Chapter 26: Jack's Task.

Because Maria encountered an emergency, she had to apologize after accepting the dinner invitation.

Ron decided to go with her too, among all, he was the one who was least in the mood to go to dinner, so he said goodbye, promising Franz and the others that he would invite them to lunch later.

Franz understood it to a certain extent, so he didn't say much, he was sure that Ron could easily overcome the bad taste in their mouths that this day left them, the reason for his humor was not that they had lost most of their rights to the potion, rather it was the pride of an alchemist speaking for him right now.

As for creating more recipes? Franz had not planned to do something like this at the moment, not after seeing how incapable he was of defending himself against others, nor did he want to go through so many problems and anyway he had already achieved what he wanted; Have enough money to buy the two ancient relics.

With the departure of Maria and Ron, the atmosphere became a little gloomy, Franz had lost his appetite so he had to tell Nepheli and her teacher Hans that they should eat another time.

Nepheli nodded, he was a little sad about the cancellation of the dinner, but he understood his friend's feeling, so he didn't insist.

So dinner had to be postponed for another day, anyway, they could not go to the Dragon King's restaurant since a reservation was needed a month in advance to be able to eat at that place. 

Hans accepted the decision of his two disciples and took the two of them to his house while dodging the press very deftly, unfortunately he couldn't use magic to teleport them all, if his mana leaked out, even a little, it could damage all the communication and energy currents in a fairly large area, causing unnecessary problems.

But if he only used his body, there would be no problem, since in Hans' words it was easier to control one's body than the force of nature that did not belong entirely to him.

Franz and Nepheli wanted to ask what he meant, but as Hans only said that they would understand in time, they asked no more and remained silent until they reached their homes.

Hans only said goodbye with a few words before leaving, the training would have to be postponed for a while as something had come up, however, he had reached an agreement with Jack who would explain things to them later.

After that, he just left, Franz and Nepheli didn't ask any more, at this point they were sure that their master had a mania for never explaining things, as to whether he was unique from him? That was something they would find out later.

. . . . . . .

The next day, both Franz and Nepheli were waiting outside the Chimera association.

- Franz, why did that fool make us wait outside? –

Franz looked at the time agreed upon by his teacher Hans, more than an hour had passed from the agreed time; Jack only comes to the association when there is a problem that no one in the association is able to solve.

- And is that guy even reliable? –

Franz couldn't answer the question, at least the image of Jack in his head, was that of someone carefree and devoid of any kind of responsibility, even within the Chimera association, only bad things could be heard from him and no good things.

- Well, Hans says he's reliable... although he didn't look confident when he told me –

The place went completely silent again, Nepheli decided to take a nap on Franz's shoulder while they were still waiting for Jack.

Another hour passed and when Franz was starting to get desperate, a car stopped not far away and from the car came Jack out, who looked misaligned and sleepy.

Looking at the two, Jack waved and as he approached the two and with little or no embarrassment he said to the two.

- Sorry guys, I'm a heavy sleeper and I fell asleep –

The two of them could only look at him silently and remorsefully while in the minds of the two, only one thought passed by; Master Hans, is this person really trustworthy?

Sensing the gaze of both of them, Jack felt embarrassed and said – Oh, come on, I assure you that listening to me will be worth it, believe me that I have not quoted you here for nothing -

. . . . .

Sitting face to face, Jack did not make them both wait any longer and asked them a question that left them both quite surprised.

- Within the world of tamers, do you know what elite skills are? –

Elite skills, the term was no secret to beast tamers, these were extremely strong skills, it could be said that having an elite skill could make a beast become one of the strongest among those of the same rank, giving them the ability to even surpass a rank.

Although most of it, it was not known if it was completely true, since elite skills were something that was kept secret from most people, the reason for it was still unknown.

"Everything you've heard is true," said Jack, who showed them both a list.

In it were some abilities that neither of them had heard of, as well as a short history of said abilities.

At some point in history, a tamer and researcher named Tomas Silvia discovered the existence of elite monsters, beasts that were superior in all aspects with respect to those of their own species and rank.

Such beasts were unsurpassed within the same rank; all these beasts had something in common, abilities superior to any other skill within the same rank as they were, presence of the king (B), bite of greed (C), Disdain of the great (D), etc.

