Dagger

Night, in the training room...

-clang- -clang-

There were two people inside the said room, sparring each other, which were none other than Allen and Mr. Sanchez.

"Looks like you"re fully healed.", Mr. Sanchez dodged a slash and counterattacked.

"Mhm.", Allen blocked the counterattack with his dagger and backed off.

"You"ve gotten a bit stronger too.", Mr. Sanchez said. The kid got stronger because of some of the effects of the (Erchian Dagger) didn"t disappear from his body.

"(Dagger Flash)", Allen inwardly said as he initiated the said skill.

-sou- -clang-

The (Dagger Flash) swiftly flew towards Mr. Sanchez, however, he blocked and destroyed it with his own dagger! Not dodged but blocked and destroyed!

"That"s a good flash, now I"ll show you mine.", Mr. Sanchez made a small slash in the air, afterwards...

-sou-

A dagger flash thrice as fast as Allen"s (Dagger Flash) whooshed through the air. The kid couldn"t dodge on time and just channeled the energy of the body towards his dagger and tried to block the flash.

-clang- -bzzz-

A grinding sound could be heard as Allen"s dagger and the dagger flash of Mr. Sanchez collided, sparks flew everywhere from the middle.

-boom-

The dagger in Allen"s hands was destroyed along with the dagger flash, however, the kid was stumbled towards the wall on his back.

-whoosh-

At the same time Allen hit the wall with his back, a dagger flew towards him, almost hitting him on the head!

"I concede... What kind of a dagger flash was that?", Allen asked as he dizzily stood up and thought. "The dagger flash was extremely powerful, not just that, Mr. Sanchez wasn"t even getting serious."

"Nothing, it"s just pure strength.", Mr. Sanchez said.

After a pause, he said, "Alright, the training is over, go to sleep. The exploration will start at tomorrow."

"Okay.", Allen returned back the dagger to Mr. Sanchez and left the room.

...

In the bedroom...

Allen lied down on the bed with a new set of clothes. He entered a half-sleep state of consciousness and after which, he saw the (Erchian Dagger) floating right in front of hin.

"Just how powerful is this thing?", Allen pondered. When he fought the barbarian necromancer, the small dagger easily broke it"s weapon and pierced through the skin of the enemy like cutting through b.u.t.ter.

He also felt boundless energy from it, but he couldn"t control it.

"How powerful really is this weapon?", Allen muttered.

"Do you want to know?", the devil"s voice echoed within his mind.

"I want to... but, it"s not the time.", Allen replied.

The devil didn"t talk again and just kept itself quiet.

...

Dawn, next morning...
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Allen walked downstairs to the main hall and saw Kate and Drake at the bottom of the stairs. He walked to them and asked what time they would leave.

"Lord Levine will give us something first.", Kate said.

Then, Lord Levine walked out from a room and appraoched them, carrying three satchels.

"There are three copies of the treasure map, also lists of rare plants, if you see any of them on the mountain, pick them up and store them inside the jars, and if you get in trouble, there are protection amulets that could shield you from physical and magical attacks; the things you need in surviving are inside these satchels.", Lord Levine said.

The trio took the satchels. They"re obviously not just any ordinary satchels.

"There"s a boat that will take you at the other side of the river, get there before the sun rises so n.o.body would notice you three.", Lord Levine said.

"Thank you.", the trio said at the same time.

"You"re welcome, now immediately get dressed."

***

Several hours later, the trio crossed the river just after the sunrise and approached the base of the mountain.

Now, in front of them was Mount Watchtower. In the era of Barbarian Wars, the said mountain was the natural watchtower of Trigurniburg Kingdom that watched over the nomad region of the barbarians.

Long time ago, when the barbarians launched a unified attack on the south region of Trigurniburg Kingdom, one of the first targets was this very mountain, the troops of the kingdom successfully defended against all of the attacks of the barbarians.

After which, when the barbarians sought help from the necromancers to use a curse with an unknown price, and then they successfully took over the mountain.

