I was standing in front of the portal, that led to the dungeon I was going to. My parents, Ellie, Elder Virion, and Aldir, were all here to send me off. I had my cloak over my armor, my mana ring full of blood, food, and extra stuff. If I was not a Blood Deviant, having blood in the mana ring would be very weird, but I was, and this made it easier to use my magic.
"Virion, stay safe in there." Aldir told me with a head nod.
"Yeah, Virion, make sure to watch over Tessia as well." Elder Virion patted me on the shoulder. "Good luck."
"Thanks." I nodded to them both.
"I love you, make sure to eat well." My mother hugged me. "And don't do anything stupid."
"Love you too." She let me go, and my dad came up. "Love you too, dad."
We hugged. "Love you, remember, tell the Twin Horns hi for me."
"I will." I turned to Ellie, she looked mad, of course she wanted to come with me. "Ellie, you'll join me in the field one day."
I walked up to her, and I hugged her. "Don't die, brother."
"Ha." I laughed as I backed away. "That is some pep talk, El." I smiled at her and made my way to the portal. "I'll see you all soon." They all sent me a smile as I stepped through, and into the base of the dungeon.
Standing there, waiting for me, was Helen. "Veer, you're here."
"Helen, it's good to see you." I said as I approached her.
"How have you been?" She asked me as we started to walk through the base. I received a couple of glares from the fellow soldiers and adventurers, which I understood, I was a kid.
"I've been good, how about you?" We stood in front of the main tent I assumed; it was the largest one. The Commander should be named Drogo, I'm like pretty sure, it may be like Draco or Dragon, I don't know remember.
"Ehh, we were involved in a skirmish with Alacryans the other month, but other than that, pretty good." Helen smiled, and then opened the tent flap, then we both walked in. "Drogo, this is Virion Leywin."
A bulky guy with red hair turned to me, and his eyes went wide. "This is the boy who supposedly killed a hundred Alacryans?" Helen nodded her head as I stared at him. "Virion, it's a pleasure." He walked up to me and held out his hand.
"Commander Drogo, right?" I took his hand and shook it.
"Firm handshake for a kid." I pulled my hand back and he took a step back. "I was told you were going to be staying with the Twin Horns, but you have free range to go into the dungeon whenever you want."
"That's what I've been told." I shrugged. "I probably won't go in today."
"Okay, if you need anything, come to me." Drogo told me. "Make yourself at home as best you can, we are going to be here a while."
"Maybe not." I turned away from him, Helen joined me, and we walked out. "He seems cool." I told her as we started walking toward the Twin Horn's tents.
"Yeah, he's a fellow adventurer." I knew that from the novel. "And he was quite a good one."
"I bet." I said as Adam and Jasmine came into view. "Tess's team is here too, where's their tent." In the novel, the day the Twin Horns arrive, is the day that everything happens really, but they are early because of me. Elder Virion moved them here to keep me safe, which was not needed.
"Over there." She pointed at a tent that had nobody there at the moment. "I think they are in the dungeon."
"Oh." I answered as Jasmine and Adam stood up and looked at us as we approached them. "Hey, Adam, Jasmine."
We stopped in front of them. "The Demon has arrived." Adam nodded at me and sat back down on his log.
"Hey, Veer." Jasmine sat back down as well, and we joined them.
"Where is everyone?" I asked them, I was talking about Durden and Angela.
"Durden is getting some supplies, and Angela is washing up." Adam told me. "You just missed our dungeon run."
"Dang." I said, I didn't want to go into the dungeon today, but I would have if they offered. "Adam, I have to ask, were you the one who came up with that stupid nickname."
"The Devil of Dicathen?" Helen said jokingly.
"Yes." I had no clue who came up with it, but if I had to guess, it had to have been Adam. "So, was it you?"
Adam shook his head no. "My nickname for you is Demon, and it has been that for a while." He poked the fire with a stick he had. "But I think that the new nickname fits you well."
"It's a little mean, don't you think?" Helen chimed in. "Calling someone a Devil, especially a kid."
"Come on, Veer is no kid, and we all know it." They all agreed with Adam. "But then again, Arthur isn't a normal kid either."
"Yep." I answered. "We aren't normal."
A voice from behind me spoke up. "You are the brat who they call the Devil." I slowly spun around to see a man, thin, black hair, had a sword on his side, and was glaring down at me.
"Don't bother him, Wilder." Helen knew who this was?
"I only want to see for myself what this kid is about." I activated "Blood Oath" just in case he tried something. "So, Devil, are you willing to show us what you can do?"
"You don't have too, Veer." Helen told me as they all stood up and faced this man named Wilder. "Leave us alone."
"Come on, Devil." Wilder continued to egg me on, but I stayed sitting. "Get up, let's spar."
"Na." I told him and turned away from him. "Go away." I had no time to spar with some idiot, I was sparring with a Lance a week ago, I wasn't going to spar with some unknown character.
"Or what?" Wilder got closer, I noticed Adam take a step toward him, he was going to defend me, how nice. "Are you scared?"
