Interruption...

A moment passed.

The busy guild started buzzing with people again. Most of them had just finished their meal and was walking out from the cafeteria section. A crowd formed at where the quest board was plastered.

The quest board would be revised at least 3 times a day, once before the sun rise, another time at noon and the third being the evening right after twilight. At these times, whenever there were easy pick quests that catch a fair price, fights would break out inevitably. Luckily, it was something that didn't occur too frequently. If it did occur, the guards stationed in the guild would take action.

It was about this time when a guy around his 20's approached them seemingly out of nowhere. Together with Ruth that is.

"You too are Curtis and Ellis perhaps?" His physique wasn't the overbearing type, having an tranquil but dominating aura to it. He wore a uniform that made Curtis and Ellis realize he wasn't just any member of the guild. His name was Dean Troy, one of the guild masters in charge of maintaining order within the guild. Everyone knew that he was a chatty guy, stringing up conversations with adventurers every so often. With his amiable attitude and charming look, he became widely know by the most members of Croquel. Once before, Curtis and Ellis had the opportunity to strike up a conversation with him, resulting in some rather positive insights and also helped build stronger ties to the guild. This was one of the reason why although Lion's Keep and Gleamlock were a choice Curtis' could easily consider, he chose Croquel instead.

He had a nice head of dark blue hair with odd white fringes in front. Nobody knew his history to why that clump of his hair had turned white.

"Yes. Nice to see you again Guild Master Dean," Curtis nodded his head slightly.

He gave a slight heartfelt chuckle before continuing. "If you don't mind, would you follow me to the guild meeting room? I'm sure you know what this is about,"

The guild meeting room Dean mentioned was one for adventurers and Guild representatives to discuss about certain matters. Located a little bit past the cafeteria.

Ruth parted with them. She still had work to do.

The cafeteria had the largest space of the three main halls. Housing about 30 long wooden tables and 120 something seats. The cafeteria was built here for the convenience of adventurers. However, even normal folks would come here ever so often. This place was popular among adventurers and commoners alike.

Dean escorted them past a door, one that could only be accessed by guild staff. When the other adventurers saw this, they started to question. Whispering into each other's ear in the exchange of opinion while trying to keep a low profile. Dean Troy was a guild master, his mere presences made people feel respect towards him. Possessing such a high profile, what has those two runts got to do with him?

"Look man, how can you call those two a runt. From what I've heard, that boy over there is probably this guild's most powerful mage."

The other man was indifferent. Being the most powerful or not, it still didn't mean one would garner respect from the higher-ups, let alone their full attention. Though, this was an exception to Dean.

Up the stairs and past a corridor, the were led into a room.

A lavish room with a round table. Around the spacious table, were cushioned seats, different from the hard wood benches in the cafeteria. Opening the door for them was a waiter. He wore a white and black uniform, tardy and clean. The guild being divided into three different sections, lodging, guild service and food service, each one had it's own set of practices.

"Would you like to order anything?" Dean asked before turning to the waiter and ordered first. A simple pearl cream sandwich with a side of tofu and fish roe served in a miniature ramekin. For the drinks, plain water was a good enough choice.

The meeting room was built close to the cafeteria specifically for one reason—to eat. What better way to have a discussion than to do it together with food right?

Dean wasn't the guy who'd act with perfect mannerism. This would only make others revere him. If he were to be too 'perfect' others would avoid him due to the difference in status, with them feeling more inferior. An open and polite demeanor was more of his style.

"Starberry fizz cocktail and two grilled salmon please," Ellis nonchalantly ordered.

"Reduce the alcohol content for the cocktail."

"What?!"

"I'm kidding, I'm kidding," Ellis was fine with alcohol. It was Curtis who had a low tolerance to it. "A cup of coffee and one grilled salmon for me thank you."

Having ordered their food, it came down to a discussion.

"Take a look at this," Curtis delved into his pocket and pulled out a tiny jar, a small cork fitted tightly around the opening. Through the transparent glass one could see—

"Spirit essence?!" Dean was fairly knowledgeable.

Curtis nodded. "For your inspection."

This discussion was primarily focused between only the two of them. Curtis, being the one having a slightly more slippery tongue, played the role of dealing with people. Ellis who didn't really have anything much to do in this continued sipping away at her cocktail. The fruity blend of multicoloured starberry and the alcoholic kick took Ellis to cloud nine. Literally.

Pouring a little bit of the course salt sized fragments on a piece of white paper, Dean proceeded to pinch the small grains in between his two fingers. Rubbing it around his fingertips, feeling its texture. It was hard and jagged, but had a weird smoothness to it. To describe it more accurately, there was like a special coating enveloped around it, repelling the finger.

Dean could imagine the mysterious aura emanating from within. This was genuine! Such a rare substance!

Forest sprites were commonly found in virgin forests. Although it could be considered as the most common among the other sprite species, it was still especially hard to come across. In the past, the abundant unexplored world meant many adventurers had the chance to fight and defeat one of these creatures.

But that was before most pillars have been inhabited and dissected from the inside out. Even before the era of mass exploration, spirit essence was already hard to come by. Froque Kingdom had a cultivation spot to farm this material, but the information was only hearsay. Forest Sprites weren't the only creatures that dropped spirit essence.

Dean's eye lit up.

"I will arrange an investigation. If it turns out to be true, we'll inform you and reward your party, oh, it's just the two of you," Realizing how unusual this party actually is, "I thank you on behalf of the guild for your contribution."

Dean lowered hips head to make a bow, somewhat.

A contract was placed before Curtis, citing that he, his party was the founder of the new land. And it wasn't just one, but a few copies. It had some special form of magic applied to it, a measure taken by the king after the incident a few years back.

