Chapter 513: The Sacred Order
"What’s wrong, stupid Alex?" Fran asked in a teasing tone. "Why do you keep looking outside? Do you need to pee? Or maybe... the little monkey needs a potty?"
"Shut up, stupid fairy." Alex glared at the annoying fairy, who was once again poking fun at him.
"Is there sothing there, Alex?" Ron asked. "You’ve been looking outside the cave since earlier."
Carlo glanced at the fourteen-year old boy, and rembered what he had said earlier. Alex had always been very sensitive to the gazes of people because he had once been a thief.
Unfortunately for him, he had made the mistake of trying to pickpocket their leader’s pouch during their visit to Arian City.
After catching him red-handed, they initially planned to bring him to the guards, but dina had intervened. She had said that Alex was still too young to know what was right or wrong. Instead, they should let him join their party to correct his ways.
At first, Carlo had thought that she was joking. But the beautiful elf had always been upright and righteous. In the end, Ron had agreed to let the thief join their party so that he would grow up to be a proper individual by sticking with them.
Fran had joined a month before Alex, so she had naturally treated him like a junior even though she was four years younger than him.
Since then, the two had always been bickering with each other. It had already been a year since their first eting.
"For so reason, I felt like soone was watching
when I was out with Carlo," Alex replied. "I thought I was just being paranoid at first, but I can usually feel when soone is looking at . Soone, or sothing, is out there and they know that we are inside this cave."
Fran glanced at the entrance of the cave and frowned. No matter how she looked, she couldn’t see anything out of place.
Since she was Fae, she also possessed Dark Vision, allowing her to see even during the night.
dina always looked after Alex like an older sister, so she took his words seriously. The beautiful elf took out a lyre from her storage ring and started to play.
Shutting her eyes, she humd a little tune before plucking the strings and creating a llow sound.
Faint runic letters materialized around her and spread out as they headed out of the cave.
Although her self-taught detection magic was very subtle, it was very powerful when it ca to sensing her surroundings.
Ten minutes later, the beautiful elf slowly opened her eyes. She carefully stored the lyre inside her storage ring before taking out her bow.
Seeing her reaction, the entire party beca fully alert.
"What is it, dina?" Ron asked, his sword drawn and ready to fight.
"It is very faint, but there is indeed sothing out there," dina replied cautiously. "It has strong stealth abilities. If not for the special lody I played, I might have missed it completely."
"Do you know what kind of creature it is?" Carlo asked.
"I’m not entirely sure, but I think it’s a Shade," dina answered.
Carlo clicked his tongue. "Damn... a very troubleso critter. I just hope that it’s not a High-Ranking Shade."
The mischievous and playful Fran hurriedly moved to hide under Alex’s cap.
The two of them might not get along well usually, but they were both part of the Stay Away From Fighting Group, which avoided joining battles unless there was absolutely no other choice.
After a few tense minutes, Alex’s breathing beca steadier.
"It’s gone," Alex said. "Maybe it sensed that we are now aware of its existence and decided to pull back."
Ron sheathed his sword because he also sensed that the danger had passed. However, he believed that the creature would co back at a later ti when they were sleeping and at their most vulnerable.
"We will do double shifts tonight," Ron declared. "Let’s eat first and decide who will be on the first night watch with ."
Usually they only needed one person to stay awake to act as the guard while others were sleeping.
However, Shades were very dangerous entities.
The Demon Lord had employed them as advanced scouts. So of them were so incredibly powerful that they could wipe out entire parties.
There had been ambushed by one once many years ago. If not for the teamwork between the original three mbers—which they had honed for many years—they might not have survived that encounter.
During the uneasy dinner, Alex suggested that he, Carlo, and Fran should take the first shift instead of Ron.
"The Shade has most likely realized we are aware of it and won’t attack so soon," Alex reasoned. "Since Ron is our strongest fighter, he should cover the ti when the Shade is most likely to strike."
"That makes sense," dina said. "Having half the party awake at any given ti will also discourage it from attacking."
The other mbers of the party nodded, agreeing to this arrangent.
