-----V-----

Two days later we arrived back to the mansion, there was a crowd of artifact hunters, eagerly waiting to be picked.

We didn‘t do much in the city, we just looked around, not much else. Ethan was curious about the planet continents, so he found a place that had the entire map of the planet. There were a few other continents, and it showed who owned them. Humans and lizards have equal amounts of territory, but this map could be old. I discovered that humans and lizards don‘t usually go to war, they mostly have a non-aggression pact between each other. But the faction that is on this continent, the Dynami Empire, is the most warlike faction and doesn't have a pact. They are the most dangerous lizard faction around, and of course, Ethan and I needed to be transported close to them.

„Let‘s get closer, they are about to call out who would be able to go on the quest.“

We walked behind the crowd and I looked around. I only saw two others with shields, one of them being the guy that Nia hacked. Then I noticed a handful with blasters.

„Shit,“ I muttered to myself.

„What‘s up?“ Ethan asked.

„It is going to be a low possibility of me joining.“

„Are you sure? I am pretty sure the booth guy liked your weapon, what did you exactly write on the paper he gave you?“

„Just what he needed to know. I am great at thinking up something fast when I am in a bad situation, only if I have the things around me that would help, of course.“

„With my luck, you would likely be selected.“

„ . . . .“

Ethan, your luck is utter shit.

„Welcome hunters!“

We looked up and saw an old butler standing on a platform.

„We have carefully examined all your weapons and listened to all of you. The selection has been made, ten of you would be granted this quest.“

Ten? Ah, crap. There are quite a lot of hunters around.

„Hey, I can‘t see!“ Nia said while jumping, trying to look over all the other hunters.

„Here, jump on my back,“ Reve said.

„I can? Yay!“ She smiled happily and Reve lifted her up on his shoulders. Now it really looks like Reve is her dad.

The butler pulled out a piece of paper. And he started to call out names and people started coming up. I hardly listened, I just waited until a familiar name came up. Then it did.

„Roderick Reve! The man wielding the great war ax, come up!“

„Huh, I got in,“ Reve put Nia back down and walked towards the three others. Only six spots remained.

„Ethan, can I sit on your shoulders?“

„Eh. . .“

„Pleaseeee?“ Nia changed to her innocent cute face and looked straight towards Ethan‘s eyes.

„Eh, fine,“ Ethan crouched down for her.

She smiled and was lifted up into the air.

Ethan is way to good with children, he would likely be a good father. Unlike me, I don‘t like having kids around.

The butler said two more names, then there were only four spots left.

„Next is, Nia. . . Unknown-Name? The girl wielding the artifact gauntlets!“

„Yippee!“ She jumped down from Ethan and started to skip towards the others.

„Then there is only us, typical.“

„Three spots left. I have high hopes.“

„Next is. . .“

Come on, at least Ethan, either one of us will do.

„Ethan Shield! The one wielding the shield that will protect us!“

„Well would you look at that, I am lucky,“ Ethan walked to the group.

I noticed the other two shielders getting angry. Sorry dudes.

„Next is. . .“

I don‘t really need to join any longer. All I needed was Ethan or me to join in, but now he would need to help the others to finish the quest. If only Reve and Nia would have been selected from our group, then it might be harder for my next plan that would be in the banquet after the quest.

He read out the next name, it wasn‘t mine. Only one spot left to go.

„Then the last person to be selected. . .“

I noticed that there hasn‘t been a single blaster wielder to come up, wouldn‘t it be good to have a few with blasters?

„Braxton Yorik. . .“ There it is, not my name, it would have been fun to join in on the quest, what am I going to do now?

„The one wielding the two artifact blasters!“

Did he just say two? What the hell? I thought it was only possible to wield one?

I looked up towards the man. He wore a long black cloak with tints of red, and he has a cowboy‘s hat on and a mask covering his face. The mask had lines of glowing red, it reminded me of Amara‘s helmet. It was only a mask, so I could see his short black hair from behind. I barely noticed his blasters that were in his cloak. I also saw his light armor from within his cloak. He seriously looked like a gunslinger. He had much better gear than me, of course, they would pick him.

Ethan looked surprised. It really didn‘t make sense for him to look surprised, he should have expected that I wouldn‘t get picked. Or maybe he was surprised that his luck didn‘t work for me.

