Feb 18 Update: I only updated the breaks in the lines so nothing new. Sorry :/

After the knights had finished up with the remaining bandits and scavenged what few belongings the bandits carried, they continued their trek through the forest towards Counter Village as it was closer than the town. Other than treating what injuries the knights had sustained during the fighting, the rest of the journey was unremarkable and quiet.

Once Darren was sure that nothing would happen, he returned to his own body and started walking towards Counter.

They had finally made it to their destination just as the sun was beginning to set on the horizon. Abraham let out a soft sigh of relief as he saw the gates of Counter opening at their arrival knowing that their mission was a success and, more importantly, that his men would survive the night. A few villagers ran up towards them.

"Sir knights," one of the villagers said, "it's an honor to see you here at our humble village. What brings you here at the end of the day?"

"We received a warning about a pack of Wildlings coming towards your village," Abraham relied. "But it seems that our help wasn't needed."

"Oh yes Milord, we were in danger. But we were saved by the humble Magi Darren!" another villager said in excitement. Understandably, Abraham and the few knights that heard the villagers were a bit confused and some looked at each other to confirm that they all heard the same thing, the same thought running through their heads.

A humble magi?

Abraham gave a mental shake of his head and decided to focus on what he needed to do.

"My men require medical assistance and I was hoping to speak with the leader of this village for a report on what happened during the Wildling attack. Can you do this for us?" Abraham asked.

"Of course, sir knight," the villager replied, "we will do whatever we can for your men. I'll find someone to escort you to Richard, our leader."

"I can do it," a voice familiar to Abraham said. He turned to the voice and grinned.

"Captain, it's good to see you're still alive and kicking," Abraham said as he saluted Jack.

"First off," Jack started as he eyed Abraham, "stop saluting me Abraham, I'm not your commanding officer anymore. I'm just a simple farmer. Second," Jack pulled the man into a heartfelt hug, "it's good to see you, friend. What brings you and your boys here?"

"I'll tell you when we get to your leader." The two started walking towards the center of Counter where Richard was located. "Anyway Jack, how's your family?"

"Well…"

The two caught up and traded stories as they walked over to Counter. They talked about the times when they were younger knights under the crown and how things have changed over the years. Jack was stationed as the Captain of the Guard since Abraham was a recruit. Abraham had shown an aptitude in his career as a knight and quickly rose the ranks to be the second in command during Jack's career as Captain. The two men had bonded quickly and soon it seemed that nothing would stop the pair in being the best knights in the kingdom. Jack, however, wished to settle down and retire after meeting Miranda and having Chloe along with little Angie on the way.

"Dad!"

The two men stopped and turned to the voice as Jack was impacted by a tiny human shaped missile.

"Hi dad!" Angie said excitedly. She noticed the other man with her father and hid behind his legs in a moment of shyness. "Who's he?" Angie asked in a small voice. Jack smiled softly as he introduced the two.

"Abraham, I'd like to introduce you to my youngest, Angie. Angie, this is an old friend of mine called Abraham." Angie peeked from behind Jack as Abraham gave a reassuring smile.

"Hi…" Angie whispered, barely audible. Abraham continued to smile and got down on one knee.

"Hello Angie, it's good to finally meet you," Abraham said. He looked over at Jack and grinned for a moment before focusing back on Angie. "Do you want to hear a little story about your father?" Abraham said in a conspiratorial whisper. Angie got curious. Jack had an unsure look.

"Abraham…" warned Jack.

"There was this one time during a trek in the woods that your father and I, along with a few others, were hunting for some wild boar that had a few local villages worried."

"Don't you dare…" Jack's look became more panicked as Angie got more curious.

"We eventually found them living in a nearby cave. The plan was to send a man in to chase out the boars while the rest waited in an ambush to finish off the animals quickly. Your father, being the most experienced man there, had volunteered."

"I swear to the gods, if you continue this story Abraham I am going to-"

"We waited for a while and believed everything was going well," Abraham continued, unaffected by the threat. "That is, until your father bravely ran out of the cave as fast as he could while screaming at the top of his lungs." Jack put his head in his hands in embarrassment while Angie started giggling at the image of her dad that Abraham painted.

"What happened next?" Angie asked as she controlled her giggling.

"Why," Abraham started with a smirk, "we dealt with a small wave of wild boars as it seemed that your father's tactical retreat had woken them from their slumber. Of course, for anyone who was there that day, we never let our commander live that day down. Ever." Angie broke down in a fit of uncontrollable laughter as Jack contemplated if it was still a good idea to let Abraham meet his second daughter, and soon the rest of his family.

Jack wouldn't have to suffer in embarrassment for too long as Angie suddenly stopped giggling and gasped as she was tackled by Ace and Bandit. The two zerglings started to play with Angie while they climbed on top of her. The two zerglings had become a common sight around Counter and seeing something like this happen wasn't too shocking after the first few times. For a certain knight however…

"What manner of creature is this?" Abraham asked softly as he watched the zerglings interact with Angie. He was close to drawing his sword when he saw them at first and he nearly attacked when he saw Angie get tackled. Jack saw him however and placed a hand on his arm to stop him from doing anything drastic. The two zerglings seemed to notice Abraham and immediately stopped playing with Angie to instead focus on the new human while staying curled up around Angie protectively.

"They're called zerglings," a young voice said behind the two. The men turned to see a tall male figure in intimidating armor.

