she isn¡¯t bothering me while I¡¯m inside the carriage, which soon began moving as the whole column of wagons and carriages lurched forwards, taking the first tentative steps of the journey. Very quickly, we passed through the city gates, and rolled onto the roadways outside the capital city of this remote kingdom. I will admit that I don¡¯t really know what happened for the next few hours, since the rocking of the carriage somehow lulled me to a quick and easy sleep.
I woke up when a shaft of light began shining on my face. When we had first set off, I had kept the window open in order to watch the city give way to the fields surrounding it, then the roads snaking through the abundant forests. This proved to be a misstep, since the sunlight beaming into the window woke me up before I was ready to. In other words, I now felt cranky in only the way someone would after a rude awakening. It felt somewhat worse, since I hadn¡¯t meant to fall asleep in the first place. Of course, this was wholly accidental on my part, and made me feel more my age. It was easy to forget I was only fourteen here, when I had lived through all those other lives. I blearily rubbed my eyes, taking a quick look around the carriage. Good, I was still alone. After waking up here, I half expected to find Bea cuddling with me or something. Poking my head out of the window, I saw very much the same scene that I had drifted off to in the first place. The trees lining the forest road were tall and vibrantly green¡ªthey certainly gave off a feeling of untamed wildness, much befitting the fact that we are practically at the very edge of civilization out here. The only thing ruining the illusion of currently being in the middle of a vast wilderness was the clatter of iron-bound wheels on the road, and the soft sounds of the horses. From the window, I could also see that many people were walking or riding alongside the carriages, not wanting to be cooped up for extended periods of time. I was much the same, and would not be spending much time inside the carriage after today. I¡¯m intending on beginning my training again tomorrow, through a variety of methods. Maybe I can even convince Bea to spar with me regularly, when I find her. It was shockingly relaxing to travel by carriage, I discovered. I¡¯ve never really have the need or the ability to ride in them before, since I would either not be important enough to afford one, or didn¡¯t have the time to be lounging about in one.Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more. Now that I had the chance though, I was finding that being able to calmly meditate while on the move does have some benefits. It was a good way to rest, and due to the way that time tended to shorten while meditating, it only felt like a few moments had passed when the caravan stopped, and the sky had turned dark. I stopped my meditation, once again turning my attention outwards. With a good camping spot for the night picked out, the wagons and carriages of the caravan were arranged in a circular fashion, for the better defense in the case of an attack. In the center, tents were pitched for those who didn¡¯t have the luxury of sleeping inside. Fires were started fairly easily, through the use of magic, and food was soon cooking over them. Most of the meat was gathered by an advance group of hunters, traveling a few hours ahead of us. Then, the grains, fruits and vegetables were taken from the stock we carry with us. This would be replenished each time we stop in a town, or city. I popped out of the carriage just long enough to grab a bowl of food, before heading back. While traversing the campsite, I got the eerie feeling that someone was watching me from afar. Considering that I couldn¡¯t find Bea, I had a good idea who was staring so intensely in my direction. What the hell does she think she¡¯s doing? Not minding the force of her stare, I climbed on top of my carriage, and calmly ate the camp food while purveying the whole campsite. There were truly quite a few people in this caravan, with fully half it¡¯s population taken up by merchants traveling to the Central Empires in order to buy and sell goods. The other half was made up of the students traveling to the same destination, and all the guards. All in all, I¡¯d say that there were about two to three hundred people all traveling together. And, like the people, the wagons and carriages were divided up fairly evenly, with half dedicated to the carry of goods, and the other half for people or miscellaneous goods like our stock of food. Of course, out of the merchants, I couldn¡¯t recognize a single one. The students though, I knew. I had at least caught fleeting glimpses of most of them during the ball, indicating that they are all of the nobility. That being said, I don¡¯t know any of their names, and don¡¯t intend to figure it out. If this lot turned out to be even half as annoying as that Carlton guy, any conversation I have with them would end in murder. It was only that group including the Royal siblings and the Paragon guy that I paid any real attention to. For one, the siblings had looked at me with open suspicion earlier today, when they had first showed up. I wonder what they had found out about me that caused them to be so cautious. And then, the Paragon kid seemed to be wandering around the camp, looking for someone or something. I resolved to avoid him from now on, since I had a strong feeling about who he was looking for. I might have felt a little pity for him though, since he was scurrying about the camp frantically. The pity was largely covered up by my mirth, however. It¡¯s funny watching people hurry about so much, as if they don¡¯t have time. They never seem to realize that hurrying rarely ever does any good. It¡¯s far better to simply take a step back, and go through things slowly. Had he done that, Joseph might have known where to at least start looking, instead of running about without a hope of accomplishing what he wants. I stayed up on the roof to meditate through the night. My mana cultivation might have sped up lately, though I can¡¯t really tell for sure. I would have to have a side by side comparison of what it was like before versus now, and that¡¯s not exactly possible. If there has been a speed increase, it¡¯s been happening gradually. Could it have something to do with the fact that I¡¯m still gaining level so quickly and easily? Maybe. I think that a large part of it is where I am, though. The air and ambient mana feels quite a bit stronger here, rather than in the continents. I have a theory on why that might be, but haven¡¯t gotten any proof besides that of my gut feelings¡ªwhich is telling me to blame it on the World Seal. Suffice to say, by the time I quit my meditation, I had gained another level, and the sun had come up again. Begin day two, I guess.
True to what I had been promising myself yesterday, I began training myself again today. I figured that nobody would miss my absence from the carriage, and simply left without letting anyone know. I bolted through the open window, and given that I didn¡¯t hear any sort of alarm from the nearby people, I wasn¡¯t spotted while doing so. Once outside, I made for the nearby forest edge, and disappeared inside of it without anyone being the wiser. Ah, wait, one correction. I can feel the same gaze that had watched me yesterday. If that is Bea, she saw me go. That¡¯s fine then. She probably won¡¯t interfere with this. To start with, I did some stretching, letting the caravan amble off into the distance as I did so. It didn¡¯t matter if I lost the caravan, since they would generally stick to the same road, and I could easily find them again with all the dust being kicked up. And, beings with mana pools register very strongly in my mana sight, allowing me to track them with ease¡ªshould I need to. I suppose one of the blessing of having the particular body, is it¡¯s flexibility. The stretches that I could do now, were things that I could only dream of in past lives. Even some of the Kata¡¯s, or martial art¡¯s exercises, that I had trouble with back then were easily done now. I can even touch my toes, never mind the fact that I can also do the splits! In other words, doing my customary stretching exercises were actually a little fun, now that it didn¡¯t feel as if my muscles were tearing off the bone. Once I stood up, I bounced on my toes a little, and tore off in the direction from where the caravan had come. I ran at full speed for as long as I could, before stopping to take a short breather. Then, I took my nodachi off my shoulder, and began doing basic sword exercises while it was still sheathed. Just basic things, like a simple down stroke, or a horizontal slash. I repeated the simplest of moves for a few hours, aware that the foundation held up the rest of my techniques. The stronger a foundation is, the better the more complex moves. After this, I moved into more complex exercises, ending with myself shadow fighting opponents of equal skill to me. Then, I started my process of cooling off, again doing some stretches, and finishing with a light jog back to the caravan. It hadn¡¯t gotten far off into the distance, given that it moves fairly slowly. Anyway, I¡¯ll keep up this training for as long as I can. Yeah, it¡¯ll be boring, but I can deal with that. Besides, I got Bea to promise to spar me¡ªand I never specified how many time we¡¯ll be sparring. I might even start that tomorrow, if I can find her. Chapter 79: Full Force Today, I resolved myself to find Bea, and get her to start sparring me. Considering that I hadn¡¯t once seen her since the caravan had set out, you would think that I would have a difficult time trying to find her. You would also be wrong. Someone had been staring at me rather intensely yesterday, and I had a very good idea of who it might be. I was slightly concerned with the fact that Bea was simply watching me¡ªit made me feel like either something was happening, or going to happen to me. So, by seeking her out in order to spar, I was gaining fighting experience, as well as forcing her hand. Besides, having someone stare at you so intensely was seriously weird. I want her to stop. And what better way exists of doing that, then to fight her? I¡¯ve long held the belief that fighting other people brings us together, since it can be a more honest method of communication then talking. I guess I¡¯m just a muscle-head in that regard. To start, I did the same thing as I had yesterday. I jumped out of the carriage with most people not noticing, and ran into the forest. Then, I ran parallel to the road from where the caravan had come from, going as fast as I can. All was exactly as had happened yesterday, including the fact that I could feel someone watching me. This was good, since it would allow me to trace the feeling back towards the one looking at me so intently. After reaching a good distance away from the caravan, I started stretching, before moving onto sword exercises. I only kept half my attention on this, however. The rest was spent carefully observing that dim but persistent feeling of being watched that I experienced in the back of my head. By focusing on it, I could get a general idea of what direction that feeling was coming from. Then, I began narrowing down the possibilities based on the surrounding environment¡ªthings like the fact that she can¡¯t be up in a tree who¡¯s view is blocking me, or one whose foliage isn¡¯t thick enough to hide her. I narrowed it down even further through the use of my mana vision, which told me exactly where she was. Yeah, yeah. I know I could have done that from the beginning, and easily known her precise location, but where¡¯s the fun in that? It takes away any semblance of difficultly. Plus, it¡¯s good to not rely on things too much¡ªI feel much better knowing that I also found her location through the use of pure intellect and instincts. So, what did I do with this bit of knowledge? Why, but of course I threw my wakizashi at her. I did it while transitioning smoothly from one blade form to another, which involved holding my nodachi in one hand. With the other hand free, I slipped the wakizashi out of its sheath, and lightly flicked it in Bea¡¯s direction. I gave no prior notice that I was doing this, and didn¡¯t even use any mana to accomplish it, relying completely on my physical strength. There were absolutely no warning signs for Bea, so when the wakizashi impacted the trunk of the tree just above her, she shrieked a little, and fell off her perch. It would be an understatement to say that she wasn¡¯t expecting it. Especially considering I was about two kilometers away from her at the moment. It¡¯s lucky my eyesight is so good, else I might have missed the tree-trunk, and actually ended up hitting Bea instead. And, since the wakizashi blew clean through that tree, and continued on it¡¯s deadly path, Bea might also be lucky my aim is so good. I smiled at her, through the intervening distance, and I knew she could see it, and recognize it for what it was. A predator¡¯s smile. She gawped at me as she stood up unsteadily. I had taken her completely by surprise, and she hadn¡¯t had any time at all to do anything like prepare her defenses, or even register that I was attacking. The speed at which the wakizashi flew towards her didn¡¯t allow for that. I found the wakizashi in my mana sight, and extended a thin string of pure mana towards it from my mana pool. I retrieved it by retracting the string, leading to it flying back at me almost as fast as it had left my hand in the first place. I deftly grabbed it¡¯s hilt right before it would slam into my body, and re-sheathed it at my waist. By the time it had been returned, however, Bea stood in front of me, not even five meters away from me. She had recovered from her fall, and used that same speed she had demonstrated in the flower garden to close the distance between us. Bea looked straight at me, and I could see a faint bit of surprise buried in her expressions. ¡°How did you know I was there?¡± ¡°Oh please. I¡¯ve known since before yesterday that you were watching me. I wasn¡¯t planning on doing anything about it at first, but it began to really get annoying.¡± Bea¡¯s mouth fell open a little, and she seemed slightly stunned. ¡°For that long?...But, how?¡± ¡°That¡¯s not really important. However, I really, really want you to stop watching me like a damn hawk. It¡¯s weird, and it bothers me. Also, you said you would spar with me. Why not start now?¡± She still looked stunned for some reason. ¡°But¡­You aren¡¯t mad?¡± I looked at Bea frankly. ¡°Mad? Why would I be? The only reason I would be mad, would be if you continue to watch me so creepily, even after I¡¯ve told you to stop.¡± ¡°No, not about me watching you, but how we practically forced you to join this caravan. I thought you were mad at me and Joan¡­.¡± ¡°Is that why you disappeared after the caravan set off? My gods, Bea. I¡¯m not nearly so immature as to get mad at you guys for that. I needed a way to get to the Central Empires, and was provided with one. While the details are a little troublesome, this is nothing I can¡¯t deal with.¡± I gestured to her while pulling the nodachi off my back, sheath and all. I wrapped the strap around the hilt, or the tsuba, securing the sheath to the blade. ¡°I wasn¡¯t kidding about that spar, you know. Better get ready.¡±You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version. Bea smiled for the first time today, pulling out some small daggers from gods-know-where, and sinking into a ready position. ¡°Sure sure. If you think you can handle it.¡± I grinned ferally, and made the first move, not wanting to let Bea utilize that stupidly high speed she has. My front foot cratered the ground as I rocketed in her direction, my nodachi held low in order to use a strong sweeping strike from below. The wind whistled in my ears as I neared her, and my sword made a similar sound as it exploded into motion, slashing across Bea. Aw fuck. That was one of those afterimage things, wasn¡¯t it? Her figure simply vanished from my sight, slowly fading after I hit it. I dropped low to the ground as something swept through the air above me, the air pressure in the wake of that strike popping my ears. I braced myself, and trust the sheathed tip of the sword backwards without looking, and was rewarded with a sharp impact shaking my arms. However, I quickly realized that something was wrong, and rolled forward before springing to my feet again and facing Bea, who had been behind me. She stood still, a deadly looking black dagger held in front of her. Somehow, she had managed to block my backwards thrust with it. She looked like she was expecting me to attack again. I took her by surprise by simply dropping my ready stance, and sighing deeply. ¡°You know, this really doesn¡¯t have much meaning if you are just going to go easy on me, Bea.¡± ¡°Oh? Are you saying that you want me to attack you seriously? You could die, you know.¡± I grinned at Bea, a little bit of malicious intent leaking through. ¡°I doubt you could kill me. In fact, I would be more worried about you.