Countryside path Blake's party

"Bull shit! You're lying about that!" Blake yelled at Gram, who was walking alongside the cart as they were going by. "You're telling me? That you took on a family Ogre Bears just cause you wanted to?" He asked after listing to some of Gram's hunting adventures which went anywhere from chasing down a Unicorn to fighting off monster hunters.

"What? You think I couldn't take care of some honey sucking bears?" Gram answered, smirking lightly but thanks to his scar, his fangs showed through. "After all, I gave that Omega next to you a hard time, didn't I?" He added, looking at Saffire who for once wasn't inside the cart sitting next to Blake.

"Huh!" She instantly glared at the wolf after hearing that but smirked afterward. "Hmph! Cute, those things are like teddy bears to me, come back after you've fought off a Roc trying to take your hard earned food!" She boasted with her arms crossed under her chest.

"Oh? So you held off a giant chicken impressive." Gram said sarcastically, shaking his head at the Dragon riling her up more.

"Hey, Scaleless, I think we should put a muzzle on him before that smart mouth of his gets him fried," Saffire warned, ignoring Gram as best she could.

"Hmm? Don't even try that! My Alpha has better things to do than listening to the bottom of the pack." Gram shot, sending Saffire a one-eyed glare that she returned with a fireball in one of her hands. "Oh? Want me to put you in your place, Omega?"

"..." Blake let out a deep sigh being right in the middle of the two, even seeing lightning sparking from their eyes. "Hey, as cool as it would be to see a fight between a Greater Wolf and a Dragon could you two not, you're both starting to get on my nerves?" He asked them for the fifth time today alone.

Saffire was the first to back down, clenching her fist to put out the fireball. "Tch, Fine." She turned her head away from Blake.

"I'll do as I'm told." Gram lowered his head to the ground. "Hmm?" Once he did, he picked up on something with his nose twitching a bit. "...Hey, Alpha, there's someone you know, over that way." He turned to a path going into some trees.

"Huh? Someone, I know? How?" Blake asked, confused on how Gram knew someone he knew.

"They have your smell, and you have theirs from what my nose tells me." Gram answered, continuing to sniff the air to be sure of it. "Yep, you've met before at least in the last few days, I think?" He turned back to Blake after that. "It's your call like I said; I do as I'm told."

"Hmm?" Blake thought it over a bit, on one hand, this would be a detour on the way to Gorz something he couldn't really take right now with all the other times he wasted with pit-stops but on the other one whoever this was they've had met before, but Blake couldn't remember who, which was bugging him. "...Let's go find out just who this is, and we'll see what happens from there." He pulled on Nash's reins, making him turn into the side path.

"Huh?" Gram paused, sniffing the air again, and turned back to where they came from. "What was that?" He thought, sniffing some more but whatever he picked up on was gone which was a first for the wolf's nose.

"HEY! Gram, what gives? Stopping to mark your territory again?" Blake called back to Gram, stopping down the side path to wait for him to catch up.

"On my way," Gram yelled, running back up to the cart.

Once the group was deeper into the path, Valac appeared at the start of it. After his defeat at the hands of Blake and Saffire at Tolpeak, he continued to keep an eye on them from afar, biding his time until he got the chance to retake Risabeel. "That dog nearly found me out that is quite the nose." He said with an aura of darkness around him to keep his presence hidden from Gram's nose or anyone with some level of mana detection. "Hmm? But down this path..." He started to follow the path as well after sensing something. "...It may be useful to me? Hehe!"

20 minutes later

"Whoa! What's this?!" Blake gasped after coming to a large three-story building with plants growing either around or on it but other than that it was in pretty good condition. "*whistles* Minus the grass this place looks kind of fancy." He eyed the place then noticed an odd looking fence around it made out of stone pillars with some runes written on them between each pillar was a transparent veil of light. "Huh? Nathan?" At one of the pillars was the young mage that Blake met some time ago.

"Hmm?" Nathan was examining the pillar in front of him with his Advance Mana Control spellbook in one hand while the other hand was carefully tracing over runes on the pillar. "I see...I see...?" He was so into his studying that he didn't notice Blake pulling the cart up to him.

"So, uh, figure out what these rocks do yet?" Blake asked now, standing right next to Nathan with a hand under his chin as he looked at the pillar too.

"I do believe so, with the type of runes engraved into them, these pillars work together to form a barrier that keeps out intruders for various levels of power, interesting, very interesting indeed," Nathan explained confidently with a smug look on his face and closed his spellbook, turning to Blake. "You are quite lucky to have someone as well studied as myself to understand such things, Hmm, hmm, hmm...!" He gave out his strange laugh, continuing with it until his eyes widened. "When did you get here?!" He blurted shocked, jumping back and saw Saffire who raised her head to greet him then felt some breathing from behind. "A-a-a-ah!?" Doing a quick turn, he found Gram sniffing him.

"Yep, this is the one I caught a whiff of earlier." Gram said after confirming with his nose then moved on to sniffing the pillars now, but he felt some eyes on him and looked to Nathan. "What?"