„Now that the selection is over, the rest of you can go.“

People walked past me and mumbled curse words and others gnawed their teeth, looking irritated. I didn‘t go yet, I had a few questions.

„You!“ I pointed to the gunslinger. „How come you have two artifact weapons?“

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He glanced towards me, but then looked the other way, ignoring me.

That piece of shit. I don‘t like getting ignored.

„Hey! Would you answer me!?“

He didn‘t move.

„I am sorry, but you have to leave,“ the butler said.

I sighed.

„Ethan, I am going to wait down the road, I like to talk to you when you are finished up here,“ I started walking away.

-----E-----

„Now then, if you all would please follow me to the mansion, there we would talk about the quest in more detail,“ the old butler said.

We started following the man to the mansion.

„Well, that was not fun,“ Nia suddenly said.

„There were quite a lot of blasters around, he had a low chance in joining us. Wait, you wanted him to come with us?“

„Just so I could mess with him!“ She smiled broadly.

I honestly thought he would have been picked. I guess I was wrong then.

„Hey, butler,“ I walked to the man. „How come we aren‘t bringing more people with blasters, their range and power could help us, right?“

„Blasters are quite powerful, you are correct.“

„Then why only bring one?“

„The blasters use a lot of energy than other artifacts, like swords and shields. It would be inconvenient to have the blaster wielders to hide while they recharge their artifacts.“

Ah, that makes sense. So it was the obvious choice to choose the guy with the two blasters. How he has two is beyond me. Vincent tried asking him but he was ignored, so I am not going to get anything from him, am I?

We entered the mansion, there were a dozen guards around standing close to the walls. None of them had artifact weapons, they only had normal swords.

The butler opened up the door to the meeting hall and motioned us to come inside. We walked and took our seats.

„Now then, Sir Franek Quenton will be with you shortly, he will explain the details,“ the butler left the room.

Franek? I think I heard that he is the son of Alfric Quenton, the owner of the mansion. So he is likely the brother of Elishia.

I looked around while we waited. The other hunters had swords, axes, and such. There was also a girl with a bow. So we only had two rangers, the bow girl and the gunslinger. Nia could also use range attacks with her grenades and hacked artifact weapons, but she didn‘t have any other artifact weapons on her.

I also noticed a second girl with gauntlets that looked like Nia‘s, but there was a zettra stone attached to hers. I wonder if it could also hack?

The doors opened and came in Franek with the butler in tow.

Franek had the look of a knight, a handsome face, silver-blonde hair, pure blue eyes. For some reason, I felt like punching him. His belt carried an artifact sword with golden energy color. He wore an artifact light armor, with a white coat with tints of gold that extended just passed his knees.

„Welcome artifact hunters!“ He had the tone of a leader. He is likely famous around here. „My name is Sir Franek Quenton, you can just call me Sir Franek.“

Ugh, do I really have to use Sir, every time? Couldn‘t I just call him Franek?

„You all were carefully chosen for this quest. It‘s really rare to find a map to an artifact vault, we must go there and acquire the artifact there before the dynami would find it.“

Eh. . . If he is scared of the dynami getting it, then why wouldn‘t he get the army for this? And do the dynami even know about the vault? Wasn‘t a group of hunters that found the vault first?

„Here, Sir,“ the butler gave Franek a map, and he place it on the table.

Franek pointed to the South-East part of Mount Kamlin.

„There is the vault, really close to the Dynami Empire‘s border. We are going on a carriage to Kamlin Gate, there we will walk the rest of the way.“

Kamlin Gate. When I inspected a map earlier I saw that Mount Kamlin had a gate in the middle that splits the mountain range into two parts. The Western where Vincent and I went up to deliver supplies to that one guy, then there is the Eastern part, the Eastern mountain isn‘t as tall as the West.

„When we enter the vault we will encounter giant insects that look like centipedes, then when we go further we might find different kinds of insects or monsters.“

A man with a sword raised his hand, Franek noticed and let him speak.

„Are you coming with us? Cause it sounds like it.“

„Of course, I can‘t let artifact hunters run around with our key and map of the vault.“

So that would bring us to eleven people.

„Do we only have information about the centipedes? Do we not know anything else?“ The girl with the bow asked.

