Matthew and Tryg walked through the dense grey forest, it had only been a day since Merlin had left for Corinth. Matthew found the appearance of this forest very depressing, while Tryg was alert at all times, he remembered the stories his grandfather told him about when he visited the grey forest.
"You have to be careful, Matthew. My grandfather told me that witches and wizards appear in these types of forests" warned Tryg with the axe in hand "My grandfather faced a witch once, he said that they are very deceitful and that you can't trust them"
Matthew nodded at the warning, his father had also told him about wizards and how powerful they were.
The two continued walking through the forest for a few minutes until Matthew stopped in front of a tree, if his eyes didn't deceive him, they had already passed by that same tree several times.
"We've already passed this tree 3 times in a row" said Matthew putting Tryg on alert.
"I knew something smelled around here..." Tryg said, glancing back at them. "You know, we've been walking for over 20 minutes, but strangely there hasn't been any sound or presence of any animal, even though this place is full of wild fruits," Tryg said loudly so that the person following them could hear him.
"If you're going to do this kind of mediocre illusions, you'd better not do anything," Matthew said, turning to look directly at where the illusion caster was.
The illusion slowly faded away, showing that they were being directed towards another path completely opposite to the one they should go. In front of Matthew and Tryg appeared a woman around 30 years old, wearing a black one-piece dress which seemed to be slightly burned at the bottom and high heels, her hair was light brown and her eyes were hazel. Her nails were painted black and her fingers seemed to be stained black, as if she had grabbed coal.
"So both of you always suspected my illusion, not bad for some children, maybe they would be useful to Miss Vera, she likes talented children"
"So, she is a pedophile" said Matthew with a mocking smile
"I assumed so, apart from being deceitful they are craft. damned witches" followed Tryg
"Tch, don't you dare disrespect the great witch Vera, she is the greatest witch that has ever existed, and I Almena, her faithful follower, will not allow such disrespect!!"
"..."
"..."
"... I only heard 'hit me' and you Matthew?"
"What a coincidence, I heard exactly the same thing, Tryg"
A big smile formed on the faces of Matthew and Tryve as they looked directly at Almena, Tryg tightly gripped his axe and Matthew slowly reached for the hilt of his sword that was at his waist.
"Stupid kids, you dare to face me, a high-level witch!?"
Almena's hands lit up with a dark red glow, a second later a red ray shot towards Tryg and Matthew. Tryg threw his axe towards the ray, preventing it from advancing and allowing them to move from there.
Matthew moved quickly towards Almena, without unsheathing his sword he gave her a powerful blow to the ribs causing her to moan in pain. Tryg instantly appeared above Almena, landing a powerful punch that sent her flying into some trees.
'Where the hell did these kids come from!' Almena thought, touching her cheek where Tryg had hit her. Not even the Salusbreath students she had faced had hit her with such force. 'Whatever, they're both warriors, I just have to keep my distance. It won't be difficult!'
"Try this, a spell that Miss Vera herself taught me!"
Almena raised her hands, forming several seals and conjuring a large ball of red lightning.
Tryg looked at the large sphere of lightning a little worried. It was obvious that it was an area attack. Matthew smiled, raising his hand and saying.
"Hey witch, haven't they ever taught you not to combine lightning with water?"
Almenas, still charging her attack, looked at Matthew confused only to then feel the magic build up around her and think 'is he a magician!?' before she could undo her own spell, a sphere of water materialized around her causing the ball of red lightning to expand throughout the water and hitting her completely.
The red lightning struck Almenas's body paralyzing her instantly and giving her a strong shock, this magic not only electrocuted her but also temporarily sealed her magic preventing her from healing herself.
'Damn kid!' Almena thought falling to the ground.
"Stupid witch, these are basic rules of magic and nature" said Matthew mocking Almena
"Of course, natural water is a great conductor of electricity… although how did you know that those red lightnings were electricity and not pure magic?" asked Tryg
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Matthew just pointed to Tryg's iron axe which still emitted a bit of red electricity from it.