Curtis nodded and signed it together with Ellis. Shifting his gaze to the shoddy map; lines strewn across with abrupt circle and shrewd lines akin to shooting stars in red ink, he though it was time to change his map soon.

"Another thing to pay attention to is the elevation of this pillar. Encountering it was really pure luck. Most people wouldn't even take this route and even if they did, it would take adventurers up high in the sky, but with the elevation being unexpectedly lower, it slipped by unnoticed. There is also the unusual concealing fog covering the surrounding of the pillar, I believe these were the reasons why most people overlooked it," pointing at the chestnut-shape outline. "I think it is at least a couple hundred meters lower that Haital."

"I see. Thank you for bringing this up."

Dean's mind was swirling. To him, this discovery could drastically sky-rocket the reputation of Croquel Guild. More importantly, now in his hands—the spirit essence. He couldn't take his mind off it. At best, he could turn it into a decorative antique, an exclusion item that could become the guild's shinning pride— or he could just sell it to make a fortune.

Spirit essence. A resource for forging. Being grey and dull, possessing the look of ordinary table salt (just don't mistaken it for that), its special property was its innate ability to fuse with another gryostone. When this happens, two things would occur. First, the gryostone would increase in size, and secondly, increasing the colour specific properties of the gryostone by the magnitude in proportion to it's size. Furthermore, spirit essence posses the quality to refine and concentrate the colour of the gyrostone, increasing purity.

"What price are you willing to accept on exchange if say, I wanted the Spirit Essence?" Dean asked. A surprised smile surfaced on Curtis' face.

"Let's see...What do you think Ellis? How about an upgrade to your sword?" Ellis blinked her eyes furiously. He read her mind?

Not really. In fact, during the previous fight with the Forest Sprite, her sword had already been sliced off at the tip. Adding on top the fact that deep dents and chiseled parts could be seen riddled across the sword, its lifespan was clearly coming to an end.

"But the spirit essence, won't you need it to.." Ellis paused a moment, realizing she was about to blurt out information about the superior red crystal Curtis found. Shaking her head. "A refined blue crystal won't help you much wouldn't it?" Obviously a lie.

Sounding unusual, Dean wondered why anyone would want to refine a blue crystal. Though, to Curtis, refining a mana crystal sounded practical.

"It's fine. I think it's better if you get a new sword. A sword with a few additional gryostone slots would help."

"Err.. then, um. Thank you Curtis," if Dean wasn't here, she would've added the words "I love you."

"Then it's settled. In the exchange for that bottle, I guess a better sword for Ellis? The sword has to suit her."

Dean merely smiled after hearing that. A high grade sword? That's a little—

"That's too modest of you. I actually expected something of higher value. And there's also the post reward we discussed about for the ones who actually found a new piece of land," the post reward was an incentive to encourage people to report their findings rather than keep it a secret. Even if the founders were from Croquel Guild, they could go sell the information to another guild that provided more benefits.

"The land has yet to be confirmed by the authorities hasn't it?"

"This spirit essence here is already proof, and, I believe in what you say," no doubt, this was one of the important reason why Curtis and Ellis maintained a member of this guild.

"Together with the sword, how about I add a spell book? We've recently received an order of The Maverick Spellbook set," Dean recalled. Curtis gawked.

"Are you serious?" The thought of having to transfer all the repertoire from his old spellbook into a new one—if he acquired it— had left his mind completely.

"Once the land has been found and your claims turn out to be true, then, I'll make sure to give out a suitable reward for you two."

"Thank you?" Curtis was a little overwhelmed with the sudden influx of apparent rewards waiting for him.

"If anything, I'll come find you two when the time comes, for now.."

Just as those words left Dean's mouth, an attendant came bursting from the door. She had walked into the food guild meeting room without prior notice, looking specifically for Dean.

"Guild master Dean, the princess. The princess from Rozel kingdom," she spoke with a shaky tone.

A slight nod was seen with a furrowed brow, Dean stood up. Glancing over at Ellis and Curtis, "Looks like another unexpected thing happened." Dean smiled weakly, "I need attend to this, I apologize. Please wait a bit," and went out.

With Dean gone, Curtis and Ellis realized that the clamoring sounds in the guild had gotten quite loud. They were seated in a secluded room so they did not notice that until now.

"I wonder what's going on?" Ellis continued looking out the open door— at the plain wall.

"The fourth bell?" Curtis thought maybe there was something to do with this. The arrival of a princess from another kingdom could be counted as a special event.

"Then could the princess be here at the moment?"

"That's a possibility>"

An indescribable joy surfaced on Ellis face, like a bubble appearing from below the sea.

"What?"

"Nah, I was just thinking. What would my new sword look like."

Curtis laughed in response. He had thought she was thinking something related to the princess. "I can't believe I'm going to get a Maverick Spellbook!"

They continued chatting. Really, it was like striking gold time and time again. First was the new pillar, now an upgrade to their equipment. This made them so hype, having something so inconceivable happen. Image what they could do with their new weapons.

For the new sword, Ellis imagined it to be a tad lighter in weight, professionally designed and crafted, sharper, having more gryostones slots, improved magic conductivity and larger mana capacity. There is also the possibility of additional gryostone slots, namely one for crystals other than the single fusion crystal on Ellis' current jade sword.

Curtis imagined the spell book with better mana efficiency, better conductivity, faster casting times, smoother transitions and a fancier cover. One very particular trait that all Maverick Spellbooks have was the 6 specially designated gryostone slots. Designed with unrestricted conductivity, it utilizes each individual trait of the crystals to it's best potential.

With the two's chatter growing lively, they noticed Dean's voice coming closer. A sweet impeding voice could be heard in conjuncture. The tumult in the cafeteria receded like a tide. Only the two voices were audible.

The princess?