Ch 2: Rein Hart (1)

On a road leading to a city called Hetharna, three people were walking. They were none other than Rein, Stella and Tasha who were going to the nearest city after completing a successful dungeon raid. Then Tasha suddenly thought of a question and asked -

"So, Rein where do you want to go next ?"

"Hmm, the only dungeon that we haven't cleared in this nation is the one by the capital. But that one is managed by the royals themselves so getting a permit to enter it is almost impossible without any connections. And it's not a very strong dungeon either, so I don't think it's worth it to go against a whole nation just to challenge this one. So, let's go to a different nation."

"Hmm, I was thinking the same. Your special eyes did not give you any hint that the royal dungeon is special, right ?" Stella said.

"Yeah, it didn't. That's the reason I can forget about it. If it was special in any way, I would definitely have tried my best to enter it."

"Ok, then it's settled. I was getting too tired of hiding my ears. Next time let's go somewhere where I don't need to be so stressed."

"Yeah, let's. I'm very sorry that both of you had to go through so much trouble and thanks a lot for enduring it. And let's not leave the city in a hurry. Now that we are planning to leave this nation already feel free to not hide your ears or any non human parts."

"Won't that be troublesome ?" Stella asked.

"I will take care of it. It would have been a waste of time if it was before completing the dungeon raids but now, hehe. If anyone tries to find trouble we will just beat them up. And if they are too troublesome, we will kill them. And if the person facing is too strong, we run. It's that simple."

"Hehe, I like that. By the way, I am changing the subject here, but wouldn't it be better to raise our merchant guild ranks here in this nation. As it does have the best mercantile guilds among the nearby nations. We can easily sell the monster materials for that."

"Yeah, I think we should do that. All three of us are mostly using the marchant guild card as it's most inconspicuous but just being an E rank one is quite problematic. Let's raise two of ours to D and one to C. The privileges they gave are quite good."

"Yeah, you've completely stopped using the adventurer guild card after getting promoted to platinum rank. You still use it to take jobs though." Stella said

Tasha also spoke up -

"And you're talking about the marchant guilds privileges, but we lack anything but money. I think after so many expeditions, we have more than enough money to buy this whole nation if we want. What will you even do with discounts."

"That's true, I guess. I was thinking about getting promoted to Mithril rank in the adventurer guild as I had been eligible to take the test for a long time. And it will also help us in going to most of the guild managed dungeons. What about you, Stella ?"

"Hmm, let me see. Oh, I'm also eligible to take the ascension test for platinum rank. Let's take our test together, Rein."

"Hey not fair. Don't leave me out of it."

"If I remember correctly then Tasha is still short of a few more guild points to be eligible for the gold rank ascension test, right ?"

"Yeah, I was not really interested in being an adventurer so I almost never took any requests. I only got that card to get a legal permission to enter that dungeon in Taehanara."

"Hey girls, I have a plan. Let's take a break for three days in Hetharna. If you're fine with it, I was thinking of going on a date with you, Stella. While Tasha could visit the black market here and could take on a few gold rank missions to get some guild points."

"Oh, I'm perfectly fine with a date. Thanks for inviting Rein."

"No problem. Then on the second day, I want to invite Tasha for an adventure date. We will both take missions together for that day. And in the meantime Stella could use that time to check the city library. How about it ?"

"That sounds like a plan. I'm always in for a lovey dovey date."

"I also really want to visit the library here. But I thought one needed some kind of special permit to enter the main one right ?"

"No need to worry. I have already gotten a permit for you."

"Rein.... I LOVE YOU. Muyha~ chuu~"

Being super excited Stella hugged and gave Rein a kiss on the lips. Rein returned the kiss while hugging her back. Then he spoke up again -

"Then on the last day, let's go for a double date together."

"Awesome. Let's go. I can't wait."

"Yes, me neither. Take me to a sweet shop that day."

So while talking like that with each other and making future plans, the trio entered the city of Hetharna.

...

Rein was born in a small remote village named the Hart village. He used to live there with his father who was a farmer and his housewife mother. The village was poor but they at least did not lack food to eat, so his life was going well.

But when Rein was only 4 years old, this remote village suddenly got attacked by monsters. They were not very strong monsters or anything but were just a dozen or so goblins. They were definitely some of the weakest monsters out there. For for a small village like the Hart village, they were still equivalent to unstoppable natural disasters.

Soon the whole village was on fire and Rein encountered his life's first life and death struggle. His father and mother were already killed and the small child Rein was trying his best to somehow survive this disaster.

At this moment, suddenly Rein felt something awaken inside him. Actually even though someone would be born with their inherent special ability but that ability would only manifest on that person between the age of 5 to 10. One would not be able to use their inherent ability before that.

But Rein was special, so he was able to awaken his inherent special ability when he was less than 5 years old. If one asked about how he was able to do it, Rein would not be able to give a sure answer. But he had some guesses.

Rein was an extremely rare individual who had not one, not two but three special abilities. This was something almost unheard of this fact along with the risk to his life he was able to awaken his inherent abilities.

His abilities were not properly combat type abilities and did not give him strength to immediately slaughter all the goblins. But it did make him stronger than before and with that newfound strength, he faced one of the injured goblin head on and somehow punched it to death.

Then he faced the other goblins with a sword that he picked up from the recently killed goblin. After struggling on death's door for over an hour, he was finally able of kill all the goblins that attacked his village. But in that time, the Hart village had completely disappeared from the face of the world.

Next little Rein tried his best to somehow take care of all the dead bodies of the deceased villagers. But with his small body he was having a very hard time doing it.

If a dead body stayed in the out for too long, then it might turn into a undead. Rein did not want his mother and father and also the kind villagers to turn into them. So he very strongly wished to do something for them and started crying. He was just a 4 year old kid who had lost his everything. After realising it and facing the despair he started bawling his eyes out.

Then suddenly a brilliant golden light shone on from his body and tendrils of crimson lightning appeared. In that outburst the whole village got purified and Rein also awakened his elemental affinity.

Just like inherent ability, the elemental affinity was also used to get awakened between the age of 5 to 10. But Rein was also able to use his elements before that normal frame of time. He was truly a heaven sent genius, but a very tragic one at least for the first half of his life.