Chapter 6 - The Royal Family
Ben whistled as he looked into the distance to find a giant snake just under the size of Godzilla. It was black in color with some silver accents and released a massive amount of mana. Ben felt his blood boiling at the sight of this beast, but he calmed down and surveyed the surroundings first.
"Mmmm, looks like everyone did run away." Ben muttered as he turned to Gwen and smiled. "Well, wish me luck."
"I don't think you need any Master." Gwen answered back.
Ben just smiled at this as he blasted off from the city wall towards the Shadow Serpent. With his longsword in hand, he enveloped his entire body and blade in silver mana. Ben for some odd reason after turning fourteen had found that his mana had transformed from the normal blue mana to silver. It might've been due to how dense and powerful his mana was now but he didn't care much because it looked cool.
A build up of mana was being concentrated on the shadow serpents tail and so Ben also concentrated mana into his longsword, just enough to not shatter his blade. The serpent released a wave of red mana, a color of mana Ben guessed belonged to monsters as he had never seen it before.
"Oh well." Ben said before he pulled his blade back and released a blade aura, a technique that send destructive mana towards an enemy.
The mana in the blade exploded outwards with the same intensity as the shadow serpent and the two attacks created wind currents so strong that Gwen in the distance had some trouble standing her ground, even forcing herself to use a barrier created in the name of Soteria. Once the dust settled in the air, the serpent was silent and in shock.
Monsters, the higher their ranks had a higher intelligence and so this monster knew that the human in front of it was dangerous. As for Ben, he felt amazed at this created as he fell from over dozens of meters in the air. He didn't mind the landing though as mana was enforcing his body to become stronger than any metal he found so far.
Landing with a boom, Ben charged at the shadow serpent like a arrow being released from it's bow with a smile. The shadow serpent didn't waste any time as it released a cloud of dark poison. With another wave of his blade, the wind pressure from his blade created a pathway for him. With another Blade Aura, Ben released it at an even greater speed as it penetrated the monsters nearly impenetrable skin.
It was at this moment, the shadow serpent finally sensed the true power of Ben as he was slowly losing his control over his mana due to his excitement. His power was revealed and death was what the monster sensed.
The shadow serpent knew it needed to escape or else it would die and so he turned around and tried to escape as fast as he could back into the ocean it had come from. Ben laughed at this before he charged up even more mana into his blade, intending to end the fight within the next few seconds.
Charging up even more mana into his blade, Ben decided to let loose a little since the fight was no longer any fun with the monster being weak. Gathering even more mana into the blade, cracks began to form as Ben held it behind him.
Gwen seeing this became wide eyed as she knew of this sword technique, she named it herself after learning that Ben hadn't given it a name when showing it off. The name of the technique was...
"Divine Severance!" Ben yelled, swinging his blade upwards in front of him.
A second passed with no effect and when the shadow serpent thought the technique had failed, he suddenly felt his vision become double. It was only after seeing the mountain in the distance, cleaved in half did it understand that it was dead. The shadow serpent was cleanly cut in half but the cost was Ben's blade as it turned to dust the moment he stopped supplying mana.
"Well, there goes another gold coin." Ben sighed at the cost it would take, ignoring the destruction he left behind due to his last attack, a giant crevice leading up to the mountain far away.
Thankfully Ben still had control over his excitement to let loose as he had sensed if there were any humans or beings in the way or else many casualties would have happened. Though Ben guessed that the landscape could have been one of them, but Ben didn't care much since it could be recovered. The ground at least cause Ben didn't know if anyone other than him could repair the damage done to the mountain.
"But first." Ben said as he held his stomach. "I'm hungry."
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Within the Royal Castle within the center of the city, both the king and Princess stood shocked at what they had just witnessed. The king had white hair, blue eyes, purple clothing underneath a red furry cloak, and a large golden crown. The princess on the other hand wore a white dress with heels, having blonde hair and blue eyes with a silver tiara.
Through their telescopic artifact, they had witnessed a man utterly destroy the rank three shadow serpent like it was nothing. They had thought that the thought that they would be done for after sending their only two S rank adventurers out on a quest of great importance. It was due to the long years of peace did the kingdom not realize that they could still be attacked by monsters.
