Instead of progressing forward, Andrew continued to train him utilising his short-fuse for good effect.

"Earth Minio-"

"I'm not a 'minion', my name is Greg! Greg!"

"Ahem, Terra, my dear Earth Minion, you are progressing well. However... you can't even manipulate earth?! Useless! Trash, I tell you. There nothing less for a man than worthless trash who can't even float a few rocks. Like seriously, I can kick a rock faster than you can shoot one, but no," spoke Andrew in feigned disappointment. "You just go about each day lazily flinging rocks around while I hunt and gather and make cool things. Do you want to make cools things? Too bad because you can't even float rocks!"

"Why you... you... little," seethed Terra as he stepped closer and closer towards Andrew.

Andrew waved his hand and broke the rock bullet Terra was forming. Closing one eye, Andrew shook his head and muttered, "worthless."

Terra roared and started to try to pry it back from Andrew. However, Andrew constantly increased his grasp on the material. Whenever Andrew gave him an inch, the young man would try to rip it from Andrew.

Andrew shrugged and released his hold on the single rock. Suddenly hundred of tiny rocks appeared and gently pelleted Terra before they floated around the middle.

With a disdainful frown, Andrew turned away and walked off. He did not need to turn around to sense the mass of tiny pellets charge towards him. However, he just kept walking slowly.

"Take that," laughed Terra as he saw they impacted Andrew.

However, rather that hitting him, they stopped just in front of him to form a makeshift image of his body.

"Your turn."

Every second, one rock would be picked from the bunch and shot towards Terra at dizzying speeds. Sometimes the young man frantically diverted it, other times they hit him. However, as time progressed, he was able to divert the last ten in a row.

"Worthless? You call me worthless? What else do you have, boy?"

Andrew grinned and suddenly a thousand appeared. "Two at a time. Then three, four, five; so on and so forth."

By the time Terra reached the point where he nearly mastered the basics of something, Andrew would ramp it up. They were all in respectable realms of training, but it did border on abuse. Yet, every time Andrew hunted, he gave up one doing it himself and tried to master different animal bodies.

It took him a full week to realise that he could have made a sleigh out of all but one of his elements, but he stubbornly persisted trying to work that into his attacks. If nothing else, it is a perfect source to power and train his blood magic so he was not concerned that much.

'Leya, you hear me?' Projected Andrew. 'Not going to Uncle's place. Instead focusing on training a- ahem, focusing on training my new steel forging thing-a-ma-gig.'

He heard a curt snort on her end, but the line was cut.

"That bitch," scoffed Andrew. "Give her an earring and what do I get. No wonder she is good at shooting people. Need to learn lightning magic to fry her in a fight, though."

"Who are you talking to?"

"Oh, a Minion collector as well. You may be pitted against her minions in the future - so train hard."

"When in the hell did I become a minion?! Hell, this whole situation is a joke."

Andrew snickered, "you ever thought before you could use rock bullets to kill people? Almost took my heart before I moved it to the side. Still needed to use blo- ahem, water magic to recover from it."

Terra snorted and turned back to controlling the rocks and soil around him.

Andrew threw an arced dagger into the midst. Terra's eyes flickered, but he managed to catch it and cause it to revolve around him.

Then a second, third, and fourth appeared - in rapid succession. The second was caught easily enough, but the third forced him to drop all the sediment. The fourth was stopped by Andrew before it reached his throat.

"Pressure test. Anyways, we ought to get going. This place is boring even the horses. See? She snorted at me. I made her pretty horseshoes too."

"I don't think that's how it works," muttered Terra indignantly. "It's a horse. Not a human."

"Come on, young iron-bloodied demon! Wear the mask and we shall be off to... whatever town it is!"

This story originates from a different website. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

"Jet, maybe? Don't recall the name," spoke Terra giving him a fierce glare. "Hey! Wait up!"

Andrew already spurred the horse forward and was rocketing towards the South. He had no idea where the next town was, but he was alerted via deadly rock bullet to turn slightly.

Terra was mounted and facing the other way. "North, north-west. Idiot."

Andrew laughed pridefully to cover up his embarrassment, but he soldiered forward.

After only two hours, they were on the outskirts of a town.

It was plain, barren even. However, Andrew looked at the scene happily. It was not too long ago that he visited a similar village so he handed Terra his promised payment from long before and hastily started to create various works. Some were pots, vases, and other household items, but a few were rather intimidating looking blades.

They could be held with either a single hand or two, depending on the circumstance. Yet, of the four of them he made, each was different. He purposely notched them, modelled them after simple, but effective weapons and then formed a carriage to haul his constructed goods.

"Huh... rope... ugh, no matter! Steel wire! Sorry horses."

The carriage was extremely lightweight, considering its size and material; however, that was primarily because Andrew could support as long as nothing too major happened along the way.

"No! You are not-"

"It'll just look like they're pulling it, Terra," laughed Andrew, "Just make sure to keep in step."