"Hmm?" Nathan held onto the Gram's neck, feeling around a little then opened his mouth to look inside. "Interesting, your vocal cords are the same as a common wolf, yet you are able to speak as clearly as a person, very interesting, indeed..." He let go of the wolf and pulled out a notepad and a pen putting down the information for a later study. "..Now then..." He turned to Blake after getting that done. "...Good day to you, Smith-knight, Blake." He greeted while taking some time to sense Blake's mana finding some changes in it.

"Wasn't planning on seeing you out here, Nathan? How've you been after, you know? Leaving us at the bottom of a dungeon?" Blake asked without any emotion watching as Nathan got what he meant.

"Ahaha...sorry about that, I may have been too excited to worry about you all." Nathan laughed nervously, holding up his hands in a weak showing of his apologies. "But I can see that you found your way out, so all is well?"

"More or less, if I saw you in the same day, I would've kicked your ass, but that was days ago, so I'll it go," Blake answered, giving Nathan some relief then he wrapped an arm around the mage's head. "Now then, what are we going to do today, useless mage?"

"Grr! Let go!" Nathan tried shaking Blake off himself, but the smith held on and put him in a light choke hold. "Bah! I am currently on an assignment by the headmaster of Le Fay..." He answered after giving up on getting out of Blake's hold. "...This building used to be owned by a wizard named Nenil, The Weaver of Doom, he collected a large number of artifacts and books retailing to magic and history over the years, placing them all here. Which came to be known as Nenil's Library but he died some time ago...since he was friends with the headmaster most of its contents have since been moved to Le Fay, however, there are still some rare and powerful texts and items inside which I was tasked with retrieving."

"Really? You're just here for some dusty old books and stuff, boorrring!" Blake groaned loudly and let go of Nathan to put his hands behind his head.

"Why you ill-learned brute! Lease I remind you of this!" Nathan yelled out, holding up his Sparkling Stikes of Boa spellbook. "With this 'dusty old book' I can let out a powerful blast of electricity that could put a Giant on their back!" He boasted overly pound in himself. "And inside there may be even greater ones!" He pointed back at Nenil's Library.

"Oh? Knock a Giant on its back? I'd like to see that." Gram smirked, coming up to Nathan and sniffed his spellbook.

"Alright! You've convinced me! We'll be coming along!" Blake declared, turning right around towards the cart. "Hey! Everyone outside now!" He called out to the inside, and out came everyone.

"Ah, Sir Nathan, it is good to see that you are in good health." Risabeel greeted Nathan and upon seeing him after their last meeting.

"Sup, useless mage," Mari said, giving Nathan a half glance then turned to look at the library with Nathan looking like a statue after being ignored.

Next up were Lu and Rena. "Oh! Hi, Nathan, I was wondering what Blake stopped for?" Lu waved at the mage with a friendly smile.

But Rena had another greeting for him. "Why you little shitty bookworm! You left us at the bottom of a random fucking dungeon! Rena ki-" Lu quickly grabbed her before she could get anywhere. "Lu, stop! I need to kick him in the face!" Rena yelled out but Lu just her in his hands. "Grrr! You lucky little nerd!"

"~Oh~ Hubby, what's with the roll call, and who's your friend?" Baba asked the last of the ones to get out of the cart and floated over to latch on to Blake's neck to stare at Nathan until she smiled. "He's a cutie too."

"Well then, allow me to introduce myself, I am the Great Mage, Nathan of Le Fay School Of Magic at your services." Nathan did a small bow with an arm held out to the side. "May I have the name of the young maiden?"

"What a wooer we have here? I haven't been called a 'young' maiden in a looooong time, ~hehe~" Baba giggled lightly to herself, giving Nathan another look over. "It's Baba, the Ala, little mage boy...hmm? If I wasn't worried about Blake getting out of my hands, I could just eat you up." She cooed with her voice giving off an overly dangerous feeling to Nathan. "Then, again?"

"Eh? What is this feeling of being hunted?" Nathan thought, backing away a little from Baba.

"Aww, don't be afraid I can treat you ~just right~" Baba faked a whimper with a sad expression then rubbed her face up on Blake's necks. "Well, at least my Hubby is willing to let Mama play with him."

"I haven't agreed to that," Blake said, starting to lose his usual laid-back side with Baba's antics on the rise and got her off him quickly once he did he noticed Mari and Saffire glaring at the wind spirit. "Uh, that's about right, thank the Goddess Risabeel doesn't act like that." He thought, looking over at her while she was curiously looking at one of the stone pillars. "Hmm?" Now the burning eyes were set on Blake, making him sigh, and he brushed them off. "And the big bad wolf is Gram."

"Yo." Was Gram's only word for Nathan as he was more interested in marking his territory on the pillars, raising of one his hind legs.

"AH!" But Nathan went into a panic at Gram's act. "No! No! No! No! I will not let you defile this place!" He stood in Gram's way with arms open wide to stop even a drop from getting anywhere on the pillars. "These are historic and highly educational works of art that should not be treated as a common toilet!"

"Fine, I'll just do the area around them." Gram offered with a small jet of pee landing next to the pillar Nathan was protecting with his life. "Happy?"

