Liberators and Training

A/N: Sorry for the delay in uploading. I was out on a business trip to Georgia (the US State not the country) and didn't have the time or inspiration to write on my cell phone. Now that I'm back and have recovered somewhat from the trip, I'll be back to more regular uploading... hopefully.

...

I sat on a chair in a dark room, observing the extremely nervous wrecks which sat across from me with half-closed eyes. After getting beat up by the proprietress, we all went back to the inn for a meeting in the back room. It seemed I had gotten my information wrong and the ones who I beat up were actually a group who called themselves the Liberators. The proprietress had told me on the way back that they'd free slaves who were captured in the Ultra Sorcery Kingdom before being transported to the Super Magic Empire.

That was all well and good, however, I was a bit reluctant to believe such a story. The reason for that was...

"Aren't you guys kinda weak though?" I thought aloud.

"""HEY!!!""" All four of them called out in a shocked offended tone.

"No no no no! I'm pretty strong, don't get me wrong, but you all went down easier than a trained soldier would and I'm assuming the slavers are at least on that level if they regularly capture people for a living." I explained myself.

"Ahh. That. It's because they are all that's left from before." The proprietress stated a bit somberly as she walked through the door, bringing us a round of drinks.

She plopped the six tankards down on the table. Each one was overflowing with a sweet-smelling honey mead that looked absolutely divine. I reached out for one before my hand was slapped by the proprietress who gave me a dirty look.

"We can drink after we've introduced ourselves." She stated while glaring at me.

I raised both hands in a jovial surrender pose. "My bad. My bad. My name is Alaster and I come from a village not far from here." I said, gesturing to the woman.

"Humph." She pouted a bit. "I'm Maria, though everyone calls me Marry, and this is my daughter Irene." Marry started, pointing to one of the people sitting across from me.

The woman she pointed to removed her facial coverings and hood, allowing for short greenish-blond hair to fall onto her shoulders. She looked at me with beautiful blue eyes as she smiled and did a slight bow.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, Alaster."

"The next one is Paul, he's a troublemaker but has a good heart." Marry pointed to the next one.

Paul removed his facial coverings and hood as well, allowing long whitish-grey hair to fall forward, covering one side of his face. He wasn't a particularly handsome guy, but he definitely stood out. He looked a bit off-put at me but didn't say anything, only turning his face away with a 'tsk'.

"The next one's the current leader, Dan." Marry finished as the man in question removed his coverings.

He was a rather handsome man with nicely done-up dark brown hair and brown eyes. He also had the makings of a bard coming into place. I could easily tell, based on his countenance, that this guy was pretty charismatic, which was probably why he was the leader.

"Nice to meet ya, Alaster!" Dan commented with a smile.

"And last, but certainly not least is Scar. He's basically mute, so don't worry too much about him." Marry concluded, pointing to the last member of the Liberators. The man took off his coverings too and shocked me greatly.

'This guy is way too handsome!' I almost shouted.

He was an extremely handsome young man with short, messy dark red hair and eyes. He looked extremely aloof. Scar only nodded at me with lazy-looking eyes in acknowledgment.

I picked up my tankard after listening to the introduction and put it to my lip before taking a swig. The alcohol burned my mouth as I drank it but the scent and sweetness of the honey helped to drown out the discomfort.

After taking a few moments to enjoy my drink, I looked toward Dan and began to ask questions. "So? What was the deal with today? There weren't any slaves to free and Miss Maria here said the others were killed."

Dan looked down, somber for a moment, before picking himself back up immediately to answer my question. "Yes. We had expected a shipment of slaves to be brought in by their usual route by now, so we planned to set up an ambush. Unfortunately, we were the ones attacked." Dan said with a bit of a sarcastic snide thrown my way.

"The others died last year. They were killed by an Enforcer for the Super Magic Empire who was tired of the supply of slaves being disrupted by our actions." Irene picked up after Dan's pause. "It was one of the leader's top lieutenants named Dagon who whipped them out."

"Eh? Dagon?" I asked with mild surprise.

"Yeah. That asshole killed big bro. I swear I'll kill him myself one day!" Paul said, slamming his fist on the table. It seemed he was quite heated and I was beginning to catch on to his personality, as he seemed to have a lot of trouble dealing with his obviously pent up aggression.