"It's not completely electricity but just a little is enough to spread through the water" said Matthew
He had learned this the hard way when he trained with his grandfather, Geron, 3 years ago.
Tryg took a rope he had in his leather bag and tied Almena's hands and feet.
"Well, it's better to do it at once…"
Tryg began to unbutton his pants confusing Matthew and worrying Almena.
'Hey, hey, hey, isn't he too young to be thinking about such things!!?' thought Almena terrified.
"What do you intend to do to him?" asked Matthew confused
"She's a witch. My grandfather told me that they can curse a person they've seen even if they're thousands of kilometers away, but fortunately, there's a way to prevent that… and for that we have to urinate on them!!"
"Are you sure?"
"Yes, believe me, my grandfather told me"
Tryg said completely sure making Matthew believe him, Matthew would never doubt the knowledge of older people, after all they have lived a lot and have a lot of experience, especially Tryg's family which had been raised in the Ash world.
'NO, IT'S A LIE, ONLY HIGH-LEVEL WITCHES LIKE MISS VERA CAN DO SUCH A THING, NOT ME!!'
Almena tried to scream, but her own spell had completely paralyzed her and she could only watch as the two children approached her, seconds later, two streams fell on her face. The two streams did not let the tears that ran down Almena's face be seen, her face showed shame but also a bit of regret, 'I shouldn't have approached them' she thought as she closed her eyes resigning herself to her fate.
Matthew and Tryg walked away at a slow but steady pace, leaving Amelia lying on the ground crying. 'Matthew… Tryg… I will remember this, I SWEAR I WILL NOT LET THIS STAY LIKE THIS. I WILL FOLLOW THEM TO THE END OF THE ASH LAND AND BRING THEM TO THE FEET OF MY LADY!!'
—Break—
"For a high level witch she was very weak"
Tryg sounded a little disappointed because the encounter with his first witch was not an epic fight like the ones his grandfather used to tell him about.
"She was probably lying to scare us, my father told me about some witches he met years ago and from what I heard they were incredibly powerful. Besides, even Merlin warned us about the power of witches and wizards."
"It's true, we just had no luck… at least we peed on her so she couldn't cast a spell on us."
"...yes… at least…"
The two walked through the forest for an hour, managing to get out and see a small town not far from them. Matthew looked towards the town thinking that maybe they were just at the edge of the forest because they left faster than he expected. After a few minutes of walking they arrived at the town, it looked in very bad condition and gave off a slight feeling of abandonment despite having people living there.
"These are the less fortunate towns, those that don't have the way to fight against the followers of Damnatus."
A man of 1.70 meters and a little overweight was standing right behind Tryg and Matthew. He had a tanned complexion and a very funny mustache which stood out a lot, he wore a formal navy blue suit and a black hat which matched his black shoes.
Matthew turned around as quickly as he could thinking 'when did he get behind us!?' and Tryg took a big leap away as far as he could while looking at where the strange man should be, but he couldn't see him at all.
"Don't be scared young Tryg, I'm here to take you to Salusbreath"
Tryg turned around and this time he managed to see the man behind him. Both Tryg and Matthew didn't know how the strange man moved that way, they didn't know if it was his speed or a type of teleportation.
"You are..."
"That's right! I am one of the masters of the great Salusbreath school and, of course, protector of the city. I am… The sir of the mustache"
The sir of the mustache interrupted Matthew and revealed his identity. After a few seconds he turned to look at the town and continued his talk.
"Despite not having any established protector, this and many other towns around the world remain standing against the creatures of the night and the followers of Damnatus, isn't that curious?..."
The sir of the mustache asked, turning to look at Tryg and Matthew with a raised eyebrow.
