As Yvette led Danso back to the Veiled Village, he asked her a question about his identity.
"Does Everlin and the rest of the people know I am Danso Narahara?" asked Danso.
"No, they still think of you as Lance Shire. I don't know why you lied about your name but I trust you enough so I did not want to get into why and all that nonsense," said Yvette.
The walk back to village was not eventful with the only noises in the forests were the late night soulbirds chirps, crickets cricketing and the occasional tap noise that came every time Yvette used her walking stick as balance to move forward.
Once they were back to the village, Danso freshened up and got ready for dinner. He went to Yvette's house for dinner and sat on the wooden chair and quietly ate his meat and vegetables and drank water. Yvette, before eating, prayed to the Aurora and then began to consume her food and Everlin did the same.
After they ate dinner, the plan was to waste some time digesting the food and Danso decided that walking was a good way to digest his food so he went for a walk. The walk was also pretty uneventful and he just admired the forest, the veil, and the Aurora while observing the daily life of the people who lived in the village.
There were fishermen who came back from the lakes outside the forest carrying multiple webbed sacks filled with different aquatic animals, there were mothers who tended to their children while the fathers sang songs and made the children laugh.
The patrollers returned from their expedition to scout more Yetis since they still did not know where their main camp was. The patrollers were filled with women, men, and weretigers for smelling the yetis and tracking their footsteps with the enhanced senses.
The village was tidy as many people cleaned up their roads and houses and were prepared to go to bed.
After around two to three rounds of the entire village, Danso returned to Yvette's hut and saw Everlin stretching while Yvette was preparing more tea for herself. Everlin told Yvette to not drink the tea since it would make her lose sleep but Yvette did not listen and told him that she would be 'just' fine.
Danso sat down near the miniature table in the living room and Everlin joined him sitting beside him. Leonard, who entered the hut later than Danso, had also joined him and sat beside him making Danso squished to the center. Yvette grabbed a chair and sat on it and they started talking and gossiping about people.
Everlin stayed relatively silent as he did not get entertained by the fact that Ms. Lania had cheated on her husband or that Mr. Swarovski had fallen down into a well and had to be brought back up with a crane.
Danso just smiled and occasionally chuckled but since he did not know most of these people he did feel a bit out of place so he just stared at the small box television and watched that.
Leonard on the other hand was fully invested as he listened to Yvette, laughed quite a lot and made jokes and responded back to Yvette frequently. This behaviour was a sharp contrast to the Leonard he knew who was mostly shy and kept to himself.
After thirty minutes of doing absolutely nothing, Everlin tapped Danso's shoulder and glanced at the practice grounds outside the hut. Danso nodded and got up and drank a glass of water before gathering his supplies from his hut and heading his way to the field.
Danso stretched and warmed up his body while he wore the Red Samurai armor and unsheathed his sword. He was fully prepared for a practice duel. He had his Soul Slime ring and his sword was fully fixed. Everlin had a fur jacket, a linen shirt and cotton trousers. The fur jacket had pockets inside itself which was wear Everlin stored his Ice Orb.
Danso originally thought he would not be able to summon Karkous or Zephyr since that would create Aurora sparks or aftermath but he quickly realised that he was just releasing stored energy and was not morphing it or using it the Aurora sparks would not appear.
Leonard also walked to the battle ground and Everlin looked at Leonard. He took a sigh and then smiled. That was the first time Danso saw Everlin smile.
"Join Lance, Leonard," said Everlin.
Leonard nodded wanting to prove himself to Everlin and walked beside Everlin. Danso looked at Leonard and then grinned and then Everlin asked if both of them were ready. They both agreed and then the sparring match began.
Everlin put one foot in front and then just disappeared.
Danso blinked. Just one time.
"Match over," said Everlin.
By the time Danso opened his eyes he was already on the floor and was disarmed. Danso was in shock as he had never seen someone with this much power before.
"Make sure not to blink. Now again," said Everlin, helping Danso stand up.
Everlin returned to his original spot and then asked again if they were ready or not. Just as Danso was about to say he was ready Leonard tapped him on his shoulder.
"Use Essence and then say ready. He will just teleport to you if you don't," explained Leonard.
Danso nodded and closed his eyes. He practiced Essence a lot in his free time and even while walking to digest his food. Now he was able to easily turn on Essence and when Danso opened his eyes he felt that Essence was turned on due to him feeling a lot heavier but Danso's exercise and training that Chiro made him do in the DMMS before nullified the weight.
Then Leonard and Danso said they were ready and the battle restarted.
Everlin put his foot forward again and this time Danso was anticipating a move. He quickly switched into Earth Stance to block any attack that Everlin was going to launch at him.
Danso was wrong though as instead of going towards him he went towards Leonard. Leonard already had created an ice shield spell by chanting and whispering to himself but the shield was too weak and it broke with Everlin's aura. Since Everlin was focusing on Leonard, Danso used this opportunity to attack Everlin but it was futile.
Everlin just slapped his sword away and hit Leonard with an ice spell that came from the orb he had in his fur jacket and Leonard went back around ten feet and regained his balance. Danso switched into Wind Stance and unleashed a barrage of attacks that Everlin blocked with Ice shards and countered with a ritualistic chant that turned his finger into a blade.
Danso dodged the blue blade barely and changed his stance to Earth to block any more incoming attacks. Everlin on the other hand changed his spell and turned his leg into ice that was as hard as the most compact alkanium steel that could be found and attempted to hit Danso on the side of his shin.
Danso blocked his leg with his sword and then quickly re-positioned himself into Water Stance and attacked.
"Sword Art of the Dragon:- Dragon's Breath," said Danso.
As the sword's flames started to appear, sparks also started to appear as it burnt Danso's finger a little and he dropped his sword. Everlin glared at Danso and did an overhead kick to Danso which made him fall down.
Leonard chanted a Ice-Lightning Hybrid Spell and struck it onto Everlin who did not see it coming and Everlin changed his focus onto Leonard.
Everlin and Leonard exchanged spells and attacks before Everlin got into close combat which Leonard did not specialise in and Everlin did a hook to Leonard's jaw which made him lose the fight.
After the sparring practice Everlin dragged Danso and Leonard and made them sit down on the floor and started to explain their mistakes.
"Danso, you need to improve your reaction speed, concentration, essence and not to rely purely on your Sword Art, you cannot use it here and because you tried to, you lost," explained Everlin.
Everlin turned to Leonard.
"Leonard, you must improve the speed of you releasing your ritualistic magic and increase the stage of your ritualistic magic to at least 6 so you can start to use intermediate spells and you must improve in close combat and hand-hand combat skills," explained Everlin.
Danso raised his hand and asked a question.
"What do you mean stages of ritualistic magic?" asked Danso.
"Ritualistic magic has ten stages. Ten being the weakest and Zero being the strongest. I am at Stage One as of now and Everlin is at 7 currently. Beginners are from Stage 9-7, Intermediates are from Stage 6-4, Aurorers are from Stage 3-1 and currently there is no one in the 0th stage as of now," explained Everlin.
"If there is no one, how do you know it exists?" asked Danso.
"We know because of the advancements in technology of late and because of the Soul Beast and human hybrid that lives in the forests. That guy is at the 0th Stage," said Everlin.
"Is he stronger than you?" asked Danso.
"I couldn't care less as long as I protect the village," said Everlin.