CHAPTER. 150: LETTING GO

I walked out of the cave with Lily following after me, and I was immediately hit by the blinding sunlight. The golden rays shone upon my body as I raised my arm to block some of it. It was warm and nice⁠— it was almost a foreign feeling to me. The sky in the Forgotten Places ⁠— when it was present ⁠— was pleasant, but this was completely different.

I had almost forgotten this feeling. I smiled

“Hey, um… Arc,” Lily called to me as she reached me.

I turned to face her, she was looking at me all over with confusion and bewilderment in her expression.

“What is it?” I asked.

She tensed for a moment before nodding to herself. “I just wanted to ask how… what… what happened to you?” And she shook her head. “I don’t mean it literally, but you are… you…”

“Me…?” I tilted my head.

“You still feel like a dragon to some extent, but something about you has… changed,” she said hesitantly. “You feel… different, your presence feels weak but when I look at you with one of my skills…”

“Yeah?”

She looked at me all over, her eyes lightly shining with magic, before she finally spoke. “Well, I see… death.” A sigh left her. “I see how easily you can kill me.”

“Right.”

“It just wasn’t there before, so I wanted to ask what exactly happened… you’re still SS Tier, you haven’t reached the fabled SSS, so what… changed?” Lily asked, more hesitant than ever. I could see she was shaking.

“Well…” I turned to look towards the forest we were standing on. My eyes looked at our surroundings full of nature and devoid of danger. “My mana ascended down there, but it seems that part of me also did. I think.”

“You… think? What do you mean by ascended?”

I shook my head. “I’ll explain in a bit, for now how about we go to the nearest town?”

Lily blinked. “Oh, it’s a bit far, I’ll take you there.”

With a nod she distanced herself away and took her dragon form without any hesitation, and then gestured for me to get on her back. Evidently inviting me to use her as my steed. I, of course, took the offer without hesitation and a moment later, she took flight.

“Why do you want to go to the town, don’t we have to get back as soon as possible? Also the nearest place is actually the capital city, Zurm, we are in the continent of Lithar in case you’re wondering.”

“That’s fine, I’m just hungry,” I explained simply, holding my spear between my hands. “Also out of curiosity; Regis’karr told me that for a dragon to do this it’s⁠—”

“I don’t mind,” Lily said simply. “I’ve read plenty of books and I don’t believe in the so-called draconic pride. In the end, for some humans it’s a dream come true, for others it's sacrilege and for me it’s the equivalent of just letting someone get on my back as a human so I can carry them. It’s just an action.”

“Huh I see.”

“More importantly, do you think you could indulge me and tell me about this ascension…? As much as I hate to admit it, I'm deeply curious about what you experienced.” And she tensed. “If that’s okay…” she said in a whisper.

I nodded.

“I’ll tell you then.” I looked at the passing clouds. “Not like I have anything else to do.”

And so I began to regale my not-so-epic tale of constantly running away inside the Forgotten Places. I told her how I met the Hero of Arlas down there and how he wanted me to live down there permanently. Though Lily tried to ask again about the keeper of order but I just said I didn’t know and continued talking. I told her how I could only leave by having a part of me fully corrupted, and how after corrupting my mana I decided to go down that road and try to learn arcane magic⁠—

“Arcane magic?!” She flapped her wings wildly, our world rocking. “That thing is wretched⁠—”

“So anyway, I set out to learn arcane magic and found the notes of a scientist.”

I ignored her reaction and continued telling her about how I met a corrupted being that could speak and had sentience. I told her about Asok. At first Lily was confused but I began to explain the process of ascension, but more importantly where corruption came from and what the Forgotten Places actually were.

After that, she just quietened and I finished by telling her the process of ascension and what the process of ascending mana entailed.

“I see…” She nodded lightly. “You know, fighting corruption in the afterlife sounds ridiculous, but the way you’ve explained it to me… huh… our world is doomed isn’t it?”

“Perhaps,” I mused. “Thousands of civilizations have been felled by it, SSS Tier heroes included. But that time is very far away, so I’ll just enjoy myself.”

