Ch. 181..190

Chapter 181 I Want Them All. Dead Or Alive [Part 1]

Somewhere in Elysium…

"Are you sure this is the place where that monster is located?" Colette asked as she surveyed their surroundings. "Maybe we came to the wrong place?"

"I'm certain that this is the place," Matty replied as he looked at the map in his hands. "This is the location shown in the map. The receptionist in the Adventurer's Guild was the one who gave it to us, so this shouldn't be wrong."

Andy, Axel, and Helen were paying close attention to their surroundings, feeling that this was a very dangerous place. Their senses were telling them that something was amiss, but they had no idea what it was.

They had accepted a Rank-C mission from the Adventurer's Guild, which was to kill a certain monster that was terrorizing the adventurers and the Town's people that wandered too deep in the forest to forage, and then go to the next town in order to trade.

There was an adventurer's group that had attempted to clear this mission first, but they went missing and hadn't been seen since then. The guild had re-issued this quest in the hope that clues on what happened to the adventurer party would come to light.

Colette and her party had safely become Grade C Apostles, so they thought that this mission was just right for their current rank. They were the kind of adventurer party that liked to help others, so finding the missing dwarves was something that they decided to carry out themselves.

But, as they continued to advance further inside the forest, they sensed movement from their surroundings, which prompted all of them to take a defensive stance.

Suddenly, a loud howl broke the peace and a two-meter tall Werewolf descended several meters away from them. Just as they thought that they were only fighting one opponent, five other Lycans who were shorter than the first one appeared at their left and right sides, flanking them.

As Colette's party was about to engage their opponents, a merry voice sounded from behind them.

"Looks like we got ourselves a decent group this time," an excited voice sounded from behind dwarven children.

Colette and the others turned around to look at the source of the voice, which came from behind, and found over twenty black-robed individuals.

"Indeed, the last group were just a bunch of Rookies that had just stepped into the Apostle Grade," one of the robed dwarves said. "They weren't even enough to become our experiment's play thing."

"Take a look at the emblems they are carrying. They are from the Eternal Guild."

"From that girl, Aina's, Guild? This is perfect. She has been getting in our way a lot lately."

"That's right, we can take this as a little payback for making things difficult for us in Whitebridge City."

"Well, with this, the members of our Lycan brigade here in Oakwood Town will grow. We could've had an army by now, but for some reason, the serum only works on Foreigners. The townspeople die before they complete their transformation."

Colette's expression became grim after overhearing what the black-robed figures were chatting about. The group didn't even bother to keep this information secret from them, since they were sure that the dwarven children were already goners.

With a two-meter tall Lycan, who was at least a Rank 3 Alpha Monster, and smaller Lycans who were Rank 3 Monsters, Colette found themselves in a difficult situation. Behind them was a group of dwarves whose strength were still unknown to them.

"Colette, listen," Matty said in a low voice. "I will try to hold them off. You try to break through this encirclement and call for help."

"Helen, you go with Colette," Andy said. "We will buy you girls some time, so run as fast as you can."

Axel nodded his head as he held his staff firmly. The boys already knew that this was a hopeless situation, so they unanimously decided to let Colette and Helen escape while they held back their enemies.

"Did you hear that?" one of the black-robed dwarves chuckled. "These brats are playing the hero."

"How touching. Too bad, it's futile," the black-robed dwarf who stood at the front of the group said. "None of you are getting away. Get them!"

The Alpha Lycan Monster roared and lunged at Colette's group. Matty roared as he blocked the Lycans' path and engaged it in a one-on-one battle.

"Go! Colette, Helen!" Matty shouted. "Go and look for help!"

Right after Matty's shout, one of the smaller Lycans flanking them jumped at him with its jaws open wide.

A metallic ring spread in the surroundings as Colette used her round shield to block the Lycan's attack, shielding Matty from getting injured.

"We can't escape," Colette stated as she pushed back the Lycan before smashing its chest with her mace. "They will not let any of us escape, so might as well fight till the end!"

Matty gritted his teeth as he slashed at the Alpha Monster in front of him. He knew that what Colette said was right, and he felt helpless about it.

Helen's shout suddenly sounded behind them, which made Colette glance at her direction. One of the Lycans had managed to land a blow on Axel, sending him smashing towards a tree. Helen, who was about to heal him, was then attacked by another Lycan, forcing Andy to take the blow for her.

The result was the latter getting a deep gash on his chest, staining his clothes with blood.

Colette pushed back the Lycan she was fighting against and quickly came to Helen's aid. If their healer were to fall, their chance for survival would decrease drastically, which was the main reason why the Lycans tried to take her down first.

The group wearing black-robes watched with great interest as Colette fought off two Lycans at once, forcing them back with sheer strength and determination.

"She will make a good Lycan," the leader of the group said. "At least Alpha Rank 2, perhaps even Rank 3 after the serum strengthens her body."

"That Weaponmaster over there isn't too shabby himself," another robed-dwarf commented. "Perhaps he would also be an Alpha Monster after he transforms."

While the black-robed group chatted idly, Colette's and Matty's condition were deteriorating at a rapid rate. Although Helen had started to heal Andy's and Axel's injuries, the fact that they were being overpowered still remained.

It was only a matter of time before they were taken down one by one, until none of them was left.

Colette and Matty were wearing the Faunus Armor Set, which were made for fighters like them. If it weren't for this, they wouldn't have been able to stand their ground and resist most of the blows that landed on their bodies.

Andy, Axel, and Helen were wearing Faunus Sets as well, but theirs was more of a support type armor set meant for mages and healers. They were sturdy, but not as sturdy as the ones worn by warriors, which specialized in hand to hand combat.

"Good, they lasted longer than expected," the leader said before taking out a flute from her storage ring. "Time to finish this."

The leader of the dwarves blew on the flute, creating a shrill melody that made the Lycans stop their attacks. A moment later, all of them howled as their eyes turned blood-red, and the muscles on their bodies grew.

They had all entered a berserked-state, which meant that all of their attacks were now stronger than before.

As if to prove this point, when Colette used her Round Shield to block the Rank 3 Alpha Monster's punch, she was sent flying until her body slammed to a tree, causing Matty to roar in anger.

Immediately after that, the group's formation crumbled, and they were easily beaten up until they laid on the ground groaning in pain.

"You did well," the leader of the group of dwarves said, while clapping her hand. "Worry not. We have deemed all of you worthy to become our subordinates, so none of you will be killed. When we return to our base, all of you will be injected with a serum that will turn you into Lycans. You should be honored because you will be part of the revolution that will change this world for the better!"

Matty glared hatefully at the leader of the dwarves as blood seeped at the corner of his lips. The Alpha Monster's foot was pinning him down, so he couldn't move even if he wished for it.

He then glanced at Colette in the distance, who had already lost consciousness. Several bruises could be seen on her pretty face. Matty felt his heart ache from seeing the girl he loved in such a condition.

"Take them back to the Headquarters," the leader ordered. "Make sure to handle them with care. Afterall, they will become our new pets when the sun rises tomorrow."

The Lycan's picked up Colette's, Helen's, Andy's, and Axel's body from the ground and lifted them all in a princess carry.

The Alpha Monster was about to knock Matty unconscious when it saw a blue slime looking up at it, a meter away from the dwarf boy under its feet.

Slimes were pretty common monsters, so the Alpha Monster, as well as the robed-dwarves didn't pay much attention to it.

But, there was one person that paid attention to it, which was none other than Matty, who got teary-eyed after seeing the familiar baby slime that belonged to the person he aspired to be.

The baby slime then lowered its gaze from the Lycan and looked at the beaten-up dwarf under its feet.

"Simp!"

The baby slime only said one word, but it was enough to make the dwarf boy, who had lost all hope, laugh, despite his sorry state.

 

Chapter 182 I Want Them All. Dead Or Alive [Part 2]

"Simp!"

It was a word that Matty hated ever since he heard it back in Leaf Village.

Despite his multiple attempts to vehemently deny it over and over again, the naughty baby slime would call him with this word over and over again.

When he left Leaf Village alongside his friends, he even felt thankful, thinking that he would never hear this word ever again.

But now, the word that was meant to tease him, sounded like it was the best thing ever.

The irony made Matty laugh.

He laughed as tears streamed down his bruised cheeks. Their Big Brother had come to save them from the people who bullied them.

"Poor thing," the leader of the dwarves said as she looked at the dwarf boy who was laughing crazily. "He broke."

"Well, that is only expected, Leader," one of the robed-dwarves said. "It seems that he had accepted his situation and had fallen in despair."

The leader nodded before pointing at the baby slime that was looking with an amused expression at the laughing dwarf that was pinned on the ground.

"Kill that slime," the leader nodded. "I hate weak monsters."

