A young man with a remarkably average face, and dull blue hair walked the wide streets of a particularly big city in the Drakara continent. Yep, as you must have guessed, that man was Damon. He had decided not to use his Mark Mywords disguise, and instead donned a new one.
"Why did I even agree?" he muttered to himself. "I must be going crazy, not that I wasn’t to begin with." he sighed. "But then again, it has to do with a Beta ranked artifact." he consoled himself.
He glanced around for a bit, and asked a merchant for directions for the nth time, before finally reaching his destination.
He calmly walked into the high end cafe that was surprising packed with people. He had to strain his eyes a bit, before he spotted the dark haired woman sitting alone at a table far from the entrance, and then started to walk towards her.
Around an hour ago, after he agreed with Ms present’s deal of getting a beta ranked artifact in exchange for him helping her with something, Damon went straight to the mission hall.
There, he took a mission in the city she was in, and the moment he appeared from the teleportation matrix, Damon put on his new disguise.
After that, it did take quite the long for him to find the cafe she mentioned, after all it was quite a big city. Where a tier two House was based no less. As soon as he spotted Ms present, he walked to the table and took a sit opposite her.
"My my, I almost didn’t recognize you with the new disguise." she flashed a dazzling smile.
"Get on with it, what do you need my help with?" Damon got straight to the point.
"Really, that’s the first thing you ask upon seeing this big sister after so long?" she cooed.
Damon didn’t even react, he had evolved beyond this obvious ruse meant to rile him up. The only thing he did was throw her a deadpan stare.
"Alright alright, you’re no fun. It used to be more funny with your amusing expressions."
"Anchored barrier: silent sanctum." she murmured. A translucent pocket soon enveloped the area around their table before disappearing.
’Why would she cast a silencing barrier?’ Damon thought.
"Look around, what do you see?" Ms present suddenly interrupted Damon’s thoughts.
’What do I see?... wait, why is everyone looking at everyone else warily?’ Damon realized as he glanced around. It was only now that he realized that the atmosphere in the cafe was tense. Every single person sitting was an aetherial, and each seemed ready to go on offense at a moment notice.
"So you’ve noticed." Ms present spoke again.
Damon turned back to her.
"What the hell is happening?" he whispered.
"No need to whisper, silence barrier remember?" she whispered back.
"You see, an anonymous someone announced yesterday that they had found a tomb of some figure from eras ago." she began to explain. "The only thing was that they didn’t disclose the actual place it was in, all they said was that it was in the outskirts of the Immemorial Deadlands. But another thing they did say, was that they’d announce the place it was, exactly at noon today." she finished saying.
Damon meanwhile frowned.
"What type of idiot would find a tomb and decide to disclose it?" Tombs were the places where a powerful individual would go to die with all their treasures, and lifetime accumulated wealth. They do that either at the end of their lifespan, or when they knew their death was a sure thing. And sometimes they even lay trials that one must pass in order to get those treasures.
"A very pretty idiot." she winked.
Damon blinked.... then it clicked.
"...."
His mouth was left agape for a few moments, before he moved closer, "Don’t tell me you were the idiot who did." he whispered.
"Guilty as charged." she smirked.
"Why the hell would you do that?" he asked baffled, before realization hit. "No, wait, don’t tell me." he stopped her.
Ms present didn’t strike him as the benevolent type, or the naive type that wished for everyone to get a piece of the meat. So if she wanted everyone to know the location of the tomb, then something was definitely wrong with that tomb.
"There’s something wrong with the tomb." he said to her.
"It seems I was wrong with thinking your dumb friend was rubbing off his dumbness on you." she smiled.
"Dion’s not dumb, he’s just a little slow." Damon retorted.
"Whatever." The dark haired woman shrugged. "You were right about there being something wrong with the tomb. Only fifty people and above can enter. Any less, and it wouldn’t be possible to enter."
