《Phantom Song》


 Prologue: The Boy nicknamed "Phantom"

    Foreword:


    Since i have no experience with writing stories i appreciate comments that correct my spelling or point out if there is a sentence that doesn''t make sense or just stop halfway.


    Prologue: The boy nicknamed "Phantom"


    The year is 2109 and the world is in the middle of a war. The world is split in to three factions:


    1.The Neo Soviet Union consisting of Russia and everything south of it, including China.


    2. The European Union, consisting of Europe and Africa.


    3.  American Union, which consists of Northern and southern America including Canada.


    A boy is currently in a ruined city in the outskirts of NSU  (Neo Soviet Union) and is blankly sitting on the balcony of what''s left of a former theater. Through the holes in the ceiling the youth can see numerous stars and the moon. The youths name is Enn Tuul. That is the name given to him by his parents. The name given to him by Dragoncross was Nalser vi Dragoncross. "Vi Dragoncross" was an alias last name so that the people from the same organization recognized each other when needed. He also had a nickname that was attached to him: "Phantom". He mainly got it because he could break into any place there is and complete his mission without leaving a trace behind. Till this day they don''t even know if he''s a man or a woman. Only that he appears and disappears like a ghost.


    He''s around 1.7 meters tall, has fair skin and a built body. His har is blond and the eyes are deep blue. He''s currently wearing black jeans, black T-shirt, a black jacket with a red tribal print on the back and black sneakers. The day is his birthday ,16 of May, and he turned 15. But he can''t enjoy the day because a war doesn''t take a break to celebrate someones birthday. Footsteps suddenly echo out in the abandoned theater and a robust man in his 50ties wearing a business suit is walking towards the youth.


    Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.  He arrives next to the youth  and looks up through the holes to see the sky. He has a nostalgic gaze seeing the moon and sighs while saying "The moon is as beautiful today as it was back when I was your age." The youth shifts his gaze from the sky to the man and asks: " When you were my age there wasn''t a war to be fought." The boys eyes show coldness that only soldiers who have witnessed countless slaughter have.


    The man looked in the boys eyes and thought to himself " The world has fallen to ruins to have a boy at the age of 15 complete tasks that even grown men with elite training can''t do..." The man shook his head and reached his hand into his pocket, from there he took a black dog tag with red writing on it. The writing read: "Wings of freedom fly for an eternity". "This is my birthday gift to you," The old man continued, "Your orders are to infiltrate the military camp that''s 60 km to the north and destroy the camp''s supplies with the brass in charge there." When he had relayed the orders he started taking out various weapons and other things needed for the assignment from a silver briefcase he had on him.


    Suddenly there was a light behind him, where the boy was sitting. The moment he turned around, he saw a pentagram on the ground with bizarre hebrew writings, that was glowing on the ground. The boy was dumbfounded and froze because he had never encountered something like this. The moment the two of them stared there dazed, the circle started to glow more brightly until they had to close their eyes and when the man opened his eyes he was as struck by lightning. The place the weird pentagram was on the ground was now a giant hole, both the boy and the part of the balcony, where he was sitting at, had vanished completely into thin air.

 Chapter 1: New world, new trouble

    Foreword:


    Since i have no experience with writing stories i appreciate comments that correct my spelling or point out if there is a sentence that doesn''t make sense or just stop halfway.


    Chapter 1. New world, new trouble


    As the boy opened his eyes he saw that he was still sitting on the chair from the theater house but the rest of the theater had been replaced with a bizarre summoning platform. He had read from the books on fantasy about these kinds of situations but was completely dumbstruck about what was happening.


    He had loved to read since he was little but since the start of the III World War writing was a profession that was dying out due to most writes being on the front lines and ending up being shot. He mostly continued reading because whether the story was a fantasy or historical, he could use the knowledge he got from the novels to his advantage as he completed his missions. He''s experience as a soldier was to first confirm the situation as he could not make heads or tails out of the situation he was currently in. Second depending on the situation, stay or get the hell out of there. As he was looking around, he saw old men with with white beards in long white robes with golden symbols on them.


    "How bizarre, seems like this is a bon a fide summoning like in those japanese novels. Now following usual the setting, they will go around saying that we are Heroes meant to save this world."   He thought to himself, while glancing around and seeing four other youths in the same situation as him  they all looked around 15-16 years of age. There was 2 boys and 2 girls looking around with the confused faces and he could also see the fear in their eyes. They all wore different clothing, he had never seen clothes like this before.


    Since Enn had been in the military since he was 8, he had more experience with how to deal with sudden situations as it took a leveled head and a calm mind to analyze the situation, to survive as a black ops operative. He had to make a lot of decisions on the spot and according to the situation.


    He had already made up his mind about abandoning this Hero thing and going around on a touring trip around this world. This decision was mostly based on his knowledge of mankind and novels that he had read.


    "This war against devils, demons or whatever, can go and take a hike. This war was probably started by the humans, who either enslaved the other or coveted their resources. I have no intention of fighting a war that i didn''t start, in a world that I have nothing to do with."


    While thinking that, he started scanning his surroundings to look for a blind spot to slip away from.


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    To his misery, outside the stone henge he could see a stone wall with soldiers forming a tight net.


    No matter how hard he had looked for blind spots, he couldn''t find an escape route that would get him out unseen. While he was surveying the area, a little further away two people were walking closer with relief written on their faces. They both had black hair and deep brown eyes with lightly tanned skin. They both had slender figures but one was a male while the other was female. They wore exquisite clothes.


    "Seems like the summoning this time was a success and the Heroes look quite young aswell." The woman wearing a ballroom gown said to the man by his side. "Mnn, seems like we finally have hope for ending this war that started 3000 years ago. But I''m more concerned about whether they accept to do it and if they do, how strong are they and how much experience they have."


    While chatting amongst themselves, the young man, who looked about 20, couldn''t get the idea of them rejecting or having zero combat experience out of his head. No matter what, he, who had been to battle could see that, the people in front of him were people, who didn''t have any combat experience since they were so young. "If they reject us we have no alternatives, there is no use regretting it now," he thought. While sighing to himself, he kept on walking towards the summoned "Heroes".


    While everyone of the Heroes was still looking around and trying to make heads or tails out of this situation, they were approached by a youth with a smiling face who opened his arms and said in a loud, clear voice: " Welcome Heroes, to our little world called Elluna. I am the crown prince of this kingdom called Nadin. My name is Claus von Strauss. I thank you all for accepting the invitation to come here and will now guide you to the throne room, where my father, the King, will explain everything and answer all your questions as well." While everyone were still dumbstruck about the grand introduction, they had no time to rebut it since Claus started walking away, gesturing them to follow him.


    "Accepting your invitation my ass, we had no chance of refusal before being brought to this god forsaken rock." While rebutting in his mind, Enn rose to his feet and started following behind the prince to the throne room. All through the journey, he kept his eyes open and surveyed the surroundings. He refused to believe that there wasn''t even one opening for him to get the hell out of there. While thinking that and looking for a chance to escape, they had arrived at a huge, grandiose golden door.

 Chapter 2: Meeting the King

    Chapter 2: Meeting the King


    "What a pointlessly large door, it has no use what so ever, other than to flaunt their power..." thought Enn to himself, as he saw the needlessly large door. The other 4 had never seen such a large door and were awestruck by how grandiose it was.


    The giant door opened and the five of them were ushered into a large throne room. In the room was a golden throne and on the throne sat a old man with a frail body in his 60s. There was a red carpet leading up to the throne but next to the carpet were two rows of people. One row had men in armor with different designs, all men had a built body. Facing them were men who wore fancy clothes, majority of them were on the plump side.


    "At one side are the military personnel and the other side are nobles it seems. This is going to be a bigger pain than I thought." While cursing his luck, they arrived in front of the throne. Everyone fell on one knee and the 4 Heroes out of instinct did it as well. In the whole throne room, except the guards, Enn was the only on standing with a calm face and a cold gaze. Some of the people looked with astonished gazes, while the others looked with disdain.


    "Why do you not kneel in front of me, the King?" The king asked, while looking with a bit of disdain. The look was actually understandable, since his whole life everyone knelt before him every time they saw him. If Enn was thinking that, maybe he will help them, if the request is a sincere one, then now the chances were zero. One thing Enn hated from since he was a child was, when someone thought he was better off than the rest. Enn thought for a second and said with a straight face, "I only kneel before my parents or savior''s of my life, since you are neither, I have no reason to kneel." The surroundings went in to a murmur , some admiring, some disdain. The king clearly had never been told that, as his face was getting a bit ugly. "And anyways, I''d like to go back to my world, thank you very much. So I''d take the first portal back." Enn said with a cold smile.


    Actually he didn''t wanna go back but he couldn''t stand the attitude of the king. "There most likely isn''t a way back. With this I can actually get myself out of here," while thinking to himself, the king opened his mouth and said in a tone that had a mix of anger in it, " The method to go back is in the hands of the Demon King." "Yea, figures..." escaped Enn''s lips in a small voice. "We used the last of our resources to summon you, noble Heroes, to help us in our fight against the Demons," the King started talking again in a calmer tone, he thought for a second before continuing " We ask of you noble Heroes to help us vanquish those foul Demons and bring peace back to the land."


    The tale has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the violation.  "I''m not interested." A calm voice echoes through the silent hall. Everyone''s eyes were glued to the speaker in black. "If the Demon King has the method of going back, I''ll go and ask him to borrow it. If that is all, I''d like to leave now." When the sentence was said, he looked with a bored expression and gestured to leave. Everyone were dumbstruck. They had never expected this kind of a scenario to happen.


    "Ha ha ha ha, if that is so, then I will escort you out. You don''t have a problem with that, right your Majesty? Our glorious King surely won''t force someone from another world to fight on the front lines against their will, right?" As the laughter rang out a sturdy, built man walked out from the military line up. He had brown hair and eyes, numerous scars as well. The man eyed the King with a smile on his face. The King was clearly pissed as he gnashed through his teeth, "If the noble Hero wants to leave, he is free to do so."


    "Come on, I''ll take you out and show you around a bit." The man said with a smiling face while leading him out of the throne room. Everyone who were still left in the room, watched on with mixed gazes. The 4 Heroes decided to stay. It was better to have the backing of a King than none at all.


    The man lead him through town to a rather large building with which had "Adventurers Guild" written on it in English. "Seems like the main language here is English. Seems like I do not have to learn a new language the moment I get here." Enn mused to himself. He had thought that while glancing around town the signs looked in English but he thought his eyes were playing tricks on him.


    They entered the large building and were welcomed by teenage beautiful girls behind the counter " Welcome back, Master." Enn was confused at what was going on and looked around with a puzzled look. He saw men of all builds and statures drinking, choosing missions or turning in missions. The man snickered and said " Come on, lets go to the office in the back. I''ll explain everything you want to know there." He began leading the way to the back, leaving everyone else with confused gazes.


    Everyone had the same thought in their mind. "Who was that youth?" Since most of the men there get their living by killing, they could tell that the youth who walked behind the Guild Master was a professional. He had the aura of someone, who had lived through many slaughters. Everyone were wondering, where did that youth come from to have such an aura at that age.

 Chapter 3: Adventurers Guild

    This is a friendly gesture to Famine.


    I''ll also try to bump up the character count from now on (current 5k to max 8-9k)


    Enjoy


    Chapter 3: Adventurer''s Guild


    " Well, introductions are in order, so I''ll start first. My name is Tobias Franks. I''m a former 3-Black Star adventurer, who is also now the Guild Master for the Human Guild. The main branch is located here in Nadin. I am also the Guild Master here. I''m guessing you have a lot of questions, so I''ll keep blabber about myself to a minimum and start answering your questions." The man said with a smile as he had sat behind his desk.


    The room was plain, it had a desk and a chair by the window, a few plants and a lot of books. Most seemed like accounting books, probably records from past missions and personal info on adventurers. Enn didn''t actually want to be here as he had previously kind of disrespected a king. His eyes cautiously darted around the room securing an escape route, should things go that bad.


    "Damn, I don''t have a single gun on me, all I''ve got is an army knife. Had I know something like this was gonna happen, I would''ve at least grabbed a handgun," Enn cursed inside. Dragoncross had a habit of distributing specialized guns for each assignment. All the person had to bring, was a knife if he wanted. Generally in a city as a youth, that knife is all you need. Seeing Enn securing an escape route , Tobias only smiled and sighed inside, " This kid has probably seen more blood than the soldiers in this country. The Demons have been dormant for the past 800 years, the moment they showed signs of movement, this happens."


    When he saw that Enn had calmed down a bit, he decided to clarify a few things to make him more at ease, "You see, the demons have been dormant for the past 800 years and have only recently started showing signs of movement. The moment that happened, that idiot king decided to summon people from another world to fight in a war the have zero relation with, instead of doing something about it themselves. The reason I took you here and under my protection like that was because I admired your character."


    He took a big breath before continuing, "From your aura I could tell that you are a soldier. Like before, you always eyed for an escape route before settling in. The other people seemed like normal civilians, who have never held a blade in their hand. The king threw away 3 major cities and for what, 4 people who have zero combat experience and then there''s you, a young soldier, who actually had enough brains to tell the king to take a hike." The more Tobias talked, the more he seemed like a grumpy old man, who was complaining to his drinking buddies about politics. This was a bizarre sight that put Enn at ease for the first time in 5 years.


    "Ha ha ha ha...." Enn couldn''t hold it in anymore and started laughing. Tobias looked with a surprised face but the next moment he had a gentle expression on, like the one a father looks his child with. After laughing for a while, Enn calmed down and lowered his guard as well. "Well, seems like you don''t worship the king like a blind idiot. Seems like I can trust you a bit. What did you mean by the King threw away thee major cities?"


    Turning back to the topic at hand, Enn asked with a serious expression. There was praise in Tobias''s eyes, when he answered, " The cities huh. The cities were destroyed by the rebound of the summoning magic. a rebound is what happens when a magic fails, for low level magic the effects vary like burning yourself or draining all your mana but high-leveled spells like this summoning magic, a rebound creates a crater that is 30 km in diameter, if you''re inside the blast radius. .. Poof you''re gone. The summoning magic failed 3 times before it succeeded with your patch." By the end of the story you could see hatred inside Tobias''s eyes.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    "Judging from the look in his eyes, if he weren''t the Guild Master, he would''ve probably already gone berserker inside the palace." Enn thought to himself after hearing the story, his face got pretty ugly as well. " For the sake of summoning 5 people they nuked 3 cities, killing millions. That is a clear Mad King syndrome." while thinking that, he remembered all the stories he had read on kings that did genocidal things.


    "Changing the topic a bit, you said you are the "Human Guild Master". Does that mean there are other races here?" Enn asked with a brighter face while trying to change the topic. Tobias understood the sentiment and gladly followed, " Well, there are 4 major races: Humans, Best men, Elves and Demons. There are also ghosts and magical beasts. The beast men have 2 major categories - Full and Half. In the Full Beast mans blood , the beast blood is major while humans is supplementary. Half is vice versa. Elves have many kinds of different elves, praerie, wood, dark etc. Mainly classified by where they live. Demons, they just have a lot of subspecies." They chatted back and forth like that for a couple more hours.


    All''n''all Enn learned a lot about the world and it''s inhabitants. Apparently, one continent of this plane is about as big as Earth was. He also learned a lot about the diffrent magical items there are here. For example jade slips can record a persons thoughts or memories to show to another person. There are magical pills as well mainly done by the Alchemist guild.


    Another thing that picked his interest was a Spacial Ring. The Spacial Ring was a special magic tool that could store other things, though not live ones. Depending on the grade of a Spacial Ring  it held a 5x5m space. 50x50m space, 500x500m space or a 5000x5000m space. It was shaped like a square box


    Although the last is a extremely rare one, only people with a enormous status or incredible luck, can have one.The 500x500m Spacial ring is classified as high quality one and a market price for it is 50 thousand gold coins. The cheapest is a low quality one and costs around 1000 Gold coins. In this world was a simple and universal money system: 100 Copper= 1 Silver, 100 Silvers= 1 Gold, 1000 Gold= 1 Black Gold coin.


    Enn decided to stay at the Guild for the night, per Guild Masters request. Since he had no money what so ever, he decided to take up the offer. He was shown to a plain room with a bookshelf, bed, one closet, desk and a chair. Before the guild master decided to retire for the night, he remembered to ask, "I almost forgot, you never said what your name is?"


    Enn thought for a second and answered with a smiling face, "Nalser vi Dragoncross."

 Chapter 4: Recollection and Decision

    Well, this got better reception than i thought it would...


    Anyways This chapter will mostly be him recollecting and summarizing the info he got and deciding what he will do from now on. Also, will shed a bit of light on Mc-s background.


    Enjoy. (From now on MC-s name will be Nalser, if you don''t know where it''s from check the Prologue)


    Chapter 4: Recollection and Decision


    When Tobias had left, Nalser laid down on the bed by the window and glanced outside. It was already late, the stars and the moon were high up in the sky. " The sky is the same as back home." when he saw the moon, a bit of nostalgia hit him and he recalled the moment before he was summoned here.


    Every operative of Dragoncross had an exclusive Handler. Handlers were people who relayed the mission details, recorded either it was a success or a failure and distributed the specific weapons needed for the assignment. He had been in the Dragoncross for about 3 years.  That was the time he first met the Handler, he still remembered the face the Handler had back then. It was obvious from his look, that if you could read his mind, it would just say "Is this a joke?"


    Nalser was a war orphan. His father died on the front lines, while his mother died when he was 8. With no relative to take him in, orphanages were already stacked to the fullest, he was forcibly admitted to the military. For 3 years on the front line, he did what he was told. Gathered information, sabotaged the enemies supplies. At one point in time, a Dragoncross member stopped by the camp he was currently stationed in and heard rumors about him. After verifying the information, he made a report to the top brasses of Dragoncross and after an evaluation they took him in. At that moment Enn Tuul died and Nalser vi Dragoncross was born. On the records he died while sabotaging the enemy camp.


    The only person he actually gave a damn about, in that world, was the Handler, Old Timer. He never learned his name, so he called him: Old Timer. "I wonder, how is the Old Timer doing. More importantly, how is he going to explain me being transported here without looking like a lunatic. Well, nothing I can do from here." While thinking about Old Timer, he remembered the dogtag he got from him. " Even for custom made dog tags like this, there are always two of them. Where''s the other one?" While gazing at the dog tag, he suddenly realized that and remembered seeing a dogtag chain on the Old Timer''s neck. Since he never wore any necklaces or the sorts, a warm smile broke out on Nalser''s face.


    " Wellp, whatever. At least he will remember me. Now then, the important question is: What to do from now on?" while clearing his head, he started pondering about what to do next. "If I stay here, at some point the King won''t give a damn about Tobias and will either forcibly enlist me or kill me. Best option is to go on a tour across the continent. There will be a lot of places to see and who knows, maybe I''ll find something interesting to do that won''t involve me going to the front lines." While he was in his old world, he couldn''t get away from the war and would''ve died if he wasn''t enlisted in the army. Here he had a choice to go anywhere he wanted.


    The war in his old world was a politicians game. 21st of March 2077 a nuke went off in a major city in Russia. No one took the blame but pointed fingers at each other, until it escalated into war. At some point in time, there were various rumors about a terrorist group doing it but it was never confirmed. Since everyone had different political views, the flame of war spread quickly from minor skirmishes to an all-out war.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    "No use in thinking about it now, I have no part in it anymore. From what Tobias said, this room has a magic enchantment in it." Clearing his mind and deciding to not speculate anymore, he started looking around the room. He had heard from Tobiast that this room had a magic enchantment " Tranquility". It was used mainly in inns to let the people resting inside be at peace and do their own things without being disturbed. A person can''t get inside the room while Tranquility is active. In the room were also a lot of books on the history of the world and different professions.


    "Magic brings a lot of options... Just magic based professions are so numerous." Nalser sighed to himself while flipping through the book on professions. "Magic smith,  Enchanter,  Alchemist, Appraiser, etc. There are also healers and combat oriented magicians, seems like the options in this wolrd are as numerous as the stars in the sky," while putting down the book, he sighed to himself again and started thinking, what weapon he should use from now on.


    "Guns are most likely out of the question, the cost to make one and keep it supplied with bullets is going to cost a fortune and will take a lot of time to make, even if I had the exact blueprints to a gun. An army knife combined with martial arts that I''ve learned will  be enough but mostly against human opponents though. If I meet a magical beast that 10 times bigger than me, I won''t do much with a little knife or it would be the same as to  kick an iron board...." He started thinking to himself, while sitting on the bed with his back against the wall. He gazed outside the window, at the giant moon that illuminated the room.


    "I should probably go for a single edged blade. They are generally light and emphasize on speed and accuracy instead of brute force that a sword or an axe would." He made up his mind to pick a single edged blade as his primary weapon. He had also heard from Tobias that there were special techniques in this world called "Sutras". Sutras were primarily used by cold weapon users. They basically had no set stances but focused more on the flow of Mana and it''s specialities. Mid to top tier techniques also allowed the person to emit their Mana outside their body in their attacks. Some used Mana to blend in with his surroundings or boost their reaction time and movement speed.


    Nalser also thought about using a Rapier but in his opinion it was too light. A rapier excels at short fights with it''s thrust but since the blade is too light, it can easily be smacked aside by a heavier blade. He remembered what Old Timer said, when he first taught him martial arts and how to use a knife, " Mastering one weapon is a hundred times better than knowing how to use ten weapons. When picking a weapon that you want to specialize in, it needs to suit your strong point''s. For example, if a skinny man, who is fast but not physically strong, picks a axe as his specialized weapon. He nullifies his strengths and puts himself at a disadvantage against someone who uses a weapon he''s specialized in."


    While the conversation floated in his mind, he started recalling his strengths: speed and precision. That ruled out all the heavy type of weapons. "I should also pick up some throwing knives, in a clutch situation they can save my life." While quietly murmuring to himself, he drifted  off to dreamland for the first time in years.

 Chapter 5: Registration

    Second chapter of the day.


    As a person, who is new to all this writing original stories, my biggest fear is building a good storyline in a good setting with good potential and then destroying it with a BS story route. So lemme know if the story gets too clishee or seems like a rip off...


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 5: Registration


    The sun was already high in the sky by the time Nalser woke up. It was the first time in years, that he actually slept away the fatigue that had accumulated .While he was stretching, he heard a knock on the door. Startled by the knock, he started thinking,


    "Strange, I thought Tranquility was supposed to keep everything quiet." He cautiously got up from the bed and went to the door. When he opened the door a bit and peeked through the small gap, he instantly relaxed. He was greeted by a familiar old man, with his signature smiling face. In his hands were two cups. "Ohh, it''s you. How did your knock sound inside the room?" Nalser opened the door and gestured to step in, he was quite puzzled by the knock. Tobias came right in and put one of the cups on the table, he pulled the chair out and sat on it, facing the youth he chuckled, " Good morning to you too, well about the knock. I''m still the owner of the magic formation here, even if I give you membership rights to the room, the restrictions don''t work on me. Anyways, here, have a cup of coffee."


    Then he put on a serious face and asked in a stricter tone, "Have you decided what you are going to do from now on? I doubt that you are stupid or timid enough to stay hiding here, hoping that the King will forget about you." "Njaa, I trampled on his pride a bit too much, to stay here so the live leisurely option is out of the window by now. For now my plan is to register as an adventurer, gather a bit of funds and go travel around," Nalser answered while smiling wrily.


    It was true, a King who had been never questioned in his life, was blatantly talked back to by a youngster. That persons pride won''t leave it like that, that was as certain as the blue sky on a clear day. His best option was to get out of Nadin  as fast as he could. There were a lot of countries, human and not, surrounding this one. The size of Nadin was was the size of prewar Russia and China combined.


    "If you just get out of the Kapitol, you are already in the clear. Adventurers are more respected than soldiers in this country." Tobias chuckled to seeing the smile and continued, "The royalty and nobles have been in power here for at least 10-15 generations already. They have become corrupt and while people don''t dare to speak badly about them in public, due to fearing the punishments, they don''t support them much. On the other hand, the story about you telling the King to go take a hike, has spread like wildfire. People support your decision and in spite of the nobles, would be willing to send them in an opposite direction from where you are going."


    Hearing that Nalser didn''t know, whether to laugh or cry about the situation here. The people weren''t pleased with the leaders in this country but didn''t have any means to stand up against it. "Njaa, politics is a messy game, if you are in power for too long, you start to abuse it,"  smiling wryly again, he blurted out and he took a sip of coffee. They talked for a bit more and suddenly Tobias stood up, " Now, the coffee has been drunk, the plans have been made, it''s time to do the procedures for an adventurer''s license then gear you up and send you on your way." Nalser was surprised for a second about the out burst but quickly calmed down.


    He''s out of combat personality had always been a go-with-the-flow type. He followed Tobias downstairs to a counter, where was a sign "Registration". He got the registration application and went to a desk he was gestured to. Tobias sat next to him and started explaining the guild''s rules to him. Everyone else, who happened to be there, started whispering amongst themselves and guessing the origin of the youth. The registration application looked like this:


    This text was taken from Royal Road. Help the author by reading the original version there.


    Name(First and Last): Nalser vi Dragoncross


    Gender: Male


    Age: 15


    From(Optional)


    Nothing more was wanted for the registration. He gave the application to Tobias, who reviewed it and put on a magic temple, that meant, he approved of the application. "Now then, now that the paperwork is done, time for the combat assessment." While handing in the paperwork to the receptionist, Tobias said with a smug smile.


    Nalser had heard about the combat assessment before from Tobias, it''s main point was to clarify the actual strength of an adventurer. After handing in the application, the candidate is given a time to come back for the assessment. After a fight with the examiner, the person is rated , from the bottom, as either green, yellow, red or blue. The max rank an examiner can give out as an assessment is Blue rank 3 stars. The black rank can only be achieved through a test, which consists of:


    1. A combat assessment by the Head Guild Master


    2. A certain amount of successful missions


    3. A special missions completion.


    He followed Tobias to the basement. This area was mainly used for training or assessments.  Everyone from the reception area eagerly followed as well, in hopes of figuring out this mysterious youth.


    The people, who were either currently being trained or assessed, dropped what they were doing and started sizing up the youth, who came in. Tobias said to Nalser, "Wait here and warm up, I''ll go and have a few words with the examiner over there." Nalser started stretching out his body and and glanced at the surrounding crowd, " Jeesh, seems like they are here to watch a show... " While thinking that to himself, Tobias came back with a smiling face and said, "Okey, I''m going to be the one to give you a combat assessment. Don''t disappoint me, little soldier boy."


    Although Tobias hadn''t asked and Nalser hadn''t told him about being a soldier, it was as obvious as day to Tobias, a person, who had had seen much bloodshed in his life. A built middle aged man , with black hair and numerous scars, walked between them, sized up Nalser with a glance and put on a serious face while saying in a loud clear voice:


    "Combat assessment, Nalser vi Dragoncross, applicant, vs Tobias Franks, Guild Master. Weapons are allowed. Creating crippling injuries is forbidden. Killing is also forbidden. Match start''s on my cue and will end, when one of the participants is unable to continue or when I have stopped the match. Breaking the rules will end up with terminating the adventurers status and imprisonment." After making sure that both parties understood, he took a few steps back.


    Tobias started lightly jumping up and down on spot, putting on a pair of gloves he smiled to Nalser and said, " You can use the knife if you want, if you last more than ten rounds with against me, I''ll pay for the whole gear you need for the journey."


    "Asoo, well, take it easy then, this is my first fight here." Nalser respodned with a smile. By the end the smile had disappeared from his face, exchanging it to a calm but cold look. He had completely gone into combat mode.

 Chapter 6: Combat assesment

    Since this world has a little bit of everything, the fight may be a bit chaotic to some.


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 6: Combat assessment


    When the referee saw that both of them are ready, he raised one of his hands up. That was the cue to raise the barrier, so that the surrounding spectators wouldn''t get caught up in the fight. As soon as the barrier was completely formed, he gave one last glance to the participants and said in a loud voice, "Let the match begin!"


    Following the shout, his hand ferociously swung down and he retreated to the corner of the barrier, keeping his guard up, to intervene when necessary. To his surprise neither of them moved. He could see from the looks on their faces, both of them were looking for an opening in the others guard. Astonishment filled his face, he felt like he wasn''t watching an examination but a duel with ones life on the line. A shiver ran down his spine, when he looked into Nalser''s eyes and saw the cold gaze. "This kid has serious combat experience, his background isn''t simple..." The referee murmured to himself while trying to figure out the youths background.


    "That''s a good look in his eyes, looking for a dent in the opponents guard while keeping every movement of the opponent in check," Tobias praised in his mind, "Something like that cannot be taught to a person, it can only be obtained from personal combat experience and from the looks of it, he has more than I originally thought." "Guess I should make the first move, seeing as we won''t get-" Tobias''s thought was cut short halfway due to a move made by Nalser, that left him completely dumbstruck.


    Nalser lowered his guard with a lazy look on his face started walking towards Tobias. Tobias didn''t know what to do, Nalser had a lazy expression on his face, like he was just walking in a park, no killing intent what so ever. Confused Tobias started to lower his guard and was planning on asking if something happened. When Nalser had reached half a meter from him, if either of them stretched out his hand they could punch the other, that was when Nalser suddenly grabbed the knife from behind and went into full killing mode. The inital slash was dodged only due to Tobias channeling Mana to his body, by doing that he could move 3 times faster than without. In his mind he had thought, that he wouldn''t use Mana in this match to keep it fair, as the other person had never heard of Mana before yesterday. He changed his mind now, having been caught off guard, he went to defensive as Nalser started his barrage. Nalser wasn''t using only his knife but his whole body. A slash was followed by a roundhouse kick. This was the fighting style that Old Timer taught him. A weapon is only an extension of your body. This mixed knife fighting in with martial arts.


    Seeing the Guild Master on defenese and hurriedly retreating, the crowd was awestruck. All the veterans were now looking with a serious face and analyzing Nalser''s fighting style. "It''s not that Master isn''t trying to retaliate, it''s more like he can''t find an opening to strike back," One man said amongst others, the others nodded with a serious face and one added, "The Master lost his initiative and rhythm, he''s having a hard time getting his head back in the game. If this continues, we may be in for quite a surprise."


    Thinking like that was understandable because to them, they had never encountered a fighting style like this. The same could be said about Tobias, who was currently in thought, "I seriously underestimated this kid, the fighting style is bizarre, it leaves me no opening to strike back, the moment I start making a move im greeted by either a foot or the knife." While dodging the blows and steadily retreating, his back went against the barrier wall, which startled him, losing his concentration and blindly punching out towards Nalser. Nalser immediately capitalized on the mistake, weaved past Tobias''s guard to his back, instantly put the knife on his throat while twisting the hand he struck towards Nalser, behind his back.


    This story has been unlawfully obtained without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.


