A gentle breeze of air cooled down everyone on this hot summer day, Tokkou had finally finished with the graduation exam so he decided to check on the injured Teras, He passed by Recka on his way to the tent
"I hope you are doing fine here..."
Tokkou told her and continued to walk, Recka didn't say anything back, she just gave him a look to make sure he is alright and she too kept on walking, once Tokkou entered the tent he could see Teras sitting on the bed, it seemed like he was playing with his mana
"You are finally awake! how are your injuries?"
Tokkou asked him with a smile, Teras ignored him and minded his own business
'I guess he is mad at me'
Tokkou thought, he then sat near him
"What are you doing?"
Tokkou asked as he pointed at Teras's hands
"Why didn't my strikes have any effect on you?"
Teras asked him ignoring his question
"Oh, that? It's one of my special moves, I call it 'God's touch' This move is basically a defensive field I set around my body, I can use this move to negate any type of damage to my body, even though the move consumes a lot of energy and mana from my body but the positives outweigh the negatives, also I spent 2 years developing this move, but it was worth the trouble since now I'm considered the strongest royal knight ever that roamed the world"
Tokkou explained
'he seems very open about his trump card'
Teras thought, he was suspicious of the move's power
"Is there any way to get past this field?"
"I'm sorry to disappoint you but, NO, there is no way to penetrate it, the only way to stop is for me to run out of mana, but until this happens I will have already won against my opponent"
"Then doesn't that make you stronger than the grand king?"
Teras asked, he looked very surprised by Tokkou's power
"Maybe, maybe not! We can't know unless we have a fight to the death, which is an unprobeable scenario"
Tokkou replied with a troubled face
'Which one would win? That's a really good question!'
Tokkou thought, he then remembered the reason he came to the tent
"The real reason I came here was to apologize to you, I said all those things to awaken something in you, but it seems like it was futile"
Teras was surprised by what Tokkou said
"Awake something in me? like what?"
"No don't worry about it! It just seemed weird to me that you could do all these things with such little time to train, so I was hoping to reveal something from your past by driving you to a corner, I wanted to make you feel like your life was in danger but as I said it didn't work"
Tokkou replied with a jokingly smile, Tera wasn't satisfied with his answer but he couldn't find any other reason for Tokkou to say all those mean things to him so he accepted his "truth"
"So Teras, what are you going to do when you leave the camp? you are now considered a silver-rank adventurer, just so you know I can give you advice on where to start but I can't help you further"
Teras had forgotten about the award that he would gain if he won the fight
"I don't want to start in the silver rank, because if I do I will not be able to go adventuring with my friends!"
Teras whined, Tokkou then placed his index finger on Teras's forehead
"Teras think! your goal isn't to go on adventuring, it's to find who you were! don't forget that!"
Teras didn't respond, he took a moment to think, Tokkou was right but Teras told the others that they would form a party, after some minutes of thinking Teras had decided
"I will go adventuring with my friends, this is my choice, for now, I can figure out who I am while I adventure with them, we will also be safer because of our number"
"More doesn't always mean better Teras, also keep in mind that out in the wild, they are people that can slaughter all of you with ease, take for example the spirit you mentioned, you said that it would have killed everyone if you didn't manage to beat it, so be careful and stay strong, I hope we can meet in the future so don't die, ya hear me, kid?"
Tokkou said as he left the tent
'I still don't know if Teras forgave me but I know one thing for certain, Teras won't die'
Tokkou thought as he left, once Tokkou exited the tent he decided to give a final speech to the students before he left
"To you, all adventurers that stand before me, stay strong and keep on fighting, the older generations depend on you, and to whoever wants to join the royal knights I will gladly accept you if I'm still alive! So from this point on aim for better and bigger goals, and who knows? maybe someday you will become a card possessor and achieve your big goals, but always remember this... Your dreams are you, so don't let them fall down from this pedestal of greatness you have set them"
After the speech, Tokkou went to Recka so they could have a final chat
"Recka you once again trained a strong generation of adventurers, but that's not why I wanted to talk with you, firstly I want to inform you that your sister and family are doing just fine, secondly I wanted to ask you to de-rank Teras back to the bronze rank and before you ask, it was his request, and finally I want you to join me on a future mission"
Tokkou told her, Recka seemed hesitant about the last request
"It's about the mana-ants right?"
"Exactly, my squad will need an expert 8th card user (earth)"
"Can't you take Becka with you?"
