Making my way through the snowy roads while holding Alice’s hand, I saw the Guild just ahead of us. It’s been two weeks, and all I’ve been doing is training in the underground cave of Flowing River. It was the same exercises I had been doing before, except much more intense. Halone had been away, so Tael had assisted me while I got used to my new strength. He hadn’t had much of a reaction towards my changes, and from the sparring we had done he seemed impressed by how much stronger I had gotten.
Alice had spent the time with Ken and learnt a new spell, Darkness of the Heart. It was the same spell I had been influenced by in the Dungeon, a spell that swayed the negative emotions within the target, causing them to become enraged, easily controlling them. Sighing, I looked at the sky, a bright blue with some cloud covering. It would be a waning moon tonight, meaning I could meet Tessa.
Entering the Guild, I felt hostile stares glaring at me before they turned away. Looking at those who had glared at me, I found a group of Silver Grades pretending that I didn’t exist. Knowing this was likely due to them knowing what happened in the Battlefield of Eternity, I ignored them as well as the curious glances others threw my way. Walking up to the counter, I asked an attendant for Elise, and after a wait, she came out.
“You’re finally here. Now, before we begin, I want Alice to take the test to become an adventurer. Do you mind, Alisha?”
Looking at Alice, I smiled and told Elise I was fine with it. Turning to another attendant, they quickly introduced themselves.
“I am Barry. I’ll handle young Alice’s test and registration. We’ll also provide her with an identification necklace as well. Don’t worry about the fees, we’ll handle that.”
“Thank you. Alice, go on with Barry. Do as he says, ok?”
“Alice ok!” Giving me a bright smile, Alice quickly followed behind Barry. Some adventurers and attendants must’ve found the sight strange, and looking at it I knew why. Alice seemed like a normal child, if you ignored the wings and talons, and having a child apply to the Guild would seem strange, especially as she is level 1.
“Right, now we should get started. I’ll tell you once everything is sorted, but we need to get this done quickly. I have some important information for you.” Tilting my head at Elise, she turns and leads me down another hallway. After a few minutes of walking, we arrived once again in a large room, where Xander sat, waiting.
“Xander will be elevating you today. Usually it’ll be a Platinum Grade, but Xander seemed eager to see you again.” Hearing a voice behind me, I turn and see Amanda leaning against the wall, smiling slightly.
“Incorrect, I merely wished to ensure the Branch Masters disciple is assessed correctly.” With a snort, Xander stood with his arms crossed, facing the arena in the middle of the room.
“Ah, a perfect excuse! Then I’m also here for that reason.” Chuckling, Amanda walked over and stood besides Xander as Elise leads me towards the arena.
Facing me, Elise looked at me as the atmosphere around here turned serious. Before I could say anything, a pressure radiated out from here…killing intent.
With a word, Elise waved a hand. A domain spread around quickly, and quickly getting on guard, I knew the assessment had already started. The domain finished expanding, leaving us in a rocky terrain, the land was dry, cracks ran along the ground and the shrubs that were scattered around were browning. I could tell, this domain was powerful. Looking around for Elise, I heard a voice boom out.
“Foolish. You came here during the day. Without your domain nor the night sky, you can not produce energy for your Lunar magic. Now, die.” Frowning at her words, I sensed an attack coming from behind and dodged. However, the moment I moved hundreds of vines shot from the ground, wrapping around an arm and leg. In the next second, a large earthen spike shot out of seemingly nowhere, heading right towards my head.
Turning with the vines, I dodge the attack as more vines erupted out of the ground, wrapping themselves around my other arm and leg, holding me firmly. They pulled, as if trying to drag me to the ground. Suddenly, I could smell water…below me? Realising what Elise was trying to do, I stopped trying to gauge her strength and used all of mine.
Snapping the vines easily, I dash forward quickly as an eruption of boiling water shot up from where I had been a second ago. Turning my head around, I tried to locate Elise, but couldn’t. I couldn’t even pick up her unique smell, everything here smelled like dirt.
“I know every detail about you. Instead of sight, your smell is your most threatening sense. Your countermeasures are lacking.”
Wondering what she meant, suddenly an overwhelmingly disgusting smell entered my nose. As I immediately started working on tuning the smell out, I found I couldn’t. No, I could, but the smell was changing every few seconds! The smell overwhelmed me as I tried to think of what to do before the smell immobilised me, and quickly I thought of a way to get rid of the smell.
Visualising a huge swirl of wind around me, I created a tornado that quickly drove the smell away and kept it maintained. The wind kicked up the dust, creating a smokescreen around me as I realised quickly that I had blinded myself. Knowing it was either this or to deal with the smell, I opted to expand the tornado so I had ten metres of space around myself.
“Clever. You’re still full of openings and a glaring weakness.”
Sensing a presence nearby, I quickly look towards it. At the same time, I heard a sound behind me as something gripped my tail, hard. Hissing in pain, I turn my head to see a large hand made of earth gripping my tail as I once again become ensnared. Smelling water once again, I quickly thought of what to do.
