The Sword Devil

by Nathan Valerio

  It went without a single problem while the medallion broke down into dust after it was used and they crossed through the barrier without any fear whatsoever.

  Only after about ten minutes Xero suggested trading mounts. He said that although Tryus was fast, Edge was quicker and eventually they agreed and they jumped upon the expanded flying sword spirit that picked up to max speed soon enough heading towards Lurian.

  Unexpectedly, Univa actually wanted to go to his village since it was summer and she had nothing to do during the summer since her home was too stressful to stay in at the moment.

  Meldie was in a similar situation and so they had nothing to do so Edge simply expanded and the swordsmen would spar on top or he would train the Sword minions but not for a long duration due to the sword consuming energy unable to connect to the land, though the wind one had no problem as it could connect to the wind mana.

  Like that 10 days went by before they finally reached the village.

  Xero was shocked to find that the number of residents and the expansion of the village had grown so much.

  All around the manor there were masons working to pave the packed earth with stone bricks going all the way to the three gates. The north, northwest and northeast sections of the city were completely cleared of wood while the outside the village, more than 50 acres of land was open and most of it was filled with farm land that was already bearing a large harvest of different crops, though only the original 30 acres.

  The new land was slowly expanding and was already being tilled for the summer/fall harvest while the current grain on the field was already being harvested slowly by the serfs and farmers.

  “Wow! Your village grew so fast!” Meldie said in shock as she saw the constant flow of merchants heading near the Lord’s plaza and several dozen wooden buildings being built around it while within the Lords Plaza there were serfs selling fish, herbs and meat as well as traders hired by the Null family negotiating building materials and land rent for shops as well as size of such buildings.

  One very particular set of building was built together within the Lord’s manor, near the edge of the on the west side. It was made of stone and had a few chimney while another was built of wood and had a large number of people coming and going.

  “Oh they built a brewery and Tavern already, your parents aren’t stingy for sure, to actually hire dwarven brewers to supply a steady stream of ale. It will take out a lot of grain from the harvest but the money it will bring is probably even higher.” Univa said praising the construction.

  Over on the west side, from far they could see that fishing piers were built at the river and fishermen were pulling out the fish and even some monster fish with the nets while being careful. Monsters in the water drew lots of people with water based familiars and these were considered hunters of the water, almost all of them worked to hunt water monsters that paid much better the common fish while the fishermen themselves were actually clearing some areas around the river to form ponds to cultivate fish for easier production.

  Soon Xero flew over the manor walls without reservation and landed at the front door. Within the walls of the manor, a number of guards, most of which were men, as well as young children dressed as maids or butlers, were walking around. On the north east side of the manor was a new large building that was the servants quarters next to the gate on the south side of the wall, there was a stone barracks for the young knights.

  Only outside of the lord's manor, near the south gate, the north east and north west gates, were the guards quarters and their training field was also surrounding each barracks.

  Xero happily walked inside, followed by the others, “Mother! Father!” He called out.

  The head maid had been walking by and saw him and stopped before doing a bow, “Young master, you have returned and it was unannounced?! What are those guards doing?!” She complained.

  “Don’t worry, I flew over the wall too quickly for them to arrive before me.” Xero explained.

  “Understood, young master, I shall get Lord Nil and Mistress Opal.” She said and clapped her hand making a few young maids come out. “Go prepare some tea for the young master and his friends.” She said clapping to shoo them away while she lead them to the meeting room where soon the young maids walked inside and poured tea for them.

  “For a Rank 1 noble house, your family sure invested a large amount of money, also how come they are training knights?” Univa asked.

  Probably not being up to date Xero explained, “We are already Rank 2.” he said and a that time a small grey wolf pup ran in and to Xero’s leg.

  “Hi Silver.” Xero patted.

  “Greetings little boy.” She said enjoying the petting but it shocked the visiting guests.

  Just behind the little wolf, Nil walked in with a smile, “Son, you’re finally back.” Nil said and Opal appeared smiling with Zilch in her arms while Nero poked his head out from behind here.

  “Big bro!” Nero said and ran over and hugged Xero.

  “Hey there Nero, how have you been? Did you cause mother and father trouble?” Xero asked jokingly.

  He pouted and looked up while still hugging, “No~! I’m not a bad boy! Big bro! Teach me magic like papa’s!” He suddenly said.

  “Like dad?” Xero asked confused and looked at his father.

  “The boy’s been asking ever since I took him on Silver for a run and ran into a few monsters where Silver handled the battle easily. He also saw when we battled the bandits back then so he seems rather fixated on Ice magic.” Nil replied.

  “Oh!” Xero exclaimed and looked down, “Be a good boy and I might teach you.” he said.

  Nero pouted, “I am a good boy!” he exclaimed and ran over to Opal and pulled at her, much nicer silk dress that was still very simple but beautiful showing off her mature womanly curves, “Mama! Have big bro teach me!” He said.

  “My my~! Nero don’t pressure your big brother, he just got back and magic is really complicated.” She said with a smile.

  He pouted even more, “Nero, I’ll teach you something later to start training your magic, is that okay?” Xero said.