¡± I said, which flipping a few mental switches that activated some certain skills. I want to force Bea to take me seriously. Immediately, I felt shooting pains in my mana pool, and my body, as they grew more powerful. Much more powerful. My level may stay the same, but that doesn¡¯t matter when I go into my full Demon Lord form, while also activating the perfect counter to her speed¡ªStorm¡¯s Eye. My base stats instantly skyrocket as release my natural state. Unfortunately, I can¡¯t stay in this form all the time, since the intimidation effect it comes with would have all lower level life forms frothing at the mouth from a mere look. My skin is also toughened by a pattern of tattoos that emerge, greatly resembling scales that appear on my arms, torso, and back. Notably, there were large holes in the pattern on my back, as if making room for something later. My two primary horns grow, and take on a blood-red luster, and a second pair of electric blue ones pop out of my hair-line, sweeping back. I immediately feel many times stronger, and much more relaxed than I have in a while. I determined to release myself every now and then, in order to blow off accumulated steam. As far as Storm¡¯s Eye is concerned, I had a counter to Bea¡¯s ridiculous speed. Due to my unfortunately high affinity to lightning, and storms, I could take advantage of the nature of electricity and boost my reaction time to several times better than normal. I got the idea from some of the thing¡¯s I¡¯d read on Earth, where supernatural powers were only found in fiction. It sort of worked by manually overclocking my brain, and having a razor-sharp amount of control. It was only due to the ease in which I could channel the storm that I didn¡¯t accidently lobotomize myself. As an added plus, the power of the storm raging through me kept Bea from directly touching me, since she would get zapped pretty badly. After activating all these abilities, and drawing out my full power, I did two more things. One: I brought out my wakizashi again, and bared it¡¯s steel edge in my left hand. And secondly, I got rid of the sheath over my nodachi. A sharp and imposing feeling suffused the air around me after this. The fact that so many people could tell I had such good weapons, even after making sheaths to dampen their auras, was a testament to how strong my smithing skills really are. With the black blade in my left hand, and the white one in my right, I felt like I could cut down the world if I had to. There were no changes in Bea. She didn¡¯t seem shocked, or surprised, or even fazed in the slightest. If I could say that there was a change, it would be the look in her eyes. She looked serious. ¡°Are you ready, then? I do hope you were right.¡± She said to me, while casually flipping her little dagger end over end in her hand with a dexterity that had me feeling a little wary, despite all I had unleashed. Then, her figure flashed. One second, she was there, the next a sonorous and regal implosion rocked the air, throwing up clouds of dust from the earth. Holy crap, I think Bea¡¯s breaking the sound barrier¡ªon the fucking ground. With her running speed. I was extremely lucky to have Storm¡¯s Eye active, as well as my Mana vision. I could barely see a darting purple aura flashing about violently, taking a twisted path in order to open my defense up, and throw me off balance. And, even though I was having such trouble keeping track of Bea, and was at such a disadvantage here, I found myself grinning. Oh boy¡ªI¡¯ve really been cooped up too long. In the end, rather then hold my position, and wait for Bea to attack my stationary self with impunity, I laughed, and flung myself on a collision course directly for the blur of purple aura. I could see it pause for a split second through the dust clouds, taken aback for a split second. Meanwhile, I ran, each step gouging out huge chunks of Earth like a massive dragon rushing towards its prey, jaw open and waiting. My swords were held to the sides, ready to intercept Bea¡¯s strikes, and my eyes were facing foreword, catching the vague and insanely fast movements of Bea. All this takes a while to describe, but only half a dozen seconds had passed since Bea went super-sonic. Even less time passed before the first strike was released. With a metallic tolling sound, I intercepted Bea¡¯s first offensive action¡ªa black blur moving at absurd speeds towards my left side. I raised my wakizashi, and deflected the dagger so deftly thrown right at my ribs. It spun past me, and I barely twisted my body enough to avoid its counterpart coming from the front, where I couldn¡¯t block so fast. Fast, deadly, accurate, and misleading. That¡¯s the feeling I was getting from Bea¡¯s fighting style. She¡¯s a gods-damned assassin, isn¡¯t she? I have some experience fighting assassins, though none of them could quite reach the absolutely stupendous speeds currently utilized by Bea at the moment. The best way to hard-counter an assassin, though, would be to be patient. Just wait for them to screw up, then strike. That wasn¡¯t going to work here. If I let Bea continue, then I was going to lose sooner or later, given her speed, and accuracy. And, I couldn¡¯t close the distance unless she got stuck in a corner or something, which I didn¡¯t think would be very likely. Or, I could manually lock her down. Reaching my awareness into the earth, I grabbed hold of my mana pool, and began pouring it into the dirt around me, intending to take control of the very ground upon which Bea ran in order to literally trip her up. I really must give credit to Bea here, since she did the very worst thing for me at that moment. She came in close, while I was still attempting to manipulate the ground. I hurriedly cut the connection and tried to strike at her with the nodachi. Bea snaked around the blade, tapping it with one of her daggers. The other dagger slammed into my chest rather lightly, all things considered, bypassing all my defenses. In a normal fight, I would be dead. Completely, and without question. This isn¡¯t a normal fight. For one, Bea lightened the strike, pulling it right as it was impacting. Judging from the panic in her face, she hadn¡¯t meant to strike so viciously. Second, she underestimated me. My clothes have one hell of a defensive enchantment on them, after all. I would have hardly felt her dagger, even at full force. I also have an extremely sturdy physical build, so that even without the Sages clothing, I would have survived. Next, my wakizashi was poking her rib-cage. What can I say? If you can¡¯t beat them, then go for mutual destruction. Lastly, the dagger she used to block my nodachi was shorn in two, due to my blade¡¯s enchantments. She wouldn¡¯t have been able to use it against me at all. Bea looked down, and noticed my wakizashi. She looked back at my face, which had a gloating expression plastered across it. Stunned at my sturdiness, and my cunningness, she threw up her arms. ¡°Fine. You win, but only because I wasn¡¯t expecting you to be wearing such strong armor.¡± I chuckled. ¡°No, that was a tie. You still didn¡¯t go all out, Bea.¡± Her arms fell. ¡°What? You saw through that as well? My gods, Kai¡ªjust how much insight do you have?¡± ¡°Not enough,¡± I sighed ¡°I guess I¡¯ll just need to get stronger, in order to force your full hand then. We¡¯ll spar again tomorrow¡ªI need time to think.¡± I reverted to my basic form, and started walking back to the caravan. This time, Bea walked with me. Chapter 80: Moonlight Revelations (Pov Kai) I meditated inside the carriage, joined this time by Bea, who had stopped avoiding me. She had gotten that which had been bothering her off her chest, and mostly reconciled herself with the fact that I wasn¡¯t angry with her. Now, while she was still quieter than normal, she was mostly back to being her old self. As a bonus, I could ask her about the rest of the people traveling in this caravan. I wanted to know things like which groups to avoid, where people are going, and general levels of strength. By knowing these things, I could prepare myself for many different eventualities. For instance, in the case of a bandit attack, I would know who to stand by in order to not be noticed. This was important, since I had resolved to not draw undue attention to myself while on the road. Apparently, my horns and eyes weren¡¯t too uncommon in this land, and could be passed off as being from one bloodline or another. However, should word go around that a Demon was traveling in a caravan, there would certainly be people that would fall to greed or hunger for power and hunt for me. Unfortunately, I¡¯m not yet at a realm where I could reliably protect myself from true powerhouses. Hell, I¡¯m having trouble against Bea, who could really only be considered reasonably strong. Though, with the ludicrous speeds my level was rising, I wouldn¡¯t have to worry about being weak for long. Additionally, I was confident of at least escaping most situations with my life still intact. It shouldn¡¯t come to that, though. So, this was all just a lengthy way to say that I plan on laying low. No need to invite trouble and all. And, while laying low, my power will only be increasing. It¡¯s a win-win situation for me, and everyone else, since they don¡¯t have to deal with a teenaged Demon who might have some mental issues. Rather, they don¡¯t know anything about me, and sleep easier for it. I¡¯d say the same goes for Bea. I mean, I certainly am not planning on informing her about some of the things I¡¯ve experienced, and what happened to me afterwards. Anyway, I had a nice and peaceful time meditating that night. I think Bea went to sleep, but wasn¡¯t really sure, since I wasn¡¯t paying attention to her.
(Pov Joseph [A.K.A, the massive douche-handle.{At least for this chapter}]) Even after looking for Lady Katariah for these past two days, she never materialized in the caravan. ¡°Maybe she decided to stay behind in the end?¡± Said Idarus, trying to get me to stop looking. ¡°But if she is? I have to know, Idarus, and the best way to find out for certain, is to see her with my own two eyes. If she truly isn¡¯t here, then I¡¯ll never see her, right?¡± Jasmine shook her head in exasperation due to my reasoning, and proceeded to point out all its flaws. ¡°So, you¡¯re just going to constantly be on edge, looking for someone who may not even be here? Why not just quit? If she¡¯s here, then you¡¯ll see her eventually, and if not, then you don¡¯t have to worry about it any longer.¡± I sighed. ¡°But, I don¡¯t have that time. I overheard her agreeing to spar with Gabriel¡¯s sister, and I need to warn her off it before that can happen.¡± ¡°She agreed to spar with Bea?¡± Asked Gabriel, who was well aware of the sort of reputation his sister has in regards to combat. ¡°Does Katariah have a death wish or something?¡± I shook my head. ¡°That¡¯s exactly why I have to find her as soon as possible. I don¡¯t think she knew the danger of agreeing to this fight.¡± ¡°If she wants to fight, then let her. She ought to be capable enough to at least hold onto her life. With the way Mom and Dad were talking about her, she¡¯s certainly special enough to do so.¡± Said Jasmine bitterly. ¡°Yeah, but I would rather that someone who didn¡¯t know better wouldn¡¯t get hurt in the first place.¡± I rebutted. ¡°So,¡± sighed Idarus, ¡°What do you want us to do about it?¡± ¡°Simple¡ªI want your help in checking all the carriages, and looking for either Lady Katariah, or Bea.¡± They all complained a little, but agreed in the end, after I promised them some favors. Thus, we began going around in the middle of the night, peering into each and every carriage stealthy. In most of them, people were sleeping peacefully. I didn¡¯t bother checking the tents set up in the middle of camp, since I had already done that last night. Needless to say, Lady Katariah wasn¡¯t present in any of them. Nor was she found in any of the carriages that I personally checked. It was Gabriel who found the carriage in the end, something that I found out after we regrouped, the rest of us having had no luck. Gabriel stated his find bluntly right at the beginning. ¡°I found Katariah¡¯s carriage. However, I was discovered right afterwards.¡± ¡°What¡ªBy Lady Katariah?¡± ¡°No, by my sister, who was sleeping in the same place. Katariah was meditating through the night instead of resting. Bea woke up and saw me.¡± ¡°What happened after that?¡± I asked anxiously.This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there. ¡°She asked me why I was snooping around the carriage, and I told her the truth¡ªthat you had overheard that she and Lady Katariah were going to spar.¡± ¡°What?! How did she react? Did you ask her to not do it?!¡± Gabriel looked at me crossly. ¡°Of course I asked her to not spar with Katariah. I¡¯m not an idiot, unlike a certain person here, who can¡¯t even tell the most basic of things.¡± I tilted my head in confusion. ¡°Hm? What am I missing, then?¡± Gabriel huffed angrily, and stormed away from us, flipping me off as he went. ¡°Huh? Wait, Gabriel¡ªcould you at least tell me what Bea said back to you?!¡± I called out to Gabriel, wanting to at least be sure that Lady Katariah was safe. Behind me, I heard the others talking as I ran after Gabriel. ¡°Is he that idiotic? I thought it was on purpose or something¡­¡± ¡°Ohh¡­.that bastard is so blind? Or is he just delusional?¡± I caught up to Gabriel after a few minutes. Oddly enough, he was crying softly, almost tenderly. I came up behind him, and grabbed his shoulder gently. For whatever reason, he was feeling hurt by me, and that was not cool. ¡°Hey, Gabriel¡­.What did I do, to upset you so? What am I missing?¡± Gabriel looked up at me, his eyes watering still. He was also still a little angry looking, so I made sure to act as gently as possible. ¡°Please, just tell me¡ªI want to keep from hurting you as much as possible, and I won¡¯t be able to do that if I don¡¯t know how I¡¯m hurting you.¡± Gabriel pushed past me, running again. This time, I didn¡¯t follow him. He obviously wants time to himself. Instead, I returned to the carriage and endured the frosty looks from the rest of my companions.
(Pov Gabriel) I¡¯ve run away again. I know I¡¯m at fault here for not correcting him when he says that one little pronoun, but I¡¯m afraid of what would happen. Joseph has always thought of me as male, so how would he take the news that his friend was a girl? I met him a few years ago, while attending a starting school for combat and magic. At that time, I kept my hair short to keep it from bothering me, and was nearly always covered in mud, dirt and grime from my daily exercises and drills. It wasn¡¯t a surprise that I was constantly mistaken as a boy. I didn¡¯t correct anyone who thought so, either, which is where all this pain stems from. After a while, I began to let my hair out, and my feminine features started to emerge, even if I turned out to be somewhat¡­.lacking in areas. Most of my classmates and friends figured it out at that point, with the exception of one fucking idiot, who also happens to be one of my closest friends¡ªJoseph. I don¡¯t really know when he began to mean more to me than that, though. All I know is that I¡¯m terrified of what would happen when he finds out that I haven¡¯t been entirely honest to him. I don¡¯t want to lose him. But, I also didn¡¯t want him to continue treating me like a guy. I need to tell him. I¡¯ve deliberated over it long enough, and just need to act. Besides, I also need to tell him what my sister told me about Katariah. I started walking back to the carriage, feeling weighted down by my decisions. Hesitating slightly before opening the carriage door, I took in the scene inside. Joseph sat in one corner of the enclosed space, visibly isolated by the others, who were sending him frosty looks, while turning to me with pity. I appreciated their support, but also held no illusions as to whose fault this whole thing is. I cleared my throat, and Joseph looked up, scrutinizing me. I nearly squirmed under his gaze, but held myself back, speaking instead. ¡°Joseph, we need to talk.¡± He nodded and got up, following me outside of the camp. Joseph stayed silent until we reached the tree-line and stopped. Once we were there, I just started talking really quickly, without any real regards to what I was actually saying. ¡°So, the thing is, that there¡¯s something about me you really should have noticed by now, but you haven¡¯t, and I really don¡¯t know how to tell you about it, and don¡¯t know how you¡¯ll end up reacting. I don¡¯t want you to hate me or anything for not letting you know better sooner, even though pretty much everybody knows already. And really, it¡¯s kind of embarrassing, since I don¡¯t know if it¡¯s because I don¡¯t have anything there, or if you are just the biggest fucking idiot of all time. Oop¡ªI didn¡¯t really mean to say that out loud, but I guess those are my true feelings, and¡­.¡± Joseph chuckled lowly. ¡°Slow down, Gabriel. I can hardly understand what you¡¯re saying while speaking so fast. Take a breath, and tell me the main idea.¡± ¡°Right, sorry. I¡¯m slightly overwhelmed at the moment. But, the gist of it is this: I¡¯m a girl.¡± ¡­ ¡­ ¡­ ¡°What?¡± ¡°I¡¯m a girl.¡± ¡°Are you¡­¡± ¡°Don¡¯t even think of asking me if ¡®I¡¯m sure¡¯¡ªI will beat you up here and now.¡± I said, blushing slightly. ¡°Huh. I don¡¯t really think I expecting that. I though you were going to tell me about a secret assassination plot or something.¡± ¡°I don¡¯t think you¡¯re worth assassinating at the moment. You hardly pose a threat in any way.¡± Silence from Joseph¡­ ¡°Sorry, this is a bit hard to wrap my head around¡ªHave you always been a girl, or what?¡± ¡°Damnable idiot. Of course I have.¡± Then, I threw out a bit of information to get his mind off of me. I knew that Katariah held a greater importance to him (At the moment), and he would probably throw this new revelation of his to the back of his mind after hearing about her. Especially since what Bea told me was so perplexing. Sighing, I told him about it. ¡°You asked about Katariah earlier, right?¡± Ah damn, the bastard¡¯s like a puppy seeing it¡¯s owner. He perked up at the mention of her name, and replied energetically. ¡°Lady Katariah?! What did Bea tell you?¡± I felt a soreness in my chest from his reaction, but was also aware that I still have a chance¡ªas long as Katariah continues ignoring him. Though, I would still have to worry about Jasmine. ¡°When I was looking inside the carriage window, I saw Katariah meditating deeply, while Bea woke up, and asked me why I was there. Our conversation went something like this¡ª¡° I said, remembering that moonlight talk.