Recka said with fear in her voice
"Becka is a maid, she isn't meant to fight, also you still haven't repaid me for all the things I did for you, like your freedom from the slave owners and the role here, so I expect you to repay me then"
Recka felt a little more at ease when she heard the word "then"
"What do you mean by "then"? aren't we going now?"
"No, the operation will start in a few years, so you have plenty of time to prepare for it, I expect your power to double or even triple until then, I will send you letters about it as time pass by, goodbye for now"
Tokkou said as he entered a carriage with his men, shortly after they left, as Recka and Tokkou were talking Cara, Har, and Lia entered Teras's tent, as soon as they entered Cara fell on her knees and begged Teras
"Please forgive me for my stupidity!"
Looking at Cara like that reminded Teras of his past, he remembered a man on his knees begging, he had bruises all over his body and he was crying, Teras couldn't remember what he was exactly saying but it went along the side of
"I'm sorry є̸̡̨̛͖̭̹̠̦̲̝̟̥̾́͛̈́̚͠г̷̢̗̪͔̘̜̬̬̀̂̆̇͒ค̶̩̠͉͉̣͕̈́͆̀̾̽̈̕ร̴͎̗̺̪̲̬̰̫̳̪̈́̅̿͂̀͌̊̀͌͛̕͝͝ I was stupid! please forgive me"
"Cara get up! stop all this nonsense! I have already forgiven you"
Teras told her, after a flashback to his past Teras felt a sharp headache
"You really mean that Teras?"
Cara asked, Teras didn't reply, he was in pain from the headache
"Are you alright Teras? you seem a bit gloomy!"
Har said, he noticed that Teras was acting weird after Har said that Lia and Cara realized it too, and they quickly walked up to Teras to see if he is alright
"Guys it's alright! I'm okay, I just had a small headache so don't worry"
Teras said, when everybody calmed down they all sat down and started to talk about their party conveniently Recka came to the tent after some minutes, and when she entered she could see Har, Lia, and Cara sitting beside Teras, they were talking and generally had a good time
"I see you are enjoying your stay in the tent"
Recka said jokingly, she had done most of the preparation so she had a bit of free time
"Not for long, I can already walk normally so we will probably leave after an hour or more, we don't bother you, do we?
"No, it's fine! if I'm correct you four will form a party right?"
Recka asked
"That's right, our party name will be Orion"
Lia answered
"May I ask what your roles are?"
Recka told them, nobody out of the party didn't know what roles were so Recka took her time explaining the roles
"They are 4 roles, the support, the paladin, the attacker, and the mage, those roles are quite easy to understand, the support supports the other in battle, I know hard to guess right? Next up there is the paladin, paladins are usually front liners and usually use more defensive cards, the attacker simply starts the fight and has the most important role because they are the ones that do the most damage to the enemy, and finally the mage, mages usually use ranged attacks, they are like a support with extra destructive power, the ideal squad requires at least one of each but in reality, you don't have to act or follow any of the role systems, because it's kind of outdated, people nowadays have random roles and most of the time they don't have any problem"
"Wait you told us all that just to tell us it isn't necessary to know it?"
Cara asked confused
"Don't get me wrong, you still need to know about the roles but you don't have to stick into a specific category every fight, you can swap roles if it is optimal"
After this last part, everyone understood about roles
"So Teras is surely an attacker, he is swift and strong, I'm probably a paladin, Cara fits the support role and Lia is a mage, so we are basically fulfilling the old-school role set-up"
Har said
"Teras don't you have a bunny? What are you going to do with it?"
Lia asked, this question came out of the blue
"Don't worry about Cromi, she is matured enough to live on her own"
Teras said, he then got up
"Guys I going to pack my things and it's going to take some time so you can leave and meet me at the quest center in Prodo"
"So you are telling us to leave?"
