9-Dungeon Diving

"..." - Speech.

'...' - Thought.

{...} - Magic casting.

[...] - Telepathy.

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After the whole ordeal with Saussy village, the squad members went back to their base.

Once they got there they relayed the whole thing to their captain

"Hold your heads high. You did good work" - Captain Yami

"Yes, but someone died"- Asta was still sad that the village chief died

"Is being sad will bring that old man back. HUH? There is no point in being sad" - Captain Yami

"You're right sir. The oldman is a man of laughter and he wouldn't want us to cry over him. So lets laugh in honor of the old man" - Magna started laughing

"Well that reminds me. There is good news. Do you want to hear?" - Captain Yami

"Please tell us!" - Asta

"Well, the wizard king himself recognized your efforts and awarded us with a star" - Captain Yami

"A SATR!!" - Asta got exsited

"Oh wow~ You guys did great~" - Vanessa walked into the room

"SO what does a star do anyway?" - Asta

"You're celebrating without even knowing what a star is. A star is sign of recognition. It's an honor" - Magna

"So cool! so what is used for?" - Asta

"It's like a competition. All the squads compete to see who gets the most amount of stars. Currently the golden dawn are in the lead with 70 stars" - Vanessa

"Oh! Then how many do we have"- Asta

"We have a -30 stars" - Captain Yami announced with pride

"Now we're an even 100 behind the golden bastards" - Captain Yami continued not paying any attention to Asta

"Should we just give up?" - Noelle

"No giving up! We'll become the top no doubt!" - Asta

"Alright then squad. I have some good news for you. It's your payday. AND you get tomorrow off" - Yami

Asta was excited for his first paycheck. He was very happy with the amount of yuls. To Noah and Noelle this was was about half as much as their weekly allowance.

"So what are you three going to do with your money?" - Vanessa

"I'll send the money back to the church!" - Asta

"That's exactly what a man should do Asta!" - Magna

"What about you two?" - Vanessa looked at the twins

"Nothing. I'm not sure if there is anything that I need anyway" - Noelle

"I might buy a guide to beginners for chanting items" - Noah

"Interested in enchanting I see. If your good at it, you can a lot of good money" - Vanessa

"I'm not doing it for money, I'm doing it for fun. And maybe I'll make something for myself" - Noah

"We'll I know just the spot for us to go shopping. Asta you should tag along. It's great that your sending money back to the church, but you have to spend some on yourself" - Vanessa

——————

*The Next Day*

Three broomstick can be seen leaving the black bulls hideout going towards the castle town Kikka.

Vanessa was in the lead with Asta sitting behind her on her broom. Noah and Noelle were just behind them on their brooms.

"Can you guys see it?" - Vanessa pointed at a town up ahead that they just started to see.

Not long after all four of them landed near the shopping district of Kikka

"It's as awesome as I remember it" - Asta

The four of them kept walking around. Noah and Noelle weren't very amazed by it. They grew up in the royal palace. They saw better sights in the royal capital.

"It seems your not very amazed you two. Well your royalty so that's given. Let me just stop at a bear by store and then I'll take you two to a place I know you never seen before" - Vanessa

"Sure" - Noelle

"What are you buying from here anyway" - Noah

"Oh~ just some stuff to help with my drinking" - Vanessa

"You plan to stop drinking?" - Asta

"No silly. It helps me drink more and recover faster so that I can drink more" - Vanessa laughed at the idea of her not drinking

The three newbies were dumbfounded. She already drank a ton of alcohol, but she wants to use some herbs to inhance her tolerance so that she can drink more?

"She's just too far gone to be saved" - Noah sighed as he shook his head

After Vanessa made her purchase, she took us to an alleyway.

"This is a dead end" - Asta

"Is it?" - Vanessa laughed as she walked right through the wall

Noelle and Asta were surprised, but Noah knew what this is

"You coming or what?" - Vanessa came back from behind the wall and called the three newbies

All four members of the black bulls were walking through the black market.

Vanessa explained what the black market is, and why people came here.

It's mostly so that people can start businesses without permits or licenses and to keep their profits from getting taxed. It's also easier to sell illegal items here.

Does the kingdom know about this place? Hell yeah, the wizard king is sitting in a corner playing cards against Sekke over there.

Also there are magic knights from different squads walking about.

Will the kingdom do anything about it? Hell no, even if tax doesn't get paid, or people sell illegal stuff without permits, this place has its own uses, so of course we won't shut it down.

Asta went around looking at everything, Noelle was looking for something to help with her magic power.

"I told you before. Your the reason you can't handle your magic power. Stop restraining yourself" - Noah

"I know, but I want to find something to help with it at least do now" - Noelle

"Why don't we check this place" - Vanessa lead all three to a store she knew of.

