3 A.M., Ceston Empire’s border.

 “Damn, they knew about my attack!” Staurious sprinted into the woods, not even giving a second glance to his screaming companions behind. His body reeked with sweat and blood; his clothes were in tatters. His face was pale, and he looked miserable.

After taking down the first garrison, he thought it would be a piece of cake to complete the mission. However, when he attacked, he realised that there was a huge army waiting for him. Intermediate Rank 3 mage was their leader, in addition to five low Rank 3 mages. 

Though he was more powerful than an average low Rank 3 mage, there was no way he could take down five of them all at once. Furthermore, there was an intermediate one as well. Only death would be his prize if he dared to clash with them. After realising the blunder, he escaped without giving a single thought. If he was even a little hesitant, he would have lost his life, or had been captured. Just like his screeching and screaming companions.

“I will get my revenge. Just you wait, bastards of Ceston Empire!” 

A scream echoed in the woods, startling the animals around, and then faded amidst the cold gusts of wind in the darkness.

——

8: 30 A.M., Capital Ceston. Heaven’s Door.

“One Rhino Bracelet, a pair of Rush Boots, and 3 strength increasing potion. All of them Elementary Rank,” Kadyn said. “6000+5000+12000. Hmm, you need to pay 23000 Ceses.”

After the customer paid the money another customer came forward. There was quite a long line. The shop looked stuffed because of it. It took him about forty-five minutes to deal with them. In this short period, he had already earned quite a large amount of energy points.

“Haha, Mr. Kadyn, I have brought a guest. I hope you won’t blame me for not notifying you in advance.”

Kadyn lifted his head and spotted a group of three people strolling towards him. Two of them were familiar faces, Omm Woulsto, and behind him followed Hayla; he didn’t know the man who walked at the very front. Even Omm had a look of reverence on his face. 

The middle-aged man was tall, and he looked some kind of bodybuilder from the earth; his eyes looked tired, but a slight smile hung at the corner of his lips. His boots were covered in mud; his clothes somewhat reeked of sweat; a red colour—no, it was no colour; it was blood, on his sleeve. 

This is…?” Kadyn said as he looked at the man.

“Oh, can we talk somewhere else?” proposed Omm.

Kadyn was a little troubled, but he nodded nonetheless. He looked at the Barret who was gazing towards the newcomer with curiosity and said. “Take care of the counter for the time being.” 

Then he led the trio towards the restaurant. Many customers were coming and going. Kadyn smiled and then walked towards the counter where Cecelia was sitting.

Kadyn gestured towards Cecelia and continued towards the first floor. The ground floor was for regular customers while the first floor was for the people who wanted to have their own private room. It was especially for those who don’t like the crowd and instead like to eat their food in silence, or for someone who had some private talk to do.

As they entered the room, Kadyn looked around: It was an average-sized room, white-washed, but well furnished. A beautiful carpet was lying on the floor, and walls were decorated with paintings. At the centre of the room was a table, sofas surrounded it from all sides; one could see half the sun behind the clouds through the window. 

Kadyn gestured to them to sit. The middle-aged man sat first followed by Omm while Hayla just stood behind them with a gentle smile. Only then Kadyn sat down. He didn’t speak, just gazed at the unfamiliar man.

“This is Commander Jareth,” Omm Woulsto introduced the man. “He wanted to meet you when I told him it was you who sent the information about the Bone Spear Tower.” He looked at Kadyn and said. “He is Intermediate Rank 3 mage.”

“Oh,” Kadyn nodded. He already knew about his rank. Inside the shop, only super-powerful people would be able to hide their ranks. The man in front of him was just an intermediate Rank 3 mage. No big deal. But he smiled politely nonetheless and said, “Nice to meet you, Commander Jareth.”

“Likewise,” the man said in his thick voice. “I’m here to thank you on behalf of all the soldiers whose life was saved because of you.”

“I am glad I could help.”

Jareth stared Kadyn and said, “Mr. Kadyn, Omm told me you have—”

Knock! Knock!

Jareth paused as someone knocked on the door. 

“Come in,” Kadyn said.

Cecelia entered with a trolley decorated with all kinds of food. Fish Curry, Butter Chicken, Tikka Kebab, and many more — looking at the delicious food, Jareth gulped down his saliva. The first time Kadyn saw his tired look, he knew the man was hungry. He appeared as if he had come from a battlefield. That was the reason he took them to the restaurant, even though he could talk in the shop as well.

“We will talk later,” Kadyn said. “Please, first have some food.”

“If you say so, Mr. Kadyn,” Jareth nodded righteously and served himself without giving a second glance at the surrounding people.

——

Kady stared at the fading backs of the trio and fell into deep thought. He shook his head and then walked into the shop. It had been around an hour ever since Commander Jareth and others came. Now, there was already a long line of customers.

Kadyn eyed at the Barret who was sweating profusely. He didn’t know the rate of the artifacts or potions so he could not sell anything. Therefore people became enraged the longer they waited. They were already on the verge of cursing. 

Kadyn rushed towards the counter and said in a loud voice, “What, you don’t even know the price and are still sitting on the counter? If you can’t do this, you should have told me?” As he chided the man, he winked in a pleading manner. He knew that there was no other way to calm these people down, so he could only sacrifice Barret.

Barret looked at Kadyn’s pleading face and sighed, “Sorry sir, I won’t make such a mistake next time.”

They knew each other for some time now, so Barret didn’t think too much into it. Kadyn could tell it because he could see Barret’s status. He could feel the change in his emotions. 

Kadyn smiled and sent him 200 energy points for his work.

Barret was startled when he received the notification. Then he looked at Kadyn and a smile appeared on his face. “Sir, if you have some work to finish, please go ahead; I will take care of the counter.”

“…” Kadyn.

“…” Crowd.

——

4: 15 P.M., Heaven’s Door.

Dion walked towards Counter at this moment and said, “All the artifacts that we had, have been sold out. We don’t have any more artifacts for sale.”

“Oh—”

“Same is for us,” Elora strolled towards them with Zelie. “All the potions have been sold, so we need to brew more of them.”

Kadyn frowned, but then nodded. “It’s alright. All of you have worked hard in this period. You guys already have enough energy points to buy the strongest runes, and all of you are already Bronze Rank employees(Requirement to read Rank 1 books and scrolls in the library). You can go, get your Runes. After you become Rune Builder your forging and brewing speed would increase; you could also forge and brew Rank 1 artifacts and potions.”

“Alright!” Their eyes glittered in anticipation. Dion, who was the weakest of them, had also reached the Rank 1 mage.. He just needed to build a rune, like Elora and others.