The Supreme Hero’s Younger Brother

Much to Ludric's dismay, Rye and Ash became good friends. Ash even forgot about his duel challenge and successfully gave Rye a free tour in the end.

From there, Rye found that Vintrigal's technology was world different than dwarven technology. Dwarven tools were still dependent on magic-based material, Vintrigal was completely reliant on machines and science. Dwarven crafted tools, weapons, and items with mages and magic-users as the target consumer while Vintrigal's products could be used by anyone with zero mana requirement.

They also have land transportations that didn't require any beasts, animals, or magic to move them. But because the size would cluster the city road, they were only allowed to be used to travel outside the city walls.

Anti-gravity technology was still uncommon because of its difficult manufacturing process, so only the heroes owned the flying surfboard which they called the Air Board.

Once they reached Ortiel, Rye was completely hooked with Ash.

"Boss, are you really going to follow them?" Marissa asked in disbelief.

Desmund interjected, "No, we haven't agreed to that ye–"

"Yes, I am. I shall leave the safety of Vintrigal to both of you." Ash unhesitantly said.

"Listen to what people are saying!" Desmund almost yelled in irritation.

"You don't even know what our mission is." Lilith added.

"And if you want to tag along, you must listen to Ludric." Rosetta also chimed in.

Aerindel and Freanor looked at each other. Should they say something too?

"Nonsense!" Ash flicked back his black wavy hair, "What else could your mission be except for paying the demon lord a visit? Are you going to prioritize your absurd ego over an additional helping hand? My hero heritage means I am capable of slaying demons even without your magic tricks."

"Ma-Magic tricks…!?" Rosetta was offended, "Magic is far more superior than your little trinkets. It is a gift from god!"

"Magic is more superior than science. In the right hand that is," Ash encircled Rye's shoulders, "Like him. Yet, it is wasted in the hands of yours that trade its limitless possibility with automatic convenience without fully understanding the principle behind it. Magic is the transcendence of science yet you do not appreciate its ancestor."

"All of you, stop fighting," Aerindel stepped in between before Rosetta blew up, "It doesn't matter which is more powerful. We're going to need as much help as possible to defeat the demon lord. Although there're seven of us, Rye doesn't have a hero heritage and I only have my light attribute to help. My sister won't follow us to the demon territory. Isn't it better to have another hero as a member to help?"

"Aerindel is right," Ludric agreed, "I asked you to duel with Lilith to see if you have the ability, but it doesn't matter anymore. You were able to defeat 12 demon wyverns with just the three of you in a short amount of time and that's enough," he turned to Rock and Marissa, "I also don't mind if the two of you want to follow your leader. We can use the three of you as scouts since you can fly."

"I do not mind such a task." Ash easily accepted.

Rock and Marissa looked at each other and sighed.

"Then, you guys go ahead first. We need to arrange things with the public safety and military here. We also need to inform our king about our departure. We'll catch up later." Marissa stated and left with Rock.

"Hey, shouldn't you be the one to do that?" Desmund asked incredulously.

"They have difficulties in comprehending my words, so I always leave it up to my trusty companions." Ash didn't feel embarrassed in the slightest.

Ludric turned to Rosetta, "Pick up our ride, Rosetta."

Rosetta nodded and teleported to their inn. 2 minutes later, she returned with the four raptors.

She looked at Ash smugly, "Can your trinket do that?"

"No, we have not yet developed the technology for teleportation yet," Ash honestly stated, "But we have gates from one point to another."

"The problem is the accuracy of the point coordination, right?" Rye understood, "Without anything as a point of transfer, we can't calculate an accurate, ever-changing transfer point to establish the link. The permanent connection between gates solves that problem."

Ash nodded, "We also have the problem of transferring organic objects. The cells always got destroyed in the process."

"You also understand biology?"

"And chemistry of course. How can I build something environmentally friendly without learning it? I have a proper doctor certificate."

Rye's admiration towards Ash rose a few more bars.

He's so cool!

Everyone, "…"

How can someone who can't teleport look cooler in your eyes than someone who actually can!?

"…Let's go, Rye," Aerindel pulled Rye away and asked Ash, "Do you need a ride or are you following with your Air Board?"

Ash summoned out his Air Board, "Certainly, I will use my own. As Sir Ludric said, I shall scout the route for you."

Ash flew away in a flash.

Rye was about to climb up the Raptor when Ludric stopped him.

"Why don't you ride with me, Rye? Aerindel can be with his sister then."

Rye thought about it for a few seconds and nodded. Though he still felt a bit strange to be proper brothers with Ludric, he was willing to put in an effort. Ludric was trying his best after all.

Because they have rested for a full day, they decided to not stop their journey at night. Their destination was Torihigen's border town. Fortunately for them, Ortiel sold Torihigen's map.

But when they arrived at where the town should be, there was nothing on the desert land. There was only Ash waiting for them.

"The town is gone." Ash stated.

"What do you mean by gone?" Ludric asked.

"With my device, I found its ruins underground. It has been buried for at least a month," Ash read the data in his device, "Organic materials are found. They should be the corpses of its residents."

"Do you know the cause?"

Ash enlarged his screen to show the data to them, "Well, I invite you all to guess."

All of them looked at the screen filled with numbers and pictures they didn't get which was what and what was which.

Rye fixed his glasses, "Ash…is this a live data or is it just what you retrieve earlier?"

"It is live data, my dear." Ash suddenly flew up.

Rye also quickly jumped off of the Raptor and flew up.

Everyone, "?"

The rest of them didn't understand until Rye cast the flying spell on them along with the Raptors and threw them off the ground. Right at that moment, 2 huge pillars shot out from the ground from where they were, reaching almost 200 meters to the sky.

Rye brought everyone to a safe distance. The pillars stopped their motion and turned their head which was previously facing the sky to them.

"What in the hell are those!?" Desmund yelled in shock.

"Desert worms," 5 guns formed around Ash in star point, "Be careful of their spikes."

Just as he said that, spikes appeared at the surface of the red worms' skin and discharged towards the whole area around it.

Desmund timely cast a thick barrier sphering all of them and managed to block the attack.

"It needs 30 seconds interval to generate a round of spikes. We shall attack before that." Ash dashed out of the barrier and started shooting the worms down.

"My mana can only last for 8 minutes holding all of you," Rye informed, "You should hurry."

Everybody promptly moved to attack. They focused their attack on one worm first.

Its skin was very thick. With their consecutive attacks, they couldn't penetrate deep enough to reach its vitals.

"25 seconds!" Rye warned and pulled them back with Desmund as the gathering point.

Ash also followed them. Desmund cast the barrier once Ash entered his range. Rye also made his own barrier to cover him and Freanor from the other worm.

"How do we kill it?" Ludric asked Ash.

"First and foremost, do not cut it into two or more pieces. All parts will regenerate and hence they will multiply. Its heart shaped like a marble stone which glowed violet with each pulse. If we break its skin enough, we will be able to see it," Ash raised his device, "I am also scanning it in the process. I will inform you once I discover it."

Once the attack ended, they all went to offense again. Ludric focused his attack using fire magic on its head while Rosetta created ice blades to slash its lower body like a blizzard. Aerindel assisted Ludric with light magic and Lilith worked together with Ash using her exploding arrows to thin down the upper body so that Ash's device could scan through it. Desmund focused on defense to save his mana since he needed to make thick barriers every 30 seconds.