When we entered the old mineshaft, it was as I expected it to be; cold, damp and very dark.

But I will admit, the atmosphere was quite pleasing despite being cold.

"Hey, does anyone have a stick or lantern of some sort?" I asked out to my group as Lars leapt ahead of everyone else.

Lars' growls filled out the narrow cavern as he pulled something out of the rubble and walked over towards me and sat down in front of me.

"What's this, Lars?" I asked the bicoloured wolf as he dropped a long, wooden staff with a few cracks on it.

An idea popped into my head.

"Louis, do you have any cloth I can use?" I asked the eastern priest as a look of confusion appeared on his face.

"Hm? Is there a reason for the request, Thomas?" my religious companion asked as I made a gesture with my fingers.

"Yeah. I'm planning to make a torch for a light and heat source." I answered him as the gears in his head started turning as he grabbed a roll from his satchel and tossed it over to me.

"Thanks for that," I told him as began wrapping the top of the wooden staff with the roll of cloth and tied it at the bottom.

Okay, now I need an accelerant of some sort.

As I stood up, I felt something cold and hard wack me in my forehead.

I looked at what wacked me, only to see a lantern with a crack in the glass.

First off, how the FUCK did I not see that in front of me.

And second, could there be any oil in that lantern?

I placed my stick down and summoned Krishna and spun it around, so the main blade is pointing downwards.

I brought the end tip of Krishna to the damaged lanterns handle, pushing the shaft upwards into the handle of the lantern smoothly.

…Keep it together, Thomas. You are a mature adult tasked with saving the world after a being whacked in the head.

I shook my head as I lowered the damaged lantern to the ground and dematerialised Krishna from my hands and picked up my prize.

I ran my gloved thumb over the cracked glass, feeling the shallow cuts along with the fragile material before bringing up the fuel tank up to my ear and giving it a light shake.

The light sloshing of a liquid, most likely oil, confirmed that the damaged lantern had some leftover oil for my personal usage.

I then unscrewed the cap and poured the remaining oil into the cloth-covered stick.

Damaged lantern in hand, Krishna appeared into my hand as I placed the metal contraption near the ruby gem, causing the rusted lantern to liquidate.

[Lantern Spear. New passive skill unlocked, light flash]

Hmm, 'light flash', eh.

I went into my skill menu and selected my new skill.

[Light Flash. Allows the user to illuminate the room through their vision for a short duration. Only the cardinal heroes can utilise this skill]

Hm, so only Amaki, Kawasumi, Iwatani and I can utilise this skill.

It reminds me of character-specific skills like Freikugel and Stinger from a game I played a few years back.

Even though I enjoyed that game, I still believe that its massive popularity, while earned, is somewhat bloated.

I got up and placed Krishna onto my back once more, grabbed the stick off the ground and grabbed my zippo lighter.

When I flipped open the hinged cap of my favourite lighter and flicked the roulette, an orange flame sparked into existence as I brought the flame to the oil-drenched rag, watching as the flame envelops the rag.

With a flick of the finger, the hinged cap closed, extinguishing the flame while letting out a satisfying click echoing in the mineshaft.

"Ok, got the light source going now," I called out to my group while I heard Louis and Melia letting nodding their heads while Lars let out a yelp and danced around my boots.

Smiles were plastered onto our faces as we watched the small bicoloured ball of excitement ran around.

Louis, Melia, Lars, and I continued following the rail tracks with the warmth of the torch accompanying us.

-Time Skip-

After walking through the damp and cramped tunnel, we finally made it to an open area with various crystals jutting outwards with a waterfall nearby with a stream flowing towards a hole in the rock.

Quite picture worthy if I do say myself.

I felt Krishna shifting into its pickaxe form while I grabbed the other pickaxe and walked over towards a minecart.

Said minecart was mostly made of metal and had a bit of rust on the corners and had various parts chipped, but still looked useable.

I then pushed the minecart on the track for a bit to see if the wheels still worked, which they did.

Hmm, less work to carry back up to the house.

"Alright! When you are finished collecting the ores that we are looking for, put the materials into this minecart. When we're done, we can return back to the house." I informed my teammates while poking the pickaxe onto the minecart.