Lia asked, Teras nodded he then exited the tent and went to the boys' dorm, all of his stuff was there, Cromi was there too, she was running around the full of memories empty room and when she noticed Teras she started to run towards him, Teras hugged her when she came close to him
"This is the end Cromi! You are a big girl now, it's time for you to live your own life, you are feared magical beast, you can't stay with an adventurer like me, I will just ruin your appearance"
Teras told to Cromi as he escorted her outside the dorm, once they reached the forest Teras placed Cromi down
"there you go Cromi, run away, chase the freedom you deserve"
Teras said, Cromi seemed hesitant so Teras gave her a gentle push, after the push she started running into the forest but before she disappeared from Teras's vision she turned around to see her owner one more time, Teras noticed her watching so he waved goodbye, Cromi then left the camp, she was finally free, Teras felt like he did the right thing so he didn't feel sad about his decision, after freeing Cromi Teras went back to the dorm to pack his things, After he got ready he went to his slope to watch the place from distance one last time, the view was still as amazing as it was the first time, the only difference was that the place was empty, the feeling of nostalgia hit Teras at the moment even though he only spent 1 month there, he stared at the place for about a quarter of an hour, after that, he climbed down and went to Recka's house, he knocked the door
"Come in!"
said Recka, Teras then opened the door and saw Recka in a long green dress, it was his first time seeing Recka in casual clothing, the dress was highlighting her eye color so she looked good in the dress
"You look amazing in this dress Recka! you should wear dresses more often!"
Teras's words embarrassed Recka but she was also happy hearing them from him
"S-s-so why did you c-come here Teras?"
she asked with a red face
"Don't you remember our promise? You were supposed to teach me how to cook a meat pie!"
Teras told her, Recka had completely forgotten about this cook promise but she didn't complain, she casually taught Teras how to cook a meat pie and much more, neither of them noticed but 2 hours had passed, which means that Teras was forced to leave because the last carriage was about to leave, before he could leave Recka stopped him
"Teras! before you leave take this book, it contains multiple cooking recipes, there's also a hidden note in the book so read it all to find it"
Recka said as she handed him the book
"Thank you Recka, words can't express how happy I'm right now!"
Teras said with excitement all over his voice
"Wait! you have something on your cheek!"
Recka said, before Teras could check what it was Recka leaned close to him and kissed him
"Didn't I teach you not to let your guard down?"
she asked him as she giggled, Teras quickly became red, and he then proceeded to get up on the carriage without saying any words to Recka, before he could leave Teras popped his head out of the window of the carriage
"I PROMISE ONE DAY I WILL COME BACK, SO DON'T YOU DARE FORGET ME!"
Teras screamed at her
"There is no way I would forget you! My hero!"
Recka monologued as she saw Teras slowly leaving
'Now go you have to grow! make sure that you become stronger so you can be called a proper hero, and once you have become older and mature come back to rescue me from my prison, as he did!'
These were Recka's last thoughts about Teras, she then returned back to her house so she can ready up for the next group of adventurers
Hours passed since the carriage left the camp and they still haven't arrived at the city
'What the hell!'
He thought the ride was about 20 minutes so taking hours was impossible, but when Teras tried to comfort the driver he saw something mortifying, the driver didn't have a face, he only had the same white eyes the dark figure had, Teras fell down from fear, when he looked around the place he could see multiple dark figures staring at him with the same ominous white eyes, Teras then closed his eyes from fear, after some seconds he reopened them, to his surprise a dark figure was standing in front of him, turns out this figure was a shadow version of Teras but its eyes weren't white as the rest of them, they were crimson red
"K̴̞̘̓͊i̴̧̩̋̂̐ͅd̴̘̾ ̸̜̆̍̎ͅw̷̛̼͛͛a̷̼͐́͛ͅk̶̼͑͊͗e̵͓͇̔ ̷̩͛̋͠ȗ̷̺p̸̟̰͐̓͝"
the figure told him, Teras then woke up from a nightmare, the driver was gently pushing him so he could wake up
"I'm sorry sir, I will now take my leave!"
Teras told him, he then took his stuff and began to walk towards the quest center where the others were waiting, in his way to the center he didn't encounter any person or animal, it was dead silent, after the nightmare, he had recently he felt creeped out, so he decided to run, after a minute of running Teras had reached the center, his friends were waiting for him
"Where have you been Teras? we have to register ourselves before the place closes"
Cara said, Teras apologized and gather around them to register
"You have been probably informed that we passed the adventurers' exam so now we want to register as a party"
Teras told to the lady at the bar, she then took out a notebook, she was ready to write everything down
"Tell me your party name, captain, and the members"
"The party is called Orion"
the lady wrote it down and started to ask for everyone's name
"I'm Har Hart"
"I'm Lia Kerto"
"I'm Cara Featheart"
the girl wrote everything
"Now for the leader?"
"That will be me, Teras!"
Teras said
A new road of opportunities was opened for all of them as a party everyone was ready to start their grand adventure in this magical land, this was the first step of a grand adventure that would shake the world!