All four of Emery's friends, including him, stared at the pitch-black hammer that had bent Thrax's tier two spear. The prospect of receiving a weapon that was on par with this hammer and tier two protective artifacts, which rendered Thrax's attack useless, surely sounded enticing. It was akin to buying a horse, but receiving a palace instead. However, offers like that were too good to be true, hence they were suspicious at the same time. Pledging themselves to the Kalios Faction? What did that entail from them?

Emery could see some of his friends, as well as the onlookers, were considering the offer. He was sure that, if the onlookers were given the chance, they would jump at the opportunity. On the contrary, Emery was self-assured that he wouldn't accept such offers.

First reason, he already had a tier three weapon, Granny's Moon Dagger, he would have the Apothecary Institute help once he received higher ranking of course. Moreover, his main advantage was Killgragah, who was waiting for him back in rock formation.

Eventually, he believed, he would have the items being offered by the Kalios. But what about his friends? He would have loved to win the Magus Games with them on his side.

So far, what he knew was those who performed well in the games would be guided by a powerful magus. But what about Cedric's warning and Rowe's ominous wordings? There should be something more that they weren't being let on. In the unlikely situation that they did win the Magus Games, what would happen afterward?

Emery didn't have the answer. He needed more information. For now, his main concern was his four friends. Would they be tempted by the offer?

Thrax picked up the pitch-black hammer, and threw it back to Rowe. The heavy pitch-black hammer thud in front of Rowe who had his back turned against them. He said with full determination! I will never join you! Over my dead body!"

He spat on the ground and turned to the other shouting: "If you guys want to join them, do it! But if you do so, our brotherhood ends here!"

"Barbarian!" Julian roared suddenly.

"What?" Thrax retorted.

Julian stood up and gave a defiant smile. "That's one thing we can agree on. I am with you in this."

Chumo and Klea nodded to each other and all four of Emery's friends had the same heart on this matter. Emery gave a smile that everyone was on board.

Julian continued, "There is your answer, Rowe. You'll never make us join you. Zuna, I think you've made the wrong choice, still in respect of our previous companionship, I hope you three get what you want. Let's go, everyone."

The group turned around and left, leaving a bewildered Rowe.

After Julian and Thrax received treatment for their minor injuries in the Magus Hub, they continued with their original plan of finishing their task for Master Tahoggum. They went to one of the portals in the Magus Hub and made their way to the tree less hill, where they had found titanium.

As they went up the hill, Thrax who still hadn't calmed down said: "Argh, those fuckers really irritate me."

"Don't worry about them. To tell you the truth, I prefer doing the tasks and the upcoming games with just the five of us. Trust, after all, is the most important. Don't you agree?" Julian said, leading the way with his shield on guard against the occasional skyglazers that swooped down.

The rest of the group didn't say much. Although what he had said was half true in its own right, they were thinking about what they could accomplish with just the five of them. Participating in the games without a full team would surely make things difficult. Especially if the ones participating were mostly people with tier three weapons and tier two protective artifacts, and rank 6 acolytes on top of it. They would be outnumbered, outgeared and outclassed.

Emery said: "Everyone, since we're aiming to win, after this task, I suggest we try digging for more information about the Magus Games. What does it mean for the winners, as well as what kinds of games will be held. The more we know about it, the better we can prepare and the higher chance we will succeed."

"Agreed", all of Emery's friends answered simultaneously.

They had decided that each of them would find details about the upcoming Magus Games from the magi in their respective institutes. Thrax in the Fire Institute, Julian in the Earth Institute, Chumo in the Darkness Institute, and Emery, mostly in the Apothecary Institute. Emery glanced at Klea, his expectations of her were the most since she was favored by a lot of people, including the magi in the institutes she was affiliated with.

Then he remembered Rowe's words regarding Klea. She was supposed to be in the elite class and she didn't deny it. It seemed like she refused in order to stay with them. He thought about asking Klea what was this elite class, but since she hadn't mentioned anything, he figured it'd be better to wait until Klea opened up to them. Forcing someone to tell them something they didn't want to share felt hypocritical of him, since he had his own secrets as well.

Once they were at the first spot where they had mined the titanium, like they had expected, the dumas were no longer there. All that remained were countless bones reminiscent of the skyglazers.

After finding a huge clump of black rock, they did pretty much the same strategy except with a few changes. Chumo and Klea were their main defenders this time, since they both had the most effective ways to eliminate the enemies, while Emery was still the designated miner. Thrax and Julian alternated in helping Emery and defending. With their stronger weapons and the enhanced spells of Klea using the staff, they found it easier to kill the ugly skyglazer creatures.

Of course, once the carcasses of the skyglazers piled up, the dumas started arriving. The group tried different approaches in their attempt to eliminate these level 5 creatures.

Klea was the first to try out other spells. She used her three offensive spells which were namely: [Lightning Bolt - Tier 3 - Lightning Spell], [Windblade - Tier 3 - Wind Spell], [Aqua Lance - Tier 3 - Water Spell]. However, all the spells were only able to make the dumas wail in pain. They didn't die. Either they were weaker by a large margin or the gooey body provided a powerful resistance.

Since the others hadn't yet reached rank 6, they were only able to use tier 2 spells. Chumo only had [Shadow Step - Tier 1 - Darkness Spell] and [Hide in Shadow - Tier 2 - Darkness Spell]. He didn't have any offensive darkness spells.

Julian was a dual element wielder, earth and fire respectively. He had [Stone Skin - Tier 1 - Earth Spell] and [Mudwall - Tier 2 - Earth Spell] both were defensive spells. For fire, he actually only had learned [Fire Flash - tier 1 - Fire Spell]. It was an attack spell and as its name indicated. It sparked fire from his hand for a split second, which was effective in surprising the enemy, however, it wasn't enough to injure anyone, much less the duma.

Everyone already knew Thrax's [Fire Infusion- Tier 2 - Fire Spell]. Previously, he had tried it and it didn't work. Still, Thrax asked for Emery's tier two sword and wanted to give it a go again. He had to ask since his tier two spear had been bent, so it was useless at the moment.

Thrax lit Emery's sword on fire and attacked the creature, but even though it was a tier two weapon, it didn't do much anything.

After a few encounters with these dumas, the group realized that the most dangerous thing about this level 5 creature was its shrieking attack. Like Thrax's experience, the noises these creatures made whenever a threat came close were able to affect the mind, stunning them for a second.

Hence, they came to a decision that close combat must be avoided unless they couldn't help it.

This time was no different though. Thrax didn't seem to learn from his reckless attacks and ended up in the same dangerous situation he had been. Chumo once again had to use his shadow steps and to pull Thrax away from the creatures.

When they landed however, the ground suddenly cracked and trembled, sending the two young lads down a large hole.

"Thrax! Chumo!" Klea shouted.