Lily nodded again. “I’ve heard heroes come from another world, would you like to return to your world if it’s not in the Forgotten Places already?”

I thought for a moment, I thought of my family and my experiences before training, and I arrived at my answer.

“If I could bring Ceylon along, yes. If not, I don’t see the point.”

“I see… you must really treasure Ceylon then.”

And with that our conversation ended. Half an hour later we landed on a nearby forest, it was less than five minutes away from the capital though the Dragon of Taboo assured me that she had used a spell to ensure our secrecy, which I kind of appreciated ⁠— I didn’t really care at this point, but it was thoughtful of her.

And with that, we headed towards the capital of Lithar, Zurm. According to Lily there were a bunch of dwarves and beastkin around which I hadn’t ever met so that piqued my curiosity. I did however make sure to stow the spear inside the pocket dimension of the Ceremonial Dagger.

Though… when I did it…

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“What is that… dagger… that thing… shouldn’t exist in our world… it shouldn’t…”

Is what Lily had said, but she calmed down after I explained its origins. It was a weird thing. And now, after getting inside the city⁠ ⁠— with Lily’s help since I lost my adventurer’s badge ⁠— we wandered around looking for a restaurant. I also took in the architecture which was rather nice, as for dwarves and beastkin— they stopped being a novelty after I saw like twenty of them.

“Lily, do you mind paying for my meal? Thank you for using your identity as an adventurer to get me in, I never thought you’d be registered as an S Tier one.”

“I don’t mind paying.” She smiled. “I’m glad I could be of help.”

Then she reached for her pockets and paused. After that she patted them and fiddled, and finally she stuck her hand into a separate dimension. Her expression went from slight worry to horror, finally after another second she looked at me.

“I seem to have forgotten my… money, let me go get it⁠—”

“It’s fine, I’ll just find a way to get some,” I said simply.

With that, I dragged Lily around. First I asked about some sort of arena where one could compete but nothing of the sort existed. Then I asked for money but I immediately got looked at as a beggar due to my clothes. And to be honest, that was fair, but I couldn’t be bothered to restore my clothes⁠, and so we headed towards the Adventurer’s Guild.

I opened the double doors much to the amusement of everyone and dragged Lily along which caused a huge mess of whispers⁠— again I didn’t care. Finally we stood before the counter.

“Lily, can you take the fastest monster subjugation that pays well? We can complete it real quick.”

Lily was a shaking mess but slowly nodded. “... I’ll try…”

After that she went to the receptionist and after rewording herself a lot, we got an answer.

“I’m sorry but the only request that meets your requirement has already been taken by a party, they are right now with the Guildmaster.”

“So we can just join their party?” I asked, deciding that Lily was out of her element at this point.

Sadly, the Dragon of Taboo had some form of social anxiety, that or perhaps she was just a massive introvert forced way out of her comfort zone⁠— both were probably true. And so, with a small amount of remorse and giving her a small apology I decided to take matters into my own hands and head for the Guildmaster’s room, much to the panic of the receptionists.

* * * * *

Zalbor couldn’t wait, they had just taken the subjugation of an S Tier monster; a hydra, it was. of course a mere fledgling an adult hydra was easily SS Tier, but even then⁠— Zalbor couldn’t wait. He had been adventuring with his team for over two decades now, and finally they were all going to become S Tier adventurers.

To top it all off, the hydra was present in the city’s dungeon. The entire place had been sectioned off and an emergency request had been called. And that’s how they; the Black Fang had gotten the job, being the only qualified people at the moment.

The briefing from the Guildmaster had lasted thirty minutes and it had just ended. Now, it was time to set off, and today they would achieve their dreams of becoming S Tier.

Zalbor smiled to himself, he had long surpassed the expectations of his old man and the entire tribe but he yearned for more. The other two people in his party seemed happy too. First was Zara, a panther-cat-kin, an attractive woman of yellow fur and the healer.

“I can’t wait to go to a brothel tonight,” she said, smiling to herself.

And the other person was the mage, Nithal, an eccentric bookworm, he just nodded.

