"What did you say?"

"Take me with you!"

We were at the border of Basken, and the voice was coming from the beautiful fox girl standing in front of me in full battle gear.

I looked at Elena

"Do you know this girl?"

"Why would I know her? You're the one who gets into all sorts of trouble, you probably just forgot about it."

She looked at me like I'm obviously responsible for everything.

This woman...

The fox girl in front of me started to speak really quickly, as if she was embarrassed.

"I'm sorry, you don't know me. I've seen you guys around and you looked like strong adventurers. I've wanted to become an adventurer since I was little, but my parents always said it was too dangerous. I train myself every day though and people say I have natural talent as a vanguard"

A vanguard? This girl weighs like 100 pounds soaking wet. I can't imagine she'd be much use in a battle with ogres or similar large beasts.

Although, we do need a vanguard. I'm using a sword but I don't even have an adventurers card, and when I get to the guild in Carilleon I may decide to go a different route. I'm definitely not a sword and shield kind of guy, so I usually prefer to avoid or parry hits rather than block them.

That being said, I don't want somebody who's completely incompetent to join us, so I needed to test her in some way. I'm not very strong right now, but I'm not expecting people stronger than me to join up at this point.

"How about a match?"

"Huh?"

"Unfortunately, I can't take somebody into my party if they can't hold their own in a fight. Duel me and we'll make our decision based on that."

"Can we do that? Won't people be kind of freaked out if they see two people fighting right at the entrance to the town?"

Elena voiced her concerns, she might be right. In any case it's something to double check first.

After asking a few guards, we found out that there was an arena in Basken meant for training that people occasionally use for duels. We ended up at the arena about an hour later, but only ran into more troubles.

"What do you mean two days?!"

"Sir, exactly what I said. The wait time to use the arena currently is two days. There's a travelling circus in town and they're bringing in tons of people who want to watch. If you can pay the reservation fee now I can schedule you in two days."

I thought about just leaving and forgetting all this happened, but the girl sounded so hopeful when she asked us to take her with us, so I decided to give it a chance. We weren't really in a hurry anyways.

"How much is the fee?

We managed to sell some of the stuff we had pulled from the ogres and a few other monsters for about 10,000 peli, so we had a bit of spending cash right now and enough for lodging while we waited.

After paying the 2,000 peli fee, we decided to explore the town a bit more. The time we spent here was mostly sitting in meetings and talking to nobles about Bastions duties, so we never really got the opportunity to look around. It turns out Basken has a really entertaining strip of vendors, and some great food stalls.

It makes sense, Basken is like a melting pot of diversity in this world, so people and demihumans from around the world came here to live and visit. A lot of them brought dishes from their country and took the opportunity to sell them here.

"Oh! There's a specialty kebab stand here!"

The fox woman was still hanging around us, I guess she was just trying to keep an eye on us so we didn't run off before the duel.

"This place is amazing! How did I not know about it before? This thing is so cool!"

This came from the airhead next to me, as she played with this world's version of a Chinese finger trap. I'm starting to wonder if she really graduated from a prestigious magic school.

"Klein, can we keep this?"

She said this while holding what looked like a Guinea pig up to her chest, she had found it in a pet stall. There was a tinkle in her eye while she asked me this.

"Elena, If you try to take that thing with us I will eat it the next time we run out of food."

"You can't eat Master Valkarth! He's my friend"

Master Valkarth? Why is she trying to give such an intimidating name to a rat?

"No"

She looked down sadly and muttered under her breath, reminding me of a child who was told they can't have ice cream.

"Fine"

I ended up getting one of the best steaks I've ever had from one of the stalls and we called it a night. A small part of me wishes I could just stay here, but I need to keep moving forward.

Two days passed and we ended up back at the town's arena. It was finally time. The beautiful fox girl was standing in front of me with sword and shield in hand, and I was standing still with my longsword sheathed.

I call it a longsword, but it was really a single edged sword with a slight curve in it. Not quite a Japanese Katana but not quite an actual longsword either.

"Are you sure you want to go through with this? I'll try to pull my attack if I think you're going to get hurt, but I can't make promises."

There was an intermediary from the guard force to oversee the duel. Duels to the death weren't allowed in Basten, so the rules said the first to score a hit that would have been deadly was the one to win. A voluntary damage reduction spell was distributed before the duel began"

"I'm completely sure"

"By the way, you never told me. What's your name?"

"My name is Ember. Let's begin, I've been waiting for this. "

As she said this she leapt forward and a flame appeared around her sword. She wasn't particularly fast, but the effect of her weapon caught me by surprise. If I parry this will the flame leave the sword and come towards me?

