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The day after their visit at the Soot Kingdom, two people arrived at the gates of Techno's castle, requesting an audience.

"Who are these people? Do we know them?" Techno asked to Ranboo, while they headed towards the throne room to meet those individuals.

"I-i-i don't know your majesty, there seems to be no record of them in my journals. I think they are outsiders" he answered, nervously flipping through his book.

"It doesn't matter, i'll hear what they have to say and then we can have the guards escort them out" he said in a cold voice, it hasn't been the first time that someone hired assassin to sneak in the palace and kill him, but since the guards had gotten better at spotting them, they had to change strategy. This could very well be one of their trick so kill him, so the throne room was literally filled with royal guards to protect the king in case they tried anything funny.

Techno sat on his throne, looking over a the guards that were standing by the door, giving them a nod. They opened it, allowing the two inside. One looked human, but the other one was definitely a magical creature.

The guards immediately tensed up and Phil took a step closer to the king, clasping the handle of his sword hard. The two kneeled down, introducing themselves.

"Your highness, thank you for receiving us, it is truly an honor to be here in your palace" a man dressed in a dark green cloak said, he was wearing a smiley mask over his face for some reason, and that didn't set right for Phil.

"Why are you hiding your face in presence of the king?" he asked in an unfriendly tone.

"My apologies your majesty, i wear this mask to hide the hideous scars my body bears, i will take it off if you wish me to" Techno nodded and the man unlatched the mask, removing it. He wasn't lying.

The man had a large scar that went diagonally all the way from his forehead, over his left eye and down to the lower lip, he also had many burn marks all around his face. His left eye was a very dull green compared to the right one, which was a rich emerald color, Techno guessed he was probably blind from that eye.

"Allow me to introduce ourselves, my name is Dream" he pointed at his friend "And this is Skeppy"

This Skeppy had some sort of mineral over his skin, seeing that it let off colorful reflexes when the light hit him. Phil guessed he was someone who probably feasted off gems and other minerals which then his body assimilated, hence the minerals over his skin. Most of them were sapphires and diamonds but he could spot some rubies as well. He wore a simple brownish shirt and a pair of dirty ripped pants.

"State your business here" Ranboo demanded, standing to the left side of the king, while Philza was on his right.

"We came here to offer our abilities to you" Dream responded.

"What kind of abilities?" Techno asked.

"We know you have the strongest army of all kingdoms, but we invented a training course to train your guards so they would be even stronger" he explained, earning a scoff from Phil.

"We don't need training courses, our guards are trained thoroughly already" Dream grinned.

"Then why don't we put it to the test?" he asked, standing up, causing the nearby guards to draw their swords "Me and my friend have trained with said course, why don't you make us fight against your best guards and see the result yourself?" he proposed, sprouting some interest into the king.

"Very well" he turned to look at Phil, nodding, he was a bit reluctant but left nonetheless, returning a few minutes later with a two guards in tow, which all looked pretty well build in term of body muscles.

"You will duel each other on a battle one on one, you are allowed to use a weapon of your choice and the fight will end once one of the two fighters is no longer able to fight. But..." Philza glared at them "If your weapon just threatens to come even close to the king" he pulled out his sword, pointing it at Dream "I will personally cut your head off" he threatened.

"Of course, we accept these terms" and so they all got separated in two groups and drew their respective weapons. Dream had an axe, while Skeppy a sword.

"Begin!" the fight started, the guards fought very well, Techno was quite impressed by their level of skill, considering they all looked pretty young, but it was clear right away that they would have lost. For every blow they landed, their opponent would land it twice, soon ending the battle by either pointing their weapon at their neck or disarming them. This whole exchange lasted a less than ten minutes.

Techno applauded at them, surprised by their fighting skill.

"You fight very well" he leaned forward a bit "Tell me more about this training course"

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"Your highness, are you sure it's a good idea? Allowing two complete stranger access to the inner walls of the castle, they may attempt at your life" Ranboo said worried, walking with him in the large hall.

"They'll always be supervised and will leave once the course is built, receiving a fitting payment of course. Not to mention that they'll reside in an inn outside the castle walls, so i don't see why are you so worried" Techno stated, keeping his gaze fixated forward.

"I just... why did you accept in the first place? I mean, they did have some impressive fighting skills sure, but our army still remains the strongest among all kingdoms" Techno stopped.

"If we said no they would have probably gone to another kingdom and offered the same thing to them" he turned to meet eyes with Ranboo "Sooner or later there are going to be kingdoms who will try to take control, and i want to be prepared when that day comes" he said in a firm tone, scaring him a bit.

"O-of course your majesty" Techno resumed to walk, entering in his private library.

"Uhm... the ball is in two days" he reminded a bit hesitantly, making him sigh.

"I know, but right now i just want to relax and read a book Ranboo, could you leave me alone?" he asked in a tired voice.

"Y-yes your highness" he bowed and quickly left, closing the doors behind him. Techno went to look for a very specific book, he didn't lie when he said he wanted to read a book, but it wasn't for relaxing, he wanted to find out what exactly was that Skeppy guy.

He looked for a while before finding the encyclopedia of all the magical creatures. He sat down and started to flicker through the pages, looking for a match, or something that would come close to it.

He found it a few minutes later.

"Geological spirits. Being with a deep connection with the earth and all it's component, they feed off minerals, preferring the most precious and rare ones like diamonds. Their skin is littered with said gems, they are said to be very old, some think they could be even immortal. They are very smart and wise, excellent architects as well as builders" he kept reading through it, there were a lot of useless information, like what color they liked the most, which he skipped, focusing on the useful ones.

"He doesn't seem like an aggressive type of creature, it could actually be quite useful" he said to himself, he was about to close the book when the page moved a bit, revealing an image in the next one. Bored and curious, he decided to give it a look, turning the page. It was the image of an Elythrian, but with white wings.

"Huh... that's odd" he read a bit into it "In very rare occasion it can happen that an Elythrian is born with white feathers instead of black ones, this only happens among females and there's no apparent reason for it. The Elythrian female it's perfectly normal aside from this odd characteristic, they are said to have a beautiful voice and love singing" he smiled a bit, remembering his encounter with that common girl.

He snapped back to reality, shaking his head.

Why was he thinking about her?

He didn't know her name, then why was he so obsessed over her?

Techno sighed, closing the book and placing it back in it's place, deciding to return to his royal duties.

"As much as i hate to admit it, i still got a ball to organize, i should get going, or the council might send someone hunt me down" he chuckled lightly, leaving the room.

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