"No, but I will at least allow it since Greater Wolf urine will keep some other dumb beast from trying what you just did," Nathan explained, stratified for now and with all the greetings done it was time get down to the task at hand. "Since it has become unavoidable to tell you all to leave, I will have you all as my back up in this quest of mine." Nathan declared, taking a commanding stance with hands on his hips, ready to lead everyone into Nenil's Library.

"Alright, everyone let's go," Blake told everyone else, and they started to walk past the pillars leaving Nathan behind. "Whoa! That feels weird." He gasped after walking past them and felt as if something went through him, passing a hand over his chest. "Huh?" Turning around, he saw the others get through as well and as they did a ripple in the air appeared where they entered. "Oh, yea? You said something about a barrier right, Nathan."

"Yes, and it could have killed you all just now, idiots," Nathan warned after getting back his composition from being ignored by the group with the only one who waited for him being Risabeel. "Thank you for being kinder than those." He pointed at Blake and the others.

"It is alright, Sir Nathan, after all, it is more your quest than ours," Risabeel said before going through the barrier as well but instead of the ripples like everyone else her very presence caused a haze of black to form in her way and sent out a blast of mana. "Kyaah!" Risabeel cried, getting thrown back by the blast.

"Look out!" Nathan rushed in to catch her. "Gauh!" But got knocked down instead.

"Thank you, Sir Nathan." Risabeel looked down at Nathan underneath her.

"Ahaha, it was nothing." Nathan babbled out left dizzy after hitting his head on the ground.

"Hey! What was that?!" Blake came running back to Risabeel to help her off Nathan gently.

"Uh, as I said, these pillars are used to form a barrier keeping out unwanted guests." Nathan groaned, picking himself up and walked over to one of the pillars pressing a hand to it. "I highly doubt that master Nenil would allow a Demon to walk into his Library." He guessed and using some of his mana. He made a gap open in the barrier. "There, I was able to bypass it; you are free to walk through, Risabeel."

"Not bad, mage." Blake was a bit impressed by Nathan usefulness for once.

"Hmm, Hmm, Hmm! But of course! Where would you be if I wasn't here?" Nathan took the compliment to his head quickly, and once Risabeel was safely through the barrier, he returned it to normal and went through himself joining the group.

Atop a hill overlooking the Library

"Tch!" Valac bit down on his lower lip to stop himself from cursing Blake to the ends of the Underworld. "That idiotic mortal! He is lucky that worthless barrier only knocked lady Risabeel back...if otherwise! I would..." He trailed off as he watched the group near the library, and he was starting to lose track of their mana. "...Hmm? Not only does it prevent our kind from getting in that barrier also plays with our senses, tricky mortal spellcaster." He lightly rubbed his chin while his grimoire floated in front of him pages going by.

"Ah, yes! He will do nicely!" Valac snapped his fingers, and the grimoire stopped on a page overflowing with blackness. "Come forth from the black abyss! Specter of the night! No walls or shields or blessing of the Goddess may stop you in your way! Freely go to wherever I send you! Wraith!" With his summoning chant done, Valac waited for his servant to appear from the growing vortex of blackness. "Hmm? He is taking his time, isn't he?" He tapped his foot a few times, losing his patience with each passing second.

Before Valac could let his frustration be known to the world, a vibrant burst of fire erupted out of his grimoire and out came a young woman.

Her skin was cherry red, her hair was neon pink, while her eyes were the same dark red as Valac's, under them was a line of black freckles that went across her face to her pointed ears with two small horns sticking out on either side of her head.

She was dressed in a french maid's uniform made up by a black long-sleeved dress with white trim on its rather short skirt. Over the dress was a white lacy apron, matching with a white headpiece, white stockings with black garters to keep them in place and a pair of black high-heels. On her back was a small pair of red bat wings and from under her skirt came a long red tail with a cute little spade at the end.

"Pardon the wait, my lord Valac, one of your ever faithful servants has come to your call, Imp maid Hilda at your services." After introducing herself, Hilda did a curtsy for her master trying to go as low as possible for Valac to be higher than her head but once she came back up the difference in their heights was clear as day with the top of Valac's head only coming up the base of Hilda's C-sized bust.

Underworld monster, Imp: These lesser Demons are commonly used as the maids and butlers of Underworld nobles doing basic tasks such as cleaning, shopping, cooking, stress relief but are placed above Hellspawns in terms of privileges and power.

They often come in different sizes ranging from cat-sized pests to fully grow adults and have an appearance close to that of typical person's view of a Demon; red skin, horns, wings, and a spaded tail. Their primary means of battle are low-level fire spell and illusions, but like many of the lower dwellers of the Underworld by siding with a more powerful Demon, they can gain other abilities.

Items that can be forged through this monster's Ore are usually fire infused daggers, rings, and stones.

"Hilda? What is one of my tea-maids doing here? I called for that lazy ghost spy, Andrew?" Valac wonder, bringing his grimoire to his side to make sure it was on the right page which it was.

