“Finally!” Blaze exclaimed, before dashing forward with his menacing sword. Drake followed, pouring mana into his gloves.

“Firestorm!”

“Fireballs!”

The two cut through the horde like butter, killing everything in their way. A lucky few orcs managed to get around them, but were stopped by Helen.

“Mud mire!” she exclaimed, slamming her palm against the ground. The ground underneath the orcs transformed into an extremely viscous mud, trapping the orcs in place. Using this opportunity, she used another one of her new abilities.

“Wind blade!” she yelled, releasing a blade of wind which sliced one of the orcs vertically in half, destroying both its heart and brain. She made quick work of the other orcs as well before returning to her position in front of Sylvia.

With her new artifacts, Helen now had a much easier time fighting and didn’t feel so weak anymore.

Sylvia always had an arrow ready and alertly observed the battle. The moment an opportunity appeared, she would use decimate and kill off an orc.

A horde of dozens of powerful, regenerating orcs, which would have been a nightmare for most people, were killed off completely by their party, in a matter of minutes.

…

Sometime later, in the town lord’s manor, in Duskville.

Sam and Astoria were standing outside a door with a couple of guards surrounding them.

They had been urgently summoned by the town lord and were about to meet him.

One of the guards knocked on the door.

“Come in,” a hurried but powerful voice came from within.

The guard opened the door and gestured for the two to enter.

Sam and Astoria entered to find three figures seated on chairs around a circular table. It was located in the centre of a large hall which looked like a meeting room. There were two open seats available for Sam and Astoria to occupy.

“Please, come in and have a seat,” a middle-aged man dressed in gold and silver robes said, welcoming them. He was seated at the centre. To his right was a woman dressed in an all-white gown, holding a long staff, and to his left, was a slightly chubbier man, decorated in jewellery.

“Thank you,” Astoria and Sam said, bowing respectfully, before taking a seat.

“My name is Cedric Ironheart, I am the lord of this town,” the middle-aged man introduced himself.

Astoria and Sam nodded.

“And I am Elena Silverglow, a bishop of the Church of Iva,” said the woman.

“I’m Darren. Darren Gold,” the chubby man spoke with a casual tone. “I am the head of this town’s branch of the merchants guild.”

Astoria and Sam gave both of them a slight, but respectful bow, wondering what these lords wanted with them.

“Let’s get straight to the point,” Cedric said. “You might have heard about the fire from last night?”

Astoria glanced at Sam and responded, “Yes, we heard some rumours, but we're not sure what exactly happened.”

Cedric nodded. “Well, the news will probably spread soon enough so there’s no harm in telling you.” Cedric looked at the two intently and said with a straight face, “One of our town’s major wheat fields was completely burnt to the ground last night.”

“What!?” Sam and Astoria gasped. “How!?”

“It was the work of dark mages,” Elena sighed.

Sam and Astoria were shocked again. They had no idea that dark mages were in this town too.

“That’s why we invited you here, we want you to tell us everything about your experience with dark mages,” Cedric said, getting straight to the point as he promised.

Astoria nodded seriously and started recounting her experience, along with Sam who also shared his perspective.

Cedric, Elena, and Darren listened intently, occasionally asking some questions.

Once they finished, the room became silent as they all contemplated the situation.

Damon Rogue…

The name sounded familiar to Cedric but he couldn’t quite recognise who it was.

After a while, Cedric spoke.

“I want you two to share your thoughts freely. Do you think the dark mages who attacked our town might be the same as the ones who attacked your villages, or at least be connected in anyway?”

Astoria held her chin and thought deeply. After a few minutes, she replied.

“Honestly, I don’t think it’s likely,” she responded.

Cedric was slightly taken aback, “Oh, can you explain why?”

“Because,” Astoria explained. “The strongest among the mages that attacked us was a mage king. I doubt they would dare to attack a town protected by multiple mage kings and a mage emperor.”

Cedric didn’t react, but he was silently thinking about what she was saying.

“However,” she added. “I still don’t know for sure why they attacked our villages. I’ve thought about it a lot. They spent so much time and energy raising an army, then planning and coordinating an attack on the three villages simultaneously. I doubt they’d do that just for fun, even if they were dark mages. They must have been aiming for something. They might have found a new cultivation technique, trying to craft a powerful artifact, refine a high-ranking pill, or something else to raise their cultivation or battle strength in some way that required them to kill so many people.”