I then discussed with Louis and Melia where I should send them.

Louis suggested that he can work near the river stream as he had experience working near streams and said the stream was near the minecart.

Melia opted to work near me as it was both to the minecart and she can still talk to me if she wanted to.

Lars, on the other hand, will stay with me as he feels quite comfortable around me.

With that settled, the three of us went off to our designated areas.

As I went to my neck of the woods with Lars at my heels, I hefted up my pickaxe, so it rested on my shoulder and went to a large spike of greyish-silver surrounded by a rock formation.

So, this must be an iron deposit then. Or is it that magical-compatible ore Louis mentioned to me.

Tch, who cares. Whatever the material is, it can be forged into a decent set of armour.

I then hefted up the pickaxe and swung towards the rock formation, chipping the rock, and exposing the greyish-silver crystal that laid beneath.

A smirk made its way onto my face as I repeated the motion with the pickaxe, aiming for the rocks that surrounded my prize.

"Excuse me, Thomas?" I heard Melia's soft voice reached to my ears as I swung the pickaxe once more.

"Yeah. What is it, Melia?" I answered back as I kept working, knowing Melia is doing the same thing.

I think that's the reason why I like both Melia and Louis are that they are both hard-working, and quite easy to have conversations with.

But then again, in this world, the only people I've spoken with where the other heroes, Ciela, and Shiki.

"I do know you had briefly talked about your family in that inn. Do you mind if you tell me more?" the violet-haired woman asked me as I gave a shrug.

"Only if you tell me about yours, Melia," I replied back as I kneeled down to the greyish-silver crystal, took a firm grip around the crystal, and gave a hard tug.

Bada-Bing, Bada-Boom, one new crystal added to the collection.

I then placed the crystal into a corner with the bicoloured wolf prancing over, bending his head over to the crystal and taking a small sniff of it.

I shook my head before returning to the task at hand.

"That is a fair arrangement, Thomas." The violet-haired woman stated as I went to the next task.

Hmm, what can I tell her…

Maybe some general information about my parents.

"Well, My father's name is Matthias Anders and he was born on the 23rd of July 1977 in a small town in Ireland. He is considered an average man despite the number of brawls he got into in his mid-to-late teens. I think he also met my mother in the aftermath of one such brawl." I told the tribe woman as she let out a hum.

"As for my mother, her name is Hikaru Kotomine and she was born on the 28th of December 1977 as the youngest sibling to a roman-catholic family in the Kansai region of Japan. I also think that my mother is the most normal in her family despite her obsession for spicy foods, as her older brother is a sadomasochist and her father has an odd obsession with ginger ale." I continued on.

I never got my grandfather's obsession with ginger ale other than being introduced to it by an American soldier who was in Japan for a holiday.

But whatever.

"Melia, your turn," I stated to the violet-haired woman as she let out a hum.

"Alright then. I will start with my father. His name is Fafnir logos and he is the tribe leader and is the oldest sibling out of seven other half-siblings. When he came of age, he had to fight his other siblings and his father for a rightful place as heir to the tribe. And during his journey, my father has met three women that would become his wives in the future." Melia started off as the both of us continued with the task at hand.

Holy shit, I guess folks from the Logos tribe need to get a better hobby.

I dismissed that thought before returning to the task at hand as the spellcaster continued on.

"As for my mother, she was a witch from the marshlands outside of Melromarc, and her name is Athena. While she does love me and my father, she is mostly distant towards the both of us, including my brother and sister." Melia admitted as we continued with our work.

-TimeSkip-

Some time has passed and all three of us had managed to gather quite a bit of material from the mine and it was placed into the minecart.

"Well, that was fun," I remarked as I crouched to the level of the bicoloured wolf and begun scratching behind his hear, causing Lars to make a pleasurable noise before headbutting my hand.

When he gets stronger, hopefully, he can become more useful outside of moving shit around and being really adorable.

I then outstretched my hands, interlocking my fingers and pushed my fingers outwards, with a crack echoing throughout the mineshaft.

"Alright! We're heading back to the cabin." I called out as I pushed the cart alongside the tracks with Louis in front of the minecart, holding the torch, Melia by my side and Lars by my heel.