Reaching behind me without looking, I grab the earthen hand and crush it, leaping back at the last second as boiling water shoots out once again. Gritting my teeth, I knew this couldn’t go on, I had to find Elise and end this quickly.
“Entrapping and blinding yourself, unable to find an escape. You’ve made yourself an easy target.” Hearing her voice ring out, I now knew why Elise was an advisor. She’s strong, picking me apart, not giving me a single second to breathe. Rock bullets fly through the tornado, and as I dodge them I also deal with vines, rock hands and water.
Suddenly, I sensed a weakness within the domain, and as I’m about to take advantage of it, my instincts screamed out danger. Holding the impulse to spread my domain, the weakness I felt disappeared. Was that a trap? Biting my lip, I kept calm while thinking, going through anything I could do, but my magic was either close range or used my entire mana pool.
Lullaby wouldn’t work, the sound of the wind and level difference would prevent it working. Astral Ice Spikes could only work if I knew where she was. My eyes weren’t working, either she wasn’t using an illusion or it was too high level.
Frowning, something clicked in my mind. My eyes…Going through constellations, I remembered Artemis, who I used for Starfall. What if I use the first portion of the spell, using moonlight energy to tag my enemy, and use my eyes to track them? Artemis represented Hunting, in addition to the Bow and Arrow, which included tracking.
Visualising the constellation of Artemis, I spread moonlight energy within me as far as I could while keeping a clear image of Elise in my mind, keeping the amount of energy used low. Keeping the constellation in mind, I pushed a small amount of Celestial Eclipse mana into my eyes. Looking around, I quickly saw a blue outline, some distance from me, about two seconds with my speed. Pretending I hadn’t noticed, I kept looking around.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
“A weak and feeble magic like that won’t do you any good now. I'm bored of this, you’re not ready, it’s time to end it.”
Two large hands emerged from the ground either side of me as vines once again bound me. Taking a steady breath, I put my plan into action, it was now or never. Holding my breath, I snapped my neck onto the blue outline, tensed my legs and shot right towards it, shooting right out of the tornado while tearing the vines off my arms.
Tael had taught me something. A domain didn’t require the user to mentally focus to maintain, however a sudden blow to the user can disrupt it completely for all but a second.
Bursting through a bush, I saw Elise who looked at me in shock, and before she could react, I threw a punch, striking her in the jaw, hard. And in that moment, her domain shook. I knew this wasn’t a trap, and I took advantage of it.
“Domain!” It expands, shattering hers quickly as she recovers and looks at me in shock. Applying Lunar Blessing to myself as my body became strengthened, I didn’t give her a chance and used Flowing Strikes. She however invoked earth all around her body, protecting herself, but I did not give her a chance to make any distance as my voice rang out cleanly while punching.
“Sleep well, and don’t you fear.”
“Shit!” Hearing panic in Elise’s voice, she quickly took a step back as a thick wall of earth appeared between us. Using my full strength, I smashed through the wall quickly as I saw her moving her hands up to her ears. Wordlessly, I used Wind Explosion at her with as much strength as I could, knocking her off balance and preventing her from plugging her ears.
“For the moon will always be near; guiding you through the darkest of nights.”
Her eyes started to glaze and without hesitation she made a spike of earth and stabbed it into her leg in an attempt to escape the Lullaby. But I knew it was too late as I continued to strike her, destroying her earthen armour.
“Close your eyes and drift away; into a land of make-believe; where all your dreams shall be received.”
Elise’s eyes glazed over, but they very quickly started regaining their clarity, but it was enough. Lightly grabbing her throat, I held it as the clarity returned to them. Looking at me then my hand, Elise held her hands up.
“You got me. Congratulations.” Smiling softly at me, I knew that it had ended as my domain collapsed and I let go of her. “So that energy you released was used to find me? Clever, I’d thought you were trapped, but it turns out you had everything handled.” Lightly ruffling my hair, Elise giggled. “Your punches hurt a bit you know? Either way, you handled yourself exceptionally.” As she says that, she looked towards Xander and Amanda.
“D Rank, Gold Grade of course.” Speaking firmly, Amanda gave me a small nod.
“No. C Rank, tentatively B rank.” Xander spoke next as he looked at Amanda. “I’d agree on D Rank if she fell for the domain trap, but she didn’t. I believe C Rank is acceptable.”
“Ah, no, she trapped herself too easily. If it wasn’t for creating a new spell so quickly to find Elise, she’d not been able to escape. D Rank.”
“She created a new spell and adapted to the situation instantly. She handled everything thrown at her with exceptional skill. C Rank.”
As Xander and Amanda argue back and forth, Elise sighed. Giving me a stiff smile, she pats me on the back. “Good work. Keep getting stronger. You’re so much more powerful than you were before.”
“Fine. C Rank, but she isn’t tentatively B Rank.” Amanda sighs and looks towards me, giving me a nod before disappearing into flames. Xander frowned, looked at Elise and said “You know what to do.” before leaving.
