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nAs the gentle wind blushed across his hair, Tyler was suddenly woken up by a knock at the door, he opened his eyes and saw the morning sun peeking in through the thick clouds. His thoughts then wondered as it focused on the artifact ‘Iris Tears’ and how it could control the weather. That was indeed a high-level spell.

n“Enter!”

nTyler said and Albert entered the room and bowed before speaking. He was always so punctual and serious, Tyler thought maybe he had been acting too rude to this old man, he didn’t want to be the type of boss that abused people’s had worked so Tyler thought he should show him so appreciation soon, and maybe even reward him. Of course, that would all have to wait for now.

nAlbert had assembled a team of six and was requesting Tyler’s permission to send them out, he also handed him a flat silvery-white metallic card, the size of a small book that had a flattened magic crystal imprinted on the center of the card along with some runes that designed its edges.

nInfusing the crystal at the center with a little bit of mana, it suddenly projected a display of what Tyler would call a holographic image of a rectangular screen, that showed a long list of names.

nThis item was a low-grade magic item called •Overseen• used mainly by nobles to manage and keep track of their subordinates. Tyler could physically touch the screen and scroll through the list of names which included the names of the kobolds and trolls, clicking the names would display more details like their skills and abilities. The only unfortunate part was, the names weren’t followed by their images.

nTyler let the item disappear into his spatial storage and stood up. He would need to go through the list carefully at a later date after putting a face to the names but for now, he had something else to do.

nHe nodded to Albert and they both left the room with Albert trailing behind him. It wouldn’t take long for them to arrive downstairs but Tyler thought it was a good opportunity to get to know this aged man better and spoke to him. He was surprised at how rusty his communication skills were becoming but luckily, Albert carried the conversation and they soon arrived downstairs without any awkward moments.

nSix individuals were kneeling there waiting for him, including the female winged kobold. Tyler felt this was a little too dramatic and gestured for them to stand up but their heads were down so they hadn’t noticed his gesture, which made him feel like he was left hanging.

nAlbert coughed and the group raised their heads. Tyler felt a bit embarrassed but played it off and asked for their names. There were three males and two females constituting both ogres and beastmen. Tyler had seen one of them before, if he remembered correctly his name was Jarret and he was soon proven right.

nAlbert came forward and introduced them to him. “These four are formal sentries of the red ogre settlement, these two are Gail Rizeric and Lora Harint, they are a duo of long rangers with one being adept in magic and the other using a crossbow, she is also able to handle herself in close range.”

nHe said that pointing to the dagger on her waist before moving to the second duo. “These two are Raz Hilma and Jin Kallz, they are both skilled at tracking and can handle themselves decently in a fight but their most outstanding talent is their survivability.” The two looked away from Tyler in embarrassment, it was as if Albert had just thrown shades at them. However Tyler didn’t think he did though, so he ignored them and turned his head to face the last two.

n“This is the leader of the Moon tribe, a formal kobold settlement in the eastern parts of the Darknar forest, her name is Tarka Harkail, she is the most familiar with this section of the forest and her Trap magic would be very useful in this mission so I took the liberty to include her in this.”

nThe female Dragonwrought kobold proceeded to lower her head even further, it was considered rude to speak in the presence of onces master, without first being spoken to, so all she could do to exercise her thanks was bow deeply. Tyler controlled himself from sighing in front of these six so he turned his head to face the last guy and Albert immediately introduced him.

n“And this is Jarret Zeni, although he isn’t a rogue I decided to include him on this mission because of his innate ability.”

n“Oh, so you possess an innate ability?”

n“Yes my lord.”

n“And what is it?”

n“Spirit vision.”

nLooking at Tyler’s questioning gaze Jarret requested permission to speak and explained to him what his spirit vision could do. Unlike magic vision that almost everyone could use and could only sense things that relate to the use of magic depending on the level of the caster. Spirit vision could do all that and more, it worked like a telescope, an X-ray, infrared, and so much more than Tyler felt, if it was applied well and of a high enough level he could even see through dimensions.

nHowever, his level was too low for that but it was still a valuable ability. “Alright then, before you leave how do you report your progress or handle an emergency?” Tyler asked curiously as the group turned to stare at Albert.

n“Well sir, I’m afraid we lost a lot of valuable men in our last battle and that includes most of our casters that we’re able to use the ‘Communicate’ spell. We could only provide them with all our anti divination scrolls and some other scrolls as well.”