"Why would you scare me?" I said coldly, still looking at the fire, I just got here, and I was looking forward to speaking with the Twin Horns.
"Wilder, leave." Adam took another step, and that's when I stood up.
I didn't want him to defend me, I didn't need him to. "Ahh." I sighed loudly. "Who are you?" I turned to the man named Wilder, trying to figure out why he wants to spar.
"I am Wilder, from house Ravenpoor." My eyes widened, and the only thing I could think about was Ravenpoop or something like that. "And I challenge you, Devil."
"You don't have to, Veer, you just got here." Helen didn't want me to fight this guy, she knew it wouldn't be that much of a fight. I could drop him right here, without anyone even knowing what happened to him.
"You need someone to protect you, huh." Was this guy delusional? He probably was how most noble family members were. "Come on, I'll show you what a man can do."
"Uhh." I gave him a weird look. "Form a spell." I disrupted his mana core as he looked at me confused. "Form a spell." I repeated.
"Fine, brat." He raised his arm, and attempted to form a spell around it, but could not. "What's going on?!" He exclaimed, starting to panic. "It's not working."
"Ha." Helen laughed and looked at me. "You didn't have to entertain him."
I shrugged. "He wanted it." Wilder kept pushing out his arm, trying to form something, I sensed water mana. "Are happy now?"
"What did you do to me?" He exclaimed as everyone sat back down, I released my hold on his core, and ignored him. "Don't ignore me now!" I felt the mana start to form, but I sensed someone coming.
"Wilder!" Drogo called out. "Stop, leave them alone, don't make me report this." Wilder flinched and quickly left the area. Drogo walked over to us, and we all turned to him. "I'm sorry about that, Virion."
"I took care of it." I told him, the thing I did miss about being in the castle, was that I could train and spar with the Lances, or I could say my fellow Lances, but it wasn't official yet, and I'm sure if it was, I wouldn't be sent here.
"Good." He turned around and started to walk away. I deactivated "Blood Oath" and leaned forward, holding my hands close to the fire.
"It amazes me, that you can just remove someone's ability to use magic." Jasmine spoke up this time.
"Me too." Helen turned to me from the log beside me. "So, what have you been up to, I know after the death of Samantha, which we were all sorry to hear, you left the dungeons, and your team split up."
You know, they could know, it won't be secret for too long anyways. "Did you hear how she died?"
"No." They all said at the same time.
"Okay, what I am about to tell you all, can't be repeated to anyone else for now." The looks in their eyes changed, and I continued. "I'm sure you all know what a Retainer and a Scythe is."
Adam spoke up. "Yeah, Elder Virion told Helen about them while she visited the castle, isn't that, right?"
"There like the generals of the army, the strongest fights they have in Alacrya, I would compare them to our Lances." Helen told us all.
"Good, you know who they are." I paused for a second, then went on. "What happened was, Tess's team got attacked in the dungeon by Alacryans, I ran in with Samantha, just the two of us to rescue them, eventually, after some time, we found Darvus in a cavern surrounded by Alacryans. I took them out, and while we were about to leave, a Retainer showed up, and killed Samantha right in front of my eyes."
"Wait, wait, wait, you are telling us, that you saw a Retainer?" Adam exclaimed, clearly shocked.
"I didn't just see one, I defeat one, they are currently locked up in the castle, dismembered."
"Really?" Adam shook his head in disbelief.
"Dismembered?" Helen asked.
"Uhh, well, I was having some issues, let's say I went a little overboard, but he deserved it. I cut an arm and a leg off of him." They all looked at me in horror. "Yeah, like I said, I was having some issues."
"You defeated a Retainer though, that is a huge step towards victory." Helen said, I agreed, it was a huge step, and it was early as well. Uto shouldn't have appeared when he did, but it wasn't the worst thing to happen.
"Yeah, it is." Adam seemed impressed by this, and he didn't call me a Demon, which was nice.
"What issues were you having?" Jasmine asked me, and I faced her.
"Mental ones, I was, and you all saw it, losing my mind, killing for fun, all of that, it's better now that I am a white core mage." They all snapped their heads at me quickly, and I leaned back in surprise. "Oh, shit, forgot to tell you all, I hit white core last month."
"You are lying." Helen was in shock, all the white cores they know, are Lances.
"He's not." Adam said as he stared at me. "It makes sense, he is on a Lance's level."
"I'm not lying." I confirmed to them, it made me happy knowing that I got to white core before Arthur showed back up. I didn't want to throw it in his face, all I wanted was to be able to fight with him. I knew having a white core would give him zero reason to hold me back from the war.
"Jeez, you are something else." Helen turned toward the base's entrance, and I did as well. "I know you are here to go into the dungeon by yourself, or with whoever you want, but for your birthday, which I know was today, how about we go in one more time today." She turned to her team.
"Happy birthday, Demon, I forgot." Adam stood up. "We should leave now then."
"I'm in." Jasmine got up too.
"It can just be us four, Durden and Angela don't need to come with." Helen told us, and we all agreed.
"Thanks, this is all I could ask for." I wasn't going to go in today, but what the hell.