Chapter 7

The first thing he heard was the voice of an old man. He left the eyes closed and listened to this old man. “You can open your eyes. Your breathing has changed, so I can tell you are awake and now please drop the act.” He was shocked to be seen trough so easily, but he opened his eyes. He was in a big cave with torches and pictures of some unknown lands on the wall. He lied on a small bed and in the corner was a big wooden wardrobe.

He wanted to run away when he saw that his saviour was not a human being but a Person who had golden eyes, horns on the head and on half of his face was scaly. Perhaps it was demon who wanted to torture him. “I knew you would be shocked, but rest assured I will not harm you. You are my esteemed guest.” “Who and what are you?”-Ragen. “I am a dragon and my name is Bane Firestorm but you can call me Bane. Now what’s more important is, what are you doing in this forest and who are you?” He hesitated before he answered but he didn’t feel any hostility towards him so he answered: “My name is Ragen and I’m here to gather herbs for Janet the healer in my hometown. But I had to jump into the river because some goblins wanted my flesh.”-Ragen. “Janet must be quite desperate to send a kid into the forest. Drink something first and then eat with me. I have to ask you something later.” He was confused. How come this dragon knew his teacher Janet and what was the relationship between them and why did he help him? There were so many questions in his head. He ignored them for now and followed Bane to a small table where some food and water was prepared. It was the best meal he had in a long time. Normally he just ate some dried meat or porridge. But here he got fresh fruits, some nice stew with mushrooms and wonderful roasted meat served. The meat was perfect. It was good roasted but not dry and it had this wonderful fresh flavour. Like the food from his wife in his old life. Bane saw his happy expression and said amused: “You know I had a lot of time here to improve my cooking skills and as I see you now, I think I have made quite the improvement.”

After a satisfied Ragen ended his meal he watched what Bane would say or do.

Bane asked: “Now I after you have eaten, I have some questions for you. Your answer will influence your future.” Ragen gulped, he didn’t want to fight a dragon. Not until he became strong enough to fight one. Out of curiosity he activated [Appraisal].

Race: Dragon Name: Bane Firestorm

Title: Two Star Demon General, Hero Killer, Enemy of Demon Lord Kaal

VIT: ?????

STR: ??????

INT: ????

Skills:

[?] [?] [Appraisal] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?] [?]

It was the first time that appraisal didn’t show him everything and he suspected that the difference in their level made it difficult to see the status of this old man.

Bane looked intensely at him and then said: “I know that you used [Appraisal] on me. I saw that you are no normal human. You have some intersting skills and for that I have some questions.” Ragen started to sweat. He couldn’t beat that guy, he was freaking strong and had even killed heroes. He was no match for this monster, even [Appraisal] couldn’t show his stats to him. “Ragen calm down, I will not hurt you. I just live here peacefully. This old man has just some questions to you and then you can go wherever you want.” He replied: “I hope you didn’t lie. So, please ask your questions.” “Hmm, I have only one question for now. Why do you want to walk the path of a demon lord? You don’t seem to be cruel or sadistic in my eyes.” “I don’t have any other choices. I must save my family and restore my old life. For that I have to become a demon lord.”-Ragen. “I don’t know with who you made a contract to open up the demon lord path for a human, but I am sure you will regret it later. But if you help me with something in the future than I could help you to advance further. You should know that how you are now you don’t have even a single chance to beat a demon even a lesser one. So, what do you think?” “Deal, I need help on my way to become a demon lord and I think I can trust you.”-Ragen. “Good, now please swear with your blood to fulfil my request and I will help you” “I swear to solve your request, whatever it is. I swear it with my blood.”-Ragen. Bane cut his hand with blade before Ragen could even react. He was shocked and angry for a moment but understood instantly that it was for his blood oath. “Very well you have done what I asked you to do. I will tell you later your mission. Firstly, we need to solve your problem at your hometown and then you can come back, and we train. So, what happened?” “The ‘Blue Strangler’ broke out and is now spreading in town. Janet has sent me into the forest to gather herbs to treat the people and cure them.”-Ragen. “Yeah that is quite a big problem. You know what, I show you the places where these plants grow and help to gather them safely. Most of the places are not far away from here. We should go at once before it’s too late for your town.”

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So, he went together with Bane to different places in the forest and collected as many herbs as he could. After they were finished Bane talked one last time to him and told him the receipt for the potion if something happened to Janet. Then he made a promise to come back in two weeks from now to train and increase his powers. Before Ragen left Bane gave him a skill scroll. Ragen never saw one before. It contained a skill which everyone could learn. The skill was called [Poison Resistance]. It would dispel any infection from the disease. He read the scroll and heard a ding sound.

Does the Player want to learn this skill?

YES / NO

He thought yes and noticed a short pain. Then another ding sound.

Player has successfully acquired the skill [Poison Resistance] (novice)

In his thought he opened the status window and saw his actual status.

Name: Ragen Lv. 3

Title: None

Race: Human Exp: 170/300

VIT: 35

STR: 38

WIS: 33

INT: 49

AGI: 22

LUC: 2

Skills:

[Archery] (novice) [Tracking] (novice)

[Language Translator] (passive) [Learning] (apprentice)

[Demon eyes] (sealed) [Domination] (rare) (sealed)

[Shadow knife] (novice) [Appraisal]

[Poison Resistance] (novice) [Magic Shield Dome] (novice)

He had improved a bit, but he was still lacking compared to Bane. With that thought he started his journey back to his hometown. He wandered back through the dark forest and even encountered another goblin. But his one was alone and so he killed it. Then finally after five days he was back at his hometown, but everything had changed. There was smoke over the town and on the sides of the road were a lot of graves filled with dead blue corpses. The ‘Blue Strangler’ killed merciless.

As he went through the gate, he saw the empty streets. It was creepy to walk in a dead silent town when just a few days ago you had enjoyed life to its fullest in it. As he wanted to turn to the side alley to his teaches house, his way was blocked. Two figures appeared out of nowhere and grinned at him. “Now now, what do we have here. Our little hero from last time. We heard you survived, but you know what? That will change very soon.” It was them! The two thugs from last time. They came back for revenge.