Chapter 122: Another Mission
....
Ivery wanted to take a bath, and Luther was visibly upset because the inn had separate bathing quarters. Normally, a lover's inn would have a mixed bath, but according to the innkeeper, there had been a few incidents with past guests harassing other guests, so it had to be separated.
Ivery and Luther eventually left the inn after taking a bath together.
They were dressed in their same attire after using magic to clean their clothing, and aimlessly walked around the town full of bustling adventurers.
Luther had to carefully help Ivery walk as he once again overdid it.
Ivery then noticed the same town guide that told them where was inn was located, she walked up to the guide and turned to look at Ivery and Luther with a smile.
"Hello, do you need anything else?" The guide asked
"Yes, where is the nearest adventurer's guildhall?" Ivery asked
The guide pointed straight down the long street, "If you go straight down here and make a left, then continue straight three stores down from the weapon smith shop, make a right, and you will see the guildhall there." The guide answered
"Thank you, how much do you want for the directions?" Ivery asked
"Free of charge this time.." The guide responded
"Really? Why?" Ivery inquired, confused about why she suddenly didn't want money
"Just because.." The guide said
"Okay, thank you again." Ivery smiled and grabbed Luther's hand as she headed in the direction the guide mentioned
.
.
Ivery and Luther stood in front of the guildhall and walked to the doors until they heard a loud sound coming from afar.
"Master!" Eness came running down the street with teary eyes
"Why do you keep forgetting me?!" Eness hugged Ivery
"I didn't forget you, you're a grown dragon, so I trust that you're able to take care of yourself and do what you will while I'm busy." Ivery rubbed Eness's head with a sigh
"Even so! I only wish to be by your side!" Eness squeezed Ivery tighter
"Alright, alright." Ivery patted her head
"Let me go inside now, I won't leave you behind anymore." Ivery reassured her
"Okay.." Eness let go of Ivery and wiped her eyes
"Are you okay though master? You look incredibly weak." Eness scanned Ivery
"Were you attacked??" Eness asked with a shocked expression
"You could say that.." Ivery glared at Luther and he looked away
"You have a lot of black magic residing in you...but it seems that your magic is already nullifying it." Eness smelled the strong conflicting magic inside of Ivery
Eness's eyes widened when she realized that the strong black magic scent she smelled was familiar to her, and she looked at Luther.
"You!" Eness pointed at Luther
"You attacked master?! Why?" She asked
"You should already know, in your terms, she's my mate." Luther answered
"And what do mates do?" Luther smiled as he inquired to Eness
Eness thought about it, and when it hit her, she gasped.
"You and m-master?!" Eness turned pale
"If master were any weaker than you, you could kill her just from mating! That's why we dragons never even think of being mated with lesser species, especially humans!" Eness exclaimed
"I see." Ivery wasn't too surprised, she felt that way too after experiencing firsthand the strength and stamina he used, and even she could feel his black magic flow into her, no normal person could withstand him, not even for a second..
But she realized that Eness didn't know she had achieved immortality, and her body couldn't die by normal means.
"I'm aware of that, there's no one else for me but her." Luther confidently stated
Ivery blushed.
"But my magic inside her wouldn't have killed her, I have full control over what my magic does.." Luther said
"That should be impossible for black magic, once it's released at its target, it instantly begins to attack the body of who it inhabits, you normally wouldn't have time to control it.." Eness began to sweat.
Never had any of the magic users of the past been able to fully control what their indirect magic does inside another person's body, especially black magic. Not even she could control invasive magic, it always caused immediate pain and then soon death.
"I wouldn't be able to explain it with words anyway.." Luther sighed
Eness could only shiver in response.
"Where are you going now?" Eness nervously inquired
"We're going to a guildhall to see what missions they're offering" Ivery answered
"What is a guildhall?" Eness asked with a head tilt
"It's a place where adventurers take special requests in exchange for currency" Ivery said
"I see." Eness smiled
"Now, if that's all, let's go." Luther said and grabbed Ivery's hand
..
The three of them entered the guildhall and looked around as they saw groups of adventurers all over, loudly chattering.
They made their way to the front desk, where the guild receptionist sat. It was an older woman with bright red hair and green eyes. She wore black thin glasses as she looked up at them.
