“Stupid Iron Claw, stupid city…” Tim grunted, he was not happy that they were sent out to do another task here. “We're nowhere closer to reaching the Ruins of Aqumus, all because of these damned churches! Fuck their stupid villages, I just want to be a grand ass wizard!”

One could tell from his incomprehensive blurts that he was not happy, his head was steaming in rage! From all of the things that he expected from this universe, he did not expect these sect-like churches, and the insane tasks that they demanded finished. Tim was just a stingray before this, and by the natural order of things, Stingrays weren't supposed to fight dragons!

“Random ass universe,” He grunted.

Those were amongst the many reasons why he was annoyed. Regardless of how creative he was at finding solutions for his challenges, he had still expected a straight forward path towards mana quality improvement. Much like a child, he didn’t want to face any challenges whatsoever, but he still obliged.

Skendus had a different attitude towards this matter. Sure he didn't look forward to fighting a dragon, but he was very eager to explore the city, solely because of the many illusionists that lived there! The entrance guard of the church told him about it, and mentioned that there even was a sect of illusion within the city, so it was fair to say that he was beyond excited to explore his opportunities!

“A sect…” He muttered, and then he vocalized. “There’s a sect of illusion there, guys. Maybe I can finally pick up a book, Arvena, because I'm due to learn something new. My powers have served me well, but they'll hardly help me take a dragon down now, will they?”

“Books are always a good idea,” She nodded, and then jokingly flirted. “Read enough books, and then maybe I'll let you marry me.”

Anyway, they made it to the city, and were directed to the main Guard House with the help of a few fellow men that patrolled the area. The people here were really helpful, and it was likely because they were very comfortable in their own city, they were handy people. Every single goblin of this city was of a single race, and they were considered the superior race by some due to various reasons. They were Fal Goblins.

The team saw a Fal Goblin before, in the nano-universe of Nul, but they only saw a single one of them. The Fal Goblin there helped them get into the Energy Pocket space, where they had a couple of mana brackets removed from their mana quality progress. That journey was quite the experience, but they expected for that race of goblins to be exclusive to Nul, they didn't expect to see hundreds of them in this city! Even Arvena had been oblivious to their existence.

These goblins were typically buff, pale on the skin, four feet tall, and had more hair on their heads than the average goblin. They were considered rather beautiful creatures too, so the team kept ogling every goblin that passed by them!

“Nice,” Tim grinned, to a pair of jiggling butt-cheeks that crossed his path.

Anyway, apart from the fine goblins, the city was very beautiful as well. Considering that there were plenty of mages that practiced sculpting magic in the city, it wasn’t a surprise how every house seemed to have a design of their own. Some houses looked medieval, some made of marble, and some looked like they came out of the twenty-first century from earth! The only thing that was missing here was electricity, and if they had electricity, they'd truly be the most superior race on the planet!

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“God damn, that house looks like two snakes fucking!” Tim pointed out, he was amazed.

It was easy to get lost in this city, especially since there weren't any protective walls surrounding it to keep them on track. They had to be attentive, as they couldn't admire this place forever, so with enough effort, they found the main Guard House that they were supposed to visit.

They were welcomed there very formally, and quickly, so it was obvious that the guards had intercepted plenty of such ‘volunteers’ before. They knew what they were doing.

The team were invited to the Guard Master's office, where they had a chat regarding what was to follow. He was very direct.

“Hello, I'm Guard Master Zedim, please make yourselves comfortable.” He said, and then he asked. “Okay, so, can any of you shoot fireballs? We need mages with offensive powers.”

“Fireballs and lightning bolts,” Tim raised his hand, “Amongst other things.”

“I can shoot fireballs as well,” Arvena added, since they were being direct here. “Just fireballs, though, nothing else.”

Zedim then looked at the other two members of the team, and wanted to get an answer out of them without asking for it. The Guard Master looked like a bear with this set of big, luscious, and curly hair of his, so he was very good at putting some pressure on the bunch.

“No balls from me, just spears.” Ortana joked around.

“Spears?” Zedim nodded, “That's a new one.”

Skendus was the only one that didn't answer. He didn't have any powers that were directly offensive, and he wasn't worried about looking stupid because of that, no, but he was nervous to explain what branch of magic he practiced. It might not be intercepted well.

“I'm an illusionist, so…” He tried to speak, but the other cut his words short.

“That's not a problem, head over to the Floating Pupil sect, and learn a couple of offensive powers for yourself. Dragons tend to be immune to cognitive attacks, so don't try to hypnotize them if you ever face one, or whatever it is you do. You should also learn the duplicate illusion, it tends to be effective if you're a runner.” Zedim explained, he was quite thorough.

However, this was exactly the kind of treatment that Skendus had feared, this was worse than being ridiculed. Sure he wanted to read a bunch of books here, and learn new skills, but he didn’t want to be treated like an imbecile, just because he couldn’t shoot fireballs. Though illusionists didn't typically burn people alive, they were still dangerous, and the very opposite of imbeciles as a matter of fact! His head was steaming, he was not happy.

Then, Zedim added. “Do not take part in any covert actions this week, not unless you learned the three main offensive attacks. Find the sect, we’ll be in touch.”

Skendus was then asked to leave the room. This overall treatment from the Guard Master's side seemed harsh, but in reality he didn't want to have any one of his volunteers die due to being underprepared, as the latter was one of the greatest ways to lose any decent manpower that a domain had!

Anyway, after Skendus left, Zedim then turned his attention to the rest of the team, and said. “Iron Claw the Wicked is an evil, old dragon, and he is not someone to be trifled with, so I'm going to need all of you to be prepared for anything. At the very least, you should know how to stay alive, so go to the training yard behind us, and have a trainer assess your abilities. They'll tell you what you're lacking, and they won't waste your time, because the gods know that Iron Claw isn't wasting any time either...”