Notice: Chapter 3 has been partially edited, if you want to you can go back and read it.


It had been only one day since Cecile and Lincoln became adventurers, but they still made the most of their time by doing as many quests as possible. Currently they were heading back to town after finishing the quest of "Subjugating 4 Goblins".

"Being an F-Rank is so boring," Cecile said

F-Rank and even E-Rank quests weren't much in terms of combat. It was mostly resource collecting and maybe killing 1-4 low level monsters.

"Think of it as experience, you can't expect to just jump to S-Rank," Lincoln reminded

Cecile shrugged as they made their way back to the guild to hand in their quests. Marigold kindly greeted them and took their quests sheets and items.

"Haven't you guys found any armor to wear?" Marigold asked

"To be honest we haven't exactly thought about armor," Lincoln admitted

"Well a blacksmith had been looking for two kids with white hair, you seem to fit that description," Marigold said

Marigold had told them that buying armor would be a wise choice. They would need to be prepared for today's event. They would be left behind if they didn't hurry up.

"The Blacksmith Reiner, his shop is in the Metalworks District," Cecile had repeated

A shop fitting the description had come into view and the two kids peeked inside. A short man with goggles stood above an anvil, pounding away at metal. The bell above the door chimed as they entered.

"Ah, customers. Welcome," he greeted as he removed his goggles

Getting a better look at the two he realized it was the children he saw at the guild. He was fortunate enough to see them in action while delivering weapons. He explained that people with such potential shouldn't be running around in rags.

"I actually have two armor sets prepared. They were originally meant for two others but unfortunately they died in a dungeon before I could finish them," Gars explained

He fetched them and gave them to Lincoln and Cecile. Before even putting them on they could tell the armor was too large.

"Don't worry about the size, those pieces have a magic that auto adjust to the users size," he explained

Taking his word, one by one they changed in the backroom. When they came out they were fully equipped. Cecile wore Dress Armor which was as it sounded, a small dress with a steel corset on the chest. Along with that was Paraclaw Cat Gauntlets that replaced the old gloves Lincoln bought, she still kept them though. Finally was Poison Wyvern Boots, leather boots imbued with Poison Wyvern parts.

"Wow, it really does fit perfectly. It flows so well too," she said

Gars smiled, the armor wasn't too special but Cecile could tell it was strong. Looking at every piece her eyes gave her a complete description of everything. The materials used to create everything made these especially worth it.

"What do you think Lincoln?" Cecile asked

"It looks really good on you," he said

"You look great too," Cecile admired

Since the armor was made in a pair Lincoln had worn an outfit similar to Cecile's, defensive but easy to move in. A light steel chestplate with trousers made of animal hide. Leather gauntlets were on his hands and a leather belt with a sword holster around his waist. He also had a hood attached to the top of the armor.

"These are perfect, how much?" Lincoln asked

"Free of charge, but if you want stronger equipment in the future you can pay with gold or high rank monster parts," he said

"I also couldn't help but notice your sword and scabbard. Where did you get them?" Reiner asked

Lincoln decided on what he should tell him. Excluding his sister's situation, he explained that in his old town he stumbled across a cave and found her. He trained for a while and went on to fight the Broodmother to gain her scabbard.

"I can tell it's very powerful, the God of Chaos must've taken a liking to you," Reiner said

"God of Chaos?" Cecile asked

"Yep, throughout time the God of Chaos has supplied this world with dungeons and monsters," Reiner said

The God of Chaos was ironically the one to balance out the power between deities and humans. When dungeons first appeared, humans would explore them and find great treasure. Soon their way of life seemed to revolve around dungeon raiding and trying to get the best loot from them.

"Dungeons only have loot on par with it's difficulty. The God of Chaos only wanted those who were strong enough to complete the dungeon to claim it's riches," Reiner explained

"Good to know, I still think I got lucky," Lincoln said

"Buck up lad, don't think of it like that. I'm sure that you deserved it," Reiner said

With that vote of confidence they set off back to the guild, if they were early they didn't mind waiting. To be honest they were excited to see what kind of event would take place. When they made their way there they were surprised to see the amount of people waiting outside. It's true the hall was always full but this was a bit much, it seemed like everyone was waiting for something or someone.

"Do we wait here or-?" Lincoln asked before being interrupted

"He's here! It's Captain Dracovidge of the White Dragon Guild," a random woman screamed

Directing their attention to where the voice came from they saw a squadron of knights riding white horses that wore armor. Every knight had their helmet on except for the one in front. He was the center of attention, with blonde hair and stunning looks, every woman fawned over him: Captain Dracovidge.

