Chapter 309: Ch 309 : First Party

Tower of Eternity, Floor #1: The Endless Forest."This forest is so... huge," Lucious muttered, his small boots kicking at a loose root.

He had been wandering the emerald expanse for what felt like days. The trees here were titanic, their branches blocking out the sky, creating a dark forest.

To a normal Climber, this would be terrifying. To Lucious, the First Hero of Veridia, it was just... boring.

His Morningstar talent ensured that he never got lost, but it also seemed to ensure he never found trouble. Monsters avoided him. Traps didn’t trigger. It was a stroll in the park.

"I expected a challenge," Lucious sighed, twirling his small staff. "Maybe I should directly teleport to the location of the Boss."

He raised his hand, gathering mana for a spatial jump.

"Aghhh! Help me! Help me someone!"

The scream pierced the silence. It was high-pitched, desperate, and unmistakably terrified.

Lucious froze. The mana for his teleportation spell dissipated like mist.

"Finally," he whispered, though his eyes sharpened with concern.

He didn’t hesitate. He launched himself forward, his small wings beating furiously to propel him through the dense undergrowth.

A kilometer away, he found the scene.

A Fairy; tiny, glowing with a frantic pink light was zipping through the air, screaming at the top of her lungs.

Behind her, snapping at her trailing light dust, was a pack of ten Shadow Wolves.

These weren’t normal animals. They were E-Grade Monsters, constructs of the Tower designed to hunt in packs.

Their eyes burned with malice, and their fur was like solidified smoke.

"Help me!" the Fairy shrieked, diving under a low branch as a wolf’s jaws snapped shut inches from her wings.

Lucious landed on a high branch, observing the situation.

"She’s a Fairy," Lucious noted. "Then why isn’t she flying high above? Or is she trying to fight them?"

He cupped his hands around his mouth.

"Use your Light Magic to blind them!" Lucious shouted, his voice ringing with authority despite his youth. "They are Shadow Beasts! Light is their weakness!"

The Fairy stopped mid-air, spinning around in confusion. "Who?!"

"Focus!" Lucious barked. "Stop looking for me and look at the wolves! Use Blinding Flash spell! Now!"

"I..." the Fairy stammered, tears streaming down her tiny face. "I don’t have Light Affinity!"

Lucious blinked. "What?"

For a Fairy to lack Light Affinity was like a fish lacking the ability to swim. It was unheard of. Every Fairy born under Gaia’s blessing possessed innate Light Magic.

"That’s just a basic spell!" Lucious yelled back, frustration creeping into his tone. "You don’t need an affinity! Just channel your mana into a single point and release it! It’s basic physics!"

He could have jumped down. He could have incinerated the wolves with a flick of his wrist.

But Lucious possessed the ignorance of the gifted. He believed that everyone could do what he did.

To him, casting a spell was as natural as breathing. He thought he was helping her grow.

"O-Okay!" the Fairy squeaked.

She closed her eyes, trembling. She extended her tiny hands toward the snarling pack.

Fzzzt.

A spark appeared. And then... it died.

The mana dissipated instantly. She tried again. Fzzzt. Nothing.

The wolves, sensing her vulnerability, stopped circling. They bunched their muscles, preparing to lunge as one.

Lucious frowned from his perch. "What is she doing? It’s just mana control. Just... push it."

Then, he realized.

’She isn’t refusing to do it. She can’t do it.’

The wolves leaped. Ten sets of jaws opened wide, aiming to tear the tiny creature apart.

"Void steps" Lucious shouted.

Space twisted. Lucious vanished from the branch and reappeared instantly between the Fairy and the airborne pack.

The sudden appearance of the golden-haired boy startled the wolves. They tried to adjust their trajectory mid-air, but it was too late.

Lucious raised his small hand. His eyes glowed with violet light.

"Gravity Lock."

It was a command to the laws of physics.

BOOM.

The gravity in a ten-meter radius multiplied by ten.

The wolves slammed into the ground as if a giant hand had swatted them out of the sky.

They whined, pinned to the dirt, their legs splayed out helplessly. The earth cracked beneath their weight.