However, they didn"t get to stay there for long, because the curse that the necromancers used didn"t disappear and in fact spread over the whole mountain!

The animals on the mountain mutated and became monsters, some barbarians who didn"t get to escape was never heard from them ever again.

Numerous explorers tried to discover what happened to them when the curse wore off after so many years, however, they either returned empty handed or never to be found again.

"The treasure is inside the mountain, the entrance is near the peak.", Kate looked at the map she was holding. "We should be careful, we might meet monsters."

"Is this place really safe? I mean, we"re going near the top of a once cursed mountain!", Drake said.

"Well, Mr. Sanchez won"t send us if we can"t handle it ourselves.", Allen said.

"You"re right... I guess.", Drake took out his dagger.

"You"re scared, Drake?", Kate asked.

"Me? Scared? No! Why would be I scared of monsters, probably they"re only like giant, hairy... scary... I mean just multi-eyed spiders!", Drake smiled.

"Oh look... wait, there"s a spider on your shoulder!", Kate pointed out.

"WHERE? WHAT?!", Drake looked at his shoulder and saw a spider.

"GET OFF! GET OFF!"

Kate: "..."

Allen: "..."

...

A few minutes later, which seemed like forever to Drake, he finally got rid the spider off his shoulder.

"Let"s go.", Kate said.

"Alright."

***

Back at Lord Levine"s villa...

Mr. Sanchez was sitting on the balcony on the second floor.

"Want some tea?", Lord Levine walked in the balcony while carrying a teapot and two teacups.

"Yes, thanks.", Mr. Sanchez filled up a teacup and drank it.

"So, why didn"t you leave with the children? You know it"s dangerous up the mountain.", Lord Levine asked.

"I already said it, I have to take care of the leftovers of that criminal organization here in the city.", Mr. Sanchez said.

"Oh really, what are you doing here, relaxing by yourself while looking out at the horizon?", Lord Levine suspiciously eyed Mr. Sanchez.

"Because I"m not the only one who will take care of them, so I"m just going to let him destroy them first... or just wait for him.", Mr. Sanchez said.

"Him? You mean...", before Lord Levine finished his sentence, Mr. Sanchez interjected and said, "Yes, it"s him. He also wants to get rid of the small, unnecessary tumor, so might as well let him to do it first."

After a bit silence, Mr. Sanchez changed the topic, "I don"t know why, but I feel something bad is going to happen to that kid."

"You mean Allen?", Lord Levine asked.

Mr. Sanchez nodded, "He won"t die, but I"m feeling itchy about his future."

"You sound like a worried parent.", Lord Levine laughed.

Mr. Sanchez smiled in response, after which his eyes suddenly constricted and he looked towards the direction of the city gates.

Before he could say anything, Lord Levine said, "He"s here."

"Mhm.", Mr. Sanchez put on a solemn face.

***

Meanwhile, on the city gates...

There were a lot of people coming and going out of the gates everyday, such as merchants, travelers, explorers, etc.

"Alright, you may go in.", the armored city guard said after inspecting a merchant"s goods.

The merchant pushing a cart entered through the city gates, just as he entered, a smile could be seen under the hat that shadowed the upper half of his face. After which, he quietly hummed a tune.

***

The mountain path wasn"t as steep and narrow as the trio thought it was. On the way, they already saw some of the rare plants on the list that Lord Levine gave.

"Climbing up a mountain is boring.", Drake said.

"At least it"s not like a forest where we almost couldn"t see anything around us.", Kate retorted.

"Well, I could just rush up the mountain, but then, I"ll leave the both of you behind.", Drake said.

"You"re just scared because there are monsters up there, but it"s bound that we"ll meet them sooner or later.", Kate said. "And don"t worry, we got a bookworm who knows a lot of monsters so this would probably be just an easy if we"re careful."

"ROAR...", a loud roar suddenly came from the higher part of the mountain, almost making a rockslide.

"Hurry, hide behind the stable boulders.", Allen urged.

"It"s near us.", Kate said.

The trio immediately hid behind a stable boulder and tried to check what monster made the roar.