12 - First mission

"Wakey wakey, come on wake up kid it's time for your first misson." Elijah said, waking Arthur up. "Ugh..." Arthur said, slowly leaving the world of dreams. "I hate waking up early." Arthur said. "I know kid, that's why I always wake you up early." Elijah said with a smirk.

They both got ready and knocked on Claire's door. She opened the door, already ready. "See, that's how you should be!" Elijah said. Claire giggled before they went downstairs, meanwhile, Elijah disappeared again. 

"Thank you for the room." Claire said, giving the key back to the receptionist. Arthur followed suit, "Thank you." and both left the tavern. Elijah was waiting for them outside. 

"Put on the mask and let's go." Elijah said, all three of them instantly using Gradus and disappearing towards the Mercenary Guild. They quickly arrived there within 5 minutes. It was a big building, with a lot of blue elements to it. They entered it and instantly the once loud and bustling building quieted down. Everyone looked towards the three of them. A faint whisper could be heard 'The Stormcrests.' someone said. Elijah and Claire didn't pay any heed and simply walked to the receptionist. 

"Hello there Betty!" Elijah spoke to her in a casual tone. She had a faint smile on her face, like seeing an old friend again. "Long time no see Elijah. Seems like you brought guests?" Elizabeth, the receptionist said, looking at Claire and Arthur. "Well, this is my daughter!" He said, holding her in the air and showing her off like some kind of plushie. "DAD!" She said, fighting her way out of his grasp. 

Her cheeks flushed red before she quickly turned invisible. "Ohh!" "Woah." "Mhm." Multiple sounds of surprise filled the Guild. Betty slapped Elijah's hand. "Don't embarrass a young woman like that!" She said. "Haha! It'll be fine, it'll be fine. Anyway, this is a friend of hers..." Elijah said, waiting for Arthur to introduce himself. "Oh! Uhm...you can call me Fox?" Arthur said in an unsure tone, quickly making up a nickname on the spot and referencing his mask. He still needed some practice coming up with names...

Betty looked at Arthur and said, "Fox huh? Nice to meet you, Fox." while holding out a hand which he quickly shook. "Ahem...anyway, we came here to get them signed up and started on their first mission." Elijah said. 

"Certainly! Just have them fill out these papers and bring 'em back to me once you're done." Betty said, giving out two sets of papers. Claire quickly materialized again and snatched the papers only to disappear again. Betty gave a chuckle at her antics, similar to what you would hear from a grandmother. 

Arthur quickly filled out his papers.

Name: Fox

Age: N/A

Gender: Male

Nationality: Mortalia

Zealot: Yes

Rank: Initiate

Affiliation: Stormcrests

Residence: Stormcrest House

Essence: Awakened, N/A

Preferred Weapon: Sword

Arthur gave his papers back to Betty. "Interesting indeed, I hope to see you around often here Mister Fox." Betty said with a smirk. Arthur left out some optional details so that if he decided not to become part of the Stormcrests it wouldn't be easy to make the connection. After all, there weren't many 16-year-olds who had already awakened their Essence. Especially sharing the name of his Essence was a no-go for Arthur. It would be useless to wear a mask if he was going to make such a stupid mistake. 

Claire also filled out her papers and gave them back to Betty. 

Name: Claire Stormcrest

Age: 17

Gender: Female

Nationality: Mortalia

Zealot: Yes

Rank: Adept

Affiliation: Stormcrests

Residence: Stormcrest House

Essence: Awakened, Illusion

Preferred Weapon: Sword

Everything about Claire was already public knowledge. Being part of the Stormcrests and especially the daughter of Elijah was a very public position so there wasn't really anything she would or even could hide. 

"Adept at this age? You're taking after your father." Betty praised Claire, who had now stopped hiding. Normally there would be a testing process where people would have to prove the rank that they wrote down. However, since they were part of the Stormcrests no one would dare try that. 

"Okay here are your badges." Betty said, handing out one bronze plaque with the name 'Fox' engraved on it and a silver plaque with 'Claire Stormcrest' on it. "Now there on the side is the mission board. Simply choose a mission that is within or below your current rank. Once you did that, bring me the mission request and I will fill you in as contractors for it.

Any mission above bronze rank requires proof, if it's an extermination mission the head of someone or something, an ear, or just anything to identify the request is enough. If it's an escort mission or something relating to a person, they will have a mission completion paper that they will give you once you accomplished your mission. Simply bring me that. 

