Arvell led the boy back to his camping location.
As to not alert the group, he had been avoiding using fire to cook his food, instead, he had survived purely off of fruits and berries for the last few days.
While they walked in silence, Arvell reminisced about his 5 month-long training session.
If Arvell were to use one word to describe his experience, it would be 'Hell'.
Arvell had grown used to Lykos's amiable yet irritating personality and naturally assumed that his training wouldn't be too harsh.
That was a mistake that he would regret dearly.
Lykos's training methods were nothing short of spartan, with his motto being "Gems only form under pressure".
Arvell had to wrestle with a middle rank 1 bear, hold his breath underwater for hours on end, meditate without food under an ice-cold waterfall, the list went on.
While Lykos couldn't force Arvell to do anything since Lykos didn't have a physical body, he would threaten to not teach Arvell anything about his powers if he refused his training.
While Arvell greatly disliked his training regimen, he full well knew that Lykos only wanted the best for him and understood that this training was to build a better foundation for him. Even if Lykos's instructions seemed downright cruel at times.
He also had to face off against small bandit groups that he encountered. Unlike the group he fought today, they were much weaker, being around 1st circle mages with the occasional 2nd circle mage.
Originally he thought he would feel fine after killing them, since it was a matter of survival, and these people would just harm more people if left alive.
While he forced himself into thinking he was 'cleaning the trash of society, deep down he still felt some revulsion at claiming someone's life.
Originally when he fought for the first time against bandits, he couldn't bring himself to kill the ones who surrendered, as that went against his mother's teachings.
While his mother was vicious towards her enemies, she was kind and empathetic to everyone else.
She didn't want her children to inherit this viciousness, so she only taught them compassion and empathy. Queen Clementina taught Arvell to only fight back to protect himself, but never kill.
Unfortunately, Arvell realized firsthand how vicious humans were when they tried to backstab him the instant he turned around to leave.
Needless to say, Arvell slaughtered the remaining survivors and learned his lesson.
Lykos didn't intervene to warn Arvell since he wanted Arvell to know this viciousness for himself to never make the same mistake again in the future.
After killing more bandit groups and undergoing a seemingly never-ending hellish training regimen, Arvell's mentality grew colder and resembled that of a seasoned veteran.
He had undergone numerous life-threatening situations and had overcome his innate fear of death to an extent.
However… this also came with a few adverse effects.
Arvell learned firsthand how effective fighting was to his personal growth, and he became addicted.
He would constantly challenge anything he deemed worth fighting and used this to further improve himself.
Lykos trained Arvell to pursue efficiency when fighting, to use any advantage he could to reduce the amount of energy he lost when he fought.
If one can preserve their energy as much as possible, and end the fight as soon as possible, the odds of surviving would increase significantly.
In a battle to the death, there was no such thing as 'foul play.'
Arvell employed some of these tactics earlier when killing the bandit group, as he had used his knowledge of poisons and the bandit group's movements to lay a trap for them.
While some might argue that Arvell was being cowardly, he would have had to fight with his life on the line to even think of harming even one of the bandits, much less kill all of them.
Thus, Arvell relied on poison to bring them down to his level, to fight them on an even playing field.
It was just that he overestimated the bandit group after finding out they were far stronger than his average targets.
He accidentally overdosed them on poison, resulting in them being far too easy for him to kill.
A mistake that he regretted deeply.
After all, the only person who could fight him somewhat properly was the head bandit Zalcon.
As they neared the camping site, Arvell snapped out of his reverie and started a fire. Since the bandits were already dead, he didn't need to worry about the smoke and light being seen by his prey anymore.
He just needed to keep an eye out for any beasts that would notice the smoke and light.
Fortunately, this wasn't as big of a concern since the beasts in this area were typically not that strong.
Arvell would be able to overpower most if not all of them on his own if they fought one on one.
Unless a group of beasts all came at once, they were safe.
Arvell pulled out a change of clothes and gave it to the boy he rescued. He had graciously accepted this 'gift' from one of his earlier victims and simply threw it in his inventory since it was too big for him.
The boy looked down at the clothes and then back up at Arvell and quietly muttered a thank-you.
