As soon as we got up we heard an announcement from the Chief of the village. The trial for the next village chief would be held at the [Crash site of Le Roi Soleil] and the trial taker would depart in the evening.

I was really curious about the crash site. Dorothy had said that I could find another talisman there.

I really wanted to go but I needed to do something to get stronger.

 

I have some skills I can't use like The greatest swordsmanship lv1 and Handcrafting lv1.

Maybe I can create a contract with Thorn and give him these skills.

 

On one of my special pages, I wrote the contract.

The conditions were that he had to help me go to the center of the crash site and help me find the first person I met.

Thorn signed and now we can communicate telepathically.

 

Thorn has only a fraction of my mana. That might seem too little but if he gets good skills he can be pretty strong.

I might also have something for Dorothy. I asked her a couple of questions using telepathy with Thorn.

From her answer, I got to know that pineapples were extinct in this world and that they were so precious because they could be used to control any aquatic creature, even the deadliest.

"Book-san" You are not gonna say you have a pineapple now? Are you?" said Dorothy.

Book-san: "No. I don't have a pineapple."

Two pineapples spawned on the table.

She was speechless.

Then we spent an hour trying to convince her to stop thanking me.

At the end she gave us some dishes made with pineapple that we could use for later.

 

Before leaving "Oak furnace" I left Dorothy a special page to communicate, I could see what she wrote on the page or write remotely.

 

We went to Rose and Thorn's home to prepare for the journey to the crash site.

As we got close to the house something came flying towards us.

"Woof, woof"

It was the siblings' dog, Spike. 

Rose: "Spike, you have evolved"

Thorn: "Good boy!"

They later explained that they found Spike in the forest. It looked almost like a dog but they weren't sure what it was.

Rose: "But he was so cute so we took care of him. He was too cute to be evil"

In the last days, they found that his mana had become chaotic. A sign of evolution.

They didn't bring Spike with them to the village because he could destroy the area around him during his evolution.

The place where it evolved had a huge hole charred ground and trees in a 20-meter area.

After the evolution, Spike could fly and change his body size.

He had lots of fun flying us around, then he brought us home.

Thorn: "Don't worry Spike, you can fly with us tomorrow"

 

The siblings ate, we relaxed and prepared for the journey to the crash site.

Thorn upgraded his sword with his skill Handcrafting and Rose prepared some herbs and medicines.

 

The following morning we departed. Flying was a lot faster than going on foot. We arrived in the afternoon. Spike wasn't very fast when turning but when following a straight line he could go amazingly fast.

He left us in the forest surrounding the crash site and hid in Rose's pocket.

 

After a few minutes of walking, we were speechless. I could see the unmovable fragments of Le Roi Solair in the ground, in the sky, everywhere.

And the fragments at the main crashing site were different, they were moving. Some of them slowly as a snail and some of them as fast as lightning. They were moving all in the same direction forming a current of azure metallic plates rotating around the starship. They formed a semisphere, a multi-layered rotating shield around the starship.

The number of plates was so high that we couldn't even see the ship.

Was there a pattern to enter the shield without being cut in half?

Now I get why nobody has ever reached the center.

Below the plates, there was a lake full of small islands and ferocious animals like high-level gators and above an inferno of razor-sharp lightning-fast plates.

 

As a large plate moved it revealed an army behind it. 500 people, elites, well equipped.

I was terrified. That army looked familiar. There was a person in a blue robe commanding them, the same person that burned the library where this story started. For what matters the library where I was born. Now I could look at their insignia. A sword and a mountain, the same insignia I saw when I was in the river.

 

The man in the blue robe looked in our direction.

Please don't recognize me. I don't even have the strength to flee.

He looked away. I was lucky. This expedition was far more dangerous than I expected. Maybe we should stop and go back?

What is an army doing here anyway? What is the blue-robed men doing here?

 

Other people kept arriving.

From Thorn and [Narrator], I could put together enough information to understand who they were.

First, there were people dressed in white, like the ones on the [Sun gazing mountain], they were the astronomers of the six kingdoms that could predict the start of the new war between demons and heroes.

