In front of a beautiful lake, a carriage stopped and Viltz and Lena got out.
Viltz grabbed the driver's head and whispered in his ear: "You will drive your horse to the nearest town and then forget that you ever met me or that you brought me here."
Releasing the man's head, Viltz watched as he rode off in a certain direction.
"Well, that settles it."
Looking up at the magnificent castle atop the cliff, Viltz sighed and began walking in his direction carrying Lena in his arms.
"I think you've put on weight, looks like i'll have to give you less food from now on."
"What!!!! No! Anything but that!"
"Haha!!! Just kidding, stop kicking me already!"
...
After passing over the long bridge, they both arrived in front of the rickety old castle.
Sighing, Viltz looked at the messy and bumpy floor, the dirty and cracked walls, and the weeds growing unevenly across the floor and some walls.
"Let's get to work."
Viltz approached a large rock and began carving a matrix into its surface, then chanted a spell and clapped his hands together.
The large rock began to shake and fragment.
A few seconds later, the rock began to reform into a ten foot tall humanoid appearance.
"Woah! What is that?"
"It's a golem, something like a giant doll that can follow my instructions."
"A doll? Can i play with it?"
Viltz rolled her eyes at the girl.
"If i let you play with that thing it would probably end up crushing you without even realizing it."
"Ooh..." The little girl ducked her head plaintively.
"But if you want something to play with, i can find you some pets later, like a rabbit or a dog."
"Really?" Lena's ears twitched and she quickly lifted her head, looking at Viltz with an excited smile.
"Yes, but you have to take responsibility for him, i don't want you to end up starving or thirsting your pet to death."
"I will be responsible! Very responsible!" The girl began to nod her head vigorously and the gleam in her eyes grew even brighter.
She had been until recently just a poor girl who didn't even have enough to eat and all she could think about was surviving the abuse of the brothel employees, much less think about taking care of a pet.
Viltz patted the girl's head and ordered the stone golem:" Okay, golem number 1, I want you to remove all the debris surrounding the castle and throw it over the cliff.
The golem moved in a mechanical fashion and began to pick up the debris.
Rubbing his chin, Viltz walked over to a withered tree and turned it into a wooden golem.
"Golem number 2, i want you to go tilling and aligning the ground that golem number 1 has cleared."
Viltz left the two golems working on the outside of the castle and entered through the broken door.
The inside of the castle was just like its exterior, everything in sight was in ruins.
"Sigh, looks like i'm going to have my work cut out for me even harder if i want to clean all this up."
Viltz went through different rubble and created three more stone golems.
"Okay, numbers 3 through 5, you're going to remove all the debris in the castle.
If they are made of stone, throw them straight down the cliff outside. If they are wood or cloth, stack them all together near the bridge. If they're metal, i want you to gather them right here.
Fiuh, that was exhausting." Wiping the sweat from his brow, Viltz looked with satisfaction at the golems working efficiently, for any other sorcerer, controlling five golems would be a difficult enough task that would leave them slumped on the ground, it just made him sweat a little.
"Well, while the golems are busy, let me teach you some basics about magic."
Viltz sat down on the ground cross-legged and began to teach some basics to Lena, who took to listening to his teachings earnestly.
Despite her young age, she understood things quite easily and Viltz only had to explain them a couple of times for her to understand.
After a couple of hours, Viltz got up and stretched as he asked Lena next to him: "Do you want to explore the outskirts of the castle? If we're lucky we might come across some deer in the forest to serve us dinner."
At the word dinner, Lena's mouth began to drool and she quickly stood up, patting her bottom.
Viltz smiled and started walking.
Fifteen minutes later, the duo arrived near the lake below the castle, after observing the surroundings for a while without seeing any fish nearby, Viltz shrugged and walked into the nearby forest.
As he walked deeper into the forest, he suddenly heard a noise. Silencing his ears, Viltz tried to pinpoint the direction it came from.
Motioning Lena to silence, Viltz carried her in his arms and chanted a spell, silencing her footsteps.
Arriving near the source of the noise, Viltz found the corpse of a headless she-wolf.
Beneath the carcass, some suppressed whimpers could be heard.
Leaving the frightened Lena aside, Viltz grabbed the wolf's neck and observed it carefully.
"Hmm,the cut is jagged, it looks like its head was torn off by some beast."
Lifting the she-wolf's carcass and setting it aside, Viltz found a wolf puppy full of blood that kept barking and howling in its childish voice.
Viltz grabbed the puppy carefully and watched it closely.
The little guy looked like he had just been born recently, underneath the thick blood and mud, beautiful white fur could be seen. Checking the underside, Viltz confirmed that it was a male.
Opening the pup's eyelids, he noticed that they were a scarlet red.
"An albino forest wolf? And his eyes are scarlet, that's weird."
Looking away from the puppy, Viltz looked at the stunned girl who was still staring in the direction of the dead she-wolf.
"Haaa, looks like i just created a trauma for a five year old, cool!"
Shaking his head, Viltz pulled out a handkerchief and wrapped the little puppy in it and then passed it to Lena.
"Hold him for a moment."
Lena snapped out of her daze and looked down at the little puppy who kept howling in a childish voice, momentarily distracting herself from the previous scene.
Viltz quickly seized the opportunity and opened a portal to the interior of the Stigga castle.
"Good, you have your pet, now enter through the portal, that's enough adventure for you for today." Pushing the girl into the portal, Viltz waved his hand and closed it, then gripped the grips of his weapons tightly and began to observe the surroundings carefully.
Suddenly, there was the sound of a branch snapping behind him.
Viltz unsheathed his silver crossed sword in the blink of an eye and slashed behind him.
Blood splattered and a large scaly tail with a trident-like spike at the tip flew out with blood dripping off its edge.
"Roaaaaaaar!!!" A pain-filled roar was heard and the creature revealed its figure before Viltz.
It was a giant creature that was almost twice his size, it had a serpentine neck and an elongated head with a jaw full of sharp teeth that gave it a ferocious appearance. Instead of forelegs, the creature had a pair of scaly wings that ended in a claw at the end of them. One of the wings had a large hole in the center that possibly made it impossible for the creature to take flight.
Viltz quickly analyzed the opponent and quickly realized what the creature in front of him was.
"A wyvern that hasn't matured yet, and it looks like it's injured."
Looking at the creature that wouldn't stop roaring, Viltz jumped up and charged.
The wyvern raised its head and was about to bite Viltz in the head when suddenly Viltz raised his left hand and released a dazzling light that blinded the wyvern for a moment.
Viltz seized the opportunity and attacked, cutting the wyvern's left leg.
The wyvern let out another roar full of pain and due to the imbalance caused by the lack of its leg, it lost its balance point and stumbled, falling face first to the ground.
Viltz didn't give the wyvern a chance to get up, as soon as he saw him stumble, he quickly approached his other leg and slashed, dividing it from the rest of his body.
The young wyvern did not stop screaming in pain and turned to look at Viltz with a look full of pain and hatred.
Viltz didn't care in the least about the wyvern's feelings, taking advantage of its moment of weakness, he attacked again, cutting its eyes and leaving it completely blind.
The wyvern squirmed even more due to the loss of his vision but there was little he could do against the monster in front of him.
Viltz gripped his crossed sword tightly and with two quick slashes, cut both wings of the wyvern.
Now the poor creature no longer looked like the intimidating monster it was a few minutes ago and instead looked like a giant snake with a swollen stomach.
Viltz conjured a spell and a bunch of thick vines came out of the ground, binding the now fainting wyvern due to the shock and pain of losing all its limbs.