"Yes!" one of her subordinates replied and fired a Stone Bullet at the baby slime who was giggling, while looking at the laughing dwarf in front of her.

Just as the Stone Bullet was about to hit its target, the baby slime jumped to the side, dodging the attack completely.

The subordinate frowned and fired another Stone Bullet at the baby slime, which the latter evaded by casually dodging to the side.

Seeing this, the leader of the group became irritated and ordered one of the Lycans to step on the slime to crush it completely.

The Lycan growled as it stomped on the blue slime that had made its master angry. However, his attack missed because the baby slime disappeared on the ground. It then later appeared on top of the Lycan's head, giggling, as if finding the situation quite amusing.

When the baby slime blinked on top of the Lycan's head, the leader of the dwarves' looked at it with a shocked expression on her face. She had never seen a slime use a blink skill before, and her impression of it changed completely.

"Capture that slime," the leader of the dwarves ordered. "It might be a new species that has never been seen before. It might be a specimen worth studying."

Three of her subordinates rushed towards the baby slime with the intention to catch it. Just like their leader, they were very curious about the blue slime upon seeing that it was acting differently from the slimes they were familiar with.

When the three robed-dwarves came within striking range, Eiko unleashed her Moonblast Skill, which sent the three dwarves flying.

If in the past, the leader was just interested in the baby slime, now, she was determined to catch it no matter what. A slime as powerful as the one in front of her was rare within the surrounding territories. She would be a fool to not bring it back to their base to research.

"If you want something done, you have to do it yourself," the leader said as she conjured a magical rope meant for capturing monsters. "You're mine!"

The rope flew towards Eiko as if it was a living creature, which made the baby slime's smile disappear from her face. She could tell that she would have a hard time breaking free from the magical rope if it managed to catch her, so she decided to take this fight seriously.

The first thing Eiko did was to slide down from the Lycan's head, and hid herself behind it. Without seeing her target, the leader was forced to make the rope bind the Lycan, in the hope that it would also bind the slime alongside it.

However, when the rope wrapped itself around the Lycan, the baby slime was nowhere to be found.

"It must have escaped," the leader said with a frown. "Don't mind. We'll just look for it later after we get these brats back to the base. We can't stay here for long or else we might get discovered by passersby."

Her subordinates nodded their heads in agreement, but just before they were about to carry the dwarves away, they heard a teasing voice right above their heads.

"When you say passersby, are you referring to me?"

The leader of the dwarves looked up and saw a red-headed teenager standing on a tree branch and looking down on them with a smile on his face.

"An elf?" the leader stared at the teenager with a serious expression on her face. "No. A Half-Elf. So, you must be that boy who messed up our plan in the Territory of Norria. Perfect timing. Our boss has long wanted to catch you, but the border guards had increased after the incident. Tough luck, boy. You shouldn't have made us your enemy."

p After hearing their leader's words, the dwarves all took out their weapons with the intention to beat the Half-Elf until he was Half-Dead.

Their Boss wanted him alive, even placing a bounty on Lux's head for the members of their organization. Since the rewards were grand, everyone was raring to go and capture him for themselves.

"Wrong," Lux replied as his body was covered with a Dark-Green armor that released a gust of wind. "You shouldn't have hurt my friends and made me your enemy."

After registering in Barbatos Academy for the tournament, Lux returned to Wildgarde Stronghold with his grandma Vera. He intended to come back to Elysium and stay for a few weeks to reunite with his friends, who had gone to a town outside the territory of Norria.

He had promised to look for them after leaving Leaf Village. When he arrived in Oakwood Town, he found out that Colette's group had left for a mission from the Adventurer's Guild.

Although Lux had been away from the Kingdom of Gweliven for some time, the King of the Dwarves had notified all the branches of the Adventurer's Guild in his kingdom about his accomplishments.

Because of this, the Guild Masters of the various branches of the Adventurer's Guild had instructed their staff to give the Half-Elf the VIP treatment. Thanks to this, he was able to find the exact mission that his friends were handling and left Oakwood Town to give them a surprise.

Lux didn't expect that instead of a happy reunion, he would find his friends under the mercy of the same organization that had planned to lay waste to the Territory of Norria through the abomination that they had hatched inside the Figaro Gardens.

The red-headed teenager then pointed at the Alpha Monster that was stepping over Matty's body with a glare.

"Take that filthy foot off my friend!" Lux ordered.

Immediately, a rocky fist jutted from the ground and smashed on the Alpha Monster's chest, sending it skidding a few meters away.

A moment later, several pained howls followed, as the Lycans holding Colette, Helen, Andy, and Axel, were attacked by a group of skeletons that materialized out of nowhere.

Since they were holding the dwarf children in their hands, they were unable to fend themselves from the surprise attack, which allowed Diablo, Ishtar, and Pazuzu to retrieve the children safely.

After his friends were safely rescued, several skeletons carried them towards Lux, while his Named Creatures faced the Alpha Monster, as well as the group of dwarves fearlessly.

Through the shared connection they had with Lux, they all knew how angry Lux was because of what happened to his friends.

"Don't let any of them escape," Lux ordered as he crouched down to help Matty drink a Health Potion. "I want them all. Dead or Alive."

 

Chapter 183 Lycan Mutation Project

"Drink up, Matty," Lux said as he helped the Dwarf boy drink the potion in his hand. After the bottle was emptied, the Half-Elf took out a different bottle and sprinkled it on Matty's body to help him recover faster.

The Dwarf boy's face was still a little pale, but it was far better than its previous state.

"Thank you, Big Brother," Matty replied as soon as he recovered enough of his strength to talk. He was overcome with emotions of gratitude, he ended up voicing out the thought inside his head that he had been trying to hold back.

"Um? Big Brother?" Lux flashed a mischievous smile towards the Dwarf boy before patting his head. "Good! Don't worry, Little Bro, I got your back. Your Big Bro is going to teach these bullies not to pick on you guys."

Matty's face became beet red, instantly regretting calling Lux Big Brother. The Half-Elf's smug expression was so irritating, he was very tempted to dig a hole and bury himself inside it with the mentality of out of sight, out of mind.

However, before Matty could wallow in his embarrassment, Lux took out several Health Potions and Mana Potions from his storage ring and passed all of them to him.

"Take care of Colette and the others," Lux said as he glanced at the battle that was unfolding around them. "I'll deal with these guys first."

Matty nodded and hurried towards his friends' side. Right now, Diablo and Pazuzu were dealing with the Rank 3 Alpha Monster, while Ishtar and Orion, alongside the skeleton army, were dealing with its lackeys.

The robed Dwarfs were also about to join the battle when several Skeletons and Slimes attacked them from behind.

"Doppelganger," Lux declared and two clones appeared beside him.

Eiko had hidden herself in one of the trees, observing the battle from a safe distance. And just like Lux, she had also summoned her own Doppelgangers and tasked them to assist the battle.

Lux had given the baby Slime a role, which disallowed her from showing herself in the battlefield. The same rule applied to her clones, so they had no choice but to hide in the treetops and simply summon minions to fight in their stead.

With Lux's and Eiko's combined abilities, the number of Skeletons that were currently engaged in battle were over 300.

But that was not all. Aside from the Skeletons and Slimes, there were also seven Rock Golems on the battlefield, including Orion. If in the beginning, the Lycans and the robed Dwarves outnumbered Colette's party five to one, now, the summoned creatures outnumbered the other party fourteen to one.

The leader of the Dwarves and her subordinates couldn't believe what was happening around them. They initially thought that the Skeletons were just ordinary Skeletons, but against their expectations, the Undead they were fighting against were quite tough and worked well together as a team.

"It's still not enough," Lux muttered. "These bastards need to suffer more. Guys, come out and bite them silly!"

Lux summoned the Wargs that he had acquired during the Quest of Dominion. All of them were battle mounts, so they had the ability to fight, just like Diablo's mount, Airon.

These twenty Wargs were led by Jed, who had now mutated into a Thunder Warg King after he ingested the Mutated Blood of the Thunder Wolf King that Lux gave him.

Jed was now a Rank 4 Monster, while the other Wargs remained as Rank 2 Monsters.

Back then, Jed just looked like any other ordinary Warg that could be seen in the wild. Aside from the scar on his right eye, he had no other distinctive features.

But, now, it was different.

With the help of Randolph, Lux's Battle Mount was adorned with cool looking armor that made him look like a Blade Liger from the anime series Zoydz.

Jed roared and lightning bolts snaked around his body. He then electrocuted the five lesser Lycans with his lightning bolts until all of them were paralyzed.

Lux overheard the Dwarf leader's words about turning Colette and the others into Lycans. If his hunch was right, the lesser Lycans were also dwarves that had been mutated due to the effect of the serum. If possible, Lux wanted to find a way to revert them to their previous forms.

Although he wasn't sure if it was possible, he still wanted to do his best to help them regain the things that they had lost.