    Everyone were speechless, they were still in the middle of processing it, when the voice of a youth spread out the deathly quiet training hall, " This is my win Guild Master, I hope you remember your promise." This brought everyone, including the referee, back to reality. Referee raised his hand and shouted in a loud voice, " Match stop, winner Nalser"  Nalser slowly lowered his blade and let go of Tobias''s arm, while he was sheating his blade Tobias started laughing loudly, "Hahahahhaha, to think that I got my ass handed to me so miserably, all it took for you was one move to completely destroy my rhythm. You got me." While being praised, warmth came back into Nalsers eyes and his brain started working again. The secret to his prowess was instinct. He had drilled the fighting for years on a daily basis pouring countless hours into it. The moment he went to combat mode, his mind shut out everything irrelevant and he moved before he thought. This was the power of a strong foundation and hard work.


    However, there was one thing he didn''t notice while he was in combat mode: He subconsciously used Mana to perform his attacks and movements. Otherwise it would have been impossible to catch up to a person, who was using mana to raise his speed 3 times. His movements with the knife were always aimed at a fatal spot. When Tobias saw that the barrier had been deactivated he told Nalser to take a rest as he was going to go and talk to the referee and expert spectators.  Nalser picked up his jacket, the one he left on the ground before, and started walking towards a corner where he sat down. He closed his eyes and started gradually recovering from his fatigue. No one had the courage to go and talk to him after the spectacle, they all had mixed gazes. Some wanted to go, some wanted to get away from there as soon as possible.


    A man wearing full body armor murmured to himself,  "Seems like the strongest Hero ran, leaving us with 4 useless ones." The mans eyes were filled with disdain, in his mindset, Nalser should be on the front lines killing his way through the demons, not playing an adventurer here. "Hmph," was all that he said before turning to the exit and slowly leaving. This mans killing intent didn''t slip by Nalser, who thought to himself, " Njaa, seems like trouble is coming soon. Better get out of this town as fast as possible." He took a glance at Tobias and waited for him to come back.


    ***


    1 hour later in the throne room. The mysterious man in full body armor had already relayed the fight''s details to the King. His brow furrowed and he looked deep in thought. A few of the nobles were there as well, with frowning faces. Finally one of them broke the silence and said, "Your Highness, seems like the one who left, was actually the most useful of the bunch. It is as clear as day, he has extensive combat knowledge. We must get him back to our ranks." The King thought for a while and said in an authorative tone, "I don''t care how you bribe him, I want to see him as a soldier in our ranks." "Yes, you Highness," echoed out in unison in the large throne room.

 Chapter 7: Time to bail

    Well, time to shop and  MC will leave the city, in a hurry at that....


    This one is slightly longer, i didn''t mean to drag the leaving out by so much but i also didn''t want ot write a whole chapter on shopping atm.


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 7: Time to bail


    When the fight was finished, in about half an hour Tobias returned with a big smile on his face, "Well, here''s your guild card, you are now officially an Adventurer" He handed Nalser a small card, the size of a bank card. On it was a spot for a picture, and information about him, Successful missions column was zero thought, the card was blue and on the back were 2 giant stars. "So this means I''m a 2 star Blue rank, probably..." While thinking to himself, he remembered all the information about the guild card, he got from Tobias.


    1. Guild card is like like an ID-card.


    2. With the Guild card you are exempt from the taxes upon entering any city


    .3. The Guild card is bound to the person, others can''t use it.


    4. With the Guild card, you can cross any border without paying a fee.


    Seeing Nalser with a thoughtful face, Tobias only laughed. "Come on, lets go grab something to eat, my treat. Afterwards, let''s go and buy the gear you need. If you want to keep some of the gear you currently have, we can go and have enchantments added to them." When Nalser had risen to his feet, he ushered him out of the Guild house and to a restaurant, where they ate a hearty breakfast/lunch.


    After wards they went to a nearby enchantment shop. "Welcome, what would you like enchanted and with what?" An old man greeted them from behind a counter with a smile. "Ohh, it''s you Tobias, what do you need this time?" The old man had a smiling face on, it seemed like Tobias was his regular client. "Not me, it''s him. I''d want you to put on a durability enchant on his shirt and jacket. Also, can you put a swiftness one on his boots? On his knife, sharpness and durability, also something against dulling the blade." Tobias laughed while pointing at Nalser. Since everything had to be enchanted one piece at a time, he had leeway. When the jacket and boots were done, he took off his shirt. Both the clerk and Tobias had a surprised look on their faces, since numerous gun shot scars and slash scars were on his torso. Out of tactfulness, they decided not to ask about them. Last came the army knife, this piece just had sentimental value. When all the enchantments were added, the bill paid for, they decided to go to a magic shop.


    The magic shop sold everything from jade slips to wands and staffs. Tobias went to the Spacial Ring section and picked out a middle rank one that had 50x50m pocket space. Seeing the price on the ring Nalser had a wierd smile on his face. One ring cost 22 Black Gold Pieces. That was around 22 000 Gold coins. An extra orbital price but for Tobias it seemed like it didn''t cost much at all. After binding the Space Ring, he naturally knew how to use it. He started browsing through the jade slips, trying to find a Sutra that suit him, also to find a "How to use magic for dummies". He knew too little about magic. What you don''t know about, is the hardest to defend against. When he was browsing through the various magic slip on Sutras, he frowned, "Some seem promising but don''t feel right."


    His instinct, from his previous world, had kicked in. It was a instinct that had saved his life more times than he dared to count. He felt that the Sutras were good and powerful but not his style or that he didn''t have much future practising them. His eyes stopped on a box with about 10-15 diffrent jade slips mixed together, next to the basket was a sign " 1 jadeslip = 10 Gold", seeing that most jade slips cost 100G and up, he started rummaging through it, out of boredom. Suddenly, his eyes lit up and his intrest was piqued. the jade slip in his hand was "Phantom Song Sutra". It was a blade technique that suited him and had blade skills, movement skills and guards skills in it. "Strange, this jade slip has three times the option of the others but is discarded here," while softly thinking that to himself, he decided to pick this one. When they got everything they needed, maps etc, they headed towards a clothing shop to get him a new pair on pants with different enchantments, also a pair of gloves. They also headed to the market, from where they bought food and essential supplies needed for the trip. The last stop was a smithy.


    This book''s true home is on another platform. Check it out there for the real experience.


    There they sold different types of weapons, from knives to battleaxes. He picked out 5 good quality throwing knives. While randomly browsing through the blade section, his eyes suddenly stopped on a black blade, it was about 1 meter in length and had red imprints, similar to a tribal tattoo, on it. Intrigued he reached out for the blade and took it in his hand. Seeing that, the blacksmith hurried to his feet as to warn him but seeing nothing happened, had a look of astonishment on his face. Both Nalser and Tobias looked at him with puzzled gazes, after regaining composure the blacksmith cleared his throat and sid in a low voice, "I originally wanted to say, don''t touch that blade. The rebound from touching it has injured a lot of my customers. Seeing you not having the backlash makes me wonder, where ya from stranger?" Hearing the story Nalser had a gaze filled with mixed feelings but Tobias had an intrigued look on his face.


    "I''m from somewhere far far away from here. This blade was forged by you, was it not?" Nalser gave a vague answer, the blacksmith noticed that the youth clearly didn''t want to talk about his origins. "To be honest, i don''t care where you are from, it''s not my jobs to care." He said with a depressed look, he thought for a while and said,"That blade was left here by a strange man about 20 years ago. He left it here and said to give it to a youth who will come in the future and can touch the blade." "Did that man have a name?" Tobias was quite intrigued by the story. "He named himself Ivar Tuul. Quite a peculiar fellow. I haven''t heard from him since then." Hearing the name Nalser was dumbstruck. Both Tobias and the old blacksmith looked at him, they both wanted to ask but felt that it wasn''t their place to ask. Tobias finally wanted to break the silence, when a man in a golden robe walked in. He had disdain written all over his face.


    Seeing his familiar face, Nalser s


    napped out of his trance. The first thought he had: "Damn, seems like trouble has arrived already." He was scanning the room for a escape route, when soldiers with built bodies in full armor walked in the door. "Welcome to my shop, what can I help you with." The blacksmith old man said in a businessman like tone but had ridicule written in his eyes. "Yea, yea. I''m not here about this rundown dump but him." he pointed at Nalser and took a breath before continuing, "You are to return to the palace immediately and swear loyalty to the King. if you do you will get all the riches you want, all the women you want." He looked snob and arrogant like everyone were beneath him. Everyone in the room had a shocked expression, no one knew what to exactly say. "And if I refuse?" A calm voice sounded out in the now deathly quiet Smith''s shop. Everyone turned to the youth, who said it. Tobias could see the cold look in his eyes and his mind flashed back to the fight they had. "Should this escalate into conflict, we are going to end up with a mountain of corpses." The look in Nalser''s eyes brought a chill down his spine, while that thought ran across his mind, he was desperately thinking, how to smooth this out. But before he could even open his mouth, a arrogant voice already said, "If you don''t come willingly, we will forcibly constrain you and put a slave crest on you."


    The slave crest was a brutal thing, a person with a slave crest couldn''t disobey or do anything against their master. Hearing this a cold smile flashed across Nalsers face and suddenly the room was enveloped in a bright white light."Wings of freedom fly for an eternity." This was the only thing anyone heard. Tobias felt a piece of paper being showed into his hands. By the time the he could open his eyes, Nalser was already gone, a shops window was broken. Infuriated the noble ordered his men to start searching the area and tracking Nalser down. Tobias opened the letter where it was written: " Thanks for everything old timer, please pay the owner for me, we''ll meet again in the future." Seeing the letter Tobias understood that Nalser came prepared and started pulling some strings to get him out of the city safer.


    Having reached the slums, Nalser pulled a hood over his head and started walking out the city. " Njaa, seems like I pissed those guys off more than I thought..Wellp, whatever land of Elves, here I come." He thought to himself for a minute and just shrugged his shoulders. After leaving the city, he started moving east, to the territory of Elves.


    For the following week, they had searched the whole city, but there was no sign of Nalser. Some of the soldiers started calling him a Phantom because the city was on lock down and there was no sign of him.

 Chapter 8: Learning

    Well, thanks to those who read Phantom song. Leave a comment if you like it or if you have questions. I''ll answer as soon as i can see the comment.


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 8: Learning


    A day had passed since Nalser left Kapitol. He was currently sitting high up on a tree branch 50 km, in a large forest, east of Kapitol. While looking at the map, he murmured, " If I keep following east at this pace, it''ll take atleast 2-3 months to reach the border. I was lucky enough to hitch a ride on a caravan that was passing here."


    After he had left the Kapitol, he started walking east towards the border. An hour of walking later he hitched a ride on a caravan that changed directions later. He decided to cut through a forest. It was like taking a shortcut, the highways and roads went in a circle around the forest. Having ascertained his position and made up his mind about his route, he started rummaging through his Spacial ring.


    Taking out a glass marble that had a little light shinging in the middle, he looked at this and smiled wrily, "These Illumination Beads sure are useful, like the warning said, if it breaks, it releases all the light in an instant." When he first read the warning in the magic shop, the first thing that ran through his mind was, "This is a Magic Flashbang." He bought about 10 beads just in case, he never thought that he would have a chance to test it out so soon. "If it hadn''t worked, I would''ve had to kill my way out of there but that would also bring more trouble than worth. Then those nobles would''ve put a bounty on my head and an arrest warrant. Things would''ve been to big hassle then." While he was thinking back to the exchange he had with the noble at the Smith shop, he had a bitter smile on his face. Since he had been on the run for a day, he hadn''t had time to check the things he had bought more closely. Now that he had a rare chance of a breather, he started checking his things and their usefulness. An hour had passed and all he was left with, were the blade and the Sutra.


    "Njaa, this blades origin..." He thought to himself before forcing a bitter smile on his face, "it couldn''t have been him, he has been dead for nearly 10 years now." He unsheated the blade from it''s scabbard. The scabbard was pitch black, on it were only the same red tribal tattoos, that were on the blade. "This blade really is intresting, it looks and feels familiar even though I''m holding it for the first time." while sizing up the blade he said to himself in a small voice. He continued inspecting the blade carefully. The blades length in total, blade part and the hilt combined were 1.2 m, the hilt was around 15 centimeters long, the hilt was wrapped in black clothstipres, mixed in with red. It had a peculiar look. The blade didn''t have a guard seperating the blade and the hilt.


    Usually a guard was on all sword, to prevent the holder from getting his hands sliced when, the blade of his opponent slid down his, towards his arms. He took out the army knife and did a small cut on his left index finger. He let a drop of blood hit the blade. This was a trick he learned from Tobias. Usually magic treasures were bound to the user by blood, no one else could use them, even if they obtained them. That was also the binding method on the Guild Card he got.


    When a magic treasure completes the Blood Binding, they remember the magic imprit of the person, thus eliminating anyone who would want to steal it. Although the Blood Binding disappears when, the owner dies. It''s a unique magical link between the owner and magic treasures. As the blood was absorbed by the blade, red symbols appeared on the blade and scabbard. Information entered Nalser''s head and an astonished look was on his face, when he said in a low voice, "No wonder it rejected people, this is a Sentinent Treasure. It''s name is "Dreamer"."


    The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.


    Sentinent Treasure''s, were rare amongst rare. They were more powerful than usual magic treasures but aquiring one took Heavens Luck. Even if you aquired it, it didn''t nessesarily choose to obey you.


    In the Treasurey of royalty, there were dozens of sentinent weapon but, none of them acknowledged the candidates as their master. Even though they had sentinence, they didn''t talk, they only choose a master and formed a stronger connection with them than normal magic treasures do. A Sentinent Treasure couldn''t be made like a normal magic treasure. it had to be nurtured with Mana for several hundreds of years before a small wisp of sentinence emerged. After trying out the blade for a few swings, he sheated it and put it down.


    Next he took out the jade slip he that contained the Sutra. He was intrested in it since it felt like he needed to get this, when he first saw it. When he pressed the slip on his forehead and poured Mana into it, he was dumbstruck.


    ***


    Meanwhile in the Royal Palace, inside the Throne Room. The King had an ugly expression on his face, it was clear that the news about the situation in the Smith''s Shop had reached his ears. Kneeling before him was the same noble, who chased after Nalser. He looked as his world had fallen apart, dread was covering his face.


    "So, not only did you fail to get him into our ranks, you threatened to put a Slave Crest on him and ended up with him disappearing," the Kings voice was low but clearly filled with anger, "The Adventurer''s Guild is outside any Kingdom''s jurisdiction and are putting quite a bit of pressure on us due to this incident.


    The fact that Human main branch is located here, has brought a lot of money into our pocket. Should they decide to move the headquarters into another kingdom, we will lose quite a substantial amount of income." The recent stunt by the kingdom had insinuated quite a bit of rage in adventurers.


    Currently inside the Adventurers Guild main branch, Guild Masters office. " Now, how well are the preparations for the move proceeding?" Tobias asked in a serious tone, from the higher ranked adventurers that were currently in his office. "All the adventurer''s have been notified and the new headquarters have finished their preparations. The preparation of goods and documents is halfway done." One of the old men there read from a notice in his hand. It wasn''t suprising that they wanted to move the headquarters. For the past few years, this kingdom has been charging extra from sales taxes and such. They also had a lot of run-ins with various nobles, who ticked off every adventurer.


    "Good, time to move the headquarters then, start transporting everything that has been prepeared already," Tobias said with a cold smile. This last situation that happened in the Smith''s Shop, had finalized his decision for the move. In less than a day all the adventurer''s had heard of the situation and filed complaints to the Guild Master. They were planning on moving the Headquarters to the neighbouring human kingdom "Nulan". "This farce has gone on long enough, time to move major operations out of this god forsaken Kingdom."


    When Tobias had said that, he adopted his signature smile , stood up and started looking out of the window towards the blue sky. Everyone understood their cue and started moving the prepeared goods and records.

 Chapter 9: Phantom Song Sutra

    Wellp, chapter 2 out of 2. Since school is starting next week, i don''t have time to write a whole day. My goal during school period will be to release 2 chapters a day, maybe three on some days.


    Also, got my first 1k views, (yay me). What surprised me though is that it''s on chapter 7 while the other chapters half approx half of that...


    Anyways, enough rambling.


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 9: Phantom Song Sutra


    When he read the introduction to Phanom Song Sutra, Nalser was dumbstruck. From Tobias he had heard, attacking , movement and cultivation techniques were all categorized differently and rarely would there be a Sutra where all were present. Usually the ones that had all were inferior to custom made ones, where you picked a body cultivation of one type, movement from a second type and attacks from a third one. Nalser''s opinion differed from the standard point of view, in his opinion it was the other way around, "Every technique has a different flow pattern for Mana, the ones from the same type have better synergy between them than custom made ones."


    It was actually logical, Sutras were originally created around the same point, so the flow of Mana to execute the techinque''s was similar and had better synergy. In the current days the "Custom made Sutras" were all the rage, since everyone could pick different types to cover their weaknesses better. It wasn''t rare to see a heavy sword user darting around like a gymnasist.


    From the introduction Nalser could see that this technique was worthless when split into different categories. He read through the entire jade slip and commited everything to his memory. When he was done, he had a rare smile of excitement on his face. "If you broke this Sutra apart, you would get 3 mediocre techniques. If you practise the Sutra as a whole, you get a strong kit. Body cultivation, give you a strong foundation that synergizes well with the movement techniques and attack techniques. Movement techniques, when trained to a high degree leaves after images where you get hit, also allows to move at a speed that would seem like a teleportation. Attack techniques don''t have a set pattern nor do they have fixed combo sequences. This Sutra is built up on a person comprehension and imagination. Since there are no set attack patterns or sequences a person can create his own. I can combine the teleportation with drawing a blade and will get a quick draw technique that will be hard to catch with the naked eye." While musing to himself about the potential of this Sutra, he felt more and more respect towards the person, who had created this Sutra.


    This Sutra didn''t have an elemental affinity, a non elemental, so to speak. There were 5 elements here Fire, Water, Wind, Earth and Thunder. Everything else was categorized as non elemental. In Nalser''s mind however it should be categorized under the Darkness element. But Light and Darkness weren''t considered elements here, so he could only shrug his shoulders to that. He decided to start training in the Phantom Song Sutra. Before he could start training the movement and blade techniques, he had to reach the second level of body cultivation.


    The body cultivation part was named : Illusion Demon. It was divided into 4 levels:


    1. Refining Mana.


    2. Refining the bones.


    3. Refining the flesh.


    4. Refining the skin.


    This cultivation method''s unique point was to refine the Mana to a specific quality. When using this specific Mana, his movement and attack techniques will have a smoother flow and a lower Mana cost. When the refining of skin is completed, you go back to refining Mana step. From then on, you slowly accumulate a bigger Mana pool with higher quality mana and do the process all over again and again until the end of time. This was another unique aspect of Phantom Song Sutra. The more cycles you complete the stronger you become, there wasn''t a definite cap to it, if you were diligent enough you could complete up to a 100 cycles and grow stronger every time. After the completion of each cycle, the next one will be twice as hard to complete.


    This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it "This cultivation technique is seriously broken...." This was the thought that ran through Nalsers mind when he read that there wasn''t a cap to how many cycles he can complete. He also memorized the method for injecting Mana to his blade to make his attacks faster, stronger and sharper.


    The one he was most puzzled by was the movement techniques. They were divided into 3 categories:


    1. Shadow step, training in it will leave a afterimage. Mostly used in dodging the attack of an opponent.


    2. Illusion step, mostly used for escaping, can create afterimages to run in a different direction, the afterimage will have a built in instinct at creation. the number of afterimages depends on the users proficiency.


    3. Phantom step, the user can move at extremely high speed, that it can be considered a small distance transportation, range depends on the users proficiency


    The more he read about the techniques and thought about their possibilities, the more he thought that either he stole someones luck or that something extremely bad is going to happen in the future... Since luck as good as this, to stumble upon such a technique, usually meant that in the future, the luck will be taken back with twice the interest.


    In the Illusion Demon, was written in great detail, how to gather and refine Mana and etc. When a person first learns a body cultivation technique they unlock their Mana Palace. After they unlock it, a person can peek inside his own conciousness. In the beginning, it is a blank, void space, as the cultivation technique progresses, the more things will be added to Mana Palace. How it will end up, depends completely on the cultivation technique.


    Seeing that the sun was setting, he decided to find a cave to pass the night in. Soon, he found an abandoned cave that was completely void of life and hidden pretty well, if he hadn''t heard an animal passing and ducking down, he wouldn''t have even noticed it. He had gathered a few pieces of dry wood along the way. He first put an illumination stone in the cave, to lighten it. Next, he started a small fire inside the cave. Due to the draft the smoke was pulled outside. These were all the skills, he had learned in his special ops days. He had been through swamps and mountains. Survival in the wild, was one of his specialities. It was a lot easier now though. after the fire was lit, he got a small disc out of his ring, on it was inscribed the Tranquilty and Illusion formations. "This world is a hell lot more convenient, just have to find a place to stay and you can practically create your own world..." While sighing to himself, he looked at the disc with a complicated look. He set up the formation disc and after eating and settling himself in, he decided to start cultivating according to the Illusion Demon technique. After completing the first round, he would be able to see inside his own conciousness. This piqued his intreest quite a bit.


    After 3 hours of trying and failure, he was about to give up when he felt, he got past the spot that he had failed nearly every time. Feeling joy, he continued practising. He practised until the sun started coming up again and right at that moment, he succeeded. The first rotation was always the hardest to pull off, after wards it''s ten times easier. It''s like riding a bicycle, after you succeed the first time, following times will seem like a walk in the park. After he had completed the first rotation and refined a thread of mana, he was happy.


    The method to boost one''s speed through Mana varies on the type of Mana one trains in. The method he used before to boost his speed was actually suicidal. He took the raw, non refined Mana from the air and used that. Had the fight last a minute or two longer, the outcome would''ve been him ending up as a cripple in a best case scenario. The other thing no one told him was that to complete the first cycle of any body cultivation technique takes atl east 2-3 days. His perception and the ability to make adjustments was greater than most people.


    Feeling happy having completed the first rotation, he eagerly went to check his own Mana Palace. The method to do that was, to take a sliver of conciousness and merge it with insert it into Mana. He felt as he had always known how to do it. When he opened his eyes, his conciousness had arrived in his Mana Palace.


    The scene in front of him caught him by surprise. What awaited him there, wasn''t a completely white, void space but burning right in front of him was a black flame with a tinge of red and yellow mixed in. " What the heck is this..."

 Chapter 10: Training

    Well, chapter 1 out of 2. Let me know in the comments, how you feel about this top side rambling.


    When i was writing this, i was stupid enough to hit refresh, so i lost half the chapter, when i got back from a small break....


    Anyways, enjoy!


    <hr />


    Chapter 10: Training


    Staring at the flame, Nalser didn''t actually know what to do. "Well, let''s try the stupidest thing first." As he tought that, he streched his hand out into the flame. Contrary to his expectations, nothing happened. His hand slipped through the flame like, the flame was a mirage. "This is biazrre." He said in a astonished voice. He started inspecting the flame closer. Doing so, he discovered that the flames core was pitch black surrounding it were yellow flames. The yellow flames we followed by red ones, which in turn were followed by black ones.it was like three layers of defence. Not knowing what to do and mainly because he had no way of interacting with it, he decided to leave the space.


    When he was back in the real world, he opened his eyes. "Since I can''t do anything about it, I''ll leave it be. Now then, since I''ve completed the first rotation, I should stay here for a while, train atleast 1 cycle and then head out. I have food to last me for atleast 4 months. If I run out, there''s a lot of meat running around here anyways." He shrugged his shoulders and started formulating a training plan. It was said in the jade slip that to complete the first rotation takes about 3-4 months.


    He had another objective to this training camp as he had no idea, how strong his opponents are. He knew the best, that the only reason he won against Tobias was due to him underestimating Nalser. He did not get cocky and full of himself. He had seen many soldiers in his past life that got cocky due to one success and died soon after. He wanted to atleast complete one cycle to atleast have a chance at survival by running away, when the situation gets too dicey. "Only a fool dies for his principles, not like I''m more sane than those guys, seeing as I managed to piss of an entire kingdoms nobility," while quietly scolding himself, he made up his mind.  It was currently more beneficial to train in this forest, where magical beasts, who to spar with, were abundant. Having made up his mind, he closed his eyes again and started absorbing and refining Mana.


    Time flew by, minutes became hours, hours became days, days became weeks and weeks became months. During that time the only time he wasn''t refining was, when he was sleeping or taking care of his bodily needs. When a month and a half had passed, he had finished the first cycle of Mana refining and was close to completing the bone refining. When at first he was puzzled as to why he had to wait until he started bone refining before using either movement techniques or attack techniques, then now it was clear to him. Using Mana to boost ones speed places a major toll on ones joints. The more he started thinking about it, the more he was glad that he wasn''t stupid enough to rush ahead and ignore the warning. Every day he trained with Dreamer aswell, to get a perfect feel of its attack angles and weigth, length. Now that he was proficient enough with a weapon, he wanted to test out his own limits. He took precautions that, when a situation gets too dicey he can immidiately out of there. When everything was set and in order, he started venturing outside.


    As he trekked through the woods,  wearing only panths and shoes, he ignored magic beasts that he saw as out of his league. Two hours had passed since he started running around in the woods. Now he had found the perfect prey. It was a 6 meter tall black gorrilla like thing. He had a snake tail that seemed to have a mind of his own. The beast was currently covered in blood but it wasn''t his. The blood belonged to a black lion that was laying on the ground, not breathing. About the lion, Nalser had heard of it and was quite astonished. It was a Scarlet-Eyed Black King. They were a rank 6 Magic beast when matured. Seeing that the gorilla had slain the lion, Nalser immidiately turned around not wanting anything to do with it.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.


    Just as he had turned around, he heard a whimpering noise from behind him. Slowly turning back he saw a little Scarlet-Eyed Lion King touching the bigger one with his nose, seemingly trying to wake it up. The gorilla was annoyed, he raised his arm and wanted to smash the little lion into pulp. Seeing the situation, a memory ran through Nalser''s mind. He had tried waking up his own mother aswell, when she was shot.  Seeing the memory, brought on an impulse, to kill this giant gorilla. Gritting his teeth, he dashed forward, he had already unsheated Dreamer and stored the scabbard in the Spacial ring. Seeing the gorillas arm swing down, he immidiately activated Phantom steps. In an instant, he appeared 20 meter''s away the cub in his arm. As the gorilla''s arm had finished its swing, he noticed he was missing his arm. There was a clean cut made, from his wrist onwards, there was nothing. Immidiately after, he heard a thud from nearby. When he looked at it, he found out it was his own arm.


    The method Nalser just used, was a combination of Phantom steps and attack techniques, by focusing the Mana right, he made the already sharp blade even sharper and added strength by increasing the speed at which the blade moved. He named it Phantom blade. This was going to be his killing technique. " Njaa, seems like I still need a lot of work on Phantom blade." Even during a fight he was thinking that. After cutting off the gorillas arm he confirmed his suspicions. The gorilla only won because the tiger was still weak from giving birth to the little guy. The little lion was as quiet as a mouse now, he was shaken up by the sudden turn of events. Eyeing the gorilla, Nalser took out his shirt of the Spacial ring and wrapped it around the little lion. Holding tightly onto the little lion, he readied his blade and started staring at the gorilla.


    The gorilla was genuinely enraged. He was certain that his arm was cut off by the little human standing before him but he didn''t understand how. In his blind rage, he started storming towards the youth with a naked torso and a blade in his hand. The fight was over in a second. all the gorilla saw a blur and then he lost all strength.


    Seeing the gorilla charging over, Nalser decided to use Phantom blade again. He was ready for a bitter fight but to his surprise he could cut through the gorillas neck like butter. "Eh, that''s it? It was so easy ?" astonished by his own strength, he stared at the gorilla with a dumb look. Not knowing if the gorilla was dead or just feigning death he approached him with caution.


    Making sure that it was dead, Nalser sheathed Dreamer and took out his army knife. With it, he gouged out the monter core. That was the only valuable part of a magical beast that was rank 3 and lower. A magic core was the same to a magical beast, that a Mana Palace for to a humans. The only diffrence was that, humans didn''t form a physical core. Discarding the corpse, he moved towards the Scarlet-Eyed Black King''s corpse. He salvaged the monster core and dug a hole to bury the lions corpse. The little cub seeing that it''s mother was dead, was sad. It silently sat there and waited until Nalser was done. Magical beast, even low ranked ones had intelligence, the cub of a rank 6 magical beast was smarter than your average 10-year old.


    Having finished burying the corpse, Nalser started walking back towards the cave. The little lion followed him. Not knowing what to do with the little guy, he started patting his head. He had been through a similar situation when he was young. The little lion suddenly pushed his nose at Nalser''s arm, right beneath the shoulder and a black light shone out.

 Chapter 11: Curo and leaving the forest

    Chapter 2 out of 2. A big thanks to all the readers.


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 11: Curo and leaving the forest


    Seeing the sudden light, Nalsers eyes turned cold. He completely entered combat mode. He pushed the little lion to the other side of the cave. the moment he shoved the little lion away, he unsheated Dreamer. The little lion was startled and scared. Seeing Nalser filled with killing intent, it didn''t dare to move. After a few minutes had gone by and nothing had actually happened, Nalser calmed down. He looked at his arm and saw a tattoo that was now there. The tattoo looked like the lion in black ink. What was weird was that, the eyes were scarlet red and it had a few scarlet red stripes all over its body.


    He remembered reading about this in the "How to use magic for dummies." There were two ways to tame a magical beast:


    1. To weaken it and cast a high level enslavement magic. With that the magical beast will completely submit to the master''s will. This was the more common method used in this world.


    2.  To earn the respect of a magical beast and have it initiate a Beast Pledge. In a Beast Pledge the beast submitted willingly. The Beast Pledge was rarely initiated ad magical beast had a lot of pride and would rather die than serve a human. Usually the Beast Pledge was gotten by coaxing a magical beast cub into submission.


    Since it was rare to get a hold of a cub like this, this method was mostly forgotten. Nalser closed his eyes and he felt that he could sense the little lion in the corner. it wasn''t like he could see him but it was more like an instinct that, he knew where the little one was and what he was feeling. Opening his eyes, the cold light disappeared, he went to the little guy and shrugged his shoulders. He took out a piece of jerky from his Spacial Ring and started feeding it to the little lion.


    "Njaa, don''t scare me like that little lion. I am not from this world, everything that takes me by surprise is a threat to me," he softly scolded the little lion, about half an hour went by and the little lion wasn''t scared anymore but rather was playing with Nalsers hand. He demonstrated the hunting down techniques of a Scarlet-Eyed Black King. Nalser felt warmth from playing with the little lion. He used to have a dog he played with when he was small, it gave him a similar feeling as the current situation.