I'm still not very experienced with a sword. After using one for about a month I'd improved, but I was no expert in technique. I had to do something fast, so it's better to move now and think later. I went to parry as a feint, and when her sword was about to connect to mine I dropped to the ground. I'm not sure what those flames would do when they connected with my sword, but I didn't really want to find out. If I could end this quickly it would be much better for me.

Sure enough, the fire coming from her blade lurched out when she swung at me. If I hadn't made the move I did, I would have been burned. What a scary technique.

I ended up on all fours with one leg forward like I was about to start a race. I kicked off towards her, slashing my sword at the same time. She managed to block it with her shield. As soon as she did I rolled towards the shield, grabbed it with my left hand and twisted my body so it would be difficult to reach with the sword.

If you spot this narrative on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

I got her back.

The fight was mine. My sword moved directly behind her back.

"Winner!"

The call of the guard sounded like a referee at a sports game. The only thing he needed was a whistle.

To be honest, if that move hadn't worked out I probably would have lost. I don't have much experience fighting people with shields, and can't say what I would have done if my level didn't give me the upper hand.

After the fight, we ended up walking through town for a while visiting vendors and enjoying one more night here.

"What is that sword?"

"It was a gift from my papa before he died, it's name is Fyri"

"Your sword has a name?"

"All rare class weapons do, an enchanted sword is a living thing. I'm sure yours does too, that thing is definitely stronger than a rare class like mine. There are also different moves they can use, like my sword's "

I looked at the dark blade, I didn't see any markings on it. Now that I think about it, something always felt a bit off about this sword. How do I find out the name of this weapon?

"The blacksmith I got this sword from didn't say anything about a name, and the letter that came with it didn't mention a name either."

"Hmm, I mean you could take it to an arcane blacksmith to be appraised, but the closest one is in Calerion. That's like a 10 day trip on foot."

"That's where we were going anyways, you can find out the name of your sword there!"

Elena had been silently listening for a while, but she got excited about this for some reason.

"Why are you so interested in it's name?"

"There are different types of magic I can study as a mage. In school I studied combustion and illusion magic, but I've researched a little bit about arcane enchanting and it's really interesting to me"

There's gotta be a light switch somewhere on this girl. One second she sounds like a total idiot and the next she sounds like a genius mage. Maybe there's a little angel and demon on her shoulder flipping it off and on again for fun.

"That's really awesome Elena! I'm a maladroit, otherwise I would have wanted to study magic too."

"Malawhat?"

"It means she has no mana, it's almost impossible for her to become a mage."

"Almost impossible is still possible, couldn't she at least give it a shot?"

"I said almost because there are a few forbidden rituals that can give maladroit the mana they would need, but they're forbidden for a good reason. All of them involve human sacrifice to steal the mana core of someone else."

"Oh"

Well that really sucks, I wonder if I can use magic.

That night, we tied up the last few things we wanted to do in the town of Basten, and actually went to leave this time.

"Wait!"

Oh god, not again.

This time, it was a man in plate armor running up to us, he had wings like an eagle on his back, and I have no idea what his race was.

"He's a pegasus, they're a fairly rare race because a lot of them die really young. It's actually pretty sad"

Ember whispered this in my ear, it's probably a touchy subject.

"I overheard you guys talking about going to Calerion. I know that you protected Lord Bastion, so I wanted to give you this before you left."

He handed me a sealed envelope.

"This is a letter of endorsement from the Knight Captain Elrak of Lycania. If you run into trouble in Calerion, you can present this to the guards and they should let some smaller things pass. Thank you for your assistance!"

"Thank you, I'm sure this will be helpful."

With that, the man gave us a salute, bowed his head and went on his way.

At last, we were finally free to continue our journey to Calerion. How does this world have so many distractions? At least in my old world you were able to move from one place to another without getting stopped by six people.

So we set off. We had bought enough provisions to last us for a few days, and had some equipment with us to hunt with for food as well. Elena had a spell to purify water, so it made our lives a whole lot easier. I would really hate to fight and defeat giant ogres, only to later die of dysentery.

The path to Calerion was mostly through the woods, and the fire was able to deter a good amount of monsters at night. During the day the occasional few would pop out, like goblins and smaller wolves, there were a few giant bats as well, but it was nothing we couldn't handle.

After 10 days of travel, we finally made it. The forest path suddenly cleared, and now we were standing in a beautiful, hilly plain. The grass was green as far as the eye could see, and I could already start to see glimpses of a giant city in the distance.

Calerion was huge. It was a beautiful city from a distance, but to be honest, I don't know how advanced this place would be. Some of the nicer places I stayed had magical toilets and showers, so you really didn't see a lot of people throwing their waste on the streets or anything, but poverty still existed. If I had to equate the actual technology of this world, I'd probably put it at about the middle ages.

All of that didn't matter. We had arrived, it was time to go get an adventurers card and find out the name of my weapon!

