Arthur was used to unfavourable situations happening to him. Ever since he lost his teacher he was alone, fighting against the world. It could be said that he had a very strong mentality. That mentality was what saved him uncountable times.
For years, he had been persecuted by the Dark Dawn for some reasons he did not understand (after erasing his memories), but usually he managed to shake them off. Of course, that did not happen today.
Just as he was on his way to Blackrose Academy, he once again got targeted by those criminals, and it wasn't looking good. He remembered spotting two travellers and asking them for help, but after that, he did not remember much.
Imagine his surprise when he woke up, confused and muddle-headed. After looking around for a while, he heard the sound of footsteps. Over there, he saw an unremarkable youth. He would've ignored him if it wasn't for the thing he was holding in his hand, a magical wand.
"Hey, finally awake. Just what on earth did you do to get chased that bad?" Obviously, Dane was just playing his part in this play he crafted.
"I… I don't remember well. I was running away from some men, I believe they were from the Dark Dawn."
Arthur answered honestly. There was no way he could help it, since he was still a little confused.
"You… saved me?"
"Well, you could say so. Not just me alone, though. It was Randwen too, remember?
He had never heard the name before, but he remembered seeing two people. After that, he remembered the threat of his pursuers. Very quickly, Arthur stood up and took Dane by his shoulder, trying to push him.
"We need to get away from here. Those beasts will never leave me alone. If they find you, they will probably question you. We need to run."
Dane shook off Arthur's hands.
"Relax, they have been taken care of. He might not look like it, but Randwen is a pretty powerful being. Just wait a little bit. By the way, why were you here? This is a very remote part of civilization."
"Taken care of?" Arthur had his eyes opened like plates. Those were enemies his teacher might have trouble dealing with, yet they were taken care of? What the hell was this?
"Yeah, I told you already, Randwen is pretty amazing." Dane answered with a nod. "But don't get distracted, what were you doing here?"
Fighting off his need to confirm whether they were or not in danger, he reluctantly answered.
"I was on my way to Blackrose Academy. I got spotted in the road and got chased all the way over here. Do you study there?" Arthur took a glance to the wand in Dane's hand.
"No, I don't, but maybe I will soon enough. I'm just waiting here for Randwen to come out." Dane said while taking a glance to the cave entrance. Arthur directed his sight over there too.
"What is in there?"
"I'm not sure, but it ought to be something special, you know. Randwen had been looking for this place for years." Dane said with a light smile, lying his ass off. "Oh, I am Dane, by the way." He extended a hand to Arthur.
"I am Ar..." Arthur stopped his hand midway. Just how many dangers had he overcome over the years? All those were due to him being careful, and he did not know this person at all. He felt a little ungrateful, but caution won over him. "Well, you can call me just Ar, for now. When we meet at the Academy I'll treat you for a drink."
"Yeah, sure. Caution is important. By the way, isn't it a little bit too ungrateful to leave without properly thanking the man who saved you? Randwen will be out soon."
Arthur froze in place. Did he want to meet this Randwen? He was, by what Dane called him, a being so powerful he took care of the Dark Dawn. What if he harboured evil intentions? But one thing was right, he did need to thank him.
"How do you know when he will come out? Are you a telepath or something?"
Dane scratched the back of his head while making a wry smile.
"Well, let's just say a little voice is telling me he ought to be out soon."
[Beep! Rank 15 Tomb Guardian (9) killed. Rank 16 Tomb Guardian (5) killed. Rank 17 Guardian Shiva (3) killed Rank 18 Gatekeeper (1) killed. 456,695 exp points gained. Use the exp points?]
"A little voice?" Arthur was utterly confused. Had he somehow managed to get mixed up with a mentally unstable person?
"Don't mind that, just rest a bit. He ought to be out soon. An hour at most. After that, you can follow us to Riveredge, it's close from here."
"Well, yeah, I guess I can stay for a bit." Arthur said and sat on the ground leaning on a rock, facing Dane and the cave entrance. He could not feel any ill will, but it is best to remain cautious. What he did not consider was his mental exhaustion, as he fell asleep seconds afterwards.
