'How should I report this to Father?' Seres thought to herself as she stalked the palace's halls. 'He told me not to interfere with the lives of those teenagers, but surely I'll have to protect them after this. How can I arrange for that to happen without going against Father's orders?'
Seres frowned. She didn't like Lone Immortus. He was too good at causing trouble despite his infantile age. And Sofia Vladimirovich terrified her, enough so that she had fled the moment she was done convincing Lady Carnation to leave just as Barund the Unskilled had.
'What a mess that child's unique skill has caused. Perhaps I should arrange for them to get in contact with that group of heroes? What was their name again... Ah, yes, the Extraterrestrial Alliance. They could protect them from those who cannot control their urge to stick their nose where it does not belong,' Seres thought.
It was decided then. She would continue to keep the group under surveillance as her father had instructed, and she would only send a single letter to a distant acquaintance. There would be no further interference from her than that. Surveillance was her objective after all, not protection.
She was simply doing what she could within her capacity as the daughter of the man whom Lone Immortus considered to be a friend.
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"Master Mezro'nan, meet Hazel, Emma, George, Alisa, and this guy, Scott. Guys, meet the X-ranked independent master of earth and body fortification magic, Master Mezro'nan," Lone introduced as he recreated Scott's body once again. "How should they refer to you? Lord Master Mezro'nan doesn't roll off the tongue, does it?"
"Lord Mezro'nan will do," the Restodian Iglaform answered. "What you jussst did to hisss body... That wasss a type of magic I have never ssseen before."
"It was a unique skill," Lone replied candidly. "Scott here has one too. He used it on me and improved it, which resulted in him almost dying. His rank is too low to host the evolution his aura is going through as a result."
"Wha-! You can't just tell a stranger that!" Hazel protested.
"He's been honest with me all day even if our first meeting was a bit rough, and if it gets out Scott is a summoned hero, he'll be the first person I hunt down, capture, and potentially murder," Lone replied casually. "As for my own unique skill, tonnes of people know I'm a hero already. It's not a big deal."
"Essspecially when you can ssso easssily threaten an X-ranker and have sssaid X-ranker believe you to be wholly capable of what you promissse. I will sssign a contract ensssuring my sssilence on thisss matter. Any mage worth hisss weight in ruby-gold coinsss isss ready to learn and keep very sssensssative sssecretsss private until the day he diesss," Master Mezro'nan answered as he approached Lone and Scott curiously. "I have a few unwritten contractsss that will activate once termsss have been put upon them and they have been sssigned. Do you have the time to do ssso now, or doesss he require your full attention?"
"He does require my full attention, but I have a second unique skill for contracts. Unbreakable contracts, specifically, unlike regular contract magic," Lone remarked. "We'll do that later. In the meantime, watch as I work and mask his aura with yours, would you? I don't want anyone still interested in us to see what I'm doing or know this is going to take hours of work."
"I very much doubt anyone to be ssso foolisssh given Lady Ssseresss'sss warning, but I will oblige. There isss no harm in being careful," Master Mezro'nan nodded his big scaly head.
Hazel shared a concerned look with Emma while Alisa was on the verge of tears. She clearly wanted to approach Scott but was simply incapable of doing so thanks to his gushing aura.
'See? He's experienced enough to be unfazed by heroes and smart enough to not question me claiming having more than one unique skill,' Lone said to Soph, glancing at her as she leaned against the wall next to Breena who was sweating profusely.
The girl seemed to be trying to inch closer to Scott to train herself, which Lone wholly approved of.
Soph smiled at Lone and replied, 'I know, just don't forget the contract, okay?'
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"He seems stable now," Lone said, wiping his brow as he stored his mana orb that Soph had charged for him over a dozen times in the last couple of hours.
"How amazing," Master Mezro'nan said. "You recreated hisss mana organsss to be awakened. What a truly powerful unique ssskill you posssesss, Lord Immortusss."
"I almost went into mana debt for it, but it seemed a waste for him to get a copied portion of my MP only for it be unusable. Plus, if you do decide to teach him, there's not much you can do if he can't use magic yet, right?" Lone grinned. 'I wonder if the process of my Creation Magic awakening mana organs is studiable and reproducible? Not likely, so I won't be running that idea by Yulia anytime soon.'