  “Really!” He said.

  “Really.” Xero nodded and finally let the subject rest as the little chestnut haired boy smiled brightly. Finally Xero looked at his father and turned to point at the others. “Father, these are some friends that I met from school. You know Meldie already from when she came during the winter.” Xero said.

  “Ah yes, the little Halfling, thank you for taking care of my boy.” Nil said.

  Meldie blushed and nodded.

  “That is Univa Crost, she is from Radiance Empire’s Crost Family. It was her brother and family that took down the Trolls and goblins to the northeast.” Xero introduced Univa who stood up while putting down the tea and did a small bow.

  “Ah, I remember. To meet the young miss again, it’s a pleasure.” Nil gave a little bow as well.

  “And this is Ernest…” Xero said and froze.

  “I’m Ernest Wais Nelmoon, I am an orphan raised in the Evergreen Forest by the elven people near the borders close to the human nations. I am currently part of the Holy Institute and I’ll be going into my 4th year this year.” He introduced himself when he saw Xero forget his complete name.

  “Oh, I am honored young paladin. I am happy to see my son has such a reliable friend.” Nil said, “Well I have come to see if my son is well, I wonder you children have come to visit? Will you be passing the summer here?” He asked.

  “Yes sir, there were… problems when we were in Radiance empire but they are mostly resolved but we wish to refrain from being out in the open.” Ernest said.

  Nil’s face turned serious and looked at Xero who smiled and explained.

  “I see, Xero, don’t return to that empire until you can properly defend yourself.” He said and Xero just nodded.

  “Good, now I need to go train the knights and the guards, the number of people have been rising and the guards need to keep
increasing to support the security of the town. If I can’t get it to a specific strength we would lose a big chance for our family.” He sighed.

  “What chance father?” Xero asked.

  “You didn’t hear?” Univa asked.

  Xero shook his head.

  Univa smiled, “A Dungeon appeared in the West.”

  Chapter 7

  Dungeon, a strange name given to a special phenomenon by the heroes that were summoned in the past. That said, they described dungeons as a master conscious that controls monsters to protect itself which is unlike what happens in truth.

  Within this world, Dungeons are something similar to Hell but not the same. Hell is a special plane hundreds of tens of thousands of times bigger than any other realm besides heaven and connects to every other world as the souls of the condemned come to this place to be washed and eventually return to the cycle of reincarnation or to become demons for their crimes.

  Dungeons on the other hand are drastically different. These are highly stable parallel worlds but their size can’t be considered even 10% the size of the world they live in. That said, these worlds possess an immensely high concentration of mana this causes phenomenon in the nearest world they appear near to have ‘vanishing’ incidents of its residents while the dungeon is young.

  These creature breed and spread and thanks to the dense mana they grow and eventually filling the realm. As for how a dungeon ‘appears’ it is said that once a Dungeon forms at least 1 level 90 resident, these immensely powerful creatures will break the space in the most fragile area, which happens to be the area nearest the world, to break free of the small realm.

  Similar to the space crack appearing from hell, dungeons form space cracks but these are many times more stable due to the ‘distance’ between the two realms being many times shorter.

  As for how one finds a dungeon, it is more than obvious that space cracking would cause an unimaginable amount of energy to be dispersed and what is more is that the pressured mana in the other realm would drastically leak into the world like a dam.

  Any level 91 and above master within a 100 km radius would feel it and any master level level 95 would instantly feel the breaking of space within a 10,000 km radius around himself.

  The one who found it was two masters, first was the Gatekeeper of Everlight academies training field and the Fire church’s pope and the location was in the Great Desert that exists and is home to the Fire church’s main branch.

  The two masters instantly reached the place after feeling it and they both have already put down a seal to block the passage of the creatures and leaking of mana and were building a Passage gate similar to what the academy has.

  Training areas are a form of dungeon but they are artificially created by very powerful people. The ones existing at the academy were made by the founder but the most powerful area was actually a true dungeon that set the foundation for the school to prosper under his guide.

  “It is said that the initial exploration will draw in almost all nobles from high rank to low rank, leaving only the weakest most unlucky who do not have a strong foundation to guard their people as well leaving several Earl to guard each nation while countless nobles will go. In particular many Magic academy will be performing a school wide trip to the dungeon to give the students real life and death experience and allow them to feel a dungeon with their own body and hopefully have them grow intensely in the high density mana area.” Nil said.

  “So father wants to make a strong guard force to be able to go?” Xero asked.

  “Of course, I was able to get the help of the Light and Dark Ice church who are also training their knights and so we are training together. The Dark Holy church on the other hand has gathered the resource and have set up a familiar summoning circle. It is far too expensive for a small noble like us to have one but we have paid the church and they have helped us give our knights familiars. We currently have 100 knights in training and if we can get enough of them to at least level 10 along with guards, we will be able to take at least 50 with us to the dungeon and train them.” Nil explained.

  The children looked at each other, “Father, does the village still have a lot of monsters at least level 20 around?” Xero asked.

