Darius sighs as he looks at Jack, shaking his head slightly as he raises his sword again. “Well, if you want to continue this duel, then let’s go,” Darius says as he starts to charge up a firebolt. Jack suddenly rushes towards Darius, a sword appearing in his hand. He swings his sword as he gets close to Darius, while Darius dodges out of the way.

Darius swings his sword towards Jack as he dodges, managing to hit his sword against Jacks, releasing the firebolt towards Jack at the same time. Jack tries to jump back but is unable to dodge the firebolt, getting hit right in the chest, the metal of his chest plate heating up.

Jack winces as he glances down at his chest, before he notices the fire on his sword. He frowns as he says “Enchanted sword? Interesting.” “Oh, you have no idea,” Darius says as he charges up his magical edge.

Darius charges towards Jack again, swinging his sword down on Jack's. With the magical edge overcharged, his sword slashes through Jack’s as if it wasn’t there, and as the end passes through Jack’s sword is absorbed into Darius’.

Darius jumps back quickly as he looks down towards his sword surprised, saying “Okay, I had no idea it could do that.” Jack frowns as he looks at Darius “You are certainly full of surprises aren’t you.”

“Well, yes, but this is a surprise even to me, I guess my identification skill isn’t strong enough to learn about that ability.” Darius says with a shrug Jack shakes his head as a spear appears in his hand, and he says. “This duel isn’t over yet, however.”

Darius nods as he looks at Jack before Jack seems to disappear. Darius looks around, before flooding his eyes with mana. He looks around before he spots Jack charging towards him. He moves his sword with enough time to barely deflect the spear, causing it to just scrape against his side instead of impaling him.

Darius winces as he jabs with his sword towards the slightly melted portion of Jack’s chest plate. The sword breaks through the weakened area and stabs into Jack, who looks at Darius with a slight surprise. Darius holds his hand up towards Jack's head, focusing his mana through a finger to create a needle of arcane energy.

Jack drops the spear as a knife appears in his hand raising it towards Darius’ neck as Darius presses the arcane energy to Jack’s forehead. They look at each other, holding their weapons on each other. Jack chuckles as he says “Well, it looks like this fight is a draw.” Darius nods, saying “That’s good enough for me.” Darius then moves back, pulling his sword from Jack.

“Very well, it looks like you do have the strength to run a small kingdom, I’ll be on my way. I’ll probably send a messenger at some point in the future to determine your lands, as well as any agreements between us.” Jack says as he starts to walk back towards the forest. “Sounds good to me, I’ll make sure to receive them well,” Darius says as he watches Jack

Darius walks back inside the walls of the hamlet before some screens appear in front of him.

Skills Gained [Basic Mana vision lvl 4] [Basic tactics lvl 1]

[Basic Mana vision]

User is able to see Mana

Ease of determining types of mana increased by 4%

[Basic tactics]

Plans made by User have 2% more likelihood of success.

Spell created [Arcane Needle lvl 1]

Chance of piercing increased by 5% per level

Control of Needle increased by 1% per level.

Hey, something that fits you for once, it’s small and weak.

Darius snorts as he reads about the Arcane Needle ‘It has great potential, it should be able to get through any armour at higher levels’ Darius walks through the hamlet towards his cabin, shaking his head slightly.

One of the women walks up to him and asks “Sir Darius, we are going to celebrate, we are hoping you would join us.” Darius looks at her shrugging as he says “Sorry to disappoint you, but after all of that, I should probably get some rest. You all have fun.” The woman looks disappointed but nods “Very well sir, have a good evening.”

Darius goes into his cabin, heading to bed and laying on it, he looks up at the ceiling. ‘What to do next? I should probably get Myrdou’s followers to recognize us, which is probably going to be so much harder. I definitely can’t mention that Jack and the followers of Nouet recognize us as our own nation, even if we barely are one.’ Darius shrugs as he yawns, soon closing his eyes and falling asleep.