"Wonder what he's doing here," Cecile said unphased by his looks

"Ladies and Gentlemen, you all must have heard of the extravagant event that will undoubtedly be the best moments of your lives, a chance to prove yourself to us and join the White Dragons," he said with flamboyance

A cheered roared through the crowd, Lincoln was sure he had heard the name of that guild somewhere before, the strongest of the strong wanted to join this guild. It provided great opportunities and benefits for not only the adventurers but for their families as well. This is the first time they were recruiting in three years.

"I don't know if I like this guy, he seems a bit… dense," Cecile said

"Well we don't have to join, we can just take advantage of the free ranks," Lincoln said

They heard laughter from people behind them, a group of "veteran" adventurers. They wore decent armor and their stats weren't all that bad, according to Cecile's Index. Lincoln decided to ignore them but hell hath no fury. The largest one laid a hand on Lincoln's shoulder and Lincoln struggled to not reach for Leni and cut it off.

"Listen kid, if you're not even gonna try how about dropping out now. Not like you'll make it past the first round anyway," the man laughed

Lincoln controlled his temper but Cecile wasn't so kind. She pulled back her fist and in seconds the man twice her size slid across the ground and was knocked unconscious. His partners went to go tend to him and Cecile lowered her fists and turned around.

"Y'know, you didn't have to hit him," Lincoln said

"Yeah I did, you wouldn't understand," she said

Leaving it at that they looked back to Dracovidge who was somehow still talking. The gist of what he was saying was that, there would be a training/evaluation program to see any possible contenders. After that would be a tournament of sorts to pick out the cream of the crop.

"You will report to this location in Mirum, if you are late you will be exempt from the test," he explained

Those words sparked a large chain reaction of people rushing to Mirum. It wasn't too far away but people were worried about this kind of thing.

"Guess we should get going too," Lincoln advised

"I wonder what's going to happen. I'm kinda excited," Cecile admitted


One by one the contenders made their way to the training ground. There was nothing for arriving first besides bragging rights… and that wasn't worth much. The first person to arrive was an assassin followed by numerous sword fighters, brawlers, beastmen, and much more. Lincoln and Cecile followed behind, as long as they weren't late it didn't matter.

"Well, well, we have an interesting ensemble of people here," an advisor said

They wore a hooded cloak that covered all of their face except for their mouth. After a quick head count there were told to be twenty-seven people in total, three having dropped out. As the advisor spoke with his associates, the contenders took the time to get acquainted.

A woman with brown hair that wore a cloak and witch hat came over to Lincoln and Cecile. A man wearing armor and wielding a sword followed close behind.

"You kids are pretty young, but I saw what you did earlier. You both must be very strong," she said

"Of course, we wouldn't have made it this far without being strong," Cecile bragged

"Well it's nice to meet you, my name's Ellie and this is my brother Zayn" she introduced

"I'm Lincoln and this is Cecile, my girlfriend," he said

While it was true, Cecile still seemed a bit embarrassed by Lincoln's straightforwardness. Ellie giggled a bit.

"I'm glad you told me, if I didn't know any better I'd think you two were siblings," she admitted

Lincoln gave a weak chuckle as they said goodbye. Cecile looked over at Lincoln, he didn't show that what she said affected him but she could feel it. Before she could say anything though it was time to start.

"To gauge your physical strength, you'll each do your best to clear a dungeon," he said

He said that the people who came in duos could attend as a pair. While the solos complained, they were silenced when the head advisor prepped a destructive spell. He told them, there were no written rules about not bringing a partner or two. With that, the first person was up.

"Now this dungeon isn't too challenging, just don't destroy the dungeon core or wander off course," he warned

Solos and duos cleared the dungeons at pretty fast speeds. To be allowed to exit you had to defeat at least thirty monsters though. Finally it was Lincoln and Cecile's turn.

"Good Luck," Ellie and Zayn said

The dungeon consisted of skeletons of all shapes and sizes. Some wore armor and wielded crude weapons while others fought bare handed… boned. Their bones were brittle and easy to deal with, it begged the question on what the dungeon boss was. A necromancer? A skeletal lord? While that peaked their interest they decided against investigating, the consequences of going against the instructors seemed pretty dire.