  “Yes, quite a few in the deeper mountains that your brother hunts to make his pack of devils.” he says.

  “Tell brother to stop making those, have him bring in a lot of meat from now on. I'm going to teach the knights something that my teacher taught me to quickly improve.” Xero said.

  Nil looked at the boy curious but nodded, “Alright, I will tell him.” He said.

  “Do you need help?” Ernest asked.

  “It would be helpful, I'm not a professional, I only intent to teach them the martial arts technique that Grunt taught me to train my metabolism so that their strength to rapidly rise above level 10.” Xero said and thought a bit, “And also take the time to have Ashley smith more Sword Minions and train them while we are at it.”

  “You have a lot of those?” Univa asked surprised.

  “The swords that make them up yes. Most of them are Earth type though since it’s easy to gather earth from under our own feet but the ones in storage are all in the mines because rock is better than dirt.” Xero said and summoned Ashley.

  Nil showed an expression of surprise to find that Ashley had grown a lot. “Ashley, go pick up a ready Stone Spirit sword from the mines then forge them into Sword Minions.” Xero said.

  “Great! Oh right, if you have the little buckethead forge the minions it would increase their sharpness. Her forge skills are many times better since she is a true blacksmith race compared to me who is more of a fighter race.” Ashley said.

  “I’ll keep that in mind but please don’t call Cinder a buckethead.” Xero said but the Devil with the two burning blue white flames on her horns simply floated out to go pick up the next minion she would forge.

  “Mama~! I heard lil bro is back!” A sudden shout came from behind Opal and suddenly Nadir rushed in. Unlike before when she would use simple dresses. She was now using a knee long green dress with a white shirt and green vest while her hair was in a high ponytail revealing her cute face and large but pure clear and innocent eyes. “Lil Bro!” Nadir said and jumped hugging Xero, “Hey hey! Guess what!”

  “What?” Xero asked.

  “I said guess!” She pouted.

  Xero chuckled and look her up and down, “Does it have to do with your clothes?” He asked.

  After taking a close look he found that there were a sachet shaped magic bags on her left side while there was a single magic bag on the right side. “Is that a herbal Sachet? I thought only alchemists used those?” Xero asked.

  “YOU GOT IT!” She said taking a step back spinning while giggling, “I found a nice old lady witch alchemist. Papa looked for her after she moved into the town. Papa even helped her build a little herbal shop near the northwest wall. Now she is teaching me nature magic, earth magic, water magic and alchemy.” She said happily while smiling brightly.

  “That’s really good, with your Spirit Pot you can even learn to cook with it and it might even be better than Ashley if you do it correctly.” Xero said.

  “Mn! Lil sis in law already taught me how to cook the mana in meat. It was really confusing but after a while when sister in law helped me make a spell to make fire appear it became much easier to make.” Nadir said.

  While the children were talking the scholar walked in quietly and showed Nil something.

  “Hmm…” He read and scowled before scratching his head. “... this is hard? Between building a merchant’s bazaar zone and officially set up the northeast mine that have yet to be made which do you think is better? The cost nearly 3,000 gold to start up the new mine but it's only 1,500 gold to make a merchant’s bazaar.” Nil asked.

  “Eh?” Nadir, hearing the question, looked back at Nil. “Papa? Isn’t it obvious? Papa should invest in opening the mine as well as investing the blacksmiths to increase the typ
es of products. We can’t have merchant’s without things to sell or money. Papa should also invest in clearing the land inside the village for wood and only during winter set up a Merchant’s bazaar for next year because then we would have plenty of things to sell.” Nadir said.

  Everyone froze looking at the girl rather confused when her sophisticated replay came from the always innocent and somewhat airheaded girl.

  “Sweetie? How did you think of that?” Opal asked.

  “Huh? Isn’t it obvious? We aren’t rich or have lots of things to trade yet. If we attract all those chubby sly fatties who like to buy things cheap and sell really expensive, like these clothes papa bought mama and me, they would take everything in town soon.” She said and smiled, “If papa focus on making lots of food in the farms, and mining and directly smithing instead of selling the rocks and make armor, weapons and maybe even just normal house items, while keeping the number of fatties low we won’t be made poor so quickly.” She said.

  Meldie and Xero was almost burst out in laughter at hearing the Merchant’s being called ‘Chubby Sly fatties’.

  “It’s impressive, she is rather innocent but maybe because of that she can see a person's nature? Could it be that she also studies for the merchant trade in secret?” Univa asked.

  “No, in fact, unless she snuck into my office she shouldn’t have ever come in contact with anything dealing with finances.” Nil said.

  Univa nodded and walked to the scholar and asked for a piece of paper and pen before going to the tea table and calling Nadir before writing down a list.

  The others looked and found that it was a simulation about a town with only 5,000 gold, was in forest covered land with little mineral but near a large river and with lots of flora and wildlife. The village was on a trade route between two large cities.

  “How would you develop this village with the limited money.” Univa asked.

  Nadir looked at it and tilted her head before flipping the page and doodling making a sketch of two circles a line and at the center was the town and other dots meaning different villages. Some more lines meaning water.