Union (1)

[Union's Hotel]

After the incident relating to Keith that happened not so long ago, it was decided that the Round Table would be contacting the Union.

We had done so, not so long after the kidnapping, and the Union quickly accepted our requests to meet, due to the dire situation.

It had been two days since I have arrived at the Union, and as expected, there were many races roaming around the streets.

Although I wanted to stay back because I didn't trust the other rankers, as I was ranked 1 in the human realm, it was decided that I should go to the Union.

But since we wanted to leave behind as many (S) ranked hunters as we could, it was decided that I would only be taking a few (A) ranked heroes together with me.

It has only been around 2 weeks since the incident, but due to the situation, we would be having a meeting soon enough with the representatives of the Union.

Soon, I heard a knocking on the door, and I was told it was finally time to meet with them.

I decided to head alone as the other (A) rankers were not important enough for them to be in the meeting.

Surprisingly, thanks to the dwarves, the city which was surrounded by a thick forest was both incredibly advanced but also had a mystical and natural sense to it.

Not long after, I arrived at a huge palace and went inside, I was guided to a room and as the doors were opening I could see, an angel, an elf, a giant, a dwarf, and a dragoon.

I knew that the angel was a harpy and was ranked (SS), she was the strongest against the demons and someone that was called the saint of the Union.

The elf was an archer, that had an extremely good vision and of course, powerful arrows, he was ranked (SS), and was considered someone that was needed when dealing with the demons, mainly to spot an assassin that had previously kidnapped Keith, Amadeus.

Then there was a giant, also called the shield of the Union, he had incredible defenses and an ability to create magical shields, that allow the Union, to block the ice attacks from one of the demons (SS) ranked dukes, Yuki.

Finally, a dragoon, which is a race that has dragons blood running through their veins, is considered (SS) ranked, but only because of his huge mana supply, although he can indeed cast high-level spells, they are not worth comparing with mages with better control.

And the dwarf, who is considered the chairman of the Union thanks to his great decisions, and although not even ranked (B-), is considered a main force within the Union.

they were all sitting down at a large circular table, and I sat across them.

We greeted each other and the dwarf asked about the situation with Keith.

I told him about how Keith had a skill that allowed him to appraise items all the way to (S+), he had a cooldown but we didn't know how long it was. Keith was turned into a contractor, meaning that the demons now had an appraiser that could not be found anywhere else in the world.

"Hmm, this could be bad, for us", Said the giant.

The others nodded their heads, and his statement and after thinking for a while, the chairman finally spoke.

"I think, I see why you have contacted us, so suddenly, but even with that, I don't believe we could trust the humans, with an alliance"

Well, it was understandable, considering the past of our races. Even now, the Union never had an intention of attacking us.

Nonetheless, I still had a card against them.

"As you probably already know, we currently have a future prominent hero, that will become the first human to be able to achieve the (SS) ranked"

The elf, that looked a little arrogant then said, "So a stronger greedy human, what is your point, lady?"

"Although I can understand your hate against humans, the new prodigy I'm referring to has a skill called [Judgement]"

To this, the angel or saint stood up and widened her eyes.

She then raised her voice and asked, "How did he get such a skill?".

I had already asked, Ray, to research things that could give the humans leverage, and he told me about how the Union's saint had a thing for saint-like skills.

"I know the reason, but of course, I can't really tell information so important to the human race, to an enemy"

I could see that the others, except the dwarf, had a frown on their faces.

"A skill that is only granted to those, that are recognized for their saint-like actions, it must mean that the human is probably one, with a kind heart", Said the old-looking dwarf.

The dwarf then went on to explain to the other ones, that if a human had such skill it must mean that he was a saint. He mentioned there was merit in accepting the alliance if they could help in nurturing the (SS) ranked prodigy, so he is not corrupted by the other greedy humans.

After some back and forth between them, they finally came to a conclusion.

"We would accept the alliance, but will never accept humans that are not your soldiers, to step foot inside of our land. We would like to meet this young hero and also provide him with training and materials for his growth. Finally, we would like to know, how he obtained such a skill"

There were of course other conditions that he had mentioned but they were pretty much not important. It was best to accept the alliance in these simple terms.

Thanks to Ray, I already knew that the Union was greatly interested and attached to heroes that did saint-like actions and of course skills relating to them, I already knew, that apart from the war and our troupes, we wouldn't really be allowed to come here, but that was good enough.

We then signed a mana contract, which is a contract infused with mana similar to those of the summoning circle, and if broken they will kill the one that failed the conditions.

The angel who had impatient then asked, "So how did he obtain it?"

"Well, I am unsure if the information is exactly accurate"

"Huh?", They all said, including the dwarf.

"The information was provided not by an expert of anything like that, but by the appraiser that had been kidnapped before"

"Then how is that information worth anything?", The elf asked, while looking annoyed.

"The appraiser had a network of information so deep in the human world, that it is also known that he has predicted future events that had happened in the human realm", This was not something I knew, and it was pretty much told to me by Ray.

"Hoh, now tell us", Said the dwarf.

"The appraiser said that the skill is not something one can learn but only be bestowed, if someone has the will to fight until the end against an opponent way stronger than him to protect someone else, he will be bestowed this skill"

...

After that meeting, there was an announcement sounding throughout the whole city of how the demons had launched an attack with Yuki at its front.

I was called by a servant and told to go back and meet with the Union's commanders.

After speaking briefly with them, they told us to join the war and fight alongside them with our current troops, I didn't hesitate to call the (A) ranked heroes, because there was a condition of helping each other during attacks in the contract.

And with that, we had spent the last few days battling against the demons. We were currently pushing them back, thanks to the Union having, 4 (SS) ranked commanders, but we couldn't really advance much due to poisons created by a demon called Botis.

Yuki had also created multiple ice walls, that took a while to break causing our advances to fail. Demons are supposed to be the aggressive type so why do they have so many defensive skills and strategies.

It was then that the ground trembled and in the distance, we could see a huge undead he was about 10 meters tall and there were also 9 smaller warriors near him.

I went into the commanders' tent, and I could see that they already started a meeting.

"That is an undead lord and 9 undead warriors", Said the elf.

"Those are a Lich's summons", Said the saint.

"A Lich!?", I had no choice but to raise my voice against that remark.

"Yeah, but don't worry, I think they have forgotten about our saint's skills if they have sent them just like that", Said the giant.

I turned to look in the direction of the undead lord but noticed, that he and the other undead warriors were heading back.

"I think they have realized", I said while stepping out of the tent.

It was after around 5 seconds that I felt a shiver coming down my spine.