The robed Dwarves could still resist the Skeletons to a certain extent since most of them were Grade B and Grade A Apostles. However, after the lesser Lycans were dealt with, Ishtar, Orion, and Jed, as well as the Wargs under it, joined the Skeletons in attacking the villains who had targeted their Master's friends.

'Not good!' By now, the leader of the Dwarves had realized that staying to fight Lux and his minions was a futile endeavor.

Using her subordinates as shields, she hurriedly escaped the scene and ran through the forest, leaving everyone behind.

The other Dwarves, who saw this scene, ran after their leader. They had the same rank as her, so it was easy for them to break free from the Skeletons that were trying to pin them down.

Lux watched them go with a sneer. He had ordered his Skeletons to subtly open a path that would allow the Dwarf leader and some of her subordinates to escape.

'Eiko, it's all up to you.'

'Pa!'

Six dwarves, including their leader, had fled the scene and hurried towards their headquarters. They were unaware that above their heads, three baby slimes were flying over the trees in hot pursuit.

Ishtar, as well as Eiko, had used the Hunter's Mark skill to put a tracker on the Dwarves that had escaped.

Lux's plan was to allow them to return to their base, so that he could clear the quest that had appeared the moment he had engaged them in battle.

—--

< Lycan Mutation Project >

– Emergency Quest

– Difficulty Rating: B

– An unknown organization is conducting an experiment within the territory of Oakwood Town. Their goal is to create an army of mutated monsters in order to further their goals of overturning the peace in the Dwarven Kingdom of Gweliven.

< Quest Objective >

– Find their headquarters and look for documents about the experiments.

– Report this discovery to the Adventurer's Guild, so they can dispatch adventurers to weed out the remaining members of the unknown organization that are lurking within Oakwood Town.

< Optional Quest Objective >

– Find a cure for the mutated Lycans

—--

< Rewards >

– Quest Rewards will be calculated depending on how the quest is going to be cleared.

—---

With a frustrated howl, the Rank 3 Alpha Lycan collapsed on the ground after receiving Airon's powerful kick to its chest.

Lux could have killed it, but he was unsure if the Lycan was also a victim of the unknown organization's experiment. Since that was the case, he decided to spare its life and only make it so it was incapable of fighting back.

While Lux was in the middle of tying up the Dwarves that he had crippled, a loud shout reached his ear.

"Big Brother!"

The Half-Elf smiled as he opened his arms to hug back the crying Dwarf girl in his embrace.

"Colette, we still have things to do," Lux said as he lightly patted Colette's head. "The organization that tried to capture you is still at large. So I need to ask you to do something for me."

Colette pulled back and wiped the tears in her eyes before looking at Lux with a serious expression on her face.

Seeing that the little Dwarf girl had finally regained her composure, the Half-Elf told her to take Helen back to the Adventurer's Guild and report the current situation.

Lux thought that letting the Adventurer's Guild handle the bad guys that he had captured would be the optimal solution while he dealt with the leader of the organization that was on her way to their headquarters.

Matty, Andy, Axel, Ishtar, Pazuzu, and Orion were tasked to look after the Dwarves that they had captured and to wait for Colette's and Helen's return.

"Don't worry, Big Brother," Colette said as soon as she mounted her Warg. "I'll bring help as fast as I can!"

Lux nodded. "I'm counting on it."

Colette didn't waste any more time and urged her Warg to run as fast as it could.

Helen was right behind her, also hurrying towards Oakwood Town to ask for reinforcements.

When the two Dwarves and their mounts disappeared from his sight, Lux looked in the direction where the leader of the robed Dwarves had gone.

'Pa!'

'Good job, Eiko. I'm on my way.'

Now that the Dwarf leader had finally reached their base, it was now time for him to make his move. He was going to make sure that the leader and her remaining subordinates would not have an easy time after what they tried to do to his friends.

Originally, he wanted all of them dead. But after receiving the quest, he deemed that they were better off alive and left to pay for their sins in prison.

Lux didn't want to act too violently in front of the children, but since they were left to guard the captured Dwarves, he could now go all out and make them regret their decision of turning the innocents into pawns that they could use for their vile schemes.

 

Chapter 184 A Deal With The Devil

"Dammit!" the leader shouted as soon as she had locked the entrance of their headquarters. There was a hidden mechanism installed by the entrance to hide the whole base from plain sight.

The five subordinates who managed to escape with her were panting beside her, feeling ashamed that they had been forced to escape from the same person that thwarted their plans in the Territory of Norria.

"Hurry and gather all the documents of our research!" the leader ordered. "This base might have already been compromised. We can't stay here for long."

"What about the Foreigners that are still in the midst of transformation?" one of her subordinates asked.

"Just leave them!" the leader replied. "We can't possibly take them back with us. Besides, they have more worth staying here as decoys when someone discovers this base."

Inside the nursery room, twelve cocoons were still in the midst of transformation. Although they wouldn't be able to be there when the new batch of Lycans was born, their research had already produced the results that they needed in order to create batches of Mutated Lycans.

Just as the Dwarves were ransacking their headquarters for anything of value, they heard the distinct opening of the entrance of their base, which made all of them stop whatever they were doing.

The leader gestured for everyone to hide, planning to have them help her neutralize the trespasser who just entered their research facility.

'It must be him.' The leader of the Dwarves gritted her teeth as she listened to the footsteps heading in her direction. 'It sounds like he's alone. As long as we act quick enough, we can kill him before he can summon his minions.'

The leaders' subordinates were thinking of the same thing. All of them readied themselves to ambush the hateful Half-Elf who had forced them to evacuate their base and return to their branch headquarters in Whitebridge City.

As soon as the trespasser opened the door to the laboratory, several spells flew in their direction and obliterated their body.

The leader of the Dwarves was about to celebrate when she noticed that something was wrong. Lying on the floor was not a charred corpse, but several shattered bones that soon turned into particles of light.

"Such a warm welcome." A voice filled with ridicule sounded from the passageway. "I've already sent the Dwarves that you targeted back to Oakwood Town to ask the Adventurer's Guild for reinforcements. At most, it will take them an hour to arrive here, so you don't have much time remaining."

The expression of the Dwarf leader, as well as her subordinates, turned grim upon hearing the Half-Elf's words. The leader had a skill which allowed her to know whether a person was telling the truth or not. This was why she was certain that the Half-Elf was telling the truth, which didn't bode well for them.

"Since you decided to talk to us, it means that you want something from us," the leader replied with certainty. "Boy, I admit that you have the upper hand right now, but if you think that you can trap us here until the reinforcements from the Adventurer's Guild arrive, you are making a big mistake. We would rather die than be captured and interrogated by them."

The reply she received was a mocking laughter that made her grit her teeth in frustration.

"So what if you kill yourselves?" Lux asked. "Go on. Kill yourselves. Do you think that I care? I am a Necromancer. I deal with dead people. So, all of you dying is better than being alive. I can raise your bodies and make you my slaves. I'm sure that all of you will be more polite once you turn into an Undead."

"Ah! Let me quote what you said back in the forest." An eerie smile crept up on Lux's lips.

"Worry not, for I have deemed all of you worthy to become my subordinates. You should all be honored because you will be part of my Undead Army that will change this world for the better!"

The leader of the Dwarves and her subordinates felt the hair on the back of their necks stand on end. Lux's words had reminded them that they were dealing with a Necromancer who specialized in dealing with dead people."

Right now, they were still alive and could resist, but once they were dead, they would be at his mercy.

"What do you want?" the leader asked through gritted teeth. "I am willing to negotiate. If you wish to have your name erased from the blacklist of our Organization, I am willing to negotiate with our Boss for you."

"Wait! How about you join us instead?" one of the dwarves shouted. "With your abilities, you can easily become one of our Elders! You will gain everything you need, and the organization will be more than happy to provide it to you!"

Lux smiled in the place where he was hiding as he listened to the Dwarf's tempting words. The leader and her subordinates seemed to have realized that suicide won't help them, so they decided to negotiate with him instead. Unfortunately, he had no intention of joining the organization.

'Maybe I can gain something from this exchange,' Lux thought as he pondered what his next move would be.

A few minutes later, he finally gave his response, which made the Dwarves, who were already feeling anxious, feel like an olive branch had been offered to them.

"Let's not talk about your fake promises. I am not interested in them," Lux stated. "What can you offer me, from what is in your possession, that might interest me enough to let all of you go? This serum that you developed, I am quite interested with it. Does it have an antidote?"

"It does," the leader replied in a heartbeat. She was afraid that if Lux thought that they had no value, he would immediately send his Skeletons to kill them. "We can give them to you if you release us."

"Do you really think that your lives are so cheap that a mere antidote will be enough for me to let you go? Don't forget, I can still get my hands on the antidote by interrogating all of you when you're dead. You need to raise the bar higher if you want to get out of this place alive."