"H-He's really okay, right?" Alisa asked in worry, approaching the boy twice her size before carefully lifting his head and placing it onto her lap.
Hazel gave him a look that spoke of a thousand rolled eyes. He smiled at her, fully understanding her meaning.
"Yup. Once he wakes up, he'll be as strong as your average B-ranker. Honestly, the guy might be the strongest H-ranker on the planet," Lone replied.
Master Mezro'nan shook his head. "No, that is unlikely. He will be up there, yesss, but not the ssstrongessst. I alssso doubt he will be an H-ranker for long. Asss sssoon asss he reachesss the end of the H-ranker levels, I doubt he will need enlightenment and will bursst ssstraight through to G-rank."
"True, true. Well, Soph, Breena, and I, should be off. Shame we couldn't stay for longer, but we've got a quest to do," Lone said as he got up and stretched his back. "I'll get that contract written up for you and we'll be on our way."
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"I ssshall remain once you depart if I'm welcome. I wisssh to ssspeak to the boy once he regainsss consssciousssnesss," the X-ranker claimed.
"I don't mind, Lord Mezro'nan," Emma said, to which Hazel nodded.
"C-Can you help him if he starts d-dying again?" Alisa asked.
Master Mezro'nan nodded his large Komodo dragon-like head and replied, "Yesss. Lord Immortus hasss done the dragon'sss ssshare of the work, but if he hasss an episssode, I can ussse body reinforcement magic to ssstabalissse him."
"T-Then please stay, Lord Mezro'nan," the girl of Polish descent pleaded.
Lone knew that look in the lizard's eyes. It was one he was too familiar with. After all, he saw the same look in his reflection.
'Got a hunger for his unique skill, do ya?' Lone commented internally. 'All the better bait to get you to teach him and tie you to me then.'
George stepped out of the kitchen, a frosted sponge cake in one hand, a pile of plates and a knife in the other. "At least wait a couple of minutes for me to cut you some slices before you leave. Who knows if you'll still be in the city come tomorrow morning?"
"Too true," Lone laughed. "That smells amazing."
"Um, can I join you on your quest?" Hazel asked from Lone's side.
Lone raised an eyebrow. "I don't mind, but all of the enemies are for Breena."
"T-That's fine. I just, uh, wanna see how you run things since, y'know, our quest with the slimes didn't go great," Hazel confessed.
"Can we all go?" Emma asked as her greedy fingers got swatted away from the cake by George.
"No. Soph and I will be busy enough keeping Breena from dying as she fights. One tag-along is all I'm comfortable with," Lone said decisively. "Besides, Alisa will be staying until Scott wakes up, and surely you all have some questions for a powerful X-ranked mage?"
Emma pouted as she held her hand and rubbed it a bit. "Bummer... but you're not wrong. Uh, Lord Mezro'nan, I'm sorry if this is rude, but what species are you?"
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As they left the city, Lone, now back in his Bob the Crimson Foxkin disguise, asked his sister, "One last time, ya sure you wanna come with? You don't exactly have the stats to ignore sleep deprivation like I do, or the willpower for it like Samantha and Sarah."
"Backhanded insult aside, thanks for that by the way, yeah, I do. I'm the leader of our group as you are of yours. I wanna take pointers. Even if you're trying to rank up, uh, Sarah, you're still going to take it seriously despite the quest being beneath your skill level, right?" Hazel asked as she gave him some side-eye.
Lone nodded. "Of course. I'm fine with it since you've thought things out. Remember though, you're just watching. I can take all five of you out another time where I'm the watcher and you're the doers. You almost died to slimes, and not even powerful ones, just basic ones. You definitely need practical experience."
He watched as his sister blushed in a mix between shame and anger. "It awakened my mana organs, at least. And what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, right?"
"For me, yeah, but you try losing a limb or organ and then tell me it made you stronger," Lone laughed. "Well, let's get going then. The monsters we need to kill are only active for about three hours, and while the request asked for their eyeballs, we're after enlightenment, so gotta catch 'em while they're awake."
