The Ruined Death Knight

With the morning light greeting the sands of Azu´rah, the continuous echoes of clashing metal have finally come to a stop.

*Thinnnk!

Having his sword thrown from his hand, Danzel stared frustrated at the scythe sword pointing towards his throat once more and slightly cutting through his dark plating of his.

"I guess now it´s a good time to finish our little spar." Agares said as he withdraw his sword.

Seeing that, Danzel went out to pick up his dropped sword while walking on top of all the accumulated black metal that has been chipped off his armor.

The armor itself was barely scratched and the destroyed black metal could be generated again.

Pulling his sword from the sands, Danzel activated the enchantment of his armor. Taking only a few moments for the black sand to cover up all the missing parts of his black plating, after the sand hardened, Danzel looked as good as new.

"What we did can´t even be called a spar...it was simple you toying with me." Danzel said as looked at his own reflection in his sword.

Although his mood had increased as soon as he learned the rewards of such spar, he generally felt quite bitter from losing so much.

Followed by Agare's silence, it was pretty clear that Danzel stood no chance against that old man.

Agares who thought he had hurt Danzel's pride, wanted to say something but was shortly after interrupted by Danzel.

"Tell me, was the reason why you followed me because you were after my runesmithing skills?" Danzel said in a cold voice yet tired voice.

It was natural for Danzel to have such doubts after thinking about it for many hours.

Although he had to bring out his entire focus against Agares scythe sword, every time Agares made him drop his sword, Danzel had a small amount of time to wonder about Agare's true intent.

The thought of Agares trying to kill him had been removed after their first engagement. Danzel doubted that Agares played with him just to kill him in the end.

Thinking about what else he had to offer for that old man to seek him out in the middle of the night, only one thing came to his mind.

His ability to make runes.

Agares silence also indirectly confirmed Danzel's evaluation.

"The sole reason that I came to meet you was to resolve the enmity between us two." Agares said with his eyes closed and a frown on his face.

Remembering back then in the cave of the bandits, Agares still remembers how Danzel threatened him to use curse magic on his granddaughter, he felt immeasurable anger arise from inside of him.

`I can understand why that guy acted in such a way, but considering Shiro´s condition, she might have died.´ Agares thought to himself.

He understood Danzel's thread was out of his self-preservation.

The chance of Danzel mistaking them for bandits were also there, so Agares understood where Danzel was coming from.

But the very thought of the child of his daughter coming to harm was unbearable to him.

`But if my hatred prevents the future growth of her...´ Agares though with resolve to put away his hate towards Danzel for the future sake of his remaining family.

"I would be lying though if your skills didn´t interest me though."

"I only have this old body and my sword skills to offer. Both those things reached the so-called 4th-tier that you like to call. I noticed lots of wasted movements in our spar and your sword art is rough and filled with holes. If you are willing to make runes for my granddaughter, Shiro. I could teach you how to better yourself as a swordman.

"..."

There was a moment of silence between those two.

Danzel laughed bitterly internally as the man who was asking for his service called his swordsmanship "rough and filled with holes".

It sounded like he was insulting him, but Danzel knew for the better that Agares was right. Not because he lost the spar countless times, but of the skill [Death Guarding Swordsmanship] being at level 1.

Considering the times it evolved, [Death Guarding Swordsmanship] was a 3rd-tier skill, which of his tier was fine. But it being at the lowest level, someone like Agares who he guessed wielded a 4th-tier skill would see his swordsmanship to be frankly, really bad.

`He said he would teach me his skills, I doubt the option to learn such skills could be unlocked as easy as magic. And improving my [Death Guarding Swordsmanship] can be done with the use of XP. All that I would be gaining from accepting such a request would be receiving potently knowledge to unlock a skill and faster XP gain through the use of spar´s...´

Summarizing what he could gain from Agares, he didn´t find it all that tempting.

For someone who is pursuing the path of the sword, to be trained by a 4th-tier expert might be a dream coming true.

But for Danzel?

It wasn´t.

Not only did he have to learn how to improve his runes and try some combinations that he still hadn´t tried out, he still had to review what he learned from Velkir's lessons, but additionally he still had his Necronomicon and the book that Nersan´rah left to finish understanding.

In other words, he had a large load of stuff to do which required time.

Adding the swordsmanship lesson on top of this mountain would only make the mountain higher than it was already.

Nonetheless, even after such a reason, Danzel still accepted the old man's offer.

"That offer of yours...In exchange for my runes, I would like to have such spar and your advice." Danzel said in his cold voice.

Although for him such a deal wasn´t as valuable for his runes, Danzel found it still worth it to accept the old man's offer based only on the fact that he was on the same party as him.

As long as he knew, they were going to be fighting together since they were a mercenary group. So making the enmity between someone who would potentially watch his back go away wasn´t too bad.

Other than that, Danzel didn´t want to make an enemy out of a 4th-tier expert just because he rejected such a request.

"Alright then, you can call me wherever you want to start. Other than the time that my granddaughter takes a lesson of magic and needs me, free feel to call me." Agares said with a relieved tone.

Turning his back, he walked back to the houses where the other remained.

Danzel who was staring at his back shook his head before taking a last look at his sword.

More specifically, he gazed towards the carved runes.

"A runesmith, huh? Such an occupation feels more like a curse with benefits at this point." Danzel said with a bitter tone.

Till now, all the events that brought him here were for the sole reason of him being a runesmith.

Danzel wonders what would have happend if chosen to be an enchanter instead of a runesmith back then.

Although he gained much and the runes themself were extremely valuable, the dangers he had gone through were as similar to the rewards of his choice.

`Maybe I would still be at the capital of Berum, hiding somewhere and slowly accumulating my strength.´ Danzel thought to himself, but shortly after shook his head from such thoughts.

"Sigh~I don´t regret it. If I wanted to hole myself somewhere and slowly increase my strength, I wouldn´t have left the cursed lake, to begin with."

Sheathing his sword back into his scabbard, Danzel went to meet up with Skull Claw and go for his magic lesson.

Once Skull Claw saw him through the distance, she raised up and run towards him like a lost puppy who found his owner once more.

Danzel who saw that would have frowned if he had a face.

`Skull Claw broke through my command...It seems that Velkir was right.´

Jumping on her back, he orders her to go to where Velkir's house was.

Reaching the house and going where the barrier was, he and Skull Claw found themself with Velkir teaching Shiro magic with Agares sitting in the distance cross-legged with his eyes closed.

"You are late." Velkir said with his cold voice without turning towards Danzel.

"Sorry Mast-"

"Instead of apologizing, come here and start listening. Today I will be teaching you how to accumulate much purer mana. As the topic will be for both of your usefull, you will be taking the lesson together."

"Whaaat~! I don´t want to learn with the bad fish!" Shiro said in an exaggerated manner.

"..." Dumbfounded, Danzel stared at the girl and then back at Agares from the distance. Although one would guess that this old was sleeping, Danzel noticed a small twitch in his eye brown.

"May I ask the reason as of why, Master Velkir?" Danzel said while walking near the Lich and the small brat who kept calling him bad fish.

"It´s for the simple reason that we will soon be departing for our next job, making that peaceful lesson all that more valuable for you two. You Danzel have already part way used the technique by your air blade that you showed, but as far as I am aware, you can´t use that technique on your other spells."

Upon hearing that, Danzel fell silent as he wasn´t even aware that he did something special with his [Gale Mana Blade].

"You Shiro need to learn it from the ground up. So today's lesson will be about this topic."

Without waiting for any protest to rise, Velkir went out of his way to start his lesson.

Being what it is, Danzel could only stand there beside Shiro and listen to his Lich master lesson.