Chapter 24 - A new face

[3° Person POV]

The group formed by Diane, Elijah, Diamond and Note was created, with everyone having Jasmine as a security professional among them. While it was daylight, after coming out of their Rank exams, they went straight to Beast Glades to venture out, before nightfall, the goal was to go as deep as they could until they found a calm clearing with some large rocks that could be used as a wall.

"We can stay there, it's getting dark now, isn't it? Elijah, can you create an earth dome for us to use as shelter?" Diamond spoke as he stood where their camp would be.

"It's pretty easy, even for a dark red mage, spells like creating earth walls are the first things I should learn. So..." Elijah said as he approached that wall, extending his hands and slowly lifting some extra walls, it would take a while.

While they waited, Jasmine and Diamond went looking for dry branches, Diane looked for a nearby lake and Note stayed there looking out for Elijah's safety. It turned out that mana beasts weren't near by, so they set up the small camp. Diane used her water spells to bring back a good amount of water from a lake that she could see next to the camp. Diamond and Jasmine took a large amount of dry grass and sticks that would serve as fuel for the campfire, and Note lit the fire. The 5 sat around it, while behind them were 2 Earth domes, which Elijah said was made like this to be a dome for the girls and one for the boys.

Diane asked Note to use his dimensional ring so she could get something inside their bags, she seemed to have a small kitchen set inside her bag. She took it to the fire and started using the water she got and some vegetables to do something.

"What're you cooking?" Elijah asked, still a little tired because of the big earth domes he made for them all.

"A stew, it is a family recipe. I hope that when you taste it, you don't think it's too bad." She said with an embarrassed laugh.

"Hm...why do you say that?" Note looked at her a little confused.

"It's just that I learned the recipe just 2 weeks ago... and my mom didn't like the last time I cooked it for her." Diane said a little embarrassed and sad, while the others were deadpan.

She finished cooking and everyone sat down to taste it, the first to put it in mouth was Elijah, who didn't seem to be affected by any intoxication and didn't have an expression of horror. That means, it was edible and not so bad, making others taste it too.

"Yeah, I've taken better ones, but it's good, if we're going to consider the situation we're in..." Diamond said, unfiltered.

"Uh...thanks..I think..." Diane said with a few little coughs and looked at Elijah. "Don't you guys feel weird having a little kid with us?"

"Well. He has eleven years and also... he looks amazing enough to have made it to B Class in the exam." Diamond said, while Note laughed, probabily because he and Diamond were 9/10 years old, but Diane didn't know.

"Well... this was paying, so I'm not so amazing as I appear.. But uh... so, what do we do?" Elijah asked looking at Jasmine.

She was still and thinking a lot, until she answered "Dungeon Exploring"

"Okay. We can do explorations and between those periods practice moves and such. After the Kaspian fight, I think I need to focus more on my swordsmanship." Note said with a slight laugh.

"So you're going to train fire blade moves with Jasmine?" Diane said as she took the stew.

"No, I'll just use my skills without using mana. I'll only use mana in extreme moments... Jasmine, what do you think about me training this for 2 years?" Note spoke looking at his mentor.

Jasmine gave a little cough as she took the stew, "Are you sure?"

"Absolute!" he answered her.

"Well.. I'm going to focus more on my mana core. Diamond, will you join me?" Elijah said as he stretched a little, lying down on the grass.

"Sure!" Diamond replied, but then looked at Note. With his mana beast pouring out of his clothing and running away.

"S-Sylvie?!" Note exclaimed seeing his bond running away.

"Relax... It's a mana beast. We'd better let her train alone." Jasmine said to calm the young man in the white mask with blue.

"I agree, you guys have a psychic link, don't you? Use that so you don't worry." Diamond said, while watching the two new companions' reaction of that scene.

"W-what was that?" Diane said as she stood up.

"It was Note's Bond. Not even he knows the exact species. We just found it around." Diamond answered her. And after a few other simple conversations, they went to sleep inside the domes.

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It would have been 5 months, the group was currently consisting of Elijah, Jasmine, Note and Diamond, as Diane had left so she could visit her family before they went to a dungeon. This dungeon they were in was C ranked, so that Note could train his techniques without mana and Elijah could use his current skills more easily.

"Hey guys! Are you holding up well?" Diamond said excitedly, with Redyspier in hand and at the head of the group.

By the time they were approaching the boss room of that dungeon, the formation consisted of Diamond in the front, Note and Jasmine in the center, and Elijah in the back. The 3 sections of the group were separated into roles, the front section need take care of the monsters, the middle section needed to finish off the monsters that passed in front and protect the back, and the back section needed create barriers so mana beasts wouldn't follow them.

