While traveling to Durmer, Lutin asks Art about the armor "How's the armor?" He replies with "It does its job well enough. Although it feels way lighter then any armor I've worn before". Not long, they finally reach Durmer's shop, they walk in and Durmer is sitting on a chair with his feet on the counter. He looks at Art and is astonished "The armor lookin' good on ya". Art walks up to him and says "You didn't tell me what would happen if a wore it" Durmer sighs "I’m an old man, I forget a lot" Shiftnir starts glowing and dimming while speaking to Art. Art and Lutin are completely caught off guard by it. The only sounds she makes are strange whistling noises. She keeps talking, Art looks at Durmer and says "She says she doesn't like you" Durmer surprised, gets up and walks over to Art. He looks at Shiftnir and says "Ya don't like me huh. Well i ain't a fan of ya too!" Shiftnir glows again and says something to him, Durmer looks annoyed and says "Piss off?!, who're ya tellin’ to piss off!" Lutin is holding in his laugh and is practically tearing up. Durmer tells them to leave. As The two of them are leaving, Shiftnir keeps talking crap to Durmer. They leave the shop with Lutin bursting into tears from laughing. Art calls Eira and they head to the demi-goblin village. While they're on the road, Lutin asks Art about his marine-folk friend and how they met. Art hesitates but after a lot of persistents, he starts talking.

  "I was around six, it was an abnormally hot summer. I went out for a walk down in the third layer. I was walking through the long grass until I noticed movements in the grass. I get there, and see her laying on the ground. She was practically dried out and was frantically panting. For reasons i can't remember, i picked her up and dragged her all the way to the lake. I tossed her in it and she came out happy. She kept thanking me and asked for my name, i told her and after that we started hanging out"

  Lutin looks at him "We got Mr.hero over here". Art stares at him and decides to ignore him. After a few days of traveling, they reach the demi-goblin village. Art gets off of Eira and she disappears into the mist. They start walking around the village, with the villagers staring at them. Art walks up to a woman and describes the demi-goblin they're looking for, she points at a shop connected to a large house. They start walking there and enter the shop. The first thing they see is a demi-goblin fixing something on the table, her blonde hair tied into pigtails, piercings on her long ears, she wears a dirty tank top with a towel resting on her shoulders. Lutin yells out for her, and she says "Oi, buzz off, I'm busy". Art starts talking "I'm here for a one-person ship". She stops, she thinks to herself "(That…. Voice. What a hunk)" she turns around, walks up to him and looks up while saying "I didn't know i was a man magnet". He stares her down "Can you build it?". She nods and says "Name's Vexli" Art hands her the letter and as she's opening it, she says "If ya don't go cash, i'm willing to take a different way of payment, from you and you only~". He stares her down with a disgusted expression. She opens the letter and reads through it. She says it'll take two days since she has a lot of orders to finish. Art nods and leaves her shop. He and Lutin decide to head into the forest. As they're walking through the autumn forest, Art starts hearing grunts coming from a small glade in the middle of the forest. The two head to check the who is making that sound and see a man with long black hair tied into a ponytail, swinging a katana around. The man stops, stands straight and points his katana at Art "I know you're there", Art walks up to him and says "your sword swinging ain't that bad". The man asks who Art is. Art introduces himself with Lutin tagging in. The man says "I am Yuuki" Art asks why is his right hand glowing. Yuuki looks at his hand confused. Art takes off his right gauntlet, and it's glowing as well. Yuuki stares for a moment and lets out a smile. “I thought that i was the only icon, guess i’m not. I am the icon of beasts”. The three of them sit down and Art starts talking to him about their journey while telling about how he found out that he was an icon. After listening, Yuuki says “You want to get strong?. There’s a race of centaurians living not too far from here. They have something called the “Trial of the hero”, you’ll basically have to fight the reanimated body of their hero. And i think you might be able to beat him”. Art thinks about it and asks Yuuki to duel him. He changes Shiftnir into a sword and the two of them duel for a few minutes. After finishing up their duel, they take directions from Yuuki and leave him to go to the centaurian village.

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  END OF CHAPTER