14 Virtus

--Gremory Point of View--

"But what about your friends? I don't think they will let us enter the city with them..." Danton spoke.

"Oh, yes..." I answered reluctantly.

'But what can I do with you guys?'

"..."

I put my hand on Carine's shoulder with my eyes closed, what I feel is the dark energy but not Carine's dark energy, it is just mine.

'There is nothing left of the older Carine... I seem to have just been pretending to myself that you were still alive, but it seems to have come to an end and I won't be holding you here'

I begin to manipulate the dark energy inside her body and with a little effort I retreat her once, her body turned into dust, and just at the moment I start to feel sad, then the warm sensation comes to me and the only thing I can feel is pleasure. Even with that, I start to cry, but the feeling doesn't take long to vanish.

Claire tries to reach me, but Danton holds her away.

'Shit, can't even feel sad for my friends?'

But at that moment I feel something different in my body, not like when consuming dark energy from strangers. What I feel is mana overflowing inside me.

With only my arm I use shadow impulse and to my surprise, it worked.

'I thought I had just transformed their dark energy into mine, but it seems that I consumed theirs and then inserted mine. I wonder how much energy was needed to bring Carine back'

I use shadow impulse again, again and again. For 24 times!

'Wow, this is why my mana stock had not improved like everything else'

I look at Fulgence and with my hand in his shoulder, I retreat his black energy just like with Carine.

'Sorry Comrade, soon I will find Scullery and avenge you!'

The warm sensation along with the overflow of mana once again came to me.

Fulgence body turned into dust and I use shadow impulse again and again, for 24 times.

'What? It was exactly the same amount, does it have a breaking point for evolution as it happened to me before? If so then this should apply in the same way to other C rank beings, would I be able to bring 1 B rank by sacrificing all my mana? I need to test it somehow...'

"That's a strange way to say goodbyes to your friend's lad" Danton spoke interrupting my thoughts.

"I know, now we can go" I spoke while activating my shell and taking Carina's Bow with me.

Rudolph was quite heavy, so we took some time to leave the forest carrying him.

There was a small wagon with two horses waiting for us near the road but hidden with some bushes.

The wagon was a little cramped, especially with Rudolph lying on the floor of the wagon, but we all fit in and headed to Lathrium. The city was pretty close, so it only took a few hours to reach it.

Rudolph slept the whole way with a strong fever while Claire tried to help him. Danton told me about healers in the city, mages with light ability that sells elixirs and heal some injuries that conventional methods fail, but it also cost a lot.

And he also spoke about why he was thinking I was a Viridian, there are some major families even older than the Empire. Viridian the House of Fire, Plynty the House of Order, Valzor the House of War, and Malior the house of Honor. Every house stands for something, a mage of any kind can be chosen by any house, but Viridian House has all and only fire mages of the Human Empire.

In the general population, the chances of a mage appearing are extremely low, so very few of these types appear every year. But if the son is of two mages the chances end up being high, so Viridian House for having all the fire mages also only allows marriages between them to always have new fire mages because these are the strong ones by the eyes of everyone.

It's been centuries since the last appearance of a fire mage outside the Viridian House, that was even before the alliance between humans was formed.

In the meantime, Plynty tries to keep order in the human Empire, Valzor train the best mage fighters, and Malior House was just created after the Empire to secure the space of the new leaders of the nation, it has also the responsibility of protecting the lands and the big cites.

But Viridian is by far the oldest, the house has most of the S mages and also a lot of influence in the Empire.

He also told me about the situation as adventurers, no guild accepts a recruit below rank C and they are rank D. So they had two choices, to join the Empire in the hunt for non-humans slayers or found their own guild, they went with the second but most of the contracts go to Virtus, the major guild of adventurers in Lathrium. So they made an agreement with the leader of the guild, and he released them to take the low-priority contracts that are left on the board as long that their guild takes responsibility if the mission fails. The mission they took was supposed to be only a few goblins, the Shaman was an unfortunate coincidence.

--At Lathrium--

The city walls are different from the first time I got here, now it has guards everywhere, and they checked the wagon before letting us in.

The amount of people in the streets is even bigger when compared to the first time I came here, we took a lot of time to even reach the medical facility. There were some nurses, beds where people rested, and if the person had money enough he could pay the healer to spend some of his mana treating your wound, in some cases this is the only alternative possible, but he will not do anything without payment first.

So Danton and I went running with the water gem to the guild because we don't have any money at all.

Virtus looked like just a tavern where people reunited to drink and plan their missions, there were some weapons hanging as decoration and a reception. The kind of place where warriors reunited to drink, laugh and share spoils of battle, the place itself was much more peaceful than I imagined, it was clear that everyone knew themselves... except for us.

Once we get in, the loud talking and joking stopped as the dozens of people inside the guild stared at us as if they were about to attack.

"Who are them?"

"Don't know"

"That's not the guy who Geoffrey allowed to take contracts of the board?"

"So he survived?"

"Why there is a little brat here?"

"Can't just someone take them out?"

They started to talk about us, Danton didn't mind at all, so I just followed. The contracts are usually distributed by the Marquis Joseph Ranseur to the guilds, so the only people allowed inside the guild are the members and guests.

Danton delivered the small water gem and got some coin, he went to the board took another contract, and we leave as quickly as we could.