(Ashen POV)

Upon Waking up Kurtz had found that Eldrick was already awake he had already started to fiddle with some wooden object. As Kurtz walked closer to Eldrick he was able to see what he was fiddling with. He had a replica statue of Oronix, The Dragon God. It had eight heads, one for each element, and its main body was a bright white color while each of its heads and necks depended on the element that they controlled. For example; The Fire head was Red, the Water head was blue, the earth's head was green, the airhead was gray, the lightning head was yellow, the Frost's head was white, the life head was silver and the death head was black. All of the necks merged into one point, and the dragon was very large. Although it was a replica, the color was the only thing that wasn’t included.

In Eldrick’s other hand he held a small carving knife, which was proof enough that he had carved the statue. Except for the heads, the rest of the dragon appeared like a normal one. Two legs in front and two in the back, two large wings, and a long tail, all features besides the heads were that of a normal dragon, but Oronix was nearly six times larger than most dragons. The statue itself was just a miniature but was consistent with the scale of the dragon’s size. Eldrick finished carving it with a few light brushes of the knife, he then put the knife on the floor and put his hand over the statue. His hand produced a stream of blue light directly into the statue, he was imbuing it with mana. He poured 30 million mana points into the statue, nearly a third of his mana reserves. He then stood up after picking up his knife, he put the knife into his pocket dimension and tossed the statue to Kurtz. Kurtz caught it with his left hand then asked him:

“What is it? A statue of Oronix?”

“A magic item, I put enough mana in it to summon Oronix three times, so you can use it as you want. I made two, just don’t lose it or sell it.”

“Oh, nice! Any news about that king you wanted to talk to?”

“Nope, not a word, it is a strange thought. Somebody would have at least talked about it by now, so they must have kept this deep under wraps.”

“Damn, well what now? Ya want to go to the guild and do a few quests while we wait?”

“Yeah, we should anyway, we only did the one dragon quest. If we don’t do any more soon, we might be under suspicion, or might even be asked to fight ourselves. So let's go get a quest!”

“Alrighty then, what do you want to do? Something that will give us fame and money?”

“Let's go for something that seems like it will take a while to accomplish, finish it fast so we can go back to the castle in case of any emergencies.”

“Sounds good, let’s go!”

Eldrick and Kurtz walked out of their room and down the stairs, they saw that the inn had several people eating, so they decided to skip on breakfast and left, Eldrick pulled out two pieces of bread from his pocket dimension in secret and handed one to Kurtz. They ate their bread while walking to the guild house when they entered they saw a completely packed room of adventurers crowding around the quest board and secretaries. They made their way through the crowd and got to the counter, Eldrick noticed it was the same woman as when they first entered.

He asked her if there were any high difficulty jobs available, and she gave him a piece of paper with a quest for slaying a grand elder black dragon. Another for clearing the town of Wheatberg of all the monsters that invaded the area. The last one was for escorting a large caravan of merchants that were heading to and from the royal capital and Riwick, a large trading city of merchants. They decided to choose the quest to clear the city of Wheatberg from the invading creatures. They got directions to the city and left the crowded guild house. As soon as they got outside Eldrick remembered the blacksmith, and nudged Kurtz. They walked to the blacksmith while reading over some of the finer details of the quest.

The city of Wheatberg is located to the east of Arlen and is infested with many goblins, ogres, and even several chimeras. Please eliminate all or up to 90% of these creatures in the area as the town guards can handle the rest. Quest not recommended to Adventurers under rank: Platinum. Quest reward: 20 Gold, Ownership of a small home within Wheatberg, Promotion to next rank to any under rank Emerald.

That was all that the sheet had written on it, after reading the quest they finally got to the blacksmith shop. They entered and saw him talking with another man who just purchased a large greatsword, High-quality Plate armor, and several smaller items such as: Throwing knives, gloves, boots, and a scabbard for the large greatsword. There was another person next to him, a woman who wore an elegant robe primarily colored in blue, black, and silver with gold and green trimmings on it. Eldrick noticed that the robes were enchanted with: mana regeneration, physical protection, auto self-healing and had magical amplification. He concluded that she was a magic user and waited until they left the store. Before they left the guy that purchased all of the equipment nodded to Eldrick and Kurtz before he left, as a sign of a simple and polite greeting.

Eldrick walked up to the counter while Kurtz once more explored the shop looking at weapons and armor. Upon seeing Eldrick the blacksmith perked up and walked into a room behind the counter, he came back a few moments after he left. He brought out a full set of red dragon scale armor, piece by piece he laid the armor on the counter until all pieces were on the counter. The armor was heavy and hard, yet it could move around slightly, like a less flexible form of chainmail. Kurtz picked up the pieces of armor and started to put them on a piece at a time to see if they fit.