"Then, what more do you want?"

Lux chuckled because he knew that he had made them truly understand that the only way to escape was through negotiation.

"I want all the serums in your possessions as well as the antidotes," Lux replied. "Also, you will give me instructions on how to make them. Let's see… I also want all the gold in your possessions, including your artifacts. Don't worry, I'll let you guys keep your clothes. I am not a fan of exhibitionism."

Lux knew that if he added a few more conditions like golds and artifacts, the Dwarves would be more inclined to give in to his demands.

Why? Because they'd think that losing it all meant that there was a possibility that they would be able to live if they agreed to his conditions.

The leader gritted her teeth as she forced herself to agree to Lux's conditions.

"If we give you everything, will you really let us go?" the leader asked. "How can we be certain that you will keep your promise?"

"Well, you can either trust me, or not. In the end, the ones who are begging to live are you guys, not me. Don't worry. I'll give you guys exactly one minute to decide. After one minute, you will give me your answer. If I don't like your answer, I will send my undead army to attack all of you. Your one minute starts now."

Several rattling sounds echoed inside the underground base as Lux summoned his Undead Warriors. Their blue eyes glowed in the darkness, frightening the leader and her subordinates. At this point, they regret choosing Colette's group as their next set of victims.

If only they hadn't touched Lux's friends, perhaps all of them wouldn't have to worry about keeping their lives, as well as keeping their experiments a secret.

However, there were no if's.

Now that they were on the verge of losing their lives, they knew that they had to make a deal with the devil or risk becoming his Undead Minions, who could do nothing but obey his every command.

"Fine, we accept your condition," the leader said after the one minute grace period was over. "We will give you everything."

"Excellent," Lux replied. "Now, give your possessions to my minions and don't try anything funny. The moment you do, the deal is off."

Lux didn't mind acting like a bandit this time around since he really needed the antidotes. Right now, he still didn't have the skill, Raise Dead, which allowed him to revive dead creatures or people.

He was just bluffing and using his job as a Necromancer to scare the Dwarves into thinking that they could not escape his clutches even in death. This worked perfectly well in the negotiations because none of them wanted to die.

Especially when they knew that even when they turn into corpses, they would be reanimated and still be forced to thank their killer for killing them, which would be the most tragic thing ever.

Although he had the Blackfire Coffin that could store and revive the dead, Lux didn't want to make these Dwarves his subordinates because, in his eyes, they didn't have the qualifications to become his minions.

 

Chapter 185 Letting The Rats Lead The Way To The Sewers

'As long as I can escape this place alive, I can still have my revenge.' That was the thought that passed through Mara's head when the trespasser gave them the opportunity to leave with their lives.

Ever since she became the leader of their branch guild in Oakwood Town, she painstakingly worked hard in order to achieve the mission that had been entrusted to her by her superior.

After nearly a year of trial and error, she and her subordinates had finally developed a serum that had the ability to mutate foreigners into Lycans. Although the serum was still unstable and the latest version was able to meet their standards. To achieve this, several members from the first batch of experimental subjects died.

Mara thought that it would be smooth sailing from that point onwards since they would've been able to increase their Lycan army secretly within the territory of Oakwood Town. Unexpectedly, they happened to target the wrong Dwarf party, whose members seemed to be friends with the same person that sabotaged their project in the Territory of Norria.

'If only you never appeared,' Mara thought through gritted teeth.

Yes, if only Lux hadn't appeared, then their operation in Oakwood Town wouldn't have been jeopardized. Unfortunately, the red-headed teenager was already here. Their organization first got wind of his information after their spy in the Royal Capital managed to overhear the discussion among some of the Ministers who were headed towards the throne room.

They were discussing the Half-Elf who was bestowed an Honorary Knight Title by the King of the Dwarves, which made waves among the ministers of the palace.

This was how they knew of Lux's existence. Unfortunately, their Boss decided to lay low for the time being after the consecutive raids on the other Beginner Villages. Their operations on the outskirts of the Gweliven Kingdom had been uprooted, so they were forced to take it slowly for the time being.

Unfortunately, Mara got too full of herself, overestimating her ability of avoiding detection. She was confident that she could cover her tracks by issuing a Quest about a monster sighting in Oakwood Forest with a reward that was tempting for Adventurer Parties.

She didn't expect that instead of only attracting sheeps, she would accidentally invite a wolf to her own base, who was now currently in the midst of extorting them of their valuables.

"Give your valuables to my Skeleton minions. Make sure you don't do anything funny or, else, all of you will regret it."

The tresspasser's voice sounded from the distance, his words making Mara grit her teeth in frustration.

She and her subordinates handed over their belongings, keeping only their clothes.

"Oi, I said hand everything over. Do you think that I wouldn't notice the item you're hiding inside your mouth? Spit it out or I'll cut off your head! The rest of you better not do the same or I'll have your heads!"

The two Dwarves, who attempted to hide something, immediately spat out storage rings from their mouths upon hearing Lux's command and handed them over to the Skeletons that were collecting their possessions.

The Skeleton didn't have any expression on its face, but the way it looked at the two Dwarves made the latter feel like it was disgusted with them.

Mara and her other subordinates had no idea how the trespasser had been able to see the items they hid inside their bodies. However, after being discovered, none of them took any more chances and honestly gave all of their belongings to the Skeletons, while cursing the trespasser inwardly.

—----

Lux, whose real self was hiding in the distance, chuckled internally when he saw the Dwarves take out the items that they had hidden inside their bodies.

He was just bluffing when he said that he saw an item inside one of the Dwarves' mouths.

Back on earth, he had watched a show where certain agents hid tracking devices in their teeth in order to evade detection from the criminal group that they were trying to infiltrate.

'Diablo, I'll leave everything to you,' Lux conveyed via telepathy.

Diablo, who was beside him, nodded his head as he walked towards the Dwarves who had their arms raised in the air in surrender.

"All of you move in a single file and exit this place," Lux ordered. "The first one to do something funny gets stabbed. No questions asked. Now, start moving!"

Diablo prodded Mara's back with the tip of his sword, leaving the Dwarf leader no choice but to walk towards the exit.

Her subordinates followed behind her as they were escorted by a legion of the Undead.

Lux had already hidden himself in another room and was just waiting for the Dwarves to leave the base through the exit.

He had no plan to let the Dwarves escape for real. It was a trap planned to capture them with the help of the Adventurer's Guild after he had ransacked the entire base.

His minions had already found the nursery for the cocoons of mutated Lycans. According to the Dwarf leader, Mara, the antidote could be drunk or poured into the mutated Lycan's body to undo the mutation.

He had already sent one of his minions to test this method earlier by pouring one of the antidotes over one of the cocoons. The cocoon melted and a Dwarf boy, who was in his birthday suit, appeared.

Although the boy was unconscious, there were no problems with his body, so Lux was assured that the antidote had worked perfectly.

When Mara's group had safely left the base, Lux cured the other Dwarves, who were in the midst of their transformation, reverting them to their original forms.

Among the Dwarves, two were girls so Lux covered them with capes and ordered Eiko and her slimes to look after them. As for the boys, the Half-Elf's skeleton minions carried them to a different room to ensure that nothing untoward would happen when they woke up.

After the Dwarves were separated, Lux personally shook the Dwarf boys to wake them up. He was afraid that if the Skeletons were the ones to do it, the Dwarves would wake up screaming upon realizing that it was an Undead that had been shaking them.

"Thank you for saving us!" one of the Dwarves said as he gazed at Lux with a grateful look. "If you hadn't come, we might have all been turned into one of those Monsters."

"I only did the right thing," Lux replied. "The people that have captured you guys have already been defeated and are tied up near the path that leads to Oakwood Town. The Adventurer's Guild has already been called, so they will probably arrive soon. Make sure to tell them about your experiences so they can make a detailed report about this incident."

The Dwarves nodded their heads and left the laboratory to help guard the researchers who had almost turned them into Lycans. Lux could see anger in their eyes, so he wouldn't be surprised if they suddenly decided to attack their captors in order to exact revenge.

Just to be on the safe side, Lux gave a mental order to Pazuzu, Ishtar, and Orion to prevent the adventurers from killing any of the researchers. They were important leads to the whereabouts of the organization, and the Half-Elf didn't plan to let them off scot free.

'Now, all that is needed is for the rats to lead me to their sewers,' Lux thought. 'I think I'll need to contact Nevreal. I don't know if he's considered a high-ranking noble or not, but it would be best if I leave the cleanup to them.'

Lux was a little worried about an unknown organization adding him to their blacklist.

If possible, he wanted to deal with them as soon as he could to eliminate future troubles. However, he wasn't delusional enough to think that he alone could take down an entire group that had remained at large while hiding inside the Gweliven Kingdom.