"Are you returning adventurers or are you registering for the first time?" The woman asked
"Returning adventurers, except for one." Ivery answered and gestured for Eness
"Do you two have your adventurer licenses or do you need replacements?" The woman inquired
"Here." Ivery placed her C-rank adventurer license on the desk
Luther silently placed his C-rank adventurer license next to hers.
The receptionist picked their licenses up and raised her hand, and it glowed with a bright red light. The light traveled up and down their licenses as if it were scanning them.
"It appears you haven't taken any quests in over 8 months, keep in mind after a year of inactivity your licenses will expire and you will have to register again for new licenses and start again from D-rank, but if you wish to quickly rise up to your previous ranking before the expiration occurred, you'll have to take a few assessments to verify your abilities are qualified for that ranking again." The woman explained
"Okay thank you." Ivery nodded
"The quest board is over there, and here is a D-rank license for the new adventurer." The woman put their licenses back down on the desk, along with a new D-rank license for Eness. She then pointed over to the large wall to their left, where several armored adventurers were swarming around.
They took their licenses and made their way over to the wall.
Pushing past all of the people crowded by the wall, they were able to see all of the many quests posted. There were endless quests, it seemed hard to choose where to begin.
As Ivery looked over the papers posted to the wall, she noticed one in particular that stood out to her immediately.
'Find the rogue group of S-rank adventurers, formally known as the "Justicar" who have been killing other adventurers, many nobles, and merchants.
*Wanted dead or alive*
Their portraits and names are posted below.
Reward: 10,000,000 gold for each member, any wish granted by Duke Ridgefall, immediate rank upgrade to S-rank, a permanent luxury estate in Ridgefall.'
There were four portraits, the first portrait was of a young man with shoulder-length black hair and blue eyes, his name read Silvester Yulveg (Assassin). T
The second portrait was of an older man with short brown hair and hazel eyes, his name read Jude Falcon (Swordmaster).
The third portrait was of a young woman with delicate features and light blonde hair paired with...black eyes...and her name read Lily White (Black mage) *Very dangerous*.
The fourth portrait was just of a robed man, and his face was blacked out, his name read Percy (Unknown) *His face was never seen, but it is evident that he is their leader*
At the bottom of the poster, it said,
Warning: This group is very dangerous, many adventurers have died trying to pursue them, accept this quest with caution.
Leads: Last known location was in the town of Silverstein, their next target is likely the estate of Marquess William Ulstine. '
"Let's take this quest." Ivery smiled and took it off the wall
Luther looked at the quest and widely grinned.
"This might be fun." He liked a good hunt
"This woman though, Lily White, she seems to be a black magic user like you." Ivery pointed it out to him
"It appears so, they claim she's very dangerous." Luther looked at her portrait
"Most black magic users are often always dangerous adversaries to non-black magic users, but to each other, it's easy to tell how strong or weak their black magic is, and of course, the one with stronger magic will win." Luther said
"Black magic can be obtained in only four ways, by one; forcefully absorbing it from another person or an ancient containment but this can only be used if you properly know about dark arts already which takes several years to naturally develop enough knowledge to use black magic, two; being bestowed the ability by a powerful black magic user or in my case a god, third; by sacrificing living beings and offering it to dark gods apart of a ritual only known to few people interested in the dark arts but that method doesn't always work, and fourth; being born to a parent that has black magic but the likelihood of inheriting black magic in utero is low, but the stronger the black magic of the parent is, the higher the chance is of the child developing black magic." Luther explained
"So if she wasn't born as a black magic user, she may not be so simple." Luther said
"What do you think our children might inherit then, my abilities or yours?" Ivery asked out of the blue
"Hard to say, you can only sense the manifestation of a potential, naturally born black magic user after they turn one year old." Luther told her
"I think they'll be more like you." Ivery said with a smile
"I don't think that'll be a good thing, my love, let's hope they turn out to be more like you." Luther lightly chuckled at the thought
"I suppose so." Ivery laughed, realizing that having a bunch of mini Luthers wouldn't be good for the world
"Ready to go hunting?" Luther asked her with a mischievous grin
"Most definitely." Ivery nodded
.
.
.