The man in the blue robe was called the Archmage, lieutenant-general of the army of [Saint Ancestor Mountain], located in a kingdom with the same name, where the library was located.

The [Saint Ancestor Kingdom] was located on the western side of the continent. For reference, the dragonkin village is in the south, and the crash site where we are now is in the center.

 

More groups arrived after the astronomers. Each one was more shocking than the others. We saw a platoon of blue-robed mages, followed by 5 battalions with different insignias.

Each of the six kingdoms of this continent had sent delegates. What was the crash site so important to them?

Lots of adventurers were coming from the surrounding forests as we had done. Each one emanated an aura more menacing than the other.

People from many tribes and organizations, from different kingdoms, different races, and religions including the dragonkin tribe.

By overhearing them we learned that there were rumors that if you entered the crash site tomorrow you could acquire a talisman that could control the [Le Roi Solair] and move all the fragments at your will, basically, you would have an indestructible artillery unit.

Something that everyone would want.

To acquire it you had to pass six tests organized by the starship itself. But the fifth test could only be taken at certain times, like before a major war between the heroes and the demons.

 

A few minutes later we felt the earth shaking.

BOOM

A tree sprout turned into a tree and kept growing increasingly fast.

It stopped growing only after it was higher than the clouds.

Roots launched from the 50 meters wide trunk and started forming a structure: stalls on various floors connected by a staircase that brought to an elevated platform with a throne.

Behind the throne, on the ginormous trunk, a door appeared. From there five hundred treefolks come out. Some of them went to the stalls, some of them acted as guards and one of them sat on the throne.

The king spoke: "We treefolks are peaceful by nature. We have never asked for war and we won't do it today. We have come here for a chance like everybody else. We will trade equipment for our world-renowned medicines in the stalls below. We will trade with anyone except those that have attacked us in recent years.

The treefolks king, Groot said that last phrase while looking at the archmage.

The archmage scoffed: "Tree king, you don't have to do this. The war with the demons is almost here. We need to stand together. If you stand against us we will have to take measures for our protection."

Groot: "Stop this farce. If you were the least bit sincere we would not be here. The way you think is worrisome. If you keep thinking this way you will put the world at risk."

The archmage was about to respond when he was interrupted by someone shouting.

"What did you say about my head?" It was the odd-headed monk that I met below the waterfall.

"It's odd, so what?" shouted an adventurer with green armor.

"So you might have a problem with your eyes. Do you want me to hit you until it gets corrected"

The adventurer slashed his sword but it was stopped by the monk headbutt and the adventurer was thrown a few meters back. He crashed onto another adventurer.

The second adventurer was eating and his omelet sandwich fell to the ground so he and joined the fight, and then a third and a fourth and many more joined it.

There was so much dust from the fight that sometimes we could only hear what the fighters said. They started to fight for the stupidest reasons like:

"You stepped on my foot"

"Why are you looking at me?"

"You look like my uncle who had gifted me two candy on my last birthday. I am 30 goddamit"

"You mamma's fat"

 

They were fighting but smiling, clearly, they were enjoying it.

When the monk saw someone exaggerating he would attack them, in that way nobody was seriously injured.

 

But the archmage was furious: "Enough"

From his staff, he shot an indigo fire sphere of ten meters in diameter in the direction of the monk, If it hit it could turn dozens of people to ashes. How could he kill those people just because they interrupted him?

 

Luckily, the monk jumped in the air and slapped the sphere to the sky.

The sphere became a firework, exploding and illuminating the sky in a far different manner than the one expected from the archmage.

The archmage was shocked, everyone was shocked, everyone stopped fighting and turned to look at this monk who could receive an attack from the renowned archmage?

"I recognize him, I think he is called Hanzo, I saw him training below the [Regali waterfall]" said a random person.

Hanzo landed near Thorn, he was blown quite a distance away when he made the sphere change direction.

 

Everyone was looking in our direction.

Hanzo looked at me, somehow he recognized me: "What did you say about my..."

Is he gonna attack me too? What should I say?

"It's odd, but even if it's odd I think it's fine, It makes you unique!" said Thorn in my place.

