[[[BONES]]]

"One of the figures you had inquired about has issued a mission. It's a D class mission to collect 5 Flowers of dawn in the northwestern mountains. As an E class mercenary, there are no restrictions if you were to engage missions one level higher than your rank"

The young miss was elated. This was a mission issued by Earl Von Smith, he was a Diplomat from Beck fort City and a lead slave trader between the two cities. She once overheard her father speaking to Earl von Smith and knew he was also a Black-Market Leader. If anyone knew what happened to her brother. It would be this man.

The young miss had wanted to have an audience with the Earl, but it was nearly impossible she was a nobody but now was her chance. She overlooked the mission details. While gold was the mission reward. It was a long shot, but She was hoping she would be able to put in a request with the duke. She smiled cheerily as water formed from her eyes. Even though the mission was of a higher rank. If she exercised caution. She would be fine.

She was just about to accept the mission, but the female clerk interjected.

"I must inform you, the conditions of this mission will change soon, there has been some suspicious activity. It has been reported that the Spirit beasts have been very uneasy. The last mercenaries that were stationed near that area report heightened aggression from the beats there."

It was evident the female clerk cared for the young miss.

"While we understand the risks every mercenary takes, we try our best to keep our members alive. Please stock up carefully for this mission. There are already two people interested in this mission and I pulled some strings and saved the last spot for you. They will meet here in 3 days"

The young miss smiled and nodded. She was grateful. She gave the female clerk her guild card thanked her and made her way out the exit.

Cruden watched silently. He was still unaware that the young miss was doing this to find her older brother. He continued to follow the little miss. She went back into the alley and removed her mercenary attire.

She then proceeded to walk in the direction of the barren family. she had to prepare.

Cruden followed her until she safely entered the barren residence. Cruden was perplexed, the internal structure of the barren family must be chaotic for them not to have any guards to accompany the young miss.

He made up his mind to accompany the little miss on her mission. He was about to make his way back to the warden, but he felt something calling out to him. He knew it was the link. in the next moment, he heard the whining of a dog. It was the black dog from earlier. It seemed to be in trouble. He focused his attention and could see the black dog's surroundings.

The black dog was surrounded by a bunch of snakes. The sizes of the snakes were not small probably as large as the black dogs and based on the dust being kicked up by their attacks. The snakes kept on striking at it, but a blue light would lightly flash on its fur. Luckily the black dog had the protection of the 4th level qi barrier.

The black dog had no way of fighting back. Cruden wanted to cut off the connection, but he could not stay idle. The warden knew of the black dog's situation, but he had no interest to save the dog. In fact, He wanted to see what would happen if another creature ate the dog with stone.

Cruden rushed out. it would look like she ran out with no direction, but he could discern the direction of the dog's cry. It was more like a feeling. The closer he got the more correct he felt. Everyone saw Cruden running but no one paid any attention to him.

Cruden stopped at the outside of a brewery. He searched around but there was no dog. He looked at the surrounding of the dog and he noticed tunnel outlines. Cruden quickly looked for a sewer entrance and headed down.

Inside the sewer was very rancid and moldy but Cruden ignored all of that. On his way there, he could see a few broken eggs shells and got an idea of what happened. The black dog must have been hungry and tried getting something to eat.

The underline structure of the sewers was very spacious and complex with many tunnels, but Cruden had no trouble finding the black dog. He got there just in time to stop One of the white snakes from swallowing the black dog whole.

The black dog was whimpering too scared to move. Cruden pounced forward and pounded one of the snakes immediately killing it. The other snakes seeing their comrade killed hissed and attacked Cruden but were met with the same fate.

The black dog not noticing its assailants were killed was still trembling on the ground, but Cruden did not have time to check on him. He was focusing on the three items that had appeared in his inventory. He stretched out his hand and they appeared. Two of the items were the scales of the snakes he just killed but the other item intrigued him greatly. It was the size of a bean, but its info is as follows

{White Snakes Gall bladder lvl1- gives the user the ability to use lesser poison}

He brought it up to his nose and inspected it. He had an idea of what happened but was not too sure.

He brought the gall bladder up to the quivering dog and it reacted just as he thought. The [equip] notification appeared just like when he was interacting with Crow's nascent soul. He wanted to quickly equip it to the black dog, but then the warden's image popped up into this head. He was not sure what would happen if he equipped the poison to the black dog and he was not aware of the type of poison.

Noticing that it was not eaten, the dog looked around to see the human from before standing before the bodies of the three white snakes that were threatening it. It quickly ran towards him licking him.

Cruden checked the black dog over and was happy to see that it was safe. Fortunately, the dog had the protection of the 4th qi barrier, or else it would have been badly hurt or worse killed.

Cruden did not know the black dog's name but he decided to call him Bones cause the dog was very skinny and all its bones could be clearly seen.

"Bones, let's go!"

Cruden existed from the tunnel only to be met with three other tunnels. He stared at the tunnels for a good while, but they all looked the same

Cruden wanted to head back, but he had no way of finding his way back.

He looked to the Bone, but the black dog just stood there just as confused as Cruden.

Cruden started to get worried. He did not pay any attention to his surroundings, and he had to be back in 3 days to accompany the young miss.

He did not have time to contemplate and remembered the old saying, "when nothing goes right go left". His first thought was to contact the Warden or Crow but he doubted they would help him. He grabbed up the dog and rushed into the left tunnel.

He kept on entering left tunnel after tunnel. He was beginning to get tired but then he saw a bright light at the end of one of the tunnels.

A bright light flashed across his face and what lay in front of him was a tall tree with beautifully covered leaves. The tree was so tall it pierced the ceiling of the room. That was where the light was coming from. It was sunlight.

Cruden looked behind and the remaining's of a damaged door. He looked around and saw another steel door on the other end but there was no way he was going through another door when he can go up.

He held Bone tighter and proceeded to climb up the tree with one hand. With the strength, his body possessed it was not difficult. He made it to his first branch but that was when he realized something strange. He thought the light was playing tricks on him but the closer he got to the leaves the faster they would sway.

Ruff Ruff Ruff!

Bones started barking and it set off a chain of events. The tree started to shake wildly Cruden had no choice but to jump back to the ground, as he fell, the leaves started to disperse and gather around. Upon closer inspection, he realized the leaves were no leaves but butterflies.

Boom!

Cruden landed safely on his feet, but he landed heavier than he expected on the ground. The branch was not that high for his descent to cause that much impact even the dirt beneath his feet caved in. he was ankle-deep into the ground.

Shock and confusion were plastered on his face. In addition, also felt the weight of bones increasing in his hand it was then he saw several butterflies fluttering on bones' body then he noticed some of the butterflies were also on his body.

He tried to run away but more butterflies began to land on him, and he felt the pressure on him increase. The darkness in him swayed and tendrils of darkness rushed out attacking the butterflies that were on him and bones. Immediately he could tell his suspicions were true.

But his worries were far from over. The more butterflies he killed the more they would swarm him and take their place. it was like they were attracted to death.

Notification after notification flashed across his eye but he paid no attention to it.

The tendrils he created were getting harder to control and required more mana to move so

His mana kept decreasing but the pressure on him was still increasing.

In addition, the dead butterflies carcasses that were accumulating on the ground were also causing the earth beneath them to sink in.

He made a decisive move and wrapped himself in his shadow. Bones was not doing so good either. Luckily Cruden had encased him in the protective shadow or he would have been crushed by his own body.