"I am sorry to say, but Andrew is unable to come to your aid at this moment due to this." Hilda held out a small black envelope for Valac.

"Well? Open it," Valac ordered and it was done, inside the envelope was a letter addressed to him of course. "Let me see if he is in the right for not coming when called..." With Hilda holding the letter for him to read;

To my oh so great, powerful, handsome...etc. Lord, master, keeper, owner...etc., Valac the almighty, terrifying, loving...etc...etc...

"That ass kisser at his best." Valac rolled his eyes at the number of compliments that were sent his way by one of his servants which went on for about half the actual page and continued to read from there...

...It pains me to my unbeating heart to say and even more to think that I am unable to come to you in your time of need today, however, my reason is one that will hopefully quell any anger which you have all the right to feel towards me, master.

I do not know if you remember my lord, but, it has been over a 1000 years since I came under your wondrous rule and as it is stated in my contract after this period said servant is given a hellish but mandatory one day off. Why you would choose this for us I do not know nor understand, but your words are the laws to all of us servants, and I will follow it with the last of my ghostly breath!

As such, I will be off to see my friends for the day at some castle they have been hunting for the last hundred years. Hopefully, there is something I can find that is to your liking.

But if you do require my abilities, then you need not worry! In one of my scouting trips to the far ends of the Underworld. I came across a slightly odd creature, after exchanging blows with it for some time, it suddenly began to mimic my powers! Seeing the usefulness of it, I chose to capture it with a magic jar that not even I can escape from...Do not ask how I know this my lord it would bring shame to me. If this creature does not meet your need, then I am happy to receive any punishment you may have for me.

With love, your loyal spy,

Andrew, the Wraith.

Once done with the letter, Valac waved his hand for Hilda to put it away. "But it had to be his day off with Lady Risabeel being gone I completely forgot...I'll need to prepare a gift for him on his return." He muttered as he passed a hand through his hair. "I do hope he enjoys himself and what of Harrison? Has he been put to rest?" He walked over to look at the library.

"Yes, all servants were present, his family was most honored that one of their own was able to serve an Underworld elite and have already sent over his replacement," Hilda answered soundly then with the use some pink flames from her hands she summoned a tea set placed perfectly on a silver tray. "Tea, my lord?" She asked, already pouring a cup for Valac while balancing the tray on her tail.

"Thank you, Hilda." Valac accepted the cup and lowered himself to sit with Hilda going down on all fours as his chair.

"Cream, milk or honey?" Hilda offered, having said items magical appear on her head.

"None." Valac took his tea as is only picking up a spoon to stir it. "..." While doing so, he looked closely at the seemingly ordinary drink. "...Is something going on back home?" He asked Hilda done with his stirring and took a sip.

"It is...nothing that requires your...concern, my lord," Hilda answered reluctantly, turning her head to look at Valac thankfully he was still drinking the tea. "Is the tea to your liking?"

"Hmm? Oh? Yes, it is, you have been practicing well! It has an overly rich flavor from what I can tell are handpicked herbs from the garden yet even though I didn't add any sweeteners to it there still is a warm sweet taste near the end which works well with the light mouth-feel from a fire kept at the perfect temperature..." Valac praised Hilda for her craft, bringing a smile to her face as he held the cup up high, but it was soon washed away by his next words. "...nothing but a weak attempt to hide any doubts that you have at the moment hinted by the bitterness that lasted only for a moment at the start. So, I will ask you again; Is something going on back home?"

"..." Hilda turned away to hang her head after being found out. "I am sorry for lying to you, master, for your task is a very important one to not only you but to all of the Underworld itself and I did not wish to bring anymore worry to you that you may already feel." She explained in a low voice eyeing the ground.

"I am grateful for that but doing so only brings, even more, worry to my heart, Hilda, simply tell those two that I am fine and will return to them and the rest of you in time." Valac wrapped a lock of Hilda's hair around one of his fingers as he talked and got up finished with his tea.

"Wait? Master Valac, how did you know that it was the Head-maid and butler?" Hilda asked somewhat confused yet relieved that Valac figured out what was troubling her. "Was it the tea?"

Valac smirked at his maid with his head held high. "All too simple, my dear Hilda, how can I be called one of the greatest Demons of the Underworld if I can't understand the feelings of those closest to me, hmm?" He answered with a hand to Hilda, making her widen her eyes. "Now then where is the jar containing that creature Andrew was talking about?"

Hilda presented a small blue jar that had Demonic writing all over it and a dark aura coming out from under its lid, which was a skull with moving ruby eyes in its sockets. "From the looks of it, it appears to be a high-level capture jar used for sealing away powerful souls." She handed it to Valac in exchange for his teacup. "I hope that my services were of use to you, master Valac." After putting away the tea set with some fire then did a curtsy.

"Hmm? Yes, it was." Valac was mostly looking at the jar shaking it near his head and heard some sloshing sounds when he looked back at Hilda she was still doing her curtsy, but her eyes were closed, making him roll his eyes. "Must you all be like this." He leaned in to place a kiss on her forehead. "Now, away with you and give my greetings to the others."