She looked at the three and continued.

“So, it may be possible that the mage king Damon, found a way to break through to the mage emperor realm or achieve some large increase to his battle strength over these months which did make him confident to come here. Hence, I wouldn’t rule it out.”

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The three thought about it and slowly nodded, thinking that it made sense.

“Indeed, the possibility is there,” they agreed. But they couldn’t be sure for now.

“We have to investigate this further, keeping all possibilities in mind,” said Cedric.

“Indeed,” Elena and Darren agreed.

They turned back to Astoria and Sam.

“Thank you for everything. Your information and thoughts have been very helpful,” Cedric said.

He looked at them curiously and asked. “Have you heard about the discovery of the new inheritance grounds?”

…

Back in Basindale.

Drake’s party collected the orcs’ remains, and Drake also collected some herbs and other materials that he needed, from the surroundings.

Soon after, they went back to their carriage and returned to town.

They turned in their mission and sold most of the orc corpses after Drake kept a few for his use, and they all split the rewards.

The party decided to celebrate their first successful mission together as an official party, through some drinks. The hunters guild personally operated a well-equipped bar, so the group had a mini, celebratory, party and drinks.

After celebrating, the group split up again. Drake wanted to go back to practising his alchemy and martial techniques. Surprisingly, Sylvia also said she was tired and wanted to rest and left. Hence, Blaze and Helen chose to go out together for some time instead. This gave them their first opportunity to interact personally and get to know each other.

For the next week, the party fell into a routine.

They would go out on a mission every other day, and rest in-between. Whilst Drake would socialise with them for a bit after the missions and on rest days, he spent most of his free time refining pills and practising his martial techniques in secret at night.

Drake was doing exactly that on this particular night as well.

He was standing in front of a tree, somewhere outside Basindale. He got into an offensive stance and brought his arm back.

Hammer fist!

He activated his martial technique and punched the tree with all his might. The force of the punch created cracks which quickly spread throughout the tree. After a few seconds, the entire tree fell down with a loud bang.

Drake seemed to expect this and moved onto another tree, right next to the first. He got into the same stance and brought his arm back once more.

This time Drake activated his rank two martial technique. Mana flowed through his arm into his hand. Drake closed his palm leaving just his index and middle finger open, allowing mana to concentrate on their tips. He poured more and more mana into his fingers until they started burning.

Finger thrust!

Drake attacked the tree forcefully with his fingers. An explosive sound echoed across the surroundings.

Drake looked at the tree stunned, before slowly starting to smile.

A large, gaping hole had formed in the middle of the tree, and three trees behind it!

They all fell down with a loud thud.

Finally! I have mastered this!

Although hammer fist was powerful, demons with strong defences were difficult to beat with it. Now, with finger thrust, Drake was able to overcome this weakness.

At the same time, in a location that was a little further away, two figures met.

One was a middle-aged man dressed in gold and silver robes, whilst the other was a man dressed in full black.

They were Cedric Ironheart and Eldric Blackthorne, respectively.

“Well, well, well” Eldric spoke in a sarcastic and slightly mocking tone. “You must be in a lot of trouble if you’re asking me for help.”

“Humph!” Cedric wanted to retort but couldn’t.

He really didn’t want to depend on this man, but he had no choice now. Duskville needed a lot of food aid and fast.

But how could they get aid? Duskville was one of the furthest towns from the Holy Capital. His own family, the Ironheart family, were based in the Heart City almost half a year horse ride away, and the Holy Capital was even further, almost two years away!

Sure, with his mage emperor cultivation, he could travel fast and potentially make a round trip in a few months, but who knew what these dark mages would do in his absence? Already they caused such destruction the one night that he had left. If he left for so long, what if they went and destroyed even more resource points?

In fact, he had to increase security near all the most important resource points. Grand mages at medium-sized resource points, and at least one mage king to guard every large resource point, would be the minimum necessary to protect against further destruction, at least until the dark mages responsible were caught.

But that left no one who could quickly go and ask for aid! They could only use ordinary messengers on horseback, or messenger spirits to communicate with the Capital and Heart City for help. However, they would most likely not make it in time before major damage was caused to his population.

Hence, he concluded that there was only one choice.

He had to ask Basindale, the largest and closest town to Duskville, for help.