    " Now then, since you are stuck with me, I guess I should give you a name. It get''s annoying quite fast to keep saying little lion, little lion all the time," after saying that, he sank in deep thought. His mother had always told him that it''s important to pick the right name because that person is going to be stuck with the name with the rest of their life. Having made up his mind he declared to the little lion, " From now on your name is Curo." The little lion thought for a second and started getting excited. Nalser took it as a sign that the little guy like the name.


    "Now then, I guess I should get back to training. I seriously don''t want to spend half my life in this goddamn forest." Having made his decision he started training again. Even though the refining of bones happened automatically, it could be sped up by diligently feeding Mana to it yourself.


    Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.


    Time flashed by and two months had already passed since his meeting with Curo. Curo had grown to be 30 cm long and if he stood on all fours he was about 20 cm from the ground. There were also tinges of red stripes starting to form on the little guy''s body. Ohh and Curo had unique ability, he could change the size of his body.


    It was about a month about ago when Nalser opened his eyes from meditation, meditation helped concentrate better on the refining, and saw Curo as a full fledged giant beast staring right at him. He was startled and immediately used Illusion step to back up. It was then that Curo changed his body back to his original size and came scumpering back to Nalser, seeming all smug. Nalser started flipping through all the jade slip that contained knowledge on magical beast and came up with zero results. He found out one useful bit of information.


    Although cross breeds between different species of magical beast did exist, they were extremely rare, All of the hybrids also have a unique ability that belongs only to them. Categorizing the little lion as a hybrid made the most logical sense to him and he didn''t dwell on it for much longer.


    Now that in total three and a half months had passed, Nalser had completed the first cycle.  He felt that his strength had doubled. He had used a week to fully solidify himself after the cycle and grasp the full extent of his abilities. The last thing he wanted to do was to get over confident and pick a fight with someone, who he didn''t stand a chance against. Feeling that, he had a good grasp on his abilities, he decided to leave the forest and go to the last human kingdom in the east before elven lands, Nulan. He had heard a lot about Nulan''s architecture from Tobias. It turns out that it was majorly influenced by elven architecture and living in the city gave a calm, serene feeling.  He decided to leave tomorrow morning. His destination the capital of Nulan.


    Truth be told, he seriously needed to stop by the Guild and trade in monster cores for money and contribution points. Contribution point system was sort of like a guild discount system. During his stay in the forest, he regularly fought against magic beasts to get a better grasp at his abilities and gain in shights about the weaknesses of Phantom sword so he could either fix them or pay attention to them. As the sun rose up Nalser started preparing for the journey. He put on the black trousers, T-shirt, boots that he came to this world with, he fixed his army knife to his left thigh.


    This was his habit, from back when he was a soldier. By putting the knife there it could be easily and quickly drawn, should the need arise. In his left hand was the sheated Dreamer and on top of his head was a small sized Curo. As he advanced through the woods in a few days he had reached the outskirts of the woods.


    When he finally made it out of the woods, he took in a deep breath and said in a quiet voice, "Finally, I''m out of that damn forest. Time to start traveling the world." He had a smile on his face, as he scanned the surroundings he noticed a caravan getting closer and judging from it''s direction, it seemed that it would go to the capital. He decided to hitch a ride with the caravan if possible. As the caravan grew closer, Nalser realized that it was the same caravan that gave him a lift when he first exited Kapitol.

 Chapter 12: On the road to Nulan capital

    Chapter 1 out of 2 .  A big thank you to everyone who reads and likes Phantom Song.


    anyways, Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 12: On the road to Nulan capital


    During the trip through the woods, Nalser discovered quite a few things about Curo''s size changing. If the size is smaller than the original, it doesn''t take a lot of Mana and he can stay in that size for long periods of time, however if it''s bigger than the original size, it''s the other way around. Being bigger, drains a lot of Mana and he can stay in his gigantic for about 15-30 minutes. How this transformation works or rather what logic it follows, is lost to Nalser. As a person from a world where things like these were in fairy tales, he couldn''t wrap his head around the logic.


    Curo however didn''t let it bother him and developed a technique that let him stay in his miniature form and sleep on Nalser''s head or shoulder while he kept on running through the woods at high speeds. When he was sleeping on Nalser''s head, he looked like a weird hat.


    When he was approaching the caravan, the guards immediately raised their guard. They relaxed it only after seeing it was him. On these roads were a lot of bandits but the adventurers remembered Nalser, since he was the youngest 2 Blue-Star adventurer they had seen. When Nalser was traveling with them, they had heard of his plan to go through the forest to reach Nulan''s capital faster. Seeing as they had the same destination, the head of the adventurer''s group asked him to join them. It was safer for both sides since there was safety in numbers.


    Since Nalser had the plan of asking to go with them in the first place, he didn''t reject the idea. Since it was close to dusk already, they decided to set up camp there. During the evening all of the adventurers asked, how he tamed Curo and about his experience in the forest. He slowly started narrating everything and during the story at some point Curo, who had been asleep until now, also woke up. He sat on Nalser''s head with big eyes and curiously looked around. This was the first time he had seen so many humans in one place.


    When everyone saw Curo looking around like a little child, they all started laughing. Since Curo was now full of energy he started running around the camp. As it was a usual thing for him to do, Nalser didn''t pay it much attention and kept telling about his experiences in the forest.


    When he was done, he started asking about news about the outside world from the adventurers. He had noticed that in the caravan were currently 4-5 times more people and everyone had a gloomy face on. The owner of the caravan was a business man after all. When Nalser was telling about his experiences, he was also sitting with the adventurer''s and listening eagerly. He wanted to make a good connection with Nalser. After all, he was still 15 and managed to become a 2 Blue-Star rank adventurer, in the future, provided that he didn''t die young, he was practically guaranteed to become a Black Star adventurer.


    When the Nalser asked about news from the outside world, everyone had a somewhat gloomy face on. The owner of the caravan was a middle aged man, a bit on the plump side but had a very good personality. His face turned gloomy as well, when he started talking, "Well, the people who joined us since you left are the ones that have lost their homes. They are from the cities that got destroyed by the rebound of the summoning spell. They now don''t want anything to do with Nadin kingdom and have decided to travel to Nulan. The king there is hundreds of times smarter than that foolish idiot, who rules Nadin."


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    When Nalser heard about them, his heart twitched. The main reason they lost their homes and families was was still the summoning that had brought him here. In a sense he was the cause of their loved ones deaths. It may have been the king who tried to summon them but still, his heart felt heavy. "I''ve grown soft in this world in a couple of months. In my original world, I have even killed women and children when the order was passed down and didn''t even pity them but now I feel heartache from a few people who either lost their home or family." Nalser thought to himself as he also directed his gaze down.


    In his previous world, he didn''t even flinch when he had to kill a woman or a child because he was already mentally broken and had shut his emotions deep inside after the death of his mother. If he hadn''t done that he would''ve most likely gone mad.


    Suddenly, the head of the adventurers team opened his mouth to say, "I''ve heard that the Human headquarters were moved to Rem''bar, the capital of Nulan. Also, I''ve heard some rumors saying that the border was locked down and no one can leave this damn Kingdom."


    When everyone heard that the border was on lock down, every ones faces grew grim. Even an adventurer couldn''t just leave if a border was locked down. "If push comes to shove, we can always force our way through. We just need to confirm that Nulan will let us in after wards."


    After the captain said that, all the adventurers nodded their heads, they were willing to risk dying to get the hell out of this kingdom. The respect towards adventurers from the government was extremely bad, the people supported adventurer''s but the government officials didn''t see them as nothing more than cannon fodder. They were currently a few days worth of travel away from the border but everyone started quietly tuning their minds to be prepared to force their way out.


    Nalser also made up his mind to help the people across the border to a better place. He didn''t outright hate the king and government but he  didn''t have any good interactions with them either. " Since I''ve already pissed the kingdom off, I might as well do it thoroughly then." A cold glint flashed in his eyes. They talked for a few more hours and everyone who wasn''t on patrol, went to sleep.


    The next day they started moving towards the border and in a instant a week had flashed by and they reached at the border castle. The castle was full of men in soldier uniforms. A loud shout echoed out through the fields,


    " Halt! The border is currently on lock down, no person can pass. Turn around now!" When everyone heard the shout, their eyes turned cold and they started gathering next to the caravan owner.

 Chapter 13: Preparations

    Chapter 2 out of 2. We are finally starting to get out of that hell hole kingdom.


    I know, my naming sense sux, not going to refute it.


    Anyways, enjoy!


    <hr />


    Chapter 13: Preparations


    Everyone gathered around the adventurer leader and the caravan owner, no matter what everyone else wanted to do, the final say was still in their hands. " Seems like the rumors were true, the border is on lock down. So what do you think we should do?" The owner of the caravan had a bitter smile on his face as he asked the captain of the adventurers team what he thought they should do. "Mm, there''s no use in going to a different passage point, seems like our only option is to force our way through if we want to leave.  What is your opinion on this Nalser?" The captain recollected and summarized their current situation and their possibilities. He wanted Nalser''s opinion because the captain was only a 2 Red Star ranked adventurer.


    Nalser thought for a while and observed the fortress. When a few minutes had passed, he opened his mouth,  "Njaa, seems like we do not have many options here. No one wants to stay in this hell hole. So we only have one option, that is to cross the border. How we are going to do that, is another question." "You think there is another way through?" The owner of the caravans asked in a low voice.


    He had promised that he would get everyone to the other side of the border, his conciense wouldn''t live through seeing them turn back here. Everyone were waiting for Nalsers answer and were expectantly staring at him. As a reply to them, he smiled and said, "Places like these usually have secret passages we could go through but first things first, we have to make sure that we can cross Nulans border. If we are certain of that, we can either find a secret passage or well, kill our way through." Everyone were surprised, what he said was logical and none of them had thought about it because their heads were muddled by rage. The captain and the owner were no exceptions.


    Before anyone could ask, who the person crossing the border and checking in with Nulans border guards was, Nalser said in a strick tone, "No offence to any of you but the person most experienced in sneaking across the border and back is probably me. If someone with no prior experience fucks up here, we are all going to be screwed. All I need is a black mantle, a piece of black cloth to cover my face  with and someone to keep an eye on this little guy." He picked up Curo from his head and put him down.


    No one refuted him. In their eyes, someone who could pass straight through that forest would either be ridiculously strong or very adept at hiding his presence and sneaking by. One thing he said was bugging everyone but no one had the courage to ask, " What did he mean by the most experienced in sneaking across borders and back?" Having been pointed out, what the risks of getting caught were, no one there objected. When the preparations were done and Nalser was fully dressed, he moved out.


    Getting through the Nadins fortress wasn''t hard when he combined Phantom steps with his previous experience in infiltration, it was as easy as a walk in the park. The security here was a lot weaker than it was in his previous world. He managed to get past the fortress in an hour. He dashed through the no-mans land and arrived at the front door of the Nulan empires fortress.


    When he reached the fortress, he saw two guards standing by the doors. He approached them, while holding his Guild Card and said, " Hello, I''m a 2 Blue Star adventurer and I am wondering if the fortress is on lock down here?" When the two guards saw him, their hands immediately clenched on their weapons, ready to attack on a moments notice. What happened next stupefied them. Nalser put down his Guild Card and stepped around 10 steps back. He said, "This is my guild card, you can check the validity for yourselves, if possible I would like to talk to your fortress commander." The guards exchanged a glance and were clearly confused on what to do.


    A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.


    At that time an old man with a very built body, stepped out and laughed, "Hahahah, seems like Tobias was right on his money, you did show up." He went and picked up the Guild Card, when he saw the name Nalser vi Dragoncross on it, he was convinced. " I''m the commander of the 13th Nulan border fortress, Thomas Franks. What is it that you need to speak to me about?" as Thomas said that, he started walking towards Nalser, to give him back his Guild Card. When Nalser saw that, he took off his hood and started unwrapping the black cloth that was covering his face. "I need to ask you, if you are willing to let about 700 people pass from here?" Nalser didn''t plan on making small talk but immediately got to the point. Hearing such a blunt answer, Thomas was surprised. " Who are these 700 people and why do they want to cross the border?" He observed Nalser suspiciously to make see if he was lying.


    Nalser started narrating, where the people came from and why they wanted to cross the border . He even said that they were practically prepeared to force through the fortress. When Thomas heard that, both him and the two guards there, were surprised.  Then they started shaking their heads.


    "Even I didn''t know that the border was on lock down and im a friggin kilometer away from them. Now then, if you can deliver them to the halfway point of no mans land, then I will send the army to escort them here if needed." Seeing Nalsers cold eyes, Thomas said in a determined tone. They talked over the details a bit more and Thomas even told him where a secret passage was. If they could find it, the chances of them getting caught  are extremely slim but they needed to be prepared for the worst case scenario.


    Seeing that the sky was gradually starting to brighten, Nalser said his farewells and told him, that in 3 days time, they will come through the secret passage. When everything was done, he started quickly dashing back. Now it was 3 times harder to get through the fortress unseen and there were several times, when he almost got caught. Finally reaching back at the caravans camp, he let out a breath of relief. Then he started narrating, what Thomas had said to him, including about the secret passage. looking for the passage took them nearly a day but they found it. In the evening of the second day he told everyone, "Tomorrow evening we will go through the passsage. The chances of getting caught are extremely slim but there is always a chance of it going worst case scenario. Should that happen, sneaking can go f*ck himself and I want everyone to run. I don''t want to see people getting trampled over though. Me and the adventurers will do our best to keep the soldiers at bay. When you exit the secret passage you will be at the halfway point. If you see an army coming from Nulans side, then just know this: They are our reinforcements."


    He later added a few details on what they should do  after exiting the passage. After making sure everyone understood him, he disbanded everyone and told them to pack lightly. He even volunteered to take some stuff into his Spacial ring. He still had about 20x20m space free, about 27x27 m was currently occupied by monster cores. With the latest going to Nulan''s fortress thing, Nalser had become something a kin to a leader of this operation. Seeing Nalser take in stuff to make it easier to run through, the others who had room in their Spacial rings, started doing the same.


    A day flashed by and it was the evening of the third day. Everyone had a fire burning in their eyes. They were finally going to get out of this god damn kingdom. Seeing that everyone was there, Nalser said in a loud voice, "Everyone remember what i told you, if we give the signal, start running for your lives, until then be absolutely quiet." With that, they entered the secret passage.

 Chapter 14: Charging through the passage

    Starting tomorrow, 11.01.2016 I will do a GUARANTEED 1 chapter a day and maybe manage to sneak out a second chapter aswell. Since I write, edit, proofread the story myself, I don''t want to  pump out chapter after chapter in a fast pace which will inevitably turn the story sh*t. Thank you for your understanding.


    Anyways, enjoy!


    <hr />


    Chapter 14: Charging through the passage


    As they entered the passage, everyone was quiet. The passage was pitch black but everyone''s eyes got used to the darkness in a few minutes. The passage was around 3-4m high and 5 meters wide. For a group of 700 people going through an underground secret passage, they did surprisingly little noise. The secret passage was approximately 4 kilometers long and was mainly underground.


    There were only a few sections where they could be seen. Almost all of those sections were underneath the fortress. This passage wasn''t know to Nadin soldier''s, otherwise they would have blocked it or atleast posted guards there.


    The adventurer''s team consisted of 33 people including Nalser. They were spread out so: 10 in the from of the group, 10 in the back and 13 were mixed in with the group in the middle. The setup''s point was this- If the enemies are infront the 10 will push through with force, if they come from the back, then the 10, who guarded the back, will keep them at bay until the big group could charge forward. The adventurer''s understood this far but didn''t understand why 13 had to be mixed in with the crowd. Not knowing, whether these guys had brains or muscles for brains, Nalser had explained to them.


    "The 13 in the middle will relay the current situation when either the front or back runs into trouble. Their second objective is, if we should be discovered and they start pouring in from the middle of the group, they will deal with them. Also it puts the people more at ease if they know that mixed in are people who can deal with the soldiers if they turn up." After Nalser had explained in detail, everyone understood clearly, that every person in this formation had a specific task. This world was primitive, most of the people who thought of battle formations, were either nobles taught from day one or very experienced commanders. Simple folk like these guys, only used the more common battle formations that were widely know, intricate ones like these were an utopia for them.


    By the time they had passed through the 2 and a half kilometer mark, they hadn''t been seen yet. The hardest part had arrived now. They were currently right under the fortress.  Should they make too much noise here, they would be seen and all hell would break loose.  Everyone knew instinctively that should they mess up here, the worst case scenario will come to life, so they all made as little noise as possible. Right when they had passed the fortress, something unexpected happened. A guard, that was doing who knows what, suddenly fell through the ceiling of the secret passage. Since all the people had already passed that place the only ones the soldier could see, were the adventurer''s in the back. When that person fell through the ceiling, everyone were dumbstruck, they froze where they were and no one even dared to breathe.


    Hearing the noise, Nalser quickly dashed to the back from the middle of the crowd and cursed inside, "For the love of, what friggin god did we piss off to have luck as crappy as this?" Before anyone could even react on what to do, Nalser had arrived in front of the soldier, who was about 60 meters away from them. Nalser immediately slit his throat with Dreamer.


    Then Nalser looked up through the hole and saw what room it was. When he saw it, he''s face paled, it was a mess hall for soldiers and currently it was dinner time. He shouted in a loud voice, "F*ck this, everyone run like the Hell Hounds are chasing you, now!"


    That sentence brought everyone back to reality and everyone started dashing towards the exit. Nalser backed up towards the group a bit and stood his ground. The back line defence sqaud immidiately rushed to his side, ready to fight to the death with him. "You guys go. If they know, where this passage surfaces at, the group is gonna need you guys more, than i do. I''ll hold them off here but i can buy at most 10 to 15 minutes."


    Unauthorized tale usage: if you spot this story on Amazon, report the violation.   Everyone hesitated, finally the captain grit his teeth and said, " Fine but you have to catch up soon." "That may be a problem though but anyways, tell Thomas, the commander, that the little thief sends his regards." Nalser had a wry smile on his face as he said that and handed the captain a letter. The captain and his team reluctantly started running towards the group soon catching up to them.


    "What the fuck am i doing? I left the palace because I didn''t want to be a friggin Hero on the front line but here i am now..." He sighed to himself quietly with a helpless face. Although, he didn''t give a damn about being a Hero, he had a feeling on of being in debt to these people, who lost their homes due to the rebound of the summoning. He always had a strong sense of responsibility and he felt that, it was his job to at least get these people across the border to a better place than this hell hole. "Njaa, this is the first time and last time i''m going to play a Hero in shining armor."


    As he shook his head, he saw that at least 50-60 soldiers had already descended to the passage. When he saw that number, he felt his scalp going numb. He instructed Curo, who was by his side, "When the situation turns completely hopeless, run." Curo looked at him with a sad face, seemingly full of refusal. He then turned his size up to the maximum he currently could.


    When on all fours, he was a head taller than Nalser.  Since in the passage only  5 fully armed soldiers could walk side by side, he was perfect to block their path.  As he stored Dreamer''s scabbard into the Spacial ring, his eyes turned cold and he completely entered combat mode.


    ***


    Meanwhile at the Nulan border fortress. Thomas was currently on the wall, his eyes were glued to where the secret passage would surface at. All the soldier''s had already been briefed about the current situation and all the soldier''s were in full armor already lined up to move on a moments notice. Thomas noticed, that the fortress across the no mans land got extremely busy all of a sudden.


    "Don''t tell me they were seen." as that thought ran through his mind, he noticed that from the secret passage a lot of people started pouring out and were making a dash for the Nulan border fortress. Seeing the situation, Thomas knew that the worst case scenario had happened.


    "Open the gates! Infantry escort the wagons to pick them all up. Cavalry, you are to ensure their safety and guard them on the way back. Move out! His Majesty said that our utmost priority is to get these people across the border safely." Thomas roared in a loud voice and everyone started rushing towards the people that had emerged from the secret passage. Thomas ran down from the wall as well and mounted his horse.


    "There''s no way in seven hells that im going to let innocent people die here." as he thought that, he had reached the front end of the soldier''s already and was personally leading the charge. When they reached the people they loaded everyone on the wagons and escorted them back to the fortress. Not seeing Nalser anywhere, Thomas asked the closest adventurer, "Where''s the little thief?" The adventurer''s looked with a gloomy face and then the captain approached Thomas with the letter Nalser had given him. When Thomas read the letter, his face changed and forced through his grit teeth, "Seal the entrance and return to the fortress!"


    On the letter it stood: " Seal the entrance! If i survive, i will most probably go through the fortress but seeing as you have this letter, the situation is probably too crappy to be salvaged. The priority should be to get these people into Nulan."

 Chapter 15: Birth of Phantom

    Chapter 2 out 2 for the day. I hope everyone read the note of the previous chapter. I don''t want to ruin the story i''m writing by biting off more than i can chew at the moment.


    Anyways enough rambling and happy reading.


    Enjoy!


    <hr />


    Chapter 15: Birth of Phantom


    As Nalser stood side by side with Curo, having a stare down with the soldier''s from the fortress, a loud rumbling noise echoed out through the passage. "Seems like they got out and delivered the letter. Now all that''s left is to get out from here quickly." Before the soldier''s eyes could get used to the darkness of the passage way, Nalser had already wrapped the black cloth around his head again, only leaving a little slit for eyes. He currently looked like an assassin, that was there to kill someone.


    When the soldier''s regained their footing and calm nerve, someone who looked like a captain eyed Nalser suspiciously and asked in a commanding tone, "Who are you? What''s your purpose here? Was is to escort some peasant''s across the border? What''s the use of some low-life wimps who can''t handle a few hardships?" Being bombarded with questions like that, only one thought rose in Nalser''s head, "Is being a cocky arrogant son of a bitch a requirement to get a friggin high position in this god damn kingdom?"


    Nalser felt fury welling up in his heart. One of the few things that could piss him off was when someone screwed up big time and then blamed others for it.


    "What is it to you? You arrogant bastard can go and enjoy your slaves upstairs. As to who I am, I''m nothing but a Phantom." When he had said those words in a cold voice, he immediately moved out. By using every skill in his arsenal, he went straight for the Captain. Since the other''s hadn''t opened up their mouths, Nalser didn''t feel much emnity towards them. The captain with his arrogant speech however was another story. He had ticked off Nalser and Nalser was certain of one thing. Even if he died, he''s taking that arrogant bi*ch as a companion on the road to afterlife. Seeing that all the soldiers were in full body armor, Nalser went for the only weak spot a full body armor has, the throat.


    As he used Phantom steps to close in on them, he arrived in front of the captain and immediately slashed his throat. The captain''s eyes were full of disbelief and it was clear that he hadn''t realized, what Nalser exactly did. All he saw a blur and then felt a sharp pain from his throat and then his strength started to fade rapidly. As soon as Nalser had slashed the Captain''s throat, he immediately pulled out the five throwing knives he had.


    During his stay in the forest, he developed another skill besides Phantom blade. This skill was used with these 5 throwing knives. When he coated the knives in Mana, he could remotely control them and their strength was only slightly inferior to Phantom blade. He developed this skill by combining various aspects from Phantom Song Sutra''s attack methods. The knives were also made from black metal making them very advantageous in a dark enviorment like this. As he threw out the knives, he split his mind into two: One controlling the body the other controlling the knives. Since his battle mode was like a hyper concentration, it was an easy thing to do. Usually when he was in combat mode, he split his mind into two like this: One part controlling the body, the other surveying the surroundings. Now, he just added controlling the knives to surveying the surroundings. In theory it may seem like a simple transision but practise proved that wrong fast. Controlling the 5 knives while at the same time battling by hand was extremely taxing on both his mind and his Mana pool, Since he had completed the first cycle, he was stronger than a person who had trained continiously for 5 years.


    If you stumble upon this narrative on Amazon, it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    This was the biggest advantage of Phantom Song Sutra. What Nalser didn''t know was that this particular Sutra was extremely hard to train in. No one had succeeded in even the introductory steps in the past 40 years. As Nalser dashed around the squadron of soldiers killing everyone that showed him emnity, Curo was doing a fine job as a scare crow. Just him being there and growling in a low voice, had scared all the soldiers who were closest to him witless. They had completely lost their will to fight.  Seeing that Nalser immediately killed off all the people there and gestured to Curo to come closer to him.


    When Curo drew right


    next to him, Nalser said in a low voice,  Change your size to the little form. We are going to make a run for it. There''s no way in hell, I can take on a whole fortress of people by myself." Hearing that Curo understood. He turned into the little lion form he usually was in and Nalser picked him up. With Dreamer in one hand and Curo in the other, he jumped up to the mess hall. When he jumped up, he saw a few people there, around 6. The throwing knives immediately flew towards the five who weren''t in Nalser''s path, charging through their throats. With Dreamer then slit the throat of the last one, who was currently in front of the door, blocking it. Before the bodies could even hit the floor, Nalser had disappeared from the canteen.


    While he sneaked through the fortress, he mentally brought up the map from the last time he was here. After sneaking around and killing a few guards that discovered him, he had reached a familiar location. Since it was quite dark out and most of the soldiers had gone to the secret passage the security was lax. Although it was still stricter than it was the last time he was here.


    He had used up a majority of his mana. He had about 3 times larger Mana pool than your average person. From his calculations, he could use Phantom step only 2 more times before he was completely out of mana. Sneaking around on foot, he had reached the fortress gate. He immediately killed the guards on duty and made a run for it to the nearby woods. The soldiers chased him to the outskirts of the woods but didn''t enter. After running for about half an hour, Nalser finally stopped,


    He was out of energy and he was out of Mana, He found a cave nearby and poured the last bit of Mana he had into the formation discs, putting up the last defensive formations that he had.  Seeing that it was safe now, he fell into to deep sleep from the exhaustion.


    From that day onward, the tales of his deeds spread far and wide and out of proportions as well. A mysterious person calling himself the Phantom broke into the fortress and slaughtered thousands of soldier''s. The rest of the soldiers were too scared to even breathe so he knocked down the fortress gates and just walked out of the place unscathed and with no one pursuing him. Those were the rumor''s at least. That person was like a Saint to commoners and like a Death God to the officials.

 Chapter 16: After effects.

    This is the guaranteed chapter of the day. A big thanks to everyone  who reads the story.


    Anyways, time to see what the outside world is doing, while Nalser sleeps like a log.


    Enough rambling,


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 16: After effects


    While Nalser and Curo were sleeping away their exhaustion in the cave, the outside world was in turmoil. Everyone had heard, what happened in the border fortress. Some started seeing Nalser as a Saint, others, well, as a Devil.


    ***


    The royal palace of Nadin was in great uproar. When they recieved the report, about what happened at the border fortress, they were all enraged.


    "Your Highness, if it goes on like this, this kingdom is doomed to fall! Not only did we lose one of the Heroes, we also managed to anger the Adventurer''s Guild enough that they even moved their headquarters to another kingdom. And now this? A mysterious powerhouse goes and tears our border fortress apart, when we are on lock down. The people are angry as it is, why did we need to lock down the borders. If we don''t take precautions, we will soon have a rebellion on our hands!" One of the older noble family leader, with a lot of influence, shouted out. He practically demanded an explanation and a solution on what to do from now on.


    The Kings face was ugly beyond anything that anyone of them had ever seen. It seemed like he even hadn''t heard the noble demanding an explanation. In his head however, he was cursing, "Ever since "that" person showed up, everything has gone down hill. He told us to summon heroes to fight the demons, we lost three major cities thanks to the rebound, one of the heroes that was delivered, decided to ignore us. The adventurer''s guild has moved their headquarters away, the people are furious. We have only lost. We lost half of the kingdoms income, we lost a lot of works force and for what, some bulls*it individuals that are slightly above average. We were promised that when we succeed we will have untold riches awaiting before."


    When he had stopped cursing inside his head and raised it to look at his subjects, he saw  the main culprit behind their misery walking in through the doors. The man was in his forties, had a rather skinny build and had a long beard. He was dressed completely in white robes that had golden symbols on them.  When he entered the room, the King was enraged and immediately barked at him,


    " You, you promised us that immense wealth awaited us when we completed the summoning, all that we have recieved are losses." Seeing the King enraged like that, the mysterious man in white robes smiled and said, "All the riches will be delivered to you, when we destroy the demons, After destroying those spawns of Fiend God, all their wealth and riches wait you and you will curry a favor with the Radiant God. " He excluded an aura of holiness and light shone out from behind him, that had a tranquility effect. This magic was actually brainwashing magic. It didn''t completely take control of a person but influenced them to do their bidding. Magic like this was actually frowned upon in this world.


    From the moment this man entered the room,  this conflict amongst themselves was resolved. What they didn''t realize though, is that they were all under the control of the Radiant God''s church already. With that the meeting had ended.


    ***


    In the neighbouring country of Nulan, the meeting was different. All of the nobles there, had actually taken over a lot from elves, including their oldest saying, "The people aren''t there for the King but the King is there for the people."


    This tale has been unlawfully lifted without the author''s consent. Report any appearances on Amazon.   After hearing the direct report of what had happened from Thomas, Tobias, who was currently also invited to the meeting between nobles and generals, started laughing. "Hahaha, that little lad. I tested him myself and knew he was strong but to do something like this. All i can say is, respect little one."


    All the nobles had a smile on their face as well. It wasn''t that they were twisted like Nadin''s nobles, they all just thought that they got what they deserved. Nadin''s political view''s were a complete opposite to Nulan''s and Nulan''s nobles were waiting for a day that it came back to bite them. Clearly, having heard that their locked down border fortress was turned upside down by one person made them happy.


    The king of Nulan Empire asked Tobias in a friendly tone, "You said you tested him yourself, what made a Human branch Guild Master like yourself, test out a candidate by yourself?"


    "You guys have heard of that one of the summoned "Heroes" practically told the King to take a hike? That "Hero" was him. He didn''t tell me much about his past but he told me that he used to be a black ops soldier. From his fighting style and eyes, i could tell that he wasn''t lying. His movements left no room for error, and would that have been an assassination by him, i would already be dead. If i were to be asked, if i was afraid of someone, then that person would definately be him." Tobias explained with his signature smile. Everyone in the room were astonished and the Emperor said, "For you , a person who was once called as the "Smiling Demon", to say that, that boy must certainly be scary."


    The Smiling Demon was a nickname given to Tobias when he was an active 3-Black Star Adventurer. He got the nickname because of his signature smile and how he was completely ruthless in a fight. Actually, when Tobias was still an active adventurer, he was also known as the strongest human adventurer.  Now he''s strength had fallen a bit, it''s not something to be bewildered about, considering he hasn''t seen real combat in a few years.


    "Well, dealing with Nalser is easy, treat him with respect and he treats you with respect. You disrespect him, he will disrespect you. But if you decide to pick a fight with him, well the fortress is a good example of what happens." Tobias told everyone while chuckling. Everyone understood the principle and why Nalser didn''t want to stay in that kingdom, the government treat commoners like dirt. No one in their sane mind would want to stay there.


    ***


    Across the continent, in the beast man kingdom of Eraland. In a rocky mountain range, you could see a single shilouete, sitting there on the cliff enjoying the sunset.