"Good grief, now what am I going to do?" Dane was utterly conflicted. If things were at least a bit similar to what he created, this was a time of peace, so he should be safe travelling the main roads alone. But still, being a level one was not something that put his mind at ease. "What if I advance just a little? I mean, I can probably make up for it later on…" That was a valid concern. He had enough exp to level up fifty times, but still, he did not think it was wise to do it. He sat on the ground and waited for Randwen to come out.
About forty minutes later he did. The first thing he did was to kneel in front of Dane and presented a ring with both of his hands.
"Master, I finished cleaning everything. There was a good amount of coins and materials, as well as equipment, but I don't know how that will be of use. We have almost everything in the tower."
"Yes, we have a lot of things in the tower, but not everything. This is supposed to be the treasure trove of low-level magicians for a reason, Randwen. I am sure even you don't understand everything in there." While he was saying this, Dane placed of his finger his spatial ring while inspecting its contents. As expected, there were a lot of cool stuff in there, including research books, magic books, magic scrolls, equipment, materials, weapons, and most importantly, treasures.
Treasures were a type of miscellaneous items than could not be classified as anything else. For example, the scales of a dragon were considered a material, but not all dragons were born equal. Among the Primordial or Ancient dragons, there were some which had some special scales that were classified as a treasure. This were consumable items that served to raise a specific trait of the user. For example, awaken unique constitutions.
Among all of the loot, there were several spatial type items, all of them full to the brim. While it was mostly some useless stuff, there were some items that were very important to Dane. Satisfied, he emptied all of the contents of the items to his main ring and then handed Randwen the rest of them.
"You should use one of them yourself. We will return to Riveredge and then continue to travel until we reach the tower. There we will be able to teleport to Enas city, I have a lot to do over there."
"Yes, master."
"Now we have to wake this genius up. Hey! Ar! Wake up." Dane kicked Arthur's leg, which woke him up instantly.
"Huh? What happened?" Arthur was confused for a second and then realized there was someone else there with him. "Are you Randwen"
"Yes." Randwen's expression didn't change at all. He didn't even look towards him.
"I wanted to thank you for saving me. So, thank you."
"Hm, don't mention it." After saying that, Dane coughed and Randwen's expression changed a little. The corners of his lips trembled and then his eyebrows creased. "You have potential, kid. If you make it to the academy, I'll give you something special, something that can help." Randwen said, completely out of character.
"Huh? Are you a professor in the Academy?" Arthur got excited.
"Don't compare those nobodies to me, kid. I am way above them. But I have my ways of reaching you, so it shouldn't be a problem. Just make sure you get there in one piece."
"Yes! Thank you!" Dane was just confused. What happened with being cautious?
"Very well then. Now, take your leave." After waving his hand, Arthur left. Both Dane and Randwen stood in complete silence for over five minutes. Dane was the one to break the mood.
"Why did he leave so easily?"
"Nothing special, master. Just a bit of suggestion magic." Randwen answered while Dane rolled his eyes.
"Well, that's good, I suppose. By the way, how long do you think it will take to reach the tower from here?"
"Considering your speed, if we walked there, even if I cast spells on you, it would take about a day."
"Well, that's troublesome."
"Of course, I could just summon wind elementals and we could be there within an hour."
"…"
"Sir?"
"Why didn't you say that first? Hurry up! Summon them!"
"Yes, my lord."
After that, Randwen chanted and the wind began to get wild. As strong as it was, it converged in two points, where two green spheres were beginning to materialize. After that, those spheres slowly transformed into giant birds, each of them 2 meters tall with a wingspan of ten meters. Those were transport wind elementals, not combat wind elementals. After the winds subsided, each Dane and Randwen got on top of one of them and started to travel at high speeds.
It didn't take them long to catch the sight of the academy in all of it's glory as well as the forest behind it. After entering the forest, fog started to cover everything, but Dane was not surprised. This was a concealment formation. After two minutes, a very tall building came into sight.
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(Another notice that was too big for author's thought)
Hello everybody! I. AM. BACK! OH! YEAH!! Well, thank you for waiting this long for me to resurface to the material plane, you know. I am sorry, but life got crazy when a stupid teammate did stupid things and it was my duty to help her NOT do stupid things again. So anyway. I write this to tell you that there were a bit of important changes in the previous chapters of the story. So, it is heavily recommended for you to read the previous chapters once more. I mean, its just 9 chapters, so do it when you are bored if you want. But hey, whatever suits you guys best.