"I see." Damon muttered, before shooting her a narrowed look. "Aren’t you afraid that you wouldn’t be able to get substantial stuff if there were too many people? And what about stronger individuals? House Forge is present here you know."
"Relax, I’m fully confident in myself. Did you really think I would disclose the location if I wouldn’t have an overwhelming advantage?" she smirked, then leaned closer. "Let me tell you a secret, only Theta+ ranked individuals and below can enter."
"No wonder." Damon nodded contemplatively. "But you still haven’t told me what you want me to help you with." he turned his gaze back to her.
"Oh it’s nothing much, just that you’ll be coming with me." she shrugged.
"What?! Are you crazy?!" Damon screamed in a whisper. "Why the hell would I do that?! Literally everyone is going to be stronger than me!" He frowned.
He doubted he wouldn’t instantly get crushed, unless of course he made some pretty powerful reflections, which he wasn’t too keen on doing before Ms present’s eyes.
"Relax you’re going to be fine, you’ll find that not every aetherial is crazy strong for their rank." The dark haired woman cooed.
"Fine my ass." Damon grumbled. "Also, outskirts or not, I don’t think I’m too keen on entering a deadland." he added.
"And here I thought we had a firm bond after surviving a life and death encounter together." She sighed dramatically. "Alright!" she exclaimed when she realized Damon wasn’t buying her act. "I’ll owe you a favour."
’A favour?’ Damon thought. For people with their status... well, with her status, Damon didn’t hold that status anymore. Anyway, a favour could come a long way, as long as the person with the favour didn’t go overboard.
"So what are the parameters of this ’favour’?" Damon asked.
"Anything within reason." she replied.
Damon inwardly scoffed, but nodded.
"Fine, but you’re one stingy bum aren’t you?"
She raised a brow.
"What?"
"You were planning to raid a tomb with my help, and you were only going to give me one artifact?"
"It’s a Beta ranked artifact." she corrected.
"Still, who knows how many treasures we’re going to find there?" Damon scoffed. They were going to be splitting whatever they found, no excuses.
"Alright, you win." she shrugged. "In a few minutes the coordinates of the tomb would appear in the centre of this cafe. Once it does, this place would turn into a battlefield."
Damon knew she was right. When something like this happened, people would try to cut down the competition before it even began.
"Why this cafe specifically?" Damon asked. If a fight happened here, this cafe was going to be destroyed.
"Nothing much, just that the owner tried to swindle me out of my money a few years back, so I figured to do this as a payback." she shrugged.
"And you call me petty." Damon muttered, while making a mental note not to offend this woman. Though, he knew that wasn’t possible.
"While we’re like this, I’m Sia." Ms present continued. "What would be your alias?" she asked.
Damon raised a brow.
"Wait, isn’t that just your name?"
"So what if it is? No one would ever connect me to Anastasia Necron. Dumb people won’t notice it, and the smart ones would think it’s too obvious to be true." she scoffed.
"You kind of have a point." Damon nodded. "Call me Amon then."
"Isn’t that your father’s name?" The dark haired woman tilted her head.
"Well it kind of is." Damon shrugged. "But what I really did was remove the D from Damon."
"Wait, why didn’t you call your friends?" Damon asked.
"Hmm, friends is a stretch, more like acquaintances. Delilah’s moral compass is too high for my taste, Rose is too cold, and Elsa is too busy hanging out with golden boy." She explained.
"You on the other hand, are almost perfect. Not too high of a moral compass to be annoying, not too cold to not be amusing, and not hellbent on being joined at the hip with your friend." she smirked.
"Wow, thanks a lot." he said sarcastically.
"Get ready." Sia’s voice suddenly changed. The next moment, a blue light appeared in the centre of the cafe, showing a map, and a projection of the final destination the map led to. The following moment.... Chaos.
"DIE!!!!!!"
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Thanks for the support everyone. There are now five privilege advanced Chapters on webnovel. So if you want to read ahead, you’re welcome.