"Yes, I am! I'm still getting used to creating several of these walls consecutively!" Elijah exclaimed as he formed yet another protective earth wall behind the group.

"Fine! I think I can take it longer now!" Said Note, while panting a little and there was blood on his normal sword's blade.

"Hmhm!" Jasmine made a sound as she nodded and lifted the thumb of her right hand.

"Great! From what I've heard from some trusted adventurers, the description at the end of this hallway corresponds to the entrance to the boss room. Even though this dungeon is full of D-class mana beasts with water affinities, the mana beast species in the area of the boss, by this same information, has fire affinities. So be prepared!" Diamond spoke as he injected wind mana and corrupted mana into his sword, causing the blade to take on a dark green aura.

Entering the boss's room, they saw that it was a space that could be considered open, if it weren't for the high ceiling of the cave, in the middle of that area they could see five giant salamanders, around six meters, they seemed to have a skin with rock appearance.

"Andesite Burning Salamanders! They are C class!" Note exclaimed, he would have studied a lot about cataloged mana beast types during his rest times between training.

"Good. Elijah, you need to 'fix' this arena," Jasmine said, as he approached the area.

"Rocky Fall!" Elijah released the spell, aiming for the ceiling of the cave, with parts of the ceiling being separated from there and falling on top of the Salamanders.

The salamanders thus noticed the group, with two of them apparently being knocked out by the surprise attack as the advanced. One towards Diamond and the other towards Jasmine and Note.

"Focus! Soul Speed!" Diamond did a double spell and rushed at his enemy, jumping on top of that Andesite Burning Salamander. The black smoke that appeared on his legs made the enemy not see where he was and easily, the adventurer tries to drive his sword between the cracks of the enemy's stone skin.

"Razor Wind!" The adventurer delivered a point-blank attack on the enemy between those cracks. It seemed that the blade enchanted with wind and corruption made that attack much more effective, opening a large wound on the enemy.

It began to release boiling blood and fall weakly to the ground.

While this was happening, Jasmine would be hampering the salamanders using attacks with her wind-infused sword, and Note would attack and tried to hit his blade between the cracks of one of the salamanders, but to no success.

The mana beasts started to spit fire towards them.

"Wind Pulse!" Jasmine used her spell to protect herself, augmenting her legs to jump higher and go out of the Salamanders' aim.

"Create a little part of my kingdom, the earth! Earth Wall!" Elijah used also a spell, protecting Note.

The fight went on until they managed to defeat the 3 salamanders there. As for the two others that remained and were passed out, they decided to leave them there because that was already a good size for them.

The team left with 3 C ranks mana beast's cores , 6 D ranks and some loots like salamander scales and some membranes from water mana beasts. They went directly to the Xyrus Adventurer's Guild to exchange their earned items for cash.

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[Luz Leywin POV]

I arrived again at the adventurers guild, after 5 months without going there. The situation was very calm, not having so many adventurers in the reception area. I notice that same receptionist, Mary, there and I approach her along with Jasmine.

"Oh! Hello again, Adventurers Jasmine Flamesworth and Diamond! How can I help you?" She said smiling.

"We're here to trade loot for money. Within these 5 months my party has been at some dungeons and I've done a few dungeons myself. So, while there are trades for the items that Jasmine carries. I wanted to trade with Mr. Bladeheart the things I've achieved separately." I told her, Jasmine just confirmed what I was saying.

The secretary went to the back door and after a few minutes came back. "Mr. Bladeheart is in a meeting at the moment. May I exchange items for your Party while you wait for your turn to go talk to him?" The secretary gave an option that I accepted calmly and I sat down in a chair, watching Jasmine take some backpacks out of her dimensional ring and handing them over to the secretary to do the exchanges and evaluate.

It was impressive how fast we were making. Currently, the Party had done 3 dungeons, and I was present in the first and the last one. In between these, I had done a total of 2 other dungeons by myself.

As there were no people around, I was able to overuse my spells: Focus and Thunderclap Impulse; to keep myself awake and do these dungeons without having to do some stops. Besides being able to use all my spells instead of restricting my body to the wind element and some little plant tricks.

I saw Jasmine getting the money in exchange for the items and she watched me, I waved my hand so she could go. We had arranged that I would see my parents after I made my trades here. I even asked Art if he wanted to come with me, but he decided that he would continue to train hard in his swords skills without magic, and that I could go to our family and update them on how things were going.

Now I was alone in Xyrus' guild, it took around half an hour for me to be called. I got up and followed Secretary Mary to Kaspian's office. He was there and he seemed to have a red haired girl next to him.