Due to the material being dragon scales, the armor was able to adapt to his body and changed its size. Dragons were magical creatures so dragon scales would make magical items. By using this logic Eldrick was able to determine that the set of dragon scale armor, was in fact, a magical set of armor. Magical items adapt to the user, for them to be utilized properly. After a few minutes, Kurtz finally had all of the armor on him, head to toe in red dragon scale armor.

Eldrick gave a cheeky smile and thumbs up, and Kurtz did the same in return, Eldrick tossed a gold coin to the blacksmith behind the counter. He caught it and thanked him for the tip. Eldrick waved goodbye to him as he and Kurtz left after they left Eldrick nudged Kurtz and pointed into the direction of the guild house, but not the building but rather the recent crowd of people around it. The outside of the guild house was swarming with adventurers, something major was happening so Eldrick and Kurtz walked over.

After a few minutes of trying to see what everyone gather for, Eldrick gave up having not gotten much farther inside that he most others. He grabbed Kurtz and went into a nearby alleyway and used the spell “Magic Eye” as a small slightly glowing blue, but invisible to every one besides himself, the eye had started floating and went through the wall and soon to where most of the people gathered. Looking through the magic eye, Eldrick soon found what it was that every adventurer and even guards and civilian was so eager to look at. A single posting was on the Mission board, different from the normally filled with dozens of postings board they always saw.

Eldrick moved the eye closer to read the posting, it read: No person shall go near the Castle located within the Rib Cage Mountains. Please note that this is an emergency, all civilians are urged to stay within their homes or to relocate to the capital for the upcoming few days to weeks. All adventurers are especially urged to not go near the mountains under the critical circumstances that are present. While no further information can be given at this time, please note that the royal guard is currently handling the situation, but due to unknown factors there is a chance monsters may reach the town. The reward for killing any monster that comes too close to the town from the direction of the mountains will be as follows. 10 copper coins for levels 1-20, 1 silver coin for levels 21-40, 5 silver coins for levels 41-75, and 1 gold coin for levels 76-100, any monster above level 100 will be given a compromisable reward.

No wonder so many people needed to see this, not only would there be a massive amount of danger but this would be an insane amount of money for any skilled adventurer. But there was one thing Eldrick couldn’t understand. How would anyone be able to determine how many creatures and what levels they were, that is killed by adventurers? Do they use some kind of truth spell? Or, do they have some kind of way to make sure without fail? Eldrick was stumped on this, he canceled the spell and then put his hand on Kurtz’s shoulder. He then teleported them into the mountains, after knowing a royal guard caravan would be sent to his home, he decided it best to be there to answer the door.

Arriving at the entrance of the two massive black doors to the castle, They quickly shifted back into their normal forms. Ashen was thinking about how they could still discern how they were telling the truth. Then it hit him, what if there was a sort of system? Maybe something like a sentient being or even an admin? He then did something stupid, he spoke aloud saying:

“Administrator! Console! Command! Help?! Umm… st-status screen?”

But alas his poor efforts were rewarded with a very strange sight and a hysterical and rather dragged out laughter form Aeyrs, Infront of his eyes, and only to his own, appeared a small holographic-like screen. On the said screen, several pieces of information were currently shown. Six tab-like sections were at the top of the screen each labeled with what presumably would be what they would show. The current tab; “System log” Showed a brief yet slightly detailed record of everything he did since coming to this world. The one he saw that caught his eye was the message he likely received after killing the dragon because the system log entry stated:

[Title Gained: Dragon Slayer] [Awarding 1 Attribute and Skill Point]

Yet he didn’t know what to be more surprised at the fact he got a title and some kind of points from killing the dragon, the fact he didn’t receive the message when it happened, or the fact that Sugarea didn’t have any sort of attribute system. He quickly looked at the other tabs, they were labeled in order from left to right, including his current one: System Log, Character Stats, Titles, Spells, Skills/Abilities and then the final one, which he decided to be what he would spend his next few minutes looking through, Settings.

After mentally selecting the Settings tab he quickly skimmed through the very long list of settings until he found the one he wanted the most.

[Toggle HUD: Off]

He quickly switched to ‘On’ and then found an even stranger sight to behold that the screen, almost implanted into his eyes, disregarding the fact that he doesn’t have eyes, he finds several small screens in front of him. Just above the bottom left of his vision, there was a small box that reads: System Log. He then found it swarmed with messages but decided that it was due to not opening the hud before and wasn’t worth reading. Even if he wanted to not only had the messages stopped but there were thousands of them and they all appeared within a second. On the right side of the box was what could only be described as a scroll bar but not only was it small, but it didn’t seem like it would be able to keep up with the number of messages.