„The hunters that originally had the vault map told us about the bugs, but they didn‘t go past the queen centipede, so they don‘t know much else. In vaults, there are usually a few insect queens from different species that co-exist with each other. So be prepared to meet something that we haven‘t seen before.“

„What are our roles in this?“ Reve asked.

„I‘ll talk about it after a bit. When we arrive at the gate and we start walking to the vault entrance, we need to be careful due to strange activities with the dynami.“

„Strange activities?“

„The dynami have been seen around the Western part of Mount Kamlin, no one knows why. So we must be prepared to face them if they are in our way, I would want to avoid them as much as possible.“

Maybe the dynami are looking for the vault, but shouldn‘t there only be one map of the vault? And it should be easy to find the vault with the map, I think.

„Now, to our roles. Could I get all of your names first, I maybe should have asked from the beginning, sorry for my rudeness.“

We told our names, but I kinda forgot most of the others. I really should train my brain to remember names. But there was one name that caught my attention and it would likely be stuck for some time. It was the bow wielder, her name was Ivy Rihru. Her last name was the same as Ivona‘s. Does she have a sister? She looks older than Ivona, maybe she didn‘t want to talk about her or something. I couldn‘t really see her face due to her having a hood on.

Franek told to the melee fighters they would be the frontline, including Reve. Franek assigned those that would be the right flank and the left flank if we would encounter a giant queen. We had six people that have artifact close range weapons that included swords, axes, and spears. Then two main artifact rangers, the bow, and the gunslinger. Then three supports, me, with the shield, Nia, with her hacks and grenades, then the last person that had similar gauntlets like Nia‘s. Apparently, her gauntlets can heal wounds, I would guess she transfers Nanos to the wound and it would seal it up. I shivered at the thought.

I wonder what Franek wants Nia to do, it‘s not like he wants to blow the entire vault to pieces, right? Maybe there is something needs hacking?

„Ethan, you stay close to the frontline and protect the others from attacks, and if the rangers and the other supports are in danger, I need you to then help them.“

I nodded. Of course, I am supposed to defend, what else? My crap sword wouldn‘t do that much.

„Letya, I need you to mostly stay close to Ethan, then heal up those who get hurt.“

So I will stay close to her, okay, now remember. Letya Letya Letya, don‘t you forget that name! Letya Letya Letya. . .

„What about me?“ Nia asked.

„I have heard that you can use other artifact weapons, so if we find artifact weapons that would be useful for finishing the vault, then I need you to use them.“

He does know that when Nia hacks artifact weapons, they would disintegrate into nothingness, right?

„Psst, Nia,“ I moved closer to her. „Did you tell them that your hacks will destroy the artifact weapons?“

She looked up towards me with a smile.

„Nope!“

„Ehhhh. . .“

I didn‘t know what to say. I guess she wouldn‘t have been picked if she told them the truth. God, I hope we don‘t find artifact weapons for her. This small devil would be the end of us.

Franek kept on going about tactics and we kept on questioning him. Until finally after an hour, we left the building.

The gunslinger, Braxton, didn't say much in the meeting, didn't he have anything to say? Oh, whatever.

We are going to meet up tomorrow down at the gates of Tyrida where we would go onto carriages that would take us to Kamlin Gate.

I looked around for the bow girl, Ivy, but she disappeared somewhere.

„So what are you going to do when they find out about your defects?“ I asked Nia.

„I would just laugh it out and say it was a malfunction.“

I stared blankly at her.

I saw Vincent in the distance, I told the others to go on ahead while I talked privately to Vincent.

„So, how was the meeting?“ He asked.

„Well, I found out that we would be accompanied by the noble‘s son.“

„Really?“ His eyebrows raised. „Maybe it would be good for you to know him better, so he would trust you more.“

„Why?“

„To get closer to our target, of course!“

„I really hate that you are making me do all the work. You were the one that was asked for this quest.“

„Well, too bad. I need you to finish this quest so we can go back to space.“

„Yeah yeah, I will do it.“

We walked to the tavern. I would feel sad about leaving the new friends that I made here. Maybe I would come back later, or I could even show Nia and others what is beyond their skies. No, I would likely break so many galactic rules then, I should just leave with Vincent and no one else.