When a vampire was mentioned Silvio immediately lost all decorum. Others might not know the meaning of a vampire nearby but as a member of the church and someone who had personally witnessed their prowess he knew the calamity they could cause.

Looking at his guests and realizing his rudeness he snapped back and quickly apologized.

"I apologize miss, but forgive me for being rude even if I'm taken into the equation hunting a vampire with this team is impossible."

Larissa didn't look perturbed at Silvio's outburst she merely stared at Silvio. Silvio felt quite unnerved at the lady's gaze despite not even flinching against Hank's murderous gaze. Silvio's senses screamed at him that there was something dangerous about Larissa's gaze. After a moment of silence, she spoke in a curious tone.

"You speak as if you have experience. Do tell me what you know about vampires. Although I'm ashamed to admit it despite being assigned to investigate it I've never met one personally."

Inwardly Silvio thought 'This girl smells of trouble, plus there's a vampire nearby I really don't wanna deal with this crap.'

Although he had these thoughts he didn't dare defy Larissa it was his goal to live a long life and he didn't plan on squabbling it here. Despite not knowing who she was he knew someone sent to kill a vampire wouldn't be so simple. Silvio took a deep breath and began to recite his past encounter with vampires.

"Every few years our church has to send a percentage of the tributes we earn to the larger branch in the fortress town Belfort. Normally the deacon did it but he was injured at the time so I was forced to make the trip. Halfway to Belfort, I met up with a convoy of paladins and priests who were heading there as well. We traveled until we encountered a small village being massacred by a vampire. The convoy had 8 paladins, 5 priests, 3 deacons, and 5 neophytes including myself. The leader of the convoy decided to fight it and we did eventually kill it. But..."

Marika interrupted halfway through with a proud tone "If it requires 20 members of the church at minimum to kill a vampire then we're set. I'll let you know this although I'm still an apprentice my sister has graduated and become a mage. We're easily worth 10 clergymen each so you don't need to be so afraid."

She pushed her hand out and summoned a small fireball that flickered left to right. Although Silvio's face remained mostly impassive a slight tinge of envy could be seen in his eyes. Mag was different multiple "oohs" and "ahhs" unknowingly came out of his mouth due to the magic display. In Athua meeting a mage was as difficult as meeting a duke so it wasn't surprising that the mercenary would be enamored.

Larissa flicked her hand extinguishing the fireball and glared at her sister. She turned to Silvio nodding at him to continue

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"But the costs were just too extreme to be called a victory." He recited the story with hollow eyes as he remembered that terrible slaughter.

"Although our group of paladins was able to keep the vampire held down it was just too powerful. Our priests and deacons just couldn't land a killing blow on its head or heart. To make it worse it shot out some type of attack that turned all the neophytes into blood slaves. I barely survived since I had a bit more combat experience. In the end, all our paladins and deacons had to suicide to take down all the undead. The priests and I were left heavily injured and it took me months to recover. I heard that some of the priests had failed to recover and perished as well. I just want to remind you the vampire we battled it out with was a newborn. So although I am unknowledgeable about magic I beg that you rethink this mission or call more reinforcements for this investigation."

Silvio had a deep impression of the vampire's fierce some might and he wanted to live a good life not be some monster's meal. He didn't want to risk his life and die for some stupid nobles investigation. Silvio made it sound as dangerous as he could in an attempt to intimidate the young mage from going on this mission. Unfortunately, fate would seem to have other plans.

"No, unfortunately, neophyte Morell this investigation can't be postponed. The vampire we're currently searching for is called Darius Orcus and he was recently exposed to be masquerading as a viscount. When he was exposed a powerful Senior Magician cursed the undead before he could flee. If we allow him time to recover and remove the curse this could be a fatal calamity to Athua. Although I understand your concerns if you choose not to cooperate I can use my authority as a mage to charge you with high treason."

The room became chilly as Larissa stared down at Silvio. The pressure on Silvio's shoulders became heavy as the mana in the room responded to Larissa's will.

'Curse my luck to meet a mage. My status as part of the clergy would protect me from lower nobles but against a mage, my status might as well be dog poop.'

Silvio slumped into his chair and sighed at his fate. He stood up and bowed to the mage sisters

"Neophyte Morell at your service, I hope to enforce the goddesses will and rid this world of such sinful beings"

A forced smile appeared on Silvio's face as he was forced to tag along on what he thought was a suicide mission. Although on the surface he seemed resigned the glint in Silvio's eyes showed otherwise. Larissa wasn't able to see this so she got up wanting to prepare for the investigation.

"I wish to talk with the residing deacon as well. Also, don't worry as long as you complete your job you'll be well compensated. Marika give it to him."

With reluctance on her face, Marika took out a pair of black gloves handing Silvio one of them. The gloves were deep black with a white circle made up of various symbols sitting on the palm area of the glove.

"These gloves are a twin set of magic tools, the right glove I gave you allows you to summon a tier 3 mana barrier three times a day. This is a deposit for helping us, after the investigation is complete I'll give you the other glove to complete the set. Even if this investigation fails the two gloves will be yours."

Despite her statement, she seemed quite reluctant to give away these gloves at all. But Silvio had no mind to care for that, he was staring so hard at the gloves that his eyes almost popped out of their sockets. Although he knew little about magic even he knew that the cheapest magic tools ran at the minimum 100s of gold per product. Even on a good year, he would be lucky to earn 300 silver(3 gold), despite the high costs of healing most of the money was sent away to the church as tributes. Silvio never in his life thought he could get his hands on such a tool.