n“I see… but communication is important in such missions so…” Tyler forgot to practice how to take things out of his storage ring so he made a reaching motion as the image of what he wanted, appeared in his mind and he pulled out a few scrolls and handed it to Jarret.

n“Here, use these but only when it’s important and if you run into any trouble I’ll come immediately.” He was very interested in capturing a scout to interrogate first before deciding if he needed to kill them all. Since he had no information about them he wouldn’t just carelessly wander into the forest himself, but he didn’t want these guys to die too easily.

nJarret accepted the scrolls with sincere appreciation, he had been nervous since he wasn’t used to such missions but now he was a lot more confident. They all bowed one more time before they left and Tyler escorted them to the barrier just for show. When they left he and Albert decided to return to the castle.

nAs they left Tyler saw the gray trolls moving around the outer ward of the castle, they didn’t go near the castle itself and just patrolled close to the walls. He also noticed the main gate had suddenly been fixed and now that he thought about it, the door to the castle was also fixed along with the obvious traps in the ward and naturally he asked Albert about it who told him about their blacksmith and what he had asked the kobolds to do.

nTyler stood rooted to the spot for a minute, ‘why in the world were these guys acting like they own the place when I’m not even sure how long I’ll be here.’ He shook the thought off his mind and proceeded to inquire about this blacksmith.

nTyler had wanted to meet this famed blacksmith for a while now and he thought this was as good as a time as any. He also wanted to explore the rest of the castle before heading to the throne room to check out the secret room, he thought he would see the blacksmith first then head up.

nHowever, just as he entered the castle he was greeted by a flood of people, the ogres and beastmen seemed so happy to see him as well as the tiny creatures called kobolds. It was almost like they were relieved. ‘What, were they thinking I ran away or something?’ Feeling a little guilty cause he had thought about running away several times already, he only smiled and accepted their greetings.

nThe noise seemed to attract more people though and they were all hyped about having breakfast with him. It was like he was now a celebrity and these were his fans, even though when he had saved them it hadn’t been like this.

nPerhaps they were all still grieving at the time, Tyler was starting to get used to his newfound fame when he saw Liz and her friend coming down the stairs and the whole castle was captivated by the three goddesses that looked like they were descending from heaven.

nTyler felt like an upcoming artist whose big signing was interrupted by the most popular superstar in the industry. To be honest he felt a bit annoyed that he was amongst those that were captivated. “Tst” he clicked his tongue as he naturally turned his head to avoid being dazed by the three beauties.

n‘Wait, three?’ Tyler looked again and realized he had missed one. It was the same lady he had first saved when he got to the settlement. ‘If I’m not mistaken her name was… Erin right? wasn’t she Albert’s wife… Since when were those three so close.’

nThe room returned to normal when they arrived before Tyler and greeted him politely. He remembered he had a lot to ask these girls so he postponed his exploration and visit Bungo for now but he didn’t want to talk seriously in front of so many kids. He then simply responded to their greetings and they had a light chat as they walked to the dining hall.

nAlbert had informed him of what happened in the past two days so he knew they would have breakfast here and although he didn’t really feel any hunger he still ate and was pleased with the taste. At the very least it was better than what he could make himself.

nWhen breakfast was over Tyler invited the girls to the fourth floor of the north wing. He had noticed a couple of rooms that could be considered an office and picked one at random for their chat. When they entered, he motioned for them to take a sit and he did the same.

nRain opened her mouth to speak first but Tyler interrupted her. “That reminds me, I picked up a blade in the forest, next to where I found you, I supposed I should return it now.” He made a reaching motion and pulled out a black blade from the void as he walked over and handed it over to the stunned Rain. She hadn’t expected him to so willingly hand over a magic artifact that could potentially even pose a threat to his control over this castle.

nThough she wasn’t really sure how strong he was, if he was able to overpower Liz in that state it shouldn’t be that much of a threat to him but it was still valuable and for some reason this annoyed Rain a little.

nTyler on the other hand no longer had use for the dagger, he had a section full of more valuable items so he wouldn’t jeopardize an important source of information for a single item he didn’t need.

nHe wanted to extend a friendly hand so he wouldn’t let greed influence him. Tyler then return to his seat and proceeded to speak as leisurely as he could to give a sense of confidence and superiority, however, he wasn’t given the chance to, as his entire plan had crumbled to pieces by the next words that came of the dark elf’s mouth.

n“Please fight me.”

n“…Ah!”

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