"I will be on my way then, and please think of me when you require any assistance." Hilda disappeared in an inferno of pink flames leaving behind a burnt spot where she stood last.

"Was she blushing, or was that the fire?" Valac wondered out alone and shook his head at the thought. "Of course, it was the first, may I never find a lover yet they face the wrath of my dearest my servants, haha!" He joked lightly on the fact then held up the jar. "Now, come out to do my bidding beast!" He ripped off the lid and looked inside only seeing blackness. "Hmm? How long did Andrew keep this thing in here, and did he feed it at all?" Valac was about to try turning it upside down, but something blue glowed in the darkness. "Oh, there you ar-AAAHHH!" He screamed as whatever was inside the jar shot out at him.

Inside Nenil's Library

"Well, this is boring." Blake yawned after walking around Nenil's Library for a few minutes with Nathan stopping every now and again to examine some of the remaining pieces of furniture or what-not for magical qualities but hadn't gotten anything to show for it.

"What were you expecting?" Nathan asked, waving his hand infused with mana over a suit of armor. "A hard and dangerous trial filled with booby traps, rare monsters and a fat chest of loot at the end of it all?"

Out from under the faceplate of the armor was Rena. "Well Duh! Do you think we work for free or something, mage boy?" She rubbed her thumb over some of her fingers while smiling at Nathan only for him shut the faceplate down and moved to the next item. "HEY!"

"Most of the important items were removed already and Nenil from what the headmaster told me; 'wasn't the type of person who'd set up traps.' In fact, the barrier outside was forced on him by one of his friends fearing Nenil would lose all his findings," Nathan explained the lack of anything exciting happening since they started exploring the library.

"Hmm? If so, we might be able to sell some of it right, Hubby?" Baba asked, flying up towards a chandelier noting that it was made out of gold with fine cuts glass that still had candles burning in them.

"Yea, but I'm not sure we've got enough space in the cart for anything here besides I'm a blacksmith, I make and sell items made from Ore not random stuff from some dead wizard guy's house," Blake answered and walked around the room they were in until he found Risabeel and Saffire looking at a painting. "Sup' girls found something interesting...what?"

It was a life-sized painting of a person wrapped up in white bandages from head to toe even their eyes and mouth were covered not showing the tiniest bit of skin, the only other piece of clothing on them was a long pale blue robe and a gold necklace that had small green gems running along its length.

"Dang, what happened to this one?" Blake looked at the sign next to the painting which read; Master Nenil, the Weaver of Doom. "Hey, Nathan, mind telling me, what made this guy go full mummy over here, or was it a fashion statement?"

Nathan had Lu hold up a small figurine of a Mermaid for him to examine. "Well, from what the books say; Nenil had gotten into dual with another wizard in his younger days and was fell scarred all over his body even though he won. No matter how strong the healing magic used on him was, he could never recover, so for the rest of his life, he wore those bandages." He explained, finished with the figurine and with the rest of the room as well. "Still nothing of worth."

"Must have been one hell of a fight for the winner to come looking like that," Saffire muttered, wondering what the one who lost looked like right now if they were even alive at that.

"Everyone, Gram, says he smells something that way!" Mari yelled on top of Gram's back and pointed up to some stairs down a hallway.

"What she said, there's something up there that's different from the rest of this stuff," Gram added still sniffing around for anything.

"Then, onward to the next floor!" Nathan walked passed the two eager to find anything he could bring back to Le Fay.

"Nice work, Gram." Blake followed after the mage and patted Gram on the head along with one for Mari as everyone else moved to the upper floor.

Once the group was gone out from the floor came a sizeable pink ball about the size of pumpkin which opened to a green eye with long black eyelashes. "..." It looked around the room then closed itself back to move onto the floor above.

Outside with Nash

"~!~" Nash had just finished completing a circle in the grass around the cart by either eating it or walking around it a few times like he was trying to make a barrier of his own and nodded to himself at his handy work. "!?" He snorted at the sound of some twigs breaking and stood at attention if needed he'd run them out like a bull.

Out of the fauna came Valac and Nash instantly disappeared behind the cart, Blake warned him if he ever saw a boy with horns and red-eyes he should hide. "Ooo?" Valac babbled out with a dazed look in his eyes, which were light blue now. "Ah?" He walked up to the barrier and raised a hand to it. "~Ooo~" Once his hand touched it instead of the blast that knocked Risabeel back his hand passed through although he didn't go through yet. "Ahahaha!" He waved his arm around, making ripples in the barrier, laughing at them.

"?" Nash kept watching Valac play around with the barrier switching out his arms every now and again, actually looking like a normal kid.

"AH?" That is until Valac spun his head completely around like he didn't have any bones in his neck and stared back at Nash with an all too happy of a smile.

"!" Nash whipped his head back behind the cart scared stiff and only turned back where he heard the ripples in the barrier stop with Valac nowhere in sight. "..." Blowing air between his lips, Nash was relieved. "!?" Then something tugged at his tail, and he slowly turned around hoping that it was Mari.

"Ooh?" Valac was there behind Nash and again gave the horse a happy smile then his eyes went full-on blue before reaching out to Nash's head.