Meanwhile Zalbor had other plans, there was a woman he had been eyeing for sometime she was Lily, the S Tier adventurer, people rarely saw her and a lot of people doubted her strength. But Zalbor wanted her, he wanted to make her his, and once he reached S Tier he would ambush her and claim her.

At first, just like his other wives, he was sure she’d be unwilling but given enough time she’d be completely his, just like all others. Zalbor grinned and⁠— heard a commotion outside the door.

“No, you can’t interrupt!”

“Arc, please be patient!”

“Someone stop the girl!”

And the door banged open as a… homeless-woman walked in. Zalbor’s eyes widened⁠— she was attractive. His mind went into overdrive seeing her torn clothes and pale skin, she even had an ice leg⁠— a unique thing⁠— he liked unique girls. All his thoughts ceased as he had to stop himself from immediately doing something, but much to his surprise she was the first one to speak to him.

“Oh, you must be the leader of the Black-whatever, will you let me join in your quest-thing? Lily will come along, she's S Tier.”

“Eh?!” A woman yelped in the background and Zalbor turned only to see Lily in a rather… vulnerable state.

He had never seen the woman so panicked before and at that moment he realized that this was the opportunity of his life.

“Of course!”

* * * * *

Huh that was fast.

Though I smiled as I turned towards the three receptionists that entered the room.

“Well now I’m part of their team so… it doesn’t matter right?”

They blinked, and finally one of the women sighed. “I guess not.”

And she left, before the other two left completely defeated. Lily seemed awkward just standing there but it would be over soon enough. Finally, I turned to look at the man that had accepted me and his party. There was a dwarf with a staff, a stone at its top. He wore robes and a hat. Then there was a beastkin woman that resembled a cheetah on robes and a staff too, and finally there was the warrior who resembled a black wolf in armor.

Beastkin stood on two legs and had largely human anatomy except for having a head most similar to an animal. It was peculiar to me. After taking note of everything, I smiled.

“Well what are we waiting for, let’s go do this request-thing.”

“Do you even know what you’re taking on?” the woman behind the desk asked in a grumble.

[The Elementalist. Tier: S]

She was an elf. She looked young and pretty with golden hair but her frown was something else, she was essentially glaring daggers at me. She was the Guildmaster it seemed.

“I don’t, but I don’t think it matters,” I answered.

“It's a hydra!” she hissed.

“Well, is it SSS Tier?” I asked, raising my brow.

“What? What kind of nonsense are you speaking, girl?” The elf shook her head. “It’s an S Tier hydra, I don’t mean to offend you but you have absolutely no preparation and it seems you’ve already lost a leg for doing that.”

I blinked. “Wait, you're making a big deal out of an S Tier? I think I can kill that pretty easily, you know?”

The elf scoffed. “Then I’d like you to see.” She turned to the man. “Zalbor, she cannot join your party if she doesn’t prove her strength. I’ll personally see to this.”

The man tensed. “What…?”

Clearly he wasn’t paying attention, he had been ogling me the entire time, it was clear he didn’t know what was going on⁠— well he would also look at Lily too. The other party members however, seemed annoyed. The dwarf huffed and the healer⁠—

“Then let’s just leave without her! This is a waste of time anyway!”

“No,” Zalbor said firmly. “I want her in our team.”

“You just want to fuck her,” the healer spat, “fine.”

And with that, the quarrel between the teammates of the Black-whatever had been settled, though that still left the Guildmaster elf. She turned to me, clearly bothered.

“Not getting cold feet now, are you?”

“Not really,” I replied casually.

She stood up. “Good, then let us go.”

“To where?” I raised my brow.

The elf smiled. “To see the hydra of course.”

“Do I get paid if I kill it?” I asked in confusion.

The Guildmaster scoffed. “Worry about surviving first.”

WIth those words she walked out of the room, ignoring the panicked Lily as I heard her voice echo.

“Follow me, Miss-its-just-an-S-Tier.”

Huh.

Well that is convenient.

And so I followed, making a mental note to apologize to Lily once all of this was said and done.