As Arvell prepared the first hot meal he had in a week, the boy finished changing into the attire Arvell gave him.
"It's too big as expected… But it's still better than your earlier rags," Arvell commented.
The boy suddenly fell to his knees and placed his head on the ground.
"Thank you for saving my life! I will never forget this favour!"
Arvell saw this with a disinterested gaze and simply shook his head. He had seen this scene far too often when he had released slaves and other people captured by the bandit groups he fought and had become almost numb to this sight.
He'd simply saved the boy out of pity, nothing more, nothing less.
After he dropped him off at a nearby village, they would likely never see each other again.
"There is no need. I didn't save you for you to owe me a favour. Just be more careful next time, and don't get caught."
The boy looked up at Arvell with eyes that reflected both his gratitude and his resolution.
"My family taught me to always repay my debts. I swear on my name and honour that I will find some way to pay you back for helping me. If I can't even do that, I don't deserve to show myself in front of my family again."
Arvell felt like this person was being genuine with his words and simply decided to ask his family for a reward or some kind of compensation if and when he met them.
"Where do you live? If it's close by, I can just take you there"
Arvell felt that leaving this boy would have a hard time surviving in the forest, even if he seemed to be around Arvell's age.
The boy pondered for a moment before answering Arvell's questions.
"I am not from this country. I was kidnapped and transported from Elantrya."
Arvell was momentarily shocked by the boy's words.
While he was travelling slowly towards Elantrya himself, due to being sidetracked with his training, he had only travelled around a third of the journey to Karsia, the capital city.
At least according to Lykos, Arvell was still around a two-week travel distance by foot from the border.
'So they kidnapped him and tried to sell him in a foreign nation?'
While there is peace between the two countries, there is still a deep-rooted grudge between the two nations. Vispian Nobles would pay good money to have an Elantryan citizen as their slave.
They would then use them as a substitute for their rage against Elantrya itself.
Arvell felt that the fate of these slaves was far too pitiful, considering that they probably didn't even have any part in starting the war between the two kingdoms.
If anything they also lost loved ones in it.
Arvell looked at the boy who was greedily devouring his first real meal in a long time.
"I was a captured slave myself, " he lied, "Like you, I also want to go back home to Elantrya. If you want, you can tag along with me."
While Arvell had nothing much to gain from this deal, he still felt that the boy's earlier words were sincere, and decided to take a risk by bringing him back home.
Normally Arvell tried to avoid anything too risky.
His priority was getting stronger, and while having more enemies to fight was a good thing in his opinion, he didn't want his enemies to be too strong either.
In that case, he would simply get slaughtered.
However, despite this, he decided to take a risk and bring Zen along.
If they were going in the same direction anyway, he might as well take him with him.
His only concern was that the boy would leak the information that he was Vispian, which would directly make him ineligible to attend Sky Sword Academy in the best-case scenario.
As for the worst-case scenario? Arvell would be hunted down by an angry mob.
So he lied. Despite not being a really convincing lie, it seemed to work as Zen believed it.
When Arvell told him that he was the same as him, despite the likelihood being low, Zen wanted someone to understand his pain.
Going as far as to believe something with no circumstantial evidence, just to feel that he wasn't alone in his struggle.
The boy looked at Arvell and nodded.
"So you're in the same situation as me… Saving me, and then willing to escort me back home. You have my eternal gratitude."
Zen bowed his head in appreciation.
Arvell lightly smiled when he saw this.
"First things first, My name is Arvell…"
Just realizing he couldn't use 'Vispia' as his last name, Arvell fell into a minor panic.
Arvell hadn't spoken to anyone properly after being abandoned, with only Lykos as his company.
As for the people he rescued earlier?
He wouldn't interact much with them after finding out where to drop them off, much less give them his name.
Arvell froze when he was about to mention his full name and unintentionally sold himself out, but luckily Lykos came to the rescue.
'Use Silvanus as your last name.'
Before even thinking twice Arvell continued.
"...Silvanus. Arvell Silvanus."
"That's a good name," The boy spoke, "My name is Zen."
The two of them continued to chat for a bit while eating, before deciding to call it a night.
After eating breakfast and packing their stuff the following morning, the two began their journey to Elantrya.
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