He needed helpers, and Nevreal seemed to be the best person for the job.

 

Chapter 186 Twilight Rain

"Thank you for handling this matter perfectly," the Guild Master of the Adventurer's Guild in Oakwood Town, Colton said with a serious expression on his face. "I never thought that the mastermind of this incident was also the same person that issued the Quest in our Guild. If I get my hands on her, I'll break all the bones in her body!"

Colton was furious when he found out that his branch of the Adventurer's Guild had been used as a means to conduct diabolical experiments that endangered the adventurers working for them. Because of this, he decided to take the matter seriously, even inviting Lux back to the Guild in order to hear a detailed report from him.

Lux agreed to his request and told him everything he knew about Mara and her group, who were currently on their way to Whitebridge City.

After getting their rough Sketches, Colton thanked Lux once again before contacting the Guild Master of the Adventurer's Guild in Whitebridge City.

He planned to have Mara and her group captured the moment they stepped foot inside the city and have them interrogated by the authorities.

"Sir Colton, I have a request," Lux said. "Can you pass a message to Sir Nevreal for me? Tell him that I have something important to tell him, and I'll meet him here in Oakwood Town."

"Nevreal? Are you talking about THAT Nevreal?" Colton asked with a surprised look on his face. "You know him?"

Lux frowned. He didn't know if the Nevreal he knew, and the Nevreal that Colton was talking about was the same person.

"Um, the person I am talking about is Nevreal Cy Borris," Lux answered. "Middle-aged looking dwarf with scary eyes…"

Colton laughed after hearing Lux's description. Nevreal Borris might not be well-known among the common folk of the Gweliven Kingdom, but the influential people of the realm all knew who Nevreal was.

He was one of the Grandmasters of Alchemy, who had discovered the cure for the White Plague, which had become a wide-spread pandemic a decade ago.

If not for his cure, with how scary the White Plague was, more than a third of the population of the Kingdom of Gweliven could have died.

"Very well, I will send word to him," Colton said as he patted Lux's shoulder. "I just need to tell him that Lux Von Kaizer wants to talk to him about something important, right?"

Lux nodded. "Yes. The sooner we meet, the better."

"Good. I'll make it happen. I'll get back to you as soon as I receive his reply. I will also tell him about the achievements that you have done here."

"Sure."

Everything that happened was just pure coincidence. Lux just wanted to look for his friends and it just so happened that they had been targeted by an unknown organization, which led Lux to fight against them.

'Well, I am already on their blacklist,' Lux thought. 'Making them angrier won't change things.'

Lux understood that since the unknown organization was now aware of his existence, it was only a matter of time before they came to blows. Before that happened, the Half-Elf planned to screw them three times over by letting Nevreal personally deal with the people involved in the incident.

At that moment, a series of notifications sounded inside his head as rows of text appeared in front of him, signifying that the Emergency Quest was completed.

,m Lux set this matter aside and went to look for Colette and her friends, who were currently waiting for him outside the Adventurer's Guild. They all decided to celebrate their reunion at the most popular inn in Oakwood Town.

Because of Lux's achievements, the Guild Master used his connections in order to let Lux and his friends use the VIP rooms, which were usually reserved for the high-ranking nobles of the Kingdom.

"Big Brother, I have reported this incident to my sister," Colette said after she drank her mug of fruit juice. "She said that she wanted to personally thank you for saving all of us. So, if you're not busy, why don't we all go to Whitebridge City together? I promise you that my sister is a beauty. Don't worry, I already approve of you as my brother-in-law."

Colette patted her chest as if she had the authority to choose who her sister's husband would be. She was confident that as soon as her Big Brother saw her Big Sister, the red-headed teenager would immediately get down on his knees and propose to her sister.

Lux only chuckled to evade Colette's insistence to play matchmaker between him and her sister, Aina.

Although he was curious to see the adorable girl's older sister, he wasn't in a hurry to meet her.

He stirred the conversation to a different topic, asking the Dwarves what they had been up to since they had left Leaf Village.

Colette and the others were more than happy to tell Lux about their adventures after becoming part of the Eternal Guild, which was under Aina's command.

The reunion party lasted through the night before the Dwarves finally returned to their rooms to rest, leaving Lux and Eiko exhausted.

They had traveled far in order to reach Oakwood Town and were dragged into the incident that concerned their friends.

Eiko was already fast asleep on Lux's lap, while the latter wasn't faring any better himself. As soon as he placed the sleeping Slime on the pillow on the bed, a knock was heard on the door of his room, which made him frown.

It was already in the middle of the night, and he didn't know any law-abiding citizen that would visit him at this time of the day.

Lux summoned Ishtar and Diablo by his side and ordered them to defend him if his life was threatened.

After the two Named Creatures positioned themselves at the side of the door, Lux opened it to see who it was.

"Can't you just take it easy once in a while?"

An annoyed, gruff voice greeted him as Nevreal stepped inside his room.

"The moment you appear in an Intermediate Town, a problem appeared right away," Nevreal complained. "If not for the fact that I personally know that you are not connected to the perpetrators of these incidents, I would have personally taken you into custody. Boy, don't you know the meaning of moderation?"

Lux could only scratch his head because he didn't really want to be involved in any kind of mess. He only wanted to see his friends and give them a surprise. Who would have thought that the one who was given the surprise was him instead?

"Okay, I'll tell it to you straight," Nevreal stated as he sat without asking for Lux's permission. "I don't know if you have good or bad luck, but you have ruffled the feathers of an underworld organization, not just once, but twice."

"If I were you, I'd return to where I came from to tide things over. Even with the increased security of the border patrols, I'm sure that they will come to target you for revenge."

Lux frowned as he sat down to face the Dwarf who was looking at him with a serious expression on his face.

"Have you captured the researchers?" Lux asked. This was something that he had been meaning to ask ever since Nevreal had stepped inside his room but had not been able to do so because the latter was nagging at him.

"We did," Nevreal replied. "The Eternal Guild, as well as the other Guilds in Whitebridge City, are now working together to round up the members of the Dark Guild that goes by the name Twilight Rain."

"Twilight Rain…," Lux muttered. "Tell me, Sir Nevreal. What can I do to help?"

Now that he knew the identity of the organization that was targeting him, Lux decided that it was time to actively participate in the operations targeting the Dark Guild that was causing a lot of trouble within the Kingdom of Gweliven.

 

Chapter 187 Lycanthrophy Mutation Perfect Genes

By the time Nevreal left the room, the drowsiness that Lux felt earlier had disappeared.

The middle-aged dwarf had given him a token that was exclusive to the Kingdom's special agents, who handled matters concerning the stability of the Royal Family's rule.

The token came with a lot of perks, including access to places which were usually restricted from the common-folk and even high-ranking nobles. It could allow Lux to request for assistance from Dwarf guards and border patrols, especially when it came to certain things that he couldn't handle alone.

Nevreal also handed him another token which signified that Lux was now the Kingdom's Honorary Baronet, which was an upgrade from his Rank of Honorary Knight.

The defense of Leaf Village, in addition to the latest capture of the researchers who were planning to create a Mutant Army that could've threatened the Kingdom, had raised the red-headed teenager's importance in the eyes of the Dwarf King.

This was the reason why he gave the Half-Elf an honorary Baronet Rank, making him one of the nobles of the Dwarven Kingdom.

Since he was too sober to sleep, Lux decided to rummage through the things that he extorted from the researchers. He didn't have time to check them earlier since he was busy helping the mutated Dwarves, in addition to dealing with the members of the Adventurer's Guild who had come to help.

Just as Lux expected, the Alpha Lycan and the lesser Lycans were Dwarves that the researchers had captured.

To his surprise, the Alpha Lycan was a Grade B Apostle, who was also the ace adventurer in Oakwood Town. She went by the name Emma Hewitt, or just Emma for short.

p After being reverted to her original form, the Dwarf recognized Lux as her benefactor, even going as far as to declare that she would become the Half-Elf's subordinate from that day onwards.

Lux, of course, rejected her offer, but Emma was too persistent, even going as far as begging on her knees to serve the red-headed teenager in order to return the favor. In the end, the Half-Elf reluctantly agreed, and now, Emma had officially become his first party member.

'Well, having a subordinate isn't a bad thing,' Lux thought. 'Emma seems like an honest person. I'm sure that it will work out… probably."

For the time being, Lux opened the storage rings of the researchers and checked all of their contents.

'How disappointing,' Lux thought. 'All their gold coins combined only amount to nearly a thousand. Is Twilight Rain a cheapskate organization?'

Of course, it was not only gold that Lux looted from the researchers but also weapons and artifacts. However, all of them were just Rare Items and, for the Half-Elf, he no longer thought highly of Rare Items since he was already using Mythical Items.