"Welcome, adventurer Diamond. Have you been doing well these 5 months?" He said with a smile on his face. As if his heart had been softened before I went in his office.

"It went well. My Party and I did a total of 2 dungeons together while I did about 2 solo dungeons." I said walking to the table, still watching the girl next to Kaspian. She looked surprised by what I said.

"Fine, what rank did you go to?" He said leaning back a little in his chair, facing me.

"The ones I made with my Party were C rank, and the ones I made alone were B rank. And before you ask... Yes, I have my methods of completing a dungeon straight, without rest." My speech made the red-haired girl next to him more impressed while Kaspian only gave a light laugh.

"But... Could you tell me who this young woman is?" I asked simply, as I took the bags of loot out of my dimensional ring.

"She's my niece, Claire Bladeheart. She kind of decided today to see how my business was going. A very special little girl by the way, she's even in her second year at Xyrus Academy." Kaspian said in a proud voice, while I could see the girl getting totally embarrassed at that moment, blushing and head down.

"Hmm... Nice to meet you, Claire Bladeheart, my name is Diamond, I'm a newbie adventurer." I introduced myself to try to ease her discomfort.

"I know. My uncle talks a lot about you, an adventurer who appeared out of nowhere as a sponsor of someone from the famous Flamesworth family, and who could copy his moves and even defeat him without any problems. But still, nice to meet you, Diamond." She said that and now her uncle who looked embarrassed.

"W-well! Let's get down to business. What did you bring me?" Kaspian said changing the subject of conversation and I put three bags on his desk.

The bags were separated by the class of monsters I faced. One had some class A tusks and cores, another had class B scales and cores, and the last had only class C mana cores.

"I've already sorted everything out for you, Mister Kaspian. This is the 'payment' for allowing me to do dungeons by myself." I said while Kaspian took a good look at the bag with Class A items, there were 20 mana cores at most.

"How much.. But how?" he asked me and I just gave a sigh.

"These are from that new A-class mana beast they recently cataloged, the one that is classified as a parasitic fungus that infects earth-affinity mana beasts. As reported, they infect the host and turn it into a puppet, apparently the longer the host is infected, the more its mana core becomes a copy of the parasite's core, but these cores are fine to use as a mana battery, the only problem is the parasite itself."

I replied and Kaspian took a deep breath to recover all this information, but then he realized something. "Wait, aren't these mana beasts the ones that never leave the rank A dungeon that was put on the guild's central map recently?"

"Oh! I'm sorry! I lied so many times to my Party saying I went to rank B dungeons, that I myself believed. It was actually both rank A solo dungeons." I scratched the back of my head for having given him wrong information at first, the girl seemed to widen her eyes as he just chuckled.

"Haha! Adventurer Diamond, stop surprising me, please! Anyway, the way I know you, I don't even need to confirm if you really separated correctly, so good job. But excuse my curiosity, what are you going to do for now?"

"Nothing much, I'm thinking of staying away for a few weeks to visit my family in Elenoir. Why this question?" I said that, it wasn't a lie that I was going to visit my family, but I still had to endure the lie that I was an elf.

"No big deal, I'm thinking of hiring you for a few things, but they're not really needed at the moment, so I can wait a long time. What about your Party?"

"As far as I know they'll stay training and do missions that don't involve dungeons while I'm gone." I answered him.

"Anyway, good to see you again Kaspian. I'll let you know when I get back to Beast Glades." I said turning to leave, but soon stopped with the girl's voice.

"I'm sorry, Adventurer Diamond. But I'd like to see you in action for a bit. From the things my uncle told me, I just look forward to be someone like you." Claire said excitedly.

"Oh! Sure. No problem. But what do you mean 'to be someone like you'?" I said a little confused.

"It's just that I'm an Augmenter of the elements of fire and wind. Since you're a Wind Augmenter, like my uncle, I'd like to see skills that maybe I can learn!" She said even more excitedly and I let out a long breath.

"Kaspian, are you using the arena at the moment?" I said after some seconds, defeated, it's no good to break a girl's happiness like that. She just gave a happy little jump.

"There hasn't been any schedule for rank exams these days and anyway it's already starting to get dark, our exam time is only in the morning. So the arena is all clear." He said as he got up and smiled too, by the way the happiness of his niece was contagious.

After we got ready, we arrived at the arena, it was empty as Kaspian said, and it looks like he asked some guards to keep an eye out for anyone entering while I was doing my little demonstration.

I went with Claire to the center of the arena, she had a rapier in her hands, and I laughed.

