Lifting up a curved bottle with a large lip, Alba took a big swig of the drink, gulping it down before slamming it onto the ground and wiping her mouth.
"I swear, it's easier to find a divine beast than it is to find this Dark Magus!" She complained.
Sitting at the table, Alba was at the usual restaurant, but rather than it being the evening and full of people who were winding down for the day, instead, it was the morning, and she was just getting started.
Sitting opposite her, there was the blonde man with his hair swept back, wearing a mask named Cronker. Next to him was a larger warrior, who wore all black clothing and also had a hooded mask that only revealed the eyes; this man was Tilon.
Both of them weren't dressed like conventional Pagna warriors, but that didn't matter because the two of them were from the Crimson Crane.
"I thought the two of you met up with Dame and had some sort of plan?" Tilon asked as he looked at the other two empty bottles of drink at the side of the table. He was tempted to tell her to stop, but he remembered how that had gone the last time.
"We did," Alba said, wiping her mouth again. "We followed him as he took that child to see a physician. While he was there, I thought it would be the perfect time to talk, but he stated that he wasn't in the mood."
"Wasn't in the mood to talk to you, the great Alba!" Tilon started to shake his fist, and it looked like he was ready to stand up and start a fight. That was until Cronker pulled him back down to the ground.
"Calm down, surely you must have heard what happened?" Cronker stated. "He must have heard about the recent battle that his sister went through. Although he might not care about what his other family members do or those in his clan, he is still heavily related to the clan and the Demonic Faction."
"Right," Alba said. "It wouldn't be surprising if he was asked to go and solve the issue."
"Solve the issue? Is that even possible?" Cronker said. "His sister, if I remember correctly, isn't she a Middle Stage Pagna warrior like yourself."
Immediately, Alba stared right back at Cronker and looked him directly in the eyes.
"Of course, I don't mean that she is as strong as you, but although Dame had beaten Beatrix, she was still an Initial Stage Pagna warrior. The two of them were at the same level, but if he was tasked to take care of her, it would be impossible."
Of course, Alba thought the same thing, and no one thought that Dame would be sent out to clean up the situation. Most likely one of his older brothers would be sent to deal with the job, but she had an inkling.
"I bet many thought that Dame wouldn't have been able to best Beatrix as well, and said exactly what you just said," Alba stated. "But he managed to pull a miracle, and I heard a lot of it had to do with this Dark Magus person; maybe he's expecting some type of miracle again."
The three of them continued to drink away as they planned for the future of what to do, and the conversation eventually went onto the rest of the Crimson Crane.
"Anyway, we can't keep looking for the Dark Magus forever, no matter how important he is," Cronker explained. "The rest of the members will be meeting up in Repton; once we have the next set of Qi pills from Dame, we'll head to the Initial Stage portal."
Tilon nodded. "Most of the others have already arrived. That reminds me, wasn't Reno meant to join us? Where is he?"
Reno was holding onto the pill that the mysterious hooded man had just given him. He looked at the engraving carefully. He had been trying to get his hands on one of these, but they had turned out to be incredibly rare.n--1n
For one, nearly all of the warriors that had gone out with Dame had mostly already used them in battle. So the rumors of their effects and what they could do were all from word of mouth. There wasn't any product after that, other than fakes claiming to do the same thing.
'I could really do with this, if I break it down and it's a real one, then I could find out the secret ingredients,' Reno thought to himself. Even if it was a fake, it was somewhat too good of a deal to let up.
"Very well," Reno said with a smile. "You have a deal, but before that, why don't we do what you came here for? Let's go have a look at the items in the auction."
"Wait, now?" Raze replied, as he had been handed over the sack of ingredients from the merchant. The details were already recorded so he was free to go. The only thing was Raze couldn't exactly make the sack of ingredients disappear while Reno was keeping an eye on him.
"Isn't there still time before the auction begins?"
Reno couldn't help but smile to himself. "Yes, you're right, but I have a few special privileges you see. I can look at a few of the items before they are up for grabs to the general public. I can offer a price, and the Auctioneer can decide to accept or decline the price. Since they do this thing day in and day out, they have a good idea of what certain objects will fetch."
This worked out well for Raze, since he no longer needed to sell his level 2 power stones, and had gotten a good deal with the rest of the ingredients. Now he could use the rest of the money on the items. With fewer eyes, it was better for him as well.
Walking ahead with Reno, it was just like he said, he was able to walk through the doors of the auction house with no trouble at all, and quite a few of the workers there were smiling at him and giving him greetings.
It was clear that Raze wasn't walking with just anyone, most likely someone who belonged high up in the Demonic Faction, so it was best for him to not cause trouble while by his side.
After asking to see the items, Raze and Reno walked through the large buildings, where there were a number of seats with wooden paddles and numbers at the end of them. The seats were empty at the moment, and they were walking down the center of the area.
As they continued, the two had walked onto the stage where the items would usually be displayed to the others as well as the auctioneer calling the shots. They had met up with the auctioneer, who was a relatively skinny old man that had a glass piece on the outside of a single eye.
Again, he had greeted Reno with great respect as he gave a bow down. "It's nice to see you again, Reno, and I see you brought a friend this time," the auctioneer said.
"Ah yes, he seems to be interested in the Alchemy business but wishes to look at everything you have today. I hope we can look at the objects firsthand, and you can give us a fair price."
"Of course, we owe your group a lot after all."
Agreeing, the group was allowed behind the curtain where the items were being lined up. It was full of all sorts of equipment and a variety of things as well. For Raze, looking at this, he knew he was looking at a gold mine.
"The items we have here aren't the type of things that you would find in pawn shops," the auctioneer said proudly as he could tell by the taken-back expression of Raze that he was quite impressed. "We take in only those things that are highly sought after, by Pagna warriors, governors, alchemists, and even wealthy families. We are proud to say we have something for everyone. There are even items here that have been brought back from other dimensions."
This really did bring a big smile to the face of Raze because he couldn't wait to see what kind of gold mine he would see.
The two allowed Raze to take a look, and he went from one end and was making his way down to the other.
Leaving Reno and the auctioneer to chat, "By the way, I wanted to ask, I didn't see Clave today doing examinations. I wanted to ask if he was okay."
Clave was the guard who had a confrontation with the hooded man, and Reno wanted to know if he had been worried after the altercation he had with Raze. He was fully expecting that something else would happen today at the door as well, but they had gotten in fairly smoothly.
"Oh?" The auctioneer rubbed the side of his head. "I guess you wouldn't know, we got a report that Clave is dead."