These beasts were also known to have unlimited potential, as long as the environment was right, they were able to break through the ranks and continue to evolve.

- The reason why I show you this is rather a whim and of course, to meet your teacher – Taking a minute, Jack made them a very tempting offer – Hans wants me to teach you more about the profession of tamer, what do you say? –

Upon hearing the offer, Nepheli was the first to speak and say - Teach us? Why? I mean, even if you owe our master a favor, I think it's too much –

Jack laughed and as if he had heard something good he said – I'm glad you don't dislike the idea, don't worry either of you, as I said, I do this more on a whim, besides I haven't said my conditions for me to teach you both -

"I knew this sounded too good," thought the two who listened carefully to Jack's condition.

- I want you to bring me a sample of an elite beast –

Both Franz and Nepheli looked at each other in disbelief, that is, until just moments ago they had discovered the existence of elite beasts, which further denoted their rarity.

Noticing his expressions, Jack quickly said to try to clear things up – Don't worry, I wouldn't send you to war without weapons, that's obvious – Taking a map from his pocket, Jack began to explain – An elite beast has been sighted in the vicinity of the forest surrounding our town and Lota City, our neighbor, explorers believe that it is a RatatÖsk that has managed to mutate into an elite beast –

At this point Jack became serious and explained – if possible I would like them to bring me a tooth of that thing since they are very valuable in alchemy to create certain types of weapons, I have no hope that they will be able to tame it since doing it the conventional way is less than 1% and doing it the unconventional way is impossible because an elite beast is too proud to bow to bow to the Force, moreover, as long as they manage to kill it is fine –

Faced with the incredible information, Nepheli asked curiously - Why not just catch him? Wouldn't it be a loss to kill him even if his body is valuable? –

Franz also had the same doubt and Jack answered while waving his hand – No, I'm afraid that's also impossible, elite beasts die of stress shortly after being locked up, at least of course they have a tamer, it's sad but also necessary for the rest of the forest fauna, a RatatÖsk is able to drink the sap and vitality of hundreds of trees in just one day for its food, If we leave it at that, even with the vastness of the forest, the forest would end up dying in less than a year or half a year at worst.

Jack looked at them and said contradicting himself in some way – Of course there are many beasts that wouldn't allow it, but, it's a very elusive beast, so we better take care of it before we regret it –

With everything explained, Jack made an invitation to the two of them - So what do you say? In two days there will be an expedition to capture the RatatÖsk by our association, this time the maximum level will be the third rank mana practitioners since the beast is only in the second rank, so you shouldn't have much problem, at least to take care of the two of you –

Franz and Nepheli had no reason to refuse, besides neither of them had left the city and this was the opportunity, especially for Nepheli who had joined the storm chasers to explore the outskirts of the city, so the two accepted without further ado.

- We agree! –

With the confirmation of the two, Jack smiled and dismissed them, asking both of them to prepare everything necessary for two weeks and return to the Chimera association, it would be the time they would be on the outskirts of the city regardless of whether they managed to catch the RatatÖsk.

- Wow, since we left academia, my worldview only keeps expanding - Nephheli said.

Franz nodded, he would never have believed that there were beasts outside the norm or that he would have someone at the level of an ancestor as a teacher, no doubt things would continue to get more interesting from this point on.

Remembering something, Franz instructed Nepheli to call a taxi while he made a call, after returning from Jack's mission he would make sure to buy a car.

Answering the phone, Ron's voice was heard - Hi Franz, do you need anything? – I ask curiously.

"How about Ron, you see, I'll be on a mission for two weeks and I needed you to help me with something."

What Franz needed was someone to help him buy the painting "the serenity of a god" and the artifact of the fragmented star, the mission would last two weeks, so Franz did not believe he could attend the auction of the museum of the history of humanity.

- Sure, I thought that your association did not do this type of missions -

- It's a special occasion, you could say - Franz said embarrassed.

- I see, then take care of yourself - Ron said, without intending to ask.

Franz breathed a sigh of relief as he wasn't sure he could explain about the elite beasts to Ron, however, with the matter of the ancient relics settled, the only thing left was to prepare for the mission.

Author's note: How about dear readers! Sorry for not posting in four days, I had a stomach infection and couldn't work, so I'll try to make up for it later.

Thanks for reading!