¡°Mh? What are you doing here, Gabe?¡± ¡°I was asked by Joseph to try and find Katariah. He¡¯s somewhat concerned, since you asked a little girl like her to spar you. We all know how you are during any sort of combat, Bea.¡± My sister pouted, acting like a spoiled brat, even though she¡¯s more than a century older than me. ¡°But I try and go easy¡­¡± ¡°Ha, easy? Samantha Usinger, the Black Guard¡¯s Beast going easy on someone?¡± ¡°Mau~ You don¡¯t have to say it so harshly¡­¡± I rubbed my temples, profoundly annoyed with both Joseph, and this conversation. ¡°Doesn¡¯t matter. Just please, refrain from sparring with Katariah. She seems too fragile.¡± ¡°Are you telling me this because of that boy, Joseph? Normally, I would tell you to get him to say that, since it¡¯s his crush, not yours. Unless you swing that way, of course¡ªthough, with the way you talk about Joseph, I doubt that.¡± She paused. ¡°Why do you like him? He seems to be treating you rather bluntly. After all, doesn¡¯t he still thing that you¡¯re a boy? No romance would ever come out of a relationship like that.¡± I huffed, not wanting to linger on her words. ¡°Just promise me that you won¡¯t spar with Katariah. It¡¯s all I want.¡± ¡°All you want? No, this is strictly Joseph¡¯s business. Besides, it¡¯s too late.¡± ¡°Huh? What do you mean?¡± ¡°Katariah and I already sparred together.¡± I gasped, and looked closer at that figure meditating in the carriage, unaware of the conversation taking place outside. She didn''t seem injured in the slightest though¡ªnot even any scratches. I was baffled, considering that Bea regularly broke in the average soldiers¡­or just broke them, period. ¡°You shouldn¡¯t rate Kai so lowly. We ended the spar in mutual checkmate, you know.¡± I feel shocked hearing that, knowing what that phrase meant. There was someone actually willing to be as vicious as Bea in the world?
After I finished relaying our conversation to Joseph, he sat in stunned silence, just as I had for a while, before realizing that Katariah holds depths unknown to us. I heard him whisper under his breath, before unsteadily getting up and walking back to the carriage. I think my tactic of distracting him from my own shocking news worked too well. ¡°I need to get stronger. I have to.¡± Chapter 81: No Pain, No Gain. I feel like something annoying happened while I was meditating. Of course, I have no evidence that something did, but I have that nagging sensation that¡¯s telling me to run, before I¡¯m pulled into someone else¡¯s story. I asked Bea if anyone happened to come by the carriage while I was under the hypnotic effects of meditation, but she shook her head. I half think she¡¯s not telling me the truth, but I have no way of knowing for sure, unless the worst happens and she¡¯s proven to have lied. So, I¡¯ll have to just wait and see what happens, even though I don¡¯t really want to. Pushing the nasty thoughts away, I decide to simply go about my daily routine. Just as I was leaving the carriage, Bea piped up, saying that she would join me. I readily agreed, since that would give me a sparring partner for today as well. I had quite a bit of fun yesterday, and looked forward to improving myself as much as I can. I mean, I still have my old combat senses, but I need to attune it to this body as well as I can. After all, the combat style you can use in a male body rippling with muscle is quite different from what you can use in the body of a girl just touching upon puberty. And while I¡¯ve had chances to hone myself before, I¡¯m now a much higher level than I had been back then. I need to reacquaint myself with my power, and my skill. Perfecting these would increase my strength and survivability greatly, and pave the path to further and greater power¡ªIt¡¯s like laying a good foundation for the future. Even though she¡¯ll never hear these words from me, having Bea to spar with is a gods-given gift, since she can help me strengthen that foundation. We made good time while running away from the caravan. I could tell that Bea was only running at a tiny fraction of her full speed. In fact, even with the spar yesterday, I don¡¯t think I¡¯ve seen that full speed in use. I¡¯m sure it¡¯s terrifying, considering that she had causally broken the sound barrier during said spar. She allowed me time to warm up, and I took an hour or two simply in order to loosen up my muscles and get my blood flowing. The sword forms in particular were difficult¡ªnot because of the movements, or any sort of special techniques that needed lots of attention, but because I was going through them as slowly as possible before gradually speeding up. By the end of it, I was covered in sweat, and profoundly glad that the Sage¡¯s clothing comes with an auto-clean function. I briefly meditated in order to reinvigorate myself, before starting the spar with Bea, who was immediately confused by my actions, or lack there-of. ¡°Aren¡¯t you going to activate that demon form thing you have?¡± She asked, puzzled as to why I was still in my normal form. I shrugged. ¡°You aren¡¯t going to get better without any effort, right? Besides, when I¡¯m in that form, I¡¯m almost as powerful as you, which kind of negates the purpose of the sparing.¡± I said. Bea nodded, somewhat understanding what I meant. ¡°Hm, that¡¯s fairly smart of you. I¡¯m guessing that you¡¯ll be trying to make your current form as powerful as me, so that the other form becomes much stronger?¡± ¡°Yeah, that¡¯s the general idea. I will still be using most of my other tricks, though.¡± Bea laughed, and welcomed me to try and beat her this time, tricks or no tricks. And so it came to be that I was on the ground half an hour later, breathing raggedly, and nursing all sorts of bruises in as many places as I can feel. Bea didn¡¯t go easy on me, despite the fact that I wasn¡¯t using as much power as I had last time. Thinking about this, I started laughing, even though it hurt my sore lungs. ¡°Are you okay Kai? I didn¡¯t break you, did I?¡± asked Bea, concerned¡ªeven though she had been so merciless to me just now. It¡¯s lucky that I found the Sage¡¯s clothing, since they¡¯re more resilient than anything I¡¯ve ever seen. Bea¡¯s daggers can¡¯t even begin to pierce them, even though it looks to be made of cloth. Instead, she had to start resorting to blunt force trauma¡ªhence all the bruising. Also, she tried to avoid going for things not covered by clothing, like my head, or throat. ¡°No, I¡¯m fine. I just had the thought that I couldn¡¯t have found a better sparing partner, who uses so much power on a weaker opponent.¡± Bea pouted. ¡°I can try and scale back, if you want¡­.¡± ¡°No, don¡¯t do that. I already explained to you why I need an opponent who¡¯s significantly stronger than me. You fit the bill perfectly.¡±This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon. Somewhat reluctantly, Bea agreed to continue using the same amount of power. Besides, I have a feeling that she was already holding back, for my sake. How sweet of her. I tried sitting upright, and winced as my muscles protested quite loudly. Fighting against Bea without using my Demon Lord¡¯s form, or Storm¡¯s Eye was a very painful and frustrating experience. I didn¡¯t land a single hit on her, while she just wailed upon me with impunity. It wasn¡¯t fun, but the whole thing was necessary. There was someone I once met, who claimed, ¡°One¡¯s true potential can only be stimulated through pain.¡± As annoying as it is, I agree with him. My muscles will quickly repair themselves, and become stronger. My bones will gradually become more durable, and I will be able to react faster as time goes on. Hell, even my mana pool will quickly expand, since I¡¯m using so much of it in combat. And, meditating afterwards brings a soothing relief as dense mana circulated through my body; it¡¯s icy fingers cooling my overburdened body. Compounding on the growth experienced from just one sparing session, I infused some of the mana into many of my muscle fibers, further boosting the speed of my recovery and my raw strength. Only an hour of meditation proved sufficient to bring me back to peak condition, the bruises faded away, and my vitality completely restored. This may seem like a short time, but consider that I had to be undisturbed while meditating, and the fact that the worst damage I had taken was a few ribs that had fractured slightly. As soon as everything was mended, I stood up. Bea, who was waiting nearby, came towards me. ¡°Are you alright now?¡± She asked. I smiled and nodded. ¡°I¡¯m fully healed. Let¡¯s go for another round, no?¡± Bea sighed and shook her head. ¡°You must be insane, to be so willing to fight me again so soon. Do you like subjecting yourself to pain or something?¡± ¡°Not at all. However, if the pain of the present can help me to avoid greater pain in the future, then I would rather get hurt now. Come on, let¡¯s get started.¡±I said, once again holding my sheathed nodachi in a ready position. That was another thing I wasn¡¯t willing to use at the moment, since it would give me too much of an external advantage. Besides, Bea had a limited number of daggers, and I would rather not ruin them. Even though I¡¯ve yet to block a single dagger, I don¡¯t want it to be sheared in two when I do. Just like last time, Bea seemingly disappeared from my view after I signaled for her to begin. Then, she began attacking from almost every direction. It looks like I have my work cut out for me, if I am to get strong enough to fight her evenly, without using my Demon Lord form. Certainly, I can¡¯t handle her at the moment, and have to simply resign myself to being a frustrated punching bag. But, who¡¯s to say what it¡¯ll be like in a few months or so? Considering my terrifying growth rate, I should easily be Bea¡¯s match by then, especially since that same growth is so stimulated by our little sparing sessions. Of course, she beat me up just as badly the second time around. If anything, she might have even started hitting me harder, judging by the fact that not only do I have massive bruising all over my body, but various bones were showing signs that they were ready to give. A few of my ribs had cracked, and my forearm was swelling slightly, after I had used it to block a single one of Bea¡¯s strikes. One of the bones in there was fractured once, maybe twice. All this sure made me glad that a bit of meditation and mana can solve all my issues fairly quickly. Even if it hurt to sit upright at the moment. Gritting my teeth through the mild pain, I began meditating. I also reminded myself of some of the other painful things I¡¯ve been thorough, most of which made this look like an absolute cakewalk. The most recent of these painful events would probably have to be losing to that damnable lich. After all, just his opening strike had taken off my arm, and one of my horns. Compared to the feeling of briefly losing an arm, this was nothing. Anyway, I quietly settled down into meditation, and repeated the same process I had used earlier to great effect. The effectiveness of this training of mine was proven when I ended the meditation two levels higher than I had started. Knowing that I¡¯ll likely be gaining another level or two while meditating tonight, even I¡¯m frightened by my growth. It was only a few months ago that I was level one-fifty, and now I was closing in on level two-fifty. That was a gain of nearly one hundred levels in a few months¡ªwhen most would be lucky to gain that amount in a few years. In fact, if all goes well, then I should breach level two-fifty either tomorrow, or the day after. Bea and I began walking back to the caravan soon after. Normally, I would run in order to get more exercise, but I didn¡¯t want to put undue stress on myself at the moment. Bea also told me in no uncertain terms that I had done enough for today, and just needed to relax. She gets protective at the oddest of times, apparently. While we were walking, I decided to start asking some questions that had been bothering me lately¡ªones that I probably should have asked a while back. In particular, I asked Bea about her current level, and her age. She was an odd person, who seemed intelligent and wise one moment, and worse than a toddler the next. ¡°Hm? My age and level? I turned 121 a few months back, and am currently at the level 499 bottleneck. Why do you ask?¡± ¡°Just wondering.¡± I paused. ¡°121? I would have thought that you were younger. And what do you mean by ¡®bottleneck¡¯?¡± Bea laughed. ¡°Thank you¡ªpeople with high levels, or large mana pools tend to stay young for most of their very long lifespan. I¡¯ll likely look like this for another few millennia, unless I break level 1000. As for bottlenecks, are you sure you don¡¯t know?¡± asked Bea. I shook my head. ¡°I think I know what it means, but are there bottlenecks for certain levels?¡± Bea nodded. ¡°There are. The one for level 500 is particularly hard, and tends to separate the truly strong from everyone else. There are others, like for levels 100, 250, and 750. None of them are so important as the one for level 1000, though.¡± ¡°What happens at level 1000?¡± ¡°You become a partial divinity, with greater amounts of power, immortality, strength; and you can even evolve.¡± ¡°Oh? Is it rare for someone to reach that level?¡± ¡°Somewhat. It becomes more common the closer you are to the Center, but it¡¯s rare to find one who¡¯s done it out here. I only know of Lady Joan, who¡¯s reached it.¡± I pondered this for a while, thinking deeply about certain things. I hadn¡¯t realized that there was a bottleneck for level 100¡ªI hadn¡¯t had any trouble simply blasting through to it, and even evolved into a full Demon Lord. Even before that point, I had already gotten immortality. What the hell kind of Demon was my father, for me to get so many good perks? And, this is without even mentioning the fact that my level gain is only speeding up, even though I¡¯m supposedly so close to another bottleneck. If Bea hadn¡¯t told me that the bottleneck existed, I might not have even realized it. I sighed. Honestly, is it just my Demon blood that makes me so special? I feel like all this is just a little bit too unnatural. I guess I''ll just have to wait, and see. Maybe something special will happen when I inevitably reach level 1000, which will give me some sort of hint. And maybe I''ll find my father before then, and get my answers from him. I can''t rule that possibility out... Chapter 82: A Midnight Dive I can say with complete and utter honesty, that I didn¡¯t really know what to expect of the so-called level 250 bottleneck. Well, there were a few things I was sure were going to happen: For instance, I knew I would become level 250. I also knew that I would likely get something special out of it, considering what happened at the last bottleneck I blew through¡ªlevel 100, where I became a Demon Lord. And, also going by the experience, I was reasonably certain that there would be some fairly obvious signs that something odd was happening. After all, people had known that I became a Demon Lord back then, even though they were nowhere near me. So, yeah¡ªI was expecting a spectacle. One that would attract quite a bit of attention. Some of you probably already know where I¡¯m going with this, or at least have an idea. The rest of you¡ªthose that are wondering what the in flipping hells I¡¯m talking about¡ªjust sit back. The day after I had been enlightened as to the existence of bottlenecks, I spared with Bea again, with mixed results this time. I got beat up again, of course. Nobody improves so fast as to defeat an opponent they had lost to the day before. I¡¯m no different, and even subscribe to the idea that slow and steady wins the race. The problem occurred afterwards, when I immediately jumped three levels, straight to 249. I sat myself down, and began meditating, figuring that if I had to cause a scene due to my breaking the bottleneck, I might as well do it while I was a good distance from the caravan. At least this way, I would have a chance to run and hide before people came to investigate. There was just one small problem. That last level-up never came. Normally, meditating for four hours as I did then, would let me level up at least once. Maybe twice. But nothing happened. There was no breakthrough. I ended the meditation, fully appreciating the word ¡®bottleneck¡¯. It probably was a tad presumptuous to think that I would be capable of simply blowing straight through it, I told myself. Likely, I would have to simply work away at it, until I became level 250. Bea noticed that I looked a little down at that point, and attempted to cheer me up. I had told her that I might break through to level 250 that day, and to not be surprised if some¡­.odd things ended up happening. So she knew why I was a little disappointed. ¡°Don¡¯t worry about it. It takes everyone a while to get through those bottlenecks. I¡¯ve been stuck at mine for a decade now. You just need to relax, take it easy, and break through in your own way.¡± She said, as a way to cheer me up. I sighed. ¡°Yeah? How do you get through a bottleneck in the first place? Just wait it out?¡± ¡°Well, it¡¯s said that everyone has to find their own way through a bottleneck. It¡¯s a test of your own self, and reflects who you are.¡± I looked at Bea sourly. ¡°You know, that tells me nothing, right?¡± Bea leveled a rare serious gaze at me. ¡°I¡¯m not kidding. There¡¯s no way I can help you with this. It¡¯s all up to you, Kai.¡± And now, at the end of the day, I¡¯m still thinking those words over. A test of my own self? What does that mean, in the end? Am I supposed to use my patience to push through the bottleneck, slowly opening it up? Give it all I¡¯ve got, and simply force my way through? I know that I¡¯ll get through the bottleneck eventually. I have that sort of feeling, telling me that I don¡¯t really need to worry about it. With a huff of annoyance, I decided to sleep instead of meditating, since it was fairly obvious that meditating wouldn¡¯t really do me any good at the moment.