    Suddenly a person dressed like a ninja appeared behind him, he got down on one knee and said, "My lord, a report has come in from Nadin kingdom. It seems like the one you told us to keep an eye on has single handedly turned a border fortress, that was on lock down, upside down. He killed the commander and around 100-150 more people and then escaped back to the woods. Operatives 1, 3 and 5 are currently keeping an eye on him, as he is resting in a cave inside the forest. As per your orders, they have not made contact with the target but are guarding him from the shadows." "Hahaaha, seems like he doesn''t just sit around twidling his thumbs huh, who did he pick that up from." A smile crept on to the mans face, He had a hint of nostalgia in his eyes.


    "Sir, may this servant ask, just who is he, for you to turn so much attention to him?" The man, who looked like a ninja, had always wondered, why did their lord had turn so much attention to one youth, who had been summoned from another world at that. The man thought for a second and said with smile,  " Why shouldn''t I, he is my son after all."

 Chapter 17: Awakening of the black flame

    I hate my laptop, while writing this chapter, i accidentaly clicked the previous page button right next to the arrow keys, losing pretty much all of the content, at least 5 times in 1 hour that i was writing. Anyways, thank you for the comments on the last chapter and as a writer, it is always good to see when people say they though something was interesting.


    PS. This is an extra, a bit on the short side but i didn''t want to stretch or cram to much stuff here at once.


    Anyways enough rambling.


    Enjoy!


    <hr />


    Chapter 17: Awakening of the black flame


    While the outside world was in uproar about what had happened in the fortress, Nalser was in immense pain. The black flame inside his Mana Palace, that had stayed like an illusion until now, went berserk. An immense amount of Mana gushed out from it and it wrecked both his Mana Palace and his body. He felt like he was made from gasoline and some smart a*s had decided to throw him a lit match.


    He was getting closer and closer to the threshold of losing his sanity from the pain. He trashed around the cave, all of his clothes had already been ripped off, some even ripped to shreds. He''s screams would even put Banshees to shame. Curo was frantically looking at him and then at the door. His head pendeling between the two, he wanted to go and ask for help but he had no means to do so. More importantly, where would he find someone, who even knew what was going on with him.


    He wanted to help Nalser but had no means to do so, so his only option was to look over him as he trashed around in pain. Nalser''s eyes were bloodshot already, his mind was reeling, thinking of the reasons why the flame had gone berserk, it hadn''t shown any interaction or even a sign of movement until now. He cursed inside, in a loud voice, " Why the F*CK is this going on now. Why now?"


    He couldn''t understand the reason, why the flame had gone berserk. Suddenly the pain rose by threefold, instantly knocking him unconscious. His hair turned snow white, his skin became as pale as snow as well, It seemed like he had aged from 15 to 50 in a second. If you just glanced at him, you would think all his blood had been drained. When Curo saw this, he instantly went into panic, he rushed to Nalser''s side seeming to check if he was still alive. feeling that the pact was still active and seeing his chest rising and falling, Curo relaxed a bit. He took the biggest form he could and wrapped around him. He just didn''t know what else to do. He fell asleep, while guarding Nalser.


    ***


    When Nalser was knocked out, he entered his consciousness. What he saw there left him completely dumbstruck, inside the consciousness, there were black flames everywhere, it almost seemed like an apocalypse. It was then, that it seemed like the black flame noticed him and started flying in his direction. He hurried to get out of the way, as he did, the black flame followed. seemingly unable to get away from it, he grit his teeth and readied himself for the intense pain again.


    When the black flame hit him, it entered his consciousness''s body. The pain didn''t follow that left Nalser both confused and delighted. Suddenly he heard a big "BAM" inside his head and series of pictures started appearing in his head. At first he was confused, as to what those pictures were, then information started following it.


    Stolen from its original source, this story is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.


    After half an hour had passed, it stopped. Since all the pictures and information were scrambled, he started arranging it. It took him 2 hours to finish sorting the information. When he was done, a face of both realization and confusion was clearly painted on his face. Now he had realized, that the information that entered directly his brain, was actually the memories of the flame. He learned a lot about he identity of the flame. As it turns out, this flame was the "Yang Flame". The name the people called it by was an "Asura Flame".


    It could burn anything in any world and it couldn''t be extinguished. It was extremely tyrannical and also extremely rare. Only people with a special body constitution could hold the flame, even fewer people actually awakened the flame. It was like this: In countless worlds, the probability of being born with an Asura Flame was 0.0003% and from that the probability of awakening the flame was 0.004%. Nalser understood how rare the Asura flame actually was. Since it is extremely strong and tyrannical, there is also no shortage of people trying to obtain that flame. If a person managed to snatch the flame from him and he didn''t have a special body constitution, the only out come was an extremely excrutiating death. Since people thought too much of them, there was no shortage of idiots trying to snatch the flame. What he also learned was that an Asura Flames holder had a job imprinted in it. To find a Yin flame holder and protect him/her. In Nalser''s case, he had to find the woman holding an awakened Yin Flame and protect her.


    The Yin Flame, also known as the Nuwa Flame, was the exact opposite of Asura Flame. Nuwa flame didn''t burn their target''s, only healed. The Nuwa flame could cure any illness and even regrow lost limbs. If the person was a hair away from death, the Nuwa Flame could still bring that person back to life.  The flames were opposites and called for each other, so it was actually quite easy to find the other person. Nalser could only sigh to this, " Seems like i got a great gift but at the same time a great curse..."


    Thinking like that was quite understandable. Although he got extremely strong power, he also got countless people trying to steal it away from him. Exposing the fact that he was an Asura flame holder now, would be like painting a giant bulls eye on his back and wearing a sign, " Kill me and you''ll get extreme power". " Well, currently I can''t even handle the flame for 5 minutes, so it will be a long time before I can actually use it," he could only shrug his shoulders. his body could currently only generate a flame the size of a lit match, in a fight, it wasn''t actually anything useful. He needed to refine the flame bit by bit and gradually make it his own, otherwise, he might burn himself to ashes along or instead of his enemies.


    When he started examining the flame, he realized, that he would need to refine this flame for about 4-5 years before he could use the flame as he pleased. Since his body had been refined by the Asura flame, his body was a kin to an immortals. He couldn''t die of old age or illness. When he learned that, he had decided that this flame was only a friggin curse, not a gift.  He had learned a lot with the awakening and he needed some time to sort out all the information and get used to his new body. Also from the fight at the fortress he learned, just how pathetically small his Mana Pool is.


    Thus he decided to exit the Mana Palace and opened his real  eyes.

 Chapter 18: Changes and Decision.

    I believe a lot of confusion rose with the last chapter, this chapter will explain a few details regarding the Yang flame things in more "detail" so to speak, i think, maybe . Also time to take a look at what the 4 are doing for a sec. Any questions, lemme know in the comments


    Enough rambling on to the chapter. Ps Guaranteed chapter of the day


    Enjoy.


    <hr />


    Chapter 18: Changes and Decision


    When Nalser opened his eyes, the first thing he saw was a giant Curo coiled around him, like a cat protecting it''s kittens. He remembered how Curo looked, when he was in pain. It reminded him of his mother, a person, or a giant cat in this case, caring about him. He''s heart felt warm but then he noticed he was completely naked. He collected the clothes and put on what he could. From now on, he currently didn''t have any shirts, the pants were also in tatters from the ankles. He decided to refit his pants to be knee length, while muttering to himself, "Njaa, seems like i ought to buy a few extra sets of clothes if i ever reach a town."


    He was starting to think that he would never reach a town again thanks to the latest events, He even seriously considered being a hermit in the forest he first trained at, so he wouldn''t have anymore bothersome things pushed on his shoulders


    . He also cursed the "immortal body" he had gotten from the flame. While most people would yearn to live forever, Nalser thought the exact opposite. He''s reasoning being, that if you live long enough, there will be nothing new, you would have seen all, experienced everything. A dull life, where there was nothing new to discover, only a repetition of yesterday. It was something he dispised greatly.


    He also wasn''t quite interested in becoming a bodyguard to some young lady for he rest of his now immortal life. When he had finished his refitting of pants, he sat down on the ground in a meditative position and sent a sliver of his consciousness to his body, to inspect what has happened after the awakening.


    When his consciousness had finished inspecting his body, he''s brows furrowed deeply, as he muttered in a low voice "This flame, it turned my bodies toughness akin to adamantium, I''m like a friggin killing machine, that can''t be killed..."


    He felt that the toughness of his body had risen by tenfold. "What the hell am i supposed to take on, that i was given such a tough body?" That was the only question that had risen in his head.


    His Mana pool had also risen about twice the size it was before.


    In a self mocking way he said, "No wonder the Asura flame is feared and wanted, with so many benefits, all i can see are calamities waiting for me."


    He had always believed that the world was in a balance of sort, if something extremely good happened to you, then soon after there would be something very bad happening to you, to balance it out. Also, it could be the other way around.


    When he recieved power as strong as this, he realized, that was waiting for him was going to be an endless amount of people, trying to obtain the flame from him, one way or another. He may seem like a negative person but he was more like "i don''t want to deal with bothersome people or things" kind of person.


    It took him to 4 days if nonstop training to get a full grasp on his current abilities, when he did, he let out huge sigh, "For the love of... I feel like i''m one of the broken cheat''s of some japanese summoning story that got Over Powered abilities when they were summoned as Heroes. Speaking of which, i wonder how those guys are currently doing?"


    ***


    In Nadin''s royal castle, in the training ground you could currently see 4 youths. Two were male and two were female. Both of the males had a built body and actually attractive features. You could even say the were handsome men.


    One of the young men had brown hair and brown eyes, he was medium height. He had a sword in hand and a serious face on.  He was currently sparring against the other youth, who was half a head taller than him. He had black hair and green eyes. In the sparring match he was using a great sword.


    Stolen content warning: this tale belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences elsewhere.


    The sword and great sword were different from normal metal ones. The sword seemed to be made out of transparent ice with a tinge of blue mixed in. Without a closer look, you couldn''t even see it.


    The great sword was blood red in color and it almost seemed like it was on fire.  As the two clashed for about 15 minutes, the match ended in a draw. The brown haired youth''s name was Sander, while the black haired was called Joel. They had both been noble men''s sons in their respective worlds. They had been pampered from young as the heir''s of their families so naturally they were very prideful and wanted to look good in front of the two beauties.


    One of the two was born as a princess while the other was born as the first daughter of a extremely influential family. The one who was born as a princess, had long brown hair and emerald green eyes, she had a medium bust, and a slender waist, she was about as tall as Sander, while the other lady didn''t lose out in terms of beauty but she had short black hair. She was about half a head shorter than the princess. The princesses name was Lilian, while the noble ladies name was Lauren.


    Lauren was born in a world where bows reigned supreme and she herself was a talented bowman. She always carried a bow around with her. Ann however was born to a world where magic reigned supreme. She was also hailed a genius in magic as long she could remember. They both had prideful dispositions.


    All of them combined however couldn''t even match Nalser before he started learning Phantom Song Sutra. The difference in life and death combat experience was just too great. It couldn''t be made up with talent and pride alone. They however did not know that. They had constantly kept on making fun of Nalser. "He left because he was just scared." or "He is probably dead by now, that''s the fate of a commoner like him." were the usual remarks they made.


    What they didn''t realize though, was that, they felt inferior to him. A person like him had just upped and walked out, done what he wanted, not someone else wanted. In their hearts they were jealous of him. They would never admit it either to themselves or someone else.


    The progress they had made in the 5 moths could only be said to be mediocre. They all made a bond with a Sentinent Weapon in the armory, but the pure quality of the weapons couldn''t even hold a light to Dreamer. While indulging in their delusion of superiority their lives continued, safe within the castle walls.


    ***


    After Nalser had finished his preparations, he started moving out. He was currently wearing the black long hooded mantle, black pants and black shoes. Wrapped around his head was the familiar black cloth. Only his blue eyes could be seen.


    When Nalser first started dressing, he saw his own reflection in a pond for the first time after his awakening. When he saw his snow white hair, he almost felt like he wanted to cry. Now with Curo hiding in the hood and dreamer was also in his hand, sheated though, he started moving out. He decided to directly cut through the fortress and enter the Nulan kingdom that way.


    He figured that he had already practically issued a war challenge to this kingdom. If they started blocking him from going onwards, he would kill anyone who stood in his way. If they didn''t, he would just waltz through.


    He''s mindset had changed a lot after the transformation. He had realized that he needed to get strong fast or at least hold his own against god-knows-what, that are after the flame. Ever since the flame was awakened, he felt a calling. It was not a direct one but more like a gut feeling on what way he should go. He had decided to call this feeling as "The Yin Compass", since it probably would lead him to the Yin Flame holder.


    He decided to follow The Yin Compass and meet the Yin Flame holder. The only thing that he was currently praying for was that the young lady, who had awakened the Yin Flame, was not an arrogant prick like most of the people he had met in this world were.


    No matter how he prayed, nervousness was all that was left to him.

 Chapter 19: The usage of Magic

    This is a guaranteed chapter for wendsday (here atleast). This chapter is mainly on the world and how magic is used to protect kingdoms. This is also a relatively short one.


    Enough rambling.


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 19: The usage of magic


    Nalser and Curo were a days worth of travel away from Nulan''s Capital. The Nulan Capital was called Rem''bar. Nalser planned to stop by the capital, cash in the monster cores, shop for a few necessities and then start traveling again.


    The reason Nalser decided to stop by Rem''bar was , that it was on the road. The Yin Compass lead him past the city and he thought, why not stop by there. He could hear some news about what was going on in the world and maybe even hear, what those Heroes who were left behind were doing. He started to get bugged by it. He hadn''t heard a scratch of information about them, as if they are just holing up in the royal castle or are prehaps dead already.


    From the forest to where he was staying now, had taken him two weeks of travel, although they were mostly, moving a few hours, and training the rest. This world was extremely strange to Nalser, The border fortresses were made in spots, that were easy to travel through and the surrounding terrain was either mountains or such. Quite often there were tense forests surrounding them, in those forests lurked Magical beasts no one wanted to provoke. Passing straight through a forest, it was akin to a suicide. Also Nalser just waltzed through Nadin''s border fortress, he didn''t want to deal with another big fight. If it was known that he came again, all hell would have broken loose, so he just used phantom steps to bypass the guards and the fortress.


    Now Nalser understood, why the caravans adventurer''s had astonished faces on when they saw him. He had also learned from Thomas that all the kingdoms had scrying spells and protective spells overlapping with their kingdoms border line, making it impossible to sneak in aside from either under a fortress or by using an extremely expensive presence hiding formations. The formations cost a fortune, even wealthy merchants wouldn''t use one unless extremely necessary. The reason was, for it to work, you had to know what spells, the other kingdom was using. You also needed a very high leveled expert ot make the formation. All in all, making one  was difficult, obtaining one was even more difficult. It was a product that had market but no supply.


    The more Nalser thought about all this information and analyzed it to make it more clear for himself, the more he was astonished about how broken of a thing magic was. If someone sneaked into your kingdom, you would know it immediately. There were other methods, to pass by the spells undetected but these methods were even rarer than the formations. Only certain families with roots spanning across millenniums had a chance of having one of these methods.


    This content has been unlawfully taken from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.


    This world was actually 60% magical beast territories and 40% of non magical beast ones. Clearing an area of magical beasts was an extremely difficult task. Usually these areas were ruled by at least a rank 8 or 9 magical beast. Killing one was extremely hard. one rank 8 magical beast was equivalent to a 2 Black Star adventurer. Every time some kingdom tried to clear an area, they had heavy reprecussions. Even if they could kill the ruler beast, they still had to clear out all the lower ranking ones as well. All in all, clearing an area would take a lot of time, resources and casualties so kingdoms didn''t actually expand much, they kept building where they could and clearing paths where they could.


    There were also some eccentric powerhouses that like to build a home in the middle of such areas to get peace and quiet. Angering these eccentrics was even a bigger calamity than angering a lvl 8 or 9 magical beast. Nalser  had made a mental chart, where he started putting magical beast plus and non magical beast plus. The end result was, that he had determined, if magical beasts were actually interested in taking over the world, they actually had about 70-80% chance of doing so. Now Nalser understood why there was a saying, if they magical beasts had ambitions, nothing could stop them. All the races had to actually tip toe around them and pick up and fight for their scraps.  All the regular folk had no chance of even fighting against a lvl 1 magical beast, so in an expansion ,they were zero to no use.


    Nalser also understood, why he had to bust through a fortress instead of circling around it even if it took more time. Had they gone through the forests or mountains with a caravan of 700 people, most like 90% would have died before they could even make across the border. Nalser was only a day away from the capital but he was in no rush. He kept trying to comprehend the world he was now living in better but most things made no sense to him, no matter how hard he tried to comprehend it.


    He actually had a lot of ideas on how they could reclaim land from the magical beasts or how to improve living conditions overall. But he didn''t want to do it because if he did, that would mean that he is setteling in, in a kingdom. If he did that, he would most likely end up with a lot of things, that he would rather not want to do. He wanted to travel and see the world, live his life to the fullest and how he wants it. The idea of setteling down and becoming someone, who might even rise to a noble, wasn''t his cup of tea.


    One conclusion, he did reach though. The variety of magic inside this world was enormous. There were different spells for every occasion and these spells could not be underestimated. With that he closed his eyes and fell asleep on a tree branch.

 Chapter 20: Finally arriving at Rembar

    This is a an extra chapter, since  i dont have lessons untill noon tomorrow. Finally Nalser starts showing intrest in other things than being a hermit.


    Also, i will be shortening the names of places a bit. for example Adventurer''s Guild -> Guild. It breaks a thought process very easily if i have to write the Adventurer''s guild all over again a lot in a chapter.


    If anyone is intrested in proof reading Phantom Song, by all means let me know in the comments or preferrably PM me.


    Enough rambling.


    Enjoy.


    <hr />


    Chapter 20: Finally arriving at Rem''bar


    When Nalser finally arrived at Rem''bar city gate, he was quite surprised. The walls were over a hundred meters high. When he entered the city he saw a serene atmosphere. There were tree''s planted all around and the houses were built in touch with nature, some inn''s had bought several inscriptions to make something akin to a pocket dimension.


    The house looked like it was a one story cottage, but if you entered you were basically in a castle. Things like this intrigued Nalser. The houses were built in Chinese or Japanese style, giving the city a old feeling. The street''s were wide and basically every store or inn was a pocket dimension building. It was also very efficient in terms of businesses in the kingdom.


    On the outside, they needed a little space but on the inside they were as big as needed. If in Kapitol, there were a few stores like this, then in Nulan, mostly every store and inn was like this.  In a city that was half the size of Kapitol, there were 3 times more people and stores, because you could fit more of them inside the city walls.


    Nalser decided to first head to the Guild. He quickly found the Guild, after 30 minutes of walking around and asking for directions. When he entered the Guild, he looked around and saw, that the interior looked exactly like the one in Kapitol. Wooden floors,  a merry atmosphere, there was a restaurant/bar in a separate wing, where everyone could relax before or after a mission. and there were 3 different counters: 1. Registration 2. Accepting, turning in quests 3. Everything else. At the everything else counter you could buy specialized maps, or things from the Guild. You could also sell your leftover loot. They took a little bit of money off and traded them for contribution points. With contribution points you could get discounts or even buy some things, only when and if you had enough contribution points.


    When he arrived at the everything else counter, the clerk looked up. The clerk was a middle aged lady, with long brown hair and a slender waist. She looked more like an inn keeper, who attracted customer''s not like a person who should work at a Guild. "What can i do for you today? Do you wish to sell something or do you wish to buy something? Or do you want to post a mission?" The lady said with a warm smile. It could be seen that she had been doing this job for a long time and knew how to act with people. " Hello, i would like to sell some leftover monster cores, i was told that i can sell the to the Guild?" Nalser said in a warm voice.


    He currently did not have a shirt on only a jacket. Hearing this the lady suddenly felt like realization had struck her. She had been wondering, why the boy didn''t have shirt on but now understood, that he had run out of shirts while fighting against magical beasts.


    "Okey, i need to see your Guild Card to check it and then note down, to exactly who we are giving the contribution points for the monster cores." The lady gave a business like smile and asked for Nalser''s Guild Card. Since the lady had treated Nalser with respect, he didn''t have anything against her. He retracked the Guild card from his Spacial Ring and handed it to the lady.


    At that time Curo woke up and he yawned really loudly. He had been asleep for most of the journey and he had been sleeping in Nalser''s jackets pocket. He could now turn as small as 3 centimeters in height and  5 cm in length. When Curo yawned, he drew everyone''s attention. He jumped out of the pocket and turned into a beast that was 3 meter''s in height and 5 meters in length. Everyone were starting to draw their weapons, when they just froze. Curo stretched and turned into a minituare form, small enough to sit on Nalser''s shoulder and look around. When he jumped onto Nalser''s shoulder, Nalser sighed, "You little dumbbell, we are in a city now, if you suddenly start changing sizes you are going to get us  both killed." As the adventurer''s heard that, they understood, that Curo was Nalser''s companion. They relaxed their guard and went to back doing what they were doing but they still kept an eye on Curo because they hadn''t seen that type of magical beast before.


    Ensure your favorite authors get the support they deserve. Read this novel on Royal Road.  The lady was startled when Curo jumped out but regained her cool a second later. She accepted the Guild Card and her eyes flashed, when she saw the name on it. She excused herself, saying that she needed to verify this and headed to the back rooms. Nalser thinking that this was normal procedure didn''t mind at all and sat down to wait. When he did, he closed his eyes for a second, to formulate a day plan on where to go.


    He had developed an interest in forging and inscribing. He wanted to get more jade slips on those two areas. While he was in thought of where to go or what exactly to buy, he felt killing intent flying straight at him. He opened his eyes, and unsheated Dreamer. Suddenly a huge "Bang" could be heard and everyone''s focus turned to the source. Everyone already had their weapons in hand.


    When the smoke cleared everyone were dumbstruck at the sight they saw. Tobias was smiling as always and his fist was buried in the remnants of a bench. Nalser was by his side holding the Dreamer on his throat while his eyes were cold. On the other side, there was a gigantic Curo ready to bite Tobias''s head off. Everyone froze where they stood, no one had any clue on what to do, suddenly Nalser opened his mouth to say, " What''s the meaning of this old timer? Since when do you do sneak attacks like this or prehaps you are still holding a grudge at what happened at the examination?"


    The atmosphere was tense enough that you could cut it with a knife. Tobias loosened and started laughing, " Hahahaha, you truly are a prodigy when it comes to fighting, in half a years worth of time you have made so much progress, I could promote you to a Black Star adventurer without any doubt." When everyone heard that, they were dumbstruck. What did a Black Star Adventurer mean? It meant that, that person was an extreme elite, and now a youth who looked around 15-16 was eligible to become a Black Star Adventurer. That kid was a true monster in their eyes. Nalser withdrew his blade and sighed, "There are more normal ways to do these kinds of things, why did you have to break the furniture like this."


    "Uhh, yea. My bad. Anyways, mind doing something about this guy?" Tobias said while pointing at Curo. Nalser had withdrawn his blade but Curo was still ready to bite Tobias''s head off at a moments notice. Nalser noticed that and gestured Curo to stand down. Curo looked a bit puzzled because he usually when someone attacked him, they ended up in square box under the soil. Curo''s puzzlement didn''t last long and he changed back into adorable little guy and jumped on Nalser''s head.


    "So, you came here to trade in monster cores. Let''s see what you got then." Tobias said with a huge smile. "You know, if you keep smiling like that all the time, your face is going to be stuck like that," Nalser said as he started moving towards the table Tobias was gesturing at. Everyone burst out laughing when they heard that. They thought that Nalser had balls to say that to the Guild Master. Tobias just let out a chuckle to that. Everyone started looking at Nalser, they wanted to see how much monster cores he had. Nalser just sent a bit of Mana into the Spacial Ring and a giant pile was formed. When everyone saw the pile, their jaws dropped. Tobias was no exception. His usual smiling face was replaced by complete astonishment.


    "Well, these are about half I''ve got, how much will I get for them?" Nalser just said with an uninterested face.

 Chapter 21: A bit of Nalsers history

    Guaranteed chapter. Also since a lot of people say that I misspell words but are reluctant to point them out. On friday (15.01.2016) there will  most likely be no chapters since i will be reading through all the chapters(again) to find the spelling mistakes. (also might make a new release schedule of posting a chapter over day, leaving 1 day to proofread chapters)


    Enough rambling.


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 21: A bit of Nalser''s history


    When everyone saw the immense pile of monster cores, they were as struck by lightning. When they heard that this was only half of them, some felt like they wanted to faint. They all stared at the pile of monster cores drooling. If they got all the money from them, they could live their lives enjoying practically every pleasure they could think of. If they hadn''t seen how strong Nalser exactly was, they would have already jumped him.


    They had practically no doubt that even if all of them attacked him together with their strongest attacks, they would only get themselves killed. Tobias didn''t know what to say. He just stared blankly for a while before snapping out of it. "Ohh, yea, we need to count these." He snapped out but astonishment was still in his voice. He beckoned for the lady behind the counter to come and count all the cores. While the lady started counting them, Tobias tried to make small talk, "Well, I haven''t seen you for half a year and already you have stirred up a lot. Also, what happened to your hair and who is that?"  While pointing at Curo, he had a puzzled look on his face. The image of the person that left 6 months ago, was drastically different from the person that was currently standing before him.


    Half an hour passed, in the blink of an eye and Nalser told him everything that happened in the meantime, of course he left out the Asura flame and made up a bogus story as to why his hair turned white. All of the adventurer''s were also sitting crowded around Nalser, listening with interest. Nalser and Tobias had moved to the bar wing of the building. When Nalser had reached around the end, the lady who was counting the monster cores came next to Tobias and gave him a sheet of paper and whispered something in Tobias''s ear.


    When she started to walk away, she spared a sideways glance of astonishment towards Nalser. She couldn''t believe that a youth as old as him could bring in so many of the cores. She was wondering what sort of a background did someone have to have to be as strong as him. Everyone who had seen the pile, were now eagerly waiting for the results. Tobias cleared his throat and began, "Well, seems, like you went on quite a rampage to get so many cores. Well the results are: Rank 1 cores 784, Rank 2 cores, 434, rank 3 cores 555, rank 4 cores 132, rank 5 cores 58, rank 6 cores 13. This is a new record in the world probably. All and all the total of selling them to the guild get you 18 328 Gold coins and 10 000 contribution points."


    When he finished the sentence even Tobias was puzzled about him. Everyone else nearly fainted. Nalser went and collected the money, then exchanged a few pleasantries with everyone and he left with Tobias to find a inn. In about 15 minutes they had already booked into a hotel recommended by Tobias.


    They were sitting at the table and Tobias asked with a serious face, "What the hell is you background little monster?" Seeing that he had no way of avoiding the subject Nalser started talking, "You see I was a soldier in my old world. In that world magic didn''t exist. Instead technology thrived. My father died in the war on the front lines when i was 6, they never even found his body. My mother died in a attack on our town, when I was 8. That was when I first killed as well. Since I had no reletives to take me in, I was was enlisted in the military. Since I was still a child, I was given basic training on how to use a weapon and then my first mission was to sneak into the enemy camp and kill their commanding officer. Since children were usual, I could sneak in and slit the throat of the commander and get out before anyone noticed. You see, when I first killed, something in me broke. When I''m not in combat, I''m a go with the flow kind of person  but when I enter combat, something in me clicks. I start to think on how to survive for another day. It''s a laugh honestly. In that world, I was a child who most people would look at with pity, there wasn''t anything worth living for but I clung to life."


    If you encounter this tale on Amazon, note that it''s taken without the author''s consent. Report it.


    When Tobias heard him, he was quiet. A child forced to kill at the age of 8 and then made to fight a war. That was insane, even by this worlds standards. When Nalser saw  that that everything had sinked in to him, he took a sip of beer that they had bought on the way before continuing,


    "After going behind enemy lines and infiltrating their camps for various reason, kill someone, destroy their supplies, collect information, my heart grew cold, If an  order came I would even kill women and children. After 3 years of fighting like that, I was picked up by a black operations department called "Dragoncross",  There I was given specialized training and then, sent to infiltrate even deeper and go after even bigger targets. For 5 years this was my life. I killed day in and day out. I turned into a sort of a machine, no matter what kind of a mission was given to me, I could accomplish it. At one time, the higher ups gave me a mission like this: I was to infiltrate the mansion of a well known general, kill his son, cut off his head and put it on a pillow in the middle of him and his wife, who were sleeping." As Tobias heard that, he had a complicated face on.


    "After meeting the people here, I started regaining some of my humanity." Nalser looked out the window at the moon. Tobias was still quiet. He completely understood, why Nalser was like he was. He was hard to approach, you never knew how to talk to him. he took the dog tag that Old Timer had given him and started talking again.


    "The person who gave me this, was the handler of my missions. he was also the only person in that world, that I considered my family. He treated me like a grandchild. He was the one, who helped me keep even a shred of humanity that was left inside me." Remembering the Old Timer, he had a nostalgic face. "He was the person, who made me read books. In those books I found a world, that didn''t make me kill everything. Reading those books, I learned that a world would be a better place if everyone would admit their mistakes instead of shoving them down another persons collar. The day I was summoned, was my 15 birthday. at that time, I was supposed to be on my last mission, before retiring from active duty and starting to teach the next generation of soldiers.  The reason it was a final mission, was because the target''s this time across the globe were supposed to end the war. This was a joint mission of Dragoncross. over 500 people would take down 500 different targets across the globe.  If I had stayed in that world. I would have never lived a peaceful life because they would always find another reason to start a war. In that world'' I would have nowhere to run but in this world I have no obligation to any country. I am free to do whatever I want."


    Nalser had a rare smile on his face, he continued, "This dog tag is my motto of life in this world, "Wings of Freedom Fly for an Eternity"". "I obtained my wings, when I came to this world. I''m going to follow my wings to end up where I will. I will never bitch about where or how i will end up because i got there  by my own decisions, so I will follow them through."


    Tobias finally understood, who the youth in front of him was. He was a person, who''s heart was under the tightest lock and key. There was no person he trusted. He''s body and mind held scars no person of this world could imagine. He had never heard of a youth doing what he had done. Now he also understood, why he was so different when he was in combat. Trying to tie this person down or getting him to trust you, well it was easier to kill a rank 9 magical beast with a toothpick. However, if he trusted you and considered you a friend, you would have a person similar to a rank 10 magical beast behind your back. They exchanged a few more sentences, then Tobias got up and left.


    "This boy was both lucky to get out of that world and also unlucky to end up in Nadin."  While thinking that, Tobias sighed, hearing Nalser''s story made him see him in a completely different light.

 Chapter 22: A leisurely day

    This is Fridays chapter. Also, i will keep spellchecking the previous chapters. I have fixed the mistakes that i have found until chapter 14. If anyone has a problem with my grammar, you are welcome to proofread for me.


