BXBX NOVEL Chapter 7 First Duel I
"So, you know all about the bullshit the previous seven pulled and the restrictions they received because of it huh?"
"Hmm...?
Unfortunately, yes, I do. It would seem our history books have been praising the wrong people."
Both Evan and the princess sighed in exasperation. The actions of the previous seven heroes were just that bad.
"Oh yes, call me Laurene from now on, being called \'princess\' by another one of the heroes irritates me for some reason. Probably the influence of the memories I received; the previous hero disliked royalty."
Even though she had lived for nine years as \'Laurene Hayes\', the sudden influx of memories from a being who had lived at least three times her age was enough to cause some changes to her personality.
"Whatever you say, Laurene."
Being someone who lived in a democratic society, the aristocratic system was too much of a hassle for Evan. He was happy he was a duke\'s son; this limited the number of people he had to be respectful towards.
"I\'d also just call you Evan. So, what are we gonna do now we\'ve confirmed ourselves to be heroes?"
"Nothing much we can do for now, so we\'d go back to our daily lives, and although I\'d hate to do this, we hide our mystic eye skills till we\'re ten.
We also have to find a way to conceal our statuses as heroes, at least till we\'re strong enough to protect ourselves, we can\'t save the world if we can\'t even save ourselves after all."
"Save ourselves? From what exactly?"
"A certain group of people ready to sacrifice anyone or anything on Aidos in order to bring the demons\' date of entry forward even by just a few minutes.
If they discovered the existence of us new gen heroes, I don\'t doubt they\'d try to...end us."
Laurene was initially confused upon hearing Evan\'s reply to her question, however, one quick look through the memories in her head and she instantly understood what he meant.
"We should really wipe those guys out when we are strong enough. Our hero titles allow us to be stronger against \'Invaders\' and \'Enemies of Aidos\', so that\'d make things easier. More so for you who\'s the leader, your damage bonus is twice mine.
Or rather, we could see if the empire and a few other allied nations could come together to take them out.
The only problems are finding out their exact location and explaining to my dad why I know of their existence."
"Going after them with numbers is futile, they have a high-ranking necromancer who\'d just turn any of our fallen soldiers into their own."
"Huh? How\'d you know that?"
Hearing Laurene\'s question, it was then Evan realised that he had accidentally said something from the game without realising it.
"Just call it one of the perks of being the \'Leader\'.
Anyway, that necromancer would be taken care of, provided that I can get strong enough to brave Cheverton\'s dungeons by the time he starts taking action."
"What\'s gonna happen in Cheverton?"
"To put it bluntly, a vyi~#@:3e32vrti---!"
""Huhhh???""
The two young heroes simultaneously let out surprised voices. Evan who could hear some kind of garbled static sounding noise along with his words, and Laurene who only heard the weird noise.
However, this was not something both of them were unfamiliar with. To be specific, it was something the heroes whose memories they possessed were familiar with.
"It seems that there\'s some kind of restriction on the information I was about to pass across."
"Indeed, there is."
\'Why? Is it because it\'s one of the major events of the game?
If the game was a simulation of the future, then knowing the events of the game is the same as knowing the future, or at least part of it.
It would make sense that I might not be able to talk about it.
But I was able to talk about \'that guy\' earlier so it is not like I can\'t say anything about the game, just that what I can say is limited.
Oh well, I have a lot of time to experiment.\'
"Evan?"
Hearing Laurene\'s voice, Evan was pulled out of his sea of thoughts, shaking his head and dismissing the previous matter.
"Anyway, on to things we CAN do. We should try searching for the other seven heroes to the best of our ability, provided their powers have awakened.
Let\'s hope they don\'t get possessed by the previous bastar,- I mean, heroes."
"Yes. Hopefully, they don\'t get possessed by the previous basta-, I mean, heroes."
The search for the heroes would only be possible when the heroes have reached a sufficient level of strength, at that point the crest of the heroes would appear in their eyes.
This would happen when their unique skills reach Stage 1.
Currently, both Evan and Laurene\'s mystic eyes were still Stage 0\'s, as such, they would need to level up to level 35 before they can awaken stage 1. As Evan recalled this information, Laurene spoke up.
"We\'d have to use the academy\'s expeditions to level up a lot."
"Huh? Why wait that long?
That\'s gonna be in 5 years, we can go level up before then. We have a boost of 200% efficiency in levelling up, best to make use of it."