"No." The king said as he understood. "This was an attack from someone or some organization."
Rank three beasts were intelligent which meant that they didn't attack for no reason and mainly existed deeper within the Continent of Monsters. The king clearly remembered having done nothing wrong to this monster before and it targeted the kingdom even though the other kingdoms were all the same distance away from the continent of Apocal.
"Father?" The princess of the land asked, wondering what he will do.
The King didn't know as the man he had just witnessed split a mountaintop was someone he couldn't afford to offend as no S rank adventurer could do the same feat. With not many option to try and reel the man into becoming a weapon or protector of the kingdom, the king turned to look at his only daughter.
"I'm sorry my daughter." The king said sadly, thinking of the kingdoms best interest before family.
The princess just smiled at her father's sad expression as she bowed and said. "I will do whatever you say father."
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In the adventurers guild, people were returning but everything wasn't normal yet. People were in shock, some in awe, and some in fear of who or what could have destroyed the rank three monster and changed the landscape. Sadly no one had the answer, except of course Ben and Gwen but they liked to have their personal life being peaceful when not training or fighting.
"I can't believe you were right?" The receptionist said as she still couldn't believe the monster was killed.
"I have my sources." Ben said with a chuckle before he asked. "So about my rewards for the last extermination quest."
"Oh, right." The receptionist pulled out a bad of gold and handed it over to Ben.
"I wonder who killed the monster though." The receptionist couldn't help but let out.
Ben laughed internally as he really wanted to tell her it was him but he felt she wouldn't have believed it was him even if he did. With Gwen by his side, Ben walked out of the guild and back to their inn while he mentally calculated their coins.
"Let's see, after these five gold coins, we now have, twenty six gold coins." Ben said with a smile before he shook his head. "I lied, twenty five. I need a new blade."
Ben had thought about buying a stronger blade to contain his mana but the kingdom didn't have any material that fit this criteria. Well, it did but the holy blade of the hero was currently sealed within the kingdom and Ben didn't want to be that much attention. The blade was supposedly made from the highest grade of mithril, a magical ore that was extremely magic conductive that was given from the elven queen herself.
This wasn't all as the blade also contained within it Adamantium, a seemingly unbreakable metal once cooled from the forging process that was also given and forged by the dwarven king of Blades himself. If this wasn't enough, the blade also supposedly had the princess of the spirit queen sealed within to help and guild a new hero should the need arise.
Shaking his head at this, Ben wished that he could just create adamantium but to do this, he needed to be in contact with it and understand it well. That was how Ben was able to create iron and steel but for some reason, it's quality was always less than normal blades. This was why he always bought new blades.
"So I need to go to the dwarves and elves and hope they give me some of their metal ores." Ben sighed as he said this as the other races didn't seem to like human much after the hundred or so years.
Entering the Inn, Ben and Gwen ordered some food and began eating. Right as they were halfway done, the doors to the Inn were opened and in came a squadron of royal guards. The man who looked to be the captain looked around with a hard stare before he pulled out a scroll.
"By the order of the king, the man named Ben Stone will report to him immediately!" The royal guard said, causing everyone to look at Ben and Gwen.
"Don't look at me damn it!" Ben internally screamed but sighed as it was too late to pretend he was someone else, maybe he could have called himself Jeff or something.
The guard walked up to Ben and then said, no, commanded. "Come with me."
Ben looked him up and down before he returned to his food and said. "I'll come after I'm done eating. It's been a long day and-"
Ben couldn't get to finish as the guard grabbed hold of his arm and commanded. "If you do not come with me now, I will arrest you for resisting!"
Ben sighed at this before he glared at the man and said. "I'll try to make it not hurt too much."
The man was confused but received an answer when ben slapped the man. The force was so powerful that the royal guard was sent flying outside of the open doors and into the streets, unconscious. The guards while shocked regained their steel and turned to Ben with their weapons drawn.
"Will you let me finish eating in peace before coming with you, or do you want to be like your little captain there?" Ben asked, but saw no fear or weapon being sheathed. "Alright then. Hell it is."