Asher’s hunch proved correct, as it wasn’t too much longer before someone finally entered the courtyard and spotted them.

  “Are the two of you alright?” a woman wearing heavy armor asked as she walked up to them. Based on the clean armor and the fact that she’d come from within the fort, Asher could only assume she had been one of the warriors guarding the students.

  [Royal Guard] - 3/3 Elements

  “Been better,” Asher admitted, waving lazily at her from the ground as he peered at her aura. The woman seemed to be surrounded by flowers of all things, though seeing as they appeared to be covered in thorns actively dripping the blood of those who dared break the rules, it didn’t exactly come across as relaxing. “Before you worry about us, there’s a man lying by that wall over there. Brian, can you show her?”

  Brian quickly led her over to the old man, and Asher had a couple of minutes to himself as they checked on him. While he waited for them to come back, he finally took a look at what he’d gained as a result of his battle with the greater demon.

  Astral Dip - Lvl 28

  Astral Dip - Lvl 29

  Distortion - Lvl 30

  Personal Rift - Lvl 27

  Spatial Lock - Lvl 23

  ---

  Spatial Lock - Lvl 26

  Comprehend - Lvl 28

  Secret Seeker - Lvl 24

  Eternal Regeneration - Lvl 31

  Eternal Regeneration - Lvl 32

  Complete Resilience - Lvl 30

  Complete Resilience - Lvl 31

  Sever the Thread - Lvl 13

  ---

  Sever the Thread - Lvl 17

  Asher couldn’t help but let out a low whistle at the sheer number of skill improvements he’d gotten from that one battle. The fact that so many of his evolved skills had leveled not only once or twice, but even four times in the case of Spatial Lock, was utterly insane.

  Sever the Thread had even leapt up five whole levels, which wasn’t quite as wild seeing as the skill had yet to be evolved, but it could only mean permanently killing a greater demon might be an even bigger deal than he thought.

  While he was going over his skills, the guard finally returned, and he dismissed his interface out of politeness. “Thank you for pointing him out,” she said, giving him a warm smile. “Thankfully, he’s stable, though that doesn’t really come as a surprise. That’s Preston Miles, otherwise known as The Wall. He’s not all that good with a sword, but you’d be hard pressed to find a tougher bastard to put down in the entire kingdom. I’m Lily, by the way.”

  “I sort of figured as much when I saw him survive getting a fist shoved through his chest. I’m Asher.”

  “Nice to meet you,” she said, nodding down at him. “That said, knowing how tough Preston is only gives me more questions,” she admitted, her smile faltering slightly as she peered at him. “…What exactly happened out here? We were told demons were attacking, but Preston worked as a royal guard for nearly forty years before retiring. It should have taken more than a few lesser demons to put him down.”

  “It was a greater demon,” Asher admitted, earning a shocked gasp from the royal guard. He’d briefly contemplated lying, but seeing as Preston had survived, they’d know the truth as soon as he regained consciousness anyway. “By the time I got here, everyone was either dead or gone.”

  “So how did you manage to scare it off?” she asked, and Asher almost corrected her before catching himself.

  Duh, I shoved the corpse within my rift… Of course she doesn’t think I killed it.

  “Trade secret,” he decided to go with, rolling his eyes at her frown. “Look, do you see how much blood I’m covered in? I barely survived myself!”

  “I can see that,” she snorted, hesitating for only a moment before raising a hand. “Hold still. I can help.”

  Seeing as he really didn’t have any other option but to hold still, he nodded, curious as to what she had in mind. A look of concentration fell on her face, and Asher blinked as a large sunflower sprouted out of the ground by his feet, quickly blossoming into a gigantic flower that had to be nearly as big as he was. Before he could ask what she intended to do, the flower turned to face him and began emitting some foreign, yellow-green energy.

