We all sat down in front of the office looking at Emmett who had a fake look of benevolence on his face.

"So it's like this, while we were actually dispatched so that we could reward you for ending a potential disaster and saving all the human lives that could have died, we received an important decree from a light elder from a branch that was half-way close to here…."

"Apparently, the 'Dark Caves' that has increased in number greatly during the last 10 years are all close to eruption, some caves that had more than 1 year's time before eruption according to our recent calculation, showed that they would explode within 2 months' time with the latest measurement. And even normal calculations are starting to prove absolutely wrong, caves erupting before their time 1 week earlier, with the highest record of such incident being 30 days early."

"Unfortunately, the reinforcements from the lightning empire were all busy with gates that exploded in a spider web like shape around the Empire. So with the light empire being too far from here while facing only a slightly better situation, our choices were cut short."

" 'Dispatch all skilled Dark extermination teams in the vicinity of caves with less than half a year of time left, they are to exterminate these caves within the lowest time possible, in exchange rewards would be doubled.' was how the decree's summary went, so as a party with such outstanding achievement, we would expect you to help us clear more caves for the sake of public safety."

The smile on his face suddenly turned sinister for a second before switching back. It seemed like the dire situation within the domain was quite true, just like how the calculation proved faulty in the massacre gate. However, the party made of people with their levels being less than 20 getting dragged into this was obviously due to certain people's manipulation that wanted to throw Grace and her father into trouble.

However, in my current situation, I was more than welcome to having these 'Troubles' thrown at me. So all I needed was simply fall into their trap….

After staying silent for a whole ten minutes, Grace opened her mouth with worry showed all over her face.

"Uncle, I do realise that the situation is quite dire, However, we came out from the cave just a week ago, we didn't have enough time for recovery and improvement."

"It's okay, you don't need to worry about that, we will give you 20 days' time to prepare yourself, but you would have to raid multiple caves after that with short periods of rest. As for recovery, we would mobilise healing resources for you to recover in between raids."

"Ah…. but this is ..... Okay, we will do it, but we need a month's time instead!"

"But that's too….. Our time is already stretched hard with 20 days….."

"In exchange we will help with taking down 5 caves at most!"

'Five caves…. Great! I only wanted to give them 3 extermination tasks in case they succeeded miraculously again in one or two of them, they would eventually run out of luck, but with 5 caves? They would simply perish! 10 days time simply can't change their chances that much, this way I could easily pay the favor of ...'

"Ugh, alright! You will head out from here in exactly one month's time, we will send escorts to escort you once the agreed time comes!"

After having Grace sign down some papers, we were politely chased out from the building. We walked while feeling down until we reached the manor's garden as I simply smiled to erase that gloomy aura that surrounded us.

"Was that really okay Ian?!"

"Yes. no need to worry, you shall receive your payback in full price just in 1 month's time, you did well!"

Calming down the still worried Grace who deserved a reward for her splendid performance, I pondered slightly while looking at the manor and thinking… why didn't the governor interfere after Grace told him of my plan? Wasn't he worried about his daughter? Or was he simply hiding something?...