"I sat back in my chair and sighed before reaching into my bag. "I'm afraid that is impossible," I said, finally finding what I was looking for. "I killed Dagon about a month ago when he attacked my home and killed my parents." I finished, plopping down the broken staff that Dagon was famous for flaunting.

The other people in the room looked at me with wide eyes before inspecting the staff I had placed before them. Irene even picked up a fragment and ran her hands along with one of them as if thinking it could be fake or an illusion or something. Marry was stunned for a minute before smiling softly to herself and looking at me with gratitude. Dan had a goofy look on his face while Scar's once lazy eyes had opened wide.

The only one who didn't seem to be happy with the fact Dagon was gone was Paul who, after reading in shock for a moment, clenched his fists and stared at me angrily, as though I had taken something from him that offended him greatly. Before he could say anything, Irene got up from her seat, ran around the table, and lunged at me with a full-force hug.

"Thank you! Thank you! Thank you!" She continued to repeat as she wept happy and relieved tears.

I figured I wasn't getting any more information out of them until they all calmed down in the morning, so I simply returned the hug with one arm to show support but not affection while waiting for everyone to regain their composure.

...

The next day, upon Marry's request, I decided to help train the Liberators to get them up to a significant enough level to be actually half-decent fighters. Originally I didn't want to do it, as exploring how to use my own Unique Skill felt more important, however since I didn't have a job and Marry was offering to let me stay for free if I did so, I didn't really have a choice. Once my money ran out I'd be toast.

Furthermore, it seems that Dagon's death has really disrupted the slave trade around this city, so we decided to use this time as effectively as possible. As a matter of fact, we only broke up one small-scale ring over the course of a month or so. The elves we set free were housed at the inn under Marry's care before being shipped off to their homes again using one of Marry's contacts.

For my first order of business, I taught them all how to unlock their Aura using the same method that my father used to teach me. The four of them were already pretty fit in terms of physique, however, they lacked any formal training with their weapons beyond the usual 'swing until you hit the enemy' they had self-taught themselves.

Dan surprised me, mastering the concept in only a week while Irene and Paul progressed much more slowly. Scar was seemingly trained quite a bit from the previous Liberators, as he was the most senior member and was only spared from the earlier purge because he was off helping collect information at the time of the attack.

For him, I taught him the basics of |Form Hide| to aid in his intelligence gathering, which seemed to be his specialty.

in the afternoon, after their training sessions, I'd work on myself. It seemed I had a pretty good connection to the Spirits as I was able to summon a mid-tear Fire spirit Salamander on my first attempt after borrowing what turned out to be the mid-evil times equivalent to 'Spirit Summoning for Dummies' book that Marry had from her time as an Adventurer when she was younger.

I also learned quite a bit about my Unique Skill [Argonaut] during these last few weeks of training. Like all skills, it was highly dependent upon my mental willpower use and I couldn't seem to use it at all unless I was in a serious battle.

I could regenerate from any injury. I cut myself a number of times with my sword, much to Marry and Irene's dismay, and each time, within seconds, I'd be back to normal. I didn't even bother trying to test whether I'd regenerate lost limbs, as I wasn't planning on losing any of them anytime soon and I wasn't insane enough to cut off my body parts to check.

I also produced a huge amount of energy every second and my rate of recovery was absurd. It was almost like a nerfed [Magicule Breeder Reactor], as I could generate vast amounts of Holy Energy, however it was more like my magic power regenerated faster than I could realistically use it, as my total power didn't increase much. I could use this to my advantage to highly power up my {|Magic Aura|} to deal lethal blows on most enemies or even propel myself by releasing the excess energy, adding explosive force to all of my blows to further increase my deadliness.

In the evenings, I'd help Marry in the kitchen so I could learn how to cook for myself. I could already cook decent meals, but definitely not at inn/restaurant quality. Afterward, I'd use the [Purification] effect of my Unique Skill to cure the hangovers of the inn goers for a small fee. I was using this money to save up for a new magisteel sword from the dwarves which would grow with me as time went on.

I had 2,000 years minimum until canon started, so if I couldn't get a Mythical/God Class weapon by then, then I should just say goodbye to any prospects of contributing to the main story.

Everything seemed to be going pretty well for a long time. I had a place to live, a satisfying routine, and was growing stronger at a gradual pace. I even started thinking about whether or not to buy a house in the city and settle down for a while. Just as my wounded heart began to heal from the stuff with Evelyn and Noella, it all seemed to go from bad to worse, and i was definitely not prepared for what was about to happen.