  The moment the energy touched him, he gasped as he felt his body begin truly knitting itself back together again. Lily’s skill was far quicker than his Eternal Regeneration, and within only two or three minutes, he was back on his feet.

  “I see why you were chosen to guard the kids,” he said as he stretched out his legs and tentatively hopped up and down. As far as he could tell, everything was good as new.

  The narrative has been stolen; if detected on Amazon, report the infringement.

  On the one hand, she might have just cost him another level in Eternal Regeneration. But on the other, he hadn’t really been all that inclined to spend the next day or two lying on the ground as his body finished reconnecting itself.

  Spotting Brian sitting over by the old man, no doubt having been asked to watch over him and shout if he woke up, Asher turned toward Lily. “So is the battle over? Did you get a report or something?”

  “Yes, the demon forces have been fully repelled from town,” she confirmed. “I know you’ve done us a great service in repelling the greater demon, but I’ll have to ask you to remain for questioning. It may take a day or two before a truthseeker can get here.”

  “Ah, no need for that,” Asher said, trying not to laugh at her frown. “We’re actually heading to the capital now, in fact. I’ll let them know what happened later.”

  “Forgive me for not being quite so trusting,” she said slowly, her fingers resting on the hilt of her mace as she watched him. “I insist you remain here for the time being.”

  “Look, you’re a royal guard, right?” he asked, seeing her nod. “Do you have some sort of sending stone? Can you just call Donvath and let him know I need to talk to him?”

  If Lily had looked surprised after learning he’d fended off a greater demon, she appeared utterly shocked now. It took her a moment to collect herself, and her frown deepened even further as she glared at him. “High Prince Donvath is busy at the moment, not that I’d bother him at your request in the first place. And if you dare say his name without the proper title again, I’ll see you lying back on the ground you were growing so familiar with just a few minutes ago.”

  “Damn, I forgot he mentioned he’d be busy for the next few days…” Asher muttered, seeing Lily’s gaze harden as she no doubt figured he was doubling down on his lie. “Look, our caravan is leaving in a few hours at first light to head to the capital, and I need to be on it, at the request of High Prince Donvath. I don’t really care if you believe me or not. I mean this with all due respect, but I just fought off a greater demon, I’m not afraid to take you on next if you try to stop me.”

  Despite everything he’d just been through, he felt fully rejuvenated thanks to Lily’s healing skill, and a small part of him burned with excitement at the thought of getting to fight an actual royal guard. Unfortunately, Lily seemed to pick up on his hunger for battle, as she slowly removed her hand from the hilt of her mace and nodded.

  “Fine. Though only because I am actually heading back to the capital myself on Brant’s caravan as well. I was only here for the week for some supplemental instructions. I am a royal guard, not a retired one helping out as an instructor.”

  “Suit yourself,” he shrugged. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go check on my companions.”

  He half expected Lily to try and attack him from behind as he walked away, but the royal guard seemed to think better of it. Instead, she turned and began shouting an all-clear back at the fort, which a few other instructors started pouring out of.

  “Are we finally going to see Samantha?” Brian asked, giving the unconscious man one last glance before he got to his own feet.

  “Yeah. But we’re going to walk like regular people. Too many eyes on us for now,” Asher said, glancing back at the different instructors.

  Nodding, Brian fell into step beside him, and the two of them calmly climbed over the portion of the wall that had collapsed when the demon threw the old man into it.

  I suppose that solves the problem of the gate still being locked, Asher thought as they began making their way toward the nearby town. Before they’d even hit the halfway point, he spotted a familiar face running down the road toward them.

  “Thank the realms you guys are alright!” Samantha shouted, sprinting up and tackling them at a speed far faster than any regular human should be capable of moving. Based on how fast she was running and how the injuries he’d felt through her mark were gone, she must have doused herself with water quite recently.

  “Easy!” Asher laughed, grunting as he took most of the force from Samantha’s tackle and saved Brian from being knocked over. “I only just finished healing! How were things in the town?”