    Enough rambling.


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 22: A leisurely day


    When morning came, Nalser was up and running around already. The first place he visited was the Guild. He wanted to check out the jade slips there. If he could find some good jade slips on forging and/or inscribing, he would definately buy them. As he was browsing through the catalouge on jade slips that the Guild had, he heard a familiar voice. "Oh, seems like you are up early. What do you need, a weapon, clothes ?"


    The owner of the voice was the ever smiling Tobias.  He gave Tobias a glance and and said, "I''m looking for jade slips on forging and inscribing. There are a few things that I want to see if it would be possible to make that way." "Are those things from your old world? If they are, I could introduce you to some of the best forgers and inscribers in Rem''bar." Tobias asked in a interested voice. After learning about Nalsers world, he was quite interested in the so called "technology". "Yea, it is. I''m currently looking for methods to make something similar to a weapon from my old world."


    When Nalser was talking to Tobias, his eyes never left the catalogue. It wasn''t that he was disrespecting Tobias. He could simultaneously read and talk to someone. Tobias also was a carefree person, so he wasn''t bothered by it. He sat down next to Nalser and started playing with the now awoken Curo. Tobias kept making small talk, he didn''t want to bother Nalser too much. after 15 minutes of browsing, Nalser shut the book. He found 6 jade slips on forging that might be useful and 4 on inscribing. He stood up to go and purchase these jade slips that interested him. Tobias was following like a shadow, he was quite interested in what jade slips Nalser picked out. When he saw the jade slips, Tobias was confused.


    All of those jade slips focused on forging and inscribing from different angles with different methods. Nalser was well aware of that, when he picked them out. He wanted a more versatile selection. You can''t make something new if you only hammer at the same old route. He actually wasn''t planning on using any of these methods. He wanted to take the base essence from them and create his own method. He was going to invent something that didn''t exist in this world. If he were to use the same methods as this world, the result would be mediocre at best. When he was done choosing the jade slips. Nalser wanted to go out to town and buy some equipment. He was in a desperate need of some shirts and long pants. When he started walking towards the exit, Tobias had guessed where Nalser was going. He immediately said, " If you need the clothes, I will send someone out to buy them for you in a bulk. Mind coming to my office to chat for a bit on some more serious subjects?" He gestured Nalser to join him in his office upstairs. His face was a rare serious one. "Seems like I''ll have to trouble one of your subordinates then."


    Although Nalser didn''t have any obligations in this world, he felt that he owed to Tobias. If Tobias hadn''t taken him in when he did, Nalser would have most probably ended up as a slave on the front lines. He was only one person, while the nobles had hundreds of thousands of soldiers at their call. If they had seriously wanted, no matter how much experience Nalser had, he would have still ended up as a dead person or a slave. He followed Tobias to the office after he had given a young lady in her teens the order to go buy some clothes for Nalser. He also said that hey should be black in color and the other specific details. When all of that was taken care of, they entered the office.


    Taken from Royal Road, this narrative should be reported if found on Amazon.    "Now then, what is this more serious subject that you wish to speak to me about?"  Nalser didn''t like beating around the push and immediately cut to the chase. " As blunt as ever, huh?" Tobias could only sigh to that. Soon he continued, "What are your plans from now on?" If you don''t have any, mind if I ask you to stay in the kingdom for a while and mingle with the nobles here. They are not as bad as the ones in Nadin. Everyone is interested in meeting you." "Njaa, I plan on staying in Rem''bar for a about 4-5 more days. After that I''ll be moving east. Also, it''s not that I don''t trust you, it''s just that I don''t want to tie myself to kingdom, thus creating more responsibilities for myself." He didn''t outright reject Tobias''s invitation but he also subetely let him know, he wasn''t interested in getting more responsibilities handed to him.


    "I figured you were going to say that. Anyways, here is your new Guild Card. From now on you are officially a Black Star Adventurer." He handed Nalser his new Guild Card. It was pitch black and had big golden star on the back. Nalser accepted his new Guild Card and bound it. After doing so, he asked, "Was this all you wanted to talk to me about?" "Actually yea, that was the main point I wanted to talk to you about. I''m also intrested in where you will be going from now on?" Tobias could only shrug his shoulders to that. He had known what Nalser was going to answer before he did. "I''m planning to move east. How far? I don''t know. I''m just searching for a person." Nalser said with a thoughtful look. He wasn''t planning on revealing nay details but he didn''t mind giving a general description on what he was going to do from now on. He trusted this Tobias at least this much. "Ho, you are searching for someone, give me name or a general description and I will help you find that person." Tobias was intrigued. Just who was important enough for Nalser to personally search for him.


    "If I knew, I would tell you. I only know where she is by intuition." Nalser started laughing. "Ohh, it''s a woman. Then I''m afraid I will be of no help there, little lad." Tobias also started laughing, he understood, that Nalser was looking for a woman to spend his days with. That truly wasn''t something that Tobias could help with. Soon the young lady in her teens, walked in and gave Nalser the clothes. Nalser immediately put the shirt on. Since the lady didn''t have time to avert her eyes, she blushed when she saw Nalser dressing in front of her. She left the door giggling. When Nalser and Tobias saw that, they both started laughing loudly. They exchanged a few more pleasantries and then Nalser left.


    He strolled around town for a few hours and then headed back to the inn. He started analyzing the different method described on the jade slips. He formed a vague concept of how to make his own method. He planned to use the Asura Flame as the primary catalyst. So his more thoroughly researched on methods that used fire as a main catalyst. What he needed to do was melt the materials in the Asura Flame and then reform the materials into the shape he wished. It sounds simple but it is extremely hard to pull off. You always have to keep in mind how the materials act at certain temperatures and how to merge the materials together. The process was long and had to be precise, any misstep would make the process fail as a whole.


    "Seems like creating "that" is possible." Nalser said with a sinister smile.

 Chapter 23: Another Asura Flame

    Well, here we go again.


    Chapter: 23 Another Asura Flame


    Nalser stayed in the inn for another 3 days. During the day he strolled outside for a few hours sightseeing. Most of his time was spent on analyzing the jade slips he had acquired. When he left the city, Tobias was there to see him off. He started leisurely going where his Yin Compass pointed. He moved at a moderate pace and kept up with developing his own forging method.


    He had made significant progress. He had also acquired and browsed through jade slips on combat spells but soon found out that they were a hassle in a solo party. You would need to chant an incantation and if someone is fighting you, you would get interrupted very easily. So, in conclusion, he understood that when fighting alone, battle spells would only get himself killed sooner.


    As he moved east, he and Curo came across beautiful scenery from time to time. Soon a week had passed since he left Rem''bar and he was currently sitting under a big tree near a big lake with a very thoughtful expression on his face. Curo was just running around nearby, seemingly being considerate of Nalser''s state. Nalser came across a very interesting jade slip that had a lot in common with the forging method he had in mind.


    It was a well known fact that every forging master had their on methods that they developed and personalized to themselves. Even if it was a forging method passed down from generation to generation in a family, it was all the same. The method that the people used now would be very different from the one that the person, who developed it used. Even if someone claimed to be the successor of a well known forging master from ancient times, his technique had very little to do what the master forger used.


    The reason Nalser was currently in deep thought was because in the method he was currently thinking, the creator had the same kind of problem he was facing. The main reason why using Fire as a main catalyst instead of forging in some other was relatively looked upon as a joke because using the fire to melt the impurities out of the metals was still good but getting the weapons shape, that used a lot of magic to mold it to the right form.


    It was easier to forge the things using other methods but no one could dispute that using a fire melting technique gave the highest grade product and it had more versatility in terms of shapes. As he was deep in thought, suddenly an old man was standing in front of Nalser.


    The old man had white hair and a frail looking body which seemed like it would fall over if a stronger wind blew by. The old man had his eyes closed and a lightly tanned skin. He was wearing black scholar robes and seemed to be staring right at Nalser. The old man showed no signs of being in a hurry or having any ill intent. He just sat down cross legged in front of Nalser and waited for him to just finish his train of thought.


    It was noon when the old man sat down and in the distance you could see an old lady, who had gray long hair and lightly tanned skin playing with Curo. She was wearing white scholar robes and gave off a friendly old granny demeanor. Curo didn''t even seem to mind that they were in the middle of no where and these two people showed up seemingly like they had something to do with Nalser.


    Time passed by and by the time Nalser opened his eyes, 3 hours had already passed. When he saw the old man sitting in front of him, he was startled and his eyes turned cold seeing him. As his hand grabbed for his blade, he thought to himself, ¡°When did this old timer come here? How the hell can''t I even feel his presence even though I''m looking straight at him?¡±


    Every person excluded a ¡°presence¡± and people, who had been in countless dangerous situations or were just experts, developed an intuition, that let them feel when a person was coming close. Nalser was no exception, his senses were keen enough to even know if Tobias was behind a door or wall but he couldn''t feel the person in front of him even though he was looking straight at him.


    This made Nalser go on full alert and he instinctively started looking for a way of escape. In his mind he understood very well that this person was most likely a very high leveled expert that surpassed himself by an extreme amount. If he decided to go for an all out fight, he probably wouldn''t even be able to harm a hair on the old mans head.


    When he stared grabbing Dreamer the old man opened his eyes and looked straight at him. He only let out a gentle smile and said, ¡°No need to be on alert, I am not going to kill you or try and take away your Asura Flame.¡± The old man excluded a friendly grandpa vibe but when Nalser heard the two words ¡°Asura Flame¡± he went on even more alert and directly stood up and distanced himself from the old man.


    Seeing this the old man let out a small laugh but he didn''t chase him, instead he sat where he was and just raised his right hand and opened his palm. Seeing this, Nalser started staring at the palm of the old man and suddenly his eyes turned the size of pin needles. What appeared on the old mans hand was a black flame identical to his. ¡°Don''t tell me that his old man is also an Asura Flame holder.¡±


    As that thought ran across his head the old man just smiled and said, ¡°Yes, I am also an Asura Flame holder, so you do not have to fear me trying to kill you or trying to snatch the flame. I have enough trouble as it is with this one, why would I want to double my burdens with another one.¡± When Nalser heard that, he slightly relaxed his guard but he didn''t dare to leave his combat mode.


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    If he believed everything everyone said, he would have been dead a long time ago. Seeing this the old man let out a soft sigh and looked towards the old lady that was playing with Curo. ¡°She is the Nuwa Flame holder that I am supposed to protect. We have traveled the ten thousand Major worlds, hundred thousand medium worlds and countless Lesser worlds for over ten million years already. We have even been to the three Celestial realms, the life of a Flame holder is an endless one and full on tribulations.¡±


    As the old man said those words a tinge of sorrow could be seen. Nalser understood his sentiment, immortality was only good if you had something to strive for. If you had no goal, there was no point in having an endless life. Nalser just looked at the old man and asked, ¡°Who are you and why are you here?¡±


    The old man turned to look at Nalser again and just gestured to sit down again. Nalser understood that even if he was on alert, he couldn''t do anything to this old man even if he gave it his all. He sat down under the tree that he was before and the old man started, ¡°Well you see, I am an Asura Flame holder and my name is Fang Xi. Both me and the Nuwa Flame holder come from one of the major worlds prominent clans. Her name is Naru Mei. As for the reason why we are here, it is because of your awakening. You see, we were currently touring this lesser world when we felt your awakening. It is an unwritten rule amongst Flame Holders that if a new Holder awakens, the people closest to him/her will guide them and protect them until they are strong enough to survive on their own.¡±


    The old man took a second to let it all sink in to Nalser and then continued, ¡°Since there are a lot of people after the flames and the number of Holders are very scarce, we are a group that looks after each other. No matter what calamity one of us has called upon him/herself all of us will try to help the person.¡±


    Hearing what the old man said and thinking back to the information the flame itself gave him after awakening, he understood what the old man meant very well. He opened his mouth and said, ¡°Since the group is small we have no other option but to band together to survive.¡± Hearing this the old man nodded and said, ¡°It''s not like we are a sect or a strict organization or something, just that when someone of us calls for help, we go and help. Currently there are only 433 Asura Flame Holders and 432 Nuwa Flame Holders. Any major power has over a thousand times more people but they do not dare to rashly make a move on any of us because of the Asura Flame Holders.¡±


    The old man took a deep breath and continued, ¡°If by chance a major power with 500 thousand people rashly decided to offend our group, we would be calamity to them and they would face annihilation.¡± Hearing that, Nalser didn''t think that Fang Xi was exaggerating at all. He knew first hand how strong the Asura Flame was and couple that with people who had been through countless life and death battles with strong abilities, only a retarded person would try to pick a fight with them recklessly.


    However, one thing didn''t make sense to Nalser, ¡°How come there is one less Nuwa Flame Holder than there are Asura Flame Holders?¡± When the old man heard that, he lightly smiled and said to him, ¡°Well, only a few months have passed since your awakening. A Nuwa Flame awakens exactly one year after the Asura Flame Holder. We have no idea on what laws these things work upon but this is just how it is. In all the worlds, These Flames are the most mysterious and even we, who have had them for millions of years, can''t make heads or tails out of them. Every time we come close to understanding something, always, something happens to make that thing turn the comprehension upside down.¡± As Fang Xi said that, he looked like a grumpy old man and seeing hits Nalser had a hard time keeping back his laughter.


    He had realized that these two old people were not a threat to him, so he completely lowered his guard and immersed himself in digesting the information that was fed to him. Seeing this, the old man finally relaxed and said, ¡°Anyways, do you know how god damn hard it was to find you? It should have been easy for me to find you but someone behind your back led me running in circles around the continent for months before I finally managed to find you.¡± Hearing this Nalser was startled because he couldn''t think of anyone that could possibly make an expert like Fang Xi in front of him, run around in circles around the continent.


    Seeing Nalser''s surprised face, Fang Xi asked him with a sharp gaze, ¡°Don''t tell me you don''t know the person behind your back?¡± Nalser could only helplessly shake his head as he had no clue about the people protecting him from the shadows.


    Just as Nalser was about to say something, a person dressed in black ninja clothes appeared right next to them on his knee and said, ¡°We are sorry for making you run around in circles, Elder Fang. However, we had orders from our Master to protect Young Master from the shadows and at the time we didn''t know you were also a Flame Holder and thought that you were a person from some major power who thought that he could easily lay his hands on the Flame.¡±

 Chapter 24: Origins

    Heyoo, here''s a chapter and sorry for the pause. In the Hostel i am staying at, the internet is torturous....


    This is a relatively short one.


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 24: Origins


    As Nalser heard the man, he immediately jolted up. He distanced himself and shock was evident in his eyes. ¡°What the hell? Since when has this guy been following me?¡± As he thought to himself, he started searching through his memories if he ever felt his presence.


    The more he thought about it, the more helpless he felt. Finally he just let out a sigh and said in a low voice, ¡°For the love of, what friggin special ops? I can''t even feel someone following me around like this.¡± He raised his head and looked straight at the man in ninja garbs and asked him in a cold voice, ¡°So, who are you and what do you have to do with me?¡±


    Even the old man was curious and thought to himself, ¡°Well, seems like he is the Young Master of a pretty strong and influential clan but he seems to have no recollection of that. Amusing.¡± A small smile crept onto his face and he decided that he would not interfere with this matter as long as Nalser wasn''t put in danger.


    The man in ninja garb just sighed and said, ¡°Currently it is still too early for you too find out about that. However, two things are certain: 1. You will be under our protection and it won''t matter who you manage to piss off in this minor world but no one is able to even deal a scratch to you if we step in. 2. The time for you to find out about your origin will come sooner than you think and when you do find out, you will wish you never did.¡±


    After saying that, the man in ninja garb, just disappeared into thin air. Nalser stared at the spot, where the man in ninja garb just was, blankly. ¡°Too much has happened today so processing everything now only leaves me confused.¡±


    Nalser said in an honest tone, he let out a sigh and sat back where the old man was sitting. The old man however just let out a hearty laugh and said, ¡°Well, look at it this way, at least you have some kind of a shield behind your back. You can just think it through before we continue our own conversation.¡± Nalser smiled wrily to the old man and just closed his eyes and started reorganizing the information he had just obtained.


    The sun was starting to set already so the old man just started a fire nearby and let Nalser organize his thoughts. Inwardly however, he was sighing, ¡°Well, seems like he is a bit more unfathomable than I originally thought. The crest that man wore belonged to the Nura clan of the Thousand Demons world and judging by what the man said, he should be the Young Master that mysteriously died at birth.¡±


    As the old man sized up Nalser again, the more he couldn''t see through him anymore. Fang Xi felt that this youths future was going to be quite interesting indeed. Xi looked at Mei with a gentle gaze. She had been running around and playing with Curo for most of the day and had now fallen asleep with Curo in her arms. Inside Nalser''s head however was reorganization and realization. The more he thought about the mans words, the more he realized that, it was weird that no one managed to find him.


    If he was training he didn''t find a human presence in 5 kilometer radius and he had never met an adversary that he couldn''t beat. After reorganizing and thinking everything through for an hour, he opened his eyes. When he saw that Mei and Curo were sleeping and Xi was just guarding the flame with a nostalgic gaze, he asked him, ¡°Hey, do you know, from which power that man was from and what my relationship with them might be?¡±


    He had deduced that this old man knew more about the circumstances than he did. He was hoping to get at least something out of him. The old man just gave him an apologetic smile and said, ¡°I am as clueless about this as you are but it seems that at least they aren''t hostile towards you, so at least that is a plus.¡± Nalser could also just shrug his shoulders and not think about it anymore, however, that didn''t mean that he let down his guard but he instead raised it.


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    Now he was always keeping and eye on his surroundings and trying to find the mans location as he couldn''t be too far away. They chatted a bit more and decided to turn in for the night after they had put down bewildering formations and a few more to keep unwanted guests out.


    ***


    At the same time Nalser was organizing his thoughts, across the continent the man in ninja garb was getting scolded. ¡°Why did you have to go out and say all that? You could have waited when Nalser was asleep and then contacted that old geezer.¡± Although the man was scolding him, he didn''t have an angry tone neither did he have malice in his eyes only helplessness was reflected in both.


    The man in ninja garb removed the scarf from his mouth and said, ¡°Father, why do you not let little brother know about who he is? Why are you keeping in the dark about who he is?¡± When the scarf was removed a youthful face was revealed, the young man didn''t look a day over 23. In his eyes or voice was neither malice or hatred but more like bewilderment.


    The man before the youth let out a sigh and patted his head, ¡°His circumstances are far too complicated for that at the moment. After that assassination attempt right after he was born cost the life of his mother and to keep him safe, we had to send him to a minor world. We even had to announce to the world that he died at birth.¡± When he reached his last sentence, his voice and eyes both grew colder.


    He continued with hatred mixed in with his voice, ¡°All because of that stupid shitty divination by an old ghost from god-knows-where, a lot of major powers from outside and from our world tried to kill him.¡± Hearing this the young man, let out a shocked voice, ¡°Is this true?¡±


    It seemed like that even he didn''t know the exact circumstances behind hiding him in a minor world like that. Originally except for his Father only about 7-8 people knew that his second son was alive. The man looked at the youth and said, ¡°Rico, this conversation ends here and return to your duties now.¡±


    The youth didn''t dare to dwadle and just saluted before going back to resume his duties as a hidden guard. The old man had nostalgia in his voice when he said, ¡°The shitty prophecy, huh?¡± He remembered the calamity that happened 15 years ago. When his second son was born, some random old geezer that had 90% success with his prophecies divinated: ¡°In the Nura clan will be born a boy that will be a peerless genius.¡±


    The divination was supposed to be good-willed but in the end some major powers that were in an awkward or hateful relationship with Nura clan, decided not to let the boy live or he would be a very big calamity to them, when he matures. Combining their efforts they have always thought that they had succeeded but reality is the exact opposite.


    The leader of the Nura clan looked into the distance coldly, when suddenly another man in ninja garb appeared behind him on one knee and reported, ¡°Sir, the Conference of the 7 Angels has been called. It seems like the Arun clan has completed their preparation and are trying to gain supremacy amongst the 7 Flame Angel Clans.¡± The Leader of the Nura clan looked at the man with a cold look and said, ¡°Understood, I''ll be there in a moment.¡±


    Hearing that reply, the man in ninja garb disappeared. The leader just looked at the sunset for a second again and said in a low voice, ¡°You dip shits tried to kill my second son and are now eyeing the position of the Leader of the 7 Flame Angels. Humph, you will only succeed over my dead body.¡± With that a murderous aura spread out for a second and the man also disappeared.

 Chapter 25: Learning

    Heyoo, here''s a chapter. And also greetings from an Estonian in Austria to all Austrian readers (If there are any)


    Enjoy.


    <hr />


    Chapter 25: Learning


    When morning came, Nalser woke up. He had no idea what had happened between the man in ninja garb and the Nura clan master. When he woke up, he started doing his routine rotations of Phantom Song Sutra.


    He had made a habit of practicing it a little every morning before setting out to continue his long journey to unknown. When old man Xi saw his cultivation technique, he was astonished. His mind was reeling, ¡°This is the Nura clan ¡°Phantom Song¡± Cultivation technique. Only those who are part of the main family can practice it. This kid, his background isn''t simple at all. What the hell is he doing in a middle of nowhere like this?¡±


    The more he thought about it, the more complex his face got. On one hand, he had a job of teaching him how to use and control his Asura Flame efficiently. O n the other hand, his background also had about 5 other Asura Flame Holders, why in the world is it like this. Suddenly, a thought hit him and he asked Nalser in serious voice, ¡°How old are you?¡± Nalser had already finished his practice and was just relaxing his muscles when he heard Xi talking.


    Nalser looked at Xi and said, ¡°I am currently 15 years old, why?¡± When Xi heard that, everything fell into place inside his head but on the outside, he just let out a friendly smile and said, ¡°Ohh, nothing. I was just wondering that the technique you use is kind of interesting. Mind if I ask where did you get it?¡± Nalser just looked at him cluelessly and answered in a straight tone, ¡°I found it in a magic shop in the Nadin''s Capital Magic shop. I just stumbled onto it when I was searching for a good Refining Technique. Why do you seem like you have just seen a ghost?¡±


    Halfway through the explanation, Xi''s face was as pale as a sheet. He knew 4 other Asura Flame Holders from the Nura clan so he was quite familiar with that cultivation technique since all of them practice the same technique. However, he couldn''t wrap his head around how they could let their clans most precious cultivating technique end up in a random Lesser Minor World (Lowest ranking on the Minor Worlds list) like this.


    In his mind he thought ¡°If my guess is correct, this is the ¡°deceased¡± second young master of the Nura clan. If this is true, all the more reason to train him hard before leaving. I also ought to ask about this privately from one of the Nura clans Asura Flame Holders.¡±


    As his mind reached conclusions and decisions, Nalser just looked at the man in thought and shrugged his shoulder. He just cleared his throat loudly and brought Xi out of his daze. Xi just gave a wry smile and said, ¡°Enough about that, let''s start training, shall we?¡±


    As he said that, Xi straightened his back and looked like a very strict teacher. Seeing this change in atmosphere, Nalser also straightened his back and turned his attention towards Xi. Xi held out his right hand and on it a black flame materialized. ¡°We are going to do the most basic Flame training. Control the shapes and control the output. A Flame is only as strong as the users control over it.¡±


    As Xi said that, the Flame on his hand started changing shapes. A tree, a sword, a pagoda. As Nalser saw that, his eyes went round, he was very interested in this kind of thing and although Xi had explained the purpose of this training in a few words, he understood the importance of it. If he didn''t have sufficient control over the flame, it didn''t matter how much he could generate it. It''s like a duel between a newbie bowman and a senior. It didn''t matter how many arrows more you gave to the newbie, he can''t win if he can''t hit. It is the same basic, if you can''t control the flame to attack your enemies, what use is it.


    ¡°The key to this is visualizing the shape and pouring Mana into the flame to take the shape.¡± Xi started explaining the way to change the Flames shape. ¡°Through the same logic, you can also, by pouring more Mana into it, compress the Flames into solid weapons like a sword or an ax.¡± Hearing this Nalser was quite intrigued as he thought to himself, ¡°If that''s true, I could create countless throwing knives out of thin air and use them to hail the towards my enemies like rain if I ever go against an overwhelming number of enemies by myself.


    The more he thought about it, the more ways to use the ¡°Materialized Flames¡± popped into his mind. Just as he was deep in thought, Xi coughed. Nalser gave a wry smile and made an attentive face. Seeing this Xi told him in more detail on how to change the shape of the Flame and demonstrated it himself. After about half an hours worth of explanations and demonstrations, he let Nalser try it out himself. Nalser opened his palms and placed them on the sides palms facing each other.


    He generated a little Flame and Xi told him, ¡°Well, for starters, try to change the shape into numbers. This phase of training will be complete if you can change the shape of the Flames into numbers from 1-100. A number would change every second and the shape should be good to look at as well. The next phase will be doing the same thing but while moving. After that, I will teach you how to change the shapes into more complex designs and after that, the real training will start.¡±


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    Hearing this, Nalser nodded and promptly asked, ¡°If this is warm up training what is the real training then?¡± Xi just gave a sinister smile and said, ¡°Well, that is of course battle training.¡± Hearing that the second part of training would be battle training, made Nalser kind of excited. He came from a world where guns were weapons. In this and as it turned out in majority of worlds long ranged weapons were useless. His foundation in fighting close quarters was that of an assassins.


    Although having an assassins foundation was not a bad thing, if it was a fight he was in a natural disadvantage. An assassin uses the element of surprise in killing but in a straight up fight, that advantage is nullified and thus, he will be extremely easy prey to people with a solid foundation in martial arts or certain weapon arts.


    The same went for his blade ¡°Dreamer¡±, although he used it, he didn''t have any specific sword, saber or blade arts to go with it. He had to develop the arts on his own, so all the more necessary for him to build a solid foundation beforehand. By luck Xi possessed a introductiory jade slip on ¡°Saber Arts¡±. He studied it a bit yesterday evening and a lot of questions on how to move with his blade were answered by it.


    Currently, he was trying to make his flames take the shape of number from 1-100. It might seem easy to just manipulate a flame but it was actually very hard. At every given point in time he had to have complete control over the flame size, shape and concentration. For the first few times, he failed. Either the flame was too big or the shape was out of whack. One time he even made it into a solid object and then drained nearly all of his Mana in the process. Time flew by and soon 4 days had passed since he started training his control over the Flame.


    Together with Xi and Mei, he traveled towards where his Yin compass pointed. Out of curiosity he had asked that if they could find the Nuwa Flame Holder like they did in his case but Xi just shook his head saying, ¡°She hasn''t awakened yet so I have no way of finding her. At the moment She is like a normal everyday person, you can''t even find anything special about her.¡± Hearing that, Nalser was puzzled, ¡°If they couldn''t feel the unawakened flames, where the heck did the number for successful awakenings come from.¡± He couldn''t understand the statistic part but when he asked Xi about it, he also just shook his head and said that he had no idea either, where it came from.


    Just like that, they kept traveling towards he Nuwa Flame and Nalser kept practicing his control over the Flame while he was traveling. He had completely skipped the part about staying put and transforming the flame from 1-100 but his progress was something that left even Xi astonished. ¡°You must have been born as a natural flame manipulator to have such precise control over the flame so fast.¡± He had been hailed as a genius but even he took at least a week before he managed to make the same progress as Nalser. It made him bot happy and left him depressed.


    He was happy because he would be teaching such a good seedling but depressed because his talent overshadowed his by a large margin. As they traveled Nalser also learned a lot about different worlds and their hiearhy. It turned out that the entire cosmos was like the Xianxia novels from pre-war China. Countless worlds and Immortals, Devils and every kind of people and beasts that he had thought to be a fairytale or a myth were actually real. Xi also explained how to create a rift between worlds and demonstrated.


    He explained the theory behind it in full detail and even gave Nalser a few pointers on how to successfully create a rift between specific worlds specific points. For example, if he wanted to create a rift between this worlds point where they currently were and between the place from where he was summoned. If he wanted to create a rift like that, he needed to be careful to keep the spatial crack stable or best case scenario, they would end up in a random world. Worse case scenario, he would sustain extremely grievous injuries and in the worst case scenario, he would have his body turned into meat paste. Hearing that, Nalser decided to not use the spatial crack any time soon, not until he had sufficient control over his Mana and sufficient control over his Flame.


    Time ticked by while traveling together and soon 2 months had passed and currently Xi, Mei and Nalser were standing on a small hill overlooking a small farming village. The place was nothing special but this was the party''s destination. Xi narrowed his eyes and asked, ¡°Are you completely sure that the Nuwa Flame Holder is here? Do you know exactly where she is?¡± Nalser just nodded his head and said in a low voice, ¡°I''m 100% sure that his is the place and as for the Holder, well speak of the Devil.¡±


    At the same time a young lady walked out from a farm house.

 Chapter 26: Fallen Leaves

    Heyoo, sorry about about the missed chapter. I have been seriously busy here and didn''t have the time to write a chapter. Good news is that Monday is free for me so I will release another chapter on Monday.


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 26: Fallen Leaves


    As they looked at the young lady who had just walked out from the isolated farm house, a touch of surprise flashed in everyone''s eyes. Nalser''s gaze only sharpened as he looked over at her and just said in a low voice, ¡°Hmm, isolated farm house, clothing nearly in pieces and there are also a lot of visible bruises and cuts on her. This is somewhat different from the situation I had in mind.¡±


    The young lady had long, light brown hair, and deep brown eyes. Her clothing was tattered and ragged. Her body was slim and skin was pale. This wasn''t jade pale like she was a fairy but more like malnutrition. Her chest was developed but there was still a bit of room left before they were something that man could hold firmly in his hands.


    Xi also nodded his head with a serious expression. 90% of the time a Asura Flame Holder or a Nuwa Flame Holder appeared, it was from a decent clan or family. Even if it was just a merchant''s child from a Minor World, the merchant was still some kind of a powerhouse or had extreme wealth and connections.


    It wasn''t set in stone that Holder''s only come from well off families but nearly always they have led a decent life before. A situation such as this was one of the few exceptions.


    Xi only shook his head and sighed inwardly, ¡°One of them comes from a major powerhouse in the Realm but due to certain circumstances had to live his life on a battlefield in the middle of nowhere. The other one seems like an isolated farm girl who was born as an illegitimate child for a lord. Truly an oddball pairing.¡±


    As he thought that, he turned towards Nalser and asked, ¡°So, what will we do now? Just go over and explain the situation or not?¡± Nalser just had an awkward smile on. He remembered that their whole trip here, they had been arguing on how to approach her. Xi had just said to go and tell her the whole story. Nalser''s immediate answer was, ¡°Who in their right mind would believe that?¡±


    His point of view was that if he randomly went and told her the story, she would look at him like he was delusional. The discussions lasted for days until Mei was fed up with the arguing and reprimanded them saying, ¡°Make the decision when we get there! We can''t make any plans without even seeing what she looks like or how her personality may be.¡± This had shut the two of them up and they continued the journey without arguing.