"Yes, I think it's better this way" added Rose

Hanzo: "Hahahahah. Yes, indeed."

I got away with that -_-

 

Fortunately, everyone thought Hanzo was speaking to Thorn.

But we were getting too much attention. We needed to go home right now. We could not rely on luck forever.

However, before we took any action. 

 

"My, my, dear Hanzo, it looks like you have caused quite the commotion, why don't we take a bath together to... relax"

A [coral submarine] emerged from the water. Even more mesmerizing and luxurious than the one I saw on my trip under the sea.

From there fifty mermaids emerged, in this world mermaids could change thair taint into human legs and could look almost like a human, but with fairer skin.

I recognized one of them, she was standing next to the mermaid that spoke to Hanzo, it was the [happy mermain] I saw on my underwater trip.

But right now narrator told me she was a [surprised mermaid], she was looking straight at me.

 

Hanzo smiled: "Miss Athena, I'm glad to see you. It would be great if you could let me bathe in the [Blue spring] again"

Miss Athena ad the now [curious mermaid] got closed to Hanzo and us: "Well, well. If you behave well I might let you enter. Anyway, who is this boy, my knight Jein seems interested in him?"

Hanzo: "He is... a friend!"

Athena got closer, Thorn could see her flawless face at just a few centimeters from his: "A friend, huh?" She sniffed: "He smells nice."

"Jein, came here and confirm it for me, does he smell nice?"

Jein: "eh, no, that's..."

Athena: "Come, don't be shy"

Jein: "Then please excuse me"

She came very close to Thorn and she looked at him in the eyes, but she was too shy so she looked lower, at me, but she was too shy so she looked at the ground.

Sniff, Sniff.

"Uhm" she nodded.

Then she shot back to the side of her master. 

 

After that Thorn's name become known and that evening Hanzo invited us to the party organized by King Groot.

There was a huge banquet. , there were also the mermaids and a few other adventurers.

There 

 

There was also a much bigger party, one organized by the archmage.

Hanzo said: "Even if on the surface they seem to be accepting everybody they want only the six kingdoms to be the winner of the war. They would prefer for all the other races, states, and non-human to perish. But don't mind them. Their party might be bigger but ours is more fun."

Then he jumped on the table and told some funny stories and his adventures and even made some Chinese hand shadows that the treefolks liked a lot for some reason. 

During the party we talked with Jein: "So you really were the page I saw that day. I recognized you because you smelled of our sea. Although I can't understand what the other good smell is."

She then gave us a pendant that could form a protective shield one time before being destroyed.

The treefolks also recognized my existence. They said they noticed I had life mana. A kind of mana useful for curing injuries and diseases. Then they gave us some of their medicines.

Hanzo, Jein, and Athena, and the treefolks understood we wanted to be discrete about my existence, so they didn't let the word spread.

I gave a special page for communication to Hanzo, Jein, and the treefolks.

Later that evening Hanzo taught Thorn about martial arts while Rose and Jein conversed.

 

The party proceeded well, we ate a lot, even Spike ate secretly a lot, we had fun and we slept comfortably. It was the most comfortable sleep Thorn and Rose had in a while.

 

We almost forgot what was gonna happen the following morning.

We were woken up by trumpets.

"The fifth test has opened. We can see [Le Roi Solair]" said a random person.

 

It wasn't possible to see the starship because of all the plates in the way but now you could see a hint of golden at the center of the crash site.

Hanzo wanted to get the starship to take back the golden ruler, stolen by the demons.

Jein and the other mermaids needed it to fight against the death tide which was somehow expanding.

Thomas and the dragonkin wanted to pass more tests than their peers to become the next village chief.

The six kingdom alliance wanted the power to dominate the battlefield.

Everyone had a reason for wanting [Le Roi Solaire] and everyone had a different plan.

 

The first test consisted of traversing a 500m long layer of plates.

If you were to go hopping from island to island you would have to face the few but stong animals and the hazardous flora on top of the fast-moving plates.

If you went underwater you would have to face high-level animals but there were a lot less moving plates.

 

My party consisted of: me Thorn, Rose, and Spike. Moving with a larger party would be more difficult. What will my plan be?