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Things were going well. They had entered the cave system that hosted a number of different monster species, and with Soph's Mana Sensing, their target, a colony of small bugs the size of a child's hand had been found.
Nightseeker Ants was the creature's species. Their quest was to get at least forty sets of eyes from them, but they also had to make sure they didn't wipe out the whole colony. While the ants weren't particularly strong on their own - being weaker than an I-ranker individually, they had a powerful venom that could paralyse even a B-ranker, upon which they would eat the victim alive.
A perfect enemy for Breena to train against. She was doing amazingly well too, and from Lone's estimates, it wouldn't be too long before she ranked up. He and Soph just had to make sure she didn't get bitten in such a way that didn't take from the stress of the situation. Quite a delicate process, in truth.
Hazel was sitting against the cave's wall taking notes in English on a notepad Lone had created for her.
Sadly, the nice yet almost-deadly situation for Breena was ruined when Soph frowned, looked towards where the cave's mouth would be, then used Void Walking for a second before reappearing. She then returned to watching Breena before speaking to Lone telepathically.
'There's a demon at the cave's entrance. It's pretty weak. Probably about as strong as a G-ranker. It's hiding. Sophie felt something was wrong so I went and checked for fluctuations in the void, and yup, it's just sitting there waiting for something, likely for us to come out,' she relayed.
'Think it's a messenger for Zel? Gonna ambush us when we leave and ask me to follow it so he and I can have a chat?' Lone asked.
Soph replied, 'I dunno. Maybe? Could be a test too. Sophie says it could be rigged to explode as soon as it sees us as an experiment to see how much Zel can manoeuvrer around your contract in an attempt to kill us.'
'Yeah, I could see that. Either way, it's best for me to go confront it. Better just me than all of us. Is it just right where we entered? And keep looking after Breena. If it's for a chat, I won't leave your range, if it wants to explode, well, you have one of my backup fingers, and if that strategy doesn't pan out, Minor Time Control, though I doubt it can kill me in one go,' Lone decided.
'Yeah, it is. To the left, ten metres from the signpost, in a bush with purple leaves,' Soph said.
Lone nodded and then, for the first time since his fight with Guildmaster Brux, he applied his Agility. "Survivor's Speed," he said much too quickly for anyone here but himself to understand.
The next moment, the wind was whipping around him as a choking sound filled his ears, coming from the demon whose neck was being squeezed in his hand.
The creature was small, about the height of a child, and it's skin was a blackish orange. It looked malnourished and it only had one leg. Not by virtue of missing a second one, no. Its sole leg was central to its body, meaning the demon likely hopped to move around.
It was completely bald save a tiny flicker of yellow fire at the peak of its head. The thing had four eyes and no nose nor lips, only a single row of unending jagged teeth that went all the way around its head.
"You are hideous. Did Zel send you?" Lone asked, his grip tightening.
It nodded as it cackled wildly. It struggled to point eastward with one hand as the other battered against Lone's arm pointlessly. "Master's Master, waiting!"
Lone held the demon by the neck as he walked towards where it had pointed but stopped just short of Soph's maximum Mana Sensing range. He had, of course, also stopped applying his Agility since it was a real drain on his SP.
"If you want to talk, this is as far as I'm willing to go to do so. Therefore, the first question of hopefully many, do you want to talk, Zel?" Lone asked as he summoned a stone chair from his Dimensional Storage, sat on it, then snapped the neck of the demon he was strangling before immediately storing its corpse for latter examination.
A sigh rang out as Arch Devil Zel stepped through a portal of hellish demonic flames. "I do, yes. Did you really need to kill her? I confess, she wasn't the most charming belle of the ball, no, but her summoner was very fond of her laugh."
'Do you feel any people around us?' Lone asked Soph before he replied, "Just as you don't need to try to kill me, no, I didn't need to kill her. But if you're doing something I don't like, I may as well try to return the favour. I'm sure you agree. Your flames aren't as hot as I remember. Did you have a trim recently?"
Zel laughed. "No, though it's very nice of you to turn your growth into an appreciation of my finer features. Tell me, what does your minor Luck deity have to say in response to your question, Lone?"
'No, I don't feel anyon- What? Can he hear us talking like this?!' Soph panicked telepathically.