In the throne room, all of the heroes were standing in a group. This also Included Echo, who seemed in a bad mood. In front of the group, Walther was bowing down before the king. The king himself doesn't look happy, as five heroes died during the fight and this obviously wasn't good for him.

"So Walther. Give me your report on the attack on the fortress."The king commands him and so, Walther obeys his orders and starts to talk...

After he finishes talking everything, that had happened there, the king goes to deep thoughts, while looking at the heroes.

A few minutes pass, before he says"I understand. Does anyone have something to add?"

Silence.

No one says a word and all of the people in the group, look away from the king, so they wouldn't make any eye contact. As for Echo, he has his eyes closed and his hands crossed in front of his chest.

"So If no one has anything to add, you can leave then."the King says and so, the others leave with Walther. Now, only Echo is still in the room and The King seeing, that he hasn't left, asks"Why are you still here?"

"My payment."Echo replies, after opening his eyes, to look at the King.

The King then flicks his fingers and immediately a pouch full of gold coins is brought to Echo, who takes the pouch and puts it into his shoulder bag.

"Well then. I'm out."Echo says and leaves the room too. He walks through a few corridors, before leaving the castle. He then walks through the noble district and soon reaches the business district, where he has business to do.

To be precise, he wanted to buy a weapon for himself. He may hate using bladed weapon, but he still needed something. So what he decided to look for, is a staff. There obviously are other options, but the staff is the only one he could use to an extend. Reason for this sudden need for a weapon, was because during the last battle, he learned, that he can't only relay on his Fiat and feet.

So now he is looking for a staff. First obvious place was go to the same blacksmith, that he has gone for these past few months. So he sets towards that store.

He soon gets in front of the stores door, which he opens and enters the building. He closes the door behind him and looking in front of him, he sees the same dwarf, he saw the first time he came here.

"So what you wish today?"he asks Echo, who replies to him"I'm looking for a staff about 1,8m long."

"Hmm. I have a few regular metal and wood ones, but you are more interested in interesting weapons. Am I right lad?"Dwarf says, while looking at Echo, who lifts his hands and says"You got me there. So show me the more interesting staff."

If you come across this story on Amazon, it's taken without permission from the author. Report it.

"Wait here then lad."The Dwarf says and goes to a back room, with a lot of loud sounds of searching following it.

After a few minutes, the Dwarf comes back, with a short stick, that seems about 30cm long. He hands it over to Echo, who receives it and looks at the stick, in his hands.

"Uum. This is just a small stick Dwarf."Echo tells him and the Dwarf replies"Well because apparently right now, this thing is in it's off mode and can be only turned on, by directing mana into it, but..."

"There's a catch?"Echo asks him.

"Yes. Apparently, it won't activate to anyone."he tells Echo"Apparently it chooses it's own owner."

"Hmm. Interesting."Echo says and then just controls and directs his mans into the black stick in his hands. He feels how his mana is slowly being started to be drained by the stick and as he loses his mana, he sees, how red lines start to form on the stick. The Dwarf himself looks at the scene with an amazed face.

As his mana is about to be completely drained, the draining stops and then he feels a burning sensation in his right wrist. So he grabs the place, which seems to burn, with his left hand. As the burning sensation fades away, he takes away his arm from his wrist and sees a letter, written in black, next to his E-7 mark. The letter is: 棒 .

Echo looks at the letter and blinks a few times. He looks at it and tries to figure out what it means and a after a minute, he thinks

'I have no fucking idea what it means....It looks like it's some kind of asian country letter, but I have no idea, what it could mean....that it belonged to someone, who also was originally from Earth.'

"Hey lad. You okay?"The Dwarf asks him, which brings Echo out of his thoughts and he answers"Yeah...I'm fine. How much for it?"

"Ten gold coins."the Dwarf answers and Echo, without caring, pays him ten golf coins and leaves the store.

He quickly walks home(Ninas store) and when entering, he sees a costumer behind the counter, talking with Nina. So Echo waits for the costumer to leave and when he does, he walks behind the counter and hugs her from behind.

"Echo."he cries out his name"Not here."

Echo looks at her and says"I just wanted to hug you. I will do you later st night."

He kisses her ear and goes to the back room. There he sees Skyeza cooking something in the kitchen with Kuro, who is helping her.

'Sky did mention that she wanted to learn how to cook....the last time she tries to cook....weeeel it didn't go well.'Echo shutters, as he remembers that and quickly throws the memory out of his head for now.

Not wanting to disturb the two girls, he just goes upstairs, to change clothes. He walks up the stairs and enters a bedroom, where he takes of his cloak and hid armor. He then puts on regular boots and throws his shoulder bag onto the table.

He then looks at the black stick, with red glowing lines on it. He observes it and then gets up, so he could try it. He holds it horizontally and thinks about a stick. The next moment, he hears some kind of a weird sound and then he sees, how the stick just goes longer and then stops, when it is about 1,8m long. The lines themselves now look stretched out, but still are glowing red.

Because there isn't a lot of room in this room, he can't test out some moves. So he is stuck just looking at it. As he looks at it, he starts to think, that If it could change into a staff, could it change into any other weapon.

So Echo starts to concentrate and thinks about a spear, but nothing. He tries again a few times, but still nothing. He tries to think about other weapons, but it still stays in a staff form.

Seeing, that it can only be a staff, hr thinks about , how the staff turns back to a stick and the next moment, it collapses back into the 30cm stick.

"Interesting."