But the Fairy? She floated right next to Lucious, completely unaffected. His control was so precise that he had carved out a safe zone around her in the middle of a crushing gravity field.

"Woah..." the Fairy gasped, her fear forgotten as she stared at the boy. "You are... so small."

Lucious twitched. "I just pinned ten E-Grade monsters that were about to eat you, and that is your comment?"

The Fairy flew circles around him, her wings buzzing with excitement.

"You’re an Angel!" she chirped. "And based on your height and that squeaky voice, you can’t be older than twelve! How are you so strong?"

Normally, a weak E-Grade climber would be terrified of someone displaying such overwhelming power.

They would bow, scrape, or run away to avoid offending a powerhouse.

But Angelic Beauty was a terrifying drug.

To the Fairy, Lucious didn’t look like a threat. He looked like the cutest, most trustworthy being in existence.

Her brain simply refused to process him as dangerous. She landed on his shoulder, treating him like a long-lost friend.

Lucious sighed, glancing down at the pinned wolves.

The wolves had stopped growling. Their red eyes, usually filled with mindless hunger, were now fixed on Lucious. They weren’t struggling. They were... whimpering?

Lucious tilted his head. He released the Gravity Lock.

"I think..." Lucious murmured, looking at the beasts. "I think they just wanted to play. They don’t want to hurt you."

"Play?!" the Fairy shrieked, hiding in Lucious’s golden hair. "They tried to eat me!"

But as the gravity lifted, the wolves didn’t attack. They shook the dust off their fur and trotted toward Lucious, tails wagging hesitantly. One of them, the Alpha, lowered its head and nudged Lucious’s hand.

"See?" Lucious smiled, scratching the Alpha behind the ears. "Good boy. Don’t be scared."

The Fairy stared, her jaw dropping.

"Are you a Monster Tamer?" she asked, bewildered.

She knew the Tower rules. The forums were clear: Monsters in the tower are hostile. They attack on sight.

Yet here was this child, treating a pack of Shadow Wolves like golden retrievers.

"Why would I tame them?" Lucious asked, genuinely confused. "They have lives too. I know if we don’t attack them, they won’t attack us. It’s mutual respect."

The Fairy looked at him like he was insane.

’Mutual respect? With Monsters? Was I living under a rock? Or is this kid hallucinating?’

What she didn’t know, and what Lucious didn’t realize was that his Angelic Beauty talent worked on everything.

It hacked the concept of aggression of the monsters’ brains, overwriting their kill order with a protect order.

Lucious had lived his entire life in a bubble where nothing ever tried to hurt him. He genuinely believed the world was a pacifist utopia because, for him, it was.

"You are... right, little Angel," the Fairy lied, deciding not to argue with the terrifyingly powerful child.

She flew down and cautiously patted the wolf’s snout. The wolf growled low in its throat but didn’t bite, pacified by Lucious’s presence.

"So," she asked, trying to distract herself from the absurdity. "What is your name?"

Lucious stood up straighter, puffing out his small chest.

"I am Lucious Aurelion."

"Aurelion?!" the Fairy gasped. "The Royal Family of Angels? The bloodline of the First Apostle?"

Everyone in Veridia knew the name. The Aurelions were practically royalty.

"That’s the one," Lucious nodded. "And what is your name?"

The Fairy lowered her gaze, her wings drooping slightly.

"I am Merrily," she whispered. "Just Merrily."

She felt a pang of shame. In Veridia, surnames were earned, not given. Commoners had just name. But those with merits possessed surnames too.

Lucious looked at her. He sensed her embarrassment.

"Merrily," Lucious repeated, testing the name. He smiled, blindingly bright. "It sounds happy. I like it."

"Well, Merrily," Lucious pointed his staff toward the deep forest. "Since you don’t have Light Magic, you need a bodyguard. I’m going to the Second Floor. Want to come?"

Merrily looked at the wolves, then at the dark forest, and finally at the glowing boy who had just saved her life.

"Yes!" she cheered, flying up. "Lead the way, Captain Aurelion!"

And so, the First Hero formed his first party. A party of one clueless genius, one weak fairy, and ten confused wolves trailing behind them like puppies.