Nightmare

Ivan Cross walked into the Mercenary Association with his head held high. He had managed to get quite a bit of high Rank equipments from the last Raid and had sold it. Of course with a man of his status, knowing that Noah and Alyssa had somehow returned from the Ruins was natural. It was just that he couldn't care, he had heard that the girl left and only the Novice Stage Ron stayed so he barely gave a shit.

As the man walked over to the bulletin board that held multiple missions that could be completed, he noticed weird gazes concentrated on his body. Ivan could recognize the meaning behind those gazes anytime. Greed.

He paused. This was different from the other times people looked at him, most times it was either one of respect or envy. Shaking his head, he decided to ignore them and focus on the board but was shocked to see a golden colored hue on one of the papers at the top.

Internal Sight was something all Intermediate Stage Battlesoul masters could get once they advanced as they gained the ability to control the Essence out of their body. It wasn't surprising that an Adept Stage Battlesoul master like Ivan could use it to read the paper.

Golden Rank mission!

A mission only available to Golden Rank Mercenaries with Adept Stage battle prowess.

What he read on it turned his face red! Rank 5 Equipment! Someone actually put 2 Rank 5 equipments on his head! And it wasn't only him, his subordinates also had their names on the list before him!

Now, Ivan understand where those ruthless looks of greed came from. It must be noted that, even he only got 1 Rank 5 Equipment from the Ruins. The lesser Rank equipments had been given to his subordinates and the rest were sold. And they hadn't bothered hiding this fact.

So now, everyone knew that by killing Ivan they would get their hands on three Rank 5 equipments! This was the same as a bag of gold falling from the sky.

"Damn it!" It was easy for Ivan to guess who did this. He had gotten news of 'Ron's' return to it could only be that bastard. He must have been seeking revenge for almost killing him and the girl named Alyssa.

Ivan wasn't an idiot, he immediately left the Mercenary Association and headed to his headquarters. "Jason! Bring out all the backup equipments we kept with us."

"Cap? All of them? I thought we kept all those for emergencies." Jason, one of the Vice leaders of the Cross Mercenary group, asked in confusion looking at his leader.

"This is an emergency! Bring out the damned equipments!" The flustered Ivan yelled out as he smashed his fist onto the table, a wave of lightning frying everything on it.

Seeing his angered Captain, Jason didn't hesitate again and went into the store room, bringing out a World ring that contained all their spare Rank 2 to 4 equipments. "This is everything Captain."

Ivan nodded and took the ring, heading towards the Auction House in the distance. He had racked his head heavily and realized there were only two ways of neutralizing the threat.

They could either pay the Auction House to drop down the death mission, or they would put up a mission of their own to find and kill Naoh.

"Oh, you're here." The beautiful woman at the receptionist's desk smiled mockingly as she glanced at the approaching Ivan.

Seeing that, the Mercenary captain would have loved to slap the smile off her face but he was here to ask her company for a favor.

"I would like to offer these gifts to the Ivory City Auction House." Ivan put on his best smile as he stretched out his hand, revealing a World ring at the center of his palm.

The woman was at the Intermediate Stage and could easily use Internal Sight, so she could get into the World ring without having to touch it. A quick scan revealed all she needed to know, making the mockery on her face seem even more prominent. "I don't think what you have is enough."

Ivan froze. The Rank 2 and 3 equipments in the ring were in thousands while the Rank 4 were in hundreds, yet it wasn't enough? "How- how's that possible?!"

The woman smirked. "You thought that was all he gave us?"

Hearing this made Ivan understand. Indeed, the Auction House had no reason to place a mission just because someone gave them equipments and asked them to do so. The said person must have reached some kind of agreement with them and given them some gifts.

"That bastard!" Ivan grit his teeth and muttered to himself, trying his best to suppress the killing intent within him. This was the Auction House after all, they had people of the Expert Stage keeping watch here.

Normally, a thousand Rank 2 and Rank 3 equipments could be equivalent to some Rank 5 equipments but the latter were much rarer. The less abundant the item, the more expensive it would be. The Ivory City Auction House just had to sell the Rank 5 equipments little by little and they would rack in a whole lot of money. Something that wasn't feasible even if you added a thousand Rank 2 and 3s. Of course if one put in Rank 4s that reached a thousand then it was possible but those weren't easily found either.

Ivan's voice resounded in the Cross Mercenary headquarters. "I don't care how much it takes, find that bastard for me. Put a bounty on his head, I want that prick alive you hear me? Alive!"

A lot of people were indeed involved with the search as they realized that, rather than killing a lot of Cross Mercenary group members finding and stealing from 'Ron' was more worth it.

Unfortunately, Ivan hadn't been keen enough to notice Noah's disguise so the latter could walk the streets of Ivory City without caring at all.

A week easily passed by and with 'Ron' no where to be found, the Mercenaries greedy enough to kill their colleagues once more focused on the Cross Mercenary group.

This happened all while the perpetrator of it all was in his Inn room exercising with the Azure Dragon Body Building Exercises.

And so the nightmare of the Cross Mercenary group began.