  “There had to be close to a hundred demons, it was insane,” she said, shaking her head. “I think The Council figured out you were heading to the capital and wanted to do whatever it took to stop you before you got there.”

  “I suppose that makes sense,” he said, wondering what The Council was going to throw at him next now that they knew demons wouldn’t cut it. As far as he was aware, demons were simply the specialty of the very lich that had summoned him to this world to begin with. There were nearly a dozen other undead abominations on the council that had lived for thousands of years, which meant there was no telling what secrets or tricks they had up their own individual sleeves.

  “Anyway, enough about me, what happened to you guys?” she asked, looking between the two of them and bending down to thoroughly inspect Brian and ensure he wasn’t injured. “You said you just finished healing?”

  “Ah, yeah… I ended up going toe-to-toe with the greater demon, but my plan worked,” Asher said, smiling at the clear relief on Samantha’s face. “The secret to the demon’s strength lay in its ability to access the realm of ages, similar to how I slip into the astral. I was able to isolate it and force it to remain in the astral realm with me to stop it from speeding itself up, and took it down from there. It was… closer than I’d like to admit, but I came out on top.”

  “Did you die?” she asked bluntly, raising an eyebrow.

  “I didn’t, not, die,” he said coyly, earning a huff from her that made him laugh. “It’s alright, I got some healing from one of the royal guards at the academy, and I’m good as new!”

  “Well that’s something,” she said, giving him a warm smile and taking his hand in her own as she straightened up. “Did anyone at the academy get hurt?”

  “A couple of the instructors were killed before I got there, but none of the students,” he admitted. “It was a shame, really. Obviously, the fact they died was terrible, but if I hadn’t been stuck on the ground until the instructors showed up, I could have at least snagged their shards for ourselves.”

  “Uh,” Brian grunted, clearing his throat and getting both their attention. “You know how you asked me to go check on the old guy? I might have seen those five glowing orbs just floating around and grabbed them on my way back to you. Maybe.”

  “Brian… Did you seriously grab their shards without asking anyone first?” Samantha asked, frowning at her younger brother. “I never thought I’d have to say these words to you, but you can’t just loot someone’s corpse like that!”

  “I didn’t even look at the bodies, I just grabbed the orbs!” he countered, crossing his arms over his chest. “Well if you don’t want them, does that mean I get to keep the shards then?”

  “Hey, I’m the one that actually killed the greater demon, I’ll take those off your hands,” Asher grinned, poking him in the side. “Don’t you think it’s time you finally paid me for lugging all your fletching equipment around for you all this time?”

  “I suppose that’s fair,” Brian nodded, holding out his hand. Asher and Samantha both blinked in shock as the largest, purest orb of shards they’d ever laid eyes on suddenly manifested over the twelve-year-old’s palm. It looked like a sphere of pure violet, and if that wasn’t crazy enough, Brian scrunched up his face and manifested a second orb beside the first, this one not quite as densely packed as the first.

  “Asher… how many shards do you think retired royal guards keep on them?” Samantha asked, staring at the glittering orbs with wide eyes.

  “More than I thought a few minutes ago,” he replied, reaching out and accepting the orbs from Brian. Asher had had almost exactly one hundred thousand shards prior to taking these in, and he could only stare at the new total in his interface as it updated.

  Shards: 1,823,841

  “Well?” Samantha asked, eagerly awaiting the news. Her stance on snatching the shards from the instructors’ corpses had done a quick one-eighty after seeing the sheer size and purity of the orbs Brian had manifested. “How does it look?”

  “Let me put it to you this way,” Asher said, turning and grinning at his two companions as the sun finally started to peak over the horizon. They’d be off to finally finish their journey to the capital city in just a few hours, and it looked as though they’d have a bit more seed money than he’d originally expected. “Remember how I told you Loratta said the Wing element was almost impossible to get one’s hands on?

  “…You still want it?”

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