Ashen looked at Aeyrs after mentally sending the screen away from his face, except for the HUD which remained. It had been several minutes that he looked through it but Aeyrs only just stopped himself from laughing. Although Ashen so desperately wanted to be either mad, embarrassed or both, he found himself completely incapable of such emotions. After looking upon the ground he found a suitable small stone and chucked it at Aeyrs with some but not all of his strength. And all that laughing seemed to only make Aeyrs accepting in his punishment of having a rock half the size of his hand slamming into his face, or rather, what would be his face if a small thin blue hexagonal barrier didn’t interrupt his attack. It was a protection that higher level players received when being attacked by very low-level items compared to them, making themselves invincible to weak attacks such as a rock.

Yet such a display didn’t go to waste as Ashen quickly started laughing, although not actually feeling amused for some reason, because while the stone was stopped from touching Aeyrs because Ashen was the same level as him, it slightly went through the barrier causing a very small trickle of blood to form from Aeyrs nose. Aeyrs soon realized this as he wiped a small but noticeable amount of blood from his nose. He thought of doing the same in return only for his thoughts to be interrupted by both an exaggerated sigh and a quick response from Ashen.

“Firstly, look at my face. It’s a skull, no blood or nose for that matter to drip from. Not only that but it is indestructible so you want to try? Also how come you can laugh for what seemed like minutes at me but still get angry at a mere pebble flicked at your face?”

Aeyrs Quickly rebutted with “Mere Pebble? That was a big rock okay? Also, it is completely your fault for me laughing! What were you thinking? This is some kind of game?”

Ashen walked over to him and put a hand on his shoulder the quickly moved it across his face in a slapping motion. He then said: “Yes, yes I do! Because… THIS IS EXACTLY LIKE A GAME AND YOU KNOW IT!”

“I-i, I walked right into that one didn’t I? Yeah okay, I give you this one but what did you find out? Is there some kind of console menu thing?”

“Yeah there is but, I don't know if it is mentally activated or vocally activated yet. I think you control it with your mind but... Ah nevermind, just try to bring it up!”

Aeyrs Tried to bring up something anything and after a minute of looking more constipated than anything else he finally saw the same screen Ashen did. Ashen realized this as Aeyrs’ eyes lit up wide but then looked disappointed. Ashen spoke out quickly:

“Alright if I hear you complain about something stupid, I swear I will teleport you to the bottom of the ocean and never look back.”

“Hey! Does it look like I'm the kind of pers-”

“Absolutely! Besides, go to the Settings tab and scroll down until you find the [Toggle HUD] option. Turn it on and then you can look through the rest on your own time.”

Aerys did as instructed, slightly out of wanting to and slightly out of being annoyed at Ashen’s rude but completely called for interruption. He then switched to the Character Stats tab and soon found what resembled a classic character sheet from a certain very old but still heavily influential tabletop role-playing games of which he will not state. He looked through the attributes having never seen anything like this in sugarea before he was eager to see what his stats would be. A very small but important message flashed by his HUD almost going unnoticed by the man.

[Character Stats Updated to accommodate Level and Skill growth, Levels gained from last system Update: 1000. Calculating New Status.]

[Strength:812]

[Dexterity: 749]

[Constitution: 1006]

[Intelligence: 377]

[Wisdom: 463]

[Charisma: 118]

[Vitality: 573]

[Willpower: 183]

[Luck: 66]

[Perception: 303]

[Current Attribute Points: 999]

With a Smug look upon his scaly face Aeyrs walked over towards Ashen then asked him:

“Hey, quick question? What are your stats?”

“My stats? Oh yeah, there was a tab in the interface, gimme a sec...”

While Ashen was looking through his stats Aeyrs quickly told him he's acting like he was so much better than him. Ashen soon put his bragging to a halt when he not only insulted him but then further insulted him with another comment.

“Wait, wait, you said your intelligence is nearly a third of your constitution and half of your strength and dexterity? That just means your all Bite and no bark, Anyway, you want to know my stats right? Well, here they are…”

Ashen then went and spoke out all of his stats as he read them from his screen.

[Strength: 693]

[Dexterity: 489]

[Constitution: 673]

[Intelligence: 1294]

[Wisdom: 927]

[Charisma: 98]

[Vitality: 227]

[Willpower: 386]

[Luck: 98]

[Perception: 458]

[Current Attribute Points: 1000]

Aeyrs spoke out in a confused rage: “Wait how come you have an extra attribute point that me?”

“Hmm? Oh probably since I killed the dragon. I guess it doesn’t split them? Alright, you can get the next one okay?”

“Hmph! You’re only saying those things so you don’t hurt my feelings aren’t you!”

