While Willem's body fell to the ground, Mark looked around astonished at his strength. Before he realized he had struck an ally, a moment of elation washed over him, quickly followed by dread when he found out who his unlucky opponent was.

Willem's head hit the ground with a dull thud, as if to show there was no resistance from him at all. While he regenerated, he thought about what had just happened. The attack from Mark came toward Willem as if it was in slow motion, but Willem decided subconsciously not to dodge the attack. The only reason he could think of for not acting in time is that he secretly wanted his brothers to know how strong he has become.

The right hemisphere of Willem's brain had bones protruding from it, and the blood protecting his brain from impact had begun to leak into his skull. His entire body spasmed uncontrollably and it became apparent to the Knights that he would soon be dead. Just as they went to hear the boys last words, they heard an indistinct popping noise coming from his skull.

Four pops rang out before Willem opened his eyes again. He looked at Mark with a big grin on his face as if he had not learned his lesson, but all Mark showed on his face was horror. Willem looked exactly like the monsters in the horror stories that their mother would often read to them, that feasted on the flesh of humans because they could never be whole themselves. Not even the Knights could hold back their look of disgust even though they tried not to show it to their apprentices.

They could not help but look at Willem as his head inflated like a medicine ball. His bones recuperated quickly and his head no longer had a huge dent in it. His body stopped spasming, and was instead replaced with a slight tremble. Willem kept a huge grin on his face as if the entire thing was a joke perpetrated by Mark and himself. Just as the bones finished self-healing, the blood stopped flowing into his skull and instead retreated back where it belonged as if charging backward through the flow of time.

Willem had completely healed and looked around at everyone, then back at himself. Though he had gone through the process multiple times in the past, he never felt an ounce of pain and for a while considered if he could still be counted as a human. He looked at the expressions everyone wore and saw it was a mix of fear and veneration. He waved his hands non-aggressively and spoke. "Okay, I get it, it was a bad joke. I am sorry."

He quietly stood up and sat down beside Eli, while the latter had fallen backward off the log he was resting on. Willem looked around and saw that everyone had become completely still as if it was a life and death situation.

"I can only do it because I am a Grand Mage of Darkness, not all mages can do this as far as I know." Willem knew what they felt in their heart was fear as if they looked at a monster but he had already decided that they deserved to know. He grabbed for some skewered meat and began chewing on it relentlessly.

He regaled the group with the story of how he convinced the council and became a Grand Mage by slicing up his body, severing his limbs and then reconstructing his body with Darkness Magic. When they looked on with disbelief, he thought about everything he had been through and decided to tell them about what had happened to him once he left.

He began by explaining about the Inn that was ransacked, how he was stabbed and left for dead, and about his friends being kidnapped by the Golden Dragon Family. About how he awakened and a Grand Mage sensed his power and helped him get his revenge and save his friends. His studying during the academy, his excellence in potion brewing and inscription and how he intended to be in the front lines of the war that was to happen soon.

He told them what the view was like as he stood at the top of the mountain that the Bastion of Hope was nestled in, looking out over the ocean and seeing an endless field of blue. He told them about the scarring of the world and how incredible it looked, even though it was dangerous and spewed out magical beasts. He told them about how he had gone into the kingdom of Magical Beings, right to their palace and looked upon the King himself.

However he specifically neglected to mention about the Demon trapped in his mind, as he did not want them to worry about his present capabilities.

Once he was done talking, two hours had passed and the effects of the potions were waning. A wave of fatigue fell over the Knights and apprentices, who by now had looks of reverence toward Willem as he finished telling his story. Though they had no way of telling if it was the truth, deep in their hearts they knew he did not lie when he spoke about what he had gone through. Maybe it was the look in his eyes as he recalled his friends, or the joys of learning and experimenting and the way he described the sights he had seen that made it abundantly clear he was telling the truth.

The Knights stretched lazily before looking again at the Grand Mage. Suddenly Sir Rowan piped up. "How about we hunt down this hellboar before the elixirs run out."

Willem nodded and everyone began packing up the camp together. By this time the sun was high in the sky and blazing down on the squad, making them feel excessively hot as they headed toward the teleportation array. It only took a couple minutes to reach their destination, and again Willem began to hone his senses with the array before revealing a surprised expression.

"We are in luck friends, I can sense that a pack of five hellboars are fighting against a level six magical beast." Willem continued to feel the vibrations of his prey through the honing array.

The Knights looked at each other horrified, and an ominous feeling came over them. If this was lucky, then they would rather be cursed. Their blood ran cold as they thought about the strength of a level six magical beast. The strongest of the training grounds, Sir Gehrig, after consuming elixirs could barely be considered a level six Knight. This magical beast could take on sixty humans of that level and yet still could be victorious.

"You do not have to look like you are courting death friends, you have a Grand Mage on your side! If we kill both the hellboars and the monster it fights, I will personally make you a full set of level five armor from the hellboars. The power of this armor will be like nothing you have ever felt before." Willem intended to use the inscriptions of the red book to make powerful armor for his platoon during the war. This would be a good initial test even if it ended up a failure in the end.

The two Knights looked at each other, then the apprentices and decided upon it unanimously. They would rather die as fighters than live as cowards. They readied their weapons and Sir Kris said a quick prayer to his gods. Willem watched him with a peculiar look, and then handed everyone a small blackish-grey potion. They drank it down without hesitation and found that their strength from the previous elixirs returned.

"Time to have some fun. Watch out for the acid, okay?" Willem grinned as he circulated his magical force and teleported them deep into the woods of the hunting grounds.

The group of fighters looked at Willem full of terror as the present surroundings of light foliage and beautiful autumn colors turned into a wave of cold black scenery.

Cobwebs littered the trees and covered each branch in thick webbing. There was no entrance or exit as far as the eye could see, except for a hole that looked as if it had been ripped open from a tusk.

There was no sun, as the thick leafage had completely blocked it out save for a few spots of light. This made it incredibly hard to see the webbing, and if not for the dark-vision elixir, they would have taken two steps before being caught in the cobwebs.

The Knights focused on the deepest part of the labyrinth of darkness, where five hellboars could be seen huddled together attempting to fight back a huge magical beast. Easily twice the size of the hellboars, which were large in their own right.

While an average human height was six feet tall, the hellboar was often eight feet tall. The monster hovering over the hellboars could only be estimated at fifteen to sixteen feet tall.

The hellboars barely dodged around the pools of acid being spit out but could do nothing to stop its encroachment. The level six beast stepped closer and closer with each passing breath, until it was mere meters away from it's prey.

Finally the Knights recognized what the monster was. Standing sixteen feet tall, with eight legs and impressively large fangs, stood an Astral Spider.

Highly territorial magical beasts, Astral Spiders could be considered very high up on the food chain anywhere you were unlucky enough to find them. Top grade magical items could not break the exoskeleton, and on top of that the Astral Spider spit out a poison that melted flesh and bone indiscriminately. The fangs could pierce anything except an equally hard exoskeleton, and the gossamer from Astral Spiders are weaved with so much precision that if they were to be made into a net it would be almost indestructible.

The reason they are called Astral Spiders is because of their special ability when threatened. If the Astral Spider ever feels like it will not be able to win a fight, it can immediately send itself into an ethereal form. From this position it can weave in and out of two different planes at will, making it exceptionally hard to kill. One would need a similar ability to even keep up with it, let alone slay it during this form.

The Knights looked on in horror, and the squires looked on with doubt as they watched the hellboars narrowly dodging the poison.

Willem gave a huge grin as he began chanting some magic spells.