"I'm so hungry, I should've eaten more earlier" Cecile said as she finished off a skeleton

"We'll be out soon, just don't do anything too rash," Lincoln said

He was a little late with his warning as Cecile had made the executive decision to make a snack out of the skeleton bones. They snapped under the power of her teeth and made a sickly crunching noise with each bite. It was at this moment that Lincoln wondered if she was actually a human. Wrapping up their mission they walked out through a man made exit, the only other one being opened after the dungeon was completed. Soon everyone had stood outside waiting for their next instructions.

"Well done, you all show promise. Now onto the next segment, a scavenger hunt of sorts," one instructor said

While it was a scavenger hunt, it wasn't like a normal one. There were three collectibles, red flags, black flags, and one golden flag. Each flag was worth a certain amount of points and were found in different ranks of monsters. Red were easiest to acquire, worth one point, black flags were a little tougher, worth ten. The one golden flag was worth two-hundred points, but the monster it resided in was A-Rank.

"Now you may feel like you can but we highly advise you to not fight it, we are in no way responsible if you decide to throw away your lives," the instructor said

So once again they were sent off, deeper into the forest. The red flag monsters had been torn through by everyone. The black flag monsters required a lot more tactician and teamwork and the golden flag monster was nowhere to be seen. Lincoln and Cecile made quick more of everything in their path, their synergy was just about perfect.

"Ever since we've gotten here, we've thrown away opportunities to slay greater monsters," Cecile said annoyed

"We definitely couldn't finish the dungeon earlier and I'm not sure about fighting something classified as A-Rank," Lincoln said

"Oh come on, you know your strong. I think there's a good chance we can take it,"

They traversed the trees and on the ground continuously fighting while having their conversation. Lincoln thought about what she said, he wanted to believe he was strong enough. Cecile reminded him of the Broodmother, a horrifying foe, but he eventually came out on top. Lincoln sighed, she might be right. A loud roar broke Lincoln's focus and he looked in the direction it came from. North by north east, through the large grove of trees. Cecile had sprinted over and Lincoln followed behind. When they reached where the roar originated from they saw Ellie and Zayn fighting a giant snake-like monster. A structure made of stone sat in a pile of its former self, something dormant resided beneath it.

"Paralysis Fang Ranshanka… A-Rank Naga," Cecile said analyzing it

"It's venom is highly potent and deadly, it uses its large size to its advantage crushing it's opponent by coiling around them. Those two are in danger," Cecile warned

"We have to help them, c'mon," Lincoln urged

On the ground, Ellie and Zayn were being pushed into a corner. While Ellie casted spells to enhance Zayn's strength, it wouldn't last long. She was running out of mana and Zayn was running out of stamina.

"Dammit, this thing just had to snuck up on us," Ellie said trying to quell her fear

Zayn defended each of its tail swipes, but was being pushed backwards in the process. The Naga lunged forward with its mouth open wide, venom dripping from each of its fangs. Swooping in Lincoln blocked its attack while Cecile came and removed the two from the battle.

"Stay here, I gotta go help Lincoln," she warned

She left the two in a safe area and returned to Lincoln who had, in the time she was gone, had been bruised and bloodied to a great extent.

"Lincy, you have to get up," Leni urged on the verge of tears(?)

"What the hell?!," Cecile exclaimed

The Naga slammed its tail into Cecile and she put up her guard. The shockwave got through and she still felt pain. What was this… overwhelming sense of weakness? She coughed up blood after crashing through a tree behind her.

They both were sure they had grown stronger but a daunting enemy stood in their way. Lincoln sat against a tree, struggling to catch his breath. Was this his end? Images of his sisters ran through his mind, thinking about that made him seeth. What was he thinking, compared to back then, this was nothing. He stood up and felt something heavy in his chest.

"What's… what's happening?" Leni asked confused

She had changed forms, her blade grew longer and had ridges. She was sharper and had a black aura surrounding her, her branding moved up the center of her blade. Lincoln had to use both of his hands now. While this was happening, Cecile was in a similar situation.

Recovering from the attack, Cecile sat up and shook her head. Pain… pain everywhere, it hurts, it hurts. Her vision was blurry, that brought back memories. The years that she spent without her sight, those cold, dark days when she lost her parents. Lincoln, he was the light that broke through and gave her sight. He was fighting for everything he cared about and she had to do the same. She stood up and clenched her fists, her hair had finally been parted revealing her pair of pure white eyes.

"I won't die here, or ever," they both claimed

Faster, stronger, there would be more trials ahead. In a burst of energy both of them lunged at the Naga. It did the same, its mouth opened wide as they evaded it's fangs. It noticed and coiled its head back around, snapping its mouth shut.

