DAGGER Level 3 has been cleared!

Continue on to fulfill the DAGGER’s destiny!

A gate emerged, marking the path to the next section.

Good one, Dallion thought.

Winning a duel against a corpse wasn’t something he’d brag about, but the achievement points were more than welcome, as was increasing his magic to nine. A bit more luck and he’d be able to reach the coveted magic ten in this very artifact. That was supposed to be good news, but Dallion couldn’t shake the feeling that something didn’t feel right.

Three down, four to go, Nil said, trying to be encouraging. You’re almost halfway there.

“Halfway there,” Dallion repeated, then passed through the gate to the next section.

As predicted, there were four doorways to choose from, each leading in a different direction. There was nothing stopping Dallion from going through the motions and fight his way to the guardian, but he decided to take advantage of Nox’s ability and have the battle here instead.

This time, the level guardian emerged, filling the space. Thankfully, it was a feral creature: a rather large blade spider. There was a time when the size and nature of the creature would have intimidated Dallion. No longer, though. Leaning against the wall, he let Nox handle it. The crackling was only too happy, finally getting a chance to sharpen its claws.

The fight was swift and brutal. Nox would shift between fighting in puma form or as a pack of cublings, clawing at the spider’s blade legs until one was torn off. In the process, though, five of the “cublings” were killed off, reducing Nox’s overall health by ten percent each time.

On several occasions, Dal considered stepping in, but July warned him not to. This was the first time the echo had spoken to him on his own accord since the death of Gleam—a positive step, though still a small one.

DAGGER Level 4 has been cleared!

Continue on to fulfill the DAGGER’s destiny!

The familiar rectangle popped up, right after Nox had managed to slaw through the guardian’s shell, defeating it. Not an easy victory by any means, but the creature seemed content to the point that it brushed into Dallion’s leg passing by.

“Way to go, buddy.” Dallion smiled. “I’ll handle the next one.”

Without protest, the puma leaped off the floor, vanishing midair. Moments later, the Nox dagger emerged in Dallion’s belt. From here on, he was going to chiefly rely on the weapon rather than the familiar for fighting.

For half a minute Dallion stood there, hoping that the gate to the next section would emerge. When it didn’t, he headed towards the right most corridor.

The section being lit up made a whole world of difference. For starters, it was a lot more pleasant, making the corridors aesthetically pleasing. The material had changed from common metal to sky silver alloy, suggesting that beneath the crude surface the artifact was hiding a treasure. Likely that was the reason that the dwarf wanted it cleared “off the books” so to speak. Either way, that wasn’t Dallion’s concern. He was merely hired to get the job done. What happened afterwards was not his concern.

It took half a day to go through the maze of tunnels. Thankfully, defeating the guardian had also put an end to the creatures within the section. Upon reaching the next starting point, Dallion decided to use the same strategy, having Nox summon his enemy.

The fifth guardian of the Dagger was another feral: a shield turtle, of all things. Fighting it was a lot easier than any of the previous guardians, making Dallion wonder whether the order hadn’t been reversed. There was no rule stating that guardian strength was based on order of appearance, but he had come to expect it. It was more alarming that the difference between feral and banished guardians seemed so vast. Back when Dallion’s awakening level was in its twenties, it had been barely noticeable. The fact that it now was leading him to the conclusion that the banished had to follow some additional rules of their own.

I was a bit worried after facing the copyette, the armadil shield said. But the way things are going, this could be the easiest clearing yet.

“Don’t jinx it,” Dallion said, but he was thinking the same. Only two guardians were left, and he wasn’t remotely as tired as he feared he might be. At this point, he could even afford to go all out with point attacks again.

When Nox challenged the sixth guardian, though, one thing became obvious—the armadil shield had indeed jinxed it.

DAGGER LEVEL 6 GUARDIAN

Species: NYMPH

Class: SHADOW

Health: 70%

Traits:

- BODY 50

- MIND 40

- REACTION 20

- PERCEPTION 20

- MAGIC 40

Skills:

- ATTACK

- GUARD

- ACROBATICS

- ATHLETICS

- FORGING

- MUSIC

- SPELLCRAFT

- WIND SLASH (Species Unique)

- SOUND ENTANGLE (Species Unique)

- WATER FORM (Species Unique)

Weakness: NONE

A nymph with fifty magic? Dallion stared at his opponent.

On the surface, he seemed like a lanky youth with a set of pull plate nymph armor that was three times his size. The magic within him was exceptionally bright, not to mention it spread into every piece of his armor, which was made of metal.

“Hey,” the guardian said. “I knew sooner or later you’d get here.”

“It took some time to cross your mazes,” Dallion replied, summoning his weapon.

“Not talking to you.” The guardian looked down. “I’m talking to her.” He pointed at the harpsisword.

This was the third time that Dallion had seen such a reaction. First, it was back in the training dagger, then when Onda entered his realm. Now this nymph, as well.

Harp, that conversation that we keep leaving for later, Dallion thought, it would be nice to have it soon.

“Don’t tell me she’s an empress,” Dallion said, trying to find weaknesses in his opponent’s stance.

“No.” A blob of sadness became visible in the nymph’s chest. “But she could have been.”

He was about to say more, but Dallion chose not to give him the opportunity, charging forward with a line attack.

