Plan B! [REWRITTEN]

"As I thought, you really did awaken your skills already. You're deviants."

The reason Laurene tried to stop Evan from appraising them was simple. Both of them were powerful grandmaster-level existences who were able to sense the activation of skills.

Full Appraisal, was a skill.

Evan used it on them and they sensed it, so it was impossible for Evan to fool them into thinking both he and Laurene did not have skills.

In fact, Finley had already known of Laurene's skills for quite a while, he just chose to be quiet seeing as she made an effort to hide it. However, Ralphie did not know this, and he exposed it in front of the Duke and the Emperor.

"What? They've awakened their skills already?"

"Yes, your majesty."

Ralphie and Finley were on the other side of the mansion during the fight, guarding the Duchess and the Empress who were having a tea party with some other noble ladies. When the emperor sent for them, they arrived in less than a minute.

However, when they saw the fight between Evan and Laurene, they stopped to watch and noticed that both of them activated their skills multiple times during the fight.

They wanted to see how good they were at using their skills, and that was why they hid themselves to watch the fight.

The end result; they were satisfied. Finley even wanted to take Evan as his student and teach him his sword techniques.

At this point, Evan realized he had made a mistake and he quickly improvised his plan.

"Being considered a deviant who awakened their skills before twelve would have downplayed the achievements that Laurene and I have.

After all, people would just think;

'Isn't that normal since they're deviants?'

Which would be annoying considering I was already on this level before I awakened my skills a few hours ago.

At most, my weapon handling became better and I gained paladin but that's it.

That's why I didn't plan to expose the fact that we have skills yet, especially considering Laurene's skillset is more geared towards magic and it'd just make you think that it's because of those skills that she could cast tier-two magic and not her innate talent and result of her hard work.

Unfortunately, Sir Ralphie just foiled that plan."

The young hero glared at the blonde-haired and brown-eyed knight a bit, before clicking his tongue audibly and turning back to the Emperor and the Duke.

"In return, why don't you let sir Ralphie accompany us to the dungeon so we can train our skills and gain experience.

With Sir Raplhie with us, there are very few monsters that could possibly endanger us."

The Emperor was a doting father, he feared for Laurene's safety, and this was why he refused to let her go to the dungeons even if she was being accompanied by a platoon of Knights.

However, hearing she already awakened her skills, Evan's request sounded reasonable. The emperor wanted Laurene to Develop her skills and if possible, acquire more skills.

He was caught between a rock and a hard place, his desire to protect his daughter was clashing with his desire for her to improve and become stronger.

"Let them go, it would be a good experience and my younger brother would be there to protect them if anything happens."

Finley, spoke up to clear the Emperor's doubts and fears. After a few moments, he looked at the Duke and asked.

"Are you willing to let Evan go?"

"It would be good for his development, so as much as I don't want to, I have no choice but to. I have to think of a way to pacify my wife when she finds out about this though."

The Emperor chuckled lightly at the Duke's words and nodded in affirmation.

"Fine, you can go."

"Thanks, Dad!"

Laurene jumped up and hugged him the moment he gave his consent, she was happy to train her skills and improve her magic.

The previous Fourth Hero was a magic fanatic, one who liked to improve her magic strength to new heights whenever she could.

Inheriting her memories had changed Laurene's personality slightly. She had also become a magic fanatic, only on a slightly lesser scale.

Evan on the other hand grinned evilly and spoke up.

"The first dungeon we shall go to is the one in Merdin's Dungeon City; 'Graveyard of The Arrogant!'"

The dungeons in the world of Aidos were said to be traps created by the goddess Artemisia, ones created to prevent monsters from overpopulating the land mankind was meant to inhabit.

When a dungeon appeared, it released a scent that deceived even the most intelligent of monsters into thinking that the thing they needed most at that point in time was there, causing them to rush into the dungeon.

Unfortunately for them, once they entered, they could not come out. However, these traps were not perfect. As the monsters reproduced in the dungeons, they increased in number exponentially.

If the number of monsters in a dungeon exceeded the limit of the dungeon, an outbreak occurred. This was a devastating situation where monsters came pouring out of the dungeon in large numbers.

This occurred if the monsters were not culled regularly and could cause the destruction of entire cities.

A country was said to have fallen to the monsters of the dungeon before during an outbreak. Multiple high-rank monsters of over level 300-350 came out of the dungeon overnight, causing the destruction of that country.

Because of this, all Dungeons were regularly attacked by adventurers and knights in an effort to keep the monster numbers low. Even so, there were still an enormous number of monsters deep inside the dungeons.

To keep this number from increasing even further, Dungeon Cities were formed.

They were homes to various adventurers who entered these dungeons daily either to level up, hunt, or complete quests given to them by the association that managed them; The Adventurer's Guild.

The monsters in the dungeons also gave close to two times as much experience as those outside the dungeon, so this enticed many to enter the dungeons despite the risks.

Merchants who purchased monster materials daily also resided in these dungeon cities. The cities were also the only cities allowed to have their personal army besides the army of the Nation they were in.

Dungeon City Merdin was one of the closest dungeon cities to the capital of the Great Western Empire, Gerfast.

It was a city built around the dungeon known as the 'Graveyard of the Arrogant', a dungeon whose name was derived from the status effect applied to everyone who stepped foot into the dungeon.

It did not matter how strong one was, resisting this status effect for extended periods of time was next to impossible.

It was a status effect that could be called an offshoot of one of the seven mortal sins.

'Arrogance'

♧ ♧ ♧

Hey y'all, it's your friendly neighbourhood author, _michael here.👋🏽

So, I've been meaning to ask this, but do you guys have any problems with the story so far?

Is there anything about it you don't like and all?

What aspects do you want me to improve on going forward? 

Please let me know in the comments. Your input would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks for your understanding and I look forward to you continuing on our Reincarnated Hero's journey.

This has been _michael.

Over and Out!✌🏽