(3° person POV)

Mirai sat down on the ground, breathing heavily. The sword on her hand falling on the ground, her hands aching with the constant exercise and the impact of the wooden blades.

(Tarou): “Are you fine, Mirai?”

Tarou asked, extending his hand to her to help her to get up, with is wooden sword on his hand. He’s also breathing heavily, with sweat coming down his forehead. Grabbing his hand and being pulled p, she says:

(Mirai): “I’m just a bit tired.”

She said, patting her new clothes. They aren’t fancy, brown pants and hemp shirt, a bit tattered due the fighting against her brother. She looked at her own hands, with mixed feelings. She neve though that she would be wielding a sword and train with her brother in how to use it properly.

Even so, there’s a sense of incongruity. She doesn’t remember ever wielding a sword, but when she held the wooden sword for the first time, there was a sense of familiarity. It felt natural when she held it, and when she swung it, there was a certain experience.

When she exchanged attacks with Tarou, he made a strange face. When she asked, he answered:

(Tarou): “I don’t know. I never used a sword before, but when I took on this wooden sword I felt like I used one before.”

He said. Mirai looked up, to the starry night sky. She’s surprised by her stamina. She has been fighting her brother all day until late at night. The reason was that she was said that she would be going out with her class to defeat monsters soon.

The others from her class aren’t worried as her. Akira convinced them that it wouldn’t that dangerous, since the soldiers would escort them. and Mirai also though so, because it’s true. It would be a trip just to adapt them to kill something. It would be extremely hard for them to hurt themselves.

However, there was a certain feeling of urgency, as if something was going to go completely wrong. After parting ways with her brother, she went to her room and took a bath in the magic bathtub that can fill itself with water and heat itself.

While submerged on the water, she though about what she has been feeling recently. The constant feeling of incongruency, of something missing. Something important. Today, this feeling was stronger than never when she held the sword.

Eve now, she’s looking at her hand, wondering what this feeling means. Sighing, she got out of the bath, dressed some clothes and went to sleep. And as soon she slept, she had a dream.

(Male voice): “Your feet still are on the wrong position.”

(Mirai): “How the hell do you even know that?”

She says to the man in her dreams. She can’t see his face perfectly, only his closed eyes. His both hands holding a wooden cane. She sighed, trying to adjust her position. The boy inclined his head for a second, and then approached, touching her feet with the cane.

(boy): “A bit further away…”

Adjusting her position, she felt the cane then touched her shoulder.

(boy): “Keep your back straight, that’s important.”

As she swings the wooden sword in her hands, she asks:

(Mirai): “You must have trained a lot to be able to do what you did yesterday to those thugs.”

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She said while focusing on the swings. The boy just laughed.

(boy): “Yeah, I did. Your shoulders are a bit stiff, try to relax a bit.”

The boy said, standing behind he and touching her shoulders. A shiver ran down her spine, and her face got hotter. She was thankful that the boy wasn’t able to see her face, because she would die of embarrassment.

(boy): “Oh, your shoulders got even more tense just now. Did something happen?”

(Mirai):” N-nothing.”

She says, swinging the sword worse than before. Smiling again, the boy said:

(boy): “Again.”

She woke up with a jump, the warm light of the sun entering her room through the window. Touching her head, she tried to remember the dream that she just had. She couldn’t remember the dream anymore, just a warm sensation on her shoulders.

(On the other side of the continent)

Akatsuki bit the green apple piece, feeling the sour flood his mouth. The man sitting in front of him on the other sofa is just observing, with a nervous expression. Faeleena is unconcerned with the man, sitting beside Akatsuki, feeding him the green apple pieces with a smile and a light blush on her face.

Akatsuki is splendidly ignoring the man, having a pink moment with the elf girl, who’s more than happy to feed her master on the mouth. The man coughs, attracting the furious and chilling gave of Faeleena, that makes a sudden movement with her head to glare at him. Her hands still move calmly to Akatsuki’s mouth though.

(Akatsuki): “Huh? Oh, yeah, sorry, I forgot about you.”

He said to the man, smiling. The man clears his throat, more nervous than never.