“I’m sorry what? You wanna know something? I don’t care anymore. Besides if we can increase our stats then does this matter?”

“I guess you’re right, what should we use them on?”

“For you, increase Strength, Dexterity, Constitution and either Willpower or Vitality. Those would be the most useful for a Melee combatant like yourself. For me probably intelligence, Wisdom, and maybe Perception or Luck. I kind of want to have an insane amount of luck, maybe I can somehow get critical hits? Oh and one last thing, keep around 100 points in case you need them!”

Aeyrs looked at his stats once more he quickly put his points into his stats without a second thought.

[Strength: 1000]

[Dexterity: 1000]

[Constitution: 1200]

[Intelligence: 377]

[Wisdom: 463]

[Charisma: 118]

[Vitality: 800]

[Willpower: 200]

[Luck: 88]

[Perception: 303]

[Current Attribute Points: 100]

Ashen interrupted his smiling face not only by speaking a rude comment but by bringing up their situation.

“First of all, I swear if you have exactly 100 points I am going to hate you, secondly we got company!”

Aeyrs’ smile broke and quickly flipped into a slight frown but also a slightly vicious shape. He quickly dismissed his screen and turned to face the same direction Ashen had, only to wait for a few seconds of awkward silence to pass. He faced Ashen and asked:

“So um, when are they coming? Few days? Or…”

“Sorry, perception is a little high, they should arrive in a few minutes. But in the meantime let's inform the rest of the castle to be on guard but not on the offensive.”

Aeyrs nodded and entered the castle, Ashen quickly looked through his stats once more having since added to his previous stats.

[Strength: 700]

[Dexterity: 500]

[Constitution: 700]

[Intelligence: 1300]

[Wisdom: 1300]

[Charisma: 100]

[Vitality: 300]

[Willpower: 500]

[Luck: 200]

[Perception: 500]

[Current Attribute Points: 143]

Ashen felt a small surge of power running through his body every time a point was spent, normally so small it would be unrecognizable, but not only from happening so much so often, and with his insanely high Intelligence, Wisdom and Perception he was able to discover it. The sensation almost like his entire body and brain, ignoring the fact he doesn’t have a physical brain, an increase in both strength and even change on a minuscule level. He thought to himself for a moment before immediately coming back to the one thing that still interested him: The Titles tab.

He quickly swapped the menu to the Titles tab and found himself severely disappointed. Only one? What in the world? He thought. But then realized he hadn’t done anything to earn a title beside kill a dragon for the [Dragon Slayer] Title. He thought about it for a moment more, but quickly shook away the thought of burning down either villages and/or forests to gain any titles possible. He followed his thoughts with a quick change in his screen, by changing to the Spells tab. Then he was bombarded with a list of hundreds of spells. Organized by both Tier and category, then he noticed a large stream of notifications appear on his HUD System Log, so he instead changed his tabs to System Log and was not disappointed.

[Titles Gained: One Who Defies Nature, Pyromancer, Aquamancer, Terramancer, Aeromancer, Fulgurmancer, Cryomancer, Vitamancer, Necromancer, Spatialmancer, Chronomancer, Advanced Pyromancer, Advanced Aquamancer, Advanced Terramancer, Advanced Aeromancer, Advanced Fulgurmancer, Advanced Cryomancer, Advanced Vitamancer, Advanced Necromancer, Advanced Spatialmancer, Advanced Chronomancer, Ancient Pyromancer, Ancient Aquamancer, Ancient Terramancer, Ancient Aeromancer, Ancient Fulgurmancer, Ancient Cryomancer, Ancient Vitamancer, Ancient Necromancer, Ancient Spatialmancer, Ancient Chronomancer, Master Pyromancer, Master Aquamancer, Master Terramancer, Master Aeromancer, Master Fulgurmancer, Master Cryomancer, Master Vitamancer, Master Necromancer, Master Spatialmancer, Master Chronomancer, True Pyromancer, True Aquamancer, True Terramancer, True Aeromancer, True Fulgurmancer, True Cryomancer, True Vitamancer, True Necromancer, True Spatialmancer, True Chronomancer, Arcane Magician, Advanced Arcane Mage, Ancient Arcane Wizard, Master Arcane Magus, True Arcane Sorcerer] [Awarding 285 Attribute and Skill Points] [Physical Spell Tree Unlocked]

Ashen felt like he wanted to throw up, despite not being able to, but rather he got a headache at all the titles. That was 50 something titles! If this ‘system’ thing can read my mind it should have known I just wanted a few, not to be bombarded by an endless stream of titles. Which one will I pick now! But almost out of spite or just to annoy him, a new message appeared:

[Title Gained: Grand Archdemon] [Awarding 10 Attribute and Skill Points]

I hate this so-called “system!” What does it think it is? Some omnipresent, all-powerful, all-knowing deity? That might be the case, so… I’m sorry please forgive me I didn't mean it! His inner conflict was only put on hold by the arrival of both Aeyrs and after a few moments the caravan of royal guards. There were nearly one hundred of them, Ashen guessed based off of their equipment that they were all around the upper levels of 100-130 except for five men, one was female, that was roughly level 140-150. Stronger than most people that Ashen and Aeyrs have seen so far in this world but still not a threat to themselves.