'Still, they will be useful for transmutation,' Lux mused as he stored the storage rings inside his own storage ring.

Originally, Lux thought of using the Transmutation [EX] skill to transfer abilities to his weapons, armors, and artifacts. However, after gaining Mythical Items, the Half-Elf was very reluctant to use his transmutation skill, thinking that he might find a better item.

For example, if he were to use the transmutation skill to transfer items to a Mythical Item, even if the item became a lot stronger, it was still nothing compared to a Legendary Item. For the Half-Elf, overgearing an item wasn't worth it, but only if its grade was low.

'At least a Legendary Item,' Lux thought. 'I won't mind dumping a lot of abilities on a Legendary Item that will be beneficial in the future. Now, time to check the rewards from the quest.'

Lux had set this matter aside as well and only remembered it after his meeting with Nevreal.

The red-headed teenager opened his Soul Book to see the rewards he gained and hoped that they would be a whole lot better than the scraps he got from the Dwarf researchers.

—---

< Lycan Mutation Project (Completed!) >

– Emergency Quest

– Difficulty Rating: B

– An unknown organization is conducting an experiment within the territory of Oakwood Town. Their goal is to create an army of mutated monsters in order to further their goals of overturning the peace in the Dwarven Kingdom of Gweliven.

< Quest Objective >

– Find their headquarters and look for documents about the experiments.

– Report this discovery to the Adventurer's Guild, so they can dispatch adventurers to weed out the remaining members of the unknown organization that are lurking within Oakwood Town.

< Optional Quest Objective >

– Find a cure for the mutated Lycans

—--

< Rewards >

1000 Oakwood Town Reputation Points

100 Kingdom of Gweliven Reputation Points

1000 Gold

Lycanthrophy Mutation Perfect Genes (1x)

< Lycanthrophy Mutation Perfect Genes >

– This gene can only be used by a foreigner.

– The Perfect Mutation Genes have no side-effects to the user, and will even strengthen their physical body, and add resistance bonuses.

– Upon consumption, the person will be able to transform into a Lycan at will, and return to their previous form at will.

– The transformed creature will gain certain bonuses including an increase in strength, speed, hearing, as well as raising their rank by one stage.

(Example if a Grade B Apostle were to transform into a Lycan, they would gain the strength of a Grade A Apostle).

—--

'If Emma has no problems transforming into a Lycan, I'll give this to her as a gift,' Lux thought as he looked at the description of the Lycanthropy Mutation Genes. 'Since the gene is safe to use and can even strengthen its user, as long as Emma hasn't developed a trauma from being forced to become a Lycan, this would be the perfect item for her.'

Lux wasn't stingy when it came to people on his side. The Half-Elf already had the Dragon's Blood in his body, so using the mutation gene on himself would be a waste.

The Half-Elf still had the Lycan Serums in his possession, as well as their antidotes. Although he didn't know if they would be useful for him in the future, he decided to keep them for now, not surrendering them to the authorities.

—--

The next day, Lux woke up a little earlier than usual. If not for the fact that Colette had started knocking on his door, even threatening to tear it down, the Half-Elf would have remained in bed for at least another half an hour.

Naturally, he couldn't let the adorable little Dwarf break down the door. Not only would that get them blacklisted by the inn owner, it would also bring down their reputation among the other inns in Oakwood Town.

With no alternative, Lux allowed Colette to drag him and Eiko to the tavern to eat.

To his surprise, Emma was there, waiting for him. The pretty Dwarf with dark-brown hair was happily chatting with Matty and the others while they ate breakfast.

Emma was of the same age as Lux. She was more of a Vagabond Adventurer that had no permanent party, so her rank wasn't that high. However, her experience when it came to fighting even surpassed that of Grade A Apostles, and, perhaps, even matched those of the Initiate Rank.

Lux believed that if Emma were to fight against people who were of the same Rank, all of them would be soundly defeated because of her rich battle experience.

"Sir Lux, good morning," Emma said with a smile as she waved at the Half-Elf who was being pulled in their direction by Colette.

"Good morning, Emma," Lux stated. "There is something important that I'd like to talk to you about later. For now, just enjoy your breakfast."

"Okay." Emma nodded her head before resuming her chat with Matty and the others.

Aside from the pretty dwarf calling him Sir Lux, Emma treated him in a friendly way, and not that of a Master and Servant relationship.

The Half-Elf preferred this type of relationship, rather than a strained one. For him, he wanted to become good friends with Emma, and not treat her as a slave who only followed his orders.

While eating, Colette asked Lux about his plans while he was in Oakwood Town. After being rescued by their Big Brother, the Dragonslayer Party weren't in a hurry to take on new quests for the time being.

"I plan to go to Whitebridge City tomorrow," Lux replied. "Do you remember Nevreal? He said that I need to meet a few people in Whitebridge City who are currently handling the cleanup operations for the organization that attacked you guys."

The mood on the table immediately became serious as they looked at Lux with their undivided attention. Even Emma was no longer smiling and stared at the Half-Elf with a determined look on her face.

"Big Brother, I think this is perfect," Colette said. "Since my sister is based in Whitebridge City, this is a good opportunity for the two of you to meet."

"Um, I can meet her when I'm done with my business in the city."

"Okay. I'll make sure to tell her later of our coming."

A few minutes later, the atmosphere returned to its previous merry state as everyone ate and chatted about random things.

Lux was quite curious about Whitebridge City because it was one of the biggest Dwarven cities in the Kingdom of Gweliven, aside from the Royal Capital.

Colette and Emma told him everything they knew about the Dwarven City, including the upcoming Guild Wars, which was held every two years.

According to the two of them, the winner would become Whitebridge City's number one Guild, which had the privilege of managing the city's defenses, in addition to acquiring leases to prime real estate that were located in the city's center.

These lands were perfect for setting up shops, and other establishments that could give the Guild high profits, which would cause all the major Guilds that were based in Whitebridge City to seek them out.

 

Chapter 188 On The Way To Whitebridge City

Somewhere in Whitebridge City…

"How are the other members?" a middle-aged Dwarf asked his subordinate who had just returned from his mission.

"Not good," the subordinate reported. "Most of our members are currently on the run and have left the city. Mara has been captured by a high-ranking Interrogator. She is currently being subjected to torture and has been fed with truth serums. It's quite fortunate that none of the Guild's members in the city know of our true identities. Using a third party to relay orders to them was a great decision on our Guild Leader's part."

"This is not something to celebrate about," the middle-aged man commented. "Now that everyone is either captured, on the run, or, even worse, dead, our operations in Whitebridge City have to be in a complete halt. Did you find out any information about who is responsible for this mess?"

The subordinate nodded.

"Although it isn't confirmed yet, one of Mara's subordinates managed to escape from capture and relayed the latest information he had to our branch here in Whitebridge City," the subordinate replied. "According to his report, none of the serums were preserved, and Mara had no choice but to destroy the records of the experiments before she got captured. However, he did mention that it was a Half-Elf who foiled their plans in Oakwood Town."

The middle-aged man sighed. Mara was a promising researcher who was loyal to their cause. Losing her to the authorities was a heavy blow to their Guild, and thinking of it made the Branch Leader of Twilight Rain clench his fist in anger.

"There is only one Half-Elf in the Kingdom of Gweliven, so it is safe to assume that he is the same person that destroyed the abomination in the Territory of Norria, right?"

"If the reports that we received are true then it is definitely him."

p The middle-aged man sighed a second time before giving his order to his subordinate.

"Send word to the Main Branch and inform the Guild Master that the Half-Elf is starting to become a nuisance," the middle-aged man ordered. "Tell them that our hands are tied at the moment, and they should send one of the Reapers to deal with him."

"Sir, having one of the Reapers to deal with him is quite wasteful, no?"

"Fool! It is best to nip the problem in the bud before it grows up enough to threaten us. Just follow my orders. Let the Main Branch decide whether a Reaper would be sent or not."

The subordinate nodded before leaving the room. Although he felt that having one of the Initiates of the Guild deal with the Half-Elf was an overkill, he still decided to follow his Leader's orders.

The Twilight Guild had two Assasination Groups, the Reapers and the Slayers. The Reapers were the assassins who had the Rank of Initiates. They were responsible for the assasination of people who had the rank of Initiate and below.

They were often called the Rookie Killers, because countless Apostles had already died in their hands.

Slayers, on the other hand, was a specialized team of Rankers, who dealt with the Assasination of high profile targets, such as high-ranking nobles and politicians, but not Royals.

It was almost impossible to assassinate members of the Royal Family since all of them were guarded by the best High-Rankers within the kingdom.

The Branch Leader of Twilight Rain believed that as long as one of the Reapers took action, the annoying Half-Elf, who kept on getting in their way, would finally meet his end.