Except that it was led by the Blackthorne family, which didn’t get along very well with their Ironheart family, to say the least. They were rivals and often even had open fights with each other. There was no doubt in his mind that the Blackthorne family would take this opportunity to take advantage of them.

But what choice did he have?

Hence, he contacted Eldric and arranged for this meeting.

“Let’s avoid the chitchat. Duskville needs food,” Cedric said matter-of-factly.

“Oh?” Eldric became curious. “Do you not have enough?”

Cedric sighed and explained the dark mages destroying his wheatfield. However, he left out the part where he found the Hidden Venom Cult’s ring.

Eldric’s brows furrowed and a dark expression came over him. But it quickly went away, replaced by a slight smile.

“I see, so you need my help,” Eldric said arrogantly.

“Humph, don’t get cocky Eldric,” Cedric warned. “Name your price and we can be done with this.”

“Hmm, interesting,” Eldric said, holding his chin as if he was in deep thought. He raised his head after a few seconds and spoke with a smile, “You don’t need to pay me anything. How about you just withdraw your family from entering the inheritance and I’ll give you all the food you want?”

“You!” Cedric gasped. “Don’t be ridiculous!” He folded his arms in defiance and looked irritated.

Eldric laughed, “Okay okay, how about you just give me your family’s Ironheart artifact then?”

“Don’t you dare!” Cedric spat.

What a joke! That was a precious rank five artifact that their family had treasured for generations.

“This is a serious matter Eldric, stop joking around,” Cedric spoke, more annoyed now.

“You’re no fun,” Eldric said with an exaggerated sigh, but it was clear that he was enjoying this. “Let’s just talk money then. How about… a hundred… supreme grade mana stones?”

“What!? Do you want to bankrupt my family?” Cedric asked furiously.

One supreme grade mana stone was equal to a million low grade mana stones, each worth ten gold coins. So a hundred supreme grade mana stones were equal to a hundred million low grade mana stones, or a billion gold coins!

If they sold every single artifact and asset in their family’s possession, they might barely be able to come up with that amount.

It was too ridiculous.

“I’m serious Eldric,” Cedric spoke with a low voice. “If Duskville suffers a catastrophe, and the royal family finds out that you refused to help when you could, how do you think they would react? Your family would have to answer to the emperor of the Holy Kingdom.”

“Tst,” Eldric spat in response and folded his arms, annoyed. Of course, he knew this already, but hearing Cedric mention it finally made him serious.

Cedric detected the change in his expression and calmed down.

“Okay, I’ll stop joking around. There’re only a few things I want.”

“Oh, what are they?” Cedric asked, slightly worried.

“Fifty thousand, low-grade mana stones,” Eldric said.

“Done,” Cedric agreed immediately.

“And you cover all the costs of logistics and transportation,” Eldric added.

“No problem,” Cedric replied, happy that he was finally being reasonable.

“And…” Eldric smiled, making Cedric’s worry again. “I want the horn of calling.”

“What?” Cedric asked.

“What do you mean what? Can you not spare a rank one artifact,” Eldric replied with a smile.

It’s true that it was a rank one artifact, but its value was much higher. The horn of calling was an artifact that could be used to summon an army of servant and warrior class shadow creatures. Naturally, to create that artifact, you would need to know the rune to summon shadow creatures. But spirits that could summon other creatures themselves were rank five minimum, so they were all only learnt and known to mage emperors.

Hence, it required a mage emperor to create this artifact!

Although it was rank one, due to its rarity and utility, its value was potentially equal to that of a low, rank four artifact. Their Ironheart family had found it by luck previously, and the Blackthorne family had been eyeing it since.

Now that the opportunity arose, Eldric was not going to let it go.

“That impossible, that artifact is too precious,” Cedric retorted.

“Then no deal,” Eldric replied, stubbornly.

“You! Did you forget that you will have to answer to the emperor?” Cedric asked, trying to use the emperor’s name to intimidate him. However, it was useless.

“When the emperor asks, I’d be happy to explain how you valued a small artifact over the lives of your town’s citizens,” Eldric replied with a smirk.

Cedric clenched his fist. He wanted to bury Eldric right here and now but he couldn’t do that.

Moments passed, and Cedric let out a sigh.

“Have it your way, then… I’ll give you what you want…” Cedric agreed reluctantly.

Eldric was delighted.