All but these select five were wearing some fancy plate armor with red and gold trimmings along with Longswords and Kite Shields. While The five in the middle all wore more extravagant versions of the same equipment but seemed better in both craftsmanship and materials. The five of them had ridden on horses while the majority of the rest traveled by horse-pulled wagons or walked with them. Ashen Almost felt bad for them, to have traveled up here to either engage in a pointless battle or to have to travel back. He would think of something nice to do to them if it was the former, he also couldn’t actually ‘feel’ bad for them but he knew he should so he did.

One of the five in better armor quickly demounted his white horse which itself, was wearing fancy horse armor trimmed in gold and red like the men had. The man was visibly nervous but didn’t sound that way when he then addressed Ashen and Aeyrs, as he quickly looked at the ground for some reason.

“As per request, the king of the Bandarainian Empire has sent an escort to take you to the royal castle for the meeting you had requested.”

The man spoke trying not to focus too hard at either of them, he knew they were monsters and not human in most cases, and one didn’t even have a face. But he wasn’t nervous because they were strong, not one bit, he had nerves of steel himself, but the one thing that made him so incredibly nervous was how ‘good’ they looked. If any creature had a high enough charisma they would appear attractive no matter their outward appearance. But soon after he spoke Ashen soon did as well in return.

“Ah, how wonderful, but it would be a waste to go back by foot would it not?” Ashen turned to face Aeyrs and both nodded in agreement. “Hmm, I don’t think flying will make the horses calm as well… Oh! I have just the idea…”

Near Directly after he finished speaking a massive spell circle appeared underneath all of the royal guards and under himself and Aeyrs. And in but a moment the group of over 100 royal guards and the two guests, vanished into nothingness.

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(Royal Guard POV)

Standing outside of a large gate fence, stood two guards each having a full set of plate armor of silver color, and large spears with an extended blade similar in size to a short sword at the end of it. The guards, while on opposite sides of the gate, were talking to one another while looking ahead at the wide stone brick road. They were positioned here as a temporary replacement for the two previous guards. The previous set of guards were out on a mission to retrieve two ambassadors of another castle. That was all these men knew, yet they instead talked about how peaceful it was with the nice cool air providing some comfort for the mildly warm day inside their armor.

But, as if something decided to ruin the wonderful scenery to get them to be quiet, a massive spell circle appeared before them. One guard already taking up arms while the other backed up in case of gathering reinforcements. Yet before either was capable of reacting, within a moment the circle disappeared and in its place stood the royal caravan that had only been sent out one day prior. But not only the caravan of royal guards but a large demon covered in flame-like armor and a scaly menace that had claws sharper than even the finest of blades.

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(Ashen POV)

With what could only be described as a brief flash of dim light, the vision of Ashen’s non-existent eyes became clear once more. As he turned around, his tail following him to his left side as normal, he saw two guards in worse armor than the royal guards in the caravan. One took up arms, which is to be expected as guards, and one was prepared to take leave for reinforcements, he presumed. Either that or he wanted to leave this terrifying monster that was himself before he was killed.

And with a non-existent mouth, Ashen smiled deeply, his time to make an official appearance before royalty would be spectacular. Aeyrs quickly turned when Ashen had, but instead of looking at the guards, he dotted his eyes around, looking for any others who might be in wait. As to be expected, he found none. After confirming that the two in front of them were the only guards, he gave a near impossibly fast and subtle nod, to signal him to continue, that Ashen noticed.

Ashen looked at the guard who seemed to be preparing an exit at any given moment and after a brief moment, he soon turned around and looked at the man who first spoke to him. He was in complete shock at the moment but quickly recovered when Ashen turned to face him. The man gave a slight cough and soon after, the rest of the royal guards soon recovered from the confusion. The man soon spoke out loud once more, his words seeming to be normal despite how nervous and frightened he was inside.

“You there!” He said to the guard preparing to exit, “Inform the ambassador that the royal Caravan has returned with requested personnel!”