—-

Meanwhile, on the road that led to Whitebridge City…

"Big Brother, it will take us at least five more hours to arrive at the city," Colette said.

She was currently seated beside Lux inside the carriage, which was arranged by the Guild Leader of the Adventurer's Guild, to take them to Whitebridge City. He had even hired Grade A Apostles as guards to ensure that they would reach the city safely.

In truth, Lux felt that it would have been faster if they all just traveled riding their Wargs instead of a carriage. However, since the Guild Master, Colton, had already dealt with their means of transport, he felt that it would be impolite to reject his kind offer.

"That means that we will arrive just before sunset," Lux replied as he looked outside the window of the carriage. "Colette, you and your friends can head to your sister's headquarters when we arrive in the city. I need to deal with private matters, so I'll just see you guys in the morning."

"Un!" Colette nodded her head obediently while patting Eiko's head. "That will also give me some time to set up an appointment for you to meet with my sister, Big Brother. By the way, my sister likes dried berries. Make sure to buy a bag of them as a gift before meeting her."

Lux suddenly imagined a slightly older Colette munching on dried berries like a chipmunk and it made him smile.

Aina was the Guild Master of the Silver-Ranked Guild, Eternal.

The Storm Dragons, which was currently under Nero's management, was only a Bronze-Ranked Guild, indirectly proving that Aina was a step better than the brown-haired teenager, who held animosity towards Lux.

The Half-Elf thought that it wouldn't be a bad idea to form a good relationship with Aina, who was in control of a well-established Guild in Whitebridge City.

"Okay, are there any other things that she likes aside from dried berries?" Lux inquired.

Colette, who thought that his Big Brother was trying to score more brownie points to make her sister like him, was more than willing to tell him the things that Aina liked and disliked.

Lux smirked when he found out that Aina wasn't a fan of spicy things. According to Colette, her sister's face would immediately turn beet-red if she consumed something relatively spicy.

To his surprise, Aina liked eating sour things, which was the reason why she preferred dried berries. She was not too fond of sweet things, and could only tolerate the sweet and sour taste of the dried berries that she liked to snack on from time to time.

Suddenly, the carriage came to an abrupt halt, and the sound of shouting was heard outside of the carriage.

"Goblin attack!"

"Are they perhaps bandits?"

"Protect the carriage!"

"There's too many of them!"

After hearing the commotion outside, Lux immediately opened the carriage doors to help their escorts ward off the danger that had come knocking on their doors.

Immediately, he saw dozens of Goblins that were wielding short swords, maces, and bows. They were known for attacking merchant convoys and kidnapping the women to make them their breeding horses.

Using the appraisal ability of the Elysium Compendium, Lux immediately knew the Ranks of the Monsters that were attacking them. The bulk of the Goblins consisted of Rank 2 Monsters, but nearly twenty of them were Rank 3 Monsters.

Although they weren't that strong, there were too many of them, which placed their escorts at a disadvantage.

Lux wasn't too worried about the Goblins since he still had his skeletons. However, before he could even summon them, a black blur flew past him.

A two-meter tall Lycan grabbed the head of one of the Goblins that were attacking the adventurers, and smashed it towards the ground.

The Lycan then emitted a growl that made the nearby Goblins take a step back due to the intimidating Monster, who was looking at all of them as if they were mere insects that it could easily crush with its bare hands.

 

Chapter 189 Order Of The Griffin [Part 1]

"M-Monster!" One of the adventurers, who was about to help his friend fight a Goblin, panicked after seeing the Lycan that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

Although the Monster had attacked the Goblin, as ordinary people, their reaction was quite normal.

Even the adventurer that was saved also backed away in haste, pointing his weapon at the Lycan, who towered above him.

However, before things could spiral out of control, a confident voice broke everyone from their anxious state.

"Relax, she's on our side," Lux said as he walked past the adventurers. "Diablo, Ishtar, Pazuzu, come out."

As soon as the Half-Elf called for his Named Creatures, the three of them appeared in front of him.

"Push them back," Lux ordered as he summoned thirty Skeleton Fighters, who now had the strength of peak Rank 1 Monsters.

Although they were slightly weaker than the Goblins, their weapons and armor, which were forged within the Stronghold of Norria, made them slightly more powerful than the Goblins that were currently ambushing them since they were only wielding basic weapons.

As soon as Lux's minions joined the fray, the Goblins were pushed back, giving the adventurer party that was escorting them time to recover their bearings.

Colette and the others also joined the battle. In just a short time, they managed to force the monsters to retreat by causing several of the other side's comrades to die in battle.

Lux was observing the Lycan whose strength and speed outmatched the Goblins that were running away.

Before they left, he asked Emma if she was willing to take the Lycan's Perfect Genes into her body which would allow her to turn back into a Lycan. Contrary to what Lux expected, the pretty dwarf said "Yes'' in a heartbeat.

He thought that Emma would reject, or tell him that she needed time to reconsider before accepting his request, but that didn't happen at all.

Emma told Lux that she wanted to become stronger, and she believed that gaining the ability to transform into a Lycan at will would allow her to fight on even ground with stronger opponents.

She had been a vagabond fighter all her life, because she thought that there was nothing that she couldn't handle alone. However, after getting captured and experimented on by the researchers of Twilight Rain, Emma realized that her current strength was not enough to protect herself.

Aside from that, she also trusted Lux. She felt that the Half-Elf would never harm her, so she readily agreed to accepting his gift.

'Her rank had jumped from Grade B Apostle to Grade A Apostle,' Lux thought as he observed Emma from a distance. 'She was a brawler in the past and used gauntlets to battle. Since she likes to engage the enemy in close combat, then, perhaps, being able to transform into a Lycan is perfect for her.'

Fifteen minutes later, several Goblins lay on the ground, dead.

Eiko didn't participate in battle and was, instead, busy ordering Blackie, Whitey, Rocky, and Mara to dig the Beast Cores out of the Goblins' bodies.

Lux could only shake his head helplessly upon seeing how the baby Slime refused to miss any opportunity to eat the Beast Cores of Monsters in order to strengthen herself.

Her recent loss against Astra made Eiko strive harder to become stronger, just so she could beat him up in their next rematch.

After collecting the Beast Cores, Eiko didn't hesitate to eat them all one by one, allowing her progression rating to increase.

Unfortunately, the skills that she could acquire from the Goblins' beast core were skills that she had already learned in the past, like Slash, which had already evolved into Heavy Slash.

Even so, the baby Slime was still happy, because, for her, every Beast Core brought her one step closer to defeating Astra, whom she had labeled as her mortal enemy when it came to her Mama's affection.

"You did well, Emma," Lux said the moment the Lycan returned to his side.

'Thank you, Lux,' the Lycan said through telepathy before transforming back into the pretty dwarf whose height reached up to his chest.

Emma could transform while wearing armor and regular clothes. The fun part was that after returning to her original form, her clothes would remain undamaged, which also added an additional layer of defense to her stats, allowing her to maximize her equipment's potential.

Just like her clothes, the gauntlets that she wore as a weapon added to her physical damage in her Lycan Form. Her claws were as sharp and as hard as steel, making them ideal weapons in close combat.

"Wow! Amazing!" Colette said as she used her hands to pat Emma's body all over. "How are you able to transform? Is this the side-effect of that seru-mmpph!"

Lux had covered the adorable girl's mouth to prevent her from saying things that were confidential in nature.

Colette also realized that she had made a blunder, so looked at her Big Brother with apologetic eyes.

Seeing that she understood her mistake, Lux released the adorable Dwarf before returning to the carriage.

He had already unsummoned his minions, because he believed that they would no longer encounter mishaps along the way to Whitebridge City.

The adventurers, who were escorting them, also heaved sighs of relief. Although they had plenty of experience fighting against the Undead, fighting alongside them was a different matter.

Just as Lux expected, no Goblins or any other type of Monster tried to ambush them again.

As the sun was about to set on the horizon, Lux saw a magnificent city in the distance. A white bridge extended across a river, to allow people to gain access to the city.

This was the reason the city was called Whitebridge City. It was currently one of the main trading cities of the Gweliven Kingdom due to its access to river transportation, allowing fast shipment of goods to and from important trade partners.

'Whitebridge City,' Lux thought. 'So the other members of the Order of the Griffin are waiting for me there. I hope they're nice.'

According to the Dwarven King's orders, Lux had been secretly appointed as the newest member of the Order of the Griffin.

The King and Nevreal shared the same opinion— Lux was an abnormality that had appeared inside their kingdom for reasons that only the Gods knew. Since this was the case, they believed that Fate had sent him to become their friend and not their enemy.

Because of this, the King granted Lux an honor that only those that had accomplished Legendary Feats in the Gweliven Kingdom could acquire, and that was none other than the Token of the Griffin, which symbolized that he was one of the members of the Secret Organization that worked directly under the King.