"Does the Bladeheart family only know how to use rapiers?" I said in a rather comical voice as I raise my common sword.

"I've been being trained by my uncle until now. So it's something more of him... And please... Use the same sword you used against him. He told me so much about the beauty of it, and this sword in your hands now isn't like how he described."

With her saying so sweetly and confidently, I slammed my common sword into the arena floor and grabbed Redyspier from my dimensional ring. We got into position as if we were all over each other, just waiting for her uncle to allow us to get started.

"Lets...BEGIN!" with him exclaiming, Claire started to charge directly at me.

I just stood there watching her approach, she looked like she had her rapier blade wrapped in wind mana. "Here I will demonstrate my swiftness, become a blur, oh my blade! Skyfall Torrent!"

"Focus..." I said my spell activating it, and I could see as if she was at half speed, so I started to dodge her attacks, but then I jumped back, pulling away. Giving a chuckle without realizing it. "If your uncle really talked about my fight, you'd know this doesn't work out so well against me as a first move."

"Hmm... he told me you used a shield... but now you managed to dodge it so fluidly... How?!" She exclaimed as she seemed to spin the blade soaked in wind, forming a horizontal hurricane that goes towards me.

"Hmmm. Interesting, but let's electrify things..." I said holding the Redyspier in a relaxed way and smiled saying my next spell, this being a combo.

"Thunderclap Impulse... Soul Speed." Before that hurricane reached me, my whole body was completely filled with lightning around me, which due to Soul Speed, were of a black color. I ran to the side and as if in a flash, I appeared at Claire's side, smiling at her without attacking.

It took her a while to realize that she hadn't hit me and that I was now beside her, 1 meter away, watching her with the eyes of my mask glowing a very bright blue.

Still not understanding, she tried to attack me with her sword in a layer of wind, making several horizontal cuts, which I dodged by taking steps backwards or even going under them. We stayed like that for a few seconds, I could see Kaspian's face, his expression for see that I was having fun with his niece who was trying everything to hit me, but never get.

I took a few steps back and watched her well, she stopped attacking me when I spoke again.

"Your swings look really goods, but I think something's missing... or maybe you already have that something, but you dropped it with my teasing. Concentration and understanding. You have to remember who you're fighting and focus on the movements of the members of that fight that you are... Also, augment your rapier with fire like mine." I told her, and she is confused until I say my spell.

"Ignition." My blade stops having the wind attribute, and starts to catch fire. The look of confusion turned to surprise.

"Wait, but weren't you a Wind Augmenter?!?"

"I understand your confusion, well I'm listed as one, but the deal I made with your uncle also took into account that he wouldn't tell anyone about my elements without my permission. " I said looking now at Kaspian who was sitting analyzing the demostration.

"B-but why did you decide to show it now? To me?" she said with her confusion now having another reason.

"Because, just like you, I'm an Augmenter of Fire and Wind... in fact I can even unleash attacks like a Conjurer... And sort of... I want to do something for Kaspian. After all, I'm sensing that handing him 80% of my loot isn't a grand reward for the favor he's doing by keeping things a secret." I said, smiling behind the mask.

"But for that, you also have to show me if I should." I continued.

"And what would it be?" she asked, doing as I asked before and imbuing her blade with flames.

"Show me what you can do, it doesn't matter if you're going to faint from trying. But if you go all out and meet my expectations... I won't just show you some tricks, I'll mentor you." My speech was slowly transforming the girl's face, which went from curious to shocked and then to determined, with a smile appearing on his face.

She gripped her flaming sword more firmly and backed away, waiting for me to attack her. I advance against her, still with SoulSpeed ​​active, but Thunderclap Impulse deactivated, thus causing a dark fog to appear on my legs, which covers the arena and part of her vision, my sword is touching the ground of the arena and when I'm 2 meters away I make a quick movement, throwing dust up, with the addition of SoulSpeed ​​smoke, it was surrounded by a dense dark fog.

The only thing both she and I could see within that thick, dark fog was the glow of the flames that came from our swords. We start attacking each other, our blades clashing and making loud metal sounds, until I do a stunt, coming up behind her and kicking her in the back, putting only my physical strength into the attack.

From the way the light from her blade moved, it looked like she fell to the ground but soon managed to recover. I didn't let this opportunity pass and we continued to attack each other through the mist, until our glowing blades were each close to each other's throats.

"What did you think of that?" She said, with her face more or less visible, she was smiling.

"Good, but you need to learn that." I said injecting wind mana into my sword already imbued with fire mana, making both elements interact and the glow of my blade become more intense, causing she to stepback as the mist was gone.