The guard nearly took off the moment he spoke but with all his strength he waited until the end of his words to run off hurriedly. Not having the courage to look back or slow down in the slightest, he ran into the castle. Ashen soon appeared to be silently laughing, no noise was coming from him but his jaw bone was moving slightly. His skull itself was a crystalized firestone. Made from literal fire, and is indestructible, even glowing to some extent. His entire head would glow when he talked, even if a little, and when he was moving his jaw, his head glowed ever so slightly. Aeyrs quickly noted this and watched him as Ashen turned around and faced Aeyrs once more.

The other guard almost seemed to be dead, with how still he was moving, if not for his ragged breath, most could assume he was a statue or even an illusion. But after a few moments and a deep breath, the man stood tall once more and stood his spear up against him, pointing straight upwards. If Ashen was able to, he would have almost felt bad for him, for all of the guards in the caravan for that matter. Ashen decided that simply waiting for the guard or someone to return would be boring so he used a telepathy spell with Aeyrs and they quickly started Talking.

“Hey, quick question, should we call each other by our in-game names like we would do for the guild?”

“It would be best that way, besides if I called you something else that might complicate things.”

“Alright I’ll call you Aeyrs like I always have in the guild, and you can call me Ashen. Also, it might be worthwhile to see how they react to us being brothers.”

“Are you sure it’s a wise idea to do that?”

“Why not? It's not like they could kidnap one of us as a ransom to the other, we would destroy the kingdom to escape. But I can see your point…”

He stopped the spell after noticing the guard returning, the guard himself seemed almost relieved but that wouldn’t show on his face that was concealed in his helmet. He walked back to his post and quickly motioned for everyone to enter, the five royal knights leading the front, followed by Ashen and Aeyrs. Ashen knew something was up with the men in front due to the leading, but thought it was just to be polite. He pushed the thought into the back of his mind as he followed through a few large hallways where the rest of the royal guards had already dispersed throughout.

The new group of seven were stopped at a large set of solid doors covered in gold and silver designs around the edges. In front of said doors stood four men in the same armor as the guards in the caravan. After a quick chat with one of the five knights, and several glares at both Ashen and Aeyrs the group was lead inside to a large room that had two large thrones both had their respective users, the king, and queen of this so-called “Bandarainian Empire”. The five Knights keeled for a moment then quickly joined the line of roughly 40 or-so Guards on either side of the room.

In front of the two thrones, there was a large table, with two chairs opposite the thrones. It was meant for them to sit in, as no other guard was moving and Ashen doubted they would force someone strong to simply stand while they relax in comfort. And while Ashen wouldn’t sit, not because he wanted to, but because he was simply too tall for the chair and his tail would get in the way. He also considered to instead use his tail as a sort of prop, to take on a somewhat makeshift seated position but decided against it. He would need to show that he was a powerful magic user, but how would he do such a thing outside of combat he wondered.

As the king motioned for them to take a seat Ashen walked over to the seat but not in it, but rather next to it and quickly started floating in the air not high, nearing what the cair would bring him to if he sat down. Aeyrs realized what he was trying to do so he too did the same and crossed his legs, taking on a meditation looking position. Ashen, if he was physically able to do the same would have as well but he instead just floated with his clawed feet pointing downwards. Despite Ashen wanting to start the conversation, the king was the first to do so with a quick introduction of himself.

“Greeting to you, who have wished to meet the audience with me, I am Erik von Ranznedese, King of the Bandarainian empire.”

Then the queen started speaking as well.

“I am Melia Von Ranznedese, Queen of the Bandarainian Empire.”

Now it was Ashen’s turn to speak and Aeyrs would wait until he spoke to announce himself as well. Ashen wanted to instill fear with his words but didn’t know how to do so safely.

“I am Ashen Fur, A Grand Archdemon and One of the two leaders of the Dragon Eye Alliance, one of the two owners of the Dragon Eye Castle, but please, call me Ashen.”

Aeyrs saw what he was doing so, he also tried to replicate his idea of seeming more powerful than they could imagine.

“And I am Aeyrs Dragonheart, A Dragonoid and also one of the two leaders of the Dragon Eye Alliance, One of the two owners of the Dragon Eye Castle as well, You may call me Aeyrs.”

And with a quick “Nice” from Ashen using Telepathy, Aeyrs seemed almost too happy. Ashen soon realized why he was happy, he received a Title, the same one as Ashen just did.

[Title Gained: Fearmonger] [Awarding 3 Attribute and Skill Points]

Ashen noticed the message and promptly brushed it aside until later, now was the time to make an impression on an entire country. Ashen noted that all the guards tensed whenever either of them spoke, it almost amused him. The king continued to speak, likely trying to appear not afraid but only seeming more so in doing such.

“And to what do I have the honor of meeting you two for?”

“Simple, the whole Demon Lord army invading every nation doesn’t sound appealing does it?”