The second floor of Nenil's Library

"Nash?" Blake turned to a window getting the oddest feeling that something happened to his horse, raising an eyebrow at the thought.

"Scaleless, what are you spacing out on?" Saffire, the closest one to Blake, asked seeing him stop for some reason.

"...It's nothing." Blake answered after seeing what looked like Nash's tail swinging behind the cart. "Maybe he just found out where I hide his apples?" He thought, then went back to following Nathan and Gram who were doing most of the searching now while everyone else just walked behind them.

"*Sniff* It's still deeper inside, mage." Gram and Mari were a bit ahead of the group thanks to his nose he was able to pick up on something farther in.

"Hmm? If I am correct, then this way leads to Nenil's study if there is anything left to gain, then it must be there." Nathan assumed, pulling out a map from his robe.

"Wouldn't that have been like the first place to look for rare magical what-not?" Rena asked, flying over to Nathan.

"Indeed, it would be but when some of the teachers from Le Fay came to gather things for the school they were forbidden from going into Nenil's personal chambers," Nathan answered, quickening his pace to walk alongside Gram.

"Then, what makes us any different from that rule?" Rena questioned farther before flying back to Lu's shoulder.

"As I said earlier I was sent here by the headmaster, he would have done so himself but there is a rather important event coming up in the capital that requires his attention, so I was sent here thanks to being an honor student! Hmm, hmm, hmm!" Nathan laughed overly proud of himself, throwing his head back as if he was the greatest person ever.

"Uh, there he goes again." Blake groaned, shaking his head at Nathan then looked at Gram and Mari the two had stopped with Gram bearing his fangs. "Gram, what is it?"

"I don't know, but it has a bad smell that I picked off you a while back!" Gram snarled with his eye pinned to a hallway on the right, waiting for whoever or whatever was there to come out, intent on taking it down in one go, but a familiar neigh made him drop his guard. "Nash?"

And out came the horse with his hooves clopping on the tiled floor, surprising everyone from his sudden appearance. "?" He twisted his head from left to right and blew air out of his nose before walking up to Gram and Mari.

"I wonder what got him to come all the way up here? Any ideas, Blake?" Rena asked, turning around to Blake at the back. "Eh?" Right as a fireball flew passed her, striking Nash in the head, setting the horse on fire. "What the hell is wrong with you!? BLAKE!?" She yelled at Blake wearing Saffire and had another fireball ready.

"That's not my horse." Was all Blake said, leaving the Fairy and everyone else confused.

"He's right!" Gram growled as Nash's body started to melt away like wax leaving Valac in his place. "There's that smell I got earlier!"

"Ah?" Valac gazed at the group as they all got ready to fight him, but he kept a curious look on his face as if he didn't know what was going on. "OooOoo!" He reached out to Gram, trying to get a hold of the wolf.

"Not happening!" Gram slashed with his claws sending Valac flying back into a wall sticking to it for second before slipping down to the floor. "Huh? What this stuff?" Gram held his paw up covered with some blue goo.

"Ah!" Valac came back to his feet and held out his arms with dark mana surging through them as he made a set of Shadow Javelins appeared. "Oooooo!" His own work misfitted him before waving his arms again, and the javelins shot out in random directions with one pinning Valac himself to a wall. "Wah!"

"Whoa!" Blake narrowly dodged one that came from his right then rushed up to Risabeel. "Risabeel!" With only that she transformed, letting Blake parry one of the javelins sending it into the ceiling.

"Demonic magic, eh?" Nathan pulled out his Advance Mana Control spellbook to created Mana Barrier around himself just as three javelins were about to strike him, each turning into black flames once they hit his shield. "Hmm, hmm, hmm, but at this level, it is nothing for me!"

"Speak for yourself! You jerk!" Rena yelled, holding on tight to Lu's quiver as he effortlessly dodged the javelins coming his way each of them either going into the floor or walls around him.

"~So~ dangerous." Baba waved her arms around to called up a gust of wind that made a javelin go around her. "Hubby, I'm scared. Hold me." Then she flew over to Blake, grabbing his left arm to transform.

"Thanks!" Blake immaterially used her to block another one aimed at him, black flames shooting out as it met his Gale Shield.

"Hang on tight, girl!" Gram warned Mari just before jumped around the hallway evading the last of the javelins then landed back down safely.

"Again! Again! Again!" Mari cheered, pulling on Gram's fur and was jumping up and down on his neck.

"Heh, maybe if that little guy over there gets out." Gram smirked at Valac still impaled by his own attack, trying to get out but when he grabbed hold of the javelin his hands caught on fire.

"Wah!" Valac started to flail around getting more and more black flames on his person. "WAH! He screamed, looking at anyone to help him.

"..." But no one was up for it; instead, everyone just stared at the sight of the Demon boy burning.

"Ah?" But suddenly the fire went away when Valac raised one of his hands up high. "Oooh?" He moved a finger around with a ball of dark mana coming off it. "AH!" He flicked it forward at a wall and left a large hole. "Yaaaa!" He cheered at the mindless destruction.