Dreams are interesting things, aren¡¯t they? They can tell you a whole lot about a person, their past, what they like, dislike, and the like. It¡¯s a shame then, that there are so few people capable of seeing the dreams of others. Or, maybe that¡¯s a good thing? I certainly don¡¯t want anyone else to see my dreams, if only because I¡¯d like to spare them the displeasure. Unfortunately, my dreams play a large part in what happens next, and are the catalyst for what happens next. That said, they are still unpleasant, and so I warn you¡ªMy dreams are not fun. They are nightmares contained within a lining of memories and pain. Anyway, I fell asleep, and dreamed of imprisonment.
Chains. They disappeared up into the ceiling and down into the floor, keeping my young body in place. It wasn¡¯t a mistake to stand up to oppression, and injustice. It was, however, a mistake to get caught doing it. It was an even greater mistake to catch the attention of the city lord through my defiance and age. And lastly, the biggest mistake I made, was not disfiguring my face while I still had the chance. The city lord likes pretty little boys, not ones with scars marring them. And now, I can¡¯t do anything. For all that I was in past lives, for all that I know, I am still powerless. Still too young. At first, the city lord kept me in a cozy little room deep underground, without any windows, and only accessible through a metal door. It, at least had furniture. A bed and a couch. Not that I¡¯ll be having any fond memories of them anytime soon. I was kept sedated in that room, fed drugs in the water and food given to me. I starved myself for a semblance of control, before attacking the city lord rather viciously during one of his visits. I ended up biting off a few of his fingers, and taking a chunk of his arm as well.Love this story? Find the genuine version on the author''s preferred platform and support their work! He knocked me out after that, through the use of magic. Then, I woke up down here. Wherever here is. I assume I¡¯m in the dungeon proper now, given that I hear wailing and screams every now and then. At least nobody bothers me anymore. He hasn¡¯t even come down here in order to mock me¡ªto rub my powerlessness into my face, and to hold the deaths of my family and friends over me. Not that I was responsible for those lives lost. No, those deaths were the reason I had tried to create a rebellion in the first place, even though I wasn¡¯t yet ten. I don¡¯t suppose I have to go into great detail on just how badly we failed. Just the fact that I ended up here should tell you what happened. I clenched my teeth against the pain as I moved into a more comfortable position, constantly feeling the lack of those fingers of mine. I suppose I lost them at the orders of the city lord, since they were the exact same ones I had taken from him before he placed me here. It was a small mercy that I hadn¡¯t been awake for that, nor for the loss of another body part, one that I felt far more keenly. The city lord must have really been angry, to remove that. Someone must have tended to me, since I didn¡¯t bleed out before I found myself conscious in this tiny cell, chained to the walls. Well, there was also the more obvious sign that someone had taken care of me¡ªthe now dirty bandages around the stumps on my hand there were once fingers, and the stiches between my legs. Ah, have I mentioned that I seem to be naked? The cell¡¯s terribly cold, as well. Damn, but the city lord must be mad because of what I did. It makes me happy to think of his furious face, and the fact that I caused his anger and distress. He screamed so nicely when I took his fingers. It is a little sad that I can¡¯t do anything anymore. I don¡¯t even know how long I¡¯ve been down here. There¡¯s not exactly a sun to follow. And, they haven¡¯t even fed me yet, so I can¡¯t judge by that either. I can, however, judge based on how hungry I am. So, with a degree of certainty, I can say that three or four days have passed. I adjusted myself again, and the clanking of iron chains accompanied my every movement. Soon, I knew I wouldn¡¯t have the strength to make even those little moves to make myself more comfortable. As it was, I could feel myself slipping away. I chuckled, knowing that it was the lure of death calling to me. It was far off as of yet, but would only come closer the longer I was in the cell. I just hoped they would feed me soon. Death by starvation is real fucking shitty.
I sighed, and the sound rebounded in the small cell. Like the room I had been placed in before, the cell had a metal door, with a little flap on the bottom for food to be pushed under. It hadn¡¯t been used so far. Damn, but I really hope something, anything at all, would happen soon. The boredom¡¯s almost killing me more than the whole starvation thing. Luckily, I can get water from the moisture settling on the walls, else I would have nothing to drink either. There¡¯s also a growing pile of¡­refuse in the corner of the cell. They didn¡¯t give me a bucket. I also seem to no longer have any control over my bladder. Unfortunate, that part is.
Huh. Someone¡¯s finally coming for me. Is it madam Death again? She always seems so cross¡­ I thought it was about time for me to stave to death, as well. Ah, that¡¯s death with a lowercase this time. You can¡¯t exactly starve to Death¡ªwell, yeah, you can, since she¡¯s connected to lowercase death and all. Ugh. I confused myself. Nevermind. It¡¯s probably not Death-with-an-uppercase anyway, since I can hear the footsteps, which were getting closer at this point. I tried as much as I could to sit upright¡ªI at least wanted to face this visitor with a semblance of dignity. Maybe I¡¯ll even get food! A key clicked into the lock, and I felt a fair bit of anticipation and dread, since I didn¡¯t know what was happening. I heard the tumblers retracting, and the swivel of the key¡¯s action, and then it¡¯s removal. The door slowly squeaked open, and I found myself looking at¡­.Me? Or, more specifically, I¡ªKaianthor, son of Goff, was looking at Katariah Nadine Silver. The version of me who had opened the door stifled a giggle, before cutting my chains and offering me a hand up. ¡°All¡¯s well that ends well, no?¡± she said, before leading me out of that dungeon. There were scenes of devastation and carnage all around as we ascended, letting me know that she hadn¡¯t come down here without a fight. Best of all, I saw the broken corpse of the city lord, with his unmentionables stuffed in his mouth. I felt much better knowing that he had choked to death.
I shot upright from my sleep, nearly falling off the seat that was serving as a bed for me in the carriage. I was covered in a cold sweat, and had a terrible headache as well. Oddly, I also felt somewhat sore, like I had tried standing under a waterfall for a few weeks as training (It didn¡¯t work, don¡¯t try it.) I groaned, and left the carriage, remembering a lake that we had passed by during the day. With all the sweat, I needed to clean off, and relax. I reached the lake with no difficulties, and judged that I could spend a bit of time thinking while there¡ªthe night was only halfway over. I removed the Sage¡¯s clothing, and dove straight in. The cooling water helped me to feel much better, and I started pondering the dream I¡¯d had. Yeah, most of the events in that dream had really happened to me while I was still Kaianthor, and no, I don¡¯t like remembering those events leading up to my death in that life. Of course, I never visited myself, nor did the me of now help save the me of them. That would be impossible, even with time and space magic rivaling that of the gods. Instead, I wasted away in that dungeon, and nearly starved to death before the city lord made an untimely reappearance and continued my nightmarish existence. I eventually ended up killing myself. Yeah yeah, I know. It was sad and nearly broke me at the time. No¡ªit did break me, but I got better after a few reincarnations. The point is, I¡¯m not broken anymore, and am mostly over it. So then, why did I have that dream? Especially with that ending? I sighed, and dunked my head underwater. And made a startling discovery while there. On my stomach¡ªaren¡¯t those scales? Right below my belly-button, that¡¯s a line of scales, right? Did I catch a sickness or something without realizing it? I immediately resurfaced, and used the reflection of the lake to cast identification magic on myself to see my status.
Status: Katariah Nadine Silver
Titles:
Penitent Calamity of Thunder
~Error~Title not Found Immortal The Timeless Smith Walking Tragedy
Additional Information:
Race: High Demon/Royal Elf Age: 14
Gender: Female Level: 280
Main Class: Demon Lord Sub Class(es): Spell-Sword Saint
Health: 15000 Mana: 600000
Strength: 2500 Stamina: 2100
Dexterity: 2500 Intelligence: 3500
Wisdom: 3200 Luck: ~Error~
Oi, are you fucking with me here? I go to sleep, fully expecting to struggle with a bottleneck for the time being, and wake up not even knowing that I somehow shot up thirty whole levels?! And what the hell''s with all the numbers being so nicely evened out? Oh, wait, there''s more. Of course there''s fucking more. Because the absolute cheat that my existence is quickly becoming isn''t enough, apparently.
System Notification:
The existence that is known as Katariah Nadine Silver has hereby been declared a Bloodline Retrogression, and gained the ability known as ''Draconic Regeneration'' due to said Retrogression.
System Notification:
Title: ¡®Walking Tragedy¡¯ has been given to Katariah Nadine Silver
Gods damn it. What in the seven fucking hells is wrong with my bloodline? And that title is just inviting trouble towards me. It feels almost as bad as something like ''Innocent Bystander'', or just plain ''Unlucky''. I''m reasonably certain that I must have pissed off someone real important at some point without knowing it. Oh well, at least the scales aren''t some indication of my impending doom or whatever. I think. I seriously hope I didn''t just jinx myself. Chapter 83: To peep, or not to peep? Other than the scales on my abdomen, there doesn¡¯t seem to have been any major changes to me. Well, besides the level increases, the new title, and that ability that I had apparently gained¡ªDraconic Regeneration, I think it was? I¡¯m slightly hesitant to find out how that works, since it likely involves getting hurt in some form, given the name. Oh well, I suppose a simple little cut would suffice when testing it. Though, I¡¯ll have probably have to use my own blades to cut myself. After getting out of the little lake, I had picked up a sharp rock, and attempted to open a gash on my arm. Instead of the expected outcome, the rock shattered against my skin, not even marking me in the slightest. I wonder if it¡¯s a side effect of the new ability? If it is, then am I now impervious to sharp objects or something? That would be a cool thing to have, but I also assume that these sorts of things have limits. For instance, I¡¯m absolutely certain that my wakizashi would be able to cut me. And, I would be hard pressed to find something that my nodachi isn¡¯t capable of cutting¡ªit has no problems with large chunks of steel, so my skin shouldn¡¯t pose much of an issue. Unfortunately, I hadn¡¯t brought the blades along with me to the lake after waking up from that nightmare, and they were still inside the carriage. I really didn¡¯t want to go back there, due to something that I had remembered right after checking my status. I had been more concerned with the dream I had, and getting clean afterwards, rather than what else was in the carriage. Or, who else. Bea had started sleeping inside the carriage with me after I had assured her that I wasn¡¯t angry with her, and I can recall a rather disturbing image from right after I had woken up. I decided to not return to the carriage for the time being, not wanting to see that again. Indeed, just thinking about it sends shivers down my spine, in a way that the normal strong opponents simply have no chance of doing. So, discarding my previous intentions to return there, I decided to spend the time in the lake¡ªwhich had turned nice and steamy after I used a little fire magic to warm it up. Floating in the center of the lake was nice, and extremely relaxing¡ªespecially after the stressful realization that I had somehow jumped through a ¡®serious¡¯ bottleneck and then the next thirty consecutive levels as well. Also, I could feel my blood pressure shooting up after seeing the new title I had been given. It gave me an innate sense that annoying things were going to start happening to me, especially when it¡¯s paired with my astronomically low luck value. You know, the one that won¡¯t even display a number anymore, instead just listing it as an ¡®Error¡¯. On top of all that, I¡¯m also incredibly suspicious about how well things have been going lastly. Sure, I¡¯ve had my share of bad luck so far, but things have been relatively quiet after I nearly starved to death in that forest, due to my having been forcibly transported from the Summit to that place. Since then, it¡¯s been¡­ordinary. Sure, there were a few annoying parts in there, but those were things that could happen to anyone. The brand of bad luck that seems to follow me hasn¡¯t shown up yet, and that concerns me. I was in Joan¡¯s palace for a good amount of time, and there were no massive monster attack, no attempts on my life, and not even a single instance of someone trying to rob me. It¡¯s all downright unnatural, and I know it won¡¯t last. Bad luck is an incurable disease for me, and it¡¯ll rear its ugly head sooner or later. For now though, I¡¯ll take this time to simply soak myself in this little moonlit lake, and enjoy the rest of the night. Let my tail down and all that.
