On the outskirts of a forest near the capital.
"Don't let it escape! Ren! Shoot arrows in front of it, hit its face if possible but focus on controlling its charge!
Turos! You circle to the left, I'll circle to the right!", a man holding out a sword and wearing slightly broken iron armor calls out commands to the other 2 nearby.
The woman known as Ren was running while mainting a certain distance from the fight against the demon boar, she shot 3 arrows, all landing almost directly in front of the boars' path.
The boar was startled and sharply turned left, slowing down only slightly.
"Haha! Lucky me!", the man known as Turos prepared a swing with his large claymore as the boar charged directly at him.
Suddenly a magic circle appeared in the middle of the fight which caught their attention. The leader and Ren both readied themselves for what could occur.
Turos also briefly stopped, however the boar didn't.
"AGH!!", Turos voiced his pain as the large boar sent him flying toward the magic circle.
A light shined from the circle before it almost immediately cleared with 6 individuals standing in its place.
The leader noticed first, he was aware that Turos was falling toward them and reflexively called out.
"Watch out!"
Regal's eye was already on Turos flying toward them before he had even heard the warning.
"3rd Circle: Absorption barrier", Regal chanted as 3 layered circles appeared in the path between him and the flying man.
"GAHHHH!!"
Turos made direct contact with the barrier, the next moment he fell directly downward without a single dent on him or the barrier.
"Huh? That didn't hurt at all", Turos spoke aloud while examining his body for injuries, the only one he could find was from the impact of the boar.
He quickly shot up onto his feet as he remembered, "The boar!"
Everyone, including Regal and the heroes, faced the same direction Turos turned to and noticed a large boar, the height of a grown man, charging directly toward them.
"W-what the hell is that!?", Eric shouted as this abomination called a 'boar' was running at them.
This was a 'Demon Boar', a simple but fitting name for its appearance. Its general features were just like any other boar. However, the dangerous features such as its tusks were mangled and grew in strange directions. Its fur was pitch black with red streaks, however even this thick fur couldn't hide the outline of the massive muscles the boar possessed. Its size and strength spoke for itself.
Not expecting the chance to arrive so soon, Regal chuckled, "That right there is a demon"
"Ren! Quick, shoot-", as the leader was about to give out commands, Regal stopped him.
"Hold it, let me handle this boar, you may take the corpse or whatever you wish regardless."
"Wha-? Don't be ridiculous, that boar is a C-rank monster!"
Regal smirked as he began forming a magic circle with 3 layers, dispelling the earlier barrier, "Not a problem"
"Watch closely brats, this is the level of magic needed to kill a demonic beast", Regal spoke to the heroes while their focus remained on the boar closing the distance on them.
"3rd circle: Water piercer"
A very thin stream of water was propelled from the centre of the spell, no more than 3cm wide. It continued until it reached the boar.
The same streak of water then appeared on the other side of the boar, continuing until it lost all power.
The boar had tripped and sled forward until it it finally stopped at the feet of the man named Turos.
"W-whoa… he just subdued the demon boar with a single spell, must've knocked it right out…" Turos praised.
Regal raised a brow.
"Knocked out?"
Though he didn't feel the need to explain the issue with that statement, they'll figure it out.
He turned to the heroes and said, "See that? That was a pretty weak attack by my standards, I'll stand by my words when I say you will be more than capable of something like this".
The others from the party fighting the boar nervously walked toward the boar and analysed it.
"Tristan, this is in a very good state, it should sell for plent-", suddenly Ren stopped in the middle of her sentence.
"What's wrong Ren?", Tristan, the man who was their leader, looked up and noticed her shocked face.
He walked over to the head of the boar that she was inspecting and was just as shocked.
"…it's dead", he muttered.
The party remained silent.
The death of the boar was not a problem, they were aiming for it. However, the fact that it was pierced all the way through with magic was quite a shock.
Mages are rather rare among adventurers, but they've seen magic being used before. A 3rd circle spell is not usually powerful enough for this, they hadn't even seen such a spell before in the first place.
Thoughts naturally arose, 'Who is this man? Is he an enemy?'
Tristan decided to approach Regal who was explaining something to the heroes.
"Hello sir mage, could I have a moment of your time?", he asked with sweat sliding down his cheek.
"Hm? Like I said earlier, you lot can keep the corpse, I'm here for a different reason"
"Ah… thank you", Tristan rubbed the back of his head in relief, "Though since you helped, is there nothing you want in return?".
Regal looked at the man's waist and had an idea. "Do you carry a spare sword or are you perhaps a dual wielder?"
The man tilted his head in slight confusion, a dual wielder is very rare since it requires mastery of both hands, it seemed strange for someone to make that assumption. "No, it is a spare sword".
Regal eased into a calm smile, "I want your sword then"
"Oh… ok", this request posed no problem to Tristan, his commission was now complete either way and the reward was more than enough to replace a sword of this level.
Regal accepted the sword and turned back around to the heroes, he threw it immediately toward William.
"H-huh?", William was confused, as was Tristan.
Pamel walked to Tristan, "We apologise for the trouble. Don't worry about us and leave, we just happened to arrive here, don't think too much about it."
"Right… In that case, we should take our leave.", he gave a brief wave and turned to his other party members, but then stopped a moment later.