"Did he hit his head or something?" Blake wondered, watching the Demon continue to play around with powers of the darkest kind like it was a game.

"It does not matter if he is in the right mind or not! We must stop before he destroys any more of Nenil's Library!" Nathan yelled, pointing at all the spots that were burning or had holes put in them by Valac's earlier miss fire. "Now watch as I send this Demon spawn back where he came from! Mana Lustre!" He fired beams of mana at Valac still toying with his own power.

"OooOoo?" Valac turned in time to see the beams of light coming at him before he could do anything about them he was blasted with his left arm gone and holes put through most of his body then slammed into the wall behind him which then fell on top of him.

"Ahaha...I may have gone overboard with that." Nathan held his hands behind himself after he noticed that he caused more damage than Valac just did.

"You think?" Blake asked, pointing at the room that he could see into now after Nathan knocked down the wall sad to say it was in ruins. "And I don't think that got him, that little fucker had a cave dropped on him the last time I saw him."

"Well, then I shall make sure of it unlike you," Nathan assured trying to save what little face he had by making Blake look bad then walked over to the rubble Valac was under which was oozing some blue liquid. "Hmm? What is this?" He bent down to touched it, and it felt warm and sticking. "Slime?" He thought, and suddenly all of it sprang up at him. "AHHH!"

"Nathan!" Blake yelled, seeing Nathan getting covered by a large mass of slime that dragged him into the room behind the wall that was dropped on Valac.

"Oh?" Before anyone could make a move to help him, Nathan popped back out dripping with slime.

"Ugh, what was that man?" Blake asked, walking up to Nathan but stopped when he saw that the slime wasn't coming off of the mage but was getting sucked back into him until he looked perfectly fine. "Uhm? That's a cool type of magic you got there." He said while backing up slowly.

"OoOoo?" Nathan(?) looked at his hands in amazement then at his clothes. "Ah?" After looking at himself, his now light blue eyes went to Blake, and he raised a hand that had a ball of mana in it. "Ya!" Out of it, he shot a Mana Lustre at Blake.

"Tch!" Blake rolled out of the way letting the beam rocket down the hallway and out a window which was followed by an explosion.

"HEY! What's with the mage!?" Saffire growled from the gem on Blake's chest piece.

Blake held Baba and Risabeel at the ready. "Either he's pissed at me, or that's not our useless mage." He answered before moving in to take a swing at Nathan(?).

"Ya!" Nathan(?) tried firing another beam, but an arrow shot at his arm, pinning him to a wall. "Oh?" Turning around, he saw Lu aiming at him, the next thing to hit him was Risabeel cutting off his head making it fly in the air. "Ah!" His head cheered while still in the air before falling back down at the feet of his body, making a loud squishy sound.

"Ugh! Nasty!" Blake held Risabeel away from himself, after cutting Nathan's(?) head off her blade was covered in blue slime until he swung her around to get it off.

"Thank you, Sir Blake, that felt more unpleasant than usual." Risabeel thanked Blake for getting rid of the slime.

"No problem." Blake just smiled at her and looked back at the now headless body of Nathan(?) trying to get at his head, pulling at the arm pinned to the wall by Lu's arrow until he finally tore his arm off with slime dripping from his arm socket. "Great, it's a Slime."

Semiliquid Monster, Slime: Living masses of viscous fluid, Slimes are indeed the lowest of low in terms of simplicity, going around eating whatever their ever-growing body can find and have a great deal of ability when taking different shapes and colors. They are often seen as nothing more than pests that are quickly being taken care of by children and are one of the 1st monsters young adventurers usually deal with, however...

Anything with enough time and more importantly, the right food can become quite the problem since there are Slimes that have the ability to mimic what they eat, sadly not many Slimes are not smart enough to use this power to their gain and usually stick to feeding on small animals.

Items that can be forged from the Ore of a Slime are mostly useless and are better off used as toys.

"Ah!" The still-alive head called out to its body getting picked up then slammed back in place but in the wrong direction. "Oh?" The head gasped facing away from Blake while the body was facing the right way.

"Other side jello for brains," Rena told the Nathan look-a-like.

"Ah!" The Slime cheered after twisting their head back the right way, giving Rena a thumbs up for the help only for Lu to put an arrow through its head, knocking it down. "Wah!"

"Aww, he looked happy for a sec there," Blake muttered, feeling bad for the poor thing then some groaning from behind had him turn around. "Huh?"

"Uhhhahhh!" Looking into the room, the Slime came out of Blake found Nathan flat on his back covered in blue slime. "Ugh!" Groaning some more, he picked himself up slowly. "...I feel as if I was birthed into the world for a second time." He wiped off a bit of slime on his face.

"Well, you kind of look like that, right now." Blake joked, backing up, so none the slime on Nathan got on him.

"Of all the things that could have happened to me today nearly getting eaten by a Slime was not one of them..." Nathan groaned, getting rid of the slime on his person with some magic but still felt sticky. "Ugh! Where is that little pest anyhow?"

"Over there." Blake pointed to the Slime getting up from being shot in the head with the arrow still there.