(POV Gabriel) ¡°Shh¡ªdon¡¯t wake the boys¡± Whispered Jasmine, as we gingerly stepped over their snoring bodies, and out of our carriage. They had gone to sleep in front of the only door, claiming that the part of the carriage we had occupied and cordoned off needed more security. Honestly, I don¡¯t know what to think about Joseph¡¯s attitude after I had told him the truth about my gender, but he seems more protective somehow. He¡¯s treating me more like a ¡­lady, and not his close friend. I mean, sure, I want to be more than friends with him, but it feels like he¡¯s been distancing himself from me for the past few days. Not knowing how to feel about this new development, I¡¯m almost regretting telling him the truth, even though it needed to be done. I think Jasmine picked up on my mood, since she asked me if I wanted to talk about it earlier today. However, instead of simply talking it over away from the boys, she insisted that we make an adventure out of it. So, here we are, climbing out of the carriage as silently as possible. Not that it was hard for me, since most of my training focuses around speed, stealth, and maneuverability over strength. Jasmine however, is a mage, and doesn¡¯t have that sort of training. She nearly kicked her brother in the head while stepping around him. We got out alright in the end, though¡ªeven with all the tense moments. ¡°So, what are we doing? I thought we were just going to talk?¡± I asked, still clueless as to what was happening. ¡°You¡¯ll know when we get there. I just thought we would make an occasion of this.¡± She answered noncommittally.This novel''s true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there. We continued walking, and eventually exited the camp. We were now inside the surrounding forest, where night truly ruled. There was a full moon overhead lighting the way, however, so I could see the ground very clearly. As a member of the panther clan, this sort of thing is second nature for me. Jasmine was clearly having a harder time of it. She took after her father, the King, and inherited his direwolf blood. She isn¡¯t really suited to moving at night¡ªthere were a few times where I had to step in and prevent her from tripping over some of the tree roots growing out of the ground. Eventually, I sighed. ¡°Do you even know where we¡¯re going? Or are we already lost?¡± ¡°Nonsense¡ªI know exactly where we are, and where we need to be. Besides, it¡¯s not too far from here.¡± ¡°Right, sure.¡± I said, not really believing what she was saying. She can be as prideful as a¡­well, as a princess. Which I suppose makes a bit of sense. So, I was a bit surprised when we exited the forest, and Jasmine turned to me with a smug look on her face. ¡°See? I told you that I knew where I was going.¡± I stared at the scene in front of me, too occupied with the view, and nearly didn¡¯t register Jasmine speaking. She had brought me to a lake, shrouded in steam and glowing in the moonlight. It seemed like an image from the heavens, so celestial was the impression it gave off. There was something else here as well, giving off a regal and noble aura that was subtle and low-key, but more pervasive than anything I¡¯ve ever felt before. I knew that Jasmine wouldn¡¯t be able to sense it, since she wasn¡¯t adept at that. ¡°I don¡¯t think we should¡­¡± I started to say, about to tell Jasmine that we should leave, and not defile this sacred feeling place. However, it was at this moment I caught sight of a figure through the thin little clouds floating over the lake¡¯s surface. I could only see a small outline, like that of a child, and long white hair streaming down it. There were two little horns sticking out of the hair, and I could tell that they were pitch black. I felt a gaze, and that aura strengthen around us to the point that even Jasmine could feel it. ¡°What the¡­?¡± She began, before halting. She had also noticed the figure now. Both of us were staring at it, when something interesting happened. It vanished from where it was. The steam eddied violently, and I realized that the figure had simply moved faster than I could follow. Then, it was in front of us, and I could tell exactly what, or rather who, it was. The gold reptilian eyes of Katariah glared at us, as she stood with her arms crossed over her chest, completely naked. But, that didn¡¯t dampen the intimidating aura flowing from her in the slightest. If anything, that enhanced it due to the beauty and charm she exuded in the moonlight, her pale skin still wet from the lake. I swallowed a sudden rush of saliva. Damn, I¡¯m suddenly very grateful I¡¯m not a guy, else I don¡¯t know what would have happened. Huh? Is that a tail I see waving behind her? It doesn¡¯t look like any other beastkin tail I¡¯ve seen. Normally, reptilian beastkin have thick and stumpy tails, covered in scales and little ridges at the top. Her tail is lean and leathery looking, and long like a whip. It moved around in the air behind her with extreme dexterity, displaying her displeasure in it¡¯s agitated curling motions. The tail also had a curiously shaped tip, like an arrowhead. Then, I noticed that there was a light smattering of scales on her stomach, pale enough to seamlessly blend into the rest of her skin. ¡°What are you two doing out here? You should go back to the caravan¡ªit¡¯s safer.¡± She said, glaring at us. Jasmine was seemingly unaffected, and answered Katariah calmly. ¡°We¡¯re here to wash up in the lake, just as you are.¡± She said, before she began disrobing, and dropping her clothes in a neat pile by the lakeshore. ¡°Don¡¯t let us disturb you, continue as you we before we got here.¡± She added imperiously. I heard a drawn out and seemingly long-suffering sigh from Katariah, who entered the lake again. Interestingly, the steam rising off the lake followed after her, billowing up in large clouds in her wake. The water around her seemed to be boiling lightly. Soon, her figure was lost inside the steam, which began to gather on the far end of the lake. It was like all the steam had been captured by an invisible field, and forcibly brought over to where Katariah was bathing. Meanwhile, Jasmine had removed all her clothing, and hopped into the lake without any reservations. ¡°Come on!¡± She said. ¡°The water¡¯s really nice and warm¡ªprobably by Katariah¡¯s doing.¡± I stripped off all of my own clothing, and entered the lake after Jasmine, who had moved out further from shore. When I reached her, she was wetting her hair. ¡°So, I suppose we should talk about Joseph, right?¡± She said, hitting straight to the heart of the matter. ¡°It¡¯s quite obvious that you¡¯re somewhat in love with him, and are conflicted as to how he¡¯s been treating you in the past few days.¡± ¡°Yeah. I don¡¯t know what he¡¯s thinking, ignoring me like he has been.¡± Jasmine smiled at me kindly. ¡°It¡¯s fairly obvious why he hasn¡¯t been paying attention to you¡ªit¡¯s because he doesn¡¯t know how to. Before, he just treated you like one of his guy friends, right? How is he supposed to treat you now that he knows you¡¯re a woman? I think you just need to give him time so that he can start regarding you as a woman.¡± ¡°Yeah, but I don¡¯t want him to treat me like any other woman. I want¡­I want to be¡­more, I guess.¡± Jasmine nodded seriously. ¡°Of course you do. Joseph¡¯s a great guy, but you have to remember that he had his faults. I think that you just have to continue being yourself around him, the way you were when he still thought you were a guy. That way, you can show him that nothing¡¯s really changed, and that he can continue being close with you.¡± ¡°But then, how do I get him to see me as a woman, if I continue acting as I had while he thought I was a man.¡± Jasmine smiled enigmatically. ¡°Don¡¯t worry, I¡¯ve got that part covered, or rather, uncovered.¡± I looked towards her in confusion, not understanding what she meant. Seeing the look, she only laughed lightly. We stayed in the water for a while longer, simply talking about little things¡ªlike how uncomfortable the carriage was, the boring monotony of travel, and what we¡¯re looking forward to. At one point, Jasmine frowned a little to herself, and I could hear her muttering to herself. I just barely caught the end of it, and could only make out ¡°If they got lost¡­¡± Of course, I wondered what she was being so secretive about. Even more, I wondered why she felt the need to hide it from me. I got my answer to those questions very quickly, went something seemed to explode in the distance. There were two figures who ran for cover in the forest as trees around them shattered with no discernable reason. Then, I noticed that the steam on the other end of the lake was dissipating, and Katariah stood on the far shore of the lake, fully clothed. She was holding a hand-full rocks, and every now and then, her hand would blur, and there would be one less tree on the other side of the lake. She was pulverizing trees¡­.with pebbles. And, to add to the sheer craziness of the situation, I also recognized the two figures dashing from tree to tree in an attempt to evade the pebbles. Of course it would be Idarus and Joseph. Chapter 84: Rock-ets? I¡¯m sure a rather malicious grin adorned my face as I flung small rounded rocks across the lake. The rocks were slamming into trees on the other side at a speed which didn¡¯t break the sound barrier. Break implies that they were struggling to reach the point, and that it was an accomplishment that they did. No, these rocks were shattering that particular barrier, and making my distaste quite clear when they disintegrated the trees that were hit. Mind you, I wasn¡¯t trying to hit the two people scurrying about in the midst of all the chaos on the other side of the lake. That they were still alive was proof of that. So, then why was I chucking rocks at them¡ªrocks that would leave little more than grease stains should they actually hit the two boys? Well, I wanted to get a good handle on my current strength. And, while it wasn¡¯t exactly necessary for me to test myself in this way, it was a hell of a lot more fun than simply consigning myself to throwing rocks towards nothing in particular. Moving targets make this a game, instead of training. And, I¡¯m willing to admit that I might be a little angry. I had felt the presence of these two closing in about five kilometers before they reached the lake, and had a fairly good idea what was going on. I¡¯m not a complete idiot, after all, and am well aware of the reasons immature little rats like these two would want to come here while the girls were bathing. And, they committed the grave sin of forcing me out of the lake, and back into my clothes in order to deal with them. I had been looking forward to simply relaxing in the warm waters tonight, but one thing after another seems to be happening. Those girls coming and disturbing my relaxation time, I could deal with. The boys, however, I cannot ignore. So, I decided to deal with them. I began chucking rocks towards them in an attempt to get them to leave without much hassle. Then, I started enjoying it a little, especially seeing them dash from tree to tree in desperation, trying with all their might to get closer to the lake. Are they that determined to get a look? Their determination only made this little game more fun for me, since it gave me a solid and clear-cut objective¡ªKeep them away from the lake. I tried to influence the direction they would flee in through the destruction of the trees. If a tree explodes on their right, for instance, wouldn¡¯t it be reasonable to assume that they would run left? But, they also continued to move a little forward as well, getting closer to the lake in tiny increments. I clicked my tongue, and renewed my efforts to drive them off. Now, the rocks were whizzing right past their heads, serving as a further warning of what might happen should they get any closer. ¡°No! Stop it¡ªYou¡¯ll kill them!¡± Oh? The girls were simply watching the spectacle with wide eyes and slack jaw, but it looks like that Princess doesn¡¯t take too kindly to me throwing rocks at her brothe¡­ Brother? Why the hell does her brother want to peek when she¡¯s bathing in the lake as well? I decided to simply ignore her pleading, and continued to blast rocks down-range. Apparently, she didn¡¯t take too well to that, and began channeling mana for a spell. I left her alone for just a moment too long, and the spell was complete. She froze some of the water around her into meter-long spears, and manipulated them into shooting towards me. Of course, the speed of the ice-spears couldn¡¯t even begin to compare to the rocks thrown by my strength alone. In fact, they seemed frightfully slow, despite the smug look on the Princess¡¯ face. I got the distinct impression that these spears would be quite effective against people of the same realm as the Princess. Unfortunately, she¡¯s nowhere near me in strength of body, or magic. Therefore, her little toothpick¡¯s shattered against the massive bulwark of ice that I created in a split second. The walls of ice melted in the next instant, immediately chilling the lake water I had created it from. The two girls started shivering due to the intense cold, and frantically made for the shore where their clothes were. She just had to have picked ice, didn¡¯t she? It happens to be my best element, you know. Finally, the girls managed to put on their clothes, after having their progress hampered due to the intense shivers running all along their bodies. I chucked a few more rocks towards the boys, before stopping. I consider it my win, since they were only able to catch fleeting glimpses of the lake, and the girls. I seriously doubt that they saw anything, what with all the dodging they ended up having to do. I laughed a little to myself due to the sheer chaos I had managed to cause in the simple act of throwing some stones. Unfortunately, it seems that I was noticed in the act of laughing, since I heard an earsplitting shout from the other end of the shore, where the two little twerps were finally allowed to emerge from the forest.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. ¡°Lady Katariah! Get away from there, it¡¯s dangerous! There¡¯s someone attacking eguh!¡± Ah, a pity. It appears I still had a rock in my hand, and it gently knocked out that Joseph kid. I say gently, since he¡¯s not dead, and for the fact that the rock was moving at a small fraction of the speed I had used with the others. It could have easily been avoided, but for the fact that it¡¯s target seemed confused by the fact that I threw the rock at him. Of course, it hit his temple and he fell backwards, cushioned by the moss on the ground. I decided that things would be better for me if I went to the other side of the shore, where everyone else was watching as Joseph got hit. Very quickly, I ended up a dozen paces from them. One or two of the others gasped in shock as he fell, and there was a single drawn out and piercing scream. I winced, and turned towards the Prince, whose scream trailed off uncertainly as he saw the look of murder in my eyes. Both the Princess and Bea¡¯s sister were turning a little green as they looked at the lump which was rising on the side of the unconscious kid¡¯s head. I could hear one of them mutter in a heartbroken way. ¡°I¡­is Joseph¡­dead?¡± I couldn¡¯t help but to laugh at that, and shook my head. ¡°No, of course not. When he wakes up, tell him to leave me the hell alone, got it?¡± Three pairs of eyes trained on my figure with anger in them. ¡°Why would you¡­.¡± ¡°Hit him? Because he was going to be annoying. At least this way, I don¡¯t have to listen to him talk.¡± The Princess had little tears pooling in the corners of her eyes, and whirled on me in rage. ¡°What gives you the right to hurt him!? He wasn¡¯t doing anything that would have harmed anyone!¡± I gave the Princess a look that would have frozen hell over. ¡°I would have thought that you would thank me for keeping them from seeing you two bathing. Is that not the case?¡± I asked. The Prince, however, was the one who spoke up, his voice strained. ¡°We didn¡¯t know they were bathing. All we knew was that the girls had left during the night, alone. We were concerned for their safety¡ªThat¡¯s all.¡± After having said his piece, the Prince went off to sulk. I think he¡¯s angry towards me, and mortified due to the way he had screamed earlier. It had certainly been¡­impressive. Bea¡¯s sister blushed a deep red, though the Princess looked like she had expected his answer. Could she have¡­? Ah, so that¡¯s how she really is. I¡¯ve half a mind to lay her out like Joseph due to her immaturity, coupled with her cunning. Those two qualities never seem to mix well, and her actions may have cost her my respect in this case¡ªIf she¡¯s done what I think she has. Honestly, does she have no shame? Ugh. I think I just need to leave, before more rocks are thrown. While I left, I called back over my shoulder. ¡°He should wake up within the hour.¡± I said this to Bea¡¯s sister, not the Princess. I suppose the Prince could have also heard it, but that depends on how far away he went in order to sulk. Actually, now that I think about it, isn¡¯t it rather fitting for him to go sulk in the shadows, since he took after his mother¡¯s panther heritage? At least, I¡¯m assuming he¡¯s a panther beastkin, since he has the same funny little cat ears as Bea, and the same tail. They have the same coal-black fur as well. Ah well. I started walking back to my carriage. Hopefully, Bea¡¯s back to normal by now, and I won¡¯t have to gouge out my eyes upon entering. As I moved through the forest, however, something curious happened. I was skirting past a tree trunk, when I felt a tearing pain shoot through my back, instantly bringing me to my knees. Eyes watering slightly as I bit back a multitude of curses in many different languages, I looked back to try and figure out what had happened. I¡¯d never felt a pain quite so¡­acute before. I immediately understood when I saw it, though. My tail had somehow come free without me noticing, and got caught on the fork of a branch as I had passed the tree trunk. Cursing under my breath, I moved to grab my tail, and keep it from getting loose like that again. After all, that really fucking hurt. My tail seemed to have a mind of it¡¯s own after I freed it, though. It slipped from my grasp, and waved about playfully¡ªprobably due to the good mood I was inexplicably still feeling, despite all that had threatened to piss me off. I huffed, and tried to grab it in order to wrap it back around my waist in a way that would keep it from interfering. Emphasis on tried. The damn thing seemed to slip from my grasp as soon as I neared it. I would normally say that it was like the tail knew what I was thinking, but it is a part of me in this case. Though, I¡¯ve never seen it so active before, nor so¡ªplayful? I guess? It usually wraps around my waist limply, like a belt. And while I could control it to a certain extent, I couldn¡¯t do it with the dexterity it now displayed while evading my grasp. Eventually, I gave into a rather primal instinct I could feel compelling me greatly. I started running after my tail, completely intent on grabbing hold of it. Yeah, I know. I started chasing my own tail. But, it was really fun, so the embarrassment canceled out. Eventually, all good things come to an end though. I decided to try and ignore the happily waving appendage behind me after I ran headlong into a stump on the ground. It was about daybreak when that happened, so I must have spent a good chunk of time playing around. It does feel good to let loose every now and again. I continued making my way to my carriage, and tried to not let my tail bother me. While it is odd that it would exhibit such a change now, of all times, it wasn¡¯t an unwelcome change. Maybe I can finally find a combat use for it, after all? Oh, and as a side note, Bea was back to normal when I returned. She got breakfast for the both of us as well, and seemed unaware of what she did while sleeping. Though, she has seemed a little off in general lately. Maybe she¡¯s gone into heat or something? Eh. That¡¯s something I really don¡¯t want to ask her. Chapter 85: Surprises of god-like proportions. ¡°I meant to ask you earlier, but what¡¯s up with your tail? Don¡¯t you normally tuck it away to keep it out of your way?