Leading me out of the room, we entered a smaller one. “Wait here, I need to arrange a few things.” Leaving with a smile, Elise closed the door as I sat back. Recalling the fight, I knew that I had been tested to see if I could handle certain situations. Strangely I hadn’t seen a System notification about the spell I had thought I had created. Was it a part of Star Gaze, or was it not complete enough?
Hearing the door open ten minutes later, Elise sat down with a notepad and a Gold metal plate. “Hand me your Bronze Grade plate.” Doing so, Elise smiled and took it. Placing it to the side, she handed me the Gold Grade plate. “Everything is sorted. Congratulations.” Placing it on, the System updated my adventurer information.
New Adventurer Grade: Gold.
Rank: C
“It looks good on you. Skipping Silver entirely, look at you go.” Smiling at me for a moment, Elise’s face turned serious. “Now, the Guild has a job for you. You are forbidden to leave before fulfilling certain requirements, and if you attempt to do so Amanda will bring you back. I also need you to remain calm.”
Tilting my head, I wondered what this request was meant to do. Pulling out a large parchment, and unravelling it I saw a map. Drawn on one side was a city, written on it was “Vale”. From there, there were no other locations marked on it. It showed the levels of monsters in certain areas and the one that caught my attention was a strip of land marked with “GOLD GRADES AND ABOVE ONLY, WITH APPROVAL BY GUILD!”
“We’ve received an emergency quest from a small town about five months walk from here, Gency. Five adventurers, Bronze and Silver, left their town to come here to Vale about a month ago and have not been heard of since. Their lives have been confirmed. The Guild has reason to believe the group attempted to cross here.” Pointing at the strip of land, I frown and look at her.
“This zone is a forbidden zone. Crossing it is the fastest way to get to Vale, the correct way would usually take five to six months, this path however takes three months. As you can see, you can not cross it unless permitted by the Guild, though most don’t know this unless they take a request near it. The group is made up of mostly new adventurers, led by one who is only slightly experienced.
“The Guild does not abandon anyone, regardless of the situation. Because of this, you’ve been selected to lead a team to this location, retrieve the adventurers or their identification plates and return here. You will be assigned five Gold Grade adventurers…well, two. Alice has passed the assessment and is Gold Grade E rank and Xia passed a while ago, they will be assigned to you. As for the other two, you’ll meet them shortly. The Guild will absorb any cost for this expedition, and knowing your status as a Chef we’ve prepared high quality meat and ingredients for you.”
Failing to see why I had to remain calm, Elise gave me the reason.
“We received this request yesterday. Alisha, remain calm. Your friend, Olivia, is one of those adventurers.”
Standing, I found myself shocked as I impulsively wanted to run out of the room. Gritting my teeth, I look at Elise, finding her to have a worried look in her eyes.
“When did you know she was there?”
“When the request came back. I had submitted a request but hadn’t heard back, of the description provided by Gency of all the adventurers involved, one matches exactly what you gave me.”
Holding myself back from charging through the door, I sat down as Elise smiled softly. “Thank you. I know you want to rush out now, but I can’t let you. The trip is going to take two months on foot, but with a team of Gold Grades who need very little to no sleep it will take a month instead. You’ll be able to leave tomorrow evening, once we have everything arranged for you. Take the time today, tonight and tomorrow to prepare. Those ration cubes of yours will be essential for food, cutting down time to stop and hunt for food.”
Nodding at her words, I looked at the map as Elise drew a finger along it. “This is the fastest route you can take without encountering any danger.” The highest level on the path Elise had shown was only level 40. “Of course, there is the possibility of running into a mutation or wondering Elite, Champion or Guardian, but it’s minimal, and with five Gold Grades you’ll make short work of it. And before you ask, no, Aubrey can not go with you guys. She does not have the level 50 evolution to help her.”
Leaning forward, I calmed down a bit. “Can they survive for long there?”
“If they hide they’ll be fine for a while. I’d estimate two to three months if they aren’t reckless, but if they are indeed trapped in there then sooner or later they will die. Which is why I need you to go and prepare and ensure that you don’t become trapped as well. The Guild will provide a reward regardless of if they live or not, just bring them back to Vale, okay?”
Smiling softly, Elise gets up and gives me a light hug. “Don’t worry, from what you told me your friend is strong, she’ll be okay.” Glancing at Elise, I nod slightly. “Good, go grab Alice and head home. We’ll deliver the food to you so get prepared. We’ll also deliver healing potions as well.”
“Thanks, Elise.”
“It’s what I do. Get going and come back here tomorrow at exactly noon. We’ll get you guys sorted and sent out quickly.”
Closing my eyes, I took a breath as Olivia’s image came up in my mind. It’s been a while since I’d seen her, and to hear that she was in trouble made my heart drop. Breathing out, I calmed myself down completely and planned to prepare as much as possible to ensure we could rescue her. Getting up from the table, I walk with Elise into the main room of the Guild.