The seven heroes possessed a 200% levelling-up efficiency that allowed them to level up two times as fast as the average person.
"Evan, we\'re both high nobility and royalty, there\'s no way they\'d let us go deep into dungeons to level up, while we are not even ten years old.
My dad\'s gonna be the first to refute that."
"True, I also haven\'t been allowed to do any sort of levelling up ever since the Duke had a couple of weakened monsters for me to train with.
We need to convince them to let us go somehow... Ha! I have an idea."
He then whispered his idea of how he would convince their parents to let them level up in dungeons; prisons created to trap excess monsters to prevent them from overpopulating and taking over the land meant for mankind.
After hearing his plan, Laurene looked at him weirdly and asked with a heart full of doubt.
"Is that really gonna work?"
"About 50/50"
At his unsure reply, she sighed before calling over a servant and asking them to go to the castle to get the required attire for his plan.
Evan also went over to his room to get changed. He put on his training outfit which consisted of a pair of brown trousers, with a similar coloured shirt and leather boots.
He then walked over to the knight\'s training ground and asked the knights to clear up space for him. Although they had questions, they stopped their training and cleared out the area.
The duke and the emperor could see this from the Duke\'s office on the third floor of the mansion and they wondered why Evan should have been with Laurene was in the training ground.
Not long after, the servant sent out by Laurene arrived with her training attire and her magic staff, to which she quickly changed into and moved over to the training centre.
Upon seeing this, the duke and the emperor finally realized what was about to happen and began making their way over to stop it, however, they arrived too late.
With a knight unwillingly acting as the referee, the first part of Evan\'s plan; the sparring match, began.
◇ ◇ ◇
"Begin"
The moment the knight\'s voice rang out, Evan dashed towards Laurene who had already completed casting her magic. Although Evan did not have the same level of skill with the sword as the original owner of this body, his weapon control skill correction was there to help him.
Evan had also taken kendo and fencing lessons in his previous world for a period of almost 5 years, courtesy of his eccentric father.
Coupled with the movements ingrained into the body by its original owner, it was possible for him to fight suitably with the sword.
\'I have to continue the training that this body\'s owner started. Otherwise, my status effectiveness would drop.\'
He thought this as he dodged the lightning bolts that came towards his head, while still closing the distance between him and Laurene.
Then, it happened.
"Hah?!"
It was a yellow flash. Evan\'s eyebrows raised as he saw the flash of light heading toward his forehead. His senses instinctively recognized that Laurene\'s flash was extremely dangerous.
The flash wasn\'t just fast. If it hit Evan\'s body while it was in a defenceless state, the flash would have the power to wreak havoc on his body!
**KAKINNG!
Of course, Evan was a level 20, and deflecting the magic bullet of a mage less than half his level was easy, and that he did.
He used his sword to cleave the magic bullet into two pieces. The shine of his blade was beautiful as it split the flash of light apart.
However, the person who produced the scene was stiff. It was because the repulsive force transmitted through his palm was quite strong, despite the good amount of strength he used.
"Oi, this isn\'t the strength of someone with an Energy stat of F!"
"The staff\'s an artifact, triples the strength of magic fired with it."
That said, that was not the only problem.
\'Tsk...I was caught!\'
Despite the unpredictable nature of this attack, Laurene fired off another Magic Bullet straight away. The yellow flash of light emerged continuously like a comet, giving Evan no room to breathe. He worried about what the result of the attacks would be.
"-It is up to here!"
However, Evan would not be qualified as a member of the seven heroes if he was caught by an attack like this.
His sword moved at a fast speed, creating a storm, which aimed at the Magic Bullets approaching him.
This surprised the knights watching as they knew that although the young master was good at swordsmanship, he wasn\'t obviously up to this level.
That was true, even with Evan\'s Weapon control skill, it was impossible for him to be that good at using a sword.
His knowledge of weapon arts from his original world was also not enough for him to use such a high-level technique.,
This was only possible due to the memories of the previous hero he had gained as the previous hero was an expert swordsman and Evan had inherited all the knowledge of this expert swordsman.
Even if he couldn\'t display all the abilities due to lack of training and difference in strength, what he could use was already more than what a nine-year-old was supposed to be capable of.
Laurene realized what he was doing and decided to do the same, she accessed the memory of the previous hero who was a mage like her, looking for magic that she could cast, and she found.
"Lightning spear."