An hour after their dinner ended, heavy rain started to fall. Lightning flashed and thunder bood, and streaked across the sky like live dragons, fighting against each other.
The only saving grace was that the Shade might have thought that attacking them wasn’t worth the risk and hence stayed away from the camp.
After breakfast, the group once again continued their journey to Arian City, which was half a day walk away.
The travel was surprisingly smooth as if whatever had happened the night before was just a bad dream that everyone shed away.
"Alex, Fran, just go to the orphanage first," dina said. "You don’t need to go with us to the Adventurer’s Guild."
"Good!" Fran nodded. "Ti to play hide and seek with the kids again! Alex, you’re going to be IT as usual. If you find
this ti, I’ll teach you a fairy spell that even a stupid monkey like you can use."
"Hmph! This ti, I will definitely find you." Alex rubbed his nose.
"Oh really?" Fran said in contempt. "Our score is 69-0. You still haven’t found
after so many gas. What makes you think you’ll find
this ti? The kids have even started calling you Mr. Hide-And-Seek Loser King."
"You’re the one who made up that na!" Alex complained. "But this ti things will be different. I’ll find you and you’ll teach
that spell that I asked you to teach . I’m no longer the Alex of yesterday."
"I’ll be the judge of that." Fran smirked. "Now let’s go to the orphanage!"
Fran didn’t even wait for Alex’s reply and simply flew to the orphanage called Little Hearth.
This was an orphanage that was sponsored by the Dawnseekers. Alex, and Fran were very close to the children there.
After seeing the two youngest mbers of their party leave, the three Adventurers headed to the Adventurer’s Guild.
There, they found the mbers of the Hero Party lounging about the common room.
"You’re finally here, Ron," one of the Heroes of the Kingdom, Sean, said with a smile. "If you keep
waiting for one more day, I swear weeds will start growing on my body."
"It’s good to see you, Sean," Ron replied. "Frankly, I thought you kicked the bucket after your last mission."
"As if." Sean snorted. "I just hunted a Dark Dragon. It was tough, but I still killed it at the end."
The mbers of the Hero Party glanced at the Dawnseekers and gave them a brief nod.
Sean’s party was composed of five people.
Excluding Sean, they had an Elf Archer, a Sorceress, a Cleric, and a Spearman.
The five of them were Rank S Adventurers, and their party went by the na Sacred Order.
"Do you have what we asked of you?" Sean asked as soon as Ron sat on the couch across from him.
"Of course," Ron replied. "It was a very troubleso job, but we managed to get it."
The Swordmaster then took out an ornate box from his storage ring and presented it to Sean.
The Hero opened the box and saw a silver ring adorned with a jewel that looked like amber.
A mont later, he took out a similar looking ring from his pocket and placed it beside the ring inside the ornate box for comparison. It was a replica that would allow him to determine if the ring was genuine.
Both rings then started to glow with a faint golden light. The mbers of the Hero Party sighed in relief.
"It’s real," Sean muttered. "So the legends are true..."
"What legends?" Ron asked.
"It’s a secret that I am not authorized to share," Sean said before carefully closing the box. ’Now, I just need to find the true second half of this ring in the Shadow Forest.’
He then stored it inside his magic bag, which was protected by several layers of magic before taking out a pouch to give to Ron.
"Thank you Ron," Sean said as he handed the pouch to the swordmaster. "Here is your pay. Two hundred gold coins. We will be leaving this town tomorrow and heading to the capital. If sothing important cos up, I’ll ask for your help again."
"As long as the pay is good, you can count on us," Ron replied as he took the pouch. "Well then, if there’s nothing else, please sign this scroll so I can present it to the Guild Receptionist as proof that we completed the mission."
"Of course." Sean took out an enchanted pen and signed the mission scroll. "It’s a pleasure doing business with you, Ron."
"The pleasure is mine, Sean." Ron smiled.
After delivering the requested item and receiving the signed scroll, the three adventurers went to the orphanage to rest and spend so ti with the kids, whom they planned to treat to a delicious dinner with their earnings.
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