    Now however, the question had been raised again. ¡°We still have time. Let''s just observe for a bit¡± As Nalser said that, Xi and Mei nodded their heads. In their opinion this was the best course of action they could take. If worst comes to worst, they will just appear when the Flame awakens.


    Like that they decided to just observe for a few days and maybe figure out her circumstances or her bearing. They looked for a small inn to stay at. The town wasn''t large by all means but it wasn''t a complete farming village either. They had managed to find a place to stay quite easily.


    Nalser decided to get a bit familiar with the town and see that maybe there is some information about her going around. As he went out, he visited various kinds of shops and bought some things that he needed for his experiments. Currently he was sitting in a tavern and drinking ale, he had learned that his towns name is ¡°Falling Leaves¡± and that their speciality is making ale.


    When Nalser asked about the girl in a roundabout way, the people present had an ugly face on. Seeing this, Nalser was startled for a bit before one of the people at his table started speaking, ¡°In that farm house lives the town majors, third daughter and her daughter. Their circumstances are complicated.¡± Nalser sized up the man for a second and saw that he was like a bear and was wearing adventurer garb. He had a long scar running over his left eye and his head was bald.


    He continued, ¡°Well, you see 15 years ago, the heir to this Province Leader came to town and the idiot Mayor wanted to suck up to him. He prepared all kinds of feasts and did everything the young lord asked. When the young lord wanted a woman to warm his bed for the night, he immediately offered up her third daughter to him. The third daughter looked really beautiful at that time and there was no shortage of young men trying to court her. She wasn''t haughty or anything but when he heard that she was offered up like that, she declined. In the evening she was practically bound up and delivered to the young masters room but who could have guessed that the young master was extremely sadistic. He got offended that she hadn''t jumped to his bed at first order and that night was like Hell to her. In the morning, when the young master had already left, a maid found her tied to the bed, she had gashing wounds all over her body and she had been violated in every humanly and inhumanly way possible.¡±


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    Speaking this far, anger was evident in everyone''s eyes. They had all tried to court her before and for her to end up in such a tragic state was unbearable. There were actually some people who went to the Province Leaders doorstep to find trouble and demand justice for how that demon had ravaged her but all of them ended up disappearing. Nalser''s eyes were also cold when he heard the story.


    Although he didn''t remember his father and mother much, he knew that scum like the Mayor were the lowest possible lifeforms. To curry a favour, he offered up her daughter to a Devil.


    Just as Nalser was about to saying something, the man continued in a very angry tone, ¡°And that isn''t all. When the Mayor saw her state and realized that he couldn''t use her anymore, he cast her aside to that farmhouse to fend for herself. He even started oppressing the people who went to help her in that farmhouse.¡± The man with the scar stopped talking and took a huge gulp of ale.


    Nalser asked in a serious voice, ¡°Then the little lady of the house is a child born from that night?¡± Nalser was already 90% certain that the girl was the child born from that night. Hearing the question, everyone''s faces showed a tinge of sadness as one of the men opened his mouth again, ¡°No, she is the child of an adventurer. The adventurer and the third daughter were akin to childhood sweethearts. When the adventurer learned of what had happened, he flew into a fit of rage and nearly killed the Mayor. After wards, he stayed by the third daughter side and the little lady of the house is his daughter. But about 4 years back, during a job, he lost his life.¡±


    It was clear that everyone here knew that adventurer and him dying was a blow to everyone here. After wards, Nalser chatted a bit more with the men and gathered all types of information. When the tavern started dying out, Nalser also decided to head back to the inn. When he reached his room, he bumped into Xi and Mei. He invited them in and told the story behind the farmhouse.


    Hearing this both Xi and Mei wanted to go and kill the Mayor and that Provinsial bastard themselves. Nalser said in a cold tone, ¡°If you guys move out, yea you can kill them but it will cause unnecessary trouble for us at the moment.¡± He had also learned that the Mayors family member often come to harass the mother daughter pair so it wasn''t like they didn''t have nay chances to thoroughly humiliate them.


    ¡°Well, my plan as of now is this, We will keep watch over her and every time someone tries to harass her, we will ¡°educate¡± the little bastards.¡± As Nalser said that an evil smile spread on his face and both Xi and Mei understood that, what those bastards are going to go through is going to be Hell. They had gotten a good grasp at Nalser''s personality over the trip and understood very well, he might seem cold and unsociable but once you get inside his ring, even a dealing with a king, as an enemy, wouldn''t be a problem to him.


    ¡°Well, that being said, in all honesty I am quite bothered by this and well, I''ll just keep an eye on the during the night. During the day, it is your turn.¡± Xi and Mei understood what he meant. However, Xi couldn''t help but jab at him, ¡°Well, of course you can have then night watch. A healthy and vigorous young man should really like to watch beautiful young lady sleeping.¡±


    Hearing this, Mei just hit Xi on the head and started reprimanding him, ¡°You old ghost, it''s obvious that we are in this predicament because of you. I can''t leave you unattended or I would have gone during there during the night.¡± Nalser just sighed to this, he knew that the old man wasn''t a pervert or anything but he just like to mess around a lot.


    However Mei had misunderstood him as a pervert and never left him unattended anywhere, where young ladies were involved. Nalser just took the sleeping Curo and carefully trekked over the rooftops.


    He had learned on how to gather Mana onto the bottom of his legs so he could run vertically on a wall or stand in the ceiling. He remembered seeing some anime as a child where people rand across water and such. But the main point for this technique was that gathering Mana there, he could actually lighten his steps and muffle the sound. In his opinion, this was more advantageous that running vertically on a cliff.


    As he reached the little isolated farm house, he sat down near a window in the darkest corner of the yard. As he sat down, he started sending Mana out in waves. He created a dome with a 50 meter radius. In this dome, he could feel everything that was happening, like he was just watching it happened.


    As he spread out his dome, he realized that the mother and daughter were currently sleeping. He also discovered that the mother''s breathing was very ragged and her body seemed extremely frail like she was poisoned. As Nalser was thinking about the condition of her mothers body, he suddenly felt that 7 people entered his Dome. ¡°Well, seems like they aren''t here to wish for sweet dreams.¡±


    With that, he slowly stood up.

 Chapter 27: Midnight chat

    Heyoo, here''s another chapter. Find any problems, let me know. Also if you don''t understand naything, just let me know.


    Enjoy


    <hr />


    Chapter 27: Midnight chat


    As Nalser stood up, he put Curo down from his lap. From his Spacial Ring, he withdrew a strip of black cloth and wrapped it around his head. Dressed in black clothes and having a piece of black cloth covering his face, he looked like assassin.


    This was all part of his plan, if the ladies in the house woke up and saw him, he would have a very hard time explaining things. He walked towards the place the 7 people were coming from. The closer he drew, the better he heard their conversation. ¡°Pfft, that bitch. Does she really think that just because Grandpa hasn''t killed her yet, that she cares about her. She''s a disgrace towards our family.¡±


    A feminine voice echoed out, it was filled with self righteousness. When Nalser got a good look at the people, he realized that they had 3 young men and three young women there, they all seemed to be 13-16 years old. They were all dressed in expensive clothes and had an aura of insufferable arrogance. The last person was actually the one Nalser was the most wary about.


    He wasn''t afraid of even pissing off a King but he could feel that the old man in black clothes was an expert. Even though Nalser felt that this so called expert was at most on par with him, he could lead to unexpected complications. As Nalser stood in the shadows, thinking of how he would proceed, the old man looked at him and yelled, ¡°Who are you, come out now!¡±


    Nalser was a bit startled by it but he also saw that the old man was aware of his existence. Nalser just sighed and walked out clapping, ¡°Bravo, you seem to be quite on alert old man, now then, what the hell are you doing here in the middle of the night?¡± Nalser had already entered combat mode and was ready to withdraw Dreamer from his Spacial Ring and fight.


    When the old man saw Nalser''s clothing, he was surprised for a second. The rumors of a young man practically annihilating the Nadin border fortress was spread far and wide but this old man was not part of the masses. He knew Nalser''s features from that day and he looked 1 to 1 replica to the information from the intelligence reports. A tinge of fear surfaced in his heart as he thought, ¡°It''s not possible. If that Demon is the one in front of me, no mater how many experts on my level were behind this shitty Mayor''s back, they would be annihilated. For now, maybe we can salvage this situation.¡±


    The old man took in a deep breath and smiled while lightly bowing, ¡°This lowly one is only a servant for the Mayor of Fallen Leaves. Might I ask, what is the exalted Phantom doing in a backwater place like this?¡± The young men and women were all speechless. They knew very well how strong the old man is.


    When Nalser heard the nickname Phantom, he was shocked. He immediately started laughing loudly and after a few seconds, he stopped. His voice grew cold as he started emitting killing intent towards the 7, ¡°I asked you a question, why have you not answered me yet?¡± If there was one thing he learned from his time in this world, it is that, with people like them, you won''t get anywhere, if you talk to them nicely. When the old man heard the question, he felt a shiver run down his spine.


    Just as he was about to answer, the young of the ladies, that looked to be around 13, opened her mouth in an arrogant manner, ¡°What''s it to you? This is our families territory, we can go where we please. Hmph, some random loser shows up and started interrogating us.¡± Just as the lady finished, the old man felt like he wanted choke her to death immediately.


    He knew very well how frightening the young man in front of them was and for that little girl to take such a tone with him was asking to be killed. The old man also understood that, if before they had a chance of talking their way out of this, then now all of that had gone up in flames.


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    Nalser was also stunned from how ignorant the young lady was but he could only shake his head and said, ¡°This household is under my protection, I will give you 10 seconds to get lost before you will understand that death isn''t the worst outcome there is.¡± When the old man heard that, he was overjoyed. He felt as if he just now dodged a bullet and just as he was about to tell Nalser that they will be on their way, another one of the youngsters opened his mouth.


    This time it was the oldest of the young men. He had short brown hair and a sturdy build. He just withdrew his sword and pointed it at Nalser, ¡°Like I will take orders from some random bum. Now get lost, we have some business with the mother daughter, slut pair inside that house.¡± They all looked arrogantly smug but the old man felt like cutting off the tongues of all of them.


    However before he could reprimand them or even as much as glance at them, he heard a shriek from the young man that just talked. As he looked over, he saw that the hand holding the sword had just been cut cleanly from the wrist and in front the young man, stood Nalser. He felt his heart grow cold as he had not taken his eyes off of him before the cry was heard.


    He had no idea, how he had managed to move so fast. He could only stare dumbfoundedly at Nalser and mutter in a small voice, ¡°No wonder he was nicknamed the Phantom. He moves just like a ghost.¡± However, the only one who heard him was Nalser. He just glanced at the old man before turning his attention back to the young man in front of him, ¡°I told you, this house is under my protection. Today, I will let you all off with a warning but the next time you come and find trouble with the two inside the house, you will know suffering.¡±


    As Nalser said that he slowly backed away until he couldn''t be seen anymore. When the youth''s blood was stopped, the old man said to the six, ¡°From now on, under no circumstance are you allowed to find trouble with them. If you dare to find trouble with them, I wouldn''t be surprised if your Grandfather personally sold you as slaves.¡± Hearing this, the color of their faces changed.


    However, the young of the ladies still didn''t feel satisfied and asked the old man, ¡°Wang, why aren''t we allowed. He chopped off Eldest Brother''s hand, are we just supposed to let him and the slut pair get away with this?¡± Her voice was filled with arrogance but when the old man heard that, He immediately slapped the girl in the face.


    He yelled at her, ¡°You idiot. We got away with our lives by a hairs breath already and you want to go kick a sleeping dragon in the ass? That guy is the Phantom who singlehandedly nearly annihilated the Nadin border fortress. Use that fucking pretty head of yours, will ya? He gave us his warning and if you guys keep messing with them, I dare say that even the King wouldn''t be able to save us, let alone your Grandfather.¡±


    When he had said everything in frustration, reality suddenly hit every one of them. When they heard that this person was the Phantom, they felt their feet go cold and they felt that they truly escaped by a hairs breath. No one dared to object anymore and they quickly scampered back to the Mayor''s residence.


    When Nalser left from their sight, he was waiting nearby so he naturally heard the entire conversation. When he heard the conversation, he could only lightly sigh and shake his head. He was currently standing next to the window of the young ladies room. He just murmured silently, ¡°So no matter what, only strength prevails in this world. Go around and destroy one border fortress and everyone will listen to you, well at least the ones with half a brain do. However, it seems I have taken care of the bullying problem now.¡±


    Just as he looked up at the sky to see the moon a cowardly voice came out from next to him, ¡°Thank you for your help but why are you helping us?¡± As the voice came out, Nalser''s eyes went as big as cart wheels and he looked next to him and saw a brown haired young lady looking straight at him.

 Chapter 28: Introductions

    Sorry for the missed chapter. I was busy being hauled around sightseeing in Pinkafeld. Also, I am sad to inform you that there might not be any chapters for practically a week, as I will be in Vienna and I have no idea, if I have Internet connection there or not.


    Enjoy and leave your questions down below.


    <hr />


    Chapter 28: Introductions


    As Nalser turned his head towards the voice, he felt frozen. When he was dealing with the group from the Mayors mansion, he actually accidentally collapsed his spherical domain.


    What left him the most depressed was that he hadn''t noticed it having happened after wards. He looked towards the young lady and just said, ¡°That will be known to you in a few weeks. I just hope that at that time, you won''t hate me.¡± The girl looked at Nalser with a puzzled gaze. What she was the most vary of was that right there in front of her stood a youth, who''s head was covered by a black cloth and he was dressed in completely black clothes.


    She had seen the exchange between him and the Mayor''s household. She knew that he was strong enough to kill all of them from the mansion. A hint of killing intent surfaced in the young ladies eyes. Seeing this, Nalser was surprised and asked, ¡°Hmm, what happened?¡± Hearing this the young lady snapped out of her thoughts and looked at Nalser again.


    ¡°Might I ask for you to come in. You are our households benefactor and it would be very rude of me to just leave you outside like that.¡± When Nalser heard this, he was pleasantly surprised, although she seemed to have been raised as a farm girl, she had very courteous manners. Thinking about it for a moment, Nalser agreed. He fetched Curo from the darker corner of the yard and went inside.


    By Nalser''s calculations, her Awakening will be 5 weeks from now, so he was quite concerned on what happened to her mother after wards. He couldn''t just say, ¡°Aa fuck it, let''s go adventuring¡± and leave a frail and sick woman in a hell hole like this alone. As Nalser entered the house, he could see that it was very plainly furnished.


    In the kitchen there was a stove a few cupboards and a table and two chairs. However, the food stocks seemed to have run out as the couldn''t find even a shadow of a vegetable anywhere, less alone meat. Nalser sat down where the young lady gestured him to sit and she straightened her back as she introduced herself, ¡°Hello, my name is Lauren Darm. I am currently 14 years old and would like to know, why benefactor is being so considerate with our humble household? May I also ask out benefactors name?¡±


    When Nalser heard that, he almost let out a whistle in amazement. Her introduction was just like a noble woman''s, so that surprised Nalser quite a bit as he smiled and said, ¡°Well, as I said, you will know about that in a few weeks. As for who I am, there is no point in asking. I am just a ghost without a past and a person without a name.¡± Saying this, he removed the black cloth wrapped around his head in circles.


    When Lauren saw his snow white hair and deep blue eyes, she was stunned for a moment. She had expected the person to be some man in his later years but she had never imagined him being so young. However, when she realized how young Nalser was, she also felt dread. She had heard many stories about young master''s from very influential families going around and taking any girl they fancy.


    Since, he didn''t want to disclose his name, she felt that Nalser was also one of those people and the purpose of him coming here isn''t good at all. Seeing the dread in Lauren''s eyes, Nalser knew exactly what she was thinking, he had also heard of these stories from different adventurers and pubs. He just casually swiped his hand through the air and a small card appeared in his hands.


    ¡°Relax little one, I am not like those ¡°honorable young master''s¡±, this should prove my existence and motives.¡± He threw the card toward Lauren and when Lauren saw it, she was immediately dumbstruck. Her father was a 2 Blue Star rank adventurer and he had always talked about his dream of one day becoming a Black Star Adventurer. Now in front of her was a youth, who didn''t seem much older than her, who was already a Black Star Adventurer, this left her completely speechless and she understood that, if he wanted to do something to her, he wouldn''t have to in such a roundabout way.


    Every country would forgive practically everything to a Black Star Adventurer if they could get him to be by their side. She just looked at the card when suddenly a very weak voice came from next door, ¡°Laulau, why are you up at this late hour?¡± When Lauren heard the voice, she snapped out of her trance and went to the other room.


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    Since the house was practically in shambles, everything that happened in the other rooms was heard in the room you were in. When Lauren left, Nalser spread out his Domain again and started inspecting Lauren''s mother''s condition. He had a vague feeling that he had read about it from somewhere but he just couldn''t put his finger on where he had read it. As he sat there thinking, it suddenly hit him, ¡°This is the Withering Poison.¡± Thinking about this, his face grew colder.


    Amongst the countless jade slips and books he had read, there were some on poisons, some on medicine etc. When he recalled the characteristics of the poison, he felt a little killing intent welling up inside of him. The poison was called the ¡°Withering Poison¡± for a reason. Anyone who ingested the poison would wither away at an alarming pace. Thinking of how old Lauren''s mother was supposed to be and how old she looked, he could deduce that she had been ingesting the poison in miniscule doses for 2-3 years already. ¡°I wonder if the Nuwa Flame can heal her?¡±


    Just as Nalser was thinking that he should ask Mei about this, Lauren helped her mother to the kitchen. When Nalser saw her, he felt pity for her. She was supposed to look around 30-40 year old lady but she currently looked like she was 70-80 years old. When Lauren helped her sit down, she stood by her side.


    Nalser just shook his head for a moment and withdrew another simple chair from his Spacial Ring and gestured Lauren to also sit down. Since Lauren saw the Guild Card, she felt both submission and fear towards Nalser, so she didn''t dally in doing what he ¡°ordered¡±. Nalser just sighed and withdrew a pack of coffee and a few sweets to eat as well and started brewing coffee. When Lauren''s mother saw that, she was quite astonished, she had heard from Lauren that this youth was a Black Star Adventurer but when she saw him with her own eyes, she was still quite shocked about the age.


    She had understood that he wasn''t here just out of good will so the only option to hear about why he is here, would be to get Lauren to leave. She directly told Lauren, ¡°Dear, mind going out for a walk for a little while, I wish to speak to out benefactor alone for a while.¡± When Lauren heard that, she knew what she wanted to ask and why.


    Since she had respect for her mother, she didn''t start dillydallying and directly stood up like an obedient child and started walking towards the door. Just as she was about the reach the door, Nalser''s voice echoed out, ¡°Wait for a second.¡± Thinking that they had offended the youth, both mother and daughter showed fear in their eyes.


    Nalser just ignored that and withdrew a bag of sweets from his Spacial Ring and threw it to Lauren. He also woke up Curo and said to him, ¡°Now, you are to look after this little lady and by no means are you to let anyone alive if they want to harm her or are you to eat her sweets. Understood?¡± The miniature Curo sat there and vigorously nodded his head as he slowly stood up and changed into a medium form.


    1 meter in height and 2 meter''s in length. When he changed the size of his body, both of ladies looked like they had seen a ghost, they had only heard of magical beast being able to do this but they had never even glimpsed at beast that actually could. The beasts that could were generally really rare hybrids who were also extremely strong. There was one thought that ran through both the mother and daughters head when they saw Curo obediently follow Nalser''s commands, ¡°Just what is his background to have a Contracted Beast as rare as this one?¡±


    When Lauren had left with Curo, her mother''s expression turned from a caring mother''s to a strict one''s. She asked in a slightly cold tone, ¡°Why is a noble young master like you playing such pranks on my daughter?¡±


    Hearing this Nalser let out a gentle sigh as he started elaborating, ¡°Well, first of all, I am not a noble. Secondly, I am not playing nay games but am also cursing fate for these circumstances. And third, this will be a long story so let me think for a second on where to start.¡±

 Chapter 29: Explanations

    Heyoo, I am back in Estonia and will continued writing in a more fixed schedule rather than a over the place one. Also, feels good to be back home, where I can understand what people are saying :D


    Enjoy.


    <hr />


    Chapter 29: Explanations


    Nalser just collected his thoughts for a second and started, ¡°Well, what I am about to tell you is pretty unbelievable. Even I have not come to terms with this yet.¡± When he let out a sigh towards the end, he glanced at Lauren''s mother for a second and saw the confusion on her face.


    However, she was in no rush and was quietly waiting for Nalser to continue his story. Nalser pondered for a second and asked, ¡°Hey, do you know about the ¡°Hero Summoning¡± that Nadin did?¡± Lauren''s mother raised her eyebrows for a second and calmly answered, ¡°Well, there probably isn''t anyone in this world, who doesn''t. There are also rumors that one of the 5 summoned Heroes died shortly after the summoning due to a training accident.¡±


    Hearing the answer Nalser just started laughing loudly, startling Lauren''s mother quite a bit. She was looking at Nalser like he was some incomprehensible thing. Nalser laughed for a good 20-30 seconds before he slowly started quieting down. He just casually said, ¡°Well, since they couldn''t tame me, to save their own petty pride, they said I died. How laughable.¡±


    Hearing this, Lauren''s mother''s eyes went as wide as carriage wheels as she muttered, ¡°You are one of the summoned heroes?¡± Nalser just smiled to her and answered, ¡°Yes, I am the Hero who ¡°died¡± in a training accident. I surely didn''t tell the King to take a hike about me going to the front lines to fight. Ohh no, I was very eager to go there but alas, since I am dead, I have no way of going there.¡± As he said in a disappointed voice, Lauren''s mother couldn''t help but chuckle hearing him. For some mysterious reason, she could tell that he wasn''t lying to her.


    She straightened her back again and said with a warmer smile, ¡°Well, I have been rude as well, ohh ¡°Great Hero¡±. My name is Laura Darm. I am the no good third daughter of the current Mayor of the town. Might I ask what our benefactors name is and finally the reason for helping us?¡± Nalser just smiled lightly and started, ¡°Well, I have no name but people call me Nalser vi Dragoncross or Phantom. Whichever works for you, is fine to me.¡± Nalser understood that she had no ill will.


    It was obvious to him that the most important thing in her life was, that her daughter could life a good life. Nalser put on a bit more of a serious expression and said, ¡°Well, jokes and laughs aside. It is time I tell you the reason I am here.¡± As Nalser said that, Laura''s smile and mischievous appearance also disappeared as she somberly listened. ¡°Well, what I am about to tell you might seems like it is very unreal but it is the truth.¡± Nalser said as he inhaled deeply and opened his palm.


    As he did, a black flame started dancing on top of his palm. Seeing this Laura''s expression revealed shock, she had never seen a flame of this color. She had heard from her adventurer husband, that in this world there are people with different colored flames but those people had a special bodily constitution. She opened her mouth to say something but she swallowed the words back down.


    When Nalser saw that, he sighed lightly and continued, ¡°This is ¡°Yang Flame¡± also called as the ¡°Asura Flame¡±. It is extremely tyrannical and the chance of a person being born with this flame is the same as a carp turning into a dragon. However, there is a catch...¡± As he said the final part, Laura instinctively knew that this ¡°catch¡± was also the reason why he was here and why he was looking after them.


    However, she didn''t know whether this was good or bad. For the moment, she decided not to say anything and listen to him first. Seeing that she was listening and was holding her questions until the end, showed that she was seriously listening and understood what he had said.


    Nalser just took a sip of coffee before continuing, ¡°In this Realm, everything has an opposite. This ¡°Asura Flame¡± is extremely tyrannical and when the user is proficient in using it, he could burn everything and everyone, no matter who stands in his way. The opposite of that is the ¡°Yin Flame¡± also known as the ¡°Nuwa Flame¡±. The ¡°Nuwa Flame¡± is extremely gentle and has healing properties, it can even bring a person, who is half a breath away from death back to his or her peak condition in a matter of hours.¡±


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    Talking this far, Nalser made a slight pause to let it all sink in to Laura. He thought that Laura has probably guessed that Lauren was the Holder of a Nuwa Flame. And Laura was also no fool, she understood perfectly that an ability to bring a person back to his or her peak from the brink of death was very precious.


    Seeing that Nalser had no intention of continuing unless she asked something she timidly asked, ¡°Are you saying that Laulau is a ¡°Nuwa Flame Holder¡±? And if she is, how do you know about it?¡± When Nalser heard the question, he revealed a self pitying smile and said in a helpless tone, ¡°Yes, Lauren is a ¡°Nuwa Flame Holder¡±, and the awakening of the Flame will happen in approximately 5 weeks. As for how I know it, it is kind of a difficult story. You see, as and ¡°Asura Flame Holder¡± awakens, they will also have to pay a price for the power that they gain.¡±


    When Laura heard this, she understood one old saying that had been passed down for a long time in this world, she quietly muttered, ¡°Equivalent exchange, huh...¡± Hearing this, Nalser nodded and continued, ¡°Exactly, in exchange for this world shaking power, an ¡°Asura Flame Holder¡± has to protect a ¡°Nuwa Flame Holder¡± for as long as he lives. That is what was imprinted in the Flame when a person awakens and it also affects the persons mentality a bit to accommodate to it.¡± He sighed as he thought back to the sentence.


    He had felt that his mentality had been influenced a lot by the Flame. He was the kind of a person who told a King to go take a hike as they face a calamity, why in the Seven Hells would he protect a random person out of the blue? Laura had a face of realization, when he put the pieces together.


    It wasn''t that he wanted to harm her daughter but due to a twist of fate, their destinies were intertwined. She also understood, that here wasn''t much she could do either. Even if Lauren lived with her for the rest of their lives, Nalser would also be bound to this place. It wasn''t bad to have a Black Star Adventurer as a guard for them but she knew, that after the awakening, Lauren would also want to look around the world.


    She wasn''t bound to grow old and wither in a place like this. She slowly opened her mouth and said, ¡°So the reason you are here, is to protect her and after her awakening take her away to tour the world. However, even though I know you are a Black Star Adventurer, can you protect her? In this world, there a lot of strong people, who usually stay under the radar but if they learned about Laulau''s ability, even they would come out of hiding to obtain her.¡± Nalser just looked at her with a little respect in his eyes.


    He could understand that she didn''t think this was some kind of a hoax or a joke. She was also concerned about her daughter''s safety before anything else. Nalser just put a little smile on his face as he said, ¡°Well, of the experts of THIS world, there are a few that are on par with me. However, currently I am traveling with another pair of ¡°Flame Holders¡± who I can''t hold a candle light to in a fight. If that old ghost gets involved, I dare say, he could destroy a country of this world in a day. Even the hidden experts and powerhouses of this world can''t hold a candle light to him. So I am confident in being able to protect her for now.¡±


    When Laura heard that, she revealed a relieved expression. What she feared the most was, that Nalser didn''t have enough strength to protect her daughter. When she heard the final sentence, she realized something, he had said ¡°For now¡±. This had left her a little confused and just as she was about to ask about that, she noticed Nalser''s face turning cold and serious.


    Although she had seen his serious face, she hadn''t seen such a cold look, that sent chills down her spine, before. Just as she was about to ask what happened an extremely tyrannical roar came from the outside.


    As she was wondering what had happened, Nalser stood up and started walking towards the door and said in a cold tone, ¡°Seems like the people from the Mayor''s residence think that they are stronger than the soldiers of a Kingdom Border Fortress .¡±


    As he said that, he walked out of the door with a cold smile on his face.

 Chapter 30: Visitors

    Heyoo, time for another chapter. Untill next Monday it is one chapter per day, so keep tuned. After that, I will go back to my old schedule of one chapter over a day.


    Enjoy.


    <hr />


    Chapter 30: Visitors


    As Nalser exited the farmhouse, he closed his eyes for a moment to exactly discern Curo''s location. When he had pinpointed his direction, he let out a breath and withdrew Dreamer from his Spacial Ring. His figure blurred as he disappeared from his original position and he reappeared a few hundred meters away.


    He was quite proficient in Phantom Step already and could teleport up to 500 meters with no issue if he was alone, any more than that and he would start feeling the Mana drain increase. If he went all out and tried to escape alone, he could teleport up to 2 kilometers in any given direction if he had a full Mana pool, however after doing so he would be completely out of Mana.


    When he reached about 20 meters away from where Curo and the rest were, he decided to stay in the shadows for a second and not move until the other party decided to make a move. He was currently hiding behind a tree in the forest outskirts, at the other side of the road were wheat fields. Nalser sized up the party that had come here and was quite astonished.


    There were about 7 people dressed in luxurious clothes and had an arrogant look on their face and behind them stood over a hundred men in full heavy armor. Nalser just sighed as he thought to himself, ¡°Now then, for this kind of party to come out here, they ought to know that they are no match for me. However, I am quite intrigued as to, why they are here now?¡± Nalser knew very well how the nobles acted.


    They tried to flaunt their authority around and would try to coax him into becoming a part of their force. As he settled down behind the tree, he started listening to their conversations. An older man that looked around 50-60 years old was the one speaking the loudest and at the time also had the most arrogant face on. He was dressed in luxurious clothes and was also quite plump. His hair was gray and he seemed to be quite infuriated right now.


    He yelled at Lauren, ¡°You little bastard, get the person who ¡°protects¡± you out here right now. Do you not know on who''s grace you are still living?¡± Hearing this, Nalser wanted to puke. The old man was speaking as if he was a God and thought that living conditions like those were actually good. Nalser felt rage quietly building up, ¡°This is completely ludicrous. Does he fancy himself a God?¡±


    Nalser sighed as he realized that staying behind a tree won''t be of much use anyways, so he just started walking toward Lauren. When Curo saw him approach, he immediately let out a happy purr and started ¡°speaking¡± as if he was complaining about how annoying these guys were.


    When everyone''s gazes landed on the figure approaching, one man in particular felt as if cold sweat was running down his back like a waterfall. This man was the same elder who was with the group of youngsters earlier in the evening. Nalser walked next to Lauren and said in a gentle voice, ¡°You and Curo go back to the house, there are some sweets and coffee left there. Also, don''t tell your mother about this, okey?¡±


    When everyone heard that, they were kind of astonished. This was the first time in their lives, when they saw a youth disregard them as trees in the background. Lauren just nodded and started quickly going back to the house. In the beginning, there were some soldiers who tried to block their path but when Curo turned into his giant form, they quickly cowered away.


    When Lauren was out of sight, Nalser turned his cold look towards the little squadron standing in front of him and said, ¡°Now then, I am going to only say this once: You mess with that family in any way even once and I am going to make sure that none of you guys live to see the next day.¡± With that, he started also walking towards the house and everyone were a bit flabbergasted, for some reason, they felt extraordinary fear towards the youth.