¡± Asked Bea, as we were leaving the caravan for our daily spar. Only a few hours had passed since my little encounter at the lake, and I felt like I needed a good sparing session. Of course, Bea had already noticed the unusual activity of my tail, but had held her silence up to this point. Evidently, her curiosity had finally gotten the better of her, and she felt the need to ask me about it. I shrugged while answering her. ¡°Don¡¯t know. It¡¯s been misbehaving for a little while now, and won¡¯t stay put.¡± As I was saying this, my whip-thin tail was waving in the air behind me as we walked, almost like it was trailing in my wake. It was nearly as long as I was tall, too, and topped with something that looked a bit like an arrowhead. ¡°Do you know what¡¯s causing it?¡± ¡°Nope.¡± I took a stance where if I couldn¡¯t figure out how to get it to stop, I might as well make use of my tail. Already, I could figure out a few good reasons why having it might be a good thing. For one, I felt like I could keep my balance more easily with it out. Also, I felt that making more subtle movements with it would be possible with a bit of practice. Right now, I have constantly remind myself that it¡¯s out, do things in a way that keeps it out of harm. I forgot about it when I returned to the carriage, and accidently sat on it. Lucky, Bea wasn¡¯t in the carriage at the moment, and didn¡¯t see me immediately shooting up with a pained cry. ¡°You should let your tail out more often¡ªit suits you well.¡± Said Bea, bringing me back from the memories of pain I had endured. ¡°Mh¡ªNot like I have much of a choice right now. I¡¯m planning on going through out sparing match with it out.¡± ¡°That¡¯s probably a good idea. It would teach you how to use it and such. Who knows, maybe it¡¯ll even prevent you from sitting on it in the future?¡± I leveled a glare at her. Apparently, she did see that. Ah, if only¡­ Thwap. Oh? Huh¡ªIt actually worked. It was now Bea¡¯s turn to glare at me while she rubbed her arm, where my tail had hit her. ¡°That hurt!¡± She pouted, ¡°Why did you have to hit so hard¡ªor, more like, why is your tail so strong? It¡¯s so thin!¡± I laughed a little. ¡°Well, it was going pretty fast, and it does share my stats, after all. Though, I will admit that I didn¡¯t think it would hit that hard.¡± And, I didn¡¯t really think I would be able to hit her in the first place. It looks like I at least have a little control over the thing. Bea, still ruefully rubbing her arm, commented on the arrowhead tip of my tail. ¡°You hit me with the flat your tail, right? That thing on the end looks sharp¡ªI wonder what would happen if you used it, instead of just smacking people with it?¡± I considered this for a bit. True, the tip is sharp, but I don¡¯t really know what damage it¡¯s capable of. Looking at a nearby tree-trunk, I tried to convey my intentions to my tail again in an attempt to hit the trunk with its tip. Like before, my tail blurred for a second, before deeply impaling the trunk. I looked on in shock, fully aware that it had gone halfway through the two-meter wide bit of wood. And, I didn¡¯t feel any resistance, indicating that it probably could have gone all the way through, had it been long enough. I felt like I had an extremely sharp little dagger attached to the end of my tail. Cool. I think that I¡¯m convinced now¡ªI should figure out how to use this during combat, since it¡¯s like having a third hand. Anyway, we reached a good point to start the sparing match soon after that, and took up ready positions. For that brief moment where we were both waiting for the other person to make the first move, everything was still besides the tail waving behind me. Then, we exploded into motion at almost the same time. Naturally, Bea was still the faster of us, though I had a fair bit more speed now. However, the increase I had experienced was negligible at best, since Bea was still effectively three times faster than myself, which should still be a problem. But it wasn¡¯t, really. Because, I could see her now. She was no longer just a blur in the corner of my eyes. I could make out each and every movement she made rather easily. And, the largest reason why I was getting beat up by her all the time, was simply because I didn¡¯t know what to guard against. Now, I found myself countering her moves with increasing frequency, even though she¡¯s still multiple times faster that I am. Let me put this in another way¡ªIt wouldn¡¯t matter how fast an arrow goes, if it meets an already raised shield. Bea was finding that my guard was already up in the direction she wanted to strike, almost as soon as she had made the preliminary movements to go for the hit. The only way she could hit me, would be to overwhelm my reaction times. She had to move in a way that would leave me in a checkmate position, where I couldn¡¯t possibly move my body fast enough to block. Of course, this happened quite a bit.Did you know this story is from Royal Road? Read the official version for free and support the author. Bea was still surprised that I was able to block her at times though, when I hadn¡¯t been able to previously. She was even more surprised when the bruises she had given me when making contact, simply faded away after a few seconds. So that¡¯s what Draconic Regeneration¡¯s like. Bea¡¯s hit¡¯s didn¡¯t even really register as pain, before they were gone. Of course, that just incited her to hit harder, and faster, which in turn motivated me to block better, and more often. In the end, Bea won the spar. However, I will not count it as her win since she used dirty tactics. Apparently, she thought it would be amusing to grab onto my tail. She felt validated when I immediately fell to my knees, making a yowling noise. ¡°Ehehehe¡­Weak-point found¡­.¡± She said, giving me chills. It looks like I really need to get stronger, to defend myself from those threats closer to me. I also need to figure out how to make better use of my tail, otherwise it would just be a weakness. We walked back to the caravan, and I began answering some of Bea¡¯s questions after I felt like speaking to her again. ¡°So, what happened? Something about you has changed since yesterday, including your tail. Hell, if I didn¡¯t know better, I¡¯d say that you broke through the bottleneck.¡± I looked at Bea, confused. ¡°But I did?¡± ¡°Hm?¡± ¡°I broke through the bottleneck. It looks like I was freaked out over nothing yesterday.¡± I noticed that Bea had stopped moving next to me, so I slowed down, and turned around to face her. She had a look of shock on her face, and was looking at me like one would a monster. ¡°But¡­how? It took me three years¡­¡± ¡°Three whole years? Is that what you meant when you said that it takes a while to get through the bottleneck?¡± ¡°Yes, that¡¯s what I meant! It¡¯s common sense¡ªit can take years to get through bottlenecks! Doing it in only three years is considered extremely quick for the level 250 divide!¡± I think I¡¯ve broken Bea. That seems to happen often around me, doesn¡¯t it? But still, when put into perspective, I do suppose that breaking through a bottleneck in a single night is a little¡­.monstrous. And, I did it while sleeping, no less. Really makes the whole bottleneck thing feel useless, doesn¡¯t it? Oh well, I guess I¡¯m just one of those protagonists, after all. Or am I more of an antihero? Bah, doesn¡¯t matter. I simply shrugged at her comments, and replied without much thought. ¡°I think you can attribute all that to my demonic heritage, and not to any effort of my own.¡± ¡°Ugh. So unfair.¡± Yeah, it is. But, at least I can get stronger in less time because of it. The rest of the walk back to the caravan was spent in relative silence, since I was admiring the massive trees found here, and the vibrant forest life. Bea was probably still trying to get over the fact that I broke the bottleneck. I wonder what would have happened if I told her that I had also gained thirty levels right after breaking through? I think it would be best to wait until we got to the carriage to tell her something like that, since she would have a seat to keep her from falling due to the shock. After all, I¡¯ve completely broken from common sense now. Though, when we did get to the carriage, there was already someone waiting inside it. Bea¡¯s sister Gabriel had taken a seat inside the moving carriage, looking fairly tired and bored. When she saw Bea enter the carriage first, her face lit up, and I knew that the girl was here to talk to Bea about something. And, given the way her face fell when I followed Bea into the carriage immediately after, I was the topic of discussion, or in the very least wasn¡¯t viewed in a friendly light by Gabriel. ¡°Ah¡ªwhat brings you here today, Gabe?¡± Asked Bea. Her sister, momentarily distracted due to the force of her glare towards me, answered Bea. ¡°Mh? Well, I wanted to find out more about Lady Katariah here. Things like, how old is she? Why is she here, and where did she come from? How strong is she?¡± Hey, I¡¯m right here, you know? Why not just ask the source of your anger and curiosity? Agh, forget it. This is between sisters, I guess. ¡°Why do you want to know these things?¡± Asked Bea curiously, while I simply sat back, and observed. Gabriel obviously doesn¡¯t care too much that I¡¯m here, after all. Though, she seems to be ignoring me rather seriously. I had to look down, and reassure myself that I hadn¡¯t somehow turned transparent. ¡°Because, I want to be able to beat her.¡± I will admit, I giggled a little at that. Such a naive little notion, beating me. Gabriel sent a death glare towards me due to that, though. Bea looked at me briefly as well, to get my permission to disclose my information. I nodded at her. ¡°Right then. Don¡¯t get your hopes up too high though. Kai¡¯s level 250, since she just broke through that bottleneck yesterday. The one time she spared with me with all her ability, we ended in a draw, so she¡¯s at least as strong as I am when going full out.¡± Gabriel¡¯s eyes seemed to light up at this information. Maybe she thinks she can catch up with me? ¡°And? How long did she spend at that bottleneck? How old is she? What type of reptile beastkin is she?¡± ¡°Err¡ªare you sure you want to know? There are some things that are better left unknown, lest you discourage yourself.¡± Gabriel nodded. ¡°I have to know. More information is always better than less.¡± ¡°No, it¡¯s not. Especially in this case.¡± Bea paused. ¡°But, since you seem so adamant about finding out, and since Kai seems to not mind you knowing, I¡¯ll tell you. Kai is fourteen years old. She¡¯s a monstrous existence that both reached, and broke through the level 250 bottleneck in a single day. And, she¡¯s not a reptile beastkin. She¡¯s a Demon, apparently.¡± Ah, I think I¡¯m beginning to like shocking people. Their pale faces are so, so amusing. However, judging by the fact that Gabriel hastily left the carriage right after that revelation, looking shaky and conflicted, she didn¡¯t take the news well. I suppose it didn¡¯t help that I smirked at her gloatingly right before that point, no?
(POV Gabriel) She¡¯s a Demon, a freaking Demon. How the hell am I supposed to catch up to something so powerful, so legendary? How am I supposed to get Joseph to quit looking at her? The first thing he did after waking up this morning, was call out for her¡ªeven though she was the one who had knocked him unconscious in the first place. By the gods, she¡¯s only fourteen! How does someone so young hold so much power?! It¡¯s all feeling a bit hopeless. By the time I catch up to her current level, she¡¯ll have left me in the dust. Maybe she¡¯ll have even reached the 500 watershed? Who knows, with that sort of bloodline and aptitude? No, I just need to resolve myself to climb up, to get ever stronger right? I need to get stronger, in order to beat her, no matter what. I¡¯d even go to hell in order to gain strength enough to stand on the same field as her. ¡°Ohohoho! I¡¯ve overheard some interesting thoughts from you, little mortal! Tell me, what is it you truly seek?¡± I gasped, and spun around. Who¡¯s there? Behind me, a massive woman stood, wreathed in glowing motes of red light. Or is she made of the light? She held a great spear in one hand, and a massive shield in the other. ¡°Who¡­are you?¡± I asked cautiously. The woman, who was taller than me by a great deal, exuded an aura unlike anything I¡¯ve ever felt before. ¡°Me? Have I been so forgotten in my slumber, that even the mortals like you do not recall my name?¡± I shook my head, not knowing what she was talking about in the slightest. ¡°No matter. I have awoken, and find you most amusing. I will allow you to act as my temple, so that you may use my power as you will it.¡± ¡°Wait, temple? What do you mean?¡± ¡°Stay still, child, this might sting a bit.¡± Said the woman, who suddenly blurred in front of me. Then, I felt as if my head began expanding, and my mana pool seethed as if a great pressure was forcing the both of them to grow. I tried to scream, but found myself frozen in place, experiencing each second as if a year passed in great pain. Finally, it ended, and I collapsed to the ground, sweating bullets. From inside my mind, I heard the voice of the woman. ¡°My name is Aren, goddess of righteous battle. I look forward to working with you, little mortal.¡± Chapter 86: The Puppetmasters. (POV Gabriel) ¡°A¡­A God? You¡¯re joking, right?¡± ¡°Of course not. I am unable to lie, since it would go against my nature.¡± ¡°But, why?¡± ¡°I suppose you should know, since I¡¯ve chosen you to serve as my temple. I am the goddess of righteous battle, and I could feel a genuine and pure desire from you to grow stronger.¡± ¡°But, I only want to beat Katariah¡ªHow is that pure or genuine?¡± I heard a little chuckle from inside me. My gods, she¡¯s really inside me, isn¡¯t she? ¡°Yes, you want to beat a Demon, no? There¡¯s no purer desire than that. In fact, you are the only one I¡¯ve found so far that wishes to fight against one of their kind.¡± ¡°Wait¡ªbecause I want to fight a Demon, you came to me?¡± ¡°Yes. I do not know what caused the world to come to this state during my slumber, but we must fight back against the agents of Chaos, otherwise this world would completely fall to the end times.¡± ¡°Chaos?¡± ¡°The enemy of us Order affiliated gods. We have battled for many millennia, or were supposed to. It seems like we¡¯ve truly slept for too long.¡± ¡°Do gods even need to sleep? And how long were you sleeping for?¡± ¡°No, gods do not need to sleep. When I say that I¡¯ve been slumbering, I mean that my power stagnated, and my consciousness shut down due to a nefarious plot by the agents of Chaos. It seems like something similar has happened to all the other gods of Order, since I¡¯ve yet to hear from them. I do not know how long I¡¯ve been asleep.¡± ¡°Then, what¡¯s a Temple?¡± ¡°It¡¯s a mortal that has given a god shelter. It is rare for this to occur, but there are some circumstances that have forced me to find a host.¡± ¡°You¡¯re a God though¡ªwhy would you need to find shelter in the first place? Aren¡¯t God¡¯s supposed to be all-powerful?¡± Again, I heard that laughter. ¡°While Gods certainly are powerful, I am still a single entity after all. There are always limits to power, and ways to weaken others. I exited my slumber with very little of my divine power remaining. To gain it back requires time, and a catalyst. In this case, you are the catalyst.¡± ¡°A catalyst? For what?¡± ¡°It is simple. Each and every time a mortal gains a level, a sort of heavenly law descends, granting them more power. I can utilize this law to stimulate the release of divine power, which would be given back to me since I am recognized as a goddess.¡± ¡°So, you¡¯re going to hinder my cultivation progress?¡± I asked icily. ¡°No, not at all. Rather, you will find that some of this divine power will rub off on your soul each time I do this. Since divine power is infinitely more potent than the crude mana you mortals use, you will end up rising very quickly in power. It is extremely rare for a mortal being to come into contact with divine energy.¡± ¡°And what if I don¡¯t want you to help me?¡± ¡°It¡¯s too late for that.¡± ¡°Huh? What do you mean?!¡± ¡°I¡¯ve already entered the very essence of your soul at the moment, I have not the power required to separate us. I am sorry, but this was the only action I could take.¡± For a moment, I felt angry towards the supposed goddess that decided to interfere with my life. Then, I felt calm. I don¡¯t know why, but it felt like I had a revelation of some kind, telling me that everything was all right, and that this would benefit me greatly. I thought for a while, before asking the goddess a question. ¡°Demons are our saviors, so why do you make them sound evil?¡± ¡°Because they are. They sow the seeds of chaos, destabilizing the world and throwing it to ruin. However, it looks like history does not remember that era correctly.¡± ¡°Correctly? They freed us from the oppression of the elves.¡± ¡°Did they? Their forbearer¡¯s fought against a society that saw all of its members feed and working. And they did this for no reason. Eventually, they won, and the unfortunate elves were vilified and cast away. They destabilized a perfectly good world, for their own amusement. I will never forgive the Demons, as carriers of Dragon blood, due to this.¡± ¡°So wait¡ªThe Dragon¡¯s are your actual enemy? Then why go after their decedents? Isn¡¯t that a little excessive?¡± ¡°It is necessary. Otherwise, true order can never be brought back to this world. While the Dragons have already left this plane in search of greater amusements, their legacy still lives on. Luckily, it looks like the gods of Chaos have not interfered with this world while we Order gods slept. I suspect that something also happened to them.¡± ¡°But¡­The elves were evil, right?¡± ¡°Not at all. They were the descendants of beings meant to spread order and peace through all worlds, just as the Dragons wanted to cause chaos. They were only able to stay on this world long enough to have children, before they had to continue on in their mission. These children eventually became the Elves, who shared in their ancestor¡¯s mastery over magic of all kinds. This was in contrast to the Dragons, and the Demons, who used magic to strengthen their bodies.¡±You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story. ¡°I was always taught that the Elves were the personification of evil. You telling me that they were the descendants of ¡®Great Beings¡¯ does nothing to sway that belief.¡± I said, trying to deny the Goddess, whose words were sounding more pleasing by the second. ¡°Who first said they were evil? It was the Dragons, and the Demons after them. Only the victor gets to dictate history, and they can make the greatest of saints appear like sinners incarnate. Perspective is a thing very few can indulge in.¡± Ugh¡ªit felt like I had a splitting headache trying to wrap my head around these new insights. The Elves? Good? That went against all the stories I¡¯d heard as a child, and all that I¡¯ve learned since. But, the Goddess said she couldn¡¯t lie¡ªright? But, if Demons are truly evil, then I have a greater reason to fight with Katariah. Truthfully, a part of me knows that my other motivation is really childish, and that Joseph would not treat me any better should I win a fight. Though, it might be wise to combat childishness with childishness. As soon as Joseph had woken up from when Katariah hit him, he asked after her. After remembering what had happened, he said one thing. ¡°This is good then. I¡¯ve always liked strong women.¡± I left after hearing that, wanting to learn more about Katariah. Not because I was genuinely curious, but because I wanted to figure out what had Joseph so enamored with her. ¡°Right then. Let¡¯s say that none of that other stuff matters. How powerful can you make me?¡± I asked the Goddess now residing within me. ¡°That depends.¡± ¡°On what?¡± ¡°On when you next level up. At that time, you¡¯ll come into contact with divine power for the first time. After that, your cultivation speed will start to increase rapidly.¡± ¡°How rapidly?¡± ¡°You are level 127 at the moment, correct? I can bring you to the level 250 bottleneck in a year.¡± I nearly fell from shock. That advancement speed was, well, godlike. Truly, only with the intervention of a god can someone advance one hundred levels in a year.Regardless of everything else the Goddess has told me, this increase in power alone is worth letting her reside within me for a while. Clenching my teeth, I resolved myself towards leveling up as soon as possible, in order to begin this process of gaining power.