Terra showed him a quick way to build a proper harness for hauling goods so Andrew quickly finished up and remounted the horses.

"You're Terra, but who will I be..." murmured Andrew rhetorically. "Oh well, I'll think of something.

Andrew did not miss Terra biting back a retort. Andrew donned his mask and was soon followed by Terra. Terra's carried straight horns that appeared in front of the upraised hood. Whereas Andrew's hood was simply modified to allow for such things as his curly horns.

The two of them drove the horse forward with their new metallic cart before they were greeted by two inquisitive guards.

"Halt. From where do you hail, travellers," spoke the man courteously.

Andrew said nothing and pointed West.

"From the west? Are you perhaps from one of the three great kingdoms there?"

Andrew quirked his head, but Terra shook his head. "N...n-no..."

Hearing his attempt to butcher his mother tongue made Andrew smile underneath the mask. Nevertheless, Terra tossed a gold coin towards the man.

"T... toll."

The two looked at each other eagerly and happily allowed them passage. There was no small amount of attention the two received. As they slowly brought the horses forward, people whispered all around them.

"Where are they from?"

"Demon kin?"

"Hard to say, but look at those horns."

"They even have masks to accommodate such things? Their metallurgy techniques must be amazing!"

"They are carrying strange goods too! Maybe they want to sell."

As a procession of curious on-lookers appeared, Andrew and Terra set up shop in the middle of the bizarre. No one complained due to the unusual circumstance.

Terra looked at Andrew and the two nodded. Terra picked up a vase and showed it to the crowd as he stood atop the carriage.

'Heavy bastard,' groaned Andrew as he continued to reduce its weight, for the snorting horses, by lifting it up.

"Fifty silver!"

"Idiot, look! It's a one of a kind, two gold!"

"Five!"

"Eight!"

At eight no one wished to bid any further so Terra nodded and tossed the vase to the man who wormed his way to the front. After the initial exchange people began to understand the unspoken rules and bid on each of the objects available.

Most netted them between five and ten gold, but when a procession of guards appeared, Andrew's eyes sharpened underneath the mask.

A jovial looking Count appeared and pointed towards the second sword for sale. "Twenty!"

A well-dressed, albeit soot covered, blacksmith shouted out another bid and soon the sword sold for fifty gold.

The other two floated above him dramatically and Terra raised it up. After only twenty minutes, the two were out of goods to sell. Andrew briefly considered creating more, but he did not want to draw attention to himself in that way.

Andrew jumped atop the carriage and bowed to the crowd. The two of them wordlessly mounted their horses and headed off towards an inn.

"Halt, the Count wishes to speak with you," proclaimed one.

Andrew tilted his head and bowed once again. He turned and left once more.

"Halt," and Andrew and Terra did. "The Count wishes to speak with you."

After several attempts, the guards finally came to the conclusion they did not understand the local language. Therefore, they were begrudgingly allowed to rest in the tavern.

Andrew pointed to a bartender from the open door and tilted his head. The barkeep, confused, came forward and looked at the object Andrew indicated.

"You want me to store this?" Spoke the barkeep as he made obscure hand gestures.

Terra tilted his head more a moment before he glanced at the carriage and nodded. A gold coin appeared in front of Terra as he looked upwards.

"A room? Food and drink as well, I imagine, correct?"

The two tilted their heads before the patrons started to come to the barkeep's rescue.

"Ah, cool. Demons. Never thought I'd see one myself. Hey, hey, can you take off your mask?"

"Walt! Maybe they are wearing it more a reason! We don't even know if that is normal over there."

"Still, I want to see," muttered a red-faced patron looking downcast.

The two exchanged glances with seemingly practised ease and looked upwards once more.

The barkeep sighed and called out, "someone grab a plate of food and mug of ale to show to these two foreigners."

A loud laughter was heard when men and women brought forth their drinks and cheersed the two. However, when one hurled a turkey leg at the two, Andrew's eyes narrowed.

'Silence.'

The man's up-uproarious laughter faltered as he grabbed his throat. He went so far as to slap it several times before it finally started working again.

"Kidding, kidding," laughed the bleary-eyed man jovially. "Come, drink!"

The barkeep was given a second gold coin and the two parked the carriage off to the side. As luck would have it, they also had a stable so the horses were taken care of as the two headed off into the room.

"And that, my dear minion, is how we are going to make a lot of money," laughed Andrew.

"What about the Chancellor?" Whispered Terra with a slight grin.

Andrew pulled out several small badges and showed them to Terra. He stifled a laugh and asked, "toss them for beggars and drunks to find?"

"Preciously. Well, not all places we travel, as that's suspicious, but a few."

Andrew opened the window and looked off into the distance. There was a small crowd underneath as they curiously looked at the rumoured figure. However, the boy stood there silently gazing off into the distance.

When night fell and their bellies were filled, Andrew hurled a badge far into the distance. It landed on a roof, but the wind and rain would undoubtedly wash it downwards.