(man): “Don’t worry, Lord Yakumo. Sorry for interrupting your business.”

(Akatsuki): “Don’t worry, Supreme Guildmaster. I’m not offended.”

(Guildmaster): “I am though…”

He thinks. The ginormous man covered in muscles is the Supreme Guildmaster of the Adventurers guild, The Demon Bear Donovan. He’s a powerful human, and fears little to nothing in this world, having conquered innumerous achievements and killed many dangerous monsters.

Due his inhuman strength, he conquered innumerous feats, saved cities from disaster and even managed to look to the Blackrock City on the Black forest beneath the Blackrock Tree. He was also one of the very few beings to survive the arrows from its inhabitants.

That was the reason why he retired a few years ago as he grew older and his old wounds started to take a small tool on him. Taking the responsibility to train the future generations, he was selected as Guildmaster. Eventually, he was promoted until he succeeded the position of Supreme Guildmaster.

As such, he never was particularly polite to someone, only respectful at the maximum. Even when talking with kings and nobles. The position of Supreme Guildmaster is extremely powerful, as you can find one adventures guild in every town and almost every village that isn’t too small.

He definitely is the holder of a position of considerable power and respect, plus his reputation and fame. And now… he’s completely lowering his head to this guy who showed up today. The reason? He was introduced by the Supreme Guildmaster of the merchant guild and the descendant of the First Guildmaster, Milena.

As the girl that he as a crush on, he made sure to listen to her, but he also asked why. And the answer that he heard was:

(Milena): “He’s from the Forbidden continent. You may not believe it, but even if he’s blind, if you try anything, he WILL kill you before you notice. I saw him kill two dragons at once with one stroke. On only that, he’s powerful enough to have a sword made of Humming Metal.”

At first, he didn’t believe what she had said, but he would try to be polite when he was to meet Akatsuki. Try, he though, try a bit. The thing that let him skeptical was that she said that he had a sword made of Humming Metal.

Humming Metal is a metal found in the continent already processed, and could only be forged by the most capable dwarven master and dragons that dedicated their lives to forging. The metal is a complete mystery, believed to relate to the Blackrock Tree, but nobody was able to get close enough to study the relation.

The reason for the name of the metal is the characteristic “humming” that the wielder of the metal releases when being held. The hum isn’t a problem to the wielder… at the start. The humming eventually opens way to the “whispers”. These whispers are generally strange knowledge, random and dangerous.

Sometimes, the whispers are useful, giving information that the user could use to create something amazing… and most of the time, drive the listener mad. Only people that had a strong mental strength could resist the whispers, and even shut them.

However, the swords aren’t rare. Constantly, they are mixed with other metals to lessen the effects and make them way easier to word, constantly being used around 1 to 2%. And the most interesting thing about the humming metal is that you can’t hear the hum without touching it.

However, after touching it, you constantly hear a hum when you are close to it, and, although it’s extremely rare, being only found in ancient ruins and already processed, they are extremely common on the Forbidden Continent. The main and only source… are the arrow heads of the Blackrock Tribe.

Although Donovan never had a Humming Weapon, he was hit by the arrows and now he can hear the metal humming. And he can clearly hear the humming from the cane. And the humming is loud and deep, clearly showing that the swords is made almost if not purely of Humming Metal.

Not only that. Donovan couldn’t feel anything, nothing even live coming from Akatsuki, not even presence. If he couldn’t see him in front of him, he would think that he didn’t exist. And also, he has a certain… pressure coming out from him.

Like the Humming Metal, there was something emanating from him constantly, beyond a presence. Simply a pressure, as if someone was constantly pressing your shoulder, making you conscious of it’s presence all the time. It was… uncomfortable.

Donovan clearly felt that a wrong movement would kill him. That’s why he was so polite, being completely tame.

(Akatsuki): “Well then, Guildmaster, I hope that the guide you provide will be able to get us to the capital as quickly as possible.”

(Donovan): “Yes! As you wish!”

He said, immediately. He was dying of shame for being so pressured… but what would he do? Be killed?

No. Just do what he says, he though, you won’t die that way.