"OooOooo?" The Slime sucked the arrow into itself then made it come out in one of its hands. "Oh?" It looked at it then at Lu and his bow. "Ah!" After thinking hard, it made a slimy bow out of its arm. "Ya!" And fired the arrow at its shooter.

Lu jumped to one side to let the arrow fly by him. "That wasn't a bad shot." He complimented the Slime for its efforts if he didn't move that arrow would have hit him.

"Oh?" The Slime looked happy to hear that but put away his bow and went back to using Mana Lustre. "Ya!" It fired the spell at Nathan for some reason striking him from all sides with Blake jumping out of the way.

"Hmm, Hmm, Hmm! You dare to use my power against me!" Nathan laughed from behind his Mana Barrier as the beams pinged off it. "I will show you what real magical combat looks like!" He went for his lightning spellbook, and sparks flew from his right hand as a rod of electricity formed in it. "Try your best not to get burnt by this! Thunder Javelin!" Nathan pulled back and tossed his spell right at his slimy double.

"Wah!" The Slime cried out in shock as it got impaled by the javelin then felt a surge of electricity run through itself, turning it transparent while getting fried from the inside out until it went limp.

"That should show it for copying me! There can only be one Great Mage, Nathan!" Nathan boasted about himself and slapped his hands against each other. "Not then back to the task at hand!" He declared about to turn around when the sound of crackling electricity was heard, but it wasn't from him. "Hmm?"

"OooOoo?" The Slime was moving lightning between its hands and was trying to make a Thunder Javelin of its own. "Oh?" But It got upset when it failed the first few times. "Ah!" But finally got it to work at last then stared at Nathan with a happy smile. "Ya!" It threw at him in the next instant.

"Oh, look, now it can throw bolts of lightning, nice job, useless mage!" Blake jumped in with Baba to block the javelin with a wall of wind. "Ok! My turn to deal with you!" He rushed up to the Slime taking a clean swing at its side to slash it half.

"Wah!" The top half cried falling back but was quickly reattached by its bottom half sending out blue tendrils to catch it and bring it back together. "Ya!" Then it raised a hand at Blake ready to use some spell.

"Not yet!" Blake swung down at its arm, taking it off then followed up with an upward slash to its another arm, both of which were being pulled back by more tendrils. "Dragon Flame!" Before the Slime could get its arms back, Blake shot a stream of fire from his free hand that knocked the Slime away but he didn't stop there. "Okay, let's see if you can out heal the heat!" Blake kept the flame going by powering it up with a gust of wind from Baba fanning the flames. "Like it?! This is a combo I thought up! Gale Inferno!"

"That's right burn! Ahaha!" Saffire laughed as their opponent was caught in the never-ending blaze.

"Hubby is so smart coming up with attack names on such short notice." Baba cooed even though she was being used along with Saffire for this one.

"...Sir Blake, if that creature was able to absorb Sir Nathan's magic, would it not be able to do the same with this?" Risabeel asked the only one thinking about that fact.

"..." Blake just watched as the Slime at first was melting away slowly. "Huh!?" Then it suddenly started to grow under the fire and moved closer to him. "Oh come! You're a Slime! You guys hate fire, right!?" He tried putting more power into his Gale Inferno, but two tendrils whipped out of it and wrapped Blake's arm. "Shit!" He screamed, getting tossed around the hallway.

"OooOoo!" The Slime had grown into a giant blob of blue goo that was half as tall as the hallway and just as wide. "Ooggrrah!" It made an odd growling sound as it twisted its form around gaining clawed arms and legs with a long sticky tail behind it then on top of it, came a pair of slimy wings and from the front, finally, it grew a long neck that had an eyeless head with horns. "Grrrra!" From its mishappened mouth, it blew fire, all in all, it was a weird mix between a Dragon, a bird, and a Slime.

"That's even worse than it shooting lightning!" Rena yelled after things went from bad to worse for the group as the miss-matched slime monster made its way over to them with loud squishy stomps of its feet. "Lu! Get me out of where that's an order!"

"Only if this thing gives us a chance!" Lu jumped back as a stream of fire came down at him then shot some arrows into the thickness of the Slime, but they quickly shot back at him.

"I think it's best if we fall back for now." Nathan tried stopping it with a wall of mana, but the Slime was able to pass right through it. "Where did it even get that ability from?" He thought before backing up when the Slime sent a Thunder Javelin at him from its mouth.

"Agreed!" Gram was keeping Mari from getting caught by the Slime as it sent out some tendrils from its arms, snapping at them with his fangs then spat out. "Tastes like seawater!"

"Then everyone pulled back!" Blake ordered behind everyone after getting tossed around by the Slime and pointed down a hallway.

"Oogrrrr?" The Slime growled curiously with its head taking on an orange color for a moment as the group got out of there with it right behind them, leaving behind a trail of blue goo in its wake.

After both it and the others were gone, out of a wall came the same eye that was on the lower floor again it looked around the hallway and stared at the trail of goo leading somewhere. "..." The eye blinked, getting a question mark in its iris then followed the trail.

Chapter End