Lux hoped that his colleagues wouldn't treat him like a child because of his age. After all, he was now part of their Secret Order, by hook or by crook.

 

Chapter 190 Order Of The Griffin [Part 2]

Lux entered the library inside the city, while Colette and her friends headed to the Eternal Guild to meet with her big sister, Aina.

He had asked Emma to secure their inn accommodations in the city, while he met with two members of the Order of the Griffin that had been dispatched to Whitebridge City to help the authorities find the members of Twilight Rain.

After getting to the second floor of the library, he walked over to the Northeast corner of the room and pulled the candle holder, which was stuck on the wall, down.

A few seconds later, the bookcase in front of him moved to the side, allowing a single person to pass through it. This was a hidden path specially used by the members of the Order in order to hold their meetings in Whitebridge City.

The Half-Elf didn't hesitate and entered the secret passageway. As soon as his body passed through the room, the bookcase righted itself, making it seem that nothing had happened in the surroundings.

Lux then walked a long pathway for a few minutes before he arrived at a steel gate. The red-headed teenager knocked on it thrice.

"Password?" a voice asked from behind the door.

"Treat your password like your toothbrush," Lux replied. "Don't let anybody else use it, and get a new one every six months."

The gate opened wide, and the Half-Elf found himself inside a tavern filled with Dwarves who were either playing card games, drinking ale, or both.

Those who were near the gate gave him a side-long glance, but no one paid too much attention to him.

Lux then headed straight to the bartender who was busy cleaning a glass cup with a piece of cloth. The Half-Elf then placed the Token of the Griffin on the counter, which made the bartender arch an eyebrow.

"Third Floor, Room 13," the bartender replied. "May you have a good day, Sir."

Lux briefly nodded his head before climbing up the stairs. The bartender watched until his back disappeared from view before taking a golden locket from his pocket.

"Capture the people that are waiting for our guest outside the library," the bartender ordered. "Make sure none of them escape."

After giving his order, the bartender returned the golden locket inside his pocket and resumed cleaning the glass cups on his counter.

The moment Lux appeared in the city, several individuals started to follow him around. The Order of the Griffin was an elite unit that directly served the King. Usually, the members of this Elite Unit often handled "messy" problems, and it was their job to clean up the mess others had left behind.

Seeing that there were people targeting one of their Kingdom's Guardians, the Dwarves that were playing cards left the tavern, intending to capture the members of Twilight Rain who had noticed Lux's arrival in Whitebridge City.

—-

Third Floor, Room 13…

"Well, well, well… look who's finally here," a Dwarf with a curled up beard said with amusement. "The famous Half-Elf from Leaf Village. So young, and yet has the uncanny hobby of poking the hornet's nest. Boy, you won't live long at this rate."

"That's him?" a silver-haired Dwarf wearing spectacles gave Lux an appraising gaze. "Apostle Grade A. Not bad for an ordinary adventurer, but not good enough to contend against Twilight Rain. This Elf is as good as dead."

Lux didn't know how he should react at the two Dwarves' greeting. He didn't know if the Dwarves were praising him or mocking him for being stupid.

"What are you waiting for, boy? Go on and sit," the Dwarf that Lux had mentally given the nickname "Curly" said with a smile.

"Our time is precious, so please, don't dilly dally," the Dwarf whom Lux had given the nickname "Prick" commented.

Curly smiled before introducing himself.

"Well, newcomer, we are your seniors, so I will first introduce myself," Curly said. "My name is Galileo Darwin. Just call me Galileo. This impatient person over here is Charles Galilei. Just call him Charles."

"Lux Von Kaizer," Lux replied. "Just call me Lux. And this is my baby Slime, Eiko."

"Ei!" Eiko lightly jumped to introduce herself.

"A Slime huh? How peculiar."

"It's just a common blue Slime. Nothing special about it."

Galileo and Charles commented. After looking at the new member of their group, Charles immediately became uninterested, while Galileo had a complicated look on his face.

After a minute of awkward silence, Galileo coughed as he started to talk about why they were meeting Lux in Whitebridge City.

"Before anything else, let me ask you, Lux, what do you know about Twilight Rain?" Galileo asked.

"Aside from the fact that they're the bad guys? Not much." Lux answered.

Galileo nodded as if he had already expected this answer from the Half-Elf. Charles, on the other hand, just closed his eyes and didn't make any comment whatsoever.

"Twilight Rain is what you foreigners call a Dark Guild," Galileo stated. "It is an organization that is trying to sow discord inside the Gweliven Kingdom. Their leader was the previous king's uncle, who had tried to stop our current King's coronation by starting a civil war. Fortunately, he didn't succeed and had been in hiding since then.

"The problem is that he had allied himself with… Foreigners who have designs to usurp the current rulers of the land. Many of them seem to be very keen in staking their claim, not only in the Kingdom of Gweliven, but in the other Kingdoms as well."

Lux nodded his head in understanding. Solaians had come to Elysium in order to gain resources, as well as own a place where they could settle. There were people who wanted to work with the current inhabitants of the Elysium to create a mutually beneficial relationship, while others wanted to conquer the existing Kingdoms and Empires in order to become the new rulers of the Territory.

There were good and bad people in the world, and greed was the most common reason behind why these incidents happen in the first place. Solaians had long wanted to have their own lands and territories in Elysium, so it didn't come as a surprise to Lux when Galileo explained the current structure of Twilight Rain.

"The bulk of Twilight Rain is made up of Elysians—I believe that is the term that you Foreigners call us, yes?"

"Right."

Galileo smiled. He had long been fascinated by these visitors from another world, who were very similar to their own.

"Right now, the cleanup operation is proceeding smoothly," Galileo explained. "However, the members of Twilight Rain in this city are just part of their Branch Guild. This means that the Main Guild is still at large, which brings us to the next topic which is you.

"Lux, I don't know if you're aware of how dangerous this Guild is. After the two recent incidents, I'm sure that you are now starting to be considered as an eyesore for them."

Charles, who had stayed silent all this time snorted as he looked at the Half-Elf with a mocking gaze.

"Boy, it's best if you prepare a coffin for yourself," Charles stated. "Sooner or later, the Reapers will come for your head. If I were you, I'd go back to my world and lay low for a year or two until their rage subsides. Actually, it might be better if you stayed in your world for good. That is the only way for you to survive from the assassins who are after the bounty that will be placed on your head."

Galileo cleared his throat and knocked on the table to capture Lux's attention.

"Although my colleague's words are quite harsh, what he said is the truth," Galileo commented. "Twilight Rain has two assasination groups called the Reapers and the Slayers. The Reapers are composed of assassins who have reached the Initiate Rank, while the Slayers are composed of assassins who are already Rankers. Right now, there's a very high chance that one of the Reapers of Twilight Rain has already been dispatched to kill you."

"Although the King is providing us some support and protection, they can't be with us all the time. Make sure to always be vigilant, and keep a better awareness of your surroundings. Right now, you are not a match for an Initiate. So, take all the precautions that you can in order to survive their assasination."

Galileo placed a golden locket on top of the table, and pushed it in front of the Half-Elf.

"This locket is a special artifact that can negate three attacks from an Initiate. This is the life saving artifact that the Order has bestowed upon you, but remember that after three attacks, the effect of this locket will be used up. If you still haven't escaped by that time, I'm afraid that you won't survive for long."

Lux picked up the golden locket on the table, which had the design of a Griffin embedded on its surface, and appraised it.

—--

Golden Locket of the Griffin

– This protective charm is able to negate three attacks from an Initiate.

– This protective charm is able to negate twenty attacks from Apostles of any grade.

– Once either option is used up, this locket will lose its effectiveness.

—--

"Thank you," Lux replied before slipping the chain of the locket over his head so he could wear it on his neck. "I will always wear it."

Galileo nodded his head in satisfaction. "You are the youngest and tallest member of our organization. So make sure to stay alive as long as possible. I don't want to see you kicking the bucket anytime soon."

Lux smiled because despite Galileo's teasing words, he could truly feel his concern for him.

A few minutes later, Lux left the room as their meeting came to an end. He remembered being told that before he joined, the Order of the Griffin only had twelve members, which meant that he was the thirteenth member.

When Lux left the library, it was already very dark. Fortunately, a carriage had been prepared for him beforehand, and it took him to the inn where Emma had made reservations for their stay.

As the carriage trotted away in the night, a lone figure stepped out of the alleyway and looked in the direction where Lux was headed.

It was one of the Dwarves who had been playing cards in the tavern earlier. He had been assigned to ensure Lux's safety while he was in Whitebridge City.

A moment later, the Dwarf returned to the darkness of the alley. Since the coachman of Lux's carriage was one of his comrades, he didn't need to follow him back to the inn.

This was going to be a long night, and they still had plenty of rats to catch before sunrise.