    Little did they know that his was one of the new tricks Nalser had come up with. By infusing Mana into killing intent and his words, he could make them subconsciously fear him. The plump man was however too overflowing with his arrogance to realize the threat Nalser posed to him and yelled at him, ¡°This is my town and a little brat from nowhere is trying to intimidate ME? Let me tell you this now, I do what ever the fuck I want in this town and if you threaten me again, I will have you face a fate far worse than-¡± He couldn''t even finish his sentence by the time he was kissing the ground already. Hearing his speech made Nalser nauseous and reminded him of the Neo Soviet Union officers.


    The narrative has been taken without authorization; if you see it on Amazon, report the incident.


    No one could register what had happened but by the time they did, they were overcome by absolute terror. Nalser was currently standing in front of the plump man with his foot on his head, holding him pinned to the ground. At the same time he moved out he started infusing Mana into his killing intent and directed it towards the men standing behind the plump man. The feeling they were getting was that, they were mere ants and a furious dragon was looking straight at them.


    About half of them felt their feet go weak and their bottoms planted on the ground shivering. There were also a few men who''s groin started leaking. Nalser looked at the elderly men in luxurious clothing and said in an ice cold voice, ¡°I honestly don''t give a shit who you are. I could force my way through a fully armed, locked down Border Fortress. Do you seriously think that you twerps stand a chance against me if I decided to make a move?¡± His words penetrated deeply into everyone''s hearts and they understood very well, exactly what he meant.


    A Border Fortress has nearly a thousand people stationed there and nearly all of them are battle hardened veterans. They however had at most 150 men and nearly every one of them had never seen combat at all. Trying to pick a fight with the youth in front of them was the same as waking a sleeping dragon and expecting it to serve you tea.


    The one with the quickest reaction was elder Wang, who was with the youths before, as he hurriedly said in a humble voice, ¡°We understand. We will not mess with the mother daughter pair at all, you can rest assured. If you could release the Mayor, we will be on our way and will not keep an expert such as yourself occupied with us lowly people any longer.¡±


    Hearing this Nalser nodded and started walking away. This time, the plump man did not mutter a word as he raised his head. His face was full of terror as Nalser had put on twice as much pressure on him than he did for the rest. He understood very well, just how lucky he currently had been. He also understood that if the youth had wanted, he could have killed all of them in less than minute.


    He turned around and yelled towards the men, ¡°Go back to the mansion.¡± He felt humiliated but he also felt fear. He knew that he couldn''t do anything against him even if he tried. He just had to wait until he left town and then demand interest back from his useless daughter.


    Nalser was underneath the tree shade as he saw them leave and seeing the Mayors face, he knew very well what he was thinking. He just sighed and started thinking that maybe it would be better to buy Laura a house in the capital and have Tobias look after her. He sure as Hell wasn''t going to leave her here, a place where she would die the second he left.


    With that in mind, he turned towards the house and was back in a few minutes. Laura and Lauren were both sitting behind the table with a nervous expression and both jolted the second they heard the door open. When they saw Nalser standing in the door way, they relaxed and Laura asked in a timid voice, ¡°Did they go away?¡±


    Hearing this Nalser just sighed. He knew that Lauren had told her mother what happened. He wasn''t angry or anything and just said with a bored face, ¡°If they have even quarter of a brain inside that skull of theirs, they will not dare to move against this house any more.¡± Hearing this, both the mother and daughter let out a breath of relief. However, the next sentence Nalser said left them dumbstruck.


    Nalser said with a serious face, ¡°Laura, would you be interested in moving to Rem''bar?¡±

 Chapter 31: Plans

    Heyoo, here''s a chapter. Any questions or mistakes you find, post them in the comments or mail me.


    Enjoy!


    <hr />


    Chapter 31: Plans


    When Lauren and Laura heard the question, they were both startled. Laura just smiled after a moment and said in a helpless tone, ¡°Well, even if I wanted to, I don''t have the money to even go there or let alone live there.¡±


    Nalser just smiled and said in a friendly tone, ¡°Who ever said that you would be paying? It won''t be enough amends for taking your daughter but I can promise the life there is a hell load better than here. I also know a few important people in the Guild, so if you have any problems you could ask them.¡±


    Laura and Lauren were both taken aback by the statement. Lauren was confused of what he meant but Laura understood well. She could also put two and two together on what would happen when he leaves.


    She was no fool, she knew very well that her Father couldn''t do anything at the moment but Nalser couldn''t stay here for the rest of his life either. The moment he leaves, Hell will descend on her.


    She just smiled lightly and asked, ¡°Is it consideration for me or for yourself?¡± Nalser''s joking attitude crumbled for a second and Laura didn''t miss this. He just looked into the distance for a second and said, ¡°It is too late for me to start making amends, the moment I die, I will be on an express trip to the lowest circles of Hell. This would be consideration towards Lauren.¡± As the two of them talked, Lauren was like a confused puppy. She couldn''t make heads or tails of the situation, since she still didn''t know about what Nalser and her mother talked about.


    She decided that she''ll go to sleep. When she went to be, Nalser looked at Laura for a second and said, ¡°I hope you won''t tell her about what we talked about for now. It wouldn''t make much sense to her and I am afraid some complications may arise. Hate runs deep in her and she may ask something very coldblooded from me.¡± Laura also nodded to that, she had seen how her daughter looks at Laura''s siblings and their children.


    It wouldn''t be a big surprise if she asked him to torture them. Currently Laura was betting on Nalser''s story being true and that the Yin Flame would influence her mentality as well. To the gentler side of course. They both decided that this would be the best thing for now. Nalser looked at Laura and asked, ¡°By any chance do you feel that your life is slipping away?¡± Laura looked at him with round eyes and asked in astonishment, ¡°How did you know that? I truly do feel like that for some reason no matter how good I take care of my health, I feel my life slowly slipping away, powerlessness seeping in.¡±


    Nalser just said, ¡°Well, considering the poison you are poisoned with, you are still in the beginning stages of the poisoning, so there is still a chance to get back your youth, so to speak. When did it start?¡± Laura almost raised her voice but managed to contain herself before she thoughtfully answered, ¡°About a year back, I started feeling weak and I started aging in a rapid pace. What poison is this?¡± Nalser just sighed and took out a medicine book. He found the right page soon and showed her the poison.


    She read it with great interest and soon just sighed, ¡°So, someone has been poisoning me for the past year. However, why and how?¡± Nalser immediately answered, ¡°¡°How¡± is easy, why¡± not so much. ¡°How¡± is slipping a bit into your food and it accumulates over time but if you stop eating the poisoned food, the poison will soon subside. After about a year you will gradually start turning back into looking how you are supposed to look. As for the ¡°Why¡±, I have no clue. Maybe someone from the mansion wants to get rid of you so they could use Lauren the same way as they used you. That''s my best guess.¡±


    As he said that, he sighed and shook his head. It is always easy to answer ¡°How¡± but never ¡°Why¡±. Every person is different, it may be revenge, some plot to get something, or something else.


    Nalser thought for a second and said, ¡°Well, there are as many reasons as there are people living. I suggest you stop eating the food here, let me give get you some food. Also I think it would be best for you to go to sleep for now, your body needs more rest now than ever.¡± Laura just nodded and went to her room.


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    Nalser had another reason for sending her to sleep, this one was a bit more important. Nalser''s eyes turned cold as he walked out from the house and said in an ice cold tone, ¡°I know you are here, come out now. I need to ask you a few things.¡± A second after that a man dressed in black appeared next to him, leaning on the wall with his hands crossed on his chest.


    He asked, ¡°What do you need to ask?¡± Nalser and the man in black had begun to talk every now and then. He didn''t disclose anything about his origins or why they were protecting him but he did help him out every other way he could and was permitted. Nalser just walked next to him and sat down. He looked at him in the eyes and asked, ¡°Are the other worlds filled with arrogant brats like the Mayor as well?¡±


    This was the main question bugging him, Xi had told him that Sect cultivators were even more arrogant. The man in black just sighed and sat down as well. He thought for a second and said, ¡°Well, they are more annoying than these guys. Most are like ¡°I am from the prestigious bla bla bla and I want you to bow down and kiss my feet¡±. Most of the Clans and Sects that have existed from times immemorial are different. Our Clan is the one of these immemorial ones, we could be called a secluded clan that doesn''t go around looking for trouble but doesn''t shirk back in fear if someone comes and picks a fight.¡±


    He took a moment and then just sighed and continued, ¡°Well, it is not that we don''t have presumptuous brats like that either but most of the people understand one thing: Our Clan didn''t survive this long by going around playing King.¡± Nalser just sat there and thought about it for a moment.


    It made sense, everywhere where there was a place with deep roots, there were also people, who felt they were better because of this. The man looked at Nalser for a second and asked, ¡°How many cycles have you completed with the ¡°Phantom Song Sutra¡±?¡± Nalser looked at him in doubt for a second and just sighed, ¡°Well, I have completed 19 Full Cycles and am currently refining the Flesh for the 20th cycle.¡±


    When the man heard that, there was shock painted all over his face. He muttered, ¡°You mean, that you have completed 19 Full Cycles in less than a year?¡± Nalser looked at him in confusion and asked, ¡°Yea, is that a problem?¡± The man looked at him seriously and just said, ¡°The record this far has been 8 Full Cycles in the first year, for you to be able to get this far in a year means that everyone, who calls himself/herself a genius, isn''t even fit to hold a candle light to you.¡± Nalser was puzzled for a second and thought to himself, ¡°Does this mean that the Sutra is somehow tied to the Clan?¡±


    Since he didn''t know for sure, he couldn''t ask it either. In a roundabout way, he asked the man, ¡°How many Cycles have you completed with the Sutra?¡± The man thought for a second and answered, ¡°I have completed 48 Full Cycles and that is my upper limit. It took me 78 years to get this far.¡± As soon as the words fell, the man realized what he had just said and had a bitter face on.


    Then he just sighed and said, ¡°Well, I finally fell to the trap.¡± He understood very well that he got played this time. For Nalser however, that didn''t matter, his mind was hung up on the ¡°78 years¡± part. No matter how he sized up the man in front of him, he didn''t look a day over 18. The man saw the look and just said in a teasing manner, ¡°Well, I have already said way too much. I got summons so I have to leave now, there will be another person following you this time and he is not as relaxed as me. There may also be times when he comes and kicks your ass if you make any stupid mistakes in a fight. Take care.¡± Without waiting for Nalser''s reply, he directly disappeared.


    Nalser was still in a muddled state as he just stood up and said to himself in a low voice, ¡°Xi, you old bastard, you have a lot of explaining to do.¡±

 Chapter 32: Truth

    Heyoo, I finished the Chapters sooner than I thought, So posting them today (Saturday)


    No chapter Tomorrow(Sunday). Also leave a comment down below if you enjoyed the chapter or have a few questions.


    Enjoy!


    <hr />


    Chapter 32: Truth


    When Nalser had calmed down, he cast his sight on the horizon. The dawn had arrived and the sun had started to rise. Nalser just sighed and walked to the well in the corner of the courtyard. He took a sip of water from the already drawn bucket and started thinking on what to do from now on.


    Even though he had been up the whole night, he wasn''t sleepy at all. He had noticed that, the more he practiced the ¡°Phantom Song Sutra¡±, the less he needed sleep and rest. If before, walking for 30 km was very tiring and took a long time, then now, he could do it with half the time and practically no fatigue at all. He stood there for a while, clearly in a daze, when Xi and Mei arrived at the courtyard gate.


    When Nalser saw Xi coming near, his fist immediately was traveling towards Xi''s face. Both Xi and Mei were startled and didn''t know , how to respond, so the fist made contact with Xi''s face. Before they could ask anything, Nalser lashed out in a cold voice, ¡°You little shit, you know very well, who is behind my back and why. Why the flying fuck have you kept it to yourself?¡±


    Now both Mei and Xi understood, what was going on. When they first thought about telling him about his origin, they were stuck between a rock and a hard place. If they nonchalantly told him, all the efforts the Nura Clan went through to keep him alive, would pretty much be in vain at the moment. However, if they didn''t there would arise a situation like this in the future.


    They decided to keep their mouths shut and decided, that if this situation arose, they would say, ¡°I am not part of the Nura Clan, it is not my place to talk about things like these.¡± No matter which one they chose, they would have no excuse for doing so. They may prettily say, that it was not their place to talk about it but what they were actually most afraid was the change in his mentality. Nalser was already hard to read, they couldn''t know what changes to his mentality it would bring if they told him about his origins.


    If he knew, would he want to pursue vengeance or would he want nothing to do with it. Xi looked Nalser straight in the eyes and asked in a serious tone, ¡°If I had told you, what then? Neither me or Mei is part of the Nura clan, it is not our place to tell others how to live their lives. The second reason is, I wasn''t completely sure in the beginning. I had my doubts but as time passed, they were answered. However, that still doesn''t give me the reason or justification to stick my nose where it doesn''t belong.¡±


    When Xi had said everything, he looked at Nalser with a very serious look. Nalser, having calmed down a little, thought about it from Xi''s point of view and understood, that he was right. It wasn''t his place to talk about things like these. He calmed down and apologized for hitting him, Xi however, didn''t mind it at all, Nalser was pissed and he was surprised that he didn''t do anything else. They sat down nearby and Xi decided that it was time to talk about everything he knew.


    Mei had decided it was not her place to stay there, so she decided to take a stroll around. When Xi and Nalser had sat down, Xi cleared his throat and asked, ¡°What do you want to know first, your origin or your circumstances?¡± This question left Nalser puzzled, ¡°Aren''t the two intertwined?¡± Xi shook his head and sighed, ¡°To a point yea, however, your circumstances have nearly nothing to do with your origins. I plan to tell you of both anyways, which do you want to hear first is the question.¡± Nalser thought for a second and said, ¡°Well, let''s hear of my origins first, then about the circumstances.¡± Xi nodded slightly, this was also the best course of action in his mind.


    He took a breath and started, ¡°Well, you see, amongst countless worlds, there are Major ones and Minor ones. I have told you that already haven''t I?¡± Hearing this Nalser nodded, Xi had told him about the countless worlds and how and on what criteria they were classified as. Xi continued, ¡°Amongst the oldest of the Major worlds, there is a world controlled by 7 Clans that are from the same origin.¡± As Xi paused to take a breath, Nalser asked, ¡°7 Clans from the same origin? It is a Clan that split up into 7 fragments or something?¡±


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    Hearing this, Xi shook his head before saying, ¡°No, the Founders of the 7 Clans were blood brothers, whose Clan was destroyed and the brothers separated. Hundreds of years later, they reunited but that was after they had all founded their respective clans. To get revenge for their original Clan, they struck an alliance and over 500 years of bloody battles, they managed to overthrow the Royal Clan that annihilated their original Clan. They united the realm and split it in 7. Every clan controls one part of it and the Lightning Flame Angel Clan is the Leader of the Seven. That is due the Founder of that Clan being the eldest of the brothers, the rest of the brothers had no objection either. It wasn''t that they had to bend the knee to him, so no one minded. There is an unwritten rule amongst them, that they do not interfere with another clans territory''s rules, unless they went insane and started massacring everyone.¡±


    Xi took a sip of the coffee Nalser had done before and continued, ¡°The 7 Clans are collectively called, The Seven Angel Clans. Red Flame Angel Clan, Blue Flame Angel Clan, Green Flame Angel Clan, Brown Flame Angel Clan, Black Flame Angel Clan, Yellow Flame Angel Clan and finally, the leader White Flame Angel Clan.¡±


    Xi took a breath and continued, ¡°The difference in name is only due to their cultivation technique. The difference between them is the color of their wings. You see, all seven clans have a cultivation technique created by their respective Founders. The 7 Founders are all still alive but they rarely show their faces even around their clans. A clan will be lucky if they got to see their Founder once in 200 or 300 years. So, they management of the Clans has been passed down in successive generations. However, after countless years passing, the Clans relationships have started to deteriorate. When before, they were a single faction, now, there is a great divide. Red Flame Angel Clan, Brown Flame Angel Clan and Black Flame Angel Clan side with the ¡°Leader¡± Clan White Flame Angel Clan. Blue, Green and Yellow however want to make changes to the Clan system as a whole.


    If before, the Clans were one but segmented, they want to lose that and join into one big clan. However, the one who is supposed to be in charge are in their opinion Yellow Flame Angel Clan. This is the basic history of your Clan''s origin and the current situation. You are from the Black Flame Angel Clan, the Nura Clan.¡±


    When Xi had finished, he took a minute to let Nalser process everything. This was a lot of new information and you need to think a bit before you can completely understand everything. When he saw that Nalser had more or less understood everything, he continued, ¡°Well, you are also not an ordinary Nura Clan member, you are the Second born son of the Nura Clans Clan Master. Your status in the clan is only second to the First born son and the Clan Master. As for the reason you lived a life you have, is because of some idiot.¡±


    When he heard that he was the second born son of the Nura Clan, he wasn''t that surprised, he wasn''t an idiot and managed to get bits and pieces of his origin from the man in black. What he was intrigued about was ¡°the idiot¡± part. Before he could ask, Xi started talking again, ¡°15 years ago, a ¡°Divinator¡± divined that the Second born son of the Nura Clan will be a peerless genius. This however put the opposing Angel Clans on their toes. Currently there is a very delicate balance between them and you could tilt everything against them, making their ¡°revolution¡± all for naught. So they tried to kill you the day you were born. However, your Father and his allies, were on guard and to make sure you didn''t die, they sent you to a backwater Minor world to live under your Grandfather, the previous head of the Nura Clan.¡±


    When Xi had talked this far, Nalser abruptly stood up and asked in a very serious voice, ¡°You are saying that I was living under my Grandfather but I was living alone there. Due to that, I had to go through Hell every single day ever since the day I was forcibly enlisted.¡±


    Rage was very evident in his voice and then Xi lightly smiled, ¡°A child doing one of the most dangerous jobs in the world but survived, also that necklace you are wearing, is a talisman that holds the Nura Clans most precious cultivation technique, ¡°Black Flame Angel¡± cultivating technique. Only the ones of the Nura Clans blood can activate it.¡±


    As Xi said that, Nalser''s whole world collapsed on him.

 Chapter 33: Hell breaks loose

    Heyoo, So I finished the chapters a lot earlier than i predicted, so I am posting them now(Saturday instead of Sunday) and there will be no chapter tomorrow.(Sunday)


    Leave a comment down below on your thoughts about the chapter.


    Enjoy!


    <hr />


    Chapter 33: Hell breaks loose


    Xi''s statement meant that, ¡°Handler Old Timer¡± was his Grandfather. He had a very hard time believing that. It is true that he never saw him in action but to say he was one of the most respectable figures in the Realm and also his Grandfather, what did that mean. It meant that, even though they were family and he didn''t let him die, he left him to fend for himself.


    He remembered one extremely painful period in time, when he was caught during a mission and was tortured for 3 months. He only got out thanks to another Dragoncross member getting the same mission as he did and luckily found him during the mission. When he thought about that, he felt indescribable rage building up inside him. The more enraged he got, the clearer a voice was inside his head. The voice mocked him and told him to kill everyone, the more he listened, the more the voices started influencing him.


    Xi felt the enrage was justified but soon noticed that something was wrong. The look in Nalser''s eye became more muddled and he suddenly started talking in an unknown language. Nalser grabbed his head between his hands and muttered, ¡°Hahahaha, pole olemas kedagi keda saab usaldada, ainult ise ennast saan usaldada.¡± Hearing this Xi was alarmed, he had never heard the language and the look in Nalser''s eye grew more and more savage.


    Xi stood up and tried to close in to him, so he could inspect what is causing this, however, before he could even get close to him, he was knocked back. A black chain materialized out of nowhere and smacked Xi across the courtyard. Xi, who was startled by it, looked at Nalser in confusion, he had never seen anything like that. He opened his mouth to say something but before he could, there was a crack in space.


    Seeing this, Xi-s face grew alarmed and he tried to get up but he found that his cultivation base was sealed and he himself, was paralyzed. He could only watch as the black chains wrapped around Nalser and dragged him to the space crack. When the crack closed, he could finally move himself again, the first thing was to look around. The moment he stood up, 6 people in black ninja garb appeared in a circle around Xi. Everyone of their eyes was cold as they asked, ¡°What happened? We felt the fluctuations and when we came to investigate, there was a very powerful barrier surrounding this place, that prevented us from getting in.¡±


    Xi was still dazed as he himself had no idea what had happened. He collected his thoughts for a second and said in an authoritive tone, ¡°You guys look after the people inside the house, I need to go and speak with the Asura Flame Holders from your Clan.¡± Before they could even answer anything, Xi had torn a rip in space and had flown straight into it.


    Everyone present looked at each other in confusion, they had no idea what had happened but it seems it was something very serious. They decided to do as Xi told them and guard the mother daughter pair inside the house.


    ***


    When Xi stepped out of the tunnel between different worlds, he appeared on a floating island. The Island had only one thing: A theater that looked like it was build by ancient Greece. As he hurriedly walked towards the stage, where there stood a pedestal with an orb, his head was muddled.


    When he reached the pedestal, he hurriedly inserted Qi into the orb. The moment he did, an archaic voice rang out in the head of every Asura Flame Holder, ¡°Fang Xi has called for the Gathering of Asura.¡± As the voice died out, you could already see numerous space cracks forming all around. From the crack all kinds people walked out, who didn''t seem to have anything in common, however, they were all Asura Flame Holders.


    When the last one had arrived, one of them asked, ¡°Xi, what is so urgent that you had to call for a Gathering without any prior notice?¡± Usually, there was a year or month notice prior to the Gathering so everyone could attend in peace, this time however, it had been very abrupt. Xi just gathered his breath and said, ¡°Well, let me explain...¡± Then he told everyone present that he had met Nalser and was teaching him how to control the Flame.


    Just as he was getting to the reason he called a Gathering, one of the Nura Clans Asura Flame Holders said, ¡°So, he is our clansmen and we thank you for taking care of him but don''t tell me you called such a sudden Gathering just to say that?¡± Xi glared at him for a second and then said, ¡°No, that''s not why I did it. The reason is this...¡±


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    And then he told what had happened, Nalser punching him and them talking about his origin. However at one point something weird had happened and then he talked about the chains and how he had been dragged to the space crack. When everyone present heard, what had happened, they all grew serious.


    This wasn''t just a relative of an Asura Flame getting kidnapped but the person in question was also an Asura Flame Holder. When they heard that Xi was paralyzed and his cultivation base sealed just by touching the chain, they felt danger. There were only a few people who actually dared to pick a fight with them but none of them had a treasure or an ability like that, that''s what left them worried.


    Even though all of them were people who could shake the realm with their power, it mattered nothing in front of those chains. This also posed a very serious threat to everyone present, not to mention that they had no place to attack to eradicate this threat. However, the ones who had the most unsightly faces, were the four Asura Flame Holders from the Nura Clan. Their own clansmen had been taken right under their noses.


    They knew very well that there were people, who were supposed to protect Nalser. One of them asked in a cold voice, ¡°What happened to twerps who were supposed to protect him?¡± Xi looked at them and sighed, ¡°They said, they felt immense Qi fluctuations in the are and when they came closer to investigate, they ran head first into an extremely strong barrier that left them outside.¡±


    Hearing this, everyone''s faces dropped, they knew Nalser''s circumstances with the clan very well and also knew that those four old geezer''s wouldn''t assign some random chumps to his protection detail.


    The one who is involved this time is a very powerful expert. As they started discussing what they were going to do and how to get Nalser back, Nalser however was just drifting along the stars.


    ***


    As Nalser opened his eyes, he felt an immense headache. He remembered what Xi had told him and felt rage building up inside him again but right at that moment a voice sounded out from next to him, ¡°Calm yourself little one. Inside you is sealed a very strong demon. The more enraged you get, the more he can influence you.¡±


    In a hurry, Nalser looked at his side and noticed a man who looked a little over 20, sitting cross legged next to the luxurious bed he was sitting on. He had blue eyes, blonde hair(like Nalser used to have), and a built body. He was also wearing the same clothes as Nalser was. As he looked around, he noticed that this place was very spacious but when he looked outside the window, he noticed that the sky was completely white.


    This left him speechless as he couldn''t make heads or tails of the situation. He looked at the man and asked in a cold voice, ¡°Who are you and where is this?¡± The old man just smiled and stood up. He didn''t say anything but signaled Nalser to follow him. Timidly, Nalser followed him through a very old looking Japanese style mansion. As they passed the courtyard, they exited the compound.


    As they kept walking, Nalser sized up the place but he couldn''t understand why it felt so familiar to him. The old man didn''t say anything either as they walked down the road to a huge, ominous tower. Nalser felt dread building up inside him as he just looked at the tower, however the old man pushed the door open and entered. Nalser cautiously followed him inside and was immediately flabgastered.


    The room was completely empty except for a sinister looking Devil chained to the ground in the middle of the room. Nalser was completely confused as he muttered, ¡°What the Hell is going on, what is this? Where is this place, who are you?¡±


    When the man heard that, he smiled to Nalser and said, ¡°This place is a special region inside your Dantian, it took a lot of effort to bring your whole body here before you accidentally set this guy free.¡± Nalser took in every word he said and for some reason it made sense but his own reasoning told him, it is impossible.


    Just before he could ask, who the Hell that man was, he answered, ¡°My name is Nalser Vi Dragoncross and I am you.¡±

 Chapter 34: The Origin of the Yin and Yang Flames

    Nalser looked at the young man in his twenties with a blank look. He had no idea what the hell was going on at the moment. In his head, the words that this young man had said, were simply spiralling around.


    Nalser looked at the young man with a cold look and said, ¡°Explain what the fucking Hell is going on.¡± He then raised his left hand and pointed towards the Devil chained in the middle of the room and added, ¡°And who or rather, what the flying fuck, is him?!¡±


    The young man let out a wry smile as he waved his hand and a table with two chairs appeared out of thin air. He gestured for Nalser to sit down as he himself did the same. As Nalser sat down, his vigilance had not dropped by one bit as his head was a giant mess.


    He had just learned of his origins and hadn¡¯t even had time to fully comprehend all of that but now he was in an unknown place with a young man calling himself Nalser and then there was the giant ugly Devil in the middle of the room.


    The young man pondered for a second and then asked, ¡°Do you want the short story or the long and detailed one?¡± Nalser grew a bit irritated as he forced through his grit teeth, ¡°The long and extremely detailed one.¡± Seeing Nalser¡¯s rage, the young man let out a hollow laugh as he started narrating, ¡°Well, I will start with who I am and who that guy is.¡± As he said that, he pointed towards the Devil.


    Nalser nodded his head indicating that the young man had his undivided attention. ¡°You see, I did not lie when I said I am you. In a sense, I am you and he is you as well.¡± As he said that, his gaze drifted towards the Devil. Nalsers eyes narrowed but he did not say anything. The young man continued, ¡°We both could be considered as a manifestation of the Asura Flame.¡±


    Nalser slightly opened his mouth but immediately closed it. This didn¡¯t escape the young man¡¯s vision as he gave a bitter smile and asked Nalser with a pitying look, ¡°Do you want to know the truth of this Realms origin and purpose?¡± Nalser was startled as he didn¡¯t understand where this question came from.


    Nalser looked at the young man with a confused look but the young man just smiled lightly and said, ¡°Well, the origin and purpose of this Realm is very closely related to the Yin and Yang Flames. Also it is very closely related to me and him.¡±


    Nalser¡¯s eyes opened wide as he slowly nodded his head indicating that he was listening. The young man took a deep breath and started explaining, ¡°Countless years ago, in a Realm far, far away from here, two very special people were born.¡± He took a breath and continued, ¡°The two who were born were a twins, a brother and sister. What made them very special was that they were the first ones born with the Yin and Yang Flames.¡±


    The young man took a deep breath and continued with a hint of nostalgia, ¡°The two were born as natural peerless geniuses. They cultivated extremely fast and their strength was unmatched amongst those around the same level as them and they could easily fight someone a level higher than them.¡± The young man then took a breath and shook his head as he said with a tinge of sorrow, ¡°As with all geniuses, there were many jealous of them. As time passed there were countless people with all sorts of backgrounds that tried to court either of them but the two had a secret that no one else knew. Since small, they had been in love with each other.¡±


    Nalser¡¯s eyes opened wide as he heard this. The young man then let out a sigh and said, ¡°As time passed, people grew more and more impatient and in the end, the next Clan Patriarch of an Ancient Clan set his sights on the girl. When the soft approach didn¡¯t work, he relied on more drastic measures and kidnapped her.¡±


    The young man then stood up and walked in front of the Devil as he continued his narration with his back towards Nalser, ¡°That was when the Calamity began. The boy, having lost his sister, his most loved person in life, went berserk. He started madly cultivating and killing the people from the Ancient Clan. When he finally took his sister back, he broke. She had been ravaged in every inhuman way possible and her cultivation had been destroyed, her beauty had been buried beneath scars and her mind had been completely broken.¡±


    A hint of madness was evident in the young man¡¯s tone as he continued, ¡°After seeing his sister like that, the boy completely broke and completely cast away his humanity and fell into madness. He turned into the Devil and started killing, massacring, ravaging around the Realm in an unprecedented way.¡±


    The young man then turned towards Nalser and said with a serious expression, ¡°Finally, the major powers of the world banded together to oppose him. However, they could not kill him no matter how they tried. So the only choice they had left was to seal him.¡±The author''s content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.


    The young man then looked deeply into Nalser¡¯s eyes as he said, ¡°That is the Asura Flame. Each Flame Holder is a fragment of the Seal that seals him.¡± Nalser stood up and stood before the Devil. As he looked at the Devil, he turned his gaze towards the young man and asked, ¡°I now know who the Devil is but¡­ Who are you?¡±


    The young man then let out a hollow laugh as he looked at the Devil with a warm gaze and said, ¡°I am the Devil before he turned into a Devil.¡± Nalser felt confused again. Throughout the whole story, the more Nalser understood the more confused he became.


    Finally, the young mans gaze fell on Nalser as he said, ¡°Earlier I told you that me and him are You. Do you understand the meaning behind it?¡± Nalser suddenly thought of something as he asked uncertainly, ¡°I am¡­.¡± The young man nodded his head and said, ¡°Nothing lasts forever. Legacies fade to memories, Clans and Sects lose themselves to the flow of time.


    Seals are no exception to this.¡± The young man took a deep breath and said, ¡°As time passed, the Seal has weakened and a fragment of the original Soul managed to escape the suppression of the Seal and enter this Realms Reincarnation Cycle.¡±


    He then walked in front of Nalser and gently put his fist in the middle of Nalser¡¯s chest and said, ¡°You are the Original Soul. The Divinator that gave the prophecy was actually the one planted by the Realm that sealed us. They are afraid of the Devil breaking free and taking revenge on all of them for the countless years of imprisonment.¡± Something in Nalser clicked as it all made sense now. All of the events that had happened to him all originated from the same root.