The king sat deeper in his chair thinking to himself. Is he threatening us? Or is he implying something else? He spoke up again.

“And what do you mean by your statement?” He asked cautiously. The old man’s white beard was seeming to lose the slight tint of color left in it. Ashen responded quickly.

‘Simply put, on the opposite side of the Rib Cage Mountains, as you call them, is a large legion of demons, undead, and other monsters. They are planning an invasion of all of the kingdoms. One by one, they would attack the villages then withdraw and repeat the cycle.”

The queen, this time spoke up, sharing the caution that the king had.

“And how would you know of this information?”

“Simple. I fought a small group of demons that were coming near my domain. I followed one back to one of the Demon Lord’s top generals and learned of some information while conversing with him.”

After Ashen finished talking he noticed something, a small gold banded ring with only a single green gem in the middle, located on the king's left ring finger. It would glow when he or Aeyrs spoke, and after it did the king would respond. A magic item maybe? Perhaps one to detect lies? It would be most useful for conversing with unknown people… Ashen then noted the queen had the same thing, Aeyrs, on the other hand, was just about to speak so Ashen didn’t bring it up.

“As of right now, we currently have our forces guarding the immediate vicinity of the castle making sure none of them cross.”

The king seemed almost more shocked than the queen, he thought to himself for a moment. So is he not the Demon Lord? But rather an enemy of them? Maybe a rogue general? I don’t know how he would react if I brought it up… The king waited for the ring to take effect but the ring didn’t seem to be working. The hell is wrong with it? I know I am not out of mana, is this the work of that demon in front of me? Ashen gave an invisible grin after seeing his magical knowledge to stop the ring’s basic enchantment. The king sighed quietly, Ashen realized he should continue with the meeting and not play with jewelry.

“What we are here for, is to ally sorts. We can continue to protect the mountains from the Demon Lord’s assault but we need both resources and reinforcements if possible. After the invasion has ended, we will take over the other side of the mountains and maintain relationships with the other countries.”

Neither the king or queen responded to the proposal, they wanted to validate the information with their rings, but neither worked. They sat for a moment before the silence was interrupted by Ashen’s feet hitting the ground followed by Aeyrs’ as well. They both simply walked out of the room before anybody could react. Leaving a Confused King and queen with and even more confused selection of guards. The king thought to himself once more. Why would they make an offer and just leave? Do they expect me to accept or give my offer?

The queen nudged the king after seeing a guard confirm that the two left. She spoke aloud.

“What do we do now? We can’t simply reject their offer, and we can’t exactly ignore the information they gave us nor the proposed tactics they have commenced.”

“Calm down, they know we can’t just ignore them, so they just left. Probably seeing if we would trust them or not.”

After he finished talking, a guard entered the room and soon spoke aloud.

“Your Majesty, The two that just left asked me to deliver a message to you, shall I do so?”

The king looked slightly confused, but he nodded and awaited what the message had to offer.

“The message said: Tonight we shall return, Ashen will display some of his magic. We shall arrive in 10 hours, this isn’t a threat, just an invitation to know our strength. End message.”

“Understood, write down the message and bring it to me, General Zair, I want you to inform all of the guards that our guests will return. In the meantime, we shall prepare for whatever this message was suggesting…”

The Guard who just entered, left the room to complete his task while General Zair, the one who talked to Ashen at the castle, bowed slightly then left the room to fulfill his duties. The queen sat in slight shock and both nervousness and impatience for what the magic would be. Before she had a chance to worry, her mind became flooded with other questions which she would then go on to discuss with the king shortly after Zair left the throne room.

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(Ashen POV)

As Ashen and Aeyrs Left the room they came across a lone guard who was just making a casual trip throughout the castle, likely on patrol or some similar task. Before he could question why there was an eight-foot-tall demon staring at him, he found himself the receiver of a question.

“Excuse me, I'm sorry to interrupt your business but can you deliver a message to the king, we were just in a meeting and I forgot to mention one small thing…”

“Uh… Oh! You mean me? S-sorry… I-i-i, Yes! I can deliver the king a message for you!”

“Now now, don’t be nervous, just simply tell him the following: Tonight we shall return, Ashen will display some of his magic. We shall arrive in 10 hours, this isn’t a threat, just an invitation to know our strength. End message.”

“Is that a-all?”

“Yes, now we shall take our leave, but first would you mind pointing towards the exit? We haven’t been here before. Nevermind, We can just teleport.”

And before the guard had a chance to question his words the demon and lizardman beside him vanished. And so the guard did as told, and Ashen and Aeyrs appeared outside their castle once again. Ashen then looked at Aeyrs who had an interesting look on his face, curious to what magic he would use. Ashen answered his curiosity with a calm monotone voice that didn’t match the words he said.

