A Dual Crest Summoner In Infinite Summoning World

"He said it. There is nothing we can do here," Hanzo said.

"Why did he even do this? It makes no sense!" Granny said, irritated with the conclusion of the whole ordeal.

Both Sable and Hanzo remained silent, looking back at Auren. They were back at Auren's front yard. All the way here, Sable and Hanzo kept talking about how to prevent Auren from going—Auren himself had already accepted his fate.

Sable said at last, "Because my son is something of a fool, it seems.. A brave one, but a fool nonetheless."

"You shouldn't have talked back to the Baron, Auren," Hanzo also joined in.

"Boy.." Granny said like a sigh, finally understanding what might have happened.

"Fool.." Kenzo said from the side, acting like his second grandma.

Auren looked at the five people present, then looked away towards the green forest in the distance.

"There is no bow low enough to spare us from a noble's wounded pride," he said.

Auren prepared himself mentally for the coming challenge. This danger of the hunt was nothing compared to the danger of the Baron-lord coming for them through the raid. Auren had no faith in their own Baron to win at all—the guy would probably even choose to lose if it benefited him. Rootfast was far from the border of the two Barons' territories, but if the Baron-lord chose this place as the battlefield for the raid, none of them could do anything at all.

Only Dante could at least do something about it. But with barely a couple hundred villagers turned soldiers, they wouldn't stand a chance. If Dante could somehow convince the Baron that they could win.. maybe they could do this, assuming Dante can win against the Baron-lord.

"The world is not as simple as stories, Auren. Good people don't always win here. Sometimes one has to know what they can and cannot do," Sable said.

Auren simply nodded.

It was true, he knew it to be. He knew it was his own personality at fault—he said things openly because fear of his own self was not something he felt as much anymore. If he did so, the truck would have never hit him. But it wasn't just him whom this life belonged to anymore. Sable, Dante, Granny, and even Theren—if something happened to him, they too would be left with a hole in their heart.

He knew it all—he should not do risky things. But knowing it and consciously believing it were two different things. How does one train their instinct to obey wisdom, when the fear of self has long since gone silent?

"What can we do now?" Granny asked, probably trying to change the topic on purpose.

"There is no refusing Lord Cedric," Kenzo's mother said.

"We don't have to," Hanzo said. Find the translation on MV&LEMPYR.

All eyes focused on him. He continued, "The hunt is not small by any chance. There are good, famed knights with us. Lord Cedric is more than capable of handling the basilisk alone, so is Earl Braegor. Besides, I myself will be there, and Auren is much more skilled than we realize. We are not going to join the hunt, but if it's just survival that's our aim—we can do it."

"Yes, Sable, Grandma—Hanzo is right," Auren said, looking at Sable and Granny. "There is a threat, no doubt. But it isn't as big as we make it out to be. Lord Cedric said he will show me how men fight—it would be useless if he didn't care for my wellbeing."

The basilisk was actually never the threat. It was the Baron-lord Wallace Thornfield who would make this a challenging endeavor. But with the Earl there, he probably wouldn't risk it. There could be subtle plots involved though—to hurt Auren in the middle of the fight or at night, etc. They were just going to stay one night in the forest though, so he and Hanzo just needed to stay alert for one full day, and this will be behind them.

Auren knew better than to say it out loud though. Probably everyone already suspected something could go wrong; just no one wanted to put it into words.

"I hope so," Sable said. "We will have to do everything possible for your safety—I will go and ask Elder Tamun for some armor, maybe there is something you can use despite your size."

Auren nodded, "He should have an armor. I had it made when Dante left."

"You already had it made?" Granny said in a not-so-amused tone. "You already expected things to go bad?"

"Nobles were coming—of course things were going to go wrong," Auren replied and turned back without hearing any replies.

There was one more thing he wanted to do if he was to enter the forest for the first time. Auren took his black sword and sat down in his house with his spare clothes in hand. Neither the sword nor the bracer he could take with him—but he would never leave the house without them either. If he kept a very thin layer of the black particles and made it extremely flexible like spandex, he could wear it inside his clothes.

So what if he couldn't cover his armor—this was actually much more efficient. It restricted no movement at all. The flexibility did grant the black material the same level of structural strength as his sword. Nothing he and Dante had managed to find would go through it. But there was a major flaw in this thin, flexible black particle shape—the piercing and cutting attacks could be blocked completely, but the force they came with left bruises behind.

If a really powerful blunt damage attack landed, the black spandex might survive, but his organs wouldn't. Even the solid state also had a lot of force behind it when it blocked powerful attacks, but Auren had noticed with solid shapes that the thicker it was—the more black particles he used—the lesser the impact was. He barely had enough particles to make a full normal sword, that was too much.

For now, this will do.