Year 2, Summer, Second Month, Fourth Week.

Karl took a minute to understand the general confusion. Apparently, his mother and the three suspicious elders had mistaken the shadow crystals for death crystals. Now that he thought about it, it was a fair mistake, after all, they didn’t have the all-knowing Master AI in their heads. Karl made a mental note to re-evaluate his common sense later, his interactions with the voice in his head had become so natural that he could be forgetting it was an advantage over others.

He would prefer to stay incognito as the mastermind behind Alchemy, but that ship had sailed when his mother lost her composure and pointed to him, so he might as well clear their doubts.

“It’s not… Death crystals would be completely black, if you observe it better, you’ll see that it’s quite opaque and dim. If you saw a death crystal, you would know the difference… This is a shadow crystal, a hybrid of the death and wind elements…”

Reiner quickly adjusted her posture and searched in her memory for any information about the crystal. She brushed away the surging shame of losing her calm to such a simple mistake before turning back to Lew.

“Hmm… We might have a use for these crystals and they’re rare, but we don’t have a pressing need of them…”

Lew understood what she was implying, if he wanted to move forward, the crystals’ value would be depreciated. Every fiber of logic in his body screamed that he should keep them for a better opportunity, it wasn’t impossible to get hundreds of gold coins for them. However, his intuition continued to urge him to make a deal.

“I would be willing to exchange them if you could give me something unique…”

“Everything we do here is unique… Do you have anything in mind? A weapon enhancement, lightening something?”

“Hmm… Could I see what you can do? Please, don’t get me wrong, I just don’t understand your craft enough to make a request… I would give you the crystals right away as long as you promise to craft something for me later…”

Reiner thought the terms were fair enough, but the decision involved too many things and not only her Alchemy Department, so it had to be a Council decision. They asked Lew to leave the room while they discussed. Reiner explained the crystals could have an important use in the future and they would be paying a lot less than it was worth it. It didn’t take much for them to decide in favor of the exchange and Lew was escorted back to the room.

“We agree to your request, Keller’s employees are leaving tomorrow, you are welcome to stay or leave and come back with them later…”

Since he had already seen too much, they also decide to give him the option to stay, after all, he just invested a huge sum in the village. Of course, he would be kept under surveillance. They also had a hidden purpose, to extract as much information as possible about the Kingdom’s situation.

“I would like to stay until you finish my request, that way I would be able to get a better idea of my options for enhancements… But I don’t like to take advantage of your hospitality, so I would like to help if your training while I’m here. A long time ago, I was a fighting instructor… Anyway, I’m a Fighter, so I could also help you fight the beasts…”

The three elders exchanged another look, besides them, only Karl, Diana and the twins understood what a Fighter was. Karl’s response was to feel curious about the man’s power, he always wanted to see how others used magic energy, even though he wasn’t a Mage. The twins’ expressions didn’t reveal much, but Sania was certainly calculating something. Diana was, by far, the one with the stronger response. An old dream passed through her mind, making her taste some bitterness, fortunately, she discovered something much more powerful. Even so, she was curious to see what he was capable of.

“We could use some help in our training… But we would have to see what you can do first…”

Lew welcomed the challenge, he too wanted to test the villagers’ power, especially Diana.

“Sure… What about a match against your best fighters?”

Diana almost forgot to get Omero’s permission before accepting the proposal.

Soon, a hundred or so villagers circled the central square where Lew and the team veterans stood. Diana wanted to fight him alone first, but she wasn’t naïve, she knew the power of a Fighter wasn’t something she could match, at least not yet. She tightened her grip over the sword, but didn’t activate its fire enhancements, she would like to test him without them first. A quick nod announced the start of the fight before they ran towards each other.

The swords collided, Diana retreat but held her ground and didn’t give him any openings. Lew smiled, pleased by her attitude. Just by looking at her posture, he could say that she understood the difference between their power and planned for it, which made her unhesitant initial attack even more worthy of praise. It spoke tons of her fighting spirit and confidence. She continued to block his attacks while retreating until they both took some distance, silently agreeing to finish this first round.

Lew started to circulate the magic energy inside his body, reinforcing his muscles for the next round. Because she had shown respect for his strength he decided to give her some tips, before showing a part of his true abilities.

“You have good fighting techniques and used the right posture to deal with my attacks, I’m sure you would do well in a fight against any Guard… Now, I’ll show you how a Fighter fights.”

Lew sprinted forward again, but this time his speed had almost doubled. Instead of running forward, Diana used the precious seconds to activate the Arrays in her sword. The blade shined in the sunlight, emitting something like a heat weave. Lew hesitated but didn’t give up on the attack. His sword slashed faster and stronger than before, it met the red-shining sword making sparks appear in the air.

The strength of the attack made Diana back down a few meters and put some strain on her shoulders. She wouldn’t be able to handle many attacks of the same strength, so she could only press him to prevent another prepared attack. With the fire enhancement bursting in her sword and affecting her attacks, she could at least double her attack speed for a couple of minutes. To Lew’s surprise, the girl sustained the strong attack and even attacked back faster than he was expecting, but he blocked her anyway.

Diana was attacking him furiously, without stopping. The sparks increased as the blades continued to whistle before clashing. Lew was utterly surprised by the change in her abilities. He could clearly see that the sword strikes looked more dangerous, but that was expected from an enhancement. Was the sword enhancement influencing the girl too? Or was it another enhancement? Either way, he couldn’t underestimate Diana, he absorbed another good amount of magic energy from the surroundings, strengthening his muscles until he was able to match her speed.

From the side, Omero and the other elders observed the match.

“He doesn’t fight like a noble…”

“You can’t conclude anything by that, how many Fighters you know that don’t have connections with the nobles?”

Bill intervened with his usual jocking tone:

“Are we counting bastards too?”

“Hmm… You’re right… His proposal earlier was a double-edged blade, how could we pass on the opportunity of getting the crystals for such a cheap price? But it also brings the question of why he did it, what are his true motives?”

Omero continued to make other considerations until Marlen couldn’t keep herself from offering some wisdom:

“Either way, Keller wouldn’t send him here if he was working for the Kingdom. The moment we closed the deal, he became an accomplice to our treason… The real question is what benefits Keller is trying to get by sending him here, and what benefits we can expect from him?”

“…”

The second round was finished, Lew stood there curious and apparently happy, while Diana painted heavily. Lew was ready to say something, but she was faster:

“It’s time for you to enter the battle… He can handle all of us, at the same time…”