“I’m not going to do anything extreme alright? You know how there are three moons right?”

“Firstly, anything you consider ‘not extreme’ basically is, and what about three moons now?”

“Simple, there are three moons in the sky. One is tinted Red, blue and green. You know I am strong with fire magic right?”

“Yeah? I still can’t see where this is going, but I know you are going to do something crazy…”

“Well when I went to the ‘Spells’ tab in the status screen thingy, I was bombarded by a bunch of titles. Most of them give me magical damage enhancements, and I did some rather quick math and found out that I can use my tier 26 fire spells at level 20 and do roughly 675,000% more damage than what I would normally cause with just the basic Hypernova spell.”

“And there’s the crazy I was talking about, speaking of, why bring up the whole three moons thing?”

“Oh, that’s simple really. I was planning on blowing up the red moon, it shines the brightest so it would be the most visibly noticeable target to destroy.”

“Ah, I understand. ARE YOU CRAZY? Blowing up the moon would make you, not only hated by everyone but rather, you would be destroying A FREAKING MOON!”

“Yeah, calm down, would you? It’s not like I wasn't planning on using time magic to undo the spell.”

“Then why do it in the first place?”

“I will do it, undo it, and during use time manipulation to make it so the king and queen and perhaps a few guards to remember what happened.”

“I-I… I give up just do what you want at this point, maybe you will get another title or some shit. Goodnight!”

“We woke up an hour ago though?”

“Don’t Care! Good Night! Wake me up when you destroy the fucking moon!”

“Ha! Will do, or maybe I will destroy all three moons? Hmm….”

Aeyrs stormed off into the castle leaving a pondering Ashen to himself. As Ashen thought to himself about several things Aeyrs went to his chambers, climbed into bed and immediately fell asleep despite waking only an hour prior. Ashen was now stroking his chin with his hand when he remembered something, or rather someone. With only a mental signal his tail looped around his left side and looked, which appeared more like pointing, at Ashen's head. Ashen quickly thought of something then spoke aloud.

“Hey, um… Wait what should I even call you?”

You may call me whatever you please, my lord. His tail spoke telepathically

“Yeah that won’t do, do you not have a name?”

Indeed my lord.

“That’s harsh, well let’s see, how about, Vron?”

Vron? It does have a nice sound to it, Are you sure my Lord?

“It’s up to you, it is your name after all. If you don’t like it we can brainstorm ideas until we get one you like.”

No, Vron sounds like a good name to me my lord. From now on I shall be known as Vron.

“Alright then, Vron, Do you know anything about this system? Anything is welcome, even basic knowledge.”

I do my lord. Is there anything specific you would like to know?

“Just one thing for the moment, how do you know about it?”

Apologies, I should have informed you before. Ever since you started to act strangely, and after our castle had been relocated. I was able to come into contact with what is known as The World System. It is not an organic lifeform and is more akin to a deity, albeit not a physical one.

“Hmm… That does line up with a few of my ideas. So this world system thing, what does it do exactly?”

Simply put, it provides a simple and easy-to-use interface where a person can access the major information about themselves, such as attributes, spells, titles, skills, and previous encounters and events.

“Huh, wait does that mean you have your own stats?”

No, in fact, since I am attached to your body and am just a tail, I share my stats with you, my lord.

“That’s a little disappointing, if you don’t have stats, I assume you can’t get or can’t use attribute points right?”

That is correct my lord.

“Ah well, it’s too bad but it’s not a problem, can you tell me about titles?”

I do not have much information on titles, but I shall attempt to inform my knowledge of them. Titles are gained throughout a process, of which you have to meet certain requirements to gain the appropriate title. Each title can be utilized as a primary, secondary and tertiary title in the order they are displayed to anyone using appraisal magic or to anyone you show you Status screen to, as well as each title giving you a bonus that can be toggled on or off at will.

“So you’re saying that I can reduce my power so that I don't accidentally destroy the world with a spell?”

Yes my lord.

“Neat.”

Ashen quickly opened his Screen once more, noticing a small indicator that was more akin to a small triangle in a circle over the spells tab. He mentally switched to it and for once wasn’t bombarded by messages, just a single line message, in fact, one that made him smile slightly, despite not being able to.

[Title Gained: Name Giver] [Awarding 2 Attribute and Skill Points]

And with only a slight annoyance he soon found himself entering the castle and slowly entering his bed after sending all of his armor into his pocket dimension, he decided to take a small nap to be at his best when blowing up a moon with magic. With only his tail sticking out of the large bed, due to its sheer size, he laid comfortably, realizing it was his first time sleeping in his demon form. In spite of his bold plans, worried kings, demons, and concern for the moon and his brother, he fell into a warm and comfortable dream.