"I suppose… my city can barely stand up to the attacks of the creatures of the night and the crazy followers" Tryg answered
"PERFECT!!" the sir of the mustache exclaimed excitedly "Today I will satisfy that curiosity. Young Tryg may not know this because his city remains very isolated from us, for safety of course, but there are several guilds all over the world, even the Salusbreath school is directly linked to one in case students want to join and contribute their seed to our noble cause"
"Guilds?" Matthew asked curiously
"Yes, there are two types of guilds, the legal guilds, those that accept and follow Damnatus' orders, and the illegal guilds, those that oppose Damnatus' regime. There are a total of 13 guilds, 5 illegal and 8 legal"
"Very good and all, but what good is a guild to me?"
"I'm glad you asked. A guild serves to measure your attributes and ranking in the world. Guilds assign a rank depending on the strength and achievements of their members, with 'F' being the lowest and 'S' being the highest, but don't be confused, even though the S rank is the highest it doesn't mean that there aren't higher ranks, it's just that it's very unusual for someone to reach those ranks, these ranks are 'SS', 'U' and 'I', and only a few people have managed to reach those ranks, in fact, it's because of them that these ranks exist"
"Oh, so these 'illegal guilds' protect towns like this" Tryg guessed
"Yes, towns make requests to guilds and guilds send their members to help, although, of course, each mission carries a risk depending on their ranking…"
The sir of the mustache looked towards the horizon, with a lost look, where the gigantic sun was setting over the hills that could be seen in the distance and the rays of the sun illuminated the melancholic face of the sir of the mustache.
"Did you notice that suddenly a kind of scene was created around him?" Matthew asked Tryg which nodded quickly
"Did you notice it too? For a second I thought I was going crazy and it was just my imagination"
Upon hearing Tryg and Matthew talk, the sir of the mustache turned to look at them again, examining them completely. He couldn't believe that Merlin had left them alone at the entrance of the gray forest and sent them to the town without any protection, although he understood that it was a very desperate situation and there weren't many options. The sir of the mustache took a watch out of his pocket realizing that it was almost the time that he and the other teachers had agreed on in which they would take the new members of the city.
Once a month, Merlin's clones would go to certain strategically chosen towns to meet with the teachers of the Salusbreath school so that they could take those who broke the curse of hatred to the city of Salusbreath. From what he understood, all the clones had arrived at the chosen towns except for this one, apparently he had many problems on the way.
"Alright young men, it's time to go to Salusbreath. We don't want to make Miss Irene angry"
"Finally! I've been walking for a whole week since I left my city. I can't wait to see the much mentioned city of Salusbreath"
"Have you been walking so much? I left the Fallen Kingdom the same day I met you"
"Oh what!? And why did I have to walk so much?
"A great sage once said that donkeys work twice as hard"
"What are you implying?"
"Me? Nothing, remember that a great sage said it, not me…"
"Alright that's enough, it's time to go"
The sir of the mustache interrupted them, approaching the two and taking them by the shoulder, he said "hold on tight, this might make you a little dizzy."
Before anyone could ask, their entire surroundings changed instantly. There was no magic portal, no transportation magic, nothing, just a change of place in an instant. Matthew didn't even pay attention to where he was now, he just focused on trying not to fall down from the sudden dizziness while an amused smile formed on his face, he had never experienced magic like that. Trygve, on the other hand, quickly covered his mouth and ran staggering towards the edge of the bridge they were on. Seconds later, a scream was heard in the distance and Trygve returned with a worried look.
"We have to go… quickly, and please don't do that again…" Tryg said a little desperate.
"Why not? It was amazing!!" Matthew said quickly.
"No, it wasn't… now let's go, please."
The sir of the mustache simply laughed at Tryg's reaction, this happens to almost anyone who travels with him.
"Well, young men, we have reached our destination. "This is Salusbreath!"
The three of them were standing on a brick bridge which led to a large city, as big as the capital of a kingdom, and a little ways away from the city, a huge castle could be seen that was on a hill.