Lars is quite adorable if I do say myself.

While pushing the minecart back to the entrance, my thoughts lingered to the woman Louis and I buried earlier.

From what I can remember, the victim was a woman in her late teens to early 20s, and that the cause of death was fatal stabbing by either a longsword or a knife.

But, what troubled me was the fact that the deceased woman was already in a state of decomposing, there wasn't a smell of rotting flesh in the air.

And believe me, the smell of rotting flesh is unmistakable, even to someone not in the field I was studying back in Ireland.

But that begs the question, who would commit such a crime and not attempt to hide the body, but that could be immediately answered by the fact the victim was left in an abandoned house on the other side of the woods.

But what was the most surprising was the fact there weren't any signs of rabid animals getting into the house and getting to the deceased woman, which is rather strange for a body being abandoned in a nice house in the middle of nowhere.

Very strange indeed.

I need to focus on the task at hand, but once I'm done sorting out the crystals, I'll grab a journal and write down my thoughts and other shit.

When we finally reached the entrance of the mineshaft, I let out a breath as the eastern priest came over to me.

"Thomas, should I put this out?" he asked, gesturing to the torch he was holding.

Hmm, I just can't let the fire go to waste, but what can I utilise the torch for.

A faint pulse of power from Krishna answered that question.

"Does little Krishna want more power?" I remarked to my weapon, only to be responded by another pulse from said weapon.

Has Krishna developed a conscious or something?

Who the hell knows, this is a fantasy world, after all.

"Hand it over to me, Louis. I think Krishna wants a snack." I told my eastern partner.

Louis then let out a grin as he handed me the lit torch, I then summoned Krishna into my other hand with a snap of my fingers.

Still can't figure out how Krishna works, but that's another mystery for another day.

When I moved the lit torch towards the holy weapon, it dissolved into red pixels, causing Krishna to morph into a black spear with several orange vein-like cracks all over the shaft and an orange crystal-like spike poking out of the butt of the spear.

[Ember Spear- +2 to fire resistance. New skill unlocked, Crimson Cutter.]

"Woah." Was all that left my mouth as I stared at the new form of Krishna.

This looks awesome if I do say myself.

It also reminds me of the Sharpened Volcano Fragment from Team Fortress 2.

This world is definitely like Final Fantasy Explorers.

"Krishna, shift," I commanded, causing my weapon to revert back to its original form.

I'll probably practice with the 'Ember Spear' later on tonight or early tomorrow.

"Louis, Melia, we'll move all the ores into the house and sort them out, and after that, we'll clean us the house for our personal usage," I announced, causing my party members to nod.

As we began moving the ores into the house, a smile made its way onto my face.

With the help of Louis, Melia, and Lars, we'll help save the world.

-PovSwitch-

While the spearman, the priest and the spellcaster moved the ores from the minecart to the former noble house, a black-cladded humanoid stood onto a tree nearby, close enough to listen to the trio, but far away not to be noticed.

Ciela let out a hum as she wrote into a journal about what she was seeing, she let out a hum.

"it seems that the Spear Hero has gotten stronger, alongside the Logos heiress and the Kaine warrior." Ciela mused as she placed her journal away and unsheathed her knife and spun it around her fingers.

"The Logos heiress also called the Spear Hero a beast-master, a title gained by the previous Spear Hero; Sétanta. And from what his majesty has told me, Sétanta is considered the best fighter despite rejecting all the kingdoms and siding with the Logos clan." She muttered as she stood up and sheathed her knife.

She sent one last look to the brunet spearman before busting into crows, leaving only black feathers to fall from the tree.

A/N:

And that concludes my 9th chapter of Dragoon Hero.

Sorry for not uploading in 5 months, but I've been busy with my personal life and Covis-19 just being the worst.

As you can see, Thomas and his party went through the mines and gained some raw materials, Thomas gaining the 'Ember Spear', Thomas and Melia having a heart-to-heart about their parents, and Ciela keeping an eye out for Thomas.

Also, should I do a profile for Thomas?

Also, if you want to do omakes, feel free to do so.

Now then, see ya when I do chapter 10.

Chao