Divine Realm of Chaos, Pantheon of the Gods. Time: Around the Present. (¡À4 or 5 months) Inside a massive throne room with a number of large stone chairs arranged in a semi-circle, a conversation was taking place. A man seated on the largest and most intricate throne spoke first, addressing the puny looking messenger who had entered. The messenger kept looking toward the god¡¯s hands, which were well worn and scarred. ¡°They¡¯ve begun to wake?¡± ¡°Yes, My Lord. Currently, the strongest among them have already begun seeking Temples for refuge.¡± ¡°Have you checked the World Seal?¡± ¡°I have. The inner Sky has been broken, and only the outer Space-fold is keeping the Divided spaces apart.¡± ¡°Who would break that seal? Only a complete idiot would mess with¡­¡± ¡°Lord, it was that person.¡± ¡°Oh? Then I guess the act can be forgiven.¡± ¡°Lord¡ªWhat are your commands?¡± ¡°Do the same as we have been. Simply observe the mortal realm, and don¡¯t get too involved. Those annoying little gods of Order do not realize the depths of the pool in which they would swim.¡± Swiftly, the messenger left to carry on the news. Another being materialized on the throne next to the king of the gods. She lounged on the stone chair, and looked at her brother, amused. ¡°Really Anitious? You aren¡¯t even going to appoint a Temple, or even inform the mortal world of what is to come?¡± ¡°Why should I appoint a Temple for myself? I already gave that Hero that got summoned a hefty Blessing. Besides, my Temples have always gone insane. You know that.¡± ¡°I know, I know. ¡®No mortal can handle the God of Knowledge¡¯s vast intellect!¡¯. I was just asking, do you think they are strong enough?¡± ¡°The world below is certainly capable of handling itself. There are some beings down there with the power to rival lesser Chaos Gods, to say nothing of severely weakened Order Gods. And, if the worst comes to pass, we can then start appointing Temples and Champions like we did during that bygone era.¡± ¡°I just can¡¯t help but feel that something momentous is coming, and that we¡¯ll be squashed if we make the wrong move. Perhaps it¡¯s best to be on the safe side?¡± ¡°We already allowed those summoned heroes to pass through the Rift. They¡¯ve been training hard, and will certainly be strong enough to ¡®greet¡¯ the Order God¡¯s Temples. I know that your feeling are intrinsically tied to your role as the Goddess of Fate, but I also know that there¡¯s only one being we have to worry about in the mortal world.¡± ¡°Ah¡ªher, right?¡± ¡°Exactly. Those bloodlines, along with that soul¡­While I¡¯m eager to see what will become of her, she frightens me to no end.¡± ¡°Because of the ¡®no-interference¡¯ policy?¡± ¡°Yes. I couldn¡¯t even contact her! What sort of power lurks behind her, to block out even my touch?¡± ¡°Ewww! Don¡¯t say it like that¡ªyou sound like some sort of pervert!¡± Anitious, God of Knowledge, laughed a little. ¡°Sure, I¡¯m the weird one. At least I don¡¯t stalk mortal women with my divine sense, and try¡­¡± ¡°No!!¡± Called out Anitious¡¯s sister, The Goddess of Fate, Veranda. ¡°Oh, please keep talking Father¡ªI want to find out more about Aunt¡¯s bad tendencies.¡± Said a newcomer, as she materialized in the throne to Anitious¡¯s left. This Goddess looked fairly young, with bright red hair, and vibrant green eyes. ¡°I¡¯m afraid that bad things will happen to my brother, if he continues speaking.¡± The new Goddess sighed. ¡°Damn. And I thought it would be entertaining.¡± She paused. ¡°You know, I just heard a rumor concerning the Order Gods¡­.¡± ¡°They¡¯re true. The World Seal was broken, and they were woken. However, it¡¯s nothing to be worried about, Farah.¡± Farah, the red-haired Goddess, looked very worried. ¡°¡¯Nothing to be worried about¡¯? We spent so much time and effort setting up those seals, and now that they¡¯ve escaped, there¡¯s ¡®nothing to be worried about¡¯?! At least tell me you¡¯ve punished the mortal who broke the seal, Father!¡± ¡°Why would I?¡± ¡°Because, the Order God¡¯s nearly brought about this planet¡¯s death through stagnation and corruption! The one who let them out needs to become an example to the mortal people! We need to rally them for battle!¡± Anitious laughed a little, instantly earning a smothering glare from Farah. ¡°I think you¡¯re taking this a little too seriously. The Order God¡¯s are not a threat anymore, with how much their power¡¯s been drained due to the Seal. The mortal world will have nothing to fear for the next few hundred years, until they regain their full strength. If I¡¯m right, their Temples will have been destroyed long before then, and their souls thrown into reincarnation.¡± ¡°How can you be so sure?¡± ¡°Well, they¡¯ll first try and seek out the last Elves in the world, who are still inside the outer Space-fold. However, the Order God¡¯s and their chosen Temples will have an unexpectantly hard time getting the Elves to join them, since the Hero¡¯s we allowed to be summoned into this world will be nearby. And, even then, there¡¯s one other thing to consider.¡± ¡°What is it?¡± ¡°The one who broke the World Seal in the first place¡ªIt was Katariah Silver.¡± A look of understanding passed Farah¡¯s face. ¡°Ah, so that¡¯s it. Her fate¡¯s already woven into this, isn''t it?¡± ¡°Exactly. She¡¯ll likely encounter Order Gods and their Temples at every turn, which will inevitably lead to conflict. As long as those God¡¯s lay an eye on her, they¡¯ll think Katariah a monstrosity that needed eradicating. After all, they would hate the idea of their precious Angelic bloodline being crossed by something they consider Evil incarnate. And, she¡¯ll happily destroy them for provoking her.¡± Chapter 87: The Worth of Talent and Hard Work. Hm? What the? I look around, confused. I could have sworn I felt¡­something just now. Some sort of energy, vaguely familiar to me. ¡°Is something wrong, Kai?¡± Asked Bea, who saw that I was acting oddly all the sudden. I shook my head. ¡°No¡ªI don¡¯t think so¡­.Did you feel anything just now?¡± Bea tilted her head in confusion. ¡°I didn¡¯t? Is there something in particular I need to look out for?¡± I shook my head again. ¡°No, don¡¯t bother. It might have been my imagination after all.¡± Though, I¡¯m sure it wasn¡¯t. That excuse placated Bea though, and kept her from getting worried. A worried Bea is not a fun Bea. I kept my senses open in case that energy came back and in the hopes that I might be able to identify it when that happens¡ªno, if it happens. Meanwhile, the caravan was lumbering forward. I had heard that we were going to be stopping in the last town on this side of the border, then begin our journey through foreign lands on the morrow. Apparently, there¡¯s also some sort of traditional feast that happens when the town wishes the travelling groups luck. So, after today¡¯s travel, I can anticipate good food and alcohol waiting for me when we stop. So, instead of the training I had been doing previously, I took a day off and snoozed in the carriage, using Bea as a fairly good lap-pillow. I became a little concerned that she was coming down with something, since her face looked a little red the whole time. I asked her about it though, and she hastily replied that she¡¯s not sick. I¡¯ll be honest; I¡¯m pretending ignorance or innocence here. It¡¯s a bit fun to rile her up after all. The day passed fairly quickly, even with nothing to do. There was a minor incident where a carriage wheel broke on one of the transports near the front of the caravan, holding the entire group up for about an hour while it was fixed. But, when you don¡¯t have to be anywhere at a particular time, those little hold-ups don¡¯t really matter much. We still made it to the town in the end, after all. After that, things degenerated a bit, with groups from the caravan breaking off in every which direction to celebrate. Food seemed to appear all over the reasonably sized fortress town, along with ale and wine. Honestly, it was all a bit loud and obnoxious to me. So, I nicked one of the wine bottles, and retired to a rooftop reasonably far away from all the other people. I drank straight from the bottle while looking back on my lives. You know dying sucks. I can tell you that dying multiple times is worse, especially when there¡¯s simply nothing else you could do. Either you¡¯re too young to fend for yourself, too weak, or overmatched. I¡¯ve had a few lives where I got strong, only to be cut down in my prime. I¡¯ve had lives where I never got close to that prime. And then I¡¯ve had a life where I did something stupid, and might as well have killed myself. I think that if there¡¯s anything I¡¯ve learned over all this time, it¡¯s that there¡¯s no such thing as an infallible higher power. You have only yourself and luck to rely on. I try and live each life like it¡¯s my last, since it very well might be. I might not be reborn with my memories again. Ah, the bottle¡¯s empty. I guess I drank it all without realizing. My alcohol tolerance must have soared through the roof recently, since I don¡¯t feel it at all. Probably happened during one of those evolutions. Don¡¯t get me wrong, I appreciate getting stronger and all, but isn¡¯t the way I¡¯m doing it a tad ridiculous? I feel like one of those overpowered main characters from my days on Earth, like that dude with the red hair and massive sword, or that fictional hero with a massive armory that he can summon on a whim. Or that other guy, who can copy that armory.The author''s tale has been misappropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon. It¡¯s just been one rise in power after another lately. Some of them I¡¯ve accomplished myself, like when I increased my mana density on that island, while others have simply¡­happened. I don¡¯t know what causes them, which bothers me on some level. Hopefully, the libraries in the Central Kingdoms can answer a few of my questions, as well as help me to find the Continents again. Though, I¡¯m getting a bit impatient. I want answers as soon as possible. The problem is that we¡¯re traveling as a part of a caravan, instead of alone. If it were just Bea and I, we could make the journey much, much faster. Sure, there¡¯s the measure of safety afforded by a caravan, but other things are sacrificed in return. Also, I have no idea where to go in order to reach the Central Continents. I mean, I know what direction it¡¯s in, but I have no way of knowing what roads are dangerous, which ones are fastest, or which ones are just all-around not good ideas. I could just make my way north-east, and trust in my skills past that point, but why risk it? Unless a better alternative presents itself, I¡¯m sticking with the caravan. I hunted down another bottle, and returned to the roof. This time, Bea joined me. She¡¯s getting to know me pretty well, if the fact that she¡¯s not trying to talk to me is any indication. We simply drank silently together.