It knocked its head against Cecile and she took the opportunity to latch onto its neck. She punched it and cracked its scales. Holding tight the Naga was losing speed. Lincoln had slashed at its large maw and slashed the bottom of its mouth. The Naga had slowed to a halt and soon the winner was made clear.

It collapsed alongside Lincoln and Cecile. It's head laid on the ground before their feet, with its body coiled around them. They took in large breaths of air before looking at each other and holding hands.

"Looks like we've gotten stronger," Cecile said

"Maybe just a bit," Lincoln said


"We're currently missing two duos, the Nanovin siblings and one Loud and Lumbridge," an instructor told their superior

The superior had been pressed for time and decided to simply pronounce them dead. It wasn't until they heard a call from the forest that they changed their mind. Ellie and and Zayn had carried the aforementioned children on their backs.

"We're here," Ellie announced

"Look at how bea up they are, guess they were in over their heads," a contestant had said

"You all seem a bit worse for wear, but since you are here we'll count your flags now," an instructor said

Ellie and and Zayn had laid out all of their collected flags, 257 points. This accomplishment was met with a few claps and some murmurs in the crowd. Next moving on to the children's flags. 100 red flags, 20 black flags… and a single golden flag. A total of 500 points, everyone fell silent, the golden flag that resided within Ranshanka was in possession of these two.

"O-outstanding work," the superior congratulated

The two smiled and held their fists in the air. A healer had been instructed to rid them of their wounds. Despite that intense battle both children seemed to be unharmed. The gashes in their clothing remained but all wounds had been closed off. There was a greater force keeping them alive.

"Curiouser and curiouser,"

There had been one more test that everyone had to take part in. While Lincoln and Cecile insisted they were well enough to compete they were told not to. If they wanted to fight something, for whatever reason, they could finish off the skeleton dungeon.

"I have to make a report back at the Guild, you'd be doing me a favor by closing it," a cloaked instructor said

Now that they were alone they could freely converse with Leni.

"Leni, that black aura form was amazing. How did you do that?" Lincoln asked

"I just did, it was like, whoosh and bang, y'know?" she said

"Creative but I still don't get it," Cecile said

They spoke about each other's sudden change. Soon they reached the skeleton dungeon. Just like they did before, they blasted through the skeletons, even easier this time. The dungeon boss was a large Lich King that sat on a throne of skulls. Noticing the challengers he stood up and grabbed his staff and a casted a spell

He chanted something and a portal had opened releasing more skeletons. An endless amount could be summoned if they didn't hurry. The skeletons skulls were destroyed quickly and soon the Lich was the only one left.

He slashed the Lich King's arm off and his staff fell to the ground. His eyes glowed a deep shade of purple and he chanted more spells. He was soon silenced by Cecile's foot connecting with his jaw, knocking it clean off. She brought down both fists and his head cracked under their might.

"I wonder if he has anything good," she said analyzing everything

It was strange to think these were the same people in a life or death battle less than an hour ago. Nonetheless Cecile found some interesting things, "Spellmeisters Staff, crafted from the wood of the World Tree," the orb that it holstered had immense magic energy.

"Lich King's Hellish Garb, Ring of Avarice, and Voyager's Travel Pack," Cecile said

The "Hellish Garb" provided decent defense and increased mobility while the Ring of Avarice only seemed useful to people who specialized in magic. The most useful thing here was the "Voyagers Travel Pack". It had been imbued with space magic and could hold a set amount of items, no matter the size as long as they weren't living things. They took their spoils and threw them into it.

Finished with their business they destroyed the dungeons core, which rested in the Lich's staff. On their way back to the rest of the group they passed the ruins again. This time though something was different, Lincoln saw his symbol glowing.

"Wait… but where?" Lincoln said hurriedly

He looked over at the Naga's corpse and past that, the stone ruins. He ran over and dug up the rubble, his heart pounded in expectation.

"Lincy, you feel it too?" Leni asked

"I'm sure of it, this Naga was guarding something," he said

Soon it came into view, in the destroyed ruins was what he had been fighting for. While he didn't cry this time, he had a relieved smile on his face. Cecile was able to figure out the rest. A small fighting staff rested in his hands, it was charcoal black with red lining its ends. In the center was the same symbol on Lincoln and Leni.

"Welcome back sis," Lincoln said


:fanfare, I finally got around to finishing this. I wanted to make sure I could do it as best as possible. Now there is definitely room for improvement, please let me know in reviews.