Once a mission is complete, we pay you the money based on the rank of the mission. Just to let you know, we take a 20% fee." Betty explained everything in detail.

"Got it." Claire said. She and Arthur moved towards the Mission Board.

"Bandit extermination - Bronze. Clearing out a rat infestation - Copper. Another bandit extermination. One more. Oh, this one looks interesting, Monkeywolf extermination - Silver." Claire read them all out.

"I'm fine with that." Arthur said. Elijah simply shrugged, as he was only here to observe he didn't give his opinion on it. Claire brought it to Betty. "We'll take this." She said with a smile. "Sure thing, give me your badges." Betty said. Claire and Arthur quickly gave their badges, which Betty used to imprint their names into the mission paper. "Okay, good luck!" She said, handing them a copy of the mission paper. 

"Okay near the west entrance outside of Vlas is a village that gets attacked and looted from Wolfmonkeys at night. Apparently, they're hiding out in a cave near it." Claire said, reading the information on the mission paper. "Let's go." Arthur responded, all three of them disappearing with Gradus. 

They moved quickly towards the west entrance, reaching it within 30 minutes. Even with their phenomenal speed, the capital was just too big! The guards at the entrance quickly recognized them, opening the gate for them. Another hour later they arrived at the village. 

"Hey, can you bring us to the village chief?" Claire asked a random person in the village. They saw the plaque and exhaled. "Oh thank god! Mercenaries, finally you arrived! These Wolfmonkeys have killed our people and stolen all our food!" The man said. "Yes we know, we're here trying to help you. So can you please show us where your village chief is now?" Arthur said, wanting to get this done quickly. 

"Oh yes! Of course, follow me." The man said, bringing them quickly towards a big hut. At least bigger than the rest of the huts. On the way, they got a lot of stares, especially Elijah. However, they simply ignored it, even Arthur being mostly used to it by now. 

"Chief! The mercenaries finally arrived!" The man shouted while knocking on the chief's door. The door creaked open and an old man with dark skin was revealed. "Ah, thank you, Johan. You can leave us now." The village chief spoke in a raspy voice. The man quickly left.

"Seeing the legendary Stormcrests take this mission truly means a lot to us." The old man started complimenting them. "Can you tell us where the cave exactly is?" Arthur quickly interrupted. The man looked at the young boy in the fox mask weirdly, before deciding to simply give him the information. "It is slightly northwest from here, there will be a small forest and inside that forest is going to be a big mountain. At the foot of that mountain is a big cave opening where we suspect them to live." The village chief said.

"Got it." Arthur said, all three of them disappearing towards the forest. "Is there a reason why we're rushing this so much?" Claire asked. "Not really, I just like being efficient. Maybe we can do some more missions today if we're fast." Arthur responded. 

Claire understood and sped up her Gradus. All of them quickly entered the forest and went towards the mountain. "Wait, what's the plan?" Claire asked. "For what do we need a plan?" Arthur responded with another question. "It's a silver-ranked mission. Meaning a silver-ranked mercenary should be able to take care of it alone. Now you also have me here, that's why we don't need a plan." Arthur elaborated. 

"It would be better to have a plan in case something goes wrong." Claire said. "You're worrying too much, what could possibly go wrong?" Arthur waved her off. Claire looked towards Elijah, who simply looked the other way and whistled. "Ugh. Fine." Claire relented in the end. 

They found the cave opening, it was massive! an entire school bus could drive down here without many problems. 

As they entered the cave, darkness covered everything. "I can't see." Arthur said. Suddenly a flicker of light appeared. The flicker quickly turned into an orb, flying around Arthur and Claire. 

"You do surprise me every time." Arthur said. "I sure hope so Artie." Claire responded.

"I've been meaning to ask you. What's with the 'Artie'?" Arthur asked. "Well, I can call you Art instead if you wish." Claire said with a smirk. "Art? But why?" He asked.

"Why not? I think it's cute." Claire responded. Just as Arthur was about to respond, "Shhh...I heard something." Claire said.

A shadowy figure rushed past the both of them. They barely managed to see some fur and the shadow it left behind.

"It's big." Arthur said. From what he saw it was about as big as a pickup truck and it moved faster than Arthur could follow.

"This might be harder than I originally thought." Arthur said in a shocked tone, seeing hundreds of shadows rushing throughout the cave.

""AWOOOOOOOOOO!!!!"" One of them howled, all the others following suit. Then they attacked!