Interlude

Limone walked the halls of the dark castle late at night. There was no guard, for the beings residing in this castle were strong enough to detect an enemy, and automatically raise an alert the moment they entered the castle.

However, this was mostly limited to the castle itself. The long grounds outside were difficult for them to keep tabs on with senses alone, so normally there were guards posted in strategic locations in the event of an intruder. 

Idiot.

The thought rolled through his mind as he looked back to the actions of Ashker, the Demon Lord of Dark Divine, a race with relations to angels that had fallen.

If he hadn't moved on his own, that man would still be our prisoner. 

The method the intruders used to enter the barrier was still unknown to them, but it was most likely the work of that woman. Considering she had nearly killed the high level demon posted guard near his shack, it wouldn't have been a surprise if she could somehow manipulate a small portion of the barrier. The thought of reinforcing it ran through his mind.

After the walk that always seemed like eternity, he reached his destination.

The castle depths - the dungeon.

Moving down the eery spiral staircase, he slowly walked towards the holding area. The dungeon was massive, with a hallway leading down the middle. They could imprison an entire army here, though he couldn't imagine a reason to leave an entire army of races alive. After another few minutes of walking, he reached the end of the hallway and entered a set of stone double doors. 

The room was large and open, with several tables set up in the middle. Several things would catch a person's eye on their first arrival in this room, such as the content of these tables or the chains lining the walls, but none of this concerned Limone. He was here for another reason. 

On the wall at the end of the room there was a man chained to the wall, his movement completely restricted. Behind sticking out from his back on the right side was a single black wing. The man had cuts and bruises covering his entire body, and his left wing was laid on the ground in front of him, torn from his very body. 

"Limone"

The man said this weakly, as if completely broken. Torture was originally a method to extract information, and once the required information was received the subject would normally be put to death. 

This was not meant to extract information. The queen knew that Ashker had not intentionally betrayed her, but he was an example for anybody stupid enough to try. 

Ashker had been taken here the moment the queen found out what happened. He had made a foolish decision to keep the man outside of the castle, and his thoughts that humans are beneath us led to the human escaping. My orders were to determine when the punishment was complete, and remove him from the dungeon. He would recover from his injuries fairly quickly, but that wing would never grow back. 

"Ashker, you have made a mistake that could effect the outcome of the war between us and the alliance of six. Do you understand why you're here?"

He looked at me with surprised eyes. This is most likely the first time anybody has actually spoken to him in this torture chamber.

Our dungeon master has a habit of toying with the minds of the ones he tortures. He will purposely say nothing to them the entire time, and let the receiver get their own twisted delusions of why they're down here. Some believe they're in hell, some believe it's payment for what they'd done. Nevertheless, they all break in the end.

Ashker was not as stupid as he had shown himself to be, and as a demon lord he already knew about that man's habit. That didn't stop the month of torture from having psychological effects on him, but it did give him the ability to keep his mind in tact. It seemed he was still sane, and would be of further use to the queen.

"Yes, Sir Limone."

After he barely managed to push these words from his mouth, the chains surrounding him dissipated. 

The two demons walked back down the long hallway, back up the winding stairs and through the halls until they got to another room with large doors. 

"It looks like the last two have arrived"

The words were coming from a woman standing to the side of the queen. This was a succubus and the queen's right hand, Alenette.

The murmurs settled as they took their places in the formation. There were thirteen people gathered in total, with the leader of the demon lords kneeled before the throne.

"The highest of the demonic beings have gathered, my liege"

"Very well"

The queen was calm, but the amusement she had with the human had been long extinguished. A rage was boiling in her heart for having her prize ripped from beneath her lap. 

"While the events of the last few weeks were truly unfortunate, we cannot count it as a total loss. Sadly, the human and the unicorn managed to escape, but it seems a princess of the Sargonya kingdom lost her life in their escape. We will take advantage of this situation and use it for our future military actions. Kazalim, I leave this to you."

Kazalim was the lord of the vampires, one of the thirteen demon lords standing here. 

"Yes, my liege."

The queen directed her eyes towards Ashken and unleashed some of her aura. The once proud Dark Divine quivered in fear. She then turned to face Limone.

"As for this fool, he will be given opportunity to repent for his incompetence. He will have the task of tracking down the stolen human and returning him to us alive, so that we may use him to accomplish our goals."

"It will be done, my queen"

Limone had his head dropped nearly to the floor, and was relishing in the might of his master's aura.

Whatever mistakes that idiot has made in the past, he will not repeat. Though he is weakened right now, Ashken should more than suffice to retrieve the one who was lost.

"If you manage to find the prince of Lycania with him, feel free to send him my regards."

As she said this her face turned sour, and she was no doubt dreaming of gutting the unicorn herself. 

Within a week, two beings departed the dark castle. Each had a different destination, and a different goal.