"This is a magical combination of elements... I call this... Omega Flame..." I threw all the mana that was in my blade towards her, she dodged it rolling, and the place that fireball hit, it looked like a mini crater.

"You really know, how special are we? HOW AMAZING CAN WE BE?" I said exclaiming, throwing another Omega Flame in her direction, and she dodged it again, she was starting to get a little scared, I could feel it.

"Duo-Elementals are amazing in general. But it's the combination of elements that sets them apart the most! Look at me! Look at you!" I said using another Omega Flame, but before hitting her, I launch a Wind blast that sends that fireball into the sky and explodes like a firework.

"Wind and Fire! It's one of the best combinations for people of our kind! With one you control the other! With one you amplify the other!" I keeped saying that, teasing her, and she tried to copy the same movement as me, but could only launch a projectile that contained only fire mana.

"And yet, it can serve to destroy the other." I say making a movement with my left hand that, causing her fireball to dissipate in midair.

I advance against her, using a mixture of fire propulsion and vacuum creation, passing her side easily without attacking her, but she turns around, continuing to watch me. I was now propelling myself into the air, flying still there, flames shooting from my feet and the wind mana serving as additional fuel.

"I've seen the way you fight, you lack practice in uniting these two incredible elements that I'm getting closer to mastering... but I've seen your eyes... Your eyes filled with determination." I deactivate that spell while I'm at the top and then reactivate it for a moment only to slide down to the floor of the arena, now standing in front of her.

"I said I'd like to see you try to pass out because of overusing mana. But I could already tell by the look in your eyes that it would be worth helping you out. So..."

"So...?" She was quite shocked by it all, the fear she felt turned to admiration the instant she realized that I wasn't trying to scare her, just showing how someone like her can become stronger with learning and understanding.

"...What days do you want me to come train you?" at my question, she grabbed my free hand, with both of hers, she had such an amazing smile on her face.

Soon another flashback occurred in my mind, of a world before this one. This was happening from time to time, with at least a 2 week break between each one, but this time it was triggered by her expression.

In this flashback, I was on a hill, with the sky dark and starry, I could see a surreal landscape of the rings of the planet I was on, and in front of me, there was a girl also with red hair, smiling in that same way. I could remember well why she was smiling, she had found hope in being with me.

I soon smiled back at her, breaking out of that illusion of my multiple pasts. I slipped my sword into my waistband and patted her lightly, even though she was a little taller than me.

"I-is this serious? Will you train her? A-And what was that? Were you flying?!?" Kaspian said as he approached us.

"That was just forcing fire and wind under my feet. It needs efficient mana use and great balance, I honestly fell on ground with my face the last time I did that." With my comment, Claire started to laugh at me, still holding tight to my left hand, while my right just scratched the back of my neck.

"And talking about the times for that. I've been thinking about making slightly regular trips out of the Guild so I can visit my family, this is going to be the first one and I was thinking of staying with them for two weeks. So if you want, when I get back from there we can start her training." I continued, answering the first question Kaspian had asked.

"But won't that be too little?" She said, making me laugh.

"No silly. Every time I go to visit my family, after the visit and before returning to my adventurer duties, I will train you or see how you are doing. The maximum time I will stay with you at all these moments I will still discuss with your uncle. Understand now?" I explained to her and noticed her blush a little, which made me chuckle softly.

"Okay then, we'll see that later, for now, have a good afternoon." Kaspian said, giving a nod as he returned inside the main guild building.

Claire after a few seconds released me and looked at me. "I'll be waiting for you, okay?"

"Sure." I answered her.

I get my things and we went inside the building together, but I was the only one out of it through the main entrance. I started walking around Xyrus a little, in an area far from the Helstea mansion, until I went through a dead end and activated my sound magic, creating an illusion that I was invisible. I went up in one of the houses near, with my cloak , mask and sword inside my dimensional ring and being dressed in my ordinary clothes that I had stored in it.

I started now heading towards the mansion at high speed with the help of fire boosters in my feet, Soul Speed ​​and Thunderclap Impulse. Being able to already see the place where my parents were living in the distance. I sat on the roof of the nearest house, still with the illusion spell active, I sighed.

"Eh, apparently my plan to pay Curtis and Kathyln a visit isn't going to be the only thing I'm doing on my 'mini vacation'." That was my thought, really I was stuffing myself with things to do when in fact I had promised Art that I would stay with our family all the time on my temporary vacation.

Eh.. Arthur, trusting an old man like me is kind of a bet sometimes. He should learn this...

But that girl... Claire. She is also in Xyrus Academy... Man, I'm really gonna to be one of my seniors' mentor? This is really a thing.