15 Last party

"And how the hell can you guarantee that he will make it back!? Look at the man! He doesn't have armor, the only thing he still has is his sword and his magical capabilities!"

"I can guarantee that he will make it back alive since I will be escorting him back myself until we reach a point where he can take care of himself."

Ignys was a bit confused.

"How come that you can't take me back as well then!"

"It is very simple, you are too weak, Ignys."

Aegion continued.

"You see, Elian is still quite strong, in a fight he could easily beat you. In his case, he would be able to hold off any monsters that attack him for a while, which gives me some time to intervene and take them out. I will also be informing some of the sector masters to not intervene, that way he can trespass the sectors mostly safely, but not all monsters will listen to the sector master, so we would still have to be careful in the end. If I were to take you back with me you would instantly be killed by some stealthy monster since you haven't reached enough mana proficiency yet to develop a proper mana sense. There is too much of a risk in taking you back. Beside, the biggest danger lies in the core, once he is mostly out of the core I should be able to take him to an ancient ruins that has a teleportation circle embedded in it which will transport him back quite a bit, from there on I will only have to escort him for another day or so and from there on he is capable of fending for himself."

Ignys sighed.

"How are you even gonna escort him? You just gonna walk back with him or are you gonna do it stealthily?"

"There is no reason for me to be stealthy as I can scare most monsters off by simply releasing my mana, I will just escort Elian up to the ruins of the teleportation circle, then go back with him and escort him for another day before returning."

"Wouldn't you just be able to teleport him back though?"

"Maybe, but he would be on his own, my teleport can only affect one person, if I teleport two people the distance it covers will be halved, so it wouldn't be worth using it. I think it would be better for me to just escort him myself, I will probably be gone for three to four days. However, I am going to ask Elian if he could possibly wait one more day, since there is something I must do myself."

"And that is?" asked Ignys.

"Remember how I told you how the elf queen sent out an army consisting of hundreds of high leveled adventurers and soldiers to loot the core of the outerlands?"

"Oh, right. I remember it vaguely." said Ignys.

"The only reason you remember it vaguely is because you had too much to drink the night before that."

"Yeah yeah, You've scolded me enough, continue."

"As I suspected the sector masters were unable to handle the threat, they sent out multiple hordes of monsters to deal with the elves but they were too organized, they only managed to kill around 150 of them, meaning that about 250 of them are still enroute to the core. They even managed to kill two sector masters which is also a pain to me. I am planning on taking care of this problem tomorrow."

Ignys nodded.

"Aegion, how come you are okay with small groups entering the core of the outerlands and looting it but not a big group?"

Aegion sighed.

"The answer should speak for itself, but I will use a metaphor to explain it to you.

Let's say 1 person shows up at your house, it is still manageable and they are controllable, you can have a chat with them and perhaps send them on their way with a gift or without a gift. Let's increase that group of visitors to six.

It would still be manageable, but a bit more tough. You could send them on their way with gifts but it will cost you.

Now let's increase that group one last time to 250 people.

First of all your house will become a chaos and nothing is manageable, people will start destroying stuff and stealing stuff if you do not manage to control them, you can't give them any gifts since they are just with too many. They will think they can get away with anything since they are in a large group and you will be suppressed. Do you understand the metaphor?"

Ignys nodded.

"Yeah, right. It is just not manageable and they would tear this place up, with a smaller group you can somewhat control what they will take."

"Exactly, Ignys."

"If I may ask, how will you be taking care of them?"

Isn't it obvious? I will be taking their lives."

Ignys was a bit surprised.

"Isn't there some other way to take care of this? A more peaceful way?"

"Well, to be more exact I will be killing most of them. The plan is quite simple. I will kill most of them until their formation breaks, I will show them the true might of the outerlands. When their formation breaks most of them will bolt away in fear, that way the situation is resolved. From there on only god knows if they will make it out or not. I want some of them to leave to tell the tale to not mess with the outerlands, to scare them off even though it probably wouldn't do a lot."

"Right, but wouldn't there be a problem in you using your human form?"

Aegion sighed.

"Ignys you have much to learn, don't forget I can shapeshift. I will shapeshift into the form of a monster when I take them on, although it will be quite humanoid."

Ignys noticed that Aegion got slightly annoyed by all the questions and stopped.

"Alright... Just be careful dude, I know you are strong but 250 people are still quite a lot, not to mention they are all top tier adventurers..."

"Do not worry Ignys, they will be incapable of injuring me unless they do group attacks, and those I can just dodge as long as they do not cause a lot of damage in the core. I will simply dispose of most of them quickly and efficiently before returning to the tavern."

"Alright then, but just know this; if Elian dies on his way back I won't forgive you."

"I understand, it seems you have formed quite a close relationship with him over the past couple of days."

"Yeah, I have. It is the first human customer so how couldn't I? It is always nice to see someone that has a feature in common with you."

"I can understand that."

Right when Ignys and Aegion finished their conversation Elian came walking down the stairs.

"So, am I able to depart tomorrow?" asked Elian.

Aegion turned to face Elian.

"Elian, I apologize since you will not be able to depart tomorrow, it hurts me knowing that we cannot give our first customer the ideal service, but there is something I must do tomorrow that has priority. If you depart a day later I will be able to personally escort you." said Aegion.

"Oh, don't sweat it. It's fine as long as we depart within this week, my parents must be worried sick for me and my friends aswell. As long as we depart the day after tomorrow I am fine with it."

Ignys and Aegion both nodded before Elian continued.

"Ah, Ignys. I have a gift for you, if I can even call it that. Consider this more like a tip for the experience I had here."

Elian headed back upstairs and returned shortly after with his armor.

"here, take this. It isn't much but it would be some cool decoration, maybe you could even tie in some cool story like how the armor belonged to a brave legendary hero who fought his way through the core of the outerlands, sustaining heavy damage but still continuing on despite all the odds stacked against him."

Ignys laughed.

"Sure, I'll take your armor with pleasure. These walls look pretty barren after all, although a story of a wimpy wannabe researcher reaching the core of the outerlands by sheer luck would also be a pretty funny story to tell future patrons."

Elian's expression darkened as he heard Ignys speak.

"Hahah, You are so funny Ignys. Look how hard I am laughing." said Elian with a straight face.

Ignys couldn't help but laugh once again.

"Hahah, yeah yeah I will tie in a cool story with the armor, probably going to do as you said and make it so that you are portrait as a legendary hero cleaving through hundreds of monsters until reaching the tavern to recover, that way you are seen as the hero and me and Aegion are seen as the messiahs saving the hero from death. But now something else..."

Elian looked toward Ignys.

"What is it?"

"Since you are not departing tomorrow, we can throw a party and drink until the morning! You in Elian!?!?"

"Oh hell yeah!"