About three years ago, Imane found herself wandering around the edge of their village.

Her green eyes look dazed as she's thinking about her future.

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"Haa~ It's my turn next month to be sent in a mission… I'm happy to leave the village but I'll have to take innocent lives now…"

She felt suffocated living within the enclosed village as they were unable to freely leave the place whenever they wanted. However, she's also unhappy about their missions of taking humans as sacrifices to please the nine imp gods that are protecting them in the past decades…

She wanted to go outside not to kill people but to perhaps roam the world and see the beauty in it… This is the fault of her grandmother who told her stories about the outside world.

'That's right… I'll be roaming the world after I completed my mission and obtained my Arcana…'

Imane muttered as she made her resolve… They are required to take human sacrifices for at least 10 years after being sent out of the village… Not many would be able to stay alive with that long period but after serving for such a long time, they will be allowed to return to the village or perhaps retire somewhere else that you think you can survive…

Of course, there are also cases that the half-imps would no longer think of leaving the mission and continue it for the rest of their lives.

However, for those that chose to retire somewhere else, places that accept half-human and half-imp could not be easily found. Once their identity was confirmed, they would normally suffer unjust treatment among humans.

After all, imps don't have any good reputation to speak of… They were known as Evil Creature and were classified as a top-grade Evil Beast due to the cores that are existing within their skulls.

If not for their cores, they might be classified as another intelligent race like elves and orcs instead.

The only thing they can do is to ensure to hide their identity at all cost…

"Hmm? What's that?"

Imane suddenly saw a white light from afar… As she's standing on top of the plateau, her view on the ground can reach several more kilometers.

Due to the clouds covering the moonlight, the night was especially dark at this moment… This allowed here to see the white light very easily…

She didn't bother alerting the guards since even if the light was an approaching Evil Beast, they wouldn't be able to enter their fortified village at all.

She waited for a bit for the light to get closer… Then, she saw that the light wasn't alone… They are actually a group of three figures…

The one in front is holding a lamp made of glowing moss as the two follows behind…

Roar!

A thundering roar from a lion beast was then heard from behind the group…

'They're being chased… Are they from the other village? Why are they traveling at night?' Imane curiously asked herself.

There was no way that the three originated from her village. After all, they are prohibited to go outside especially at night unless it is an emergency.

The three human figures moving towards their village were perhaps running here without knowing that there's a village around or perhaps, they are actually a messenger from another neighboring village…

'I don't think that they're dark elves as well…'

In the end, she decided to alert the guards. However, as soon as she was about to get their attention… She saw something weird happen…

The lion beast appeared behind the group… The beast was huge at about 4 meters tall and its long tail was probably the same length… It's an extremely huge Evil Beast and it seems to be very angry at the three…

Bam!

The creature attacked the three but they seem to have delayed response as they were unable to move away… She saw them get injured by that strike but the weird thing is that after the three were thrown away, she saw a tear or portal opened beside them as they were sucked inside.

The portal vanished together with the three figures leaving the huge beast confused at the sudden turn of events.

Imane couldn't help but scratch her head due to what she had just seen… She couldn't explain what had just happened…

Even if she would report it to the guards, they might think that she's just seeing things or perhaps going crazy.

'What was that? Ugh… Maybe it's really time to sleep…' The girl decided to just return and forget what she had just seen this night…

However, she felt a cold breeze beside her and suddenly noticed a wooden bamboo sword beside her…

'Hello there, lady… I need you to become my wielder for a while… Right, I'll be needing some of your blood since I need to complete my mission… Ugh~ I don't have any Skill Points left on me to heal them so… Are you fine with that? Oh, wait… I'm sorry… I don't think you understand that… So, what I'm trying to say is that I need you to be my wielder for a few weeks to help me gain some power… In exchange, I'll help you get stronger with my new skills…'

"Y-you… Who are you speaking with? Wait! Is that the sword speaking to me?!"

'Yes, it's me…'

'Y-you need me for something… Are you a Cursed Arcana? Will I still live even if I refuse?' Imane immediately wanted to secure her safety.

'Well, I'm not a Cursed one even if I look like one… I'm actually a Blessed one, you know? Anyway, even if you refuse… I don't mind it… I'll look for someone else.'

Imane immediately processed what she had just heard…

She took a deep breath first to calm herself down. She recalled that the talking sword needed to complete a mission with her help… through blood specifically. She doesn't know what Skill Points are, but it seems that he needed it to heal someone…

Aside from that, she heard that she'll benefit from this transaction if the talking Arcana is telling the truth.

She felt that this is once in a lifetime chance in her life, but she also felt scared accepting a deal from an unknown Arcana…

It's not like she's desperate to get stronger that she has to accept a suspicious Arcana's offer just like that.

She couldn't decide fast so she thought of asking a question.

"Since you said that the deal will only be in a few weeks or so, can you help me obtain an Arcana?"

"Is it your Arcana? Was it missing?"

"Eh… No, I'm not an Arcanist. However, I wanted to summon one in the future… or perhaps, just give me any Arcana… I'll let the elders modify that so I can use it even if I'm not the one who summoned it…"

"What? That's possible?"

"The modifications? Yes… But only our village is capable of doing this…"

"I see… Then, that's not a problem… Anyway, I have a spare Arcana here… or perhaps I can let you try to summon one depending on your skills… After all, summoning an Arcana will still depend on you… I can give you a chance but I can't guarantee that you'll get one."

"Whoa! Is that true?!"

Imane asked in surprise after hearing the wooden sword. She requested such a difficult task since she's risking her life in this transaction… She didn't expect that the Sentient Arcana is such a capable sword.

"Yes… I can still do that much." The Arcana answered.

"Great! Then I agree to your request. I'll do my best on becoming your wielder in the few weeks that we'll be together."

Imane replied as she became happy with the deal she just made…

***

This is the first time she met her master and remembering it today made her truly glad that she accepted the deal…

Right now, she's facing an opponent from Reboroz Village in her assessment. She doesn't want to show everything she got so she decided to only use a single technique…

Pah!

As soon as the battle started, she stepped closer to her opponent and executed a kendo technique…

Makiwaza!

A technique that requires extreme precision to remove the wooden sword on her opponent's hand!

Her opponent was unable to understand what happened as he only felt a bit of pain in his hand before seeing his sword being thrown away…

'How?!'

This is the first time that someone had let go of their sword so everyone's eyes looked in their direction.

After the members of the Bhibra Village identified the girl standing at the platform, they remained silent as they tried to understand what happened… However, it didn't take long before they realized something…

Finally! They have now confirmed that Imane was truly hiding her true strength… The allure of the summoning Arcana was truly incredible!

'Hmph… I'll get the chance to summon another one… Having two of them should make me even stronger… Kukuku…' Imane laughed internally as she imagined herself possessing two summoned Arcana.