The next day, the caravan rolled out again. Most people going with it also have bloody great hangovers from the partying last night. Regardless, a ragged cheer rose when we passed through the border station, and out of the kingdom. Even though we had been traveling for a while so far, this marked the true start of the journey. It would take a year and a half to reach the Central Continents. Oh, and I soon found out exactly what that familiar energy had been. It was Gabriel¡ªor more specifically, the energy now being used by her. It looks like I¡¯m not the only one who got a power-up. Basically, things went like this; It had been a few days since the border crossing. Bea wasn¡¯t feeling too well, and elected to stay in the carriage while I went to do my daily training. Things went as usual for the first few hours, until I felt like someone was watching me. Wondering about it, I wandered into an open field off to the side, and sat down among the tall grasses. I considered employing the strategy I had used against Bea during that first spar¡ªwhere I threw my wakizashi at her. Then I thought better. I should just wait, maybe meditate a little. If whoever¡¯s watching me plans on doing something, then that would be the best opportunity. If nothing happens, then I can just let them be. So, of course this mystery person would begin creeping closer to where I was meditating. I sighed a little, and got back up. Let¡¯s see¡­the person¡¯s by the edge of the clearing right now. I can hear that their heart rate just shot straight through the roof, and smell the sweat on their palms. Funny, I couldn¡¯t do that before. Is it another effect of the recent level ups as well? Anyway, their heart rate didn¡¯t lower at all as I started walking in the direction of my watcher. It was a little funny, actually. I stopped right in front of the petrified watcher, who turned out to be Bea¡¯s little sister Gabriel. ¡°What are you doing?¡± I asked her flatly. My tail waved behind me slowly, showing off the knife-like tip it has. I also had one of my hands on the wakizashi pushed through my belt. I had left the nodachi in the carriage with Bea. ¡°Um¡­¡± began Gabriel, who was watching the tail. ¡°I was¡­.uh¡­.curious?¡± ¡°Oh? Is that all? Why don¡¯t you be curious elsewhere, okay?¡± ¡°I¡¯ll do that.¡± She replied quietly, before scurrying off. What had that been about?
Gabriel ran away gasping. She couldn¡¯t believe what the deity residing within her had confirmed about Katariah. Only fourteen, and reaching for level 300?! What sort of monster makes that kind of mind-bending progress? What sort of natural talent is required to climb nearly 300 levels in so little time?! And that aura surrounding her¡ªGabriel nearly suffocated on the pressure from a fourteen year old. A fourteen year old! ¡°Calm down child. Things look grim, and we can¡¯t have you doubting your own abilities.¡± Spoke the deity within me. What do you mean, things look grim?! Is there something worse than her level and age?! The deity picks up on my thoughts, and answers. ¡°Unfortunately, yes. It looks like this¡­Katariah has begun to awaken a draconic bloodline. She can no longer be considered a mere demon, but now a High Demon. They are but a short step away from the dragons of old, and must be handled with the utmost caution.¡± So, she¡¯s even worse than you first told me? I¡¯m still not convinced that Katariah deserves to die. My only problem with her is that she¡¯s taken all of Joseph¡¯s attention. ¡°Of course she has to die. She¡¯s the spawn of chaos, and sows it¡¯s seeds. Any children she has will only add to the world¡¯s woes, and her deeds will always have selfishness and greed hidden behind them. That¡¯s the nature of a demon, and even more so the nature of a High-Demon.¡± But then how am I supposed to vanquish an evil so much stronger than I am? With her talent, she¡¯ll have left me far behind as soon as I¡¯ve even approached level 300. ¡°Child, you forget that you have a God residing within your body. Your talent outstrips her own now, and you can easily catch up given enough time.¡± Really? How long will it take? ¡°At most? A year and a half. Maybe even sooner, depending on how hard you work. Heroes and Temples are not made immediately, you know.¡± Gabriel walked back to the caravan in considerable better spirits, already looking forward to her future strength. Chapter 88: Those Classic Templates Funnily enough, that classic template showed up during the caravan¡¯s travels. A few days after crossing over the border, we were attacked by bandits. It looks like there¡¯s less order present in this kingdom, especially judging by the surprisingly well-equipped bandit men. Some of them even had steel armor. And nothing was rusted! What the hell are this kingdom¡¯s law enforcers doing, if they¡¯re letting such a powerful bandit group roam about? I sighed, thinking of this whole thing as extremely troublesome. ¡°What? You aren¡¯t going to help them?¡± Asked Bea besides me with a bemused expression. ¡°No. This gives me a good chance to see how strong our escorts are. Maybe some of them are even good sparring material.¡± I said, smirking. ¡°That¡¯s a little cold-blooded, don¡¯t you think? What if one of them dies?¡± She asks. ¡°Then it¡¯s their fault for not being strong enough. I can only wish them luck in the next life. Besides, if I worry about every little detail, I¡¯ll wear myself out.¡± Bea nodded. ¡°Very pragmatic. I suppose you have that authority to think that way as well, given that you know better than anyone here what death¡¯s like.¡± I shudder a little, remembering the closing moments of my lives. ¡°Yeah, it¡¯s not any fun, I¡¯ll tell you that much.¡± I say. I refrain from telling her anything else, since that would likely just freak her out. It¡¯s better to simply deal with death when it comes, instead of thinking about it all the time. Of course, it¡¯s still better to avoid dying in the first place, but it tends to be rather unavoidable for me. What¡¯s my current record so far? Twenty? I can never seem to make it past there. Even more often, I¡¯ll die before turning ten. Since that didn¡¯t happen this time, I think this¡¯ll be one of my longer-lived lifetimes. I went back to observing the skirmish between the bandits and the caravan guards from the top of our carriage. The guards were having to give ground due to the numbers of the bandits, while a magical conflagration was taking place off to the side as each side¡¯s mages battled for supremacy. This was actually the far more important fight, since whichever side won would then have total control of the battlefield. As luck would have it, both sides seemed to be dead even. There were three mages with our caravan, and five with the bandits. While our mages had the power and experience advantage over the other side, those extra mages made things difficult for them. In fact, things started to look a little dire for our mages when their defenses began to crack under the pressure of five enemy mages. Bea stood up, tension radiating from her body. I sighed, and decided that our mages needed a little help to get through this. Besides, it¡¯s three against five. That¡¯s not fair at all. I palmed a set of throwing knives I had forged as practice before leaving the palace, and stood up. A quick flick of my wrist set one knife spinning, and the second followed while the first was still in the air. Quite a feat, if I might say, as they both broke the sound barrier. It only took a micro-second for both knives to reach their intended targets, and pierce right through their magical shields and warding. The heads of two enemy mages were instantly pulped, and the ¡°knives¡± continued on their path. Only, they were more like deadly bits of glowing metal, as the force of punching through that magic caused enough friction to partially melt the knives. I feel sorry for the loss of two perfectly good knives, but it is what it is I guess. I also hope that they don¡¯t impact anywhere near a populated area. That could make things messy rather quickly, and screw with my karma in all sorts of ways. The two mages dropped dead without anyone realizing what had happened. The three enemy mages still left stared at the twitching and headless bodies of their former comrades, and went deathly pale rather quickly. Our own mages were stunned, but realized that there are times when you just shouldn¡¯t question such a good opportunity. They pressed the counter-attack, and the enemy mages found themselves in hot water soon after. Now that the playing field had been leveled, our three mages clearly out-matched the bandit mages. Feeling assured that the mages had the situation well in hand, I surveyed the rest of the battlefield. It looks like a defensive line had been established professionally, proving that the caravan guards truly knew what they¡¯re doing. Once the line appeared, the bandit forces couldn¡¯t push the guards a single inch. It also certainly didn¡¯t help that a group composed of capable caravan travelers had flanked around the main bandit force, and was tearing into them from behind. Effectively, the bandits were actually surrounded, and now had to fight a two front battle. I did see several cases where a bandit¡¯s armor repulsed what should have been a killing blow, but the guards thankfully had comparable armor. And they were organized better, and were somewhat obviously more experienced. There was no panic among their ranks, just a cool professionalism that pushed the bandits further and further into fear.If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen from Royal Road. Please report it. I noticed Bea watching the people who had flanked around the bandits with concern. A moment¡¯s investigation revealed why she might be worried, as her little sister was among those who chose to fight. And I guess Gabriel¡¯s reckless fighting style gave Bea plenty of reason to be concerned. Gabriel was wading into the bandit¡¯s ranks, hitting anything she could reach with her blades. Sometimes, the swords would bite into flesh and leave a bandit on the ground. Other times, it would just bounce off armor ineffectually. That meant those particular bandits was stronger than Gabriel is, since armor typically works by taking mana from it¡¯s wearer and imbuing itself with strength. There are limits, but the armor typically scales in strength with its wearer¡¯s power. I don¡¯t use armor though. Particularly with how I am right now, I think my personal power would quickly eclipse the usability of any armor I wear. Even worse, I have no idea how to make armor myself. I¡¯d have to visit another blacksmith and have armor custom made for my chibi body. That whole process is more than a little annoying, and takes quite a while. Anyway~ Like I was saying, Gabriel was kinda going berserk in the middle of the bandits, and kept pushing forward. I could see why Bea would be concerned, since it would be all too easy to surround and cut Gabriel off from the rest of the allied fighters. And she was only breaching deeper into the bandit forces, with a crazed sort of look on her face. Her friends were watching her fight and kill with horror in their eyes. Well, they were watching the whole engagement with sickened horror and disgust, not just Gabriel. I¡¯m going to go ahead and guess that this is the first time they¡¯re seeing real combat. Ah, look¡ªthe Prince just puked. I think he was watching that guy get disemboweled. Ah, youth. It also looks like Gabriel¡¯s putting herself into a rather bad situation. She¡¯s pushed far enough in that the path she¡¯d carved into the bandits has now closed off, leaving her surrounded on all sides. ¡°If you want to go save her, I¡¯d suggest you do it right about now.¡± I say, turning towards Bea. She nodded, a resolute look in her eyes. I paid no further attention to the matter as Bea entered the fray. She still is stronger than me while I¡¯m not in Demon Lord mode, so she¡¯ll be just fine. Meanwhile, I began scanning the forests around us. If I¡¯m right, then the bandit leader didn¡¯t accompany his men into the raid. He would have to be¡­there. Oh yeah, man in full armor hiding off in the distance, on top of a hill. You aren¡¯t conspicuous at all¡ªnot in the slightest. He¡¯s fairly obviously the bandit¡¯s leader, judging by the fact that he¡¯s wearing the same sort of armor as the rest of them, and the small group of bandits who were there as a guard detail for sorts. I think this whole bandit camp is organized astonishingly well, all things considered. Most bandits I¡¯ve seen were lucky if they had swords in the first place. Well, I decided to pay this bandit leader a visit. I figured he¡¯d at least be a little strong, and might even pose a challenge. I hopped down from the carriage¡¯s roof, and started walking around the fighting taking place. It was easy to avoid the majority of the battle, due in part to my own speed. It was actually a bit discombobulating, since I had recently discovered something new about myself. Namely, I can walk really freaking fast when I want to. It was like each step of mine took me way, way farther than it should have otherwise. Eh, I¡¯m not one to complain about good things. I just wish I knew a bit more about why this stuff was happening. I mean, I know it has something to do with my bloodlines, but I have no idea why or in what direction those changes will be taking me. Anyway, all this meant that I was standing in front of the leader guy on that hill before he could even register me approaching. He stumbled back, a look of shock in his eyes. ¡°Who the hell are you?¡± He asked. ¡°Huh. That was actually my question.¡± I reply. ¡°Anyway¡ªare you the leader of those bandits down there?¡± I asked. The man squared his shoulders. ¡°Bandits? We are soldiers of the Tarnih Kingdom!¡± He said fiercely. I looked at him in confusion. ¡°You guys are soldiers? Why are you attacking a caravan¡ªand so badly at that?¡± I saw a vein pulse on the man¡¯s face. Apparently, he hadn¡¯t expected to encounter such fierce resistance from a caravan, and was now mad that he¡¯s losing men over it. Personally, I would have already sounded the retreat, but this guy looks like one of those unfortunate stubborn types. They always manage to kill themselves off like this. ¡°We were commissioned by our kingdom to attack any caravan coming from the south-east.¡± He said plainly. I leveled a stare at the man. ¡°So, do you realize that this constitutes a severe diplomatic incident?¡± I ask. ¡°Severe? It¡¯s just a single caravan.¡± ¡°It¡¯s a caravan carrying the hereditary Prince and Princess from the South Haven Kingdom, idiot. I¡¯d ask who put you up to this, since they likely intended this to be a suicide mission.¡± The man paled rather quickly. I¡¯m guessing that some superior officer got wind of this caravan or something, and decided that it would be a good time to get rid of this officer, or maybe even take out a few birds with a single stone. Whatever it is, this man before me has almost no chance of surviving what¡¯ll quickly become a diplomatic incident between two already fairly hostile countries. Bah, whatever happens, I wish him luck. He finally sounded the retreat signal as well, withdrawing his weary and tired troops. I think somebody¡¯s going to have to look into this incident a little further, since there are several things at play. But that doesn¡¯t involve me. I¡¯m just going to travel with the caravan, and mind my own business. Let the officials back at the palace deal with it. Or Joan. I think I¡¯m going to take a nap after we get moving again. Im very sorry about this, but the time has come. I made a bit of a mistake about a week ago. One that pretty much killed any motivation I had left for the fiction. I re-read it from the beginning. And while it was nice to see the progression in my writing style from then to now, and to visably track my improvments, it forced me to admit that as a story, Divine Bladesmith is deeply flawed. I hated going back and seeing all the loose story arcs, and the un-finished ideas. I treated the fiction as a sandbox to test ideas, and strayed very, very far from what I had intented to write at first. That wasn''t fair to the story, or to you readers. So, unfortunete as it is, I''m dropping Divine Bladesmith for now. Key words: For now. I fully intend to give Divine Bladesmith and Kai the love and attention they deserve, once I have the time to do so. As it turns out, writing a full length novel, working on school, and taking care of my other fiction eats into pretty much all my time. I''ll re-do Divine Bladesmith in the way I had originally intended...eventually.Unauthorized reproduction: this story has been taken without approval. Report sightings. And if you don''t think that I''ll ever get to it, well¡ªI kinda have to at some point. Telling you why would spoil things "just a little". Now, for those that enjoyed the writing style itself, then check out my other fiction. It''s much better written, and is graced by a (mostly) cohesive storyline. Otherwise, I don''t know when I''ll be able to come back to Divine Bladesmith. It''ll likely be a long wait, so don''t hold your breath, okay? And lastly, thank you. Without you readers, who responded so positivly to Divine Bladesmith, I don''t know where I would be. Probibly not writing on this site, that''s for sure. I hope you all find good stuff to read, and I wish you the best of luck. (I just realized it''s Valentine''s day. Dammit. Sorry about that, I guess.) Hello? Its been quite a while, apparently. You know, I considered waiting until Feburary 14th to go ahead and make this post, since there''s a poetic justice of sorts with starting a year after ending Divine Bladesmith. However, I decided to be kind, and started things up with the new year. (The new fiction was submited for review on Jan. 1st, and approved for RRL on the 3rd.) That''s right, Divine Bladesmith''s back. Though, perhaps not in the way you might have thought. See, I decided not to do a simple rewrite, and opted for a more comprehensive reimagining of the story and it''s charaters. Needless to say, there are elements which are different, and some which stay the same.Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere. Unfortunetly, the new story only has 2 chapters out right now, and they come once a week, on Fridays. I''m pacing myself pretty hard on this one to prevent burn-out. Anyway, please be patient with the fiction, it needs some time to grow, and become the world I want it to be. In fact, if you don''t want to only read two chapters and be dissapointed in the lack of content, come back in a month or two¡ªI''ll put up another post here after it reaches ten chapters total. Without further ado~ Divinity Reforged