Chapter 8: Leaving the Bird's Nest (3)

Within a couple of weeks of the stare-down between father and son, and a tantrum from Alice, it was finally decided that they would play a game. A rather simple one at that.

Ryu was going to have to prove himself, that his life as an adventurer would be fruitful and it would genuinely let him live the way he wants. Should he win, he would be able to keep adventuring however, if he lost then he would have to go to Knight school immediately and never hope to do such an act ever again. The game consisted of 4 parts, 3 of which was a collection of items:

A silverheart of a general Silver ape.

A necromancer's manipulation skull.

These two were overall not that bad, although rather difficult, the first one can be achieved if he became strong enough to hunt a silver ape and the second at the worst could be bought from the black market.

However the third collection item outperformed all of them,

"A dragon's tooth!?" Ryu shouted as he read the list given by his father. Similarly to his reactions, his sister and brother jerked forward, surprised.

Dragons were at the top of the food chain. They were the apex predator, the species so powerful that even the weakest one could easily destroy a medium kingdom with relative ease.

Those dragons, the beings closest to transcending the boundaries of a 'living being' was what he had to get a tooth of? However, his father didn't stop and simply shrugged.

"Heroes of the past have managed to slay a dragon before, they were blessed by a deity just like you. How is a single tooth that difficult?" Reinhardt argued. 

It seemed that Reinhardt was rather hellbent on making him quit. Ryu grit his teeth, understanding how difficult this task was. The worst part was that he had to achieve this in 1 year!

But he sighed heavily, as if to express his annoyance at the rather impossible task, "what's the 4th condition?" he asked.

"that will be revealed in 1 year's time. When you come back with what you have."

Indeed it made sense. There was no guarantee that he would be able to accomplish the other tasks first, especially since the last one was so absurd. So rather than arguing more, Ryu got up and left the room.

He had to prepare what he would be able to take or not. He didn't need much or rather chose to not take much. If he were just walking around with a full plated armour, he would be simply suspicious or cringy.

Ryu decided to start by taking everything out. He would leave as soon as possible thus, he had no time to spare. 

In the end, he decided to take 20 gold coins, clothes. All that was left was a weapon. Of course, he could use his money to buy a weapon and then after using up all his money, wait for a hopeful encounter just to get backstabbed and left to die.

But he had no desire to end up on top 10 anime betrayal's list, so he progressed to find a weapon in his own house.

After the fight with Reinhardt, Ryu evaluated the uses of a spear and the cons of it. He had no problem using a spear, but for some reason, he felt drawn to a spear. He thought that it was more compatible with him. 

Perhaps his old dummy self would've preferred a sword, but he felt like a spear would be more suitable.

As he was pondering on his choices in his room, he heard a slight whisper...

"co...me...here," a voice croaked out. It felt heavily suppressed as if it could barely moan out the words before it felt so tired to even speak more.  But Ryu's senses picked it up. 

He raised his head in confusion, looking around the room. 

'That was certainly strange...am I losing my mind?'  Ryu wondered internally, he wouldn't typically hallucinate. In the past  2 weeks, he had fully calibrated to his body. He understood the now highly enhanced physical capabilities he possessed. Although they weren't the most trained, his prowess was one to be reckoned with.

He did have one issue though. 

Magic.

He knew he had the compatibility for all elements. He made sure he did. Yet he hasn't been able to wield it yet. He felt like something was being restricted. Something that was preventing from pulling out the control.

"O-ve...r...her...e. Ba...se-....mment." The voice once more barely croaked out. This time he had heard clear as day. He wasn't going dumb, he heard it. 

Evidently, it was something calling out to him, and it wanted him specifically to go to the basement.

"Who are you?" he audibly asked, yet no response came. 

As expected.

This sort of thing never works out, alas, he has no choice but to go down to the basement. Thus, he carefully made his way down. He dodged the servants and few knights there, and eventually got to the steps.

Making his way down was easier than he thought. Typically, when a person is about to discover something big or secretive, they encounter some level of anxiety or worry. Yet for some reason, he felt as calm as a breeze, he gently glided down the stairwell and into the darkroom.

The room was completely empty, just a few spider webs in the corners but that's about it. Or at least that's what it would seem to a normal person.

In the last 2 weeks of being here, Ryu had evidently discovered and tested his powers. Granted, he couldn't do much without raising suspicion but one of the abilities that he did learn to use was 'mana sense'

The concept is rather simple to guess or understand like the name itself. It was the ability to sense mana. Mana constituted the essence of life for a magician, it was the second type of blood flowing through their body. Just like how the blood pumping around the body gives the energy to move, the mana flowing through the body gave the power to summon phenomenons.

Surprisingly, Ryu had discovered the concept through a book, a 'beginner's guide to mana' it was, and this very concept led him to realise why he couldn't use magic.

poor. Not just the amount in his blood, but also the one in the air around him. He couldn't see it. Or feel its presence. 

However, he honed his senses somewhat, by training during the night whilst every one was asleep, Ryu finally opened the concept of magic and felt the mana around him, in his body and everything. He hadn't yet properly learned how to manipulate, assuming there are more rules to those, he chose to get out of the house first. 

But, by using this very ability he could see it. The explosive green mana that surrounded the basement. Its presence was heavy as if every mana particle weighed a ton each. This just went to show the extent of which whatever was down here was worth.

'What in the world is actually here?' Ryu wondered as he decided to move on.

As much as he would've liked to back out and pretend he saw nothing, he knew this was the very thing that was calling out to him. 

He noticed that this mana was leaking into the basement from a hole in the wall. A tiny hole in the side seemed to indicate that the wall was weak. 

But there was a doubt that emerged in his mind. A very logical question actually.

'How in the world has no else realised of this?' 

Surely, someone over the years had to have come here for whatever reason. At the very least they should've felt off-put by this.

"C-come..." The voice once more whispered. It seemed more focused than before, most likely due to the fact that he was close by. 

Yet this time the sweet and enticing voice didn't manage to get a hold of Ryu, who was formulating the possible reasons of why in the hell would this thing go unnoticed.

Finally, he arrived to two possible conclusions. 

'Either this thing appeared recently, or it decided to be active recently.'

He made his move by going up to the wall, tapping on it a couple of times as a few pieces of it broke through.

The wall itself was brittle. Extremely so, as if it was made with paper. Shrugging uncaringly he simply tore the entire thing down. 

'...what?' 

In front of him, sat a very small cave. Not even 10 feet in length. But right in front of him, sat a podium. Adorned with golden outlines and patterns that seemed to feign ancient vibes. A top the podium, however, sat a spear. 

No, not a spear. It was special, since it was the source of the energy flowing in. A dual sided long blade. It had the grip of a spear in the middle but two swords like blade stretching out from each side.From how the plaque was holding up, it would suggest the blades themselves were extremely balanced in weight.

But the staff itself seemed to distort space. Its pure black colour making it seem ominous but Ryu felt a strange sense of attraction. As he felt his hand move waver towards the blade, a voice cut in...

"hello there..."

End Chapter.