Chapter 23- Special quest

"My name is Abraham Derricott, and I am the guildmaster here."

He gave Lucious and Liara a quick once over before turning to face Adrianna.

"What's so important that you brought these two here?" he asked her as he began to grin.

"Lucious here, tells me that he encountered humans less than an hour's walk from the city." Adrianna said with a serious expression.

Until now, Adrianna seemed to have a bored tone when working. Though she put on a smile and acted friendly, it was clearly being done as part of the job.

But now, all traces of her previous attitude disappeared.

"I see. Tell me everything kid, and don't miss a single detail." His gaze bore into Lucious as he grinned.

Bearkin were known to be battle loving maniacs and seeing someone so young have an elemental aura core at the first stage of their aura core development excited him.

He could tell Lucious would grow to become someone strong and he couldn't wait to fight him.

Over the next few minutes, Lucious told him everything, recounting the events that transpired as best he could.

"They've gotten bolder. Used to be that they hunted only near the villages. Now they are at our doorstep."

Both Lucious and Liara were surprised by this revelation for different reasons.

Lucious hadn't expected them to have already started testing the empires defences. He figured it would take at least another two years before that.

Liara on the other hand was surprised that they were attacking at all as she had no prior knowledge of what's coming.

Adrianna doesn't look at all phased by this, I guess she knew already. Lucious noticed how she didn't react that to the news of their attacks.

Her only reaction was to how close they were getting.

"They've been attacking the villages of the Hozia Empire?" Liara asked, finally speaking.

She had remained silent since she killed the human mage. At the time, she was so overcome with anger towards the humans.

Seeing them triggered the memories of her capture and she killed them without much thought.

But once they were dead, the reality slowly settled in. For the first time in her life, she killed someone.

Liara knew they would have killed her without hesitation if the roles were reversed. But the feeling of ending someone's life for the first time made her nauseous.

"Yeah. We also located an outpost, two days journey from here." Once again, Abraham revealed shocking news like it was nothing.

Does he already have a plan to deal with them? Lucious thought Abraham should be more concerned but if they did have a contingency plan, then his attitude would make sense.

Even if that is the case, shouldn't he deal with them before releasing this news.

Lucious was suspicious, about the way events were unfolding. Abraham should have either dealt with them or sent someone.

Why do I have a bad feeling?

"Why are you telling us? ... don't tell me..." He finally understood why he was being told sensitive information.

"That's right. I want you to go there." Abraham said while sporting a grin.

Having an elemental core shouldn't be possible at his level, and he was eager to find out what Lucious was capable of.

Lucious wasn't happy at being sent to deal with them. He had been wanting to conceal his strength long enough to advance his elemental aura and mana cores.

"Naturally, you won't be going alone. Adrianna and her former party will be accompanying you."

Lucious suspected Adrianna was stronger than she looked, and now this conformed it.

"Shouldn't you send someone stronger? We're just G rank adventurers." Liara said before biting her bottom lip.

Liara wasn't sure if she liked the idea of going to a human outpost to fight. She knew they had to be dealt with, but she only just learned magic.

To top it off, she only managed to kill the human mage by catching him off guard. Going to an outpost felt like suicide to her.

"You won't be going missy; I'm just sending him. You can survive without him for a little while." He said to Liara before focusing his attention back on Lucious.

Liara still felt dissatisfied with his decision. She knew Lucious was strong ever since what happened at the village.

But she didn't think he was strong enough to attack an outpost that likely had over a dozen mages and aura knights as strong as him.

She so didn't want to be apart from Lucious. He had been there for her ever since he saved her from the slavers and didn't want to part ways even for a few days.

I don't want him to go, but I can't stop him if he agrees... if I was stronger... Liara decided she would use the library in the guild to learn more about ice and light magic.

"I'll go, but I have a condition." Lucious boldly stated to one of the strongest people within in the city.

Adrianna and Abraham both looked at him with intrigued expressions. While Liara looked disappointed to be separated from him.

Adrianna knew how strong her boss was, and few would dare try to negotiate with him after he shows his aura.

"Do you now? Let's hear it."

"If I'm going, then I want an Adept ranked mage to teach Liara about magic while I'm away."

Lucious's condition caught everyone off guard. He couldn't properly teach Liara magic and wanted her to learn the basics.

He could help her figure out how best to use her spells, but he couldn't teach her anything about magic itself.

If she had a better understanding on magic, her spells would become stronger, and her mastery would increase. She would also be able to learn magic from spellbooks faster.

The system covered Lucious on all these fronts, but Liara couldn't rely on a system like him.

"Sure, I can arrange that. Also, this will be considered as a quest, and you'll be compensated upon return.

Meet Adrianna by the main gate at sunrise. Don't be late, kid."

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Authors note// Uploads will be slowing down little bit but will still aim for 5-6 chapters per week.