He turned back to the servant who spoke to him.
"By the way, if you need anything else, we are 'Sacred Fang', a B-rank party. You can ask for us at the guild any time.", Tristan didn't waste an advertisement opportunity before leaving. Even he could tell that someone as well-dressed as Regal must be a noble. If not a noble, then he is rich.
"Duly noted", Pamel gave a slight bow before moving back to the others.
"Look, I can't teach you magic on the spot or anything. Unless you have an incredible memory, it needs practice before use. However, at least one of you will be good with a sword, and I have a feeling it's you. This is the best way to prove this to you, that you are destined to be heroes.", Regal was in the middle of explaining something to the heroes.
Hikari looked disappointed. "So we can't use magic right now?"
Regal smirked, "Looks like someone is gaining an interest"
Hikari couldn't deny it either, she was fascinated by the things she had been seeing. These incredible powers sparked all sorts of excitement within her.
"…um, I have pretty… uh… good memory", Anne spoke quietly, but still gained everyone's attention.
"No no, I'm not exaggerating anything here when I say this, but you need to be able to remember a page of a book after a few glances to be taught a spell on the spot.
It's not just good memory, I'm talking incredible", Regal scoffed.
"Yes… I can do that", Anne responded with a similar answer, standing her ground.
"…", Regal was not sure what to say, he couldn't confirm the truth right now... well he could, but it wasn't necessary, he had plenty of time after proving his point to do so at his residence.
In reality, to become a mage there's a process one must go through first. He didn't expect one of them to actually have such a quality.
Regal developed a good ability to memorize images and text quickly as a natural course through his journey as a mage, but even at his current point, it would be difficult to memorize a whole page after a single glance. He would need a few moments at least. If anything he was exaggerating before, but remembering something at a single glance is an incredibly rare talent to have, and was perfect for his disciple.
He let out a brief but silent laugh before turning back to William.
"We will see about that later, first I'm going to show you, blondie", Regal used a nickname as he couldn't remember the actual name of this man.
Regal looked at Pamel, "Find something weak for now, bring it back quickly".
Pamel nodded as 2 circles appeared under his feet. He jumped at least 10 metres high in the direction of the forest, each time he landed he continued this until he reached it.
"Regal… what exactly do you expect me to do with this", William asked while holding the sword upright by the hand, showing a surprisingly natural handling of the sword.
Regal kept his eyes on William's hands. "You're going to fight a monster with it.", he spoke the words as if it was obvious.
"What!? I can't fight something like that thing from earlier!", William did not doubt that this man was crazy, Regal hadn't listened to anything he had said.
Ironically, it doesn't seem like William has been listening to what Regal has been saying either.
"…Pamel may be a moment, why don't you give it a few swings?", Regal suggested as he crossed his arms.
"…alright", William figured that if he was going to be forced either way, he might as well practice while he could. But also, there was a part of him that always wanted to swing a sword... it looked fun.
He pulled out the sword from its sheath. "Whoa, it's heavy!", he said as he immediately let it drag his hand to the floor.
He once again held the handle with both hands after throwing the sheath to the floor, managing to lift it once again.
'I'm no expert… but even I can tell that his arms can hardly support the sword, they're shaking like crazy', Regal thought as he maintained his gaze on William.
The other heroes also watched, keeping some distance between themselves and the inexperienced swordsman.
After stabilizing a bit, William started swinging. He would swing overhead, he would swing sideways, he would swing diagonally. At first, it seemed random, but after a few swings, it looked like it had a pattern to it.
10 swings. 20 swings. 30 swings.
Eventually, William was beginning to tire out, he could be seen gasping for air. "Hah… hah… hah… This… is pretty fun…", a smile appeared on his face for the first time since arriving in this world.
'Every time he swung that sword, his stance became more defined, the path of his sword was more controlled. It got better with each swing, with every swing…', Regal thought.
*CLAP*
"Alright that's enough practice swings, if you do too much then you won't be able to fight the monster properly", Regal clapped his hands to gain William's attention.
"Phew… that felt rather refreshing", William dropped to the ground as he wiped his forehead.
'He hardly did any real exercise that a swordsman would do, he simply swung the sword a few times and he developed a clumsy foundation… but a foundation nonetheless, it's impressive', Regal began to imagine what the future held for this young man.
He was beginning to believe that this may be more fun than he thought.
The other heroes gathered close once again.
"Whoa, you looked pretty good at that", Eric complimented.
"Yeah, you really did!", Hikari added.
"Hm! Hm!", Anne nodded with slight exaggeration.
A six-layered magic circle appeared near them once again. This time, they all knew what this light meant.
Pamel appeared with a restrained creature.
William, who was going to have to fight this, was the obvious person to ask, "What is that thing?".
"Ah I forgot to mention, the creature from earlier is a demonic beast, they're creatures that follow the demons. They don't always act under the command of demons, however, if a demon was present, they would follow commands.
This creature is a monster, it's similar to a demonic beast… but they're more wild.", Regal explained as he watched Pamel release his shackles on the creature.
"Now begin before it gets you", Regal woke up William with these words as he jumped up and readied his sword.
Now that he was face to face with a monster, the pressure began to build in his heart.