    Nalser looked closely at the Devil and said, ¡°In their fear of the Devil, they will do everything they can to suppress him.¡± The young man nodded his head and said, ¡°Even though you are the Original Soul, you have no obligation to take revenge or anything. Although we are all from the same root, we are at the same time different people.¡± Nalser looked at the young man with puzzlement as the young man smiled, ¡°Even though the soul is the same, the lives we have lived are different. Also, you are currently only a one third of the Original Souls Fragment. The other two are me and him.¡±


    Nalser glanced at the two and then asked timidly, ¡°If the Asura Flame is part of the Seal that Seals you two, then the Nuwa Flame ¡­.¡± The young man nodded his head seriously and said, ¡°The Yin Flame holds the Original Soul of the girl.¡± Nalser now felt that this all was a big headache. Nalser looked at the young man and asked, ¡°Now then, tell me, how is this Realm connected to the Seal?¡± The young man began explaining, ¡°The Realm is the manifestation of the Seal. A Yang Flame holder will never be able to leave this Realm and the Realm itself suppresses you especially plus all of the other obstructions.¡±


    The young man then shook his head and said, ¡°You need to grow stronger fast. The Original Soul you have is something that I split off from my own. I cant suppress the Devil forever any more¡­. If he takes over, you will truly die.¡± Nalser opened his eyes wide as he suddenly understood the severity of the situation.


    Nalser suddenly though of something as he asked, ¡°But there are other Yang and Yin Flame Holders¡­.¡± The young man let out a wry smile as he said, ¡°They are nothing more than illusions¡­ They hold a wisp of the true Flame. This was all done in order to make it safer to send you out. If one day you grow strong enough to absorb both mine and the Devils Fragments. The wisps of the Flames Yang Flame will all return to you.¡± Nalser looked at the young man with a blank look and asked, ¡°What do you want me to do?¡±


    Nalser wasn¡¯t stupid enough to think that all this will be free for him. There is always a price for everything. The young man¡¯s eyes flashed as he said, ¡°Although I wont make you swear an oath, I would just like to make a request to you.¡± Nalser¡¯s eyes lit up as he nodded his head.


    The young man took a deep breath and sadness filled his eyes as he said, ¡°What are in this Realm are purely Souls of us. Our real bodies are being refined and used as a cultivation resource in our Original Realm. All I ask is that if you ever grow strong enough leave this Realm and stand up against our Original Realm¡­. Please just give our bodies a proper funeral.¡± Nalser seriously nodded his head.


    This request was very lax but after Nalser thought about everything, he made a vow to himself, that if he ever grew strong enough to do so, he would take their Original Bodies back and give them a proper burial in a place where no one will disturb their sleep any more. Nalser looked at the young man and asked, ¡°Is this all you brought me here for?¡±


    The young man nodded his head and said, ¡°I know it was a lot to digest at the moment but I honestly felt like at the moment, it was the best time to tell you all this. You yourself need to be prepared for the Tribulations that will come for you.¡± Nalser fell into deep thought as he thought back to the whole conversation.


    Even though Nalser knew about everything now, he had no way of changing anything so it was useless to know about it all. But Nalser was instead of grateful for knowing it, what he hated the most was being kept in the dark about these kinds of things that will affect his life directly.


    The young man looked at Nalser and pointed his finger at his brow. ¡°Although I cant help you much, I can still give you a few techniques that surpass all of the techniques in this Realm. How much you comprehend or use them is all up to you.¡±


    As the young man said that, his eyes showed concentration as his finger started glowing. The young man then said, ¡°It would actually be for the best if you use all these techniques as a foundation for creating you own. The best techniques are all self made.¡±


    After saying that, Nalser felt massive amounts of information enter his head as he involuntarily fell into a meditative state.

 Chapter 35: Waking up

    As Nalser sat in a meditative state, he accepted all of the information that the young man passed onto him. Amongst the information were various cultivation techniques, weapon techniques, movement techniques, forging techniques, formation diagrams, alchemy techniques and so on.


    This was the accumulation of all the knowledge the young man had before losing himself. Besides the techniques were also his personal insights into the techniques. Their weaknesses, strengths and ways to improve them.


    The vast amount of information was so massive that Nalser took over a half a month to just accept all of the information and glance over it and organize it inside his head. When he finally opened his eyes, his eyes were completely calm. At some point in time, he had been transported back to where he had been before the young man pulled him into his dantian.


    Around him, there was a light barrier that separated him from the outside world. The fluctuations from the barrier itself made Nalser feel as though he was suffocating. Outside the barrier, there was an entire army of people sitting in a lotus position with their eyes closed. However, from their stances, Nalser could see that they were all ready to draw their weapons at the moments notice if need should be.


    None of the people outside the barrier seemed to have noticed that Nalser had woken up, so he took this chance to take a closer look at the people all around him. What made his eyes narrow were the five people sitting in a circle around him. Four of them looked like old men with weak bodies and long gray hair but the fluctuations they released made Nalser feel as if he were an ant looking at a giant dragon.


    After his gaze passed the four men, his gaze was fixed on the fifth one that sat directly in front of him. Unlike the other four, he didn¡¯t look like an old man but rather as a middle aged man. Even though he look vastly different from the old men, the fluctuations he released were by no means weaker than the four old men. In some regards, they were even some what stronger than theirs.


    Since the people outside the barrier had not realized he had woken up, Nalser took this chance to slowly go over all of the information regarding Body Cultivation that he received. As he closed his eyes again, the middle aged man in front of him slightly opened his eyes and lightly smiled as he thought to himself, ¡°Good. Take the most of this situation.¡± As he thought that, he closed his eyes again and pretend nothing had happened.


    Another week went past in the blink of an eye. During that week, Nalser had had a lot of time to think over all of the circumstances of his origin, the Devil and the young man, the origin of the Yin and Yang Flames and what he wants to do from now on. A lot had happened in these past few weeks and it would be very wrong to say that it had not affected Nalser¡¯s mentality in the slightest.


    In the contrary, it had influenced it greatly as he now knew why his life was like it was. Even if you didn¡¯t count his childhood being like it was, the root of the problem was still the Realm that had sealed the first Yang Flame Holder. Even after the Soul was Sealed, they still kept causing trouble to it. Nalser would have had no problem or bone to pick with them but they were the direct cause of him having the life he has had up until now.


    Even if he tried, he couldn¡¯t help but develop hatred and disdain towards the Major Powers of the Realm. Currently, he set his sights on becoming as strong as he could and if he should ever be able to break the Seal and absorb the two remaining fragments of the soul, he would without a doubt go and settle this score.


    For now, he was still far too weak to do any of that, so all he could do was fake ignorance and bide his time. As Nalser organized and compared the techniques in his head, he couldn¡¯t just help but grin as a daring plan started formulating in his head. Phantom Song was a Pre-Cultivation Body Refining Technique that focused on refining his body to the peak before he stepped on the true path of cultivation.


    Phantom Song Sutras one and only goal was to lay an extremely solid foundation for future cultivation. It didn¡¯t emphasize the speed of cultivation but rather how much a person squeezed out of it. It helped temper the will, patience and persistence of the person cultivating it. The Path of Cultivation was an uphill struggle against the Heavens, unless you had a firm will, enough patience and incredible persistence it was impossible to reach the pinnacle of cultivation and escape the Shackles of Heavens and ascend to the Higher Plane of Existence.


    Once Nalser broke through the Shackles and got back at the Realm for creating all sorts of troubles for him could he feely roam the Vast Universe and have an unfettered life. When the week had passed, Nalser opened his eyes and calmly stood up. As he approached the barrier, he gently pressed on it and it cracked and shattered.


    This woke everyone up form their meditation and all of their gazes gathered on the person that stood with a cold gaze. No one said anything but the middle aged man in front of Nalser stood up and looked at Nalser with an affectionate gaze. No words were exchanged but seeing the resolution in Nalser¡¯s eyes, the middle aged man lightly smiled as he gestured for everyone to disperse.Stolen content warning: this content belongs on Royal Road. Report any occurrences.


    Seeing the signal, everyone disappeared and returned to their duties. The four old men sized up Nalser with a serious gaze and all of them secretly nodded before they also disappeared.


    Soon the only people left were Nalser and the middle aged man. The middle aged man took out a Spacial Ring and threw it to Nalser before turning around and also disappearing. No words were exchanged from start to finish but actions always spoke louder than words.


    The barrier that enveloped Nalser was something that the young man had set up using the last fragments of Qi he had. Even if the strongest existences in the Realm tried to break it down, they would have no way of dismantling the barrier or brute forcing through it. However, the mere existence of the army outside showed Nalser that they would leave nothing up to chance.


    Five people that stood at the pinnacle of strength, plus thousands of other clansmen guarded him with extreme vigilance. Nalser¡¯s position in the Clan was extremely weird as everyone were summoned here, they were also told who Nalser truly was.


    This however created anger in the hearts of the various clansmen that were here. With Nalser¡¯s identity revealed, the Nura Clan was going to go through immense changes and a lot of them had already started. Investigations of every single person in the Clan had started and everyone who was confirmed to be a spy, was ruthlessly eliminated. No Elder in the Clan even gave a pitying glance to all the pleas of mercy and all of the bribes.


    They ruthlessly eliminated them and when the other Clans started questioning their actions, the Founding Ancestor of the Nura Clan stepped out and shut everyone up with two sentence, ¡°My Nura Clan is weeding out bad seeds that are colluding with outsiders to undermine the unity of the Clan. Should anyone of you have a problem with it, my Nura Clan will from now on regard you as enemies.¡±


    These two sentences showed everyone quite a bit. First of all, it seemed like even the Founding Ancestor regarded Nalser very highly. Nura Clans sudden movements made all the powers involved in the incident 15 years ago go extremely vigilant. Even amongst the 7 Flame Angel Clans, the Nura Clan was known as the most dangerous one for many reasons. First of all, they all were darkness attributed and cultivated in arts that stuck to the shadows. They were known as the number one Assassin Clan in all of the Realm. The second, and perhaps the most important reason why no one dared to make enemies with them was because of them being shrouded in mystery.


    The exact location of their headquarters was unknown, the number of their experts was also unknown and most importantly, no one knew how many resources were hidden by the Nura Clan. The most dangerous enemy was the one that nothing was known about.


    The Nura Clan usually held a low profile and didn¡¯t provoke others but they also never let others provoke them. The only reason they were even able to create that incident was because an insider betrayed the Clan for benefits. As soon as Nalser caught the ring, he sent a bit of Mana inside the ring to take a look at what was inside.


    The moment his Mana entered the ring, Nalser couldn¡¯t help but be astonished. The space inside the ring was enormous and it was packed to the prim with various cultivation techniques, Pills, Artefacts and all other kind of raw materials and formation disc¡¯s. Nalser took a deep breath and look at the ring with a mixed gaze as he could see that they truly did care about him. First was the protection and now came all of the things he needed. If he also added in all the mysterious people that had protected him before, then Nalser could see that they truly did care about him and were regretful but at the same time, they didn¡¯t want to bring Nalser into the giant shit storm that had been brewing for thousands of years already.


    You didn¡¯t need to be a genius to understand that the incident was something that was an inside job. Also, by not insisting on Nalser going to the Clan, Nalser was truly grateful for that. He could never settle in that easily there and also, after coming to this world, he had decided that he would try to live as unfettered of a life as he could. He didn¡¯t want to be tied down to one place and he also didn¡¯t want to take part in politics either.


    As Nalser gazed at the ring in his hand, a familiar silhouette appeared before him. It was Xi. Xi looked at Nalser with a complicated gaze before slowly saying, ¡°I don¡¯t know what happened and I also don¡¯t plan on inquiring about it. Your good fortune is your good fortune.¡±


    He then took a deep breath as he said the final piece, ¡°Whatever you obtained, it is yours. How you use it is all up to you.¡± Nalser looked at Xi with a cold gaze and nodded his head.


    He wasn¡¯t exactly angry at Xi but rather, after learning about his origin and also about all the tribulations that would face in the future, he had adopted a cold disposition. Especially the other Yang Flame Holders, he knew that most of them would probably die the moment he called back the wisps of Flames that they had obtained.


    Voluntarily or involuntarily, most of them had built their cultivation on the Flame and if the Flame was removed, they would also all perish. Nalser had nothing against the other Flame Holders but as long as they still held the Flames, Nalser would never truly be able to break the Seal that binds the other fragments of his soul.


    Xi nodded his head and turned his gaze towards the small house in the distance and said, ¡°Her awakening should happen sometime next week.¡± He then turned his gaze towards Nalser and said, ¡°She is also very shaken about what happened to you. You should try and set her mind at ease a bit.¡±


    Nalser also cast his gaze towards the small house and nodded his head. He took a deep breath and set his steps towards the small house.

 Chapter 36: Coming back

    When Nalser arrived at the house, he was greeted by a completely different sight from his memory. Lauren and Laura were both looking a lot better than they ever had. There were no more signs of malnutrition, neither were all the cupboard empty. The clothes that they wore were also brand new.


    Currently, Lauren, Curo, Mei and Laura were sitting around the table chatting but when Nalser entered the house, all gazes gathered on him and everyone closed their mouths. Nalser just scratched the back of his head and said, ¡°Well, I am sorry for the disturbance.¡±


    A glint flashed past Mei¡¯s eyes as she slowly nodded her head. Laura and Lauren looked at each other with dismay in their eyes. They had no idea what they were supposed to say. Nalser got the most warm welcome from Curo who turned into his gigantic form and tackled him to the ground. To Curo, Nalser was the only family he had. Nalser let out a rare smile as he slowly patted his head and slowly pushed him off of himself.


    During the little time they had spent together, Nalser had also started treating Curo as family. His circumstances were the same as his when he grew up and as they say, the kin get along well. When Curo got off of Nalser, he didn¡¯t step away from him, instead he was always by his side as if he was afraid that Nalser was going to leave him again.


    When Nalser stood up, he looked over everyone present and just apologized, ¡°I am sorry for causing such a ruckus all of a sudden.¡± Mei nodded her head and stood up with a smile and said, ¡°Don¡¯t worry. It was spectacular to see such an impressive line up.¡± Nalser just gave a wry smile as he thought back to what Xi told him.


    It truly was an impressive line up that could make the scalps of every major power in this Realm numb. And all of this was used to protect one person that was inside an impregnable barrier. In retrospect, spectacular was even an understatement.


    After saying that, Mei cast another glance at Lauren and Laura before exiting the door. After she exited the room, silence enveloped the room as no one knew how to start the talking. Finally, Laura picked up her courage and asked, ¡°Just who are you?¡±


    Although she hadn¡¯t travelled the world, she wasn¡¯t stupid either. From what Xi and Mei had talked about, she had learned that the army that looked over Nalser was by no means weak. Although she wasnt quite clear on the terms of Ancient Clans and Realms, she understood that the people that protected Nalser could take over this entire world with next to no effort.


    Nalser thought about it for a bit and then sighed, ¡°I have no idea any more. May I answer that one when I myself figure it all out?¡± Laura¡¯s eyes opened wide but she quickly nodded her head indicating that it was okay. She then glanced at Lauren and then asked Nalser, ¡°What are you going to do after her Awakening?¡±


    Nalser sank into thought again. If before he would have just been a simple plan of touring the Realm while trying to stay safe, now everything had changed. He now had a goal of reaching the pinnacle of strength in the Realm. After reaching the pinnacle, he would take back the Fire Fragments that have been distributed across the Realm and then break the Seal on his other two Fragments of the Soul.


    After absorbing the two, he will take back the original body and give it a proper burial in a place where no one can defile it any more. With enough effort, lucky chances and taking risks, reaching the pinnacle wasn¡¯t impossible but the road there was by no mean safe.


    Cultivating to the pinnacle was a heaven defying act to begin with that was filled with crossing mountains of daggers and seas of blood. He himself has accepted it but Lauren¡­. That was a different case all together. She had no experience killing others and Nalser honestly doubted whether she even had the determination to step on to the path of cultivation all together.


    As Nalser thought about this, he turned his head towards Lauren and said, ¡°My own path will be filled with blood and pain.¡± After saying so, he looked her deep in the eyes as he asked, ¡°If you want to accompany me on the path, I will do my up most to keep you alive. If you don¡¯t, then I will find a secluded place to settle you down. There will be no one that will harm you there.¡±


    Lauren¡¯s eyes showed hesitation as she heard these words. She couldn¡¯t give an answer right away because at one side was a path filled with pain and suffering, on the other had however, was a path of peace and serenity. Seeing this, Nalser didn¡¯t rush her and said, ¡°Just give me your answer after your Awakening. Until then, think about it carefully.¡±


    After saying this, they made some small talk on where to settle down Laura and he also checked her condition. Compared to a month ago, her condition had become several times better. Now all she needed was time to regain her strength and she would have no problem living out her normal lifespan. After taking care of all of this, Nalser left the two of them and went outside to the secluded corner of the little yard.


    He had gained a lot and now he needed to look over all of the gains and work out a solid plan for the future. Although he cant take all the lucky encounters and bottlenecks into account, he can sketch out a general plan. Nalser took out the ring that the middle aged man had given him and sent a bit of his Mana inside it.You could be reading stolen content. Head to the original site for the genuine story.


    When he did this before, he had just glanced over the contents but currently he was taking a closer look of everything in it and using the memories the Fragment gave him, he categorised them and divided them according to their usefulness for him. Just because something was a Heaven Grade Material it didn¡¯t automatically mean it would be of use to him.


    It took him several hours to organize everything according to their usefulness for Nalser. When Nalser finished, he couldn¡¯t help but let out a deep breath as he understood that the Nura Clan had held nothing back with the contents of the ring.


    Everything from Secret Soul and Body Cultivation arts to the sheer raw materials and pills he had received, every single one of them could change a normal martial artists destiny forever. Nalser¡¯s current wealth was not one whit lower than the reserves of a First Grade Sect or Clan. ¡°Hmm¡­. I should be able to turn Dreamer into an Astral Grade Weapon Embryo.¡±


    As he thought back to the Secret Weapon Art given to him by the Soul Fragment, he couldn¡¯t help but grin. All weapons and armours were divided into four grades: Mortal, Earth, Heaven and Astral Grade. Any weapon or armour that was considered an Astral Grade would be able to shake an entire Realm. A Mortal wielding an Astral Grade weapon could even slay Immortals.


    From the Soul Fragments information, Nalser knew that even entire Realms have fallen because of an Astral Grade weapon. However, the method to create an Astral Grade weapon was unknown. That is, everyone that knew how to create one kept it as their highest priority secret that was even more valuable than their own life was. This Embryo method was the same.


    It needed at least a Low Grade Heaven Grade weapon to act as the Weapon Embryo. By nourishing it with extreme amounts of precious materials, the Embryo will absorb the essence and the purest energy from the materials to strengthen the Weapon. However, this process would take a long time to complete and it could not be interrupted at all costs. If the process was interrupted, then the weapon and all of the materials used or not yet used would be wasted.


    From the information that the middle aged man left in the jade slip, Nalser learned that Dreamer was a the Nura Clans Legacy treasure. It was a Top Grade Heaven Grade Weapon that was only a hairs breath away from Astral Grade. It was the Nura Clans greatest secret and the greatest treasure as well. However, because it was such a precious weapon, not even the Founding Ancestor had been able to bind, or even cause a reaction with the blade.


    However, when Nalser had been born, the blade had seemed to grow a mind of its own and it had protected Nalser. It took a combined effort of the Founding Ancestor and nearly half of the Dao Reserve to forcibly seal the weapons consciousness. Nalser could do nothing but smile wrily about the workings of fate.


    If the Tobias had not brought him to that specific weapons store and he had not been lured by the blade to touch it, he would have never been able to reunite with it.


    Fate, Destiny¡­. These two terms were the most mysterious and most intricate things in the entire Cosmos. Destiny was always set but Fate could always change with every little thing. For example, if one picked up a simple herb and consumed it, it could change their physique forever and make them into a Heaven Defying Genius. However, at the same time, it could change nothing.


    It was possible to see Fate but never was it possible to see ones Destiny. Since Fate always changed, very few specialized in seeing into the Fate. As Nalser pondered on the opportunity to make Dreamer into an Astral Grade Weapon, his eyes suddenly locked on Curo.


    Some of the Pills and Materials were what Curo could use to strengthen himself. Magical Beast could instinctively absorb the Energy from the air and use it to strengthen their bodies and raise their grade. Once a certain bottleneck is reached, they can undergo a tribulation and if they pass it, they can take human form.


    As he thought about it, he decided that he will do everything he can to help Curo grow with him. After making this resolve, Nalser closed his eyes and revolved the Mana in accordance to the Phantom Song Sutra. The more he learned about the vastness of the Cosmos and the Realms, the more he understood the importance of a rock solid foundation.


    The most Cycles a person had ever reached with the Phantom Song Sutra was 99 Cycles and that was done by the creator of the technique. This very technique was why the Nura Clans Founding Ancestor had ever gotten the chance to grow as strong as he was.


    Amongst the Seven Flame Angel Clans, the Nura Clan Founding Ancestor without a doubt the undisputed strongest. At the same time, he was one of the supreme figures in the entire Realm. No one knows where he obtained the technique and there have been several attempts to steal it but until this day, not a single person has been successful.


    However, Nalser felt like the 99 Cycles weren¡¯t the end of the technique but after reaching the 99 Cycles, the true value and meaning of the technique will become revealed. Even as Nalser was absorbing all the inheritance left behind for him by the Soul Fragment, he was still constantly cycling his energy in accordance with the technique and the results were that he had now completed thirty six Cycles.


    His Mana Reserve and body strength was on par with a regular 12 Stage Qi Gathering Disciple. To reach this level before he even began cultivating is extraordinary in itself. This just went to show how good the technique was. However, the more solid foundation one had, the harder his future path will be.


    No one at his stage will be close to being an opponent for him but at the same time, the amounts of energy and tempering he will need to proceed will be several times higher than a regular person.


    ¡°The more solid your foundation is, the longer and harder your path is¡­. Huh ¡­..¡± As Nalser thought that to himself, he suddenly thought back to a certain Secret Art that the Soul Fragment had given him.

 Chapter 37: Laurens Awakening

    The Secret Art the Soul Fragment had given him was called [Nirvanic Rebirth]. This Secret Art could be literally called Heaven Defying. Even that could be called an understatement. This Art could only be used by people that have not started to cultivate yet and the whole point of the Art was to allow the body to go through a thorough rebirth and upgrade the body even more.


    The Soul would also go through a rebirth and the person perception and latent affinity towards the Fire element would raise by several levels. When Nalser thought about it, he couldn¡¯t help but think about what would happen if he tempered his body to the limit with the [Phantom Song Sutra] and then underwent the [Nirvanic Rebirth] and then tempered his body all over again. This thought both excited him and also made his scalp numb. That type of a thorough body foundation was most likely unheard of.


    Nalser could be considered to be more knowledgable than anyone else in this Realm about what exists outside this place. There are Family Clans that have special Bodily Constitution unique to their own Bloodline, the people that were considered geniuses here were none more than mediocre disciples in other Realms.


    Nalser never entertained the thought of being a Heaven Defying Genius or some one special. In his mind, all you achievement were the direct reflection of your hard work. All external help could only amount to that much.


    Yes, there were pills that could help temper the body or strengthen the Soul but Nalser found relying on external sources like that to be burying their own talent. All Pills left behind residue toxins that would slowly accumulate over time. Even if a person expunged all the toxins he or she could find in her body, some residue will still stay.


    Over time, the more pills are taken, the more toxins build up, slowly and surely blocking the future path of the person. It was also the reason that all the Geniuses that were born with a golden spoon in their mouth would fall short of reaching the apex of cultivation.


    This World was the best place for Nalser at the moment, there were next to nothing that could threaten his life in this place. To slowly train here would be the best option for him at the moment. As Nalser sat in the corner completely absorbed in his own little world, a pair of eyes looked at him from the shadows with a tender look.


    These eyes belonged to the middle aged man that was Nalser¡¯s father. As he looked at Nalser, he thought to himself, ¡°No matter what I do, I will never be able to make up for abandoning him.¡± A hint of sadness flashed in his eyes but afterwards it was overtaken by a look of determination.


    He turned around and as he gave Nalser one last look, he murmured, ¡°100 Paragons, 50 Origin¡¯s, 10 Earth Sages¡­. No matter if even the Heavens themselves wanted Nalser dead, they would be unable to do so.¡± A hint of a crazed smile flashed on his face as his eyes turned cold and he slowly walked away thinking, ¡°Time for sleeping and conserving our strength is over. It is time to show the entire Realm that the Nura Clan is never to be provoked.¡±


    After thinking that, he disappeared into thin air. The next several days passed in silence and calm. Nalser focused on his own body tempering while Mei prepared Lauren for the upcoming awakening.


    Soon another week flashed by and Nalser was awoken from his training by a sudden throb of the Yang Flame. His eyes snapped open as he stood up murmuring, ¡°Seems like it has started.¡± After saying that, he disappeared from the spot and when he reappeared he was in front of the little cottage. In front of him, was Lauren inside a white cocoon.


    The awakening of the Yin Flame was completely different from the Yang Flame. The Yang Flame was tyrannical and it burned away the impurities of the body while slowly forcing itself into the very cells of the body. The Ying Flame however was gentle and slowly fused into the body. The process of Yin Flames awakening would take several months to several years.


    The process was painless but it took an extremely long period of time to complete and during that time, the person could not be disturbed under any circumstances. Lauren was currently in an extremely defenceless state as she was in an extremely deep sleeping state. Her only line of defence was the paper thin cocoon surrounding her.


    As Nalser looked at the cocoon with a serious gaze, Xi suddenly appeared next to him and said in a serious voice, ¡°After a Yang Flame Holder awakens, the awakening of the Yin Flame is guaranteed.¡± He took a deep breath and then added, ¡°However, she is currently completely defenceless, so it is up to us all to protect her during this time.¡±


    Nalser nodded and took up the position according to a formation Xi had taught him before. It was a triangular formation which needed three people to form a three sided pyramid. As Nalser, Xi and Mei sat down in their respective positions, they synchronised their Mana and Qi to form a black three sided pyramid with the cocoon right in the centre of it. The barrier formed looked like a fragile sheet of glass but in reality, it was extremely strong.If you find this story on Amazon, be aware that it has been stolen. Please report the infringement.


    The three of them then closed their eyes and kept up the barrier as they returned to what they were doing before. Nalser continued tempering his body and had already completed 56 Cycles.


    Only 43 Cycles were left until he has completed the Elementary form of the [Phantom Song Sutra], Nalser was very eager to know what would happen after that. As the three of them kept silently cultivating and tempering, time slowly trickled by and soon one month passed then another, and then another.


    In total three months had passed already but the cocoon had shown no signs of breaking. If one looked closer, it seemed even brighter than before as Lauren was being baptized by the Yin Flame. In a sense, the longer the Baptism took, the deeper the fusion between Lauren and the Yin Flame would be.


    None of the three were in a rush to anywhere, so they silently cultivated, keeping their guard up. In these three months, Nalser had made significant progress in tempering his body with the [Phantom Song Sutra] and had already reached an astonishing 98 completed Cycles of Refining. In truth, he had reached this accomplishment two weeks ago but no matter what he did, he couldn¡¯t progress in it any further. So he decided to let it be for the moment and didn¡¯t actively cultivate in the [Phantom Song Sutra] but rather focused his attention more on the other Secret Arts and Techniques.


    One Art that piqued his interest among the patch was [Phantom Mark]. This Secret Art had no offensive or defensive power but rather the whole point of this Art was to store Qi. The Phantom Mark acted as a Second Dantian with virtually no limit to how much Qi it could store. It was made for extended battles of attrition or outlasting your pursuers.


    During a fight, you could also tap into the Qi in the Mark to unleash attacks several times stronger by infusing more Qi into it. Although the Art was extremely enticing to train in, it had a few flaws. The Art manual was incomplete, so Nalser could only train in the first few levels of the art. As for the later levels, he would have to develop them on his own.


    But in Nalser¡¯s mind, that wasn¡¯t the biggest flaw it had but rather, the biggest flaw was that only one type of Qi could be stored in the Mark. For example, if he stored Fire Attributed Qi in it, he could never store any other type of Qi in it. If in the future he changed his cultivation Art, he would have to destroy the Mark and start all over again.


    This Art had a lot of merits but the one and only condition to it being a good trump card was that he invested the time to condense the Mark and continuously tried to improve it to suit himself more. As he looked over the Art, by intuition, he could find several spots, he could adjust to suit himself more. As of now, he wasn¡¯t planning on training in the Art itself but would first see what would come after he completed the 99 Cycles of [Phantom Song Sutra].


    For some reason, Nalser felt that the Art itself was somehow connected to the Yang Flame itself. Always, when he trained in it, he felt a sense of familiarity with it as if he had been through this entire process already. Although he didn¡¯t dare to be certain, he had one possible explanation for it¡­ It was that the Art itself didn¡¯t originate from this Realm but rather from The Original Yang Flame Holder.


    However, if it did, Nalser had no explanation on how it ended up here. So, for now, he decided not to mull on it and decided that when he gets stronger, he will try to find out but currently, he had way too many things to do. He didn¡¯t have the time to spare to mull over things that he had no way of confirming.


    And just like that, another six months went by in a flash. During that half a year, Nalser had looked over all the Jade slips on the Arts he had gotten and all the Arts he had gotten from the Soul Fragment. He had sorted out all the techniques and Art he could use and those that were useless for him. Over the dozens of Arts, he could use only 3 Arts: [Nirvanic Rebirth], [Phantom Blade Arts], [Phantom Mark].


    The rest were either incompatible with him or inferior to the Arts he already had. It also wasn¡¯t a good thing to bite off more than he could chew by training in a lot of Arts at the same time. A jack of all trades was inferior to a Master of one and Nalser had no interest in becoming a Jack of All trades.


    The reason he decided to study the [Phantom Blade Arts] was because it was similar to his own Blade Art he had developed from [Phantom Song Sutra]. However, the [Phantom Blade Arts] was far more intricate so it would serve as a good guide post as he kept developing his own Blade Art. There was also a movement Art called the [Seven Mirage Steps] but it was very vastly different from the one he currently used, so he could not gain any insights from it even if he mastered it.


    Just like that, time slowly trickled by¡­. Soon another six months had gone by and all three of them were woken from their cultivation by a sudden cracking sound.


    As they looked towards the sound, they saw a giant crack on the cocoon. Seeing that, Xi smiled as he said, ¡°Seems like it will be over in another 3 months.¡± Mei also nodded her head and Nalser just looked at the crack with a thoughtful expression. From what Xi said, it would seem like it would in total take a year and a half. To the two of them, it may only be a blink of an eye but for Nalser this year and a half was an extremely long period of time.


    He has gained a lot of new insights and his combat strength has grown a lot as well. However, for the past year, he has had no chance of testing out a lot of new ideas in actual combat, so he was itching for it to be over already.


    It wasn¡¯t wrong to say that actual combat was the best teacher one could have. Unless one suffers from his mistake, he wont remember it, no matter how many times others point it out.