I will break down what changed in the best way possible, but you might still miss some stuff. So, lets get started.
First of all. Remember how Dane was half human and half Warmonger? You do? Well, I changed it. I realized it is not a cool name and I honestly wanted a new one.
Second. From now on, Dane is half human and half Ancient Blader! YEAH! I KNOW! AWESOME! (Yeah, right, because a kitchen knife with a cliche sounding prexif{ish} is way cooler. Great job, author! Sarcasm? Where?) If you want to know what exactly is a blader please refer to chapter 2. Or don't. Whatever you like, beloved reader. (:
Third. The second race (warmonger before, ancient blader as of now) used to affect the soul, remember? Dane used to be very good with swords and stuff because of the effect his warmonger half had on his soul. Well, not anymore. The effects still stand, but it does not affect his soul. More like a natural affinity.
Fourth. Dane had an Ancient Elven Bloodline, remember? Well, not anymore. There were a lot of reasons for this, but it mainly is because I realized that a bloodline is kinda' the same as a race. HEY! I SAID KINDA'. NOT TOTALLY. Anyway, what I meant is that a bloodline has to have a certain repercussion in the appearence of the possessor, and obviously Dane did not have lenghty pointy ears and a superior body asthetic like well, you know, every other elf in existence. EVER. (Insert a picture of Legolas and Arwen here. Yeah, thats what I mean.) Also, I want to give Dane a cooler bloodline and a way to nulify the phisical changes or find a clever way for him to adapt. So, there's that.
Five. Remember the Ancestral Elven Bloodline I mentioned like 20 seconds ago? Well, we now have an Ancestral Elven SOUL! OH YEAH, BABY! A SOUL! So now Dane has this special soul trait. It does not make him any less human, but it was a nice way I found to avoid that legolish appearance. But don't worry, the special perks of the ancestral elven bloodline still stand, it is just that they now are soul perks. So he has a super powerful elven soul, but looks totally unremarkable, as usual. It is like a beetle(car) that was totally pimped up and now has a V-8 engine! It is still a beetle, but MAN can it run (I guess. I have never seen one of those, but you get the idea).
Sixth. The previous point was the reason for the third point, because come on. How can two different factors affect the same thing when you are creating your character? And why would an Elven Soul be like super efficient with blades? Its not archery or the like. (Yeah, I know most elves in the fantasy mythos are just that skilled, be it archery or bladework. But not in this work, oh no. They will only be skilled in archery and some other stuff. We don't want no elven supremacy over here. Leave that to Titus Mede II. (WHAT? He's dead? I KILLED HIM?! FUCK!) (Insert Avengers{the first} movie captain america's meme {I understood that reference} here. Or don't. Man, I am sleepy.)
Seventh. Dane had a special physique, remember? The Shadow physique. Well, guess what? Yup, he doesn't anymore. Well, he does, but it is not a physique anymore, it is a constitution. You know, like those martial arts cultivation novels we all love and hate, and hate to love, and love to hate. The effects are pretty much the same, but it is now a constitution. Don't worry, though. Physiques will be back (not so)shortly.
Eight. Chapter 9 was a complete info dump, I know. But still, it was important for you guys to know. Well, guess what? Yup, I changed some things there too (basically names), so the info dump you previously experienced was totally for nothing. Well, not really, but you should still read that again too.
Ninth. Honestly, I am pretty sure there was an ninth point, but I cant remember what it was, so it was probably not so important. I think. Anyway, these are the major changes. Once again, in TOTALLY changes the way Dane will level up in the near future, so it is heavily recommended for you guys to read. Maybe while you are having breakfast or something. There are most definitely things that i DID NOT include here, but they sould be minor things. Well, please forgive me beloved readers, for I am way too sleepy to remember at the moment. If you want to be safe, just re-read it.
That was everything. I hoped you enjoyed this chapter and I will see you tomorrow for the double chapter! Oh Yeah! Please tell what you think in the comments and I sincerely hope you have a nice morning/day/night/alloftheabove. Thanks for reading! (: