Chapter 10: New Town And The First Party

In a dark room in an unknown place…

"???: wha-?!"

"??: what's wrong?"

"???: the demon's signal from the elven village number 5 have disappeared!"

"??: what?! How? There should be no one in that village who can kill the demons we planted over there!!"

"???: I don't know!! But their signal disappeared from the summoning artifact!! And I can't call them back, their souls have disappeared completely"

"??: check for the miasma then, as long as we have the miasma we can summon more any time we want!!"

"???: i-i-impossible!! All of the miasma in that village have been purified!! There is nothing left of it in the taint map!!"

"??: that can't be!! We were accumulating miasma in that village for more than two hundred years now, for it to be purified so quickly"

"???: w-what should I do?"

"??: you collect more informations about this case and I'll report to the higher-ups about this incident"

"???: got it!!"

One week later…

"??: how did it go?"

"???: unfortunately, I couldn't infiltrate the village"

"??: what do you mean you couldn't infiltrate the village?! You have the ability to infiltrate even the high church in the holy theocracy and get away with it, but you couldn't infiltrate one lousy village?!"

"???: it's the truth, and it's not a lousy village anymore"

"??: what do you mean?"

"???: the one who killed the demons and purified the miasma is an adventurer"

"??: an adventurer?"

"???: as (SS) rank adventurer to be exact"

"??: (SS) rank?!"

"???: the first human (SS) rank, and after that, he declared the whole forest and the town of Donatis his own domain"

"??: his own domain?! Who does he think he is??"

"???: an (SS) rank"

"??: even if he is an (SS) rank I'll make him regret making the blue sun of hope his enemy!!"

"???: but first, you have to report to the higher-ups about the new informations"

"??: I know"

Two weeks later….

"??: Gahahahahahahahaha!!"

"???: did you lose your mind at least?"

"??: that's not it!! The higher-ups have decided to kill that insolent fool, that's why I'm laughing"

"???: kill him?"

"??: yeah, it turned out that he is not that strong and him being an (SS) rank is merely an over-evaluation from the guild in that lousy elf village and the other guild masters saw this as a chance to increase their influence"

"???: what about the demons and miasma?"

"??: according to the higher-ups the demons were only a lesser class demons that even a party of (A) ranks can kill them, and they think that the one who killed the demons is actually the guild master an (S) rank dark elf and a group of (S) rank and (A) rank adventurers from the village, and the miasma was purified using spirit magic that the elder elf can use, or so they suspect"

"???: suspect? Not verified?"

"??: yeah, they came to this conclusion after analyzing the informations they had on him. They found out that he did not take any quests that indicate that he climbed the ranks to reach (SS) rank and that his name is unknown even though he is rumoured to have the ability to make soul weapons even though that is impossible without 'that' skill, that's why they think that the elf village is using him to protect themselves from the kingdom"

"???: that makes sense in a way, but what if he does have 'that' skill?"

"??: if anyone from the higher-ups hears you say that you will be killed on the spot, so be careful"

"???: I know, the skill that is granted by our god to the ones who follow the path of destruction and miasma, the one who seeks the end of this tainted world, {Analyze} I'll be incarnated into the one who is granted this skill, was it"

"??: yeah, that's why we are going to kill that fool, to make it an example so no one dares to take us lightly"

===============================================

In the royal castle of the Kazar kingdom.

In the meeting room where the king and the heads of the royal families and the noble families are present…

"Prime Minister: ...…..and this is the conclusion of the two recordings from Donatis"

The recordings that the prime minister mentioned are the recordings of The Divine Blacksmith's fight against the son of the former lord of Donatis who attacked the town as a bandit, and the recording of him declaring the town as a part of his domain.

"Royal No.1: that's ridiculous!! We can't let him go with what he did, we should announce that he is a repel and send our soldiers after him and kill him"

"Royal No.2: and make an enemy of someone who can destroy the whole kingdom overnight, don't be stupid!! This happened all because of a certain someone who helped the criminals to form a bandit group to attack the city, that's why we should seek a peaceful relation with the new domain"

"Royal No.1: how dare you call me stupid?!! And what do you mean seeking peace with that repel?!! Are you planning to pull our pride and honour through the mud by laying down silently as he takeover our land!! And you should mind your tongue when you talk about the 'certain someone' you don't mean the second prince do you?"

"Royal No.2: don't misunderstand, it's not about us laying down or anything, it's just too late to do anything about it, he is someone the people of Donatis have chosen to rule over them, all because of the 'certain someone' the second prince Nezil, if he hadn't helped the criminals attack the town, The Divine Blacksmith would have no reason to declare the town as a part of his domain"

"Royal No.1: how dare you insult his highness like that?!! All because you are scared of a single man, what can a single man do when standing against our glorious kingdom, nothing!! Nothing at all!! All we have to do is to crush him with our overwhelming power and make an example out of him so no one dares to repel against us again!!"

��Prime Minister: I agree, and you said that the people of Donatis chose him to rule over them? Who cares about the opinions of those filthy commoners, if they repel against us all we have to do is subdue them by force, and that insult to his highness should not be overlooked. your majesty, what do you see?"

"The King: Umu, I'm with the opinion of seeking peace with The Divine Blacksmith and hid domain, it's the truth that he is someone we can't take on, and my friend here is right, if it was not for my stupid son's intervention in the matter we would have not lost Donatis and the trust of its people, and because of that I decided on a suitable banishment for my son, call him here"

"Prime Minister: …s-surely y-you just-"

"The King: I said, call him here!!"

"Prime Minister: y-y-yes!!"

The people in the meeting room were divided into two factions, the king faction is those who support the first prince and are the people who think about the future of the kingdom, and all of them are people who don't like the holy theocracy's intervention in the politics of the kingdom.

The royal faction is those who support the second prince and are the people who only care about their own pride and honour and nothing more, and all of them are on the side of the holy theocracy because the holy light religion considers the royals and nobles as a chosen ones.

"Nezil: did you call for me, father"

"The King: as of today, you title as the second prince is revoked and you'll be sent to the royal magic school for reeducation, you'll spend the next five years there and never come back till then, and once you are back you'll have a duel against your brother to prove that you have redeemed yourself if you don't show any improvement then forget about calling yourself a prince anymore"

"Nezil: father, your majesty but why?"

"The King: because of your intervention with Donatis we lost it and its people don't trust us anymore, hence the banishment"

"Nezil: if it's about those repels, why not take the town back by force? Why do I the second prince have to be humiliated and sent for reeducation all because of a single commoner"

"The King: silence!! Now leave!!"

"Nezil: y-y-yes sir!!"

"The King: bring me the broadcasting artifact, I'll announce my decision to the people"

"Prime Minister: your majesty, but that's-"

"The King: don't make me repeat myself!!"

"Prime Minister: yes sir"

===============================================

In the holy capital of the holy theocracy, Tris.

Inside the living room of the Rosewald household.

"Lyara: Li-chan, why will not agree to marry Ryo-kun?"

"Lira: Mom! How many times do I have to tell you, don't go deciding our future for us by yourself!!"

"Lyara: but he is a very good kid and also very cute, you know"

"Lira: every time! Every time! Every time! Why do you keep trying to recommend him to me?"

"Lyara: but you don't hate him, right?"

"Lira: of course I don't!!"

"Lyara: My! My! So you do love him, right Li-chan?!"

"Lira: that's not the point!! And he might have a girlfriend already!!"

"Lyara: what did you say?! If it turned out that he already has a girlfriend, I'll bite his ear off!! Wait just a moment…!"

"Lira: what are you going to do?"

"Lyara: I'm going to call him to make sure he doesn't have a girlfriend!!"

"Lira: stop it!! He told you not to call him if you don't have anything important to say!!"

"Lyara: but this is an important matter that concerns my daughter's future!! so I have to make sure!!"

"Lira: stop it!! It's my bad so please stop!!"

"Lyara: say you will marry him, then I'll stop"

"Lira: don't go deciding that on your own!!"

"Lyara: then I'll call him!"

"Lira: fine!! I'll say it!! All I have to do is say it!! Right?!"

"Lyara: yeah…"

"Lira: I'll marry him…"

"Lyara: that's my girl-"

"Lira: but only if he reaches (SS) rank by the end of this month"

"Lyara: Aaaaaa, that's not fair, Li-chan!!"

"Lira: not my problem!"

*dodododododododo*

"Rose: haa haa haa haa, Important news!! Important news just came from the guild!!"

"Lyara: calm down, Ro-chan"

"Lira: master? What happened?"

"Rose: the adventurer guild just now announced that the first human (SS) rank have appeared!!"

"Lyara: (SS) rank!! who?"

"Rose: his name is unknown but he is known by his titles The Divine Blacksmith because of his ability to create soul weapons, and the other title is Liberator because he freed the enslaved elfs in Donatis, and after that, he fought against an army of bandits that were led by Baris Von Donatis the son of the late lord of Donatis and he discovered that the church and the second prince of the Kazar kingdom Nezil Morten Kazar were helping the bandits, and because of that the people of Donatis have lost their trust in the church and the kingdom and to stop them from revolting, he declared Donatis and the forest where the elfs are living as his Domain"

"Lyara: it's Ryo-kun!! He really did it!!"

"Rose: I thought the same when I heard the news"

"Lyara: My My.."

"Lira: *Piku*"

"Lyara: Li-chan~, do you remember what you said earlier?"

"Lira: no I don't!! I'm going to my room…"

"Lyara: Aaaah, you you can't escape!!"

…

===============================================

The training to be able to fight using Ryuken was hard because I was not allowed to use my skills and without my skills, I was useless when it came to magic and mana control, in the first place I was born with less mana than the normal human in this world, I had only half. And to make things worse I had no talent for magic, and I had no attribute at all, the only magic I can use was common magic that has no attributes at all, that's why I created skills that compensate for all of this, but now I have to learn how to control my mana in a very special way.

The first stage was to channel my mana through the air and cover the pebbles on the table in front of me, I spent ten days just trying to make my mana reach the pebbles forcefully but that didn't work, so I tried doing it differently, Seth explained to me that dragons fight by creating barriers around their limps to slam them on their targets, so I tried doing the same thing but failed because I did not have the ability to create barriers with only my mana, then I remembered the tuxedo I made for Seth and how I made the textile and applied the same principle using my mana, and by the third day I succeeded in creating a woven layer of mana around my hand and then around my whole body, but the mana layer was only 1 mm thick and I needed it to be 5 cm at least, so I came up with the idea of stacking layers on top of each other and I was able to do it by the day number 17 since leaving Donatis.

"Seth: now in the second stage you have to use your mana to count the holes I made in each pebble without looking at them and from the same distance"

So I started to train using my layered mana to sense the things it touches, it took me three more days to be able to count the holes correctly and I did that by measuring the used mana to cover the pebbles, and trying to feel the distance between my hand and the pebbles and its direction.

"Seth: the next stage is to channel your mana from every cell on your body the same way you did from your hand and keep it up for three days"

I started doing it thinking that it was easy, but I was mistaken. This stage was the hardest of them all, at the start it was easy to do because all I had to do is to stake layered mana from my whole body, but as time went on it started to became more and more difficult because I needed to concentrate a lot to pull it off, but because I was able to sense when anything touches my mana it was easy to get distracted, and once I'm distracted my mana will go out of control and disappear, but in the end, I was able to do it in five days.

"Seth: next is the last stage, you'll start sparring with me and through that, you'll learn how to generate shockwaves from all over your body and how to change the effect of the shockwave by changing its shape"

We started sparring for the whole day, from morning till night on top of the carriage, since the fifth day since leaving Donatis I had Kage pulling the carriage as slow as possible so I can train, and on the day number 35 since leaving Donatis we were able to see a town in the distance, but…

*Woof! A group of monsters are attacking the town, what should I do?*

"Seth: Kage is right, I can see a group of 30 giant ants attacking the town, the soldiers seem to be trying to fend them off but they are having a hard time"

"Ryo: Seth you go back into the Jigen Domus and stay there when I need you I'll call for you, Kage stop the carriage 10 meters away from the monsters and I'll deal with them"

*Roger!!*

"Seth: Yes, Sir!"

I jumped from the carriage and started walking towards the ant monsters and when I was 5 meters away from the monsters I used {Aura: Taunt} to attract their attention.

*Scrrrreeeeeeech*

"Ryo: {Batto: Iai Isen Homura}"

I used fire magic to cover Scarlet with a bright red flames and then I slashed at the ant monsters sending the red flames toward them, the generated flames were so huge that they could be seen from the other side of the town's wall, the flames devoured all of the ant monsters leaving only their cores on the ground, after noticing that the flames had calmed down the soldiers on top of the wall started looking up from behind their covers and one of them, an old man who looked like an adventurer started talking to me.

"Old Man: thank you for helping us!! But may I ask for your identity?"

"Ryo: don't mind it!! And my name is Ryo a (B) rank adventurer, here is my guild card!!"

"Old Man: I see!! But what brings you to our town?"

"Ryo: I came to explore the dungeon near your town!!"

"Old Man: R-Really?! I'm opening the gate right now!!"

The old man opened the gate for me and I ordered Kage to move the carriage to the inside of the town, after that the old man introduced himself as the guild master of this town and asked me to go with him to his office, by the way, his name is Regil.

"Regil: welcome to the town of Duntia, would mind telling me the truth this time who are you?"

"Ryo: as I told you before, my name is Ryo and I'm a (B) rank adventurer, and I came to this town to explore the dungeon"

"Regil: don't lie!! That attack you used on the Giant Ants is not something a (B) rank can use, but you did it so easily"

"Ryo: got it! Calm down!! My name is Ryo and I'm the new (SS) rank known as The Divine Blacksmith, and I'm here to explore the dungeon, here is my guild card, is this enough?"

"Regil: yeah, now everything makes sense, sorry for doubting you, but this town is in a really bad situation right now and I didn't want some unknown stranger causing trouble"

"Ryo: bad situation? Can you tell me what is happening to this town right now?"

"Regil: well, it's the dungeon that you came to explore since a three months ago the monsters in the dungeon have started to overflow out of the dungeon unnaturally and in huge numbers, we tried killing as much as we could but that was not enough at all, and after that, all the travelling adventurers left the town because it became not safe for them to stay, and right after that the lord and all the nobles left the town for the same reason leaving us commoners to fend for ourselves. well, no one can blame them for doing that, no one would let his kids live in a dangerous place like this, but the problems started to appear after that.."

"Ryo: what happened?"

"Regil: the thing is that the lord of this town is a real greedy one, since the start of his rule over this town he placed an additional tax on the adventurers visiting his territory to explore the dungeon, and that was in the form of the materials they get from the dungeon, and that they have to give 30% of the materials to the lord or they would be not allowed to explore the dungeon, and now after he left he demanded that 50% of the materials to be sent to him in the royal capital and to make sure of that he placed two guys in the town, their job is to keep order in the town and to make sure that no one is hunting the monsters without permission and to collect the 50% of the materials from all the monsters in the territory"

"Ryo: all the monsters? Not only the ones from the dungeon?"

"Regil: yeas all, because all the monsters in this territory right now came from the dungeon is what he said, and because of that we don't have enough materials to repair the weapons and armour used by the local adventurers and solders to fight the monsters attacking the town nor enough to make new ones"

"Ryo: okay, got it. I'll exterminate all the monsters in this territory and try to solve the dungeon's situation"

"Regil: really, thank you that will help us a lot!"

"Ryo: but for that, I'll take all the materials I get from the monsters for myself, of course, I'll give you enough materials to compensate the town for its loses"

"Regil: okay deal!! But what about the lord?"

"Ryo: just blame me for everything"

"Regil: Got it!!"

"Ryo: you said there are no travelling adventurers in this town.."

"Regil: yes, is what I want to say but there are two 15 years old youngsters, a boy and a girl who came to this town one month ago and helped us fight against the monsters, but three days ago the boy was hit by a Giant Basilisk's poison and since there is no cure for that poison in this town he is dying slowly even now"

"Ryo: ….what about the girl?"

"Regil: she is the boy's lover, that's why she is closer to death than him, mentally at least. Everyone in the town are feeling bad about what is happened to the two of them, but there is nothing we can do about that"

"Ryo: can you take me to were the boy is?"

"Regil: do have a way to heal him?"

"Ryo: yeah"

"Regil: got it!! Come with me!"

The Giant Basilisk is an (A) rank monster that uses poison to attack, but it's a monster that is easy to kill because of its low defence and slow movements, but what makes it an (A) rank monster is its regenerative ability, as long as it's still alive it can regenerate any lost part of its body, and the scary thing is that its regenerative ability is applied to its poison, that's why you have to remove all the poison from the victim's body at the same time without leaving not even a single molecule of it or it will regenerate and return to the original amount.

Regil took me to a room inside the guild building where they let injured adventurers rest, he knocked on the door but no one answered but he opened the door regardless of that, going into the room there was a girl crying silently while holding the boy's hand, the boy is laying on the bed unconscious, his body was covered with bandages but he is clearly at death's door, when I stood in the opposite side of the bed from the girl, she noticed me and raised her face and started looking at me with empty eyes with tears flowing down from them.

"Ryo: I'm here to help, {Purification}…..{High Heal}"

I used {Purification} to remove all the poison from his body at the same time, and after that, I used {High Heal} to heal the damage his body sustained because of the poison, shortly after that he started opening his eyes a muttering something but I couldn't understand what he was saying.

"Boy: L….t…i….."

"Girl: Shin!! Shin!! Shin!! Waaaaaahh"

The girl hugged the boy and started crying while calling the boy's name repeatedly, I left the room with the guild master to give them some alone time together, Three hours later the two of them finally came out of the room, is seems that the girl kept crying for two hours straight and after she finally calmed down they needed to clean the boy's body from blood and filth that have accumulated over the period of three days since they didn't change his bandages ever, because of the current situation the town doesn't have enough bandages, potions and medicine to treat the injured people since there is no one who wants to deliver supplies to this dangerous town.

"Shin: my name is Shin, I'm a © rank adventurer, I'm really grateful for saving my life!"

"Loti: my name is Loti, I'm the same as Shin a © rank adventurer, thank you for healing Shin's injuries, I don't know what I would have done if he actually died, really thank you very much"

"Ryo: please raise your heads, you don't need to go that far to thank me I only did the natural thing to do, and my name is Ryo I'm one rank above the two of you a (B) rank adventurer"

"Regil: now let us discuss what is your plans for tomorrow, Ryo. What is your plan?"

"Ryo: I'll start by sending my tamed monsters tonight to kill all the monsters that overflowed from the dungeon, and then I'll head for the dungeon myself tomorrow at sunrise"

"Regil: don't you need help? We can send some adventurers with you when you go to the dungeon tomorrow"

"Ryo: no need for that, and besides that if by any chance I failed and died in the dungeon who is going to protect the town? Let the adventurers rest for now and be prepared in case I die in the dungeon"

"Regil: I appreciate that you are worried about the town, but is it possible for someone like you to die?"

"Ryo: of course I can die!! I'm just a human at the end of the day!"

"Regil: Hahahahahahahahaha!! My stomach!! My s-stomach hurts!! Hahahaha!!"

"Ryo: what has gotten into you, old man?!"

"Regil: it's just that your joke was so funny I couldn't stop myself"

"Shin: erm....can I ask you something? Ryo-san!"

"Ryo: what?"

"Shin: you are planning to go to the dungeon tomorrow, right?"

"Ryo: yeah"

"Shin: then, I want you to take me with you!!"

"Loti: me too!! I want to go!!"

"Ryo: why? Were you not close to death's door just moments ago? And now you want to go and risk your life again"

"Shin: in the first place I became an adventurer so I can become stronger to protect my family, what happened three days ago was my mistake, but because of that I learned that I need to become stronger to be able to protect my family!"

"Loti: me too!! I want to get stronger so I can protect Shin next time!!"

"Regil: see? I told you that they both are good kids"

"Ryo: I like that!! Both of you!! Let's form a party! The three of us!!"

"Shin: thank you very much!!"

"Loti: thank you!!"

"Ryo: now both of you come with me, I'm going to give you new weapons and I'll repair your damaged armour"

"Shin: y-you can do that?"

"Ryo: yeah, I'm a blacksmith after all"

"Shin: then, please do!!"

"Loti: Me too!! Me too!!"

"Ryo: aright then, follow me!"

We started walking towards the exit of the guild building, and when we were outside there was a carriage stopped in front of the building, the carriage was red in colour with some kind of crest made out of metal installed to the side of it, the carriage was tied to two horned horses, once we exited from the building two guys got off from the carriage and started walking toward us while eyeing Loti vulgarly.

"Idiot No.1: my my it seems like the stubborn girl from before is finally out, we thought that she'd finally gave up on that prat and came to become our plaything but he went and survived��

"Idiot No.2: that's true, if he would have just died we would have been very happy by now, really unfortunately"

"Idiot No.1: so, what do you say leaving that prat and coming to play with us?"

"Ryo: I see, so the town is in this bad shape because it was left in the hands of these shit-heads"

"Idiot No.1: did I hear you say something, prat?"

"Ryo: yeah, I said that both of you guys are shit-heads, or would you prefer if I called you turd-heads?"

"Idiot No.2: the report about the town's gate being opened without our permission seems to be true, and they did it so this badmouthed prat can enter"

"Idiot No.1: yeah, looks like we need to teach them their place"

They both unsheathed their swords and started walking towards me slowly, from the way they welded their weapons to the way they walked it seems that both of them are professional assassins, when they reached 2 meters away from me they slashed at me at the same time, Shin and Loti tried to intervene but Regil held them back, I used Ryuken to catch their swords in my hands and then I sent shockwaves throughout the swords shattering them, both the guys were stunned because of what happened but they regained their cool and tried to pull away from me, but I used {Flash Step} to close the distance between us and punched them both in the solar plexus, but they were not knocked out yet.

"Idiot No.1: y-you…*cough* ..dare go ….against us …*cough*"

"Ryo: just be thankful that I didn't kill you, or do you want to die…{Fear}"

"Hiiiiii!!"x2

They both lost conscious from fear and dropped down on the ground soiling themselves in the proses, Regil was laughing his head off, Shin and Loti were looking from the two idiots to me repeatedly with faces full of surprise, after that Regil asked one of the guild workers to take the two unconscious guys back to the lord's mansion.

"Ryo: now let's go!!"

"Shin: yes!!"

"Loti: yes sir!!"

================================================================

Trivia:

(SS) rank = Gold card = Impossible to Classify

(S) rank = Silver card = Hero

(A) rank = Red card = Veteran Adventurer

(B) rank = Blue card = pro Adventurer

(C) rank = Green card = Adventurer

(D) rank = Brown card = Novice Adventurer

(E) rank = White card = Newbie Adventurer