As the group enter the Cave, Ray is amazed at the number of monsters and at how different the atmosphere felt. There were different monsters all living in harmony and simply enjoying themselves. The old bonfire that was there when they had fought the orc lord was still there, however now there was more, they had made a pen for their wolves, they had dug further into the cave and made separate rooms where they stored food, the bathroom, storage of items and even rooms for people to stay in. It truly was like a whole new environment.

“Wow!”, Lilly stated as she looked around the area.

“You really have outdone yourself here Ken.”, Ray says hands on hips, nodding in admiration.

“Yeah, well it wasn’t all me, most of the digging had been done by the orcs and the hobgoblins built most of the fences and baskets. Not to mention Lee is a very big help when it comes to leading.”, Ken replied, smiling.

“Yeah, but it’s a leader's job to make sure people use their skills to the best of their abilities so just take the compliment.”, Ray says smiling.

“H-Hello fri-ends.”, Lee said in Demilang, recognising Ray and Lilly.

As Ray and Lilly looked over, they saw... what use to be Hob-Lee but was now Og-Lee, she looked relatively the same, but she was now staller, 5 foot 10 and was a lot more muscular, however still maintained her feminine charm. As she walked over, she walked over to Ken and kissed him. Ray and Lilly’s jaws drop in shock.

“W-w-w-w-w-w-when did that happen!?!?”, Ray stammered.

“N-not long after you guys left.”, Ken laughed awkwardly.

“A-aren't... you two, same?”, Lee asked in broken Demilang.

Lilly looked at Ray, eyebrows raised, “Yeah Ray, are we the same?”.

“I, uh, well, we haven’t really you know... talked about it... or anything.”, Ray stammered nervously.

Ken laughed. Ray put his arms around Kens shoulders, “We uhm, need to talk about stuff... see yah.”, Ray said as he ran off. Dragging Ken with him. Leaving Lilly stood pouting. She turns to Lee.

“How’d you do it.”, She asks eagerly.

Ray digs through his bag and pulls out a stack of papers.

“I’m assuming you’ve probably learnt all those basic water spells by now so.”, Ray plops down the stack of papers, “Here is every water spell, I think this will prove useful?”, Ray says with a grin on his face.

“Did you write these all out yourself?”, Ken asks shocked.

“Yeah, the castle has a massive library filled with books. I couldn’t exactly take the book and give it to you. So, I copied the info down. It was tough work but hey, I knew I was the only way you’d be able to continue your magic studies.”.

“Thanks Ray. I also have something for you now that I think about it.”, Ken says digging into his storage room, which resembled the one at the goblin nest Ray had once raided. Though it was a Lot cleaner.

Ken came back with 2 items.

“I got theses when a group of adventurers journeyed in here and attacked us, I was going to divvy these out to my forces, but I thought that these may better suit you guys better.”.

The first one was beautiful golden bow, the grip of the bow was a snow white, and the upper and lower limbs of the bow were shaped like lightning bolts. Ray knew exactly what it was.

“A lightning enchanted bow?”.

“That's what I thought. None of my forces have bow skills so couldn’t activate it but Lilly does so I recon she could get some use out of it.”.

“She’s gonna be ecstatic.”, Ray said, still partially in shock.

The second item was the hilt of a sword, yet it had no blade. Ray was confused at why Ray was handing him a broken sword until he realised what it was. Once again, his jaw dropped... this was a mana sword. The most expensive and strongest sword in the game, after Excalibur. In the game it required 1 billion coins, it was absurdly expensive because of how strong it was.

“D-do you know what this is?” Ray asked in shock.

“Some kind of like... mana sword.”.

From the way Ken described it he made it sound like just some any ordinary item; however, he had to remember that Ken had no idea about this kind of stuff.

“This is by far one of the strongest swords you’ll find in this world, it is incredibly rare and expensive.”.

“Yeah well, money mean nothing to us monsters and again... I think it would do better in your hands then any of my forces.”, Ken said, handing the blade to Ray.

“There was also some fancy looking armour, though it was completely destroyed so we scrapped it all.”.

Ray was so shocked his hands were shaking, he didn’t even know if his power would work with the blade, but it was so rare, that even just holding it had him shaking. If he couldn’t use it, he’d sell it and become rich... but god did he hope he could use it. Ray injects his flames into the blade and an orange hot blade erupted out of it. Ray was so excited he almost dropped it. He forced more energy into it and the orange blade turned white. Ray could scream. He focused and he could even change the size and length of the blade, it was even more impressive then in game. Ray began to tear up filled with pure joy.