The thread of destruction smashed into the nymph’s armor, causing droplets of water to fill the chamber… and there it stopped, absorbed by the liquid.

COMBAT INITIATED

Dallion pushed on, tapping the side of his harpsisword as he swung at the nymph’s neck. Before it could reach its target, the spray droplets throughout the room darted to the nymph, forming a two-handed sword blocking the attack.

Refusing to give up the initiative, Dallion struck several times more. With the blade vibrating he was supposed to be able to cut through stone and steel, yet somehow the blade of water kept on blocking him, as if it were invincible.

“You’re weak,” the guardian said, not bothering to counterattack. “A few nice tricks, a bit of potential…”

Runes appeared on the floor in the wake of the nymph’s footsteps. Similar to the Vixenair, he could draw runes with his feet.

Dallion slashed at the ground, using his spark to disrupt the spell. The symbols faded away only to have news ones appear.

“Thousands would kill at the opportunity to be trained by her,” the nymph continued, taking on Dallion’s blows. “Hundreds of otherworlders competed for the honor.”

Each word was accompanied by a subtle voice attack, trying to establish a link with Dallion’s emotional state, then abuse it. The attacks were easy to spot, but represented yet another field which he had to focus on. Music, magic, and physical… all were things that could prove fatal in battle. If Dallion wanted to win, he had to take each of those things into account and counter them. So far, he wasn’t doing well at all, at least on the surface. He couldn’t help but notice that the guardian was casting spells just a bit too slow. No matter how fast his feet moved, the symbols continued to appear at a steady pace, as if he were toying with Dallion.

“Well, she’s my teacher now,” Dallion said, launching a music attack of his own. A few links were established with the cold anger pulsing within the guardian, only to be snapped fractions of a second later.

“Pure undeserved luck. Just like the rest of your race. You feed on the remnants of greatness like vultures living off the corpses of time. You’ll never amount to anything, so you fight for the rot that’s not yours.”

Dallion pulled back to do a point attack, when the harpsisword flew out of his hand. Purple light surrounded it, light that he hadn’t been able to see in the past. Dozens of interlock spell circles formed as the weapon changed form, turning into the nymph.

That’s how you did it, Dallion thought. The transformation had been a magic spell all along. In the past, Dallion just wasn’t able to see it. But if that were the case, why was it restricted? And also, did it mean that the armadil shield was able to use magic as well?

Seeing Harp in her nymph form, the dagger guardian froze still. The symbols on the floor faded as he lowered his weapon.

“You’ve gone too far,” she said, sounds emanating from her body with the intensity of a loudspeaker. “It isn’t your place to decide what happens in the world. Especially not now!”

The guardian reached forward, mouth opening to say something. Before he could, a spell circle formed on the floor, moving beneath him. Waves burst up, each causing dozens of red rectangles to stack up. Counting the damage, that single spell had cost well thousands of percent of damage. Not even terminal attacks were this vicious.

DAGGER Level 6 has been cleared!

Continue on to fulfill the DAGGER’s destiny!

Dallion stood petrified at what he had just seen. This wasn’t the first time he’d faced overwhelming strength. It wasn’t the most hopeless situation he had been in, either. If he were at full strength, with all his familiars—Gleam being alive—and his current combat splitting abilities, he could potentially put up some resistance… if no spells were cast.

“Harp?”

“Ignore what he said.” The harpsisword turned towards him. “Being banished affects people differently. Some work to forget the past, others let it fester, transforming into scyllas. In a few more centuries, he’d have become just that.”

“Who are you, Harp?”

“I’m the guardian of your harpsisword,” she replied. “It doesn’t matter who I was. After the banishment, no one is what they used to be. Emperors, empresses, generals, heroes… tens of thousands of them are within items. All of them were something significant before their banishment. Now, we’re all items.”

What about the other part? Dallion wanted to ask.

The whole thing about humanity relying on the past wasn’t a new concept. Many people had mentioned it, even the Star. However, there lay the paradox. If humanity was so worthless, how had it risen to a point that it ruled the world? Even the conflict between the empire and the other world powers was essentially a fight between human kingdoms. Or maybe the guardian had been a bit more literal.

“What’s this artifact, Harp?” he asked. “It’s more than a sword, isn’t it?”

“It’s a sword, just a special type of sword. A weapon designed specifically to fight us and the copyettes.”

“Like slime bolts?”

“No, it’s the opposite. Once you fulfill its destiny, it’ll be able to train magic at touch.”

Holy crap.

“Not as extreme as what you experienced when learning potion making, but enough to harm magic races.”

A weapon to fight nymphs and copyettes. Only one thought came to mind: someone was trying to do the same that Dallion had back in Nerosal. Aspan’s secret was out and people were already gearing up to take him on.

Dallion and the nymph kept looking at each other silently, close to a minute, after which Harp returned to her usual form, dropping to the ground.

“Nil.” Dallion picked up the weapon. “What’s the state of Hannah’s inn?”

The Timepiece is still standing. It’s Lanitol that’s in trouble. You can ask the dwarf to send a message to my original if you like. I’m sure he would.

“No.” Dallion replied. The fewer people knew, the better. For the moment, he had one decision to make: whether to go forward with clearing the item or stop here.