The Last Primal

After the hearty brunch and friendly chat, the duo quickly made their way to the Adventurer's Hall. As soon as they pushed on the large, double, wooden door and stepped inside the already busy building, they were greeted by a cheerful, feminine voice coming from the far side of the room, the attendee's desk.

"Aiden! Cole! Here!" The cheery shout came again, alerting the duo. Looking at the source of the sounds, Aiden revealed a friendly smile and waved back at Mary who was already working.

They quickly made their way towards the girl and greeted her with friendly smiles.

"Hey Mary, did you rest well?" Aiden was the first to speak, causing the girl to, contrary to her shy behavior yesterday, not avert her eyes but instead, smile back.

"Yeah, I did. Thanks for taking me home Aiden, even if I probably would have been fine. Still, I really appreciate your kindness."

Meanwhile, Cole decided to just simply wave, feeling a bit like a third wheel in the conversation of the two. He gave a friendly smile as he stood silent, next to Aiden.

"Anyway, it still baffles me that you are the brother, Lily was talking about when she was here. Who would have thought!" Mary exclaimed, still surprised by his reveal last night. "Also, I'm guessing you are already aware, but the golden armored man that spoke yesterday? That was the man that kept following and pursuing your sister. He is a wealthy noble with great connections and a wife. He is also the only Rank 3 adventurer registered in this local guild as of today. Although…" 

She smiled sweetly at Aiden, as she continued. "...I believe that is going to change soon."

Turning her head to the side, she gave a nod at Cole as well, before turning to look at the both of them.

"So, what are you guys going to do today?" 

As they have already decided during breakfast, Aiden spoke up, with his usual calm attitude. Leaning against the desk, he pointed towards the Quest Board on the side.

"Well, we figured we could pick up one or two quests today as well, maybe aim for around 2-stars, maybe 3, and do them. We don't want to go on longer adventures, at least not yet, but want to gather more experience in working together. Yesterday, we couldn't really do that because of the disturbing… group, you know."

"Yeah, we want some simple quests that could be done nearby or in the city. Do you have any recommendations, Mary?" Cole chimed into the conversation.

"Well…" Mary looked at the stack of papers at her side with a wry smile on her face. "We do have quite a few requests that came in last night and this morning…" 

Turning around, she faced the closest pile. Approaching it, she was ready to dive in to search for suitable requests for her friends.

"Give me a minute, let me look this through quickly, I am sure we can fin-" 

However, before she could finish her thought, one of the strange crystals placed below her desk lit up and began to emit a faint yellowish light, informing the need of her presence at the back.

"Uhm… Wait a bit for me guys, I have to go to the back. The higher-ups are calling." Before the two could have had a chance to respond, she turned around and rushed to the back office door, quickly entering and vanishing in the long halls of the office area.

Left alone, Cole and Aiden decided to not waste the time, and walked to the request board, looking for suitable requests in the process. This time they did not stop at the first section, but immediately went to the second and third. 

Time passed slowly as they kept looking at the posted papers, but most if not all of them required them to either be a bigger party, have some female members, or travel farther. Ones that they could in a close enough distance were similar to those of yesterday, the always available Thorny Frog Gall Bladder farm, several different types of flower or bug gathering requests, and the like. Nothing that would take them any effort to complete and would be at the most a few hours distance away.

"Maybe, we should just wait for Mary to come back and let her look through that pile of papers that was not yet posted?" Cole spoke up after a while.

Albeit unwilling, Aiden could only nod and agree to his friend's thoughts. Unless they were willing to travel farther away, they should just wait for Mary and hope she could find something.

"Fine. Let's just wait for her."

Just as he spoke and acquiesced, the back office door suddenly sprung open, and Mary ran back to her spot, heaving heavily in the process due to the distance she ran from the office all the way back to the desk.

Noticing her, heated and huffing figure, Aiden and Cole walked back. Leaning closer on the desk, Aiden was the first to speak up once again with his usual smile ever-present on his face.

"So, what is up Mary? Why the rush? What happened?" He inquired.

Looking at him, Mary continued to huff and heave for a while before she rested enough to answer.

"I was called back by the Leader of the Examiners." She answered, looking at the boy. Her expression turned from happy to serious, as she continued. "They would like to talk to you, Aiden. You are to go back and meet with the Leader right now."

"Huh? Me? Right now?" Aiden asked back. Why would she want to talk now? Did they already get the information about the Demon Grotto he requested? So fast? Didn't she tell that it would require at least a couple of days before they could get anything? 

'Regardless, if he was called it is best to just agree and meet with her.' He thought, nodding at Mary. "Sure, I will go." 

Looking at Cole, he added.

"You should talk with Mary while I am gone and look for one or two quests that we could do. If there are no 2- or 3-star quests we could do, then just pick something, anything."

"Sure man, leave it to me! Mary and I will find something by the time you get back, don't you worry!" Cole responded with a thumbs up and a cheery smile on his face.

"Do you need me to walk with you?" Mary asked with a troubled look on her face.

Aiden shook his head in response, smiling gently as usual.

"No need. I remember the way to the office." 

He had the system already map out the route, and unless the hallways magically shifted overnight, he would need no help navigating through the crooked halls.

He walked past the desk, calmly approaching the back office door. As he reached for the handle, he turned his head and spoke to Mary and Cole once more before he left. 

"Try to find something we can do, okay? I will be back as soon as I can."

With that, he opened the door and left the hall, and began making his way towards Sarah's office. As he walked, he sent out regular pulses using his [Dark Sense] skill, trying to map out as much as he could along the way.

Unfortunately, just as the last time, it seemed that her sensing and mapping abilities have hit some unsurpassable hurdles, at least for the time being, as he couldn't sense past the next hallways, but was always met with an intangible wall of energy pushing his pulses back or dissipating it entirely.

Eventually, he reached the door for the office he last visited. Seeing as how he couldn't scan inside without opening the door and stepping in himself, he reached for the handle, before knocking on the door.

Soon enough a familiar melodious voice came from the other side.

"Come in!"

Recognizing the owner of the voice, Aiden smiled to himself, before pushing on the door and stepping inside.

"Welcome, Aiden! I have been waiting for you!" The hooded figure of Sarah greeted him as soon as he stepped in. There was no heavenly undertone in her voice, she forcefully gave a stop of using her powers.

Motioning for the boy to come closer, she spoke as she pushed the cover of the hood revealing her wide smile and porcelain skin.

Her purple eyes weren't glowing, she forcefully gripped her powers and willed it to a stop, trying her best not to offend the young man in front of her.

"I have been waiting for you Aiden!" She repeated her earlier statement and continued before Aiden could respond. "I have visited the Mistress, our leader, and I have good news for you!" She spoke, giving a theatrical pause to her speech and giving Aiden time to react.

"Huh? What news?" Aiden asked, just as she expected.

The smile on her face curved even brighter, as she answered the expected question.

"The Mistress would like to meet with you! She will be able to give you details about the place you want to find and also have an offer for you!"