Reading on Amazon or a pirate site? This novel is from Royal Road. Support the author by reading it there.

“A-are you sure I can have it Ken.”, he said through tears.

“Y-yeah of course you can. But um, you don’t have to cry about it.”, Ken said, patting Ray on the back.

Ray stood up, wiping the tears from his face and handed his cutlas to Ken.

“Take this.”.

“Are you sure?”, Ken asked Ray.

“Of course, you’ve given me something way more valuable. Honestly this isn’t enough to repay for this, do you want anything else, I’ll go back and bring it as fast as I can.”.

Ken laughed, “Don’t worry about it, the spells and this sword are good enough.”.

Ray smiled. Man was it good to have friends. Ray would have to repay Ken in some kind of way in the future.

Ray and Ken handed the bow to Lilly who had quite the similar reaction to Ray and Ray showed Lilly the mana blade he had received which she clarified that it was so expensive that not even her parents would go and buy it for no reason, which made the group wonder just who was the adventurer that had a hold of such a weapon and they wondered if this would result in some kind of trouble in the future. However, the group put this thought behind them and celebrated into the night.

Early in the morning, 2 figures stood a few meters from the cave in which Ken and his army had inhabited.

“Is that the location of the monster who killed our young master?” a female voice asked.

“Y-yes, I was in charge of standing guard but after hearing screams I ran, I was scared I would be next.”.

“You need not worry; we do not blame you new adventures from fleeing such savagery. We, the 200 knights of house Armstrong will slay this beast.”.

With that, the woman mounts her horse and charges back into the nearby woods, towards where a camp of 200 soldiers were stationed.

Ray, Lilly, Ken and Lee stand at the exit of the cave.

“Well, we’ll see you in 6 months time.”, Ray says grinning.

“Right, I’ll train my army well in preparation so we will be ready when the inevitable war begins.”.

“Make sure you train yourself too, the tournament will decide who will fight the demons, so you need to be chosen. Me and Lilly will be participating too.”.

“Of course, the next time we meet, I will win our little battle.”, Ken grins.

Suddenly the rushing of horses’ hooves can be heard rushing towards them. As the group look over towards the forest, they can see an army of 200 armoured knight charging towards them and stop 100 yards in front of them.

“what's going on here?”, Lilly asked, confused.

Ray and Ken shrug.

“Should I get the others?”, Lee asked Ken in Gobda.

“Nah, leave them to rest. If anything happens here Ray and Lilly would prove 10 times more useful either way.”.

Ray over hearing this stood proudly.

“Yeah, don’t worry Lee, there's only 200 of them. There’d have to be at least 2,000 of them to make use break a sweat.”, Ray stated.

Alone knight walked forwards.

“We are the knights of house Armstrong, we have heard that you monsters are responsible for the death of our lord's eldest son and heir to the business. Therefore, you have all been given the death sentence and will meet your end here.”.

Ken couldn’t understand human tongue but hearing the world Armstrong, something began to click in his head.

“Hmm. That name sounds familiar... oh yeah, the guy who had that mana sword was spouting something about Armstrong this and Armstrong that.”, Ken said as if remembering something insignificant.

Ray face palmed.

“You killed a human noble's child, they must be extremely rich and powerful, no wonder he possessed a man a blade... though, how rich the household must be to give their son a mana sword is beyond me.”. Ray stated.

Ray stepped forwards.

“I know your upset, I would be too, but do you think we could resolve this peacefully? I kind of promised a friend I would do my best to avoid killing humans but if you force me, I won’t hold back.”. Ray said in human tongue.

“A Demi can speak Human tongue? Tell me beast, are you the one who killed our young master? Was this some kind of act of rebellion against the human nation?”, she asked demandingly.

“No, I had no act in killing whoever you're talking about. Though, I am on the side of those who do. So, if you insist on attacking, then you’ll have me as an enemy.”, Ray says drawing his sword, Lilly and Ken following suit.

Sylphie opened her eyes, stretched her wings and hovered above Lilly's head.

“It doesn’t matter whether you did it or not, you dare brandish the young, masters weapon as if it were your own? MENNNNN!”, she shouted.

On her command the army charged forwards.

“Well, I guess this is a chance to see how strong the human knights are.”, Ray thought to himself as he and Ken rushed forward, Lilly lining up a shot.