The Mission Starts

Chapter 58: The Mission Starts

"Balam…" William's eyes rose from the paper and he looked at Cesimir with lifeless eyes. "Why do they send me so far from Backlund?"

"It is not easy to find a mission that serves to test a potential Deacon." Crestet closed his eyes and brushed off some of the dust that had fallen on his raincoat. "Besides, you've only been with us for a short time, but it's not that strange for us to be sent away. There's a reason we're called the Goddess' dogs."

William let out a sigh.

"I'm worried about you, being able to say this things so easily..."

The Captain smiled. "Edward once said that noblemen's dogs have more dignity than ordinary people, I guess that could be considered with a God too."

The image of the extremely serious and aristocratic Beyonder came to William's mind. 'Yes, he seems like someone who would say something like that...'

He sighed again.

"Well, it's not like I'm so against leaving. I can take advantage of this situation to try to find a spectral mantis, I need it for the potion."

Cesimir nodded. "It would be nice if you could find one, it would save the Church work. I think we have some ice lion's teeth left in Chanis Gate, so there won't be a problem with that."

Of course, William had granted the formula to the Church the moment he got it.

Like every time before, the potion was very simple, consisting of only two ingredients.

"Anyway, your assigned team is waiting for you at the port to leave. Don't take too much luggage, you'll most likely need to move all over Balam for a while if you want to hunt down that guy." Cesimir explained.

In fact, the mission was about catching a Beyonder named Enzo. Apparently, this guy had belonged to the Life School of Thought, a secret organization that the Seven Orthodox Churches did not actively hunt, but he absconded and was now part of the Rose School of Thought.

The Rose School used to be a fairly pacifist organization, all its members practiced temperance and lived secluded among themselves. However, at some point a few centuries ago they suddenly went crazy and began to act in the complete opposite way, giving in to indulgence.

When William read about them, he understood that it was most likely that something had corrupted the members, possibly some evil God.

Anyway, this Enzo was a Sequence 5 Beyonder from the Monster pathway. The name of this Sequence was Winner, which strongly implied that his powers lay in granting luck to the Beyonder.

'This will be a pain.' William thought. 'I'm pretty sure I can take down a Sequence 5 Beyonder if we fight directly, but finding him will be difficult with luck against us. Maybe I should...'

The idea suddenly occurred to him to ask Klein to accompany him to the Southern Continent. Divination wouldn't work on Sequence 5, but Klein wasn't a simple Seer, he knew that better than anyone.

However, he felt that Klein wanted to reach at least Sequence 7 before leaving Backlund because it would be difficult to survive in the extraordinary world as a low Sequence Beyonder.

"Come on, why do you think so much?" Cesimir encouraged him. "If you were alone, then you might have trouble finding him, but the Goddess always guides us on the right path, just follow your instincts."

Surprisingly, this cleared up William's doubts quite a bit.

"True. Praise the lady."

Anyway, the Evernight Goddess controlled misfortune, there was no way a little luck could combat that.

Without further ado, William said goodbye to the Captain and went to the port.

.....

It didn't take long for William to reach the agreed-upon location. He quickly identified a Beyonder wearing a black trench coat, his clothing giving him away as a Nighthawk, no doubt. Next to him was a woman, also a Beyonder, although she seemed very normal.

The other party also noticed him and approached him.

"You're Captain William Hastur, right?" The man was the first to speak, his tone was very polite. "Sir, the ship is ready to leave in twenty minutes, we can board when you give the order."

William nodded in understanding.

"Okay, I would like to know your names and the pathway you belong to." Since the man acted as professionally as possible, William decided to do the same, not that he had much experience leading people, much less Beyonders. "Meanwhile, we can get on the ship."

The man nodded vigorously and followed him as they got into a surprisingly long line of people.

The woman didn't say anything and she just stared at William, which made the latter slightly uneasy.

'These two guys are weird. Ah, it looks like this is going to be a thrilling ride...' William could sense that his sanity would be in danger again soon, although after all, he was on a mission to become a Deacon of a church.

The line moved faster than one would have expected, and soon they were settled in the cabin they shared.

"I'll start. My name is William Hastur, my pathway is good at close-range fights, although I also have some medium-range attacks. My responsibility is to complete the mission, but also avoid unnecessary casualties, so I hope you keep that in mind at all times."

He felt that he should leave a good first impression as a serious leader so that there would be no problems later, which was a bit like how Dunn Smith acted.

It seemed to work, the man looked at him with even more respect than before, for some reason. William thought that he was a religious fanatic and that was why he admired a Deacon candidate so much, it seemed the most plausible.

"Okay, now you can introduce yourselves."

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Sorry for the delay, I have started exams again, which will slow down the updates, although don't worry, there will not be a hiatus like the one there was before.

Anyway, I'm going to try to make this arc as good as possible, since there will be some important things.