Darren had just made it to Counter a few minutes ago where he was greeted by Ace and Bandit. After walking for a short time, the two zerglings sprinted ahead of him and he caught up just in time to see Angie get tackled. He smiled and was about to make his presence known until he saw the man standing next to Jack. He recognized him as the knight that was leading the party from earlier and decided to introduce himself.

"What manner of creature is this?" Darren heard Abraham whisper.

"They're called zerglings," Darren said as he walked up behind the men. They turned around and looked at him. "They're basically enthusiastic, excitable, armored dogs that are really fast."

Darren took a look at Abraham now that he was closer and saw that he was about the same age as Jack. He had short blond hair with a short beard and a few scars dotting the side of his face. The knight also carried himself with a presence that seemed to naturally draw people to him. Darren "took off" the helmet to hold it under his arm and held out his hand in greeting.

"My name's Darren Miller, the local Magi. It's a pleasure to meet you, sir knight." Abraham looked at Darren's outstretched hand for a brief moment but decided to shake Darren's hand. A Magi who, at least from what he knew, helped to save a village without expecting any reward couldn't be all bad.

"It's good to meet you Magi Darren. The name's Abraham. I heard what you did to save the village. Thank you for being here when we were not."

"It wasn't any skin off my nose. Besides, what kind of person would I be if I didn't help when I could? Oh, and just call me Darren. No need for some silly title." Abraham looked at Darren questionably as if to confirm that the Magi in front of him wasn't trying to trick him.

"If you say so, Darren," Abraham tested. Darren didn't do anything but smile.

"Since you're here Darren," Jack started once introductions were finished, "why don't we go meet with the village leader? I'm sure that everything can be explained there." Thankfully, it didn't take too long for the group to make it to the village center and finish what business they had. During the time though, Darren had learned a few interesting things about events outside of Counter.

First, the town that was closest to Counter, the same one that Abraham had come from, was a large trading center from where a large majority of funds that supplied Aleria flowed through. It was called Chrimata, town of wealth.

Second, it seemed that the Magi from earlier, Magi Cael, was a noble from a family of some renown. In fact, they held a near majority of power and influence when it came to advise the king to matters of the nobility. The reason that Magi Cael was sent with the knights was as a preliminary test to see if he was ready for additional training as both a Magi and a noble.

The chances were that Cael would fail when Abraham got back.

Third, the rulers King Indulf and Queen Catherine were being put under pressure by the general populous and the nobility to deal with the increase of Wildling populations. The best idea that was going around was to send Magi around the kingdom to try and find the sources of the Wildlings and to stop further attacks on the surrounding villages. However, not a single clue had been found in recent months and attacks by the Wildlings have increased in frequency and ferocity. The kingdom could only react to Wildling incursions as there was no real way to predict where or when an attack could happen. There was, however, a more immediate threat that the kingdom was trying to address.

The last thing that Darren learned were rumors of an underground black market. Apparently, the rise of Wildling populations have led to guards being taken off the streets and placed on the walls or put in patrols around any settlements. As a result, even though outside threats may have lessened, security inside the walls have also lessened which have brought an increase of crime. Some groups had started to pop up in different areas around the kingdom, but the capital of Aleria was apparently a hotspot of activity. And soon enough, a black market for more unsavory goods was being told about.

After Abraham was finish telling the recent news he turned to Darren.

"Darren," Abraham said, "you are a Summoning Magi, correct?" Darren nodded in confirmation. "How come I've never heard of your creatures before? A Summoning Magi is a rare thing, and many aren't seen outside of their school."

Now this was one of the first problems Darren had thought of. How to validate that he had magic. Fortunately, this world seemed to have a patented excuse for such things.

"Well first I need to explain a few things. First, my family was made up of farmers and magic was more of a fairytale for us since we never saw much of it. One day around harvest season when I was part of a convoy bringing the food back home, we were attacked by bandits. I was the only one who made it. I've been living in the woods for the most part when I found out I could use magic about a month or two ago. Scared the hell out of me when I got my first summoned creature. Since then I've just been practicing."

The explanation was flimsy, but it wasn't uncommon to hear about bandit attacks during harvest season when there was the chance to gain the most amount of food just before winter. And to hear about a Magi discovering the use of their powers were not uncommon either. The way that the three schools of magic found potential Magi was by either going through the nobility or by listening to reports of unregulated magic usage around the land. It was a lazy method, but then again, not many commoners became Magi and those that did weren't respected by their colleagues.

Abraham seemed to buy the explanation though. Probably trusting Darren enough to keep his own secrets if he wasn't telling him everything. Besides, how as a guy supposed to explain that he came from a completely different world and that his magic was actually a form of biologically advanced aliens with him being one of them?

"I'll take your word for it Darren," Abraham said. "But you need to be registered into a school of magic or else chances are that, once you're more well known, you might be called a rogue Magi. If that happens, you'll find that you won't be trusted at best or just hunted down by bounty hunters at worst." Darren grimaced at the news. He knew that at some point, something was going to force him out of his comfort zone but knowing that still didn't make the impact of hearing it any less hard.

"Thank you, Abraham," Darren sighed, "I had no idea about that. I'll try to get to the Summoning school as fast as possible." Abraham nodded in acknowledgement and addressed the people listening in the village center.

"My men and I will be returning to the capital in a few days. We will provide any help wherever we can. If that's everything-"

"Wait." Abraham turned back to Darren.

"Can you help me get to the school of Summoning magic?"

A/N: I actually updated this thing. Now I just need to figure out how to connect more of my ideas to make this thing better.

…

Yay.