Even after taking her to multiple different places, Noelle didn't find anything that attracted her.

"Alright this is the last place I know that his magic items" - Vanessa

In their way there they ran into Sekke, who just lost to the wizard king in some card game.

Noah glanced at the table in the corner. The wizard king, disguised as a woman was sitting, and infront of him was a pouch full of yul that he won.

While they were talking, the wizard king was robed in front of them.

"No stop. This is my winnings you fiend" - the wizard king said in his best impression of an old lady

Asta without any hesitation ran after the thief. Sekke took out his "shooting star" and went after Asta

"That thing was ugly" - Noah

"Don't worry ma'am. Out squad mate is going after the thief" - Noelle

"Well, we have to go after them to make sure Asta is safe." - Vanessa

Vanessa and Noelle started running, but Noah didn't move.

Looking back he saw the old wan still sitting. Without saying anything, Noah sat down in front of the old lady

"Aren't you going after the thief son?" - Asked the wizard king pretending to be an old frail woman

"You can stop acting now" - Noah

"What do you mean son" - The old woman

"Fine. I'll call Marx. He can tell if your the wizard king or not" - Noah took out a communication device. But just as he opened the device, and hand pushed the device shut right away.

"You're no fun Noah" - Julius' voice said

"You seemed to be having fun. I thought I ought to have fun of my own" - Noah

"So how did you know it was me" - Julius

'I can't tell him because I watched the show can I?' Noah thought to himself before he answered, "The amulet your using to hide your mana can work on others but not me" - Noah wasn't lying. For everyone else, it looked like a young man was sitting in front of an old woman.

But Noah saw something different. In front of him was a massive geyser made out of pure mana. It was thick and clear.

The wizard king was a different level of power. Noah knows he can match him when it comes to mana quantity, but quality is a different matter. Noah knew that he was a long way from becoming the strongest.

"It seems this amulet is getting old. Even the captains can't tell it's me. I guess I'll buy a new one" - Julius

"Do you care to play" - Noah ignored his comment and decided to play a game

"Do you know why I need lose when I play poker" - Julius

"Because you can see the future using your magic?" - Noah answered not sure if he was right.

"No, it's because I'm good at poker" - Julius laughed. Then the two started to play.

Does Noah know poker? As someone who came from a difunctional house, that was filled with alcohol, gambling, and drugs, he knew poker well enough.

"How about we make it more fun. If I lose, I'll do any one thing for you" - Julius

Noah paused for a moment.

"This is what this whole thing is about. You didn't run after the thief, because you wanted me to talk to you. So what is it that you want?" - Noah

"Your smart. That's exactly why I want you to do something for me. Do you happen to know what an elder lich is?" - Julius

Noah frowned at the question. 'From what I know from my past life, an elder lich is the corpse of a magic caster who dies and gains unholy magic through rituals and becomes undead. But I never heard of an elder lich in black clover before'

Seeing the frown on Noah's face Julius said, "you seem to have some idea. This makes explaining easier"

Noah took a deep breath and braced for the first major butterfly effect because of his presence.

"An elder lich is what we call a spirit that has fallen into the deepest parts of despair. They tend to become mindless creatures that attack like wild beasts. But there is a very very small minor percentage, that an elder lich can keep its sanity. Some of our knights located an underground castle. After some investigation, it was clear that it belonged to an elder lich, one that kept its sanity. The mission was to send a small squad specialized in search and explore the underground castle. Your ability to see the flow of nature mana will be of great help" - Julius calmly explained.

'They call a spirit that has used forbidden magic an elder lich?'

"You seem confused about something?" - Julius asked

"How many spirits have fallen into the deepest parts of despair before?" - Noah

"This is the first we discovered" -Julius

"Ok. Then I'll take the mission" - Noah.

Regardless of this was a common occurrence or not, Noah wanted to explore an elder lich castle.

"I knew you would say that. I guess there is no reason to beat you in poker then" -Julius said then he vanished.

Noah got up and started to look around. Some time later he was able to find the rest of his squad mates.

"What happened?" - Noah

"Ha Ha took the thief to turn him in after we caught him" - Asta

"Where were you kiddo. We thought we lost you" - Vanessa

"I was just browsing around" - Noah

After that incident, we didn't continue shopping, we just went back to the base.

"Welcome back. Noah! The wizard king has requested you for a team up mission with some members from other squads" - Yami said to them just as they walked in

"I know. I already told him that I accepted" - Noah

"You met the wizard king?! What did he look like. What is he like?!" - Asta

"You'll meet him soon, so just wait" - Noah

"That leaves you two newbies. The wizard king has sent a mission in for you. You'll get to explore a dungeon with members from the golden sticks stuck up their asses squad" - Yami

"You mean the golden dawn? I wonder if Yuno will be there" - Asta

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